Gamespot score:8.0(Great)
my score:8.9
(+)Pros:-All characters are still ridiculously fun to play and are incredibly different from each other,-competitive online play,-new beginner mode lets newcomers pitch in for easier learning,- beautiful visuals and sprites,- has very in-depth story for a fighting game,-challenge mode helps players find thier footing in learning combos
(-)Cons:-Character count is still low (even if you count DLC characters),-score attack can be frustratingly difficult
Gameplay time:100 hours+(very long lasting)
2010 is coming to a close, and to finish off the year here's a great game to end it. 2010 saw a pathetic year for fighting games, most if not all the gaming websites didnt even HAVE any fighting game awards for thier genre awards for game of the year. The only 2 quality fighting game titles this year were super street fighter 4 and blazblue:Continuum shift. Naruto ultimate ninja storm 2 doesnt even COMPARE to these 2. Well, blazblue is obviously the next street fighter, sequels are popping up one after another, with calamity trigger being released less than a year before continuum shift, and with continuum shift 2 already out....its really quite a hassle for the Aksys people. Plus, word is that a new blazblue, crisis revered is already coming out. Impressive.
Blazblue:continuum shift acts as a sequel and its evens take place after that of calamity trigger. Once again though each character has his/her own individual story routes the game mainly focuses on the main character, Ragna the bloodedge. Still an "S" rank villian at large in kagutsuchi, life isnt easy for Ragna, he gets into more trouble here and there, but this time the game has a single antagonist that everyone, including ragna, must face. And that is none other than Hazama, aka Terumi, one of the 6 heroes. Wanting to smoulder the cauldron to create the ultimate god slayer sword, he is basically the big bad guy who everyone has to team up and fight later on. Despite the main story, the individual character's stories are great and entertaining, so its a win-win situation.
As with calamity trigger, continuum shift's character cast is extremely varied, and it doesnt fail to keep players wanting more. Though the choices were rather limited before, the increase in characters in continuum sift really isnt that much. We get 3 new in-disc characters and 3 new DLC characters(one of which hasn't been released yet). Once again, the new characters have great design and interesting playstyles, as do the rest of the cast. While the game's characters did receive nerfs thier play style each remains mostly unchanged, same goes to the game's mechanics, but there are a few small tweaks here and there,still nothing a little practice cant solve.
Lets first talk about gameplay modes. Since BB is a game with complicated mechanics afterall, the developers decided to throw in tutorial and challenge mode, which if you ask me, is a fantastic ideas. Tutorial(though boring), covers all BB basics and in no time you can pick up and play quite well. Challenge mode gives players a set command input of combos and lets them learn it. This is a good way for players who dont especially know much about the game learn abit more complicated combos. Then theres the classic arcade and practice mode.... along with story mode,score attack and legion. Story mode is obvious, score attacks puts players against all the game's characters in extreme difficulty, while legion is just a small minigame of conquest of fighting groups of ai characters. Oh and lets not forget versus and online, for competitive gameplay. Overall, all gameplay modes focus on its combat, which revolves around the interesting haracters. The old characters play the same, while new ones provide just as interesting playstyles. Hazama focusing on zipping in and out of opponent's range with his ouroborous, dealing devastating combos, tsubaki focuses on charge attacks to dish out painful charged attacks, Mu-12 plays a more mind-game based style, placing turrets here and there. With the new characters blazblue becomes more uniique and competitive than ever.
Now the game is amazing and all, but you have to agree, even with the 3 new characters and DLC characters, the total count for characters is only 18, WHICH IS STILL PATHETIC. The playstyles for the characters are very fun and varied, but seriously, until it exceeds at least 20 the character count sure is....lacking. Also, the score attack is ridiculously hard, hard enough to induce stress problems. Online is competitive and challlenging enough, score attacks takes it further. While starting characters like bang and taokaka arent TOO bad, later fights such as unlimited ragna (a totally broken fella),unlimited hakumen( a total bitch), and the incredibly broken ass unlimited hazama( oh the rage) , have you die countless times and you have to fight through the whole score attack again......its that annoying.
Happy gaming!
