BlazBlue Continuum Shift: This thread is the white void.

[Zevox]

The games retailing for $40 us instead of $60 though if that helps .

Really? That's quite a surprise actually - $40 is normally the price of handheld games, not console games. It does make it more appealing to be sure... but my job situation remains.

Eh, well, we'll see.

Zevox

[Rigel Cyrosea]

I'm a big fan of GG, but I never got around to trying BB:CT. Gonna pick up CS on release day and give it a go.

You lost me at "roll down-diagonal," which would cause me to hit the diagonal button in between the two primary directions, which would mess up the move - and I honestly don't know what the rest of that sentence after that point even means.

On the subject of the DP motion input- I used to have a lot of trouble with that too. I play Dizzy main in GG, and one of her all-important projectiles requires that motion. The way I do it now is basically to just spam the stick back and forth between forward (well, back in the case of Dizzy, but it's still the same motion) and down and hit the button as it crosses the middle on the way back up. It doesn't really matter if you end up making the reverse fireball motion first, afaik, as long as you hit forward down and down-forward at some point.

[Prime32]

I'm a big fan of GG, but I never got around to trying BB:CT. Gonna pick up CS on release day and give it a go.

But... but the plot! Noooooooo!

[KBF]

On the subject of the DP motion input- I used to have a lot of trouble with that too. I play Dizzy main in GG, and one of her all-important projectiles requires that motion. The way I do it now is basically to just spam the stick back and forth between forward (well, back in the case of Dizzy, but it's still the same motion) and down and hit the button as it crosses the middle on the way back up. It doesn't really matter if you end up making the reverse fireball motion first, afaik, as long as you hit forward down and down-forward at some point.

I'm going to miss using my keyboard for the 623. It's so simple when it's D-S-SD. I've only recently got it down in muscle memory in the arcades, but there's no way I can perform it on an X-Box controller, so I'll have to look into a stick.. But seeing as I still haven't gotten that $20 for CT, there's no way I can grab one. Which is too bad, because that video that was linked earlier makes me want to play real, real bad.

[Bad Situation]

Did anyone have as much trouble as me in transitioning from 360 controller to fight stick? It actually took me a few weeks to be able to play my friend evenly again. Or were some of you guys born in the arcade game era, like my brother who never had to make a switch?

[Penguinizer]

An arcade stick can be rather tricky to adjust to. I'm having trouble even after some 3 weeks. Still, I find that it can be better for some stuff.

[Zevox]

Well, I'm doing a lot better in my online matches now, so either I'm improving or I'm facing worse opponents. Probably a little of both actually - I have fought a few people who were entirely too eager to use barrier burst lately, activating it the moment it looks like I have them in a combo, which of course makes it that much easier to beat them. On the other hand I have gotten better at executing combos myself, and have actually come up with a couple of variations on the combos I learned from dustloop/the wiki/the tutorial video on youtube that work better for me, one of which ups the damage from a corner combo from a little over 3,800 to a little over 5,000 according to training mode, so those have probably made me more dangerous too. I'm still not exactly great at escaping the combos of especially aggressive enemies, and probably need to be more aggressive myself, am probably too predictable in my approaches, and really need to figure out a way to deal with enemy airdash approaches that doesn't involve "dragon punch" attacks, but I am getting better. Heck, the simple fact that I can identify some of my weaknesses outside of "I don't do enough combos and get comboed too much" is a sign of that I suppose.

I recently tried learning other characters so that I'm not just playing Jin all the time as well, but... meh. Everyone I thought I was interested in even slightly I just don't really seem to like when I try to learn their combos. I would like Litchi, but I don't think I'll ever be able to get the feel for how to use her specials associated with that staff well (aside from tsubami gaishi, and that only because it's mapped to the right stick and its uses are pretty obvious). I kinda like Noel, but from the looks of things most of her combos depend on this odd juggling thing with her 6C being canceled after the first hit, which is more precise timing than I can handle regularly - and most of the rest of her combos only work on a limited set of characters, and I really don't want to have to memorize which work on who. I did learn her basic aerial combo pretty easily, and one pretty basic ground combo, but that's about as far as it looks like I'll get with her.

With everyone else (Tao, Ragna, Nu, Hakumen) I simply wasn't enjoying playing them, in addition to some of their combos being more than I could handle with their timing (that mostly applies to Tao and Nu, incidentally).

