BlazBlue/Awesome

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


For Real Life and Tournament Play moments, check Player Accomplishments.


Astral Heats

Astral Heats are ultra-powerful attacks available to the cast that allow them to instantly end a fight. The restrictions are steep - 100.00 Heat, a Burst Node, the target must be in the red (<35% stamina), and only on your match round - but the sheer graphical display makes connecting them, especially the following, worthwhile. Note that any attack with a damage value listed is the base damage - the target survives all but the last blow with 1 HP, which is noted on the finishing strike.

  • Black Onslaught: Unleashing the fullest might of his Azure Grimoire, Ragna unfolds his Blood-Scythe and begins hacking away at the target repeatedly, all the while growing darker in appearance until he assumes the form of a black monster. Fully unleashed, Blood-Scythe draws in the target's soul as fuel to utterly erase their existence in one last swing. Visually astounding to behold, the fact it inflicts 15K+ damage is no laughing matter, either.
  • Nine Gates of Heaven: Launching the enemy skyward, Litchi vaults after them, slams them with her feet repeatedly, and delivers one last devastating kick to blow them back to the ground. This doesn't appear too impressive... until you realize it inflicts a whopping 20K+ damage, easily more than any other Astral Heat in the game! Not bad for a human, eh?
  • The Ultimate Bang: Bang opens in a not-so-impressive manner by jabbing the enemy with his ginormous nail. He then proceeds to plow through several oriental-style doors, screaming at the top of his lungs, and slamming a fist, burning out of his sheer Hot-Blooded nature, head-on into the misfortunate victim - said flames burn so hot that even Bang's clothes are incinerated! Then again, what did you expect from the mortal incarnation of ham?
  • Kokujin Ogi: Akumetsu: As befitting his reprisal-heavy combat style, Hakumen raises Okami before him with a seal between him and his opponent. Should anything strike the seal, time freezes as Hakumen unleashes the fullest of his available power, rendering slash upon slash on the foe's prone body, with blood spraying everywhere until the screen is doused with it. Overwhelmed by pain and excessive bleeding, the opponent promptly collapses as Hakumen turns away from the audience and sheathes his sword.
  • Requiem Aeternam: Unleashing Izayoi's power, Tsubaki turns into an angel and charges the foe, immobilizing them in a magic circle. The scene shifts to the goddess statue in Library headquarters, which moves to form a magic spearhead in tandem with Tsubaki's Badass Creed. As if on cue, both move in sync, the spear jabbing into the victim's prone body and felling them instantly. This almost makes Izayoi worthwhile...

White feathers for innocence... black feathers for darkest sin...! We are the messengers and hammers of God, come forth to deliver righteous justice! Let sinners be punished...! Let justice be done!!

  • Planet Crusher: It is part and parcel that Makoto's physical strength is phenomenal, but this move shows what happens if and when she cuts loose. Rushing through the onslaught, she plows a fist into the target's stomach to disorient them before letting loose with a flurry that would make Kenshiro and his ilk proud, only to finish the matter with a monster uppercut that casts the victim into orbit. That's not where it stops - said final punch is powerful enough to leave a massive fist imprint on the moon before it subsequently shatters! Between this and Nine Gates of Heaven, maybe there's room for two boobie ladies after all...
  • Blut Vollmund: Harkening back to his vigilante days, Valkenhayn flash kicks the opponent airborne. After a brief pause, he fully transforms into the bipedal werewolf that our lore has accustomed us with, leaps after the prone victim, strikes from multiple directions only to, like Hakumen, saturate the screen in blood. How his outfit stays clean through all that will always remain a mystery...
  • Puppeteer's Altar: As if by command, Ignis lunges outward and catches the opponent in a Face Palm of Doom. The scene then cuts to the nightmare house they call Relius' lab, where the opponent is bound in a very secure fashion, only for the man himself to rise, approach, and announce his intent before the doors slam shut. Each character is bound in a different fashion designed around their equipment and their powers - clear-cut cred for Relius (due to him being Crazy Prepared in this fashion) and for the art team (for going out of their way to design all of these in the first place).
  • Hungry Darkness of 1000 Souls: A truly badass and sinister finishing move for the world's greatest troll. Hazama summons a bunch of chains from the ground which snares the opponent, after which he summons a mass of snake which eventually form one gigantic snake. The gigantic snake would devour the opponent.

