Hah, this thread is definitely for me.
I've been on the game for about 2 years now since Calamity Trigger came out.
Honestly, this game is a competitive fighter masterpiece. If you really get into it and devote a decent amount of time learning proper techniques, you will never look at fighters the same way again. I can honestly say I now judge every fighter by comparing it to Blazblue.
I ask myself, "Why can the counter system be like Blazblue?", "Why can't the movements be like Blazblue?" so on and so forth.
I'll start off by saying the one thing about the game that really drives it home for me: Character diversity.
Calamity Trigger introduced about a dozen characters who were different in SO many ways. They all played so differently that it seems as if they were copy and pasted from different fighters!
And when I say "totally different", I don't mean like one character has a second stance and another is a super heavyweight grappler, I mean these characters are so different, they MOVE differently.
All characters have different walking and running speeds, some characters hop forward instead of run, some teleport, some must do an aerial dash, which are also different speeds, some use special attacks for locomotion, one has to magnetically attract his opponents to him, it's THAT diverse!
And that's just the movements. Each character has a special "Drive" attack which is an ability unique only to them. This is why the game is so diverse.
One character has a drive attack that blows a gust of wind in one of the eight directions. Seems simple? Well this drive is SO versatile, we are discovering new tactics with her UNTIL THIS DAY. 2 years and there are still undiscovered tactics! She can wind herself, wind her opponent, wind projectiles, the possibilities are endless. That's just one example though.
you have a charctaer who controls himself and a doll.
You have a characters that has to build up this "curse" meter which enables him to project his insects at you.
You have a character who's matenbou boomerangs across the stage and must be timed to hit your opponent just right to complete combos.
Just a few examples =-)
And it's not just the gameplay, but there really is a character for everyone.
you have your vampire loli, your angsty protagonist, your amorphous blob, your Asian hottie, your lunatic villian, your child prodigy, your anime cat girl, your walking-hit-box gappler, and so on.
honeslty I can rant about character diversity for so long, but I should really move on.
The graphics are just so visually appealing! The sprites are so beautifully drawn and the animations are very smooth. Every characters sprites onbviously had a ton of work put into them. These characters don't just duck down, they will crouch according to their personality. My character who has a morphing cat umbrella, smoothly folds is down into a bean bag and sits on it. LEave her crouching and untinurrupted and she falls asleep. See? It's little things like that which make me feel like they really cared about their game.
The arenas are also drawn very beautifully and are in 3D. Some are interactive in exciting ways like when you take the "wind" character into the rose garden, the rose petals will fly in the direction she propels her win. Again, small things like that!
The story of the Calimity Trigger was.... art. Seriously... it NEEDS to be made into a book or an anime or something it is just so compelling. You have to sit through dialogue for SUPER long, which sucks if you're not into the story, but if you're enjoying it, it should work out great for you.
The Continuum shift story took a nose dive. Not in the sense that it was less exciting, but it just went from such a thought-provoking story to "here's the good guy, he's trying to stop him, the bad guy, who wants to take over the world." Oh well, at least they did it nicely.
The gameplay is very simple but VERY deep. Every character has a weak, medium, and strong attack, along with their special drive attack. All of the elements of a true fighter are in the game; guarenteed combos, mix ups, pressure, okis, anti-air. Every character has their weak points and their strong points. The fun of the game is learning them.
It is pretty rough to have to learn to defend against every character. considering that every character is so different, it takes a minute to get used to all of them!
The game's balance is also very respectable. continuum shift 2's worst match up is 6.5 to 3.5 and it's the only one.
What I do hate about the direction they took the game play is that they really revolved the fighting around the corner. In Calamity Trigger anyone could combo mid screen, some specialized in corners, but now, pretty much everyone needs to take their opponent to the corner, and once you get stuck in there, you're pretty much fucked.
The online is amazing. Practically no lag. I come across a laggy match maybe once every day. Which could mean a random match where your opponent didnt realize they were downloading a youtube video.
The training must also be pointed out to be the best training mode ever. Everything is available there. There is no set up you can't do. Blazblue training is honestly number 1.
One shitty thing about the game is that it's always being updated with patches. while the game becomes more and more balanced as they do it they really make some unncessary changes to some characters which forces you to have to relearn some of your favorites.
Taokaka is a really unfortunate victim of this. Poor cat girl is always being so drastically changed. As is Carl from game-to-game, Litchi, and Rachel's CT to CS change was a NIGHTMARE.
Another shitty thing is that 3 characters are DLC. Yeah, ouch. Makoto, Valkenhayn, and Platinum.
Character suggestions for you!
this is solely based on difficulty:
Noob-friendly:
Ragna, Tager, Hazama, Platinum
Decent Challenge:
Taokaka, Noel, Jin
Too many late-night training sessions:
Lamba, Bang, Tsubaki
Punching holes in the wall:
Valkenhayn, Makoto, Mu
You ain't got to touch this shit okay:
Rachel, Litchi, Arakune
Don't even consider it, seriously this kid and his fucking doll are impossible to play without a stick. The best of the best can't do anything with Carl.
Carl
So. If you want a really good fighting game and if you have the patience, give Blazblue a try. You might get discouraged if you verse extremely aggressive people, so you can hit me up if you're on the Xbox.
Calamity Trigger is the first game. If you care about the story that much, rent it, it's really that fucking good.
If you just wanna get into the game play, buy Continuum Shift, it will automatically update to Continuum Shift 2.
Pros:
-Fun as shit and addictive.
-Characters are extremely diverse.
-Beautiful graphics.
-Compelling story.
-Great balance.
-Fantastic netcode.
-Hilarious achievements.
Cons:
-Constant changes.
-Story mode can drag.
-3 characters are DLC
-Not a popular game so prepare to have to make new friends. Or Sindelian.
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