Story & Playability

This is a Review of BlazBlue Calamity Trigger ( PSP ) :

Story Introduction :
Roughly about 90 years ago , a calamity had struck the planet. A creature , dubbed the Black Beast , appeared out of thin air and wrecked havoc upon the world , killing more than half of the population that exists within it as well as releasing seithr , a substance toxic to living organisms. When all hope appears to be lost , a group of heroes appeared , slaying the vile beast after teaching humans magic , who had turned it into Armagus by fusing it with technology.
Many years later , the Novus Orbis Librarium became a form of super-power in the world , governing the usage of Arnagus but this stirred fear and dislike amongst the citizens. Dissatisfication of the NOL turned into warfare but the NOL reigned supreme.
A few more years later , a young boy called Ragna lost his siblings , the only relatives he have left , along with their home , a church , to a maniacal laughter and voice....
Years later , he was branded a rebel for destroying multiple NOL branches and his power was so significant that even the NOL does not take him lightly. He also possess a mysterious Armagus called the Azure Grimoire , or also known as BlazBlue.
( Quite lengthy...I tried to summarise it but I guess it didn't turn out too well )

Terminology :

Armagus : As stated in the introduction , Armagus is the combination of both Magic and technology.

Seithr : Despite being toxic to humans ( Which causes most humans to live in higher altitudes as Seithr are usually highly concentrated on the ground ) , this is required to cast Magic. For some reason , even after the death of the Black Beast , it is currently as common as oxygen itself :O High concentrations of it may cause negative side effects but lower concentration is acceptable.

BlazBlue / Azure Grimoire : A mysterious Armagus which is claimed to be in the possession of Ragna the BloodEdge. It's power is both desired and feared by many.

NOL : Novus Orbis Librarium , also known as NOL for short. It is nick-named as Library by the people but the NOLs don't exactly like it :P

Nox Nyctores : Weapons that greatly enchances the fighting capabilities of a person , but in exchange , the person might become more emotionally unstable or even having some of their emotions sealed.

Vigilantes : Their essentially people who hunts criminals for money. They work closely with the NOL for a living but their not exactly quite associated with them.

Sector 7 : An underground organisation that encourages the usage of pure science , thus , they are against the ideals of the NOL. Their definitely an organisation that even the NOL would not mess with just for the fun of it.

( Note that the amount of Terminology in BlazBlue is overwhelming , I just listed the required information )

Character Sypnosis : ( Playable Characters )

( The listing might be too long so you might want to skip to the Overall sector or just read in the characters ) (your interested in , it's recommended you read at least Ragna , Jin , Noel , Rachel and maybe V-13 )

Ragna the BloodEdge :
Ragna , a man who had lost everything , his siblings and his home when he was a child to the manical laughter that took everything away from him. The memories of his past still haunts him but currently , he is destroying multiple NOL Branches across the world of BlazBlue but in this particular city , things had turned out quite differently. He is said to be in possession of the Azure Grimoire and his status caused him to draw conflict like a magnet.

Personality :
His cynical , foul-mouthed and definitely a bit hot-tempered. But his not ill-natured and his pretty much a big softie deep down , which he somewhat hates himself for. Despite his harsh words , he seems to care a lot about those he grew close to.

Noel Vermillion :
Noel Vermillion , a graduate from the Academy ( A school for those who intends to be NOL soldiers ) and she was also once a fellow schoolmate of Jin. Now , she is a Lieutenant given a mission to find and bring back Major Kisagari Jin who had abandoned his post suddenly.

Personality :
Noel tries her best in doing her job but despite being a soldier , she's quite prone to tears. She can get fairly cute at times and she seem to be fond of...well , cute things. Oh yeah , just a side note but...she's fairly touchy about her chest size.

