Regarding Blazblue's Story and confusion within

[MacTee]

Hey everybody, hope this is the right section for questions like this. I only very recently started getting into Blazblue and its story, and am somewhat confused as to how people actually make sense of all this. Hope you don't mind me asking for advice here.

So I recently started on the BB series and just "completed" Calamity Trigger's story mode. I ABSOLUTELY loved the story, its characters and its settings; and I plan to continue on to Continuum Shift and Chronophantasma. However, there is one thing about the plot that really irks me to no end: the convoluted way in which it is told.
Now I reckon that it's complexity and the effort you need to put into is probably something many appreciate the game. And it is justified. However, after playing through the first game, it absolutely baffles me how anybody could actually make a coherent story out of this. It really feels like the story writers went a little overboard, and purposefully made it an overweight challenge to the gamers who want to make sense of it.

Admittedly, I didn't do 100% on CT's story mode; however I saw every character's ending (true ends and alternative ends, so everything except all of the gameover options) and arcade endings, as well as watching the Litchi short-movies. But, reading some of the plot FAQs and explanations out there, I still feel like I lacked a lot of crucial information. Most importantly: the fact that the story's timelines loop.

I genuinely do not recall ever hearing about that in-game, yet it clears up such a ridiculous amount of confusion. And then there's stuff like what a Murakumo unit is, the fact that Noel, Nu and the other 11 were clones of Saya, the fact that Terumi actually met Jin in the past and coerced him to kill Ragna, etc.

Like, was I doing something wrong? Did I not experience all the major parts of the story? How are others able to decipher all that background information while I seem to miss the most crucial things? Are they maybe explained further in the following games or in the anime?
Or was I really just not looking hard enough and not taking notes?

It really bothers me that I get all those facts via simple text docs on the internet instead of having the chance to experience them within the actual game. It kinda takes the fun out of it.

Are Continuum Shift (Extend) and Chronophantasma like this as well. Does it require the same amount of time and effort to make sense of the story? If so, then I feel like I should make preparations beforehand this time around and start taking notes from the beginning of the different storylines. >_>

Sorry for the long post. Thanks in advance. >:3

[Zedar90]

Blazblue is confusing story, and it's mostly is because the story doesn't have a beginning. Blazblue's story, for better or worse, lives on it's mystery. And it doesn't help that Mori is a inexperienced story teller. While the lore and characters are interesting, the story needs some work.

 

It's funny that after playing CS and CP, going back to CT you sees some foreshadowing one has missed. My recommendation is to play CT, CS, CP and after playing through them go and ask question on forums about what you don't understand.

 

And sadly (or for me it's positive) the story isn't only in the games, but in different mediums as well.

 

Games: BlazBlue CT, BlazBlue CS Extend, BlazBlue CP, XBLAZE Code:Embryo (Pure Visual Novel, takes place 150 years before CT), XBLAZE Lost:Memories (unreleased sequel to Code:Embryo, Spring 2015 in Japan).

Light Novels: Phase series (5 volumes, takes place during the Dark War), BlazBlue Series (4 volumes, adaptation of the Games), Bloodedge Experience (2 volumes, takes place in Japan before the Black Beast). For the LN, sadly only about 2 have been fan translated.

Manga: Remix Heart (a manga taking place 3 years before CT), Chemical Complex (non canon I believe), BlazBlue (manga covering CT).

Martial Collection: CT, CS, CP, CP Story maniacs. These are books with glossary, art, Timeline. The glossary part was added to CP, but only to the Japanese version.

[Stryker115]

Chimelical Complex is actually a retelling of Ragna's Main Story mode in Calamity Trigger and a bit of the True End

so kinda like a sequel hook for Continuum Shift which was still new at the time(not Extend but vanilla CS)

 

hopefully Dragon Age's Blazblue manga would do a better job as it seems have included Noel's CT path as well

[BlackYakuzu94]

Yeaaaaa, this series unfortunately isn't the most well structured when it comes to it's plot sadly, so things are going to feel really disjointed unless you pay attention and ask questions online. I'd do what Zedar said and just play through all of the way until you beat Chronophantasma, and then just try to go over what you already know.

