The Story of Blazblue - Fighting Game Retrospectives 

Imagine the bad guy's whole plan being to make the main hero hate him so much that the bad guy lives rent free in the heroes head which makes him technically immortal. What a concept.

The best part of Blazblues story is that you can't spoil it, you can only spoil one facet of what happened at a time.

I always thought Terumi put himself in Ragnas head for no other reason than, “those kids? Yea fuck those kids” and just kept Ragna alive so he could stay in reality. But now that I know Ragna is the literal center of the universe and God will keep him alive at any cost, he was the perfect person for Terumi to mentally dominate 24/7. This story is insane but so good

So, God is an anime fangirl, the world is her fanfic, and Ragna is her OC.

I remember being in a voice call with a bunch of people from Skoriath' server, and we were having a heated discussion about some details on the plot. After a while some guy goes "We'd have to ask someone who's and expert on this" then there was like a second or two of silence and someone else mentions that "we ARE the experts"

Key note for anyone wondering the reason why the origin specifically "made" ragna was because the original black beast was the brother of the origin who tried to save her. Hence why in the story the "hero" kept killing the "girl". It was a retelling how the origins brother ended up becoming a monster instead of the hero

Imagine my confusion when I decide to learn english by playing Blazblue

Hakumen, literally for the meeting of him and Tsubaki. My man made some strong mistakes in his life/timeline and then he got the chance to go back in time to meet the person he cared for the most. He then took the opportunity to go out of his way to protect her and guide her. I'm a huge sucker for redemption arcs.

Possible hot take: For an idea of how that BlazBlue bad dad sliding scale might work, Jubei might be the best dad in the game. Now consider that he constantly popping in and out of the lives of his students rather than sticking around and that he’s so neglectful of his own daughter that he’s never on screen with her at any point during the story, and you can get an idea of how much worse it goes from there.

My favorite part of the story is that Azarel is so strong that he can tear reality with his bare hands

I Usually dislike time manipulation stories, but BlazBlue won me over. You brought back all my feels reminding me of all this. Good job digging in.

I haven’t touched Blazblue in the past 5 years or so. Seeing that opening montage start up with a showcase of “The Wheel of Fate is Turning” from all 4 BB games has left me grinning from ear to ear with nostalgia. Thank you for the incredible video.

Finally. The plot explanation to my favorite game.

2:03:34 Given the same mythology they're pulled from, you could've gone "Izanami is the Master Unit's Persona" and carried the same message while also lampshading the fact BlazBlue & P4 share a villainess Izanami. Now I kinda wish BBTAG leaned into that where the Investigation Team and Team BlazBlue attempt to trade notes on Izanami only to confuse the hell out of the other party.

I knew the lore of Blazblue before this but I love to see how other people explain it so I can get different perspectives on Blazblue

I knew nothing of Blazblue’s story and only liked one of the songs and like most of the character designs…to learn this whole game was a MASSIVE TIME LOOP that continues from multiples games so insane to me. And yet I’m fascinated -w-

2:04:40 The arcade mode in Central Fiction had 3 acts: 1. Act 1: all characters face Nine in the end 2. Act 2: all characters face Izanami in the end 3. Act 3: each character has a unique boss at the end(along with 3 secret unlimited bosses that can be fought after meeting certain conditions)

You can have as many problems as you like with Centralfiction but that finale is stupendous and heart-wrenching and a vital lesson to anyone with aspirations for long-form fiction: the finale is not about solving your lore problem, it's about solving your characters.

Kagura doesn't want to kill a Noel either, he tries to save her but Noel fights him because she doesn't know if she can trust anyone anymore, so Kagura just holds back.

Just wanted to express my immense gratitude for making this video. You did an amazing job in explaining BlazBlue's convoluted but captivating story. Also, Bang is the hero we all should aspire to be. For love and justice!

It is cliche but Ragna is up there as one of my faves from Blazblue. His everyman person getting frustrated with everything going on around him is extremely relatable and makes him one of the most funny and relatable characters. Mai is also up there she is just such a pure soul, and her being able to eat Noel's cooking cause she tastes the pure love that Noel puts into her food that is not even edible to most people. Also Hazama and Terumi is one of the most fun chaotic evil villains ever, guy is just fueled by pure spite and revels in making the lives of everyone around him worse. Love Makoto cause she is honestly just a ray of sunshine and makes things fun. I can't really give an exact reason or choose a single character to be my favorite character, cause each one has so many reasons to love them. These are just a few off the top of my head. Last one, Tager is great cause he is such a good gentle giant type character and making him feel like a chill office worker despite walking around like a bloody Red Oni is genius.

