BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle
BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle is a 2D crossover fighting game developed and published by Arc System Works, and released in 2018 on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and Microsoft Windows. It features different characters from each series, including "BlazBlue", "Persona 4 Arena", "Under Night In-Birth" and "RWBY". After the game was released, characters from "Arcana Heart", "Senran Kagura", and "Akatsuki Blitzkampf", were added as downloadable content. An arcade version was released in 2019. The game received mostly positive reviews, with praise for the visuals, music, online functionality and mechanics. However, it was criticised for lack of  overall content at launch and DLC practices. Gameplay. The gameplay differs from previous entries of "BlazBlue", "Persona 4 Arena", "Under Night In-Birth", "Arcana Heart" and "Akatsuki Blitzkampf", including "Nitroplus Blasterz" and "RWBY", due to the inclusion of representatives for "Arcana Heart" and "Senran Kagura". The game features an endless two tag team battle. Plot. A singularity called the "Phantom Field" mixes the reality of the world with other universes. When the "Keystone" divides into four fragments, the female voice system instructs one of the main characters to keep it away from others and reach the goal. After all fragments  merged into one, they prevent the system from changing the universe. However, Hazama inadvertently uses the Keystone and the system loses control of the multiverse. A group of primary candidates defeat each opponents and win the stamps. They learn that the Keystone where the system's A.I. is stored has been damaged, and an incomplete clone of Susano’o breaks free from the seal. After Ragna the Bloodedge and Naoto Kurogane destroy the clone, the system within the Keystone has been restored and lacked the mass amount of energy. All characters are gathered to participate in an endless battle, hoping to  separately return home to each universe. Characters. The game started out with twenty characters in the base game and a further twenty available as Season 1 DLC. On June 7, 2018, Minoru Kidooka confirmed that Season 2 DLC will be added for Arcade Edition in April 2019 and for the full game in May 2019. Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long were added as free downloadable content, while other characters are available for premium. In the PC version's release, Blake was available at launch as the 21st base character, while Yang was added via update patch, leaving only eighteen  characters of Season 1 DLC. Naoto Kurogane, Teddie, Seth and Heart Aino, were added to Season 2 DLC for free at the launch of the arcade version and as paid content during the release of the console version's 1.5 patch (or for free if consumers have the All-in-One pass). The full version of Season 2, the Special Edition, would be announced to include battle changes, new story content, and the inclusion of the characters, Celica A. Mercury, Susano'o, Elizabeth, Tohru Adachi, Hilda and Neo Politan. Also in full version Season 2, "Senran Kagura" and "Akatsuki Blitzkampf" were  added as sixth and seventh franchises, adding Yumi, Akatsuki and Blitztank respectively. There are 53 characters in total after the conclusion of Season 2. Development. In a 2016 interview with "Forbes", Toshimichi Mori revealed his interest for Rooster Teeth and "RWBY". Before the game was released, Rooster Teeth teased the possibility of a "RWBY" fighting game being revealed at Evo 2017 on their Twitter account. On July 16, 2017, the game was announced at the Evo 2017 championships following Ryusei Ito's victory in "". Ragna the Bloodedge, Jin Kisaragi, Yu Narukami, Hyde Kido and Ruby Rose appeared in the game  on the announcement trailer. Konomi Higuchi served as a character designer. According to Mori, "Cross Tag Battle" was designed for home consoles, although the arcade version was announced. The sprites of "Under Night In-Birth" were slightly redrawn for "Cross Tag Battle" to match the visual style of "BlazBlue". As they reuse the pre-existing sprites, resized to mesh well with the 1080p resolution gameplay, "Arcana Heart" and "Akatsuki Blitzkampf" are the past fighting games using the sprites visibly redrawn by their home company Team Arcana (formerly co-owned with Examu) and SUBTLE STYLE (under collaboration with French Bread) respectively  willingly since Heart's inclusion in a licensed fighting game crossover "Nitroplus Blasterz" and Akatsuki's inclusion for "Under Night In-Birth", excluding Blitztank, whose art-style drawn differently by Arc System Works as "RWBY" and "Senran Kagura" casts. According to Mori, the game's target userbase is for English players. "Cross Tag Battle" is the first "BlazBlue" game since "" to be dubbed into English, with an option to toggle between English and Japanese voices on each characters. The arcade port features support for USB controllers. Pre-release, Arc System Works announced that there would be twenty paid downloadable content  characters for the first season of the game, resulting in "Cross Tag Battle" launching with only half of its planned roster at twenty. This caused backlash from fans, with the arguments that the game reused assets from the past fighting games, and that half of Team RWBY would be sold separately. In response, Mori announced that Blake and Yang would be released free of charge. In addition, he stated that costs for the characters would not exceed that of the game's base retail cost. Post-release, Arc System Works revealed a teaser trailer for a fifth franchise to be  included, later revealed to be "Arcana Heart" at EVO Japan 2019. The sixth and seventh franchises, "Senran Kagura" and "Akatsuki Blitzkampf", were revealed at EVO 2019. At CEO 2021, it was revealed that the PlayStation 4 and Steam versions of the game were patched with rollback netcode in 2022. Reception. The game sold 11,696 copies for PlayStation 4 and 4,271 copies on Nintendo Switch in Japan. The game received mostly positive reviews, with praise for visuals, music, online functionality and game mechanics, but criticism of its lack of overall content at launch and its downloadable content (DLC) practices. "Famitsu" awarded  it a score of 35/40. The game was nominated for "Best Fighting Game" at The Game Awards 2018, for "Fan Favorite Fighting Game" at the Gamers' Choice Awards, for "Best Fighting Game" at the Titanium Awards, for the Raging Bull Award for Best Fighting Game at the New York Game Awards, and for "Fighting Game of the Year" at the D.I.C.E. Awards. The game had sold over 450,000 copies worldwide in June 2020.