Luminos564

Watch as she and Jin still decide to blame Ragna as the root of all evil regardless. *Beats down and punts her into the stratosphere like a soccer ball. : Le gasp! How dare you Ragna the Bloodedge!? This act of cruelty is all your fault. : THE FUCK!? Joking aside, this would no doubt break Tsubaki's heart on at least some level. Haku-men is her idol, inspiration even. Even if she does not necessarily agree with everything he says and does (killing Noel is certainly no longer on her list of acceptable tasks).

I'd imagine yes, since I doubt Terumi could occupy the unit while Haku-men is still present within it. Ragna's beef with Terumi was never actually "done", more like "put on hold". In CS, he knew he couldn't kill him right there and focused on saving Noel instead. In CP, he was prioritizing having to look for Kushinada's Lynchpin and trying to figure out how to stop Izanami. Much of the latter was also present in Central Fiction. It's rather funny, if you think about it. Like this, it seems that Terumi had to go out of his way to get Ragna's attention again and thus busted out his true, ultimate form.

If Platinum can throw Tager, then Es can most certainly toss Susanoo like a ragdoll as well, physics be damned. Also something-something-story-not-gameplay-something. Just keep it on the downlow. In fairness though, Es did say that the Susano-O unit rivals the Azure in power. Unless Es is channeling the Azure entirely, she might actually be screwed in this scenario. Of course, at the moment, we know nothing other than that 1 image.

That and he's got that whole promise with Rachel thing to always remain human. I kinda doubt him becoming something else entirely was ever planned to begin with. That said, I am disappointed that Ragna doesn't get a powered up form. You'd think that, what with all the anime cheese that BlazBlue revels in, they'd hit that one final "Hurrah" of, basically any action anime ever made. Unless of course Susanoo (Terumi) ISN'T all we're getting at the end of the day.

Ahem. YES! Oh my sweet merciful Azure Jesus, YES! And thus with this post, we now set this thread on fire. Can't wait to see the explanation on how we get to this point.

It's not a solution of any kind. As you pointed out: lower sales from the boycott is just as likely (or rather, much more so) to convince ArcSysWorks that people are no longer interested in anything BlazBlue related and shut down any further localization attempts. But on the reverse side, if they realize the loss in sales is minimal, they can easy just continue releasing games without an English dub period. It's a terrible situation for those that liked the dub either way. Problem is, they got rid of a feature that has been present in the series since CT. Now all of a sudden they went and said "Nope, not doing it anymore"? Especially since they kept conditioning people to expect delays ever since CS.

You all disappoint me. Clearly the "bombshell" mentioned in that trophy leak is Ragna getting genderbent into Alpha-1. Because, y'know, he'll be smoking hot and leave many male gamers frightened and sexually confused. And then Mai gets pissed because she rode the genderbending train first and now this punk stole her thunder. For shame people, how could you miss something so obvious ? Alright alright, joking aside, if they're trying to amp up the hype for the story conclusion (or Ragna's at least) the ending better be something deserving of it. We've had a rollercoaster from the arcade acts alone, including but not limited to: -The name of the girl within the Master Unit. -Noel splitting into 2 separate entities. -Hibiki being a murdering psychopath. -Liao Jiu being Roy (or a piece of his soul). -Naoto's world actually branches off from BlazBlue. -Everything about Es. Some of us have kinda run out of gasps to give at this point. It's like if someone told you something surprising, you react very strongly to it and then when they immediately tell you something even more outrageous, you have nowhere else left to go. Personal wishing would be to have an ending with closure but with severe consequences. I don't mean total party killings or anything of that nature (though I certainly wouldn't mind seeing a few undesirables ground into seithr paste) but some stakes being raised and some shit hitting the fan would be appreciated. You know, darkest hour and all that rot. I also have a fairly certain idea on who'll be on the chopping block (cough*Haku-men*cough*Nine*cough), while others are potentially one or the other. We've got 4 days people (possibly even less) until this place is flooded with info. I hope y'all are prepared.

