Nicalis announced Blade Strangers, a crossover fighting game developed by Studio Saizensen featuring characters from Cave Story, Code of Princess, and Umihara Kawase, for PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC in Q4 2017.

Blade Strangers will feature Story, Mission, Versus, Training, and Online modes, and is said to mix the dynamics and speed of Guilty Gear and Street Fighter with the easy inputs of Super Smash Bros. Characters were created as 3D models, then converted to 2D sprites. Story Mode will have cutscenes, characters clashing, and so on, and is described as like a traditional arcade mode. Mission Mode will give players specific tasks. Training Mode will let players train with a dummy. Stages will be taken from the actual games represented. More characters will be announced later on. Updates are planned post-release.

he stunning character animation in Blade Strangers is created using a proprietary process. 3D character models are used to render individual animation frames, which are then rasterized into sprites and manually touched up by experienced 2D artists. The result is smooth and realistic animation in which every single frame looks like a gorgeous anime illustration.

The game uses a four-button control scheme in which all attacks are triggered by various combinations of action buttons. By avoiding the use of traditional quarter-circle and half-circle input commands, Nicalis and Studio Saizensen hope that the less complex controls of Blade Strangers will allow new players to get into the fighting game genre. The development team’s goal is to revitalize a once-mighty fan community that has the potential to grow even larger.

Another benefit of the simplified controls in Blade Strangers is reduced lag in online multiplayer competition, since there’s less data to transmit between opponents. The finished game will combine the excitement and subtle dynamics of a classic one-on-one brawler with the polish and features that a current-gen fighting game deserves