Blazblue: Calamity Trigger – A closer look at the characters

With the Japan Arcade and PS3 release so close, I thought I’d bring some info here, from various sauces, about the characters in Arcsystem Works’ upcoming 2D fighter.

The background story goes that mankind was on the brink of extinction due to the Black Beast, a creature of unknown origins. At the final hour six heroes, wielding the power of “magic”, defeated the Black Beast by combining their magic and human technology to create Armagus. This event was henceforth called the First War of Magic.

After the war, the New World Void Space Cue Administration Bureau was set up to govern the new world. The world was rebuilt under their dictatorship, but humanity was being split into those capable of using Armagus, and those unable to. This conflict escalated into the Ikaruga Civil War, or the Second War of Magic. After this second war the Bureau imposed a harsher rule on the people; any rebels would be killed.

Several years afterward, a branch of the Bureau was completely destroyed by an S-class traitor, named Ragna the Bloodedge, also known as the “God of Death”, his sole aim being to destroy the Bureau. The Bureau puts up a bounty for his capture, and the main story begins.

Not much else is known about the story other than this meagre explaination.

On to the playable characters, of which there are 10 – Ragna the Bloodedge, Jin Kisaragi, Noel Vermillion, Iron Tager, Rachel Alucard, Taokaka, Arakune, Litchi Faye Ling, Shishigami Bang and Carl Clover. True to Guilty Gear tradition (Arcsys made GG) the casts consist of a bunch of freakazoids.

We have Ranga, the “get out of my way” guy, i.e. Sol; Jin, the pretty-boy opposite to the main character, i.e. Ky (notice Ragna and Jin’s color scheme is red and blue respectively); Noel, the innocent lass i.e. Dizzy; Tager, the man with fists and pectorals bigger than his head i.e. Potemkin (and a cyborg to boot); Rachel, the vampire loli (a May + Slayer cross?); Taokaka, the nekomimi(?); Arakune, the blob of… stuff; Litchi, the slutty sexy one, i.e. I-No; Bang, the ninja i.e. Chipp; and Carl, the shota i.e. a non-trap Bridget.

Note: In Blazblue, each character has a special, unique ability known as a Drive Ability. Each character’s gameplay and tactics center around their Drive Abilities, making each character unique.

And now, the characters.

• Ragna the Bloodedge

Height: 185 cm

Weight: 78 kg

Bloodtype: B

Gender: Male

Origin: Unknown

Hobby: Cooking

The almighty force managing the “Operation”. In order to obtain absolute power over the world this man rebelled against the “Earth and Space Information Control System” (probably explains the match counter being “Rebel”, like GG’s “Duel” or KoF’s “Round”). Known as the “God of Death”, a bounty for his capture has been placed in all the regions populated with branches of the Control System.

Drive Ability: Soul Eater – Allows Ragna to drain life from his opponents during certain specials and overdrives. The lifedrain is is not great to the extent of imba, but enough to allow Ragna to cling on to life provided his specials connect or gets blocked (YES, he can lifesteal even from blocked specials). However, his overdrive Blood Kain -> Dark Devour gives a whooping 50% back to Ragna, and requires a full Heat Guage (the BB equivalent of GG’s Tension guage, used to perform overdrives).

• Jin Kisaragi

Height: 178 cm

Weight: 61 kg

Bloodtype: A

Gender: Male

Origin: England

Hobby: Vintage Motorcycles

From a prestigious family, this man is a retainer of the Control System’s Kisaragi house. His class is Major. In the past, he had a distinguished military record during the “Ikaruga Civil War” that broke out, and was promoted to the position of Division Commander at an exceptionally young age. He is always cool and calm, though he is a deeply jealous, ambitious, and possessive person, with little care for others.

Drive Ability: Frostbite - Frostbite allows Jin to freeze his opponents with certain specials, rendering them immobile for a short period. Combined with his projectiles, Jin is looking to be one of the cheap, newb-friendly characters a la Ky.

• Noel Vermillion

Height: 157 cm

Weight: 48 kg

Bloodtype: A

Gender: Female

Origin: England

Hobby: Writing Poems

Because of her outstanding combat ability and suitable operation evaluations, she was selected to be Jin Kisaragi’s direct subordinate in her youth. The two were acquaintances in officer’s academy, though Noel thought Jin was extremely weak. However, on a certain mission handed down from the Control System, her preconceptions were changed.

Drive Ability: Chain Revolver – Noel combos certain moves into other moves using this drive, much like KoF2k2’s Angel, except with two guns. There are three sets of moves, called Chain Revolver: Activation, Chain Revolver: Relay and Chain Revolver: Finisher. Activation starts the combo, after which you can input up to four Relay attacks (but not the same Relay twice consecutively) before ending with a Finisher.

• Iron Tager (TR-00009)

Height: 240 cm

Weight: 550 kg

Bloodtype: Natural oil

Gender: Male

Origin: Unknown (doesn’t remember)

Hobby: Bottle-ships

Originally the leader of a battle unit which revolved around physical combat, he was forced to withdraw from the front lines after sustaining a mortal wound in the Ikaruga Civil War. He was brought back from the brink of death at the hands of the scientist “Kokonoe” and revived as a cyborg, and is currently assigned to a combat unit under the direct control of Kokonoe. He seems to be pursuing Ragna, though his goals are entirely unclear.

