Continuum Shift is sequel to one of the best fighters offered today.
While it does look not much has changed, and that it's still the very same fairly fast paced, combo intensive fighter the original Blazblue was all about, the tweaks and rebalances are fairly significant. The addition of new moves and other little things such as certain older moves being cancellable, the change to the barrier system are just some of the things that have been modified to certainly suit a better and more user friendly fighting system. The controls are still the same, you have your normal Weak, Medium, Strong and Drive attack. The Revolver System allows you to chain Weak to Medium to Strong to Drive without there being a delay. Drive attacks are specific to character and do different things and therefore shouldn't be relied on when using the Revolver System.
Of course it would be nice if all of it was explained to you, and luckily for you the game does indeed go over every little thing, the very basics of it all. The tutorial mode starts off with how the attacks work, moves on to skills using the various directional inputs and doing specials. Of course once you're done this, you can move onto the challenge mode. Challenge mode is pretty much exactly the Trials in Super Street Fighter IV, character specific challenges to perform various combos. This is essentially where you learn the characters, their distortion drives (supers), their bread and butter combos (combos you can easily rely on and execute) and really to see some pretty neat stuff. Challenge mode can be pretty daunting for new players as some of these combos really require some intense timing presses and at times, the game just isn't forgiving with the player's inputs and just really require for example a super jump instead of a regular jump even if a regular jump works just fine.
In terms of characters, not much has been added to the roster, especially when you compare it to Super Street Fighter IV. It's rather disappointing that they only added 3 new characters and an additional 3 DLC characters (2 of which have been released so far). While one could argue that they all play differently, a larger roster could easily appeal to more people, someone for everyone. However Blazblue's roster is still fantastic, different sorts of play sty|e and odd characters is what you'd expect from the Guilty Gear creators. Snake like Hazama to the blob Arakune are just some examples of the weird characters you could use and see a significant difference between them and the way they're played. The DLC characters are fairly good additions so far, adding to the fray is Noel's old friend Makoto as well as Rachel's butler, Valkenhayn and eventually later Platinum the Trinity.
Story mode returns in the same fashion as before, you go through a visual novel like sty|e and do various battles with the other characters in the story. The thing about story mode is that while it is indeed good for a fighter, it is still rather convoluted. It has a rough time explaining the story properly and there's a lot of terms and other side stories one needs to be aware of beforehand or simply read a summary online. The anime cut scenes also feel rather cheap and look like they were made in the 90s, of course this isn't about its cut scenes but you'd wish with such a good looking anime sty|e game Arc System Works would do a little better. However the main benefit of story mode is the unlocking of one of the game's secret character Mu, and though it's easy to get through it, it's still a tedious process and one would hope they'd have unlocked it from the get go.
Other modes include the typical training mode where you can hone the combos you learned from Challenge mode while Arcade mode and Versus mode are fairly self explanatory. Score Attack mode is very similar to Arcade mode albeit the difficulty is a lot higher and a Game Over means a Game Over. It's the mode in which you can rack up points and compare your score to other people online. Lastly there's the meat of the game, the online multiplayer. If you've played Blazblue: Calamity Trigger, you'll be aware of it's fine netcoding and the very minimal latency and lag during matches. While Continuum Shift still has some fine netcode for a fighting game, there is more of a frequency in lag compared to Calamity Trigger which is sorely disappointing, at times it makes certain input heavy characters such as Taokaka or Hazama just nearly unplayable. A new plus side is that you are able to play Training mode or Arcade mode (Ranked matching only) while waiting to be matched up in Ranked or if waiting for players to enter your lobby in Player Matches.
Graphically, Continuum Shift retains the beautiful anime like sprites from the first game. Sprites rendered nicely into HD and as well as have a smooth animation to them that nears the quality of King of Fighters in terms of sprite animation. The game doesn't suffer any hiccups, it doesn't suffer from tearing, there isn't any lag; it's just a smooth, fast paced battle between you and your opponent. Accompanying this good looking game is a tremendous soundtrack that fits so well with the game's characters and themes. Daisuke Ishiwatari's soundtracks have always been second to none and Blazblue Continuum Shift is no exception.
Overall Continuum Shift offers much of the same of the previous game without as many additions as one would like (but of course that's why it's offered at $40 instead of a full $60), but it still has that Blazblue charm and fun to it. The fast paced fighting, sick combos and varied characters give Blazblue a good edge when compared to other fighters even if the roster addition has been miniscule and Challenge mode is a tad challenging to many beginners, it's still a fantastic game that I recommend to many to try out.