Actress Again: Counting the Days

August 19th, 2009

 

Just a reminder that it’s out in Moonland on PS2 now. It has to get ported to PC, right? RIGHT!? Hopefully only about 365 more days to go. 365 long Ryougi, school girl Akiha, and Archetype:Earth free days. *sigh*

Posted in Melty Blood | 19 Comments »

19 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • jeffng9 says:

    LoLz
    thats totally bullying to me… well its basically promoting ryougi shiki but then still it would have been better if the opponent is much stronger

    • Yue says:

      Satsuki in the hands of a skilled human player (MBver.B) can vacuum grab you 4 (or was it 5) times in succession.

      My female colleague did that combo to me and from then on I was traumatized and never played MB again.

      • LoliSauce says:

        That’s not skilled, that’s a waste of meter(also pretty basic). You should see some of the new shit Sacchin can do in MBAA. IIRC, her new bnb has one or two 2 frame links. It’s really hard to do, but the damage is so satisfying.

      • Yue says:

        Which means only one thing if MBAA gets released for the PC… i should keep my colleagues in the dark so as to avoid another humiliating defeat in their hands.

        Ever had friends who become more masterful than the one who introduced the game? I’m the latter. ~_~

  • Yue says:

    May I ask a question for veteran Tsukihime/Melty Blood readers?

    Is there a correlation between the two Shiki families?
    Since Akiha’s clan destroyed Tohno/Nanaya Shiki’s family,
    I’m under the impression that either one is a main family and another is a branch family.

    Does this present a valid discussion?

    • Nanaya says:

      If you’re talking about Tohno[/Nanaya] and Ryougi, then there’s no real connection. Both their families were part of the Demon Hunters Association, but Ryougi has her name because of her family’s tendency to have children with dual personalities, and ‘Shiki’ can be either female or male (with a different way of writing it for each personality).

      Kara no Kyoukai was written before Tsukihime, so Ryougi is more like an early blueprint to Tohno/Nanaya’s character (Type-Moon is known for recycling characters). Also, not sure if you know, but in Japan the first name is written *after* the family name (so Shiki is their first name).

      If you’re talking about Tohno and Nanaya Shiki, they’re the same person – Nanaya Shiki is the split personality of Tohno Shiki (oddly enough, ‘Nanaya’ is the the original Shiki, or how he would have been if not for his family being wiped out).

      • Yue says:

        Okay, let me see if I clearly understood.

        [Deductions]

        The name Shiki is the first name for both characters. The surnames are Ryougi and Nanaya for each character’s respective clan thus not blood-related

        So, the mystic-eye bearers in Kara no Kyokai and Tsukihime just coincidentally share the same firstname which is “Shiki”.

        [Random thought]

        This means if both somehow meet, they are more likely to say, “Dare ka?”, “Omae kurusu…”

      • Hayate says:

        That’s basically correct.

        Shiki is just the first names to the two. And their last names tended to belong to particular clans.

        The Ryougi Clan was a special clan that required a special trait to lead the family. Ryougi in this case had it while her brother didn’t. The special trait was the so called split personality that she had where she had one female personality and one male personality in her. The usage of the Japanese language dialect used by either personality was different in terms of how girls or how boys used it.

        The Nanaya Clan was a special clan whose blood would react to those with unnatural powers or ‘demons’ in a sense. Their job was to basically exterminate them, the training and eventual taking of that destined job would leave them as cold-blooded killers.

        Now that’s out of the way.

        The Mystic Eyes of Death, came coincidentally through what seemed to be near death-ish like experiences. Shiki Tohno with his brush of death after getting stabbed in the chest. Shiki Ryougi getting hit by a car and forced into a coma. However, there is one catch. The two have different forms of the same mystic eyes.

        Supposedly Ryougi has what seems to be the true Mystic Eyes of Death where she doesn’t require having to trace lines, but rather cut along one straight line. Like Shiki Tohno, she’s able to determine abnormalities in the body and stop them or cut through object. Though she is able to fully control when or when not to use the eyes. Also she’s able to cut through attacks of opposing Mystic Eyes users.

        Shiki Tohno’s is a variant of the skill, where he would see black lines and dots. In one sense, you can also considering it being slightly more specific than Ryougi’s. Shiki’s Mystic Eyes are always on, and he initally can only see lines. However after one event, he then has the ability to see the lines and dots, however almost to the point where he was driven into an insane moment where his Nanaya blood almost took him over. Forced to wear glasses given by Aoko Aozaki.

        Both users are able to ‘instantly kill’ their opponent in one strike. Ryougi can doing it naturally as she was fully trained. Shiki on the other hand requires him somewhat ‘losing’ himself to his Nanaya blood to get that level of skill, also Shiki requires him actually striking at a specific dot he sees.

        Supposedly Shiki is slightly more powerful than Ryougi in terms of raw power. But Ryougi beats Shiki in pure skill until Shiki goes into his Nanaya state.

        The only reason why there would be a possible link between the two series is because of the sisters, Touko Aozaki and Aoko Aozaki. Aoko steals the glasses or at least the materials for the glasses from Touko. Aoko is refered to as Ms. Blue in the magicians community, a title that Touko wanted. Touko absolutely is on bad terms with her sister, to the point of killing it seems. Since Aoko tends to travel around, the likelihood of them meeting is low. In terms of power between the two sisters. Aoko has destructive magic skills that make her a difficult opponent, while Touko’s intellect and cunning has a better advantage.

        (That went longer than it should have….)

      • Yue says:

        No, it wasn’t long really. Took me several minutes to read and it is time well-spent considering the amount of insight I gained. Thank you very much for the elaboration. ^_^

        Honestly, the part about the Mystic Eyes of Death turns out a bit more shocking than what I had believed as an exact invariable phenomenon for the aforementioned Shiki[s] that had undergone NDE.

