BlazBlue: Review Part 2

Yes, there is going to be a part 2. Because as of now, I have officially 100% everything you can in terms of single player BlazBlue. What does that mean? I've unlocked every trophy that doesn't involve online play, I've unlocked every gallery picture and sound, I've beaten Arcade Mode on "Hell" difficulty, and I've beaten Score Attack mode. Oh, and I've played my first 100 online matches: 20 ranked matches and 80 player matches, winning 18 ranked and 62 player.

So first, beating story mode is a lot easier than it was in the Guilty Gear series. A couple of characters require distortion finishes on every match, but other than that it is as simple as losing to every character (sometimes losing to a specific character will unlock a new story arc), and going down every arc and beating every character. Beating Arcade Mode with every single character will also unlock their Astral Heat moves, except for Ragna, V-13, and Rachel, who get their "unlimited" modes unlocked (boss versions) since they already have Astral Heats to begin with.
Beating "Hell" Arcade Mode and Score Attack mode is extremely hard the first few times around, but as with any video game, a computer than can input commands flawlessly is still restricted to a set program. What does this mean? To put it simply: you can cheese the computer if you just look for the opening. For example, Tager will always use his down D charge move if you're on the opposite side of the map, meaning he will stop and be vulnerable in the middle of the map. Using a character like V-13 can punish this extremely hard with some well placed D swords. That being said, the AI does adapt to your tendencies, so you can't just chain throw or spam a single move all day, and having to fight unlimited versions of the 3 possible boss characters is still a royal pain regardless of how open they may be in certain situations. Which, of course, adds to the already high replay value, making the game that much more enjoyable.

The online play (I play on Playstation Network), the main content lacking in my first review, is phenomenal. There is very minimal to no lag at all. If you do happen to play a match against someone who is very laggy, the entire beginning of the match is used to synchronize the lag delays, making any kind of delay in your command inputs to on-screen actions almost unnoticeable. There are cases of people lagging out, but I have yet to lag out of a match myself.
There are 2 minor problems with the network, however. First, if you join a game and can't connect, you'll be stuck trying to connect until the host disbands the room or starts a match. With ranked matches, rooms fill up fast enough so you won't be waiting for long. But player matches, especially when the host is not paying attention to his television, can cause some long waiting times while your internet repeatedly fails to connect.
Secondly, friend invites will not work 100% of the time, and will often be subject to the "being stuck in connection" problem until you tell your friend to disband his room. Does that mean you can't play with your friend? No, it just means he/she can't reserve a slot for you in his/her room all the time. If he/she makes a completely public game, you can manually search for it in the list of public player matches, and join it that way. There are usually no more than 20 rooms in queue at a time, so it is pretty easy to find a specific room or a specific host.

With everything missing in my last review now covered, I'm still retaining the same score I gave it last time. I doubt I'll be bored of this game before summer ends, as this game can easily provide several hours of entertainment at a time, especially during network play. I was debating if I should throw in decimals to my score system just because I think BlazBlue deserves a 9.5 or higher, but I don't think that will be fair or very convenient.

Score: 9/10 (still)

By the way, if you want to check out my BlazBlue achievements or just get a glimpse of my player card, check out this album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2400962&id=6023771&l=7a78261ef7