Suzaku

If they weren't going to make him playable, I don't think they'd have bothered to design everything he wears under his mantle, let alone make it a completely new character design. But we'll see.

And some screengrabs of Raven, for those who haven't seen Sin's Episode Mode yet. The amount of detail that's been put into his model and character design makes it pretty obvious that he's going to be playable.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/376300 Releases Wednesday night. It'll be $23.99 for the first week, and all DLC will be free for the first month, including a limited BGM, "Wanna Be Crazy," from Revelator. It also includes a Vocal Collection mini-soundtrack.

Normally I'd put this in the Xrd news thread but I don't feel like doing the movelists. To be honest, I'll probably just abandon translating the official site for the most part, since they're translating everything for the English websites anyway. Jack-O CV: Hiromi Igarashi "Trick or treat!" One of That Man's three lieutenants. Because her awakening remains incomplete, she can't function without her mask and toffee. Her past is shrouded in mystery, and her own memories are vague. Because she's in an unstable state, the tone of her voice changes rapidly. Profile Height: 165 cm Blood type: O Weight: 45 kg Birthplace: Unknown Birthday: She isn't fully born yet Hobby: Coming up with new regulations Likes: Toffee, memories, concepts related to humanities Dislikes: Concepts related to science

Raven's dialogue: "Justice remains in the hands of the enemy. As it stands, it is only a matter of time until she is revived."

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.

Updated with Sin Kiske's command list and Elphelt's profile and command list.

Updated with Sin Kiske's command list and Elphelt's profile and command list.

Elphelt CV: Aya Suzaki My dress... I hope you don't get it dirty... A kind-hearted lover of nature and animals, she never ignores those who are lonely. She always tries to exemplify the pinnacle of femininity, only to fail over and over again. Profile Height: 168 cm Blood type: Mysterious Weight: Dream kg Birthplace: Unknown Birthday: December 25 Cherishes: Sweet talk, bush dog replicas Likes: Smiling faces, her bush dog piggy bank, anything sweet Dislikes: Any kind of bug, killing, loneliness Affiliation: Unknown Command List Special Moves ① Pineberry ------------------ + (midair) 　→ Uenage --------------------- + during ① (midair) 　→ Shitanage ------------------ + during ① Bridal Express ---------------- + (midair) ② Miss Confire o Kamaeru ----- + 　→ ③ Shageki ----------------- or or or during ② 　　　　→ Reload ------------------ + during ③ 　→ Kaijo ---------------------- during ② ④ Miss Travailler o Kamaeru -- + 　→ Kozuku --------------------- during ④ 　→ Korogaru ------------------- during ④ 　→ Tsukiageru ----------------- during ④ 　→ ⑤ Shageki ----------------- during ④ 　　　　→ Reload ------------------ + during ⑤ 　→ Kuzusu --------------------- during ④ 　→ Kaijo ---------------------- + during ④ Overdrives Judge Better Half ------------- + Genoise ----------------------- + Notes: Uenage (Overhand Throw), Shitanage (Underhand Throw), Confire (Jelly), o Kamaeru (Ready...), Shageki (Fire), Kaijo (Cancel), Travailler (Labor), Kozuku (Thrust), Korogaru (Roll), Tsukiageru (Launch), Kuzusu (Demolish), Genoise (Sponge Cake) Source: Famitsu

English name confirmed as Elphelt on Yamanaka's twitter.

Like I said earlier, they're both playable at TGS. That's why it has their movelists.

She's definitely another Valentine clone, given the hat and girl's fashion theme (looks like a bridal motif to me). And it's obviously a nod to Guns N' Roses, too. It says that she and Sin will be playable at TGS, and it has their movelists (which are obviously too small to read). From what I can tell, it looks like she has two "stance" moves, which both have various follow up options. I'd guess one is to draw/aim her little handgun and the other is to draw/aim her rifle.

Actually, reading what I can of the article makes it clear that alternate costumes wouldn't exactly be the easiest thing ever. The models and animations themselves are no problem, really, it's the amount of work that goes into perfecting the way the mesh and textures interact with the lighting of each frame to ensure that the shadows look correct. That's not to say we won't get alternate costumes eventually, and some would certainly be easier than others, but I imagine that art tasks for adding new characters to the roster will take priority.

