The Gaming Gamma

Blazblue: Central Fiction (PS4, PS3)

Gaming Gamma Review

Release Date: (NA) November 1^st, 2016

Developer: Arc System Works

Publisher: Arc System Works, Aksys Games

Thank You Aksys for Providing a Review Copy of this Game.

One of the most essential fighting game developers, Arc System Works, has just released their latest game out in North America; today we’re taking a look at Blazblue: Central Fiction. The latest title in the popular Blazblue series developed by Arc System Works, will Central Fiction be able to overtake other fighters currently in the market or will it be left to the wheel of fate to decide? Find out here and now!

Blazblue: Central Fiction just like previous Blazblue titles use the same button prompts and input indicators of A, B, C, D and motion inputs. The only substantial difference is the addition of new characters such as Naoto Kurogane; DLC character Es, and more. Central Fiction as well adds new normal and special moves for previously included characters along with a new universal mechanic called Exceed Accel, a powerful one off move that automatically ends the duration of your Overdrive.

Heading into game modes we see some of the previously included ones such as story mode, training mode, arcade mode, versus, network mode, and more. Some of the more important singleplayer game modes are story mode and arcade mode, to not go in-depth with story mode it is in a visual novel like format that continues what the previous title; Chrono Phantasma Extend left off on, what I can say is that there is an unlockable character once completing the story mode but mentioning his or her name would also be a substantial spoiler. Central Fiction also offers new game modes such as the Grim of the Abyss mode, similar to a tower/ladder like game mode where you work your way to the end to fight the boss of the tower and along the way increase the stats of your selected character.

Now onto network mode, this includes the standard fighting game online system of: ranked, casual, multi-man lobbies, and settings for said modes. The netcode for Central Fiction has been working well except for the occasional lag and input delay which is a common place issue when it comes to rough connections for the players.

In terms of art, sound, and game design Central Fiction still retains much of what the series used since the start. This is 2D sprite work for the characters and a special blend of 2D and 3D assets used to give each stage a unique appearance. In line of sound design there’s no real difference apart from Central Fiction being the first in the series to not feature an English dub, aside from this characters still retain the same sound effects and voices used in the previous titles. Aside from sound effects and grunts the music is still something to be applauded, helmed by Guilty Gear art designer Mr. Ishiwatari the music continues to be some of the most varied composing for the series. Gallery mode makes a return once again to be a place where all that was mentioned, music, art, characters and their color palettes can be purchased with in-game currency earned as you play matches and so on.

Gameplay wise Central Fiction kept the same fast paced movement options, and over the top combo and damage potential while readjusting different values and animations for characters to balance out the cast for a more leveled playing field. For newer players into the series there is also a Technical and Stylish option for your gameplay. Technical being that none of your button inputs are affected and the gameplay is left as is; Stylish on the other hand makes each rapid press of a button a gateway into different and satisfying combos to help beginners and casual players of the game.

Overall, Blazblue Central: Fiction is a great fighting game and surpasses its predecessor with new content ranging from characters, music, new moves for characters, and game modes. While it is a well-made game there are some negatives such as the constant re-used audio samples and sprites, which is a common occurrence for most fighting games. As a competitor to other fighting games such as Street Fighter V, KoF XIV, Guilty Gear Xrd Revelator, and more, Blazblue can easily compete in this market to be one of the powerhouses to dominate the scene.

The verdict for Blazblue: Central Fiction is:

8/10

Cons:

-Constant re-used assets from sprites, sound effects, and more

Pros:

+Good tools to introduce newcomers to this type of fighting games

+Retains the high technical gameplay and speed for returning players

+Plenty of new additions like game modes, characters, and gallery content

+Netcode is concise and consistent with stable connections

Developer: Meteorise

Publisher:PQube

ESRB Rating:M

Release Date: October 11th, 2016

The Righteous Boobage Producer – Kenichiro Takaki strikes again but this time, with a new series. The girls in this series aren’t ninjas, they’re just normal girls that so happened to come down with a terrible and mysterious condition.

If you’ve heard of or seen the anime for “Valkyrie Drive” or the mobile game, the premise is more or less the same as they take on three different islands right next to each other. If you haven’t heard, to make a long story short: the world has contracted a weird disease where young girls have the ability to turn into weapons. This danger has led to the world to come together and essentially isolate anyone that’s contracted the virus on one of potentially five islands. Said virus comes in three different forms: the V-Virus variant (where you gain the ability to become a weapon,) the A-Virus variant (that allows you to wield said weapon,) with the last is being able to do both – the VR Virus variant. In the case of Valkyrie Drive: Bhikkhuni, all of the playable girls are able to do both.

