Melty Blood

The latest title, called Melty Blood: Type Lumina, was released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows on September 30, 2021.

Unique to Melty Blood are mechanics like Shielding, an advanced defensive technique which can completely nullify damage from incoming attacks; as well as French-Bread games’ staple gameplay mechanic Reverse Beat, a type of chain combo that can cancel from a higher normal move to a weaker normal move.

The original series of games, culminating in Melty Blood: Actress Again: Current Code, features the Moon system.

The original Melty Blood game takes place in one year after Satsuki Yumizuka's non-existent route of Tsukihime and a month after Kagetsu Tohya.

In the beginning of August 2001, Shiki Tohno hears of a new series of murders in Misaki Town, similar to the ones that took place in Tsukihime, in the last weeks of October 1999.

Whilst searching for the murderer he meets Sion Eltnam Atlasia who initiates a fight with him, attempting to capture him.

After the fight she reveals that her reason for trying to capture him is to get in contact with the "True Ancestor" (referring to Arcueid) so that she may acquire information on the "cure for vampirism".

The reasons for this are slightly unclear; it appears to be the result of a legal misunderstanding whereby Type-Moon mistakenly thought they would no longer be allowed to produce updates/patches, and thus made a "last patch" which unlocked the characters as a sort of gift for the fans.

Sion later appeared in the French-Bread's spiritual successor of the series, Under Night In-Birth, under her middle name Eltnum.

They had difficulty thinking of attacks because original characters didn't have an attractive skill suited for the fighting game.

An arcade version of the series, Melty Blood Act Cadenza, was later developed by Ecole Software and released in March 2005.

It also adds a large number of gameplay tweaks and slightly updated animations, such as the inclusion of a new, analog-friendly controller setup; new configuration options that lets players assign multi-button commands to individual buttons; the ability to alter and adjust many of the game's internal variables (via new interface options); and four new colors for each player.

It completely revamped Aoko Aozaki's movelist for use as a playable character, and introduced Kouma Kishima into the series, a man who was deeply involved in Shiki Tohno's past.

B is an arcade port of the PS2 game with various changes and upgrades, the most notable of which is the inclusion of White Len as a playable character, with a significantly weakened moveset.

It also introduced a fifth button that served as a contextual action depending on the situation and the direction held on the joystick when pressed, such as dodging or throwing.

It also included subtle gameplay changes, most notably altered defense ratings for characters and adjustments to the game's input system.

Actress Again was first announced in the December 2007 issue of the Japanese arcade game magazine Monthly Arcadia, published by Enterbrain.

[13] This version was made available on Steam, published by Arc System Works on April 19, 2016, and is the first in the series to introduce English language without modifications.

Destructoid concluded their review with "Nearly 14 years after first bursting onto the scene, Melty Blood has aged to the point of near-perfection.

While a few aspects of the package leave something to be desired, the fact remains that, at its core, this is a supreme fighter with a diverse roster and deep, compelling mechanics that merit your attention."

[18] Melty Blood Actress Again was featured at the Evolution Championship Series 2010 tournament after winning a poll, beating titles such as Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike.