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Shingetsutan Tsukihime is a pretty expansive work - a main visual novel, the Kagetsu Tohya supplement, and the Melty Blood games. The last bit, Melty Blood, is especially jarring to a Type-Moon fan who is late to the party - there are many versions, and the format itself is very different from what is normal for Nasu works: a fighting game.

What are the different versions, and how do they differ? What should be played and what skipped, and in what order, if one is playing for the story aspect?

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  • I think this question better suits Gaming.SE/Arqade.
    – кяαzєя ♦
    Dec 15, 2012 at 19:45
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    The subject of the question is the game, hence it belongs on Arqade.
    – Madara's Ghost
    Dec 15, 2012 at 22:10
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    I don't see how you can differentiate between games and VNs. Where does Baldr Sky fall? Or Kamidori? The only realistic way to differentiate IMO is by the content of the question. If the question is asking about gameplay, it certainly doesn't belong here, but if it's about plot (like this one) for a part-VN part-game, that seems to be on topic IMO.
    – Logan M
    Dec 15, 2012 at 22:17
  • @LoganM The question is asks "What should be played and what skipped, and in what order, if one is playing for the story aspect?" If the question was reworded to ask how the Melty Blood story is connected to Tsukihime then it would be on-topic.
    – кяαzєя ♦
    Dec 15, 2012 at 22:25
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    @SF. We don't need to be talking about if visual novels are on topic. That's what chat and meta is for. This is about THIS question. The question should be re-worded to be more about the Tsukihime storyline, if and only if that is what Fadeway is looking for. E.g. "What relation does the story in Melty Blood have with the Tsukihime series?" Asking the order to plat a game and difference between them is off-topic.
    – кяαzєя ♦
    Dec 15, 2012 at 23:05

2 Answers 2

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Melty Blood is the original game. The story supposedly follows Satsuki's route, which was never released with any of TM's games, which takes place one year after Tsukihime. The story and plot doesn't change with the subsequent expansion, but a lot of side stories are added (more Neco Arcs!). In the original Melty Blood, only six of 14 characters were available to be played, the other 8 had to be unlocked through playing Story Mode. This was later changed in an update for the game (aka the "Nero" patch), which unlocked all the characters from the start.

Sion is the main character of Melty Blood. She originally came to Shiki's town in order to find the cure for vampireism and defeat the Night of Walachia once and for all.

In Actress Again, she is responsible for the reenactment of Walachia.

Although this is supposedly Satsuki's route...

She never appears. She is only mentioned a total of three times in the full story, until ReACT. However, if you read into the game's story, her appearance could might as well been a fake created by Wallachia or White Len...

Melty Blood ReACT is an expansion for the original game (like Burning Crusade was to World of Warcraft). This expansion added 2 playable characters and 4 non-playable ones. I believe ReACT also adds an Arcade mode, which is a continuation of sorts of what happens in the Story Mode played out in fighting game style instead of visual novel style. Start with this game if you are just starting out with Melty Blood series and want the whole story (original Story Mode + Arcade Mode).

Melty Blood Act Cadenza is a further expansion of ReACT. This added 4 additional playable characters and various graphical and gameplay changes. Note that this version does NOT have a Story Mode.

Melty Blood Actress Again is a sequel to the previous game. It features many drasticly new mechanics, two new characters, and 3 different fighting styles for all known characters. Several secondary characters have had their storylines expanded upon to include what happened to them after the main storyline.

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  • Does ReACT contain all plot arcs of the original, and does Actress Again contain all arcs that came before it? In other words, can a player jump into the most polished and newest version, AA, and not risk missing anything from the previous games?
    – Fadeway
    Dec 16, 2012 at 5:27
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    Actress Again is a sequel so it has a different story than the original. ReACT Final Tuned, should have everything you want. Some characters have story lines the continue in Actress Again, that you might miss if you don't play the original game. ReACT's Story Mode stays the same as the original. The game the plays out in a branching tree path. You can advance to certain path blocks by defeating or losing to your opponent in certain number of rounds (usually 2). ReAct also adds Arcade mode, which is a continuation of sorts of what happens in the Story Mode.
    – кяαzєя ♦
    Dec 16, 2012 at 6:20
  • So the play order, to get all the plot without redundantly replaying the same arcs that happened to have been copied in other games and without skipping content, is ReACT Final Tuned->Actress Again? I'd love it if you include that in the answer for future readers, since it's the heart of the question.
    – Fadeway
    Dec 16, 2012 at 10:06
  • I've got here exactly for this @Fadeway question in the comment. So, to see all the plot, can I play just ReACT and Actress Again? It would be interesting to explicit this information in your answer.
    – Pedro Lorentz
    May 9, 2016 at 1:33
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to answer the question in the comments: melty blood react final tuned -> actress again is the full storyline (of melty blood, melty blood itself being a sequel to tsukihime) melty blood original and react/react final tuned have the exact same story.

i believe more people may be looking for this question due to recent developments so heres the answer.

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