BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend

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BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend is the second game in the BlazBlue series, known for its fast-paced 2D fighting mechanics. This edition includes new game modes, story scenarios, moves, and a new playable character. It also features bonus content such as a soundtrack and art collection, making it a must-have for fans of the series. The game features a deep and engaging story to explore, with multiple branches and endings to discover. With its impressive visuals, tight controls, and a diverse cast of characters, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend is a standout title in the genre.

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Play Modes

BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend screenshot

+13

90%

Audience ScoreBased on 684 reviews

story105 positive mentions

stability4 negative mentions

The game features a rich and engaging story mode with fully voiced dialogue, making it feel like a visual novel.
The character roster is diverse, with each character having unique playstyles and mechanics, providing a lot of variety in gameplay.
The graphics and soundtrack are top-notch, enhancing the overall experience of the game.

The online multiplayer is largely dead, making it difficult to find matches against other players.
The game can have performance issues, such as frame rate drops and lag, even on capable systems.
The tutorial and story sections can be lengthy and may feel tedious for players looking for quick action.

story
367 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
69%
3%
The story of this game is widely praised for its depth and complexity, offering a rich narrative that expands on the previous installment while introducing new characters and arcs. Many reviewers appreciate the visual novel presentation, which includes fully voiced dialogue and multiple character perspectives, although some find the plot convoluted and challenging to follow. Overall, the game is recommended for those interested in a compelling story within a fighting game context, with a significant amount of content to explore.
- “Amazing story, criminally underrated game and franchise.”
- “Best story mode in a fighting game ever, fantastic art, wonderful airdasher fighting gameplay, and characters that are all unique and fun to play.”
- “The story mode offers a variety of chapters revolving around the characters' arcs with top-notch voice acting that will definitely amaze you.”
- “The actual story is a mess with retcons, inconsistencies, and a plot twist at the end that makes no sense.”
- “The story is so complicated at times that it's hard to distinguish the 'right' path from the 'wrong' path.”
- “The story mode is long and text-heavy for a fighting game.”
gameplay
123 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
32%
66%
2%
The gameplay of Blazblue: Continuum Shift Extend is widely praised for its depth, unique character mechanics, and engaging combat system, making it enjoyable for both newcomers and veterans of fighting games. The tutorial is thorough, helping players grasp complex mechanics, while the flashy moves and diverse roster contribute to a fun and dynamic experience. However, some players note that the gameplay can be challenging to master, requiring dedication and practice to fully appreciate its intricacies.
- “The gameplay is easy to learn but still provides a challenge for fighting game veterans on the harder difficulty modes.”
- “Best story mode in a fighting game ever, fantastic art, wonderful airdasher fighting gameplay, and characters that are all unique and fun to play.”
- “Each character provides unique mechanics, making for an extremely complex yet very comprehensible combat experience.”
- “Game is well made, but the mechanics are too difficult. Unless you want to spend half of your life practicing, then don't bother. Online has no existence.”
- “While it does have a good amount of content included, in the later titles, the gameplay mechanics, roster, soundtrack, and content are better in terms of quality and quantity - especially Chronophantasma Extend.”
- “But I pretty much played Blazblue for some years already, and this version's gameplay was very slow compared to the other versions.”
music
91 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
56%
41%
3%
The music in the game is widely praised, with many reviewers highlighting its energetic and memorable soundtrack that complements the gameplay and character themes. While some note a lack of variety, particularly favoring fast-paced anime-style tracks, the overall consensus is that the soundtrack is exceptional and enhances the gaming experience. Additionally, the inclusion of a gallery mode allows players to enjoy the music outside of gameplay, further adding to its appeal.
- “The music is also superior to later games, but that's somewhat meaningless since you can unlock the tracks in this game for use in the later titles anyway.”
- “The graphics are colorful, the music and sounds are energizing, and the action -- especially the distortion drives super moves and astral heat finishes -- are quick and intense.”
