Google and YouTube are your friends here, of course, but this is where I find most fighting games fall down. The problem with these is they already assume "Reject Guards" are part of your everyday lexicon and you're already familiar with a character's invulnerable anti-air moves. Then there are missions - pre-programmed scenarios - that let you practice mechanics in a match-like setting. Tactics Mode will also take you through all the characters to give you an idea of their playstyles, special moves and bread-and-butter combos. Yes, I can press two buttons while blocking, but when I should be burning resources to perform an invincible escape is anyone's guess. These all rely on different gauges or conditions, so there's a lot to process. The "Practical Application" lessons take you through more advanced mechanics, such as fighting with both characters simultaneously, special skills that reset momentum when you're under pressure, and the extra tools at your disposal when you're down to just one fighter. In Cross Tag Battle, the tutorial element is called "Tactics Mode." It starts off fairly basic, explaining movement, blocking and different types of attacks before moving on to assists, recoveries, escapes and special moves. In an effort to help new players reach some level of competence, all fighting games these days ship with training features. You basically need to learn the ins and out of every character, partner assist and playstyle. To actually be good at a fighting game, you need to spend countless hours practicing combos to embed them into your muscle memory, so they can be performed without much forethought. Though there's an appropriately silly story mode designed to introduce you to the various fighters - characters from BlazBlue, Persona 4 Arena, Under Night In-Birth and Rooster Teeth's RWBY anime series - the meat and potatoes of BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, naturally, is going mano a mano with other players online. Capcom series famed for its frantic, team-orientated battles.īy subscribing, you are agreeing to Engadget's Terms and Privacy Policy. Many fighting games use similar mechanics, of course, such as the Marvel vs. Much of the game's complexity, then, comes from using the assist moves of your resting character and extending combos by switching fighters on the fly. You always have a lead character, and one that hides off-screen, slowly recovering health while waiting to be called upon. BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle is different from previous entries in the series, being the first to feature two-on-two battles as opposed to standard head-to-head duels. In short, there's a fighter for every style or strategy, and many that lie somewhere in between the spectrum extremes. Like every good rock-paper-scissors fighting game, there are characters with long-range, keep-away projectiles, grapplers with powerful throws and fast-fisted brawlers that can overwhelm opponents with constant pressure. The character roster includes classic anime heroes with spiky hair and oversized weapons, samurai robots and plenty of schoolgirl types wielding blades and guns. There are countless quirky attacks, ridiculous projectiles that materialize out of thin air and special finishing moves that defy physics, rhyme and reason. This allows for practically limitless creative license. Visually, BlazBlue is most like the Guilty Gear series (also developed by Arc System Works) in that it's a 2D fighter with an anime art style. Fighting games can be extremely rewarding, but only as a result of being fundamentally difficult and alienating to begin with.īlazBlue isn't nearly as storied as franchises like Street Fighter or Tekken, but after BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger was first released in late 2008, there have been four direct sequels, numerous updated versions and several spin-off titles. It's after playing BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle - which has only recently come to the PC, PS4 and Switch in Europe - that I'm reminded why. But for the developers behind these titles, it's a catch-22. The term eSports is now common parlance, and yet the biggest fighting game franchises are struggling, only really appealing to their loyal fanbases. Long before home consoles and internet connections, these kind of games fostered serious competitive scenes around arcade cabinets. There's no relaxation or light entertainment in the breakneck world of kill-or-be-killed beat 'em ups. ![]() Fighting games aren't for the faint-hearted.
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