Next up, we have my sub/secondary Rachel Alucard, the local badass verbose gothic delicious loli of deliciousness. If you can’t tell by her very original surname, she is a vampire. And seeing a vague likeness to the Scarlets of Touhou, I’d bet my money on this being Moonlily’s main were she to play BlazBlue.

Anyway, let’s get on with it.

I'm bored...

Height: 145 cm

Birth date: October 31

Weight: 34 kg

Blood Type: Unknown

Birthplace: Transylvania

Hobby: Tea

Likes/Important to her: Time, Teacup collection

Dislikes: Boredom, Green Peppers

Tier: A

Theme: Queen of Rose, White Requiem (vs. Ragna)

Seiyuu: Kana Ueda

English VA: Mela Lee

The current head of the noble vampire clan of Alucard, Rachel slipped out of her castle in search of fun because she hates to be bored, which she is all the time due to living a mundane lifestyle. Despite her status however, she deeply loathes her vampiric impulses. Due to the way two ribbons hold her hair in place, some of the characters call her “rabbit” because the ribbons look like rabbit ears. She seems to be stalking Ragna – this is because she accidentally turned him into a half-vampire giving him his powers. (This is also the reason behind his heterochromia.) Rachel can apparently create a small pocket dimension called Requiem, which she calls the dream world. She is often accompanied by her familiars, Nago and Gii, whom she often treats very roughly, and is supervised by her butler and guardian Valkenhayn Hellsing (more points on originality right here). Rachel is the only character seemingly aware of the full extent of the story. She has control of the Tsukiyomi unit, a device (probably Armagus) that is able to deflect the blast that was capable of destroying Ikaruga with minimal effort.

Rachel is unique. While she may have the least amount of moves in the game, she is one of the hardest characters to use correctly and efficiently; a steep learning curve, if you will. For you Brawlers out there (Odd game to compare to this HARDCORE COMPETITIVE one amirite?), she’s like Peach and Snake had a kid… and genetically modified the kid with Pikachu DNA. And fed it steroids and crack.

She is a character with a rather unorthodox style of combat in accordance to her haughty upbringing. Detesting physical contact, she relies on her “familiars” Nago and Gii to do the combat at her command, as Nago shapeshifts to several forms (his default being an umbrella) and Gii…well, gets her tea. She plays a very defensive game by luring her foes into several traps, the most deadly of which are up to 3 lightning rods she fires via Nago in cannon form at her opponent at three different distances (using the A-B-C variants), in a move called Tiny Lobella. The ‘A’ variant is a good rush stopper, whilst the B-C carry anti-air properties. These, once in place, are good to keep an opponent on their toes, as you can summon lightning on their unholy ass at any time using Sword Iris, or Baden-Baden Lily, her Distortion, which does much more damage (more on that below).

In addition to this is Impish Gypsophilia, a floating, glowing pumpkin which does no damage by itself, but is a good repellant projectile when using Sylpheed (“the wind”), Rachel’s drive (more on that later), and the infamous frog, George XIII (We call him “Froggy” ’round here =D), who just wants hugs by electrecuting the crap out of your opponent for a stunning(!!!) 8-hit combo pursues your opponent like a guided frog bomb…thing. There is a catch to these techniques, though; if Rachel gets hit (even if she blocks), they vanish. And seeing how they leave her vulnerable for a few frames when she’s summoning them, you best do this when your opponent cannot exploit your brief vulnerability.

Sylpheed, Rachel’s drive, allows her to manipulate the wind in any direction of her choosing. This is useful for a lot of Rachel’s game, but can be difficult to properly use in all of its multi-situational versatility in a timely and masterful manner. Purposes include: Blowing the pumpkin around, increasing your momentum for more damaging combos, negating your opponent’s momentum to ensnare him in a shocking trap of lightning rods (and Froggy!), retreat from a charging foe when you’re cornered, and wildly swing yourself across the stage while gently floating down holding an umbrella a la Peach in SSB. Sylpheed is limited to a 4-part gauge which slowly refills only when Rachel’s feet are on terra firma, so keep that in mind.

Despite Rachel being a very defensive character, she is not without her deadly offensive attacks and combos. Some of her attacks are very good, either doing great damage, having excellent priority (Priority Throne comes to mind; details below), or comboing with some ease (with some assistance from the wind, of course).

