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	ruaki 2009-07-12 06:19 pm UTC (link)
	Oh god I knew exactly what game you were talking about the moment you said "similar-looking but entirely unrelated character from the studio's previous game"... To be fair though, BlazBlue does encourage the incestual mindset in a rather twisted way... (Reply to this)(Thread)

	anonyrat 2009-07-12 07:35 pm UTC (link)
	It does -- in fact, after playing the game a lot I'm pretty sure Jin is actually supposed to be hot for Ragna, like canonically -- but for the love of the fanfiction gods, do it PROPERLY. Not by ACCIDENT. Plus, ten minutes with Jin's story mode should show you that Jin's icy exterior does not conceal a heart of gold. Yay, BlazBlue fans! (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

ruaki
2009-07-12 09:48 pm UTC (link)

Well, reports from the AX panel this year does have Mori stating that he was trying to get in more female fans.

THAT WOULD EXPLAIN QUITE A BIT I AM SURE

JIN'S JAPANESE VOICE TOTALLY DOESN'T HELP AT ALL and the Oshiete segment #4 totally lampshades it with hearts oh god...

but for the love of the fanfiction gods, do it PROPERLY. Not by ACCIDENT

Somehow, I don't think the fanfiction author you were ranting about could do it properly even if they knew...

Plus, ten minutes with Jin's story mode should show you that Jin's icy exterior does not conceal a heart of gold.

And *spoiler chara* is more than enough to prove that. orz

I myself was pleasantly pleased to see that Jin was not a Ky-clone, as I was half-afraid he was going to be, looking at his design and reading the vague chara description. ~~... maybe a Kuro-Ky clone though, especially in his black and red...~~

yay fans!

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anonyrat
2009-07-12 10:21 pm UTC (link)

Yeah, if they wanted to draw in female fans, then Jin was really the way to go. And the voice acting is what makes me think the slashiness was intentional, even moreso than the sparkly hearts omake clip...I mean, christ. You cannot say "I won't let anyone else touch you...you're all mine..." in that tone of voice and NOT realize what it sounds like.

Jin PLAYS very much like Ky, but his character...well, the world treats him as though he's Ky, but all the noble war-hero stuff is a facade for a pretty broken personality, which is interesting.

I always thought Guilty Gear deserved a larger female fan following, so it'll be nice if BlazBlue gets some of that now :3

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ruaki
2009-07-12 10:38 pm UTC (link)

Yeah, if they wanted to draw in female fans, then Jin was really the way to go.

HAHAHA, well, Mori made a joke that he felt that Bang would actually be the one to draw in the females... XD;;; (Hey, I was all over the guy once Kageyama started wailing during his Bang Install! How awesome is that?!)

And the voice acting is what makes me think the slashiness was intentional

Hell, even just the way Jin goes "niisan" was enough to make my eyebrows raise the first time. I was like, "well, I don't have to get creative about THAT..."

I was a bit disappointed that the English VA didn't ham it up like the seiyuu did.

But I always felt that ArcSys kinda... catered a bit to the darker side of fandom, if you know what I mean. Which is one reason why I heart them.

Hm, IMHO, I don't think Jin plays too much like Ky. There's similarities in that they're both somewhat all-rounders, but Ky's more effective with range and better mixup, IMHO. Jin also has to constantly use his tension bar to do ANYTHING, from some of his Ds to RCing a lot of his moves cause of crazy delays... Of course, I'm still playing and learning and BB is only the first installment, but I picked Jin expecting Ky and didn't quite get it. XD;

Of course, I abandoned Ky after X for Anji (LOLOLOL), so I'm not sure what changes they made to Kiske for #R or AC/+ other than what I've seen at tourneys...

Honestly, I thought GG had a large female following for a fighting game genre? At least during the time I was involved in it, which was probably during the original to XX days... I mean, sure, yah, we were overshadowed by the male players, but I certainly had heaps more gen/slash doujin for that series than anything else I was following at the time, and this was when it was hard to buy doujinshi online.