I like how I'm somewhat confused still, but can say "hey, that actually makes sense" from time to time just cus you've made following the main events much easier.

Hazama/Terumi/Susano'o is my favorite character, and one of my favorite characters in all of fiction. He's just THE most hateable bastard and every scene with him is always incredibly entertaining. Hazama was also the first character I've ever cosplayed at 12 years old, and has always held a special place in my heart. I DON'T CARE HOW EDGY HE IS, HE'S COOL OK?!

Observing is clearly based on the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Where anything you observe is changed a tiny bit just by the act of observing, meaning nothing can be perfectly measured. Shroedingers Cat as well, but it makes me think of both.

*Celica!* She's a real one, basically sacrificed herself for the whole world twice. She's definitely the most positive character of the bunch. Shout out to the nuns

Wow, that sure was a lot of story, I wonder if we’re halfway through the lore or something? *Thorgi mentions how that was just the first game.* *Realizes it’s already been an hour.* …..Oh.

Being one of the people who plays BlazeBlue for the story, I had so many "oh yeah, that happened" moments in this video It's bonkers when you actually think about everything that happens in the story, but when actually playing the game, you just go along with it and get hyped when the big thing happens Thank you for a refresher on this madness Also, I am so glad that in the end, Rachael was the true best girl. She lowkey had experienced the most BS out of all the characters over the course of thousands of years of loops, in my mind she will find her Ragna in the end and have a happy ending..

Not sure how many people might be finding this video for the first time thanks to Triple KO, but I did say I was going to watch this, so I'm going to get comfy and enjoy the chaos that is about to unfold.

2:21:29 Terumi didn't want to destroy the unit's creations endlessly as that was only a means for some revenge, the reason he wanted to create worlds was to plague them with fear and hate of him to gain power as he is strengthened by hatred.

You know the story of Blazblue had a great resolution when I got to the clip where Thorgi showed the cutscene of Ragna embracing Rachel and I started tearing up a little bit. Man these characters are so good I love this series so much.

I’m so terminally in love with complex fiction like KH and GG, to the point where I understand the story clearly from beginning to end…I NEED HELP

Well, I'm a major Blazblue fan whose been following the series since I got Calamity Trigger on my PSP when I was 7, and I gotta say, this is the first time in all 12 years that I've been a fan of this series that I feel like I actually understand the story, so thanks for that!

1:03:58 Honestly, with the way, you’re explaining the story I’m actually really getting it. It’s weird and confusing but with the way that you’re explaining it, it’s actually understandable.

literally yesterday i was thinking "hey it's been about a month, i bet thorgi's blazblue retrospective part 2 is finishing up" and here we go!

The unsimplifiable story, and you did an admirable job simplifying and explaining it. A very enjoyable video from start to finish. As someone who's enjoyed the series for years, I loved the whole retrospective. Great series!

Thanks to the St Elsewhere clip, I cannot help but imagine that what Ragna did at the end of Central Fiction is basically the final scene of the aforementioned show.

No lie, I love Blazblue's characters, gameplay, and crazy story. It was absolutely confusing at points, but when the pieces fall into place, it's fantastic. BTW, Mai is my favorite for very personal reasons.

Going through the Blazblue lore is Madness. How confused am i? It's like looking at the Azure itself. I'm suprised that i haven't gone mad, become a monster or became an observer. I mean i already knew about most of the Blazblue lore.

I think the most amazing part about this video is that you were able to condense the lore down to a 2 hour vid.

Huge respect to mori for going full crazy on this story. Even if im not a big fan of this franchise, I think ice ky is really cool.

No matter how long the story is or how crazy the plot twist events become like Kingdom hearts. Blazblue definitely needs some attention and appreciation, too, and I hope Arc system works would make more games in the future (also bring the dub cast again). P.S. if possible, Marvel vs Arc system works would be random, but a cool idea to see as a BTR video

I feel like being prepped by both Guilty Gear and the Fate/* material, this isn't really confusing at all ... as you present it; I imagine I'd have been flabbergasted trying to piece it together in realtime. :)

Man I'm so glad someone made a video explaining this story. I started in BlazBlue cross tag battle, so you can imagine how confused I was. After trying to understand the guilty gear story for months now. Trying to understand this story through this video alone is actually a breath of frsh air and a sigh of relief.

