BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle

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BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle (ブレイブルー クロスタグバトル, BureiBurū Kurosu Tagu Batoru)
Information
Developer(s)	Arc System Works Project BB Team
Publisher(s)	JP/NA Arc System Works EU pQube
Genre(s)	Fighting, visual novel
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer
Platform(s)	PlayStation 4 Nintendo Switch Microsoft Windows (Steam, Microsoft Store) Arcade (Sega ALLS UX, Taito Type X3) Xbox One Xbox Series X/S
Rating(s)	CERO: B ESRB: Teen PEGI: 12
Release(s)	PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Steam JP May 31, 2018 NA June 5, 2018 EU June 22, 2018 Arcade JP April 24, 2019 Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Microsoft Store WW April 27, 2023

BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle is a crossover fighting game with a tag-team system. It includes characters from Arc System Works' BlazBlue, Atlus' Persona 4 Arena and its sequel, French-Bread's Under Night In-Birth, and Rooster Teeth’s 3D anime-styled web series RWBY. As of Season 2, Team Arcana's Arcana Heart (which was foreshadowed at the end of EVO 2018 trailer, and formerly co-owned by Examu as of the end of February 2020) was announced to be in the game, alongside Marvelous Entertainment's Senran Kagura and Subtle-Style's Akatsuki EN-Eins.

The character artwork for this game is drawn by Higuchi Konomi, who previously worked as a character designer of the XBlaze series.

On December 5th, 2021, at CEO 2021, it was announced that the PS4 and Steam versions of Cross Tag Battle, alongside Central Fiction on Steam, would get a rollback netcode update in 2022. A beta on the Steam version of Cross Tag Battle started on February 23rd, and ended with the update releasing on April 14th.

On September 15th, 2022, at Tokyo Game Show 2022, it was announced that the Special Edition of Cross Tag Battle would be coming to Xbox consoles and Windows computers via the Microsoft Store alongside Guilty Gear -Strive-. The game released on April 27, 2023, and is also available on Xbox Game Pass.

Story

Cross Tag Battle will have the first four sided storyline episodes called “Episode Mode”, which may tell the episode stories of all playable cast from each of four consisting series.

Inside a dimension called the “Phantom Field”, chosen individuals from four different worlds appeared. Then, a mysterious voice told them that if they want to return to their world, they need to protect something called the "key stone". With that, the warriors begin fighting each other to steal their key stones.

In the second storyline, it continues from certain BlazBlue episodes revolving around a critical situation accidentally caused by Hazama, unintentionally cause the "Phantom Field" to not hold up the unexpected situation, which is why they set up a stamp collecting contest for every participants in different universes (including three) and as part of a temporary truce. They need to solve the problem and stop a dangerous outcome from ending the multiverse, by searching primary candidates.

Gameplay

The gameplay in Cross Tag Battle is much different from previous entries of BlazBlue, Persona 4 Arena, Under Night In-Birth, Arcana Heart and Akatsuki EN-Eins, including Nitroplus Blasterz. Yet, some of the gameplay mechanics from the main latest installments of these four said series are retained while having some additional revamp for this game. Cross Tag Battle features 2v2 battles and tag-ins similar to Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite and Tekken Tag Tournament 2.

Characters

The starting roster confirms to have 20 default characters (21 in PC version) and 20 Season 1 DLC characters (19 on PC version), totaling 40 characters. As a result for the half of game’s planned roster, this game caused backlash from fighting game fans who have been promised a large roster at launch, while also citing that the game uses mostly reused assets from earlier Arc System Works fighting games. Robert Ramsey of Push Square called the title ugly compared to Arc System Works' other project, Dragon Ball FighterZ.

Season 2 DLC characters was planned, according to Arc System Works president Minoru Kidooka, including this game's producer Mori, starting from their appearances in Arcade Edition on February 2019. The Special Edition includes the game and all DLC characters.

DLC characters are highlighted in Bold.

