New Pack Leader in the 2-D FIGHTER- BlazBlue:Calamity Trigger

Bold statement right? Hell YES it is, move over Street Fighters, sit down mortal kombaters, tekken take a break, soul caliber put away you weapons cause the new product has hit the streets and it is probably the most complete 2-d fighter EVER.

As a HUGE fan of the fighter genre i have been waiting for a fighting game that has everything that i love in 2 d fighters. All the games i mentioned earlier are classics, and you gotta love the classics, Samurai Showdown, Marvel Vs Capcom 2, Killer Instant, Dead or Alive, hell even the Dragon Ball series all have their place and are all fun. As of right now a new pack leader has emergered and the blisters on my thumbs have reached a critical “i have to stop playing cause there is blood on my ps3 controller”

The ancestor of this game is the Guilty Gear Series, and they sure did evolve in the ongoing survival of  video games. The name of this new beast, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger. Let’s get into it.

1st off it is in 2-d!!!! it doesn’t hide it, it goes all out on the cgi backgrounds, but maintains it anime visuals through the fighters and animations in the background. Man does it work, it looks like a damn anime. Everyone should take a page out of Arc Systems and use the PS3 to push style as well as technology.

Button Lay out and Fighting System. What do you mean no kick button? they went for a 4 button lay out? Simplicity leads to the most complex and technical game play, well ever. check it: light, medium, heavy and special attack, yes there is a special attack button. More on that in a minute.

You will see madd gages on the screen sunn, and all of them are put to good use. There is the standard health bar, special bar and barrier bar. The barrier bar is a great spin and rewards you for blocking. When blocking hold down 2 attack buttons and a barrier will form while you block and it will chip away damage from that gauge instead of your health gauge!!! The gauge is limited but replenishes. Another trick that carried over from the Guilty Gear Series is the “Instant Kill” now called “Astral Heat” attacks. To pull off an astral heat attack the opponent has to have 20 % health or less, you have to have a 100% in your special gauge, and it has to be a final round, but if this scenario does arrive get ready for a ”Fatality” animation that will make you feel a whole ocean of emotion, but mostly awesomeness.

The characters are what makes you want to play this game. Just like the Guilty Gear series they are all unique, and all play differently. Each character had 4 different color schemes to pick from as well as the ability to color in your own scheme.

The special hit works different with every character. For example, every time you land a hit on opponent with Ragna the Bloodedge’s ”special attack” small orbs of blood will travel from your opponent to Ragna’s Health. When Jin Kisaragi lands a “special attack” it adds a status effect of freezing you, and the duration on the freeze depends on the strength of the “special attack” . This goes on and on with every character, making for a very deep game experience as well as connecting you with characters on another level.

Attacks that use the special gauge’s are called distortion attacks. These are the super hard moves that if landed will fuck up your opponent as well as give you shit talking privileges. Also if you finish off your opponent with one of these “distortion” finishes the screen turns all crazy. If you are one of those lame ass no coordinated fools who can’t remember or execute these distortion attacks you’re in luck.  This the game has fixed special moves that you can activate by flicking the right analog stick. 4 pre programmed moves in all, and the best part the instant kills called “astral heat” are all a flick down on the right analog.

Which brings me to my next point and probably the most important. ANYONE CAN PLAY THIS GAME. Despite the high level detail to combat anyone can just mash buttons and play. Add the fact that you can just flick directions to input astral heat and distortion attacks shows that the producers knew that they had to make a fighter that anyone and everyone could get down with.

And that’s what it’s about, gameplay. The arcade mode is pretty standard, incorporating a loose story. The story mode is where it is at. Depending on how you finish a match will determine your journey through each particular characters story. There is also an achievement mode. But it’s all about online play, and on the PS3 it is great, the lag is super minimal and it is way too addictive.

The sound is perfect! you will recognize every persons voice from an anime or cartoon you have seen in the past. The characters curse, and unlike most 2-d fighters, the voice acting is done WELL!!!!! And the soundtrack is bananas.

Which brings me to my final point, the all mighty dollar and everyone knows that Cash Rules Everything Around Me. The people over at Arc Systems 1st released the limited edition run of blaze blue, which gets you the game, a DVD on which contains and overview of the game as well as in depth analysis of each character, plus a 2 disc soundtrack of the music, the second music cd is remixed by none other than dj Oh No! The limited edition version is also the only version currently is out, oh and cost is the same amount as any other regular game. Thanks ARC for BlazBlue, a near perfect game for a new generation of 2-d fighters, and a treat for us older ones!

and check this out for cool

http://triumvir3.com/wordpress/?p=2301

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