>>10352228Melty Blood (メルティブラッド, Meruti Buraddo), is a visual novel and fighting game, co-developed by dōjin circles Type-Moon and French-Bread, originally released at Comiket in December 2002. It is shortened as simply Merubura (メルブラ).
Based on Type Moon's visual novel game, Tsukihime, it later spawned an arcade version titled Act Cadenza, developed by Ecole Software and has also been ported to the PlayStation 2, the first Type-Moon title to receive a console release. A manga version by Takeru Kirishima has been serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Comp Ace.
The game is set one year after Tsukihime and some days after Kagetsu Tohya. In the beginning of August 2001, Shiki Tohno hears of a new series of murders in Misaki Town, similar to the ones that took place in Tsukihime, in the last weeks of October 1999. Whilst searching for the murderer he meets Sion Eltnam Atlasia who initiates a fight with him, attempting to capture him. After the fight she reveals that her reason for trying to capture him is to get in contact with the "True Ancestor" (referring to Arcueid) so that she may acquire information on the "cure for vampirism". Shiki then decides to help her with this task.
The story moves through a series of fights. Depending on the outcome of the fight the story will branch in one of two ways. Ultimately this corresponds to the ending of the game.
Melty Blood makes use of widely used concepts in fighting games such as cancels (canceling a normal attack with a special attack before its animation ends, allowing for more complex and damaging combos) chain combos (normal moves that cancel into other normal moves) and the use of super bars (Magic Circuits). It also introduces Shielding, an advanced defensive technique.
As of Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code Ver. 1.07, there are 31 playable characters.
