Like many others, I was excited by the reveal of BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle. I was a fan of the games involved and the RWBY series, so this felt like a dream game for me. Now having gotten chance to play the game during the open beta, I wanted to give my thoughts on the experience.
BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle is certainly a different type of game that the series it is a spinoff of, being a 2v2 tag fighter. While some like the 3v3 tag fighting games like MvC 2 and 3 and Dragon Ball FighterZ more, I prefer this style. A 3v3 fighter tends to end up with characters forced into designated roles such as the support character. A 2v2 fighter on the other hand, is more fast paced and requires you to use both characters effectively without relying only on one or the other. The tag mechanics work well here, and I took some time finding a good team before and even after heading online.
I played the beta on the Switch and I have to say that the online was spotty at times. Some matches had extreme amounts of lag, although others played extremely smooth and without issues. Sadly, the former outweighed the latter and I hope this will not be a major issue for the Switch version after launch, What I did enjoy about online matches, was just how easy and simple it was to find a match. I never had to wait too long to find someone to fight against and I got some good fights in, while I also learned the mechanics of the game.
BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle was extremely easy to learn, and I have heard some concerns over that. I do not feel this is a case of the game being dumbed down for casuals, but simply having a different, more controller friendly setup that does not require a fight stick as much. While it is easy to learn, this is not a game that will allow a newcomer to defeat someone who is skilled in minutes. You will still need to put the work in,.
I am saving my full thoughts on the game for now, for my complete review coming closer to launch, but I had a good experience with the beta. I think this will be a game that will get many newcomers interested in the BlazBlue series as well as the others involved, and that is the best possible outcome here.
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Pictures taken from offline mode