Blazblue Cross Tag Battle arcade version controversy

Ever since the release on consoles and PC, there have been flaws plaguing the game such as the lack of Arcade Mode, incomplete character roster, recycled assets and lack of proper opening in terms of animation.
If you've known the entire main series of Blazblue that started out in the same arcade system, you can probably suspect the fact of recycled assets. The character sprites from Blazblue series and Persona 4 Arena are in 720p although there are newer ones exclusively for Blazblue Cross Tag Battle. The backgrounds from Blazblue series and Persona 4 Arena are more or less the same. Even the effects are recycled from Blazblue series of games as well although some of the effects are redone exclusively for Blazblue Cross Tag Battle such as the new slash effects, the knock out effect, etc. Even the Distortion Drive backgrounds and Super Finish backgrounds are new as well, so are the new stage backgrounds. What people didn't know is that the stage backgrounds from Under Night In-Birth are redone or something in addition to the character sprites from that game.
In regards to the game opening, it's fully animated but it uses the opening theme that is suitable for arcade opening. Blazblue Continuum Shift II has one opening as its own which is the console opening and it's the same exact opening sequence for the arcade version. Well, I don't know if there will be an arcade opening for Blazblue Cross Tag Battle with Ver 1.5 update or something since the update has the altered HUD and balance changes or whatnot. There are rumors of the additional character, Naoto Kurogane, being added to the game as part of the update but for now, nobody knows if he'll be playable or not.
If there's no Arcade Mode for the arcade version, perhaps, the Training Mode is one of the free timing Single Player modes as the workaround for that absence. Also, like other fighting games in the arcades that offer nationwide online matches and local network matches, Blazblue Cross Tag Battle has those modes that cost the respective session points kind of like Sega's Border Break series.
The choices are as follows:

• The Nationwide Battle mode has four choices:
• The one that costs 50pts but I don't know the description of that feature.
• 3 matches for 100pts
• 6 matches for 200pts
• 9 matches for 300pts
• The local network match/Shop Battle costs 50p.

You can even buy additional points, customize controls and choose the characters from the main menu.
For the location test, the Nesica X Live 2 version will be used but the interesting thing about the game is that it is released for both Nesica X Live 2 and All.NET P-Ras Multi Version 3. All.NET P-Ras Multi Version 3 is Sega's superseding answer to Nesica X Live 2 with headphone volume adjustment, touchscreen for UI interactivity and support for external game controllers. Even Street Fighter V arcade version will have support for external game controllers although presentation-wise, it may fit Nesica X Live 2 platform even better instead of being a standalone arcade game. Also, regardless of the arcade platform, you can even view your combat data if you have played the game with the player IC card. Obviously, an universal player IC card seems to be recommended to avoid confusion but it appears that Street Fighter V arcade version is the first one to support that card with the Nesica logo on it so the confusion is assumed to be there as of this writing.
Speaking of the arcade game released on multiple arcade systems, the ones of the past were already released on multiple platforms with minor difference of graphics, sound and music. And no, I'm not talking about the arcade game having two versions with the latter one having additional stuffs or  with the player IC card support as that doesn't count here.
The arcade version will be released in Spring this year in Japan and who knows if things are linkable between two arcade platforms for this game? Will there be a cross-play feature in between those two?

