So, who's getting this baby?
Also, this is the first time I've ever heard of a game actually coming out with a 2CD OST included!! Sure, a ton of games include a single CD soundtrack which I find important and is always appreciated (thanks Atlus   but here they're giving us the royal 2 CD treatment!!

-avatar!

2-D fighting lives...

its very nice indeed. This soundtrack actually has a whole 7 songs over the Japanese release. Aksys is quickly turning into an Atlus of Arc System Works.

Blazblue is looking pretty damn good but Im kind of disappointed that I can pin down hey, that guy reminds me of Sol, that guy is Kiske and that guy Potemkin. Granted they probably dont play like the respective character they resemble but it still disappoints me. Let Guilty Gear be Guilty Gear and if Sega/Sammy holdings force you to leave it behind then forge forward with at the very least unique character designs.

The low amount of characters is also something of contention to me. I know I am spoiled, I play too much KoF and can use effectively like 90% of the roster. Having around 10 characters can be a bummer. Few fighting games can pull off a small roster so hopefully this is one of them. Mark of the Wolves is probably the best example I can think of for a great game with low amounts of characters.

So anyone getting the Blazblue Stick??

This thread needs the obligatory link to the luscious-looking Limited Edition packaging.  Don't forget that preordering online via Gamestop nets you that exclusive art book, too!

As for the game itself, it does look mad slick, but I was never truly enamored with Guilty Gear's style of gameplay - of which I understand BlazBlue borrows heavily upon.  I'll be picking it up anyway, but truthfully, I'm far more excited for King of Fighters XII.

I'll pass on the joystick.  I've spent way too much on those SFIV Tournament Edition ones already. ;p

Never got around to actually playing Guilty Gear before, so this will be something new. The soundtrack itself justifies the boost - Catus Carnival is already my favorite tune of 2009.

P.S. Until SNK retcons Ash Crimson out of conceptual existence, KoF can bite me.

You know that'll never happen SP. Falcoon lurves him some Ash Crimson. Hes the new main character .

I'm more excited for KoF XII as well. The fact that Mature is still alive is absolutely dumbfounding. There she is, sans eye, Rugal style. The biggest thing that pisses me off right now is a lack of Mai. They finally add Andy back in then she is mysteriously gone. Ugh.

Oh well this'll be a good fighting game summer anywho. I can't wait to finish my custom stick.

I'm grabbing this one *edit* for the PS3 *end edit*, mostly for the packaging. 0_o

I still have to get a decent enough fighting stick.

I do hope you pick it up on PS3. I look forward to continually battling you. You are, of course, my online archnemesis, but one that is much better than me!

It's my intent to get the PS3 version, since I use the FightStick on it more.

That, and the packaging's colors look classier on the PS-Triple. ;)

Just a heads up that Aksysgames launched their official English BlazBlue site this week.  I'm admittedly getting excited for the game; I got a chance to play it in the arcades the other day, and there's some fun to be had.  Of course, I knew very little of the more intricate mechanics, so my experience surmounted to nothing more than button mashing and off-the-cuff motion moves that I thought might work.  (I tried out Noel, Taokaka, then Ragna -- I must've accidentally stumbled upon Ragna's ultimate "Astral" move, and it was pretty badass.)  But you get the sense that this is indeed a very play-on-offense type of fighting game; defense appears to be relegated to a bare minimum, since both characters are almost always on the attack.  It's frenetic, to say the least.

Just a reminder that this is BlazBlue week for the U.S.  It's curious how they're spacing out the limited edition Premium Pack and the normal edition by almost a full month.

IGN's review is in: 9.4  Those playing the just-released Japanese version and pre-release copies all appear to be in complete concurrence: the netcode is superb.  Miles ahead of SFIV's infrastructure, with actual lobbies, Spectator mode and save replays, it's looking like it'll at least be on par with SSFII HD Remix's solid GGPO coding. 

That said, while I'll be be picking up the game this week, regrettably, it's looking like I'm going to be without home internet access for a while..... which means I won't be able to go up against you fightin' peeps just yet. :(

Yay! That means I'll get to practice a bit!

Just picked up my copy.  I love those rare occasions where the game actually arrives ON the release date and not the shipping date. :)

Still at work, so impressions are forthcoming.  In the meantime, I couldn't resist taking some shots of the lovely Limited Edition packaging.  It certainly livens up my work desk:

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/2875/blazblue001.jpg
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/2329/blazblue002.jpg
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/6235/blazblue003.jpg

I likely should have received my copy today, but GS and my bank botched my billing information again despite assuring me it was cleared up after the fiasco with my Chrono Trigger DS preorder. One testy phone call later and my order has been upgraded to 'Pending', a hopeful sign. If I don't get the bonus materials I specifically ordered it in this fashion to obtain, though...I'll fly out to their headquarters just to bite them.

