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Ultimax characters have finally arrived!

Last Saturday was a huge day for fans of BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle, as Arc System Works finally unveiled the final five characters that will be joining Senran Kagura Estival Versus’s Yumi, Akatsuki Blitzkampf’s Akatsuki and Blitztank, and RWBY’s Neo Politan this November in the game’s upcoming Version 2.0 update.

The company held two streams to show off this new quintet of fighters, with one in the new North American headquarters in California, which featured special guests James Chen and UYU|TheBeautifulDude, as well as their traditional Japanese stream, that has been customary for character reveals since pre-release.

The five new challengers who can’t escape from crossing fate are BlazBlue’s Celica A. Mercury and Susanoo, Persona 4 Arena’s Elizabeth, Tohru Adachi from Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, and Hilda from Under Night In-Birth. Additionally, Ragna teased the possibility of even more characters joining the ever-growing cast that now sits at 53 at the end of the trailer by asking who was next, something Ruby Rose also questioned before the reveals of Rachel Alucard, Hazama, and Weiss Schnee.

In addition to playing several matches and demonstrating how these fighters all compare to their past incarnations, we were also given a glimpse of the new character select screen, which features fighter’s having the color of their respective franchise behind them when highlighted, as well as their portraits being placed inside diamonds when selected.

It should be noted that Adachi remains on the end of the Persona 4 Arena column, with the logo changing to Persona 4 Arena Ultimax when he’s chosen. Additionally, Yumi, Akatsuki, and Blitztank have joined Heart Aino in the newly-added 5th tab that heralded her arrival back in May, which will now change colors and logos to reflect the series of the character you’re choosing, effectively making it a “Guest Character” column.

This not only potentially opens the door for other Ultimax characters, like Rise, Sho, Marie, and Margaret, to join the game in future updates, but also characters from the Akatsuki Blitzkampf sequel En-Ens Perfektewelt, such as Kati and the titular En-Eins, who were both in the massive datamine of announcer calls that also included the nine characters joining the game in Version 2.0, and perhaps even Londrekia from the newly-announced EXE:Late[cl-r] that was announced at Evo 2019 and will be arriving in early 2020.

The Versus/Order Select screen has also seen a sleek makeover, with character portraits being in larger boxes that are now on top of each other, rather than beside one another, similar to the Versus Screen of Marvel Vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes. You can see the full trailer below, as well as both of the streams, which contain large amounts of footage of the newcomers, as well as matches between James Chen and UYU|TheBeautifulDude, who were the first American players to try out the characters.

A demo of the new update will be available this weekend at CEOtaku 2019 in Orlando, Florida, as well as at ARCREVO America

The official Japanese website has also been updated with screenshots of this new set of fighters in action, which you can also see in the gallery below.

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Gallery

Source: arcsystemworks (YouTube); Arc System Works America (YouTube); JROKGaming (YouTube); BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle Official Japanese Website

Who are the remaining five New Challengers?!

Last month at Evo 2019, Arc System Works followed up their announcement of Under Night In-Brith EXE: Late[cl-r] with news that BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle will be receiving a massive update to Version 2.0 on November 21st. In addition to balance changes for the entire cast, the playable roster will be increased to a staggering 53 characters, with 9 additional warriors joining the fray, including at least three from two new franchises, meaning seven universes now can’t escape from crossing fate!

Newcomers include Yumi from Senran Kagura: Estival Versus, who will also be bringing a new stage with her, as well as Akatsuki and the massively-armed Blitztank from SUBTLE STYLE’s Akatsuki Blitzkampf, and RWBY’s Neo Politan, marking the fifth character for the American franchise, and the first outside of Team RWBY itself.

Despite Neo Politan taking on her Volume 3 appearance, to keep in line with the other four, she will have her character song from her return in Volume 6, One Thing, and also appears to have Roman Torchwick’s signature bowler hat in one of her Distortion Skills. This might close the book on his possible inclusion, despite his name being amongst the RWBY cast who’s announcer calls were datamined from Version 1.5 awhile back.

Five more newcomers, likely from BlazBlue, Persona 4 Arena, Under Night In-Birth, and Arcana Heart 3 will also be joining the fight in November, and will be revealed tonight, on a special ArcLive Livestream between 7:00-8:00 P.M. PST on Twitch, YouTube, and NicoNico.

