When comparing BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle vs The Escapists 2, the Slant community recommends The Escapists 2 for most people. In the question“What are the best games for the Nintendo Switch?” The Escapists 2 is ranked 31st while BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle is ranked 83rd. The most important reason people chose The Escapists 2 is:
There is no right or wrong way to do anything, and it's entirely a risk vs reward scenario for anything you want to try. You are only limited by your creativity in escaping, as each prison has almost endless possibilities and encourages the player to make the best use of their inventory and be creative in handling every situation. Bed sheets can be used to cover cell windows from the prying eyes of guards, desks can be moved to reach out of reach vents, crafted tools can be used for various purposes such as breaking through walls or doors, and shovels can be used to dig holes. You can try to sneak around guards, or opt to hide in vents until they're out of sight. If you're feeling especially brave, you can even attempt to fight the guards and take their keys allowing easier access around the prison.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
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 Encourages experimentation and creativity
There is no right or wrong way to do anything, and it's entirely a risk vs reward scenario for anything you want to try. You are only limited by your creativity in escaping, as each prison has almost endless possibilities and encourages the player to make the best use of their inventory and be creative in handling every situation.
Bed sheets can be used to cover cell windows from the prying eyes of guards, desks can be moved to reach out of reach vents, crafted tools can be used for various purposes such as breaking through walls or doors, and shovels can be used to dig holes. You can try to sneak around guards, or opt to hide in vents until they're out of sight. If you're feeling especially brave, you can even attempt to fight the guards and take their keys allowing easier access around the prison.
Pro Good balance of game systems make for a rewarding simulation
Taking action in the game uses up your stamina, so you'll still have to make time for things like eating and sleeping if you want to have energy for things like digging through walls, fighting other inmates, or cutting through vents and gates.
Items such as shovels and cutters have limited durability, so they can't be used endlessly. Raw materials can be found around the prison to craft items, or you can buy items from fences using money earned by running fetch quests for other inmates. No matter how you acquire them, crafting materials and finished goods are limited so you'll have to use your items wisely.
Time is an important factor that has to be managed too, with certain activities having to be done at certain times. This limits the amount of time you have to roam the prison, since you have to show up for meal times and roll calls. Free time can be used to craft, roam the prison to determine the guard patterns, or finally put your ultimate escape plan into action.
Juggling each and every one of the various aspects of the game results in a very deep and rewarding simulation experience.
Pro Solid progression of difficulty
The difficulty increases as you progress, with each prison becoming just a little more intricate and more challenging to escape from than the previous. The prisons themselves get more complex with more obstacles to overcome such as tougher guards which results in more ways things can go wrong. The progress feels good and natural, as you're always building on what you learned in previous prisons to escape from the newest one.
Pro Great pixel art style for retro fans
If you enjoy a more retro style, then this game is pure eye candy. Simple but charming, the pixel art is colorful, with the sprites having a nice variety in animations when they're shoveling, searching, running around, fighting, or partaking in any kind of activity that would require movement. The tile sets for the game world are nicely detailed, colored and shaded. You won't get tired of looking at the same tiles over and over due to the sheer amount and variety of the art assets created for the game.
Pro Lots of replayability
No two games will play out alike. Each prison is an open sandbox, so it's definitely not a linear experience with a defined escape blueprint. Prisons can be replayed over and over to beat your previous time, measured in how many in-game days it took you to escape, which leaves plenty of room for trying new things on each successive playthrough.
Pro Co-Op multiplayer mode adds a new depth to gameplay
Working together creates a whole new experience with loads of possibilities. In co-op mode, you play with up to 3 teammates either online or locally as you work towards escaping the prison together. This adds a whole new dynamic to gameplay as working together creates experiences that just aren't possible when playing solo. Someone could distract the guards, while another searches rooms for crafting materials. One player could run around collecting items, while another scopes out the guard's patrol patterns. Some can complete quests to collect money while others are working on digging tunnels.
Pro A couple of alternative prisons add a change of scenery
Tired of bricks, cold floors, and cement cells? For those who want a change of scenery, there is a prison set in the wild west, and even a futuristic space prison. This adds a little bit of variety to the look of the game while keeping the same gameplay mechanics. It's a nice touch and gives your eyes a break from staring at the same tilesets over and over.
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 Getting caught by guards can be overly punishing
It's frustrating when you spend several hours grinding quests for other inmates, collecting items, crafting, and carefully planning your escape, only to get caught by guards and lose all your items or killed. This effectively means you have to start over, wasting hours of your own time and days of in-game time.
Con Can feel grindy at times
Running around doing fetch quests for other inmates, or searching for crafting materials for hours on end can get stale after a while.
Con Tutorial doesn't cover much
The tutorial will only walk you through the barest of basics, resulting in the player having to learn the game's various mechanics on their own.