BlazBlue: Continuum Shift/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Accidental Innuendo: One common way for Western fans to spell out "BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend" as an acronym is "BBCSEX". Given that Arcsys is based in Japan and not an English speaking country, this probably wasn't intentional, but we don't know for sure.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Thanks to Litchi's Face Heel Turn, there has been a negative interpretation of Litchi: That she is a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, using false kindness to charm other people to let her move as she likes, and when they prove useless; she will abandon them; or worse... she'll have no qualms or regret killing them for the sake of Arakune, showing her selfishness dialed Up to Eleven. Her pro fans would usually point out that her kindness are still genuine and she will definitely not enjoy working with the NOL, even when she has to if she wants to save Arakune.
    • Speaking of, there's also Relius Clover. While he is an extremely callous individual, to the point of being the secondary Complete Monster, it is important to note that everything he does, no matter how ghastly, is in the name of science. This ranges from his handling of the Clover ladies to the invocation of the Black Beast in That Which Is Inherited to even - gasp - the Mind Rape of Makoto Nanaya. Also, in his Arcade mode, he never acts aggressively towards his designated opponents, and he even warns Carl, the very son who has been unerringly hounding him for the entire story, not to throw his life away in such a mad pursuit. In Relius' Story mode (Darkness Visible), he gives Carl a glimpse of the world through his own viewpoint instead of coldly assailing him as seen in Carl's story. Is it possible that something befell Ada that moving her into Nirvana was necessary, and that events conspired to keep him from explaining to Carl? Maybe not, but that leaves the question where his pragmatism ends and the monstrosity begins.
  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: Reception for the second game was pretty normal and rejoice-ful throughout... until the announcement of the DLC Characters Stripperiffic Squirrel Girl Makoto, Badass Grandpa Battle Butler Valkenhayn, and Token Loli Magical Girl Platinum the Trinity, which made the fans rejoice even further.
  • Base Breaker: Ever since her announcement, Platinum managed to take over all the thunder Makoto had gained from her's. This has been dying down as of late due to backlash, and because people are getting over the shock. Her hatred among part of the fanbase has fueled love for her among the rest for using her to TROLL her haters. The majority of her popularity is formed from her hatedom; a very odd case.
    • Half the fanbase now considers Litchi this especially after her Face Heel Turn. One base thinks it's good that she's finally in the main meat of storyline, another base think she's a complete idiot for doing so. Another base think she's still tragic in doing things she didn't want to, and another base think her true nature is one of being a completely selfish and obsessive bitch. In other words, read the Sliding Scale of Unavoidable Versus Unforgivable. Some considers Litchi's actions to be in the 'Unavoidable' camp, the rest is in 'Unforgivable' camp.
    • Makoto as well. There's a camp for those who thinks she always will be the lovable squirrel girl, as well as taking over the 'Ms. Fanservice and Good Morality Queen' throne when they think Litchi failed, there's also camp for those who thinks she hasn't beaten Litchi in that term. Then there's a camp who thinks her only purpose is for shameless fanservice. Then there's also a camp who thinks she's slowly growing into a dreaded Mary Sue.
    • And lest we forget... Hazama/Terumi himself! A 'shallow' Complete Monster who's... fun, entertaining and hilarious? Or is he just so utterly atrocious that all those 'fun, entertaining and hilarious' factors get squished with extreme prejudice and he is a Villain Sue who is totally devoid of positive qualities even for those beyond the fourth wall, ranking so high up there in depravity and unlikableness like Dr. Weil and Akihiro Kurata?
    • Three words: Continuum Shift II. There are people who think that it's the most balanced version of the game yet, and then there are the people who despise the new metagame which, instead of rewarding you for stylish combos, now rewards you for getting your opponent in the corner and raping them. Said people claim that Arc System Works essentially tried turning it into Guilty Gear, and failed.
  • Non Sequitur Scene: Most character joke endings.
  • Catharsis Factor: In both games, the player gets control of Unlimited Ragna after dealing with one or more opponents of SNK Boss caliber. Needless to say, getting payback with this ungodly broken monster is sweet.
    • Bummed over the heinous actions of Hazama or Relius? Set one of them as your training dummy/punching bag and dive in. Catharsis made manifest.
  • Complacent Gaming Syndrome: Get used to fighting Ragna. You'll be seeing him a lot.
  • Complete Monster: Relius. His actions are basically like Shou Tucker's, but even more horrifying.
    • Of course, we can't forget Terumi either! He likes causing as much mayhem and destruction as possible just for fun, plus the other reason he qualifies is mainly because he needs to be hated in order to continue to exist. That's saying something.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse:
    • Hype Dog, a white, fluffy dog in the background of a stage in CS, is arguably as popular as the rest of the cast.