I remember trying to figure out this story for weeks back before chronophantasma and getting completely lost. Thank you for doing all of the heavy lifting to make this impactful, if convoluted, story really sing!

So in terms of how confused I am: I have never in my life believed that you could have a headache from being confused. I thought it was a trope. I thought it was a funny meme or joke. I was grinding in a game while listening intently, and when I tried to re go through everything up through calamity trigger, I actually felt my head throb and I had to stop for a moment. This story feels like a wad of jumbled floss given to language. I had no idea that I was signing up for this, I just wanted to see the haha funny snake man be mean and green. So on a scale of 1-10 in terms of confused I'd say I'm firmly at 12 and going strong. Also I applaud you for being able to take this complicated story and put it in a way that a dumbass like me can sorta follow.

lambda was my favorite, having her chase the faintest memory of comfort in her blanked head made me care for her and hoped she would get some sort of happy ending.

now imagine being a child playing the games backwards... this clarified so much after so many years yes, I just got this

I am indeed listening to this while at work, and this is the first time any of this has made a lick of sense that I could actively follow! Thank you for the crazy amount of work you put into this!

I love Ragna and Bang the most. They both have endured so much, Ragna especially, and it would've been so very understandable if they'd fallen off their paths at any point, lost their way. Even still, they remain steadfast and continue to endure, retaining their values and going above and beyond for others, even when those others might treat them poorly.

The literal hundreds of times I've heard or read someone say that Blazblue's story was complicated did not adequately prepare me.

Possible hot take, but Tsubaki is my favorite. I know she’s not exactly liked in certain circles, but to me, not only does she have a great design, really fun gameplay, and that I love she uses light for her attacks, she’s a great deconstruction of the “ideal Japanese woman” archetype that is common in anime. She was raised from birth to believe the NOL and Imperator are holy and never wrong. It reminds me of extremist religious households. It’s kinda more clear when you take into account that Tsubaki references God and religious terms quite a bit in her attacks. It’s not surprising living like that all her life would screw her up. Her dilemma over what true justice or blind justice is is also pretty interesting to me. Her Arcade modes tend to be my favorites, especially her BBCF one. Also, her moments with Jin, Hakumen, Noel, and Makoto are among the most heartrending of the series, the fight with her against Jin, Noel, and Makoto in Chronophantasma being one of the best moments of the series for me.

Took a while to watch it all and digest everything, but what a wild ride. You’re doing Amaterasu’s work, Thorgi!

What did I learn from this video? Being Ragna is suffering Jin is crazy Terumi is a bad person But most importantly, Bang is the best. Also, did you know, when Hakumen killed the Black Beast, the Black Beast tranform back into Ragna, young Ragna. Then Hakumen proceeded to commit a non-living action on young Ragna, aka he killed a kid. Our hero, everyone, Hakumen

For me my favourite character is 100% Ragna, other characters like Celica, Es and Naoto are also up there but for me Ragna is the absolute top of character writing in this game. I love how his initial impressions are fairly bland and on the surface he seems like a typical edgelord but below the surface is once of the kindest, most caring and multifaceted characters i've ever seen. The way his character progresses and you get to see exactly what makes him tick makes him constantly changing in a way that feels natural and interesting. Also the fact that he's constantly manipulated by others like Terumi only to only to find the world is centred around him and then using that knowledge and the powers granted to him from that to give back a world where all of humanity, his friends and his siblings can all find happiness by sacrificing himself is heartbreaking by bittersweet. I would love for Ragna to return in later games but all i wish for is that they don't take this one moment away from him as it's the one chance he gets to do something purely for himself and he choses to give it to everyone but himself. Blazblue despite it's quirks remains one of my favourite franchises due to it's pristine gameplay, amazing characters, crazy if not overcomplicated story and it's top tier soundtrack and visuals and I hope that never changes even with all the uncertainty with MoriP leaving ArcSys. Thank you for making these videos so that others can discover these games that mean so much to me

Thank you, I'm one of those people who was too confused to even start, I just started playing so I could play cute samurai kitty Jubei

Also, is interesting that at least you didn't leave Terumi's plot twist of him being Susanoo for later. And plot twists/surprises like that is the reason I like the story so much, it keeps on adding details and overarching stuff to each character and plot to the point it really looks solid and makes you go "OOOOoooh" when you find the dots connect.

