The smexiness that is Blazblue

[MixMasterLar]

Agree with Giggles....Everyone should main Bang and not Jin.

[stavie33]

Originally Posted by MixMasterLar

Agree with Giggles....Everyone should main Bang and not Jin.

Bang kicks ass

[MrGiggles]

If they took all the Jin and Noel players and divided them up evenly amongst the rest of the characters there would still be more Jin and Noel players than all other characters combined.

That's how much I end up fighting them.

V-13 also shows up a lot but I don't mind terribly since most of them aren't accustomed to fighting an Arakune and I get a free round of them standing around before they realize I have ranged attacks too.

[OneHandNow]

I'm still a devout Tager player.

[MrDespair]

Oh if anybody with PSN wants to win against me my user is MrDewgyDespair.

I am nowhere near online play capability though haha.

[Xiaounlimited]

I added you Giggles

Originally Posted by MixMasterLar

Agree with Giggles....Everyone should main Bang and not Jin.

block mid, mid, low, low, mid oops you just blocked the his basic bnb and every follow up he wants to try

Bang isn't terrible, but he's very vanilla once you face enough good players and realize there's very little variation.

[MrGiggles]

Did I play you before I realized that it was you, Xiao? Because I feel like I played someone with Xiao in their name 2-3 days ago. I assume I got wrecked if I did, I don't remember.

I've gotten substantially better though, we should definitely play a round or two when we're both on.

[Xiaounlimited]

Nope, I've never played you before. I'll on after 10pm GMT-5 tomorrow if you can be on and are interested in playing at that time.

Also the more I see Jin the more I realize how generic and versatile he is. Well-rounded but not exceptionally good at anything. Except his 623c DP with a ****ing billion invincibility frames and MASSIVE overhead reach. Crazy good for punishing

[Xiaounlimited]

Hahaha, you decimated me that first round Giggles. Shame you couldn't join the game with the rest of that party. They're actually quite good. I started getting into my groove and winning with a good margin for a number of matches; would've been better if you had faced me then.

We'll play again

[MrGiggles]

Indubitably.

I'm trying to bring my ratio to 50% and keep it there. That's my current goal, and I'd like to achieve it without resorting to fighting dudes 20 levels below me. My next goal is to actually learn some combos besides 6c c 2c and throw -> super, which are the only moves I can actually link in a battle.

Of course, I also really need to pick up a sub because I feel like a dick when I pick the same character over and over again.

[Xiaounlimited]

You probably should. I have extremely slow reaction time (for the most part) so it's a statistically improbable miracle that I ever throw cancel; but that can't be said about a lot of people. Players good at throw cancels will be your doom

[Shaydow]

So is this that good? Saw it on a G4 thing awile back, but ended up getting Soul Calibur IV instead later on ( only becuase a friend lent it to me and I didnt have to buy it ). I recentlly got a gamfly subscription, and love fighters. I take it I should put this on my list?

[Xiaounlimited]

It's one of the better (if not amongst the best) fighters available right now. It's not as popular as other fg powerhouses but if you love fighters this is definitely a game to get.

[Infernova]

Whilst I'll agree that the game is incredibly fun, and after playing it in Japan when I was over, I was determined to take the game seriously for competitive play, but when you say the game is the most balanced titles of the genre in the past decade, I really have to question what fighting games you actually play, or how well you play them.

An example of a game where no match-ups are blatantly dominated at high-level play is Melty Blood: Act Cadenza, or even Actress Again from what I was seeing. The problem BB has is that it lacks a proper defensive mechanic like the EX shield of MB or the parry system of 3rd Strike. I'm not sure what you consider high level, but I play in a lot of tournaments, and I've seen incredibly good Twelve/Q players rip through very talented Chun/Yun players in arcades. However, you can't possibly deny at this point in time how bad some match-ups in BlazBlue are.

I don't even have to prove much more than what this video should show you, but I'll elaborate on the ν-13 > Tager match-up anyway:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0KgQbxKefs

So as Tager, your main chance of winning is either getting close or getting a projectile out at some point to chain it into a combo on return. Against a ν-13 player who knows how to deal with Tager, you won't have time to move. You're locked down by projectiles. When you mess up, you find yourself in a combo and when it ends, the process is repeated. The only chance you have is if they drop their offensive for you to attempt a 2D/236B or whatever you feel up to, but the idea is, it's not at all balanced.

