The funny thing is, if I remember right, BBCF actually toned down a bunch of interactions from Chronophantasma (some that come to mind are ragna vs hazama, relius, Rachel and Nu) and yet the ones that are still here, still look great.
I love the fact that basically every Blazblue character feels designed to scratch a particular anime stereotype niche... and yet between animations, voice acting and interactions you come to know them to a point where they hardly feel like they BELONG to that archetype. Even if you hate the mechanics, you have to admit that few fighting games have characters as expressive as Blazblue. The whole reason why I got into the series was because, and I shit you not, of a single animation: Susanoo's 6B. I swear, Susanoo's whole personality is perfectly incapsulated in that animation
Its really funny because Chronophantasma Ragna actually had a unique intro with EVERY character, even if it was just a unique voice line, he still said something different or got told something different by other characters. As well other characters having all sorts of unique animations play out and voice line changes for that match up (Ragna still curses more during every line when he fights terumi or Izanami) There's Celica running towards Ragna to give him a hug and getting stopped by Minerva, Terumi fighting every six hero, Ragna taking a deep breath before facing Izanami and her responding by just taunting him. Kagura trying to risk a limb to touch Makoto's tits before getting his face punched off by her. All of this shit is booming with personality and I wish more fighting games would do this instead of the same cinematic shit
@@LucidButtonMasher one of his eye is covered in his character Portrait, so it checks out. On another note: Do 3rd Strike's special intros. People NEED to see the fistbump!
I'm so sad that ArcSys is the only dev I've seen put this much effort into a fighting game's presentation and even they have stopped doing it in their recent releases edit: To be 100% clear, I'm not suggesting that ArcSys puts less effort into their newer releases, their games are still unquestionably the best to look at. I'm just a little bummed by the loss of these interactive intros.
Yeah sure, we don't have unique intros in strive, but your insane if you would say it doesn't have as much effort in presentation. The graphics are the literal best cell shading there is and every bit of gameplay ooozes with style. Presentation is every part of the game presented.
Instead, I think the not take serious one is Dbfz. Dbfz is RNG intro/ending, Sometimes characters with special intro also become original intro, which keeps using the same effects over and over again. The best one in the near future is GBVS. All characters have corresponding intros, and some characters have special voices in intros and battles
THIS! THIS IS WHAT MADE ME FALL FOR ARC SYS (Also, the Carl vs Relius intro in Continuum Shift, I believe, is way cooler, where Carl just COMES IN FROM OFF SCREEN DOING HIS PUNCH FLURRY SUPER AND RELIUS CASUALLY COUNTERS IT)
Also to add that voice lines changes too depending on who you play against with like for example Ragna or Noel against Celica who instead of naming their attacks, will yell at her to be careful xD
The new Melty Blood does that. Even outside of unique intro/end dialogues or scenes, like when Arcueid fights Shiki she'll shout out his name playfully in one of her specials. I like seeing games acknowledge the relationships between characters in match
Intros like these (and English dub) got me interested in the game since CT. On top of looking flashy it displays the characters personality so damn well
@@LucidButtonMasher sorta, in CP he tries to touch her tits and she punches the shit out of him, and in CF he does his analyze on her and she tries to punch the shit out of him lmfao
Kagura deserves to be in the sequel. The balls it takes to oogle one of the Six Heroes... Now if you excuse me, I'm going to hide behind this barrier just in case she heard me. -Mu vs Mai worse intro-
Some of the unique battle voices are pretty funny too. For example, if you grab Celica as Ragna (in CP Eng dub anyways lol) Ragna tells her she better tech the throw lol
Jubei and Kokonoe’s interaction: Kokonoe: There is nothing for us to talk about at this point, it’s a waste of time. Jubei: It’s been so long since we talked, and my daughter says this. . .
I like carl and relius's intro in continuum shift more then in central fiction. I just think its cool how relius is just standing there yet he still evades nirvana out of nowhere and the clash between the 2 of them lasts much longer
Skull girls does it a bit but not to Blazblue’s extremely. Also fun fact: If Hibuki vs Kagura is happening, Hibiki’s knife throwing attack is actually papers he’s throwing.
That's a hard part it's all subjective and I'm sure a lot of them I want have a personal attachment to so I can't really judge them fairly. Art is pretty hard to objectify
My favorite is naoto vs ragna for how it compares to real life. Just 2 dudes looking like they're about to kiss before beating the crap otta each other.
