Very nice review, thumbs up.

Been waiting for you to review this forever.

to be honest I've been playing this since it came out, and there are quite a few changes to how the characters fight. Rachel is severely nerfed. some characters have new moves, some have been nerfed and some have been made stronger. Overall I think it's better than the first one.

This game looks quite interesting for a fighting game, although the story mode doesn't look like anything special. I'm still playing Mortal Kombat 2, (way behind on the gaming curve) so it might be nice to get a new fighter.

I loved the first BlazBlue....but I [b]LOVE[/b] Continuum Shift!

Subtle tweaks that make a huge difference is what its all about!

[quote=FoxGuy]I loved the first BlazBlue....but I [b]LOVE[/b] Continuum Shift!

Subtle tweaks that make a huge difference is what its all about![/quote]
Oh, absolutely. I assume you're able to pick up on more than just Barrier Burst Penalty being removed and the Guard Libra being replaced by Guard Counters?

Just gotta say, though, I love how my main went from low tier to top tier (Litchi) =D.

I"m just glad the story mode makes more sense now.

I damn near pissed myself when I saw you were going to review this. Usually when you try something it always kills my mood to play it. But, surprisingly, this review makes me want to play my copy even more.

Regardless of what I think, a good review all around, Sage.

What's NOT to understand?
It's a good fighting game that isn't your cup o' tea, not a conspiracy theory. =D

I don't understand why he likes the game, not the game itself.

Hey sage, hate to be a nitpicker, but accually the game has 15 characters. One of them you have to unlock, you even roll your cursor over her at one point but shes still locked on your game. Although maybe its on purpose, you are right atleast in the fact it has 14 characters right out of the box, the 15th takes a while to unlock.

Anyway, this is a pretty decent game. I was a bit disapointed by it, but maybe I was just expecting too much since super street fighter 4 added so much for the same price point.

That and the DLC characters being 7 dollars each. Yeeouch. I dont play this nearly as much as I should, but its still a very solid game. If you never had the first one i'd say go buy this one for sure. (assuming you like fighting games )

Seven bucks? Damn, now I'm not certain if the content is worth the asking price.

Well... maybe the price will drop later on?
(I hope)

A sequel already? =D

nice review, might bye this game, not sure, but you put me more towards the buy now :sigh:

I've never played Blazblue, but I always wanted to. It seemed like the kind of game I would enjoy, both asthetically and gameplay-wise. Maybe I'll pick this one up instead if I have the money and there is nothing I want more available. Thanks for the review Sage. =)

Am i the only one who kind of misses 2D sprite fighters? I mean, Super Smash bros Brawl, Marvel vs Capcom 3, and Super Street Fighter IV Alpha Turbo Deluxe Kawaii Chocolate-Coated Super Special Awesome Addition ( :dizzy: ) are all fine, but there's a certain charm to the sprite animations that I love. :blush:

Now I just need to get a system other than the Wii so I can play the game... :sigh:

I wouldn't have put the way story mode plays as a downside, I would put is as a positive saying something like, "Story mode enhances the experience and plays like a visual novel combined with a fighting game."

[quote=Qarx] [quote=FoxGuy]I loved the first BlazBlue....but I [b]LOVE[/b] Continuum Shift!

Subtle tweaks that make a huge difference is what its all about![/quote]
Oh, absolutely. I assume you're able to pick up on more than just Barrier Burst Penalty being removed and the Guard Libra being replaced by Guard Counters?

Just gotta say, though, I love how my main went from low tier to top tier (Litchi) =D.[/quote]

Litchi was a mid-teir character, but in for the sake of argument Bang who was Low-Tier character is now top-tier with Litchi coming in second and Ragna being 3rd

While the Top Tier characters of Nu and Rachel being only high and low tier respectively

Actually Rachel is now bottom tier mostly due to the sheer amounts of nerfing to the point that Tager is easily a much better character than her.

The tweaks to the characters are actually pretty balanced. Noel being less spammy, Jin and his Icecar being easier to dodge, Nu/Lambda less overpowered, Carl losing his infinites but getting strong comboes, Hakumen becoming more fluid, Litchi having stronger comboes, and Bang getting a complete character overhall.

Though Arakune is still scary, still irritating, and still pretty broken, although he can no longer do 116 hit combos that deal over 9000 damage.

RAGNA WIN!!!

XD XD XD

Over all those changes that were made sound intresting enough even if many things are same.

[quote=Qarx] [quote=FoxGuy]I loved the first BlazBlue....but I [b]LOVE[/b] Continuum Shift!

Subtle tweaks that make a huge difference is what its all about![/quote]
Oh, absolutely. I assume you're able to pick up on more than just Barrier Burst Penalty being removed and the Guard Libra being replaced by Guard Counters?

Just gotta say, though, I love how my main went from low tier to top tier (Litchi) =D.[/quote]

Of course, plus lots of little changes to existing moves like Tao's fastball looping back around if it misses the first time.

Like with the first, i preordered this the first day it was available.
Unfortunately, even though it has arrived
i can't play it since I'm not at home
so I'll be content with watching reviews until then.

