It has been about ten years since BlazBlue was first released on consoles after a successful release in arcades on November 9, 2008. Since then the series received several updates (a la Street Fighter II) both in arcades and on consoles, all the while gaining a very dedicated fan base. At one point it was considered to be a spiritual successor to Arc System Works other major fighting game, Guilty Gear. BlazBlue was able to finally come out of Guilty Gear’s shadow after a new entry to the series was released after taking a brake for a couple of years. With countless updates and revisions under its belt, BlazBlue has finally gotten to the point where all fighting games eventually reach: the cross over game. So it would make sense that BlazeBlue would cross over with Guilty Gear since they are essentially have the same development teams, but that isn’t the case. Instead they decided to use another fighting game they developed, a fighting game developed by a well known dojin circle turned developer and characters from a popular internet show. They all joined in to form BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle.
Tag me in
Fatal four way dream match- As I mentioned earlier, in addition to the BlazBlue series being in the game, there are three other studios that have lent out their characters to join Cross Tag Battle. Those three are Atlus with Persona 4 Arena (which Arc System Works also developed), French Bread with Under Night In-Birth and Rooster Teeth with RWBY. Its really interesting to see these four franchises clash with each other for the first time, however this isn’t the first time that each of the studios interacted with each other. The story goes as such: as mentioned before Arc System Works and Atlus have worked together before with Persona 4 Arena and its follow up, Arena UltiMax. French Bread have worked with Arc System Works on Under Night In-Birth series. As for the connection with Rooster Teeth, ASW expressed interest in developing a fighting game based on RWBY.
New lobby system- One of the things I don’t like about playing fighting games online is the lobby system. For the most part its just a list of all the players waiting their turn to play the winner of the match. Most of the time you can’t even see the match or interact with the other waiting players. In Cross Tag Battle the lobby system is different as it lets you take control of an chibi avatar of one of the fighters and lets you choose the lobby you enter. Once inside the lobby, instead of a list, you see other chibi avatars either running around or standing on a pair of pods facing each other. This give a more visual representation of the lobby and in a way feels more like how arcades work in real life, Just walk up to an empty pod pair and wait for someone to enter the other pod. It also works the other way around: pick a pod that has someone on the other side already on it and get ready for battle. However getting a match started can take a while, more on that later. Other than that issue, Cross Tag Battle’s lobby system is one of the best ones I’ve seen in any fighting game.
Balancing act- One of the hardest things to do in any versus cross over fighting game is trying to keep everything balance. Think about it, you have two completely different franchises who have different gameplay mechanics and styles and its the host developer’s job to make sure one side doesn’t overpower the other. They also have to make sure that the guest franchise’s characters are compatible with the host developer’s fighting system. In Cross Tag Battle’s case, there are four different franchises that are coming together; three of them have completely different fighting systems while RWBY doesn’t officially have a fighting game. But somehow Arc System Works manages to make it work by simplifying the fighting system. There are two main attack buttons, a charge attack that has the tag partner come out and help with a combo, a button to tag characters out and an assist button. With this simplified system in place, the game has balance even with this diverse of characters. Speaking of diverse characters….
Someone for everyone- Cross Tag Battle has one of the more unique rosters that I’ve seen in a cross over fighting game. Each franchise has their own unique fighters that make them stand out and vastly different from each other. This means that from beginner to pro, there is a character for every type of person. It also give fans of each franchise to check out each others characters, which could lead them to becoming new fans of that franchise.
Tactics mode very helpful- Out of all of the developers who make fighting games, Arc System Works seems to have the best training mode across all of their games. Instead of just dropping players in a training arena and having them learn combos on their own, Arc System Works fighters teach the players basics of the game in a way that simple for players to learn. `Cross Tag Battle continues this tradition with its Tactics mode. Here, just like in previous ASW fighters, players learn the basics of the new system, can learn how to pull off characters’ combos and special moves and puts players in various situations that will have then put into practice what they have learned.
Lousy partner
DLC controversy- There isn’t that much for me to complain about Cross Tag Battle, however it would be wrong for me to not mention some of the controversy that, in fact, other fighting games have experienced as well. And that controversy is DLC characters. Now for the most part, having DLC characters isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however it can be a bad thing if developers implement it incorrectly. Take for example Street Fighter X Tekken. While Capcom did announce that there would be DLC for the game, it was discovered that the characters set aside for DLC were already on the disc. This angered players as if they wanted to play this a complete roster they would have to pay additional money on top of the $60 they already paid for the game. While a fun game, due to a massive backlash from the community, SFXT didn’t last that long. Now the controversy with Cross Tag Battle is as severe as SFXT, but it is bad just the same. Once Arc System Works announced their roster for the game, which is twenty fighters, it was revealed that Cross Tag Battle would release with only half of the roster, leaving the rest of the characters behind a season pass. Fans were angry, stating the reason being that fighters from BlazBlue and Persona 4 Arena are reused assists and shouldn’t be behind a pay wall. In response, producer Mori Toshimichi announced in an interview with the Japanese’s gaming magazine, Dengeki Playstation, that the cost of DLC would not exceed the cost of the game at retail. In other words, he says that the DLC will be affordable and when added all together will not cost as much as $60, the current retail price of Cross Tag Battle. Personally this doesn’t affect me since I don’t compete in tournaments, however this does affect those who do not only compete in tournaments but those who host them as well.
Lengthy wait times for matches to start- As I mentioned when I was talking about Cross Tag Battle’s lobby system, the wait times can be a bit lengthy. This is mainly due to poor connections on the opponent’s side. That and sometimes I would run into a person who would just fool around not wanting to ready up for a match.
BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle has to be one of Arc System Works more unique games, and that’s saying something since their fighting games are unique as it is. For fans of anime fighting games, this is pretty much a dream match up. With a new lobby system, a super helpful tactics mode, and a character for every type of player Cross Tag Battle can be a very fun and enjoyable experience. However depending on the mood and the connection of the opponent, there will be a lengthy wait for a match to start. Arc System Works also may have wandered into a minefield with their DLC practices, since as of late gamers have been very vocal about predatory DLC practices. However it seems that ASW is going in somewhat of a right direction with their DLC offerings. If you’re able to over look both of these issues, then BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle is a welcome addition to the fighting game community and the BlazBlue family.
