BlazBlue initial impressions

So me and Arc System works didn't have the best of relationships in the past, but it was mostly one sided. I wasn't a fan of the Guilty Gear Series, mostly because it was too complicated for my brain to process. It was really fast, but thankfully, not marvel fast. There were a lot of systems to this game. "Arcade Mania" by Brian Ashcraft called it appropriately, "controlled chaos". A lot to process, and a lot to remember and I'm pretty lazy, but that's my fault. Plus the people at RIT gave me and the other 3rd strike players a load of crap for playing 3rd strike and not GGXX. I even tried playing GGXX but some people didn't even bother teaching me the mechanics of the game. Gamers RUIN EVERYTHING.

So here comes along BlazBlue, which seemingly is GGXX with a new coat of paint. Not necessarily a bad thing, but since GGXX wasn't my cup of tea, I didn't particularly care. It just looked pretty. The other day, I as at a gamestop, and lo and behold, I see a copy of BlazBlue. I consulted Felix, bought it, and he would buy it from me, since he wanted it more than I did. I did, however, get the permission to give it a test drive.

Coming from Street Fighter IV, there were a few things that I really missed. One was the lack of ability to mash your way to victory. On the stick, doing a SRK/DP whatever you call it was back to the way I remember it, and it wasn't a random ass save all. Man I missed that. 2nd, it was faster. SFIV just seems slow to me, and I needed a faster game. Ideally, if played like I remember it, 3rd Strike had a decent game speed. But this isn't 3rd strike. Still, it was faster, and it was refreshing. Lastly, 2D sprites. It jsut flows naturally. I never did like SFIV's animation. Kinda choppy.

And actually, in the first hour I played it, it seemed mildly enjoyable. Kinda different from guilty gear, but still the same at the same time. What I found really interesting were the designs of the characters. Not so much the actual design (which is what you expect from Arc System works games and their anime-inspired designs), but the game play design. Everyone has the buttons of A,B,C, and D. The D button is their drive button, which is basically what makes the characters, "them".

Let's put it this way. How many characters in SFIV have fireballs? Ryu, Ken, Sagat, Chun-Li, Dan, Rose, Sakura, Guile, Seth, Dhalsim, Gouken, and Gouki. 12 Characters have fireballs! The shoto's generally play the same, and that kind makes it some staleness. Course most of the characters are unique, but I'm sure you understand what I'm getting at.

On the flip-side, BlazBlue has the drive button, and that, what I think, is what makes them, them. Take the character Iron Tager. He's your needed hulking, big guy that can't dash or double jump. However, his special moves and drives make his opponents magnetized for a short time. Doing subsequent specials afterward creates a vacuum effect, running with his whole magnetism theme. How many other characters can do that? One. Just him. This design makes it fresh and unique. Does it make the game good. A bit. Does it make it PLAY well? From a competitors stand-point, I'm not so sure. That requires more extensive play-time. What I want nothing more in a good fighting game is a bit of balance.

A few notes:
Ragna is your basic character that has neither strengths or weaknesses. Jin seems like an easy mode character, with quick and easy combos. Tager, because of the nature of the game, seems slow, but hey, Potemkin managed to be pretty good in some of the GGXX games, so lets see. Taokaka is for those into furries and likes to spam moves like crazy. Noel seems busted.