In the game rooms at cons during that period, I always saw a number of females hanging around to play, and even the guys would sit and make slash jokes about Ky. (poor bastard)

BB is certainly easier though (LOL SHORTCUT SPECIALS!!! ILU!!!), and with Mori doing the art now instead of Ishiwatari, it might be more appealing toward females wanting bishounen style men versus the muscle-bound dudes...

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anonyrat
2009-07-13 02:56 am UTC (link)

HAHAHA, well, Mori made a joke that he felt that Bang would actually be the one to draw in the females...

Oh, THAT'S where that comes from. One of my friends offhandedly mentioned that Bang was supposed to appeal to girls, or something. Well, I know he appeals to ME. ^^;

There's similarities in that they're both somewhat all-rounders, but Ky's more effective with range and better mixup, IMHO. Jin also has to constantly use his tension bar to do ANYTHING, from some of his Ds to RCing a lot of his moves cause of crazy delays... Of course, I'm still playing and learning and BB is only the first installment, but I picked Jin expecting Ky and didn't quite get it.

Hah, I haven't played Jin that much...maybe I would do better with him if I focused on the differences rather than the similarities. I picked up Arakune and Bang myself, and I'm trying to teach myself Carl Clover, but that's uphill, both ways, in the snow. I don't think anybody knows what to do with Carl Clover, though -- he keeps hopping around the tier lists like a crack-addicted frog.

I'm also an Anji player :3 I gravitate towards F-tier, I guess.

You may be right about Guilty Gear's fan following...I honestly don't play a lot of fighting games outside of GG/BB. I didn't grow up with Street Fighter 2, so I lack the fighting game instincts that a lot of my friends seem to have, and GG/BB seems to be a little less of an uphill battle to learn and has characters that cater to a pretty wide variety of play styles. Compared to other types of video games it seems to have a relatively smallish fandom, but within the genre of fighting games you're probably right. I'm also a bit new to the fandom (I've only been playing GG for a year or so) and there isn't a large fighting game community around here outside of my circle of friends, so I am admittedly ignorant of the player demographics. I will trust your judgement :) Guilty Gear is certainly more slash-friendly than most fighting games.

I am really loving BlazBlue so far, as well. It does seem to have less of a learning curve, which is nice for a scrub like myself.

And Ishiwatari does love his muscled dudes.

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ruaki
2009-07-14 12:00 am UTC (link)

You know, before I started with the tl;dr tangents, I ACTUALLY really meant to ask to a link to the fic that started your rant.

Anyway.

How can anyone NOT love Bang, honestly.

I love the goofy ninja types. I actually tried playing Chipp when GG first came out until I realized he's complete paper.

Anji/Baiken/Chipp interactions still remain some of my favorite canon and fanon bits though.

and I'm trying to teach myself Carl Clover

Man, I wanted to play Carl cause TOP HAT, but ugh multi-tasking... I struggled through Carl's story mode.

I'm really best at Jin so far, so most of my attention has been put on him, which makes me feel guilty cause I hate playing the poster charas...

Bang was a lot faster than I expected for a guy his size, but I'm actually not sure what to do with him. I want to sub Hakumen just because SUPER DIMENSIONAL FORTRESS charas really suits my reactive playing style, but wow. The transition between personalities there made someone lose his speed.

Hahaha, Carl and tier. I swear, Carl is even more flame bait than Jin is when it comes to tier. Poor kid. I think, in the end, despite his loops and the benefit of "two" players on the field versus one, that low HP modifier combined with pathetic range might be what kinda keeps him on low tier for most...

I'm also an Anji player

WOOO!! Sorry, I don't meet many Anji players because he's low tier. ♥ I love the dude. His play style is fun and so is the chara.

I didn't grow up with Street Fighter 2, so I lack the fighting game instincts that a lot of my friends seem to have

If it makes you feel any better, I grew up with all that and Alpha, was there for the original Guilty Gear which is how I broke my thumbs in, grew up with a fighting game crowd so I knew KoF and Toshinden and Garou.... and I still lack fighting game instincts.

For me, it's once a scrub, always a scrub.