How's the artbook, to those who have it?

wtb tracklist for the Limited Edition +19 track soundtrack.  I'm thinking it's the two Japanese ones (Original + Consumer Edition) just repackaged but the numbers don't exactly match up per disc so I don't know what they did.

My zeal in wanting to play the game immediately without waiting for the online order accosted me the art book.  Ah, well..... I'm curious to hear about it too.

I've yet to crack open the soundtrack, but VGMdb does have the track listing up.  From the looks of it, it seems it's the entirety of the Japanese Original Soundtrack, along with just a select few songs from the Consumer Edition.  These include:

Altar (Story Mode BGM)
Bright (Console Credits 1)
Curse (Story Mode BGM)
Highlander (Story Mode BGM)
Impulse (Astral Heat Music)
Rimelight (Story Mode BGM)

In addition to the six DJ Oh No Remixes, there does appear to be one new track, titled "Glow-Up (Psych-Up Music)".

Oh thanks.  This wasn't up yesterday when I came home with the OST.

The artbook is nice! Not amazing... but nice. It's large, soft-cover, and about 30 pages. Includes moves, background, and pics of every character (at least I think every character). Overall, it's not something I would purchase, but as a freebie, it's fine. The only game artbooks I really like are the World of Warcraft books. Those are hardcover, large, and over 100 pages of awesome art Anyway, I'm keen to hear people's impressions of the music and game.

cheers,

-avatar!

IGN said: "...All you need to know is that this has become one of my favorite fighters of all time and the level of polish and detail this 2D wonder has is amazing. The character designs are excellent, the fighting mechanics are top-notch..."

They gave it an overall of 9.4

2D Lives!

Hey Angela,
How is that Street Fighter IV Tournament FightStick holding up since you bought it way back at the beginning?  Is it durable or is it falling apart?  I know that you said the control pads were not very good.

The FightPads have been utter crap in my experience (and I've also heard stories of the standard FightSticks breaking down on a frequent basis), but my TE FightSticks are still going strong.  One can't imagine a whole lot to go wrong with Sanwa builds, but I can at least rest easy with the knowledge that the FightStick is an easy enough joystick to mod/replace parts with, should it ever come to that.

I've been seeing the TE stick becoming more readily available these days; most Gamestop stores here in NYC appear to have at least one or two on hand.  If you're a serious fighter, I say go for it.  Even if you're not, it's still a terrific joystick on its own merits -- it's just awesome if you're into the whole MAME scene.

If the CAVE shmups were ported to the PS3 (or even brought stateside to the 360), I'd pick up a serious stick in a heartbeat.

That would be too awesome...
However, I suspect if anything they might release some on Xbox Live or something like that. Meh, that's not so cool. I want to see a tangible disk full of CAVE games that we've been missing all this time!

cheers,

-avatar!

My copy finally came today! And the Bonus Disk doesn't work at all! Yayyy-no, BOO.

So I've been tinkering with Training Mode to try and get the hang of things. Ragna isn't as intuitive as you'd expect the main character of a fighter to be, and Litchi is downright arcane. If I've locked onto anybody, it's Taokaka - she's hilarious, she has the speed I look for, and once I get the hang of diving and dive-canceling effectively, well...'Imma kick the crap out of you!'*

I have a vacation coming up in a little over a week, so in lieu of MvC2, maybe I'll try a bit of online-playing with this. Fingers crossed.

*That's one of her moves, honest.

Funny, I wouldn't have pegged you as a shmup gamer, avatar.  In fact, I wouldn't have pegged you for a current-gen gamer, period.  Do you own a 360?

Got to put in some BlazBlue play time.  First, it's gotta be said: this is undoubtedly one of the slickest, most beautiful 2D games my eyes have ever laid witness to.  The graphics look downright SICK, where EVERY SINGLE SHOT in the game looks like a gorgeous piece of art. Hell, even the menus let off an undeniably slick vibe in its high-def suit.  If I didn't already own one, this would be THE GAME that would sell me on a HDTV. 

Of course, I'm currently maining Noel, and I'm now getting a better understanding of the gameplay intricacies.  I'm still wrapping my head around things like Rapid Cancels and Barrier Blocking, but at least I'm getting the general flow of combat and juggling down. 

