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BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle devs detail how Senran Kagura, Akatsuki Blitzkampf, and Arcana Heart got involved for Version 2.0

Cameo craziness
by rawmeatcowboy
24 November 2019
GN Version 5.0

The Version 2.0 update for BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle is pretty serious, as it includes a ton of changes, and sizable group of new characters. Some of those first-time fighters come from other franchises like Senran Kagura, Akatsuki Blitzkampf, and Arcana Heart. In a 4Gamer interview, producer Toshimichi Mori and director Tatsunori Ishikawa explains how those collabs came to be.

On Arcana Heart:

Toshimichi Mori, producer: “Actually [by May] Heart Aino’s inclusion was basically already decided upon. We’ve worked together with Examu for a long time, and so we were looking for the right timing for her to join.”

Tatsunori Ishikawa, director: “She was decided upon pretty early on. Of course, we had lots of potential picks, but Arcana Heart fit better with BlazBlue than the other ones.”

On Akatsuki Blitzkampf:

Mori: “This was heavily requested from the staff. Since they were so insistent, we went to negotiate with the original creator, and got the permission to add [Akatsuki and Blitztank]. Akatsuki had already joined Under Night In-Birth, but we listened to the original creator’s request to have him join under the Akatsuki Blitzkampf title, so it was included as a new title.”

“Still, a lot of people were shocked when they saw Blitztank.” (laughs) The staff said, “You’ve gotta add Blitztank when it comes to Akatsuki Blitzkampf!””

On Senran Kagura:

Mori: “If we’re talking about non-fighting game titles, RWBY has been in from the start, but we also wanted to include something else as well. I’m friends with [Kenichiro] Takaki-san who worked with the Senran Kagura series, and when I brought it up, he gave permission, and things went smoothly from thereon out. I was struggling between whether to add Asuka or Yumi, but after discussing with Marvelous, we went with Yumi.”

[Link]