ThatHiroGuy

Don't be too embarrassed. I've had a lot of the same feelings as you're having about this, but here's how I think of it. Capcom Fighters, Tekken, and NetherRealm are all legendary at this point. They're icons. They speak to the mainstream audience because of how recognizable and accessible they are. Due to this, it could be said that it's true their communities are large, and may have great hubs for information (only Capcom Fighters w/ SRK and forums imo). But... The ArcSys community's got heart and soul. The information may be lacking, sure. Having any immediately recognizable source of info outside of Dustloop, and barely here, does seem like a disappointment. But this community being the size it is has it's benefits. It feels good to always run into players you recognize, and those that you don't, are usually friends of someone you DO know. I've been playing SF pretty regularly and I've never felt it there, it doesn't ever feel like it cultivates an online community. People will always laugh from the outside, at the Arcsys fighters (mostly because everyone laughs at air-dash fighters in general). But these games are great, they've just never been, and never will be popular like that.

Susanoo doesn't really seem to have "Top Tier" DNA, but I guess time will tell. Initial impressions... Pretty godlike normals on the offensive. You're gonna have a bad time trying to mash out of anything he's doing in general, and he's got pretty good reach in neutral. But defensively, you'd better hope to god you have his DP unlocked, or have some system mechanic ready due to how slow his normals are. Good blockstun, good stopping power, but baaad defensively. Unlike the top tier characters, has a pretty average backdash, and pretty mediocre movement ability for the kind of character he is. His random hits really do hurt though, and sometimes after about 2 or so random openings, I check my opponent's health and it's at like 1/3rd. Despite what some people think, I'm not sure his nodes and unlocking them are part of his problems. He's a really dynamic character, and it requires extreme planning to use him appropriately. I think once people understand him more thoroughly, he'll be fine.

I really want to know why Susanoo isn't available in Network Mode. I get that it's a liability as far as spoilers goes, but even so, couldn't they at least put in an option to allow him in Player Lobbies? Kind of similar to Unlimited characters? What's the likely explanation here?

It's all in your interpretation, or frame of reference I guess? I certainly don't see complaining, or doomsaying. I'm not saying anywhere here that I dislike either route they take, just explaining why I personally think one route makes more sense than the other. Listen, just because you like something doesn't mean you have to deny the right to think critically or realistically about it. Just because I think something should take a long hiatus, and can point out the logical reasons why it would, doesn't mean I want it to.

Exactly. And this is the point I've been trying to make. I think they're aware that the landscape for the fighting game genre is evolving, or at least trying to. This is their time to innovate, and do what they did with Blazblue, just with a new IP. It could still be a fighting game, and I'd like to think if they took a break from Blazblue, it would be. They need to let this series breathe in a major way. It's good for everyone involved. It's a new console generation, there's new tools and precedent for a new engine, Esports is on the rise and able to be integrated in interesting ways, etc etc. Blazblue isn't pushing an envelope in any way right now. Even Xrd is doing some interesting things as far as tutorials, and teaching goes. They either need to go back to the drawing board for a long time with Blazblue, or make a new fighter, or focus on Xrd.

You're missing the all important phrase, "For the near future", when I say Dark Souls is ending. Making the assumption that I don't feel the same exact way about that as I do about this. I made the comparison because profitability is not always the concern when it comes to followups.That's to say, within reason obviously, profit doesn't 100% determine if Blazblue gets one or 5 more games. The same way that profit doesn't determine if Dark Souls continues. It's not backwards logic at all. This goes towards your point. At a certain threshold, it becomes more about what a developer/director wants, when, and how they want it to happen. I actually like Blazblue more than any other fighting game out right now or in the near future, despite everyone around me moving on from it. I still think the same about Dark Souls what I feel about Uncharted, what I feel about Kingdom Hearts, Blazblue, and any other game in this situation though. They don't have the greatest amount of restraint, and want sequels/more money, but they also want to at least try to stay true to their vision in the story. They need to be able to hover around the idea of a continuation, as an easy cash grab, but to be able to do so without being held to any definitive statements or release/dev windows. Not to mention, (good) developers tend to want to experiment, and push the envelope in their genre, or others. Ultimately, I'm just saying that this whole, "It's only the end to Ragna's story" thing is something you (probably) shouldn't just take at face value, in the way that you are, because it's left very ambiguous. Uncharted and Dark Souls directors at least gave their fans general criteria or ideas for if their franchises continue, and how after what they consider to be the, "End" of their stories. Dark Souls director even straight up said he wanted to work on other things for now. With Blazblue, what else is there to glean from their statement? They want it to continue after Ragna? It took 10 years for anything to come of statements like that from Nomura with Kingdom Hearts 3. Exaggerated situation because SE sucks, but you get the idea.

