XBlaze Code: Embryo Review for PlayStation Vita

Aksys Games has an interest to localize more visual novels in North America, and it certainly had a winner when Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward was released on the PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS. They try it again with Arc System Words, a developer that strays from its fighting roots and creates a visual novel based off one of its popular franchises, BlazBlue. Take away all the intuitive puzzles and interaction from Zero Escape, and you’re left with XBlaze: Code Embryo.

Embryo takes place 150 years prior to the BlazBlue storyline. Despite its ties, it really isn’t necessary to know anything about BlazBlue to understand what’s going on. Fans of the fighting series will recognize Easter eggs throughout.

However, if you take away any of the BlazBlue links, what you have is a mediocre storyline. In some way shape or form, this story has been done before, and a lot better.

The protagonist is a high-school guy, timid and shy, that doesn’t know how to handle himself when a bunch of busty women enter his life. It all starts when he ventures out into the unknown and finds a zombie– er, a “Union”, and has the mysterious power of picking them up with a bell-ringing sound. You find out rather quickly that the reason he can hear the sounds is because he’s a Union himself. Drama ensues.

As expected, Embryo becomes nothing short of a short anime series that belongs in the harem genre. Yet for those that love that genre, it still leaves the player/viewer empty.

There’s nothing spectacularly gripping about the plot, which is a mighty downfall considering it’s a visual novel. But does the game still actually play well?

Embryo’s gameplay is exclusively in the TOi, a device that lets users pick what news stories they want to read. That’s it — based on what the player reads, the game will send them in a certain direction. While the key replay value in visual novels is to have multiple endings (and sometimes needing to avoid the bad ending), just picking paragraph-long articles to read becomes tedious.

The developers believed that picking articles may have created a unique way to progress in a visual novel, but it ends up being a chore. Especially when they aren’t written well, and a lot of them are simply boring. It actually devalues replay, because there’s really no interest to “play” through this mediocre plot. It’s completely unintuitive.

Touchscreen controls on the Vita are responsive and exact, but messing around with the TOi interface feels unnatural. Having to click into a section and then clicking on an item should only be needed when selecting things with the physical buttons. Again, that all enters into the lack of effort that appears made toward this game.

Embryo needs something more than just choosing articles to read. We all understand what a visual novel is, but one that’s listed at a $40 retail price on an actual gaming device needs a little more meat. This is something that could have come out on Androids for $10.

Not only that, but the game suffers from spelling errors and glitches. While I didn’t run into any trophy issues (to my knowledge) in my test run with the Vita version, there’s been players saying that the game cannot be completed at 100 percent due to saving glitches in between episodes. What I did run into were spelling and grammar errors in multiple instances.

It wasn’t enough to distract from the game. Especially when grammar’s concerned, it’s expected to see stuff like that slip through the cracks in translation. What’s actually disappointing is the fact that this was released last July in Japan, and there was no effort to create an English track nearly a year after for the North American audience. This is not a long visual novel — if a 50-hour Tales of game can be completed with English dialogue, there’s no excuse this game couldn’t have the option.

What Embryo does get right are the visuals. The photos are gorgeously detailed and the character design is rather unique — something the BlazBlue series thrives on. There’s even the option to remove the text on-screen with the Select button and take pictures with the Vita. Despite the substandard plot, the characters are so wildly different that it’s easy for fans to start picking out who they like and dislike throughout the story. Unfortunately, some of the fantastic art is hindered with limited, repetitive animations by the characters. Again, the effort just doesn’t feel like it was set at 100 percent.

BlazBlue fans will have more of an attachment to Embryo and will see past some of the shortcomings. But still, they’ll be left with a below average storyline that will be forgotten as soon as something else is played. It’s a game that can easily be polished off over a weekend (or a really lazy Saturday) and possibly never picked up again.

If Aksys wants to continue localizing visual novels and actually net a profit, it has to stray away from substandard plots that offer zero interactivity and doesn’t take advantage of the Vita’s capabilities. It may sell with its BlazBlue ties, but even the biggest fans of the franchise will disappointed in this effort both in development and localization.

What's Good

• Full touchscreen support
• Art slides are visually appealing
• Anybody can enjoy the story even with BlazBlue ties

What's Not

• Mediocre storyline
• Choosing your way feels unintuitive
• No English dialogue option
• Spelling and grammatical erros

Final Score: 4/10

BlazBlue: Chronophantasma headed to PlayStation Vita

A port of the newest BlazBlue fighting game will make its way over to PlayStation Vita.


BlazBlue: Chronophantasma will be released for the Vita on April 24th, 2014 in Japan. The console version already released in Japan last October for the PlayStation 3 exclusively, and the original game was released in arcades in November of 2012.

Despite previous BlazBlue games being released on Xbox 360, this edition didn't make it to Microsoft's console.