Rachel only has one Distortion Drive, Baden-Baden Lily, but that is all she needs. She summons lightning around herself and to the lightning rods and each hits 4 times (6 around Rachel) and does moderate damage. However, when all of this is combined, it’s powerful enough to take out over half of your opponent’s life gauge with approximately 21 hits, potentially making it one of the most damaging attacks in the game, and that is without including the ungodly potential for additional hits and combos as your opponent is stunned for one whole second by lightning (an effect shared by George XIII and Sword Iris).

Of course, our delicious loli is not without her weaknesses. She’s rather frail, and can’t take a hit. When put under pressure, it can be hard for her to escape, and her game can collapse like a house of cards this way, so you’ll need to maintain your cool (and Her Highness’s personal space) to avoid being caught in such predicament. To that end, you’ll be blocking a lot, and I mean a lot, and making severe use of several ‘counter’ moves, particularly that down-C move (which I call “Priority Throne” due to its…well, high priority) which acts as a quasi-counter to many rush-in attacks, if timed correctly. Be wary, though; if you mistime the throne–or many of your attacks– with Rachel, she (or Mr. Umbrella, rather) will be in for a world of hurt.

All in all, Rachel seems destined to be a top-tier character (according to Xéro) due to the massive damage she can inflict and the difficulty in getting enough hits on her to win the fight, although she is nowhere near evasive as Arakune or v-13. If used by someone who’d surpassed the steep learning curve that is Rachel’s intriguing fighting style– there aren’t many Rachel users, mind you– she should prove to be an interesting and deadly opponent.  It all comes down to whether Rachel can negate whatever pressure the opponent attempts to put down on her whilst gracefully evading contact with your lowly foe until Miss Rachel is at an advantageous position to teach them some manners. <3

Now, where is the Princess’s tea? THE PRINCESS HAS REQUESTED MORE TEA~!

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Anime Expo 2009 wasn’t exactly the greatest rendition due to a lackluster guest list, but if there was a bright spot to be had during that convention, I’d definitely have to peg the Daisuke Ishiwatari/Toshimichi Mori Panel as being one of the higher points.

For those who don’t know, Daisuke Ishiwatari and Toshimichi Mori worked together on BlazBlue (which we seem to have a lot of in-depth coverage on here at VN-Net) with Mori being in charge of the design and Ishiwatari being the composer. Ishiwatari also designed and composed to the music to the Guilty Gear series and voiced Sol Badguy.

As for the panel itself, there was an eclectic group and whether it was filled with curious onlookers or general fans, it’s hard to tell. The panel also had at least a 2:1 male to female ratio, which was kind of surprising to me. I’d chalk them up to being girlfriends or something if it weren’t for a girl cosplaying as Sol Badguy (Syke note: Damn you rule 63!). I laughed, but wasn’t able to get pictures of her though. In any event, the panel mostly consisted of a Q&A session that turned out to be pretty informative. Both offered their insights into the games themselves as well as some thoughts about game design in general. So here’s what I found to be of interest:

One of the first questions that provoked a laugh from the audience was when one guy asked what Ishiwatari was thinking when he designed the lovable trap Bridget and whether he realized at the time that Bridget would become extremely popular. Ishiwatari explained that he felt Guilty Gear lacked the existence of a cute character, but he didn’t want to go for a conventional character, so together, the team brainstormed and decided to go against the flow by making him male. As it turned out, Bridget became extremely popular and even though fans found out he was male, the male factor was hardly important. An example where nothing except for cute mattered. And while we’re on the subject of characters, someone asked Mori about Justice and that question revealed just how much Mori and Ishiwatari were influenced by anime. You can see it in the artwork, obviously, but the character design of Justice was inspired by the anime series Tekkaman Blade.

That question led to a flurry of others revolving around the possibility of transitioning the Guilty Gear series to an anime format, especially in light of Guilty Gear XX’s anime opening. As to that, Ishiwatari replied that it was a work in progress and that while several studios have approached him with offers to make it happen, there hasn’t been any definite plans though you could tell from the way Ishiwatari talked that he was extremely enthusiastic about the idea. As for me, I’m not absolutely sure about how well that would work out given that the fighting game genre has been sorely lacking in terms of quality anime titles. Add to that Guilty Gear’s unconventional characters and setting up the story becomes even more difficult. So while it’s not an impossibility, I do see it as being rather hard to pull off.

Finally, the last topic that kept me interested was the design process. I learned that, to my surprise, budgets are usually the primary constraint behind the number of characters and the designers are forced to work around that constraint. Once the number of characters are set, the next step goes into figuring out what kinds of attacks the characters should have and how to execute that attack. One example that Ishiwatari used was a character who had a long reaching attack. Once they figured out that the character should have that long reach, the next step goes into deciding whether that character will get that reach as a result of his hands (ala Dhalsim) or whether that reach will be accomplished by using some sort of weapon (like Ivy from Soul Calibur).

