Newbie's Questions (Doubts) about BB:CSEX

Current Fighting Games BlazBlue
1

I’ve started playing BB:CSEX just yesterday - it was the first game I got for my PS3 (and the PS3 was the first current gen console I got in my life), so I’m stoked like nobody’s business.

However, I’ve some general questions that need answering, so I’d prefer to ask uphand before I start posting here acting like I know what I’m talking about (tl;dr - acting like a idiotic noob)

1)I noticed when I was watching videos of BlazBlue before I got it, there’d be talk of “Unlimited Characters”. Now, while I own the game and probably know the answer, I just need confirmation - is an Unlimited Character one who uses the “Stylish” layout as opposed to the Technical Layout?

Also, what are the benefits to even using an Unlimited Character, anyways?

2)Some of the combos look extremely hard to perform, even when the game shows you how it’s done. I almost got a blister on my thumb from doing Ragna’s Challenge 5, and I still can’t do Challenge 3 100% all the time (usually I get to Hell’s Fang, but then I lose my momentum on the 214D).

This was even more apparent on Challenge 5, when I couldn’t connect the second part of Gauntlet Hades to Infernal Divider (I almost gave myself an aneurysm trying to make it go through, in addition to the left thumb blister).

3)I noticed when playing that if an enemy catches you and you lost your Burst trying to get out, and then lost your momentum (it happened after I nearly blew my brains out figuratively with Ragna’s Challenge 5), they essentially have the match. Is this game heavily more dependent on infinites than others, or is it my obvious newbiness with FGs as a whole that makes this more blatantly frequent?

4)What’s the deal with Hakumen’s Heat Gauge? I know that others have some modification to it, yet usually they keep the original. With Hakumen, it’s different - it’s like where the number SHOULD be, instead there appears to be a Kanji symbol (since I can’t read Kanji, I have no idea what it means). What is the difference between Hakumen’s gauge and everyone else’s?

5)Makoto’s counter special - my god, I’ll die if I try to make it work. The game says 2 6 D when the enemy’s attacking, yet for the love of me I can’t figure out what I’m supposed to do to make it execute.

Oh yeah, before answering these questions, bear in mind I’m using the default pad. So any answers must be presented with knowledge of that fact - not so much from those using a pad, but from those who KNOW I’m USING a pad.

Also, most times for specials I use the analog and the D-Pad for movement, simply because my brain would burst from being hit too many times and a dash not coming out properly (no idea why this happens, either).

2

#1: Unlimited characters have nothing to do with Stylish/Technical. In BBCS:EX Unlimited characters are super-powered versions of characters that can be unlocked by spending the ingame currency (P$) in the “Gallery” mode. Unlimited characters have different moves, more health, special qualities, etc,etc. They are not generally considered to be “legitimate” or balanced, and are often not allowed even in player match rooms (never at tournaments.). Odds are, if you see a player match room with unlimited characters allowed that means either “I am just screwing around and have no intention of playing seriously” or “I suck and feel like I can compensate by using an unlimited character.”

#2: Challenge 3 for Ragna falls into the “pretty easy” category - if you can’t do this, if need to practice until you can. Reliably. This is a level of basic fighting game competance that you really need to have. Relax, do the motions slowly. Do not spaz out on the pad. Challenge #5 is, I believe, deceptively challenging, because you need to delay the followup (214D) to the Gauntlet Hades slightly, or the ID won’t land, and this isn’t entirely obvious from watching.

#3: There are no infinites in this game at all, so certainly it is not “dependant” on them. Do you understand how the combo counter works - red vs blue and blue combos being ones you could have escaped? Odds are though, that you are just not blocking very well, so you are getting “reset” - i.e. hit again by a hit that doesn’t combo - rather than being killed by an “infinite” or high damage combo.

#4: Hakumen’s heat gauge is…different. It is divided up into 8 little orbs called “Magatama” (Aside: Did you do his tutorial? I’m pretty sure it explains this stuff. In fact, did you do any of the tutorials? If you skipped them, go back now and do them. ALL the “generic” ones, and then the character specific ones for characters you have questions about.); These are consumed when he performs any of his special moves, but unlike the rest of the cast, his gauge fills automatically all the time.