A small part of me wishes that in the Ragna vs Azrael intro we could've seen them jump at each other during the beginning of the match. But that's still just a small thing tho, it's still my favorite clash intro
What I miss the most is CS Mu. Telling everyone in a unique intro how their role is ending. Man I miss that character, they just deleted her... Technically the only character in the series that never came back :(
The best one is still BBCP rachel trolling ragna with wind until he gets so full of his failure in being unable to hit her he just kneels down at the floor
pains me that developers stopped putting effort into intros, especially looking back at KOF MI2, but I still think that having unique dialogues between every character like granblue or MK can be as good or better
The thing is, all of these intros are just recycling existing animations to great effect, and I think even with modern 3d standards something like that could realistically be pulled off. Even if the latter is much more expensive when it comes to unique animations
Thats what make arcsys is well known and Legendary in the past, intro might be skipped but its unique and short and its add tension to player who care about single player content, the true art of telling small bit of story in fighting game, its show their relation, motivation, hatred, friendship, etc in just one small unique intro
@@LucidButtonMasher Feel like it should be a standard bar. Yeah its nice to have cool animations and realize which moves are built oppose which. Like Noel 's Zero Gun and Jin's Moonsong but the interactions are truly great when you see what characters have to say to each other on sight. We really should've had a dub
Yes !!! This is the major complaint I had since the age of street fighter 4. Mk9, guilty gear xrd, street fighter 5, mkx, dragon ball fighterz, kofxiv, strive and so on; none of these that use unreal engine or above are able to pull it off. Modernity is fine but bring back what is good. Bring back 2d sprite fighting games.
That's true, and they talk way longer than in plus r. Tbh was thinking of cutting most of it since it's hard to hear and no subs. English Azrael can bless my ears any day
No,it’s better if all characters only have only two intros and say things that are vague and make you wonder if they’re referring to each other or just spewing generic lines
So he had a sister named Saya who got kidnapped and turned into a vessel for Izanami and also had clones made of her that include Lambda, Nu-13, and Noel (who is also Mu-12). And there's some chick inside the Amaterasu Unit that ALSO looks like Saya.
l cannot say lm a fan of the azeal/ragna one. feels too lazy, we don't get see ANYTHING beyond the final strike. it's hard to imagine what they could even be doing up there, they can't fly so imagining them just in the air that long like they dbz is kinda kooky. While I appreciate the terumi v hakky intro in cf, I personally like the cpex version more. Terumi in that rare intro pose with his hood off, and just disrespects haku by calling him by his true/previous name. And all hakky does is charge his strongest attack and terumi easily counters with one of his own supers. Short but palpable and sweet.
The funny thing is, if I remember right, BBCF actually toned down a bunch of interactions from Chronophantasma (some that come to mind are ragna vs hazama, relius, Rachel and Nu) and yet the ones that are still here, still look great.
Why did they decide to tone down the interactions
Yeah ragna and haz just do their normal intro but unique dialogue
@@K49999XV Lore, Hazama separated from Terumi, Rachel lost her position as an Observer and more.
@@K49999XV In Hazama's case, he's not quite the same character, as Terumi, Ragna's actual nemesis, is no longer a part of him
Ah makes sense
I love the fact that basically every Blazblue character feels designed to scratch a particular anime stereotype niche...
and yet between animations, voice acting and interactions you come to know them to a point where they hardly feel like they BELONG to that archetype.
Even if you hate the mechanics, you have to admit that few fighting games have characters as expressive as Blazblue. The whole reason why I got into the series was because, and I shit you not, of a single animation: Susanoo's 6B. I swear, Susanoo's whole personality is perfectly incapsulated in that animation
It's a good button too lol
@@LucidButtonMasher
Absolute victory on Arcsys' part with that button
Oh yes
For me it is susanoo's throw. Encapsulates his character and the use of screen shaking and sound effects just shows power in such a basic move.