While the character design process was interesting in of itself, one of the most probing questions asked during that panel was when one guy asked why Western fighting games usually never have quite the success that their Japanese counterparts do. Ishiwatari seemed puzzled at first since he noted that Mortal Kombat was pretty successful, except the person asking the question replied that the franchise is pretty dead (which it is) and once Ishiwatari understood that, he put forth the thought that Western fighting games focus a bit too much on realism. One needs a sense of the fantastic at times in order to create a fun gaming environment and that the tunnel vision that Western developers have with regards to realism was sucking out all of the fun. While my experience with Western fighting games have been limited, those were some good thoughts seeing how one can apply it to other games outside the fighting game genre, with the abstract Katamari Damacy serving as an excellent example where the fantastic contributes to the enjoyable experience.

Anyways, a few other notes that people might find interesting:

• Ishiwatari usually looks at the character before coming up with the music. Also, BlazBlue was his attempt to go in a different musical style by using jazz and classical elements. One of his favorite pieces that he has written for BlazBlue was “Catus Carnival.”
• Ishiwatari got asked which character he thought would be most appealing to women. He guessed Bang Shishigami, but the person asking the question (who was female) replied that it was Jin Kisaragi that got her to try out that game. Furthermore, she noted that he was a big factor in bringing more girl gamers to try out BlazBlue.
• The best part though was when someone asked Ishiwatari whether he could say a Sol Badguy line in his Sol Badguy voice. Ishiwatari looked pretty embarrassed at this request and said that he can only do Sol’s voice after having copious amounts of alcohol, but that he’d make an exception this time around. Needless to say, people had a fangasm when he yelled out Sol’s “GGGUUUUUURAAAANNNNDDD VIPUHHH!!!” (At least, I’m pretty sure that’s what he said.)

So yeah, definitely a fun panel and I got a lot out of it. The questions they answered were insightful and it was blatantly obvious that they were extremely enthusiastic and passionate about their work and sharing it with Western fans.

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Look at those big juicy litchis... I'm having a hard time making good punchlines after making two posts in a row.

Height: 170 cm

Weight: 58 kg

Birthday: July 7 (happy late birthday, Litchi)

Blood Type: AB

Race: Human

Hobbies: Mahjong

Values: Her hair, Lao Jiu

Likes: Japanese sake

Dislikes: Indecisive people

Tier Listing: Dunno. B?

Theme Songs: Oriental Flower, and Weak Executioner (vs. Arakune)

Seiyuu: Chiaki Takahashi

English VA: Lauren Landa

Litchi is a renowned and loved doctor living in Orient Town of Kagutsuchi, and is also admired because of her breasts. She has her very own clinic there as well as an assistant named Lin Hua. She used to belong to Sector Seven, working with Tager and Han until Han became Arakune. After that incident, she defends the townspeople from Arakune while simultaneously trying to find any sort of way to restore him back to his former self, even if it means killing him. She is loved by the Kaka clan that live beneath Kagutsuchi since she gives them free food and teaches them things. She also seems to respect Bang, but is completely unaware of his feelings for her. She can be kind and loving, but can also be a mean drunk.

Playing as Litchi is quite the experience, because she’s definitely not the easiest to pick up out of the cast in BlazBlue. I mean, there’s a reason I’m the only person who ever plays as her here at Visionary Nexus. Litchi’s main focus is her ability to change her style of fighting by using her Drive button to either equip or unequip her Mattenbou staff.

Playing as Litchi means knowing how to take advantage of both her styles, as well as being able to control her and her Mattenbou staff in unison in order to deal more damage, and get higher combos. It doesn’t sound terribly easy, and it definitely isn’t, as I still haven’t gotten the hold of using her to her full potential yet, but once you’ve got a nice feel for her going, I think it’s quite the rewarding experience. With Litchi, it’s imperative that you take advantage of her ability to attack quite a distance away from herself with her staff. She can throw the staff from mid-air, as well as have it attack others when calling it back. When it’s equipped, the staff gives her melee attacks quite a bit of range, and you’ll have to use that to your advantage to keep enemies away, because Litchi can find herself in a world of hurt if caught by a strong offender.

However, Litchi isn’t completely defenseless in a staffless melee situation. She has quite a lot of physical attacks to get her out of situations, with good priority and great damage output, like her Three Dragons combo. Knowing when to use these moves and when to go back to using your staff is the key to fighting as Litchi.