As a character, ν-13 has probably one bad match-up, which I believe is Jin. At best, this is a 6-4 scenario for Jin, and I don't even think it's that sloped. I realise people will probably whine about what I'm trying to tell them, and that I'm an elitist or whatever, but whatever. Tager has a ton of bad match-ups. I main Tager/Rachel, and I've seen first-hand what a good player can do to him. It isn't just Tager this applies to though. Most characters have it bad against zoners like Arakune/Rachel/ν-13, and balance is only viable when characters don't dominate loads of match-ups.

So anyway, by all means feel free to disprove what I've posted, if you wish. If you're only playing the game casually with no intent on advancing past BnB though, tiers are really not worth looking at.

[korny]

There is no way this game is as balanced as 3rd strike after watching that video.

[Xiaounlimited]

You know, the more I play Blazblue and watch match videos the more it dawns on me how stretched apart tiers and matchups really are. I can't disprove the above post, because it's right. In the past 7 days I've seen some really retarded matchups and it's really just doing nothing but proving Infernova's point.

The appearance of balance is a facade that really starts to fade once you start to get serious about the game (sadly), but I don't retract my statement about this game being fun as hell and it being one of the better fighters out there (because it is). With all that said, I'm still going to be playing this game seriously. Regardless of how frustrating and how blatantly biased some matchups are, it's extremely addictive and fun nonetheless.

Also,

The problem BB has is that it lacks a proper defensive mechanic like the EX shield of MB or the parry system of 3rd Strike.

Instant blocking. AFAIK you have a frame advantage, don't move the Guard Libra and take no damage, chip or otherwise. Tell me if I'm wrong though

[edit]
Taking the zoning characters out of consideration - unrealistic but humour me here - the game isn't that bad in terms of balance. The rest of the cast is generally even. I mean, including the zoning characters, the WORST matchups are like Tager vs. Nu (see above) and maybe something like Rachel vs. Carl (because he has nothing going for him, since his clap loop doesn't work on her). The clap loop infinite is another story that I won't touch on.

The developers have acknowledged that Nu is extremely powerful in comparison to the rest of the cast and while that makes sense in relation to the story it's pretty horrid gameplay wise. Apparently it was also acknowledged that Arakune and Rachel were overpowered as well from the devs, though I haven't seen that mentioned. The Nu comments are all over Dustloop so I'm taking it that that statement is true.

With the magic of the internet though, maybe a patch will come through. Maybe. I wouldn't mind Rachel getting nerfed if it meant Nu wasn't such a beast anymore. Especially not with one button.

[korny]

I will admit though, this game looks pretty neat. I'm going to have to check it out sometime and end up owning all you nubs.

[Infernova]

Originally Posted by Xiaounlimited

Instant blocking. AFAIK you have a frame advantage, don't move the Guard Libra and take no damage, chip or otherwise.

Yeah, that's true. From what I know instant blocking gives a 5 frame reduction on ground block-stun, and a 10 frame reduction during aerial block-stun, which is pretty handy, although I don't think the advantage given is worth the extra effort some of the time. If I'm playing against Arakune for example, and I'm in block-stun, as much as I'd appreciate extra frames, the risk of predicting the attack, going for a counter-hit only for them to rapid cancel on block anyway is pretty shoddy.

What I really meant was something like a proper reversal, kind of like what Hakumen has, except stricter timing and maybe increasing meter when performed. If the game had reversals from predictions, then spamming a character's crap over and over again, and even staggering the inputs would be risky if they get to grips with the setup. Maybe even give invincibility frames for a small amount of time afterwards. For example, Jin's on rushdown against Rachel (Poor little loli!) and you recognise the combo. You break the block string and counter-hit.

Now this way, players would be forced to go for mix-ups, and with a strict enough timing, it means that characters that can command throw into setups like Tager won't be completely dominated by the system, whereas trap characters still have their ability to capture their opponent.

A simple alternative that although not able to balance the game, will allow players to at least spare themselves the bother of a waiting game which they'll inevitably lose anyway.

Whoever thinks this is too much like 'BlazFighter III: Fight for Calamity Trigger' can continue playing their 'balanced' game and gaining wins on folk trying to pick up low tier.

Oh and Xiao, well done, repping Rachel! ;D

[Froston]

Originally Posted by Adamaja456

looks and sounds extremely lame

This.

[MrGiggles]

It's pretty well balanced. Tager and Jin are the two standouts, one being the worst and the other arguably being the best (some argue v-13 and I could see that). Bang is on the lower end, but rather close to everyone else. The 8 other characters are all very close together compared to a lot of other fighters. At the casual level Tager and Bang are much much better (especially Tager), but so is Jin.

Besides, I bet they can patch it later. I heard rumors the first patch will contain an Arakune nerf which makes zero sense because v-13 and Jin need it much more. >.>