Ragna the Bloodedge vs Velvet Crowe (Blazblue vs Tales of Berseria)

(Br3ndan5)



(Scarat)


(NathanTheManTheMHFan)


Ragna the Bloodedge, the Grim Reaper from Blazblue!

Velvet Crowe, the Lord of Calamity from Tales of Berseria!

Vengeance can drive one to do many things and commit to any extreme to satisfy their grudge. And nobody knows it better than these two. With the loss of their arm and the mysterious disappearance of their siblings, these two have ventured the world on a quest for vengeance against the one man that ruined their lives.

But what happens when these two harbingers of destruction cross paths? Will the Grim Reaper claim another victim, or will the Lord of Calamity devour yet another monster? Let’s find out as we dive deep into both series to determine who would win a DEATH BATTLE!

Before we begin

Given Blazblue’s status as a multimedia franchise with multiple canon games, manga, and novels, for the sake of making things fair, we’ll also be including any feats or abilities found in the spin-offs and adaptations for Tales of Berseria. This will include the Tales of Berseria manga and the first season of Tales of Zestiria the X.


Background

Ragna

"I am the enemy to the entire world... The Grim Reaper, Ragna the Bloodedge."




The year was 2100. In an effort to create a machine that would kill the godlike Master Unit Amaterasu, scientists Relius Clover and Shuichiro Ayatsuki unknowingly summoned a monster from the otherworldly dimension known as the Boundary. The monster, dubbed The Black Beast, ravaged Japan and nearly brought the world to extinction, but was eventually slain thanks to the legendary warriors known as the Six Heroes.

However, their victory was short-lived. One of the Heroes’ own, Yuki Terumi, would later betray their trust, killing two of their members before their leader, the silver knight Hakumen, sacrificed his freedom to ensure Terumi was sealed away.

Things weren’t much better for humanity, as the Black Beast’s death had coated the planet in a poisonous fog known as seithr. Forced to dwell within the highest mountains to survive, the rest of mankind found themselves under the oppressive rule of a rising government known as the Novus Orbis Librarium.


With almost unopposed control, the NOL began devoting their efforts to investigating the world the Black Beast had come from, constructing portals called Cauldrons to traverse the Boundary in the hopes of obtaining ultimate power. After discovering regular humans couldn’t survive entry, the NOL began developing artificial experiments to explore this unknown world. But things soon went awry when the fifth of these “Prime Field Devices” became pregnant and gave birth to three children.

These children- Ragna, Jin, and Saya- were placed under the supervision of Relius, who immediately began performing inhumane experiments on them. But their suffering would end when they were discovered by Jubei of the Six Heroes, who rescued them and placed them in the care of his sister-in-law.

Unfortunately, things soon went wrong when Terumi- having been freed from his imprisonment years earlier- discovered the church they were staying in and brainwashed Jin into helping him burn down the church, kill the Sister taking care of them, and cut off Ragna’s arm. Ragna was then forced to watch as his siblings were kidnapped, able to do nothing but bleed out as his home was reduced to ashes.

Fortunately for Ragna, his determination to survive had caught the interest of Rachel Alucard, a nigh-omniscient vampire who helped Ragna by guiding him to the church’s ruins, where the Black Beast’s corpse had been hidden. The corpse grafted itself onto Ragna in the form of a new arm, and with his survival assured, Rachel took him to Jubei, who became his new mentor.

After years of training, Ragna was gifted the keepsakes of Bloodedge, Jubei’s own mentor from the Dark War. With his new sword and experience in wielding the Azure Grimoire, Ragna began following in Jubei’s footsteps by traveling the world and shutting down the Cauldrons set up by the NOL, all while searching for his lost siblings and working to get revenge on Terumi.

Though he did eventually find his siblings, their conditions were less than ideal. Jin had become a well-respected war hero of the NOL and was under the brainwashing effects of his sword, which urged him to kill Ragna due to his connection to the Black Beast. Even when he defected, overcame the brainwashing, and began training under Jubei, Jin still wanted to kill him, believing Ragna’s ties to the Beast could potentially destroy the world.

Saya’s condition wasn’t any better, as her body had been repurposed to serve as a vessel for the goddess of death and current leader of the NOL, Hades Izanami.

Izanami would use her power to try and end all life by bringing about Doomsday, extinguishing all life in the world save for Ragna and those who had been “chosen” by Amaterasu. These survivors were then placed in a pocket dimension called the Embryo and engaged in a free-for-all with the goal of obtaining ultimate power, to remake the world based on their deepest desires.

To ensure that everyone would survive, Ragna ventured through the Embryo, using his power to gather everyone’s “dreams” while putting a stop to Izanami’s ambitions. With the combined efforts of the Azure Grimoire and the 12th Prime Field Device Noel Vermillion, Izanami was eventually defeated.

But even with this victory, things didn’t improve. Terumi was still around, albeit heavily weakened from his latest encounter with Hakumen. In a slow bid to regain his lost power, he worked behind the scenes, gathering the necessary resources until he was ready to spring his trap. After siccing a berserk 13th Prime Field Device on the heroes, Terumi used the distraction to kill Hakumen and regain his full power as the god Susano’o.

With the threat of Doomsday still closing in, Ragna, Jin, and the ghostly alchemist Trinity Glassfille tracked Susano’o through the Boundary and battled him in front of the gate containing ultimate power.

By combining their strength, the three worked together to force Terumi out of the Susano’o Unit. However, in doing so, they opened the Gate, which dragged Ragna and Terumi inside.

In a final battle to decide the fate of the world, Ragna and Terumi dueled one last time, ending with Ragna slaying Terumi. While Ragna may have gained ultimate power in doing so, he realized that he couldn’t exist in the new world he’d create. After bidding his siblings farewell, Ragna used the power of the Azure Flame Grimoire, sacrificing his existence and erasing all memories of him to create a new world where everyone could live out their desires.


Velvet

“I am corruption made flesh. Velvet, the Lord of Calamity.”


Born in the village of Aball, Velvet Crowe was born the younger sister of Celica Crowe and sister-in-law to the warrior Artorius Collbrande. The group lived together alongside the youngest sibling Laphicet, but their quiet and reserved lives would soon end in tragedy when a pregnant Celica sacrificed herself to save Artorius from a group of daemons.

Upon learning that the people of Aball had intended to sacrifice him and his wife to save themselves from the daemons, Artorius’ fury caused him to change. Wanting to keep others from suffering, he began plotting to bring back the sleeping Empyrean Innominat, whose return was prophesied to suppress the emotions of all mankind.


After years of research, Artorius had everything prepared for the ritual, bringing Laphicet with him to a distant shrine. Under the light of a blood moon, Artorius sacrificed his brother-in-law by stabbing him through the chest. However, there was one problem. During that same night, a plague had infected Aball’s inhabitants, transforming them into daemons. Unaware of this, Velvet fought through the transformed hordes, killing them all while trying to find some sign of her brother. And when she did find him, it was right when Artorius had finished the sacrifice.


Understandably horrified, Velvet attempted to save Laphicet as Artorius cast him into a nearby pit, but her efforts would lead to Artorius severing her arm. In her pain and fury, Velvet’s body became infected by the same malevolence that had transformed the villagers, turning her into a daemon. She attempted to attack Artorius with her new arm, only to be swiftly defeated and imprisoned.

Following her defeat, Artorius would have Velvet placed within the prison island Titania and kept in its deepest cell. Under watch from Artorius’ newly formed religious order the Abbey, Velvet would be fed the daemons thrown into her cell, her mind consumed with thoughts of killing Artorius and avenging Laphicet.

After three years of imprisonment, she would eventually be freed thanks to Seres, a malakhim (spiritual being) and subordinate of Artorius’s who’d broken off after questioning his methods. During her escape, she’d encounter and aid fellow prisoners Rokurou and Magilou before encountering the exorcist Oscar Dragonia, whose battle with Velvet would end with him turning one of his servants into a dragon. This dragon would then mortally wound Seres, who sacrificed herself and, at her own request, was absorbed into Velvet, gaining all of her powers and memories… including the revelation that Seres was actually the reincarnation of her sister Celica.

Following the dragon’s defeat, Velvet worked with Rokurou and Magilou to escape Titania and formed a partnership with them, all united under the goal of taking down the Abbey. They’d later be aided in this journey by the conflicted exorcist Eleanor Hume, the pirate malakhim Eizen, and a young malakhim Velvet would name Laphicet (or Phi for short) due to his similar appearance to her late brother.

Together, they’d discover the higher-ups of the Abbey planned to awaken Innominat and began a counter plan to awaken the four Empyreans capable of stopping him. However, things would take an unexpected turn when Innominat was revived.

Using Laphicet as his vessel, the Empyrean of Suppression taunted Velvet by showing her the memories of her brother. As it turned out, Laphicet had willingly given himself as a sacrifice because he was deathly ill and didn’t want to burden his sister with the few months he had left to live. This revelation completely broke Velvet and left her in a suicidal state, only made worse by Innominat questioning her true motives and accusing her of being nothing more than a bloodthirsty monster.

Her mind would only be repaired when Phi stepped in and helped reassure her of her goals, giving her the motivation to continue. Traveling the land, she and the rest of her party slew the four Legate rank exorcists and used their bodies as the Empyreans’ vessels, then faced off against Artorius.

Using the power of armatization, Artorius merged with Innominat, only to be beaten down and slain by Velvet, who stripped Innominat from him and impaled him through the chest. However, their job wasn’t finished, as Innominat was still on the verge of going berserk. In order to put a stop to him, Velvet allowed herself to be sealed away with the fifth Empyrean, eternally reunited with her little brother and preventing Innominat from awakening ever again.

In time, Velvet and her sacrifice would be forgotten by the world. She would only be remembered in folklore as the Lord of Calamity, a bloodthirsty monster whose indiscriminate slaughter and spread of malevolence endangered the world.


Experience, Intelligence, and Skill

Ragna

Having been trained from childhood by Jubei, Ragna’s body is at the peak of human fitness, able to wield weapons as heavy as Aramasa without issue. He has been trained in the use of martial arts and Ars Magus, which is amplified in part by his Azure Grimoire.

Ragna has casually torn through scores of highly trained soldiers without using his powers, dueled experienced war veterans like Jin Kisaragi and Kagura Mutsuki, and repeatedly battled members of the Six Heroes, all of whom are over 100 years old.

His skills have improved over the course of the series, as he’s gone from needing the Azure Grimoire to fight the likes of Hakumen and Nu-13, to stalemating or even defeating them in his base form.


Strangely enough, apparently he’s a really good cook and specializes in barbecue.


Velvet


Velvet has proven herself a rather skilled fighter, having received combat training from Artorius. Her fighting style is mainly self-taught, combining swordplay with various martial arts moves. This style was mainly developed during her three year imprisonment in Titania, where she honed her skills daily by killing and absorbing the hundreds of daemons and prisoners sent into her cell.


She’s dueled a wide variety of foes, from fellow daemons to enormous dragons, accomplished exorcists like Oscar and Teresa, the centuries old Melchior, and even Artorius himself. At her peak she was able to hold her own against Innominat, a godlike being that had grown in power from every enemy she’d slain.


But Velvet’s training alone wasn’t what carried her to her victories. It was also thanks to her extremely pragmatic strategies in combat. She’s willing to use anything at her disposal to gain an advantage, even if that involves using her enemy’s weapons against them or exploiting her own companions.


And while not necessarily combat-related, she is rather knowledgeable when it comes to things like housework and cooking.


Equipment

Ragna

Azure Grimoire


Formed from the corpse of the Black Beast, the Azure Grimoire (also called the Blazblue) is an amorphous mass of seithr discovered under the church where Ragna lived. Originally in the form of a headless statue, it grafted itself onto Ragna’s missing right arm, completely replacing it.

Said to be the strongest of the Grimoires, the Azure Grimoire grants Ragna a direct link to the Boundary, an alternate dimension containing an infinite amount of seithr, a particle substance which he can draw on for attacks.

Its abilities were later boosted when it merged with Lambda-11’s Idea Engine during Ragna’s battle with Terumi in Continuum Shift. This merge altered the Grimoire’s composition, allowing Ragna to access more of his power while lessening the burden on his body. He can draw on this in battle by linking with the Idea Engine to provide a temporary stat boost, or unlock it to achieve his full power.

Additionally, the Azure Grimoire gives Ragna the following abilities:


Seithr Regulator

Two devices on the backs of Ragna’s gloves that stabilize the Azure Grimoire and prevent the seithr in his body from going out of control. Through vocal commands, he can open them to access the Azure Grimoire’s full power.


Aramasa

Also called Blood Scythe, this weapon was originally used by the legendary hero Bloodedge, and was passed down to Ragna once he’d completed his training with Jubei.

While it normally appears as a massive broadsword, it has the ability to shapeshift into a massive scythe, and it can be used in conjunction with Soul Eater.


Noise Canceller

An experimental device created by Kokonoe and implanted within Ragna’s artificial left arm. It’s synchronized with the Idea Engine, letting him use the Azure Grimoire and Ars Magus in areas where seithr isn’t available.


Azure Flame Grimoire

Also called the Azure Flamed Grimoire, the Book of the Blue Blaze, and the True Azure, this mysterious power lies in the deepest part of the Boundary and can only be obtained by those it deems worthy of its power.

It is described as neither good nor evil, being pure power that answers to the call of those who desire it. With its power, the wielder can “turn any possibility into reality” and is granted authority above the Master Unit Amaterasu and Takamagahara, letting them recreate the universe or destroy it without risk of interference.

There is only one downside to using it. In order to wield its power, the user must become possibility itself and cease existing.


Velvet

Blades

Velvet mainly fights with three retractable blades. One in her arm and two in her greaves. The latter of which she’ll usually keep sheathed until she attacks with one of her kick based artes (see below), but the former she often keeps sheathed at all times. As for the types of blades she uses, well, get ready.

