BlazBlue (Franchise)



BlazBlue (ブレイブルー) is a 2D fighting game series that first released in Japan on arcades on November 20, 2008, as BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger. Since then, the BlazBlue series has released a variety of games and evolved into a multi-media franchise, producing novels, comics, animation, and theater.

Overview

 * The earliest release date regardless of region is used for consistency.

C-Series
The main part of the BlazBlue series is named the "C-Series" because the subtitles of the main games in this series all start with the letter C. The series focuses around the life of its protagonist, Ragna the Bloodedge.


 * BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger (2008) The first mainline game in the C-Series.
 * BlazBlue: Chimelical Complex (2011) A manga adaptation of BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger focusing on Ragna the Bloodedge.
 * BlazBlue (Manga) A manga adaptation of BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger.
 * BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger (Novel) (2013) The novelization of BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, consisting of two novels.
 * BlazBlue Material Collection BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger's material collection, which included one short story for each playable character.
 * Memory of BLUE (Ragna's short story)
 * purgatory hell (Jin's short story)
 * THE BLUE (Noel's short story)
 * Trust You (Tager's short story)
 * Capricious Us (Taokaka's short story)
 * Endless Waltz (Rachel's short story)
 * The Diary (Arakune's short story)
 * Borderline (Litchi's short story)
 * Puppeteers (Carl's short story)
 * Fortune favors the bold (Bang's short story)
 * Innocent Black (Hakumen's short story)
 * an evil sign (Nu-13's short story)
 * BlazBlue Manga Lighthearted four-panel comics published online. A second season was published in issues of the now-defunct arcade gaming magazine Monthly Arcadia and also provided online.
 * BlazBlue Official Comics (2009) A series of two volumes of lighthearted four-panel comics.


 * BlazBlue: Continuum Shift (2009) The second mainline game in the C-Series.
 * BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II (2011) An arcade remake of BlazBlue: Continuum Shift, that was later provided as a free update to the console version of the game.
 * BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend (2012) An extension of BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger introducing new playable characters.
 * BlazBlue: Continuum Shift (Novel) (2013) The novelization of BlazBlue: Continuum Shift, consisting of two novels.
 * BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Material Collection
 * Trigger Shift
 * Live Act BlazBlue ~Continuum Shift~ (2016) A live play adapting the story of BlazBlue: Continuum Shift.
 * BlazBlue Drama CD The Wheel of Fortune (2010) A drama CD detailing an alternative universe where Noel doesn't exist and Tsubaki serves as Jin's secretary instead.
 * BlayzBloo: Super Melee Brawlers Battle Royale (2010) A lightweight action spinoff for Nintendo DSiWare.


 * BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma (2012) The third mainline game in the C-Series.
 * BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Extend (2015) An extension of BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma introducing new playable characters.
 * Arc System Works 25th Anniversary Official Character Collection
 * Scarlett rose A short story focusing around Rachel shortly after she wakes up from her long slumber after the Dark War.
 * Evergreen Eyes
 * BlazBlue: Alter Memory (2013) An anime series that adapted various parts of the CT and CS novels with some of the CP story.
 * BlazBlue: Clone Phantasma (2012) A lightweight action spinoff following in the vein of BlayzBloo: Super Melee Brawlers Battle Royale for Nintendo 3DS.
 * BlazBlue Revolution Reburning (2015) A third-party RPG spinoff for mobile platforms acknowledged by Arc System Works.


 * BlazBlue: Central Fiction (2016) The fourth and final mainline game in the C-Series.
 * BlazBlue: Central Fiction Special Edition (2019) A port of BlazBlue: Central Fiction to Nintendo Switch, containing all DLC from the original.

BlazBlue: Phase Shift
Consisting of the four BlazBlue: Phase Shift novels, numbered simply from one to four, and sometimes including a fifth book, BlazBlue: Phase 0, all of which are set during the Dark War.


 * BlazBlue: Phase Shift (2011) A series of four novels that follow the Six Heroes and Celica A. Mercury through the Dark War.
 * BlazBlue: Phase 0 (2010) A standalone novel that details the Dark War during the very first loop of the Looping World. Due to the similarity of its title to those of the Phase Shift series, it is often lumped together with them.

BlazBlue: Remix Heart and BlazBlue: Variable Heart
Two series of manga that focus around protagonist Mai Natsume during and shortly after her time in the Military Academy.


 * BlazBlue: Remix Heart (2013) A lighthearted manga that showcases the Military Academy as Mai becomes fast friends with Tsubaki, Noel, and Makoto.
 * BlazBlue: Variable Heart (2016) The sequel to BlazBlue: Remix Heart but no longer set within school bounds, which picks up shortly before graduation, just as the Ikaruga Civil War ends.

BlazBlue: Bloodedge Experience

 * BlazBlue: Bloodedge Experience (2014) A series of novels set in an alternate universe to the mainline C-Series, following the protoganist Naoto Kurogane and the troubles of his Drive, Bloodedge, through a close-to-modern time period.

XBlaze
A couple of visual novels set in an earlier alternate universe to the mainline C-Series. It introduced the Mitsurugi Agency and was the first to focus heavily on Drives.


 * XBlaze Code: Embryo (2013) The first game in the XBlaze series, following Touya Kagari and his misadventures with Es and other lively characters surrounding the mysteries of the Wadatsumi Incident.
 * XBlaze Lost: Memories (2015) Following the unnamed protagonist as she searches for her younger sister and is pulled into a mysterious space known as the "Phantom Field".

BlazBlue Alternative: Dark War

 * BlazBlue Alternative: Dark War (2021) An RPG for mobile platforms featuring a new protagonist, Ciel Sulfur.
 * one emerging possibility (2018) The prologue to BlazBlue Alternative: Dark War
 * BlazBlue Walker (2018) A companion web comic to BlazBlue Alternative: Dark War, published online.

BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle

 * BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle (2018) A spin-off tag-team fighting game that crosses over the BlazBlue universe with those of fellow fighting game series Persona 4 Arena and Under Night In-Birth and the 3DCG animated series RWBY.

Miscellaneous

 * BlazBlue: Spiral Shift – Hero of the Frozen Blade (2016) A novel from Jin Kisaragi's perspective during the Ikaruga Civil War.


 * Eat Beat: Dead Spike-san (2015) A simple rhythm game for Android and iOS, which was ported to Nintendo Switch in 2018.
 * BlazBlue Radio A companion, animated, Japanese-language web radio show that brings on various voice actors to have a generally good time and share news. From the eighth season onwards episodes are subbed officially in English, Simplified Chinese, and Korean.
 * BlazBlue Cats A series of short animated videos featuring characters from the BlazBlue cast as cats.

Name Origin
The series experimented with different titles before it was finalized as BlazBlue. The story was set to be about the "Azure," so staff wanted to include the word "Blue" in it no matter what. was the first idea, but became to shorten the length. Other logo variants included and. From there the word "riot" was incorporated, first as, then. almost became the decided title, but had to be changed due to a potential copyright issue; the final title was changed to just two days before the official release. Toshimichi Mori mentions that upon the sudden name shift, a designer suggested that the "Blaz" in BlazBlue be pronounced "blay." The title of the Genesis of the Azure Flame artbook suggests that "BlazBlue" may in fact a play on the word "sapphire" (saph-fire), written in Japanese as 蒼炎 (safaia) using kanji meaning "azure flame."