| BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle | |
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Name |
BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle |
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Developer |
Arc System Works (Project BB Team) |
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Publisher |
JP Arc System Works |
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Designer(s) |
Toshimichi Mori |
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Composer(s) |
Daisuke Ishiwatari |
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Platform(s) |
PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PC, Arcade, Xbox One, Xbox series X/S |
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Release Date(s) |
PS4, NS & Steam: |
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Cost |
Original Price |
BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, is a 2D crossover tag team fighting game developed by Arc System Works, released on consoles and PC on May 31, 2018. The Arcade Edition was announced on January 25, 2019 to be released in April 25, 2019, with the location test set in February 9 - 10, and at Toushinasai on March 23 - 24.
Information
The character roster consists of the characters from the mostly licensed fighting games series involving Project BB Team, such as from Arc System Works' own BlazBlue, Atlus' Persona 4 Arena, French Bread's Under Night In-Birth, and Rooster Teeth's RWBY, later followed by Team Arcana’s Arcana Heart (formerly co-owned by Examu as of the end of February 2020), Marvelous’ Senran Kagura and Subtle-Style’s Akatsuki En-Eins. The character art for this game is drawn by Higuchi Konomi who previously worked as a character designer of the XBLAZE series.
Gameplay
See Also: Gameplay and Tag System This game is a 2-on-2, two dimensional sprite tag team fighting game in three dimensional area, which allows the player to switch between characters during a fight. Each character from both players has their own health bar.
The gameplay will not be similar as neither the said past fighting game series’ gameplay (not counting RWBY, but including a gameplay which is seen by a Senran Kagura representative in Nitroplus Blasterz). Yet, some of their previous gameplay mechanics are retained and revamped for this game.[4]
Storyline
Cross Tag Battle will have the first four sided storyline episodes called “Episode Mode”, which may tell the episode stories of all playable cast from each of four initial consisting series.
Inside a dimension called the Phantom Field, chosen individuals from four different worlds appeared. Then, a mysterious voice told them that if they want to return to their world, they need to protect something called the "key stone". With that, the warriors begin fighting each other to steal their key stones.
In Season 2 storyline, it continues from certain BlazBlue episode revolving around a critical situation accidentally caused by Hazama and the "Phantom Field", which is why they set up a stamp collecting contest for each selected participants from certain chosen universes as part of temporary truce, including summoning from three more universes, so one of them can solve the problems and stop a dangerous outcome that will end entire universes and beyond.
Playable Characters/Controversies
The starting roster confirms to have 20 default rosters (21 in PC version) and 20 Season 1 DLC characters (19 on PC version), totaling 40 characters.[5][6] As a result for the half of game’s planned roster, this game caused backlash from fighting game fans who have been promised a large roster at launch, while also citing that the game uses mostly reused assets from earlier Arc System Works fighting games. Robert Ramsey of Push Square called the title ugly compared to Arc System Works' other project, Dragon Ball FighterZ.[7] Season 2 DLC characters has been planned, according to Arc System Works president Minoru Kidooka, including this game's producer Mori, starting from their appearances in Arcade Edition on April 25, 2019.[8]
Bold Italic denotes for DLC characters
* denotes for DLC characters who appeared as default character at PC version’s launch
(number) denotes for which Season Pass the DLC characters come from
BlazBlue
- Ragna the Bloodedge
- Jin Kisaragi
- Noel Vermillion
- Rachel Alucard
- Iron Tager
- Hakumen(1)
- Nu-13
- Hazama Honoka
- Makoto Nanaya
- Platinum the Trinity(1)
- Tsubaki Yayoi (Izayoi)(1)
- Azrael
- Celica Ayatsuki Mercury(2)
- Nine the Phantom(1)
- Naoto Kurogane(2)
- Yūki Terumi (Takehaya Susano’o)(2)
- Es Mitsurugi
- Mai Natsume(1)
- Jubei Mitsuyoshi(1)
Persona 4 Arena (Ultimax)
- Yu Narukami
- Yosuke Hanamura
- Chie Satonaka
- Yukiko Amagi
- Kanji Tatsumi(1)
- Teddie(2)
- Shadow Naoto(1)
- Shadow Mitsuru(1)
- Shadow Akihiko(1)
- Aegis(1)
- Elizabeth(2)
- Labrys(1)
- Tohru Adachi(2)
Under Night In-Birth
- Hyde Kido
- Linne
- Waldstein
- Carmine Prime(1)
- Orie Ballardiae(1)
- Gordeau the Harvester
- Merkava(1)
- Vatista(1)
- Seth the Assassin(2)
- Yuzuriha(1)
- Hilda the Paradox(2)
- Mika Returna(1)
RWBY
Arcana Heart
- Heart Aino(2)
Senran Kagura
- Yumi(2)
Akatsuki EN-Eins
Downloadable Contents
- Character All-in-One Pack/Season 1: Cost $20. Also available for FREE via Limited Edition DLC Code, or either Deluxe or Special Editions. Each Character Set Pack includes 3 characters, and cost $5, or FREE at the set packs' console release date for 2 weeks. Single Character Packs cost for FREE permanently, while in PC’s case can only be available at launch by default or in the future arcade time release-like update patches. Adds Examu’s Arcana Heart (due to its pink color square) in Season 1.5, which cost $8. Highly recommend to purchase Special Edition.