I remember a while back there was this video game RU-vid channel I stumbled upon named WoolieVersus who did a multi-part series explaining the Guilty Gear timeline, and I was hoping they would one day take on the colossal task of explaining the BlazBlue timeline. They never ended up doing it, so my hat's off to you good sir for taking a shot at it. Also thanks for reminding me of that final shot of Ragna's grave, where his signature sword which was embedded into the ground right next to it, was now missing. That final scene always felt both a bit hopeful and a bit ominous to me.

I thought Noel's eye verified terumis existence. Up untill that point ragna blamed jin for cutting his arm. After Noel's vision, ragna now knows that Terumis was the one that cut his arm.

actually telling this story chronologically is so useful. i remember being so confused when i first played calamity trigger. you need information from chronophantasma to understand what the heck is going on in calamity trigger lol.

This is the best thing i watched on youtube i guess

So in simple terms, Blazblue is what happens when you take the plot of Guilty Gear and mix it with a plot of a Teen Dystopian Novel.

Re: Confusion. Honestly, keeping track of the character names has been the most difficult part of grasping this plot. You've done a bang-up job outlining the major beats of this story!

It’s mind bendingly complicated and I love it

The short version: Mad scientists tried to play God, now everyone are stuck in time loop, so everything that happened did happen. Only the power of family can save the day.

This has been the best explanation that I've seen of the plot for this game, I am extremely grateful for this video as it really helps organize the story in a very digestible way. Also I know a lot of people meme the story for it's complexity but honestly I've always found it incredibly interesting even back when I was a little kid that didn't understand anything, maybe it's cause I've always weirdly been a fan of convoluted plotlines (I absolutely love Kingdom Hearts too XD).

I got into the BlazBlue story back in 2013 when I was 15. I saw the character designs and liked fighting games (even though I had no deep understanding of them at the time), so I was immediately hooked. I checked out the wiki, and was flabbergasted at the insane complexity before me. But that somehow served to intrigue me more. I watched the stories for CT through CP since I only had Nintendo systems until I was 18. I eventually also got into GG and got Revelator with my PS4 in 2016 and preordered CF. So I'm already familiar with a lot this, but a recap is always necessary for this series, and it's entertaining just to see someone explain this insanity.

To answer the bigger question this video was amazing and will have been essential to me finally getting into this series. It feels like you need to play through this series again each time you beat a subsequent game to understand all the different little pieces. This video feels like what you get after finally beating the fourth game and now you're ready to go back through one more time and hope all the pieces line up and that's exactly what I'll be doing, while feeling like I have to ability to take my time and really pay attention to all the character interactions and side bits without feeling overwhelmed with trying to understand the main plot. Essentially what I'm saying is I'm a successful case of your exact mission when making this video, I think you absolutely nailed the lynch pin with this one

I can not thank you enough for this. Not only did you tell the story and try to make it as understandable as possible. You also were entertaining and made sitting through over 2 hours info dump actually fun to listen to. Thank you so much

You finally got through the Blazblue experience and for how you condensed it, I say you did a good job with it even making me surprised with stuff I didn't know like Observers and Onlookers being completely different as for who my favorite is, it'll be Ragna the Bloodedge for being a tragic hero that'll not get the happy ending he wants but will at least make sure the new world will have a future for everyone else, and why he's some of my favorites in video games

before this i knew nothing about blazblue now i still know nothing but i am convinced that bang shishigami is the greatest fighting game character ever devised by human minds and hands

I'm commenting where you said to. I got in to Blazblue late, loved it, and never had a chance to go back. Everything is slowly piecing together.

At half way point: Confusion: I'm actually still not confused because thankfully I've had to go through this story telling too many times After the end: Yuuki Terumi. Now knowing his goal, it makes me love him even more. He's a harbinger of destruction and chaos for something/one that wants to torture. He went through YEARS ON YEARS waiting to get it by setting it up and nearly got it

2 and a half hours. Yeah, this is going to be fun.

Between the last one and this video I actually managed to find a copy of Centralfiction in a second hand games store, so it’s very cool to learn the story now with the gameplay experience.

I discovered blazblue from the mangas and its crazy to see how big and deep the story actually is.

