Too Long; Didn't Play: Blazblue: Chronophantasma Extend

Sponsored By Absurd Doctor

Time Extended: 2 hours

Taunt Button Review

A fast, accessible fighter that you can play on a standard controller.

I approve!

100% Heat Review

My first fighting-game experience was getting completely destroyed by someone in Mortal Kombat because I didn’t know you could block sweeps. Why should I have? My character squatted awkwardly and held his hands up in a classic “not-the-face!” pose. Why would that stop someone kicking my ankles out from under me? The result was me standing by haplessly as my opponent spammed sweeps for two rounds.

Fortunately, Mortal Kombat was available on home consoles, and I was able to enjoy the experience of ripping out an opponent’s spine without interference from hustlers and spammers. But that security and fun comes at a cost. I was stuck trying to capture that arcade fighting experience on controllers that were never meant to hold it.

It’s not just that the D-Pad is inferior to the arcade joystick. That’s a given, but it’s not a dealbreaker. A good D-pad can be just as effective as a joystick, it’s just that nobody makes good D-pads anymore. No, the real problem is that most fighting games use five or six buttons, but standard controllers only have four face-buttons. Street Fighter games are virtually unplayable on a controller, because a third of the buttons you need for bashing out a combo are on the opposite side of the controller from everything else. It’s awkward, like sending the heavy attacks to go sit at the kid’s table on Thanksgiving.

BlazBlue: Chronophantasma Extend is a game that understands that. It’s also a game with a title so long that you can’t say anything meaningful about it on Twitter, so henceforth I’m going to refer to it as "simply BlazBlue." Simply Blazblue only has four attack buttons: light, medium, medium-heavy and heavy. There’s a fifth button for taunt, but it’s largely unnecessary and it seems to only exist to add some silly animations to training mode. On balance, it’s a fighting game that is as friendly to people without arcade fight-sticks as a fighting game can be, and that’s without factoring in the “press a button, win a combo” mode that simplifies the control scheme even further, for videogame tourists like me who just want to see the cutscenes.

And simply BlazBlue has a lot of cutscenes, because it’s not just a fighting game; it’s a fighting game crossed with a visual novel. If you jump into the story mode, you’re treated to lots of subtitled voicework by Japanese actors. I’m going to come right out and admit that I haven’t played the story mode yet, because that’s not why I play fighting games, but it’s neat that it’s there for other people.

Speaking of things that I haven’t tried yet, simply Blazblue has a staggering number of modes. There’s the standard story and arcade modes that you would expect, and there’s an online mode for people who like that sort of thing, but there are also a ton of tutorial and instruction modes, as well as score-attack, challenge and survival modes. Truly, there’s something for everyone.

One more round?

I will definitely be keeping simply Blazblue installed on my computer. While it’s not positioned to supplant Tekken 7 as my favorite four-button fighting game, it’s certainly edged out Skullgirls in terms of speed and Street Fighter 4 in terms of pure fun. It beats Marvel vs Capcom 3 in a walk, simply because the arcade mode is beatable – a condition which Marvel vs Capcom 3 fails to meet on any difficulty.

Seriously, who thought Galactus was a good idea for a fighting-game boss?

Is it the Dark Souls of fighting games

I don’t know what the Dark Souls of fighting games would look like. Maybe Bushido Blade qualifies, but I’ve never played it so I can’t posit.

Regardless, simply Blazblue wouldn’t qualify as the Dark Souls of fighting games even if I could think of one. It’s the most accessible 2D fighting game I’ve ever played. Summed up, the game offers a little something for all players, regardless of skill level or mode preference. You can kick back with a visual novel sprinkled with fighting matches, or you can hit the classic arcade mode, or you can go online and get completely destroyed by people who’ve been playing the game for two years. That doesn’t make it a Dark Souls-equivalent, but it does make it fun.

Comments

Wow, don't think I've ever heard someone describe BlazBlue as accessible. I rather enjoy the series because you can make cool sh*t happen on screen pretty much all the time, which is important when you don't have the time to put into a fighting game and master all the intricacies. Turns out Arc went out of their way to make the series friendly to everyone, which is great. It's like how the 3DS version of SF4 had a combo button on the second screen.

But otherwise, the systems go deep in a BlazBlue game. Way deeper than anything Street Fighter has ever managed outside of SF3 Alpha or whatever it was called. You know, the one that added more depth and people hated it for that.

Greg, you might like Dragon Ball FighterZ that's Hansel hot right now. It's also by Arc and is basically their take on Marvel vs. Capcom with a Dragon Ball skin. Same sort of easy combos with cool sh*t going on screen as with BlazBlue.

I was recently looking into it and evidently BlazBlue was designed to be a more accessible option compared to Guilty Gear, their "hardest of the core hard" fighting game. I have no experience with either myself as they were on the rise during my time at College where being new to a fighting game meant a five-second match where you saw nothing but colors on a screen as the other person calls you a scrub, so I was never able to get into 'em.

I'm waiting on the new BlazBlue for Switch, though I hear there's a kerfluffle about how many characters will be DLC vs. on disc/cart. I'm also planning on Dragon Ball Fighter Z once it's on Switch.

ccesarano wrote:

I'm waiting on the new BlazBlue for Switch, though I hear there's a kerfluffle about how many characters will be DLC vs. on disc/cart. I'm also planning on Dragon Ball Fighter Z once it's on Switch.

Yeah, about half the roster will be DLC. Base game will be $40 USD, the extra characters will be a $20 DLC.

Honestly, sounds fine to me. The roster is pretty big.

garion333 wrote:

Wow, don't think I've ever heard someone describe BlazBlue as accessible. I rather enjoy the series because you can make cool sh*t happen on screen pretty much all the time, which is important when you don't have the time to put into a fighting game and master all the intricacies. Turns out Arc went out of their way to make the series friendly to everyone, which is great. It's like how the 3DS version of SF4 had a combo button on the second screen.

But otherwise, the systems go deep in a BlazBlue game. Way deeper than anything Street Fighter has ever managed outside of SF3 Alpha or whatever it was called. You know, the one that added more depth and people hated it for that.

Greg, you might like Dragon Ball FighterZ that's Hansel hot right now. It's also by Arc and is basically their take on Marvel vs. Capcom with a Dragon Ball skin. Same sort of easy combos with cool sh*t going on screen as with BlazBlue.

I’ve been casting covetous glances at Dragonball FighterZ. Most of what’s staying my hand is the nagging fear that it’s been too long since I consumed any DBZ anime or manga, and I won’t know what’s going on.

There are, like, nine different Gokus in that game. How am I supposed to know which is which without a Crunchyroll subscription?

doubtingthomas396 wrote:

I’ve been casting covetous glances at Dragonball FighterZ. Most of what’s staying my hand is the nagging fear that it’s been too long since I consumed any DBZ anime or manga, and I won’t know what’s going on.

Quick question: Did you know what was going on prior to playing BlazBlue? Did it really make any difference if you know what Ragna the Bloodedge's backstory is? Noel's? Jin's? Or were they just different fighting game characters that did cool moves when you pushed the buttons? FighterZ is no different than any other fighting game in that regard.

And I'm 100% with Garion in having a face when I read that BlazBlue was in any accessible. Most of the Arc System Works games are completely bonkers when it comes to what is involved beyond just mashing buttons. Aside from Dragon Ball FighterZ--that game is 100x more accessible than any of the other fighting games out there right now. I would definitely check it out if you're thinking about it.