BlazBlue Continuum Shift: This thread is the white void.

[MoelVermillion]

The settings and materials guide was printed before Continuum Shift and after Calamity Trigger so any information that is first revealed in CS is naturally missing.

[Zevox]

Ach. I've kept trying to conquer Score Attack mode using that cheap beginner mode exploit I posted earlier, but I just don't know if it's worth it now. Unlimited Hazama and Rachel are too much. I've managed to most adapt to Hakumen - the big thing with him is that you have to abuse Blizzard and its invincibility frames much more than with the others - but Hazama's fast attacks and actually intelligent use of the air dash (not to mention his poison aura...) and Rachel's overpowering projectile spam and George are frustrating the hell out of me. I once came close to beating Rachel... but only once, out of more than a half-dozen attempts, most of which were ended by Hakumen or Hazama.

If I had a second controller, and thus could take advantage of that to effectively give myself continues during the mode, I'd probably be able to beat it. Hell, I might even be able to beat it without the beginner mode exploit that way, with enough time and patience. But lacking that... it's not worth the time and frustration just to unlock Unlimited Jin. It's really not.

Zevox

[MoelVermillion]

Do you have any friends with an Xbox who would be willing to let you borrow a controller for a day or so to get it done? Not that unlocking Unlimited Characters is super important but they are pretty fun to mess around with.

In other news this game has made me terrible at Guilty Gear. For the first time in a while I played it, after getting caught in a Potemkin combo while on low health I decided I should burst, naturally I pressed P + K + S + HS which instead of bursting puts you into the mode where you're free to try your one hit kill move, because I didn't burst the combo continued and I died horribly... This happened three matches in a row...

[Penguinizer]

The combos are more forgiving in general. Does the game even have anything that needs 2 frame timing?

[Zevox]

Do you have any friends with an Xbox who would be willing to let you borrow a controller for a day or so to get it done? Not that unlocking Unlimited Characters is super important but they are pretty fun to mess around with.

Unlikely. I do have one friend with a 360, but I don't see him all that much, and I don't know that I'd want to ask to borrow one of his controllers for this given that.

On another topic, I found out on Dustloop that Jin has a corner combo that uses only 25% heat and does more damage than the corner combo I've thus far been using does when you add a distortion drive to it. Only problem is it involves his dual ice strike - dragon punch D - and with some fairly precise timing to it, since the move before it doesn't special cancel. I can sometimes do it, but more often than not I end up with the combo counter turning blue when I execute that move. I can do the rest of the combo fine most of the time, it's just the timing on that one move that's being a pain. A pity, too, because part of that combo can loop for as long as you have the heat for dual ice strike.

Zevox

[KBF]

I really like how you're having trouble with the 623 that's now second nature to me, Zevox, but somehow I screw up 214 or even 236 sometimes. My thumb does not always bend the way it should and I screw up the input, usually only making it to 3 or 1. It took me a lot of tries to beat Hakumen in the True Ending because Ragna's ultrasupergrabkill move required two incredibly simple turns of the stick and I screwed up at least one each time. I am desperate to begin relearning on a stick, which I should have in a few days. Now I just have to choose between Sanwa and Seimitsu button and the same choice for the stick and also maybe Happ I guess and I've spent so long reading about this but I only have a vague idea of what I want but at least rambling is fun.

I assume a few of you have sticks, so what do you use personally?

[Zevox]

I really like how you're having trouble with the 623 that's now second nature to me, Zevox, but somehow I screw up 214 or even 236 sometimes.

Really? That's... frankly, shocking. Those are the easiest special attack inputs there are. I haven't messed up those since I first learned them way back when I was playing Mortal Kombat on my Sega Genesis - or even the occasional Mortal Kombat arcade game, actually (a local Pizza Hut used to have one of those, believe it or not).

And incidentally, it's not even necessarily that it's a dragon punch that is screwing me up there. That might be contributing, but I'm good enough at those now that I have no trouble doing the other dragon punch in the combo (a b-version blizzard). It's the tight timing on that particular one that's messing me up. It comes right after a move that doesn't special cancel, and if it isn't done very quickly after the preceding move's animation ends, it makes the combo escapable. I often input it just a moment too early (causing either the dual ice strike to just not happen or, for some reason, for me to shoot a d-version ice dagger instead) or just a moment too late (escapable combo), and am just having difficulty hitting that sweet spot timing-wise.