- Character Pack Vol. 1 (June 5, 2018): Blake Belladonna
- Available at PC Launch by default
- Character Pack Vol. 2 (June 19, 2018): Yang Xiao Long
- Available at PC time release update patch
- Character Set Vol. 1 (June 5, 2018): Platinum the Trinity, Shadow Kanji, Orie Ballardiae
- Pre-Order Basic PC Edition FREE for Limited Time until July 6, 2018
- Character Set Vol. 2 (June 19, 2018): Jubei Mitsuyoshi, Aigis, Carmine Prime
- Character Set Vol. 3 (June 19, 2018): Hakumen, Shadow Naoto, Vatista
- Character Set Vol. 4 (August 6, 2018): Tsubaki Yayoi (Izayoi), Shadow Mitsuru, Merkava
- Character Set Vol. 5 (August 6, 2018): Mai Natsume, Shadow Akihiko, Yuzuriha
- Character Set Vol. 6 (August 6, 2018): Nine the Phantom, Shadow Labrys, Mika Returna
- Character Set Vol. 7 (April 25 (Arcade), and May 21 (DLC), 2019): Naoto Kurogane, Teddie, Seth the Assassin, Heart Aino
- According to Arc Live at December 6, 2018 and ArcNama in Mid-January 2019, this pack was announced at January 24, 2019, starting from initially appearing in Arcade Edition. Initially had other character interactions aside assist calls forgotten, but Arc System Works eventually responds in May 23, 2019 to fix this sooner in Season 2.
- Character Pack Vol. 1 (June 5, 2018): Blake Belladonna
- Version 2.0 Expansion/Season 2: Adds Marvelous' Senran Kagura (due to its cyan color represents second timeline) and Subtle-Style's Akatsuki-En Eins alongside updated storyline. Special Edition only. Cost $25.
- Base Roster (November 21, 2019): Celica Ayatsuki Mercury, Yūki Terumi (Takehaya Susano'o), Elizabeth, Tohru Adachi, Hilda the Paradox, Neo Politan, Yumi, Akatsuki, Blitztank
- Color Packs: Cost $3 Each Pack.
- June 5, 2018: Pack 1 - 3
Bonuses
See also: Bonuses
Gallery
Images
.png "BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle (Logo).png (1.25 MB)")
.png "BBTAG Select S2 Full (Temporary).png (1.85 MB)")
.jpg "BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle DLC (promotional material, Aigis, Carmine Prime, Jubei).jpg (254 KB)")
.jpg "BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle DLC (promotional material, Naoto Shirogane, Vatista, Hakumen).jpg (101 KB)")
.jpg "BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle DLC (Blake Belladonna, Kanji Tatsumi, Orie Ballardiae, Platinum the Trinity).jpg (90 KB)")
.jpg "BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle DLC (Yang Xiao Long, Aigis, Jubei, Carmine Prime, Naoto Shirogane, Hakumen, Vatista).jpg (55 KB)")
,_Merkava).jpg "BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle DLC (Mitsuru Kirijo, Tsubaki Yayoi (Izayoi), Merkava).jpg (451 KB)")
.jpg "BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle DLC (Akihiko Sanada, Mai Natsume, Yuzuriha).jpg (466 KB)")
.jpg "BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle DLC (Labrys, Nine the Phantom, Mika Returna).jpg (468 KB)")
.jpg "BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle AE DLC (Seth the Assassin, Naoto, Kurogane, Heart Aino, Teddie).jpg (52 KB)")
.jpg "BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle (Arcade Poster).jpg (810 KB)")
.jpg "BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle (2.0 Poster).jpg (288 KB)")
Videos
Gameplay
Characters
Neo BlazBlue Radio
Reception
BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle received "generally favorable" reviews on Metacritic getting a metascore of 76/100 on PS4[9] and 79/100 on Nintendo Switch.[10]>
Trivia
See also: Trivia
Development
Before this game was announced, Rooster Teeth, the creator of RWBY teased the possibility of a RWBY fighting game being revealed at Evo 2017 on their Twitter account.