From Arcana Heart	Heart Aino (Season 2, Pack 7)
From BlazBlue	Ragna the Bloodedge Jin Kisaragi Noel Vermillion Rachel Alucard Iron Tager Hakumen (Season 1, Pack 3) Nu-13 Hazama Makoto Nanaya Platinum the Trinity (Season 1, Pack 1)	Izayoi (Season 1, Pack 4) Azrael Celica A. Mercury (Season 2, Ver. 2.0 Expansion Pack) Nine the Phantom (Season 1, Pack 6) Naoto Kurogane (Season 2, Pack 7) Es Mai Natsume (Season 1, Pack 5) Jubei (Season 1, Pack 2) Susano'o (Season 2, Ver. 2.0 Expansion Pack)
From Persona 4 Arena/Ultimax	Yu Narukami Yosuke Hanamura Chie Satonaka Yukiko Amagi Kanji Tatsumi (Season 1, Pack 1) Naoto Shirogane (Season 1, Pack 3) Teddie (Season 2, Pack 7)	Mitsuru Kirijo (Season 1, Pack 4) Akihiko Sanada (Season 1, Pack 5) Aegis (Season 1, Pack 2) Elizabeth (Season 2, Ver. 2.0 Expansion Pack) Labrys (Season 1, Pack 6) Tohru Adachi (Season 2, Ver. 2.0 Expansion Pack)
From Under Night In-Birth	Hyde Linne Waldstein Carmine (Season 1, Pack 2) Orie (Season 1, Pack 1) Gordeau	Merkava (Season 1, Pack 4) Vatista (Season 1, Pack 3) Seth (Season 2, Pack 7) Yuzuriha (Season 1, Pack 5) Hilda (Season 2, Ver. 2.0 Expansion Pack) Mika (Season 1, Pack 6)
From RWBY	Ruby Rose Weiss Schnee Blake Belladonna (Season 1; Free on Console, Unlocked by default on PC) Yang Xiao Long (Season 1; Free on Console; Time Release Update Patch on PC) Neo Politan (Season 2, Ver. 2.0 Expansion Pack)
From Senran Kagura	Yumi (Season 2, Ver. 2.0 Expansion Pack)
From Akatsuki EN-Eins	Akatsuki (Season 2, Ver. 2.0 Expansion Pack) Blitztank (Season 2, Ver. 2.0 Expansion Pack)

Trivia

• This is the second crossover game that characters from both the Arcana Heart and Senran Kagura series have appeared in (the first being Nitroplus Blasterz, with Heart and Homura being guest DLC characters).
• Like Under Night In-Birth characters, this marks the first time Arcana Heart characters, alongside Akatsuki EN-Eins characters, have received English dubs.
  • This is also technically the first time Senran Kagura characters have received English dubs in a video game (while the first English dub of the series was in its anime adaptation). If another batch of DLC characters from the series were to be announced, some Senran Kagura fighters (particularly those whose names have already been datamined) would likely have different English dub actors from those in the anime adaptation.
• Announcer voice clips for Saki, Kamui, Kira, Fiona, Petra, Akane, Weiß, Scharlachrot and Minori were found in the version 1.5 ROM through datamining. This was a hint of further Arcana Heart DLC characters, however, with the end of Season 2, those characters, along with the rest who were datamined as well, has never been able to be added to the game as DLC.
• Saki and Weiss has only appeared as icons in Customization, which also explains Saki's absence as a playable character because her original Japanese voice actress Yumi Shimura retired on April 2017.

Gallery

Heart along with Naoto, Teddie, Seth, Ragna, Jin and Ruby in the Arcade poster.

Special Edition artwork, with Yumi and Neo added in.

Cover art

Background cover

Character portrait of Heart Aino.

Videos

BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle EVO Japan 2019 Trailer

『BLAZBLUE CROSS TAG BATTLE Special Edition』製品紹介トレーラー

BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle - Heart Aino Introduction

External Links

• Store links - PlayStation Store / Xbox / Nintendo eShop / Steam