    • Makoto seems to be really popular with both the fans and even the producers, despite her limited screentime.
    • Valkenhayn, like Jubei, he's been requested by many fans to become a playable character. And their pleas have been answered.
    • Even before Kokonoe was revealed to have inherited her mother's talent for magic, she was a fairly popular request to be playable. It helps that she is a direct descendant of two of the Six Heroes... She's even complained about the fact that she isn't playable yet in Valkenhayn's Help Me! Professor Kokonoe! segment.
    • Jubei is one of the most requested NPCs to be a playable character, and probably the most requested now that Makoto and Valkenhayn are playable. It helps that he's now the only one of the Six Heroes who's still alive that hasn't been confirmed as a playable character. And no, Phantom doesn't count. They haven't explicitly said she's Nine... yet.
    • Relius, with the wake of the anti-Hazama protests (that Hazama becomes too oversaturated and nearing Villain Sue territory), becomes one, thanks to not yet being oversaturated and possibly being the Bigger Bad from Hazama. As well as his Astral and jokes about him being a 'family man'.
  • Evil Is Hammy: Terumi. And we love him for it.
  • Fan Disservice: There have been a few artists who have chosen to draw male characters, such as Ragna, Jin, Bang, Terumi, and even Hakumen in Makoto Nanaya's outfit, the results of which are not pretty.
  • Game Breaker:
    • Bang is god tier in Continuum Shift.
    • Platinum the Trinity. One of her attacks hits you at all ranges, cannot be jumped over, and takes away one-eighth to a full quarter of Hakumen's (the second-highest HP character in the game) healthbar. The rest of her attacks qualify as well, able to lay waste to even the most skilled of Hakumen and Tager players due to their insanely-high damage and spamability.
  • Ho Yay:
    • Some of the Continuum Shift joke endings really lay into this, big time, like Arakune's which has "Storekeeper" Jin falling in-love with "Princess" Ragna... Not to mention the fact that Hazama is apparently meant to be marrying "Princess" Ragna.
    • Taokaka also gropes Litchi's breasts at several points. And Tsubaki's. And she'd probably grab Noel's and Rachel's as well if they weren't flat chested.
    • As it is revealed in Calamity Trigger Reconstruction, it's Tao's greeting procedure. The first thing she did after meeting Noel is to grope her and thus christening her "Lacking Lady". At the very least Rachel was smart enough to use Gii as a distraction.
  • It's the Same, Now It Sucks: Continuum Shift Extend. It's the game you already have, but with more single player content, a new online system that probably isn't all that different, and all the DLC you paid for is already in the game, either unlocked from the beginning or unlockable. Add in the fact that Mori already said they want to work on a 3rd part, and now you have a lot of people unwilling to get the game because the aforementioned features being there from the start is essentially a big slap in the face.
  • Jerk Canon Sue: Rachel spends most of Continuum Shift getting shown up and having the crap kicked out of her. Not only that, but everyone starts calling her out on her Jerk Sue attitude. As of the ending, she seems to have lost most of that arrogance.
  • Memetic Molester: Hazama. The Michael Jackson jokes do not help.
    • Relius gets in on the action too. Call him a pedophile, a depraved homosexual, or a squirrel rapist (more on this in No Yay), his Altar of the Puppet just screams "rape time". Hard to say which of those titles is worse, though.
  • Moral Event Horizon:
    • Lambda personally doesn't cross it, but the scientists who experiment on her and later, arguably Kokonoe definitely do.
    • As of current, Kokonoe starts garnering much hatred for her actions, starting from minor things like refusing to help Litchi, making her desperate and pull a Face Heel Turn, and especially... her treatment to Lambda. She admits to Lambda that even she's crossed the moral Point of No Return as a scientist and cannot be saved.
    • Terumi and Relius Clover seem to be in a competition to see who can cross more Moral Event Horizons faster. Currently, Terumi is winning, but mostly because he's had more time. For Hazama/Terumi:
      • Creating the Black Beast, for starters. Not to mention creating the Azure Grimoire... both versions.
      • Personally mind-raping, and/or ruining the entire lives of almost every member of the main cast, and several secondary characters. Half the time he didn't even need to do it. He just enjoys what he does.
      • Terumi opened up the game crossing the line, but when he shoves Noel into the Cauldron to turn her into a Murakumo Unit, or rather the Kusanagi Unit, that... that was it. That was the line, way back there. Made even worse by the fact that in Noel's ending, he Mind Rapes her and erases her memories of everybody she ever knew or cared about. While laughing and mocking her feeble attempts to resist her temperament into Kusanagi.
