When comparing BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle vs Middle-earth: Shadow of War, the Slant community recommends Middle-earth: Shadow of War for most people. In the question“What are the best single player games on PS4?” Middle-earth: Shadow of War is ranked 55th while BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle is ranked 103rd. The most important reason people chose Middle-earth: Shadow of War is:
Shadow of War uses the Nemesis system to create a more immersive and alive-feeling world. Thanks to it, orc leaders have names, ranks, titles, tribes they belong to, and most importantly, connections to other orc leaders. For example, an orc leader might be at war with another orc leader. This conflict won't end until one of them dies. There are also orcs that are considered blood brothers, having unwavering loyalty to each other. Because of this, don't be too surprised if you ever get betrayed by one of your followers that's trying to do right by his blood brother. Additionally, the leaders you fight will also develop connections with you. Orcs that you've killed or spared, may come back with scars, recalling your previous encounter and vowing to exact vengeance. Orcs that you've escaped from will mock you for being a chicken, and so forth. The gradual creation of this web of connections is very enjoyable and sometimes even more compelling than the game's main story.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Combat is easy to learn and difficult to master
The control scheme is universal enough from character to character to work well for players who are new to fighting games. As a beginner, you can get away with starting off with auto-combos by pressing the face buttons through simple button-mashing. Those looking to improve their play can practice in the tutorial with the combo challenges for every character, where you can practice some difficult and more specialized combos. Mastering these takes dedication, but it pays off for harder story battles and online play.
Pro Lots of fanservice with the crossover cast of characters
BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle brings together characters from previous BlazBlue fighting games, as well as UnderNight In-Birth, RWBY, and Persona 4 Arena. For fans of any of these games, this is an awesome chance to see everyone together in the same universe, not only in combat, but in the story as well. The single-player narrative has a few nice nostalgic callbacks, like certain characters referencing things they enjoy or other people that they like or dislike in their original games. If you're not familiar with the cast, then don't worry--the references are more like flavor text to get to know everyone better.
Pro Cool tagging mechanic adds a new layer to gameplay
The two-on-two battles have you play one character at a time, with the ability to switch in another team member with the press of a button. Characters typically work well together in any combination, and it's fun to discover which ones work best for you. If you're a fan of the crossover here, then pairing up characters from separate universes is pretty great, since you get to see how their fighting styles work with each other through tagging them in and out of battle. Even if you have no idea who these fighters are, just getting to play as each of them and experimenting with their different styles helps to keep things interesting.
Pro Smooth online connection
Online matches run pretty well. You don't have to worry too much about excessive lag or downright unplayable multiplayer matches. As long as your connection on its own is decent enough, you should have a good experience.
Pro Great anime aesthetic
Character models are recreated faithfully from the original games with their anime styles. Their expressions, animations, and fighting styles are all unique and look really good. It's a graphical aesthetic that will definitely age well as the game gets older over the years.
Pro Character connections make for a compelling experience
Shadow of War uses the Nemesis system to create a more immersive and alive-feeling world. Thanks to it, orc leaders have names, ranks, titles, tribes they belong to, and most importantly, connections to other orc leaders.
For example, an orc leader might be at war with another orc leader. This conflict won't end until one of them dies. There are also orcs that are considered blood brothers, having unwavering loyalty to each other. Because of this, don't be too surprised if you ever get betrayed by one of your followers that's trying to do right by his blood brother.
Additionally, the leaders you fight will also develop connections with you. Orcs that you've killed or spared, may come back with scars, recalling your previous encounter and vowing to exact vengeance. Orcs that you've escaped from will mock you for being a chicken, and so forth. The gradual creation of this web of connections is very enjoyable and sometimes even more compelling than the game's main story.
Pro Addictive gear collection fuels your thirst for orc blood
As you kill orc leaders, they'll drop random quality gear items, ranging from common rarity every-orc weapons/armor to legendary rarity artifacts with unique names. Each item serves to improve your character, providing various stat increases and damage bonuses. You can also upgrade gear with gems or via challenges that usually involve killing orcs, bolstering your strength even further. On top of that, there are set bonuses for legendary items, giving you special abilities such as your hits applying explosive poison on regular enemies. It's very exciting seeing what gear piece an orc leader will drop once you lob his head off, causing you to constantly seek out new victims.
Pro Satisfying combat
Shadow of War gives one of the better feeling combat systems in recent times, allowing you to be either stealthy or go for direct confrontations.
If you choose to be stealthy, you can skewer unsuspecting orcs from behind with your dagger, drop onto them from a building while impaling them with your sword, or just pierce them from afar with your bow.
If you choose a direct confrontation, it's a really quick-paced and brutal showdown against your enemies with your chosen melee weapon. You weave combos against enemies, dodging, parrying, and countering enemy attacks, which ends in a devastating finishing move, resulting in a mutilated or decapitated orc.
Whichever method you choose, the combat flows really well and you always feel like a force to be reckoned with.
Pro You can lead an orc army and expand your own dominion
As part of the Nemesis system, you can recruit orc leaders after you've bested them in combat. Each one has his own unique strengths and weaknesses, so making the best possible army for conquering enemy territories might take a while.
For example, an orc leader can be completely immune to ranged attacks, but can take increased damage from explosions. You should take such an orc leader on assaults against fortresses filled with archers but be wary of the slightest hints of any bombs.
Once you've finished building a sizeable force, you can assault a fortresses. If you succeed in the assault, you'll take over a territory, allowing you to install your own orc leader as the ruler. With enough effort you'll gradually take over Mordor and its surrounding lands.
Shadow of War makes you feel like a recruiter, general, and a ruler, which is very empowering and a lot of fun.
Cons
Con The single-player story is mostly nonsense
If you want a good story, you may end up disappointed. The plot is a jumble of crazy storylines that hardly make any sense. It's serviceable enough for fans who enjoy the crossover and don't care about how well-written the story is. Fighting games aren't known for their great narratives anyway, and BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle is no exception.
Con Too much homogeneity with how each character plays
Due to the simplified fighting controls and combos, the characters can feel too similar at times. Combat is simple to pick up, sure, but a lot of the button inputs are the same across characters. There are some character-unique combos, as well as harder ones to pull off for veterans looking to up their game. For the most part, though, things can feel too samey, defeating the purpose of even trying out different characters in the first place.
Con Unfairly locks out certain characters behind paid DLC
It's really annoying that the game doesn't give you access to every character after teasing them during story cutscenes. You would think that these would be freely unlockable fighters that you could get during the normal course of the game. Unfortunately, they're gated behind paid DLC, which just feels unfair.
Con Can get repetitive
The overall gameplay formula doesn't change much over the course of the game. You fight orcs, take over strongholds, upgrade your character, and collect blips on the world map. After a while it can start feeling like a grind, especially during long play sessions. This is made worse in the final stretch of the game where you have to fight through 20 consecutive stronghold battles without any story segments or exposition.
Con Unskippable cutscenes disrupt the flow of the gameplay
Every time an orc leader enters the screen, there is an unskippable cutscene where he rambles a bit, focusing the camera on him and halting combat until the cutscene ends. This usually happens as you're fighting another enemy, potentially disrupting your rhythm, which can be really frustrating, especially if mess up your combo or take an unnecessary hit after the cutscene.