[Luminos564]

Yeah, Blazblue has a lot of problems in the story department. The characters are great for the most part and the lore that surrounds the franchise is intriguing. However, as others pointed out, the story is not well constructed. A big problem with this Zedar90 already alluded to: there is a LOT of information that is unavailable in the games and even more so for English-speaking fans. You got Light Novels, you got manga and you even got other games that connect to it and expand upon it but it is still information that will be missing if you simply play from CT>CP. Especially so for CP considering the NA version lacks the Library mode which the JPN version had in which various terms of the lore are explained.

 

CT was a starting point. Your confusion is not unreasonable. Stuff like what the fact the whole thing is a time loop gets mentioned (I believe in Ragna's Bad End where he merges with Nu-13 and a blast obliterates him stating "Loop #724 is a failure. Beginning loop #725") but you won't know the important stuff like:

-Why is this happening?

-Who issued that blast?

-Who is the person/entity observing these "loops" and for what purpose?

-How does anything these characters do connect to the overall plot?

 

CS is more or less the same (though I will avoid spoiling it for you). You'll be going through multiple character's perspective and some questions from the above will be explained but then even more questions will arise for you.

 

CP attempts to correct this method by going with 3 separate story paths that ultimately converge into a single true end, and even THAT fails because even more terminology and mysteries are thrown your way. To its credit, it DOES attempt to answer some big revelations but those only make sense if if you played XBlaze or have an understanding of what went on during the Phase Shift novels.

 

Bottom line: you need to be aware of certain aspects and terms ahead of time when getting into Blazblue story. Even I am still unsure how some terms even work or how some things function in this universe but yeah, try to get acquainted with the supplementary materials at least in some way if you can. Otherwise you'll feel like you're missing some parts of the conversation.

[Suzaku]

The plot of BlazBlue is intentionally very fragmented (characters have multiple story paths which constitute prior time loops and/or alternate timelines), but it was put together with a lot of forethought and planning. So, while it's difficult to completely decipher everything, all of the pieces do fit together.

 

It would of course be easier to piece things together if the novels, material collection guidebooks, or the CP library mode were available in English, but there are fans working on translating stuff.

 

The main key to understanding the core storyline is that the True Ending of Calamity Trigger was the final loop and the True Ending of Continuum Shift is the true timeline. The other story paths and endings offer additional insight into the goings on, but some of those events didn't necessarily come to pass in the True Ending version of events. Chronophantasma uses a more linear story structure because the timeline becomes linear at the end of CS.

 

These all seems to have been ways of Mori experimenting with storytelling in fighting games, which have always had the problem of most characters having non-canon storylines and endings. With BlazBlue, he essentially approached the idea from a metaphysical, in-universe standpoint: yes, there are multiple endings, here's why that's happening, and now part of the story is going to literally be about stopping it from happening.

[SixWingedAngel]

Blazblue's confusing structure is clearly intentional and definitely not a product of inexperienced writing. It's all about marketing/keeping the watcher. The game's story's progress follows a series' way of writing and not that of a stand alone game's within a series (say, metal gear). So, like others already said, to make the most sense out of the story, one should play all atleast the games in the main series (many of your questions actually get answered as the story progresses, though other arise), then proceed with questions to forums/spin-off material.

[Narroo]

I'll say this: I'm not a fan of putting so much story in spin offs, like the light novels.  It's annoying for people who only play the main games.

[AllyOfJustice]

I'll say this: I'm not a fan of putting so much story in spin offs, like the light novels.  It's annoying for people who only play the main games.

Agreed.