For me it’s the more skills that are unlocked, the more are used in his super. I found that so freaking cool
Its really funny because Chronophantasma Ragna actually had a unique intro with EVERY character, even if it was just a unique voice line, he still said something different or got told something different by other characters. As well other characters having all sorts of unique animations play out and voice line changes for that match up (Ragna still curses more during every line when he fights terumi or Izanami)
There's Celica running towards Ragna to give him a hug and getting stopped by Minerva, Terumi fighting every six hero, Ragna taking a deep breath before facing Izanami and her responding by just taunting him. Kagura trying to risk a limb to touch Makoto's tits before getting his face punched off by her. All of this shit is booming with personality and I wish more fighting games would do this instead of the same cinematic shit
Right?
Yep, the first one is what got me into Blazblue. That was the hook.
Also, we need a Terumi everywhere system.
He even uses a knife with dark aura around him, he just needs to lose an eye
@@LucidButtonMasher one of his eye is covered in his character Portrait, so it checks out.
On another note: Do 3rd Strike's special intros. People NEED to see the fistbump!
True true not a bad idea
Terumi Everywhere is just the story mode for Continuum Shift
Lol that's cool
We love Terumi just going absolutely bonkers
Don't we all
and then Susano'O + Hakumen intro in BBTAG
Oh?
@@LucidButtonMasher Oh, its not Susano'o going crazy, but it is a pretty sick intro imo
Should be fine
Carl vs Relius matchup is so tragic and hype I love it. Especially with their special fight theme playing.
The special themes really makes it
@@LucidButtonMasher Want to know something funny? They had the same interaction in previous games, BUT GOOD LORD IT WAS LONG.
Oh? That sounds better
@@LucidButtonMasher th-cam.com/video/3enmyoGES-g/w-d-xo.html
I'm so sad that ArcSys is the only dev I've seen put this much effort into a fighting game's presentation and even they have stopped doing it in their recent releases
edit: To be 100% clear, I'm not suggesting that ArcSys puts less effort into their newer releases, their games are still unquestionably the best to look at. I'm just a little bummed by the loss of these interactive intros.
Yeah sure, we don't have unique intros in strive, but your insane if you would say it doesn't have as much effort in presentation. The graphics are the literal best cell shading there is and every bit of gameplay ooozes with style. Presentation is every part of the game presented.
You clearly haven’t seen dragon ball fighterz
Dbzf has a good few intros and endings for sure, nrs just has good character to character dialogue, no unique actions
Instead, I think the not take serious one is Dbfz. Dbfz is RNG intro/ending, Sometimes characters with special intro also become original intro, which keeps using the same effects over and over again. The best one in the near future is GBVS. All characters have corresponding intros, and some characters have special voices in intros and battles
If you're talking about the dramatic intros of teen gohan/cell and the such those are 100% if they're at the front of the group
THIS!
THIS IS WHAT MADE ME FALL FOR ARC SYS
(Also, the Carl vs Relius intro in Continuum Shift, I believe, is way cooler, where Carl just COMES IN FROM OFF SCREEN DOING HIS PUNCH FLURRY SUPER AND RELIUS CASUALLY COUNTERS IT)
That's sick. Gotta see the old ones
@@LucidButtonMasher th-cam.com/video/kJNw2wAQRwM/w-d-xo.html
Thanks!
Also to add that voice lines changes too depending on who you play against with
like for example Ragna or Noel against Celica who instead of naming their attacks, will yell at her to be careful xD
Lol that's cute
The new Melty Blood does that. Even outside of unique intro/end dialogues or scenes, like when Arcueid fights Shiki she'll shout out his name playfully in one of her specials. I like seeing games acknowledge the relationships between characters in match
Pretty cool
as a Terumi player, every Ragna player that lets the intro play out online is a bro
That's respect right there
I just like Terumi head butting Hells Fang. He didn’t have to, but did, and I will always be thankful.
Super sick
We stan Terumi losing it over absolutely nothing.
Always
“Subscribe for more overdrive Ragna yelling”
Say no more
JIIIIIN
@@LucidButtonMasher SAYAAAAA
00:50 Yuichi Nakamura as Terumi is the definition of "Batshit Insane" and I love it
Absolutely
Intros like these (and English dub) got me interested in the game since CT. On top of looking flashy it displays the characters personality so damn well
Agreed
Kagura's intro with the female cast kills me everytime. In particular with Amane LMAO.
Damn I got to see that now
His Makoto one is what gets me
I think I may have seen it she gets really embarrassed
@@LucidButtonMasher sorta, in CP he tries to touch her tits and she punches the shit out of him, and in CF he does his analyze on her and she tries to punch the shit out of him lmfao
Casual harassment
They went so hard with the unique interactions it's amazing.