One of your best friends while playing as Litchi will be Tsubame Gaeshi, or “throw your staff into the air at faggots charging at you”. Basically, Litchi will throw her flaming staff into the air vertically, and it’ll come down and do a second hit. This is great for throwing off people who are charging Litchi, or if you’re trying to hit that annoying ass Arakune who won’t get the hell down. I hate to say it, but you’ll probably be using this move as much as you hit D, because it’s just so useful in so many situations and can really turn the tide of a match into your favor if you link it in with some combos, like the Three Dragons. I’d advise not missing with though (quality advice. “MISSING IS BAD”), because if it fails to hit your opponent, Litchi will be left open and will be without her staff, since Tsubame Gaeshi is a move that takes it away from her, so you’ll need to make sure you hit shit with it.

Litchi is great at dealing damage if you know how to work with her, but I also recommend putting on a defensive game because she can find herself in a whole lot of trouble if she’s caught in a powerful combo.

With all of that said, Litchi is a character that requires work and lots of concentration to pull off effectively. However, her unique playstyle definitely makes playing as her a fun and enjoyable experience, even if you suck. I would at least give her a try out, and try and see if you can use her moves effectively, because there needs to be more Litchi players. =(

That’s all I have to say for this Boobie Lady.

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In any case, here is the profile for Major Jin “Win” Kisaragi, BRRROTHER!

JIN WIN

Height: 178cm

Weight: 61kg

Birthday: 2/14

Blood Type: A

Birthplace: England

Hobby: Collecting vintage motorcycles

Likes: Nothing (maybe ‘cept Ragna in a not so friendly way)

Dislikes: Meat and Weak People EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING

Eyes: Green

Tier Listing: B+ to A

Theme Song: Lust SIN, Under Heaven Destruction (vs. Ragna)

Seiyuu: Tetsuya Kakihara (Yes, that’s Simon from TTGL… =( )

English VA: David Vincent (Grimmjow, Li Xingke, etc.)

Jin Kisaragi is a Major of the NOL, thus being one of its elite commanding officers. He is always cool and calm, but is also easily jealous, ambitious, and posessive, with little care for others, treating them like they’re just obstacles. He displayed formidable actions to gain his rank during the Ikaruga Civil War by personally killing the enemy leader, Lord Tenjo. When he heard that Ragna had arrived on Kagusutchi, he quickly abandoned his post to hunt him down by himself. The reason he is after Ragna to kill him is because he is his biological brother, whose rivalry with him stems from an accident involving their long lost sister Saya during their childhood. After the incident he was adopted into the noble Kisaragi house. His psychosis is caused by his sword Yukianesa, which is speculated to “drive” (HUR HUR GET IT GUYS) its user insane. Jin also has a striking connection to Hakumen – in fact, Hakumen is actually Jin from an alternate timeline.

Jin is a good, all-around character (some would call him the “Ryu archetype,” but I wouldn’t know). He is supposed to be very uninteresting to fight as, but I’d have to disagree. Maybe it has something to do with my lack of traditional fighting experience (never really liked ‘em), but oh well.

Being good all-around, he is easily adaptable to most situations. His Drive, while not “flashy”, can be very effective (and is quickly becoming notorious for being used in Ranked matches by spammers to continiously freeze the opponent with “no way out”; a grapple break and moving the control stick left and right repeatedly should do the trick). That being said, in my experience, he’s better played defensively most of the time, relying  on hit-and-run tactics with aid from his projectiles to space (especially when threatened to be under pressure by characters like Ragna and Bang) and attack when an opening presents itself, or when the opponent is weak enough to be defeated in a combo. As for weaker characters whose game revolves around defense and distance, such as Rachel, Carl and v-13, the prospect is to switch to a more aggressive offensive game so they’re not allowed to ensnare you in their traps. Some characters seem to be very effective against Jin, namely Noel (who ISN’T she effective against with her spam?), Tager and Arakune, whose various attributes seem to exploit some of Jin’s strengths and play on his weaknesses.

One of Jin’s most vital tools to his game is arguably his ICE SURFBOARD OF COOLNESS(!!!), which is an ice spire which he rides across the stage towards his opponent. It’s good to close in when you see that opening present itself, or to play tricks on your opponent (when using the weaker variants, which travel less further). It’s really great, and you can use the Easy Special 2 to use the “C” variant. It’s no wonder I had a 30+ winning streak (twice!!!) with Jin the first day it came out, which only ended when I switched to Rachel (my sub, at the moment). This is a real tide-turner if used right, as it deals a fair amount of damage and is versatile, useful in all situations, starting combos, ending combos, etc. However, it’s not without its weaknesses; if your opponent blocks, it leaves you very vulnerable to poking (Weak, but quick, attacks) and the subsequent combo, even after you land, making it very punishable for you if you don’t time it right or if your opponent loves to turtle or spam (I’m looking at you, Noel and Arakune users).