 

I played through CT, CSE and CP and read every single line of text hoping the story would be good. In my opinion, Blazblue's story is bad. I love the game,I like some of the characters, but the writer is trying sooo hard. It's not the fact that story structure is confusing, it's just the fact the story is so bland and BORING. Most of all, everything is generic. Every thing is the stuff I've watched in a lot of anime, stuff I've read in manga, and in all the visual novels I've read. I'm a huge nerd, and I've read a lot of VNs. I actually had time for that. There is not a single character in Blazblue whom I thought was unique or interesting. Not a single subplot that that was compelling. Everything was sleep-inducing. I read all of Muv Luv. All 8 novels of Umineko. They weren't perfect but at least they had some great characters, very interesting concepts, and the stories actually had me excited to read more.

 

A guy whose hair turns white and fights with a grimoire, has a black beast/turns into it at some point, has connections to a blond person in an orphanage that is secretly a fighter of justice (complete with cool costume and heroic lines). The blond person also constantly duels her brother who is often described as a black beast/demon/the dark one. No, this is not Blazblue. This is from a vn called Demonbane. Also, Hakumen's design is ripped straight off of Metatron. He seriously just looks like a less-detailed Metatron.

 

Guy gets his arm cut off when he was a kid. He eventually turns into a white-haired guy wearing a red outfit and fights with sword. He has a magic twin-tailed smart-ass friend that constantly insults him. She uses familiars and knows the things the protag doesn't. She is verbally mean to him, yet she very clearly cares for him. No, I'm not talking about Blazblue here either.

 

I could seriously go on and on. Finding all the things that Blazblue ripped off/things that are cliche in general. I probably will post all those here sometime. I just think it's weird how some people out there actually praise the story and think it's good. Even if it wasn't so generic, there's really nothing special about the story either. I think it's because there is finally a fighting game with a story this in-depth that people automatically praise it. Even the gag reels, are just typical anime shit. No originality whatsoever. This wouldn't be so bad if the writing wasn't so obnoxious, pretending to be meaningful and good when it's not. Even more obnoxious is they make you read hours upon hours of this.

 

Arcsystemworks makes great games. But their stories (yes, this applies to Persona and GG) are all garbage. If they're going to make really in-depth story modes at least hire better writers. Why did I type all this

[White Man]

I'll say this: I'm not a fan of putting so much story in spin offs, like the light novels.  It's annoying for people who only play the main games.

 

I blame the .hack franchise for popularizing this whole cross-media storyline BS.  Personally, I don't mind material like novels and spin-off titles and such that add to the lore of a game's world or expand the back story of minor characters or whatever, but I greatly dislike this trend of hiding crucial plot details that are necessary to make sense of the larger story inside sources that are separate from the main series.

It would be like if J.K. Rowling had written a stage play, a graphic novel, and a two point-and-click adventure games set in the Harry Potter universe that were all mandatory to view/play in order to understand the plot covered in the last two HP novels.  Some marketing goon might read that and wish she'd actually done it, but it would have totally screwed over the people who aren't into plays or computer games and just want to read books.

[SixWingedAngel]

It's sad how most people won't ever understand the great points of blazblue's story/world-building because it heavily references post-kantian philosophy. And I'm not even joking, lol

[BlackYakuzu94]

Agreed.

 

I played through CT, CSE and CP and read every single line of text hoping the story would be good. In my opinion, Blazblue's story is bad. I love the game,I like some of the characters, but the writer is trying sooo hard. It's not the fact that story structure is confusing, it's just the fact the story is so bland and BORING. Most of all, everything is generic. Every thing is the stuff I've watched in a lot of anime, stuff I've read in manga, and in all the visual novels I've read. I'm a huge nerd, and I've read a lot of VNs. I actually had time for that. There is not a single character in Blazblue whom I thought was unique or interesting. Not a single subplot that that was compelling. Everything was sleep-inducing. I read all of Muv Luv. All 8 novels of Umineko. They weren't perfect but at least they had some great characters, very interesting concepts, and the stories actually had me excited to read more.

 

A guy whose hair turns white and fights with a grimoire, has a black beast/turns into it at some point, has connections to a blond person in an orphanage that is secretly a fighter of justice (complete with cool costume and heroic lines). The blond person also constantly duels her brother who is often described as a black beast/demon/the dark one. No, this is not Blazblue. This is from a vn called Demonbane. Also, Hakumen's design is ripped straight off of Metatron. He seriously just looks like a less-detailed Metatron.