Kisagari Jin :
An excellent graduate from the Academy. He was adopted by the Kisagari family after being seperated from his brother Ragna and became a Major in NOL. He became cruel , selfish and possessive , killing without blinking an eye in the wars that NOL faced , climbing to his position due to his actions. However , when he heard the name "Ragna" , he quickly rushed towards his rumored location with Noel upon his tail.

Personality :
He is...well , selfish , cruel , possessive and annoyingly cocky. He is also relatively mentally unbalanced and can strike without hestitation. However , his intentions and mind-set isn't as evil as it first appears to be.

Rachel Alucard :
A mysterious girl whom appears to be of a tender age but she is in fact a ( Rather old ) Vampire of the noble Alucard family and she is the current head for the family. She have a butler , two cats and likes to drink te- Oh wait , nevermind about that...
In the light of recent events , Rachel became an observer , sitting on the hindsight and observing the events and she seems to be the only one aware of what is really going on.

Personality :
Rachel Alucard seems to enjoy...teasing people , especially Ragna , whom she seems to be fond of. Though she may appear as a neutral observer who aids no one nor have any goals in mind , she does seem to give hints to some of the other characters. The only one who can get away unscathed after insulting her is Ragna.

Taokaka :
An energetic cat-girl whom have her face covered by a one-piece clothing that she wears. Taokaka was given a mission by her village elder to capture "Ragnya / Rawrgna" and "bring lots of money back to the village". She then sets off to find this "Ragnya" as a vigilante. She is also somewhat close with Litchi.

Personality :
She's a bit...well , air-headed. She forgets the most important of things almost instaneously and she is a bit gluttonous. She also have the tendency to call the people she meets by the nicknames she made up as well.

Litchi Faye-Ling :
A doctor of Orient Town. She came to live there as she was searching for Arakune and she also started to grow close to the Kaka Clan ( Taokaka's tribe ) in the City.

Personality :
As expected of a doctor , she's probably what you call the "motherly" type of personality. However , she is quite strict and get rather frightening is her patient refuses to listen to her instructions. She also seems to be extremely devoted to Arakune , the man whom she was looking for.

Arakune :
A repulsive existence that had drowned entirely in his obsession for power. He moves about , consuming living beings along his way and currently , his being drawn by the power of the Azure.

Personality :
...Well , you can hardly tell what his saying anyway. He likes to laugh like a maniac...A LOT. His probably what one would call a "twisted" personality....

Shishigami Bang :
A hot-blooded ninja who strongly believes in being a champion of justice whom was the survivor of the Ikaruga War , of which both his master and homeland was wiped out by the NOL. He also seems to have a crush on Litchi.

Personality :
Well , his a bit thick-skulled , likes to do stunts and speeches like those Champion of Justice parodies in most Japanese games and likes to overturn evil in it's face. His pretty much the main comic relief in the game to be honest.

Carl Clover :
A young boy who is also a vigilante in search of Ragna , to find a possible cure for his "sister" , which is actually a mechanic maid-like Nox Nyctores following him about. He was also a student from the Academy and was once classmate with Noel and her friends.

Personality :
Whether his insane or whether that's really his sister , I have no idea. However , his quite possessive of this sister of his and will get aggressive if anyone shows signs of attacking or taking away his sister. His also somewhat mentally unstable at times but usually , he appears to be a sweet and well-mannered boy.

Tager :
An over-sized man who have red skin , along with his powers , gave him the nickname "The Red Devil of Sector 7." As his title had indicated , he works for Sector 7 under the orders of Kokonoe.

Personality :
Despite his intimadating and aggressive appearance , his actually quite rational and does not like to get into unneccessary conflicts. His personality is a bit mechanic but he is still quite human to a certain extent. He also places great faith and trust in Kokonoe.

Haku-men :
One of the legendary Six Heroes who had slain the Black Beast. He have a fairly mysterious aura about him and he uses his sword to cut down any evil in his way.

Personality :
At first glance , he appears to be without a goal and merely stands to cut down anything he deems as evil without taking note of their goals or wants. Definitely a cool character , his even cooler when you find out more about him.

