BlazBlue Alternative: Dark War

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BlazBlue Alternative: Dark War

BlazBlue Alternative Dark War Logo.png

Developer

Arc System Works, Linked Brain, GEN.inc (before September 2018)

Publishers

JP: Arc System Works

Genre

Chain Combo x Novel RPG (Role-Playing)[1]

Releases

iOS, Android

  • JP: February 16, 2021

BlazBlue Alternative: Dark War is an upcoming mobile game for iOS and Android systems. [2] A companion promotional webcomic, BlazBlue Walker, was serialized with biweekly releases between Jan 11, 2018 and August 29, 2018. On Jan 17, 2021, the official BBDW Twitter account (@BBDarkWar) began making posts under a mascot character, Twikaka, and releasing a continuation of BlazBlue Walker under the name Introducing BlazBlue Alternative: Dark War with weekly chapters every Saturday.

Story

This is a story of arriving at the Azure.
Taking a step away from natural peace,
The world starts to end...
The hell known as possibility begins.[3]

Prologue: one emerging possibility

Prologue: Observer (観測者 Kansokusha)
In the beginning, there was a small island cut off from the outside world.
People were vanishing from the Magister's City, Ishana, when suddenly the mysterious girl "Ciel Sulfur" appeared.
Her purpose, and the reason people have vanished—what are they?
The world is cutting away at foreign elements...this world that was distorted to grant a pure wish
[4]

Part 1 - Wheel of Fate (運命の連 Unmei no Ren)

Part 2 - Fragments of Memory(記憶の断片 Kioku no Danpen)

Chapter 1: [redacted]
The Phantom Field, created to grant one's wish.
Under Hajou Kagami's orders, before Ciel and the others
is a world where the NOL—an organization in control of the world—and the Resistance are in conflict.
The rulers, and the resistant. In the end, what wish does the world have...?
BlazBlue Alternative: Dark War Chapter 1 [redacted]
[4]

Characters

Other Characters

Publicity

Release Date Title Issue Contents
Feb 4, 2021 Weekly Famitsu February 18, 2021 Introductory Article
Overview, Interview with Toshimichi Mori

Article Preview

Development

After the initial announcement of Dark War in August 2017, Toshimichi Mori, the producer of the BlazBlue series, began occasionally posting teaser sketches on Twitter. The initial promotional website for Dark War included music, the Dark War logo, and two pages of a prologue.

On January 11, 2018, the game's official website was updated with a short pitch for the story and an image and short description of Ciel Sulfur. [5] The first episode of BlazBlue Walker was also released, to serialize on a biweekly schedule. Preregistrations opened on February 14, 2018, accompanied by a website update that added images and descriptions for both the male and female protagonist, as well as six other returning characters (Kazuma Kval, Trinity Glassfille, Jin Kisaragi, Noel Vermillion, Tsubaki Yayoi, and Bullet) alongside Ciel Sulfur. The Dark War logo was also replaced with a splash image featuring Raquel Alucard, Trinity Glassfille, Kazuma Kval, Jin Kisaragi, and Trinity Glassfille.

Originally planned for a 2018 release, the game was quietly delayed at the end of 2018. In May 2019, at a panel at MCM London, Mori confirmed the game was still in development. At this panel, Dark War's story was stated to be a prologue to BlazBlue. Gameplay was revealed to include teams and equipment, and that combos would form a major part of the gameplay.[6]

The BlazBlue: Central Fiction Official Setting Material Collection (pp.269-271) has this description for Dark War as an upcoming BlazBlue-related product:

BlazBlue Alternative: Dark War

The BlazBlue series' first smartphone RPG. Centering around the heroine Ciel, a new series opens up. Become acquaintances with characters from the series up until now, including [those] from the novels and comics, and make a party with those whom you like. (Release planned for 2018)

Dark War was also touched upon briefly in the BBCFMC's included interview with producer Mori-P. It would have branching choices similar to those of the XBlaze series, featuring a single main story with branching sub-stories. The short stories would feature characters whose stories were cut or could not fit into the main series, with Mori-P mentioning Hazama, Platinum and their relationship to Bell, Bullet, Hibiki, Meifang, Houichiro Hazuki, and characters that he personally would like to spend time writing about.[7]

January 13, 2021, the game's Reboot PV was released and its release date announced for roughly February 2021 on ArcNama.[8]

Pre-registration

Screenshot of the pre-registration campaign on the official website

Pre-registration opened on Feb 14, 2018 and was available via the official website by signing up with email or by following the official Dark War Twitter. The accompanying step-up campaign confirmed that the game would contain a gacha.

On Jan 13, 2021 with the release of the game's Reboot PV, the pre-registration rewards were changed, adding EXP Crystals to different tiers, adjusting the P$ rewards, changing the Crystallized Azure cost for each pull from 30 to 200, removing Noel (Academy Uniform) from the last tier and making her a guaranteed reward, and adding Noel's grimoire to the final tier instead. Line was also added as a pre-registration option.

The pre-registration milestone rewards are as follows:

Reward Date Reached
To all S-rank Noel (Academy Uniform) (none)
3,000 150,000 P$
AL Recovery Item (S) x5
EXP Crystal (M) x5
N/A
5,000 Crystallized Azure x400 (2 gacha pulls)
EXP Crystal (M) x10
Feb 15, 2018[9]
10,000 Gacha Ticket x2
EXP Crystal (L) x5
Feb 16, 2018[10]
30,000 Crystallized Azure x800 (4 gacha pulls)
500,000 P$
Jan 15, 2021[11]
50,000 Crystallized Azure x1000 (5 gacha pulls)
Gacha Ticket x2
Jan 26, 2021[12]
100,000 ☆4 Noel Grimoire "風になびく詩"[13]
EXP Crystal (L) x10
Not yet reached

Although it was not a milestone on the step-up campaign, the official twitter reported pre-registrations surpassing 20k on July 4, 2018 along with the release of Rebel.14 of BlazBlue Walker.[14]

Videos

Trailers

Reboot PV (Japanese)
Promotional Video (Japanese)

BlazBlue Lab

BlazBlue Lab:Letters from the Devs #1Topics: Gameplay
BlazBlue Lab: Letters from the Devs #2Topics: Story
BlazBlue Lab: Letters from the Devs #3Topics: Character Progression

External Links

References