"You know where you're going? If it's hell, give the devil my regards."

Melty Blood's a bit like Street Fighter II. It's a fighting game that keeps on getting re-released under the same title with slightly different mechanics in gameplay and addition in characters with every new package, except Melty Blood comparatively brings more to the table with each new re-release. Let's start with some basic history before starting off this review, hmm?

Background

In the year 2000, a young writer named Kinoko Nasu, and his friend, the doujin artist Takashi Takeuchi, revolutionized the visual novel world with their best-selling game, Tsukihime, and with its massive popularity, the two of them founded the popular company known as Type-Moon, which would later become even more famous for its later and more successful work, Fate/stay night. Tsukihime featured an unforgettable narrative, haunting atmosphere, good soundtrack, memorable characters, and more. It starred the protagonist, Shiki Tohno, a seemingly otherwise normal teenager who had the strange power of the "Mystic Eyes of Death Perception," which, to put it simply, allowed him to easily kill anything or anyone by tracing mystic lines that only he could see with a knife. He acquired this power when he was a young child, after a mysterious near-death experience left him with a rather nasty scar on his chest, and a case of chronic anemia. For an unknown reason, he was subsequently disowned by his father, Makihisa Tohno, and sent off to live with distant relatives; the Arima family. Years later, after Makihisa's mysterious death, Shiki would be invited back to his original home in Misaki Town, inhabited by his younger sister, the new head of the family Akiha Tohno, and the two maids, Hisui and Kohaku. At the same time, he would also encounter strange happenings within the town, which had become an oasis for certain creatures of the night. Powerful vampires that roamed the streets at night. With that, he would meet the most powerful of them all, a "True Ancestor" vampire named Arcueid Brunestud, who was in town to hunt a nefarious "Dead Apostle Ancestor" vampire known as Michael Roa Valdamjong, or simply "Roa" for short. Also hunting Roa is a professional Executor from the Church known simply as Ciel.

The aforementioned characters (Arcueid, Ciel, Akiha, Hisui, and Kohaku) all act as potential love interests for Shiki, depending on the choices the player makes for him over the course of the story, each "route" he takes branching off into a different story, and ultimately, a different fate for him at the end of each day, fairly typical of visual novels that allowed for multiple endings and such, though the kicker here was that author Nasu took advantage of this with his unique story-telling method of only revealing a few of the plot details for every route, meaning that you wouldn't know the entire picture of the story until you finished each and every route. Arcueid and Ciel's routes, known as the "Near Side of the Moon" routes, focus mainly on the conflict that plagues Misaki Town; the threat of Roa that threatens everyone out there, while in contrast, the "Far Side of the Moon" routes, consisting of Akiha, Hisui, and Kohaku, focused on explaining the origins of Roa, his recent history, the mysteries behind the Tohno family, and its connection to Roa.

Merely a month later, the visual novel would be re-released under the name "Tsukihime Plus Disc," which featured extra content, including concept artwork and most notably, extra side stories that expanded upon the mysterious, yet vast and wide lore that the original visual novel, along with its spiritual predecessor, the light novel series Kara no Kyoukai (Boundary of Emptiness), had begun. A few more months following, a fandisc sequel would be released, a visual novel called Kagetsu Tohya, introducing more characters like a familiar named Len, and shedding some light on others who were only briefly mentioned before in the past, including Kiri Nanaya and Kouma Kishima. And then, another year later, in December 2002, the Tsukihime franchise would take a turn into another direction, making a departure from traditional visual novels to a work that was more notably a fighting game than anything else. That, of course, is Melty Blood, developed by Type-Moon and French Bread. A sequel to Tsukihime (and maybe even Kagetsu Tohya as well, who knows? Continuity gets screwed up when you try to make sequels to a work with different endings), it featured many returning characters like Shiki, Arcueid, Ciel, Kohaku, Hisui, Akiha, Len, Nrvnqsr Chaos, Michael Roa Valdamjong, Satsuki Yumizuka, and Kouma Kishima as playable characters, while also continuing the story with new characters and a deepening of the lore.

Roughly a year or so after the events of one of the scenarios of Tsukihime, strange murders would occur in Misaki Town, similar to the ones that had occurred during the events of Tsukihime. On a day like any other, Shiki would suddenly encounter a young woman named Sion Eltnam Atlasia, who claimed to be after the True Ancestor, referring to Arcueid Brunestud, in search of a cure for vampirism that Sion was afflicted with. Encountering strange phenomena, including characters who were supposed to have died in Tsukihime, Shiki's and Sion's search leads them to the primary antagonist, a Dead Apostle Ancestor vampire known as the Night of Wallachia, who commands the mysterious force of the TATARI at his disposal, engulfing Misaki Town in his Boundary Field and creating physical manifestations of the characters' fears, be it evil versions of themselves or certain villains thought to have died. Sometime later, Melty Blood would receive a half-sequel, half-remake called Melty Blood Re-ACT, later updated as Melty Blood Act Cadenza, continuing the story with a new threat called White Len, a clone of Len who was created from the remnants of the TATARI, and thus, is able to recreate his powers. With this re-release, more characters would be added, including Aoko Aozaki, Miyako Arima, TATARI Sion, Red Arcueid, Neco Arc, and Neco Arc Chaos.

By 2008, Melty Blood would see the release of its latest sequel and update, titled Melty Blood Actress Again, featuring not only gameplay tweaks and patches, but even more characters like Mech Hisui, Shiki Ryougi, Riesbyfe Stridberg, Executioner Ciel, and Archetype Earth Arcueid Brunestud.