Being a JRPG, Velvet naturally has a bunch of equipment at her disposal. Not only can she equip a bunch of different gauntlet blades, but also belts, armors, shoes, and rings. Each one grants Velvet an enhancement bonus skill and a master skill. For this blog, we will be looking at the mastered variants of every piece of equipment.

Gauntlet Blades

These are the weapons she can wield.


Bloodstained Blade

Mastered variant of the Blood Blade.

Enhancement bonus: HP Recovery on attacking stunned foes +20

Master skill: HP Recovery upon defeating foes +30


Amber Blade: White Rose

Mastered variant of Amber Blade.

Enhancement bonus: Total attack increased by 7%

Master skill: Attack +5


Beast Slayer

Mastered variant of Beast Fang.

Enhancement bonus: +30% EXP from defeating beasts

Master skill: Capability vs beasts +10%


Calcite Blade: Hydrangea

Mastered variant of Calcite Blade.

Enhancement bonus: +20% EXP from defeating armored enemies.

Master skill: Capability vs armored enemies +8%


Antilon

Mastered variant of Shell Shredder.

Enhancement bonus: +30% EXP from defeating crustacean enemies

Master skill: Capability vs crustaceans +10%


Fluoric Blade: Rhododendron

Mastered variant of Fluoric Blade.

Enhancement bonus: During increased attack, +1 paralyzing to 1st step artes

Master skill: +30% attack when HP is 30% or lower


Demon’s Tormentor

Mastered variant of Demon’s Cleaver

Enhancement bonus: +30% EXP from defeating amorphus enemies

Master skill: Capability against amorphus +10%


Amphibole Blade: Gray Lily

Mastered variant of Amphibole Blade.

Enhancement bonus: +1 elemental hit to 1st attack arte

Master skill: Non-elemental attack power +4%


Maw of the Viper

Mastered variant of Snakebite

Enhancement bonus: +30% EXP from defeating apodous enemies

Master skill: Capability vs apodous +10%


Feldspar Blade: Red Poppy

Mastered variant of Feldspar Blade

Enhancement skill: +1 fire element to first attack arte

Master skill: Fire attack power +4%


Feather’s Bane

Mastered variant of Wing Harvester

Enhancement skill: +30% EXP from defeating winged enemies

Master skill: Capability vs winged fors +10%


Quartz Blade: Soapberry

Mastered variant of Quartz Blade

Enhancement skill: +1 wind element hit to first attack arte

Master skill: Wind attack power +4%


Consumer

Mastered variant of Fury Piercer

Enhancement skill: +30% EXP from defeating demihumans

Master skill: Capability vs demihumans +10%


Topaz Blade: Pakalana

Mastered variant of Topaz Blade

Enhancement skill: +1 earth element hit to first attack arte

Master skill: Earth attack power +4%


Tetra Void

Mastered variant of Fonon Blade

Enhancement skill: +30% EXP from armored foes

Master skill: Capability vs armored foes +10%


Mythril Blade: Iris

Mastered variant of Mythril Blade

Enhancement skill: +1 water element hit to first attack arte

Master skill: Water attack power +4%


Pilgrim’s Hand

Mastered variant of Purified Blade

Enhancement skill: +30% EXP from defeating undead

Master skill: Capability vs undead +10%


Adamantine Blade: Rock Pine

Mastered variant of Adamantine Blade

Enhancement skill: Total attack increased by 10%

Master skill: Attack +8


Demon’s Demise

Mastered variant of Demon’s Bane

Enhancement skill: +30% EXP from defeating fiends

Master skill: Capability vs fiends +10%


Dragons End

Mastered variant of Dragon Slayer

Enhancement skill: +30% EXP from defeating dragons

Master skill: Capability vs dragons +10%


Void Blade

Mastered variant of Unnamed Blade

Enhancement skill: Total attack increased by 15%

Master skill: Attack +15%


Belts

This is Velvet’s unique armor in Tales of Berseria


Veteran Belt

Mastered variant of Sturdy Belt

Enhancement skill: A. Atk increased by 7%

Master skill: Arte Attack + 5


Amber Pincer Belt

Mastered variant of Amber Belt

Enhancement skill: 20% EXP from defeating demihumans

Master skill: Capability vs demihumans + 8%


Sash of the Coral Lady

Mastered variant of Aphrodite Sash

Enhancement skill: +40 HP recovery from attacking stunned foes

Master skill: +50 HP recovery from defeating foes


Calcite Belt of Ruin

Mastered variant of Calcite Belt

Enhancement skill: During increased A. Atk, +1 burning hit to 1st step artes

Master skill: +30% A. Atk when HP is 8% or lower


Sash of the Crimson Dame

Mastered variant of Belle de Dom Sash

Enhancement skill: +1 water hit to the first attack arte in a combo

Master skill: Water attack power +1


Fluoric Belt of Persecution

Mastered variant of Fluoric Belt

Enhancement skill: +20% EXP from defeating undead

Master skill: Capability vs undead +8%


Sash of the Scarlet Baroness

Mastered variant of Cassandra Sash

Enhancement skill: +1 fire hit to the first attack in a combo

Master skill: Fire attack power +7%


Amphibole Belt of Destruction

Mastered variant of Amphibole Belt

Enhancement skill: Equipment drop rates increased by 20%

Master skill: Equipment skills learning speed +10%


Sash of the Vermillion Countess

Mastered variant of Duftwolke Sash

Enhancement skill: +1 earth hit to the 1st attack in a combo

Master skill: Earth attack power +7%


Feldspar Belt of Subjugation

Mastered variant of Feldspar Belt

Enhancement skill: +20% EXP from defeating dragons

Master skill: Capability against dragons +8%


Sash of the Pearl Marchioness

Mastered variant of Edelweiss Sash

Enhancement skill: Total arte attack increased by 10%

Master skill: Arte Attack +8


Quartz Belt of Disaster

Mastered variant of Quartz Belt

Enhancement skill: +20% EXP from defeating fiends

Master skill: Capability against fiends +8


Sash of the Carmine Duchess

Mastered variant of Francois Rabelais Sash

Enhancement Skill: +1 wind attack to the 1st attack in a combo

Master skill: Wind attack power +7%


Marionetteer’s Topaz Belt

Mastered variant of Topaz Belt

Enhancement skill: Equipment drop rates +20%

Master skill: Equipment skills learning speed +14%


Sash of the Peach Princess

Mastered variant of Princess Peach Gloire des Mousseux Sash

Enhancement skill: Total arte attack increased by 15%

Master skill: Arte attack +15


Mythril Belt of Extermination

Mastered variant of Mythril Belt

Enhancement skill: During increased A. Attack, +1 burning hit to 1st step artes

Master skill: +30% A. Atk when HP is 10% or less


Sash of the Buttercup Queen

Mastered variant of Helmut Schmidt Sash

Enhancement skill: Break soul HP recovery +30%

Master skill: 8% chance to not lose souls during break souls


Adamantine Belt of Slaughter

Mastered variant of Adamantine Belt

Enhancement skill: Equipment drop rates +50%

Master skill: Equipment skills learning speed +19%


Sash of the Raspberry Empress

Mastered variant of Intrigue Sash

Enhancement skill: HP recovery from attacking stunned foes +80

Master skill: HP recovery from defeating foes +80


Sash of the Ivory Saint

Mastered variant of Jeanne d’Arc Sash

Enhancement skill: +1 non-element hit to the first attack in an arte combo

Master skill: Non-elemental attack power +7%


Primal Belt

Mastered variant of Unnamed Belt

Enhancement skill: 60% of healing arte effects reapplied after 5 seconds

Master skill: Charge effect activation speed +20%


Armors

Tales of Berseria has a variety of armors for both men and women. Here, we’ll be focusing on the women’s armor for obvious reasons even though she could totally rock the men’s armors.


Radiant Vestments

Mastered variant of Battle Garment

Enhancement bonus: Total Def +1.07x (7%)

Master skill: Def +5


Amber Decree Vestments

Mastered variant of Amber Garment

Enhancement bonus: Max HP +1.05x (5%)

Master skill: Max HP +30


Sylphic Vestments

Mastered variant of Silky Touch Garment

Enhancement bonus: 15% chance to nullify non-elemental damage

Master skill: Non-elemental damage taken -5%


Blue Calcite Garb

Mastered variant of Calcite Garment

Enhancement bonus: Recovers 25% of damage taken

Master skill: +1.15x (15%) Absorb HP effect for artes


Brandia Vestments

Mastered variant of Middy Blouse

Enhancement bonus: 15% chance to nullify wind damage

Master skill: Wind damage taken -5%


Flourite Dazzle Garment

Mastered variant of Flouric Garment

Enhancement bonus: +20% EXP from defeating winged foes

Master skill: Capability vs winged foes +8%


Pinkist Vestments

Mastered variant of Garish Pink Shirt

Enhancement bonus: Recovers 35% of damage taken

Master skill: +1.2x (20%) Absorb HP effect for artes


Black Celebratory Garment

Mastered variant of Amphibole Garment

Enhancement bonus: +20% Exp from defeating apodous

Master skill: Capability vs apodous +8%


Crimson Vestment

Mastered variant of Crimson Veil

Enhancement bonus: 15% chance to nullify fire damage

Master skill: Fire damage taken -5%


Yellow Feldspar Artistry

Mastered variant of Feldspar Garment

Enhancement bonus: +20%EXP from defeating amorphous foes

Master skill: Capability vs amorphous +8%


Wedding Dress

Mastered variant of Pure White Veil

Enhancement bonus: Max HP +1.1x (10%)

Master skill: Max HP +50


Purple Quartz Resilience

Mastered variant of Quartz Garment

Enhancement bonus: +20% EXP from defeating crustaceans

Master skill: Capability vs crustaceans +8%


Faerie Antoinette

Mastered variant of Mystical Feather Garment

Enhancement bonus: 25% chance to nullify wind damage

Master skill: Wind damage taken -6%


Opaque Topaz Garment

Mastered variant of Topaz Garment

Enhancement bonus: +20% EXP from defeating beasts

Master skill: Capability vs beasts +8%


Victoria Vestments

Mastered variant of Elder Garden

Enhancement bonus: +25% chance to nullify fire damage

Master skill: Fire damage taken -6%


Shining Mythril Mysticism

Mastered variant of Mythril Garment

Enhancement bonus: Total Def +1.1x (10%)

Master skill: Defense +8


Angelique Vestments

Mastered variant of Survivor’s Garb

Enhancement bonus: Recovers 50% of damage taken

Master skill: +1.25x (25%) Absorb HP effect for artes


Golden Adamantine Divinity

Mastered variant of Adamantine Garment

Enhancement bonus: Damage over 1,000 -40%

Master skill: All damage taken -30


Orléans Vestments

Mastered variant of Uprising Veil

Enhancement bonus: Max HP increased by 1.2x (20%)

Master skill: Max HP +90


Silvaria Vestments

Mastered variant of Empress Shield

Enhancement bonus: 25% chance to nullify non-elemental damage

Master skill: Non-elemental damage taken -6%


Vega’s Dress

Mastered variant of Unnamed Garment

Enhancement bonus: 100% of reflected damage recovered as HP

Master skill: Reflect 13% of nullified damage


Shoes

Standalone Shoes

Mastered variant of Battle Boots

Enhancement bonus: Focus increased by 1.07x (7%)

Master skill: Focus +5


Orange Amber Boots

Mastered variant of Amber Boots

Enhancement bonus: HP Recovery effects for gels

and bottles +3%

Master skill: Time you can’t use items -12%


White Calcite Boots

Mastered variant of Calcite Boots

Enhancement bonus: During increased Focus,

+1 fatiguing hit to 1st step artes

Master skill: +30% Focus when HP is 8% or lower


Ash Flourite Boots

Mastered variant of Flouric Boots

Enhancement bonus: Maximum BG+1

Master skill: +1.1x (10%) BG gained from Break Soul


Blue Amphibole Boots

Mastered variant of Amphibole Boots

Enhancement bonus: 30% of healing arte effects

reapplied after 5 seconds

Master skill: Charge effect activation speed +12%


Yellow Feldspar Boots

Mastered variant of Feldspar Boots

Enhancement bonus: During increased A. Def,

+1 poisoning hit to first step artes

Master skill: +30% A. Def when HP is 8% or lower


Purple Quartz Boots

Mastered variant of Quartz Boots

Enhancement bonus: 1% chance to instantly defeat a

stunned foe

Master skill: Enemies’ Stun duration +1.1x (10%)


Brown Topaz Boots

Mastered variant of Topaz Boots

Enhancement bonus: +10% reclaimed SG after

weak point combos

Master skill: 5% chance of halving SG costs


Black Mythril Boots

Mastered variant of Mythril Boots

Enhancement bonus: 2% chance to instantly defeat

a stunned foe 

Master skill: Enemies’ Stun duration +1.16x (16%)


Solid Adamantine Boots

Mastered variant of Adamantine Boots

Enhancement bonus: Break Soul HP recovery +1.2x (20%)

Master skill: 6% chance to not lose souls

during Break Soul


Peerless Shoes

Mastered variant of Unnamed Boots

Enhancement bonus: +10% reclaimed SG after weak point combos

Master skill: 9% chance of halving SG costs


Rings

Ring of Protection

Mastered variant of Resistance Ring

Enhancement bonus: Total Arte Defense +1.07x (7%)