Story and Arcade incidents

The Villains

If a story can be defined by its villains, then BlazBlue is a hell of a read. Between Yuuki Terumi and Relius Clover, there is enough madness and malice to keep the series going for a long time - and with both of them having solid fanbases, the moments where they show just how evil they really are will just keep piling up.

Yuuki Terumi, aka Hazama - "The Smooth Criminal"

  • In the True Ending of Continuum Shift, Terumi gets the absolute hell beaten out of him by Ragna the Bloodedge, having restored the functionality of his Azure Grimoire courtesy of Lambda's Idea Engine. You'd think this is the moment a villain crumbles, but no - he proceeds to infiltrate Takamagahara via a miniscule blind spot during Ragna's encounter with Mu-12, boast outright that he calculated every single possibility of the Continuum Shift, and infect them with a magical virus that cripples their ability to influence the timeline permanently. To get his ass handed to him and exploit the defeat to succeed in his plans anyway proves his ability as a Magnificent Bastard.
  • Hazama vs Ragna in Arcade mode (both of theirs) is suitably epic. Ragna activates his Azure Grimoire, thinking he can easily trash Terumi, but Terumi just laughs in his face, shuts down Ragna's Grimoire (Ragna's Arcade only) and tells him he invented the stupid thing - and his version is better. Hazama scores one in general when he unleashes the Azure Grimoire, as he manages to catch a sizable portion of the cast - from Carl and Taokaka to Noel and Tsubaki to even Tager and Kokonoe (via Lambda) - by total surprise in the process! With one exception, the only characters in control of themselves are those who lived before the Dark War.

Relius Clover - "The Mad Puppeteer"

  • In the True Ending of Continuum Shift, after getting the shit torn out of him, Terumi is left to bleed by Ragna the Bloodedge out of Cruel Mercy. However, he managed to pull his plan off anyway, and the manner is revealed in Relius' Arcade mode ending - Relius, per his coherence with Terumi, sics Ignis on him, tearing him to shreds. Shows that these two are a different breed of villain when, despite being complete monsters (or, perhaps because they are), they cooperate so willingly and efficiently!
  • Makoto's bad ending, and Relius' hand in it, is said by many to be either an utter High Octane Nightmare Fuel or Tear Jerker, and they'd be right. However, one thing that tends to be glossed over is that it serves as Relius' Crowning Moment of Awesome, a testament for his villain caliber. Why? Makoto serves as a massive Spanner in the Works for Hazama's plans. She thwarts him several times during her Story Mode, something that no other character has really done - the significance of this is listed in Makoto's section. Relius, understandably, will stand for none of it. He successfully leads her into a trap using Jin as the bait, and proceeds to... ahem, put the spanner back in the toolbox, shall we say. Also, if what he says is any indication, he smelt Makoto's soul into a Nox without using a cauldron. Succeeding where goddamn Hazama of all people failed, succeeding spectacularly at that, and leaving little doubt he could repeat it in a canon path? Maybe Hazama isn't the one to fear after all.
  • On that note, while he loses his battle against Valkenhayn in Hunting Dog, he does manage to collect enough combat data to make the ordeal worthwhile. Whereas gambits of any stripe and/or level of complexity require defeats to be planned for, battle data with which to study the opponent is always welcome, and it shows that Relius is flexible enough that a non-critical defeat can be turned into a possibility of victory at a later date.