#Blitztank has a message for you…#BBTAG #BBTANK

Saturday, 9/21 7PM PSThttps://t.co/9M2tu4EzOq

⚠️Please note the updated start time.⚠️ pic.twitter.com/ims6cefdQR

— Arc System Works @ #BBTank (@ArcSystemWorksU) September 21, 2019

The update will also be bringing four new gameplay mechanics to the title to drastically shake up BBTAG’s meta, which were recently covered in detail by Japanese website GAME MEDIA, and graciously translated and compiled into a Twitter thread by SUGOI|Ebonic Plague.

First up is Cross Raid: “After the final hit of Smart Combo 1 (5AAAA), you can consume your full Cross Gauge to switch your partner in with an attack. Active Switch power-up becomes active after this. This is utilized with Es and Yosuke Hanamura in the trailer.

Next is Extra Assault, used by Yumi and Akatsuki against Gordeau in the trailer. “Spend one bar of Skill Gauge to use a more powerful (two character) Clash Assault. According to the website, you are in Active Switch powered-up state after this as well. JUST LIKE CROSS RAID!”

Then comes the mechanic I’m personally most looking forward to, Delay Entry. “After a character has died, you can delay the incoming of your next character. You apparently do this by holding down “the” button and your character comes in on button release,” allowing you control over your incoming timing, which should lessen the power of incoming mixups, which are very strong in the current build.

Finally, perhaps the most surprising and controversial mechanical addition is Rampage Time. “When the timer hits 80 seconds, there is now passive Skill Gauge gain. Seriously, you just start passively gaining bar.” As I’m sure most players are aware, the BBTAG match timer starts at 180 seconds, three full minutes. With the speed and high damage output of the game, there generally aren’t any concerns with timeouts, so it will be interesting to see how often this new mechanic will come into play when it’s added in November.

There was also a bit of gameplay information shared about the four currently-revealed newcomers. Yumi will have access to her Aerial Rave mechanic from the Senran Kagura series, “which is described as a full air combo by itself and incredibly easy to do.” She also has two styles of dance that she uses (Light and Dark) that offer her “two different styles to make the opponent dance to her rhythm.” This might imply that she’ll be a Stance-based character. Hopefully, we’ll see tonight.

As for RWBY’S Neo Politan, she “can create after images to confuse the opponent on which one is real or not, similar to Hibiki Kohaku’s Drive, Double Chase, in BBCF, which fits in line with her fighting style form the series and her Semblance, Illusions.

Akatsuki is described as “an easy to use character with easy to use specials, like his projectile “Blitz Shot” and the rush skill “Armor Pierce Kick,” meaning his infamous B Tatsu will be in BBTAG. He will also have his Reflector parry, “Aggression Defense,” to catch opponents’ attacks.

Finally, with Blitztank it is simply mentioned that “overwhelming power is possible at all ranges, likely alluding to his status as a zoner in Akatsuki Blitzkampf. It will be interesting to see if he can overcome his status as the “worst character” in his origin series in this crossover title.

Additionally, the update will bring UI changes, more team-specific interactions for pairings that don’t currently have them, like Ragna The Bloodedge and Naoto Kurogane, as the five characters in Version 1.5 currently lack any unique dialogue. Each character will receive five new Colors, increasing the total up to 20 each. New Lobby Avatars and cosmetic items for the nine newcomers will also be available in the Kaka Shop. Rounding out the 2.0 upgrade is a new additional Extra Story Mode, likely featuring the 23 characters who were absent from the first four Episodes, and explaining how Senran Kagura and Akatsuki Blitzkampf joined the fight.

The 2.0 balance changes will be applied for free on Thursday, November 21st, but the Version 2.0 Expansion Pack will cost $24.99.

It was also recently announced that BBTAG 2.0 will be playable at CEOtaku 2019 taking place September 27th-29th, at the Wyndham Orlando Resort in Orlando, Florida, as well as the ARCREVO World Tour Finals at ARCREVO America 2019, November 16th and 17th at the UC Irvine Student Center in Irvine, California, just four days before the update releases worldwide.

Yumi, Blitztank, Akatsuki, and Neo Politan are coming to #CEOtaku! Experience what they're like firsthand with the #BBTAG 2.0 demo—and possibly more. pic.twitter.com/9QlZLoO0DX

— Arc System Works @ #BBTank (@ArcSystemWorksU) September 9, 2019

I’m putting my money on BlazBlue’s Yuuki Terumi and Celica A. Mercury, Persona 4 Arena’s Elizabeth, either Hilda or Erika Wagner from Under Night In-Birth, and Saki Tsuzura from Arcana Heart 3, or Cinder Fall from RWBY, if they decide to give them a second character, making up the remaining five slots, but we’d love to hear your predictions, Story Mode ideas, and hopes for balance changes, in the comments below.

