Step 3: Beating Things Up

Now, onto the basics of Blazblue combat. For this example, we'll examine the moves of the closest thing the game has to a shoto - Jin Kisaragi.
[Yeah, I wish I had an outfit as cool as that too. I also wish I could freeze people on command, but a man can dream.]

Normal Attacks

Pressing A, B or C will produce standard attacks such as jabs, kicks and slashes depending on the character. Holding different directions produces different moves - for example, Jin's 5A is a standing jab, while his 2A (down + A) is a crouching jab that hits low.
The moves produced by various directions vary with characters. Experiment and make sure you know everything your character can do so you know how to attack and punish.

Special Moves

Again, if you've seen Street Fighter, you probably know how specials work. Even better, Jin's a great example because his specials are almost identical to Ryu's - 236 produces a projectile, 623 produces an uppercut, 214 is a move that sends him flying forward, and so on. Again, different characters have different moves, so experiment and learn.
[As a note, Charge Moves are typically rather rare in Blazblue, only being used in the super-rare-and-impractical Astral Finishes.]

Throwing

Throws, like in Street Fighter, are used to attack at close range and get around an opponent's guard. They're performed by pressing B and C at the same time. There are two throw types - forward throws, performed with just B+C, and back throws, performed with 4B+C. Unlike Street Fighter, it is possible - and outright expected - for players to be able to combo from their throws, allowing a single throw to produce massive amounts of damage depending on the character.

Throw Escaping

[This might be defense, but I'll throw it in here since I'm talking about throws.]
If an opponent throws you, a green '!' will appear over your character's head. After this, you have a short time to press B+C and tech the throw - roughly 17 frames, or 0.3 seconds of game time. This is roughly the same time as human reaction, making these legitimate throws hard to beat unless predicted.
If you attempt to mash throw escapes in a brain-dead fashion, rather than being rewarded for your sloppiness [sup, SFIV!] you will get what's called a Throw Reject Miss. Basically, this means you have no chance of escaping and the throw will hit you no matter what you do. Stop mashing, cry moar, etc.

You can also throw during hit or blockstun - points where you would normally miss if you tried to throw in Street Fighter. However, this is a considerably different throw in that rather than the green !, a purple '!!' appears over the target's head instead. These purple throws are much, much easier to escape from, with the target getting almost half a second to respond. [Command grabs performed during hit/blockstun will also produce purple throws, and can be escaped from when normally it would be impossible.]

Counters

If you hit an opponent while he's attacking, you'll perform a counter. This will leave the opponent stunned for slightly longer, allowing for more damaging combos. Throws can also work as counters.
On top of this, if you perform a counter with certain character-specific moves [like Jin's 2C] then you get what's called a Fatal Counter. This means the opponent is stunned for longer not just for the next hit, but for every following hit in the combo. This allows for combos that would otherwise be impossible.

Negative Penalty

Blazblue does not approve of cowardice. If you spend too long not attacking, red lines will appear around your character and you'll be told about a Negative Warning. Continue to do nothing, and you'll get a Negative Penalty - any attack that hits you in this state does 50% extra damage. Wuss.

Combos

The combo system works differently in BB than Street Fighter. Rather than systems like juggle points to determine whether moves connect, the simple rule is 'you get less time to combo the further in the combo goes'. This stops you repeating moves repeatedly for easy infinites.

It's easy to produce simple combos in Blazblue - Jin can input A then B then C and it will combo. However, longer and more powerful combos require precise inputs, and use of several abilities that only appear in Blazblue. These techniques are:

Dash Cancelling

Think of dash cancelling as a free Focus-Attack-Dash-Cancel in Blazblue. After performing certain moves - in Jin's case, 6C - you can quickly input 66 and cancel your attack into a forward dash. [Note that this is a dash in the standard Street Fighter style, not a Blazblue run.] This can both help to lengthen combos, and allows you to maintain pressure when otherwise you would be knocked away.

Jump Cancelling

Other moves - Jin's 5C, for example - can be cancelled into a jump instead. This allows you to continue pressure with overheads and continue combos in the air.

Rapid Cancelling

Now, Rapid Cancels are more like FADCs in that they cost half of your meter, but return you to a neutral state mid-attack. They're performed by pressing A, B and C at the same time. For example, let's assume I was playing Jin and tried to fool an opponent with my 623C uppercut and got blocked. Instead of sitting there like an idiot and eating a full combo, I can Rapid Cancel to return to a normal state and start blocking before payback comes.
Rapid Cancels cost 50 points of your Distortion Gauge.

Distortion Drives

These are the super moves of Blazblue. Ranging from 236236 (double quarter circle forward) motions to 720 degree spins, they basically have better damage than most normal moves. One thing to note, though, is that they are not invincible and safe like many of Street Fighter's supers - it's easy to get knocked out of them if performed at a bad time.
Distortion Drives also cost 50 points of your Distortion Gauge.

Astral Finishes

Lastly, there are the Astral Finishes. These are basically finishing moves, again unique to each character. The rules for using them are very strict:

- You must be 1 round away from winning the match.
- You must have a full Distortion Gauge of 100 points.
- Your opponent must be below 1/3 of their health.
- You must have one usable Burst [covered in the Defense chapter].

If you fulfill all these conditions, you can perform an Astral Finish. If you connect with it, you immediately win the match and get a pretty cool animation to go with it. 8)

Well, in terms of offensive options, that's all Blazblue has to offer. Of course, you aren't the only one who's going to be pummeling seven hells out of someone, which leads to the next chapter - defense!