Melty Blood (Series)

The Melty Blood (メルティブラッド) series is a 2D fighting game series developed by TYPE-MOON and French-Bread. It is a spin-off of Tsukihime.

Melty Blood Re-ACT
An expansion to the original game, featuring an 'Arcade Mode' whose storyline takes place after the original Melty Blood. The expansion made numerous changes in regards to character balance and to remove many infinite-combo sequences. Also, new movesets were created for the doppelgänger characters, whereas in the original, most of these characters had nearly identical movesets to their counterparts. It also made changes to the game's mechanics and added several new characters, though only two are playable.

Melty Blood: Act Cadenza
Melty Blood: Act Cadenza is an arcade port of Melty Blood to the NAOMI system by. It featured new characters, new gameplay mechanics and a re-organized storyline. On August 8, 2006, a port of Act Cadenza to the PlayStation 2 was released. However, it is not a completely accurate port of the arcade version, as it includes several balancing changes and revisions to gameplay.

Melty Blood: Actress Again
Actress Again is the first game of the series (since Re-ACT, at least) which can be considered a sequel rather than an expansion or port of a previous game. It is an arcade game, and was released in September, 2008. It features many drastic new mechanics, and has three versions of each character. A famitsu article has announced that Actress Again will be ported to the PS2 in August 20 of 2009.

Characters
As of Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code Ver. 1.07, there are 31 playable characters.

Tsukihime Characters

 * Shiki Tohno
 * Arcueid Brunestud
 * Ciel
 * Akiha Tohno
 * Hisui & Kohaku
 * Hisui
 * Kohaku
 * Nrvnqsr Chaos
 * Miyako Arima
 * Satsuki Yumizuka
 * Aoko Aozaki
 * Michael Roa Valdamjong

Kagetsu Tohya Characters

 * Shiki Nanaya
 * Len
 * Kouma Kishima

Kara no Kyoukai Characters

 * Shiki Ryougi

Characters New To Melty Blood

 * Sion Eltnam Atlasia
 * The Night of Wallachia
 * Mech-Hisui
 * White Len
 * Riesbyfe Stridberg
 * Dust of Osiris

Alternative/Bosses And Hidden Characters

 * Vermillion Akiha (called Kurenaisekisyu Akiha before Act Cadenza)
 * Sion TATARI (called Vampire Sion before Act Cadenza)
 * G-Akiha
 * Red Arcueid (Called Warcueid or Bousou Arcueid before Act Cadenza)
 * Neco-Arc
 * Neco-Arc Chaos
 * Damien Armies
 * Neco Chaos Black G666
 * Koha & Mech
 * Neco & Mech
 * Powerd Ciel (called 7th Heaven Ciel before Act Cadenza)
 * Archetype: Earth

Gameplay
Melty Blood makes use of widely used concepts in fighting games such as cancels (canceling a normal attack with a special attack before its animation ends, allowing for more complex and damaging combos) chain combos (normal moves that cancel into other normal moves) and the use of power bars (Magic Circuits). It also introduces Shielding, an advanced defensive technique comparable to Parries in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike and Slash Backs in Guilty Gear XX: Accent Core.

EX-Shielding: A high-risk/reward technique which eliminates the damage and 'block-stun' from an attack. Activated by a button press, it requires exact timing to 'deflect' the opponent's attack, thus exposing them to a reversal. However, if mis-timed, an EX-Shield attempt leaves the player extremely vulnerable. EX-Shielding also carries a damage penalty for subsequent attacks, but grants a small amount of Magic Circuit and disallows the opponent to cancel his/her attack into another one. Finally, in later versions of Melty Blood, EX-Shielding during the Blood Heat state activates a unique attack known as a Last Arc. In Melty Blood: Act Cadenza, a new type of Shielding was introduced which allows the player to hold the Shield button for an extended length of time to defend against multiple attacks. However, this rapidly drains Magic Circuit, and grants fewer retaliatory options upon recovery.

Magic Circuit: A system that allows players to store up to 300% meter, for various uses such as EX Attacks (high-powered versions of special techniques) and the Heat and Blood Heat modes. These modes allow players to regenerate a portion of their lifebar, as well as allow access to their character's ultimate attacks, known as Arc-Drives and Last Arcs. All of these techniques consume Magic Circuit, which is accumulated by attacking your opponent, and to a lesser degree, successfully defending against your opponent. Magic Circuit carries over between rounds.

Clashing: An offensive state where certain attacks or maneuvers impact directly with an opponent's attack, thus resulting in a 'clash.' No damage is taken as a result, and both players are allowed to cancel their attacks as if they had connected successfully. This mechanic is also featured in the Guilty Gear series.

Aerial Recovery: A defensive measure used after being attacked in mid-air by pressing any button and, optionally, while holding a direction. It grants temporarily invulnerability to the player and allows them to resume action, but may be detrimental in certain circumstances if the attacking player predicts which direction the Aerial Recovery is performed.

Tactical Recovery: After being attacked, performed by pressing any upward direction upon impacting the floor. Doing so allows a player to quickly regain momentum and avoid 'OTG'(On The Ground) combos while utterly defenseless. However, players are not allowed to block during the recovery animation, and thus will expose themselves to punishment if the attacking player predicts the recovery attempt. This is an aspect of the Okizeme meta-game found in many fighting games.

Shield Bunker Canceling: More akin to a glitch than an actual feature, Shield Bunker Canceling (known as Baka Cancel in Japan and Bara Cancel in the US) is a powerful technique where a player, while blocking an attack, can counter-attack with a Shield Bunker, but cancels the beginning animation into an attack of their choice. This is typically an EX attack with invincibility properties. This can drastically affect how one attacks an opponent. There are several methods to counter this technique, but it remains a feature of high-level play in Melty Blood. This is akin to Red Parrying in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. It was later nerfed (made less advantageous) by putting a circuit cost on it, indicating to the fanbase that the developers approved of this tactic.

Manga
It has also been adapted into a manga series, featuring art by Kirishima Takeru and serialized in the CompAce magazine, published 2005.

Soundtracks
The original soundtrack of the game, Promised Dawn, was originally released on 29 April 2003. The music was composed by Raito Kate, with tracks 2-7 being arranged by James Harris (2-7), and 2-9 by Number 201.


 * Track listing
 * Disc One
 * VS Part
 * 1) Melty Blood 3:27
 * 2) I will begin 0:47
 * 3) On the edge 0:13
 * 4) Encount 3:30
 * 5) Elegant Summer 2:56
 * 6) Troublesome Visitor 3:35
 * 7) Fearless 2:08
 * 8) Noble Mind 2:04
 * 9) Stillness Dark 3:29
 * 10) for Crimson Air 3:12
 * 11) Midnight Raider 3:56
 * 12) PE-RI-CA 3:40
 * 13) The theme of Arcueid 2:38
 * 14) Emergency Occurrence 3:14
 * 15) Help Me! 3:32
 * 16) The end of 1000 years 3:06
 * 17) A G Man 1:38
 * 18) Chinese Girl 2:21
 * 19) Count Down 0:44
 * 20) Remember! 0:30
 * 21) Memories of once 5:45
 * 22) Bonus Track 8:08
 * 1) Bonus Track 8:08


 * Disc Two
 * Novel Part
 * 1)  Intro 0:36
 * 2)  Ready 1:57
 * 3)  Together 2:20
 * 4)  daydream 2:45
 * 5)  Alchemist 3:14
 * 6)  Another wonder 2:27
 * 7)  Bad Memory 1:32
 * 8)  Phantom Night 1:45
 * 9)  Under the moon 1:57
 * 10) Outro 0:43
 * 11)  Character Voice Collection