BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle Producer Talks Crossovers, Fighting Game Design, and More

Greg Burke recently had a chance to chat with Toshimichi Mori about upcoming crossover tag team fighter BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle.

Ozzie Mejia

February 20, 2018 11:30 AM

It's been a very good year for Arc System Works so far, with the early success of Dragon Ball FighterZ and with many of its games selected for the Evo 2018 lineup. The developer hopes to keep the party going with its big crossover fighter set to hit later this year, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle.

"With BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, the controls and character balance has been completely reworked," game director Toshimichi Mori told Shacknews. "Especially the controls have been completely re-innovated. So in a sense, the veterans can expect a completely new BlazBlue and the players will enjoy this new game. At the same time, players who have played fighting games developed or published by Arc System Works should be able to understand what the key concepts of this game are."

Mori goes on to discuss Cross Tag Battle's intuitive controls, designing fighting games for arcade stick players, the crossover of various franchises, and more.

BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle was first revealed at Evo 2017 as a crossover of the BlazBlue, Persona 4: Arena, Under Night In-Birth, and RWBY worlds. It was given a release date during the Evo 2018 reveal broadcast, with the game set to hit PC, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch on February 6. Check out our full interview with game director Toshimichi Mori below.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

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