Love to see it
Kagura deserves to be in the sequel. The balls it takes to oogle one of the Six Heroes...
Now if you excuse me, I'm going to hide behind this barrier just in case she heard me.
-Mu vs Mai worse intro-
His va is legendary it would be sad to hear anything different but they might have to
@@LucidButtonMasher What happened to his old va?
Sadly passed away I believe a year ago
@@LucidButtonMasher RIP. May he be in boob heaven
@generic name Imagine if he's the next protagonist
Some of the unique battle voices are pretty funny too. For example, if you grab Celica as Ragna (in CP Eng dub anyways lol) Ragna tells her she better tech the throw lol
Lol that's sick
Jubei and Kokonoe’s interaction:
Kokonoe: There is nothing for us to talk about at this point, it’s a waste of time.
Jubei: It’s been so long since we talked, and my daughter says this. . .
Hate that she's his daughter
Lol true
0:44 I'M NOT ALONE, I'M NOT ALONE WHO NOTICED!!!
Just felt right
@@LucidButtonMasher Btw, Terumi's VA voice Joon in yakuza 6. He didn't use knife tho.
About Ragna yell when OD. I can't ever get enough of Ragna yell "JIN" on OD. It feels so good. 0:13 btw
Hell yeah
Always loved the Ragna Jin intro! Mix that with the original voice lines changing based on who's fighting who during a match, and hoooo boy...!
English you mean?
I will NEVER get tired of that Ragna vs Jin intro!!! (My other personal favorite is Taokaka vs Arakune)
Yeah I'd found that one on stream today
+50 social credit for that Majima reference
I also like that there's unique victory poses and quotes for certain characters
Same, love that mad dog
0:00-0:05 It really does! I *love* how Jin just parry's the *entire* Carnage Scissors!
The triple parry is really cool
This is the kind of detail I want to put in my fighting games.
Same bud
Hibiki and Makoto have a funny intro as well! One of my favorites
Oh? Will have to check! So many characters i had to just guess who had interactions lol
I like carl and relius's intro in continuum shift more then in central fiction. I just think its cool how relius is just standing there yet he still evades nirvana out of nowhere and the clash between the 2 of them lasts much longer
Don't know why they would change it, very weird
Ragna versus Azrael is my favorite, and i'm so glad you put it in this video!
No problem! Lots of requests for it
These intros were a main reason in me buying BB in the first place, can solemnly say that I have no regrets. Love this game!
It's great for sure
Not an intro interaction but if you combo Ragna using Nu she goes "homete, homete!" and I find it hilarious
That is pretty neat
I really wish CF at least had subs for intros but even without understanding what they're saying they're still so cool.
Right? Pretty weird they don't
Thankfully some people have translated the before and after fight dialogue.
Very true
I had no idea these existed. Thank you!
Spreading the good word!
Me and my friend who always mained opposing characters loved these intros.
Quality stuff
I found the funniest one to be Ragna and Rachel where Rachel just flies out of Ragnas attacks
I like that one
Skull girls does it a bit but not to Blazblue’s extremely. Also fun fact: If Hibuki vs Kagura is happening, Hibiki’s knife throwing attack is actually papers he’s throwing.
You mean hibiki? Lol
@@LucidButtonMasher Hibiki my bad lol
I was going to say lol
Hey, neat. I was just talking about BlazBlue interactions on the guilty gear interaction video. Glad to see this one into a video
Of course! Thank you!
0:56 “Aww it’s his sister.”
Which one? He has like twenty.
Lol true
Kagura's intro made me laugh very hard ngl.
He's a goofball. Does it to most of the female cast
@Metal Sign He can tell if it's a trap or jailbait
You should do a video on the importance of vs. themes. They say more about the characters than a cinematic story mode ever will.
They are super tight. Dunno how I'd format it
@@LucidButtonMasher Maybe play like 30 seconds of the best parts, I dunno.
That's a hard part it's all subjective and I'm sure a lot of them I want have a personal attachment to so I can't really judge them fairly. Art is pretty hard to objectify
@@LucidButtonMasher Very true.
Man these intro`s are always the best even at a higher level
Love when they let these rock in tournament
KUSOGAAA!!! it's so epic man, holy
Love the VAs
I'm with Terumi and Azrael on these interactions though.