The Six Heroes

The Six Heroes are a gathering of the most Badass individuals who ever lived in this world and Yuuki Terumi. Amongst the playable cast are two of them - Hakumen and Valkenhayn R. Hellsing - and while some of the cast may aspire to be more awesome than the two of them were (and let's be honest, taking down the Black Beast is a crowning moment in any light), Valkenhayn has much to show the younger generation yet, and Hakumen is not giving up his claim to badassery without a fight.

While Platinum the Trinity is another Six Heroes member, Trinity Glassfield has too little influence in the world to make a lasting mark on her own, but she makes every second count regardless. Luna and Sena, however, have much work to do to aspire to their counterpart's greatness.

Hakumen - "The end has come!!"

  • Hakumen's Continuum Shift story has him slice time itself so he can view another timeline where he was defeated by Arakune.
    • His "alternate truth" path in Calamity Trigger. "I am the white void. I am the cold steel. I am the just sword. With blade in hand shall I reap the sins of this world, and cleanse it in the fires of destruction. My past incarnation is no exception! I am Hakumen. The end has come." He then proceeds to beat Unlimited Jin silly.
  • There are protagonists who are not horrified or otherwise startled when Hazama unleashes his Azure Grimoire in Arcade Mode. Unsurprisingly, Hakumen is one of them, and while he's not completely suppressed, he makes it clear it will take more than the Azure Grimoire to cause him to lose his cool.

Hazama: "Blah Blah Blah BlazBlue, activate!"
Hakumen: "It was you, then! You created the Azure Grimoire!"
Hazama: "What of it, H-man? You're going to die!"

Valkenhayn R. Hellsing - "The Silver Wolf"

  • The final act of Hunting Dog shows that Valkenhayn's fangs have not rotted out after ninety years. Valkenhayn's third match is against Hakumen, and after the two of them finish, Hazama shows up and summons Phantom, who dumps "Fido" into Izayoi's domain - an extracontinuual pocket into which observation is impossible. When Valkenhayn realizes where he is, he notes that Relius is experimenting on Ragna the Bloodedge, proceeds to intervene and send the Grim Reaper on his way to Rachel, facing the Mad Puppeteer's wrath alone in his place. That's part of what makes it awesome - the other part is that Valkenhayn actually wins against who is otherwise the Game Over Man, and who would have experimented thoroughly on Platinum were it not for the combined efforts of Bang and Hakumen. It would have been more awesome if Valkenhayn defeated Relius thoroughly enough to derail the gambit, but alas.


Brothers in Arms

Ragna the Bloodedge and Jin Kisaragi are deep in their own Sibling Rivalry, orchestrated by outside events and factors to pit them against each other and keep them from uniting. What they do have in common, however, is that they are two of the most Badass individuals to come from the younger generation, and two of the most powerful - between Ragna's Azure and Jin's Order, there is enough rolling around that Terumi and Relius are monitoring them very closely, either to factor in how to manipulate them for their own ends or to annihilate them before they can pose a greater threat or, worse, wholly unite under a common banner.

Ragna the Bloodedge - "The Grim Reaper"

  • For all the treatment Ragna gets throughout the story, he shows just how capable he is at kicking ass and taking names throughout the True Ending. Heartwarming also ensues.
    • Picking up from where Ragna's ending left off, Ragna has just found out that Terumi created the BlazBlue, and not only wields a stronger one, but has the ability to keep Ragna's on lockdown (in this case, denying his Drive attacks (the D button)), and kicks Ragna's ass. Ragna's down for the count, and Terumi is about to finish him off when Lambda comes out of nowhere and takes the hit instead. After an exchange between Ragna and a dying Nu/Lambda (in which players get to hear, for the first time, Nu speak to Ragna in a way that wasn't crazy or Yandere), Ragna gets uber-pissed, absorbs Lambda's Idea Drive, uses it to restore his own BlazBlue and render it immune to Terumi's control, then goes Unlimited. What follows is one of the most satisfying fights in the game, finally getting to beat down a guy that deserved more than a simple beatdown, to a slightly-revamped version of Iconoclast. The only way that a three-minute period like that (maybe longer, depending on loading times) could be more awesome would be if it actually was the last fight of the True Ending. Or if you actually got to kill him. Or if it wasn't integral to his plan in any way.
    • And then he shines yet again in the build-up in the True ending to his fight with Mu/Tempered!Noel Vermillion, which actually is the True Final Boss of the story. Noel is as Brainwashed and Crazy as physically possible and talking in Robo Speak to boot, not to mention being controlled by his worst enemy to kill everything in her path. Both Hakumen and Jin are beaten half to death, and Rachel's told him she can't be saved. So what does Ragna do against the god-killing sword? Delivers the most blunt, effective, heartwarming and badass speech possible.

