New BlazBlue Continuum Shift DLC Character Makoto Details Revealed

Share on Facebook posted 06-28-10 by Angelo D'Argenio

Over the weekend, Arc System Works revealed what most fighting game fans have been waiting for: Character DLC. Though BlazBlue: Continuum Shift comes with three new characters–Tsubaki, Hazama, and Mu (Mu being a character totally exclusive to the home console release) — Arc System Works has revealed that they have plans for three more characters to be released as downloadable content in the future, with possibilities for more to come!

The first character to be revealed (originally reported from the forums over at Dustloop) is Makoto Nanaya, that squirrel girl from BlazBlue’s story mode. Together with her inexplicable outfit and underboob, Makoto will be a fast combo-based character, with little range but lots of striking power. Her move list hasn’t been fully revealed yet, but she appears to have some sort of ability to make copies of herself, as well as the ability to roll up into a Sonic: The Hedgehog-like ball. Her drive has to do with the cross-shaped Tonfa she wears strapped to her wrist. Its named Impact and it has a corresponding bar at the bottom of the screen. Impact allows Makoto to charge her drive attacks to deal more damage and hit-stun and even make them un-blockable.

Makoto’s fighting style has been described as “hyper aggressive” by the staff over at Arc System Works, apparently much more aggressive than current rush-down characters such as Ragna. Supposedly, she has the shortest reach in the game but a wide variety of her moves are dash cancelable. According to screenshots, info leaked by Arc System Works, and rumors, she starts with 5 guard primers and 10000 health; however, since she is still incomplete and in the process of being balanced, this could be changed by her final build.

The game itself will cost forty dollars and will be available on July 27th, while the Makoto DLC package will cost approximately seven dollars when it becomes available on August 5th of this year. The package will add Makoto to all modes in the game, including a tutorial for Tutorial mode, challenges for Challenge mode, and character specific achievements and trophies for the Xbox 360 and PS3. A system wide mandatory update will occur as soon as the DLC package becomes available. This update will allow players who have purchased Makoto to use her in online matches. Players who have not purchased Makoto will still be able to fight against her in online matches but will not be able to select her. She will also come with her own unlimited version.

In addition, Aksys has released an FAQ about BlazBlue: Continuum Shift that has answered further questions regarding the game’s DLC. They have said that Jubei will not be made into a downloadable character; they refuse to comment on Valkenhayn’s possible inclusion, leading us to believe that he may in fact be available to play as in the future. A recent issue of Famitsu included silhouettes of the next two DLC characters but due to the wild difference between a character’s in-game model and previously released story models (just look at Tsubaki and Makoto) there are very few theories as to who these characters are. Aksys has also not commented on whether or not there will be DLC characters beyond the ones we know about now, but Arc System Works has said that this modular style of DLC will help retain interest in BlazBlue in the future, as “another BlazBlue will not come out for a while.” DLC will presumably be Arc System Works’s tool to keep BlazBlue players pleased while they presumably work on their next fighting game project, the rumored next-gen Guilty Gear.