Half of BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle's Character Roster Is DLC, Fans Are Raging

never liked arcsys,this game and dbfz

DLC fighters are exactly why I stopped playing fighting games, I’m not buying extra fighters and I’m not gonna use fewer fighters than other people.

Gamers are pissed no matter what. 20 is a great number for the base game.

@naruball 20 is fine if this was something entirely new. I can see why people are annoyed when Arc System Works is drawing from several different franchises to make up this roster. Not only that, but most of the cast are essentially reused from other games.

Double that 20 with DLC and it's insulting no matter how you look at it, in my opinion anyway.

Pretty much avoid fighting games these days. Its alright if you have friends to okay. Gets boring fast but this is bad as ea when they made half star wars battlefront dlc offt

Wow. Just wow. Looks like I won't be getting this one until it gets a heavy discount. Which is a shame, because I'm a big fan of Guilty Gear.

Edit: Also the fact that no Guilty Gear characters were announced for the game, and I jumped on the Persona train with 5, so I have no connection to the P4 characters, I guess I really shouldn't consider this game.

Hey so nice DLC lets go with 5 next time thats more honest. Ill wait for a complete edition with or i will not bother.

@naruball Sorry half the roster locked behind a paywall is that ok? Oh small thing i forgot some of the main characters in there is behind the paywall.

@Flaming_Kaiser So if it was 20/20 would that be ok?

20 is the number you get in most fighting games.

@ShogunRok That's assuming that people have already played all of those games. I, and many others, haven't, so they are 20 new characters to us.

It's insulting if you're looking for ways to be insulted, imo, something gamers love to do. They keep looking for things to be furious about, just like extreme cases of SJW's are offended by anything and everything.

@DarkOcean so much works goes into fighting game characters so dlc fighters aren't a bad thing... It's how publishers roll out that dlc that can take the cake.

Netherrealm do it the right way imo, nowadays their characters not only look and animate great but they have unique interactions and movesets, their own arcade endings, skins (or gear in the case of injustice) plus you get a lot of them that release on a regular basis through the season pass, so with that i'm happy to pay for the extra work they put in similar to expansions other games get.
Tekken on the other hand...

The biggest problem for me was no Guilty Gear characters. Missed opportunity, ArkSys.

DLC is crap too. Half the roster for DLC is just ludicrous. Especially announcing it in advance like this. I think SFxT had more characters at launch, and that was two franchises compared to four. I can rationalize this as wanting to avoid too many similar characters, but in big crossover fighters like this, nobody really cares about that as long as their favorites fight each other. Marvel V Capcom 2 and Tekken Tag 2 had plenty of similar movesets and clones, but those games are well loved. Besides, I've seen BlazBlue's roster. You can easily avoid that when you have so many characters to pick for this game.

Throw in how those two games in addition to something like King of Fighters 14 (Which is almost like an SNK crossover) with fighters up the wazoo, and this looks lame in comparison for a crossover.

At least there's DBFZ. I'm definitely getting that, but this has yet to convince me, and this doesn't help.

@naruball Why not just go and buy Central Fiction for half the price and be ensured a full game? Why not just wait a year after this launches for the inevitable complete edition update that has all 40 characters in from the start?

I find it baffling that people are defending this, honestly.

@ShogunRok Waiting for the complete edition works, too.

I find baffling how people try to find things to complain about. Also, how crazy they get over being told they can't have something. 20 characters? Cool. 20 + 20 you have to pay extra for? Outrage!

@naruball You're missing the point. These characters, besides the RWBY ones are reused, meaning that very little effort was made in porting these fighters over to this new game...

I usually try to avoid Arc System fighting games. I love the gameplay and animation of them but most of their games have updates that you buy over again. Blazblue, Persona Arena, and I can’t tell you how many versions of Guilty Gear 2 are out there. I recently snagged Blazblue Central Fiction since it was on sale. I enjoy it, but it makes me wonder if they are gonna update this with a new version. Not to mention it charges you additional voices clips. Kinda on the fence with DBZ and I’m not really liking how this Blazblue Tag game is being handled.

@naruball 20 is a good number for most fighting games. This is not most fighting games. This is a crossover featuring four different properties. 20 characters at launch feels underwhelming and honestly, limiting. The current roster has 10 BlazBlue characters (Ragna, Jin, Rachel, Noel, Hazama, Tager, Makoto, Azrael, 13, and Es), which is half the launch roster and there's already a bit of uneven representation to some people. That leaves 4 Persona characters (Yu, Yosuke, Yukiko, and Chie), 4 Under Night characters (Hyde, Linne, Waldstein, and Gordeau, also what's Under Night?), and 2 RWBY characters (Ruby and Weiss). For a crossover, I think people expect more than that at launch. I personally don't think that's wrong, considering what crossover fighters have come before with bigger rosters. Again, I point to Marvel V Capcom 2, which is over a decade old. Also multiple KOF games. This roster size here just doesn't feel like much effort was put into it.

