Don’t get too excited. This isn’t the fabled sequel to Continuum Shift that will finally allow us to play as Jubei. No, this is just an update, although a much needed one, to the arcade cabinet, which will be great news for anyone who frequents the arcade for the face to face BlazBlue experience … or for anyone who simply plans on pirating the game the same way the first version was pirated.

So what is BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II. Well, in short, it is BlazBlue: Continuum Shift with all the perks of the console version. You see, the original arcade version only had two new characters: Hazama and Tsubaki. However, the console version has one unlockable boss character and three downloadable DLC characters: Mu-12, Makoto Nanaya, Valkenhayn R. Hellsing, and Platinum the Trinity. Makoto is the only DLC character that has been officially released thus far, but Valkenhayn has been officially announced and should be coming in September, and Platinum’s character portrait and theme were found on the game disk, so we can safely expect all these characters to end up as playable in some form or another.

If this was left alone, the console version of the game would have the capability to have 4 more characters than the arcade version, which would be crippling to arcade traffic. So Arc System Works has decided that the best way to fix this is to create an updated arcade cabinet. BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II will feature all the downloadable and unlockable characters from the console version, fully playable in versus mode, and contain their own updated Arcade stories to boot. Each of these characters will also be playable in beginner mode, score attack mode, or training mode as well. Any balance changes implemented in downloadable patches for the console version will also be implemented in this new arcade version. There may be even more bonuses to this new version of Continuum Shift but we won’t know that until it is premiered at the Amusement Machine Show as part of Taito’s booth.

Along with this announcement we have a few more details about Valkenhayn but they aren’t anything we didn’t already know. Dengeki has stated that Valkenhayn’s Drive is called “Were Wolf” and since BlazBlue Wiki previously listed “Lycanthropy” we can’t say that this surprises us. Arc System Works officially confirmed that Valkenhayn will be available for purchase sometime in the month of September, though exactly when has not yet been revealed. He will cost eight dollars, or 560 Microsoft Points.

Related posts on 30ninjas.com:

• BlazBlue: Continuum Shift — Valkenhayn DLC Release Details Revealed
• BlazBlue: Continuum Shift — More Goodies
• New BlazBlue Continuum Shift Character, Mu-12, Confirmed
• BlazBlue Continuum Shift 2 Patch Gets Release Date and Price
• A BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Review — Valkenhayn: Hungry Like the Wolf
• New BlazBlue Continuum Shift DLC Character Makoto Details Revealed