 

Guy gets his arm cut off when he was a kid. He eventually turns into a white-haired guy wearing a red outfit and fights with sword. He has a magic twin-tailed smart-ass friend that constantly insults him. She uses familiars and knows the things the protag doesn't. She is verbally mean to him, yet she very clearly cares for him. No, I'm not talking about Blazblue here either.

 

I could seriously go on and on. Finding all the things that Blazblue ripped off/things that are cliche in general. I probably will post all those here sometime. I just think it's weird how some people out there actually praise the story and think it's good. Even if it wasn't so generic, there's really nothing special about the story either. I think it's because there is finally a fighting game with a story this in-depth that people automatically praise it. Even the gag reels, are just typical anime shit. No originality whatsoever. This wouldn't be so bad if the writing wasn't so obnoxious, pretending to be meaningful and good when it's not. Even more obnoxious is they make you read hours upon hours of this.

 

Arcsystemworks makes great games. But their stories (yes, this applies to Persona and GG) are all garbage. If they're going to make really in-depth story modes at least hire better writers. Why did I type all this

 

Because you have nothing better to do than to argue about an Anime game's story :V

[Volt]

Hey everybody, hope this is the right section for questions like this. I only very recently started getting into Blazblue and its story, and am somewhat confused as to how people actually make sense of all this. Hope you don't mind me asking for advice here.

So I recently started on the BB series and just "completed" Calamity Trigger's story mode. I ABSOLUTELY loved the story, its characters and its settings; and I plan to continue on to Continuum Shift and Chronophantasma. However, there is one thing about the plot that really irks me to no end: the convoluted way in which it is told.

Now I reckon that it's complexity and the effort you need to put into is probably something many appreciate the game. And it is justified. However, after playing through the first game, it absolutely baffles me how anybody could actually make a coherent story out of this. It really feels like the story writers went a little overboard, and purposefully made it an overweight challenge to the gamers who want to make sense of it.

Admittedly, I didn't do 100% on CT's story mode; however I saw every character's ending (true ends and alternative ends, so everything except all of the gameover options) and arcade endings, as well as watching the Litchi short-movies. But, reading some of the plot FAQs and explanations out there, I still feel like I lacked a lot of crucial information. Most importantly: the fact that the story's timelines loop.

I genuinely do not recall ever hearing about that in-game, yet it clears up such a ridiculous amount of confusion. And then there's stuff like what a Murakumo unit is, the fact that Noel, Nu and the other 11 were clones of Saya, the fact that Terumi actually met Jin in the past and coerced him to kill Ragna, etc.

Like, was I doing something wrong? Did I not experience all the major parts of the story? How are others able to decipher all that background information while I seem to miss the most crucial things? Are they maybe explained further in the following games or in the anime?

Or was I really just not looking hard enough and not taking notes?

It really bothers me that I get all those facts via simple text docs on the internet instead of having the chance to experience them within the actual game. It kinda takes the fun out of it.

Are Continuum Shift (Extend) and Chronophantasma like this as well. Does it require the same amount of time and effort to make sense of the story? If so, then I feel like I should make preparations beforehand this time around and start taking notes from the beginning of the different storylines. >_>

Sorry for the long post. Thanks in advance. >:3

 

Basically, Blazblue is designed to be as confusing as possible. The timeloops are explained better in CT via the arcade endings and Rachel's story. The anime flat-out says that CT was formed by timeloops. The catch is that CT's story has been retconned to hell and back. It got to the point that you get the CT story when you play the CT Reconstruction in Extend and the anime (Which only had 2 episodes dedicated to CT.) Unless one of the Light Novels did explain it better, but since " No Export for You" is in full effect, we'll probably only know too late. Oh, and the original timeline is actually in one of those novels. Joy.

