Fantastic looking sprites duke it out on gorgeous, eye-catching backgrounds in BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger.
BlazeBlue comes with an interesting and fun cast of characters. The relationship between certain characters may seem familiar to fans of the guilty gear series. In the game's story mode, each character has 3 different paths that they can follow, either by picking certain options or meeting certain requirements in battle. While the story mainly focuses on Ragna and the bounty on his head, you're required to play with each character and earn their true ending to piece together the real story. Two of the endings are alternate endings and don't always take themselves seriously but, are quite humorous. The arcade mode also comes with it's own little story but it's nothing compared what's presented in the story mode.
2D fighting has never looked better. It's clear to see that Arc System Works put forth a lot of attention into detailing BlazBlue. Character design is excellent, as well as the wonderful levels. The backgrounds are very pretty and eye-catching. However, the game is made for HDTV's and stretches off the screen of standard TV's. The audio is nicely done, and the game comes with Japanese voice acting as well, so those of you who aren't into the English voice acting can switch over.
Fighting in BlazBlue is easy to get the hang of since there's only 4 buttons you need to use. A, B, C and D. A, B, and C are your basic attacks that range from weak to strong, while the "D" stands for your Drive attacks, which are your flashy attacks. The heat gauge on the bottom of your screen indicates how much heat you've built up throughout the battle. When you have enough, you can execute a "Distortion Drive" attack, Astral Finisher or a Rapid Cancel. Distortion Drive attacks are a characters special abilities that do a moderate amount of damage, Astral Finishers are a flashy one hit kill and a Rapid Cancel is when you cancel the animation for an attack and immediately perform another. BlazBlue is very beginner friendly but, that's not to say there aren't any advanced techniques fighting fans won't pick up on. If you've ever played a fighter you'll quickly pick up on the game's familiar directional movements. Each character has there own unique set of abilities, Ragna can absorb health from his enemies, while Jin can freeze his opponents where they stand. Battles are fast and frantic(unless you're playing as Tager, who makes up for his lack of speed in size). When you find a character that caters to your style, you can hop online and prove your skills to world. If you need to what you did wrong(or right for that matter) you can save matches to the replay theater. You can watch them at a normal speed, sped up, or frame-by-frame. The only problem with the replay theater is that once started, matches cant be rewound. It's too bad BlazBlue only really targets one kind of audience, and that's the one that likes the quick pace of the game.
There is a lot of replay value due to the branching story paths and the massive amount of unlockables. BlazBlue is very polished and detailed, it's obvious that Arc System Works is prepping BlazBlue to be their "Guilty Gear." So if you're a fan of fast paced fighters or just looking to try something new, BlazBlue is definitely worth your purchase.