The Weird Pixel

Review: BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger

By Ryjin - July 23, 2009 - 09:49 UTC

The creators of Guilty Gear return with a new fighting game but how does it fare up? Full review on the jump.

Game Length - The story mode of the game will take the average person at least 12-14 hours of committed gameplay to unlock the true and full ending to the game.

Online Capability – Aksys did an amazing job, there is barely any lag to speak of, and playing with your friends is improved by allowing other friends to spectate and allow a round robin of participants for when one match concludes.

Value – This is probably the best value for a fighting game this year, pictured below you can see the extra soundtrack and strategy movie disc for the standard PS3/X360 game price.

Technicals – The game runs smoothly in HD which is surprising for how much is happening on screen, and the controls are accessible for anyone to get into.

Replayability – As a fighting game the replayability is up to the person, personally 30 hours of online play has already been put in for myself.

The creators of the popular fighting game series Guilty Gear, wow us with another new fighting game IP that was a welcome addition to this year’s amazing roster of games for the genre.  BlazBlue: CT offers us a a new unique visual style for the 2d fighting game genre. All of the sprites are hand-drawn and inserted over 3d backgrounds similar to the way King of Fighters XII graphics are being done, but seeing both games side by side, BlazBlue is more polished.

BlazBlue offers the basics of any fighting game that is released this generation but also a bit more. There is basic Arcade Mode, but there’s a twist, each of the 12 character disregarding the main character, Ragna, have special finishing moves called Astral Heats. You must complete the game with each character in Arcade Mode to unlock their ultimate move. This could be seen as an imbalance for online play, for example the players who have not gone through Arcade Mode cannot use the Astral Heat finishers online, but someone who they face who has done the opposite and unlocked the move, they can use it on you.

As stated before the game has 12 characters, a smaller roster than most fighting games these days, but each character is completely unique and you cannot notice any similarities in move lists or combos. The breakdown of the move functionality is a bit different and can take some getting used to. There is A(PS3 – Square X360 – X) B(PS3 – Triangle X360 – Y) C(PS3 – O X360 – B) and D(PS3 – X X360 – A). The A attacks are your basic hits and pokes, B is typically your stronger movies which can be linked, C moves are typically knock ups, D are your Drive Attacks. Every character has a unique drive attack, for example the two characters pictured above, Bang-Shishigami and Taokaka. Bang’s Drive allows him to use his gauntlets for a standing fiery uppercut, a crouching fire uppercut, a midair downward slam,  or a flaming trip kick, these attacks build up his unique special meter for a different Distortion Ability. Taokaka’s allow her to fly across the screen extremely fast, control of this can allow you to be confusing and almost around the entire screen.

As you can see the game’s interface hud is similar to Guilty Gear. Health, Barrier Meter, Block durability which is the bar in the center underneath the timer, and on  the bottom left and right is your Heat Bar. 50 Heat or above is what allows you to do your finishers which are called Distortion Finishes. Overall this game is a welcome change to a genre that was only being saved this year by Street Fighter IV and Tekken 6, I say it is a redeeming purchase for anyone looking for a fighting game to play.

As pictured above, the first and second run of the games if I remember correctly are automatically the limited edition which is pictured. The Limited Edition for either system comes with a 2-disc soundtrack and a strategy disc from the professional arcade players in Japan for all the characters in the game. The game is priced normally at $59.99 at your standard retailer .

                      

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