I mean merch wise there's been a pandemic so it's not like they could sell at cons like usual...

In the grand scheme of things, this game's still relatively new. And as for the merch budget... Well, chalk it up to it instantly getting an LRG release, the BMZ Trilogy, and the ongoing pandemic - if you wanted merch, you'd either need to get those, or get the soundtrack from INTI DIRECT (which, yes, there is one).

There is another factor, I feel, in terms of merch - the budget they would have spent on that might have been directed towards the above releases instead (and by extension, the voicework for the Trilogy version).

Probably has to do with BMZ3 being garbage compared to all others. Abandoned metroidvania elements, Jason dungeons have insufferable garbage gameplay on both sides, area design took a nosedive for blaster master and jason areas, you're grouped with a garbage character instead of Eve, I could go on complaining forever.

At least it has a fantastic true end, but everything else is extremely shallow. It's a good mindless action game, but it's an atrocious sequel to a great series.

I knew of the first game back when it first released in 2017 as it had quite a few people talking about it. Being a reboot of Blaster Master by ex-Mega Man devs slated for release for around the Switch's launch (it was a launch title in Japan I think) did get people talking. In 2019 when 2 and 3 released, I heard nothing, and I never learned of their existence until a few months ago. Pandemic probably didn't help.

Anyway, I got around to the first one in late 2021, and 2 and 3 recently. Really like them all - now I'm a fan. Think the first one would be my favorite, but 3 is a close second.

fun fact there IS a physical OST merch and even a sort of paper craft sophia somewhere out there

another fun fact: the OST cover for BMZ3 shows the aftermath of Leibniz taking the kids of Jason and Eve back to earth where they seemingly became Metal Attacker pilots

I found the third game much more challenging than the previous titles. This might of added to it's unpopular feel for it.

Best game in the series is the first game: Blaster Master Zero.

Originally posted by D. Flame:

Best game in the series is the first game: Blaster Master Zero.

Yea, i really liked the first game myself.

Originally posted by vexe00:

Probably has to do with BMZ3 being garbage compared to all others. Abandoned metroidvania elements, Jason dungeons have insufferable garbage gameplay on both sides, area design took a nosedive for blaster master and jason areas, you're grouped with a garbage character instead of Eve, I could go on complaining forever.

At least it has a fantastic true end, but everything else is extremely shallow. It's a good mindless action game, but it's an atrocious sequel to a great series.

Truth, tho Leibniz is a cutie after he takes out the helmet.
I had mixed feelings playing BMZ, it's too complicated and too annoying with the VRV system.
I liked Zero and Zero 2 more

Originally posted by Kimarnic:

Originally posted by vexe00:

Probably has to do with BMZ3 being garbage compared to all others. Abandoned metroidvania elements, Jason dungeons have insufferable garbage gameplay on both sides, area design took a nosedive for blaster master and jason areas, you're grouped with a garbage character instead of Eve, I could go on complaining forever.

At least it has a fantastic true end, but everything else is extremely shallow. It's a good mindless action game, but it's an atrocious sequel to a great series.

Truth, tho Leibniz is a cutie after he takes out the helmet.
I had mixed feelings playing BMZ, it's too complicated and too annoying with the VRV system.
I liked Zero and Zero 2 more

what REALLY pissed me off was what you have to do to get the true ending, its literally NEVER ASKED OF YOU ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE GAME, nor is it a actual game mechanic you could've known about prior to

Please, for all that is holy, DON'T DO ♥♥♥♥ LIKE THAT

Originally posted by つづく:

That means nobody gives a rats arse about it.
What's up, is this the least popular game in the series despite it technically being the best? :Blaster_Master_Zero_Sophia3:

To add to this, it doesn't even have a page on Wikipedia. There's a few mentions of it that it was made, but no actual page to read up about it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaster_Master

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inti_Creates

Blaster Master Zero released right alongside the Switch, so that's definitely a contributing factor. Most of it has to do with time passing. You can see this in other games; Axiom Verge was a pretty big indie game in 2015. 7 years later, Axiom Verge 2 comes out, and while it was still decently popular, it wasn't as big as it was previously.

Axiom Verge was fanservice for Metroid fans.
Axiom Verge 2 was a very different game coz it branched off from copying others and became its own thing. That might have affected the reception, I guess. Add to that, those who were unsatisfied with AV1 would skip AV2.