 

CS is way less confusing. But it's still hard to catch up. I'll only give you a short explanation since I don't know whether you played it or not already. If you plan to get the game, get Extend for the CT reconstruction and the Extend stories that actually do set some plot points for CS and CP.

 

Basically CS has Continuum Shifts. An entity is purposely splitting the timeline after the timeloops were broken in CT, and therefore, over 90% of the stories aren't exactly canon material. Only some plot points are canon, such as the canon endings, but only the endings. The path until the endings are mostly filled with non canon stuff. Again, the anime shows most of what happened, but not all of it, and in fact, it lost many plot points and the actual reason for some. The novels explain it better too.

 

CP mostly solved the 5% Canon information per game ratio via the new storyline format. Yet again, it's badly executed. Around 50% of the Sector Seven Story is a continuum shift, the Six Heroes story doesn't explain the novels like it said it would (Only Phase 0 is explained properly, but it was already translated in more detail) and the ending only shows a plot point, it's not canon either. Not to mention that it does not conclude the Six Heroes story. At all.

 

The main storyline in CP, "Chrono Phantasma" is actually very solid and currently most of it is regarded as canon. The catch? The new format gave some characters the short end of the plot stick. But, unless new information retcons it, "Chrono Phantasma" is definitely canon.

 

The problem with the Blazblue storyline always was the novels. The novels contain most of the canon information in the series, but the lack of localization cripples the players who want to actually understand what's going on.

 

 

In my opinion, the lack of an unified translation project of the novels is the main reason the novels aren't translated already. The most complete fan-translation project has only 2 or 3 people working on it. While some random people are struggling to translate the first book on their own.

If the interested and capable people actually gather to translate all the novels, we can actually do it. But until then, the confusion remains.

[DeathTurn]

Basically CS has Continuum Shifts. An entity is purposely splitting the timeline after the timeloops were broken in CT, and therefore, over 90% of the stories aren't exactly canon material. Only some plot points are canon, such as the canon endings, but only the endings. The path until the endings are mostly filled with non canon stuff. Again, the anime shows most of what happened, but not all of it, and in fact, it lost many plot points and the actual reason for some.

 

 

You are not exactly "incorrect", but I am just going to expound on this and elucidate a bit further. Every event which transpires is technically canon, as the event did in fact occur (I will not comment on some of the gag reels.) This is why characters experience déjà vu and why Observers such as Rachel retain all memory of the loops/Phases. One of my favorite examples from Continuum Shift is when Hazama trolls Ragna by mocking him, knowing exactly what Ragna would say before he did. Reason? Hazama observed every possibility of the Continuum Shift and had the same conversation with Ragna god knows how many times. It’s all canon.

 

The issue is that the Master Unit (sometimes Takamagahara) resets time if the unfolded events lead to an unfavorable outcome. When time resets, distortions occur which cause events to unfold slightly or drastically different from the preceding timeloop (Phenomena Intervention can come into play as well.)  A major example being how Noel did not exist in Phase 0 and earlier timeloops as she originally was supposed to die after Take-Mikazuchi destroyed Ibukido, yet survived and existed in later loops such as Phase 724 due to the new distortions in the timeline. Basically, every reset gives birth to a new set of possibilities. That is why there are so many conflicting events in the games’ story.  It all happens…it’s just that Amaterasu goes “lolno” and resets everything whenever something deviates from her convoluted plan in saving the world.  :p

[redsilversnake]

DeathTurn, you're getting confused. Everything in CT and CP are canon due to time loops/resets, but CS just has "possibilities," that is, just things that could happen, which is what most of the game is comprised of. Yes, Terumi observes all of these possibilities, but that doesn't mean they actually happened and are thus canon, but rather just that he knows how each of these possibilities will go so he can act accordingly to make his plan succeed. Amaterasu and timefuckery don't have much to do with that particular game.

[Zedar90]

All of the possibilities in CS are because of Noel. Her eyes goes berserk and makes every possibility happen at the same time, and then it is Takamagahara who observes and decides which event is "canon", so in a way, all of the events in CS are canon as well.