But you still have a hope! History with fighting games doesn't necessarily mean anything if you really want to become good.

I've actually known a few players that weren't very good with SF but shone with the GG series... and vice versa. I have a friend who I can totally destroy in GG, but if we break out the SF2/A, my face is smeared on the pavement. Just go with what you like, and practice will put you in your place.

Says the eternal scrub. orz

GG/BB seems to be a little less of an uphill battle to learn and has characters that cater to a pretty wide variety of play styles

Word. GG is what made me really enjoy fighting games for those reasons.

Of course, awesome story, great charas, and an overall sleek presentation helped a great bit too.

Compared to other types of video games it seems to have a relatively smallish fandom, but within the genre of fighting games you're probably right.

Yah, that's definitely it.

The fighting game genre as a fic-art-product-producing fandom doesn't really have the following, as say, an RPG or something, even during the genre's peak. I think a lot of that deals with the fanbase--while the fanbase for the genres can be pretty huge, fighting games do focus more on the competition and gameplay, versus the story-chara development/worship.

BB is so much hugely more accessible LOLOLOLOL SHORTCUT THEM SPECIALS!!! NO NEED FOR CRAZY MANUEVERS TO BLOCK EFFECTIVELY!! SUPER LONG COMBO STRINGS ARE NEGLIGIBLE!! and the designs look a lot more anime than Guilty Gear, so that could attract more attention. ArcSys has come out and said they are trying to grab the female audience--Battle Fantasia was another attempt to try to snag this elusive demographic--so I'm crossing my fingers.

If nothing else, I'd just like more fans. Guilty Gear's fandom, both English and Japanese, put out some pretty good stuff, and I'd like to see BB tap some of that. I still love GG, but the story's gotten a bit... weird after XX... I had to step back from Overture.

And Ishiwatari does love his muscled dudes.

LOL AND HIS CUTE TRAPS orz

(personally i was a bit upset that ishiwatari didn't do the art for BB, but that's because i like his loose drawing style and his rampant love for ~~bondage~~belts)

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anonyrat
2009-07-14 06:30 pm UTC (link)

Oh, oh, the fanfic. Yes. It's here. The author recently uploaded a second chapter that consists mostly of begging for confirmation that Noel and Jin are related. Um.

Yeah, I love Bang...I have a weakness over-the-top, hilariously sincere shounen hero types.

I pretty much decided on playing Carl before the game even came out (a friend of mine sent me a picture of him when the characters were announced and said "Hey, look, they designed a character just for you!" and they were right)...but sadly he's so difficult to use effectively that I might have to back down from him. He has some pretty terrifying traps, but they're so technical and situational that I'm not sure I'll ever be good enough to use them in real fights. So far I've had really good luck with Arakune, though I'm not sure how much of that is me being good with him and how much of that is people not having experience with fighting Arakune. He is pretty hard to predict if you don't play against him very often.

WOOO!! Sorry, I don't meet many Anji players because he's low tier. ♥ I love the dude.

I know! He's so awesome. I don't remember why I started playing him (probably had something to do with having a fan-wielding, glasses-wearing character in a tabletop RPG at the time...I'm shallow that way), but I'm glad I did. I know he's low tier, but tier is much less important when you're mostly playing with people of varying skill levels who aren't top-level tournament players.

I picked up Bang partially because his Drive moves are like an evolved version of Anji's guard points :) And through the series, Anji is probably one of my favorite characters in GG storyline-wise, too...though I haven't managed to finish his Story Mode in ACP yet. His story seems to have advanced quite a bit since XX, moreso than other characters.

I'd also love to see BB develop a good fandom...it's quite different from Guilty Gear story-wise, I think, and it'll be interesting to see where it goes. Fighting games have always had a problem with accessibility, I think, so BB's attempts in that area are probably a good first step.

Plus, honestly, if I were to design a character specifically to appeal to fangirls, it would basically be Jin with no changes. Bishounen + gay subtext + murderously crazy is pretty much a winning combo in my experience.