People complaining about the game's lack of changes from the first should know that that's how the fighting game industry has been since the beginning (and how it survived).

Its a video game! No its an anime! No a skilled 2D fighter! No an interactive anime! urgh Taos head hurts.... Either way, this is a WIN.

I imported a copy of CS (I live in the UK but I have a PS3 so it's region free) and it still hasn't arrived yet. Then they announced the fan edition (although to be fair the only reason I haven't got it was that the preorders were all sold out by the time I got there). TO cap it all off, my copy hasn't arrive yet (I'm starting to suspect it's caught up in customs).

I've already preordered the Limited Edition (I'm planning to sell the import copy to try and make up some of the cost when I have it), since I'm not sure if the DLC'll work on a US copy when it's available here anyway.

But that's besides the point. I love CT and I want CS now! =(

This is a very fun game indeed! =D

[quote=WhiteHowl] [quote=Qarx] [quote=FoxGuy]I loved the first BlazBlue....but I [b]LOVE[/b] Continuum Shift!

Subtle tweaks that make a huge difference is what its all about![/quote]
Oh, absolutely. I assume you're able to pick up on more than just Barrier Burst Penalty being removed and the Guard Libra being replaced by Guard Counters?

Just gotta say, though, I love how my main went from low tier to top tier (Litchi) =D.[/quote]

Litchi was a mid-teir character, but in for the sake of argument Bang who was Low-Tier character is now top-tier with Litchi coming in second and Ragna being 3rd

While the Top Tier characters of Nu and Rachel being only high and low tier respectively

Actually Rachel is now bottom tier mostly due to the sheer amounts of nerfing to the point that Tager is easily a much better character than her.

The tweaks to the characters are actually pretty balanced. Noel being less spammy, Jin and his Icecar being easier to dodge, Nu/Lambda less overpowered, Carl losing his infinites but getting strong comboes, Hakumen becoming more fluid, Litchi having stronger comboes, and Bang getting a complete character overhall.

Though Arakune is still scary, still irritating, and still pretty broken, although he can no longer do 116 hit combos that deal over 9000 damage.[/quote]
Very nice comment, though I'll have to say that from what I've heard, Arakune has even longer and more frightening combos in this game... only thing that made him a lot less broken was that you have to hit with his D moves over and over to curse them, as opposed to getting them cursed with a single move.

[quote=Radelta]One of them you have to unlock, you even roll your cursor over her at one point but shes still locked on your game.[/quote]
Actually, that's Makoto, a DLC character he mentions. I will say that you did get the "there's really 15" part spot-on, since Mu-12 has to be unlocked in the Story Mode, and appears in the middle.

I wish SF stayed anime style and not lame american muscle bound freaks

Actually there's something else I'd like to add, saying that the Japanese voice setting is there for the purist is a bit wrong, the Japanese VA's filled their rolls better than the American cast, this is a purism thing, if the American VA's hadn't done such an uneven performance I wouldn't have to say this, but unless listening to a foreign cast really ruins the experience for you, you should set the language to Japanese. It's just more natural the characters all sound better.

Very solid review, but the criss-crossing story paths obviously play into the "true ending" bit. I may have confused your wording, but I couldn't tell if you got that based on what fights you win and lose under what conditions may basically be changing how the story truly was meant to work out, just like in the first game.

I also completely agree with the voice acting being inconsistent and sometimes shoddy, which is precisely why I switched to Japanese, not because of a purist mindset. It's who the game was originally made for, and as a generality, voice actors kinda seem to be a bigger deal in Japan so I feel they typically put forth more effort, though I'll give credit where credit is due for the American voice actors who do a solid job.

With that in mind, I'd like to reply to this fellow.

[quote=WhiteHowl] Jin and his Icecar being easier to dodge[/quote]
I agreed with a lot of the things in your post except this. I was a former Jin player, and before you say it, I'm very glad they changed his ice to auto-breaking instead of needing a wiggle, but really, good Jin players didn't do black beat ice combos anyway. Back to ice car, while ice car was kind of quick and had a decent sized hitbox, the move was unsafe. You're at a frame disadvantage on block. If I happened to be playing Tager against Ice Car spamming Jin players, I'd get GIGANTIC TAGERs for free all day long.

Unrelated to your post or video, just my personal gripe, was that some of the costume colors changed, which some I didn't care for, others I did. I like Jin's new white costume, with that little bit of blue and gold thrown in (looks a little bit more like Ky except without needing to buy that color scheme), but I detest what they did to my red Noel.

I just don't like how they nerfed Rachel. But at least Jin is largely unchanged.

Yay! A new BlazBlue and it looks great! =D

[quote=KytanoSkorpius]I just don't like how they nerfed Rachel. But at least Jin is largely unchanged.[/quote]
actually that's untrue, Jin's C ice car doesn't work on certain combos like it CT, He got a new move, his astral is so much easier to do now. The standard Jin air combo you kinda have to relearn cause they changed Forward C to 2C. That and his freeze you break out of after a certain time.

But yeah does suck how they nerfed rachel.

Actually, I believe this is an update of the original BlazBlue, like Super Street Fighter 4 being an update of the original SF4!