Sin Kiske CV: Issei Miyazaki Wanna make a wager? They call this the thunderclap...! The child of Ky Kiske and Dizzy, he's three-quarters human and a quarter Gear. He was fostered by Sol in order to avoid public scrutiny. Contrary to his appearance, he's actually under 10 years old. As such, he's still mentally a child. He has a simple, optimistic personality, and, lacking maturity, tends to speak in a juvenile manner. Profile Height: 181 cm Blood type: Unknown Weight: 73 kg Birthplace: Unknown Birthday: May 31 Hobbies: Searching for novel adjectives, overcoming his dislikes one at a time Likes: His mother, his raging appetite, and he can't say the last one Dislikes: People who aren’t willing to overcome their dislikes, being treated like a child Command List Command Moves Tokushu Kōgeki 1 ------------- + Tokushu Kōgeki 2 ------------- + during a jump Special Moves Hawk Baker ------------------- + ① Beak Driver --------------- + (can be held) 　→ Gamushara ni Tsuite Mita -- rapidly press during ① Bull Bash -------------------- + Elk Hunt --------------------- + Tobi Agari ------------------- + or Sodachizakari Dakara na. ----- + Vulture Seeds ---------------- + during a jump Kūchū Beak Driver ------------ + during a jump Overdrives R.T.L ------------------------ + (midair) Voltic Deign ----------------- + (midair) Notes: Tokushu Kōgeki (Command Move), Gamushara ni Tsuite Mita (Thrust Like There's No Tommorow), Tobi Agari (Jumping), Sodachizakari Dakara na. ('Cause I'm a Growin' Boy), Kūchū (Aerial) Source: http://ggxrd.com/cs/character_sin-kiske.html

If you were to run the game at an appropriate resolution with no aliasing on a stage with no foreground obstructions, you could conceivably create "sprite" rips for almost everything, since the animation is frame-by-frame with no tweening. Most of the FX and hit sparks appear to be 2D textures, so those could conceivably be ripped and replaced (say, texmod) with empty textures so that they don't obstruct the character models. Of course, that's basically contingent on them doing a PC port, which I wouldn't count on.

In the interview on 4gamer they say that Part Two (下) will be out by the end of the year, and since they're using 上 and 下 for these (the implication being "beginning" and "ending"), it's unlikely that there will be a third book, unless they decide to turn it into a trilogy and name the second book 中 ("middle"), which is pretty uncommon.

I think I'd probably go with Fantasy Creature. Any mention of Unions or Crystals?

It presumably takes place at some point in between XBlaze Code: Embryo and the BlazBlue: Phase Shift series. So, somewhere between AD2050 and AD2100. The story is set in Shin Kawahama City. XBlaze was set in Shin Yokozaki City.

Skimmed through the 4gamer interview and some Japanese spoilers, thought I'd go ahead and give a few details. The interview wasn't too interesting. BlazBlue: Bloodedge Experience is meant as an entry point for new readers, since the Phase Shift series was a bit convoluted due to being heavily tied into the game's lore. So, in that regard, this has some similarities to XBlaze. A little bit is discussed about the characters; Haruka Hayami looks after Naota and her mom owns the apartment where he lives; Naoto Kurogane is an orphan who lives alone; Spinner was designed to evoke the image of a snake, and he's got a long, serpentine tongue; Kiro's a mystery. Mori also hints that Relius, Valkenhayn, and Clavis appear, calling them Mr. R, Mr. V, and Mr. C. Mori later discusses the multimedia franchise a bit, confirming that Hazama was somewhat inspired by the Joker and hinting that they might do a side story centered around Kokonoe. Only real detail I gleaned from discussions about the book is that Saya Terumi's name is rendered as 輝弥サヤ. Incidentally, Bloodedge Experience uses a different naming convention (kanji surname, katakana given name) than BlazBlue (katakana given name = katakana surname) and XBlaze (kanji surname, kanji given name). I suppose this could be seen as something of a progression through the timeline, in the same way that some of the other terms gradually change, with the names becoming more and more Westernized. Other than that, it's basically just speculation, and people talking about how so many of the characters look like other characters from XBlaze and BlazBlue. Touya, Naoto, Ragna; Es, Raquel, Rachel; Ripper, Spinner, Terumi; etc.

Been a while since I've posted, but assuming that this is actually the canon Alpha-1, that means it would be the original Boundary Interface Prime Field Device created by Relius and Shuichiro, which became the original Black Beast during its experimental tempering, hence why it looks like a hybrid of Ragna and Nu-13, or rather why they resemble it (they were, after all, "born" after the Dark War).