In my experience, Jin doesn’t seem to do enough damage to pulverize opponents quickly enough, which is why I find myself on the defensive a lot, unless I’m going against a frail character as said before.

Overall though, as I’ve been told, Jin is easy to pick up and a force to be reckoned with on the right hands, and those Ky Kiske players which were alienated by his constant nerfs should feel at home with Jin who is guaranteed to be on the higher tiers (and at the time I type this, roughly half of the top players on the Leaderboards main Jin).

And for the love of god, people in Ranked matches, stop spamming his drive, grab and “C” slash. It’s not cool. It’s nowhere near as bad as Noel’s Michael Jackson dance Drive spam, but still.

Oh, and he hates you too, yaoi fangirls and rule 63fags.

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Name: Ragna the Bloodedge

Nickname: The Grim Reaper

Height: 185cm

Weight: 78kg

Birthplace: Unknown

Hobby: Cooking (especially good at barbecue)

Likes/Important to him: His silver ring

Dislikes: Ghosts and the Control System

Eye color: Has heterochromia, with a green eye and a red eye. (Syke note: NEEDS MOAR DESU)

Tier Listing: B+

Theme: Rebellion, Under Heaven Destruction (vs. Jin), and White Requiem (vs. Rachel)

Seiyuu: Tomokazu Sugita

English VA: Patrick Seitz

The main protagonist of BlazBlue, also known as the Grim Reaper, is more of a rebel antihero, who destroyed several branches of the NOL and caused the NOL itself to label him as a wanted criminal and place a large bounty on his head, the largest on a single person ever. It has been interesting to note that he possesses a powerful form of Armagus called the Azure Grimoire, which causes those after his bounty to also be after his grimoire. His ultimate goal is to destroy the Library for reasons unknown. Ragna is also heavily implied to be the reincarnation of the Black Beast.

Being the Sol Badguy of BlazBlue, Ragna is a simple character to learn on the surface, but difficult to master for various reasons. Bringing in one of the smallest health pools in the game at a meager 10,000 coupled with a low defense rating, Ragna relies heavily on his Soul Eater drive ability as well as a good pressure game. Ragna is also surprisingly fast and combos with a great deal of ease, not to mention he hits pretty hard when he does hit you. To further increase his power, he has Blood Kain, which increases the power, size, and health absorption of all Soul Eater abilities at the cost of slowly losing his own health while using Blood Kain. Beyond this, Ragna is great for punishing characters that are careless with their moves.

As with every character, Ragna has some weaknesses. First off, he lacks any form of a projectile, so characters that can spam do give him a bit of trouble. On top of that, he has low defense and a small health pool, meaning that you can’t afford to take hits. His third drive ability, Devoured by Darkness, is only usable in Blood Kain, meaning you need 100% on your heat gauge, not to mention that it’s incredibly hard to land and if you do, your opponent will usually be dead by then, nulling the point of absorbing all the health it takes.

While I’m sure we’ll all miss Sol Badguy, Ragna is shaping up to do nicely for the new players. A usable install, some interesting moves, and an appealing background story make Ragna live up to the main protagonist name quite well. He’s a prick, he’s easy to anger, and he has some hilarious moments. Of course, he and Jin can’t seem to get along at all due to an incident in their early childhood, where Jin cuts off Ragna’s arm. To confirm, they are biological brothers and Ragna’s last name is not Kisaragi, as many people have been confused about that.

If you plan on using Ragna, be prepared to deal with all sorts of hell from the projectile characters. Jin in particular is known for spamming his ice surfboard to constantly rack up damage on you, and Noel loves to use her Chain Revolver combos to lock you into a combo you can’t escape. The main thing to do against these characters is wait for an opening to punish them, and then unleash all hell on them. They might survive the beating, but they’ll think twice about using their projectiles in such a manner again. In most situations, you want to constantly be near your opponent and wailing on them, as Ragna is a rushdown character with the ability to gain health from most of his specials and drive attacks. This is especially true when you use Blood Kain, as it increases the hitbox of all Soul Eater moves, the damage, as well as the health drain, making a Blood Kain Ragna even deadlier to take hits from than Hakumen. More likely than not, you’ll be overwhelmed when you play as Ragna for the first few times, whether you’re a beginner or not. Take some time to get to know him, and never give up because you can’t win.

