Melty Blood

About 7 pages (1,969 words)

Know this topic well? Help others and get FREE products!

Melty Blood

メルティブラッド (Meruti Buraddo)
Genre	2D fighting game
Game
Developer	TYPE-MOON, French-Bread (known as Watanabe Seisakujo prior to 2003)
Genre	2D fighting game
Platform	PC, PS2
Released	December 2002
Manga
Author	Takeru Kirishima (art)
Publisher	Kadokawa Shoten
Serialized in	CompAce
Original run	June 2005 –
Volumes	4 (current)

Melty Blood (メルティブラッド, Meruti Buraddo^?) is a Japanese dōjin 2D fighting game, developed by Type-Moon and French-Bread (known as Watanabe Seisakujo prior to 2003), and is a spin-off to Type-Moon's visual novel game Tsukihime. It was featured at the international fighting game tournament Tougeki ^[1] in 2006 and 2007. It has also been adapted into a manga series, featuring art by Takeru Kirishima and serialized in the CompAce magazine, published 2005. Melty Blood was originally released in December 2002 on the PC, with an expansion patch, Re-ACT, being released two years later in May 2004, and ReACT Final Tuned, released in July 2005^[2]. An arcade and Playstation 2 port, Melty Blood: Act Cadenza, has also been released. This arcade and Playstation 2 version then had its PC version released in July 27, 2007 with the title Melty Blood: Act Cadenza ver.B

1 Expansions
2 Characters
3 Gameplay
4 Media
5 Translation
6 References
7 External links

Expansions

Melty Blood Re-ACT

An expansion to the original game, featuring an 'Arcade Mode' whose storyline takes place after the original Melty Blood. The expansion made numerous changes in regards to character balance and to remove many infinite-combo sequences. Also, new movesets were created for the doppelgänger characters, whereas in the original, most of these characters had nearly identical movesets to their counterparts. It also made changes to the game's mechanics and added several new characters, though only two are playable the other 4 NPCs.

Len
Satsuki Yumizuka
Neko-Arc (non-playable character)
Executioner Ciel (Ciel holding the Seventh Holy Scripture, non-playable character)
White Len (non-playable sub-boss)
Aoko Aozaki (non-playable boss)

Melty Blood Re-ACT, Final Tuned

The final revision for Melty Blood Re-ACT. Final Tuned adds several features designed to allow the game to be configured to resemble the gameplay of Melty Blood: Act Cadenza. It also adds a large number of gameplay tweaks and slightly updated animations. The most notable of the new features are:

The inclusion of a new, analog-friendly controller setup
New configuration options that lets players assign multi-button commands to individual buttons
The ability to alter and adjust many of the game's internal variables (via new interface options)
Four new colors for each player

Melty Blood: Act Cadenza ver.B

Melty Blood: Act Cadenza Ver. B is an arcade port of the PS2 game with various changes and upgrades, the most notable of which is the inclusion of 'White Len' as an initial playable character and Neco-Arc Chaos as a hidden character.

Melty Blood: Act Cadenza ver.B2

A screenshot depicting team battle in Version B for PC

Melty Blood: Act Cadenza ver.B2 is an updated edition of the series which corrects several errors and glitches from Melty Blood: Act Cadenza ver.B. Released in March 20, 2007.

Melty Blood: Act Cadenza ver.B PC

Melty Blood: Act Cadenza ver.B PC is a Windows PC port of the arcade ver.B2. It has added features including tag-team mode, a 4-player team battle mode, and a new hidden boss character, Neco-Arc Chaos Black G666(replacing G-Akiha from Melty Blood: Re-ACT). It was released on July 27, 2007^[3].
As of version 1.03a, there is an unofficial utility called MBCaster for online play. It is available at: http://www.meltybread.com/netplay/ Also available is Waryas' version of MBcaster, which adds a waiting room feature and fixes minor problems such as random crashing: http://guillaume.fournier6.free.fr/mbac/WaryasMBCasterv0.2.rar

Melty Blood: Actress Again

Melty Blood: Actress Again has been recently announced for the year 2008. It is confirmed to be in 2D as its prequels and two new characters have been confirmed. All characters now feature 3 different fighting styles. More announcements and improvements have yet to be revealed. Playable characters introduced in Actress Again are:

Riesbyfe Stridberg
Michael Roa Valdamjong

Sources: http://img89.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1193468558002yc7.jpg http://img341.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1193468591182pb9.jpg

Characters

See main article: Characters in Tsukihime

As of Melty Blood: Actress Again, there are 25 playable characters.

Akiha Tohno
Aoko Aozaki
Vermillion Akiha (called Kurenaisekisyu Akiha before Act Cadenza)
Arcueid Brunestud
Red Arcueid (Called Warcueid or Bousou Arcueid before Act Cadenza)
Ciel
Hisui
Hisui & Kohaku
Kohaku
Kouma Kishima
Len
Mech-Hisui
Michael Roa Valdamjong
Miyako Arima
Neco-Arc
Neco-Arc Chaos
Nrvnqsr (Nero) Chaos
Riesbyfe Stridberg
Satsuki Yumizuka
Shiki Tohno
Shiki Nanaya
Sion Eltnam Atlasia
Sion TATARI (called Vampire Sion before Act Cadenza)
Warachia
White Len

In the original Melty Blood, only six of these characters were available to be played, with eight more being unlockable through story-mode. However, in a later update released for the game (the 'Nero' patch), all the characters are available from the start. The reasons for this are slightly unclear; they appear to be the result of a legal misunderstanding whereby TYPE-MOON mistakenly thought they would no longer be allowed to produce updates/patches, and thus made a 'last patch' which unlocked the characters as a sort of gift for the fans. Whatever the reason, TYPE-MOON has left these characters available throughout all subsequent releases. In addition, Aoko and Kouma were both added to the game as of Act Cadenza, although Aoko was an unplayable 'boss character' in previous versions. Act Cadenza also changed the given names of several characters.