The leads of Bhikkhuni are the sweet and ever loving Rinka and her almost polar opposite twin sister Ranka, as well as the people they meet along the way. It’s said that anyone that has come to the island has a high chance of being cured. The supposed secret is about learning self control, so fighting is permitted at all times outside of some safe spaces like the cafeteria. That said, the story is more than just fighting to control their virus, as not everyone living on the island care about going back home, since they have their own agendas to attend to.

Bhikkhuni is a pretty interesting evolution of Senran Kagura’s Versus series in terms of combat. At the start of every mission you choose two characters: a Liberator and an Extar witch (the term of the V-Virus holder and the A-Virus holder respectively). This is where most of the game’s replay value comes in, as all of the characters in the game come with two different level up systems. The game’s combat is a very combo heavy beat ’em up. While there is no dedicated run button, there are a dedicated dash button, dodge button and three attack buttons – one normal, one unique, and one that launches the enemy in the air. This doesn’t sound like much, sure, but you won’t be mashing buttons,  as all of these provide extremely fast-based combat. The game has a ton of ways to combine all of these attacks, especially dodging, the dash, and the launcher technique. The entire game is based around combining the dash with these techniques, as when successfully done, your attack raises for the extent of the combo. Once enough damage is done, your synchro gauge will fill up; once filled, your health will refill and you will become stronger because your partner became your weapon. Depending on the level of the Extar, this can happen a few more times, or you can spend the gauge on doing a special attack. To be honest, when there are just generic enemies towards you, the gameplay is great. But when it comes to other actual characters the gameplay doesn’t live up because once the mission is over, you get your ranking and a pool of experience points to share between your Liberator and Extar. This is where the “two separate levels” bit comes into play, as the girls have separate Liberator and Extar levels. So you actually have to max out the girl’s levels twice with Extar, requiring much more experience to level up. Also, keep in mind the rank you receive at the end of your mission is pretty important, seeing as how well you do in some missions will affect the storyline.

Outside of the main storyline there’s a survival mode, a challenge mode, and three online modes. Sadly, none of these modes offer experience points and the online is more or less dead. So unless you have a friend, have fun fighting CPUs. That said, the melee mode is kind of fun. Instead of the usual 3D arena battle ground, it becomes a 2D fighter with the objective is to get your opponent off the stage. Granted, this mode is a lot more frantic because the stage is much, much smaller than the arena and generally there are 4 characters on the screen so everything just feels a little claustrophobic. Lastly, there’s the dressing room where you can dress up and play with the girls. There’s even a mini-game segment on it if you play with them enough.

In the end, despite its anime counterpart taking perversion to the next level yet stopping just before being considered pornagraphy, this game is actually one of Takaki’s tamer games of the giant breast hyper battle “genre”. Sure, it still contains the usual mechanic of clothing being ripped off and the small cinematic that comes with it is still the same as the changing dressing room mechanics. But despite all of the sexual appeal, there’s a good gameplay mechanic underneath that just can’t seemingly take off the way the game wants, which is sort of disappointing.

6/10
+Melee Mode
+Funny characters

-Game isn’t necessarily fun

During their latest financial call CEO of Nvidia Jen-Hsun Huang has made some more comments about the Nintendo Switch, specifically in regards to porting games from the PS4, XBOX ONE and PC.

He stated that thanks to the Tegra Processor, which is similar to what is found in those consoles and most PCs, developers should be easy when porting over games to the Nintendo switch.

Here is what Huang had to say:

“The quality of games has grown significantly. And one of the factors of production value of games that has been possible is because the PC and the two game consoles, Xbox and PlayStation, and — in the near-future — the Nintendo Switch, all of these architectures are common in the sense that they all use modern GPUs, they all use programmable shading, and they all have basically similar features.”

“As a result of that, game developers can target a much larger installed base with one common code base and, as a result, they can increase the production quality, production value of the games,” Huang Added.

This is good news as one of the many complaints of the Wii U is that porting was not very easy. It’s nice to see that Nintendo addressed this.

What do you guys think?

Toys R Us Canada has listed the Nintendo Switch at $329.99 on their website. For our United States readers that is roughly $244 USD.

Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima has previously stated before that the Nintendo Switch will be “affordable” to consumers and that it also wont be sold at a loss, but will be listening to what consumers expect from the pricing.

As a consumer is this ideal for you?