V-13 / Nu :
A strange cyborg girl who usually appears near the Cauldron of the NOL branch where the story takes place. She shares a strange resemblance with Saya and she seems to have a purpose...with Ragna in it...

Personality :
Nu have two personalities. That of a cold , ruthless cybord and the other of a possessive , clingy and slightly repulsive girl when she's near Ragna. She's one of the antagonists so I don't think i can say too much about her.

Overall :
BlazBlue have an excellent storyline. It's not a RPG and yet , it have a storyline standard that matches that even of a RPG. Though I did say that BlazBlue have an overwhelming amount of Terminology , their fairly easy to remember since their repeated once in a while and there are bonus contents in helping the player understand the world of BlazBlue more.
Plot twists definitely does exist in this game , depending on how you play it. The character's history , background and the story's purpose and truth are all in fragments in various character's storyline so you have to play through the Story Mode again and again to understand everything. The truth that slowly unveils before your eyes definitely does send a impact and at first glance , the story of the various characters , like in most fighter games , is fairly random but their actually all connected. It's something like a jig-saw puzzle , you have to collect the neccessary pieces and slowly put them together and you will feel the refreshment of understanding something even further and you will feel curious for more.
The interesting fact to note is that a fact of a certain character might not be neccessarily be stored solely in his or her storyline as more information is distributed across the various story routes. In the Story Mode , depending on your choices , you might also end up with various story routes and endings. Getting a 100% for each character is a bit of a labour , but the storyline makes it all worth the effort.
Generally , the storyline and characters might seem fairly average AT FIRST , but over time , as you play through the Story Mode , you will come to understand more about the characters and the world of BlazBlue and how all the characters seem to have some sort of connection with each other one way or the other. It is also interesting to see that the playable characters aren't the only vital characters in the storyline so this fighting game had pretty much delivered a roundhouse kick in the faces of those developers who thinks that fighting games only requires gameplay and not a storyline.
Another thing to note is , this game have non-canon storylines , their something like joke storylines which i will elaborate on in the Presentation Sector.

Rating: 9

Graphics

Artwork Review :
The design of the character , is , overall , extremely...cool :O
Well , sometimes they might lead to misleading impressions as well. I mean , if you look at Jin , you would've never guessed his a sick , possessive , selfish , arrogant and somewhat perverted psychopath who grows unbalanced at the sight of his brother.
Though I am quite annoyed with Taokaka's design , her face was kept in the shadows through out the ENTIRE GAME and the ridiculous thing is , her underwear flashes out during combat and certain conversation scenes but NOT her face. What...the...hell?

Graphics Review :
This is a 2D fighter but I really like the sprites. It's not as...well , zoomed in and up-close as other 2D fighters like Street Fighter where you can see every pack of the muscle but is somewhat similar to those old-school fighters or RPGs , but their definitely cool that's for sure.
As for the combat graphics , the move-sets are definitely pretty cool , but their not flashy enough in my opinion. Especially some of the Astral Finish ( Finishing moves ) and Distortion Finish ( Specials ) , I was expecting something MUCH cooler.

Animation Sequences :
There are occasional animated sequences and to be honest , their pretty much at the levels of Shakugan no Shana and To Aru Majutsu no Index...but their pretty short :(

Rating: 8

Sound

Music Review :
BlazBlue is mainly compromised of metal music and their REALLY good. There are themes for every playable character and they definitely provide an accurate impression of the character's personality or the vs theme of certain characters does bring out a unique feeling to it. Such as the theme of Jin vs Noel , where the opening have an "Imperial" feel to it as their both soldiers of NOL. ( Well , the song IS called Imperial Code after all )
So it is notable that the developers had taken the character's background and personality into account before composing the music.

