{"id":18331,"date":"2018-10-17T00:01:32","date_gmt":"2018-10-17T00:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=18331"},"modified":"2018-10-07T13:12:40","modified_gmt":"2018-10-07T13:12:40","slug":"make-friends-with-the-blade-strangers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/17\/make-friends-with-the-blade-strangers\/","title":{"rendered":"Make Friends With the Blade Strangers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>There\u2019s a new fighting game starring all sorts of video game characters, and no it\u2019s not Smash Bros.\u00a0 If you were upset that Shovel Knight is just an assist trophy in the new Smash, well this may be the game for you.\u00a0 Blade Strangers is a 2-D one-on-one fighter featuring characters from games like Shovel Knight, Code of Princess, Cave Story, The Binding of Isaac, and Umihara Kawase.\u00a0 Since the characters are interesting enough, here\u2019s a blog about them!<\/p>\n

Blade Strangers is your typical fighting game with typical modes like Story, Challenge, Arcade, Training, and you can go online as well.\u00a0 But while it may have some interesting characters, the fighting is a little slow and clunky.\u00a0 BlazBlue and Guilty Gear this isn\u2019t.\u00a0 One good thing is it does have a full color instruction booklet and mine came with a keychain of the main Code of Princess character in chibi form.\u00a0 I like it when companies put instruction booklets in their games.\u00a0 One thing I am excited about is that later this year, the same company is making a puzzle game called Crystal Crisis that features a lot of the same characters, and even adds a few like FREAKING ASTRO BOY!\u00a0 I can\u2019t wait for that one as I like puzzle games way more than fighters.\u00a0 Anyway, here are all the fighters in Blade Strangers!<\/p>\n

Solange (Code of Princess)<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first four characters are from Code of Princess.\u00a0 It\u2019s a 2-D brawler that\u2019s similar to Guardian Heroes.\u00a0 It was first on the 3DS, but now it\u2019s also on the Switch.\u00a0 I played it on the 3DS, and while I have it on the Switch as well, I haven\u2019t had a chance to touch it yet.\u00a0 Anyway, the first character is Solange, and she\u2019s the main character of the game.\u00a0 She fights with a sword and wears VERY little clothing.\u00a0 Even the other characters comment on that in this game!\u00a0 Obviously this game is rated T for Teen.\u00a0 You may be wondering why all these characters are fighting each other.\u00a0 The game story explains that with these robots that look like walking PS2s, but that\u2019s all I could get out of the story.\u00a0 It\u2019s not very important, at least to me it wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Ali<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t really remember the other three Code of Princess characters as much.\u00a0 Ali is kind of an anime Aladdin.\u00a0 He\u2019s a kind-hearted thief who fights with a sword.\u00a0 And he\u2019s friendly to all the other fighters, even after he beats them.<\/p>\n

Liongate<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think he\u2019s an antagonist in the Code of Princess game.\u00a0 He wears a mask that looks like an air conditioning vent, and he also fights with a sword.\u00a0 I may be spoiling the story of Code of Princess here, but in this fighting game, he says he\u2019s Solange\u2019s brother.<\/p>\n

Master T<\/strong><\/p>\n

This last Code of Princess character doesn\u2019t fight with a sword, but his fists instead.\u00a0 He\u2019s a muscle-bound martial arts master who wears a weird mask over his head, spiky armor, and a breastplate with a lion on it.\u00a0 Typical big slow strong character.\u00a0 He also likes soft fluffy animals and gets excited about them.\u00a0 He even mentions the Miminga from Cave Story.\u00a0 And on that note\u2026<\/p>\n

Quote (Cave Story)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I remember when Cave Story first came out.\u00a0 It got really popular, but mostly by word of mouth!\u00a0 It was also kind of one of the first modern \u2018indie games,\u2019 too.\u00a0 It\u2019s an 8-bit styled Metroid-like exploration 2-D platformer.\u00a0 It\u2019s really hard, though, and I could never beat it.\u00a0 Quote is the main character of the game, although when I first played it I didn\u2019t know that was his name.\u00a0 He\u2019s like a humanoid robot or something.\u00a0 Kind of reminds me of Ash from Pok\u00e9mon.\u00a0 Anyway, in the fighting game he\u2019s not very interesting.\u00a0 He just fights with a gun, kind of like how he does in his game.\u00a0 Since he doesn\u2019t talk, all his win quotes are just \u201c\u2026\u201d but in the game he does shout out his moves (\u201cshoot-o\u201d) which isn\u2019t very consistent.<\/p>\n

Curly<\/strong><\/p>\n

The other Cave Story character is this girl humanoid robot.\u00a0 Like Quote, she also fights with a gun.\u00a0 In the fighting game, she\u2019s always talking about protecting the Miminga, just like in her game.\u00a0 The Miminga are a race of rabbit creatures that live underground.\u00a0 But when they eat a certain red plant, they turn into monsters and are usually bosses you have to fight in Cave Story!<\/p>\n

Helen (New character)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Out of a cast of characters from other video games, I\u2019m not sure why the developers of Blade Strangers felt they needed to bother with making their own character.\u00a0 Oh well, at least she\u2019s cute.\u00a0 She\u2019s basically just a red-headed Sophitia or Cassandra from Soul Calibur, as she uses a sword and shield to fight.\u00a0 And that\u2019s really all there is to this fighter.<\/p>\n

Lina (Boss character)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once you beat the boss, you can play as her.\u00a0 She reminds me of the android girl characters from BlazBlue, as she has a computer thing named Devian flying over her head and has rotating cyber spike things around her.\u00a0 He story is a bit weird.\u00a0 She\u2019s helping Devian devour the code from all the other Blade Stranger fighters.\u00a0 And when she does that, the world ends and the screen goes into a \u201cBlue Screen of Death\u201d and then a startup screen.\u00a0 Pretty strange.<\/p>\n

