Melty Blood is a two-dimensional versus fighting game featuring characters from the visual novel Tsukihime. The game was developed by Watanabe Seisakujo (later French Bread) with the blessing and support of Type-Moon, the creators of Tsukihime. The game features very high production values for a doujin game, with character animation comparable to SNK's Mark of the Wolves and high-quality voice work from professional Japanese voice actors. Recently, a highly-polished and revised version of the game was released in Japanese arcades and will be released on the Playstation 2 in August 2006.

The gameplay in the series is something of a cross between Watanabe Seisakujo's own Queen of Heart series (hereafter ”QoH”), SNK's Last Blade series and Arc System Works's Guilty Gear series. Like QoH, the game uses three buttons for performing a character's attacks (weak, medium, and strong, respectively), but the fourth button is right out of Last Blade. Pressing the D button will perform a “Shield,” which functions very similarly to Last Blade's “Repel” move. If you Shield an opponent's attack right as it would connect with your character, there will be a flash and your character will take no damage from the attack and be able to instantly counter-attack your opponent before their attack animation finishes. You can also perform a specialized Shield Counter attack move using 236+D after Shielding an attack.

The series (in particular the original Melty Blood) is also heavily based around aerial combos and moves which can be used to “juggle” an incapacitated opponent (much like Queen of Heart). Characters can also perform Guily Gear-style airdashing and double-jumping. Most special moves have an “EX” version which can be performed when your Magic Circuit gauge reaches 100% by entering move command and ending with the C button, much like QoH (and Capcom's Darkstalkers series).

All gameplay information in this article for Re:Act assumes the player is using the latest patch. All Melty Blood information is from memory and probably close enough for our purposes. Act Cadenza is only briefly covered at present as the original author of this article (LegatoB) has no first-hand experience with the game.

The original version of the game. Initially, only about half-dozen characters were selectable, and the majority of the unlockable characters were just “evil” or alternate versions with few differences. The game's main attraction for a player without friends/enough controllers was Story Mode, which featured lenghty bouts of kanji-filled dialog with fights interspersed periodically. In order to unlock all of the characters, the player must earn all five possible endings to story mode and take each possible route to reach them, requiring 7 or 8 playthroughs in total. Understandably, players who do not speak Japanese would do well to just get a completed save file and skip all the crazy moon language.

Not surprisingly to anyone familiar with Watanabe Seisakujo's other titles, patches were released periodically to fix balance issues (and there were a lot of them at times), enhance/change the characters' special moves, and add more playable characters (such as fan-favorite mid-boss Nrvnqsr “Nero” Chaos).

An expansion pack for the original Melty Blood which significantly altered the game system and several character's special moves, added several new characters (the new playable characters being Satsuki Yumiduka and Len) and an “Arcade Mode” which included a short story mode for every playable character. The alternate versions of characters now have much more obvious differences in terms of play style and special moves, the game speed has increased by 30% or so¹⁾ and the game has done away with the Vital Source gauge in favor of the SvC Chaos-inspired “Heat Mode.”

Like the original Melty Blood, it suffered from often-amusing glitches and balancing errors, such as an early infinite combo where Len could throw Shiki back and forth forever. The last major patch, Final Tuned²⁾ added a control option to switch between the original PC-style commands and the new Arcade-style commands from Act Cadenza and a hidden System Direction screen. Like the System Direction screen in Street Fighter 3: Third Strike, you can adjust various settings related to the game's “rules,” such as speed, number of successive air dashes, gauge display and critical hit rate. You can access this screen by highlighting Options on the menu, then holding D while selecting it

The arcade version of Re:Act. It was ported by Ecole to Sega's Naomi arcade hardware. It adds a few “new” characters - Aoko Aozaki (the unplayable boss of Re:Act) and Neco Arc³⁾, who appeared as a boss for certain characters. It also adds one true new character, Kouma Kishima (who appears in another Type-Moon game). The game also changed the Heat activation command to ABC and the Throw command is now 4/6+AD.

A Playstation 2 port has will be released August 10th, 2006 in Japan.

The abbreviations in parenthesis show which game(s) the information is applicable to. (M.B) is for Melty Blood, and (R:A) is for Re:Act.

A character's most powerful special attack. It is nearly always executed using 41236+C. It can only be executed when a character's Magic Circuit gauge is at 300% (M.B) or when a character has entered Heat Mode (R:A).

(M.B) After performing the attack, the gauge will return to 0%.

(R:A) If you performed the attack in Blue Heat or Blood Heat, the gauge will return to 0%. If you performed the attack in Orange Heat, the gauge will return to 100%.

Heat is a special state your character can enter by storing enough Magic Circuit and/or entering 222+D or ABC (depending on what control option you select). While in Heat, you can perform an Arc Drive move or use multiple EX attacks. Depending on which mode of Heat you enter, you might also gain life recovery or other bonuses.

After entering Orange Heat, you can input 222+D or ABC and enter Blood Heat mode. During Blood Heat, the Magic Circle gauge turns silver and you will regain Vital Source rapidly as long as you are not hit and do not block attacks. You also gain access to a much stronger Arc Drive and your character's Last Arc(s). Using an Arc Drive or a Last Arc will completely deplete your Magic Circuit.

When you manually enter Heat Mode using 222+D or ABC, the Magic Circuit gauge will turn blue. During Blue Heat, you will regain Vital Source slowly and you can perform Arc Drives at the cost of all remaining Magic Circuit.

A “natural Heat” entered by filling your Magic Circuit gauge to 300%. In Orange Heat, your Vital Source will not recover, but you gain all of the other benefits of Blue Heat. Performing an Arc Drive in this mode returns your gauge to 100%.

An automatic Shield Counter move which can only be performed by Shielding an attack from a specific position (standing, crouching, jumping) which varies from character to character when in Blood Heat mode. The move is generally quite powerful and hard to defend against, but will empty the Magic Circuit gauge after it is performed.

Pressing the D button performes a Shield move, which has your character momentarily assume a defensive stance accompanied by a flash of light. If your opponent strikes your character with a move they could block from that stance, you will hear a distinct “ding” sound and the game will pause momentarily. At this point, you will regain control of your character and can perform a counter-attack before your opponent finishes his initial move. You can either use any normal move from your arsenal or you can perform a special Shield Counter if you have enough circuit at this point.

A specialized counter move performed using 236+D after Shielding an opponent's attack. It varies from character to character, but is usually one of their EX moves (only it won't cost you any Magic Circuit).

A Shield move with an automatic follow-up attack, performed using 214+D. Even if the initial Shield whiffs, the attack will still come out (potentially leaving you very open to attack). If the attack connects, it will cost 50% of the Magic Circuit gauge.

The gauge which powers the character's EX attacks, Arc Drives and other related moves. You can fill it by hitting your opponent with basic or special attacks (and certain EX attacks and throws) or by getting hit by your opponent.

The Vital Source gauge appears below the player's life bar. It starts out filled and decreases when you dash, perform certain attacks or get hit (among other ways). It will slowly recharge over time. If it drained entirely, your character enters a “dizzy” state which functions wholly unlike being dizzied in just about any other fighting game. When dizzied in Melty Blood, you retain control of your character, but it becomes impossible to perform any sort of recovery action after being hit for several seconds, leaving you open to normally impossible combo attacks.

According to Re:Act's System Direction menu, Vital Source now refers to the red portion of the player's life bar which grows as the player takes damage. This section of the life bar can be recovered by entering Blue Heat or Blood Heat.

• Fighting Game Move Notation
• Gamefaqs pages for Melty Blood, Re:ACT and Act Cadenza.
• Official site for Act Cadenza