Ragna: Noel! You idiot!
Awesome Music starts playing

Mu: ...!

Ragna: What the hell were you thinking, going down to that level?! Kusanagi? The god-killing sword? Screw all of that! You're Noel Vermillion, aren't you?!

Mu: Unable to identify target's emotional wavelengths. Pattern unknown... unknown.

Ragna: You said you wanted to talk to me, remember?

Flashback!Noel: No, it's nothing. I just... thought we could talk for a while.

Mu: ...

Ragna: I'm sorry about before, OK? So now, let's talk.

Mu: Indefinable energy source detected within target.

Ragna: But before we do... I'm gonna have to do something about that armor! Bring it on, you idiot!

  • Even his backstory is a Crowning Moment of Awesome. Granted, we can't really glorify him slaughtering Punch Clock Villains, but c'mon, it's heavily implied that he's cleared out whole bases full of well-armed and well-trained NOL personnel, all by himself. An organisation that has practically taken over the world is utterly terrified of him. There is a reason he's called "The Grim Reaper".
  • Phase 0 : Ragna is transported back in time and has to deal with... the Black Beast. On top of that, due to shenanigans, he doesn't have the Azure anymore. He's just Badass Normal now. Still doesn't stop him from stopping it for a year. Yep, ya heard me right. The Six Heroes barely defeated it yet he handled it basically while being human preventing it from causing havoc. Even if in the end his fate is being consumed, or perhaps he's consumed but took about a year to digest, it gave him a worthy moment to be referred as the Grim Reaper.

Jin Kisaragi - "The Hero of Order"

  • Jin's true path in Continuum Shift has him being unable to use Yukianesa because it doesn't want to be used. Ragna points out that a Nox Nyctores either controls its user or must be completely overpowered by willpower to be used. He states Jin needs to be stronger if he wishes to win. When he confronts Tsubaki, who is eventually mind controlled by Hazama, Jin states that if she stands in his way, she will be his enemy and activates Yukianesa against its will. This is awesome for gameplay reasons as well - since Jin was locked out of all of his ice attacks up to this point, being able to unload with Unlimited Jin was extremely cathartic.

Jin: I am the cold steel, the blade that will restore balance to this world. Nox Nyctores: Yukianesa, Activate!

    • Jin's entire CS story is one long ode to his grinding in badass. After escaping from a hospital ship, he manages to fight off Hazama while protecting Makoto, freezes Hazama in his tracks when things start going south, fights Rachel at full power and holds his own despite being too badly injured to stand up straight, receives a painful healing treatment, challenges Hakumen and gets stomped on, holds off Ragna without Yukianesa, has that lovely little tiff with a Brainwashed and Crazy Tsubaki (read: she's trying to kill him) and fends her off despite being unable to use his Nox for most of the fight, encounters Hazama and fights well enough to make him retreat, fights the powerful magic user Phantom (implied in another story mode to be Nine herself) offscreen and apparently wins, and then tells Hakumen to back off so he can take on Mu all by himself. Would you believe this is the same Ax Crazy sissy who obsessed over Ragna in Calamity Trigger? Jubei wasn't kidding when he said Jin had grown.