[DeathTurn]

DeathTurn, you're getting confused. Everything in CT and CP are canon due to time loops/resets, but CS just has "possibilities," that is, just things that could happen, which is what most of the game is comprised of. Yes, Terumi observes all of these possibilities, but that doesn't mean they actually happened and are thus canon, but rather just that he knows how each of these possibilities will go so he can act accordingly to make his plan succeed. Amaterasu and timefuckery don't have much to do with that particular game.

 

All of the possibilities in CS are because of Noel. Her eyes goes berserk and makes every possibility happen at the same time, and then it is Takamagahara who observes and decides which event is "canon", so in a way, all of the events in CS are canon as well.

 

This is exactly what I meant. Sorry for mixing that with the loops (although I put them in the same category due to the repitition.) All the "possibilities" are canon as they actually occur, but Takamagahara observes each phenomenon to see which one leads them closest to obtaining the Azure. If something deviates off course, they re-initialize. The ending of CS would have been another "possibility" of the Continuum Shift as well, but Terumi was like lolnope and infected Takamagahara with the Phantom virus before that could happen.

[Ichipoo]

This is something that has been bothering me for a while now, but if Jin is Hakumen during the CT time loops, then who was Hakumen before time loops happened? Does it have something to do with Terumi being the original owner of the Susano'o unit? Does that mean there were only Five Heroes before the time loops happened as well?

[Putin]

Hakumen came to be BECAUSE of the time loops.

Jin went back to the past the first time he, Ragna and Nu fell into the Cauldron, Rachel found him half-dead, and gave him the "empty" Susanoo Unit which was abandoned by Terumi.

There was no Hakumen before that, unless you count Black Susanoo as "a Hakumen" for whatever reason

 

Also, there wouldn't be ANY Heroes if it weren't for Ragna and Nu merging into the Black Beast and going back to the past iirc

[Zedar90]

Hakumen is Jin from the future. However, Jin appears in the past before the Loop starting point, and because of this, the Hakumen Jin is the same Jin in every loop and is unaffected by the distortions in the time-line..

[Ichipoo]

Hakumen came to be BECAUSE of the time loops.

Jin went back to the past the first time he, Ragna and Nu fell into the Cauldron, Rachel found him half-dead, and gave him the "empty" Susanoo Unit which was abandoned by Terumi.

There was no Hakumen before that, unless you count Black Susanoo as "a Hakumen" for whatever reason

 

Also, there wouldn't be ANY Heroes if it weren't for Ragna and Nu merging into the Black Beast and going back to the past iirc

Then by that logic, why did the NOL exist then? Looking back at the time when Tsubaki was Jin's lieutenant instead of Noel (due to her not existing during the time), I assumed at the time that this, again was before the time loops started and before Jin became Hakumen. Of course I could be wrong about this and this could also mean that this was during the time loops (albeit early ones?) and that there were also loops where Noel never existed?

[DeathTurn]

 

Then by that logic, why did the NOL exist then? Looking back at the time when Tsubaki was Jin's lieutenant instead of Noel (due to her not existing during the time), I assumed at the time that this, again was before the time loops started and before Jin became Hakumen. Of course I could be wrong about this and this could also mean that this was during the time loops (albeit early ones?) and that; there were also loops where Noel never existed?

Bingo. Noel is as Takamagahara described: an "uncertain factor", an anomaly. Her survival of the destruction of Ibukido was an actual product of distortions in the timeline caused by the time loops. She did not exist in earlier phases, such as Phase 298. However, distortions occurred which permitted her to exist in later Phases, such as Phases 724 and 725.

Interestingly in CSE when Makoto gets too close the cauldron, her consciousness is swallowed by the Boundary and displaced in yet another timeline in which Noel did not exist as well. Basically, just as most timelines involve Ragna falling into the cauldron with Nu, most involve Noel not existing.

[SixWingedAngel]

Noel surviving is like a glitch in the matrix.

 

Btw, being transferred to the past by the cauldron (the Ragna-Nu, Jin case) doesn't necessitate the existence of time loops.