BlazBlue: Continuum Shift review by Bluedrake

BlazBlue is another excellent 2d fighting game with incredible graphics to marvel at. Soon to be available for PS3, Xbox and PC, Arc System Works is the developer for this incredible game. (and so was their ever successful Guilty Gear Series game) And I forgot to mention that this game is actually the predecessor of the first series of BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger. The game has really interesting storyline which makes the player want to try out all the character to figure out what is going on. The thing about this game though is that they have too little characters (14 only to be exact) to try them out. They should try to increase the game character rooster list to at least 20 (like King of Fighters game) so that the game could last longer. For those that enjoy Guilty Gear game, you will notice the similarity of some the character like the game's protagonist, the spiky-haired, sword-wielding bad boy Ragna which really is just an upgrade from the spiky-haired, sword-wielding Sol Badguy.

To cut things short, here are the few things that I love and hate about the game.

1) the uniqueness of each character and their personality.

(Icon is created by me as well....)
Take this guy for example, his name is Hazama in the game and by the cool expression that he wield in the game, a lot of people will think that he is one of the game's patroganist but after playing him half-way, you will realize that he's actually one of the bad-ass mastermind for the game which makes gamers think what is so evil about him? My point of writing this out is to tell the gamers not to judge a book by it's cover. You need to play it to understand it.

2) Weird characters in the game
One special thing about this game that they makers did not seemed to lack off is that not all of their characters are humanoid. Take a look at this character called Arakune. He was a scientist before doing weird experiments on himself turned himself into a lump of.... whatever you call that. It's body shape and fighting skills does resemble a bit from the Marvel's Shuma Gorath and he was actually the boyfriend to the hottest chick in the game (Litchi Faye-Ling's his girlfriend)

3) Excellent soundtracks and Background
The game is really special for their high detailed artworks, music works. Every character actually has their background and music theme which makes each of them special. Not only does it suit the character, it also gives player the mood to play. The game backgrounds are something that the gamers have to check out while characters are not fighting. Here's a sample of the final boss theme song:


4) Beautiful character design and skills + excellent game mechanic design
It seems that Arc System Works really focused in details when making this game as the characters are really lifelike and their design actually represent their skills. In addition the, game mechanics seems to be one of the best. The way the game character falls down or knocked out is realistic compared to some of the 2D fighting games that I've seen and I'm really impressed with it. Skills especially the ultimates from each of the character are beatifully done as well. Sometimes, it's so good that gamers would rather get hit with their enemy's ultimate to see what happen :D

5) Superb storyline + character speeches
Each of the character will not have their standard win quotes when talking to other opponents and some will even show off their skills before starting the fight officially. And with each of the characters have their own purpose in the game, this makes gamers want to play everyone to find out how is this person related to that and etc.

6) Unique controls
The game is seperated into 3 types of controls which is Type A B and beginner. Whatever it is, the game has only 4 buttons (similar to Guilty Gear) and the difference is that Type A and B will have different positioning of the control whereas beginner type is really for newbies that does not know how to use the skills. By constant hammering each of the button, beginners will still be able to user the game character's skills which is really far too easy compared to type A and B.

Thing's that I hate about this game:
1) Too little characters.
With only 14, I can finish it in one day and know the whole game storyline by then. To summarize it, the game is pretty short but it will take a while for you to master their combo skills as the moves are really hard to do with some characters

2) Same ending storyline
No matter how many times you play, the game's ending will be the 90% same as the others except that the boss will reveal some detail about the game character's personality that you are controlling. I was expecting for something more different in each of them :(


3) Unable to resume the level if you lose and continue with another character
For some reason, Arc System Works do not want players to continue the game with another character once they lose. For example. if you lose in stage 3 and then you press continue button and choose another different character, you will be back to stage one again. I guess they don't want to upset the game storyline if you decide to choose some other characters to continue...

The overall score I would give to his game will be:

7.5/10

I hope you liked this review of mine and here is a sneak preview of the gameplay done by me. Enjoy :D