Game Review II: "Melty Blood" series

Melty Blood is a game not too many people may be familiar with. That's because it's seen in America so few times, as Japan exclusive company Type-Moon haven't released it under English distribution, at least not officially. The eroge visual novel, Tsukihime, serves as the base of the Melty Blood story. The story centers on the character Shiki Tohno, a boy who seems ordinary, but is anything but. Here's why: originally, his identity is Shiki Nanaya, born as the member of a demon-slaying clan of assassins. The Tohnos, on the other hand, are a family associated with demon blood. The Nanaya clan were soon destroyed by not only the Tohnos, but also the Kishimas, a branch of the Tohno family. The head of the Tohno family soon adopted Shiki, being the only survivor of the attack. Shik's name was identical to SHIKI, the son  of the Tohno elder.

For the now-adopted Shiki Tohno, his problems didn't end there. The Tohnos had this thing called the "inversion impulse", a trigger that causes those of the demon blood to lose rationality with only the mindset to kill. SHIKI inverted without caution, bearing his blade at his sister, Akiha. At the risk of his own life, Shiki shielded her, which led to him being stabbed. This caused a scar on his body, among other symptoms. SHIKI was also supposedly slain by the Tohno elder, yet they were both very much alive. Locking up SHIKI, the Tohnos sent Shiki to live with the distant relatives, the Arimas, for the 8 years prior to Tsukihime's events. During Tsukihime, the story takes off after Shiki's return to the Tohno family, in addition to accidentally slaying into pieces a girl, later revealed as the True Ancestor vampire: Arcueid Brunestud.


Melty Blood, the spinoff to the aforementioned Tsukihime, originally started off as a lighter, non-adult version of the novel. Taking place one year after Tsukihime, the fighting novel has a wide cast of characters in total: a mix of the people of the original story and sequel, as well as a few original faces, with Sion Eltnam Atlasia serving as a main heroine who, depending on the story route, fights alongside Shiki, or against him. After being released on the PC, Melty Blood gained a few expansions. Melty Blood: Re-ACT serves as the expansion that succeeds Melty Blood's main story, which includes the towering Giant Akiha as a non-playable character. Re-ACT drops the Story Mode seen in the original, while expanding the stories of individual characters in the Arcade Mode. While the original had doppleganger characters with the same movesets (Moveset of Shiki Tohno = Moveset of Shiki Nanaya), Re-ACT made tweaks, so despite how similar they are, there are noticeable differences in gameplay. Melty Blood: Re-Act Final Tuned is the final expansion of this specific title, bearing a control scheme similar to the succeeding Melty Blood: Act Cadenza, with the inclusion of 4 colors for each character.

Melty Blood: Act Cadenza is another expansion, and the first of the series to see a Playstation 2 port. Emphasized more on the fighting engine, the Story Mode aspect was eliminated. Aoko Aozaki was made playable through some revamping of her moveset, originally a boss character of the previous title. In addition to this, Kouma Kishima was also added, a character that was a member of Shiki's past as a Nanaya. This title saw 2 versions. Version A was an arcade port that first featured the two characters. The PS2 port, Version B, included the early form of Neco-Arc Chaos, a short character who resembled Neco-Arc, but fought in the mix of the movesets of Neco-Arc, Mech-Hisui and Nrvnqsr (Nero) Chaos. This character can only be selectable by pressing the (D) button on Nrvnqsr before selecting him. The Len doppleganger, White Len, was still made unavailable. With the fact that the Atlasia crest was still seen in the title (Version A had this) Version B is considered a variant of Ver. A. When Version B hit the PC, White Len was finally made available, albeit weaker. The logo saw a change as well, featuring silhouettes of both Len characters. The game included as well a giant boss, Neco-Arc Chaos Black G666.

Melty Blood: Actress Again is the third game, and perhaps the one with the biggest changes, with 2 new characters, an extra variant of Akiha, and the inclusion of Ryougi Shiki, a character from another Type-Moon work: Kara no Kyoukai, whose world is parallel to Tsukihime's. PS2 saw its official release. Unverified is the supposed arcade version, Melty Blood: Actress Again Current Code. And it's highly uncertain if there is, or will be, an official PC/Games for Windows release of the game.

As of now, this is the final grade as to the Melty Blood series:

• Melty Blood: 6
• Melty Blood Re-ACT: 6.5
• Melty Blood Re-ACT Final Tuned: 6.5
• Melty Blood Act Cadenza: 7
• Melty Blood Actress Again: 8

While it's not as famous as the works of games made by Aksys Games, it plays something of the like. To get this game, you have to get it imported, because it's too soon to be playable on US game consoles.