Siliconera met up with BlazBlue mastermind Toshimichi Mori to talk about BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasm Extend. This version will bring the series to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One with extra content not in the original release. Mori-san spoke about the new scenarios in BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasm Extend, adding Celica A. Mercury as a playable character, and about BlazBlue: Battle Cards.
BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasm Extend has new storylines for Kokonoe, Kagura, and Bullet. What will learn about in these tales?
Toshimichi Mori, Producer: Kagura’s scenario will mainly be about the Ikaruga Civil War from Kagura’s perspective. Since this is the Ikaruga Civil War, Jin will be involved. It won’t be the whole picture, but you will see how Sector Seven people are involved. Because Kagura’s storyline has a lot of spoilers, I hope players will dive into this story for themselves.
Kagura and Bullet center around the Ikagura Civil War. Bullet is most tied with Tager so their relationship is portrayed the most in her scenario. This story with touch upon Tager’s past and I hope that fans of Tager will enjoy seeing how his past unravels.
More than being about Kokonoe, her story centers around Arakune. That’s the hidden true focus. The story goes back when both of them were human and it touches on how their relationship is.
It’s interesting that BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Extend is showing Arakune’s origin story. When the Extend games come out it feels like you’re adding more back mythology. Did you feel that you missed something in the core story?
There are some characters where there isn’t much said about them. I don’t need to tell much about them, but with the Extend games I want to take the opportunity to showcase everyone’s background. A lot of people don’t know what happened to Arakune, so I really wanted to portray them how he came to be.
How did you create the gag storylines for the game? Do you prioritize fanservice?
The main game has a serious tone. So, I create the gag scenarios from the perspective of what fans would like to see and to have the main characters doing something they wouldn’t usually do. I want to showcase they have a different side to them.
When it comes to the fighting game mechanics what do you want to tweak from BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasm?
I wanted to focus more on competitive players and their scene. I know the BlazBlue games have a lot of systems and I would like to polish those. Starting with the Overdrive system.
Why did you add Celica as a playable character?
This was kind of covered in the novels, but Celica has an image of a girl being protected. The BlazBlue series has shown Nirvana now with Carl with Nirvana, so we added Minerva with Celica as a contrast. I designed Celica so the two characters work together as one opposed to Carl and Relius who use their puppets as a tool to fight. Celica and Minerva are different in that sense.
How did you develop Kokonoe as a playable character?
I had a lot of discussions with the staff about what her true style is. We argued a lot and after a lot of meetings Kokonoe ended up the way she did. She ended up being a challenge to do.
I was really strict about what you could do and what you couldn’t do. For example, she was not allowed to use magic because she is the type of character who wouldn’t believe in it. That led to her moves being more science related, but the Astral Heat ended up being a little bit different.
BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Extends’ player created lobbies are neat. Can you tell us how you came up with this idea?
Director [Ryohei] Endo-san made a strong push to put this feature in. He really likes having a system when you invite people into a space where you can see a person’s personality reflected. This stemmed from his passion and I liked the idea.
The first US spinoff, BlazBlue: Battle Cards, is coming out this year. How did this project get started and what do you feel about their interpretation of the BlazBlue world?
Yeah, good question, how did this come about? It was sparked from Aksys. I really enjoyed playing the game and it’s two player mode. I hope there is a single player mode for it. [Aksys says this is something they will talk about later.]
It was a created with the mindset of someone appreciating a fighting game and they have that in mind too. I would like to keep working with the developers on how to improve on parts of where players can play together or have a feature where you can play parts of it solo. It is a really fun game and maybe we can do a Japanese release someday.
