BlazBlue: The Calamity Trigger

Post by **Quemaqua** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 3:26 am

So I heard about this from a friend of mine a few months back. Being a big Guilty Gear fan, I'm pretty excited.

This is a new fighting game from Toshimichi Mori, whose past work as far as I know has been limited to working on a few of the Guilty Gear games. He's now like... lead everything for this one. I think lead artist and lead designer. Anyway, this is another 2D fighter very much in the vein of GG, though they say it focuses less on knockdown/wakeup mechanics ("okizemi", or getting ready to kick the crap out of somebody as they get up from the ground) and you can get up in a variety of different ways, more like a 3D fighter, thereby making the game focus much more on standing attacks and going toe-to-toe with the enemy.

It's absolutely jaw-droppingly beautiful in HD, and much to my great excitement, features music composed by the always amazing Daisuke Ishiwatari, the driving force behind GG and also the composer of its many fantastic instrumental metal tunes. Looks like he and the guy who did some of the stuff on Isuka are working on the soundtrack together, and while I'm not familiar with the other guy, everything I've heard on the soundtrack so far is great! Even if you aren't a metal fan you should give some of this stuff a listen, because the performances are great and there's a lot of variety in the influences used. Most of it is really melodic and catchy, too.

The US version of the soundtrack is at 42 tracks over 2 discs. You can get it here as part of this big Limited Edition pack they're selling online at Gamestop, which includes soundtrack, game, art book, and some sort of technique demonstration video. Unfortunately, Gamestop seems to have run out of art books as people's accounts now frequently say "backorder" for that portion of the order. Aksys (US publisher) has acknowledged it, so hopefully it won't be a problem. Hopefully.

I'm going to attempt to make this the fighting game that I finally get good at. I know it won't be, but I'm hoping anyway. It's just so... pretty. PRETTY. And it retains the utter goofiness that made GG so lovable. Some have compared it to Darkstalkers, and it does have that vibe at times.

Japanese trailer, E3 09 - HD
Gameplay - HD
More pretty gameplay - HD
Nice interview with Mori - HD

Aaand... this trailer makes me tingle.

If you want some music, YouTube is loaded with it. I love this stuff.

This one gets more energetic about a minute in.
A little jazzy touch never hurt anybody!
Some nice orchestral touches.
This song is sexy.

Post by **Shuu** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 6:52 am

Ah, so excited about this game! I read that it's for arcade, too?

I wonder if there's a chance for a PSP version.

I loved everything about the Guilty Gear series besides Isuka (argh, 4-player...was not fun), and seeing something new that still has the charm of GG is just....love. Hee.

Thanks for the links! I only saw little screenshots before, that last trailer was epic. Pretty pretty music, too. : D

Post by **Deques** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 7:23 am

Shuu wrote:I wonder if there's a chance for a PSP version.

Let's hope that. I dont have ps3 or xbox360

Post by **Quemaqua** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 7:37 am

I'd say I wouldn't count on it, but after picking up Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus for PSP just today... hell. That's an unbelievable port to a handheld. It's got basically everything the PS2 version has, and it plays beautifully, quick load times and all. Obviously there'd be a bigger step down in graphics from PS3 to PSP with BlazBlue rather than PS2 to PSP, but still, with as excellent a port as GGXXACP is, there might be some hope. So you never know. The port of #Reload which came prior was also pretty decent, but ACP is an even bigger step up in nearly every regard.

Post by **Tekka** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 11:02 am

This looks nice, I want to play it.

The similarities to Guilty Gear are quite apparent, that's wonderful. From those screenshots alone I can see lookalikes for Ky, Potemkin, Justice (sort of), and Zato-1.

Nice.

Post by **Shuu** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 12:53 pm

You missed Bridget (Noel), Tekka. : P

The first 2 characters (Ragna and Jin) from the last trailer share a similar color scheme to Sol and Ky, in a way. Haha~

I haven't tried Accent Core Plus (I should...soon, been hearing too many good things about it :'D), but XX#Reload is permanently on my PSP. Looove that game, plays so smoothly like the PS2 and arcade versions. If they can port BlazBlue as well, then...sweeeet.

Post by **Tekka** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 1:10 pm

Shuu wrote:You missed Bridget (Noel), Tekka. : P

Nooo nooo! I want it to actually be a girl this time!

Post by **Quemaqua** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 2:18 pm

Haha, I was going to say, Noel is actually a girl. And the characters, while a little similar in design at times, do seem to play very differently from the GG roster.

Watching Litchi amazes me. Big boob jokes aside, the fluidity of her combat style blows my mind. Watch this in HD. Seriously, it blows my mind. So fast and fluid.

Supposedly the game has actually been out in arcades in the US for a while now, so if you have a local place you can give it a spin before the game ships. I don't get out to arcades much and just moved to a new area, so I don't know of anything nearby. I'm having trouble waiting, though...

Post by **Shuu** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 4:51 am

Haha, Noel IS a girl. :'D

Thanks for the info, Quemaqua! I'll be visiting the arcades next week to check.
For some reason I feel that "The Wheel of Fate is turning, ACTION!" and "FINISH" lacks...power. They're pretty dead compared to Guilty Gear's, but that might be just me. : <

Post by **Quemaqua** » Sat Jun 20, 2009 1:02 am

I've heard that complaint a bunch, but it doesn't make a great deal of sense to me. I was never that enthralled with GG's announcer guy, either. Were it me, I'd have done it in a demonic, pitch-shifted death metal voice.

Post by **Tekka** » Sat Jun 20, 2009 8:16 am

It's the Rebel 1, Rebel 2 that gets me... Why Rebel? Of all the words in the English language what makes that one so appropriate as a replacement for "Round" or "Match"?

Post by **Quemaqua** » Sat Jun 20, 2009 6:58 pm

The Japanese seem to love doing that. A bunch of fighting games have done similar things, and anime shows do it all the time replacing the word "episode". Who knows. The Aksys Games, the US publishers, said something about it making sense in terms of the story, but really, I can't see it being a big deal to me either way. They could say "Naked Monkey is Bouncing! Ice Cream One! BAZOOKA!" and I doubt it'd make a lick of difference to the game in the end.

Post by **Quemaqua** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 7:36 am

Holy crap this game kicks my ass. I AM IN LOVE.

Post by **Tekka** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 10:33 pm

I am probably never going to get to play it. Or at least not for a long long time. By that time they will probably have released Super Turbo Blazblue XX Alpha Plus Core Accent Hyper Fighting, to fix all the balance issues and screwed with the movesets of the characters.

At least that way I won't have to relearn how to play my favourite characters three times. Bloody Testament.

Post by **Duran** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 7:39 pm

I saw this at Anime Expo! I never got to play it though, mainly because all the machines were crowded.