If you're willing to listen to a tiresome Azrael fanboy, then perhaps I can shed some light on it. Remember how Take-mikazuchi has a giant ass glowing sphere right in the middle of its upper torso? It is also incidentally where Ragna, Celica and Nu-13 came out of back in CP ending. So if your hunch is correct and dear ol' Satellite Doom Cannon does become the next Black Beast courtesy of Nine feeding it several trillion doses of vitamin Nyctores, I wager that some poor sap is going to get themselves tossed into it in order to power the damn thing. If Lamb-chops is involved, then you can bet your dakimakura that the person tossed in there would be Ragna and Lamb-chops ain't in the business of abandoning him. However, you could also spin it a different way. Remember how Relius became super interested in Lamb-chops when she started exceeding her original programing and is now seeking her to use as a replacement for some, no doubt, immoral scientific purpose? It could be possible that rather than use Nu-13 or Noel/Mu-12, Relius decided to toss Lamb-chops into a Black Beast core. But she ain't having any of that shit so in that scene she has decided to give Take-mikazuchi/Black Beast the biggest case of heartburn ever recorded. The only problem I see is that the glowing spherical portion in that shot is really rather small. God I hope not. I've grown really tired of Terumi rearing his snake-eyed head everywhere. Let someone else have the top bunk of villainy for once you sorry excuse for a spectre . But my wager is that Haku-men bites the dust this time. It'd make sense since, as a relic of the past, he's no longer necessary in the world and it is time to pass the torch off to his younger incarnation. Terumi did state that he plans of evicting Haku-Jin out since I doubt Terumi could suppress the Power of Order (Haku-men's will at least) long enough to move the Susano-O unit like he'd want to.

Awww look, Ragna made a new friend (which he has very few of) in this crapshack world. Good ol' Bang. No, I'm not going to dwell on this. Just let me enjoy this little bit of levity. Now, onto what I wanted to discuss. So we now have the Black Susano-O coming in front and center. But wait a tick, remember what Es' quote is against Haku-men was? That's right, it was "The Susano-O unit rivals even that of the Azure". So logically speaking, assuming Terumi gets his hands on it then the Azure is going to need its own champion if Es isn't one for it. And now suddenly, that clash between Ragna and Terumi makes more sense don't it?

Funny you should mention the Predator. I remember reading several years ago (I think it was covered in the Expanded Universe) that the Predator of P1 was considered a "renegade". It was exiled to Earth by its hunting tribe for breaking one of their sacred rules and customs (evident since it has no ship to decorate with its trophies). You might think this too light a punishment (since humans are statistically inferior to a predator in both physical prowess and technology)...until you learn that the Predators themselves consider humans to be a far superior and more dangerous entity than the xenomorphs. And sure enough, Predator in P1 got itself rekt'd by a lone soldier, who had no prior experience fighting them. Anyway the point I am trying to laboriously make is that you're on the right track, but I'd equate Azrael to the Predator of P2 instead. That one, while every bit a vicious hunter, follows its tribe's rules to the letter when hunting humans. It spares a pregnant woman, despite her being armed. Doesn't attack one of the humans because it saw the cancer growing inside of him, only retaliating when he opened fire. It also double-checks the targets, evident when a child points a toy gun at it and he prepares to fire as well, until recognising the gun to be a toy and thus not an actual threat. Azrael's kind of the same in that regard in that while he'll fight anyone who knows how to fight (even if they are not an actual threat), he does seem to draw the line from time to time. If we take his victory quote against Platinum, while he will happily demolish the Nox Nyctores, he effectively spares her. His quote to Taokaka is more or less a life lesson on why she couldn't beat him. Make no mistake, he's definitely dangerous and a vicious "hunter", concerned only for finding his next target but he isn't the sort to just kill. I don't mean that to justify his actions, no siree. What I am saying though is that it'd makes no sense for him to do so. He lives to fight, especially people who might actually hurt him. Killing people just for the sake of killing lies contradictory to his simple, singular philosophy. That much is a given. But it's also something I haven't seen in some time when it comes to games these days. I tire of unrepentant monsters that eat babies for a laugh and mind crack enemies just because they can. Azrael is a breath of fresh (manly) air for BlazBlue...at least to me.

