BlazBlue Entropy Effect, a roguelike spinoff of the BlazBlue series, is finally out of early access! Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
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 Buy Blazblue Entropy on Steam
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BlazBlue Entropy Effect Review Overview
BlazBlue Entropy Effect Premise
Choose to save the world in a future where the world has been engulfed in chaos due to a phenomenon known as the Entropy effect. In this day and age, people enter ACE, a cyberspace for people seeking their last chance to resolve the catastrophe they’re plagued with. ACE serves as a mind training program where you learn to withstand and cleanse the effects of Entropy. In this game, you’ll be put into the shoes of an ACER currently enrolled in the program. Certain revelations will be made that will help you understand the secrets behind Entropy and the truth behind the mind training program. That being said, the fate of the world lies in your hands.
BlazBlue Entropy Effect Overall
BlazBlue Entropy Effect succeeded in delivering a really, REALLY fun roguelike experience. The gameplay flows smoothly with a variety of different modifiers and abilities that really enhance each character greatly. It’s probably one of the better roguelikes in terms of gameplay I’ve played so far, and for a cheap price of $21.99, you could sink a lot of time just by playing the different characters available in the game.
BlazBlue Entropy Effect Story
It’s not connected in any way with the main lore or story of the BlazBlue series, so you could totally get into the game for the first time and you would be fine. That being said, I would say the story is definitely not my favorite part of the game. It’s very text heavy and a lot of it will have you walking around the hub area to connect the puzzle from the different NPCs that you talk to.
BlazBlue Entropy Effect Gameplay
While I am familiar with the different characters in the fighting game, they made adjustments to make the characters flow better in an action roguelike. Each character plays differently and the progression for your characters changes the way you play with the ability upgrades and modifiers that you get throughout your runs. Subsequent runs also become a fun experience because you can actually inherit certain skills from past runs in the game. It’s a very, VERY enjoyable game, one that I think could rival some of the more popular roguelikes out there with its satisfying and quick gameplay loop.
BlazBlue Entropy Effect Visuals
In terms of visuals, they were able to port the existing BlazBlue sprites onto the game with pretty good accuracy as well. My only gripe with the visuals is that it goes for a cyberpunk aesthetic with the different NPCs as well as your avatar, and the BlazBlue characters feel out of place at times.
BlazBlue Entropy Effect Audio
In terms of audio design and music, it’s pretty serviceable. Certain NPCs are fully voiced as well as the different playable characters during your runs. Nothing too noteworthy except for the effort of having voiced cutscenes and characters in the game. I do wish they could’ve integrated the audio a bit more in gameplay for tells, but you can’t have everything.
BlazBlue Entropy Effect Value for Money
The game is surprisingly pretty cheap at $21.99 and offers a ton of replayability just by playing the different characters alone. It has an enjoyable gameplay loop, amazing combat mechanics, and a good variety of characters to keep you busy for hours on end. It’s well worth the price and damn if i say that it’s one of the roguelikes that’ll definitely make you like the genre even more.
BlazBlue Entropy Effect Review: Don't Sleep On This Roguelike
BlazBlue Entropy Effect Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
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 Surprising Amount of Characters Unique Progression and Subsequent Run Mechanics Addictive Combat |
Story Was a Missed Opportunity May Be Difficult to Discern Certain Attacks |
BlazBlue getting a roguelike was not exactly something I expected, but was excited for when I first heard of it. The series has a great variety of characters as well as some of my favorite character designs in fighting games (AKA Hakumen). After sinking some time into it, I would say that I am definitely surprised by how well it plays and how well it loops its own gameplay.
From a purely gameplay perspective, I would say that this may be one of the better roguelikes that I’ve played. I got hooked for hours just doing run after run and when I finally learned how to mix and match Evotypes, I fell deeper into the rabbit hole.
To explain this shortly, every run that you do whether it's successful or not, will save your character as a Legacy Evotype. After a run and depending on your rating, you’ll be able to pass certain modifiers to another character as well as make use of a specific ability that character has. This makes the early game way easier than other roguelikes, because you can target certain skills and have a near complete build at the start.
To expound more on Legacy Evotypes, there’s a certain game mode that’s sort of like a boss rush mode where you can only use Legacy Evotypes once. This kind of design makes you want to make every run count, as each run can be used again in the form of this game mode. If however, you don’t like a certain legacy evotype, you can simply just discard them.
All in all, it’s a definite surprise that I was able to experience this enjoyment from a roguelike I didn’t expect much from. I’ll definitely keep tabs on this game and will play it from time to time when the roguelike itch hits.
Pros of BlazBlue Entropy Effect
| Things BlazBlue Entropy Effect Got Right |
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Surprising Amount of Characters Unique Progression and Subsequent Run Mechanics Addictive Combat |
Surprising Amount of Characters
Roguelikes don’t necessarily have an expected number of characters to choose from, but it is surprising that there’s 10 different characters to choose from. Each character plays differently from the other, and learning each character will reward you by being able to use the game’s unique progression mechanics when doing subsequent runs. Every character has their own strengths and weaknesses that you should learn to play around and eventually optimize to clear a run in your playthrough.
Unique Gameplay Loop
The game has a very unique way of progressing as well as having subsequent runs. While certain upgrades are carried over in the form of "Mind Crystals," your older runs are saved through its "Legacy Evotypes" where you can pass different modifiers that you were able to get in past runs. You can absolutely make your early runs easier with this system, and could also forgo this system so that you can mold a better variety of modifiers to pass for other characters. It’s a creative system of rewarding players for doing runs with different characters.
Addictive Combat
The combat in this game is very addictive. Everything feels proper and responsive, as well as sucessfully decimating a boss by knowing its patterns and telegraphs is a satisfying feeling that I look for in fast-paced roguelikes.
Cons of BlazBlue Entropy Effect
| Things That BlazBlue Entropy Effect Can Improve |
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Story Was a Missed Opportunity May Be Difficult to Discern Certain Attacks |
Story Was a Missed Opportunity
BlazBlue’s story is not exactly the best and most compelling, but it is an interesting one. It was a bummer for me that the game’s title of BlazBlue only really used the characters for the gameplay and didn’t integrate them to the story. Personally, I feel like it could’ve been a way to be able to tell the story of BlazBlue from a different perspective and not just in the fighting games.
May Be Difficult to Discern Certain Attacks
While this could be attributed to a skill issue on my part, it is fairly inconsistent that not every enemy has the same animation or tell for attacks. Enemies do the universal tell of glowing red before attacking, yet some attacks come out way faster after their supposed tells. This could also be attributed to the Slow debuff really messing up the timing for certain attacks, and truthfully maybe I should pay more attention to enemies’ animations instead of swinging blindly.
Is BlazBlue Entropy Effect Worth It?
For the Low Price of $21.99, Absolutely.
The game is fairly cheap compared to the recent gigantic releases of the past week. For a roguelike, it’s a very good deal to get this game for this low price. Gameplay-wise, I think it’s one of the better roguelikes with the smooth animations, quick pace, and amazing progression. It’s a very fun game to sink hours in, and one that I might keep playing just to have some good fun with a roguelike.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||
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 Steam |
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| $21.99 | |||||