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We all have been subjected to one sparkling gem in every video game series, one that truly defines the genre and stands out amongst the rest as one of the best. Whether it be Bioshock for shooters, Pokemon for RPGs, or other games, these titles truly stand out amongst the others. Aksys has been known for bringing 2D sprite based fighters of this caliber and BlazBlue is no exception to this. Being nothing short of jaw dropping amazing, BlazBlue has lived up to my every expectation and more.

The spiritual successor to Guilty Gear, BlazBlue takes draws of the themes from Guilty Gear. Bizarre characters, good guy vs. secretly good bad guy rivalry, and massive wars. Borrowing all these things from Guilty Gear, as well as the style itself, you’d think it would be a carbon clone right? Wrong! BlazBlue’s cast is so unique and differentiated that the comparisons to Guilty Gear stop at every character being strange. The feeling that Ragna is really a misunderstood good guy trying to take down a corrupted government really sinks in. The idea that Jin is really a psychotic creep out to murder Ragna really shows. Every character and their personality is well shown in this game.

Being a brand new installment, BlazBlue brings a cast of 12 unique characters to duke it out in Kagutsuchi. Featuring gems like Ragna the Bloodedge, the man in possession of the Azure Grimoire which has earned him the attention of the world as he has the largest bounty on his head, or Jin Kisaragi, the war hero of the Ikaruga War who’s out to kill Ragna. Each character possess their own special drive ability that makes them truly unique amongst the cast. Each drive brings a special gimmick that the character has to use to their fullest if they want to win.

The game takes place in Kagutsuchi, the fictional 13^th Hierachical City. It’s been 100 years since the Dark Wars, the war between mankind and the Black Beast. As humanity was facing its darkest hour, six legendary heroes banded together and with the power of Ars Magus, destroyed the Black Beast. With the creature’s death comes the terrible price of seithir being spread across the world, which kills off most things on the ground. With the release of seithir, Ars Magus begin to come into use, leaving those who can’t use Ars Magus helpless against those who can’t. I’d go on, but I’d rather not spoil anything more for you.

As we are a generation constantly worried about looks, BlazBlue has to dish out some impressive graphics… which it does with ease. All of the character sprites look incredible and mesh together with the 3D background seamlessly, creating an amazing and unique looking game. The menus also look incredible and are rather easy to navigate. Overall, BlazBlue looks incredibly polished as a game and will stun you with how gorgeous it is. The anime style might put some people off, but everyone has their own preferences.

Of course, what’s a good looking game without incredible gameplay? A one trick pony, that’s what! And BlazBlue is definitely not a one trick pony. While on the surface it’s easy to learn, needing four buttons to do various attacks and string together combos plus the Easy Specials ability for beginners, the depth to this game is unparalleled so that even the hardcore fighting gamers will have something to master. Of course, there are some minor issues with certain characters being spammable and having an incredible amount of priority, though in the end the characters are really balanced. Hakumen hits hard, but he’s slow and all his specials consume his heat gauge. Jin is the master at freezing enemies and riding projectiles, but his ability to take on rushdown characters is questionable. All in all, this game is tailor made for anyone with even the slightest interest in fighting games.

With only 12 characters, an arcade mode, score attack mode, story mode, and VS. mode, you’d think you’d eventually get tired of this game. Well, if you ever get tired of all of those things, you can move on to fight opponent online through Xbox Live or the Playstation Network. Online mode offers you the chance to fight opponents from anywhere in the world, playing either for rank or for fun. The online of BlazBlue works incredibly well, presenting only slight lag before the match begins on average (Syke note: It has something to do with the players’ connections being synchronized before the start of every match. It’s so awesome; why don’t more games execute this simple but elegant solution?!). It also allows up to 6 people in a lobby to fight (Syke note: 2 do battle while the other 4 watch as spectators). The lobby is customizable to allow certain levels of player, the use of unlimited characters or not, and other things. The players can even choose to record the match they just fought and replay it later in the replay theater.

With all this said, is BlazBlue the game for you? If you have the slightest interest in fighting games, get this game. If you’re a Guilty Gear fan, get this game. If you love well polished games and something with tons of replay, get this game. I fully recommend BlazBlue for anyone into those things. This is a great game that truly encompasses everything great about 2D fighters and will without a doubt bring about an amazing hardcore community for years to come. So if you’re reading this and you like any of the things mentioned above, get the hell out and buy this game!