Master skill: Arte Defense +5


Nihilism Ring

Mastered variant of Void Ring

Enhancement bonus: 5% chance to nullify non-elemental

damage

Master skill: Non-elemental damage taken -4%



Conflagration Ring

Mastered variant of Fire Ring

Enhancement bonus: 5% chance to nullify fire damage

Master skill: Fire damage taken -4%


Tremor Ring

Mastered variant of Earth Ring

Enhancement bonus: 5% chance to nullify earth damage

Master skill: Earth damage taken -4%


Torrent Ring

Mastered variant of Aqua Ring

Enhancement bonus: 5% chance to nullify water damage

Master skill: Water damage taken -4%


Flame Charm

Mastered variant of Flame Ward

Enhancement bonus: Burning attack damage taken -20%

Master skill: Effect of burn -40%


Slow Charm

Mastered variant of Slow Ward

Enhancement bonus: Slowing attack damage taken -20%

Master skill: Effect of slow -40%


Shock Charm

Mastered variant of Shock Ward

Enhancement bonus: Paralyzing attack damage taken -20%

Master skill: Effect of paralysis -40%


Poison Charm

Mastered variant of Poison Ward

Enhancement bonus: Poisoning attack damage taken -20%

Master skill: Effect of poison -40%


Fatigue Charm

Mastered variant of Fatigue Ward

Enhancement bonus: Fatiguing attack damage taken -20%

Master skill: Effect of fatigue -40%


Ring of Force

Mastered variant of Force Ring

Enhancement bonus: Total Arte Def +1.1x (10%)

Master skill: Arte Defense +8


Animalia Talisman

Mastered variant of Animalia Ring

Enhancement bonus: +40% EXP from defeating beasts

Master skill: Capability vs beasts +12%


Shell Talisman

Mastered variant of Shell Ring

Enhancement bonus: +40% EXP from defeating crustaceans

Master skill: Capability vs crustaceans +12%


Blob Talisman

Mastered variant of Blob Ring

Enhancement bonus: +40% EXP from defeating amorphous enemies

Master skill: Capability vs amorphous +12%


Legless Talisman

Mastered variant of Legless Ring

Enhancement bonus: +40% EXP from defeating apodous enemies

Master skill: Capability vs apodous +12%


Pinion Talisman

Mastered variant of Pinion Ring

Enhancement bonus: +40% EXP from defeating winged enemies

Master skill: Capability vs winged enemies +12%


Rampart Talisman

Mastered variant of Barrier Ring

Enhancement bonus: Total Arte Def +1.15x (15%)

Master skill: Arte Defense +15


Anthro Talisman

Mastered variant of Anthro Ring

Enhancement bonus: +40% EXP from defeating demihumans

Master skill: Capability vs demihumans +12%


Plated Talisman

Mastered variant of Plated Ring

Enhancement bonus: +40% EXP from defeating armored enemies

Master skill: Capability vs armored foes +12%


Lich Talisman

Mastered variant of Lich Ring

Enhancement bonus: +40% EXP from defeating the undead

Master skill: Capability vs undead +12%


Demon Talisman

Mastered variant of Demon Ring

Enhancement bonus: +40% EXP from defeating fiends

Master skill: Capability vs fiends +12%


Lindworm Talisman

Mastered variant of Lindworm Ring

Enhancement bonus: +40% EXP from defeating dragons

Master skill: Capability vs dragons +12%


True Ring of Clarity

Mastered variant of Unnamed Ring

Enhancement bonus: -1 Mystic Arte BG cost while invulnerable

Master skill: Invulnerable for 7 seconds

at the start of battle


Geoboard

An ancient artifact created by the Normin (a sub-race of seraphim), the geoboard allows its user to hover through the air by “pushing” itself against the flow of earthpulses. With this, Velvet can move faster while traveling through towns, dungeons, or fields. It’s also useful in battle, allowing her to take out weaker enemies by ramming into them.


Abilities

Ragna

Seithr Manipulation

Like most of the playable cast, Ragna is able to manipulate seithr to aid him in combat. He can turn his hands into claws, infuse it into his attacks, or summon heads that resemble the Black Beast’s.

Seithr is noted to be detrimental toward the human body, as overexposure can poison it and cause physical and mental deterioration, which will eventually prove fatal.


Soul Eater

(Video by AlvaroTuKiko)

An ability granted by the Azure Grimoire that lets Ragna devour the souls of whoever he touches, healing him and strengthening his life force. The process is so simple that it’s been described as “plucking” the soul from the body.

In-game, this is depicted through Ragna’s special moves, where direct hits drain the opponent’s health bar and restore his own.

Despite its name, it isn’t limited to eating souls, as it can also absorb the “dreams,” or ambitions, of a target, preventing them from carrying out their goals. However, this runs the risk of overusing Soul Eater, which will shorten Ragna’s lifespan and tear his body apart.


Ars Magus

A fusion of magic and science originally developed by the Great Magister Nine. It is highly versatile in its uses, and is capable of harming beings that are immune to natural elements and manmade weapons.


Magic Circle



A form of protective magic that shields its wielder from physical attacks. Should Ragna find himself restrained, he can use this to conjure a barrier that will cut through his restraints. The anime also depicts him using this to slow his descent while falling.


Concealment

An Ars Magus that renders its caster invisible to the naked eye. Ragna often uses this to travel without being spotted. However, he can still be discovered if others listen out for him.


Acausality

When time was rewound by Phenomena Intervention, Ragna could subconsciously recall the events that were undone.


Life Link

Created through unknown means, a life link grants an indefinite bond between two beings. Should one die while the other still lives, the one that’s “killed” will be revived from the dead. The only way to sever this bond is if both parties are killed. Otherwise their injuries will be repaired over time.

As shown above, Ragna possesses a life link with Nu-13. While Ragna has never used the life link, Nu-13 used it to resurrect after her death in Calamity Trigger, though the process took over one month before it was complete.


Invulnerability

It’s been stated twice that Ragna exists outside of logic/reason, which- by the rules of the Blazblue universe- would make him immune to harm from natural elements and conventional weaponry and require magic or magic-based attacks to harm him.

See “Before The Verdicts” to see how this would impact the verdict.

Unlimited Mode

(Colored by blubxer)

A transformation Ragna can access after releasing his seithr regulators. In this state, Ragna’s stats are vastly increased, and his attacks are permanently under the effects of Blood Kain. He can even stack Blood Kain on top of Unlimited Mode for a further stat boost.


During his fight with Susano’o, Ragna revealed he can unlock the Idea Engine to access the Azure Grimoire’s full power. While this lets him contend with some of the series’ strongest beings, it will also slowly destroy his body.


The Black Beast


An enormous, multi-headed hydra responsible for the destruction of Japan and the cause of the Dark War. While Ragna is unable to turn into this instantly, he has been depicted transforming into it during his bad endings, either by merging with a Prime Field Device or gradually overusing the Azure Grimoire.

Of these two options, the latter is more plausible, though the transformation takes far longer. Thanks to the Azure Grimoire’s modifications throughout the series, it takes the course of one week for the transformation to reach up to Ragna’s right half, assuming he uses his full power during that period.

Upon fully transforming, Ragna’s body morphs into a high density mass of seithr, and his mind is trapped within, unable to control himself.

This transformation gives Ragna the following abilities:


  • Regeneration: Can absorb seithr to regenerate missing heads.


The Black Beast’s seithr is also capable of eventually spawning remnants, smaller versions of itself which- while not as powerful- are strong enough to fight Ragna and Jubei.


Velvet

Therion Physiology

As a result of the anger she felt toward Artorius during the Scarlet Night, Velvet’s body became filled with malevolence, transforming her into a daemon known as a Therion.

Therions like Velvet are made to serve as “mouths” to fuel the Empyrean Innominat’s power. As a result, they feel a constant hunger and urge to feed on other living beings, even fellow daemons. They can feed on whole bodies or focus on specific parts like the limbs.

Therions, like all other daemons, are shown to radiate malevolence, a purple, mist-like substance born from negative emotions. They can also absorb malevolence from the surrounding area, including the amount naturally found within humans. In essence, this serves to regulate a human’s intake so they don’t overflow and transform into daemons. However, should a Therion be removed from the area, the transformations will occur within seconds.

During battle, Therions can enter a state known as Therionization where physical contact with an enemy will cause their body to adapt, giving them new artes based on the opponent’s species. This state automatically cures the Therion of and grants immunity to all status ailments, but at the cost of slowly draining their health. Fortunately, they can replenish it by consuming enemies.

As a Therion, Velvet has the following abilities:



Malevolence

Malevolence comes in eight different types, with each one dependent on what caused it: lust, greed, selfishness, obsession, cowardice, conceit, hatred, and despair. In Velvet’s case, her malevolence is created by the last two.

This energy is capable of spreading like a disease and can infect living beings. Those infected will gradually transform into a daemon, though the exact type is dependent on factors such as environment, lifestyle, temperature, and emotions.

It should be noted that Velvet cannot weaponize malevolence directly in her attacks, so it’s more of an aura if anything.

 


Therion State

When Velvet attacks someone with her Therion claw, she can go into a therionized state. This unleashes the full power of her claw and gains certain buffs depending on the enemy she absorbs. However, she gains these benefits regardless of who she feeds off of:


  • Gradually decreases HP

  • Attack power gradually increases the lower her HP becomes

  • Cures Velvet of any and all status ailments she’s received

  • Is also immune to status ailments


Enemy Specific Buffs

  • When absorbing beast enemies, Velvet deals more damage in proportion to the enemy’s physical attack power.

  • When absorbing crustacean enemies, Velvet’s chances of having her attacks being blocked are reduced by 25%

  • When absorbing amorphous enemies, Velvet deals more damage in proportion to the enemy’s arte defense.

  • When absorbing apodous enemies, Velvet can use more artes in a single combo.

  • When absorbing winged enemies, Velvet deals more damage in proportion to the enemy’s focus.

  • When absorbing demihuman enemies, Velvet’s movement speed increases by 50%.

  • When absorbing armored enemies, Velvet’s damage increases in proportion to the enemy’s physical defense.

  • When absorbing undead enemies, Velvet has a higher chance of her attacks afflicting status ailments.

  • When absorbing fiend enemies, Velvet’s damage increases in proportion to the enemy’s arte attack.

  • When absorbing dragon enemies, enemies attack less often as their damaging Velvet.

  • When absorbing human enemies, Velvet’s HP reduction is slowed down.

  • When absorbing any other enemy, Velvet receives 50% less damage.


Status Effects

Velvet’s attacks can inflict various status effects on the opponent. Just like in every other JRPG, while they have specific mechanics exclusive to Berseria’s gameplay, most of them do have a use that’s applicable to vs debates. It should be noted that in game, none of Velvet’s attacks are always guaranteed to inflict these effects. However, this blog will go under the assumption that Velvet will be able to inflict these ailments every time. Think of it like materia in Final Fantasy 7. Special materia like stop and death are never guaranteed 100% of the time in battles, but in vs debates, they have the benefit that they can. This section will be split into two parts: status changes and status ailments.


Status Changes

These effects are exactly what they sound like: they alter the stats of the opponent.


P. ATK Down

Decreases the strength of opponent’s physical attacks.

A. ATK Down

Decreases the strength of opponent’s elemental attacks.


P. DEF Down

Decreases opponent’s defense against physical attacks.


A. DEF Down

Decreases opponent’s defense against elemental attacks.


HP Drain

Drains the opponent’s health.


Status Ailments

Status ailments are different from status changes in that they inflict unique effects that are more than just stat changes. Not only do these ailments inflict unique debuffs to the opponent, but due to how Berseria’s HP system works, every single status ailment prevents HP recovery. No, seriously, Berseria’s gameplay actually gives Velvet a massive boon in this sense. Man, it’s almost like Tales of Berseria is a great game or somethi-

But there is one status ailment that will not be considered in this blog: stun. The game’s description of stun is “prevents all movement and actions”. All of Velvet’s artes can inflict stun, so the average matchup should be a cakewalk for Velvet, right? Well, when you put it into practice, stun basically boils down to “the character will get hurt when they get hit”. How riveting. The other ailments will be listed as such.


Paralysis

Chance to be interrupted while moving or trying to attack.


Burn

Lights the enemy on fire. Afflicted characters have significantly reduced chances of inflicting ailments onto other people.


Slow

Drastically decreases movement and reaction speed (the latter is due to how it prevents quick-step features during gameplay).


Poison

Periodically drains the opponent’s health.


Fatigue

Increases spell-casting time.


Moveset

Ragna

Hell’s Fang

Ragna charges forward with a seithr-infused punch and follows up with a dragon-shaped seithr wave.

Dead Spike

An upward swing of Aramasa that sends out a wave of seithr shaped like the Black Beast’s head.


Inferno Divider

Ragna performs an uppercutting slash that carries his opponent through the air. He can follow this up with an uppercut, jab, or axe kick to knock them away.


Gauntlet Hades

A seithr-infused hammerfist that follows up with a roundhouse kick.


Not Over Yet

Ragna picks a downed opponent up by the neck and punches them in the gut, stunning them


Belial Edge

A diving sword strike performed in midair that hits multiple times. By the end of it, the opponent is left spinning around, giving Ragna the opportunity to extend his combos


Blood Scythe

An overhead slash from Aramasa’s scythe form


Nightmare Edge

A vertical diving sword slash that knocks his opponent to the ground with a wave of seithr


Blood Kain/Blood Kain IDEA

A temporary “super mode” that augments Soul Eater’s damage and health drain by 80% and grants new effects to Ragna’s Distortion Drives. Its effects last longer the lower Ragna’s health is.

Originally this would drain his health the longer he used it, but after obtaining the Idea Engine, this is no longer the case.


Carnage Scissors

Ragna slashes at his opponent with Aramasa, then performs a second slash that unleashes a massive blast of seithr.

Devoured by Darkness

Ragna slashes at the opponent with a massive claw and lifts them through the air. He then channels seithr through their body until it explodes, sending them flying back.


Seed of Tartarus

An overhead swing of Aramasa, followed by a slash that creates a claw-shaped wave of seithr.


Darkness Fang


(Video by Den)

A Distortion Drive exclusive to Unlimited Mode. Ragna performs the first part of Hell’s Fang, then finishes with the final part of Devoured by Darkness.