...on the other hand, I also found out recently that I'll have quite a bit more hours at work this week due to a full-timer in my department being on vacation. Convenient that. Raises the odds that I'll buy Continuum Shift quite a bit.

Did anyone have as much trouble as me in transitioning from 360 controller to fight stick? It actually took me a few weeks to be able to play my friend evenly again. Or were some of you guys born in the arcade game era, like my brother who never had to make a switch?

I'm playing on a 360 controller obviously, but I can see how there'd be an issue there, considering I have difficulty even switching from using the d-pad to the controller's analog stick. I find the former easier to use in most situations, but the latter much better for distortion drives which require a half-circle and then hitting the direction opposite the endpoint of the half-circle, so I sometimes try to switch over to it entirely. Hasn't worked out yet.

Zevox

[Penguinizer]

One of the problems I've had with GG on a stick is that the inputs required are rather fast. Not as big of a problem in BB though. BB is a bit slower.

[Rigel Cyrosea]

I always hear that arcade sticks are so much better for fighting games once you get used to them, but I really didn't like it when I got the chance to try one out. I love the old gamecube pad for GG, and although I'm not a big fan of the xbox controller, I'd take it over an arcade stick any day.

[Revlid]

Okay, so I just got back from Japan, where I saw this game in a hell of a lot of arcades. Got intrigued, looked it up, and am now officially interested. Will be buying it for the 360 next trip into town, and given that the last fighting game I bought was Soul Calibur 2 (and Super Smash Brothers before that), this should be interesting.

I really like the visuals of Arakune, though I don't know if I'll like his playing style. The one thing that does bother me a bit is that Hazama appears, in many ways, to be a more snappily-dressed Ichimaru Gin recolor.

[Penguinizer]

I'm still wondering why ArcSys is having troubles with balance. While the GG series had their problems *coughEddiecough*, the balance was relatively even. However, BB seems to have a few more problem cases.

They can do reasonably balanced games, it seems that they aren't doing so now. I wonder if something changed in-company or did they just not test enough.

[MoelVermillion]

An arcade stick can be rather tricky to adjust to. I'm having trouble even after some 3 weeks. Still, I find that it can be better for some stuff.

I made the jump 10 months ago, it definitely has a learning curve on it but I found that after a while you can do complex inputs more quickly and accurately so its well worth it. Mine took me about a month before I'd equaled/surpassed my controller ability.

I really like the visuals of Arakune, though I don't know if I'll like his playing style. The one thing that does bother me a bit is that Hazama appears, in many ways, to be a more snappily-dressed Ichimaru Gin recolor.

Generally I've found that who ever is playing Arakune is enjoying his play-style; its just that who ever is fighting him wants to smack the other player in the head with a fight stick, though that more applies to the first game than the second.

As for Hazama, yeah they even share an English VA, that being said though Hazama does have his little quirks that set him apart. Mainly in the fact that he's sharing his body with the spirit of a massive and obnoxious troll or something to that degree.

I'm still wondering why ArcSys is having troubles with balance. While the GG series had their problems *coughEddiecough*, the balance was relatively even. However, BB seems to have a few more problem cases.

They can do reasonably balanced games, it seems that they aren't doing so now. I wonder if something changed in-company or did they just not test enough.

Well BlazBlue is under a different director to Guilty Gear; Toshimichi Mori and Daisuke Ishiwatari respectively. It's also worth noting that this is the second game in the series so far so Guilty Gear has had plenty more iterations for the balancing to work out. Don't worry though they're actually planning to release a balancing patch a few months in to the console release's life cycle which shows that even if they haven't figured it out yet they still acknowledge the importance of balance in the game.


EDIT:

Really? That's quite a surprise actually - $40 is normally the price of handheld games, not console games. It does make it more appealing to be sure... but my job situation remains.

Eh, well, we'll see.

Zevox

Yeah there were two pretty good reasons for the price lowering. The game suffers the same problem as Super Street Fighter IV in that it was released about a year after the first game and doesn't add as much as most full sequels making it hard to justify pricing it as anything but an expansion. Secondly it was Aksys Games way of apologizing to the fans for not getting an English Collector's Edition ready in time. Either way though it was pleasant surprise.

