Zio_IV

I'mma guess Dirge of Cerberus, but that's all I got. *Shrug* Izayoi looks pretty neat, I must say. I'm rather curious what the requirements are for her flash step shenanigans (if there are any at all). Must see more...

Eh, same thing. Once a combo is capable of killing a character outright with it, the specific damage count shouldn't matter much from there on, except maybe against Tager. Chances are low that you would be pulling those combos off without having done some damage beforehand.

As far as OD goes, I think Haku's just happens to be one of the few that people have gotten a decent grip on. Most other players don't make too big a use of their OD thus far, and the ones that do seem to be trying them out, rather than using them to their fullest. I'll admit that his ~9k OD combos are pretty eye-opening, and I especially agree with that earlier comment about making Mugen his OD so Mugen doesn't still suck, but I don't think it's worrisome. I say we wait awhile and see. When more people get a firm grasp of their character's respective ODs, we can assess it then.

Nah, Having Berger do the "Jecht voice" doesn't really seem fitting for Azrael. Even at his worst, Jecht never sounded menacing or threatening. I'm also casting my vote on Crispin Freeman for this one. A dude like Azrael seems right up his alley.

The answer is obvious: Relius is an ass man.

Yeah, that makes more sense. Still, that also means Tager's Brahms palette probably isn't so, which kinda sucks.

Oh. Sounds fine to me then.

No, I agree it was a tad derpy (not that it stopped me from exploiting the crap outta it) so I'm fine with seeing it go. I'm just worried standard attacks can be blocked on counter, 'cause basically the opponent could just block upon seeing the Zanshin crest, and no worries: you're good. While most Haku players could probably deal with it, it still has me raising an eyebrow over here.

Well, that 'aint so bad. Granted, I haven't seen a Haku counter a normal yet, so I'll have to wait until that happens before losing my shit needlessly. Also, what's this about 5D? All I heard about it was that the active frames were completely changed. Was there something else I missed?

So with this whole "can block Zanshin" thing, from what I'm seeing so far, it's just with stuff concerning projectiles, like Arakune's bugs and Mu's lasers. Basically if we Zanshin a projectile and they happen to walk into the zone where Haku can grab them, they can block it instead of eating a counter. That, I can get behind. Or is it that people can block Zanshin even if they hit it with any standard normal, cuz if they can, doesn't that defeat its purpose? I mean, there is nice meter gain (and it is very nice...) but a counter that can always be blocked every time seems a little backwards.

I'm digging Carl's new voice so far. Dude's getting serious.

Awesome. This means we'll likely be get to hear the new themes soon. With clarity. I swear, once I get those, I know I'll be able to sit tight for however long it takes the console version to reach us without complaint.

Uh, where the heck did my last post go? It doesn't even show up in my profile anywhere. Don't tell me it was deleted... Anyway, any news on those new character themes, or is that something we'll probably get with the arcade release?

If anything, it would be progressive to think that certain styles of dress don't need to be tied down by already-existing social preconceptions. ...But then again, I like her ass, so I may be a little biased.

@Moy - Whether characters die or not has nothing to do with story coherency. What matters is whether or not the information the audience is given through the story is engaging and relevant, which is something we can't confirm for BB:CP without playing. Also, I realize that good 'ol "plot armor" may be a tiresome aspect for some, but it's also nothing new. We see the same cliches and tropes play out in hundreds of video games, movies, TV shows, books, and plays, but the reason that some works can make them all "gel" together and be engaging lies in their execution. Whether Blazblue pulls that off, however, is open to discussion of course. I'll plainly admit its story is no tour de force, but it's also the only story from a FG I've given a crap about and become invested in (tried to with Soul Calibur and Street Fighter, and failed miserably). There isn't really much we can do until we get our hands on it. If Mu-12's reappearance does end up coming off as some contrived BS, well... then that blows. Can't know till then, though. Either way, I'm excited. I really hope they'll start releasing the new themes soon.

I'm honestly tired of people saying that fighting games can't have good stories. Just because they haven't mixed well in the past doesn't mean it can't be done. That's just ridiculous. As far as stories in FGs go, Blazblue has one of the better ones, I think. It 'aint perfect, hell no, but it's a damn sight better than most others out there.

FINALLY, I can listen to the OP theme with clarity! It's updated as well, if I'm not mistaken. Sounds good.

You're not the only one. I love the JP voices to death, and I can't imagine playing any real matches without them, but I do think the dub for BB is fantastic. I'm still patiently waiting for info on the new character's VA's. I'm curious to see who they're going with.

I'm honestly pretty shocked that Ishiwatari doesn't play Sol.

Hakumen in EX is still Vincent, but somebody at ASW (Yes, ASW did the localization directly for CS2 and Extend, Aksys only published due to time constraints) decided to get a new voice director apparently and completely fucked up the filters used for Hakumen, accidentally lowering his pitch to make him sound like Darth Vader. No, I knew it was still Vincent. I was just wondering to myself whether or not they were going to keep those alterations.

Most of the time, I default to liking the JP voice acting in most works, but I always listen to the dubs in case they did a good job with it. Blazblue has a pretty damn good dubbing imo, with there being only a few characters I like a lot more in the JP version (Tetsuya Kakihara's performance comes to mind). Here's hoping they include a feature that allows you to choose between JP and dub specific to each character. Not likely, but there's hope.

Really? I'm honestly a little surprised I didn't know that. I've been playing since 2010 and I was sure Erholtz was the one doing Hazama the whole time. That's uncanny... Still, I'm hoping it stays that way. Spike Spencer got the "psycho" part down pretty well, but he just wasn't.. troll-tastic enough, I guess. Tony Oliver is the only english Bang, as far as I'm concerned. His whole portrayal of Bang, both him as a character and him as a parody, is just way too fitting. I suppose the only thing about the voices I'm left to wonder is what they're going to do with good ol' Hakumen. I noticed they altered it in CSEX so it doesn't sound so much like Vincent's "Jin" (which it certainly did), but I wonder if they're going to keep it that way, or if Vincent is going to attempt to make them sound different himself this time around.

This just popped into my head, but I'm curious if Doug Erholtz and Tony Oliver are still going to voice Hazama and Bang. I'm hoping it was just a temporary thing in CS2 and CSEX, like maybe they had schedule conflicts at that time or something, idunno. Spencer's portrayal of Hazama actually wasn't all that bad (still jarring, however), but Kramer's version of Bang just didn't sound right at all.

After reading all the interview info (awesome, by the way), suddenly I'm getting this feeling that Kokonoe is going to be one of the bosses in some form.

Hakumen's counters gave him a star back in CS1 (no clue about CT, I joined the BB scene right when CS came out). I, too, don't get why some people think its all that great. I noticed over time that I touch the D button less and less, and I get punished most times I attempt to use it (granted, I am pretty scrubby, so it could very well be user error). Right now, I see it only as a tool for trashing people who don't know what blocking is and just attack, or on the rare occasion that my opponent throws out a weird, easy-to-punish oki, iunno.