In-Depth Character Discussion: Blaze (All Versions)

[Damon Caskey]

The grab itself has nothing at all to do with making this unique to Blaze and Max. It's how their rear grab slam is executed and released. All of the other characters either throw the enemy away, switch positions, move themselves, or have considerable lag after a back slam. Fast rising enemies will get away and make you have to reposition if you can repeat the back grab at all; not even close to the same thing.

Blaze and Max (German Suplex) release the enemy very close and recover quickly. This allows them to back grab over and over again in fast succession for a high damage trap that very few punks can escape from. SOR1 Axel can probably do it too, but he's the one character I've never tried it with. I'm not saying other characters can't do the trap at all, but for them it isn't worth the effort. Shiva, Axel 2/3, and Ash all jump away with horrible lag. Rudra swaps sides and has a trap of her own anyway. Elle and Mr. X have to wait too long between cycles for the damage to be worthwhile. Adam gets pushed back by the wall. Skate has the same issue as Mr. X and Elle with his neck throw, or he's a sitting duck trying the Migraine. Roo... just forget it.

Corner trapping with a Blitz is also nowhere near the same thing. Most of the 2/3 star blitz attacks have too much lag and leave you wide open. Trying to use the no/one star X moves might be the best thing for other fighters, but not for Max and Blaze because the grab trap is so easy and reliable for them. Besides that, in Max's case, it's the absolute quickest way to deal damage in the game thanks to his huge German Suplex output. 90% of Atomic Drop's damage two or three times in 5 seconds or so = instant KO. Blaze isn't too far behind at 32HP a pop and she's got better tools to get it going.

It's not an end all be all expert trick, just another tool in the box that people new to the game might not have known about and should. Not everybody is a SOR expert, or even a Beat em' up veteran.

DC

[BareknuckleRoo]

All of the other characters either throw the enemy away, move themselves, or have considerable lag after a back slam. Fast rising enemies will get away and make you have to reposition if you can repeat the back grab at all; not even close to the same thing.

Which characters exactly are you talking about? I tested the moves I mentioned before over the course of a few minutes before I made that post, so I know all of them work just fine against a wall using the method you described in Mania, moving neither themselves nor the enemy away,and those characters can get wall regrabs setup pretty easily with a jumpkick if need be. I'm not sure who you're referring to that has so much lag after a slam that they can't regrab an enemy against a wall as I've tested this with almost all the characters. His invulnerability frames end and he can move as the enemy starts to recover, but you have plenty of time to regrab for a suplex when the enemy's been jumpkicked against a wall. The only enemy who I can think of might give someone trouble is SoR3 Donovan who recovers absurdly fast and even Adam, who's rather slow, can regrab him after a suplex without any issues. They're encountered with walls around so rarely that it becomes a moot point, and not much recovers faster than they do.

Most of the 2/3 star blitz attacks have too much lag and leave you wide open.

If all of the enemies are up against the wall, any slight ending lag on a 3-star move is irrelevant as you'll recover in time to use it again. Obviously there's some risk involved if you're using it against a wall without all the enemies trapped, but even if a new enemy shows up from behind the damage potential on the crazy strong blitzes generally makes it pay off, especially in lower difficulties with less aggressive enemies.

On top of all that, you are somewhat safe since the backdrop will knock other punks away. Again, the faster your victim gets up, the safer you are.

Forgot to address this earlier point; the safety of having Blaze repeatedly suplex someone against a wall is quite debatable, especially on higher difficulties where enemies aggressively take advantage of openings. I don't see relying on this as being very safe with a lot of other enemies around as the suplex doesn't have that much range for hitting other enemies, and there's a couple seconds Blaze has to wait before she can regrab most enemies. Call me skeptical, but I don't see how this works as well as you say on the SoR2 route's stage 7 elevator among groups of such aggressive enemies who will easily hit you in between suplexes (the kickboxers in particular love rushing up to knee you, even after a throw) unless you're taking about using this method of attack when there's only one ninja or kickboxer left.

[realnabarl]

A Blaze-2 mania run I did, playing with CajNatalie's SoR2 Original Remake mod.

Spoiler: show

[CajNatalie]

I'll need to watch those in full. But I wanted to see how you dealt with the Stage 7 Elevator first. That pretty much covers something I wanted to bring up here...

It took me a while to give the flying kick a chance because of its terrible damage in the SoR2 version, but since using the SoR3 Blaze it's become her most spammable move against otherwise unaproachable enemies.
Donovan? Kick him in the face. You have so much reach he can't uppercut you as long as you have SoR3 jump control.
Note: I generally go for Aerial Chop then grab against Donovans, but in Round 3 Survival it's sometimes better to just knock them down first and grab them when they get up. In other crowded situations it may probably also be good to keep this in mind for crowd control.
Tigers screaming WUP and WATAA at you? Knock those fools down like dominoes.
Ninja hopping around? Kick him outta the air.

