As most know, Blazblue: continuum shift, the sequel (more add on) to calamity trigger was released in Japan last year. Arcade Infinity in SoCal got it too... and now we review.

Okay, so first off, I didn't want to type anything up until i got some serious play time under my belt. The game also leaked onto the internet, allowing me to practice new characters and now I'm comfortable to type my mind out.

First off, the game mechanics have changed somewhat. Danger mode after bursting is out. A new guard break mechanic is in. Small tweaks here and there, nothing too over the top. Bursting is more strategic now since you only get a new burst after loosing a match. Also in best of five matches you can only have a max of 2 bursts so some serious thought goes into the choice to burst. I like it. I doesn't return to the guilty gear days of burst first chance you get and still doesn't force you to save it till the very end.

I still have to say I can't wait to hear the English voice actors again. A few characters got more character specific intros (Tao now has character specific against Bang, Noel and Hakumen to name on instance) and winning poses (Tao beating hakumen is adorable). 

Characters
Lets pretty much go over the characters and judge them on either "improved" or "nerfed" status. My personal guess where they are in the power ranking will be thrown in the end. First the new characters.

Tsubaki: She reminds me of Order Sol mixed with a Melty Blood character on how she plays. Her standing pokes all have a self combo 1-2 by pressing the same button twice allowing AABBCC style combos. All her specials like quarter forward A (236a) or dragon punch A (623a) can be repeated on every button to give a different strength of attack much like street fighter really. Her D allows her to build up a special bar that once filled, can be used on D attacks for extra properties and such. Very simple, very beginner friendly character. With that said, she also very easy to play against. After playing with a veteran tsubaki player you can pick up their tactics in a few minutes. Once that happens, the playing field gets leveled pretty easily. Power level: mid to low.

Hazama: Hazama's D drive allow him to go mortal combat scorpion on the opponent and shoots out hooks that he can swing around stage or if he lands a hit, brings him to the opponent (or throw the opponent). He's very pro keep away and reminds me of Axl from guilty gear. I will say this: when Hazama and Tao fight each other, it will probably go down to time since both rely on flying around the stage. I haven't tried to pick him up but from my time playing against him, i can say he's solid. Power ranking: mid to mid high.

Ragna: I don't play ragna but literally everyone else does. His changes are usually unseen. He gets a new air based attack... that's pretty much it. All the other tweeks are frame data and it looks like it works out in his favor. His 6A is still strong as hell and his combos seem to pick up a bit of speed. He hasn't changed that much but sometimes not changing at all means you go up in the standings. Final judgement: improved. His pressure is just too crazy to keep up with sometimes. he will eventually get a hit and you will hurt. Power ranking: Upper mid.

Noel: Poor Noel. Everybody always picks on her. She still doesn't have a standing combo. In fact, every combo she originally had, no longer works. Her 6A has been nurfed and her 2D no longer hits overhead. In exchange her standing C comes out faster, her 236 bullets come out faster, and she receives better frame data on all of her D attacks. Oh, and she gets to J.D easier and has a new in air D move. Her overall damage can be as high as it does in the first game but boy do you need to work for it even more now. All combo starters are easily punished on block and there's no real easy way to pressure anybody that's not in the corner. She was true mid in the first game... now she's dropped. Final judgement: Nurfed. Without the pressence of easier combos and combo starters, the nurfs she got far outweigh the buffs in the long run. Power ranking: low to low mid.

Jin: HA! Karma's a bitch! Jin always had the annoying factor of always being able to freeze you if he lays any kind of hit on you. Now you no longer have to wiggle to get out of his D freeze and many of his move have been nurfed big time. Now he needs to find a new way to add pressure since the very minor nurfs he received seem to throw and wrench in his game play. Final judgement: nurfed. He was once considered the 4th or 5th strongest in the game. He's more in the middle now. Power ranking: Mid.

Tao: Tao's taunt combo survived ark system's scrutiny and boy are they regretting it. Tao's entire game now revolves around that taunt combo which is now a loop. Taunt → 214 D → 2D~B x2-12 times depending on what set up you use. That's not to say the combo is easy. Much to the contrary, it's hard as hell! Still, if you can do it on command you're now in control of one of the craziest characters in the game now. Her D drive cancels all have good use now, not just D~B. If you can start pressuring with her, she can be unstoppable. If the pressure ends up on your side, you can count yourself dead. Final Judgement: Improved. She's more linear when it comes to combos but now the set up and mix up will make your head spin. Power Ranking: High to top 3 (though defiantly not highest)

Lanmda 11 (Nu 13): Nu was one of the top 3 in the first game. Defiantly one of the most complained about. Ah but no longer. All the sniping combos from afar are long gone. All damage from her D strings are cut in half and most of her distancing tricks are thrown out. She does get some new moves to fill the gap though: a dash attack that either hits mid, low or wiff. The mid attack also hits surprisingly high in the air. Most combos I see involve her dashing in to do any of the major attacks which means she needs to get close to do anything, a place where Nu hated to be. Final Judgement: Nurf. She's no longer top 3 but her moves are solid. No one can complain about her now. Power Ranking: Mid.

