Due to the nature of being a prequel, Late Arrival Spoilers for all four mainline BlazBlue games will be left unmarked ahead. You Have Been Warned!
Ragna the Bloodedge. The man nicknamed "The Grim Reaper" and possesses the power of the Azure Grimoire. Yet, he awakens in an unfamiliar land and has lost both the Azure's power and his memory.
In this unknown world, he comes across Celica, a girl who is able to use healing magic, and a beastkin warrior named Mitsuyoshi. Their journey is closely related to the Black Beast, a being which drove humanity to devastation. However...
The popular fighting game series BlazBlue's history, previously shrouded in mystery, is about to be laid bare. The official story leading to where it all begins has arrived!
BlazBlue: Phase Shift are a series of light novels written by Mako Komao, published by Fujimi Shobo and illustrated by Katō Yūki. They're based on official drafts that Blazblue producer, Toshimichi Mori himself created and serve as a Prequel to expand on the backstory of the series, specifically the Dark War and its immediate aftermath leading to the events of the first game.
The series is divided into five novels:
- BlazBlue: Phase 0: Released on August 20th, 2010. The story begins when Ragna has a chance encounter with Celica A. Mercury, a young lady harboring a mysterious power, and involves the mysteries of the BlazBlue world.
- BlazBlue: Phase Shift 1: The first sequel was released in April 2011. This time the focus shifts to Yuuki Terumi and a boy named Kazuma Kvar, while also elaborating more on Nine and Trinity before she became Platinum.
- BlazBlue: Phase Shift 2: Released January 2012, this sequel focuses on Jin Kisaragi's exploits during the Dark War and his eventual evolution into taking up the mantle of Hakumen.
- BlazBlue: Phase Shift 3: Released May 2012 the focal point character is Konoe A. Mercury, better known as Nine of the Six Heroes, and tells her dealings with the Magic Guild and their involvements in the Dark War.
- BlazBlue: Phase Shift 4: The fifth novel, released in late September of 2012, this time placing the spotlight on Celica yet again, all the while setting the stage (in a rather major way at that) for later iterations of the series, Chronophantasma in particular.
The publishers currently have no intention of release these novels outside of Japan., but a fan translation project has begun for the series (See here
). At the moment, only the first three volumes have been translated.
Tropes this series displays:
- Doomed by Canon: Jubei's brother Tomonori, Rachel's father and Valkenhayn's previous master, Clavis Alucard don't show up anywhere in the main series, so it's pretty easy to guess they don't survive this series by the end.
- The Dulcinea Effect: Ragna barely knows Celica for about 5 minutes, but he has no problem of protecting her on her journey to find her father.
- Foregone Conclusion: Since this takes place before the start of the series proper, the novels eventually end with Hakumen's prologue story in Calamity Trigger, namely right after Terumi had murdered Trinity and Nine and him being sealed in the boundary along with Hakumen by Jubei.
- In-Series Nickname: Mitsuyoshi adopted the name "Jubei" after Ragna referred to him as such for the duration of Phase 0.
- Protagonist Journey to Villain: Basically the plot of Phase Shift 1 is Terumi convincing Kazuma to merge with him and seek out the Azure. What's even sadder is that Kazuma started out as a rather decent guy, if a bit of an oddball before Terumi got to him. This leads to Kazuma taking advantage of Trinity's feelings for him and tricking her into releasing Nine's Mind Eater spell Terumi. Terumi proceeds to kill her as "thanks" as well as Nine for revenge.
- The Reveal: Phase 0 reveals that Ragna himself was the legendary hero "Bloodedge" whom Jubei looked up to...
even though Ragna didn't tell Jubei his full title until the end of the novel.