Honestly the only reason I dismiss Terumi being to do what he did after Time Killer was used on him is because the set-up was a perfect way to end that damn narcissistic spectre. Poetic even. Here lies Terumi, the smug little weed that got cut down like a bad habit despite all his scheming and contingency plans. But nope, out rolls CF and he's totally fine (minus a depleting time limit) making all the work that Haku-men, Valkenhayn, Trinity and so on did in CP a complete waste of time. But I guess offing a villain in such a fashion is nowhere near dramatic enough, so the task will probably fall to Ragna as he unleashes all of his Spiral Power might to pound him into dust particles. One thing I never understood about the Azure is that, why would it even need Es to act on its behalf? Since we know it is a sentient force and is indeed very powerful, shouldn't it be able to just, I dunno, undo basically anybody coming up to its gates? Then again, for the longest time, I equated the Azure to U-Do from Xenosaga which was also something like the collective subconscious of human thought that gained sentience but could not actually communicate with humans without driving them insane (so it had to use a human vessel instead).

Not that I recall. It's certainly a more elaborate prison, but stronger is debatable (giant freezer vs. isolated dimensional space). His first prison was, like Ogiga mentioned, near absolute zero temperature which were designed to freeze his atoms/molecules/whatever in place, rendering him unable to move (even though all it really did was make him sleep). His second one though, could be argued against in multiple ways. For one, unlike the former, it let him have free range of movement so he was free to pound away at it until something caved in. Another reason could be the Embryo emerging, thus weakening the original foundation enough for him to break out of it. Additionally, unlike his prison in Sector 7, the new one wasn't monitored properly (the former no doubt had security cameras routinely monitor his location). Of course, much of this is speculation on my front, but given the circumstances, it could be any number of factors. I just prefer the one where he's escaping just because he's that badass enough to do it. Man, can you imagine a Kagutsuchi junior football team being coached by him? Coach!Azrael: "Alright maggots, let's see blood out there. Run them down! I want to hear them cry for their mommy and spit teeth in between the beatings". Kid1: "But coach Azrael, we're only 10". Coach!Azrael: "When I was your age punk, I was grinding magnetite to use as toothpaste. Now drink your sea salt milk and devour your radiation steak! Until you can deflect bullets with your pecks, you are not leaving this stadium".

To be fair, he could also be doing it to push her buttons and have her go really unhinged against him. He did the same with Ragna when he threatened to rip Celica apart, only showing disappointment when Ragna was able to suppress his Azure Grimoire. What I personally like about him more than say Terumi, is that Azrael (while indeed vicious) is that his targets are more often than not people who are capable of handling themselves in a fight. To put it into perspective, Terumi is the sort of guy who might go around eating children for the giggles. To Azrael though, those children probably don't even register on his Combadar (combat radar). Yeah he's still every bit a monstrous force and all, certainly not above probing opponents, but he's got at least some shred of personal honor. Though in fairness, ever since he got onto the stage, Azrael's been plotting his own agenda. Granted his agenda is still very much: Step 1: Find super powerful individual(s). Step 2: Fight individual(s) listed in step 1. Step 3: PROFIT! Step 4: Repeat steps 1~3 unless otherwise beaten by opponent. I mean let's be honest here: in CP he was tossed in by Sector 7 to act as their attack dog and even then he wasn't really planning on following their orders. CF rolls around and he just brute forces his way into the plot, free of the "leash" placed on him. Since then he's deducted what is going on in the Embryo, made an alliance with Izanami in order to get what he wants and is now in the process of both making a Black Beast to fight and THEN entering the world of the gods to fight them as well. The man may be a battle maniac but he's far from unintelligent. He's capable of biding his time, scoping out who is the best person to find in order to achieve his desire and then making preparations. Straightforward as his goals may be, that doesn't mean he cannot be presented in an interesting light with the cards he's given, I can respect your opinion that he's not your cup of tea. I am not going to make posts in an effort to change your mind. Just understand that what you find uninteresting about him, is pure joy for someone like me who is tired of Hazama/Terumi and Relius being untouchable simply because they're just that prepared (or in Terumi's case: saved by an ass-pull on how Time Killer didn't do what is it supposed to do immediately).

Nu-13 is a broken, insane little Murakumo. Her logic will never be sound. She equates "love" to "destruction" after all. Two things: 1. They're the wielders of the Power of Order. It might be possible that as its agents, they're capable of understanding just what the Azure wants/does. Jin also has Trinity currently paying rent to reside in his body so she could be feeding him intel while Haku-men's been around for ages and might've picked up a book or two in his spare time on it. 2. These guys have a perpetual stick up their ass. I wouldn't trust their tunnel-vision philosophy any more than I'd trust spending alone time with Relius in his lab. For the same reason Terumi reminds her off "curry" and "Ringo". Good luck explaining that one.

