Blade Arcus Day 1 impression

Quick impression, after watching this game around 5 hours (will upload later).

We are convinced that this's a great game, especially when it's played by top players. We spent several hours watching Japan's No. 1 (CL ranking) playing Altina against some decent players.

The assists are nice and can make an impact. And since you need to either block or take damage for Support Gauge (which is required for an assist), you can't overuse it. We saw the Altina player saved it to Burst because she's weak in close range, while other players used it to get close to her.

Super Force Attack hurts, just like Super Combo in Street Fighter II. We like it, because we feel that saving meters to do fancy stuff for little damage is pointless.

It seems like all the arcades use first-to-three format. Intentional? The pace of a match is good anyway.

System

• Stage 8 is last stage when you play with CPU.
• "Brave Heart: Kagayaki no Kanata e" is played in the last round if both players are on match point.
• You can make your character say different things when you win or when doing special moves. (These voices can be unlocked by trading in GP you gain from playing)
• Your characters gain level after a match.
• There's no "BP" ranking like SF4, but there's CL ranking. CL is character Level.
• It seems you can't kill with chip damage?

Melty

• She has command grab, so she needs to get in.
• She can use projectile for zoning and some tricks, but can't do fireball war.
• Her 236 is a launcher, can be a safe antiair, and also can reflect fireballs (but timing is not easy).
• Her falling Ice Cream (Super) has fast startup, has big hitbox, can antiair, combo after 236.
• In other word, she's most satisfying grappler.

Altina

• She's MorriDoom (can Soul First and Hidden Missiles).
• She also has Ibuki's Kunai setup.
• Good news, she's actually a charge character and is difficult to play at high level. (must avoid getting jump over and lose the charge)
• Her "Hidden Missiles" Super is a semi-homing attack. Arrows will fall on where opponent stands.
• It seems you can counterpick her with Pairon, because Pairon's projectile goes under her arrow.

Character usages (Day 1)

1. Rage 17.48%
2. Sakuya 14.30%
3. Altina 11.82%
4. Pairon 11.74%
5. Xiaomei 9.93%
6. Melty 9.52%
7. Roselinde 8.46%
8. Ryuga 6.85%
9. Isaac 6.19%
10. Fenrir 3.73%