Inferno Eradicator


Another Distortion Drive exclusive to Unlimited Mode. Ragna smacks the opponent with his sword’s pommel. Should this land, he’ll unleash a seithr-infused, multi-hitting Inferno Divider that carries him and his opponent high into the air.


Black Onslaught


Ragna hits the opponent with Aramasa and unfurls it into a scythe. He then performs a swift combo of slashes before lifting his scythe through the air, channeling seithr into the blade as he absorbs the opponent’s soul. After a few seconds, he returns Aramasa to its sword form and stabs them through the chest, completely destroying their body and soul.


Velvet

Martial Arts

Slicing Foot

A simple roundhouse kick.

Tearing Thorn

A somersault kick with an earth elemental attribute.

Gouging Spin

An axe kick.

Swallow Dance

A double aerial kick with a wind elemental attribute.


Twin Whip

Velvet does an aerial kick and follows it up with a sweep. Both kicks have a water elemental attribute. Can inflict P. ATK down.


Avalanche Fang

A leg drop kick followed by a sweep kick. Has an earth elemental attribute. Can inflict HP Drain.


Harsh Rebuttal

Velvet uses the blades on her greaves to make a Z-shaped pattern.


Water Snake’s Wake

Velvet kicks her opponent, causing a splash of water, and then slides forward. Has a water elemental attribute (obviously).


Moonlight Cyclone

A series of spin kicks that conjure a miniature windstorm. Has a wind elemental attribute. Can inflict HP drain.


Soaring Dragon

Leaps into the air with some spin kicks that emit streaks of fire. Has both earth and fire elemental attributes. Can inflict A. ATK down.


Rising Moon

A powerful flip kick that emits magic around her body. Can inflict paralysis.


Rising Falcon

Velvet leaps up into the air and does a divekick. Has a wind elemental attribute.


Heaven’s Wrath

A barrage of eight spin kicks. Has both water and wind elemental attributes. Can inflict focus down.


Infernal Torrent

Velvet ignites the ground with a sweep kick and performs a fiery roundhouse kick. Has a fire elemental attribute. Can inflict burn.


Hidden Artes

Searing Edge

Lights her blade on fire and shoots a fireball. Has a fire elemental attribute. Can inflict burn.


Mega Sonic Thrust

Punches forward and thrusts her blade, causing a powerful impact. Has an earth elemental attribute. Can inflict slow.


Shell Splitter

Imbues her blade with water and does a barrage of slashes. Has a water elemental attribute. Can inflict poison.


Shadow Flow

Binds enemy with a gravity orb and follows it up with a slash. Has both earth and wind elemental attributes. Can inflict P. DEF down.


Slag Assault

Slams her blade into the ground, causing a miniature shockwave. Has both earth and fire elemental attributes.


Grounding Strike

Does two midair slashes and lands with a third slash that causes a burst of wind. Has a wind elemental attribute. Can inflict fatigue.


Cerberus Wave

Uses her blade to conjure a small fiery tornado. Has both fire and wind elemental attributes.


Banishing Thunder

A series of slashes followed by a sliding slash that emits lightning. Has water and wind elemental attributes. Can inflict A. DEF down.


Binding Frost

Velvet slides around with some ice imbued slashes. Has earth and water elemental attributes.


Scale Crusher

Velvet conjures orbs of fire and ice and ejects her blade, causing the orbs to explode. Has fire and water elemental attributes.


Defiant Conviction

Launches the opponent to perform a midair combo and then drags the opponent down with her blade. Can inflict paralysis.


Break Soul Artes

All of Velvet’s break soul artes involve her Therion claw. If her claw hits an enemy, it will restore her HP and activate her Therion state (see above).

Consuming Claw

A basic swipe with her Therion claw that heals 20% of her HP.


Heaven’s Claw

Velvet launches the enemy upward with her claw and heals 30% of her HP.


Hell’s Claw

Velvet impales the enemy with her claw and concentrates malevolence into her fist, causing it to explode. It also heals 15% of her HP.


Nightmare Claw

A barrage of slashes with her claw. Velvet can only use Nightmare Claw when she has been in her Therion State for at least 20 seconds. It’s also the only break soul arte that doesn’t restore her HP.


Break Artes

When Velvet exits her Therion State, she unleashes one last powerful arte. The arte in question heavily depends on the enemy she absorbed (except for unknown enemy types, as absorbing them will cause her to attack with one of these artes at random).


Scarlet Edge

If Velvet absorbed a beast enemy, she’ll launch a giant fireball that explodes on contact with an enemy. Has a fire elemental attribute and can inflict burn.


Zero Impact Vest

If Velvet absorbed an armored enemy, she’ll charge forward with a stab, leaving a streak of blue light, and cause a shockwave of fire and wind. Has fire and wind elemental attributes and can inflict paralysis.


Rush Strafe

If Velvet absorbed a crustacean enemy, she’ll attack with a myriad of wind-imbued slashes that move fast enough to create a tornado. Has a wind elemental attribute and can inflict fatigue.


Thunder Blitz

If Velvet absorbed an amorphous enemy, she’ll attack with a giant sphere of gravity that eventually dissipates, and finishes the move with a slash that leaves a streak of lightning. Has water and wind elemental attributes and can inflict paralysis.


Break Boost

If Velvet absorbed an apodous enemy, she’ll leap into the air and slam her blade into the ground, causing a miniature earthquake. Has earth and fire elemental attributes and can inflict slow.


Laughing Raven

If Velvet absorbed a winged enemy, she’ll charge her claw and release multiple streaks of black energy in front of her. Has earth and fire elemental attributes and can inflict fatigue.


Blue Inferno

If Velvet absorbed a demihuman enemy, she’ll conjure a wall of blue fire. Has fire and water elemental attributes and can inflict burn.


Lunar Surface

If Velvet absorbed an undead enemy, she’ll spin around twice, attacking with pools of light emitted from her sword. Has a water elemental attribute and can inflict poison.


Jet Blizzard

If Velvet absorbed a fiend enemy, she’ll slide around the enemy, slashing at them and conjuring large icicles, and uses her claw to shatter the ice. Has earth and water elemental attributes and can inflict poison.


Phalanx Raid

If Velvet absorbed a dragon enemy, she’ll use her blade and claw to summon five large spires in an arc and chop them down with her sword. Has an earth elemental attribute and can inflict slow.


Discord

If Velvet absorbs a human enemy, she’ll swipe with her claw three times, leaving four giant claw marks with each swipe.


Mystic Artes

Lethal Pain

Velvet performs a leg drop that launches her opponent into the air, does an aerial combo, and finishes it with a large swipe from her claw.


Annihilating Crash

Velvet impales the opponent with her blade and launches them away with her claw. Has fire and wind elemental attributes.


Impulse Desire

Velvet assaults the opponent with both her blade and her claw. She then leaps up into the air, charges a ball of energy with her claw, and slams it into the ground, rupturing her surroundings.

Resistances

Ragna

Poisons, Mental Manipulation, and Empathic Manipulation: 

Ragna has multiple showings of resisting mental attacks.


Absolute Zero: 

Ragna has survived being frozen by Jin’s ice attacks, which were able to freeze Azrael, who survived in near absolute zero temperatures for two years.


Soul Manipulation and Information Manipulation: 

Thanks to Rachel giving him a charm from the Tsukuyomi Unit, Ragna can survive inside of the Boundary, a dimension of infinite information that places stress on the body and soul of those who cross it. It’s worth noting his resistance to soul manipulation only applies to the Boundary, as Ragna is still vulnerable to the soul scarring caused by magic attacks.


Biological Manipulation and Life Manipulation: 

Regularly channels seithr through his body with no ill effects. He also survived being in close proximity to the Black Beast, whose body was made of seithr stated to absorb the life force of living beings.


Time Manipulation: 

Ragna was among the few still active after Nine performed a spell that froze time for a week.


Velvet

Extreme Cold: 

Thanks to her transformation, Velvet, like other daemons, is immune to cold temperatures.


Biological Manipulation and Mental/Empathic Manipulation: 

Velvet has retained her mental faculties and kept her mutation contained to her arm, whereas other Therions, such as Kamoana and Medissa, have undergone full body transformations and been driven mad.

She’s also remained unaffected by the ceremony of suppression, which sealed away the free will and emotions of an entire country.


Illusions:

When Melchior created an illusion designed to make her experience her happiest dreams, Velvet eventually managed to overcome it, even when it tried to grant her deepest desires. However, she was under its spell for some time.

In a later confrontation, she and the rest of the party were able to dispel his illusions with no trouble.

Feats

Ragna

Overall

  • Earned the moniker “Grim Reaper” after slaughtering 300 trained officers and a dozen Praetorian guards

  • Is the second person in history to have obtained the rank of SS class criminal by the NOL

  • Has earned a bounty worth 90 billion platinum dollars, the highest in history and large enough to buy a small country

  • Has repeatedly defeated his brother, Jin Kisaragi

  • Defeated Mu-12 and returned her back to Noel Vermillion, sacrificing his left arm in the process

  • Fought Azrael, one of the most dangerous war criminals on the planet, while half blind and with a paralyzed arm

  • Went back in time and became the legendary hero “Bloodedge” while training his future mentor Jubei

  • Killed the enormous bio weapon Take-Mikazuchi with help from Jin and Noel

  • Traveled through the Embryo and devoured the dreams of the Qualified

  • Helped Mu-12 defeat Hades Izanami by merging them

  • Fought the god of destruction Susano’o while using his full power

  • Killed Terumi in their final battle

  • Obtained the Azure Flame Grimoire and created a new universe made up of the Qualified’s dreams, sacrificing himself in the process

Strength


Speed


Durability


Velvet

Overall


  • Slaughtered an entire village of daemons before obtaining her powers
  • Performed a successful prison break in Titania
  • Earned the moniker “Lord of Calamity” as a result of the death and destruction she caused during her quest for vengeance
  • Assassinated high priest Gideon and stopped his production of the poisonous medicine Nectar
  • Defeated Eleanor while she was bonded with Laphicet
  • Killed the praetor-rank Exorcist Oscar Dragonia after he became armatized with a Malak
  • Killed Teresa after she became a Therion while trying to avenge Oscar
  • Killed Melchior, the elder of the Legate Exorcists
  • Awakened the four Empyreans
  • Defeated Phoenix, the strongest of the Normin
  • Killed Artorius in their final battle
  • Sacrificed her freedom to permanently seal herself and Innominat
  • Scales to Sol Badguy LMFAO


Strength



Speed


Durability


Weaknesses

Ragna


Nick Cramer


Despite what his fierce reputation might have you believe, Ragna is far from infallible. He has a really short fuse, and tends to rush in guns blazing over forming an actual plan, though this has gotten better over time. He’s also extremely reluctant to tap into the Azure Grimoire’s power, often preferring to rely on his own strength.

Even when he does tap into the Azure, it has its fair share of costs. It’s powered by his life force, and overusing that power will shorten his lifespan, slowly tear his body apart, and gradually turn him into the Black Beast.

While the Azure Grimoire’s healing factor can lessen this burden, it’s not a perfect solution, as it’s explicitly weaker against magic attacks due to it “remembering” the wounds, essentially causing a delayed reaction that makes them kick in later. This can happen even if time is rewound to before Ragna received them. It’s also been shown that certain materials, such as those in Hakumen’s Okami, are able to inflict wounds it can’t heal.

And as powerful as its abilities are, Soul Eater is completely useless against those without souls, such as the undead. Speaking of the undead, Ragna is deathly afraid of ghosts.

But Ragna’s biggest weakness is that since his powers and healing abilities are tied to the Azure Grimoire, he would find himself drastically weakened if he lost access to it.


Velvet


Like her opponent, Velvet is something of a risk-taker, and can sometimes jump into battle without a plan. This can prove a bit troublesome due to the health drain she suffers during Therionization, which would further the damage she receives. While she is able to heal from this, it can prove fatal if she isn’t careful.

Not to mention, while it is possible for her to heal from wounds as fatal as stabs through the head, it’s unclear how long it took her to heal from it, so her healing factor may not be as effective as it seems. This is best shown in her first fight against Artorius where she needed to rely on Laphicet’s healing because of how much damage she was taking.

But that isn’t the only downside she gained from her transformation. While it may have enhanced her sense of smell, it also removed her sense of taste, with the only exception being the taste of blood.


Summary

Ragna


“Remember this… No, ‘perceive’ it, Yuuki Terumi. I’m the “Grim Reaper”, Ragna the Bloodedge. I’m the ‘possibility’ that you’re going to be ‘eliminated’ now. Terumi… That’s the only thing I can do to ‘save’ you.”


Advantages:

  • Far superior pain tolerance
  • Better healing factor
  • More experienced and better trained
  • Both can one-shot each other with their soul hax
  • Though Ragna’s Soul Eater is notably deadlier in this regard
  • Seithr attacks could potentially poison Velvet…
  • Better defensive options…
  • Unlikely as it is, transforming into the Black Beast would grant a size advantage
  • Malevolence can potentially accelerate his transformation into the Black Beast…
  • Patrick Seitz
  • Godlike soundtrack (MOTHERFUCKING DAISUKE ISHIWATARI)


Disadvantages:

  • …Except Therionization would instantly remove this
  • …But they could be shut down
  • Outclassed in strength by leagues, whether we go by direct feats or scaling
  • Gets blitzed hard, even if we use Alter Memory
  • …But this would just turn him into a daemon and render him further vulnerable to Therionization
  • Blazblue: Alter Memory
  • Central Fiction never got an English dub despite having multiple chances to do so


Velvet

“Arthur, I finally have an answer to your question: why do you think that birds fly? Birds fly because they want to fly. They don’t need a reason. Even if their wings snap and doom them to die. They don’t fly for anyone’s benefit. They don’t fly because they were ordered to. Birds fly because they want to fly, and for no other reason.”