Even if the current roster at launch doesn't bother you, there's the fact that a whopping 20 characters need to be purchased. I can't name a single fighting game off the top off my head that's done that. Even if they're sold in packs instead of separately, I can imagine it'll be pricy. I'm sure there'll be some season pass, or complete edition to ease the sting, but it shouldn't have to come to that in the first place. We should buy the game and get a complete experience from the start, not pay more to finish it.

People do cry alot these days, but believe it or not, sometimes it's justified. We're not complaining because we're entitled, we want to see it done right. I don't think this game is being handled right.

Still wish they chose guilty gear for its 4th game in this instead of that other series.

Some of the hypest moments in fighting games are when new characters get announced but to have so many as dlc, I don't know. But every fighting game these days seem to have a problem with it's DLC, MK and Injustice's season passes are too expensive plus Goro and Darkseid were day one DLC, SFV you can earn new content but getting stages, fighters and costumes is a grind to the point it doesn't feel rewarding. Tekken 7's season pass is too expensive too plus their very slow to put out new fighters and it had day one DLC as well and now this.
Having said that I wish Sony would give Arc some money to do a 2V2 PlayStation All-stars game.

@naruball This comment is so unfathomably wrong, uninformed, and moronic that I felt inspired to create an account on this website I've literally never heard of before to make sure SOMEONE would tell you how wrong you were. First of all, all of these characters are copy and pasted from their original games. Games that already released. Years ago. Some of these sprites used in this game are more than 4 years old at -least-. Its a 2D fighting game, crossover between FOUR intellectual properties and only has 20 characters. When the characters can literally be copy and pasted from their base games. (Except RWBY characters). Then, RWBY is added into the crossover, never appearing in any fighting game(s) before, and they put only 2 of the 4 main characters of the entire show in the roster, the other 2 are DLC. Why on earth should anyone pay money to play as characters from games theyve already purchased? In a brand new game they ALREADY paid for, that actually adds nothing gameplay wise other than making a space where all these characters can fight each other? Then you get down to the pricing: 3 characters per pack. Just want one but hate the other two? Too bad! You're paying for all of them! 20 characters in a crossover fighter is low. Period. Even without the company just reusing assets from old games. But they did that too. Its flat out inexcusable. This "mehh you gamers are just complaining" stance is absolute nonsense. This is a -product-. We are supposed to -pay- to -enjoy- this. If they create a great product, we aren't entitled to pay for or enjoy it. This attitude that game companies are blessing us with some magical gift of a new video game release is asinine. This game is a flat out scam and anyone who can't see that from a mile away is nothing but delusional.

@KingdomHeartsFan I have no problem with this practice. You may think it's greed, I think it's business. The game won't sell much anyway, just like a lot of games that don't sell well. This is one way to make a profit.
The whole, "if it's a good game, it will sell", is far from reality.

It's not taking advantage of anyone. It's a video game, after all. A video game with 20 characters and some optional ones for those interested in them.

@austinkun "This game is a flat out scam and anyone who can't see that from a mile away is nothing but delusional"

Excellent way to express your opinion. Well done.

@ReanSchwarzer7 I think you're missing my point, since I already addressed that.

@KingdomHeartsFan Was there such a time? Because I remember good games struggling to sell despite how exceptional they were. Even nowadays games that don't rely on such practices still struggle to sell when they are niche. It's sad, but also the reality.

I agree about your second point. Now it's gonna sell even worse.

This isn’t games companies fault; it’s the consumers.

Publishers saw the pay to play work for mobile gaming and it paid in bunches, so why wouldn’t you try it for consoles?

The problem was, spend happy sad gamers/youtubers who HAVE have to have everything on day one, bit their hands off and voted with their wallets in enough numbers that this sh*t is now here to stay.

Very much a case of the few ruining it for the many. Telling publishes to stop taking this strategy is the same as telling them to stop aiming to make a profit. When people stop investing in this kind of thing, only then will you see publishes start targeting volume of content as opposed to monetising a fractured game

Or buy it in 12 months time when the inevitable “Arcade/XL” edition releases with all DLC for £30

@naruball "I'm going to just ignore all of the points you made and imply the last sentence isn't to my liking so that somehow makes what you said invalid". Cool argument. "Well done".

I gonna wait with passing judgment until I see the Story mode, price of the game and DLC pack

Most recent Smash bros had 51 base characters and 7 dlc characters, although some levels were 3ds exclusive.

Arc got a little famous and they think they can go overboard lol

Exactly why I don't buy fighting games anymore, Street Fighter seasons and allbthe DLC crap added to MK and such, no thanks. I'll be buying one more fighter this gen and it'll be Soul Calibur, everything else can go away except maybe tekken if the VR stuff is any good.
Also, remember the days when you'd unlock charactera by playing the game, now you have to pay double cash. Welp.

@naruball becauce its a blatant money grab, theey don't need to charge large amounts for additional characters, its just very very profitable, instead of rewarding early adopters that pay full price for ypur game you take away content, release a game in full because its what we want, when you buy a new family car they don't try and sell you a red paint job for £20,000.00
DLC such as this is just greed plain and simple, this is always proven when almost every singlengame that has a season pass or multiple DLC always always goes on sale on PSN before even the whole of the content is released, ripping off season pass early adopters too.
There are two things in a fighting game, a play space and fighters. Fighters are not DLC to be divided up, they are absolutely core content of the game and this sort of practice divides the players and p*sses everyone off.

