BlazBlue Director Details Chrono Phantasma’s Two New Characters

The topic of a recent Arc System Works interview with Famitsu was the two new characters in BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma, Kagura Mutsuki and Yuki Terumi. BlazBlue director Toshimichi Mori talked about their fighting styles and what sets them apart from the rest of the characters.

Kagura Mutsuki will be a new character making his first appearance on the console version of BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma. Mutsuki was actually mentioned by name in the arcade version of the game. According to Mori, Kagura is a character with a positive personality, which he stated is lacking in the BlazBlue series.

Kagura will have an interesting role and story behind his character, as Mori believes that he is a straight-forward and cool character, and expects him to be well received by fans.

As far as fighting style goes, he will be the first BlazBlue character with all of his special attacks being performed by holding commands. They will all consist of projectiles and anti-air attacks and he will use his giant sword for regular attacks. Not only does it make Kagura a rather beginner-friendly character, but also ideal to use against speedy or aerial-focused opponents with his projectiles and long reach.

Kagura’s Overdrive skills will be all about stances. It will vary according to his positions such as standing, mid-air or crouching, and can perform various attacks during activation. However, due to Kagura being a character that is heavy on holding-type moves, his weakness will be a lack of mobility compared to speedy characters.

Meanwhile, Yuki Terumi is going to have a key role in BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma’s story, which Mori didn’t want to touch on, as he believes it would spoil the story for fans. As we all know, Terumi is a separate persona of Hazama, and will have his own move set. They both look alike, but their play style will be different.

The concept behind Terumi is to have him be a flashy character who can constantly use Distortion Drives. Due to Distortion Drives using up the Heat Gauge, Terumi’s style will allow him to accumulate it easily. Rapid Cancel and Crush Trigger will also use up Heat Gauge, so knowing how to use it will be crucial in playing Terumi.

According to Mori, Terumi won’t have as many Dragon Serpent attacks, as it would make him feel too similar to Hazama. As a result, the developers have decided to save these only for his special attacks. His attacks will be more close-ranged, but he’ll make up for it in his speed, which is said to be higher than Hazama’s.

In addition to the two new characters, BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma will focus a lot on its visual novel-like story, that boasts over 30 hours of game play.

BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma is slated to be released on October 24th for PlayStation 3.