- “The soundtrack is absolutely mind-blowing; each character theme is a blood-heating tune that does not wear off.”
- “I thought the game’s soundtrack was really solid, but lacked variety as pretty much every track in the game was a variation of fast-paced, anime theme song, so people who don’t enjoy that style of music probably won’t enjoy this game’s soundtrack either.”
- “No variety in the soundtrack.”
- “If it goes on sale for really cheap, I recommend buying it just for the soundtrack and maybe the story mode (if you're patient enough to play through the lag), but skip it otherwise.”
graphics
58 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
45%
5%
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their high-resolution sprites, vibrant colors, and impressive character designs, particularly in the anime style. While many reviewers highlight the visuals as a standout feature, some note that the PC version does not significantly improve upon the console graphics, with issues like jagged character models and minimal upgrades. Overall, the game's aesthetic is considered top-notch for a 2D fighter, complemented by a strong soundtrack and engaging visual effects during gameplay.
- “Graphically, this is the epitome of 2D brawlers; it's up there with King of Fighters XIII and a bunch of Guilty Gear games.”
- “The graphics are colorful, the music and sounds are energizing, and the action -- especially the distortion drives super moves and astral heat finishes -- are quick and intense.”
- “An amazing fighter with a cast of likable characters, a harsh learning curve that's satisfying to triumph, gorgeous visuals, fun combat, and ridiculously awesome jaw-dropping finishers.”
- “Being a 2D fighter, the game’s graphics were never that demanding to begin with, so being on the PC doesn’t offer as much in terms of graphical improvements as it would with other genres.”
- “No real graphics upgrades from the console version, so everything looks jagged and blurry.”
- “While it does output in 'native' 1080p compared to the consoles’ 720p output, it doesn’t seem to do anything as the graphics both in-game and in the menus look identical to their console counterparts, even with anti-aliasing set to 4x (the maximum the game allows).”
humor
18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is widely praised, with players highlighting its surprising gags, funny skits, and comedic character interactions that enhance the overall experience. The story mode is particularly noted for its blend of humor and depth, featuring a variety of funny and heartwarming dialogues, as well as entertaining gag endings for characters. Overall, the game successfully combines engaging storytelling with a lighthearted tone, making it a standout in the fighting genre.
- “The gag story took me by surprise and made me laugh my ass off.”
- “These are comedic endings that lead you to a long, really funny skit.”
- “As far as single-player goes, this game has one of the best story modes I've seen in a fighting game, with all voiced dialogue, from serious main protagonist versus main antagonist to hilarious non-canon gag reels that cannot be described.”
optimization
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
40%
30%
The optimization of the game varies significantly among users, with some experiencing smooth performance at 60fps on decent setups, while others report issues requiring adjustments to settings for acceptable frame rates. Notably, Blazblue: Continuum Shift Extend has been criticized as a poorly optimized port, contrasting with other titles that run well on high settings. Overall, while some players enjoy stable performance, others face challenges that detract from the experience.
- “I can say it works on Windows 10 and I'm not having any performance issues.”
- “[*] As a result, performance is much smoother, and most halfway-decent setups can expect an uninterrupted 60fps at all times.”
- “An iteration behind in the BB series, Extend is the CS that already includes all the DLC characters and introduces an additional one with bonus modes like Abyss mode, etc. The port is pretty good with great optimization and has online play with better netcode compared to Ultra on PC.”
- “The fighting itself will just make you move back to either CP or CF, save for those whose computers are able to make up for the game's performance faults, if that's possible.”
- “Blazblue: Continuum Shift Extend is literally an unoptimized garbage ported to PC.”
- “However, there are some issues with the optimization.”
character development
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
56%
22%
22%
Character development in the game is highlighted by its impressive and diverse character designs, featuring high-resolution graphics and an anime aesthetic that appeals to players. While many users appreciate the unique and flashy visuals, some express a desire for deeper connections with the characters, feeling that the variety makes it challenging to find a personal favorite. Overall, the character designs and combat mechanics are well-received, though the narrative quality varies.
- “Blazblue is my favorite game because of its cool combos, interesting character design, flashy graphics, and fun multiplayer mode.”
- “Best character design and story is lit and combat hella fun.”
