BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle - 8.5/10
"Crossed destinies!"
Tested version: Playstation 4 Pro
Although the series BlazBlue is not properly known in Portugal, it is a series that is almost 10 years old, and is also a series developed by Arc System Works, the same producer that brought us the excellent Dragon Ball FighterZ, but also series as the Persona 4 Arena and Under Night In-Birth. Some members of ASW had the idea of putting the series BlazBlue, Persona 4 Arena, Under Night In-Birth and debutant RWBY, along with the 2 vs 2 matches, all in the same bag. And the result was this: BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle.
A strange and mysterious voice decided to mix, through Phantom Field, four worlds into one and these members of each world were summoned without warning. Each group was advised, by such a mysterious voice, to maintain their Keystone and to take the Keystones from the other groups if they wish to return to their world. And although the story is just reasonable, it always have one or another hilarious moment (though it's simple) and, fortunately, unlike what happened in the Chronicles of Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late [st] and in the story mode of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax for example, which in which they had exaggeratedly long dialogues, in this BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle the dialogs are short. Of the four episodes, the episode BlazBlue is slightly different from the other three, since it has ways to lead to a different ending, depending on the responses we give to the characters.
For those coming from BlazBlue, I tell you that in terms of gameplay is exactly the same. If you came from Persona 4 Arena or Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late [st], there have been a few minor changes here and there, not to mention that the gameplay is simpler. Since this would take a lot of work and require too much development time, the 2.5D visual style of the Guilty Gear Revelator and Dragon Ball FighterZ has been set aside in this BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle. However, just as in Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late [st], they are still very good and it is still delightful to see each frame of each character, whether it is moving or simply in their combat pose. The fights are more or less like Dragon Ball FighterZ, but instead of being 3 vs 3, it's 2 vs 2. This means that during combat, the player can make simpler combos with only one character or more difficult combos with both characters. Regardless, and although there is one character slightly stronger than desired, the more time passes, the more I enjoy the gameplay of this game.
We have 20 characters available (22 if we count on Blake and Yang, which are free DLCs), including Ragna the Bloodedge, Jin Kisaragi and Rachel Alucard from BlazBlue, Yu, Yosuke and Chie from Persona 4 Arena, Hyde, Linne and Gordeau from Under Night In-Birth and Ruby, Weiss and Blake from RWBY. However, and this is one of the main negatives of the game, Arc System Works has left characters like Platinum the Trinity, Jubei, Hakumen, Kanji Tatsumi, Orie, Aegis and Naoto Shirogane as DLCs without any necessity. Despite tjey have put the DLC Pack 1 (Platinum, Orie and Kanji) as free for two weeks after launch. Already to say that these same fighters are opponents in story mode.
Are you feeling familiar with the lobby menu of Dragon Ball FighterZ or the Guilty Gear Revelator? Then you will feel at home in BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, since the lobby menu is pratically identical, which is quite pleasant. In this same menu we can, for example, go to the store to buy Avatars, Icons and Plates, among other things. In terms of modes, we have three in the online: Casual Matches, Ranked Matches and Room matches, and in Casual and Ranked Matches we are taken to a different lobby menu, where we can see who is fighting, who is waiting for a battle. Sometimes we can also see each other's connections as well as communicate with players with emotes, stickers and messages. In terms of Lag, I had no reason to complain, we just have to be aware of the connection of the opponent. In Room matches, we can search or create room type, Match / Spectate Room or Free-for-All, as well as limit capacity (2-8 players) and connectivity (from 0 to 4 bars), among others options. There are no private matches and there is no way to invite our friends, with the alternative being to create Room matches with a password. The result is similar, but not so practical.
In addition to Episode Mode, we have several usual offline modes, like V.S. Mode, Tactics and Training, but strange as it may seem, the game doesn't have Arcade mode. The soundtrack of each character already known is included in the package, which for me is very good. If we join the main soundtrack of the game and the songs of Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang, then you can take my words "very good" and put the word "excellent". If the BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle hadn't taken with the DLC's before the release, it would certainly be a near-perfect fighting game. Apart from that, it's impossible not to like BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle.
Veredict: If we remove the fact that the game have DLC's before the release, BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle is an excellent fighting game and is completely recommended for fans of the genre.