Updated with Ramlethal's full profile and movelist. Note: I have absolutely no idea how most of her attacks are meant to romanized or what they're supposed to mean. I'll update it if I ever figure it out.

Ramlethal Valentine CV: Megumi Han (Ramlethal), Tomokazu Seki (her familiar, Lucifero) Your future... is bleak. Outline A lone girl who declared war on the entire world. She's an organism who was born in the Backyard, a world that governs everything in the universe. She has a humanoid form, but isn't human. Her relation to the Valentine who orchestrated the prior Baptism 13 Incident (the Illyrian Invasion) is unknown. As an assassin of the Merciless Apocalypse her objective is the extermination of the human race, and to that end she has formed an alliance of convenience with the United Nations Senate. She exists to execute but a single function: activate the Cradle. Story October 21, 2187 She appeared before mankind unheralded. Identifying herself as Valentine, she issued a declaration of war to the world. Personality Valentines are emotionless lifeforms born of the Backyard. They have no regard for anything other than their targets, and concepts such as morality and judgment are meaningless to them. As a result, the commands issued by the being their kind calls Mother are absolute. Lacking ideology, reverence, even doubt and restraint, they mechanically follows their instructions. Consequently, even they comprehend that they exist merely to be cogs in a machine. Even so, a degree of emotion may be observed from the individual known as Ramlethal. Valentines cannot place a value on things unrelated to the purpose of their existence. Because she lacks emotions such as desire or intent, she is unable to determine whether something will be beneficial or detrimental, and is even unable to lie, so sometimes Ramlethal will devulge confidential information without realizing it. Though she isn't aware of it, these traits could certainly be considered a sort of personality. Profile Height: 167 cm Blood type: Unknown Weight: 52 kg Birthplace: The Backyard Birthday: June 3 Hobbies: None Likes: None Dislikes: Arthropods Command List Command Moves Daiken Shashutsu ------------- + or with greatsword equipped (midair) Daiken Kaishū ---------------- + or with greatsword launched (midair) Kakushu Combination Kōgeki --- Any combination of or , up to 3 inputs 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　:p::p:/:p::k:/:k::k:/:k::p:/:d::p:, etc. Special Moves Dauro ------------------------ + Flama Cargo ------------------ + Sildo Detruo ----------------- + (midair) Cassius ---------------------- + Overdrives Calvados --------------------- + with greatsword equipped Trance ----------------------- + with greatsword launched Explode ---------------------- + Notes: Daiken Shashutsu (Launch Greatsword), Daiken Kaishū (Recover Greatsword), Kakushu Combination Kōgeki (Assorted Combination Attacks) Source: http://ggxrd.com/character/ramlethal/

Reposting from the gameplay thread, in case anyone wants this info handy... Voice actors, taken from the end credits: Sol Badguy: Jouji Nakata Ky Kiske: Takeshi Kusao May: Satomi Koorogi Millia Rage: Yuko Sumitomo Chipp Zanuff: Yoshihisa Kawahara Venom: Junichi Suwabe Potemkin: Takashi Kondou Axl Low: Keiichi Nanba I-No: Kikuko Inoue Faust: Takashi Kondou Slayer: Iemasa Kayumi Zato-1 / Eddie: Takehito Koyasu Bedman: Hikaru Midorikawa Ramlethal Valentine: Megumi Han Sin Kiske: Issei Miyazaki Gabriel: Takayuki Sugou Original Man: Tomokazu Seki Chronus: Tomonori Tsuboi Axus: Cha-Fu-lin Libraria: Tomomi Isomura Sharon: Megumi Han Answer: Tomokazu Seki Narration: Takayuki Sugou System Voice: Dan Rubida April & Leap: Tomomi Isomura Augus: Yuuko Sumitomo June: Megumi Han Sephy / March: Akane Fujikawa Febby / Novel / Octy / Janis: Yuuki Matsumoto Ky's Guard: Tomokazu Seki People of Illyria: Takashi Kondou, Tomomi Isomura, Tomokazu Seki Swordman: Daisuke Ishiwatari, Hidehiko Sakamura, Akira Katano Sheriff: Takeshi Yamanaka Extra: Takao Suzuki Chipp's the only one with a new voice actor. The Senato are Chronus (IV), Axus (I), and Libraria (II). Bardius (III) was presumably killed in Vastedge. Chronus is the leader, according to Vastedge. The Original Man is the guy Axl talks to in his intro. He wants Axl to deliver a message to That Man. Answer is Chipp's aide.

