What is BlazBlue? Part 1 - Arc System Works

Hey there, I've noticed a few comments of people wondering a little bit more about BlazBlue.  What is it?  Why does it look so crazy?  What the hell am I even reading?
That kind of stuff.
So I'll do a multi-part blog over the next few days to hopefully explain what BlazBlue is, how it plays, and things along those lines.

Let's start off with a brief history lesson.

BlazBlue (ﾌﾞﾚｲﾌﾞﾙ) is a 2D fighting game developed by Arc System Works.  2D fighters have been around for a long time, previous major titles in this genre include, Street Fighter, which most of you are familiar with.  There's also King of Fighters, from SNK, Guilty Gear, an earlier ASW game, Melty Blood, a doujin game, Arcana Hearts, and many many others!  What they all share in common is how the game is.  That is, it is 2D.  Fighting games can be divided into two categories; 3D and 2D.
2D fighters are like BlazBlue and Street Fighter, there is no foreground or background to step into, forcing you to fight on two axis, X and Y, in this case, Forward and Back, and Up and Down.
In 3D fighters, like Tekken or Dead or Alive, there is another area, known as Foreground and Background.  Characters may step towards either one, therefore adding a third dimension to the game, the Z axis.

BlazBlue is considered the spiritual successor to Guilty Gear, ASW's most well known franchise, and by many considered to be the best 2D fighting game of all time.  There were several installments of Guilty Gear, and it has been praised for it's rich and varied cast, and extremely deep gameplay.

Here's an example video of Guilty Gear play (excuse the poor quality) of two extremely well known 2D fighter players, ( ぶっぱ) Buppa　and (k a q n)  Kaqn.  Both of these guys have been playing for years.




As you can see, Guilty Gear is a VERY fast paced game, which is one of ASW's key features in their fighting games.

Moving on, eventually ASW lost the rights to produce Guilty Gear (blame Sega,) and instead created a whole new franchise, this is what we know as BlazBlue.

Same two guys, only now in the BlazBlue franchise.

To sum this up, BlazBlue is ASW's new 2D fighter, and hopefully it'll be here to stay.