Anyway, I'm also progressing on challenge mode better than I expected. I'm now 46% complete, with no character below 30% completion. I even have 60% completion on Lambda and 50% on Tager and Bang now. Jin's challenge 8 and Hazama's challenge 9 are still frustrating me though.

Zevox

[MoelVermillion]

The combos are more forgiving in general. Does the game even have anything that needs 2 frame timing?

I don't think it does to be honest.

I assume a few of you have sticks, so what do you use personally?

I've only used Sanwa and Happ, haven't gotten around to try Seimitsu yet. On Happ versus I found the Sanwa stick felt a little bit nicer though I can't really explain why, its slightly easier to mod with. On the buttons the Happ buttons seemed quite resistant requiring a conscious effort to push down, the Sanwa buttons on the other hand are ridiculously sensitive and can be accidentally pressed when resting your hand on the stick, of course the ridiculous sensitivity on Sanwa buttons is also a blessing allowing you to press them down quicker then you can the Happ buttons. I ended up going with the Sanwa buttons because I liked how fast I could press them, your mileage may vary.

[KBF]

I've just finished watching the first Blazblue tourny I've ever seen on Youtube. The SBO qualifiers in Austin, apparently. Makes me want to find where this elusive incredible gaming scene over here is at. Lots of amazing matches, just one after the other, watching them in their element and later watching them falter and completely fail a matchup, only to rebound later in the tourny.. It's a real amazing watch.

And I loved watching the Lamba's get hit. A lot.

[Zabel_Zarock]

I've just finished watching the first Blazblue tourny I've ever seen on Youtube. The SBO qualifiers in Austin, apparently. Makes me want to find where this elusive incredible gaming scene over here is at. Lots of amazing matches, just one after the other, watching them in their element and later watching them falter and completely fail a matchup, only to rebound later in the tourny.. It's a real amazing watch.

And I loved watching the Lamba's get hit. A lot.

Don't ever go to Planet Zero. EmotionGear *The guy that runs it* is the shadiest piece of **** who ever lived who has screwed players out of money many times, ruined Texas Showdown, only really gives SBO spots to the winners if he feels like it, and even this year he pulled his same bull**** again & took away a SBO spot from the second place SSFIV team so he could give it to his squad of dickriders.

And if you wanna see more matches I would say make an account on Nicovideo, their are tons of matches on there not uploaded to youtube. And subscribing to GameACHO on youtube is great to.

[Prime32]

A little Bilingual Bonus you may not have known about.

[Bad Situation]

Nicovideo, their are tons of matches on there not uploaded to youtube.

And if you don't want to go through getting an account there's a good nico video converter out there. Can't seem to find it right now though.

[Prime32]

Anyone know anything about this?
http://blazblue.wikia.com/wiki/BlazBlue:_Phase_0

Or this for that matter?

[Bad Situation]

I've heard of the Light Novel yeah, it's supposed to reveal details about the world and clear up a few mysteries. It starts with Ragna meeting a girl who has some sort of power. But since it's a light novel we'll probably never get a fully translated version.

Just keep your fingers crossed for a few fan translated spoilers.

[MoelVermillion]

Aksys managed to translate the official comics so there is a small chance that they might pick this up too though I wouldn't hold my breath on that. If they don't though there is this one guy on the Dustloop Forums who translates everything (the guy who did the time line from the settings and materials guide) so I guess he'd get around to this eventually.

As for BlazyBloo Melee Brawlers I've never really bothered to find out much about it.

A little Bilingual Bonus you may not have known about.

Thanks for that, it makes a lot of sense and is a cool tidbit I would have missed otherwise.

[Zevox]

So, I'm working on two things right now. Challenge mode and trying to decide on a third character to use regularly.

Challenge mode I'm doing decently in, but I think I'm hitting the point where I won't be doing too many more of them successfully. I'm now at 51% completion, and outside of maybe eventually learning how to do the early challenges I haven't yet done for characters I find I'm just not comfortable with, I think I've just about hit my limit with them. Each challenge I attempt now seems to have some significant stumbling block in it that I just can't pass - often a mid-combo dash I just can't time right, or just something else with timing too tight for me. For instance, Mu-12's challenge 8. I can do everything in it except the last hit, a distortion drive you have to input following her 2B launching a downed foe into the air. There is just so little time to input the distortion that I don't think I'll ever be able to do it.