#5: Seems like you are reading it a little wrong. The motion is 4 6, and the button press is not precisely required. If you press back then forward briefly, Makoto will do a little “parry” animation. If your opponent hits you while you are doing that, THEN you can push the button and Makoto will blow past and hit them. If you’re trying to learn this, first practice just doing the “4 6” parry motion, then worry about reacting with the button press.

3

Lucky you picked Extend instead of CS. In CS the Challenge mode was asssss.

Aside from non-existing infinites, is Hakumen’s challenge 10 from CS1 legit anymore or is it fixed? Sure it’s divinely hard to perform and you need 8 magatamas but I remember it taking out the whole bar.

4

It’s probably still there, because in reality, nobody really cares. It doesn’t happen except in matches where you are so outclassed that your opponent completely styles on you.

5

Only in Japan, only in Japan…

6

Alright, let me give you my replies, since my computer’s back online (I have to switch between PS3 and PC if I want to even communicate, since I don’t have a USB Keyboard).

1)So that’s what unlimited is. I had no idea, since normally I don’t even go to the Gallery (was unaware that the mods paid for in Abyss mode didn’t even stick, and I only learned this long after). Thanks for the tip, I’ll have to check that out.

One question, though, about Unlimited - so basically, if you use Limited Format, the upgrades you obtained via the Gallery are essentially cancelled, and you play with the characters as they were right from bootup?

2)I discovered that the harder and longer I gaze at my pad, the less confidence I have in being able to pull off the motions reliably (I’ve found with Makoto that 662A 5B 5CC Lv3D is much easier than, say, any of Ragna’s challenge combos - although that’s only because someone via netplay taught that one to me, and it got to the point where I could do it very reliably). So maybe that’s an issue.

Although, how would one regain that confidence to where I could pull off these motions (and combos) without gazing at my pad once?

3)Red? Blue? Ergh, crap. My brain burst when I was just trying to do the Counter Tutorial, so odds are if that was covered, I wouldn’t remember it (doing that 236A 5B 5C 236A 214D during the tutorial was enough to knock me out, visibly).

I think it was a reset - I have this nasty habit of mashing on wakeup. I thought it was based on instincts that I formed from real life fighting, but… I doubt that’s truly it.

4)I did all three stages. I didn’t listen or read because I couldn’t stand that snobby ass vampire’s voice (nor her visage either). I’d be okay with it if she use words degrading and making me seem like less of a man and more of a beast (I know you’re not supposed to get riled up by a video game character, but her sentences - especially when directed at me - just friggin piss me off). As for the other characters, I didn’t do the Strategies Tutorial because if I recall, they required you to do certain inputs which I can’t reliably do.

5)Tch! Crap, you’re right. I didn’t have my keyboard in front of me, and so I blanked and thought 2 was back, not 4. DERP!

But yeah, I can’t do it. This game wants me to be able to do these super fast, and yet when it comes down to it, I either do it obscenely slow, or balk and blank out at a certain moment, causing the entire combo to fall apart (literally, my brain suffers from something akin to a quick power outage - it flickers off then on, forcing me to forget what I was doing).

Also, though these are out of place:

-I kept thinking Unlimited Characters were ones using the Stylish Layout, and thus, never touched the Gallery nor the Stylish Layout.

-I’ve gotten up to Challenge 8 on Jin, and Challenge 6 on Ragna. Past there I simply balk.

-Is it possible to obtain the song “Blue Beating” to use for multiplayer, or is it Char Select exclusive? I ask because I’d LOOOOOVE to use it while training.