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Yes I know it was a lame attempt at a line, fuhgive me… regardless, here’s the profile of Jin Kisaragi.

Height: 178cm

Weight: 61kg

Birthday: 2/14

Blood Type: A

Birthplace: England

Hobby: Collecting vintage motorcycles

Likes: Nothing (maybe ‘cept Ragna in a not so friendly way)

Dislikes: Meat and Weak People

Eyes: Green

Tier Listing: B+ to A

Theme Song: Lust SIN

Jin Kisaragi is nobility from the prestigious house of Kisaragi. He’s a Major by rank and commanded his own division from a young age. His most impressive feat in his records seems to be heroism and reputation developed during the Ikaruga War. Jin doesn’t seem to like anything but his hobby and fighting Ragna. In fact, he treats just about everyone but Ragna in the BlazBlue cast like a nuisance, particularly Noel. Jin’s weapon is a slim yet long sword which shares properties similar to a katana and saber. Jin’s drive is Frostbite where he is able to create ice in any shape or matter to fit the needs of his situation.

Clearly the Ky Kiske of the BlazBlue universe, Jin is a simple but powerful character to play. His focus in combat is to hit you a lot, and freeze you when he can to either score more hits or better position himself in combat. Not only does he freeze opponents, but he also is able to launch projectiles. Jin has some of the best projectiles in the game, as they fly far, fast, and he can even ride some of them, giving him a damaging dash. One more unique thing to Jin is that his Distortion Drives cost him only 25% of his Heat gauge, giving him the ability to use them sooner and more frequently than most characters. (Later note: This is wrong, apparently the information I got was false.)

Jin is not without his weaknesses. Many of the characters have at least one move that carries priority over Jin’s moves. His fighting gimmick, Frostbite, is not nearly as flashy as some of the other characters from BlazBlue, and is described as not as effective compared to the other gimmicks. Beyond this, he’s been described as a character that isn’t as interesting to play, something of the typical Ryu archetype.

Overall, Jin is the Ky Kiske of BlazBlue without being nerfed into the bottom of all tiers. Of course they both fight for some corrupt organization that pleads its case of being a force for justice. However, the differences is in their personalities. Ky is a much kinder enforcer of justice, honestly caring about others and always willing to lend a hand while never having his crazed moments. Jin is shown to be annoyed by the other characters, particularly Noel. However, when fighting Ragna, his tone and manner of speech become friendlier. It’s speculated that these two are “blood” brothers and that after some incident Jin goes crazy around Ragna; however, we won’t know until the console versions hit the store shelves.

Tomorrow there will be a special article relating to the BlazBlue series, so stay tuned!

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As promised, we return to the character bios with Bang Shishigami! Thankfully, this entry will have a lot more information than the last.

Character voice: Tsuyoshi Koyama

Height: 192 cm

Weight: 105 kg

Blood type: B

Gender: Male

Origin: The Far East

Hobby: Unknown

Tier Listening (Based on various sources): B

Theme Song: Gale

A ninja-turned-superhero, Bang has dedicated his life to exterminating evil and overturning injustice wherever he goes. The scar on his face was given to him by Jin, whom he would like to get back at for said fact. His Drive Ability is Burning Heart, which places emblems for every fire punch he lands on his opponent. When four of them are placed, he can then use his Distortion Drive, “Fuurinkazan,” which gives him enhanced speed and strength at the cost of any blocking ability.

Bang is incredibly mobile, having three jumps instead of two and two air dashes instead of one. Beyond this, he also has a large pool of health at 12000, the second highest in the game behind Iron Tager. Unlike Chip Zanuff of Guilty Gear, the character he relates to the most, Bang has 12 nails which can be used as projectiles or thrown in the air for a spare dash. Beyond this, his distortion drive further increases his speed and strength, making him particularly devastating after four fire punches.

You’d think that with all these strengths, Bang would be in a higher tier or a larger threat, right? Sadly, Bang has two weaknesses that make him incredibly hard to play as: the first being that most of his combos are lackluster in the damage department compared to the game’s other characters, and the second being that his normal attacks are also sub-par in damage and priority. Both of these issues are lessened by his Fuurinkazan, however it also completely removes his ability to block. Overall, he’s for players that can take a hit and like interrupting their opponents.

From my own standpoint, Bang Shishigami resembles Chip Zanuff in many ways, what with them both being the most mobile in their series and their occupations as ninja. However, he stands to be higher tiered than Chipp due to his projectiles and significantly larger health pool. He seems to be well prepared to be a fierce opponent for those without speed or range capabilities(CoughIronTagerandRagnacough).