As it stands, my completion is as follows:

80%: Jin (1-7 & 9), Hazama
70%: Tsubaki
60%: Mu, Lambda, Tager (1-5 & 7)
50%: Rachel, Bang, Ragna
40%: Litchi, Taokaka, Arakune
30%: Carl, Hakumen, Noel

*sigh* I so want to 90% or even complete Jin and Hazama's, but I don't think I'll ever be able to do anyone's mission 10, and their 8 and 9 respectively are giving me so much grief. Really wish I could do Litchi's 5 as well, but those dash 5Cs on the second combo just kill me, so much so that I can't even cheat and finish it by doing the whole thing in a corner.

Anyway, on a third character, I know I had wanted to use Tsubaki earlier, but her short reach is really getting to me now that I've tried her against non-computers. It's just such a pain to even start her basic combos, since she can't even take full advantage of her one attack with good reach, 5B, due to the fact that her follow-up attacks might actually miss if she uses it at max range . So I've been trying out Mu and Lambda as possible secondaries instead, since I liked how they played in challenge mode. Practicing Mu's challenge 8 has let me learn the timing on her trip -> 2B launcher, which is the big thing that was intimidating me away from her before, and while I haven't been able to teach myself her big 7.2k fatal counter combo (and doubt I will, since it ends on the same move as her challenge 8 that's driving me insane), I can do lesser 4.9k (no heat) and 5.8k (50% heat) versions of it, if a bit inconsistently since I sometimes whiff the dash 6B. And I figured out for myself how to use a distortion at the end of one of her BnBs for 3.8-4k. Then again, I haven't tested any of that in actual combat yet - and of course since they're not really used in combos much I haven't really practiced with her laser turrets either, which are surely essential to playing her in a real fight. I've spent less time practicing Lambda, but I kind of suspect she'd be easier to learn to use practically than Mu, if only because many of her combos seem to boil down to setting up her one combo with her drive attacks, which is easy to remember now that I've done it so many times in challenge mode, and because she doesn't have something like Mu's turrets that I can't practice with in training mode.

Zevox

[Prime32]

Thanks for that, it makes a lot of sense and is a cool tidbit I would have missed otherwise.

Another one, from TVTropes:
"I am the just sword." Guess what kanji was used for "(the) just sword"?

Spoiler

Show

"jin"

[Bad Situation]

Thank You Tsubaki

I saw this during a playthrough and I decided to look it up on Youtube.

Tsubaki: I really envy that lady. After all, it was because of her that you were able to beat the Black Beast, right? Someday...I'd like to be a woman like that.
Hakumen: For you, such a thing would be a simple as breathing.

D: If only you knew Tsubaki, if only you knew. Also fangirl!Tsubaki is cute.

And has anybody noticed all of the significant birthdays? I even edited the BlazBlue trope page for it.

[Prime32]

If only you knew Tsubaki, if only you knew.

I feel I might have cried at that scene, if I were the kind of person who does that.

The birthdays are mentioned on the BlazBlue wikia. Which has horrible editing by the way. (and offends my inner fanboy when they say that a ball of white-hot thrown plasma called "SUNSHINE SPARK!" is a Gundam reference)

[Bad Situation]

Genesic Emerald Tager GaoGaiGar

[Prime32]

Genesic Emerald Tager GaoGaiGar

One of Tager's colour schemes appears to be based on GaoGaiGar. See also Big O.

(Side note: Valkenhayn's VA plays the butlers in Big O and Hellsing)

I may have been imagining it, but I think I saw some Evangelion references in Tager's CS joke ending (Mecha-kaka's hunched pose with glowing eyes, and "She's eating it!").

[Zevox]

Wow, I just had the worst luck online. I was hoping for a chance to try out Mu against someone about my skill level or perhaps below, but everyone who showed up in my room was well above me. Wouldn't surprise me if most or all were Dustloop regulars and/or tournament players. Got my ass handed to me, in order, by a Tsubaki player, a Tao player, a Hazama player, and a Litchi player. Also had an Arakune player of similar skill level show up, but I had to leave before I could fight him (the Litchi player beat him in the last match before I left anyway, so it would have taken a few more matches before that could happen). And that was playing as Jin - I used him first to gauge where I stand against the other player, since I didn't want to just get steamrolled in my first tests as Mu if the player were better than me.

I've never had so many expert players show up in a room I created online before, especially all in a row. And it just happened to occur when I wanted to face someone around my level or below to test out a new character. Just my luck I suppose.

