ReAct is an expansion pack for Melty Blood that adds new characters, a new story for Arcade mode, and an entirely reworked fighting system. In it, we find the city embroiled in an entirely new threat as a mysterious white-haired girl has put the entire town to sleep and has brought forth some beings that should be dead to wreak havoc. It takes place a bit after the events of the base title and an unknown time since Tsukihime’s sequel called Kagetsu Tohya story occurred. Waiting on the main menu will cause a hidden cutscene to play out detailing the setup of this game, but even then you may find yourself a bit confused as to what is going on or why there are cartoon-like cats in the game now if you haven’t played Kagetsu Tohya.
The new plot is entirely contained to the Arcade, while Story mode still features the same content from the original, but does benefit from the reworked fighting system. It is all told via the point of view from whichever character you choose to play as. Each fighter has particular rivals as well as some unique dialogue for the fourth and eighth matches. The ninth and tenth will be bosses that will be the same for everyone, yet it too features unique dialogue for each individual. These interactions with each other are entertaining, while the story, on the other hand, is nothing to write home about. It is very much the type of narrative you’d expect from a Fighting game and is nowhere near that of the plot found in the base Story Mode.
Reading a synopsis of what occurred in Kagetsu Tohya will help put things into perspective, but is not necessary by any means. At most, you’ll miss out on some references such as what relationship the new character Len has with Shiki, or why Ciel has a horse spirit next to her before a fight. The most important part is that you have played Tsukihime or you will likely have no idea what that last sentence of mine even meant. Opening up the character roster, you will find two new characters. The previously mentioned Len, and Shiki’s classmate Satsuki Yumizuka. Another very important feature of this expansion pack is that each character now has their own moveset. Before this, many people in the roster were basically just costumes of the same character as they had no unique moves to differentiate themselves.
That fact will become quite apparent once you hop in and pick a popular character like Shiki. You will immediately notice that he plays far differently than he previously had. His “alter-ego” Nanaya is the one that retained his old moveset, which makes sense since his merciless rapid knife attacks suit him far better. Other characters play the same but have had more abilities added to them for added depth and feature other tweaks such as Sion now having an onscreen ammo counter. While some do in fact play the same, everyone handles much differently from before thanks to this expansion pack. The combat here is incomparably more fluid and fast-paced than it has ever been. It is easier to string together combos, the overall speed has been increased, and is more balanced than it used to be. Even the backgrounds have received a bit of a face-lift graphically.
While the base game kept me hooked with its story, its expansion pack kept me playing due to its gameplay. I didn’t dislike the original version’s gameplay where your positioning was extremely important, and it was slower paced overall, yet this upgraded combat is a lot more fun. It still retains the tactical feel that it had via the new Heat system. Whenever you reach 100% on your Magic meter or more, you can activate it to regenerate some of your health. The amount you can recover both depends on the amount of Magic you can burn through, and where the red on your lifebar stops as you can’t heal past that. Magic was previously only used for your special attacks, so now you can also use that meter to play defensibly. It provides you with many interesting situations in whether you decide to either push your advantage or take a breather to regain some life.
After selecting a character, you will be given two different control methods named PC and AC. It affects small things like how you activate Heat and perform grabs. In PC mode you need to press down three times and the D button to enable Heat. AC will let you simply put a macro onto a button as to immediately cast it. The latter is the better option, but either way is fine really. On the topic of the Heat feature, it will automatically activate itself once you hit 300% on your magic meter, forcing you to act. It is slightly different in that if it auto-activates you will not heal, but you can either choose to pull off two special attacks or one ultimate move which can only be pulled off during that state.
Whether you manage to pull off both of your special attacks or not, your magic meter will revert to 200% once that period is over. That can prove to be a bit unbalanced as you will quickly make it to 300% once more and be able to repeatedly pull off your stronger abilities time and time again. Activating your ultimate attack will set you back to 100%, so it is not worth using it in comparison. If you activate your Heat once again after it auto-activates, you will receive a golden aura that will see your health rapidly regenerate and your attacks to cause more damage. Doing this will empty out your Magic Meter after it is over, but it’s well worth it in the right situations. This new gameplay feature adds a ton to the fights and does make battles take around the same time they previously did, despite its faster pace.
Both unique encounters and boss fights will see your enemy contain an unlimited amount of magic. They will always be regenerating their health back as a result, making them much trickier foes than the rest. You will have to be a bit more aggressive when facing them, but not overly so to the point that they regularly get good hits in on you. Due to their always regenerating nature, you can not opt to trade blows with them as your health is the same as always and your magic meter is typically better used for offense here. These will be pretty intense, and unlike the base game, you can continue if you lose a match. You will not be able to challenge the final boss and receive your character’s ending if you use a continue, however.
She and the prior boss are new, non-playable characters. Funnily enough, the other two special fighters are more of a challenge than the proper bosses themselves. One of them is a version of Ciel holding the seventh scripture and is only found when you play as Arcueid. Our friend Ciel here doesn’t have any flinching animations allowing her to power through your attacks unphased and spam a particular move. Not helping matters is that she regenerates health. Your other rare combatant is a cat called Neco-Arc, a foot tall meme of a character. She is less tricky to handle, but more annoying since your med and high attacks won’t connect due to her small stature. Her favorite strategy is to rush and grab you. Unfortunately for us, it also regenerates health since she is a special encounter and shows up for quite a few characters as well, making her more of an annoyance than Ciel.
All in all, ReAct is a great expansion pack. It adds a ton to the Arcade mode which previously had nothing to it in the base game. Equally as important and the biggest reason to get it is the revamped fighting system. It is objectively better than its original counterpart and carries over to the Story Mode, making the entire Melty Blood experience that much more enjoyable for first-time players. All the characters have received their own move-sets too, effectively doubling the roster and massively improving its longevity after you finish the plot. Not to mention that each fighter now has their own endings with multiple dialogue-heavy sections throughout. There is a lot to go through in ReAct, even for those that have played the original title to death. It is currently going for the same price ($20) as the base game itself, making it a bit of a tough sell, though the overall experience you’d receive by purchasing both is well worth it for fans of Tsukihime.
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