Post 3: BlazBlue

Alright, so yesterday I was walking around Metrotown with my cousins after buying some clothes and then my cousin’s all like “BAWWW ETIENNE I WANNA GO TO THE MANGA SHOP AND THEN THE ARCADE” so I was like “Whatever.” Anyway he buys his bag which has some symbol from whatever anime series and we go into the arcade. He runs off to button mash some Tekken game or whatever and proclaim that he is “The Greatest at this game”. Seriously, the kid’s like 11. LEARN TO COMBO WITH DEVIL JIN KTHX

But I digress.

So I’m watching him hit the kick buttons like a madman and I nonchalantly look to my left. And there a sight greets me that I’ve longed for for about a month.

Metro’s arcade finally, FINALLY got BlazBlue! I’d been waiting for that stupid game to come out ever since I read that article on EGM! And there it was, sitting beside a couple old Virtua Tennis 3 machines!

So I throw in some tokens and sit down. After a few seconds of fumbling on the character screen, I pick Jin Kisaragi and round one starts.

I think I hear fangirls squealing in the background

Now, keep in mind this is the first time I’ve played this, like, ever. I actually managed to get to the last boss on my first try, and also defeated some pimply Taiwanese 20 year old with glasses who walked up to the machine. Man, he was pissed off. Defeated him in the first two rounds with nothing but Musou Senshou-zan rushdowns into repeated Sekka-Jins while he was still in hitstun. The guy needs to pick someone less techy than Rachel Alucard or he’s gonna get beaten a lot. Either that or learn to use her projectiles better. Wow, I just realized that Alucard is Dracula backwards. My mind is like blown right now.

-cough-

All in all, BlazBlue was a fun experience. It’s a great game and basically picks up where Guilty Gear left off, gameplay-wise. It’s quite beginner-friendly, with only a weak, medium and strong attack, plus a Distortion Drive button which allows you to use a character’s special abilities and pull off stronger special attacks. There are also assorted more complicated maneuvers, but those are still relatively easy to pull off, involving hitting all three attack buttons when you’re being attacked or whatever. The characters are quite cool-looking too and pretty quirky =]. They can be divided into the following four categories:

Big strong dudes with or without swords:

Tiny magicians:

Eye candy:

and Freaks:

Now I’m feeling all nostalgic about Guilty Gear again =]

I also love the graphics, as I have said a thousand times. The hand-drawn 2D-ness just appeals to that little part in me. Don’t ask which one.

Long story short, I expect that I’m going to be wasting a lot of quarters on BlazBlue from now on, until it comes out on PS3. At which point I’ll be wasting roughly 240 quarters on it.

Final note: Perfect arcade drink is a Milky Green Tea with green apple jelly. The tea keeps you going and the sugar in the jelly keeps you wired and your reflexes catlike. Also it’s delicious.

Yummeh.

Anyway, after the ringing endorsement I’ve just given you, would you play the game? Why or why not? Also, what’s your favourite bubble tea flavour? xD

…You know, how many people here actually play video games anyway? >_>;;