As I'm still offline, I think I'm going to enjoy the expansive Story Mode for a while.  It looks to be extremely well integrated for a fighting game, with each player's quest forming up into a cohesive whole to the overarching plot and various character motives.  Plus, it's all going toward unlocking brand new special moves and expanding the wonderful Gallery collection.

Gametrailers.com has their most excellent review up, by the way:

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/revie … 4?type=mov

Thanks for the opinion of the TE FightStick.

I read that Amazon is restocking the TE Fight Stick, so I put a pre-order in.  I haven't checked any Gamestops in Manhattan.  The ones near my place have none.

Angela,

Just a warning. 100% Complete for a character in story mode does not earn you Astral Finishes. You have to beat Arcade mode with that character. Trust me. I 100% completed Arakune and was not rewarded with an Astral Finish (it unlocks an interview with the voice actor in Japan). The only way to unlock Astral Finishes, that I've discovered, is beating Arcade mode with the character.

I picked up a SF IV TE Joystick from a Gamestop.  It's good.  I'm not fond of the square gate, but it is still much better than that standard joysticks out there.

Thanks for heads-up, Herr Don.  (See what I did there?)  Looks like I'll be participating in Arcade and Story modes in equal measure. 

And Sonic, Taokaka is fast becoming my second favorite, if just for her dynamic personality.  "Here I come, boobie lady!!"

'Grats on the purchase!  Yeah, it took me a good while to get used to the square gate -- but not nearly as much as the feather-touch of the Sanwa buttons.  Superior parts or no, I was American-bred on the HAPPs during my youth, so I tend to perform better on those joysticks.  I'm considering ordering some replacement parts to see how well those work for me.

In any case, I'll let you get accustomed with your new toy, Stephen.  Once I get back online, we can have another go at SSFII HD Remix.  No excuses this time! ;)

Dude!!  Picking mine up today!  For some reason I just couldn't bring myself to play Blazblue without an actual stick.  Found a Gamestop near me that had one (the last one in Vegas!) and am trading in a buttload of games to get it.  Once I get accustomed to it, it's on. 

For me, the buttons are excellent and sensitive.  When I press the buttons, I see it on the screen.  That was not the case with other joysticks, particularly Hori's Fighting Stick EX2.  The square gate, however, is awkward for me only because I'm accustomed to making the joystick travel along an octagonal gate to make my quarter-circle motions.  Whenever I use joystick on a square gate, I am hitting the gate's corners when trying to do the quarter-circle motions.  So, I have to get used to moving the joystick without hitting the corners. 

The joystick is sturdy enough for me to sake it to get out of Jin's freezing attacks.

Yeah, the next go around on SSFII HD Remix or BlazBlue against you should go more smoothly.  Yes, you're right that I can't blame the joystick anymore now that I have a good one.

Well, actually I don't own a 360
However, I think I most likely shall some day. As for shoot-em-ups, I've always enjoyed those. They're not my fav, but hey it's fun to blow things up now and then! My current favorite has to be Ikaruga, although that game is extremely hard. Somehow I gather that the CAVE games are just as hard if not harder, but they look like fun!

cheers,

-avatar!

This.  The square gate has got to go.  I figured to get used to the stick I'd throw down some Soul Calibur IV, but even then I'm not as good as when I used a regular controller.  Luckily, there's numerous tutorials on how to switch out the square gate. 

The buttons and everything else can stay though.

Alright, this thread sold on me BlazBlue. I just picked it up. I barely played Guilty Gear XX, so this should be interesting. My PSN handle is Nekobo1.

I got to meet and interview Guilty Gear creator Daisuke Ishiwatari and BlazBlue director Toshimichi Mori at Anime Expo this past weekend. I asked Ishiwatari which of his characters would he cosplay as...and he said Axl. I was totally expecting Sol Badguy, haha. Mori said he was influenced by Trigun, which probably explains why Ragna wears a red coat and has a huge bounty on his head.

Oh, so you're not fond of the square gate either?

A big reason I bought this joystick is because I heard that they made the casing easy to open so that the stick and buttons can be switched out.

So, are you planning to open up your stick to switch out the gate?

Some good matches Angela!  It should be apparent that I don't know what I'm doing. lol  Still waiting for my octogonal gate.  Looks like Noel is your favourite so far, eh?  I can see why.  It was fairly simple to do some good combos.

The only reason I won with Iron Tank-man-thingy is because he hits so hard.