We dancing tonight.
Big schmovin
My favorite is naoto vs ragna for how it compares to real life. Just 2 dudes looking like they're about to kiss before beating the crap otta each other.
Just like Jin ragna
@@LucidButtonMasher 😂😂😂
A small part of me wishes that in the Ragna vs Azrael intro we could've seen them jump at each other during the beginning of the match. But that's still just a small thing tho, it's still my favorite clash intro
It's in the imagination what they're doing up there
You should check out some of the stuff from the CT true ending, it's pretty incredible stuff.
Good idea
What I miss the most is CS Mu. Telling everyone in a unique intro how their role is ending. Man I miss that character, they just deleted her... Technically the only character in the series that never came back :(
Never known her
When they make it so it takes two players skipping to skip the intro, I'll want unique intros again
Lol good idea
I almost spat out my drink when Majima popped up
Majima everywhere. You gotta be prepared
The best one is still BBCP rachel trolling ragna with wind until he gets so full of his failure in being unable to hit her he just kneels down at the floor
That's the one i was looking for it's not in cf?
@@LucidButtonMasher it is not
Bro Terumi and hakumen will always be my favorite intro
Just going nuts in the intro
Yesss Blazblue gets more love as time goes.
Yessir
While not particularly action-packed, I love Ragna and naoto face to face talking shit before spacing back to neutral.
I imagine it's like sol and ky from plus r
Why can't we have intros like this in strive? Lol
Money, time, it's 3d, pandemic, whatever excuse you wanna pick from lol
Yo… imagine if Arcsys and Capcom collabed! Think of the intros!
Also I pray they reboot Blazblue, first serious fighting game I’ve played.
That sounds pretty likely
bro did an insight check on nine 💀
Insight... On what lol
@@LucidButtonMasher the important things in life
God i havent seen the Hakumen v Terumi one in forever. The lack of ps4 rollback is killin me, more than you can imagine
That is unfortunate. Hope it comes soon
You should put ragna and celica clip in here too since its looks silly how ragna doing carnage scissor while telling celica to avoid it
Sounds good
pains me that developers stopped putting effort into intros, especially looking back at KOF MI2, but I still think that having unique dialogues between every character like granblue or MK can be as good or better
Definitely could be better
The Blazblue series is the BEST fighting game (series) ever made.
Can NOT change my mind.
I won't try
Why must you say that Kagura's intro's aren't cool? He's showing us his good taste.
Not saying its not lol
another subtle but really good one is Ragna and Naoto's special intro where they butt heads
They so close they can kiss
Tao VS Arakunr is a cool one imo.. Silly.. But a cool intro..
Also Carl VS Relius looked cool
True true
Now that's what I was talking about
Same
0:36 Should've put Platinum/Es instead of Nine.
Also: The interaction between two characters are also different between Act 1-3 setting.
As in the story mode?
Kokonoe vs Azrael is my favorite intro
Might have to look at that one too
Truly the art is lost on most modern fighting games 😔
Lol majima
The thing is, all of these intros are just recycling existing animations to great effect, and I think even with modern 3d standards something like that could realistically be pulled off. Even if the latter is much more expensive when it comes to unique animations
@@chazaqiel2319 Thats so true eh?
And I didn't even notice the recycling, wow. Good point
Even if they just re used super animations it would work great. Imagine Mila v chip super clashing
@@LucidButtonMasher That would actually be awesome, doesnt seem too taxing either
Not cinematic but i think would go well with just "heaven or hell duel one let's rock" in the background
Surprised that you didn't played the Kagura vs Azrael one
I'll have to see it! Didn't know about it
I think the effort here stopped in part because of how frequently everyone skips intros
Doesn't mean they shouldn't be there. Single player gamers, first time viewers and, spectators appreciate it
Thats what make arcsys is well known and Legendary in the past, intro might be skipped but its unique and short and its add tension to player who care about single player content, the true art of telling small bit of story in fighting game, its show their relation, motivation, hatred, friendship, etc in just one small unique intro
Exactly
If I'm not mistaken Terumi has a special winpose against Ragna where he stomps a Steve Austin style mudhole into him while he's unconscious, right?
He has one where he stomps him repeatedly and another where he kicks him off screen.
