I noticed this very negative user review:

> For some reason, this is getting re-released on Steam and GoG as if
> anyone cares about games barring the ArcSys curse. It's outdated, poorly
> balanced and even with netplay in the shape of GFWL (stripped in this
> version) it only had a lobby of enthusiasts at best. The PC version suffered
> from poor decisions from ArcSys, like being released one week before the
> Continuum Shift update, which never saw a release on PC. About the
> game itself? The artwork is nice, the animation is a bit choppy, the story
> is corny. The only commendation this title diserves is that it's one of the
> few (the only?) game with xbox360/pc crossplay, something you don't see
> very often, probably due to marketing reasons. Oh yes, it also has
> excellent controller support. Without someone to play against, the value in
> this game is very short, only a couple of hours to see all the story modes,
> which are much better(?) in the subsequent updates.

The review talks about the "Continuum Shift update" ... but that is not an update but a sequel. But of course, since it is kind of the same game with some more characters, it might sort of work as an update.

This user review says that the animation is "a bit choppy".
On the other hand, Gamespots Xbox review pointed out the "Colorful, well-animated characters and backgrounds"
Animation in anime is traditionally more stylized ("cheap") than the one seen in traditional Disney animation - so this should be expected.

But does the user review have some fair points?

Not really. To me it sounds more like a person bitter over not getting a free Steam/GOG version after having bought the GfWL version. Or someone trying to run the game on a system that does not quite meet the requirements.

Ok, the story can feel a bit silly/cliched at times, but it's servicable.

Also, Continuum Shift has some different mechanics that affect every character, most notably the Guard & Burst system. Story Mode in CS recieved a noticable improvement over the one in CT (not that CT's Story Mode is bad). Calling Continuum Shift an update to Calamity Trigger is kinda like calling Baldur's Gate 2 an update to Baldur's Gate.

The review is basically little more than vapid bellyaching over personal taste. Outside of making a judgment on the animation quality there aren't any actual points being made. The rest of it boils down to "Meh - Sux" which isn't helpful nor informative. The reviewer is free to feel that way, but fails to really give me any serious reasons as to why I ought to feel the same way. Anything that is of merit can often be leveled at ANY game in the genre (like bad story).

I'm stilling waiting on it to download, but I do own it on Xbox. I can see someone calling the animation a bit choppy as I too wished for more frames, but the reality is that is the norm for hand drawn 2D fighters. 3D fighters usually get us a slick 60FPS on the characters but animating that by hand just doesn't happen. I can only think of 2 hand drawn fighters that have high quality frame rates, Street Fighter 3, and Fatal Fury Mark of the Wolves. While this game fails to reach that level of animation quality, it is perfectly within the norm and is probably identical to what you would see in Guilty Gear.

I can see why the OP described CS as an "update" since it was priced as though it were a stand-alone expansion pack. I seem to recall that it preordered for $36.99 on 360, in a time where $59.99 was the norm for new games.

The animation could be smoother but it really ought to be higher resolution. I remember remarking how much better this game looked than its much-better spiritual prequel Guilty Gear (a 4:3 PS2 game that was once available on GOG) but that was years ago. The graphical assets are supposedly in 720 and they assuredly look VERY upscaled at my 4x 720 (ie:2560*1440) resolution. The 3d stuff in the BG is pretty weaksauce too.

If the OP had complained about the lack of characters (and some characters are the same guy...) and lack of variety in play styles (not even with the "update" were all the styles from Guilty Gear implemented in this game) then he might have had a point. The story is pretty wonky but it is a fighting game and that's par for the course. Though the story in this one was definitely wonkier than that of Guilty Gear. I like this game, bought it from GOG @ launch and I'd recommend it for PC fighting fans but it'll always live in Guilty Gear's shadow.

...a season or two ago Japan rolled out a TV series for BlazBlue. If anyone doesn't think that the story to this is pretty cheesy then that is all but certain to change their mind.

I have my complains about the game, for example that you can not configure the settings before actaully launching the game (which seems to be the cause of my current issue with being unable to play the game, The only thing I never tryed was playing it in window mode or changing the resolution because, as far as I know you can not change the settings before launching the game) and that the game sometimes fails to launch for different and sometimes unrelated/unknown reasons (chieck the Steam forums to know more about the case), which makes this game a poorly made port.
But the gameplay is fantastic, and I know it, and it might be an old game but it is not outdated, I can tell that if you like 2d fighters this game is worth buying, and my personal negative experiences won't make me tell anyone not to buy it, even though they should be cautious and prepare a B plan in case they suffer the same fate I did.
I agree that they should release a PC port of Continum Shift and also of the latest sequel Chrono Phantasma (in which case they should make the config file available before launching the game, as they did with Guilty Gear XX Reload), but that is a separate issue.