Blazblue: Continuum Shift (Update)
 

By the way, fucking awesome. Trying not to get too deep into it so it doesn't screw with my SF4 timing but this is a great fighting game.

Yeah, I hadn't been training much because of this. Bang is pretty much complete lollerskates.

"This is an ukemi!"

That guy had his coffee. I'm working on V13 as a main, but flirting with Vermillion (gun kata just owns), that ice dude (decent set ups and style), Taokaka (reminds me of Wolverine's Capcom style), and the babe with the rod (love her style).

The game gets frantic, yet it seems easier to dive in than Guilty Gear. The super moves are fucking epic.

I main Litchi, but Noel, Bang, Ragna and Taokaka are pretty good for me too. V13 strikes me as a little cheap, since the 1 time I used her, she didn't seem powered down from the boss version at all.
Or Canada. Had to get mine from Amazon.com. Shipping is a bitch, but the game is totally worth it.

V13 didn't even seem like a boss until I read about it. She doesn't seem broken to me at all.

Perhaps, perhaps not. http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-00-3-x...ide-49-en.html

PS3 and 360 are region free for the most part, but some games are not. The link there is your best friend. Just checked... You're SOL. :-\ There's no PAL version at all and the US, Asia and Jap versions are incompatible.

Seems like it's only America, Japan and bits of Asia that get it. No clue what's up with that.

So far i main Arakune because he's a badass blob and Jin Kisaragi partly because he plays a little like Ky Kiske Who was also my main in GG.

The soundtrack is just too boss. This is clearly Ishiwatari's best work.

Arakune's the type of character I would have put on the chopping block. He's zany.

Haven't heard a lot of it, I play with Dragonforce on J-Rock.

Mine was the limited edition. Came with the soundtrack, which is great. The bonus DJ Oh No remixes are great.

thats why he's so cool :D

Had some sessions with Khuntri, and some exploration time with the game beforehand. I have concluded:

This fighting game sets a new precedent for next-gen fighters.

I remember a conversation I had with Khuntri a while ago about how it's great that fighting games are coming back and bringing the hype, but none of these releases are really advancing the genre. Let's face it, these games are more or less playing catch up with today's games - which are often rich with feature sets to keep the player engaged. I explored Blazblue's features and options and I must say, Arc Systems is completely comprised of fighting game fans.

You know a game delivers when you barely need to ask for a damn thing. You know it kicked your ass when you find details you'd never even ask for. In the gallery, a real gallery akin to Soulcalibur 1, the artist actually left short commentaries for every picture. This small detail is wildly unexpected. The little things is what these guys were on apparently, with all the characters having special in-game dialogue depending on who they fight. That takes pre-fight dialogue to another level, and the fights are more personal (to Street Fighter 4's credit, it does this during the 'story' round in single player).

Training Mode's options are as extensive as Namco fighters, with little notes in the move list to explain how some moves work (live previewing would have been boss, though). The Story Mode might be the best a fighting game as ever seen, rivaling Soul Edge and Project Justice's story mode. It's not arcade mode with an ending attached. The online mode pretty much embarrasses all previous attempts on all fronts. Lobby, check; spectator slots, check; personalized room options, check. And that last one is something seen in other games - and that's what the fuck I'm talking about when I say there's no shame in adapting what works in a new genre. It's really not that hard. Arc Systems gets it, they came in the next-gen guns blazing - and probably with Noel Vermilion leading.

Mind you, the actual fighting engine isn't terribly new. The innovation in-game comes from the character's play styles. I haven't seen characters this interesting since the KoF series. Most have their own 'rules' as well as style, and like the Guilty Gear series the game remains balanced on top of that. Oddly enough, I never got too deep into the Guilty Gear series, but I love this game. It's easier to get into, then hype when you start getting good with a character.

The art is fucking sick, bro.

