Xblaze Code: Embryo (PC) Review

By David Lovato 22.06.2016

Review for Xblaze Code: Embryo on PC

BlazBlue, Arc System Works' popular series, is an action-packed fighter that led to several spinoffs in anime and manga. It seems fitting, then, that some of the game's story is now being presented in the form of visual novels. Originally released for PS3 and Vita, Xblaze Code: Embryo has now made its way to Windows.

As far as visual novels go, this one is run-of-the-mill. There's nothing much to do besides pressing a button to advance the dialogue currently on the screen. This is where TOI comes in; acting as an app the characters use, players can invoke TOI to read stats on the various characters, as well as read news headlines, complete with comments left by various fictional users within the game's world. It's a fun way to incorporate some interactivity in an otherwise non-interactive game, and those wishing to dive deep into the lore are going to find plenty to read up on.

Screenshot for Xblaze Code: Embryo on PC

The story itself presents a lot of clichés and tropes commonly found in anime, but what the game lacks in originality, it makes up for in presentation. Characters are surprisingly emotive, and they aren't just flat cutouts standing around in front of backgrounds—the camera will shift to different angles, showing characters from the side or the back, their heads might move, their mouths always move—it's an animated visual novel. There is an unfortunate amount of graphical glitches, with aliasing and screen tearing being plentiful, but switching the game to 720 resolution fixes all but the text jaggies. The writing is also on-point; all of the voiced dialogue is in Japanese, but the subtitles are easy to read, make sense, and bring out the individual personalities of the characters.

Screenshot for Xblaze Code: Embryo on PC

Cubed3 Rating

6/10
Rated 6 out of 10

Good

Genre clichés and visual glitches aside, this is a solid visual novel. It isn't likely to appeal to a wide audience; fans of BlazBlue (and fans of graphic novels or anime in general) will enjoy it, but it's hard to imagine that anyone else will. Still, there's something to be said about making games specifically for the fans, and Xblaze Code: Embryo performs solidly on that front.

Developer

Arc System Works

Publisher

Aksys

Genre

Adventure

Players

1

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  6/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  0 (0 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date Out now   Australian release date Out now   

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