"Senato" is actually Latin. Anyway, about the voice actors. From the game's end credits: Sol Badguy: Jouji Nakata Ky Kiske: Takeshi Kusao May: Satomi Koorogi Millia Rage: Yuko Sumitomo Chipp Zanuff: Yoshihisa Kawahara Venom: Junichi Suwabe Potemkin: Takashi Kondou Axl Low: Keiichi Nanba I-No: Kikuko Inoue Faust: Takashi Kondou Slayer: Iemasa Kayumi Zato-1 / Eddie: Takehito Koyasu Bedman: Hikaru Midorikawa Ramlethal Valentine: Megumi Han Sin Kiske: Issei Miyazaki Gabriel: Takayuki Sugou Original Man: Tomokazu Seki Chronus: Tomonori Tsuboi Axus: Cha-Fu-lin Libraria: Tomomi Isomura Sharon: Megumi Han Answer: Tomokazu Seki Narration: Takayuki Sugou System Voice: Dan Rubida April & Leap: Tomomi Isomura Augus: Yuuko Sumitomo June: Megumi Han Sephy / March: Akane Fujikawa Febby / Novel / Octy / Janis: Yuuki Matsumoto Ky's Guard: Tomokazu Seki People of Illyria: Takashi Kondou, Tomomi Isomura, Tomokazu Seki Swordman: Daisuke Ishiwatari, Hidehiko Sakamura, Akira Katano Sheriff: Takeshi Yamanaka Extra: Takao Suzuki Chipp's the only one with a new voice actor. The Senato are Chronus (IV), Axus (I), and Libraria (II). Bardius (III) was presumably killed in Vastedge. Chronus is the leader, according to Vastedge. The Original Man is the guy Axl talks to in his intro. He wants Axl to deliver a message to That Man. Answer is Chipp's aide.

I translated Sol's in the news thread. Honestly, most of the characters profiles are just more of the same, but with a "they heard Ramlethal's announcement so they are going to Japan" tacked onto the end. The personalities for some characters have been updated to reflect changes since GGXX... For example it mentions that Ky now considers other points of view and is not so hung up on his own notions of justice, but that he's still passionate, which is a trait that endears him to his followers. It mentions that Sol's allies have come to accept his taciturn personality, as well. The new stuff for Ky and Sol is basically that the three of them (including Sin) are heading to Japan together to ascertain the truth behind Ramlethal. Ky is of course dealing with the Senato and has made waves by proposing that mankind and Gears should live in peace. Sol is back to searching for That Man. Chipp was inspired by the formation and rapid development of of the United Kingdoms of Illyria and is working to become President. He's currently the leader of the "Eastern Chipp Kingdom," which started out as a village but has grown to a population of over 20,000. He's working on learning politics, but his earnestness and care for the people has made him popular, and the citizens call him Okashira, "boss." The Assassin trio storyline all revolves around Zato-1. Venom has been trying to improve the reputation of the Guild since taking command. He's approached by the Senato with a job offer, and they're offering Zato's revival as payment. He approaches Millia about this. Meanwhile, Zato, whose soul had been in a sort of limbo (hell?), is revived, but he's imprisoned by the Senato. He escapes to try and find Millia, the only person he really trusts. Slayer gave Faust some information on the circumstances behind his botched surgery (the Senato was apparantly involved), but Slayer's own story is basically just him being curious about Zato's return. Potemkin was promoted to a position as a Secret Military Diplomat, and he's heading off to Japan because of Ramlethal's threat. Same for May, who just wants to beat up the bad guys that keep annoying the world. I-No's been jumping through time and changing things for fun for a very long time, so she's familiar with Ramlethal, but this time That Man is somehow involved, so she's interested for a change. Axl, who can't control his timeslipping, wound up in a time he'd never been before where he met someone called the First Man, who told him to go back in time and deliver a message to the Gearmaker (That Man), so now he's trying to figure out a way to find That Man. Bedman's basically a complete mystery, more or less an "eraser" that exists only to eliminate failures. His bed is outfitted with an independantly rotating head which can rapidly relay feedback on his entire environment. He can kill people by invading their nightmares and having them die in their dreams. Even though he's always asleep, he's actually very intelligent, very proud, and doesn't care about other people at all.