Arc System Works’ latest game, Persona 4 Arena, was only just released in Japan (and comes out in the US this Tuesday,) but it appears that the company has already started work on their next game, which is a continuation of the popular BlazBlue series.
Following the Arc System Works tradition of giving games subtitles that don’t make sense (a-la “Guilty Gear XX The Midnight Carnival”) the new BlazBlue will reportedly be titled “Chrono Phantasma.” Details are still coming in from Japan, but here’s what we know now:
- Chrono Phantasma introduces 3 new characters to BlazBlue’s constantly expanding roster: Amane, a pretty boy in a kimono who fights by whipping a piece of cloth around (weirder weapons have been used in Arc Sys. games, I guess,) Bullet, who appears to be some kind of cat girl who fights with energy based attacks, and Azrael, a muscle-bound man who fights using quick hand to hand combat.
- In addition to the new characters, the older characters’ sprites have been given new animations and in some cases, have been completely redrawn. This is most noticeable in the game’s poster girl, Noel, who’s costume has been changed.
- As expected, all the characters have been given new moves and have been rebalanced.
BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma is currently scheduled to be released in Japan sometime before the end of this year, and yes, it is apparently a full, new retail release, and apparently won’t be released as a patch or as DLC for existing versions of the game. The reaction to this announcement has been kind of interesting: where as people usually get pissed off about having to buy the same game twice (as was the case with Marvel vs. Capcom,) BlazBlue’s fanbase seems to have generally come to terms with the fact that Arc System Works will try to sell them a new version of the game on an almost yearly basis. I suppose it’s nothing new if you’ve been a fan of the company for awhile, considering the amount of updates that Guilty Gear X got. There’s no US release date yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Aksys or a similar localization company picked this up quickly.
Source: Shoryuken