-Just what all is IN the gallery menu? The manual doesn’t have much detail on it other than “buy music/videos and shit here”. And I kept thinking the PlayStation store had all the unlockable goodies. Chalk another one up for braindeadness! Yay… :frowning:

7

#1: I don’t even really understand the question here, but I think I grasp the root of it; To be entirely clear, any and all upgrades obtained in Abyss mode apply strictly to Abyss mode and not to anywhere else. There are no other “upgrades” purchasable, other than unlimited characters, which are fun for screwing around with, but which aren’t supported for ranked matches in Netplay or at any tournaments. The things you buy in the gallery are:

Art
Movies
Unlimited Characters (For use in the modes that support them)
New announcer voices (the ones that were DLC in BBCS - there are also some entirely new ones which can be bought via PSN)
New character color palettes (the ones that were DLC in BBCS - as far as I know, there are no DLC palettes at the moment.)

Any announcers and palettes you buy can be used in any mode, unlimited characters are only usable in (I believe) training, versus, and online player matches with “Allow Unlimited characters” turned on. Art and movies are there so you can look at them but obviously have no game effects.

#2: There’s no magic solution for doing things here - don’t look at the pad. Just go to training mode and practice. Do the motions SLOWLY at first, and concentrate on the doing them RIGHT. You may be surprised at how much leeway you have to input a lot of things. And remember the comboing rule of thumb:

“If the move didn’t come out, you did it too fast (or screwed up the motion). If the move came out, but didn’t combo, you did it too slow.”

#3: I strongly suggest that you step through the tutorial again, and pay attention. If Rachel bothers you, remember she is talking to Ragna, not you. Also, set the language to Japanese. :stuck_out_tongue: Do not mash on wakeup. It will just result in your opponent hitting you again, because they can start their attack while you are still lying on the ground.

#4: NONE of the character tutorials require you to do ANY particular motions, nor does Rachel talk during any of them. All they do is present you with instructions about how the character works and then give you infinite time to take 50% health off a super easy CPU Bang. It doesn’t sound like you actually did any of the character tutorials if you have these sorts of misunderstandings about their content. Please try them. They can save you a LOT of confusion.

#5: The game does NOT want you to do these things “super fast” - odds are, if you are trying to do them “super fast” then you are causing yourself to make mistakes. Just practice. If you want to learn to do Makoto’s parry, start in training more or even challenge mode and just tap 4,6. Backward, Forward, One, Two, just like that. Watch her do the animation for it. Then do it again. Then jump over your opponent and do it the other way. Keep at it until you can reliably do the motion. Then try the challenge where you need to actually parry something.

If you’re trying to learn a combo, just take it in easy steps - let’s say we’re trying to learn 5B > 5C > 214A > 214D. Start by just doing 5B > 5C. Make sure you can do that. Then do 5B > 5C > 214A. Then once you are comfortable and can bang that out easily, try adding the last hit. And remember the rule of thumb I mentioned earlier - do the combo slowly at first, and only speed up if you discover you’re not connecting. All that said, if you’ve made it through challenge 6 with Ragna and 8 with Jin, you’re clearly doing kindof okay here. In fact, that level of combo competency is all you really need for now, and you should be playing more and learning from there.

As for the music selection, I think it’s character select screen specific - if you can’t select it from the list now, I don’t think you can unlock it for use there. (Unless maybe it’s in the gallery, but I doubt it.)

Seems to me you are stressing way too much about this stuff. A healthy dose of relaxation will improve your results a lot.

8

Replies in bold. Also, I wanted to add that the PS3 is the only console of THIS era that I’ve owned or even TOUCHED, for that matter. Meaning that I have no prior experience with any game, on any console, whatsoever, that exists in this era - be it the 360, the PS3, the Wii, the PSP, the NDS, or even the goddamn iPad or iPhone.

I cannot stress that enough - I am just now learning about the things you’ve known for ages already. So I can’t be expected to know everything right off the bat. That’s where “experience” comes in, and only one kind does well here - first hand experience.

Everyone learns at a different pace, y’know?

9

Apparently now you think I am talking down to you, which is frustrating to me, because I am doing my best to lay everything out in simple, clear layman’s terms; The only thing I’ve asked of you so far is to do and actually read the tutorials. I don’t really think that’s an unreasonable request, do you? It’s becoming increasingly clear to me that you are -not- doing that, because you are missing very obvious things that you could not possibly have failed to notice.

