The Outerhaven recently had the opportunity to speak with BlazBlue Entropy Effect X director Michael Jiang. Originally released on PC, BlazBlue Entropy Effect is a roguelite action title set within the BlazBlue universe. With its move to consoles, developer 91Act has expanded the experience with additional content, reintroducing the game as BlazBlue Entropy Effect X.
Outerhaven: What was the process in transforming the BlazBlue IP into a roguelike experience? What is your favorite thing about the BlazBlue IP?
Michael Jiang: The BlazBlue series is a super stylish 2D fighting game franchise with extremely charismatic characters, and I think everyone can agree on that. While I have extensive experience developing action games, I personally struggle when playing fighting games (whatever your skill level is, there is always someone better than you). I love BlazBlue, but it has always been difficult for me to gain a strong sense of achievement through competitive play.
Because of that, I always hoped to transform BlazBlue into an action game so that players like me could experience the exhilaration of combat while still enjoying the unique charm of its characters.
Fortunately, our proposal received the support of Arc System Works, and we were granted the license to create a BlazBlue title.
However, we faced several major challenges.
- In most traditional action games, the number of playable characters is very limited. BlazBlue, on the other hand, has a large and beloved cast. If we followed the traditional action game structure, perhaps only one or two characters would have meaningful screen time, which would be a great shame.
- Many action games either end up being very simple with little depth, or extremely difficult and hard for newcomers to approach. As a result, action games often fall into the dilemma of either “commercially successful but lacking critical reputation” or “critically praised but commercially limited.” Designing something that is “easy to pick up but hard to master” is extremely challenging.
- In traditional action game design, the sense of progression usually comes from gradual character growth. If progression is too slow, it fails to match modern players’ expectations for faster-paced experiences; if it is too fast, the game’s overall playtime becomes too short. Achieving the right balance through traditional design methods would require massive development resources, creating significant financial risk for the project.
Despite these challenges, we approached them with determination. We innovatively combined a multi-character inheritance system with action roguelite gameplay, and paired action-based Potential builds with strategic Tactic builds to create a dual progression system with great depth. This combination then created a wonderful synergy.
- Rapid character growth within each run gives players a strong sense of accomplishment while gradually introducing new combos and moves.
- Once players experience one character’s gameplay in full, the multi-character inheritance system encourages them to try new characters and discover distinct combat styles.
- Skilled players can reach an extremely high skill ceiling and perform spectacular, stylish combat sequences, while less confident players may discover they are far more capable than they expected, creating a powerful sense of achievement.
This is the core design philosophy behind the innovative action gameplay of BlazBlue Entropy Effect X.
Outerhaven: Were there any difficulties you came across while moving from Early Access to the full launch you weren’t expecting?
Jiang: Actually, being able to launch as a Steam Early Access title provided tremendous support for the development of this game.
One of the most difficult aspects of BlazBlue Entropy Effect X’s design was balancing the dual-progression system between action-based Potential abilities and Tactics, which are elemental special abilities. The team debated whether the experience should primarily cater to action game players, with combat abilities as the core focus, or to roguelite players, with elemental builds taking the lead.
This debate continued until Early Access, where we received extensive feedback from real paying players. Ultimately, we confirmed that the game should center on character action abilities as the core experience. Over the following two years, we continuously refined the gameplay around this direction. This decision became one of the key factors behind the game’s success, I believe.
Outerhaven: How was the transition moving the game to console?
Jiang: Although I have over 20 years of game development experience, BlazBlue Entropy Effect X was the first time I released a game on console platforms.
Our biggest challenge was simply that we don’t possess any information and experience on stuff that we have no prior knowledge of, in this case, console publishing. To address this, we partnered with Astrolabe Games, which is a boutique global publisher based in China specialized in console publishing. They helped us tremendously and successfully bring the game to multiple console platforms and release physical editions for PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch.
Without Astrolabe Games’ support, it would have been extremely difficult for us to overcome these challenges on our own.
Outerhaven: Did you have any ideas for the game that were left out initially? Was there any added to the game after launch?
Jiang: We always wanted to do some special collabs with some “senpais” in the action game field.
Our team are big fans of ICEY and Dead Cells, and we were thrilled that both title collaborations were added to BlazBlue Entropy Effect X later on, including dedicated crossover stages and highly polished playable characters.
There are still some BlazBlue characters that the team loves but have not yet been added to the game. We have many exciting ideas about how some of them could play, and maybe in the future players will be able to experience some of those characters through our game.
Outerhaven: Are there plans to implement full cross-platform multiplayer in the future?
Jiang: Some of my fondest gaming memories from childhood involve playing couch co-op games with friends. Because of this, we added both local co-op and online co-op gameplay to BlazBlue Entropy Effect X.
Currently, online co-op requires both players to use the exact same game version. Due to differences between platforms, it is unfortunately not possible for us to implement full cross-platform multiplayer.
However, players can still enjoy the game together either locally on the same device or online with friends on the same platform.
We would like to thank Michael Jiang for taking the time to respond to our questions. We are also looking forward to whatever future updates are planned for BlazBlue Entropy Effect X.
BlazBlue Entropy Effect X is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
