Customer Reviews

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger Standard Edition

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a fantastic game. The amount of care and attention that went into its creation is constantly evident. There are three main things rare among fighters that this game does enormously well:

1) The fighting style of each and every character is creative and meticulously crafted to be unique and fun;

2) Despite that, the game is somehow finely balanced;

3) The deeper aspects of the game do have a steep learning curve, but enough shortcuts are etched into that hill that newbies should keep up admirably and enjoy learning.

How it manages to pull off all these things so well is a mystery to me. I would place BlazBlue high on a list of examples of game design as art.

The downside of these balancing acts is the relatively small number of characters, but personally I'm fine with that. There's no question that the game delivers enough meat to sink one's teeth into, more than this and it might be difficult to chew. The music and graphics are also very high quality.

Some flaws/cons (mostly nitpicking):

1) Some of the character designs don't quite hold up to the level of originality you'll find in their gameplay. You've probably seen a lot of these designs before (Cat Girl, future military dudes with sword guns, massive-breasted slut-in-glasses, GooAlienMonster that spits/summons stuff, Goth Lolita, etc.), but A) that's anime for you, and B) they're particularly well done cliches, and none of this has anything to do with gameplay.

2) I'm a bit of a puritan when it comes to this stuff, but for me some of the defense mechanics are needlessly complicated, which I think is directly related to...

3) The combo system is firmly into the mad waters of Marvel Vs Capcom 2. By which I mean, you can combo virtually anything at any time with few limits, and can actually get infinite combos with a single repeated button press in a lot of situations (try it in training mode). HOWEVER, the aforementioned defense mechanics, in all their complexity, give the defender plenty of options to prevent that from happening. It just strikes me as an oddly sloppy and needlessly convoluted system.

Anyway, those cons really are quite nitpicky and shouldn't influence your opinion. I can't recommend the game enough to fans of fighters. I write reviews very rarely, and glowing reviews like this almost never, but I just had to rave about this one in public. In other words, this isn't just good, it's a truly exceptional game. It will be a terrible pity if it isn't as popular as it deserves to be, Guilty Gear isn't quite the same pedigree as the competition.

I got Blazblue almost a year after the initial release. I'm fed up with Street Fighter 4. I'm tired of being torn to shreds online because of the precise timing combos require and how anyone with a fightstick can whoop me because they aren't using an XBox controller and have access to a turbo button. And because they've been using Ryu since they first played Street Fighter 2. Hadoken then Shoruken when I jump. I get it.

Blazblue is everything Street Fighter 4 isn't, but in the best way possible. It's 2D. It's got a clean, anime style that brings it 's twelve characters to life. Twelve may not seem like many, all the characters are brand new and there are NO clones. It does take a LOT of time to really know each individual character's best combos, however. Combos people will teach you over the great online mode. There's no "Create a Lobby" going on here. Search for a match, and you appear in everyone else's searches. Connections are good (unless indicated other wise), and as of this review (May 2010), the online community continues to see new faces, as well as many veterans.

It's got a story mode with some pretty great english voice acting and a cool plot that actually manages to be pretty funny and even touching sometimes. The music. Sweet justice, the music is phenomenal. I don't know who writes this stuff, but as of now, this is the first game that I actually CARED came with a 2-disc soundtrack. It's on my iPod. No other game music is.

Frankly, if you're someone who's peeved that Super SF 4 costs 40 bucks, forget that. Come join in this brand new series that's been taking off both here and oversees. If you enjoyed games like Marvel VS. Capcom 2 like I did (sorry, never played Guilty Gear or whatever else these guys made...)... definitely give this one a try.

This is not street fighter, and I think the comparisons to it are unfair. Street fighter is a different game and requires very different strategies regardless of the fact that they're in the same genre.

The story mode and character design will bother you if you can't stand anime. If you can get past that though, you're in for a treat.

BlazBlue is about combos, more combos and beautiful finishers. Every character plays VERY differently, they all have their strengths and weaknesses but they're not obvious when you first start playing. The battle system is based around using combinations of single buttons with different directions and rotations to accomplish different moves, however unlike street fighter, there's only a weak, medium, strong, drive (special), and grabs rather than dividing up kicks and punches. Blocking can aid you, but only up to a point.

The graphics are amazing. It uses 2D sprites and brilliant hand drawn backgrounds to create a feast for the eyes. Although I've heard very good things about the music, I find it fitting, but not mind-blowing. The voice acting is better than I expected of a game translated from japanese, and for a fighting game really. Because the game is so story intensive this helps out a lot.

The story is very complex and the story mode has you examine it from 12 different perspectives, but only lets you progress through to the true ending by playing through all of them in whatever order you choose. It's very interesting, makes the single player experience very deep, and really gives a sense of the world and the characters' interrelationships.

Arcade mode is pretty standard, ten stages with the last one putting you up against a powered up version of one of the characters. It increases in difficulty well, and playing through with each character unlocks their astral finishers. Score attack functions like a survival mode, and since I have yet to beat it, I'm not sure what it results in, but it's a great mode for those looking for a challenge.

The online mode is excellent. It's lag free, allows for you to see everyone's rank, preferred characters, as well as including a leveling system to match you with people of (sometimes) equal skill.

BlazBlue has a lot of value, particularly at the prices I've seen for it recently. It has a deep and involving single player experience with a story you'll actually care about, as well as being great for multiplayer, either online or at home. If you have any interest in fighting games this game is a necessity for your collection.

Each character is unique and has his/her own fighting system. I can't see any weak points in the game. Graphics, gameplay, story, characters, music... all top notch.

This is a very combo friendly game, that can be frustrating when you're first learning to play. Expert players will create long combos which are impossible/almost impossible to escape. One mistake and your opponent will unleash a furious combo. For players new to this style of game, it can be frustrating, but you'll soon get used to it.

BlazBlue is a beautiful game. I could almost just recommend this game to anyone wishing to admire some truly beautiful artwork. I know that I am slightly biased because I am, in fact, an anime fan. So it is true that this art style might not appeal to everyone. But with that said, I still think it would be hard not to appreciate how vibrant all the colors look and how clean and plished the product looks. Perhaps I just haven't found it yet, but I would have appreciated some sort of tutorial.

One complaint made against this game is the lack of character selection. It is true that there are only 12 characters which is sort of disappointing when games like Marvel vs. Capcom 2 have like 40-something characters. However, to be fair, I didn't like more than 20 or so of the those 40 characters and I would only really play with 5-9 of them. Furthermore, many of the characters on Marvel vs. Capcom 2 feel and play very similarly. On BlazBlue, however, ALL the characters play extremely differently. They all have a different feel so they make up in quality of characters what they lack in quantity. I have hardly even played the game but I am already in love with it. I say worth the price.

Unlike most of the people who review video games, I totally suck at playing video games, particularly fighting games. My problem is that my fingers can't move fast enough to make all those flashy combos, but that's beside the point. I originally fell in love with blazblue because of the character designs, and its because of that that I bought the game.

But after playing it for a while, I realized how much I liked the story.

Weird right?

All my friends thought I would have shelved the game after I somehow bruised my thumb trying to kill Nu, but I have trudged on.

Maybe I'm just a masochist, but clearly Blazblue is doing something right if a girl like me, that totally sucks at fighting games has bought every blazblue game released so far.

read lots of good review about this game,bought it play it once never touch again. a game for 13 year old maybe.

If you looking for a good fighting game, look some place else. I honestly would be more entertained with Street Fighter 2 for the Super Nintendo.....