You do have to do it in a “fluid motion” - if you stutter or stop and start or whatever, your combo will probably drop - but you -don’t- have to do it at superhuman speed. And in any event, it’s easier to start out slow and speed up than it is to try to do it at top speed immediately, don’t you think?

I’m not going to sit here and argue English comp with you; Yes, this section could have been done better so that the touchy members of the audience don’t get offended, but I have a fairly high degree of certainty, that at least once during the tutorial, in the “air actions” section, Rachel says something like “Bang here can do two airdashes or air jumps, but you, Ragna, are limited to just one.” so she DOES address him by name. In any event, relax. The game is not insulting you. How silly would it be if it were?

Well, the first hint that you only had to take Bang to 50% was the fact that the very last text box before you start the fight says something like: “Okay, let’s practice! Apply what you’ve learned and reduce Bang’s HP to half.” The next hint would have been the fact that the fight stops once you reduce him to 50%. Lastly, what difference does it make? Would you have treated the tutorial differently if you and your infinite health and infinite time had to reduce him to 0 instead of to 50%?

And again, I am not “overestimating” anything about you except, apparently, by expecting you to have read the text on the screen. =/ This isn’t some fancy fighting game terminology here. This is me quite literally looking up videos of these tutorials on Youtube to make sure I’m not misremembering what they tell you. They really do TELL you everything I am telling you they tell you. And the character tutorials aren’t even in “Rachel voice”, so you can’t use that as an excuse.

Right now, it doesn’t really seem like you want advice. You ask for help, and when I try to offer it, you complain about how hard things are. No one was born good at this stuff. We all had to practice. I’m trying to give you pointers that will help you be less frustrated, and some of those pointers involve easy stuff like “read the tutorial”, but you don’t seem to want to, so what am I to think?

10

Urk. I’m stupid.

The whole reason I keep getting so frustrated is due to this assumption of the FG community saying you need to know everything right off the bat. It happened in KOF98, KOF02, SF2T, and SF3S. I’m not sure if it’s happening here, but from the looks of things, it doesn’t appear to be. You just caught me during one of my frustrated, ultimate retardation moments where I don’t think before I speak.

Again, it’s only been 4 days (as of today); how am I supposed to know everything right off the bat? I apologize if you don’t think that way, but it’s just been the way I’ve been treated in the past, like some bloody Ryu netplay scrub from SSF4 (which I’d be playing Juri if I were even playing that, as I think Ryu’s just a piece of shit).

But I digress. The important thing is that I want to learn; I just happen to be in such a hurry to play on PSN and make more friends. That way at least I have some frequency of opponents on a game I actually like.

It’s the impatience factor driven by loneliness and a desire to go out and prove myself as not inferior to even the noobiest of noob.

And on a further note, I actually DID the tutorial, I just didn’t pay much attention to the big walls of combo text because they were for characters I wasn’t even interested in/felt were too hard to play (the only characters that have my interest are, in no particular order: Makoto, Jin, Hakumen, Valkenhayn, and… pretty much that’s it). I may have read the tutorial but I got bored with all the reading and talking and wanted to snap right into the action. Call it impatience if you will; it just got the better of me.

On a final note: I was talking more or less about the basic “Beginner”, “Intermediate” and “Advanced” Tutorials, specifically the one on countering that has me doing these combos that frustrate me (such as the 214A 5B 5C 214A 214D combo, and another one I forgot about because at that point I was irritated that it took me a good 20 minutes to finish that specific fragment of the Intermediate Section - I don’t call that adequate, because something like that, to you guys, I should be doing easily, yet I’m not).

The strategy tutorials I did but after a few characters I was in a hurry to get into the action. So I skipped the sections for Rachel, Taokaka, Tager… pretty much everyone after Noel.

It’s more or less a problem with me doing a move too late because I had to look at my controller to make sure I was doing the motion correctly. I’m not sure if you want me doing the entire tutorial in a single sitting, because that Counterattack section was a real pain in the ass to do (in the end, I had to look at the controller a bit more than I would have liked to get the combo off).

