Revision as of 11:30, 25 February 2006

Introduction

Melty Blood: Act Cadenza (MBAC) represents the third major revision in the series, the first two being the original Melty Blood (released as a PC game) and Melty Blood ReACT (released as an expansion to the original game). There was also a third major revision to Melty Blood (called Melty Blood: Final Tuned) that was released in parallel with Act Cadenza, with most of the changes being pulled from the work French Bread did for the arcade version.

While generally considered by players to be a relatively meodicre fighting game, the game has been taken fairly well in Japan, with an apperance in Super Battle Opera, a second arcade release, and a port to the PS2 all coming in the near future.

A Note About Melty Blood: Final Tuned

While this is targeted at the arcade and PS2 versions, most of the information ontained herein will apply to the Final Tuned revision on the PC.

There is also some data that was pulled from Final Tuned (that would be impossible to get from the arcade version and is not listed in any mook) with the assumption that this data is, at worst, roughly approiximate with Act Cadenza. These pieces of information will be marked, and should be checked against Act Cadenza and revised as appropiate.

Differences between Ace Cadenza and Final Tuned

Act Cadenza features three new playable characters: Aoko, Kouma, and Neko-Arc. These characters are not usuable in Final Tuned (Aoko and Neko-Arc show up as bosses).
Several new background stages (with new background music) were added to Act Cadenza.
Dodges (2A+B) were added to Act Cadenza..
Circuit Spark (A+B+C while in hitstun) were added to Act Cadenza. They are analogus to bursts in Guilty Gear XX.
New Shielding/EX Shielding system. Only EX Shielding exists in Final Tuned (and is just referred to as shielding).
By default, rounds are on a clock in Act Cadenza. In Final Tuned all rounds go until one character is knocked out (there is no option for timed rounds).
There are several minor variations in frame data and hitboxes between Act Cadenza and Final Tuned.

Game Mechanics and System Arcanae

Controls

MBAC is a game that utilizes four buttons and one joystick per player. The four buttons are labeled as follows:

A, used for weak attacks.
B, used for medium-strength attacks.
C, used for strong attacks. Most specials done with C will be EX variants and will cost meter.
D, used for shielding

Throws are performed by hitting either back or forward on the joystick and the A and D buttons.

Dashes can be performed by hitting either the direction you want to dash in twice or by hitting the direction and the A and B buttons.

Directional command notation is as follows:

                   .- up (u)
                   |
  up+back (ub) - 7 8 9 - up+forward (uf)

      back (b) - 4   6 - forward (f)

down+back (db) - 1 2 3 - down+foward (df)
                   |
                   `- down (d)

Note: These numbers can be easily referenced by looking at your keyboard "numpad". Think of it as a joystick/controller that is facing to the right. "5" is used to signify "neutral".

Mechanics

Clashing

Certain moves during their startup can have what is known as a 'clashing hitbox'. What happens is if a move with an impact hitbox collides (or a clash hitbox) with an active clash hitbox, there is a special hitspark that shows, a sound effect plays, and nothing else happens. The moves that clashed continue to start up and recover as they did before.

Yes, this does mean dashes with clashing frames (like Ciel's and Satsuki's) can clash up against each other. This can happen even before the round starts.

Shielding (normal and EX)

Recovery (Air and Ground)

Magic Circut

Heat and Blood Heat

System Arcanae

General Information:

Jump startup (all charachters) is 4 frames. Character becomes airborn (and can input commands) on the 5th frame.
Super jump startup (all charachters) is 7F. Character becomes airborn (and can input commands) on the 5th frame.
Throw startup is 4F
Standing and crouching EX Shield is active from frame 1-5, and takes 20 frames to recover (25 frame total duration).

Damage Adjustments, Proration, and Scaling.

Character-based Damage Modifiers

Basic Strategy

The Characters

References

For Dicussion

Doujin Fighter Forum at dustloop.com
World of Eternity
The Melty Blood: Final Tuned and Melty Blood: Act Cadenza threads on shoryuken.com.
Eternal Romancia (shut down due to excessive loli)

Match Videos

(Not all of these links have been checked for validity and quality; this was from a list that linalys put up in a thread on World of Eternity.)

@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 * Circuit Spark (A+B+C while in hitstun) were added to Act Cadenza. They are analogus to bursts in Guilty Gear XX.
 * New Shielding/EX Shielding system. Only EX Shielding exists in Final Tuned (and is just referred to as shielding).
+* By default, rounds are on a clock in Act Cadenza. In Final Tuned all rounds go until one character is knocked out (there is no option for timed rounds).
 * There are several minor variations in frame data and hitboxes between Act Cadenza and Final Tuned.