Question: Shingetsutan Tsukihime is a pretty expansive work - a main visual novel, the Kagetsu Tohya supplement, and the Melty Blood games. The last bit, Melty Blood, is especially jarring to a Type-Moon fan who is late to the party - there are many versions, and the format itself is very different from what is normal for Nasu works: a fighting game.

What are the different versions, and how do they differ? What should be played and what skipped, and in what order, if one is playing for the story aspect?

Answer: 
**Melty Blood** is the original game. The story supposedly follows [Satsuki's](http://typemoon.wikia.com/wiki/Satsuki_Yumizuka) route, which was never released with any of TM's games, which takes place one year after *Tsukihime*. The story and plot doesn't change with the subsequent expansion, but a lot of side stories are added (more Neco Arcs!). In the original Melty Blood, only six of 14 characters were available to be played, the other 8 had to be unlocked through playing Story Mode. This was later changed in an update for the game (aka the "Nero" patch), which unlocked all the characters from the start.

[Sion](http://typemoon.wikia.com/wiki/Sion_Eltnam_Atlasia) is the main character of Melty Blood. She originally came to Shiki's town in order to find the cure for vampireism and defeat the [Night of Walachia](http://typemoon.wikia.com/wiki/Night_of_Wallachia) once and for all. 

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>  In Actress Again, she is responsible for the reenactment of Walachia.
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Although this is supposedly Satsuki's route...

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>  She never appears. She is only mentioned a total of three times in the full story, until ReACT. However, if you read into the game's story, her appearance could might as well been a fake created by Wallachia or White Len... 
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**Melty Blood ReACT** is an expansion for the original game (like Burning Crusade was to World of Warcraft). This expansion added 2 playable characters and 4 non-playable ones. I believe ReACT also adds an Arcade mode, which is a continuation of sorts of what happens in the Story Mode played out in fighting game style instead of visual novel style. Start with this game if you are just starting out with Melty Blood series and want the whole story (original Story Mode + Arcade Mode).

**Melty Blood Act Cadenza** is a further expansion of ReACT. This added 4 additional playable characters and various graphical and gameplay changes. Note that this version does NOT have a Story Mode.

**Melty Blood Actress Again** is a sequel to the previous game. It features many drasticly new mechanics, two new characters, and 3 different fighting styles for all known characters. Several secondary characters have had their storylines expanded upon to include what happened to them after the main storyline.
to answer the question in the comments:
melty blood react final tuned -> actress again is the full storyline (of melty blood, melty blood itself being a sequel to tsukihime)
melty blood original and react/react final tuned have the exact same story.

i believe more people may be looking for this question due to recent developments so heres the answer.