Many thanks to you and for all your hard work in getting these. Azrael is officially my favorite antagonist ever in this series. Amazing how he could show up so late (CP) and manage to win me over in less than 1 full game whereas characters like Litchi, Arakune, and Rachel haven't been able to do that in 3~4. And just look at this badass mofo. Most characters either express intrigue or outright terror at Es' presence/existence. Azrael though? The man is so giddy at the prospect of fighting her and later the vaguely mentioned gods, you can practically see the bloodlust dripping from his Tarzan hairdo. Even Es notes how insanely dangerous he is. Well Ragna's origins are more or less a mystery all the same and could be any number of things. My most elaborate though on it would be that he has that 10 Sages connection because he was found in Relius' lab by Jubei. And as we've learned, Relius himself WAS among their number at some point in time. I somehow doubt it's the Sechs connection unless Mori plans on pulling something straight out his drug-laced hat again. I dunno, it seems a little too obvious personally. But then again Tager being Bullet's captain was obvious to everyone and well, here we are. I'm curious as to why Ragna's arm is reacting to her though. Is it just the fact that she's the Azure's gatekeeper? Or is it residual memories within the arm itself showing up again? Though, I'd question why his arm would even have that reaction to her if the two never personally met... Litchi being told that, once again, she has no right to be anywhere near the Azure is rather hilarious to me. How many people does this make that told her she ain't got the qualifications for it?

Hey you never know. Very bad, unfortunate things happen to Ragna whenever he doesn't want any misfortune to happen to him. Now he's actively asking for the metaphorical lightning to strike him down and putting himself in harm's way. Perhaps it'll cause the gears that keep this wheel turning to short-circuit and get rekt'd? That's because it most likely is. You don't see Jin smiling like a loon unless it is one of 2 situations: 1. He just stabbed Ragna for the 50th time and is preparing to satisfy his murderboner. 2. He's in a gag reel so he's allowed to let loose his inner insanity. Honestly, the first time I saw that image I thought of the ending to Resident Evil 5, with Jin as Wesker, Kagura as Chris and Izanami as Sheva/Jill.

So Terumi still has the Allspark...I mean Companion Cube...err, that thing he stole from Clavis' nether regions. I'm sure Rachel will be most pleased to know her father's resting place was ransacked by Terumi when she wasn't looking. I'll agree with Steve-Fiction on the portraits now being shown from the back being a neat change. It adds a bit more of a dynamic to the conversations and makes them look more natural (at least from how it is presented in the scans). That Ragna and Bang encounter though...I really wish it has Bang remembering that they kinda became buddies during the climax of CP. Good ol' Ragna has enough on his plate now that he basically stands against the entire world for the sake of one individual (or rather, all of them secretly). He could use all the help he can get. He's already got Taokaka so why not Scruffy man?

This post has some very nice Mai vs. Es gameplay. Give a big thanks to Calamitus for the find. Looks like charging the spear allows you some pretty crafty things. You see Mai's charged toss miss Es and then Mai changes the trajectory (offscreen no less), thus forcing the opponent to block. It kind of reminds me of Mu-12 and her Steins positioning firing back during her 214A special in that regard (though with obvious differences). Mai's also got some mix-up on her, although I feel it is a bit on the slower side than most and as expected she's got some rather decent reach. Her multi-stab variable art is an excellent damage builder though take note that if you use it on an airborne opponent, it gives far less. Her most obvious glaring weakness is, for the moment, the lack of a reliable reversal. The moment Es got her into a corner, there was little that Mai could do to get out of it. Her Distortions don't seem to help in the reversal business either. However, they really rack up the damage (plus I'm kind of a sucker for her "Spear Shoryuken" DD). She's also got a dive attack (I assume it is a special) so I'd like to think Mai the sort of character who can attack from any given angle. That's about all I can manage at this short amount of time. I'm pretty sure someone else can fill everyone in with a more in-depth analysis. Happy viewing folks.