Source: Arc System Works America (YouTube); arcsystemworks.com; arcsystemworksu (Twitter); Koefficient (YouTube); BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle Official Japanese Website; GAME MEDIA; EbonicPlagueBB (Twitter)

The spooky Union Graveyard stage is also available now!

We’re now mid-way through the month of September, which means many ghoulish boys and girls are casting their minds forward to Halloween and a fun-filled night of tricks, treats, and frights. To celebrate this occasion,  as they’ve done in 2017 and 2018, Capcom is once-again releasing a new batch of limited-time Haloween-themed content in the form of new Premium Costumes for New Challengers Poison and E. Honda, as well as the new Union Graveyard stage, a spooky variant of the existing Union Station, just as the Spooky Arena is for the Underground Arena.

Poison transforms into a gothic, punk, zombie, with a stitched-together leg, and plenty of whips, netting, and leather. Meanwhile, E. Honda takes inspiration from the Kappa river imps of Japanese folklore. These fabled yokai river monsters are normally depicted as green humanoid-like beings with a turtle-like carapace on their backs along with webbed hands and claw-covered feet. Coincidently, they also love to engage in sumo wrestling, making this attire a perfect fit for Edmond, as he tries to spread the word of his craft around the globe. He also has a dish on his head. Wonder if water will spill out once he’s K.O.ed in battle?

What happens when you build a train station on top of a crypt? The answer is another great place to fight as the Union Station stage morphs into the Union Graveyard!

E. Honda & Poison join the Halloween fun with their kappa & zombie costumes. All available from Sept 17th! pic.twitter.com/xHiFj9Dfdw

— Street Fighter (@StreetFighter) September 9, 2019

The two costumes can be purchased for $3.99 each, while the Union Graveyard will set you back $1.99 or 40,000 Fight Money. Balrog’s new “No Mercy” costume is also now available, which sees the disgraced boxer discard his traditional coat and trademark blue shirt to battle topless, with just his gloves, shorts, and boots. This attire is available in Menat’s Fighting Chance, replacing M. Bison’s “Psycho Miasma” outfit.

Balrog may’ve been banned from professional boxing, but he still looks ring ready with the gloves, shorts & boots that make up his all-new No Escape costume.

Go for rough, tough & buff when these city duds appear in Fighting Chance starting Sept 17th. ? pic.twitter.com/f2Jy3Twn3g

— Street Fighter (@StreetFighter) September 11, 2019

Finally, as Cody’s Vergil Crossover Costume campaign has passed the halfway point, now on its third week, Capcom has decided to unveil the next outfit in line. Kage will be the first Season 4 character to enjoy some crossover love, as he truly embraces his anger, donning the attire of Asura the Destructor from 2012’s Asura’s Wrath. As always, you will have to vanquish an increasingly difficult CPU version of Kage in the Asura costume to collect Gems once per week for a month straight.

Once you gather all four, you’ll be given the Costume. Each attempt will cost you 2,500 Fight Money, meaning you need a minimum 10,000 FM if you want to truly unleash your rage and anger. Hopefully, he’ll also have some Crossover BGM to go with it.

Fighting a 12,000-year-old demigod can be a huge time commitment. Just ask Akuma. That’s why Kage has opted for an Asura costume rather than an angry challenge.

Will the Vajra Asura mesh well with the Satsui no Hado? Find out when this costume hits Extra Battle from Sept 27th. pic.twitter.com/VoQjZHi2IA

— Street Fighter (@StreetFighter) September 12, 2019

The campaign will begin on September 27th and run through October 25th. As an aside, Falke’s Katt, Sagat’s Shade, Menat’s Devilotte, Alex’s Leo, and Zeku’s Kenji campaigns are currently re-running if you missed a week during their first rotation.

We’ve also included Asura’s DLC battles with Ryu, Evil Ryu, Akuma, and Oni from the Lost Episodes of his original game as a bit of nostalgia.

Which of these new attires are you most looking forward to adding to your Street Fighter wardrobe? Tell us in the comments below!

Source: Street Fighter (Twitter); CapcomUSA_ (Twitter); Delriach (YouTube)