Advantages:

  • Sizeable advantage in raw power and durability
  • Notably faster
  • Larger arsenal
  • Better long-range options
  • More varied abilities thanks to her artes
  • More willing to fight dirty to win
  • Status effects cancel out Ragna’s healing factor
  • Can resist Soul Eater’s emotion eating
  • Both can one-shot the other with their soul hax
  • Her Therion powers can shut down Ragna’s barriers
  • Can strip Ragna of his powers and take them for herself by devouring his Azure Grimoire or (arguably) by splitting him from it on contact
  • Can potentially reverse any of Ragna’s transformations
  • Malevolence could potentially accelerate Ragna’s transformation into the Black Beast
  • And thanks to malevolence, it’s likelier that the Black Beast would become a daemon, rendering it further vulnerable to Therionization
  • Cristina Vee
  • Godlike soundtrack (MOTHERFUCKING MOTOI SAKURABA)
  • Seriously, play Tales of Berseria guys, it’s such an underrated game!


Disadvantages:

  • Ragna’s soul hax is deadlier than hers
  • Less experienced and not as well trained
  • Healing factor is not natural like with Ragna’s
  • Cannot act like a dove
  • Cat allergies
  • Tales of Berseria only got ONE nomination and it was for Bienfu (WTF)


Fight Script

For this blog, we’ve decided to try something different and include a script that depicts our research in a more fun way. Check it out here.


Before The Verdicts

Why are Blazblue: Alter Memory and Tales of Zestiria X being used?

Of all the media both these series have, these adaptations are arguably one of the more questionable inclusions. On one hand, we have one of the more maligned entries in Blazblue, and on the other we have a series where Tales of Berseria has minimal involvement. It begs the question, why are they being included here?

In the case of Alter Memory, it’s easy to see why most people would exclude it. For what’s supposed to be an adaptation, it heavily alters the story and characters, perhaps a bit too heavily. Among other changes, there’s Rachel directly giving Ragna the Azure Grimoire, Ragna hating the world and wanting to become the Black Beast, Jin dying to Tsubaki (which is later undone), Noel becoming Mu-12 after Hazama tortures Makoto, and Noel being restored by Ragna losing his arm and Lambda’s soul entering her.

Under most circumstances, a series that contradicts the established canon this heavily would be a clear sign to exclude it. In fact, it was a pretty heavy debate whether or not it should be included in this blog. So what was the ultimate deciding factor?

It was for the sake of being equal to both series. With how heavy of a multimedia presence Blazblue has and how many adaptations exist for the Tales series, excluding the former’s only anime adaption while including the latter’s could come across as a bit one-sided.

Even with the heavy changes made in Alter Memory’s story (and to be honest, how bad it is in general), the series helps establish more features of Ragna’s abilities, and it provides Blazblue with speed buffs. Canonically, the series is consistently within the Massively Hypersonic+ range, with Sub-Relativistic as a highball. With Alter Memory’s nanosecond statement, it goes up to FTL, which puts it closer in the ballpark of Tales speed feats.

In comparison, Zestiria the X is actually much more faithful to Zestiria at first. However, like with Alter Memory, it does take some creative liberties, most notably by making Velvet surprisingly prominent. This was due to promoting Tales of Berseria, with an episode basically adapting Velvet’s escape from Titania to a tee. That wouldn’t change the fact that X still takes a lot of creative liberties from the game, but the vast majority of those are within its second season.

While the first season also has its share of differences, such as the roles of some minor antagonists being changed, Heldalf getting a second chance, and characters like Alisha and Rose getting more focus, given that there’s nothing suggesting that the power of Zestiria strays too far from the ballpark in terms of power or speed, which you can’t quite say the same for Alter Memory, Zestiria the X should be perfectly fine to use for scaling. As for how Velvet should scale to these feats, see the Tales series scaling below.

The Consistency of Planet Level Blazblue



One of the more debatable aspects of Blazblue’s level of power is that of the high tiers. The series as a whole is rather lacking when it comes to concrete strength feats, and the most visually impressive ones are only displayed in questionably canon Astral Heats. However, there are multiple statements pertaining to the power of two beings in the series: Corpus Sepulcro: Requiem and the Black Beast.

Of the two most well known statements, Izanami calculates the output of Requiem’s explosion to be 10^31 joules, which is later backed up by Kokonoe, and the Black Beast is stated by Kokonoe to be capable of destroying the planet. However, there are more statements throughout the series that hype up these two and add consistency to this level of power.

Prior to the calculation that’s given, it’s stated that Requiem’s explosion operates on a “dimension crushing scale” and would destroy the planet at minimum. This is somewhat contradicted since we’re later given the exact explosive yield above, and its numbers are specifically within planet level range. Regardless, Requiem is hyped up as enough of a threat that Kokonoe had to compile all nuclear weapons in the world to create a machine that would cancel out its explosion, with the process being compared to the interaction between matter and antimatter.

As for the Black Beast, both Ragna’s transformation and a previous Black Beast are said to be able to “devour the world,” with the latter eventually forcing Amaterasu to reset everything. However, this isn’t a direct statement of it destroying the planet, as it’s later clarified this means the Black Beast will consume all life until there’s nothing left.

While this might seem strange compared to Kokonoe’s more direct statement, that also has similar context behind it. In Ragna’s bad ending of Continuum Shift (which Kokonoe’s statement is referencing), after he reverts back from the Black Beast, he and the remaining heroes are seen together on Earth, meaning while the Black Beast may have “destroyed the planet,” it wasn’t in the sense that it actually blew up the Earth. Considering the above example, it’s more likely it just ate and killed most of the population.

That’s not to say the Black Beast is exempt from that level of power. After his fight with Izanami, Azrael admits he isn’t satisfied and desires a real challenge, citing the Black Beast as his desired opponent. Izanami’s response is “Naturally… all you seek is a more powerful enemy,” which directly confirms the Black Beast is above her in power. Some may refute this by pointing out this moment where Rachel says Izanami is more powerful than the Black Beast, but she clarifies shortly after that Izanami is superior because of her immortality, not her strength.

Even if we ignore statements and stick to visual feats, there are two major ones that show off planetary levels of power. The only problem is they’re presented in Astral Heats that- as stated above- are questionable in their canonicity. These are Kokonoe’s “Armament No 99” where she summons (and tanks) a meteor that reduces the Earth to a barren wasteland, and Makoto’s “Planet Crusher,” where she punches the opponent into the Moon so hard it explodes. But whether or not these are viable feats is another matter entirely.

In the case of Kokonoe, you could argue it makes some sense for her to possess this level of power. As the daughter of two of the Six Heroes, it’s only natural to assume she’d be comparable to them, and her magic has let her crush a copy of the Black Beast.

Whether or not Makoto should be given the same leeway is more debatable. Unlike Kokonoe, Makoto’s Astral is more of a gag feat, and she doesn’t have any other direct feats or scaling to back up destroying the Moon. It would be consistent if she fought one of the series’ high tiers, but the best she’s got is a fight with base form Ragna, who causally beat her. It doesn’t help that right after their fight, she admits she didn’t stand a chance against him.

If you really want to stretch it, you could try and argue that Makoto’s arcade modes would let her scale to the high tiers, but that argument is heavily flawed. Her fights against the likes of Hazama and Relius end with her getting thoroughly beaten, with Relius being extremely casual when they fought. For comparison, a serious Relius decimated Izanami, and scaling Makoto to that kind of power while he’s holding back doesn’t make much sense.

Of course, one could argue that this would mean characters would upscale from this feat, but the problem is the moon punch has been calced significantly higher than the strongest feats of the top tiers. If we go by calculations, Makoto is one of two characters in the entire series to have a feat that goes up to large planet level, the other being Izanami, a character Makoto is MASSIVELY below in canon. It wouldn’t make sense for Makoto to have a feat above Izanami’s, especially one Hades admitted she’d struggle with, when Makoto’s gotten her ass kicked very casually by multiple high tiers and top tiers who are also below Izanami.


Is Blazblue 5D/Low Complex Multiversal?

Some of you might be a bit confused by what this means. To put it simply, for something to be 5D (or if you want to go by VS debating terms, “low complex multiverse”) it would need to affect a multiverse that transcends time and space. Why is this relevant?

There have been arguments made that the Boundary should be considered 5D based on these scans, and several reasons have been provided for why the cast would scale. These range from various cast members surviving in the Boundary or Ragna’s Azure Grimoire using “the power of the Boundary.”

If we go by the game’s description of the Boundary, it’s described as “a complex space connecting all dimensions”. Basically, this confirms that the Boundary is, in fact, a multiverse, which would make sense given the various examples of time and dimensional travel. However, what’s missing is the statement that refers to it transcending time and space, as it only exists outside of them.

While characters that travel through the Boundary have been stated to transcend time and space, that’s only in reference to time travel (see speed arguments below). At best, this would be multiversal+ due to it containing all dimensions, and given how the Boundary is infinite in size, it’s reasonable to assume that the Boundary is an infinite multiverse. As for it being described as fifth dimensional (5D), that’s most likely a reference to the 5th Prime Field experiment, not the Boundary itself. Of course, there’s still the argument that the cast can move around and fight in the Boundary when they shouldn’t be able to survive there, but Central Fiction reveals they can be perfectly fine since the Azure itself chooses who can reside in it.

In terms of Ragna’s power, not only is it unclear how much of the Boundary Ragna is using with the Azure Grimoire, but the Boundary itself is unaffected when Ragna uses its power. On top of that, Ragna’s form of the Azure Grimoire is stated to be a prototype, so it would be unreasonable to assume it’s using the Boundary’s full power. In theory, Ragna does have an infinite amount of seithr to pull from, but one of the most crucial parts of Ragna’s character growth is how he’s not supposed to think of the Azure Grimoire as his own due to it causing significant damage to the body. In other words, he shouldn’t be using the full power of an entire infinite multiverse without one-shotting himself.

Even when looking at feats from the god tiers, not even their highest showings support the idea of 5D Blazblue. If anything, the god tiers might be less impressive because Relius was able to conduct his research in Izayoi’s domain without the Takamagahara System, or even the Master Unit Amaterasu, noticing. This implies they may not even be able to reach multiversal levels because there are certain areas they wouldn’t be able to affect. It doesn’t help that the biggest feats we get from them are timeline resets, which at best would come out to Universe+. Even when Ragna gained the Azure Flame Grimoire, which put him above the aforementioned god tiers, the only feat he displayed was creating a new timeline, which adds more consistency to Universe+ being the series’ peak.

Speaking of which…


The Azure Flame Grimoire

At the end of Centralfiction, Ragna gains the Azure Flame Grimoire, a legendary power that can turn any possibility into reality, and uses it to create a new timeline. With this level of power and its statement that it can destroy those worlds, one could easily assume that the True Azure would allow Ragna to get a win over Velvet.

However, there is a ton of context that prevents this from being the case, chief among them being that Ragna doesn’t normally have access to the Azure Flame Grimoire. It’s normally locked in a gate within the Boundary, and the only way to reach the gate is to be permitted by the gods. Even if we ignore this and give it to him anyway, it’s explicitly stated that using the Grimoire will cause Ragna to cease existing. This means that even if Ragna were to create a timeline where Velvet never existed or destroyed the universe with Velvet in it, he’d only be able to induce a stalemate. And even those assumptions have issues. There’s no evidence that suggests the Azure Flame Grimoire can specifically erase people from existence, and Ragna would never use it to destroy the universe because that goes against who he is and his whole reason for getting it.

In short, the context behind how Ragna obtained the Azure Flame Grimoire and how its abilities work prevent it from being useful in this debate. Besides, given Velvet’s superior stats, she would still absorb him long before he could use it.


Does Izayoi’s light manipulation make Blazblue FTL?

Out of the many playable characters in Blazblue, one of the more notable additions is Tsubaki Yayoi, thanks in part to her shield: the Sealed Weapon Izayoi. Izayoi is said to be capable of stealing light by drawing in a wavelength of electromagnetic radiation, with the process being compared to a black hole.

With a weapon capable of absorbing light, naturally there have been arguments attempting to scale the cast to Izayoi. These include saying that Izayoi amps Tsubaki during her charging attacks, using these statements to claim that Izayoi boosts the user’s speed, or that the cast should scale because Izayoi absorbs light and the cast can dodge its attacks.

Each of these arguments have some very noticeable flaws in them. Tsubaki coating herself in an aura and rushing forward in a momentary burst of speed isn’t enough proof to support her possessing lightspeed combat speed. The statements mentioned above only say that Izayoi boosts strength and power, and there’s no mention of it doing the same for speed.

Finally, there’s the point about Izayoi absorbing light. This is something it does passively, and any instances of the cast dodging the attacks are when Tsubaki has turned the light into solid constructs. And none of these constructs display any properties of light that would actually be scalable to the cast.

Even in the one attack where she directly fires a beam of light, it still isn’t viable for scaling. The attack begins with Tsubaki stabbing the opponent to stun them, and then she fires the beams. While the opponent can dodge or block her blade, they have no way to react to the beams themselves, or at least it’s hard to say that they can when there are no other instances of this light beam being weaponized.

Infinite and Immeasurable Speed Blazblue

There are two arguments used to support this. The most common is that members of the cast can travel through the Boundary, which is said to be infinite in size and let those who enter it transcend time and space. And more recently it’s been argued that Terumi infiltrating Takamagahara should qualify, with the logic being that Takamagahara controls spacetime and infinite possibilities, and Terumi infected its AIs before they could do anything.

The first argument is flawed because while it is true that the Boundary is infinite in size, as mentioned earlier, there’s no evidence stating that the Boundary itself transcends time and space outside of the assumption from Valkenhayn, which is referring to time travel, not the Boundary itself. Even then, if you pay attention to the conversation at that point, Relius was referring to falling into a cauldron that “decided to send to send him to another point in time”. Cauldrons are the only way that characters can even enter the Boundary, and the characters usually have no memory of ever being in there and often end up unconscious when they exit the Boundary.