Thank you for making this! This needed to exist and you were the one who made the sacrifices necessary to make it happen. I can’t imagine how long it took to put this all together. So one again, thank you!

2:18:01 Honestly, the best way I can wrap my head around this is that The Azure is essentially The Root from Fate and Es is The Azure’s version of a Counter Guardian. Meanwhile you can say that Drives are the BlazBlue equivalent of True Magic from fate😅

Man, I thought I understood Central Fiction when I jumped into it... But now that I understand it better, I just like it even more. The overall themes of self-determination and fighting against the impossible are fantastic. And as for favorite character...I really like Terumi. I love his unhinged, joyful glee at ruining everything around him. I also love that even he, at the end of the story, is just trying to fight against the destiny forced onto him by the Amaterasu Unit, giving him an interesting dynamic with Ragna. Overall, I love both BB's and GG's story. Can't wait to see what's next.

Made it to the “intermission” and I was asked to come to the comments and say if I’m still following. I am, surprisingly. I think I had some interaction with BlazeBlue before knowing what it was. I remember an animation I saw a very long time ago that had a boy falling into a glowing pit and being sent back in time becoming a giant monster. So when the time loop and the whole turning into the Black Beast was mentioned, everything clicked and I had a huge nostalgia wave. I realized I’ve found the story that inspired the short animation I had seen so long ago. I want to say thank you for making this video and reuniting me with this memory I had nearly forgotten.

Man this video is awesome thank you for all the effort you made. I follow the series since continuum shift around 2012 and make me happy more people talk about the lore of BlazBlue.

It sure took a while. No wonder that plot of Blazblue is a meme in terms of it's convoluted and big plot without much reason for that Gotta love Mori for that 👍

I used to think BlazBlue was stupid- and it undoubtedly is- but it’s stupid in a very cool way. Amazing video

I remember being really disappointed that the sequels didn’t have as branching a story, I found it really fun to map it all out myself and go down every branch

Jin still being a bastard but on his own terms was such a funny way to put it.

I've watched a "full story of Blaze Blue" befor and your doing a better job so far.

I haven’t seen the episode yet, but this video explaining the whole story is 20 minutes longer than the retrospective on literally everything else. I commend Thorgi for summarizing it down to the essential events.

Compliments are in order for Thorgi. You did a fantastic job with all aspects of this video. The story, editing, and even your voice are all great. You made a crazy complex story understandable. Compliments and gratitude never get old so excellent job and thanks.

dude, this video was just freaking great. i've played these games since continuum shift but i've only ever brushed with the story, but actually understanding the events behind each of the games makes me appreciate the series so much more. and the way you made this complicated as heck story really digestible and understandable is just fantastic, and I know it must've not been easy. Also my favorite characters gameplay wise are Azrael and Ragna.

Honestly I had trouble keeping everything straight in my head by the end of CT, but holy shit this is a RIDE and I'm here for it.

Being an Observer effectively gives you the power to manipulate quantum superposition and that's fuckin awesome.

As someone who is a big fan of the series, it is videos like this help me refresh my knowledge of things. Thumbs up here.

Carl Clover would go on to become “That Man” in the Guilty Gear timeline, grasping the boundary and creating Gears based on his father’s work.

I really REALLY appreciate this video. I've played the series from CT to CF and while I had an idea of what was happening, it was still difficult to piece it together. This not only explain it in a concise manner (albeit still long), its a nice refresher for people who might've forgotten about the story down the line. Great job!

Freaking amazing job man! You somehow actually condensed blazblue plot into an understandable video that didn't go over 10 hours! Cant imagine the amount of work it took.

I can't believe someone was able to explain this in a way I could understand it and stay interested in it. Its a year late but thank you so much for making this and putting the time into it. You are awesome ^^

Good combination of interesting and ASMR in the middle of the work day. Appreciate ur efforts on this truly!

you told this story so great I cant imagine how big the impact wouldve been being a fan from the beginning if this 2+ hour long video got me emotional by the ending.. also rachel bc I love spooky characters and her playstyle is fun

Tbh mai will always have a softspot for being what drew me into blazblue but something about teruni/susanoo will always draw me back to them

I'm at the half way point, and I am only not confused because I have played some of the games' story modes before. It's a good recap with only slight errors that might just be generalizations for clarity's sake.

I'm half way through this vid and you've already cleared up years of confusion trying to understand the story. And yes, you're narration is S+ tier :D