Zevox

[Zevox]

I believe I need to take back what I said about me never being able to complete anyone's mission 10 in challenge mode. After hours of frustration with it, especially with that thrice-damned pointless dash before the 6B that so often caused me to end up on the other side of my target when doing that attack, I finally managed Jin's. Needless to say, I was a bit elated - and after that, I couldn't let myself leave Jin's mission 8 his only incomplete one, so I took something like an hour and half on that, and finally finished it. By sheer luck, but I finally finished it. I'll never be able to do those in an actual fight, but I can now boast of having completed all of Jin's challenge mode missions. Yay!

The combos are more forgiving in general. Does the game even have anything that needs 2 frame timing?

Might want to look into Jin's mission 8 combo on that one - CH dragon punch C followed by dash 5B. It's definitely ridiculously close. I'm not quite sure myself looking at the frame data on Dustloop - their frame data charts don't specify how much extra untechable time is added on a counter hit for dp C (just says "duration" under the counter hit column, and I'm not sure what that means), and normally it has a 56 frame recovery period with 48 frames untechable. However, someone on the forums there claimed it was around a 10 frame gap between when his dp C ends recovery and when his opponent can tech after a counter hit, and his 5B has a 7 frame startup, which would yield a mere 3 frame timeframe during which you have to dash and start the 5B. Not quite 2 frame, but damn close.

I'd also be curious about that final 2B -> 632146C in Mu's mission 8. Dustloop doesn't have complete frame data for her yet, but startup frames are listed in her subforum, and that distortion drive has 14. I'll wager there's not much more than that in untechable time from her 2B.

Zevox

[Bad Situation]

Guilty Gear is a harsh, unforgiving mistress.

And that's really all there is to say on the matter. It doesn't help that the person who was showing me the ropes was my prickish brother.

[Penguinizer]

One of the things that throws me off about BB combos is the fact that you can pick up the opponent off of the ground much easier.

Hmm, I hope Valkenhayn plays like Slayer. Slayer is a fun character to main, if just for the BS damage he can deal. Especially on any counter hit combo. Specifically off of Pile Bunker or jumping HS, but It's Late can also be used, it's just harder to time.

[Zabel_Zarock]

Hmm, I hope Valkenhayn plays like Slayer. Slayer is a fun character to main, if just for the BS damage he can deal. Especially on any counter hit combo. Specifically off of Pile Bunker or jumping HS, but It's Late can also be used, it's just harder to time.

Makoto is your Slayer like character, she even has Dead on Time in the form of Particle Flare, punishes IADs on reaction.

[Zevox]

Wheh, well, with my completion of Jin's challenge mode yesterday, I've been quite enthusiastic about completing more of it today. And with some nice results - Tsubaki has joined Jin as another 100% complete character (honestly, her mission 10 was almost easier than her missions 8 and 9), I finally finished Hazama's mission 9, reached 80% completion with Ragna, 60% with Rachel and Bang, and even finished another Hakumen mission (oddly, I can't do his 4 or 5 since at least one of the two combos in each proves too tough for me, but I apparently can manage his 6, since it has just the one combo, which was challenging but doable).

I'm now at 59% total completion. Going through various missions today to look them over and make a few attempts, I think I may eventually be able to get Ragna's 9, and perhaps even 10 (though that's more of a stretch), I might be able to do the remaining 4 I have on Tager (his don't seem hard so much as frustrating, mostly because I don't like how he plays), and maybe a few more of Rachel's... but I think that may be just about my limit. Carl and Noel's early challenges, and maybe one or two more each of Lambda, Mu, and Arakune are about the only others I have any confidence that I might be able to beat, but those are all pretty borderline. Certainly I don't think I could ever clear Hazama's 10, or any more of Bang, Litchi, or Tao's challenges. Still, this is all better than I ever expected when I first looked into challenge mode.

So, anyone else working on challenge mode at all? How much of it have you guys completed?

Zevox

[Bad Situation]

I did Jin and Hakumen and then played around with the other characters for fun. I gave up on 100% because it sounded like a lot of work.

[MoelVermillion]

Thank You Tsubaki

And has anybody noticed all of the significant birthdays? I even edited the BlazBlue trope page for it.

I'm not going to lie, this was one of my favourite scenes in games in general, when I first reached this in story mode I shed a a manly tear or two.

I thought the birthday things had been up on TV Tropes for ages? Did you put them up ages back or did someone remove them? Either way they're pretty cool, I like Valkenhayn's one the most .

Which has horrible editing by the way.

I'll say.