In almost all cases you can then follow up with a grab. After kicking a ninja down, Aerial Chop works wonders while he's getting up so you can get the grab. I managed to power through the Mania Ninja Tunnel in last test of my SoR3 mod with only 2 lives lost. I ended up starting Stage 5 with a x9 and 2 stars. XD

From the looks of how easily it kept Eagles at bay, I'd imagine a similar idea applies for SoR2 Blaze. She can make up for lost damage with her Kikoushou.

[realnabarl]

I have to correct myself, the best jumping kick is Rudra's, it's so broken.

[Don Vecta]

I have to correct myself, the best jumping kick is Rudra's, it's so broken.

Nay, it is good but I think Blaze's it's more effective. I do like Rudra's vertical jump kick, though.

[CajNatalie]

Blaze's (SoR2/3) has better reach and air superiority.
Rudra's is good, but it lacks usefulness since it hits low, and her Blitz already covers quick knock-downs for ground enemies.
Blaze 3's has the longest reach, retains good damage (unlike Blaze 2's).
The reach plus height gives it fantastic air superiority for kicking down jumping enemies.

The best way to demonstrate this is to get Rudra (enemy) to flying kick Blaze, but jump kick at her while she does it.
Every time I've managed to do this Blaze has won.

[realnabarl]

After many runs of Blaze-3 finished I would say how smooth playing with her is.
The biggest difference between Blaze-2 and Blaze-3 is the fighting rhythm!

[Solie]

Great read! After Elle I think I've had the most playtime with Blaze (1&2). I think the biggest reason is due to her specials which are on the opposite end of Elle's. Oh how I love the insane power of those fireballs . My uninformed judgement of BK III Blaze (and BK III Axel for that matter!) lead me not to play her because she -seemed- weak, much like some of the negative debate on Elle. No. BK III Blaze is beast.

[CajNatalie]

The ninja troll punch is so similar to Blaze's Aerial Chop. XD
No wonder they're such a pain...

Speaking of Aerial Chop...
If doing a rolling backdrop/suplex where you smash someone repeatedly across the screen, you can use SoR3 Jump with an Aerial Chop to turn them around at the end.

When reach hit the end of the screen, face away, jump, and crank the d-pad or movekey backwards.
Once they get up, the hitstun will make them face the edge of the screen. You'll grab them.
Knee-to-Skull
Knee-to-Skull
Vault
And you're back in rolling backdrop territory.

I've been using this a lot against the Judo Twins. XD

[CajNatalie]

Since I'm 'The V5 Blaze Master' now, lol, I have updated the first post rather heavily with a lot of 'how to use effectively' sections, replacing the overview that used to be at the bottom.

Blaze really isn't the type of character you can just apply a single formula to her playstyle with or spam one attack over and over again with... using her well means knowing how to use all of her skills.

[CajNatalie]

So I just discovered something Amazing (with a capital A)...

Blaze3's flying kick... versus Abadede's CHAAAAARGE... Blaze wins.
Yep - on Mania.

Blaze3's flying kick is superior to Abadede's clothesline.

There's still a window of failure if you mis-time the kick, but on my first attempts with testing it I found myself winning the majority of the time. So with practice and timing I'm sure this could be given an over 90% success rate.


...as if Blaze1&2 didn't give Abadede enough nightmares with their Kikoushous.

[CajNatalie]

Update: Added a small description of lambada... all the right details to paint a picture.

[Neo Metal Shadow]

I'm surprised how i changed my opinion about Blaze 3, Blaze 3 is the best version of Blaze imo, Blaze 2 is the worst sadly, i can't play with her slow speed and Blaze 1 is a OK version, she has good combos, flyng kick and speed but has low stamina.

[myudoicp]

Haven't posted here yet cause I'm too LAZY, but Blaze is my favorite since SoR1 times. Well, actually I started playing as Axel cause "OMG HE'S THE MAIN" and my friend always used Adam, but when I learned to use Blaze I definitive found my style and became the "red woman player" of all Beat'em ups. I always found more fun and technical to find my way out on speed and versatility than smashing everything with strenght. Ironically, I like to play Max in SoR, and along with Zangief they are the only strenght dudes I like to play on fighting games.

Well, needless to say that Blaze3 is the protagonist of my first achievements in SoRRv5... first gameplay, first ending, first mania run, first-mania-solo-no-contine-run...

My short analysis on Blaze versions...
SoR3, my favorite, has the best speed and versatility (although Rudra can ninja-run faster, but Blaze's moves are faster). If you like to move around and use all sorts of moves making a beautiful gameplay, she's the woman.
SoR2 is the damage dealer, and great stand-alone when sitting as a tower with few dodges.
SoR1 is very balanced... couldn't play her well on mania till I switched pause delay to SoR3... but I like her SoR1 style and clothes (lol), I prefer her than SoR2. It excited me very much to see her finished version on SoRR, with a whole set of moves, since SoR1 was so limited. I wanted it so much!...

And I own a community of Blaze fans on a decadent social network lol. But I don't dance lambada, although it's caliente.