[Zabel_Zarock]

I'm still wondering why ArcSys is having troubles with balance. While the GG series had their problems *coughEddiecough*, the balance was relatively even. However, BB seems to have a few more problem cases.

They can do reasonably balanced games, it seems that they aren't doing so now. I wonder if something changed in-company or did they just not test enough.

GG wasn't balanced till like #R. God help anyone that played Ky with his unsafe on hit Vapor Thrust or Bridget in general.

[MoelVermillion]

Makoto gameplay videos from Comic Con I believe:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijaj55bNrZI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A4VyJUAdzU

Makoto's Command list:
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...e/GEDC0495.jpg
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...e/GEDC0496.jpg
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...e/GEDC0497.jpg
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...e/GEDC0498.jpg
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...e/GEDC0499.jpg
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...e/GEDC0500.jpg

Shes looking pretty good, people would have been playing her for only like a few hours and they're already doing pretty well in matches. We'll have to see how she ends up after people get more of a play around with her though.

[Zevox]

Makoto gameplay videos from Comic Con I believe:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijaj55bNrZI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A4VyJUAdzU

Makoto's Command list:
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...e/GEDC0495.jpg
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...e/GEDC0496.jpg
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...e/GEDC0497.jpg
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...e/GEDC0498.jpg
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...e/GEDC0499.jpg
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...e/GEDC0500.jpg

Shes looking pretty good, people would have been playing her for only like a few hours and they're already doing pretty well in matches. We'll have to see how she ends up after people get more of a play around with her though.

Looks like one of those fast, short reach brawler types. Meh. Can't say I'm particularly interested in her myself. She's going to be DLC, right? I probably won't bother getting her if that's the case (unless it's free DLC of course, but I doubt it).

Actually, what's her drive ability like? Everyone else has some pretty unique effects attached to their drive abilities that make them play unlike anyone I've seen in other fighting games, but I'm not really seeing anything unique with Makoto in those videos. Just a lot of punching and kicking, and a rarely-used energy projectile of some kind that just looks like a bland hadoken thing.

Zevox

[Penguinizer]

She's going to cost something around 6-7 dollars based on what I've heard. I wonder how the paid DLC characters will affect competitive play.

[Zevox]

She's going to cost something around 6-7 dollars based on what I've heard.

Yeah, definitely won't be getting her if that's the case. Heck, I'd hesitate to buy a character I am interested in playing for that. Given the price of the games themselves, that seems pretty inflated - even if the characters were all you got, the original 12-character game retailing at $60 would only come to a value of $5 per character. And if the new game is only $40 and comes with 14 off the bat, that shrinks that to approximately $2.85 per character. So one character as DLC at that price just seems... blech.

Zevox

[Prime32]

Well, there's one reason to download.
Okay, Valkenhayn's is cooler...

[Bad Situation]

Bluh, I fought a Jin and he ice carred right off the bat. He was using it way too much all throughout the fight, and he didn't seem to realize there was an A variant of the move so it was ridiculously easy to punish him.

After I beat him the first time he spent the second match just messing around and spamming ice car. So annoying.

[MoelVermillion]

I've found myself preferring Platinum's theme to be honest.

I'll be getting all the DLC characters, my brother majorly wants to play Makoto, I majorly want to play Valkenhayn and my friend majorly wants to play Platinum so it seems like the only reasonable course of action.

EDIT: You know I started the game as a Jin player but all the "Ice-Car" Jin players ended up souring the character for me, I guess bad spammy players are part of every game though. It also manages to work in very low level play so I guess you can't blame them if the strategy ruins most the people they play against. Still annoying though.

[Prime32]

I imagine that Valkenhayn would be the kind of character who's hard to control but can chain massive combos if he connects. And physically transforms for his Astral Finish.

[Bad Situation]

You know, as much as I dislike playing ice car spammers, I think I dislike going up against really good Hakumen and Tager players even more.

It's really embarrassing making a single mistake and having it turn the entire match around on you.

[Penguinizer]

To be honest. Ice-car has nothing on Jin's former self, Ky. GREEEEDOOO SEVAAAH is an overhead that is hard to react to and can not be hit low. It also has an annoying animation. Suffice to say, it's one of the reasons people hate Ky.