Arakune: My number 1 most hated character in the first game. The guy who thought receiving his mark on block was a good idea was an idiot who deserved to get fired. Arakune's victory in SBO just solidified his stranglehold over all characters besides Nu and Rachel. Now he no longer marks by making one hit connect. Instead he needs to land around 3 and the mark doesn't go away if you hit him. He can't summon any bugs if you got him in a combo though. ALL of his bugs have changed and they look even more crazy than before but much like Zappa from Guilty Gear, the trick is to just not let him get into his god mode. Oh, and apparently he gets slaughtered by the higher tiered characters of this game as well. Karma's a bitch again. Final Judgement: Nerfed. This one was seen coming but took a different twist. Still very powerful but seems to die in the metagame. Power Rank: upper mid.

Rachael: Oh how the mighty have fallen. Major damage reduction, slower wind regeneration and loss of key combos makes Rachael a prime example of how NOT to nerf a character. To take everything that makes them good away and call it a day is a bad idea. I don't know if anybody has found a new way to make Rachael good but I'm not holding my breath on this one. Final Judgement: Supremely nerfed. She's probably the worst character in the game now. From top to bottom in one game is quite the violent switch. Everybody is abandoning ship. Power Ranking: Bottom if not bottom 3.

Bang: Another character like Ragna who improved by doing nothing. Bang's combos got tweaked a bit, got some frame data changed and added a new super suddenly made Bang one of the best characters in the game. His pressure string are almost impossible to keep up with and his mix ups come out faster than Tao. Strangely he's supposed to be a defensive character with his counters. Adding those in pressure strings sometime make it impossible for an aggressive character like Noel, Tao, Jin, or Ragna to get a combo in. With third highest health in the game and you have yourself a monster. Final Judgment: improved. Bang was once seen as third worst character over Hakumen and Tager. Now he's probably in the top three. Power Ranking: Top. Yeah, I'm going on a limb and pegging him as top. He's a very good metagame choice. Most characters who improved are aggressive characters like Tao and Ragna who fall right into Bang's strategy. Defensive characters who can stop HIS pressure have all been nurfed (Jin, Rachael, Nu, and Arakune).

Wild cards:
The others I don't have enough experience against to give a good guess on. Hakumen seems like he went up but I haven't run into any yet. Tager is always hard to place. He was the worst character in the game in Calamity Trigger so anything is an improvement I guess. I just run into too many people who live and die off landing his 720 super and I KNOW that's not the good way to play him. Litchi I haven't played any good ones yet but I know they're out there in Japan. Her combos are like Tao where you need to perfect her before you start winning but once you do, you're a monster. Apparently word of mouth says she slaughters most of the upper mid tier so is a perfect meta choice. It's just word of mouth but I can see it being true. 

Final Judgement: Meh. Each character was hit or miss. Given how much raw data they had to work with I would expect either A) the new game would be delayed a bit with more time under the hood at location tests to make sure everything is good or B) release balancing updates on-line and let the players help the balancing act or C) a combo of the two. I know we get two new characters but it doesn't feel like a full update. Bigger changes happened between Guilty Gear XX and reload, reload and slash, and slash and Act Cadenza. No  a days they can easily charge us an extra 20 bucks and release this as an add on.

Still, it's a fun game and us hardcore players will buy it instantly since we demand to only play the most up to date version. Casual players will probably be disappointed by the lack of progress. But that has been Arksystem's M.O. since Guilty Gear so little has changed.

I'm not sure if I'm gonna get this one. It's hard already to find good matches in BBCT. Once this game comes out, BBCT will probably go completely dead, but I don't want to pay for another game that only adds two new characters and a few tweaks, even if the end result is a big boost for my girl Tao. There's an outside chance I'll pick it up if I find myself with a spare 60 bucks after I get Final Fantasy 13, Tatsunoko Vs Capcom, Samurai Warriors 3, Bioshock 1, Arkham, and possibly MUA2. Not likely to happen anytime in the next six months, but it could.

By the way, Ash, I'm still waiting for you to find someone with a 360 that you can leech an hour or two from so we can finally go a few rounds in SF4 and Tekken 6!

Sports games and fighting games are much alike in that there's very little appeal in following every update for someone who isn't a hardcore fan. Even players who are interested in a game's story know that the more you follow fighters the less sense they make (though I think that in spite of the mumbo jumbo at least in BlazBlue one was at least able to parse together a sequence of events). Interesting to read how the different characters have been tweaked, and how I never played any of the characters the way I was suppossed to. The times I used Jin, B and C variants of Musou Senshouzan was my main tool rather than the freeze attacks as I'd launch myself at the enemy and wail on them once I made contact. Never cared for Ragna either, felt too clunky when I fought against the AI.

Too many upcoming titles like Bioshock 2, Heavy Rain, and God of War III that sound really impressive for me to care about a game which at best makes minor modifications. A sensible approach given the nature of fighting games, but that's like going to the movies every time a specific movie has an update.