LOL AND HIS CUTE TRAPS orz

My friend who doesn't play a lot of console games watched us playing Guilty Gear once and almost immediately started talking about how hot Bridget was and then we had to explain it and the look on his face was so beautiful.

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i'm actually shocked you're still replying to me XD;

ruaki
2009-07-14 11:00 pm UTC (link)

Hahaha, thanks for the link. I like that request chapter. I'm wondering if she has any experience with the crazy clusterfucks that are ArcSys games, as she flounders about trying to find someone suitable to pair Jin with.

Man, the author should just give Yukianesa a human persona and go from there.

Honestly, I'm surprised the author hasn't attempted a Mary Sue. D:

ah just...
this is gold.
the reviews. HAHAHA.
Thanks for sharing. XD

I really enjoyed what I have played of Bang's storyline so far, and Litchi's storyline that crossed over with Bang eavesdropping on her trying to talk to Ragna. He's seriously cute ~~when he's stalking~~. And the game is so SRSBSNS with certain charas that the light-heartedness is definitely refreshing. (Diverging from Ragna's storyline to meet with Taokaka is one of my favorite bits too.)

Well, Arakune is considered very high tier by nearly everyone, and when I played him a bit, I'll agree that he's pretty broken. I mean. SERIOUSLY (btw that's totally not me that made that).

Hm, that's good to hear that Anji-kun got a stronger storyline after XX. I was a bit disappointed that he kinda... floundered around in X/XX (going after That Man just to ask questions, I mean seriously, it's in character, but LOLOLOL). It's like they didn't know quite what to do with him at that point.

I definitely picked Anji cause he used fans as a weapon, as I've always been soft-hearted toward characters that use halisen. Also, butterflies. And the way he moves looks like he's dancing, so he's fun to watch too.

I personally don't pay attention to tier since I'm not tournament material, and it always seems that high tier charas are always charas I just simply can't play or have the patience to learn.

I do, however, enjoy the wank that surrounds tier. lol They're always beautiful circle jerks.

BB shares some similarity with the original Guilty Gear story, IMHO, although Ragna strikes me as being a bit more helpless to the events involving him than Sol was.

I think Jin's gay subtext being aimed at his brother--even if dipped in crazy sauce--probably won't aid BB as much as I think the SolKy movement started and defined the female side of the GG fandom, honestly... SolKy is fairly standard yaoi fodder, straight down to how they look, and the fact that their relationship is pretty complex lets people play with them fairly freely in a relatively IC-manner. (GG2 had a lot of us crying in disbelief initially though. orz)

I adore Jin though, even if he's typically not the type I go for; I think a lot of my like stems from the fact that I main him. So who knows. I'm a perennial fangirl, so maybe you're right and Jin is the Perfect Appeal.

My friend who doesn't play a lot of console games watched us playing Guilty Gear once and almost immediately started talking about how hot Bridget was and then we had to explain it and the look on his face was so beautiful.

Breaking someone's Bridget virginity is always a beautiful experience. Yet I've never had a chance to drop a Bridget on anyone, since all my friends are pretty aware of GG... =( lucky you. I'm jealous.

I wonder if Bridget's trap-ness is as big of a joke in Japan as it is here in NA?

But! I will always be amused that about 90% of Bridget cosplayers I run across are male. Like some kind of unspoken rule.

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	iczer6 2009-07-12 08:55 pm UTC (link)
	I thought it was PW/AJ fandom. Want to play Blazblue so much. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	seiberwing 2009-07-13 12:37 am UTC (link)
	That's what I was thinking. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	lostmahmarbles 2009-07-13 12:27 am UTC (link)
	I almost thought you were talking about [Prototype]. Same shit, different fandom. :/ (Reply to this)(Thread)

	iczer6 2009-07-13 01:11 am UTC (link)
	I think they establish that ~~Cyndi Lauper~~ Dana is your sister pretty early on in that game. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	lostmahmarbles 2009-07-13 01:26 am UTC (link)
	Yeah, the story I was thinking about came out before the game did, by about a month. (Reply to this)(Parent)