Next up, Jin Kisaragi.

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Ahaha, I’m oh so clever, aren’t I? Just as Moonlily and Light are. As promised, here is a bit of info on Noel Vermillion of BlazBlue.

Character voice: Kanako Kondou

Height: 157 cm

Weight: 48 kg

Blood type: A

Gender: Female

Origin: Switzerland

Hobby: Writing Poems

Tier Listing(According to Dustloop): B

Theme Song: Bullet Dance

Because of her outstanding combat ability and suitable operation evaluations, Noel was selected to be Jin Kisaragi’s direct subordinate in her youth. The two were acquaintances in the Military Academy, though Noel thought Jin was extremely weak. However, on a certain mission handed down from the Librarium, her preconceptions were changed. She is actually μ -12-, the predecessor of v -13- (both of them are Ark-Enemy units), although she doesn’t remember it. During the Ikaruga Civil War, she was found amidst the burning fields of Ikaruga, where she was rescued, after which she was adopted by her parents of the Vermillion family. Her Drive Ability is known as Chain Revolver, which specializes in chain linking her combos together.

Noel Vermillion’s focus in combat is all about her combos, thanks to the ability of Chain Revolver. And while she may have a variety of guns at her disposal, Noel appears to be suited for mid to close range combat thanks to her reliance on combos, aerial techniques, and lack of a longer distance projectile. The only two overdrive moves I’ve seen thus far include a stunning attack, which leads her into firing a large gattling gun at her opponent, slowly raising them into the air, and an aerial barrage of bullets from her pistols followed by a set of destructive missiles.

Overall, I see Noel being a unique character with aspects of Dizzy from Guilty Gear, given their respective statuses as machine beings. Noel also seems to be shaping up to be quite a devastating opponent when she locks you into her combos, as her overdrives also seem to link into each other.

Next character, Bang Shishigami.

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As many of my friends are aware, BlazBlue is one of the few games being released this year that I’ve been looking forward to. With this game being released in two and a half weeks, not to mention a recent shortage of things to write about on my end, I thought that this would be the perfect time to give a short preview of BlazBlue.

BlazBlue is the new 2D sprite based fighting game created by Arc Systems, the same people that brought us Guilty Gear. BlazBlue is a spiritual successor to Guilty Gear, as it shares many themes with GG, such as its cast of bizarre characters and balanced fighting. If you’ve ever played Street Fighter, Fatal Fury, King of Fighters, or any other 2D fighter, you’ll be quick to figure out that the object of the game is to crush your opponent before they crush you, while utilizing the character’s various fighting styles.

Here’s a short summary of the plot, according to Wikipedia and the various people who have played the English arcade version of BlazBlue:

Prior to the events of BlazBlue, humanity was on the verge of extinction from the “Black Beast”, a creature of Darkness. The world was saved by six heroes who wielded magic. They helped humanity create “Armagus”, a fusion of magic and technology, to defeat the Beast.

After the war, the Novus Orbis Librarium Armagus (the Library for short) was created to govern the world with the use of Armagus. A great deal of dissent was caused by the Library, partly due to use of Armagus in nearly every facet of society, and the widening socioeconomic gap between those who could and couldn’t use Armagus. This dissent would eventually form years later into The Ikaruga Civil War, when the Ikaruga Union openly rebelled against the Library. After the war, the Library imposed a harsher rule on the world, punishing any rebellion against the Library with the death penalty.

On December A.D. 2199, several years after the Ikaruga Civil War, a branch of the Library was utterly destroyed by an SS-class traitor named “Ragna the Bloodedge” also known as “The God of Death”, in an attempt to destroy the entire Library. The Novus Orbis Librarium Armagus, hoping to stop him, immediately put out the largest bounty ever for anyone who could capture him. Interestingly, Ragna possessed a powerful form of Armagus known as the “Azure Grimoire” (Grimoire of the Blue in Japan), also known as the BlazBlue. This led to the Librarium, as well as the Ikaruga Union and other fighters, to be after not just his bounty, but also his grimoire.

Along with the transition from arcade to consoles comes a bunch of exclusive content to the PS3 and Xbox 360, the systems BlazBlue will grace with its presence. Amongst the new content is brand new music, animations, backgrounds, a fully fleshed out 30+ hour story mode, English voice-overs with the original Japanese voices, and an online battle mode that supports up to 6 people to join a lobby and spectate your opponents while you wait to battle.

Every day leading up to the release of BlazBlue, I’ll be adding a character bio or something else relating to the game. So until then, see ya!

First Bio: Noel Vermillion

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