      • How he treats Tsubaki in the console version after she loses her sight. For example, in Wheel of Fortune, he gives her a Reason She Sucks Speech, telling her that she does everything she does for others only because she wants to feel needed, and she only wants to be close to Jin because she wants him to need her, she's nothing if she doesn't feel needed, and that Jin doesn't care about her. This causes Tsubaki to break down in tears, at which point Hazama is satisfied with himself, and happily trots off. Oh, yes, and he had no reason whatsoever to do this. Tsubaki was just unlucky enough to be in a conversation with him.
      • Tsubaki seems to have gotten the short end of the stick in her stories already. Cue Hakumen's bad ending. Hazama beats the blind Tsubaki up to mock Hakumen for having feelings for her. Even though he loses to Hakumen in battle, after Relius Clover gives him a hand and Kusanagi appears, Terumi uses Tsubaki as a hostage to make the H-man surrender - while also reminding him he will enjoy murdering his ex-love either way. All just a while after Haku and Tsubaki share a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming. Complete Monster doesn't even begin to describe it.
      • One of his biggest one includes, trapping Rachel beneath the ground, mocking her hopes of fixing events, and then kicking her full in the face for fun. Note that Rachel continues to snark at him the entire time, at least until the boot to the head.
      • Then there's Carl's bad ending in CS, where Hazama rips Ada apart while a helpless Carl cries and begs for him to stop. Hazama then picks up Carl by his collar, delivers a brutal Hannibal Lecture to him, and ends by killing Carl by tossing him into the Cauldron. It's non-canon, but still. "Why so serious, Carl Clover?
      • Abusing his authority in the NOL to order Tsubaki to kill her best friend and the man she loves. When she fails to do either, he takes it a step further by selectively revealing to her the alternate past in which Noel did not exist and she would have worked with Jin instead of her. This inevitably leads to her Face Heel Turn. Of course, he fails to mention the fact that, in that alternate past, she would have died a year before the game started.
      • In a true display of bastardry, he outright mocks Tsubaki right after she dies in her bad ending, actually laughing at her for dying. In the drama CD The Wheel of Fortune, this gets even worse: Not only does he mock Tsubaki for dying and laughs at her much like in her bad ending in Continuum Shift, but he actually kicks her dead body.
      • Read the Manipulative Bastard above for Litchi. Basically, Terumi plans everything to get her into desperation and be dependent on NOL from the start, like a doctor who poisons a population and tells them to get the cure by joining his 'cult'.
      • ... You know what, look back at Hazama's opening movie. He just walks casually to the stage of Mu-12... activates the thing there... then cue to NOL branch, lots and lots of NOL soldiers, random joes just doing their job and earn their living, being reduced to orbs (those are their souls) and the orbs was sucked into that... thing to activate Mu-12. Cue the psychotic laughter of Terumi. Long story short, Tsubaki's the only survivor of the Kagutsuchi branch still loyal to the NOL due to brainwashing. Noel defected after Ragna broke her tempering, Jin defected after the events of Calamity Trigger, and if Makoto hadn't turned traitor prior to her arrival at the Kagutsuchi branch, she sure did then.
    • For Relius:
      • Trapping his own daughter, Ada, inside the Nox Nyctores Nirvana, Moral Event Horizon: abandoning his children, and leaving Nirvana half-done, so that poor Carl has to clean up the mess easily takes the cake, then saddling his son Carl with Nirvana knowing full well that it will slowly devour his emotions.
      • Using the knowledge he gained from his experiments on his daughter, he "perfected" his doll-making technique and used his wife to make the new-and-improved version. Apparently with the help of Kokonoe.
      • Generally when Relius shows in a character's story path, it means he/she is on a one way trip to the bad ending.
      • He put Tager through a brutal torture in his bad ending, killing him simply to power up Ignis.
      • As mentioned above, Makoto's bad ending. What he does to her will most certainly make your blood boil (or alternatively, finally consider Relius a worthy and powerful villain that needs to be taken into consideration).
  • Most Annoying Sound:
    • Hype Dog.
    • Expect to hear "GET BACK HERE!" "GET BACK HERE!" "GET BACK HERE!" frequently while fighting Unlimited Hazama in Arcade mode.
  • No Yay: Makoto and Relius are all kinds of wrong when put in the same arena. Relius is, well, Relius, her variant of Altar of the Puppet is visually demeaning and vocally disturbing (listen to him talk, then let it set in), she clearly wants none of it, and then there's her Extend bad ending [dead link] (apply directly to the cortex...). Is it any wonder she has a Particle Flare routine just for him?

"You're a colonel, and I don't give a crap! EAT IT, CREEPER!"

  • Ruined FOREVER: Continuum Shift wildly changed the direction of the series. While Calamity Trigger was mostly a serious game with a serious story and serious characters, Continuum Shift adds a lot more fanservice, and laces even the most serious story paths with comedy that some enjoy, but that isn't for everyone.
