Just Blaz! (Blue)

Aksys just announced today that the visual novel taking place in BlazBlue's universe is gonna be localized by them: http://www.siliconera.com/2014/02/11/aksys-localize-arc-system-works-visual-novel-xblaze-code-embryo/

I think this marks the first ever visual novel to reach American consoles...

I'm interested.

Interest has been piqued.

In other BlazBlue news, Calamity Trigger is on Steam now. It's actually broken into the top ten best sellers list.

Local multiplayer only though. Probably the Games for Windows port and they just didn't bother creating a matchmaking server of their own.

I don't know if this is news to anyone but me, but according to my newest issue of GameInformer Blazblue: Chrono Phantasma comes out on March 25th.

Apparently there's an ending in sight.... though I think that's old news.

Kinda. They had been giving us updates about how far along in the story we are, and based on the percentage given for Chrono Phantasma it seems like the next game should be the last.

Speaking of ChronoPhantasma that should be coming soon.... yeah... can't wait.

Calamity Trigger's coming to Steam over a newer entry, existing port aside, makes me wonder how risky a sales platform Steam is. The Steam audience hardcore enough to want Japanese games on Steam to begin with will be perfectly aware of the concept of "sticking your toe in the pond" that that release is and be rather frustrated with it, even its a functional product (Those user reviews bod nicely).

You're barking up the wrong tree, unfortunately. Calamity Trigger likely only came to Steam because there was a Games for Windows Live port in 2010 which is no longer purchasable because of Microsoft's discontinuation of the service. It's also why the Steam version doesn't have online play, they didn't bother creating a matchmaking server of their own, they were relying on Microsoft (which also enabled crossplay with the 360.)

So the thought process was just "we have a functional product for digital retail, but our retailer no longer exists, where can we sell this?"


I will note that I had heard something about a Chinese or Asia PC port of BlazBlue a long time ago, and only discovered the GFWL port a couple years ago, so I'm thinking that the GFWL/Steam version might be it considering the publisher:
http://www.gog.com/forum/general/for_all_of_you_who_doesnt_know_about_h2_interactive

I'm assuming just English and Japanese languages are present because that's always been the case for BlazBlue. It's hard to say how much of this port's doing is actually ASW's, since no further PC ports were made for the series. I have both versions, but I've been too lazy to check for differences.


Now the PC release of Guilty Gear Isuka, that boggles my mind. A PC port did exist around 2005-2006, but the publisher is different from the current release. This is all the info I could glean:
http://shoryuken.com/2014/02/09/guilty-gear-isukas-steam-publisher-looking-into-providing-pc-versions-of-more-arc-system-works-fighters-fan-campaign-organized/

I'm not really sure if this port is developed by KISS or if they simply got the rights to the old port, but I'm going to assume the former, because of the general literacy of the updates and information on Steam. Calamity Trigger's descriptions are curt and by the numbers.

I think I'm actually gonna grab Isuka today, with what I've learned. KISS definitely deserves some kudos.

I really need to stop pre-ordering games from Amazon.ca, it just doesn't fucking work unless they get an exclusive pre-order bonus/edition to distribute. Not only has my CP LE not shipped, but it's Temporarily Out of Stock. I motherfucking placed my order when the game's name was misspelled on their site and had no boxart, January 9th. I've got to be on top of the queue, so what gives?

So basically my only choice is to hope that Amazon doesn't fail me again, or pay 25 dollars more (plus tax of course!) at EB Games.

Amazon problems, I'm glad I have a good locals. Do you have a PS3 at last Taiyz!??!?
Got my CE today, time to lick up Noel after class.

Nope, it's not gonna happen for like a year unless we get a good sale sometime this year (last Black Friday was bullshit, America got such a good PS3 bundle where-as we got a shitty cheap-plastic-looking blue console with NHL.) I realize it's ridiculous that I keep buying PS3 games, but that's how I am when it comes to collecting limited edition shit.

I started collecting at a good time though. I think the only LEs I really missed out on were Demon's Souls' art book and some package for Ar Tonelico 3, and those were years ago.

