Super long boring review about BlazBlue.
There are 12 playable characters with each a unique ability called "Drive", every Drive has a different effect, for example: One character drains HP, one character can freeze opponents and another character can curse your opponent. In overall this has been done very well.
Sadly not all characters are equally balanced, you will definitely notice the differences in each character's overall strength. Although the best characters aren't unbeatable, you'll definitely feel at an unfair disadvantage, but aside from them the rest of the cast is pretty close in overall potential.
The gameplay's core is pretty simple, you press buttons, whack your enemy until your opponent's HP is fully depleted. The game gives every character a different move set, special attacks, super attacks and a one-hit-KO attack (which is really hard to pull off and can only be done under certain conditions so don't worry about it being abusive, it's only done for show).The game rewards the player's dedication, as you look deeper into the game you'll know when to counter, which attacks will link to eachother etc etc. So the most skilled player usually takes the cake. It's not as hard to learn as the most hardcore fighting games but it definitely requires some time and effort to master.
The graphics, if you don't like 2D or an anime look you'll probably dislike them, if you do however like them you will probably be very pleased. The character models are all hand-drawn and move very fluently. They're also much sharper than you will find in most 2D fighters. The stages are nice to look at, they are 3D rendered and look very lively and creative.
I personally loved the tracks of the game, every character has his/her own theme song and the effects feel just right. Though most songs are rock, so it's your preference whether you like it or not.
In general the voices fit the characters pretty well, except for maybe 1-2 characters in the English dub. The game lets you choose whether the characters speak English or Japanese, which is a pretty nice option.
In battle, you will find the characters talking a lot, and some characters say specific things to certain characters depending on their relation, if you don't like constant talking you might be annoyed, although I personally found it nice that they added depth in what they say
Now let's go to the modes, BlazBlue contains the following modes: Arcade Mode, Story Mode, Versus Mode, Score Attack Mode, Training Mode, Gallery, and Network Mode.
Although I think it lacks some features, the most important modes have been made pretty well.
Since most modes speak for itself (except score attack, where you just fight everyone in a certain order and get a score for it), I'll only discuss story mode and network mode
Let's start with story mode, they've put a lot more effort in the story than most fighters do, which is nice for a change. Every character has 3 paths to follow, leading to different ending. Depending on how you progress (by answering questions, losing or winning certain fights). Every dialogue in the story is done with skits until the last story, where you suddenly find anime cutscenes! I personally would've preferred to see them more often. Beating the stories will unlock art for your gallery which is a nice extra.
Aside from the lack of anime cutscenes, it's very annoying to get 100% completion for a story. To get 100%, you have to get every ending and LOSE every fight at least once, which forces you to save, lose, load and then do the fight again (not specifically in that order)
The network mode is pretty elaborate. You can play ranked matches, unranked matches, create rooms that can hold up to 6 people, spectate matches, view leaderboards, shows you how well the connection is with the opposing player(s), and shows how many matches you (and others) have played with a D card: showing the person's most played characters, win ratio and how many matches he/she has played. If you are a casual gamer, the online play might be a turn off since most players are very competitive. However if you are a competitive fighter, you'll be pleased since the online players are very dedicated in overall.
In conclusion, although not as hardcore as some fighting games, it's not just some game you can pick up and play, unless you have many casual friends to play with. If you're into 2D fighting games with depth, you should definitely
pick this up. If you're having doubts, at least give it a rent, it deserves getting looked into. BlazBlue has beautiful graphics, fun and competitive gameplay, unique characters and great bonus features. The only reason I can't give this game a 10 is because of the lack of characters and offline modes.