This anime fighting game-inspired roguelite deserves your attention

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SHOULD I PLAY BLAZBLUE ENTROPY EFFECT?

Definitely give this one a shot if you’re a fan of great roguelites or the action-packed anime aesthetic of the BlazBlue series. This spin-off, BlazBlue Entropy Effect, sees familiar characters, move sets, and thumb-crushing combos of the BlazBlue fighting games translated into a roguelite action game formula. That makes for a challenging experience, but thanks to a tightly designed progression system and an intriguing story, I found it hard to put this game down.

TIME PLAYED

I’m about six hours deep into my time with BlazBlue Entropy Effect so far. In that time, I’ve made seven attempts at running through the game and have unlocked five of the ten playable characters. I’ve gathered enough resources in my runs to level my robot main character up to level 23, and I’ve started uncovering a dastardly scheme going on in the game’s AI-run dystopian city.

WHAT’S AWESOME ABOUT BLAZBLUE ENTROPY EFFECT?

• So much run variety. Each of Entropy Effect’s ten characters has a unique set of moves, strengths, and weaknesses, each of which can be modified through unlocks as a run progresses. But that’s only the surface level of how each attempt at victory can feel different. As I made it deeper into a run, I unlocked new powers (called Tactics) in eight different elemental categories, from fire to ice to umbra. Those Tactics ranged from passive buffs to activated abilities to adding damaging powers to my dodges.

In the hours I’ve played, I’ve only tested around forty of these powers, and there are literally hundreds in the game. And then as if that weren’t enough, when I died I was also able to save some of that character’s abilities as an “evotype.” I could then equip up to two evotypes before going into a new run, thus modifying my character even more. The best thing a roguelite can do is really make every run feel unique, and Entropy Effect definitely delivers on that.

• Tough but tightly designed combat. If there’s one thing that intimidated me going into Entropy Effect, it’s that I suck at fighting games—especially the super-fast, flashy ones like BlazBlue. Rest assured, though, that while this game carries some of that traditional anime fighter feel, it strikes a great balance between difficulty and approachability. Even though I’m bad at fighters, I was able to keep pushing forward, eventually making it to the boss of the fourth zone. And with a little more time, I’m confident I can overcome that challenge as well.

• A constant sense of progression. As a roguelite, BlazBlue Entropy Effect didn’t limit me to growing my character during each runs; I was also able to make progress between runs by leveling up the protagonist, equipping and upgrading run-changing abilities, and uploading my mind recording to the shady corporation SkysEyes to unlock new systems. The game provided a ton of forward momentum, so even when I died earlier into  a run than I wanted, I didn’t get too discouraged.

• A dark, weird, intriguing story and world. Between runs as various BlazBlue characters, I spent time exploring a hub area full of robots in the role of an “ACER”—basically, a robot with the ability to transfer my mind into the body of virtual heroes. I’m still not clear on why I’m taking part in these tests, but the deeper I’ve progressed, the more I’ve started to uncover a sinister conspiracy. And despite almost every character being a robot, that hub was full of recurring NPCs who had their own little side stories to explore and who quickly grew on me. I have no clue how much (if at all) Entropy Effect ties into the wider BlazBlue plot, but developer 91Act has put together a truly fascinating cyberpunk hellworld here.

WHAT SUCKS ABOUT BLAZBLUE ENTROPY EFFECT?

• The whims of RNG. Never knowing what you’re going to get on any given run is the blessing of a great roguelite, as well as the curse. The balance in BlazBlue Entropy Effect is definitely weighted more toward fun, but I did have a few runs where I felt like I was just getting bad choices, or at least choices that didn’t fit with the build I had envisioned. Just be ready to pivot as necessary.

• It could use more enemy variety. Each of the stages in Entropy Effect has maybe around five regular enemies, and you’ll bump into them in different arrangements in basically every room between you and that area’s boss fight. It’s not the biggest deal in the world, but after I’d visited an area once or twice, I knew exactly what to expect from it and was never really surprised. It’s a bummer that 91Act didn’t use some of the game’s early access period to add more regular enemy variety.

PLATFORM TESTED

PC via Steam.