        The last part about the Aozaki sisters made me squemish about the horror of potential crossing-over. There’s definitely a feeling of primal fear going in both series.

      • Hayate says:

        Oh yeah, just to elaborate on the possible further of ‘what would happen if both Shiki’s had met the other through some random occurance.’ Based on their current standings and personalities.

        Ryougi meets with Shiki, however she has no desire to associate with him even though he has similiar Mystic Eyes. Ryougi, works on a “I’ll kill you since you seem similiar or the same to me” type protocol. Unlike Shiki, who doesn’t want to really fight until absolutely necessary, Ryougi likes to kill and fight whenever she pleases. Ryougi’s third personality, the personality that reacts to the whole loss of the male personality, would simply regard Shiki as someone who just looks like Kokutou(Ryougi’s technical love interest of sorts but doesn’t show it much or even at all) but doesn’t care too much about besides Touko using him. There is a chance that if those two met, Touko would like to meet him out of curiousity of having the same kind of Mystic Eyes but different forms, then find out about the glasses because she’ll recognize the material it is made of, as well as it was hers, and likely ask who gave them to him. Which could in turn cause Touko to go into this slight ‘I’m still going to kill Aoko.’ mode while interrogating Shiki about where Aoko is with no success. As an added note Shiki wouldn’t react and go into Nanaya mode to either Ryougi or Touko because they’re not of the abnormal blood types or ‘demons.’ Shiki might react to the familiar that Touko has in her suitcase, but not to the point where he ‘loses’ himself to kill.

        Battle Moon Wars does a fairly decent job on a what if setting when they had the Kara no Kyoukai and Tsukihime characters meeting up in one path sense.

        Slightly out of order but, Ryougi’s desire to kill is usually based on what she senses or sees in her target. Either she just kills for the hell of it, which hasn’t happened after the accident. Ryougi’s current desire to kill just basically stems from her past experience, however it somewhat changed to people she probably would not like or with people with the same ‘killing’ manner as her in a sense. Shiki has a killing instinct because of his blood, but his general personality is what prevents him from fully becoming a Nanaya. Which in turns both lets him avoid being a target of Ryougi, as well Ryougi showing slight possible disgust or annoyance at him depending on the situation.

        I find Touko’s taboo a bit interesting because it is kinda funny since she wanted to be refer to as Ms. Blue not as Ms. Red. Calling her Red is asking for immediate death by her and her familiar once said.

        And to settle slightly who would win a fight between Ryougi and Shiki.

        By technicality. Ryougi would win with her skill, speed, her ‘doll’ arm which should be stronger than a human’s, and her desire to kill without remorse or mercy. Shiki would try and defend himself as best as he can, however in terms of speed which he is a bit fast but not as fast as Ryougi. Ryougi’s speed and inhuman like ability due to her early training already from the get go can kill Shiki within maybe a few moves or so depending how well Shiki can defend himself while reading the lines. However as noted, whenever Shiki goes into Nanaya mode, the skill difference is very minute and the speed is near the same. Nanaya mode Shiki can match Ryougi blow for blow, however there is one catch. Nanaya Shiki can come up with things that Ryougi wouldn’t think of which could decide the match in crtical moments. Not to mention that Nanaya Shiki also uses his own hands as personal weapons to attack at any lines or points he sees which gives him a lot of variety.

        Though in general. Ryougi vs Shiki(Normal) = Ryougi’s win. Ryougi vs Shiki(Nanaya) = either win based on situation, luck, and opportunity. Though one can argue that Shiki(Normal) could win as well is only determined if he doesn’t lose to his Nanaya blood, but accepts it and does what he did to Arcueid during their first meeting which is what we liked to call his ’17 Point Disection’ attack which he can instantly cause 17 disecting strikes all in one instance. Though likelihood of that is REALLY low because he needs a blood reaction from something abnormal first.

  • LoliSauce says:

    For those unable to play imports (or just too cheap to buy games instead of pirate them), here’s a guide to running MBAA on pc with a ps2 emulator. It’s not perfect, and largely affected by the quality of your computer, but it runs well enough to play at full speed.

    http://www.meltybread.com/forums/melty-blood-auditorium/how-to-run-melty-blood-actress-again-on-your-pc/

    Support the scene. Buy the game. Spread the hype.

    • Yue says:

      Had the PS2 version.

      But you know, it gets more remarkably competitive on the keyboard when MB’s bgm turned off and playing Brave Phoenix(Nanoha), Northern Cross(M.Frontier), Joint(Shana), etc. on the winAmp/winMP.

      Sigh, the combo just ranks up more and more as the music tempo gets faster and faster. And i’m always on the receiving end. I’m sport enough though to smile and a bit teary-eyed.

  • jeffng9 says:

    yue i can understand ur pain. i had frens like that too.
    i introduced KOF to my fren at first and this and that to him but end up i’m the one on the speechless side after challenging him.

    so i know ur pain.

    • Yue says:

      KoF, great game. I’m having 3rdstrike nostalgia.

      Yes, the feeling of having a heavy heart. I think that translates to some level of frustration and somehow they find glee in it. ~_~

      Even before MB, from GGReload to Slash, the same irony continued. Hence the reason of keeping MBAA or Blazblue in the dark.

  • Celestial says:

    SHIKI
    IS
    BEST
    O

  • Sterling01 says:

    “It has to get ported to PC, right”
    Narita said the PS2 version is going to be last port and they literally don’t feel like porting it to the PC

  • Anonymous says:

    You don’t have to worry about Archetype Earth. She’s just like one of those “Unlimited” characters in BlazBlue. A cheap Arcueid. You’re not missing much.