So what I should be saying is: I’m not doing it at super-human speeds, rather I’m not doing it at a speed that the game finds as “acceptable”. So I’m not going too fast, I’m going too slow.

I’m not going to say anymore just because I’ll overload my brain with stress if I argue any further.

11

Don’t think, Just do.

Take it slow, pick a character you like playing as, and go at your own pace. Everything will come to you sooner than you think. Good luck!

12

Thanks, Huggy. And you too, Airk.

Glad to know at least some people aren’t complete assholes when it comes to FGs. Maybe if more peeps were like you guys, the FG community, especially for BBCSEX, would be bigger.

On an unrelated note, I finally discovered what “Unlimited” characters are: in essence, crap like Arcade Boss Hazama and Secret Arcade Boss Mu-12.

And one last thing: Nu-13, especially in the Calamity Trigger part of Story Mode, creeps me out - in a strangely pleasant way. Maybe it’s her extremely obvious sexual innuendo, which seems to be a bit sadistic. She could pass for someone with a BDSM fetish.

13

Good luck figuring out the story. Even though I think the story is great in it’s complexity it’s told in such a plotholey way that it sometimes drives me nuts. Like remember the first time Tsukuyomi Unit was shown?

14

The BB storyline just makes me “wat” everytime. It’s stupidly long and complex.

15

Story is confusing, but it always amuses me when I’m watching it.

But yes. Don’t rush, do practice. Get better. Repeat.

Also, watch Beginner Mode.

16

I do, actually. I think Rachel and the Taka-Magahara have something to do with “resetting” time. That’s why Gigant: Take-Mikazuchi nukes Kagutsuchi in the opening, yet Rachel knew there was sufficient progress to warrant using Tsukuyomi. Like the satellite beam, my theory is that Tsukuyomi can only be used once in a certain period of time (Take-Mikazuchi can only fire once every four years, implying that Ragna has four years to kill Terumi and the Imperator before Take-Mikazuchi wakes up to fire again).

Hazama had made some sort of “progress” as well, hence why I believe if the Taka Magahara were truly the ones capable of resetting time, they would have done so (they state that he’s somewhat difficult to control). I doubt pissing Hazama off is in their list of “good ideas”, since it’s shown at one point that he CAN erase them. Of course, he still needs an observer, but I think Imperator Saya fills that role quite nicely. So long as the Imperator lives, Hazama is immortal (he needs an Observer to stay in the current world, but with Taka Magahara gone and nobody else willing to vouch for him, he’d be dead by now if Saya didn’t put her foot down on the whole matter).

I learned from my mistakes. And… are you referring to Beginner Mode Arcade Mode? Or the Beginner Tutorial section? I already know half the stuff covered in there - that’s Video Gaming 101! I mean, I’ve played other FGs before, y’know - KoF94~XI, VF2~4EVO… I’ve been gaming since the early days of the SNES (I was playing that when a certain FG and video gaming “failure” was about to debut).

Granted, my list of played games prior to the age of 18 isn’t entirely big, but… it is something (I have the list on Mediafire - PM me if you wanna have a look).

But yeah, I DO know what to do, it’s just… DOING it is the problem here.

17

I rather meant it to those who have played the original Calamity Trigger. The reconstruction in Ex (to me) is much clearer than CT was most of the time, maybe because it only retells the core elements and it’s function to old fans is to clear out possible confusion.

Plus only Takamahagara is in control of the Continuum Shift and Rachel, like her father is one of few characters in the game who are avare of it. Makoto’s story and Ragna’s bad ending clear it out if I remember correctly.

18

Actually, I was talking about Beginner Mode, but I neglected to link. Also, you really didn’t mention you had any experience, since you spent half of this thread complaining about how people (namely me) kept “overestimating” you? To hear you tell it, you’ve never seen a video game before. :stuck_out_tongue: (Seriously, what makes you think that PS3 “experience” is relevant to…anything?)

Practice.