Blazblue Cross Tag Battle

A spinoff crossover game with other 3 franchises being part of it. This consists of Blazblue, Under Night In-Birth, Persona 4 Arena and RWBY. One of them isn't a fighting game franchise but rather, it starts off as a western 3D web animation by Rooster Teeth. It's trying to pose as some animated show made in Japan but this looks more like some cartoonish game with 3D cell-shaded graphics made in Japan instead of the traditional 2D animated cartoon shows. The others have done well in mimicking the Japanese-style animation in an usual way when compared to Rooster Teeth which goes on an unusual route. There are some controversies surrounding the RWBY franchise like the main man behind it dropping out of high school just to do a bunch of animated stuff as well as getting hired by professional companies despite having a lack of diploma/degree and of course, some characters forging the educational qualification to enroll in the academy. Bottom line, STUDY GODDAMN WELL AND DON'T END UP LIKE THAT MAN WHO DROPPED OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL FOR THAT STUFF!
For Persona 4 Arena and Arena Ultimax, they are spinoffs of Persona 4 the RPG game but they aren't the only spinoffs so far. As Blazblue Cross Tag Battle is being made by Arc System Works, the assets for both Blazblue and Persona 4 Arena are quite the same. For Under Night In-Birth, the sprites will have to be redone although I don't know if the backgrounds from that game will have to be redone as well.
In comparison to Guilty Gear Xrd and Dragon Ball FighterZ which have brand new graphical styles, this for some reason is like one generation behind as Blazblue series started in the late 2000s so to the new consoles, the graphics are nothing special no matter how detailed they look. Sure, they are awesome as always throughout the Blazblue series although I don't know if the existing backgrounds will have high-res textures or what not.
One major problem, the character roster looks incomplete and upon the game's release, there will be 20 characters with the additional 20 except for 2 of them being paid DLCs. But at least, the game hasn't gone on the worse route. Street Fighter V when it first came out, was unspeakably incomplete in terms of character roster as well as the lack of important main game modes and the way to get additional characters is controversial. You can buy them as paid DLCs or you can grind in a tedious way to use in-game currency to buy them. In fact, I've seen the worst-case scenario regarding the rhythm games on mobile with endless paid DLCs for a complete collection as well as the initial amount of songs you'll get upon download completion. However, it seems that Cytus is going on a different route with free updates giving you additional songs at no charge and it may be the same for the idol-themed rhythm games. I don't know if the other game genres are having this similar bullshit as well.
Lastly, there will be English dubs in Blazblue Cross Tag Battle unlike Central Fiction which doesn't have one but the controversy regarding the lack of English Dub in Central Fiction isn't that large. Also, unlike the main Blazblue series, this will come out first on consoles and Steam.

Blazblue Central Fiction Ver 2.0

As announced from this year's EVO, the update would have Jubei as the playable character in Version 2.0 onwards along with the new stage and new intro music. If my guess was right about the game's trailer's end part after the introduction of Jubei, that music turns out to be the new arcade opening of Blazblue Central Fiction. The new opening features characters that are not shown in the previous opening. Not to mention that the intro is redone as well and so is the title screen. Other changes include the different HUD along with the balancing changes.
As this has TWO arcade versions, there are things to take note of:

• The Nesica X Live 2 version has online matches similar to Tekken 7 arcade version in addition to local network matches where machines running this game can be linked around the game center. Online matches connect the current machine to the machine from another video arcades.
• The Nesica X Live 2 version has machine grouping similar to today's modern Namco arcade games including Tekken 7.
• Some of the modes are ABSENT in Nesica X Live 2 version.
• You get to customize the system voice in Nesica X Live 2 version similar to the console versions of the game provided that you have the Nesica card and account.
• The title screen will have the Nesica X Live 2 logo at the bottom right if the game is on Nesica X Live 2 service.
• Machines can be linked locally regardless of which Nesica X Live service the game is running on.
• When you lose the match, you have the option to retry or quit. However, retrying the match requires an additional credit and there's no Character Select option. This applies to Nesica X Live 2 version unlike the original Nesica X Live version where the game goes back to whichever mode the winning player was in or the game goes straight to Game Over screen depending on the operator settings.
• The network icon is smaller in Nesica X Live 2 version and the HUD message that displays player name/shop name changes every time during the match.

My point for fighting games in the arcades is that some of the Single Player game modes shouldn't be interruptible if the cabinet is Single Player mode in which the machine would be connected to another machine for local network match. That can be a problem if you get interrupted on the local network in the middle of the Single Player mode at anytime. The training mode is fine and the best way to wait for some random opponent to pop up. At least in Street Fighter V, you have the option to turn on or off the random player encounter although the Arcade Mode is still absent to this day which may be a shame like it is one of the main modes that should be present in the game for consumer systems. So, I don't know if there will be a way to get around the random encounter thing for Nesica X Live 2 fighting games in the arcades as you're going to be interrupted even worse. Thankfully, the consumer system version may come in handy if you want to go for various Single Player modes.
For Nesica X Live 2 version, when you start the game, you have the option to go for Online Match or Local Network Match. If there's a player in the encounter list, you can choose to deal with that or search for another player through List Refresh option. If there's no one in the list, you can safely go for the Single Player Mode.

