What Blade Strangers is
Blade Strangers is a hardcore old-school 2D fighting game from Studio Saizensen. A malevolent force called Lina is devouring data from an interdimensional network of servers run by sentient computers known as "motes." In desperation, the motes pull heroes from parallel game worlds into one-on-one combat. The tournament winner has the potential to awaken as the Blade Stranger, the savior who can vanquish Lina and protect the motes.
The roster pulls fighters from earlier Studio Saizensen games like Code of Princess and Sayonara Umihara Kawase, from Nicalis games like Cave Story+, plus other surprise entrants. Each character has eight color settings and their own familiar "home" stage. The visuals come from a proprietary system that turns 3-D models and animation into 2-D spritework, so every frame reads like an anime drawing.
How your group plays it together
Blade Strangers is built around one-on-one fighting, so your group pairs off and runs matches against each other. Online competition play lets you take on opponents over the internet, and Remote Play Together lets friends join in from their own setups. Pick your fighters, settle the matchups, and run sets until someone claims the win.
Controls and depth
The four-button control scheme is streamlined, so beginners can deal damage from day one. Underneath that sits real fighting-game machinery: intricate combos, counters and specials, with plenty of room for frame counting, chain construction and hit-box science. Accessible controls are designed to bring fresh blood into the fighting-game ranks, so a mixed-skill group can get started quickly while the deeper systems keep experienced players busy.
Before you start
Expect a straight fighting game: no co-op campaign or story mode is described here, just versus combat. The game carries a Sexual Content tag alongside its fighting and anime tags, so keep that in mind for your group. Characters differ in their movesets and home stages, so a short round of trying several fighters helps everyone settle on a main before the real matches begin.