List of the Music of BlazBlue :

Calamity Trigger ( Arcade Opening )

Nocturne ( Title Screen )

Blue Beating ( Character Selection )

VS ( Versus )

Challenger ( Challenger Theme )

Bright ( Console Credits )

Rimelight ( BGM )

The Road to Hope ( Arcade Credits )

Limited Again ( Arcade Credits )

Continue ( Continue? Theme )

Game Over ( Game Over Theme...wait , why am I stating the obvious? =.= )

Winner ( Winning Theme...tch )

Glow-Up ( Psych Up Theme )

Impulse ( Astral Heat Theme )

Under Heaven Destruction ( Ragna VS Jin )

Imperial Code ( Noel VS Jin )

Weak Executioner ( Litchi VS Arakune )

White Requiem ( Ragna VS Rachel )

Rebellion ( Ragna )

Lust Sin ( Jin )

Bullet Dance ( Noel )

Queen of Rose ( Rachel )

Catus Carnival ( Taokaka )

Motor Head ( Tager )

Oriental Flower ( Litchi )

Thin Red Line ( Arakune )

Gale ( Bang )

Marionnete Purple ( Carl )

Susanoo ( Haku-men )

Awakening the Chaos ( V-13 / Nu )

Black Onslaughter ( Ragna )

Blood Pain ( Mirror Match Theme )

Open the Gate ( Gate Opening Theme )

Altar ( BGM )

Highlander ( BGM )

Curse ( BGM )

Omae no Tettsui Kugi wo Ute! ( Bang , Vocal Theme )

Love so Blue ( Noel , Vocal Theme )

Seiyu : ( Japanese Voice Actor Only )
Kakihara Tetsuya plays Ragna , he had also taken the roles of Natsu from Fairy Tail and Shing from Tales of Heart ( Game )
Rachel is voiced by Ueda Kana...who had played...played...Tohsaka Rin of Fate Stay Night!? :O She also plays Yagami Hayate from Magical Girl Lyrical.
Well , either way , the Seiyus are a combination of veterans and newcomers alike.
Just as a side note...the English voice actors are pretty good , even for a sub hater. Though I don't think the voice actor for Jin ( English ) is quite right. He does sound arrogant but the sick and possessive feeling isn't there.

Rating: 9

Fun

This is a Review of BlazBlue Calamity Trigger ( PSP ) :

Well , this game certainly gave a nice kick in the face of those developers who thinks that fighting games only requires gameplay and nothing else. BlazBlue had quite perfectly balanced storyline , gameplay and music in one package which you can play on the screen :D
As I had said in the story section , the ENTIRE story is like a jigsaw puzzle , you will have to gather the pieces and put them together to get the picture of what's going on. The story may appear to be non-linear per character story but their actually indirectly connected , in contrary to typical fighter games.
Well...moving on...

Overall ( Gameplay ) :

Age Recommendation : 13+

Genre : 2D Fighting

Gameplay :
Well , after talking so much about storylines and what not...It'll be ridiculous if I don't mention the gameplay.
The game have multiple attacks and the good thing is , you don't have to press like 3-4 buttons at once just to execute something.

Controls :
For directional controls , by default , you will use the direction keys.
The pad will be used for special attacks.
Triangle ( B Attack , Medium Attack ) , Square ( A Attack , Weak Attack ) , O ( C Attack , Strong Attack ) and X ( Z , Strong Attck )
( Oh , this isn't the Xbox version review by the way , but you can still rely on the other parts of this review )
Pressing R1 allows you to grab and L1 allows you to taunt...you get the idea. The controls is some what unique so if your used to the directional pad , it'll take some time to get used to this.

