BlazBlue Chrono Phantasma Extend

September 16, 2015 /

BlazBlue is one of my favorite 2D fighting game series. I never really clicked with Guilty Gear, but BlazBlue and the characters in it just seem to sync with me. I have always liked the convoluted time-warping story and most of the English voice actors. I know, I know! I’m horrible for liking English voices, but if you’re not a fan, you’re in luck as all the Japanese voices are here as well.

Oddly convenient, BBCPEx is split into two files. The main fighting game is a 3.35gb file while the story and library mode comes in a 2gb file for a total of 5.3gb. For a digital user, this is actually kind of nice. I have a good sized group of friends who might want to practice combos while they’re away from a console setup. In order for that to happen, the game has to have the same frame rate and smooth gameplay. On the other end of the spectrum, some people really want the full experience. With a large enough memory card, you can. The only down side to it is that if you JUST want to play the story modes, you can’t do so without having a lot of free space.

Speaking of the story, there is a lot of content in that 2gb file. There’s a four part graphic novel of the Remix Heart saga that takes place between chapters 4 and 5 of the manga. I have never read the manga, so it threw me for a loop when I was debriefed by the game about Mai Nastume’s story. She’s a student of who knows a bunch of the female characters from Torifune Military Academy: Noel, Tsubaki, Makoto and another new character (for this mode), Mai’s roommate, Kajun Faycott. Mai and Kajun are not playable in the fighting parts, but their story in interesting. For those of you unaware, as I was, Main used to be a boy. He was transformed into a she after contact with a grimoire. Now, he’s stuck in a girl’s body and has to act like a girl, but has troubles in doing so. It’s a cute little diversion from the rest of the game.

I spent a lot of time trying to determine if this game was a solid tool for practicing combos on the run. It is not perfect, but it is more than adequate in that regard. I spent a good deal of time practicing combos on the Vita version before playing with some friends on PS4. My transition was seamless except that the Vita’s d-pad is actually better than the PS4’s. I tried playing with an arcade stick, but my stick control is still quite bad. Nevertheless, I was able to land difficult combos that I had practiced with ease without having played the console version. So, yes. I would recommend this for anyone who has the console version of BBCPEx and wants to practice on the go. This version does have an online mode, but unlike the previous version, it doesn’t connect with the PS3 and PS4 versions which leads me to believe that it may not be 100% accurate. Either that or there were issues with loading and lag online with the last version. That said, there are very few Vita players throwing down online in this game, and the ones that are tend to be very good.

Bottom line is that this is the most complete version of BlazBlue to date, and it’s been flawlessly brought to our little screens. It takes up a lot of space, but it’s space well spent for anime and fighting fans alike. I couldn’t recommend this game more, provided you’ve got a big enough memory card. 5.3gb is a lot of space on these expensive memory cards. Luckily, BBCPEx has so much content to mess around with ranging from challenge missions to story content, to a flat out amazing fighting game with a solid story both in arcade mode and in story mode.

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