Gameplay

Melty Blood makes use of widely used concepts in fighting games such as cancels (canceling a normal attack with a special attack before its animation ends, allowing for more complex and damaging combos) chain combos (normal moves that cancel into other normal moves) and the use of power bars (Magic Circuits). It also introduces Shielding, an advanced defensive technique comparable to Parries in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike and Slash Backs in Guilty Gear XX: Accent Core.

An in-game screenshot depicting the concept of shielding in Melty Blood Re-ACT: Final Tuned

EX-Shielding: A high-risk/reward technique which eliminates the damage and 'block-stun' from an attack. Activated by a button press, it requires exact timing to 'deflect' the opponent's attack, thus exposing them to a reversal. However, if mis-timed, an EX-Shield attempt leaves the player extremely vulnerable. EX-Shielding also carries a damage penalty for subsequent attacks, but grants a small amount of Magic Circuit and disallows the opponent to cancel his/her attack into another one. Finally, in later versions of Melty Blood, EX-Shielding during the Blood Heat state activates a unique attack known as a Last Arc. In Melty Blood: Act Cadenza, a new type of Shielding was introduced which allows the player to hold the Shield button for an extended length of time to defend against multiple attacks. However, this rapidly drains Magic Circuit, and grants fewer retaliatory options upon recovery. Magic Circuit: A system that allows players to store up to 300% meter, for various uses such as EX Attacks (high-powered versions of special techniques) and the Heat and Blood Heat modes. These modes allow players to regenerate a portion of their lifebar, as well as allow access to their character's ultimate attacks, known as Arc-Drives and Last Arcs. All of these techniques consume Magic Circuit, which is accumulated by attacking your opponent, and to a lesser degree, successfully defending against your opponent. Magic Circuit carries over between rounds. Clashing: An offensive state where certain attacks or maneuvers impact directly with an opponent's attack, thus resulting in a 'clash.' No damage is taken as a result, and both players are allowed to cancel their attacks as if they had connected successfully. This mechanic is also featured in the Guilty Gear series. Aerial Recovery: A defensive measure used after being attacked in mid-air by pressing any button and, optionally, while holding a direction. It grants temporarily invulnerability to the player and allows them to resume action, but may be detrimental in certain circumstances if the attacking player predicts which direction the Aerial Recovery is performed. Tactical Recovery: After being attacked, performed by pressing any upward direction upon impacting the floor. Doing so allows a player to quickly regain momentum and avoid 'OTG'(On The Ground) combos while utterly defenseless. However, players are not allowed to block during the recovery animation, and thus will expose themselves to punishment if the attacking player predicts the recovery attempt. This is an aspect of the Okizeme meta-game found in many fighting games. Shield Bunker Canceling: More akin to a glitch than an actual feature, Shield Bunker Canceling (known as Baka Cancel in Japan and Bara Cancel in the US) is a powerful technique where a player, while blocking an attack, can counter-attack with a Shield Bunker, but cancels the beginning animation into an attack of their choice. This is typically an EX attack with invincibility properties. This can drastically affect how one attacks an opponent. There are several methods to counter this technique, but it remains a feature of high-level play in Melty Blood. This is akin to Red Parrying in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike.

Media

The original soundtrack of the game, Promised Dawn, was originally released on 29 April 2003. The music was composed by Raito Kate, with tracks 2-7 being arranged by James Harris (2-7), and 2-9 by Number 201.

Track listing

Disc One
VS Part

Melty Blood 3:27
I will begin 0:47
On the edge 0:13
Encount 3:30
Elegant Summer 2:56
Troublesome Visitor 3:35
Fearless 2:08
Noble Mind 2:04
Stillness Dark 3:29
for Crimson Air 3:12
Midnight Raider 3:56
PE-RI-CA 3:40
The theme of Arcueid 2:38
Emergency Occurrence 3:14
Help Me! 3:32
The end of 1000 years 3:06
A G Man 1:38
Chinese Girl 2:21
Count Down 0:44
Remember! 0:30
Memories of once 5:45
Bonus Track 8:08

Disc Two
Novel Part

Intro 0:36
Ready 1:57
Together 2:20
daydream 2:45
Alchemist 3:14
Another wonder 2:27
Bad Memory 1:32
Phantom Night 1:45
Under the moon 1:57
Outro 0:43
Character Voice Collection

Translation

Revolve Translations has released a full English patch, that includes English story mode. The patch is available for free to owners of Melty Blood. The translation patch is based on the Nero0623 final patch for Melty Blood. On July 19th, 2007, they later released an English patch for Melty Blood ReACT, based off of the Final Tuned patch.

References

External links

• • e Tsukihime series by Type-Moon
Video games	Tsukihime · Kagetsu Tohya · Melty Blood
Other media	Tsukihime, Lunar Legend (Episodes) · Tsukihime Plus-Disc
Characters	Shiki Tohno · Arcueid Brunestud · Ciel · Akiha Tohno · Hisui · Kohaku · Len · Sion Eltnam Atlasia · Roa · Zelretch · Other vampires

• • e Type-Moon video game studio
Primary staff	Kinoko Nasu · Takashi Takeuchi
Visual novels	Tsukihime · Kagetsu Tohya · Fate/stay night · Fate/hollow ataraxia
Fighting games	Melty Blood · Fate/tiger colosseum · Fate/unlimited codes
Novels	Kara no Kyoukai · Fate/zero