Melty Blood...at it again!

Posted by Antonio on 22nd Apr 2010

Alright, I recently got this game, I haven't unlocked all of the characters, but I think I can still produce a review.

This game is based on a visual novel created by Type Moon, which also created the Fate/ visual novels. The story style of the the Fate and Melty series are somewhat similar.

Graphics are good. The sprites are not the sharpest or the crispest you have ever seen, but they are still good. But what the sprites lack in crispness, they more than make up for it in animation. The character sprites are animated beautifully, with a super high frame rate count. Skirts flow and ripple with a liveliness and hair blows realistically in the breeze. The game was developed by Ecole Software, which also developed the Arcana Heart game.

Music is well produced, good, and fits the theme of the game.

Gameplay. This game is on the top of many fighting game fan's list of best fighting games made in the last 5 years. It has won many awards as a fighting game in japanese websites, gaming magazines, and polls. I would not say that I agree with that, but, it is still on the very higher up parts of my list of great fighting games.

The thing you will notice early on about the gameplay of melty blood, is how responsive the controls are, and how easy it is to just pick up and play. I am not saying the game is easy...I am just saying you can learn the basics and the button layout, pretty early on. The controls are very responsive, everything you try to execute comes out fluidly and without extra effort.
The game allows you to pull off high combo hits, thanks to its well made engine, and you can string them together a little more, once you master the nuances of dashing and knowing when to time those dashes.
A big part of the gameplay is devoted to defense. The "shielding" button, and the options that go along with them, plays a huge roll in the game. You won't be able to win against high level opponents, both CPU or human, without it.
Three different versions of power abilities with corresponding movesets, are available as choice, for each character. There's crescent moon, half moon, and full moon versions.
They don't change a character so much, the variety offered by the changing moons isn't so great, but it makes things spicy.

Lots of characters, even if some are copies of themselves...their movesets are not the same, lots of stage arenas, are also at your disposal.
36 different color variations for each character, again, for spice. Good voice work.

Great 2D sprite fighter and highly recommended.

Now, let us all hope that Type Moon one day decides to produce a Fate vs Melty Blood game. For now, we can only dream.