BlazBlue: Continuum Shift 'Makoto' DLC aims for August release

@acefondu Agree. Generally, it's a bad idea for fighting games, a traditionally self-contained format, to add expansive content outside the initial purchase which AFFECTS the core gameplay (including metagame changes) and not just make it part of an entirely new release.

There have been examples of it happening, but for the most part it isn't part of the nickel and dime scheme, and usually accompanies a full out update instead of a post-release patch. Two facts come to place which could easily cause huge problems. One, the fact that DLC has been announced before the game is even released is kind of a low blow and is often viewed as a cash grab, and considering non-DLC players can still play against her, there are elements of an elitism fragmentation. Two, the fact that not everyone will have access to the character might create the perception that BB is a money game, especially so if the character seems stronger than the others, which given she'll be under close scrutiny might just be the conclusion regardless.

@acefondu
Yeah street fighter has you buy a new copy of the same game 5 times over.

@acefondu So you'd rather pay for costumes that are on the disc already (SF4, SC4)? Judging by August release date it's most likely Makota isn't finished being made. They probably started creating her after they finished the game I could be wrong though. Personally I think adding characters is the best DLC a fighter can possibly have, assuming they add balance patches when needed. One last thing, stop looking at tier lists if you consider Noel "useless", yes she was nerfed, but far from useless. I'm a Noel player as well and pretty much have used her exclusively since release of CT which I still play usually a couple of days a week, I plan to continue to use her as well as learn Tsubaki and Hazama. Anyhow watch some R-1 videos, perhaps that'll change your mind about Noel sucking http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83PH3uszLU8&feature=related

@acefondu

1. Who buys costumes?

2. Aksys makers of the annual game we know as Guilty Gear is no different than Capcom making an annual Street Fighter. Here they are now making an annual Blazblue along with making you pay for more characters. Math kids, do the math on who's the bigger offender.

3. Noel does suck in CS, was great in CT. Half her combos don't work anymore. She can't get in well on many characters and lost her pressure game. On top of that she has only 4 on guard crush (lowest in the game) for no reason at all. I watched R-1 extensively and notice very clearly how pitiful the matchups are with Noel. Granted she didn't get as abusively downgraded as Rachel, but it's still really dumb they downgraded a character that wasn't overpowered to begin with. But he instantly get's owned by just about any Ragna and Bang out there.

4. I've played this, and played my friend on it on our level. I used to thrash his Hakuman on CT with Noel, and with the changes Noel has practically zero options to pressure Hakuman once she gets in now. I'm not some random noob on Blazblue so please don't talk to me as if I am.

@acefondu
Maybe DLC characters can cut the trend. Also, atleast Aksys upgrades are treated as sequels. They increase the story, update moves, and balance the game out.

SSFIV got a balance overhaul too, and ones that actually made sense. Blazblue's balance changes made absolutely no sense.

David Sirlin a fighting game pro and the guy that rebalanced HD Remix always had a great philosophy when balancing games and that is to not tear down or "nerf" "god characters" but to give bad characters new tools to deal with them. You can take the route of nerfing, but don't do both.

Well what we have here is Aksys doing both, and then just doing other weird crap that didn't make sense. It was agreed that V-13, Arakune, and Rachel needed to be dropped down a peg, and Bang, Hakuman and Tager needed some help. Aksys not content with getting rid of just about all of V-13's and Rachel's tools also nerfed Noel and Jin for no reason, and buffed Ragna also for absolutely no reason. I didn't see ill-advised balance changes in SSFIV, and most of those suggestions were taken from the pro community.

But this isn't a dustloop forum, I'm sure what I'm saying falls on deaf ears.

@acefondu

SSFIV had balance changes (ones that made sense), 10 new characters to Blazblue's 4 is it now? Admittedly the single player story is way better with BB. I like BB a lot, I'm not bashing it, I'm bashing Aksys's stupid ideas of balance changes and DLC character idea.

I mean we knew V-13, Arakune and Rachel needed a downgrade, but WHY did they buff Ragna and nerf Jin and Noel? It makes NO sense, they were perfectly fine as is.

@acefondu

Huh...that other post of mine came so late I thought it wouldn't come at all....count that as a double post I guess. Sorry about that.

@acefondu I agree the buffs to Ragna made no sense, and agree that V-13, Rachel and Arakune needed to be dropped down a bit. Arakune can still pull of insane 7-10k combos which I actually see done commonly, usually at least once every 3 rounds. Noel's 6C was too good I have to admit, 2D nerf is a bitch though. They did seem to make Noel's drive weaker in damage, yet more effective overall which is a good thing, and with 2D gone drive spammers will be less annoying admittedly. My friend recently linked me a combo video for Rachel and she can still dish out damage effectively, very effectively actually, but I've never seen her used in CS so I dunno how the rest of her game is. As far as Jin nerfs go, I haven't really read up on what they've done other than add a move and make it so ice breaks automatically. I still say your crazy for saying Noel is simply useless, not as good yes, but useless no.

@KaiserCX

She'll still be enjoyable to use in a casual setting, but I doubt VERY much we'll see her much at all in tourney play. It's too bad CS got dropped from EVO this year, I'd love to have seen if Heartnana could do as well (but I totally doubt it).

It's just sick that I could pick up Bang in less than a day and be able to do all his best stuff, feel godlike, and can't find reliable uses for Noel anymore.

And Rachel can dish out good damage still, but her ability to lay on the pressure is a million times harder than it used to be. Plus she has almost no ability to get pressure players like Ragna and Bang off of her.

@KaiserCX If players don't need the DLC to play against her, that means she is on-disk.