On July 16th, 2017, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle was announced at the Evo 2017 championships, following Ryusei Ito's victory in BlazBlue: Central Fiction. Ruby Rose was revealed to be playable in the game via the announcement trailer, confirming the presence of RWBY characters and Rooster Teeth's involvement in the game. It was announced that Konomi Higuchi will serve as the game's lead character designer.
According to Toshimichi Mori on Famitsu Interview, this game will be exclusively to be released on console. Some characters are currently do not match well with BlazBlue Universe's sprite graphics, such as Persona 4 Arena's spinning juggle knockback sprites will be rotated 45 degrees, and Under Night In-Birth characters' sprites will be redrawn to match BlazBlue graphics. However, Arcana Heart and Akatsuki En-Eins characters, as well as Senran Kagura's Homura recieved more visible sprite upgrades than the rest of the series sides. There were no plans on including characters from other franchises such as from Guilty Gear in this game, despite Arc System Works’ awareness of this requests, and wanted to expand it in the future, if possible, starting from Arcana Heart itself for this game. The game's main target crowd is the fans abroad rather than in Japan.
It was announced on October 15, 2017 to be released for PlayStation 4, PC & Nintendo Switch.
After the 2017’s New York Comic Con events, Arc System Works created a survey to hear the fans’ opinions for this game on their official website, until it is closed on November 5, 2017 at 8:00 AM.
An American branch of Arc System Works will publish the North American version of this game.
According to Mori at Famitsu interview, regarding of the full-game and DLC prices ever since this game sudden have a controversy regarding of the roster size and inclusions, their release currencies will cost at lower prices, so that more people can get the game and play.
References
- ↑ http://www.arcsystemworks.jp/portal/post-6756/
- ↑ https://gematsu.com/2017/11/arc-system-works-america-publish-blazblue-cross-tag-battle-north-america
- ↑ https://steamdb.info/app/702890/
- ↑ http://www.siliconera.com/2017/10/03/blazblue-cross-tag-battles-leaked-footage-shows-ruby-rose-action/
- ↑ https://www.famitsu.com/news/201801/13149729.html
- ↑ https://clips.twitch.tv/CourteousOddFloofOptimizePrime
- ↑ http://www.pushsquare.com/news/2018/01/half_of_blazblue_cross_tag_battles_character_roster_is_dlc_fans_are_raging
- ↑ https://www.arcsystemworks.jp/portal/post-12020/
- ↑ Metascore for BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle on PS4Metacritic, Retrieved March 30, 2020
- ↑ Metascore for BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle on Nintendo SwitchMetacritic, Retrieved March 30, 2020
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| Terminology | Controls · Tag System · Trophies · Color Palettes · Battle Themes · Bonuses · Trivia |
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Cathedral -Silent- · Monorail · Hanging Gardens · Adventus · Rail Station · Snow Town · Blockade District · Lakeside Port · Magister’s City: Ishana · Last Train - Rail Station · Duel Field · Forbidden Gate · Cross Field |
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Entrance · Convenience Store · School Gate · Junes Food Court · Ring |
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Town Center - Crossing · Riverside Plaza · Sleeping Fountain Plaza · Central Station |
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Abandoned Temple |
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Gyoen Metropolitan Girls' Academy |
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Tropical Paradise |
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N/A |
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Prologue · Final Stage · Training |