Drive Ability: Voltic Battler – Allows Tager to magnetise an opponent when his Drive connects. As long as the opponent is magnetised, he can drag them towards him no matter where they are, for a certain period of time. This is also Tager’s main way of getting near to his opponents, since he has no dash/airdash, like GG’s Potemkin. Like Potemkin, his attacks also center around grapples; he even has something like Potemkin Buster and a groud Heavenly Potemkin Buster overdrive.

• Rachel Alucard

Height: 145 cm

Weight: 31 kg

Bloodtype: Unknown

Gender: Female

Origin: Transylvania

Hobby: Tea

A vampire who is the head of the Alucard family and dresses in a gothic lolita style. As the head of the family, an enormous castle and a servant have been handed down to her from previous generations. She carries a cat-shaped umbrella called Nago and fights using a chubby, red bat familiar called Gii. She slipped out of her castle in search of fun because she hates to be bored.

Drive Ability: Sylphide – Allows Rachel to control wind. She can turn any static move into a moving one, making her extremely good at rushdown. Another aspect of her attacks is her odd stones, which she can use to hit her opponents with when thrown out. They also stick to the ground to create “lightning rods”, which allows her to electrocute her opponent.

• Taokaka

Height: 165 cm

Weight: 42 kg

Bloodtype: O

Gender: Female

Origin: Kaka Village

Hobby: Naps, Food

A young catgirl of the Kaka tribe who live in the lower class part of Kagutsuchi. Her coat is equipped with massive paw-like hands that include long, retractable claws. She wants to get back the sky above her village that was sealed off with an enormous plate by humans who came to the land and started building a big city. She left her village in search of someone called Ragna after she heard that you could gain a lot of money for defeating him.

Drive Ability: Dancing Edge – When used, Taokaka’s Drive allows her to dash towards her opponent and attack. Potentially very good for pressure and mixups, as some of her dashes end where she can either do an overhead, or a low attack.

• Litchi Faye Ling

Height: 170 cm

Weight: 58 kg

Bloodtype: AB

Gender: Female

Origin: Shanghai, China

Hobby: Mahjong

A doctor in the oriental part of Kagutsuchi. Apparently, she is vital to the town because of her profession and her knack for sensing others’ needs. Her reasons for coming here are unknown.

Drive Ability: Mantenbou – Basically allows her to throw her staff somewhere on the ground, and from there setup crossups and/or mixups. Something like Eddie’s summon, except it doesn’t appear only for a short amount of time, and it cannot be hit.

• Arakune

Height: 20-200 cm

Weight: 5-1000 kg

Bloodtype: Unknown

Gender: Unknown

Origin: Unknown

Hobby: Unknown

An occult being that is constantly seeking knowledge. Its body houses innumerable insects. Currently, it lives under the streets of Kagutsuchi. Because it needs to absorb large amounts of life force to continue its existence, it frequently attacks those of the Kaka tribe and humans alike. Recently, it has sensed the presence of a being with unheard of levels of life force, which has caused it to stir.

Drive Ability: Crimson – When an opponent is hit with Arakune’s drive, he/she/it is cursed, a la Testament’s crow-curse special. He has a limited amount of time to launch projectiles in the form of insects at the opponent until the curse wears off. The curse stops also if Arakune gets hit, like Testament’s crow-curse.

• Bang Shishigami

Height: 192 cm

Weight: 105 kg

Bloodtype: B

Gender: Male

Origin: The Far East

Hobby: Unknown

A ninja who mastered various techniques.

Drive Ability: Burning Heart – I’m not too sure what this does, as info is kinda hard to come by at this stage (me having absolutely no access to the game whatsoever). I assume it has something to do with his projectile techniques and his self-buff overdrive nicknamed Bang Install (after Sol’s Dragon Install).

• Carl Clover

Height: 144 cm

Weight: 35 kg

Bloodtype: AB

Gender: Male

Origin: Austria

Hobby: Reading

A young boy wearing a top hat who fights using a large mechanical maid puppet named Nirvana.

Drive Ability: AutoMation – Carl’s means of control for his puppet. Another one who looks to be good for crossup and mixups. It should be noted that his puppet can be disabled, severely limiting his attack options, by simply hitting the puppet.

Info taken from Wiki and Dustloop forums.

In case you didn’t get some of those references, they are generally of Guilty Gear characters and their moves. Certain terms are also from the 2D fighter lingo.

Crossups – The ability to use projectiles or summons to break an opponent’s guard by attacking high/mid and low at the same time.

Mixups – Similar to crossups, mixups are performed by striking the opponent from both sides of the 2D plane with the aid of summoned objects and projectiles, the point being to make the opponent block in the wrong direction and take hits.

Rushdown/Pressure – The ability of a character to rain continuous attacks on an opponent, forcing them to block continually and inevitably get hit sooner or later. Pressure simply means forcing your opponent into a corner due to a rushdown.

Visit the Dustloop link for more in-depth stuff on technical stuff, movelists, and some videos. Also check out the Blazblue Arcade.

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Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger
• New 2D Fighter from Arc System Works