Inspiration Day: Blazblue

Hello all, its Ohms again!

I’ve always been interested in fighting games, ever since I was a little kid. However, not having many people to play with regularly, and not being good at the precise controls, I generally avoided the genre, watching it from afar and occasionally trying it out to see how I held up. I was never really good, but I also never really found a fighting game that I really liked.

Blazblue became that fighting game.

As fighting games go, Blazblue appealed to me in a number of ways and some of these elements became subtle inspiration for my own work.

Inspiration 1 - Sigils

Limit Break Time!

In Blazblue, as in most fighting games, all of the characters are unique in archetype and general playstyle. Blazblue takes it a step further through the incorporation of Sigils as characters fight.

Sigils in this game are representations of each character and the totality of their power, manifesting as they release their techniques and use their limit-break abilities, as shown above. These ornate images, while not the inspiration for the Celestial Tapestry itself, brought forth the idea of a visualizaion of a character’s power as a single image. This in turn lead to the further understanding and development of the Celestial Tapestry as it currently exists.

Some examples I drew for previous ideas

Mah main man Hibiki showing his own Sigil in action

Inspiration 2 - Distinct and Unique Gameplay

Now I know what you’re thinking. “Ohms, all good fighting games have distinct and unique fighters”. While this is true, mechanically, I would have to say the way that Blazblue distinguishes the fighters in their combat appealed to me the most.

A single button (designated the D button in-game) represents the most unique elements of the character’s gameplay. Pressing it does a variety of things depending on the character, from summoning a shadow-self, to slashing through the opponent, to summoning a staff weapon.

Speaking of Staves, here is Litchi wielding one like a boss

This single button approach to providing a bridge into a series of very unique mechanics for each character intrigued me. I was never much one for the typical RPG classes, so it occurred to me: What would happen if classes were less important, and what they did became more so?

This thought process, this mindset, is a key influence in the development of my work, work which will become much more apparent in the days ahead!

If you like what has been portrayed so far, please subscribe to my website and/or my social media, as i will be providing updates twice a week on my progress and my influences.

May the Branches light your path!

- Ωs Emmanuel