Visual novels are trying to find their way to Western markets. They manage to grab on to Japanese audience quite easily, but everyone else is only starting to warm to the idea. Last year, Arc System Works decided to combine the popular visual novel format with their worldwide smash-hit fighting series BlazBlue to create Xblase Code: Embryo. This game takes place in the year 2050, which is 150 years before the events of the first BlazBlue game. However, the game takes place in the BlazBlue universe offering a familiar feel to the story.
Review by Mikhail M.
Over the last few months, a lot of Japanese game publishers and developers have been dipping their toes into the PC platform via Steam. Aksys was one, publishing the Arc System Works-developed visual novel Xblaze Code: Embryo on Steam recently and while it's fun, it also has enough flaws that hold it back from what I’ve come to expect from both Arc System Works and visual novels.
Chalgyr's Game Room writes:
I am absolutely terrible at fighting games which is why I was intrigued when Arc System Works announced that they were making a Visual Novel in the BlazBlue universe. Always having had interesting stories and characters between this and the older running series of Guilty Gear, being able to experience the narrative elements without having to literally fight for it was a treat in and of itself.
Zack H of The Cube gives his opinion on the newest visual novel to hit Steam