Game Modes :

Story Mode :
Well , you can play up to 12 storylines of various characters ( The last two need to be unlocked ) and a single True Ending Storyline ( This one need to be unlocked as well ) . There is also a percentage in each character's option to show how much you completed as there are various routes in a single storyline. Luckily , there is a save function per sub-chapter. There is also a "Tip" sector in this game that allows you to learn more about BlazBlue Terminology in a humorous and chibi environment :D

Arcade Mode :
The classical mode in all fighter games. Fight across 10 stages with light storyline references...you get the idea. Interestingly , going through the Arcade Mode allows you to learn a bit more about the characters as well , note that the stages get harder and harder per stage.

Versus :
Self-explainatory , but this is one of the few modes which you can set Unlimited Mode.

Legion :
This is a bit of a Conquest-like mode. You start off with a single character in a small chart-like map and start to...well , defeat the enemies around you. Conquering a sphere allows you to gain the bonus in that sphere if there is one and allows you to recruit one of the characters in the sphere. There are a total of 10 rules in the game but their simple enough , your character will recover slowly per battle if any HP is lost but will recover even slower if there are a lot of team mates. So you need to use a bit of your wits and plenty of your skill in this one.

Score Attack :
Something like Survival...score-styled. Just try to get the highest score and survive...

Network : Play Ad-Hoc with your friends!!

Training :
I don't need to explain this now , do I? Either way , you can set the character's special bonuses and their HP levels etc. etc.

Other Modes :

Gallery : View collected images , short clips , songs and voice bank here.

Shop : After fighting battles and what not , you may gain points which can be used to purchase some in-game content , ranging from pictures to Astral Finishes.

Options : Self-explainatory , but you can set the voice from English to Japanese here and vice versa. You can also change the subs as well.

Notable Game Features :

Unlimited Mode : If you had purchased it , you can set Unlimited Mode by pressing L1 when choosing a character in certain Game Modes. This will greatly enchance their attacks , seithr recovery rate , damage , speed etc. etc. depending on the character. But it's generally about the improvement of damage , defence , siethr recovery and more effective attacks.

Distortion Finish : Their essentially super attacks you can execute once your Seithr bar has reached 50%.

Astral Finish : Other than Ragna and V-13 , you need to purchase the Astral Finish for everyone else. This is a Finisher attack that can be used in the last match , when your opponent's HP is at 20% and provided that the initial blow hits. Kinda flashy and all but useful if your enemy starts to run and block a lot , lots of players start to become pros when their stressed out :P

Character Diversity : Well , this is not exactly a gameplay feature but the thing to note is that all the characters have very significant differences in strengths and weaknesses. Such as Ragna being able to absorb life , Jin's ability to freeze enemies , Noel's ease of control , V-13's range capabilities , Tager's strength which exchanges for speed , Haku-men's great power in exchange for weaker Distortions and hard-to-execute combos and so on.

Overall ( Others ) :

Fan Service :
Well , there are occasional fan services once in a while. Or rather , their pretty rare. These things usually occur in a joke storyline.

Humor :
There is actually quite a bit of humor in this game , though it is mainly the case if you took the joke storyline route in the Story Mode of a character. Not all characters have a joke storyline but their pretty amusing once you had taken that route. Their not exactly ROFL-worthy but they'd still bring a smile upon your face...but meh , Noel's moe-ness ( cuteness ) is more than enough.

Trivia :
-A sequel , BlazBlue Continum Shift , is coming out in the first of July this year. Look forward to it , the storyline isn't gonna end as in the True Ending...this thing is gonna keep rolling!!
-There are sound dramas and radio dramas published for it.
-There is a game called BlazBlue : Battle X Battle , a chibi game I believe. Not to sure about it's content though.
- Apparently , there MIGHT be a patch for the PS3 and Xbox.

Reviewer Comment :
Thanks for reading...this must be my longest review yet....*wipes away sweat*
Anyway , it must be a drag to read till this point and I'd like to thank all my previous critics ( If they didn't criticise me in my face , I'd still be writing useless reviews =.= ) and those who liked and read my reviews :D

Rating: 9

Final Verdict

8.8333 (very good)

Reviewed by z827, May 07, 2010

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