Even in the event that they remain conscious, it’s inconsistent whether or not they can actually move in the Boundary. Sometimes characters explicitly can’t move, and other times they’re moving normally like they would in the real world. This is a major problem since the argument hinges on the cast moving in the Boundary through sheer speed, but going off what’s provided, nothing suggests this is the case. To make this inconsistency even more damning, some characters are even depicted as “strolling” through the Boundary (and yes, people have actually tried using it as a means of proving that Blazblue has infinite speed). I don’t think I need to explain how “strolling”, or a form of slowly walking, doesn’t equate to sheer speed.

The only statement that would make sense to use would be the one where Kokonoe claimed that Jubei could cross the Boundary, but even then, Jubei never actually showed the ability to do this even in his prime. Besides, the conversation wasn’t even about speed. It was referring to Kokonoe’s illusions and how Jubei couldn’t recognize the differences in other dimensions or spaces like he used to.

As for the claim that Terumi infiltrated and infected Takamagahara before the AIs could react, first of all, it was clearly done in a finite timeframe when the AIs weren’t paying attention. Both Terumi and the AI confirm this along with the fact that Terumi woke a new singularity during that timeframe. As for the infection, whether you use Continuum Shift or Alter Memory, there’s a MASSIVE gap between when Terumi reveals himself and when he infects Takamagahara, and it’s framed more like the AIs were caught off guard by the virus Terumi infected them with. Even Terumi said that the virus was a distraction which has nothing to do with immeasurable speed. And given how, as mentioned earlier, Takamagahara is capable of being unaware of certain dimensions, it’s hard to prove that Terumi managed to outspeed Takamagahara itself.


Ragna’s Invulnerability

Going by the statements for Ragna existing outside of logic and the accompanying description of that status, one would naturally assume this invalidates all of Velvet’s elemental attacks. However, that isn’t necessarily the case.

While existing outside of logic makes him immune to those effects in the Blazblue universe, the idea that he’d be immune to all elemental attacks and conventional weaponry in a vs debate could easily be stretched into a No Limits Fallacy. Especially in the event that he’s facing an opponent far stronger than him.

But for the sake of argument, let’s assume he was completely immune to all of Velvet’s elemental attacks. That wouldn’t prevent him from being affected by the status effects she inflicts, as there’s nothing in Blazblue that would support that notion.

Even if you ignore that, there’s nothing stopping Velvet from just wearing Ragna down physically. It’s been shown that Azrael, whose power is based purely on raw strength, could harm him and Terumi, who also exists outside of logic, so the same would apply to Velvet.

Ragna’s Death Based Time Loops

More eagle-eyed readers may have noticed something missing from Ragna’s list of abilities. Arguably one of the biggest reveals in the plot, near the end of Centralfiction, it’s revealed that Ragna intends to sacrifice himself in order to prevent time from looping eternally, since his death serves as the catalyst for the current timeline to end and restart the loop.

To the untrained eye, this might tip the fight in Ragna’s favor, or at least induce a stalemate since Velvet wouldn’t be able to truly kill him. However, while Ragna’s the catalyst for these time loops, he isn’t the one causing them.

The time loops are created by Takamagahara and Amaterasu, meaning they require outside help, which wouldn’t fly in a one-on-one fight like this. Even if Ragna was the cause of these loops, it still wouldn’t have any impact on the fight. Ragna still has to die for the loops to happen, and the loops would reset the timeline back to the previous century, which is too far back to affect the outcome.

Scaling Berseria to Other Tales Games

This is gonna be a big one. It is tradition for Tales games to feature cameos from other characters from the series. However, the power of each character varies wildly. While relativistic-FTL is solidly consistent across the series due to the variety of light based spells that the characters can casually dodge, in terms of power, one game can go up to planet level and another game can go as high as universal+. In Berseria’s case, the cameo characters are Jude Mathis and Milla Maxwell from Tales of Xillia, and Eizen is a cameo character in Tales of Arise. On top of that, Tales of Berseria is a prequel to Tales of Zestiria, taking place 1000 years beforehand. This section will determine scaling for these games only.


Tales of Zestiria

At first glance, this might seem obvious: Berseria and Zestiria take place in the same world, so they should scale to each other just fine. Well, there are a few things that we need to go over before automatically assuming that they should scale.

You may be aware of Edna’s black hole feat. It’s essentially the crux of Berseria being at large star level… but it’s from Zestiria… and the feat comes from a seraphim… which aren’t in Berseria. So how is this feat workable? Well, in the Heavenly Steppes, Tales of Berseria’s EX dungeon, it is directly stated that malakhim and seraphim are the same thing. The only real difference being that malakhim chose to descend from the heavenly realm to live among humans (this includes Empyreans, likely confirming that Empyreans are just really powerful malakhim). Both seraphim and malakhim are equally vulnerable to malevolence, implying that there is no difference in power between malakhim and seraphim. And even though the sun isn’t mentioned by anyone, it’s not normally in the location where it’s shown and it does go away after Heldalf is defeated. On top of that, when Heldalf created that sun in his domain, he was using armatization with Maotelus, who is revealed to be Laphicet at the end of the Berseria. Though it must be noted that even though the sun was created in an already existing area, which means that it shouldn’t put the feat any higher than star level.

Speaking of armatization, there is a feat where Sorey splits a cloud, but that’s only seen in Zestiria the X. But we must stress that we are explicitly scaling Velvet to ARMATIZED Sorey, and not Sorey in his base form doing something that Velvet wouldn’t be able to do on her own. Although the anime gives Sorey a full armatization with all of the seraphim, that is not the form we’re scaling Velvet to. We are scaling her to the normal armatization, and given how she defeated armatized Artorius, whose fusion with Innominat should naturally be more powerful than fusing with Mikleo, it’s safe to say that the feat should be included, even if it’s from an adaptation, which as mentioned earlier, is here because Blazblue Alter Memory was considered, as well.

All in all, it should go without saying that Zestiria scaling is 100% reasonable, but there are plenty of reasons why Velvet and Innominat would scale to- if not upscale from seraphim like Edna, which brings us to:


Is Edna’s Shooting Stars actually a black hole?

There is some contention that Edna’s Shooting Stars mystic arte isn’t actually a black hole because it’s never directly stated to be one. This would sound like it debunks star level Velvet, right? Not necessarily. Looking at the black hole page on the VS Battles Wiki, it says:

“In the event that there is not a statement about a black hole-like object actually being a black hole at all, one could still argue it to be a black hole if the method of creation is known. If, for instance, it is created by extreme compression of an appropriate amount of matter or due to the collapse of a large star, the assumption that the resulting mass is a black hole would be reasonable. However, a creation by high concentration of energy should not be considered without a supporting statement that the object in question is a black hole. If a character has created galaxies, or even universes, it is highly likely that they are capable of creating real black holes as those are usually parts of these. As such the ability to create such structures can support the idea that something that was not stated to be a black hole is one. However, that is only really the case if the object in question was already established to very likely be a black hole, instead of some other object.”

While Zestiria doesn’t offer a statement that it’s a black hole, we can prove that it works like one. At first it should seem obvious since the arte is called “Shooting Stars,” but the name alone isn’t enough. The Tales series has a history of similarly (or identically) named artes being depicted differently across games. Shooting Stars is no exception since some games have the wielder directly weaponize stars or star shaped projectiles. However, the final attack of Edna’s Shooting Stars has some traits to support the black hole’s legitimacy.

Looking at its appearance alone, it demonstrates hawking radiation, it’s absorbing light (and the enemy as well), light particles are orbiting around it (which is more reasonable than you’d think given that stars can orbit around black holes), and Edna is seen flying away from its center to escape its pull. It helps that Edna has a precedent for using gravity attacks like Raining Gravity, Air Pressure, and Gravitrigger. Heck, when she releases the Shooting Star, it starts as the same visual as her Raining Gravity arte. This would mean that the black hole’s creation is via Edna compressing matter with her gravity manipulation.

“But wait, doesn’t her cameo in Arise make it an outlier since it doesn’t look like a black hole”? Even if you ignore the idea that her game of origin should take priority over a game she made a cameo in, Arise actually makes the argument stronger because Rinwell can also use Shooting Stars. Its in-game description says that it’s a combination of Freeze Lancer and Holy Lance, but Rinwell’s incantation actually makes it clearer as to what the spell actually is. In English, Rinwell says “Far beyond the darkest skies (space most likely), I call upon thee.” The Japanese incantation not only makes this consistent, but more evident:

純黒の彼方に　無量の群星を呼ばん！シューティングスター！
(Translates to “Beyond the pure black, I will summon countless stars! shooting star!” in Google Translate).

This means that Rinwell is weaponizing stars (Rinwell sweep baybee), or at the very least, calling upon energy from them, which would probably be close to star level regardless.

Not only that, but the Great Astral Spirit’s mystic arte is a black hole itself, name and all, and its features are VERY similar to how Shooting Stars works in Zestiria (hawking radiation, absorbing light, particles orbiting around it, the vortex, etc.). While Shooting Stars works differently in Arise, we are using this black hole as a reference to justify Zestiria’s variant of Shooting Stars containing a black hole.

So in conclusion, it is possible to make a solid argument for Edna’s Shooting Stars actually having a black hole given how it works in Zestiria and even how similar artes work in Arise. Whether you go with “Edna’s Shooting Stars shares enough aspects of black holes to be considered one” or “Edna’s Shooting Stars is comprised of star level energy”, it’s feasible to place it at star level, especially with Heldalf’s sun creation feat preventing it from being an outlier.

Tales of Xillia



Hooooo boy, here we go. Okay, from the research I’ve done, Tales of Xillia is the strongest verse in the Tales series, having multiple feats that reliably go up to universal+, be it from Maxwell’s own power or Xillia 2’s entire premise being traveling to fractured dimensions and destroying them (with multiple instances of the characters being inside the dimension as it’s collapsing and surviving). There’s also a speed feat involving Gaius altering the Temporal Crossroads with Maxwell’s power that goes up to 67 trillion c. Not to mention that Xillia 2 can go up to multiversal via scaling to Origin being able to erase all of the fractured dimensions (there should be at least a million of them given that that’s the number of divergence catalysts needed to unlock Origin’s gate). Since Velvet and co. fight Jude and Milla, they should easily scale to all of this, too, right? Well, there are some issues with that.

It should be mentioned that it’s very clear that they are not taken from their Xillia 2 selves. Not only are these their designs from Xillia 1, but Jude describes himself as a medical student at Rieze Maxia instead of a scientist or spyrix researcher (which he becomes at the end of Xillia 1, and Jude drops out of medical school around midgame). Not to mention, Velvet describes Jude as “too soft-hearted”, and even Jude admits that, as well, which means that he had not gone through his character arc from Xillia 1 yet (he doesn’t experience a resolution until his fight against Ivar and the wyvern, shortly after the start of the third act).

As for Milla, on the one hand, she does express a lot of care about Jude, a trait that she develops around mid game. On the other hand, Milla does not fight Berseria’s party with the Four Great Spirits, even though Jude says that she has full control of them (implying they still believe that Milla is actually Maxwell, which means that she would not have become Maxwell legitimately during the time they were pulled from). This is all relevant information because they don’t fight Maxwell until around the start of Xillia 1’s third act, which means Gaius wouldn’t have done his big feat, and the only time they’ve fought Gaius is when he overwhelmed the Xillia party single handedly WITHOUT Maxwell’s power. So with all of that in mind, there’s no reason to assume that Jude and Milla would be fighting at their peak even for their Xillia 1 selves.

But let’s say that they were at their peak in Xillia 1, and that Velvet was fighting endgame Jude and Milla, and just for fun, let’s give them Xillia 2 scaling, as well. There are still plenty of issues with this. Tales of Berseria’s post-game has sidequests that are canonized in Zestiria through direct references. As mentioned earlier, the Heavenly Steppes explain how malakhim and seraphim are the same, but with the other sidequests, Zaveid gets a sidequests that elaborates on his relationship with Eizen, which gets referenced in Zestiria. The Phoenix sidequest should be obvious given that Phoenix is a character in Zestiria (being Edna’s guardian entrusted by Eizen). Even the Dark Turtlez in Berseria is confirmed to be the same one in Zestiria (he sings the “Hymn of Turtlez”, he has a chromatus, and he’s a regular at the Katz Pajamaz club). However, the cameo fight in Berseria does not get referenced.

Although Zestiria also has a cameo sidequest, the method in which Jude and Milla get sent into the world is different from how Zestiria’s cameo characters, Sophie Lhant and Jade Curtiss, are thrusted into the world. Jude and Milla are summoned by the Harbinger of the End while Sophie and Jade were warped to a set of ruins entirely by a specific and powerful source of malevolence ripping time and space. The Harbinger of the End is not referenced at any point in Zestiria (much like pengyons, in general, which would actually include the Harbinger of the End), nor is there a character mentioning that this has happened previously, which means that Jude and Milla’s sidequest in Berseria is most likely non-canon.

To summarize this, scaling Velvet to Jude and Milla is questionable at best given the nature of Berseria’s other post-game sidequests, and even if they could, it’s clearly not endgame Jude and Milla, so the best case scenario would only affect early-mid game Jude and Milla being as powerful as the endgame Berseria party.

Tales of Arise

Full disclosure: I have not looked into Arise’s feats that much. While planet level is a somewhat safe assumption for AP, given that most Tales games tend to be around that level (and also the Sword Art Online crossover DLC could support that, as well, if taken at face value), I have not done enough research to determine if the Arise party scales to anything higher or lower outside of the cameo fights. The most I know is that the party is definitely FTL thanks to the Gnome Gunner’s lasers, which share properties of real lasers (they travel in a straight line, burn instead of explode, and the enemy description outright calls them lasers). There is a statement that the Great Astral Spirit (the final boss of the game) is able to “absorb all of existence”. This statement usually means multi+, but Arise doesn’t seem to have anything implying that the cosmology can get to that level, and would probably be uni at best (maybe).

