PixlBit

BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II is a PSP Port (hence the “II”) of Continuum Shift, which was released first for arcade and then for PS3 and Xbox 360. The port differs slightly from the original: it includes all the DLC characters from the start, and it features a new Abyss mode (more on that later). Like the other titles in the series, this game is outrageously complicated. It’s clearly made for a niche audience (“hardcore” fighting game enthusiasts) of which I am not a part. But, complexity aside, the battles are fun and nice to look at, so it seems they’ve struck enough of a balance that even those who don’t really know what they’re looking at can enjoy the view.

The visuals are very well done. Essentially the fights look like a more pixelated version of the original Continuum Shift, but the animations retain their smoothness. In general the game is very colourful and has a slight gothic tone to it. BlazBlue also really doesn’t hold back with its anime aesthetic. The game didn’t lose much of its character in the localization process; it still feels culturally Japanese.

The music is solid as well. Violins feature prominently in much of the game’s soundtrack, and they go quite well with the other, more electric guitar-based tracks. Even the main menu theme is catchy. The English voice acting isn’t terrible, but it feels a bit forced and melodramatic. You have the option to switch to the original Japanese audio, though, which is nice. It certainly seems more fitting, given its Japanese vibe.

Continuum Shift II’s Story mode is downright tedious. There is just way too much dialogue. Even if BlazBlue were an RPG it would be a bit excessive. More of an effort should have been made to get me interested in the characters before bombarding me with endless dialogue. Even after I’d learned more about them more, I didn’t want to read so much of their banter at once.

Part of the problem here is that the story is a direct sequel to the first BlazBlue game, Calamity Trigger, and the story continues where the first game left off. I haven’t played the first game. This shouldn’t matter. BlazBlue is a fighting game series released across different consoles—it’s entirely reasonable that someone might play either of the Continuum Shifts without touching Calamity Trigger. A direct sequel should provide, at the very least, a summary of the events of the previous game. It doesn’t, so even if the story had been done better, it would have been hard for me to get into it.

But of course, it’s a fighting game, and the story isn’t the main event. Raw battle mechanics are where this game really shines. On top of the many character-specific attacks and elaborate combos, you also need to pay attention to your health, the heat gauge (for special offensive attacks), and the barrier gauge (for special defensive techniques). It’s pretty overwhelming.

There’s also a new Guard Primer system, replacing the old Guard Libra. With Guard Primer, each character starts the fight with a specific number of points, and they lose one whenever they block an attack with guard-breaking properties (heavy-hitting attacks, basically). If one of these attacks removes the last point, the character becomes stunned and is susceptible to whatever sequence of attacks the other player can come up with.

Fortunately, the game has a multitude of tutorials to help you out. It not only teaches you character-specific moves and combos, but also more general BlazBlue techniques, and even the workings of the Fighting genre as a whole. The beginner tutorial makes fun of you for being dumb enough to need a beginner tutorial.

Stylish mode further accommodates novice players. In Stylish mode (as opposed to “Technical,” the default), complicated combos can be executed with vastly simplified button inputs. It’s a nice gesture, but in practice it just dumbs down the whole experience. At first I thought it was a great idea, since I suck at this game, but Stylish mode simplified things so much that I felt I couldn’t take credit for winning anymore. It was the game doing all the work, not me. Sometimes it’s simplified to the point that you just have to press Square over and over. I would have said that at least Stylish mode allows you to continue with the Story mode if you’re stuck on one of its few battles, but Story mode battles were among the easiest anyway.

The unique cast of characters is another of the game’s strong points. A lot of them are just... cool. Looking at them makes you want to try them out immediately.

I was drawn to Arakune at first, but soon realized I didn’t like his erratic, unintuitive playstyle. He attacks mostly by contorting his black, slime-like body in different ways or by controlling insects. Interesting guy, but hard to get used to. Noel Vermillion is kind of the opposite. Besides being cute, she’s not all that interesting of a character, but playing her is much more fun. She’s really fast, and even without practice I could pull off what seemed to be legitimate combos. For some reason she has two guns for weapons but mostly uses them to bludgeon people to death. At least she’s acrobatic about it.

As for the characters new to Continuum Shift, Hazama felt really stiff, for the most part. Some of his moves involve shooting out a grappling hook/spear and, if it hits, propelling himself toward the opponent. These sent him flying all over the place. Makoto reminded me of Noel a bit. She’s fast too, but her attacks consist of more standard punches and kicks. A few of them are more exciting teleporting punches and kicks. Platinum the Trinity’s fighting style is almost as weird as her name. Clearly a “magical girl” stereotype, she beats opponents down with her heart-shaped staff and conjures up bubbles, stars and other unidentifiable cute things.

There are many more gameplay options beyond Story mode and Arcade mode (arguably the main attractions), but for the most part, these feel like quick little minigames. Each one is a slight variation on the theme of “fight a bunch of battles in a row.”

Even the new Abyss option didn’t hold my attention for long—it’s essentially a Survival (read: don’t die) mode with occasional power-up awards like “Attack+2”. And every now and then your fight will be interrupted by a much stronger, powered-up version of a different fighter, for some reason.

Unlike the console version, Continuum Shift II awards you experience points and Platinum dollars for playing through the various 1-player modes. These both allow you to unlock things like gallery images, alternate costumes, and unlimited characters (slightly powered-up, but with essentially the same moves). Unlockables make the extra modes a bit more interesting, but there’s still not much substance to them.

Here’s the gist of it: the fighting is really good and pretty much everything else is a waste of time. The PSP port is a good choice if you want to try out a cheaper but full-featured BlazBlue game for the first time (unless you care about the story, which you probably shouldn’t). Just don’t expect to get everything out of it without a large commitment of your time.