It's not a surprise to a see a port of the popular two-dimensional fighter on Sony's handheld device. BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend. It was a port of Continuum Shift and featured some additional content. This port of Chronophantasma will have the same, according to Capsule Computers.

The port will feature some new events such as a beach bathing scene, share downloadable content with the PS3 version of the game and updates from arcade version of the game. It is also said that players will be able to look at highlights form the series on the Vita version of the title.

Hmmm...a beach bathing scene...we're talking some serious additional plot points in the story!

There is no release date set for the Western audience. It's also not confirmed that it will even release in North America, but there's a high probability Aksys Games will publish it like they have with recent BlazBlue games.

The BlazBlue fighting series is developed and published in Japan by Arc System Works. For those that haven't checked it out, it's a must for any traditional fighting fans. Those that have been longtime subscribers to PlayStation Plus were treated to BB: CSE for free last year.

Image credit: Flickr

PlayStation Vita Review - BlazBlue: Continuum Shift EXTEND

Since I can't add any copyrighted photos from the game, here is some...titular cosplay of BlazBlue.

It's uncharted territory for myself when entering the BlazBlue series. Not having played the series before this installment, but playing games similarly made by the developer, there were expectations and a lot of them hit. In a fighting genre that has an abundance on a portable system, is the game that's now available for free for PlayStation Plus subscribers even worth players' time that's seen so many other options of games?

WHAT IS IT?

BlazBlue: Continuum Shift EXTEND is the latest installment of the BlazBlue fighting series. It's a mixture of a traditional 2D fighter complete with a Japanese anime style. At first glance, it looks like another Guilty Gear clone - more so when realized it's from the same developer, Arc System Works.

While it's got plenty of the same gameplay mechanics in it, along with the insane character designs, there's enough difference in the battle system that it doesn't feel like an exact carbon copy. Luckily, the player designs don't make the player feel like they're on crack as in Guilty Gear.

GAME MODES

There's plenty of variety in BB:CSE, way too much to cover in this review. The basics are all from the original CS, such as arcade and network play. All of them work flawlessly except viewing two others play over the network -- there was plenty of lag and not work sticking around to watch the rest of the battle. With the launch of the game being free for PS+ members, expect a variety of beginners and veterans on the circuit.

The story mode is the full package in this installment, giving players a remastered version of Calamity Trigger (the previous and debut game of the series) along with Continuum Shift. This is where the major difference lies between GG and BB -- story mode is shown in a visual novel style. Be prepared for plenty of dialogue between fights, and the game even gives an option to play with easy combos for those just interested in reading the story.

It's a bit of hit and miss for a newcomer. Not surprising, there's plenty of sexual innuendo in the dialogue, but not nearly as bad as some Japanese role-playing games out there. While the English translation is pretty good for a video game, it's hard to focus for long periods of time. I tended to doze off after around an hour of play multiple times.

A welcome addition is Abyss Mode from earlier portable editions. This mode gathered my attention more than the story mode itself with a ton of replay value of trying to gain more experience points lost when losing during the trek.

What's new to this edition exclusively is Unlimited Mars Mode, which has a steep learning curve. Unless the player memorizes special combos for a certain player, it's impossible to play. But it's fun and different to play with "unlimited characters."

MECHANICS

Since it's a port of a console release, and knowing how powerful the Vita is for fighters, there wasn't much needed to downgrade. The game is beautiful on the Vita's high-definition screen. Easily the best-looking fighting game I've played on the handheld to date.

Control layout is light, medium, and heavy attacks with the top three buttons (square, triangle, circle), and X is the character's drive attack. The series takes the approach of using their own button letters instead of just using the console format - a bit confusing when first starting out and learning the moves. Something to avoid using with the Vita version is setting up any button combos on the rear touchpad -- it's an absolute mess.

When playing a fighting game on the Vita, fingers can get somewhat cramped with the small buttons. I found myself going down to the left stick during extended periods of play, but as usual in fighting games, the directional pad is almost necessary to get exact moves off.

The music is top notch in the game, but it's muddled over repetitive banter from the fighters and the announcer constantly yelling "COUNTER! COUNTER! COUNTER!" which can drive anyone insane.

PLAY THIS GAME IF....

The sound of another fighting game available on with PS+ doesn't make the stomach churn. It's worth playing for those that haven't tired from the genre or haven't played a fighting game from Arc System Works. Also, anyone that wants a beautiful-looking visual novel on the go.

DON'T PLAY THIS GAME IF...

Guilty Gear didn't float the boat -- if that game wasn't appealing, this will do absolutely nothing. Also, those that can't stand anything with an anime style or don't want to be judged as an Otaku on the bus.

OBLIGATORY SCORE

77/100

[Photo credit: Flickr/Michael]