The Underdogs

Compared to the raw power that the above three groups throw around, Bang Shishigami and Makoto Nanaya are having trouble staying competitive. But what they lack in output, they make up for in more subtle ways - and if their Hazel Eyes are any indication (and rest assured, they are), both of them have factors that stand to close that power gap significantly. Once those factors are settled, that sudden burst of power, plus the factors that make up these moments, will make it significantly harder for the villains, especially the Big Bad Duumvirate, to plan around or suppress their actions.

Bang Shishigami - "The Pride of Ikaruga"
Bang Shishigami is the least augged person in BlazBlue history, bar none. He makes up for it by being Weak but Skilled, utilizing the fullest of his ninjitsu training to engage, trap, and overcome his opponents. His endurance is nigh-unrivaled, surviving the worst the rest of the cast can throw at him, and even Hakumen - the Hero Antagonist who exemplifies Good Is Not Nice - speaks very highly of his undying spirit.

  • In Calamity Trigger, Bang triggered a calamity in the upper levels of Kagutsuchi and survived despite being at the epicenter of that incident. Pardon the pun, but to come out from that means that Bang is clearly hard as nails.
  • Bang only gets two fights in his CS story, the last one against Hazama. In what can only be described as "Did you just cockslap Terumi?", after colliding head-on with Hazama's plot armor, Bang decided it was in his best interest to bail - and take Carl and Tao with him! Two kids Hazama had just torn the hell out of (one to soften up for Relius, the other because mindrape isn't an option), and while Bang was ready to break Thou Shalt Not Kill, he was wise enough to temper himself and live another day. So far, Hazama hasn't been bested in combat completely, but considering Rettenjou is inactive and therefore Bang's power comes entirely from his training and skill, it's damn impressive he was able to survive the encounter at all - even Hazama concurs..
    • Taking things even further, Platinum's story ends with a battle against Relius Clover, of all people, and while there's a hell of a stand, Luna and Sena lack the power needed to subdue the Mad Puppeteer. But before Relius can act upon the opening, Bang Shishigami drops in and engages Relius himself. The awesome doesn't come from the fact Bang fights Relius, but it's the fact that it happens after the above moment, and that he manages to stall Relius long enough for Hakumen to show up - at which point he believes it's in his best interest to conclude his experiment. To wit, Bang got his ass handed to him by Hazama, escaped with Carl and Tao, occupied Relius long enough for Hakumen to arrive, and got Platinum out of harm's way as well. Coupled with the Dare to Be Badass Trinity gives him, it's clear that Bang's relevance to coming events is on the up-and-up - we'll see how far he takes it. Godspeed, Bang Shishigami...

Makoto "Ratatosk" Nanaya
While Makoto is more augged than Bang, being a squirrel beastkin, there is still much that is unknown about her. However, despite having no role in the events of Calamity Trigger, only appearing in flashbacks experienced by Jin and Noel, and a minimalist role in vanilla Continuum Shift, it isn't until Extend - and her story in Slight Hope - that her Action Girl credentials are put on paper and show why she is not to be ignored.

  • Let's get the big factor out of the way now. Barring the opening moments and the closing moments, the entirety of Slight Hope takes place in the Wheel of Fortune timeline. What this translates into is that Makoto fell into the Boundary, jumped into the designated timeline, and found her way back with aid from Rachel - that is, she passed through an Eldritch Location, twice, and experienced the events of an alternate timeline without any degradation whatsoever! Considering that Lotte "Roy" Carmine became the aberration known as Arakune within moments of his one entry and that the only other being to successfully emerge unscathed from that joint was goddamn Hakumen, she's already looking impressive. And how did she pull that off?

Rachel:The moment one is pulled into the Boundary, their consciousness in their original world is usually snuffed out forever, rendering them inert. But you... you have an unyielding will, and you cling to something... something you hold very dear. Thus, you've never lost sight of your true self.