Story

Roughly a year after Melty Blood and Melty Blood Re-ACT / Act Cadenza, Melty Blood Actress Again picks up with yet another new villain called Dust of Osiris, who manipulates the power of the TATARI to create the "Hologram Summer" in which the characters, after having their memories wiped, would unknowingly repeat the events of the previous Melty Blood entries, recreating those who were thought to be dead and those who symbolized one's greatest fear. Dust of Osiris intends to destroy all of humanity and make the characters into alchemic Philosopher stones in order to power herself to achieve her goal, and thus, it's up to the characters, whether they feel like it or not, to defeat Dust of Osiris and do what they will with her power.

As a fighting game, there's either not really much to say about the story, or way too much to fit into one little review. Each and every character has their own story to tell. Some are serious, gritty, and dark, following closer to the primary overarching storyline, like with Shiki, Sion, Riesbyfe, Arcueid, Ciel, and others, while others are more comedic and light-hearted, like Miyako, Hisui, Mech Hisui, Kohaku, and more. Either way, the lore progresses even further as we get to understand the workings of the magic involved, the alchemic roots, and the active involvement of the new characters in this new story. It's all fairly well told for what it is, but because of its nature as a fighting game where just about anything goes, it can come off as convoluted and hard to follow, especially with very few translations to speak of and what not. Still, there aren't any big flaws from a writing perspective. It's all well and sound, as expected of Kinoko Nasu, but at the end of the day, it's mostly just the same thing as the previous Melty Blood games, and ultimately, it's the same deal with just a different villain and a larger cast to make it seem like there's more than what there probably actually is.

Still, all this lore-building that the fighting games had developed could have been better developed if they had stuck to the formula of its familiar story-telling methods through a visual novel medium with different routes, but hey, at the end of the day, it is what it is, and what it is, is pretty good for what we got.

Graphics

Given that this game is essentially supposed to be little more than a small update in terms of gameplay for a sprite-based 2D fighting game from late 2002 developed by a small indie company for the most part, the graphics are pretty alright for what they are. While the sprites may be a bit outdated now that it's 2008 by the time of Actress Again's release, they still look fine and the framerate is usually smooth and pleasing to the eye. The backgrounds are varied, ranging from cold, dead nights to vibrant wildernesses and empty mansions, able to recreate the atmospheric darkness of Tsukihime, yet also adding in some freshness in here and there as well. I think that the major thing in terms of graphics are the updated portraits and models for the characters, which, compared to Act Cadenza, are now much, much more polished and well drawn. So that right there is a plus too. All in all, there's not much to say. I would comment on how it looks somewhat outdated by now, but hey, it's as they say; if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Sound

Now this is one aspect I absolutely adore. Type-Moon works like Tsukihime, Fate/stay night, Kara no Kyoukai, Mahou Tsukai no Yoru - Witch on the Holy Night, and much others, have always consistently had very well done soundtracks and voice acting (when available, of course). And Melty Blood Actress Again is no exception. Oh, no, sir. The instruments are updated for the new console, and thus, each pre-existing theme has been remixed beautifully, while also adding in some more songs to provide more content. My particular favorite tracks include Blood Heat (Kouma Kishima's theme), Obscure Zone (One of Satsuki Yumizuka's themes), Wonderful Boy (Shiki Tohno's theme), and others. The voice acting is also sound, even if I can't exactly understand what the heck they're saying without translations. You can easily tell what kind of character's personality is from the tones in their voices; you can infer the bubbly innocence of Arcueid Brunestud, the uptight attitude of Akiha Tohno, the reserved reticence of Hisui, the booming confidence of Aoko Aozaki, and others. All in all, this is probably the best aspect of Melty Blood. I can never go a single day without listening to at least one Melty Blood track, man. You feel me?

Gameplay

Well, it's a fighting game. You've played those before, right? Light attack there, medium attack here, and occasionally, the heavy attack, as well as strategic grabs / throws, blocking, counter-attacking, and other basic fighting game concepts, including a super meter, referred in Melty Blood as the "Magic Circuit," which allows characters to unleash their super moves, or "Arc-Drives." As I've mentioned before in the review, with each re-release of the game, the mechanics get patched and tweaked, allowing for more balanced gameplay and stuff, so there's little to complain about when it comes to unbalanced, unfair characters. But compared to previous Melty Blood games, perhaps the most notable addition is the implementation of the different fighting style system, including Crescent Moon Style, which focuses on speed, Full Moon, which focuses on power, and Half Moon, which is somewhere in between. Each style includes different controls, so you'd better be good at adapting if you want to master each of these styles for the characters you're interested in playing. There's also the new Boss Rush mode, which is pretty self-explanatory if I do say so myself, but it's welcome all the same. These additions continue to make Melty Blood a fun, addicting, and fresh experience for fighting game fans and Type-Moon fans to enjoy sinking their teeth into.

Final Verdict

While it may not have the most original story, and the graphics may be a bit dated, the game is still tons of fun to play, and should be recommended for every fan of Tsukihime and Type-Moon. The fighting is fluid, easy enough for people to pick up and play, yet complex enough for veterans to find something new the more they play as well. The soundtrack is phenomenal, and it's a blast to play every time.

Half your review was the background about Type-Moon?

I unfortunately have to agree with endings, your review had more to do with a novel than the game proper. Despite good structure and lots of details, I can not give more than a 3 (and I am being generous).

I have to agree with the others. I will say though that you've done well with separating the review into different categories. I hope that in the future, you'll focus more on the game itself. Anyways for a first review, I say good job.