Anyway this game has a crazy feature set, attention to detail, and delivers on all counts. All I really miss is a color edit mode, but even so a lot of the sets appeal to me anyway. While I respect each fighting game for their own style (except for MK), all fighters should take notes on how BB does features and details. It's not easy dropping a new IP unless you really got something to show. These guys had something to show. My bro thinks I'm too critical on games, well this is one game I'm gay over.

YOU CAN ALL FUCK OFF THX

It's sooooooooo good.

May need to pick this up. Would be my first serious play time with the Guilty Gear-style games.

Yeah, what Kalyx said. If you're not American though, you're either gonna have to cross the border or hit up Amazon.com

Amazon ain't a problem. Get all my shit shipped to my sister's boyfriend's place in Wixom, MI.

Abysmal losing streak on BB last night. Percentage in the 20s. Losing to jackasses, too. I can't do QC' and HC's well on the controller pad so my combo game is limited. I'm still adjusting to the frantic flow of the game also. Not used to a ukemi game in a 2D fighter, often it's just press whatever to get up fast (CvS2 K-Groove, SF4). But now it's more than a position/timing thing - you can keep getting your ass kicked! Once I noticed this feature, however, I found some nifty combos and set-ups for my current faves.

And alas... the quitters are here to stay. With my sorry-ass record you'd think delivering a beating would lift my spirits. But as it turns out the three times - no bullshit - that I have sure wins, the guy left the match. So basically I'm getting my ass kicked or winning and getting a D/C instead. Perfect. I see now why a lot of guys have a crazy number of Player matches and not Ranked matches.

Currently loving Noel. She's like a mix between Jill Valentine and that guy from Equilibrium.

Had a hype session with my bro and I'm starting to 'get' the game. Ragna is a fucking demon.

Khuntri beats my ass again, but I learned some new shit.

EDIT:

Apparently David Sirlin (Street Fighter champ, gameplay philosopher, SFHDR director) has a problem with BB's throw frames, in that they take too long to activate (11frms). What does he cite as a better system? That's right, SF's (and GG's) 0frm throw start-up. He also has an issue with tech throws being easy and pushing you far away (and he hates that techs saves you damage instead of halving it).

I like Sirlin, but really - what a weak observation against BB. Being that Arc Systems did GG, they must have a reason for BB's slower start up. I have noticed an odd timing with BB's throws, but it - like other conventions - hearkens back to some 3D games where throws don't instantly activate. I also like that escaping throws deals no damage, that's the point, I would think.

Anyway, just thought I'd share.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2009/20090724.jpg

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2009/20090727.jpg

I know I've seen that shit before.

That comic says more about how we take fighters than you may think. Real shit.

That's what I'm talking about. Sometimes shit gets heated and we drop the hadoukens and sonic booms for real fists round here.

Yeah, BlazBlue is coming out in Europe. Not until 2010, though.

We'll get new characters, moves, a guide and a soundtrack. I guess this means the US and Japan will get the new characters/moves as DLC, right?

http://kotaku.com/5337458/blazblue-c...new-characters

...You guys get new characters and moves? 'The fuck?

Yeah, the guide and soundtrack are included in the limited edition, so yeah, the moves and characters are probably gonna be DLC.

Yeah, but you might have to pay for them and we just get them for nothing because we were made to wait.

Aksys dicked you over. They'll dick us over when the DLC is out. From the way the story plays out, it seems like there should be more characters anyway.

We're all getting dicked over. I got dicked over, since out of nowhere, all the stores that aid "we're not getting it" now have the game and I spent $40 USD more than I had to.

I wouldn't mind waiting if KoF's online ACTUALLY FUCKING WORKED.

I played a load of Japanese people on KoF ranting into the headset, that's the only bright point.

KoF 12 is a huge disappointment, really.

I like KoF12, but it fails in the features department. Even stock shit they messed up on. We're still getting it in a few days but I can already tell me and my bro would play the recently purchased KoF98 a lot more. I'd still play KoF11 if I wasn't too lazy to hook up the PS2.

There's a place in my heart for all of these games.

I can only think of 2 character that would be made playable actually. Make that 3: