"A Great Portable Fighter Made Awesome Only in Japan"

I had recently came back from my trip to Japan and while my one week trip there would be very boring to tell, I'll just skipped that and say of one gem of a game I've found there. While walking the streets of Shinjuku Japan, I came upon a game that I'm quite surprise to find and like a fool who would fell for anything Japanese attractive, I immediately bought it. For the good price I pay for, I did enjoy the hell out of it. That game was BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend for the PSP. Just when you couldn't get enough BlazBlue, Aksys did it again. BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II is back for the PSP, this time in a much more complete package or at least it's finally complete as BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend. Though as complete as it was, it's basically a patch up final draft version of CSII with more modes and extra character and such.

Graphics:

Same as CSII, beautiful 2D visuals treatment all litter the screen in this game. For every jaw dropping animations, colorful arts, and humorous presentation you get in CSII, you get all those here as well. As compare to the PS Vita port of this game, I had to say this looks ten time better than that newly ported rehash. The picture quality just look better, there's no image lag and every visuals flows very well during the pace of the game.

Music/Sounds:

I'm a fool if I say that the music here really fit the atmosphere that I'm in. Like CSII, all the hard rockin,' superior soundtrack of every battle to every intro to every modes are all wonderfully re-mastered here, of course there's no changes to the tunes but why change when they were already great to begin with. With great musical scores also comes great voice works as well and for Japanese these are just as good as in CSII, perhaps even better.

Control/Gameplay:

Like CSII, the control remains unchanged. As for the gameplay it's basically Continuum Shift II but more patch up, some characters had been balance to the point where when you play them, you will continue to enjoy using them. The roster isn't any different from CSII as the only new character in this game is a playable Relius Clover (the suppose unplayable boss character from CSII), though it's still an okay edition to starters who just wanted to know more about CSII. As I play more of this version, I come to love it the same as CSII, the gameplay is still smooth, the AI is forgiving and challenging like they always do, and every other aspect of the game is just fun to get into plus playing as Relius for the first time is quite interesting.

Replayabilities:

Well for one thing this game offers the same amount of replay goodness as in CSII but with some bonus extras added in such as Relius now as a playable character, some new added story mode for Platinum the Trinity, Valkenhyn, Makoto, and Relius, and an exclusive BlazBlue Quiz Mode which was not available on the western edition. As for multiplaying option, I had to say the local multiplayer experience here is sweet. While in Japan, I manage to score some good multiplay with a lot of locals here with this game, over five days and 57 matches later and I was amaze and satisfied. Every matches were fair and challenging and even though there are no online play option (you think Aksys would add one after giving one for the PS Vita), I'm surprise none of the locals disconnect on me, every matches that I have connect to, when they begins, the match won't end until there's a victor which is why I love Japan and this version of the game. Unlike the Vita version which does have online but the ppl playing online are either cowards or noobs, I have had more disconnections in that version than this awesome port of BlazBlue: CSE. No wonder gamers called Japan the land of portable as I could find local challengers for Continuum Shift Extend for PSP fairly easy on the spot.

Is This a Must-Buy?

Well the game is entirely in Japanese so if you want just get the more complete PS Vita version (if you live in the western world) but if the PSP is the only system you have, just get CSII as it is just the same game. If you're like me and went to Japan just to find this, you're in for a treat as this is actually the better version of Extend, you get everything from CSII plus the extras from Extend mix in and another bonus added in for some fun good times though you had to be able to read or understand Japanese to truly enjoy this port otherwise CSII or the Vita port would be much suited for you.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10 | Originally Posted: 02/06/13, Updated 02/07/13

Game Release: BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend (JP, 05/31/12)

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