# In his "gag" Ending of Blazblue: Continuum Shift, he wakes up on a boat in the middle of the ocean and found himself, Rachel, Iron Tager and Nu as ghost. It is revealed that Ragna has a fear of ghosts, as he barely able to look at himself when he is a ghost himself, easily worked up into a panic-induced frenzy against other ghosts and even inducing a girly exclamation. The group told Ragna that they're after the Crimson Grimoire, a great natural ruby treasure in the HMS Nirvana (which are also occupied by the ghosts of Jin, Carl, Hazama and Arakune). After the battle it turns out that the Crimson Grimoire was just a tasty fish called Ikaruga Tuna just to boost up Ragna's morale. Rachel make the boldest move by trading Ragna for the tuna. They accept and Ragna was very angry after he was toss inside the HMS Nirvana. Ranga snapped saying he was going to kill all of them after the HMS Nirvana crew was going to do the same thing as the tuna is. In the end, it turns out to be a dream while Ragna commented that he was either relieved or rather disappointed.

D- See me after class Timmy .

Wheh, well, with my completion of Jin's challenge mode yesterday, I've been quite enthusiastic about completing more of it today. And with some nice results - Tsubaki has joined Jin as another 100% complete character (honestly, her mission 10 was almost easier than her missions 8 and 9), I finally finished Hazama's mission 9, reached 80% completion with Ragna, 60% with Rachel and Bang, and even finished another Hakumen mission (oddly, I can't do his 4 or 5 since at least one of the two combos in each proves too tough for me, but I apparently can manage his 6, since it has just the one combo, which was challenging but doable).

I'm now at 59% total completion. Going through various missions today to look them over and make a few attempts, I think I may eventually be able to get Ragna's 9, and perhaps even 10 (though that's more of a stretch), I might be able to do the remaining 4 I have on Tager (his don't seem hard so much as frustrating, mostly because I don't like how he plays), and maybe a few more of Rachel's... but I think that may be just about my limit. Carl and Noel's early challenges, and maybe one or two more each of Lambda, Mu, and Arakune are about the only others I have any confidence that I might be able to beat, but those are all pretty borderline. Certainly I don't think I could ever clear Hazama's 10, or any more of Bang, Litchi, or Tao's challenges. Still, this is all better than I ever expected when I first looked into challenge mode.

So, anyone else working on challenge mode at all? How much of it have you guys completed?

Zevox

Glad to hear you're going well, you seem a different man to the guy who couldn't dragon punch a few weeks back . I've been meaning to start challenge mode myself but I haven't found much free time since my university resumed and what spare gaming moments I've had the last few days have been spent playing the Scott Pilgrim game with my brother.

[Zevox]

I did Jin and Hakumen and then played around with the other characters for fun. I gave up on 100% because it sounded like a lot of work.

Oh, there's no way I'm getting 100% with it either. Just at a glance I can tell you I'm not going to be doing Arakune's challenges that involve those bugs, or high-level challenges for fast-paced characters like Noel and Tao. Or most of Carl's, because I just don't like and seriously doubt I could pull off his sort of "Ice Climbers" style of gameplay - heck, the main reason I finished his first challenge is because it didn't involve Nirvana at all, and I struggled with even that due to how odd he controls even without her. But I'm enjoying challenge mode, and want to see exactly how far I can get in it.

It's also helping me determine more characters I might actually be interested in playing, such as I was talking about with Lambda and Mu earlier. I had initially written their styles off as too odd for me, but after trying out some of their combos, they started to look much more appealing. Of course, it is having the reverse effect with Litchi - I like her style based on the basic combos of hers that I can do, but then I try to do her more advanced ones, and fall flat on my face because of the precise timing they require and the sheer length of them. Oh well.

I'm not going to lie, this was one of my favourite scenes in games in general, when I first reached this in story mode I shed a a manly tear or two.

It is certainly one of the best scenes in either game, especially in terms of character development. It didn't get me to tear up, but then again, not much does. I can still count on my hands the number of fictional scenes that have caused me to do that.

Glad to hear you're going well, you seem a different man to the guy who couldn't dragon punch a few weeks back .

I suppose I've certainly come a long way, particularly given the only fighting game I was any good at before I picked up Calamity Trigger was Super Smash Brothers. I still say that the dragon punch input is just silly and unintuitive though, even though I can do it now .

I've been meaning to start challenge mode myself but I haven't found much free time since my university resumed and what spare gaming moments I've had the last few days have been spent playing the Scott Pilgrim game with my brother.

Ah, school. Doesn't start around here until the beginning of next month, but I guess that's differences between the US and Australia for ya. I graduated earlier this year myself, so for the first time in as long as I can remember, I won't be going to one when it starts up in September. I get the fun of looking for a job in this economy instead .

Zevox