Yeah, and Dark Souls 3 is making hand over fist making the most it's ever made. Doesn't change the fact that it's the definitive end for the near future. And that's a game that's actually making bank, not a 'somewhat profitable' release. Any way you want to try and flip this, everything points to Arcsys focusing on something new (not Blazblue) very, very soon. Between sprite-based artwork dying out (even the new Igavania game, "Bloodstained" is 3-D model based), the PS3 generation coming to an end, and Ragna's story ending, it's genuinely hard to fathom a new (non-extend) Blazblue after CFEX. Again, not that it could never happen, it'd just be a title on hold for Guilty Gear amounts of time. Hell, I think a Guilty Gear X Blazblue game is more likely to come before a next-gen Blazblue.

It's just speculation after all, and you're right that there's no right or wrong for the industry. There's definitely smart and dumb though, and I'd like to think they're aware of the situation. Smart would be to try and work on something new that can compete in the same space that Street Fighter V, KoF XIV, Tekken 7, and MKX are, instead of focusing on a brand that has been worn out, and has very little recognition (still). Especially true since they already have Guilty Gear to champion that spot for them right now.

It's not that I don't understand, and I can't speak for others. That being said, in my opinion, this whole, "It's just the end of x character's story" is a weightless statement. SE says it for Kingdom Hearts, and Arcsys says it for Blazblue, but it all means the same thing. They're free to not follow through after CF/CF extend, explicitly because they said it's the end of Ragna's story. If they don't make a new Blazblue, you can't say they lied. Even if they made a new "Blazblue" following... not Ragna, who is your main character from our current cast (of whom we know literally everything about)? I refuse to believe any new Blazblue with a new main to follow would be anything but tangentially related, with an entirely new cast (also read as- not even remotely Blazblue). Until they come out and say something concrete about the future of the series, or what character they plan to follow next, it's just an easy answer to a complex question. That answer being, "We'll leave it open ended for continuation, but it's done until we feel like coming back to it." Also worth note- CF is somewhat acceptable as a multi-platform release (PS3 support), especially with Persona 5 releasing on PS3 this year. CFEX is skirting that limit, being a potential 2017 release. There's no way in hell they're going to focus on Blazblue even more in 2018, when they could be working on a full next-gen IP in it's place.

Agreed. It's even worse when you factor in Arcsys flavor of the month fever. Hopefully they've got a really good post-release plan for the game. Make it a proper goodbye to Blazblue, ya know?

Nooo no. This is the right thread. I WANT CF instead of Revelator, but I'm not so sure I can take the wait all the way to CF... Well, not with just SFV to tide me over.

There was a release window announced, but have they come around to telling us an exact day yet? I really don't want Revelator, but I really want an Arksys fighter >_>...

I forgot about Zestiria, I should know better. There's a lot of games that are going by this trend lately, coming from Japan. People have already given examples, I just forgot Zestiria was actually released on PS3 stateside. I want to believe that there's little precedent for them to forego a PS3 release here, but we'll see.

They're still releasing it on PS3 because it's still popular over in Japan. I'm not sure if they'll do the same over here, though. Games like Tales of Zestiria have foregone the PS3 release in the states, because of how quickly we adapt new consoles (PS4/XBone popularity).

There are literally no Americans playing this game right now ;A;... Maybe later this evening people will be on haha. Or... maybe they're all at school >.>... I hope the American release boosts the amounts of people playing significantly. Right now it's pretty pitiful. There's like 2 people in ranked, if anyone, at any given time. At most, 5-10 player match rooms, less than half being American :<... Hey though, the upside is, people have been using the lobby system a lot more than I feel they did in BBCP.