Guilty Blaze of Glory

For some odd reason, part of me thought Arc System Works would let the Blazblue franchise take a nap for a short time after Blazblue: Chrono Phantasma.

Blazblue was, after all, the franchise they started upon losing the rights to Guilty Gear to Sammy Corporation, after the two companies parted ways. Now that they’d obtained the rights from them, they could afford to give Blazblue a short break, because why the heck would a developer want their games competing with each other? This year’s Evo finals for CP would serve as an excellent temporary sendoff for the franchise in its current incarnation. With the technology used for the title being incredibly old at this point, it was time for an upgrade after a eeded break, especially after the way the game’s Story Mode ended. Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- (i.e. the Arc System Works game people really want to play, at least in the west) could fill in the gap nicely in the meantime.

Sorry, but Arc System Works has no concept of “breaks,” because they’re making a new version, fittingly called Blazblue: ChronoPhantasma Ver. 2.0. I also realized I was thinking from the perspective of a western fan, which I’m sure they don’t give a crap about.

A new iteration means of course everyone who previously mastered a character in the last game will have to completely relearn their character, because that’s the way this franchise is. The development team loves giving each character a significant reworking with each big update, but fans have pulled out so much hair in sheer frustration about it at this point that even their children will be bald. Assuming they’ll have children at all.

Before the new version was officially announced, two “new” characters were revealed. There’s Celica A. Mercury, previously introduced in CP’s story mode. She has access to an automation like Carl and Relius, but the developers are focusing on making her far easier to play than the other two. Note that “easier” doesn’t mean she’ll be easy to play.

The second character is Lambda, the version of V-13 created by Kokonoe from Continuum Shift. She’s back, and though her look has been modified in her character artwork, it would have been too much work to change her sprite. Her return also means V-13 will lose the ability to revert between modes, so anyone who played her in CP will have to relearn her. Again, that will apply to nearly every character, because that’s what Arc does. More characters in addition to these two might be included, though they might save some for DLC for the home version. That’s assuming they’ll make a big deal about this release.

None of this is implying the BB franchise won’t receive some kind of upgrade, but clearly Arc doesn’t feel it needs any kind of break. They needed another game to use those new music tracks Daisuke Ishiwatari composed for CP, after all.

BBCP 2.0 won’t release in Japanese arcades until sometime this fall, but a number of location tests will occur before then, where players can provide an impression on how some characters have changed. Following that, the console release will happen, perhaps with the game hitting Playstation 4 in addition to Playstation 3 this time around, like Guilty Gear Xrd. The PS3 version really should have an upgrade option available for anyone who purchased CP; they have no excuses at this point.

Speaking of GGXrd, it will be releasing on consoles worldwide soon. The home version will predictably add Sin Kiske, whose character model was already in the game. That won’t be the only character, meaning Arc will presumably reveal more of them closer to its release. Heck, one of them might be a character you wanted in this game in the first place. Of course, they’ll be DLC. Remember the company we’re dealing with here; they take the “buy it in the first month or get screwed” approach.

Like other home ports of their titles, a story mode will be included. But GGXrd has a different presentation style compared to them, and the story mode will utilize that. Instead of having still portraits and very occasional anime cutscenes, you’ll see cutscenes using the character models. To get a feel for what these are like, some of May’s Arcade Mode story scenes have been uploaded to Youtube. I’d love to point you to more, but Arc has been very good at removing them — and I wouldn’t be surprised if that one went them in due time. The animation in the cutscenes is reminiscent of anime series Knights of Sidonia, which can be seen on Netflix.

They might have another significant balance upgrade ready before a sequel arrives, perhaps coinciding with the home version’s release — an upgrade the home version will receive two months later. They still want fans to come to arcades, and western fans are a much lower priority.

The game releases on PS4 and PS3 in Japan on December 4th. We should receive a western release date soon, unless Arc loses their nerve and prevents Aksys from releasing the American version simultaneously due to fears of reverse importation. But having DLC should prevent that. We’ll see if they show the PS3 version before release.

P.S. Speaking of Arc System Works-developed games, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is also releasing in Japan and America soon. That will receive its own post soon, so stay tuned.