Blazblue Central Fiction

Well, this is the latest in the series and said to be the final chapter released on the consoles a year after the arcade release. The console release is based on the recent arcade update which contained all the acts along with more characters being playable. It also featured additional characters as DLCs which were also playable in the arcade version as the update so they were no longer console-exclusives. What is still console-exclusive is the Story-Mode along with some other modes you won't find in the arcade version.
And somehow, if the console-release isn't quite enough, it seems that Arc System Works had the guts to re-release the game for the arcades, this time, for Nesica X Live 2 service which obviously has online-match support similar to console releases of fighting games with Network Mode. Plus, the games running on that service will be in 1080p similar to Playstation 4 version of the Blazblue Central Fiction although there won't be so much differences whatsoever. It might be a strange move but certain things had to be done as needed for newer platform releases. Not to mention that the re-release of Blazblue Central Fiction to a newer service for the arcades is a core reason to keep the series alive ever since FK Digital having released Chaos Code on Playstation 4 based on the recent update of Nesica X Live arcade version which already had two additional characters way before the Playstation 4 version was announced. Sure, the Taito Type X2, Nesica X Live 1 and Playstation 3 are already quite old and the support for Windows XP Embedded for that Type X2 system had ended last year in which migration of the games on Nesica X Live 2 service and console releases for both Playstation 3 and 4 might be the reasons to keep the game going.
My better point is that Arc System Works should be making and publishing new fighting games for the Nesica X Live 2 service for the arcades if we want to see them getting a console release in the future after that besides re-releasing Blazblue Central Fiction. Do you expect other developers to migrate their popular fighting games to newer arcade platforms like that ever since Ultra Street Fighter IV on Taito Type X3?

Eat Beat Dead-Spike for IOS and Android

At the time of this blogging, I recently have the knowledge of the Blazblue franchise when it comes to gameplay concept and graphics. The first discovery of the franchise was that the Blazblue series was in Taito Type X2 arcade hardware with the interesting attract mode messages that are changing every second throughout the game. The opening FMV sequences are awesome and so are the consumer versions' exclusives which are fully-animated. The graphics are also interesting and especially for the gameplay. The latest one, Blazblue Central Fiction is already in the arcades in Japan and the recent update will have Act 2 sometime this month. It is said to be the last chapter in the series consisting of 3 acts.
And there's this spinoff called Eat Beat Dead-Spike for IOS and Android which is a rhythm game based on the Blazblue series. The gameplay concept is obviously better than The Rhythm of Fighters when the developers at Arc System Works are thinking correctly when it comes to making spinoff games like that. Some of the songs are taken from the deformed stories somewhere in the Story Mode ever since the first Blazblue game. The similar style is also in Blazblue Radio which is also interesting to watch on Arc System Works' official YouTube and Nico Nico Douga channels. The episodes are pretty much all there on YouTube ever since last year but without enough knowledge of Japanese language, you won't know what is going on. Songlist is based on Blazblue Chronophantasma and additional songs will be available under DLC. The name, Dead-Spike, is one of Ragna's special moves but then, he's not the only playable character in this spinoff game.

Blazblue Calamity Trigger on Windows 8

OK, guess what when it was recently released this perhaps this week or last week, it is on Windows 8 and Windows RT devices are not supported. Perhaps, the game itself is damn advanced just like the original PC port two years ago. If that release date was such a case to you, you were better off with the original PC port or other versions of the game as the Windows 8 release of this game was already too late then like we thought that there would be some sort of calamity approaching or something but it turned out that no such shit happened and therefore, you’re still able to play the Windows 8 version.

However, do you probably want to play the freaking Windows 8 version when you already have owned other version? What about moving on to the latest series when you are already a big fan of the series or the genre itself? To the business and consumers, the operating system is already a technical mess or technical disaster for desktop users in which people already found it unacceptable in various ways.

So here’s what Windows 8 version is like. The system requirements falls in the same range as the original PC port and the controls are done with touch, gamepad and keyboard so that you can try out the game with the arcade stick again for example for better arcade experience. Fortunately, this is damn cheap to get and that’s the best thing about Windows 8 port compared to buying other versions. However, it may not be the same for buying other stuffs just to get this port as the overall costs may be much higher than buying a console and the console port together.