BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle came under heavy criticism for its carving up of the game into paid downloadable content at time of release – and rightly so. Featuring a story mode with characters that were only playable if players bought them separately, the fact that half of the roster was locked behind a paywall when many of its assets were pulled directly from other games anyway was pretty egregious on Arc System Works’ part. Now, a major expansion pack looks to add more characters and an additional story scenario.
Most of the characters that became available as DLC in the All-in-One Pack quite rightly should have been in the base game. With that said, it still offered a total of 22 fighters (up from 18, since four more were added last year) to the package for a very neat £13.99. In the Ver. 2.0 expansion pack, though, Arc System Works is asking for £19.99 for just nine characters.
Granted, a new story mode scenario is also present here, featuring mainly the additional cast that includes the following characters: Yumi (Senran Kagura), Neo Politan (RWBY), Akatsuki and Blitztank (Akatsuki Blitzkampf), Celica and Susanoo (BlazBlue), Elizabeth and Adachi (Persona 4 Arena), and Hilda (Under Night In-Birth). Is the smaller number of characters made up for with the extra episode? Not really.
It’s still that typical cross-over plotline of fighters pulled back into a single universe, battling through each other to collect stamps and return home after fighting an ultimate threat. The usual predictable arcs apply, tapping into the familiar traits each character is known for, and even though the narrative throws in a couple of amusing twists, the visual novel-like storytelling method featuring the same old portraits is limited in how it can present eventful scenes that may have otherwise looked better with anime segments or even just some original artwork images. Budget clearly didn’t allow for anime scenes, and that’s understandable, but the lack of more image stills is telling.
Bringing the total roster to a hefty 53 when including the previous DLC, there are plenty of neat additions, such as Yumi and Neo Politan, and the unbelievably massive Blitztank, which takes up half the screen, really mixes things up for the better. Rounding off the extras included here, new colours and character interactions make their way in.
