Over the years Blazblue has taken up the position of the hardcore alternative to Capcoms Street Fighter IV. Most of the characters require hours of dedication to get to grips with and the crazy plot that includes time travel, magic, science, civil wars and alternate worlds can baffle anyone. Now the series is back with the extended third chapter of the story.
Chronophantasma
takes place after the first two games and follows the characters as they move
to the ruins of Ikaruga in search of the next magical McGuffin. We aren’t going
to try and some up what’s happened so far or what's next as it’ll only confuse
everyone. Just know that bad things are going to happen and some people want it
to and others don’t. There is of course a puppet master behind the scenes as
well trying to put everything into place.
This
isn’t an easy game to get into for newcomers to the series. There’s a ton of
things to take in and trying to tie up the story will take a serious
investment. There’s a helpful ‘Teach Me Miss Litchi’ section which recaps the
lore and events but the handy summation of the first two games from vampire
Rachel Alucard will set you up nicely.
The game
comes jam packed with different game modes and there’s almost limitless hours
that can be put into it. Aside from the Arcade and survival modes there is
Abyss mode which has your character working their way through ever increasingly
difficult maps containing opponents set at different computer AI levels. There
is also the Blazblue version of score attack which pits you against some of the
hardest encounters known to man for bragging rights and a host of other things.
There’s even a manga to get through called Remix Heart which follows Mai
Natsume at the military academy.
The story
mode continues in the style of the vanilla version of Chronophantasma with
three main branches that need to be completed with characters aligned to
different factions in each. There are also sections featuring the new
characters which came as DLC in the last version of the game. There is still
too much talking and not enough fighting to start but once it gets going it’s a
good tale and enjoyable, especially for fans of the series. The wealth of
training modes also return with everything you need to teach you the basic
mechanics and then take you into ridiculous depth with your chosen
characters.
The
original cast have been rebalanced and in some cases retooled with moves and
special moves and this is still a bone of contention for some fans. Jin is the
most notably different with the range and speed of certain moves changed and
the removal of his mass-hitting spam everything quickly with the sword move
(much to the relief of everyone who uses other characters). Things soon begin
to click again but we got absolutely hammered just diving into arcade mode and
then wondering why nothing was working.
The
previously new characters are now joined by those available as downloadable
content to give an impressive cast of fighters. The previous version of the
game was hardly light on content and now it is bursting at the seams.
The game
holds true with its previous changes such as the implementation of the
'Overdrive' meter which replaces the ‘Gold Burst’ move. When activated this it
allows for more damaging distortion drive techniques as well as stopping the
match timer. The lower your health, the longer the effect lasts. Guards have
also been changed but the drive is still the new big thing and players will
have to drastically change their game plan in close matches.
The main
thing is that after you get to grips with the changes everything flows as
beautifully as before. This is still one of the most spectacularly intense
fighting games on the market and this version of the game is a very strong
showing in an ever increasingly crowded genre.
Overall,
Blazblue Chronophantasma Extend is a must for anyone who is into their fighting
games and this is right up there with anything in the genre. Fans will be
desperate to see the new additions to the story but anyone who’s up for a
challenge will appreciate what the game has to offer as well. It may not be the
easiest title to get into but once you do there is little else out there as rewarding
or satisfying.
Overall 9/10
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