Charging for SF4 outfits is lame, but at least they have no gameplay value. Charging for a character as DLC reads as double-dipping. I'm close enough to the industry to know that they get budgeted separately, created separately, and are judged separately. But to the end consumer it still feels like buying a car with 2 of 4 doors installed, then being offered a 3rd for an extra charge. It's not enough to fix the problems with the game, and paying for an incomplete fix just feels scammy. What happened to warranty periods?

@seishino She could be patched in, and yes I agree DLC on disc is the biggest BS move this generation has pulled, if she is truly on disc then I will not be paying for her. I've complained about on-disc DLC more times than I can count, mainly to myself or friends of course. Either way I will still be getting BB:CS, Blazblue is currently my favorite fighting game, I just refuse to buy the character if she's on the disc already. I do however still say characters for DLC is the best possible DLC for a fighting game as I said before.

I think this is great news but I am worried about the cost. They actually sold colors in Calamity Trigger, and judging by how many players I've encountered online who had purchased them, I assume they made a decent profit(especially since the content probably took an intern a half hour to do).

I hope it's free but I'm doubtful because of my previous point.. Releasing game-changing content within a month of the initial purchase and charging for it is a bit of a shady practice in my opinion.

@acefondu Sorry been a bit busy so I just skimmed through your later posts a bit.

"1. Who buys costumes?"

Touche

"2. Aksys makers of the annual game we know as Guilty Gear is no different than Capcom making an annual Street Fighter. Here they are now making an annual Blazblue along with making you pay for more characters. Math kids, do the math on who's the bigger offender."

You do have a point, SSF4 did add a lot. From the sounds of it, BBCS is adding a lot as well (console), just not in the form of additional characters. They haven't set a price for Makoto so for all we know it could be free, I admit the chances of that are slim to none though.

"4. I've played this, and played my friend on it on our level. I used to thrash his Hakuman on CT with Noel, and with the changes Noel has practically zero options to pressure Hakuman once she gets in now. I'm not some random noob on Blazblue so please don't talk to me as if I am."

Fair enough, sorry for assuming you were just a noob that looks at a tier list and assumes someone sucks because they are near the bottom, you have to admit that there's plenty of those types of people.

Your picking up Bang story is understandable frustration. To me BBCS Noel seems almost like an entirely different character that'll take awhile to get used to (for me at least). I've also only gotten to play BBCS for a short amount of time so most of my experience is watching YouTube videos of higher tier JP players play.

@Shadowm4nX
Could always import it if you got a PS3. Though more then likely, like with CT, you'll get all the DLC on disc when it comes out there. And get a cool limited edition.

@(Unverified)

So no orgy then?

http://tinypic.com/r/96fc06/6

@(Unverified) tell that to tsubaki, whom is covered 100% except for her face

@(Unverified) What bothers me is the number of characters that have no other defining characteristic. When Laura Croft hit, she was sexy. But she also appealed to a youthful love of Indiana Jones, and the conflict between being nearly british royalty and getting really dirty in the mines. A lot of characters after that have just been built to be sexy.

[Spoilers] I love Bayonetta as a character for this reason. She's obviously sold to be sexy, true. But she's also built to resemble a late 30's / early 40's soccer mom. And she's a soccer mom *to herself*. The developers seemed to have an explicit goal of setting up an expectation of traditional empty video game heroine, then playing with the concept in new and interesting ways.

@(Unverified)
Ragna is a bad boy renegade.
Jin is the cool type.
Tager is a beefcake with a heart of gold.
Carl is a shota with a sister complex.
Hakumen is a White Knight.
Bang is a hopeless romantic AND a mature man.

Don't complain as if the game only serves to a male audience. EVERYBODY GETS ONE.

@ShadowModder
Her sound data and more then likely non-fighting images(like character select and loading images and perhaps specials) will be on the disc as she was in BB:CT as part of Noel's Story. More then likely she'll be part of the story be it small or large.

BB Is a really good fighter (in my eyes) course them announcing DLC pre-launch I don't like. But if you live in Europe you got all the DLC on disc when it came out with CT. Perhaps with CS they'll get all.

@Acosta02 Nope; comes out July 1st in Japan if I remember correctly.

@(Unverified)

Pretty huge changes by fighting game standards actually. They added in guard crush (block too much you get punished), barrier burst now is set where you get two of them total and they don't cause you to take more damage if you use them. Characters play much differently than they used to. That DVD you get of combos? Yeah a lot of those don't work anymore depending on the character. It will have an all new story-mode too. 4 new characters, and probably changes to the online component I'd imagine.

@acefondu That's nice and all, but I was talking about the story.

@acefondu
Never mind, you mentioned the story too XD
Interesting. I only ask because I never purchased the original.

@KazamaSogetsu

The problem with the idea that, "DLC BEFORE the game comes out?" is CS has been out in arcades for a while. Arc System Works has likely been working on Makoto since they released the arcade version that included Tsubaki, or at the very least since they went gold on the console port.

There is a point where development has to stop in order to get the game out. It isn't like they can work on the game right up to the moment it gets into stores. The discs and distribution doesn't happen instantaneously.

So what are they going to work on while that process happens? Make more content.

@Corsia

Well, half the characters in street fighter are clones of each other. If not, there are many characters that are tremendously similar to each other. Just count how many characters have a standard "fireball" or "dragon-punch" move.

One of the main strengths of Calamity Trigger was the uniqueness of its roster. While it only had 12 characters, it's difficult to find ANY similarities between the characters beyond the control scheme and heat gauge(besides haku-men).

Continuum Shift looks like it will continue this devotion to creating unique and interesting characters, other than maybe the DLC of nu~13 and lamda.