While the game certainly looks bland, i can't help to enjoy it. Might it be bias from the materials I've read (tsukihime and past melty blood's)?
Perhaps, but i'd like to believe the charm it gave is genuine.

The story is... there. Past melty blood had a really good story, but right now the closest we got to a 'main' story in this game is the boss rush mode, with the latest one being the longest and certainly most entertaining. Right now melty blood's story is in a kind of a stasis since introducing a few characters would spoils the 'other side of red garden' part of tsukihime which is still not released at the time of me making this review.


The gameplay itself is basically classic melty blood with a few changes.

Shield : On release, i find the RPS Shield mechanic to be quite of a pain as it's annoying to deal and cheap since its free to spam and forces the opponent to do an RPS mechanic with you. But with the changes along the way up to the recent version, i couldn't be more satisfied. It's certainly far better than the past melty blood's shield, that's for sure.

autocombos : Autocombos or 'rapid beat' as the game called it. Its a welcome addition for those new to the fighting game genre but for those that aren't, It was quite controversial on release too as there's no way for player to turn it off, with most player that likes to spam their attacks on wake up ended up accidentally did an autocombo instead, although you can cancel it using specials. The most annoying part would probably for characters that had an air combo, since spamming an attack in the air repeatedly will automatically made you do a throw, forcing your unfinished combo to end early, meaning you need precise button input for some combos. But as with the case of previous 'problem', they've now added an option to turn it off (you can even turn only the air autocombos off and vice versa) which is probably my favorite update.

Moon drive/skills : Now this one... its a really cool new mechanics they added. The players now had a new meter which if full or 1/2 full, will be able to activate moon drive, Momentarily pausing the game for a split second, giving I-frames while also animation cancels your attack on activation. After activation, you'll also receives numerous buff alongside it.
The moon meter itself allows you to do a moon version of your special moves with added properties and easier activation at the cost of like 30% of the meter charge.

Characters : As of time of this writing, there are 22 playable characters. MBAACC (previous melty blood) had 31 but with the 3 moon styles (that Type Lumina doesn't have) for each characters, it might as well be 93. however considering the huge difference that this version had, i'd cut them some slack. Balance wise, most of the characters are balanced quite well excluding a few but even then, they're not straight up broken, its more that they had a slight advantages with their moves or gameplan vs other characters (F*ck Vlov tho).
Playstyles for each characters aren't that diverse though, unlike say, guilty gear strive. So...
Minus= lack of variety.
Plus= you can picked up most characters with relative ease.


Network: Some people have voices their experience with unstable connection or just plain bad rollback that are too aggressive. on release, i too had a rough experience playing with my friends and future updates sometime fixing while something giving new problem to the network, I wouldn't say its stable. at the recent update, I had practically no issue playing online with other people, some had really bad (like 1 bar) connection and the gameplay is butter smooth but sometimes theres that one weird exception where you play against a player with decent connection and it somehow felt like you're playing with 90s internet but it's a rare occurence. Regardless, the network is certainly unstable for some, so be warned.



All in all, i'd say, if you're new or a fan of fighting games, buy it. especially considering that more free dlc characters (yes free) are to come. there's few fighting games that offered as much freedom of movement as melty blood and this version is certainly far more accessible for those that are new to the fighting game genre.

[h1] Probably the funnest I've had with a fighting game. [/h1] While the game certainly looks bland, i can't help to enjoy it. Might it be bias from the materials I've read (tsukihime and past melty blood's)? Perhaps, but i'd like to believe the charm it gave is genuine. The story is... there. Past melty blood had a really good story, but right now the closest we got to a 'main' story in this game is the boss rush mode, with the latest one being the longest and certainly most entertaining. Right now melty blood's story is in a kind of a stasis since introducing a few characters would spoils the 'other side of red garden' part of tsukihime which is still not released at the time of me making this review. The gameplay itself is basically classic melty blood with a few changes. [b] Shield [/b]: On release, i find the RPS Shield mechanic to be quite of a pain as it's annoying to deal and cheap since its free to spam and forces the opponent to do an RPS mechanic with you. But with the changes along the way up to the recent version, i couldn't be more satisfied. It's certainly far better than the past melty blood's shield, that's for sure. [b] autocombos [/b]: Autocombos or 'rapid beat' as the game called it. Its a welcome addition for those new to the fighting game genre but for those that aren't, It was quite controversial on release too as there's no way for player to turn it off, with most player that likes to spam their attacks on wake up ended up accidentally did an autocombo instead, although you can cancel it using specials. The most annoying part would probably for characters that had an air combo, since spamming an attack in the air repeatedly will automatically made you do a throw, forcing your unfinished combo to end early, meaning you need precise button input for some combos. But as with the case of previous 'problem', they've now added an option to turn it off (you can even turn only the air autocombos off and vice versa) which is probably my favorite update. [b] Moon drive/skills [/b]: Now this one... its a really cool new mechanics they added. The players now had a new meter which if full or 1/2 full, will be able to activate moon drive, Momentarily pausing the game for a split second, giving I-frames while also animation cancels your attack on activation. After activation, you'll also receives numerous buff alongside it. The moon meter itself allows you to do a moon version of your special moves with added properties and easier activation at the cost of like 30% of the meter charge. [b] Characters [/b]: As of time of this writing, there are 22 playable characters. MBAACC (previous melty blood) had 31 but with the 3 moon styles (that Type Lumina doesn't have) for each characters, it might as well be 93. however considering the huge difference that this version had, i'd cut them some slack. Balance wise, most of the characters are balanced quite well excluding a few but even then, they're not straight up broken, its more that they had a slight advantages with their moves or gameplan vs other characters (F*ck Vlov tho). Playstyles for each characters aren't that diverse though, unlike say, guilty gear strive. So... Minus= lack of variety. Plus= you can picked up most characters with relative ease. Network: Some people have voices their experience with unstable connection or just plain bad rollback that are too aggressive. on release, i too had a rough experience playing with my friends and future updates sometime fixing while something giving new problem to the network, I wouldn't say its stable. at the recent update, I had practically no issue playing online with other people, some had really bad (like 1 bar) connection and the gameplay is butter smooth but sometimes theres that one weird exception where you play against a player with decent connection and it somehow felt like you're playing with 90s internet but it's a rare occurence. Regardless, the network is certainly unstable for some, so be warned. All in all, i'd say, if you're new or a fan of fighting games, buy it. especially considering that more free dlc characters (yes free) are to come. there's few fighting games that offered as much freedom of movement as melty blood and this version is certainly far more accessible for those that are new to the fighting game genre.