Well, I prefer Blazblue than Dragon Ball (personal opinions), but with all of you, I agree totally on something, the DLC of this game is quite exaggerated and some annoying...

@Bad-MuthaAdebisi How many characters were available back in the day (I seriously doubt they were 40) and how different were their moves, i.e. same fighters-different skin?
Things weren't as great as most people tend to remember them.

@Bad-MuthaAdebisi as for your other post, calling something profitable or greed, doesn't magically make it so. We don't know the details. I don't claim to. If you do, feel free to provide some sources. And not for COD and other popular games, please. Niche fighters. How much do they sell? How much profit do they make for you to call it greed?

Wow .. just wow ... i mean it was to be expected that there will be lots of DLC and well DLC Chars but - half of the roster ? Arc Sys has always loved to exclude Chars and to sell them for extra cash but this is the new low point for them it seems .. in all honesty - as brilliant as their games are technically and gameplay wise , even as a Fan of almost all of their games this simply is too much. But I guess that’s just how the business works these days .. I wish back those days where you could unlock Chars by playing and not by purchasing them extra. It’s time that one company steps forward as a role model - DLC Chars? Yes. Pay for them ? No. It works in other genres (Titanfall2 - all DLC maps free) - as to show my disappointment I will not buy this game until it is hugely reduced in price or maybe just leave it completely for now. Thank you Arc Sys for constantly reaching new lows in customer and fan service - after the last low point for me , when blazblue central fiction was released without the English dub voices - this is yet another big step into the wrong direction

@naruball Then there are 20 characters and for me that is way less terrible yes. So whats your plan to be ok with lets start with 6 base and ramp it up with a seasonpass to 40?

@naruball they're not cutting up the game becauae its fun or because we want it, yes, they are doing it becauae they are business and because they believe it'll provide them with higher profit margins. Instead of making a great game and selling it to lots of people it's just easier to cut it up and sell it peice by peice. In my opinion that is greed.

Poor show by Arc System Works, I won't be buying it. Too much greed, locking half the game away as paid dlc is absolutely ridiculous.

This is why I never buy fighting games at launch. Wait for the DLC to release and balance patches and then buy the arcade/definitive edition later.

@adf86 That sounds like a nice idea indeed.

Already commented on it, might as well just repost that: https://twitter.com/nhSnork/status/952500126886629376

Thanks for making me feel like I'm the only one having played multiple franchise crossovers before, internet. :V

I'm looking forward to the game and I'll decide on DLC purchase as usual - based on my later interest, purchase priorities and wallet condition. If any number of fans feel distressed by me potentially "supporting greedy publisher practices" - well, being the cause of distress to fans can't feel like much but an honour to me.

The 20 DLC is priced around the same as the base game so, I wait for complete edition or a sale

Seriously? That's a real shame, I was actually looking forward to this game too. No way I'm supporting the game in that form.

Quick question @naruball are you buying the game?

Its got a none mainstream following and a hardcore group of fans. You rise valid points and tbf I want to disagree. But your right the companies involved dont give a damn and will charge us as much as possible.

Thats why we need the likes of Pushsquare to come up with a way of showcasing monetary extras in every review so we know what lies ahead.

First thing, what is the problem of reusing assets? The reusing of assets is part of every project. I didn't see people complaining on Injustice 2 or even ASW own BlazBlue for reusing assets.
Second, ASW is being forward for what is coming with the game, and what's the DLC plan. It's their project, it's their prerogative how they sell it to the customer. Is up to the customer if they wan't to buy it or not.
Third, as someone who played every KOF, SF, MK and MvC in the arcades, no used every character. Oh, you explore a character just to see the arcade ending, but you ended playing with the ones you like. Even in the home consoles, you end up playing with the characters that you are comfortable.
So, in conclusion this is not an issue, is just the same old "I have to have everything! I have to get every character." (even if you never play with some characters).

Yawn, if y'all think 50% of the game is acceptable to be labelled as DLC and ain't greedy then good for you. May as well just call the game vol 1 and vol 2. Pathetic.

Remember when you unlocked additional fighters from playing the game? What’s worst is when the game isn’t even out for another 6 months and you announce that half of your game roster is paid dlc for a game that your still delveloping. You have to be a idiot to support this.

Not a fan of these fighting games, not a fan of any of the series included and not a fan of these business models.

@MadAussieBloke I don't see anyone going into a rage here, just peeps saying - "What a rip off, that's a bad deal."

@naruball I don't think I've ever seen someone so purposefully ignore the problems being raised here.
It's pretty sad when people claim they can't see the problem with trying to lock HALF of a roster behind a paywall, especially in a game that is almost entirely made up of pre-existing assets.

@Darkstar86 Thanks for the laugh. Much appreciated.

They really do screw up big time with this. To think games like KOF14 gave us the grand roster, this one seem like it purposely held them hostage until we pay up.