Kawase (Umihara Kawase)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Umihara Kawase is a very interesting series of games.\u00a0 They started way back on the SNES and star a cute girl character who uses a fishing pole to swing around like Bionic Commando.\u00a0 Enemies are walking sea creatures and the cute girl can use her fishing rod to reel them into her backpack as well.\u00a0 The games are VERY hard, though.\u00a0 Natsume even brought one of the games to the US under the title Yumi\u2019s Odd Odyssey, and I reviewed it a few years ago!<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0 In the fighting game, she uses her fishing pole and backpack as weapons as she fights.\u00a0 Her finishing move is uncharacteristically violent, though.\u00a0 She thrusts her fish gutting knife at the other player, and if it lands a hit, she knocks them down and starts stabbing them like she\u2019s gutting a fish!\u00a0 Now granted, there is no blood and the other character just lies down, so it\u2019s not as bad as I\u2019m making it out to be.\u00a0 But Kawase\/Yumi\u2019s stabbing motions just don\u2019t match her cute character!\u00a0 Don\u2019t mess with her!<\/p>\n

Noko<\/strong><\/p>\n

The next two characters are also from the Umihara Kawase series of games.\u00a0 I think I KIND of remember Noko from the game I reviewed.\u00a0 She could stop time for some reason.\u00a0 In the fighter she is a schoolgirl uniform wearing Time Cop from the future and also Kawase\u2019s descendant.\u00a0 She fights with a giant tonfa thing that turns into a futuristic gun as her special move.<\/p>\n

Emiko<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t remember this Umihara Kawase character at all!\u00a0 But then, there are other Japan-only games in the series.\u00a0 Anyway, she\u2019s a little girl character who rides on the back of a GIANT cat named Shakemaru, who does all the fighting for her.\u00a0 Kind of reminds me of Totoro or that Waku Waku 7 character who also is a Totoro parody.\u00a0 I love their special move, though.\u00a0 The cat charges into the other fighter, sending them flying into the air.\u00a0 Then Emiko hops off the cat and uses a baseball bat to send them even higher.\u00a0 Then the cat jumps onto the fighter and does a Zangief style spinning piledriver attack to the floor!<\/p>\n

Isaac (The Binding of Isaac)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Out of all the characters in this roster, The Binding of Isaac is the only game I\u2019ve never played.\u00a0 My brother Jeff said I probably wouldn\u2019t like it, though, and I trust when he says stuff like that, so I probably won\u2019t play it.\u00a0 Isaac sure is a weird character, though.\u00a0 He\u2019s a little naked baby doll looking thing and he\u2019s always crying, as he has those anime river tears always coming out of his eyes.\u00a0 In fact, his win quotes are just him saying \u201cWaaaahhhh!\u201d\u00a0 He\u2019s way shorter than the other fighters, making him look like one of the joke characters Roll or the Servebot from Marvel vs. Capcom 2.\u00a0 When you first start the fight, he\u2019s laying on the ground in a fetal position, then you hear a disembodied voice yell ISAAC! and the fight starts.\u00a0 He attacks with his head as well as weapons like a knife, pickaxe, and bombs.\u00a0 He turns into a devil or an angel and shoots a beam at opponents as his special attack.\u00a0 So yeah, kinda weird.<\/p>\n

Shovel Knight<\/strong><\/p>\n

Out of all the indie games out there, Shovel Knight is probably one of the best ones, aside from Shantae if that counts (wish she was in this game).\u00a0 He mostly just swings his shovel around to attack, but his special move has him blowing a big horn, which was one of the special items from the original game.\u00a0 Each character has their own stage, and Shovel Knight\u2019s is the Lich Yard, but they just play a short version of the Shovel Knight title screen song as the stage theme.\u00a0 I wish they\u2019d just make a new Shovel Knight game. \u00a0I want a 16-bit styled Super Shovel Knight!<\/p>\n

Gunvolt (Azure Striker Gunvolt)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kenji Inafune is known as the \u2018father of Mega Man\u2019 but I disagree with that statement as there were many other members of the team who worked on those games that deserve just as much credit as he does.\u00a0 Now if you want to call Inafune the father of Zero, yeah, I\u2019ll go with that.\u00a0 Anyway, after Inafune left Capcom, one of the games he made was Azure Striker Gunvolt, which also got a sequel and a couple of retro 8-bit spinoffs.\u00a0 Those games play a lot like Mega Man X, except your character shoots tags that don\u2019t do a whole lot of damage, but then he can shoot electricity at tagged enemies to defeat them.\u00a0 They\u2019re fun games, but way too hard and devoid of any of the charm that Mega Man games had.\u00a0 Plus they\u2019re too anime-ish for my tastes.\u00a0 In the fighting game, Gunvolt uses electrical attacks as you can guess.\u00a0 His special attack is taken directly from the main games, and they did a good job with this character in the fighter.\u00a0 A lot better than some others anyway (like Shovel Knight).\u00a0 In the fighting game story mode, Gunvolt talks a lot with his spirit partner, a ghost girl named Joule who gets quite jealous.<\/p>\n

And those are all the fighters!\u00a0 Let me know what you think in the comments section.\u00a0 Also let me know if you think I should go over the fighters in SNK Heroines, which I can do maybe later if enough interest is shown.\u00a0 See ya!\u00a0 –Cary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a new fighting game starring all sorts of video game characters, and no it\u2019s not Smash Bros.\u00a0 If you were upset that Shovel Knight is just an assist trophy in the new Smash, well this may be the game for you.\u00a0 Blade Strangers is a 2-D one-on-one fighter featuring characters from games like Shovel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18331"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18333,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18331\/revisions\/18333"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}