And yet, it had me hooked. Unlocking new characters, discovering the depths of their kits, ramping up the Entropy Effect levels for more punishing conditions – even if it lacked the stage and enemy variety of Dead Cells, it was a trip. A pure power fantasy that seemingly never stopped ramping.

We hence arrive at BlazBlue: Entropy Effect X, a free update for the current game, which also marks its launch on consoles. Despite similar issues to the base game, I’m probably as hooked as before, mixing and matching Tactics, and delving into the Sea of Possibility to learn what exactly is going on.

"Before venturing into the Sea of Possibility, you can choose an Avatar based on a BlazBlue character (with Icey and The Beheaded from Dead Cells as guest characters). Entropy Effect X on consoles also includes all the DLC, which means Rachel, Hazama and Bullet are at your disposal, provided you have enough Analyzers."

Which brings us to the first major thing – the story. I could be hard-pressed to tell you what exactly went down in the base game, but Entropy Effect X’s story makes an immediately strong impression. As Doctor A, you work under the mysterious Doctor Mercurius alongside four other colleagues. The mission is to engage with the Diving Bell System or DBS and enter the Sea of Possibility, collecting Shards to stop an impending disaster.

It’s not long before BlazBlue characters start appearing, and while lorehounds will find some significance, I’m impressed with how much of Entropy Effect X’s narrative stands on its own. Eventually, Doctor A is known as Ace, and his colleagues don different aliases to match their demeanor and habits. Their backstories go beyond those simple denotations, however, and it’s interesting to see just how much their personalities shift with every major dive.

Why exactly has everyone gathered to help Doctor Mercurius? What is she hiding? And are the Shards of Possibility really just that or something else altogether?

Of course, you won’t know for sure without taking a dip. Before venturing into the Sea of Possibility, you can choose an Avatar based on a BlazBlue character (with Icey and The Beheaded from Dead Cells as guest characters). Entropy Effect X on consoles also includes all the DLC, which means Rachel, Hazama and Bullet are at your disposal, provided you have enough Analyzers.

The gameplay loop is simple – cut through multiple stages, known as Depths, and defeat the boss at the end, eventually culminating in Depth 5. Before each new room, you’re given several choices, from increasing your max HP and MP to choosing different elemental Tactics. Blade causes circular blades to emerge near enemies, dealing damage; upgrade it enough times, and it will spawn more blades while pulling them in. Toxin, as the name implies, poisons your enemies, and depending on the upgrades, it can either spread from other foes, burst, or even create bubbles via pufferfish that make them float.

"Entropy Effect X leans into that further courtesy of the Extreme Zone. Much like the Entropy Zone, it’s a series of modifiers that increase enemy numbers, damage, health, and so on – cranking it up further will unlock passive bonuses to give you some advantages."

There’s already more than enough complexity to be found in mixing and matching Tactics, especially when discovering synergies between elements. It’s the depth of the character roster that really fuels the itch for one more run. Take Naoto, the newest character, for example: He can unleash a typical multi-hit combo in the air and on the ground. However, unlock enough of this Potential, and you can use rising uppercuts with invincibility windows or charge up each hit in a combo. Then you add more strikes to that uppercut, make it so that it activates in mid-air, and then unlock triple jump to reset your ability to perform it each time. His SP can also be harnessed to enter Overdrive Mode or unleash separate enhanced attacks, which you can mix in with regular strikes.

Further adding to this are Legacy Tactics. Whether you clear or fail a run with a character, they can be saved as an optimized Avatar. In future runs, you can select two optimized Avatars and activate their Legacy Tactics (aka special moves separate from the current Avatar). Found a particularly spicy elemental Tactic? Save it, and it’ll activate every time with the Legacy Tactic, though you need to find the corresponding elemental Tactic in the current run, depending on its rarity.

And again, this is only scratching the surface of build diversity. Covenants can provide special benefits at the cost of debuffs, like starting with negative MP in each new room. Trials require completing a certain number of battles with a debuff to net something special, like flat damage reduction. The Black Market lets you sacrifice some of your max health for benefits such as increased health with each Perfect Clear of a room. Then there are the Mind Unleashed Effects, which offer nothing but positives and can be total game changers for boosting your damage.

Entropy Effect X leans into that further courtesy of the Extreme Zone. Much like the Entropy Zone, it’s a series of modifiers that increase enemy numbers, damage, health, and so on – cranking it up further will unlock passive bonuses to give you some advantages. However, you can also unlock different nodes that grant access to Vanguard Battles – mini-boss fights that award Mind Unleashed perks like crazy – or allow for leveling up your Legacy Tactics. There’s also Overdrive Mode for a temporary boost when the situation calls for it – and it will call for it once you venture into the new Depth. Without delving into spoilers for the new boss, it starts suitably epic and transcends anything that Entropy Effect has achieved till now to incredible results.

"I would have liked to see the final Depth fleshed out more, and maybe another character added alongside Naoto. However, for those who never experienced the original, it’s worth diving into again and again."

As much as I enjoyed it, though, there are still some areas which could have used improvement. Objective variety could have been spiced up more – plenty of areas still require simply slaying out or surviving by slaying out to progress. The makeup of the levels themselves also isn’t too complex. Sure, they sport gorgeous art direction and music (seek out Sakura City immediately) with some interesting little hooks. Otherwise, you’ll see way too many familiar sights after just a few runs. And while the regular enemies each have something unique to them, they feel too few in number, further affecting the replay value. It also doesn’t help that the final Depth is more or less a boss rush en route to the final-final threat.

However, BlazBlue: Entropy Effect’s strengths, from the combat to the customization to the character depth, are exceptionally strong. The sense of progression is also great, as you upgrade your Mind Strength for more max health and healing efficiency or play around with Mind Crystals – passives that can provide refreshes, increased attack damage, or cause certain Tactics to appear more than others. If you’re especially hurting for Dive Points, participate in some extra training, though you’ll need an avatar with a comparable enough Combat Rating to succeed (and no repeats are allowed).

While it may not portend to offer the same longevity as a Dead Cells or even other rogue-lite hits like Hades, BlazBlue: Entropy Effect X adds on to an already good side-scrolling action title in some solid ways. I would have liked to see the final Depth fleshed out more, and maybe another character added alongside Naoto. However, for those who never experienced the original, it’s worth diving into again and again.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

The early access version includes four large stages and a procedurally generated Metroidvania-style map, 100+ Potentials to customize characters, ten bosses, over 50 types of enemies, and an Advanced Mode for tougher bosses. There are also eight different elements and more than 200 Tactics. As per the developer, this accounts for 60 to 70 percent of the game, with its full release planned for Q1 2024.

It’s currently working on expanding the roster, expanding new modes and completing the story. There will also be improvements based on feedback from players. While the price won’t increase during early access, it may change to account for the new content once early access ends.