However, I am able to answer the question of whether or not Eizen being a boss fight in Arise should mean anything. Admittedly, it’s a very weird case. Like with Zestiria, it’s another “hole in space-time brings the characters to another world” scenario, but unlike Zestiria, it doesn’t contradict anything from other games (especially since Arise is its own world). The space-time portal was apparently constructed due to the amount of astral energy in the monster’s stomach and it’s even stated that the air's quality is different from Arise’s world. It also seems to be bringing in the characters from different points in their games, and it’s even implied that they’ll lose their memories when they get back to their original worlds, which means that it could be canon to Edna, Eizen, and even Chronos. On top of that, Chronos reiterates (or at least doesn’t deny) that he has the power to create universes.

In other words, this seems good enough to make the Arise party universal+ or even multiversal and MFTL+! But what does this mean for Eizen? Unfortunately, most likely nothing new. To get the obvious out of the way, Eizen and Chronos never meet, let alone fight each other, and Eizen clearly loses to the Arise party, so even if Arise has other feats that go higher than star level, there’s no reason for Eizen (and by extension Edna) to gain anything from their respective cameos. The most it does is further support Edna’s Shooting Star mystic arte consisting of real stars given how Rinwell’s version of the move functions.

Verdicts


Br3ndan5


After the weird choice that was the last blog, now we’re back with something a bit more traditional, and it’s covering one of my most wanted matches! Ragna, one of my favorite characters in fiction, versus Velvet Crowe, who’s also up there after the time I spent researching her. But when it comes down to it, which of these two are more likely to win in a fight?

Look, I love Ragna, but if we’re being honest, he’s fighting an uphill battle from the start. The dude’s best direct feat is the time he destroyed a military branch, and it didn’t even happen on screen. For comparison, here’s Velvet causing a volcanic eruption through raw strength, a feat well within the gigaton range, over 2 billion times stronger if we assume Ragna’s feat reaches the high end of large building level.

But hey, that’s just going by direct feats. If we scale Ragna to his fight with Take-Mikazuchi, he’d be outputting anywhere from 225 to 423.5 gigatons, well above Velvet’s volcano eruption… but then you’d need to bring out scaling for Velvet, who directly fought Innominat, a guy that transformed a country through raw power. No big deal, you could just scale Ragna to his equivalent of Innominat: Izanami, who has her infamous statement about replicating an explosion that could destroy Earth and the moon. Regardless of what interpretation you go with, the results of this statement would still come out at planetary range. Decently powerful, but is it enough to surpass Velvet’s peak? Well, this is where things get a bit tricky.

Going by the endgame of Berseria, Velvet’s power was directly compared to Innominat’s and she held her own against him even after he defeated the four Empyreans that created the world. Assuming that would require generating an energy equivalent to Earth’s gravitational binding energy, this would be equivalent to 2.49×10^32 joules, or 51.59 zettatons, making Velvet and Innominat either vastly stronger or far weaker.

However, this becomes a lot less debatable when you factor in the game’s sequel, Tales of Zestiria. There, we’re shown that an Empyrean’s power can be used to create black holes and another Lord of Calamity uses his energy to create an eclipsed sun. That first feat can get to 5 Foe, a level trillions of times beyond Ragna’s best scaling, and while the second feat hasn’t been given an exact value, it should still be an example of creating a sun considering it disappears after Heldalf is defeated. With that in mind, it would still be well beyond Izanami’s statement.

But strength doesn’t matter without the speed to back it up. When it comes down to it, Blazblue as a whole has shown feats like dodging lightning, infiltrating areas in thousandths of a second, and intercepting satellite beams coming from orbit, all of which are within the Massively Hypersonic+ range. If you want to go with a highball, you could even get Ragna to Sub-Relativistic from his fights with Tager. And if you really want to stretch things, you could use his nanosecond statement from the non canon anime to get Ragna into the low end of FTL. How does this compare to Velvet?

Well, Velvet herself doesn’t show off that many impressive feats in the story cutscenes, but she is shown dodging a massive beam of light, which would add some consistency to her dodging similar light-based artes in gameplay. Granted, this feat hasn’t received a calculation, but given that Laphicet’s dodge about two seconds prior got to 43 times FTL, it should be in a similar range. Even if it wasn’t, she should still scale to Phi considering they’re both in the same party, have fought the same guys, and dodged the same shit.

While Ragna’s outclassed in strength and speed, I’d argue he should take durability given the sheer amount of punishment he’s received. He’s been impaled, tortured with blades, and shot through the chest, and could keep on trucking, whereas Velvet needed Laphicet’s healing when sustaining similar injuries.
Experience is also a field I feel that Ragna takes. Both have fought a wide variety of opponents throughout the years, but Ragna has the added advantage of actual training. Sure, Velvet had a few lessons from Artorius before she was locked up, but after that her fighting style was mainly self-taught.

In terms of intellect I have to give it to Velvet. Ragna isn’t much of a strategist to begin with, especially with his more straightforward style, while Velvet is more than capable of thinking up strategies mid-battle and exploiting weaknesses with her pragmatic tendencies.

When it comes to arsenals, one of these two has a pretty distinct edge over the other. Sure, Ragna’s Azure Grimoire gives him the better healing factor and Aramasa’s superior to Velvet’s blades in raw strength, but Velvet’s an RPG character with WAY more to work with! Ragna might have a sweet sword and jacket, but that’s nothing compared to Velvet’s plethora of armors, swords, and accessories, all of which have different buffs Ragna doesn’t have an answer to.

Even their powers are clear cut in terms of advantages. Of the two, Soul Eater’s ability to actively drain souls and health on contact is more useful than Velvet’s soul devouring, and Ragna’s ars magus would be tricky to deal with… if Velvet didn’t directly counter them.

Being a Therion, Velvet’s ability to see invisible beings makes Ragna’s concealment ars completely useless, even more than usual since he only uses it while traveling. And while the magic circle spell would give him better defenses, Velvet’s torn through similar magic barriers before, so that wouldn’t help much either.

To make things worse, everything Velvet brings to the table only puts more nails in Ragna’s coffin. Both can affect the other through their basic attacks, but Velvet’s status effects and ailments are far more effective than the comparatively slower seithr poisoning. Especially when Velvet’s Therionization would just nullify the seithr’s effects upon activation.

This, when combined with Velvet’s status effects and ailments, meant that Ragna ultimately wouldn’t last long. He’d be dealing with attacks that can weaken his strength and defenses, slow him down, poison him, make his attacks miss, or drain him overtime, made all the more damning since Velvet’s status ailments prevent opponents from healing. You know, the thing Ragna’s whole fighting style is based around?

You could argue those are just gameplay mechanics and shouldn’t count, but it doesn’t change the fact that Velvet’s elemental attacks are far more versatile than Ragna’s straightforward seithr attacks.
Sure, Blood Kain and Unlimited Mode could compensate by giving Ragna more power, but that wouldn’t amount to much. Not only does Ragna actively avoid using the Azure Grimoire’s power unless he’s desperate, even when he does use it, it still shortens his lifespan and tears his body apart. And when you factor in that Velvet can reverse transformations through contact, all it would give him is a momentary boost before it’s undone.

Even if you argue those undone transformations were all fusions and that wouldn’t affect Ragna, Velvet’s Therion claw can let her devour individual limbs. And since the Azure Grimoire is directly attached to Ragna’s arm and the source of his powers, it would be easy for Velvet to just tear his arm off, eat it, then one-shot Ragna while he’s powerless.

All in all, I feel like my thoughts are pretty clear cut. Ragna might have the better experience, pain tolerance, and healing factor, but it’s not going to help against Velvet’s astronomical stat advantage, superior versatility, Therion physiology, and more vicious nature.

Ragna will put up the fight of his life, but when Calamity falls upon him, he’ll be forced to eat Crowe.

The winner is Velvet Crowe.


NathanTheManTheMHFan

Uh. It's my first time writing an in-depth-ish verdict for blogs like this, so bear with me. Ragna VS Velvet has been in my top 3 VS matches of all time ever since I finished Tales of Berseria during the pandemic, both Ragna and Velvet are two of my favorite characters of all time, et cetera. So yeah, I'm pretty invested in this matchup. Truth be told, I’d been back and forth on who wins this one. But now that I have thoroughly looked into each character debatewise and taken into account everything, I think I know who I side with.

Let's get the biggest thing out of the way first, stats. This one's pretty straightforward. No matter which end you buy for Izanami's planet-bust, small planet or large planet, Velvet is always going to be stronger given she scales to an entity stronger than someone who can cause an entire eclipse, which would be Star level at the very least. Easy peasy. This is consistent with Edna, who, while empowered by one elemental Empyrean, is able to create a black hole (which legitimacy has been explained above. There’s definitely egg on my face for doubting it lol), and since Innominat could only be temporarily held back by all four of the elemental Empyreans at once, it's safe to assume he's naturally stronger than them, and by extension Edna. Velvet fought him, Velvet scales to him. Bada bing, bada boom. Velvet is stronger. And since Newton's third law necessitates that for every action = an equal and opposite reaction, this also means Velvet is tougher by the same degree as well. Even without that, well, she's eating hits from someone who's stronger than a black hole creator, so she's overall tougher. You could maybe argue that Ragna's healing factor gives him an endurance advantage, but that's different from the actual ability to eat hits.

But for this match, durability does not matter at all, since both Ragna and Velvet can reliably kill each other in one blow, Velvet with power, Ragna with hax. So it's important that we find out who can land the killing blow first, and for that we look into their speed. For Ragna's side, we know he greatly upscales from Iron Tager, who can fly into the atmosphere and back at 1% the speed of light, since he beat him with very little effort. With this in mind, Ragna at his logical peak would be 1% lightspeed, sub-relativistic+. But let's be generous towards Ragna and scale him to higher stuff. You'll see why in a sec.

If we take into account the anime, despite its many contradictions to the source material (and its bad quality, but that's another discussion for another time), Ragna would be 2x FTL due to a very direct feat he does fighting in a nanosecond. And to further be generous towards Ragna, let's even assume that Tsubaki’s Izayoi does provide FTL stuff. Ignore the contradictions, ignore everything, let's assume that the Izayoi statements do allow the BlazBlue cast to be FTL. With that level of generosity, we can assume Ragna at best sits at 1x to 2x FTL. Now, why are we being this generous towards Ragna?


Because it would not matter. Velvet is far faster than him regardless. She scales to Laphicet, who could dodge a beam of light at 43x FTL. This means that at absolute best, Ragna is 22x slower than Velvet, and that, combined with his options to attack at range being limited and with his less pragmatic combat mindset (By limited ranged options, I mean Ragna literally only has one ranged attack, Dead Spike. As for the latter, I'll elaborate in a bit), means Ragna wouldn’t have the means to catch up to Velvet before he gets outsped, while the latter can easily distance herself to stay away from danger while easily closing the distance to counterattack and quickly employ dirty tricks to prevent Ragna from attacking efficiently. That, and Velvet can inflict status ailments on Ragna to slow him down, further increasing the speed gap.

So Velvet has strength and speed over Ragna. What about their other abilities? Well, we know for a fact that both of them have soul manipulation, and that both of them, despite having that ability, do not seem to have any special resistance to it (outside of a combination of a physical object and outside help on Ragna's part). And this is why Ragna does have a very solid wincon against Velvet: his Soul Eater. Let's be honest, Velvet has never faced soul hax quite on the level of Ragna's Soul Eater. Should Ragna land a solid blow with it, the fight is as good as his. The problem is that Ragna would actually need to land that hit in the first place, which, as established above, would range from difficult to straight up impossible given the gap in speed. And besides, Ragna doesn’t have special resistance to soul hax either. Phantom's magic, which harms the soul, messed him up bad. Velvet has soul hax as well, meaning she can just as easily tear out his soul, a method of soul destruction he has not shown any sort of resistance to. And that's not the only hax ability Velvet can bring down on Ragna.

Velvet can inflict a whole host of status ailments which, aside from debilitating Ragna in various ways like slowing down both his movement and reaction speeds, poisoning him, paralyzing him, and the like, prevent Ragna from recovering health. This is especially important when you consider that Ragna has a healing factor, which can be severely crippled with this if Velvet's superior strength already wasn’t enough to overtax it. Also, Velvet can tear down Ragna's barrier abilities with her therion claw, robbing him of a defensive option. As well, Velvet can devour individual limbs, so if she happens to tear off the Azure Grimoire then Ragna's screwed.

A seemingly minor factor that I believe is significant here, though not as significant as stats and abilities, is their battle mindsets. Ragna is by no means an idiot, and he's definitely the more skilled and better trained fighter, but his fighting style at the end of the day ultimately relies on overpowering his enemies through brute force and ferocity. This is especially disadvantageous against a fighter like Velvet, who's more pragmatic in comparison and actually incorporates strategy in battles. She'll exploit any opening she sees, which will be rather straightforward due to Ragna's straightforward style, and do what she can to win as decisively as possible. Even if she doesn't know that the Azure Grimoire provides Ragna with power, it's pretty much common sense for a combat pragmatist to take their enemy's arms in a fight to the death, so Velvet will likely aim for his limbs anyway.

So yeah, that's it. Ragna's soul-based abilities would make him a dangerous enemy, but Velvet's superior stats, powers, and more pragmatic mindset would make sure she takes home this victory. Ragna's resolve may blaze bright, but Velvet will be the only one to live to tell the Tale.


