BlazBlue: Continuum Shift

FrozenAngel

Name: BlazBlue: Continuum Shift
Creators: Arc System Works
Genre: Fighting
Platform: Xbox 360 and PS3
My rating: 9/10

Hello there everybody!
I thought I'd make a thread about my favorite fighting game, that came out here in Europe a month ago. This game is a fighting game with 2D anime characters and 3D backgrounds, with flashy effects and really speedy gameplay.

There are a total of 14 playable characters in this game, one unlockable character and three DLC characters to buy from both Marketplaces. As always, this game has a variety of different characters, and not the same type over and over. For example, we have the really fast beginner characters, but with lesser damage: Jin Kisaragi, Taokaka and Tsubaki Yaayoi. The characters who are more complex to play, still quite fast and with medium damage: Ragna The Bloodedge, Hazama and Rachel Alucard. The characters who are big, slow and has the damage of demolition balls: Iron Tager and Hakumen. Every character can be played in complex ways, and the game is at its peak when you play them that way.

There are several different gamemodes, and I will give them all a small little description:

Spoiler:

- Story Mode: Pretty obvious what this is, no? Here, you choose what character you want to play as, and then you play through his/her story. You start with only Ragna, then continue with Jin and Noel, then you unlock Rachel and so on. Most stories have a few choices you have to make during the game, and all stories have at least two endings: The gag ending (humorous one), the good and the bad ending.

- Arcade: Here you play the game as fighting games were originally supposed to be played. You choose a character and battle your way through 10 battles, whereas 6 of these battles are against random characters, and 4 of the battles are fixed, depending on the character. Every character, except Hazama, meets Hazama as the last enemy, and Hazama meets Ragna.

- Score Attack: The most challenging mode in the game, but when you've become good at the game, it is also the funniest. Here, you choose a character and meet ALL characters, minus DLC and unlockable characters, in a fixed order. You start out meeting Bang Shishigami, goes on to Taokaka and then Iron Tager and so on. It is also here that you unlock the "special", or "unlimited" versions of different characters.

- Training: Like most fighting games nowaday, BlazBlue has a training mode. Here you can practice on your skills against a friend, an AI or just against a dummy. There are lots of great options to adjust here, so just play around.

- Challenge Mode: New to Continuum Shift compared to its predecessor, Calamity Trigger, is the challenge mode. Here you get to learn specific character's special attacks and combos. Great for beginners.

- Tutorial: Tutorial is also a new mode from in CS, where you get to learn the basics, like blocking, teching and more. You can also learn basic strategies with each character.

- Legion: This is yet another new mode for CS. Here, you choose a starting character, and then you're directed to a map. This map has several circles with symbols in different sizes. Each of these circles are small "armies" of different difficulty levels of which you have to beat to progress. Every time you challenge an army, which has to be directly beside your own, you get to fight the army. If you win, your character will heal a little, and you will get to recruit one of the characters from the army you just fought. When you have beaten all of the armies, you will have conquered the map.

- Network: We're nextgen aren't we? Of course there's an online mode! Compete against other people in friendly matches, or ranked matches for scoreboards, or just spectate other people when they beat eachother to pulps.

I love this game with a passion, and will hopefully one day get a PS3 with which I can play online. The only reason to why I didn't give the game a perfect score is because it can be quite imbalanced at times. Iron Tager for example, is one of the hardest characters to meet in Score Attack, when he really should be one of the easiest. Unlimited Hakumen is also a little bit too hard at times, and both him and Unlimited Hazama has button-reading AI, so you can't surprise them.

I recommend this game to anyone who likes fighting games, and definetely to anyone who likes games like Marvel VS Capcom.

Anyway, has anyone else played this game? What do you think about it? WHat are your favorite character(s)? How much do you hate and/or love Score Attack? Got any strategies for it? Do you have ANYTHING to say about BlazBlue: Continuum Shift and/or BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, this is the place to say it!

My own personal favorites from this game are:
Hazama / Terumi Yuuki (main usage)
Ragna The Bloodedge (sub usage)
It was one the other way around =P

For the heck of it, I'll write a full list of the characters:
Jin Kisaragi
Ragna The Bloodedge
Bang Shishigami
Arakune
Hazama / Terumi Yuuki
Hakumen
Litchi Faye Ling
Taokaka
Noel Vermillion
Tsubaki Yaayoi
Iron Tager
Rachel Alucard
Carl Clover
Nu-11 (Lamba)
Mu-12 [unlockable through story mode]
Valkenhayn [DLC character]
Makoto [DLC Character]
Platinum The Trinity [DLC Character]

SeriousSAM

13 years ago

theres already a Blazblue thread. theres no point in making a new one

FrozenAngel

13 years ago

I didn't see it. Just noticed it though, and I would like to point out that it's supposed to be about Calamity Trigger. You might not see the difference, but this is about the sequel.

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