Hello… again… and again… Aksys Games, purveyors of quality digital entertainment, is pleased to announce that we will be releasing Arc System Works’ latest tour de force, XBlaze Code: Embryo!

Taking place almost two centuries before the events of BlazBlue, XBlaze tells the story of Touya Kagari, a mostly unremarkable high school sophomore with a remarkable past, and his transformation from a typical teenager into the target of secret organizations, renegade mages, homicidal maniacs, and curry-obsessed co-workers. And though XBlaze touches on the origins of some of the more important elements of the BlazBlue mythos (The Azure, Black Beast, and Takamagahara spring immediately to mind), its story stands on its own as an epic tale of disparate groups all fighting for control of the power responsible for the creation of the universe.

Screens taken from the Japanese version of the game

As for the game itself, XBlaze is a visual novel with a number of twists on the formula. One of the biggest differences is that, unlike most games in the genre that simple use static character images during conversation scenes, story scenes in XBlaze are more akin to an animated feature, complete with shifting camera angles, dramatic music cues, and all sorts of various trickery to make an already great story just that much more engrossing. Also, players can control the course of the story via the TOi System, the in-game information aggregation program used by the characters in the game. By choosing to read (or ignore) the various articles and blog postings recommended by TOi, different story paths will open and close. Not sure which articles to read? Just pay attention to what the other characters are reading…

There’s a lot more that I could write about right now (alternate endings, possible gag routes, etc.), but I figured it’d be better if I just let you, the reader, ask your own questions in the comments section below. I’ll be camping out for a few hours and will try to answer what questions I can. However, please keep your questions limited to things about XBlaze, maybe BlazBlue, and queries about localization in general. Asking about potential titles, sales numbers, and what not will be met with resounding silence and perhaps a vague, discomforting smile.