  • Starting off, Makoto lands at Kagutsuchi and finds Jin in very bad shape, only to promptly block a coup de grace attack from Hazama himself. A battle ensues (this is Makoto's first fight in Story mode), with Makoto in bad shape after banging against Hazama's plot armor, iced in her tracks from a paralyzing glare after asking about Noel, and hauled off by Jin after the latter literally freezes Hazama where he stands. What makes this awesome is that, later in the story, Makoto chats with Tsubaki and, when Hazama shows up, she promises Tsubaki that she'd follow her after interrogating Hazama. The same guy that almost knifed her earlier in the story. The sheer moxie involved in this maneuver failed to escape Rachel, and while Makoto got a second paralyzing glare for her trouble, she slipped out otherwise unharmed with aid from the aforementioned "shitty vampire". Actively opposing, and later interrogating, her own boss, who clearly outpowers her at this point, takes really firm nerves. Rachel wasn't shitting about Makoto's "unyielding will".
  • So what warranted a second Death Glare in the first place? His hit on Jin screwed up, Hazama attempted to plan around Makoto's continued interference, and sent Relius to pick up Jin while she was occupied with matters elsewhere - the intent being that Makoto would follow Jin, wind up meeting Relius, and be eliminated. Instead, Makoto asked Bang - a ninja from Ikaruga, and one who had been sworn with taking down Jin in Makoto's source timeline - to round up a "Jin recovery party" while she went for her other friends. And that meeting with Tsubaki? Hazama was supposed to Mind Rape Tsubaki in that time frame, and since Makoto sent her down while she dealt with him, that appointment was missed altogether. Sure, Makoto may not have known about any of it, but Hazama's inability to plan around Makoto's trust of other people and her friendship with Tsubaki (some principles he himself may have, in fact, rejected) meant that everything she did up to this point sent his entire gambit in Wheel of Fortune irrecoverably tits-up! As evidenced in Jin's story, the stain on Hazama's otherwise spotless chessmaster status is so deep that, rather than waste time on his usual Troll and Mind Rape methods, he attempted to kill her immediately when he saw her chatting with Jin. Long story short, Makoto's the only person to date to utterly FUBAR a Hazama gambit, and since she's alive and knowing more than Hazama's comfortable with at story's end, she's in the convenient position to willfully set a future one up to topple as well!
  • If Arcade mode is to be trusted, the detour paid off beyond knowledge alone. As one would expect, the final battle is against U.Hazama, and while a large number of characters freak out when the BlazBlue is invoked, she remains cold - and even after, she bounces questions back to him and remains in control of her emotions up to the point he mashes her Berserk Button, which prompts a loud and clear "Shut the hell up!" Hazama does earn some props, though, for even invoking this much of a reaction at all. All of the above speak highly of Makoto's potential, and should help you understand just why Rachel put her back on the board.

Hazama: "Blah Blah Blah BlazBlue, activate!"
Makoto: "Just as I thought."
Hazama: *laugh* "Let's go, you little bitch! *laugh*"

  • Also, a minor CMOA in Arcade Mode if she loses to Hakumen. It seems Bang isn't the only one who impresses Hakumen:

Hakumen: To refine untainted power to this level... You are truly impressive.

    • Inversely, if she takes him down, it turns out the respect is mutual:

Makoto: Dear god, you're strong...! And it was almost like you could predict my attacks... Don't tell me... you've mastered the power of your mind's eye?!


The Rest

  • Honorable mention goes to Rachel for her handling of a noncombat Hazama encounter. The guy chooses to drop her partway into the ground so she can listen to his usual rant about how the world is lies, how it needs to be purged, how Rachel can do squat to stop it. Since she's in no position to argue on a physical level, she just snarks back at him, countering every point she can or at least making his blood boil, especially by invoking his inner Green-Eyed Monster. Sure, he kicks her teeth in in the end, but points for putting on a brave front anyway.
  • Tsubaki gets one in Heart to Heart, for delivering a particularly Badass Kirk Summation on some Jerkass noble students, calling them out on their bigotry and arrogance, and causing them all to turn away in shame. Badass Pacifist, much?

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