BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle development started with 3D polygonal characters that get converted into 2D

A portion of a GamesBeat interview with Arc System Works’ Chief Development Officer Toshimichi Mori and Chief Creative Officer Daisuke Ishiwatari...

GamesBeat: Is BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle using the same technique? Is it a combination of 3D polygons and 2D sprites?

Mori: For Cross Tag Battle, we started off with 3D polygonal characters, and then we convert that into 2D.

GamesBeat: Is there a reason to go that route, like the engine itself? Or is it just more efficient to go that way?

Mori: Originally it was a technical issue, where character animation couldn’t be accurately expressed in 3D.
When I want to do a throw animation, for example, the twist of an arm couldn’t be expressed the way I wanted it to be. So I’d take that from 3D and convert it into sprites. That way there’s a sense of “drawing” left in the design, and I still wanted that. But if you look at Guilty Gear Xrd now, animation has come a long way since then. In our next implementation maybe we’ll go the 3D route.