BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Review

BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma is the third main entry in this unique 2D fighting game from Arc System Works. The developer is famous for making the famous Guilty Gear series but has now shifted their focus on the Blazblue series since 2008. The BlazBlue series has garnered a following of its own since then and Chrono Phantasma looks to continue the series in the right way.

Let me start off by saying that BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma has one of the best looking 2D cel-shaded graphics I have ever seen. This game pushes the boundaries when it comes to 2D style graphics as it literally looks like you’re playing a Japanese anime. Not only do the character models looks great, but the backgrounds look lovely too. Normally people don’t take too much notice about the background in fighting games, but the environments in this game look like one you would normally see in a JRPG instead. They are simply beautiful to look at and makes your HDTV shine with beauty. I would say this game looks brighter and smoother than the first BlazBlue title.

When it comes to fighting games, some of them have lots of modes, while others can by stingy about it. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is one game where I can think of that lacked a lot of modes as the game had no story whatsoever and was just a straight-up fighting game. On the other hand, you have a game like Mortal Kombat which had lots of modes and even some mini-games. Thankfully, BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma is like the latter as there are a lot of modes available in this game to keep you occupied for many hours. It even has modes that keep you occupied even if you’re not “fighting”.

First off, I’m going to say that this game has one of the best yet unique story modes I have ever seen in any video game. Whereas in Mortal Kombat there were several cutscenes, the story eventually allowed the player to actually “fight” when the characters started having beef with one another. In Blazblue: Chrono Phantasma however, the story mode is more like watching an anime instead. For the first hour and a half, all I watched was the characters talking yet no actual fight had occurred. The stories vary from serious to being humorous and it’s quite entertaining. One of my favorite stories in the game was when all the male characters were competing in a “tough man” contest. It was very funny and something you would actually see in an anime episode.

The only thing I didn’t like about the story mode was the lack of actual fights. You will literally spend hours watching the story mode, without any type of fight breaking out. Fights don’t happen very often which is odd for a story mode in an actual “fighting” game. If you want to actually fight and have a grasp on the story, you might be better off playing the Arcade mode instead. Here, each character has their own ending and the story is loosely told via conversations between the characters. The Arcade mode like a very truncated version of the game’s main story, but without the humorous side stories.