Yeah it's pretty tight
That first intro is what made me pick up Jin after I got tired of Hazama.
The only other reason to pick up jin lol
You WILL HAVE 3D animation motion like a cinematic! By popular demand!
It can look good for sure
0:25 HOW DID THEY GET UP THERE?????
XD
Magnets
@@LucidButtonMasher Thanks, Tager!
XD
Exactly
I love this omg
Thanks!
You missed relius vs valkenheyn and terumi vs jubei (i don’t even have jubei bought but I’ve seen it)
Lol i don't have him either but good idea
@@LucidButtonMasher oh lol I forgot taokaka vs arakune has a clash too, literally no tao players are crazy enough to try playing that MU
Yeah i just saw one on stream! Very cool!
BBCP's Intros went harder than they had any right to
I've heard!
how do you activate the OD during intro
You cannot
what do you mean about bonus OD then.
@@LucidButtonMasher
Just a unique line you only get when activating od versus jin and it just sounded cool, so i put it in as a bonus. Sorry for confusion
Yeah, BBCF has amazing intros too.
Me: Yeah, if you can understand japanese, sure.
They do talk a lot but it's still nice with the clashes
Check out GBVS ones.
If i owned it i would
Can they just add subtitles to the intros? Its not difficult at all
That would be nice
@@LucidButtonMasher Feel like it should be a standard bar. Yeah its nice to have cool animations and realize which moves are built oppose which. Like Noel 's Zero Gun and Jin's Moonsong but the interactions are truly great when you see what characters have to say to each other on sight. We really should've had a dub
Subs work in strive, they can work anywhere
They even nerfed the intros and other dialogue compared to bbcp
Yeah I've heard unfortunately
How do I activate these?
Just match up the characters
Yes !!! This is the major complaint I had since the age of street fighter 4. Mk9, guilty gear xrd, street fighter 5, mkx, dragon ball fighterz, kofxiv, strive and so on; none of these that use unreal engine or above are able to pull it off. Modernity is fine but bring back what is good. Bring back 2d sprite fighting games.
Fighterz does have it to be fair. They're one in like 20 but they're very well done
Yeah Kagura X woman is the best special intro
Except platinum
@@LucidButtonMasher vs amane makes up for it
Lol i guess
@@LucidButtonMasher "This isn't good"
The only thing that holds CF back is the lack of dubbing
I think it would expand its reach for sure. I personally wouldn't care
I'd care about these more if they actually put an eng dub in BBCF. There aren't even subs for these interactions...
That's true, and they talk way longer than in plus r. Tbh was thinking of cutting most of it since it's hard to hear and no subs. English Azrael can bless my ears any day
No,it’s better if all characters only have only two intros and say things that are vague and make you wonder if they’re referring to each other or just spewing generic lines
Thank you corporation man
Izanami is ragna’s sister?
Yes and no same for noel and nu-13 kinda
Funny time loops or something
Also damn what apfo! Good ol Mär!
So he had a sister named Saya who got kidnapped and turned into a vessel for Izanami and also had clones made of her that include Lambda, Nu-13, and Noel (who is also Mu-12). And there's some chick inside the Amaterasu Unit that ALSO looks like Saya.
Fucking lore
Terumi is Ragna's wife confirmed.
Oh yes
l cannot say lm a fan of the azeal/ragna one. feels too lazy, we don't get see ANYTHING beyond the final strike. it's hard to imagine what they could even be doing up there, they can't fly so imagining them just in the air that long like they dbz is kinda kooky. While I appreciate the terumi v hakky intro in cf, I personally like the cpex version more. Terumi in that rare intro pose with his hood off, and just disrespects haku by calling him by his true/previous name. And all hakky does is charge his strongest attack and terumi easily counters with one of his own supers. Short but palpable and sweet.
Fair enough
shoulda showed Terumi vs Celica :( he scared of her
That sounds neat
@@LucidButtonMasher next time you stream, you go terumi i go celica, ez fix
also ez win for me ;););););););););)
Lol true
Cf intros where nice but I'll say that chrono phantasma intros are better
I've seen a few. Pretty sick
Never
Por que
I miss the english dub
I miss specifically azrael English dub
@@LucidButtonMasher yup Albert wesker in BB is insanely good
Ridiculously. GERRRROWWLER
English Ragna was a true blessing