    • Much of the fanservice and comedy in Continuum Shift comes in the gag reel endings; though non-canon, they are very jarring when contrasted with the more serious rest of the story.
  • Scrappy Level:
    • In Continuum Shift, any of the fights where you're forced to hold back Jin being unable to use Yukianesa, Ragna being unable to distortion drive, etc.
    • Also in Continuum Shift, for some, Score Attack, since it's the new way to unlock Unlimited Characters and it is very difficult to do it with every character.
  • That One Achievement: Anything that involves beating Score Attack. Inspired the trope page.
  • That One Attack:
    • So I heard you liek mudk- throwing swordz?
    • "Serpent's Infernal RAPTURE!" (cue player swearing at the screen)
    • Starting in Continuum Shift, each character has a list of 10 challenges, and (with the exception of the first two, which teach you the special attacks your character has) each challenge consists of one or two combos. Some of these combos are short, sweet, and fairly easy to pull off. These combos are often placed in Challenge 3 or 4, or occasionally 5. Challenge 10 for every single character is hell itself. And god help the Arakune players...
  • That One Boss: Unlimited Nu-13 & Ragna in Score Attack. The fact that you have to fight them both CONSECUTIVELY, doesn't help either.
    • Unlimited Hazama at the end of Continuum Shift's Arcade mode. He's even worse in Ragna's story mode, when you can't use your drive!
  • That One Sidequest: Score Attack. Fucking Score Attack. The AI is ramped up in all the stages, making beating any of them a pain if you can't exploit them. Then you get the final four stages where you fight overpowered versions of 4 of the cast.
    • Specifically, you fight Unlimited Hakumen, Unlimited Hazama, Unlimited Rachel, and Unlimited Ragna (not necessarily in that order). Have fun dying.
    • Aaand good luck with Unlimited Mars, where you fight against a marathon of Unlimited Characters... with highest difficulty.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks: With the balance changes provided by Continuum Shift II, some fans have had this reaction regarding nerfs and the game's overall change from "combo opponent to death" to "get opponent in the corner, then combo them to death".
  • Tier-Induced Scrappy:
    • Tager in Continuum Shift has surprisingly become this. We say surprisingly because he's low-tier, but is widely hated by new players due to his high damage output and his Gadget Finger.
    • In Continuum Shift, Rachel is so hilariously underpowered that she's considered to be nigh unplayable.
    • Early impressions of Continuum Shift II indicate that Arakune is once again evading the nerf bat with his infamous Curse loops and is for once the outright top dog in preliminary tier lists. Whilst everyone else seems to be very well balanced, at least he requires some technical skill to be used to the best of his ability.
    • Litchi Faye-Ling is tied with Bang as the most powerful character in the original Continuum Shift. Her damage output was ridiculously high and her moves were extremely unpredictable, making her as bad as Arakune in Calamity Trigger. Luckily, her complicated moveset meant anyone who really wanted to abuse her meant they need to put in a lot of practice.
    • Although this is lessened by the fact she's the game's Breakout Character and number one Ensemble Darkhorse, Taokaka took a drop in popularity in Continuum Shift for having the Taunt Loop, the game's only infinite combo. One mistake was all it took for a decent Taokaka player to repeatedly hit you with this combo until you died.
    • PLAY NU, SPAM HER DRIVE.
    • Ragna used to be this in Continuum Shift, but he was quickly replaced in Continuum Shift 2 by NOEL of all people.
    • In Continuum Shift 2, we have Noel's best bud Makoto. With her ridiculously high damage output, high speed, good hit-stun and easy-to-use combos, many people complained when they found that Makoto could easily force them into the corner and then consistently rape them with 5-7k damage combos. She is considerably nerfed for Extend.
  • Villain Sue: A growing number of people consider Hazama to be one. Memetic outfit, weapon, and trolling skills? Check. Cool, composed, smug personality that is never fazed? Check. Well beyond every other character in terms of power? Check. Capable of falling back on backup plan after backup plan? Check. While it's too early in the series to effectively judge, it seems like Hazama never loses fights, never loses his cool, is always able to come up with an answer to anything the heroes try, and seemingly has the plot itself bent towards his every whim. Barring his Xanatos Gambit in the True Ending and his "defeat" in his Gag Reel, only Makoto has genuinely been able to thwart him (by accident, rather than truly guessing his works and countering them), and she's not exactly squeaky-clean either (see Mary Sue for details).
  • The Woobie: Read about everything Lambda-11's gone through and you'll believe it. From her backstory to what ultimately happens to her in Continuum Shift to even her Gag Reel, she probably holds the gold for this trope among the characters.
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