Melty Blood Act Cadenza plays a fierce fighting game with a cast of 20 fighters who all wield magic and in the case of Nrvnqsr Chaos, rabid animals that strike out from various parts of his body. A Magic Circuit gauge for each fighter builds up with every contact hit and allows the ignition of special attacks as well as the ability to go into powerful attack modes. Fighters may perform cancels, guard against attacks, double jump for air, chain attacks together, and conclude a monstrous attack sequence with a mighty magic blast. The action flows in fluid motion with responsive controls and a refined game system which allows a skilled fighter to perform special attacks and link them together in a frenzied ballet of destruction. In other words, it's everything a fighting game fan could want.

Jan Code: 4512435000143

View the back cover and screenshots on the main NCSX website.

» In the intro cinema to the game, various characters of the series are shown in still panels that are shifted in and out of the screen quickly. Leave it alone and the game loads up a battle between Kohaku and Sion Tatari where Kohaku rides on her broom and drops incendiary bombs on Sion.

» Press START and the following options appear:

ARCADE.................Pick a fighter and battle COM-controlled opponents.
VERSUS.................Fight against a COM or human player.
TRAINING..............Practice moves and special attacks against a auto-regenerating dummy opponent .
SURVIVAL.............Select a fighter out of 20 possible combatants and battle through the ranks in 1-round bouts.
OPTION................Set difficulty level, damage level, gauge design, game balance, sound volume, controller config, etc.
SPECIAL (UNLOCK)
RANKING..............View the top players for ARCADE or SURVIVAL mode.

» Arcade Mode features a story accompaniment where each character holds a dialogue with self and other characters. Battles take place on stages where each new opponent challenges the character and the location of the battle is shown on a 3D map before each fight.

OPTION MODE / Game Settings
Difficulty..................Five gradations between Weak and Strong
Damage Level.........Five grades between Low and High
Win Count..............Select from 1, 2, or 3 wins
Round Time............99, 180, Infinity
Gauge Design........Arcade or Original
Game Balance........Arcade or Original
Handicap................Off or On
Default Settings.....Reset all settings to factory

OPTION MODE / Sound Settings
BGM.......................Slide a ruler between Min and Max to set volume
SE..........................Slide a ruler between Min and Max to set volume
Sound....................Stereo or Monoaural
Default Settings.....Reset all settings to factory

OPTION MODE / Controller Settings
TRIANGLE...............D (Shield)
SQUARE.................A (Weak attack)
X-BUTTON..............B (Mid-level attack)
O-BUTTON.............C (Strong attack)
R1-TRIGGER...........D + A
R2-TRIGGER...........A + B
L1-TRIGGER...........A + B + C

» In addition to the glancing shield move which is triggered by pressing TRIANGLE, players may guard against attacks by moving the D-pad or joystick away from the direction of the opponent.

» In the option mode screen, one can check out the stats of the best character used in the game along with percentage of use, Arcade Mode clear time, and Max Combo Hits / Damage.

» Sion Eltnam Atlasia is the default top ranked fighter in either ARCADE or SURVIVAL mode at the outset of play.

» In the TRAINING MODE, players may set the dummy opponent's Air Passive Move to [NEUTRAL, BACK, FORWARD, RANDOM1, RANDOM2, or NONE] while the opponent's Ground Passive Move may also be set to the same settings.

» Each character has a Magic Circuit gauge on the bottom of the screen which measures the amount of mystical power available to dispatch. The circuit may be trebled to 300%. The Magic Circuit also oversees "Heat," "Blood Heat," and "Max" power. The word "Max" starts flashing to the right of the Magic Circuit once optimum power is reached.

» The shadows that the fighters cast move realistically to their in-game motions. Watch Aozaki's hair shadow as it undulates in motion with her red locks.

» Cast of fighters in the game:

Sion Eltnam Atlasia
Tohno Akiha
Tohno Shiki
Akiha Vermilion
Aozaki Aoko
Hisui Fujyou
Kohaku Fujyou
Hisui & Kohaku
Mech-Hisui
Sion Tatari
Nanaya Shiki
Kishima Kouma
Arima Miyako
Warachia
Krynqsr Chaos
Yumiduka Satsuki
Arcueid Brunestud
Red Arcueid
Len
Ciel

» Stages that may be fought upon in the game:

Through the Looking-Glass
Witch on the Holy night
Classic
Forest of the king Cruel
Doctor Kohaku Garage
Iron Maiden
Artificial Eden
Night of Walpurgis
sabbath
Classic home.Evening party
Classic home.Invade
Tohno's mansion.Main gate
Classic home.Huge library
Magical Kohaku Prison
Tohno's mansion.Central garden
Battle field
Temple the Seventh Heaven
Hologram Summer
Starlight crossing
Back alley
Midnight Park

» Quite a few of the females in the game are redheads. Must be genetic or fetish.

» To view a character's special attacks during a bout, press START and highlight the "COMMAND LIST". Other options that pop up after pressing START are: CONTROLLER SETTINGS, VIEW SCREEN, CHANGE CHARACTER, and RETURN TITLE.

» Only the d-pad may be used to control the fighters. Analog is out.

» To reduce damage when being attacked, tap the buttons quickly as indicated on the screen.

» The team of Hisui and Kohaku are entertaining to watch. When Hisui is on the attack and active, Kohaku sweeps up behind her with a broom. When changing active status, the two sisters high-five each other and juggle off their attacks in a sort of maid's tag team. Kohaku can ride her broom up in the air and drop flaming ordnance while Hisui smacks up a storm with a frying pan and a duster. Their reactions after winning or losing are interesting.

» Finishing a round with no lost HP awards the player a PERFECT bonus of 30000 points.

» Yumiduka has a wind-up punch move where she circles her fist a few times before setting it off. In the animation series, Yumiduka was a normal girl who was killed by Roa and turned into a vampire. To release her from the "curse," Shiki Tohno killed her. As she died, Yumiduka thanked Shiki for slaying her and setting her free.

» Popular voice actress Kotono Mitsuishi reprises her vocal efforts for the fighter Aozaki Aoko.

» Melty Blood Act Cadenza is about precision and control. The game system is so refined that attacks, feints, and blocks may be executed in milliseconds one after the other. There are no sloppy programming delimiters to break up the action and the fluid movement of a match between two experienced fighters is thrilling to watch.

This document is ©NCSX 2006. All rights reserved. No reproduction in whole or in part of this document may be made without express written consent of National Console Support, Inc.

Update: August 12, 2006
All preorders for Melty Blood: Act Cadenza will ship on August 15 when our shipments arrive. The word "blood" (which is a liquid) on the package manifest may have caused some alarm during package clearance and the airport madness of last week. Please note that we are presold out of the first batch to preorders but a new batch of the game should arrive by the end of next week (around August 18) for new orders.

Update: August 11, 2006
Due to package mishandling on Thursday and what appears to be airport related security issues yesterday, please note that NCS' shipments of PS2 Melty Blood Act Cadenza have been rescheduled for next week. We will send emails out to customers again once we receive the Melty Blood shipments and have the game ready to ship to everyone. Sincere apologies for this unfortunate problem.

Update: August 9, 2006
Please note that preorders for the first batch of Japanese PS2 import Melty Blood: Act Cadenza are closed. Additional supplies are expected on August 16-17 for all new orders. Thanks for reading.