Taiyz wrote:

last Black Friday was bullshit, America got such a good PS3 bundle where-as we got a shitty cheap-plastic-looking blue console with NHL

Tell me about it, was with my sister looking for PS3s and there was NOTHING, while the US...... ehhh don't want to get too much into it.
I forgot you lived in Canada too lol

How much PS3 games have you bought anyways? Enough to buy a PS3?
Pretty sure a lot of people are suckers for LEs. *raises hand*

I was going to bring that up in my last post, actually. You're right, the LEs combined cost about the same as a PS3. I've got Xillia and Symphonia, Dragon's Crown, Time and Eternity and Aquapazza. I also got Tomb Raider and ACIV for the PS4.

NISA was pretty light this gen as far as LEs are concerned. Or rather, the majority of their library is constantly iterated on so it's hardly worth buying their games on their original platforms. Gust makes enhanced Vita versions of all their PS3 Atelier titles, and Compile Heart's doing the same shit with Neptunia. I'm not a fan of NISA's actual games anyway because they're all SRPGs, I only own Disgaea 2 and La Pucelle.

The other one-off PS3 games I want were basic releases like Valkyria Chronicles or Folklore, or digital-only titles. This really just leaves the Demon's Souls artbook and Ar Tonelico Qoga's LE.

"Your Amazon.ca order of "Blzblue: Chrono Phantasma LE" has shipped!"

Well, better late than never I suppose. It's probably Aksys' fault like usual, hence why I didn't cancel after the release date was passed.

Nice man!
Now if you'd get that PS3 soon, that'd be like, cool.

Speaking of CP, Kokonoe DLC should be here tomorrow, sweet.

Yeah, it would. I'm gonna have to consider getting one for my birthday, because if I don't get one this year then I'll have really missed the boat and may as well get a PS4 instead. I mean now I'm not even getting The Last of Us because there's a PS4 port coming up.

That's like 3-4 months from now? Not that bad.
PS3 still has a lot of games, not to worry. I mean imo there aren't many games to get a PS4 atm but that's my opinion. Eventually though.... too bad we got that price raise

Curious if you got the CSE LE too.

I didn't buy Continuum Shift Extend because I feel that it should've been downloadable, I already owned all the DLC characters. Also you can get the LE for like 20 bucks now and I'm still not really tempted.

Keep in mind that CSE was still released for the 360. I could've played it if I wanted to. I was kinda tempted to grab the Vita version for cross-play but when I got the Vita, we already knew that Chrono Phantasma was on its way. I'm probably gonna avoid CP on the Vita too just because it doesn't have cross-play...I love supporting games with that functionality, I bought Project Diva f for the Vita just because it supports cross-buy.

I hear the game is not coming to 360 because of disc space. I don't own one so I'm not invested, but presuming its legitimate and not a cover for not-worth-it international sales, how exactly is that possible? Movies and music would compressed to fit the DVD, and BlazBlue games don't add the kind of content between games that would hulk up the file size- unless we've had enough sequels that that finally happened.

They considered compression, but specifically stated that they didn't want to give 360 owners a lesser quality product (unlike what happened with FFXIII, the FMVs look really shitty on the 360, probably the most infamous example of half-assed compression, even despite the fact that the game was on 4 discs.) They claimed to need double the space that a 360 disc can hold.

It's still kind of a bullshit reason because they could've provided an installation disc or separated the story mode onto its own disc, like a self-contained visual novel, but no. A digital release also would've been an option.

So yes. After thinking about it long and hard, I feel that Arc System Works just gave up on the 360. I reckon that Persona 4 Arena Ultimax's 360 version is more Atlus' insistence, considering that Catherine was multi-plat. I don't even think the 360 version of that is getting a Japanese release.

Cool to think that Atlus would the power to suggest 360 versions, though. Another effort for the fans on top of their existing to begin with.

Two discs would have solved it just fine, though; cases and discs are nothing and if they were not they could be offset by how many 360 copies get produced.

Yeah, we have so many options for distribution nowadays, it's honestly kind of insulting that they only tried compression and relied on that as their sole excuse.