PixlBit

Recently I’ve been playing and working on reviewing the newest BlazBlue fighter: BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma.  Like the others in the series, it’s a 2-D, one-on-one fighter featuring hand drawn sprites and a storyline so complicated that you need a flow chart to understand it all.  The games are also made by the same folks who did the Guilty Gear series, I believe.  Anyway, normally when I play a fighting game, I like to talk about all the characters in a separate blog.  But I did that already a couple of years ago on 1up.com, and I don’t feel like doing that again.  Plus, many of the characters don’t interest me as much, as they are generic anime stereotypes, and I don’t have much to say about them.  So my blog would end up being mostly reading like, “Ragna is just some fighter looking dude.”  So instead, I decided just to talk about my top five favorite BlazBlue characters instead, because I’m lazy.  So let’s go!

5 You Decide!

Despite the BlazBlue cast being filled with lots of anime stereotypes, there are still a bunch of characters who are still kind of neat.  So many that I couldn’t decide on just one to put in my number five spot!  So I thought it might be fun for YOU readers to decide who should go there.  Here are your choices to vote on:

There are two cool robot ladies, and they have numbers for names that I can’t remember right now.  But both have lots of floaty sword things around them and that’s kind of cool.  They both also look the same, so it’s not just Capcom who gets lazy sometimes!  Kokonoe is also a neat character because she has pink hair.  And you know I like video game characters who have pink hair.  Bullet is a cool lady character who is tough and strong, and those are always neat.  Arakune is a weird blob thing with a mask and he looks like a Shy Guy after eating a can of spinach and a bottle of Nightmare Juice at the same time.  And finally is Platinum the Trinity, who looks like one of those Japanese Magical Girl superheroes and has girly heart attacks and whatnot.  So which one should take my number five spot?  Let me know in the comments section!

4. Bang Shishigami

He’s some sort of samurai warrior dude, but the way he talks and acts, I think he believes that he’s some sort of super hero or something.  He talks in an unnaturally booming, heroic voice, like a Power Ranger.  And in one of the BlazBlue games, when you perform one of his special moves, I think they even play a theme song in the background that makes him sound like a super hero, too.  Plus he’s just silly and entertaining, so I like him.  Anyone with the name “Bang” has to be cool, right?

3. Makoto Nanaya

Let’s just get this out of the way right now.  I am NOT a furry.  I just think this character is kind of silly because she’s half human, and half squirrel/chipmunk.  Chip N Dale are my favorite Disney characters, and they’re chipmunks.  And one of my favorite things to do on my old college campus was to buy a pack of crackers and go outside and feed the squirrels there (yeah, I know, I was REAL exciting in college).  So I only like this character because she’s silly and I like chipmunks and squirrels.  That’s it, OK?

2. Taokaka

She’s a weird cat-girl character who is one of the sillier members of the BlazBlue cast, which is why I like her.  She’s forgetful and makes up names for people and always thinks about food and forgets what people teach her and she talks in a silly voice.  Lots of fun.  Gameplay-wise, I like her, too, because she kind of reminds me of a mix between Cammy and Hsien-Ko, two of my favorite Capcom fighters.  I wish more characters in this game would take her lead and not be so serious all the time.  But oh well.

1. Litchi Faye-Ling

I hate it when my favorite fighter ends up being the typical fanservice character (Taokaka even calls her “boobie lady”), because the reasons why I like most of these types of characters has nothing to do with fanservice.  While Litchi is pretty for a video game character, the reason why I like her is because she’s a teacher, and teachers are cool (real or fictional).  And she’s also very smart and patient, especially when dealing with others like Taokaka.  And for some reason, I can play as her pretty well in BlazBlue games.  In this last game that I’m reviewing, I have trouble beating Arcade Mode with most of the cast (yes I stink at fighting games), but I have no trouble doing it with Litchi.  I don’t know why, can’t explain it.  Kind of how I can’t explain why I play well with Cammy in Street Fighter or Leona in KOF games. 

Litchi is also the star of a series of skits found in each BlazBlue game called Teach Me, Miss Litchi.  You see, the background and storylines in BlazBlue games are so bloated and convoluted that they need to put in a mode that explains to normal humans about the history and lore of the story.  So they have Litchi review the history of the story with Taokaka in silly skits with chibi versions of the characters in a classroom setting.  While these skits are a bit too ‘otaku’ for my tastes, I have to admit I find them more entertaining than the regular story mode.  I wish they would make a whole game out of the chibi Teach Me, Miss Litchi cast.  ACTUALLY they kind of did.  On DSiWare, you can download a game called BlayzBloo that features chibi versions of BlazBlue characters in a game that is a mix between Smash Bros. and Power Stone.  Unfortunately, the selectable cast is meager (Litchi isn’t even in it), and gameplay just isn’t very good.  Which is a shame because it certainly had potential.

I was debating on putting this last paragraph in here, because I was a little ashamed of it.  But then I remembered that I have no shame so here you go!  Sometimes when I’m currently playing a game, I may have a dream about it when I am sleeping at night.  Usually the dreams aren’t very eventful.  For instance, if I’m playing something like, say, Yoshi’s New Island or Animal Crossing: New Leaf, I might have a dream about playing those games, too.  You’d think that with a creative brain like mine, I’d dream about actually being IN those games, but nope.  Anyway, since I’m currently playing BlazBlue for a review, I had a dream about it the other night.  In this dream, me and Litchi…we…went to McDonalds and ate chicken nuggets.  Yeah that was it, pretty stupid, huh? When I woke up, I thought to myself, “Geez Cary, you could’ve at least splurged and taken her to Arby’s.”  But then I thought, “Well, at least she didn’t seem to MIND eating at McDonalds, and at least it wasn’t a scary nightmare!”  So yeah, I have lots of weird dreams.

The Wheel of Fate is Turning

And that’s my top five favorite BlazBlue characters!  In the comments section, let me know what you think of my picks, choose a number five character for me, and tell me your favorite BlazBlue fighters!  That’s all for now!  Later!  --Cary