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.
- 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.
- 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 (TBA)
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.

Creation & Development

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. The Blue Blood was the first idea, but became Blue Bloods to shorten the length. Further along the process, RiotBlue almost became the decided title, but had to be changed due to a potential copyright issue; the final title was changed to BlazBlue 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."^[1]

History

Date of Release	Title	Visual
2008
November 20, 2008 ^JP	ARCADE BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger
2009
April 9, 2009	WEB RADIO BlazBlue Radio
June 25, 2009 ^JP June 30, 2009 ^US	PS3, XBOX 360 BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger
November 20, 2009 ^JP	ARCADE BlazBlue: Continuum Shift
2010
January 27, 2010 ^JP	NINTENDO DSIWARE BlayzBloo: Super Melee Brawlers Battle Royale (BlazBlue: Battle X Battle)
February 20, 2010	EVENT BlueFes 2010 -Spring Raid- at Shinagawa Stellar Ball
February 25, 2010 ^JP	PSP BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger
July 1, 2010 ^JP July 27, 2010 ^NA December 3, 2010 ^EU	PS3, XBOX 360 BlazBlue: Continuum Shift
August 7, 2010	EVENT BlazBlue Streaming at Shibuya AMG Hall
August 19, 2010 ^JP	MOBILE BlazBlue: Mobile Battle
August 20, 2010 ^JP	NOVEL BlazBlue: Phase 0
August 26, 2010 ^JP	PC BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger
September 9, 2010 ^EU	PS3, XBOX 360 BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger
December 9, 2010 ^JP	ARCADE BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II
2011
January 22, 2011	LIVE Guilty Gear x BlazBlue Music Live 2011 at Kawasaki CLUB CITTA'
February 14, 2011 ^JP	COMIC BlazBlue: Chimelical Complex
March 31, 2011 ^JP May 31, 2011 ^NA Nov 4, 2011 ^EU	PSP, 3DS BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II
April 20, 2011 ^JP	NOVEL BlazBlue: Phase Shift 1
July 1, 2011	NEWS BROADCAST PUPPET SHOW BlazBlue Play
December 17, 2011 ^JP	PS3, XBOX 360, PS VITA BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend
2012
February 14, 2012 ^NA	PS3, XBOX 360 BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend
February 14, 2012 ^NA February 22, 2012 ^EU	PS VITA BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend
March 24, 2012	TOURNAMENT BlazBlue Revolution at Differ Ariake
May 31, 2012 ^JP	PSP BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend
August 5, 2012	EVENT BlueFes 2012 -Riot Summer Again- at Shinkiba Studio Coast
November 11, 2012 ^JP	ARCADE BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma
December 21, 2012 ^JP	WINDOWS 8 BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger
December 26, 2012 ^JP	3DS BlazBlue: Clone Phantasma
2013
January 19, 2013 ^JP	NOVEL BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger - Part 1
February 7, 2013 ^JP	COMIC BlazBlue: Remix Heart
May 19, 2013	EVENT Arc System Works Festival at Pacific Yokohama
September 20, 2013 ^JP	NOVEL BlazBlue: Continuum Shift - Part 1
October 8, 2013	ANIME BlazBlue: Alter Memory
October 9, 2013 ^JP	COMIC BlazBlue
October 24, 2013 ^JP	PS3 BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma
October 24 - November 10, 2013	EVENT BlazBlue Museum at Akihabara Gamers
2014
March 3 - March 9, 2014	STAGE Live Act BlazBlue ~Continuum Shift~ at The Galaxy Theatre (Tennōzu)
March 25, 2014 ^NA	PS4, PS3, XBOX ONE BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma
April 24, 2014 ^{JP, NA}	PS VITA BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma
June 20, 2014 ^JP	NOVEL BlazBlue: Bloodedge Experience - Part 1
July 12, 2014	LIVE Guilty Gear x BlazBlue Music Live 2014 at Kawasaki CLUB CITTA'
October 9, 2014 ^JP	ARCADE BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Ver 2.0
December 11, 2014	STEAM BlazBlue: Continuum Shift
2015
January 7, 2015 ^JP February 23, 2015 ^NA March 23, 2015^KR	APP Eat Beat: Dead Spike-san
March 29, 2015	LIVE BlazBlue Music Live 2015 at Zeep Tokyo
April 23, 2015 ^JP June 30, 2015 ^NA July 28, 2015 ^{NA (PS Vita)} October 23, 2015 ^EU	PS4, PS3, XBOX One, PS VITA BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Extend
July 12, 2015	EVENT Blue Fes 2015 -Lord☆Ultimate~-
November 19, 2015 ^JP	ARCADE BlazBlue: Central Fiction
2016
March 2, 2016	STEAM BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Extend
August 10 - 14, 2016	STAGE Live Act BlazBlue ~Continuum Shift~ at Shinjukumura Performing Theater
October 6, 2016 ^JP	PS3, PS4 BlazBlue: Central Fiction
October 20, 2016 ^JP	NOVEL BlazBlue: Spiral Shift – Hero of the Frozen Blade
December 12, 2016 ^JP	COMIC BlazBlue: Variable Heart
2017
April 27, 2017	STEAM BlazBlue: Central Fiction
August 3, 2017 ^JP	ARCADE BlazBlue Central Fiction Ver 2.0
2018
March 22, 2018 ^{JP, NA}	NINTENDO SWITCH Eat Beat: Dead Spike-san
March 31, 2018 ^JP June 5, 2018 ^NA June 22, 2018 ^EU	PS4, NINTENDO SWITCH, STEAM BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle
November 20, 2018	BlazBlue 10th Anniversary
2019
February 7, 2019 ^{JP, US} February 8, 2019 ^EU	NINTENDO SWITCH BlazBlue: Central Fiction Special Edition
April 25, 2019 ^JP	ARCADE BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle
November 21, 2019	PS4, NINTENDO SWITCH, STEAM BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle Ver 2.0
TBA
TBA	MOBILE BlazBlue Alternative: Dark War

External Links

BlazBlue official website (Japanese)
BlazBlue official Twitter (Japanese)

References

↑ BlazBlue: Original Setting Material Collection - Genesis of the Azure Flame, Chapter 1 - Phenomena: Dawn (事象：黎明), BLAZBLUE Title & Logo Transition

[1] BlazBlue: Original Setting Material Collection - Genesis of the Azure Flame, Chapter 1 - Phenomena: Dawn (事象：黎明), BLAZBLUE Title & Logo Transition

[1]