It’s official: Ragna The Bloodedge will soon be retiring from the front lines. BlazBlue: Central Fiction, the fourth and final chapter of Ragna’s story, will be released in Japanes arcades this winter. Let’s get into what’s new since Chronophantasma.
New Overdrive Mechanic!
Exceed Accel is a special attack that is only available during overdrive, activated by reinputting the same button combination used to initiate overdrive. These attacks are character specific of course, but find common ground in the fact that all of them deal huge damage. The drawback is that their activation immediately ends overdrive, regardless of its remaining duration.
That one other mechanic!
Negative State is a mechanic that punishes a player for playing too defensively. This mechanic, which has been around since the series’ incepetion, finally meets its opposite in the new Active Flow system. This new system rewards a player for playing aggressively by amplifying their damage output.
All in all, it would seem that there is a push for calculated aggression in Central Fiction. The new high risk, high reward attacks and damage amps all lean toward fast paced action, while still ensuring that the game is fun to watch.
New characters!
Now no new installment of a fighting game is without its new characters. These two, however, have already been seen within the series before being made playable. Naoto Kurogane was once exclusive to the BlazBlue: Bloodedge Experience novels before being made playable. Hibiki Kohaku was seen in Chronophantasma as a servant of Kagura Mutsuki.
Both of these characters boast unique drives to differentiate them from the rest of the cast, though Hibiki has been much more happily received by the community. Hopefully both characters can stand up to the incredibly unique cast that has been established prior to their introduction. There have also been less-than-subtle hints that there is at least one other character to come…
So all we can do is wait! As previously stated, BlazBlue: Central Fiction is slated for a Winter 2015 release in Japanese arcades. Hopefully an overseas console release isn’t too far away!