[MoelVermillion]

I imagine that Valkenhayn would be the kind of character who's hard to control but can chain massive combos if he connects. And physically transforms for his Astral Finish.

I was thinking pretty much the same thing, he also totally summons a sweet full moon background for his Astral Finish right?

It's really embarrassing making a single mistake and having it turn the entire match around on you.

Eh I kind of like that, there's a certain level of awe that sweeps over you when you instantly go from half health to zero after one mistake .

[Bad Situation]

Eh I kind of like that, there's a certain level of awe that sweeps over you when you instantly go from half health to zero after one mistake .

Hakumen is notorious for this (at least in my mind) because of his bag of counters, and the turtling most people do with him for the first half of the match.

[Prime32]

Unlimited Hakumen vs. Night Terror

Who would win?

[Zevox]

Bluh, I fought a Jin and he ice carred right off the bat. He was using it way too much all throughout the fight, and he didn't seem to realize there was an A variant of the move so it was ridiculously easy to punish him.

After I beat him the first time he spent the second match just messing around and spamming ice car. So annoying.

I grew out of that myself when I started looking up his combos - and honestly, I kind of guessed that it wouldn't work as well on humans as on computers even before that, since I have experience with something not entirely dissimilar from Smash Brothers, Lucas' u-smash (powerful, large range, tempting to use, but easy to block or dodge and punishable as all hell). I will on rare occasion toss out a C or D crystal strike from across the screen if I think my opponent is sufficiently expecting a different approach from me, or if they're in the midst of dashing or jumping towards me, but now I usually just use them in combos, or sometimes A or B versions to travel fast but come up short of the target.

I haven't yet run into any big spammers online either - actually, most of the people I fight keep using Ragna, Tager, or Hakumen, so I don't actually see all that many other Jins (though Jin is still more common than many of the others - I don't think I've ever played a Rachel player online, for instance, and I've seen maybe two Taos and Arakunes each). Still haven't quite figured out the best way to punish the odd Jin who does a crystal strike that I block though - any tips?

You know, as much as I dislike playing ice car spammers, I think I dislike going up against really good Hakumen and Tager players even more.

It's really embarrassing making a single mistake and having it turn the entire match around on you.

Nah, I'll take those any day. You can learn from losing to a really good player. Actually, given the things I've seen good players do with Tager, I kind of wonder why he's considered so bad. He's one of the worse uphill battles I face when my opponent knows what he's doing with him, due to his large reach and high strength. I'm never really sure how to approach him.

Zevox

[Penguinizer]

He is slow. Has no ranged options except a single use projectile every once in a blue moon. Has bad pressure strings. And he is so easily outzoned it's not funny.

[Bad Situation]

Punish the odd Jin who does a crystal strike that I block though - any tips?

As long as you block the second hit from a B/C Ice Car, 5B will do the trick, then you can follow up with a Sekkajin (I think this works, Jin mirrors are harder and harder to find nowadays) and finally cap it off with your own ice car. Jin is very vulnerable after a blocked Ice Car.

[Zevox]

He is slow. Has no ranged options except a single use projectile every once in a blue moon. Has bad pressure strings. And he is so easily outzoned it's not funny.

Ah, I'm kinda new to the fighting game jargon - the guy who didn't know what "dragon punch" meant a couple pages ago, if you recall - so you're gonna have to explain half of that. What are "pressure strings" and "outzoned?"

And yes, he's slow and lacks a consistently-usable projectile, but that doesn't seem to impair him much in my experience since if you try to keep your distance he just blocks or backdash-dodges projectiles, forcing you to come in close to actually fight. I could see him getting raped by Nu, since she has projectiles that can come from every possible angle, but she's overpowered to begin with. I guess you could stay back and pelt him with projectiles until he suffers a barrier crush then charge in and combo him, but that would take a while, and honestly I'd feel entirely too cheap doing something like that.

As long as you block the second hit from a B/C Ice Car, 5B will do the trick, then you can follow up with a Sekkajin (I think this works, Jin mirrors are harder and harder to find nowadays) and finally cap it off with your own ice car. Jin is very vulnerable after a blocked Ice Car.

If the wiki isn't lying to me, Sekkajin is the sword-flurry move done by mashing C, right? That combos into a crystal strike? I wish I'd known that before - I often end up hitting foes with that just after landing from an airdash attack.

Zevox