Wednesday
Jan132010
BLAZBLUE: CONTINUUM SHIFT MEGA-UPDATE
quash
BBCS has been out for a little over a month now and the game is already starting to evolve past the Day 1 discoveries, so I figured now would be a good time to review the system changes from BBCT as well as speculate on the game's roster balance and potential to grow.
First, the system changes from CT:
- Bursts are entirely different now. No longer reactable like they were in CT and they no longer cut your defense or deplete your barrier meter. You get two bursts stocked at the start of the match, and you're able to use one in the first round; if you win the first round, you stay with the one burst you have (if you used your burst, you don't get one in the next round) and likewise if you lose the first round, your second burst is unlocked (even if you used your burst in the first round).
- Offensive bursts no longer Guard Crush, they now launch the opponent. Unlike the Guard Crush off of offensive bursts in CT, it allows you to kill your opponent with a combo started from a burst.
- Guard Primer system replaces Guard Libra system from CT. Certain moves take off whole Guard Primers on guard, while others take off fractions. Characters like Tager and Hakumen have many Guard Primers, while characters like Carl and Taokaka only have a few. Losing all Guard Primers results in a Guard Crush.
- Barrier Guard + Throw break option select has been nerfed. In CT you had 13 frames (some sources say up to 17!) to input 1/4 A+B+C but in CS you now only have 5 frames and the window for Throw Reject Misses has been increased as well.
- Barrier Jump has been removed, meaning you can no longer input 7 A+B and jump while Barrier Guarding. This helps a lot for the ground mixup game, as throws can still be jumped out of (more on that later).
- Instant blocking in the air now requires you to be Barrier guarding at the same time. This is a change that has stirred some controversy, but there's actually a good reason why they implemented it. Put simply; you always have your barrier meter now that bursts don't deplete it. In order to give players more incentive to both use barrier meter and keep it stocked, they had to do something to make using it a conflicting judgement call. While people may have to get used to it (as it is a rather uncommon mechanic), I think in the long run it'll promote more thinking on defense than had it not been implemented.
- New Fatal Counter system is a new counter hit system that gives certain moves 2 extra frames of untechable time as well as all moves in the combo that follow, allowing for combos that wouldn't be possible on a normal counter hit.
- Damage has, for the most part, been significantly nerfed across the board.
All of the changes listed above I think are good. That being said, there's still problems I have with the game. Most notably:
- Jump startup is still too fast. 4 frames of jump startup makes ground throws (which start up in 7 frames) a risky mixup tool. Of course, people jumping out of throws (and some overheads, too) can be baited, but to me it feels like a forced transition from the ground to air game that ends up being a detriment, since you're forcing the player on offense to guess rather than the player on defense. My ideal solution would be to make ground throws start up quicker than jumps (though not 0 frame), but I guess slowing down jump startup would work as well (though that may cause problems for characters that have to Tiger Knee moves). Still, the majority of BlazBlue is the zoning game, so perhaps this is ArcSys' way of making sure we don't just rush down all the time.
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