Dimentiorevived7

So yeah, I’ve been invited as a guest for this blog. I don’t know why, but hey, Ragna vs Velvet is a…..pretty cool matchup. It’s just a matchup that features two of the most important video game characters in my life. It’s only a matchup that contains themes and connections that have always resonated with me. It’s only my most wanted matchup. But otherwise, it’s not that special. ;)

Anyway, this is a really fun debate to talk about as there are so many factors you HAVE to consider. At first glance, one would believe that Velvet dies because her feats haven’t been explored that much. However, if you dig deeper than the surface level, it becomes apparent that Velvet actually stat stomps given her numbers for power. Granted, it isn’t nearly that simple. We all know that Ragna doesn’t exactly emerge victorious through sheer might. Hax and speed play the biggest factors here. Let’s start with Ragna:

Soul Eater straight up one-shots Velvet. No way around it. Velvet has not shown direct resistance to soul hax in general. Ragna also has the endurance advantage in having a healing factor vs Velvet…..not having one (or at least it isn’t nearly as good). In theory, even something like Devoured by Darkness could incapacitate Velvet. Plus, the Magic Circle spell means that even if Velvet could one-shot Ragna back, she’d need to bypass that barrier, meaning that Velvet would need to end the fight in two hits instead of one. However, it’s all about getting that hit in the first place, and unfortunately, Ragna’s gonna have a much tougher time getting one hit than Velvet getting the two she needs.

Velvet definitely has the speed gap with her scaling to Laphicet’s beam dodge, although I do wanna give some context to it. The scene does imply that Phi was expecting the beam beforehand, but the animation features Phi stumbling to the ground as opposed to moving out of the way, bending his body as the beam is fired. This basically means that even if he saw the beam coming, he still needed to be fast enough to actually dodge the beam in the first place, and the beam is still technically fired before Phi starts moving (there’s a little ring that indicates that the beam was fired and Phi hadn’t moved from his position yet). Plus, it’s never stated that his strategy involved Innominant shooting a beam in the first place. Even still, dodging beams from the Kaleidos Ray arte should make her consistently faster than Ragna anyway. The gap is much smaller if you use Alter Memory, which gives him nanosecond timing at around 2c, but Phi’s dodge means that Velvet should still be just around 22x faster. If you don’t use Alter Memory, however, then Ragna is, at best, around 1% the speed of light, with a lot more lightning timing feats than feats that acknowledge the speed of light in any way. Not to mention that Velvet can always just inflict Ragna with slow to make the speed gap even bigger. Given how the ailment works (where it disables your dodge until it’s gone), it decreases both your movement AND reaction speed.

As for Velvet’s hax, if you wanna use game mechanics to determine Velvet’s abilities, then you’d have to accept that every status ailment that Velvet can inflict prevents HP recovery. Every. Single. One. Meaning that she can just shut down Ragna’s main gimmick the moment he’s inflicted with something like burn, slow, paralysis, etc., and given her superior speed, she should have multiple chances to inflict them before Ragna gets a hit. While he can resist them to an extent, he’s still not immune to them. But if this hax stomp sounds too unreasonable for you (and I wouldn’t blame you as it’s fucking bullshit), then here are some other hax cons to look at:

Velvet should be easily capable of bypassing the Magic Circle spell since Velvet’s claw is able to naturally dispel magic barriers just as powerful- if not stronger. Her soul devouring ability should also bypass Ragna’s life link since it’s not a traditional form of death and Ragna wouldn’t technically be dead in a traditional sense given that Seres, whom Velvet devoured at the beginning of Berseria, was still able to communicate with her (albeit through Velvet’s dreams) and even appear in front of her outright (although it is unknown if this was through a physical form or if it was an illusion, but still).

Although some have pointed to a charm that Ragna has that could resist Velvet’s devouring abilities, but not only is it implied that Velvet can devour individual limbs, but that very charm only worked because it required intense observation from both Rachel and Noel to keep Ragna alive, and even then, Ragna's memories were briefly unstable and he even received noticeable damage to his legs, so it seems like the charm might not be that effective since it can only resist Velvet’s devouring for so long, especially since there’d be no one actively observing him in a scenario like this. And given Velvet’s superior stats, all she’d need to do is blitz him and wear him down until his resistance is weakened to a point where his healing factor couldn’t heal his wounds in time.

“But I don’t think that large star Velvet is legitimate”. That’s fine. But even if we went with large planet Ragna vs low end-planet Velvet, the power gap would only be around a 127x difference, whereas the speed gap would be a 4350x difference with Ragna scaling to King of Tager’s speed and Velvet’s light timing feats. Obviously, the Alter Memory feat would make the speed gap way closer, and it would be smaller than the power gap, thereby giving Ragna a win in this context, but if we exclude the supplementary material and stick with their respective game series, Velvet’s speed advantage would be SIGNIFICANTLY higher than Ragna’s power advantage with large star Velvet excluded.

Finally, while this is a contentious talking point, let’s discuss the Azure Flame (or the True Azure if you wanna be that guy). On paper, this sounds like an instant win for Ragna. He just uses it to either recreate the universe where Velvet doesn’t exist or destroy the universe with Velvet on it. However, the problem is that the Azure Flame is a non-standard ability for Ragna. It can only be unlocked by reaching a gate in the Boundary, and the Boundary can only be accessed by diving into cauldrons. It’s not something he can just do on his own whenever he wants to, and the only way he could reside in the Boundary is if it lets him stay there.

But let’s make a scenario where he would have access to it. Using it at all requires Ragna to cease his existence and erase himself from everyone’s memories. There’s no avoiding it. As for whether or not he’d destroy the universe, the True Azure adapts to your desires. We’ve already established that the Azure is made of pure power, which means that its response heavily depends on a being's inner desires. Ragna would never seek a desire remotely related to destroying the universe because, despite the pain he’s gone through, he’s never had a desire to destroy the world nor has he ever had a hatred for it, so Ragna destroying the universe is out of the question. As for recreating the universe, this could only work as a wincon if it can specifically erase people from history similarly to how it affects the user. However, there is nothing even implying that it can do that. He wants to save people above all else, so the True Azure would more than likely not be used to kill Velvet. In short, it’s hard to justify him having the Azure Flame Grimoire as a part of his standard arsenal, but even if he has it, there’s a very unreliable chance he can use it to erase Velvet and a 100% chance of him dying the moment he uses it, and it being used offensively against Velvet in the first place would go against his character. Not to mention that Velvet’s superior stats would prevent Ragna from using it at all.

“But I think Ragna should be uni+ anyway”. That’s also fine. However, if we’re gonna give Ragna a non-standard ability and give it the ability to directly kill someone, then we’d have to give Velvet her equally non-standard Xillia scaling, which would not only make her equal in power (likely higher when scaled to Origin), but would also give Velvet speeds up to the trillions c, something Ragna could never get close to without extreme wankery and serious benefit of the doubt. Plus, unlike Ragna, Velvet wouldn’t be required to erase herself from existence when reaching this power. No matter what ends you buy, Velvet is consistently stronger and faster, and her larger variety of hax would make it an easier win for her.

In short, Ragna puts up a tough fight, but Velvet just blazes right through him.

Also, Velvet scales to Sol Badguy and Ragna loses to Sol Badguy, so clearly the winner was obvious from the start. :)


Scarlat234

I can bet you that this debate came into mind when this debate came into question, and it isn’t hard to see why. Ragna and Velvet are systematically the same character, with the same ideals, the same growth, the same—

Oh, who am I kidding? Its appeal was only ‘demon claw’ and ‘edgelord’... with some shades of porn thrown in.

Then it grew into something more, when people stopped getting off on Twitter and started getting off of Twitter, that these two ‘edgelords’ possess as much depth and character than one would expect these two to have. I myself was surprised, not expecting Ragna, and certainly not Velvet, to have so much to them that you can’t help but think ‘... Damn.’

But enough about my opinions of these copycats of one another, now let’s talk about my opinion of these copycats of one another. Specifically; who comes out on top?

This is a debate that has been incredibly prevalent since… honestly, when this match-up first came to be. Everyone has been going back-and-forth, not fully capable of coming to a singular conclusion, especially with how wishy-washy and nearly non-existent the research for both characters have been.

To start things off it matters on the mental side of things; what exactly their brain power is. Now, Ragna and Velvet have both received training from some of the best warriors of their own worlds, and faced off against other skilled fighters of varying styles of combat; it can be said that Ragna is the more skilled of the two, but not enough where it can be said that Velvet is completely out of her league.

However, Ragna may be more skilled, but he is definitely not smarter. Granted, Ragna is certainly not an idiot, but in no way is he more clever, underhanded, and pragmatic as Velvet. Every single time, no matter in or out of combat, she’s always planning things out, scoping the situation, and keeping an eye on whatever opening presents itself; using whatever means necessary, be it her own allies or her own enemy’s weapon. A perfect counter to a fighter that tends to rely more on overwhelming force, like Ragna.

But surely, Ragna has the strength where he doesn’t have to worry about being outsmarted, right?
Sure, if he was actually strong enough from the get-go, or at all. The best Ragna’s got is being equal to Nine the Phantom, who used her remaining life force to power Corpus Sepulcro: Requiem after getting mortally wounded by Ragna himself, so Nine wasn’t even at the peak of her power when she pulled it off. There are multiple calculations for the power of this device, but at most, Requiem could pull off the energy output of 7 Yottatons of TNT, enough to destroy a large planet, like Jupiter. Impressive as that is, Velvet’s got him beat. She fought on even grounds with, and eventually overwhelmed, Innominat, who fought against the Four Empyreans. This matters because the power of a single Empyrean could bestow enough power to create a black hole, generating 5 Foe of energy, enough to destroy a large star.

Power, however, means very little to the both of them. They can directly affect the soul through direct contact, with neither one having any resistance of any kind to such a power. Well, technically, Ragna does, but that was only done through a process that he would be incapable of pulling off in the middle of a fight, or on his own at that. One good hit will be enough to screw ‘em over, in spite of the previously established difference in power Velvet has over Ragna, especially since Ragna’s own method of affecting the soul is far deadlier.

Unfortunately for Ragna, he’s not fast enough to pull his one-shot off or avoid Velvet. Ragna’s best is beating Mu-12 in a few nanoseconds, about 2 times the Speed of Light at most. Compare that to Velvet’s best being physically superior to Laphicet, who could dodge a beam of light at 43 times the Speed of Light.

But, Ragna does have his own set of advantages, such as a superior and more consistent healing factor, being able to heal back entire limbs without issue. Velvet can heal from stab wounds, which is certainly useful, but is overall less effective, especially when it’s been shown that more serious blows, that weren’t as lethal, required immediate outside healing. And Ragna is an absolute unit of a being; surviving the forced amputation of his arm, and the following blood loss, as a child, and still managing to push through should say enough. Velvet’s been through the ringer, that’s undeniable, but she’s never shown tenacity on that level.

… Yeah, that’s basically it. Ragna is, continuously and befittingly, screwed. Seithr poisoning would affect Velvet, yes, but she could just ‘lol-nope’ that just through Therionization, and proceed to be immune to it throughout the state. His own resistance to poison means little when Velvet can affect him with other ailments that can screw him over–

Speaking of which, that is probably one of Velvet’s best ways of screwing Ragna over. It’s a little strange to hear, but every single one of the status ailments Ragna can be affected by, will also null his healing factor. Literally, the only advantage Ragna has, without any consequence or repercussion, outside of soul manipulation, and it can just be completely halted.

… Where was it again? Ah yes, Ragna screwed big time.

And if things were to end up at a distance, Velvet would still reign over due to… having actual long-range options. The entirety of Ragna’s ensemble is about being up in your face at all times, which is already a bad idea when you’re facing up against someone this strong, this fast, and this clever; as we established.

And Ragna’s more niche options aren't all that impressive or important. A magic circle can just be dispelled by Velvet, briefly disregarding the power difference, and concealment isn't something Ragna uses in combat, and Velvet can naturally perceive entities that can’t be seen through conventional means.

Trying to amp his power with the Azure Grimoire is a bad idea from the get-go since, not only are any of his methods of doing so nowhere near enough to put him on Velvet’s level, but extended overuse can prove immensely detrimental to Ragna himself, and could leave him left wide open for Velvet to effortlessly land a killing blow. Also, there isn’t anything stopping Velvet from stopping Ragna; once she sees how Ragna becomes more powerful, why wouldn’t she just cut it off or absorb it entirely? It’s not exactly outside of her wheelbarrow… box… whatever the saying is, you get what I mean.

But then we end up with the literal big one: The Black Beast. This, really, cannot be included for… really, many of Ragna’s fights for multiple reasons. First off, Ragna can’t naturally transform into this state, requiring a lengthy period of time, even with its more possible way of doing so; secondly, Ragna doesn’t want to transform into this state, where he’s reduced to a mindless being of destruction beyond his own control.

But let’s say he were to become The Black Beast mid-fight, would that give him a way of coming out on top?

No, not really.

Once again disregarding the blatant difference in power and speed, Velvet actually has her ways of countering The Black Beast. One option is she can just… reverse the transformation, turning that thing back to Ragna… she did it to some dogs, it was a very weird thing…

Or she can infect The Black Beast with Malevolence, making it a daemon, and rendering it even more vulnerable to being absorbed by Velvet.

Now there are countless other debates regarding Ragna that would possibly give him a win, but I feel as though I don’t need to explain those debates, mainly because it’s been done three times before me. But the general idea of them all is ‘too vague to make use of’, ‘too inconsistent to make use of’, or ‘existing evidence that contradicts them’.

So yeah, after most everything said, I would fully put my money on Velvet Blazing right Blue Ragna’s Tale.

And, fun fact, Ragna had a crossover with Persona, Under Night, RWBY… that still didn’t stop Velvet from having a better crossover.

Minato Emosato


As a BlazBlue fan… sadly I don’t see Ragna winning this. Ragna’s best wincon against Velvet is probably his soul hax, but with Velvet’s speed advantage, it’s unlikely he’d actually be able to hit her. It also doesn’t help that Velvet can also reverse transformations, allowing her to turn off Ragna’s Unlimited Form and widening the power gap between them even further. Any advantages Ragna could have likely wouldn’t help him much in the long run when Velvet simply outclasses him in stats. It appears Ragna’s situation is too grim for him to reap any benefits. The winner is Velvet Crowe.


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