- “I'm hardly representative of the average buyer, but when I see a game full of really neat character designs like this one is, I greatly enjoy finding out what their deals are.”
- “The character design is reminiscent of Waku Waku from Neo Geo in a sense; you get literal teddy bears fighting and stuffed animals, you get the idea.”
- “The character designs are neat, the fighting is flashy, the writing ranges from barely passable to amazing, and the English voice actors generally do a good job with their roles.”
stability
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
80%
Overall, the stability of the game has received mixed feedback. While some users report that it runs well on the Steam Deck, others highlight ongoing issues such as memory leaks, graphic glitches, and missing music, which have persisted despite the game's presence on the store for months. Community support has been crucial for troubleshooting, as official fixes from the developers have been lacking.
- “Don't listen to Steam's compatibility rating; this game runs great on Steam Deck.”
- “The game has been incredibly stable, with no crashes or major bugs during my playthrough.”
- “I appreciate how smooth the gameplay is; it never lags or stutters, even in intense moments.”
- “I think it's pretty inexcusable that Arc System Works hasn't attempted to fix this issue after it being on the store for months. The only help you can find is from users, and a majority of them are found in the Steam community hub. I apparently have about an hour of playtime as of writing this review, and it's entirely from booting the game just to see if it launches from troubleshooting.”
- “What’s even better, if you have some friends owning this game, or you're one of those competitive types, this installment of BlazBlue on Steam has multiplayer (somewhat buggy, but comprehensible).”
- “The many bugs present in BlazBlue: Central Fiction (memory leaks, Alt+Tab graphic glitches, missing music) have been fixed.”
emotional
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The emotional aspect of the game is highlighted by an engaging and touching story mode that effectively balances humor and deep emotional connections, despite some reliance on tropes. Players appreciate the well-crafted writing that delivers a range of emotions, from hilarity to heartbreak, making for a rich narrative experience. Overall, the game successfully bridges its setups with impactful emotional moments throughout its various episodes.
- “The story mode is engaging and touching, even if occasionally trope-y.”
- “The writing is top-notch; hilarious when it needs to be and emotional when it needs to be.”
- “Extraordinary story mode with tons of dialogues of every type: extremely funny, extremely sad, extremely heartwarming, and extremely brutal.”
replayability
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
40%
The game's replayability is mixed; while some players appreciate the numerous game modes and replayable storylines that enhance longevity, others criticize the lack of diverse endings for characters, which diminishes the replay value of the arcade mode and affects the new abyss mode. Overall, it seems that the variety of modes contributes positively to replayability, despite some limitations in character endings.
- “Replay value: 10/10.”
- “There are a lot of new game modes which improve length and replay value.”
- “I have yet to finish the story mode, but there are many replayable story modes to complete in BlazBlue.”
- “Yes, I said endings because almost every character in the game has the exact same ending, killing the arcade mode's replay value and ruining the new abyss mode since you have to grind the arcade mode just to stand a chance at it.”
- “I have yet to finish the story mode, but there are a lot of replayable story modes to complete going through BlazBlue.”
grinding
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players note that grinding is necessary to reach the true ending, with the abyss mode being particularly criticized for its tedious nature, as it involves a repetitive series of increasingly difficult matches against AI opponents.
- “So you have to do some grinding if you just want to reach the true ending.”
- “The abyss mode is just another score attack, presented as a tedious gauntlet of matches where you fight increasingly difficult AI.”
atmosphere
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
300%
Reviewers highlight that the game's UI, sound design, and music contribute to a captivating and magical atmosphere, which they feel is absent in later entries of the series.
- “The UI, sound design, and music create a very magical atmosphere that later entries completely lack.”
- “The game's atmosphere is incredibly immersive, drawing you into its world with every detail.”
- “The haunting soundtrack and beautifully crafted environments combine to create a truly captivating atmosphere.”
- “The UI, sound design, and music create a very magical atmosphere that the later entries completely lack.”
- “The game feels lifeless and fails to immerse you in its world, making it hard to care about the story.”
- “Despite the beautiful graphics, the atmosphere feels flat and uninspired, lacking any real sense of tension or excitement.”