Yeah but in Nine's defense, Kokonoe is kind of a jerk and has her own questionable motives . I kid of course. Though we've already gotten around to addressing Nine's dickish attitude towards her only "offspring". And I use that term straight since she does not treat her as a mother would a daughter, but more like how a craftsman behaves around her creation. Jeez looking back, it seems like only Noel's adoptive parents fit the bill to the role of parenthood in this series.

I think it's less to do with the fact that she said it (seriously, villains in this series love their really grandiose speeches) but more with who she was saying it to (Es). Unless Mori decided to drop some more alternate dimension Azure-fuckery without us knowing, Nine should still be aware who Es is based on the events in XBlaze: Lost Memories. Wishing to kill Ragna is nothing unique to Nine. Half the damn cast gets a murderboner at the prospect of spilling his guts. But Es is someone whom she had much more time to befriend and consequently connect with. That Nine would wish oblivion onto, especially by her own design, her once childhood friend is testament to how insane the busty sorceress had become. Well if that comment from Nine to Ragna about the Embryo is true (she claimed it was designed NOT for the Entitled but to make him a "god") and Amane's cryptic comment to Rachel about finding a "replacement god for Amaterasu" is connected, then it is possible he survives though at the cost of discarding (or perhaps transcending) his own mortality. Of course, that statement would contradict his promise to Rachel to always "remain human" but that's about the only way I can foresee him making it through this chaotic time. He's already painted a massive "Come at me bros and dudettes" target sign by embracing his role as the Grim Reaper that denies people's desires.

I used the comparison not as a means to describe the nature of their work, but more on the principle of things though. English VAs tend to not be valued as highly as opposed to say some Hollywood actors and their's is often a thankless job with far less pay than some ever realize. Even with all that though, they continue such work out of personal love for it. I dunno about you but I would like to think that if someone does something like that and contributes to the success of your product, they deserve to at least be notified properly.

Basic professional courtesy. Imagine if you were any regular 9-to-5'er, making coffee for a living and you've been at your job for 7 years and counting. Then your supervisor tells you via twitter that "No need to come into work anymore, we're replacing you with a coffee/espresso machine". Wouldn't you be just a tiny bit peeved that your boss didn't inform you ahead of time that your services would no longer be required and that they didn't even bother to tell you in person? The English dub cast has been around since CT (for some, their characters weren't playable but they still count). That's a pretty long time that they've devoted to the series. To be blown off like nothing is...kinda disgusting.

After having a couple days to simmer down, I think this might have just been a bad situation for most of everyone involved. Cutting the dub might have been the only method ArcSys and Aksys had to minimize the damage, so to speak. Of course, I am obviously not happy that now I won't be getting my preferred audio. But at the same time, this petition and passion that went into the responses that I've seen is a bit more uplifting. It might not amount to much in the long run but I'm kinda glad to see the small sector of the community band together for something like this. But hey, fingers crossed and all that jazz.

Yeah Patrick's Ragna is just everything I want in my ASW protagonist. I honestly can't really imagine anyone else voicing him. Much like how Robert Downey Jr. seems to have been born to play Tony Stark, Patrick Seitz is easily the voice that I'd say suit someone like Ragna the Bloodedge. It's what I fell in love with back in 2009 when I first saw the trailer for the console version of Calamity Trigger.

That said, as with any and all businesses the decision they have now made is bound to have an impact on the consumers as well and if the general outcry over the "no dub, no buy" crowd is genuine then the sales will indeed be affected. How much so, I cannot say for I am sadly not gifted with visions of the future. Had I known this would have happened, I'd have made sure not to get too attached to the dub cast. But hindsight will help nobody. Neither will bitching on this site. Best that can now be done is decide whether your support of the English cast weighs more than the speedier release window. And if it does, one's time is better spent telling this to Arc System Works and more importantly, withholding your wallet. A part of me however is happy that the removal of the English dub has made such a splash. It might not be massive, but the fact that there are people who passionately adore it (one look at Patrick Seitz's twitter was enough to bring a small smile to my face) is testament to the quality of the English voice cast and their talent. Who knows? Maybe the planets will align at some point and we will get the dub. But for now, CF will be without it so I guess all I can say is "Thanks for all the years BB dub cast. Salut (;_;)7".