Month: February 2017

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Gameplay Impressions from the Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 Second Location Test

The second location test for Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 is going on this weekend, and with it, there’s a new wave of fairly substantial changes for almost every character. The translated patch notes cover the mechanical nitty-gritty, and they have been officially provided by Arc System Works in Japanese. Most of the changes from the first location test still apply.

What’s interesting is that the changes, even if they are subtle, introduce new routes or even new styles of play entirely for some characters. For instance, Raven received somewhat of a makeover to his excitement mechanic that should affect his gameplan a lot. Now, most special moves increase his gauge, while using one of the Overdrives depletes it.

While taking footage of gameplay isn’t allowed at location tests, Japanese players tweet out their impressions which reveal intriguing implications that aren’t easy to see from patch notes alone. A few English speakers kindly have been translating the tweets.

Pretty big deal for Baiken, as not being able to YRC her counters has been a point of dispute for long.

Kuchinashi is the dragon-punch like counter that Baiken has. It seems that there’s a different way to perform Azami, which is the move she uses before her counters come out. Holding affects certain timings. And hey, good-sounding voice actresses are important too (Baiken’s in-game voice got added in this location test).

A lot of May’s special moves work a little bit differently, and Jam received a lot of big buffs alongside a few nerfs.

One of the more interesting changes in Faust’s toolset is the low probability of getting super versions of his items. The tweet indicates about how often you could expect that.

Sin’s combo flow is changing a lot, especially when deciding when to eat. jD is a new way to get an air knockdown, but since Sin will be still in the air, he won’t get that much time to get lunch. “I’m Sure I’ll Hit Something” is the stabby follow-up to Beak Driver.

The Raven changes, in particular, will alter playing the character a lot.

Sol and Ky have received new 6HS attacks. The combo properties of Sol’s seem very similar to his current 6HS, but no one can tell much about actual frame data.

That’s the majority of translated impressions at this time, though there are some more tweets if you want to check out @HiagoXYZ and @MurderofBears’ timelines.

Stay tuned to SRK for more Guilty Gear coverage.

Sources: HiagoXYZ; BjornSonOfBears

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An Away Victory for the USA as Nairo Wins Tokaigi 2017

Acting as the country’s biggest Super Smash Bros. for Wii U invitational, Tokaigi 2017 was the place for Japan to show off the national talent that may not be able to make it to out of country tournaments. While many lesser known Japanese players got their time in the sun, the USA reigned supreme with NRG|Nairo taking the crown.

For Nairo, it was revenge for his second place finish last year, where Abadango narrowly fought off the world’s best Zero Suit Samus to keep the Tokaigi title in its home country. Nairo even took out LG|Abadango on his way to Grands, defeating him 2-0 in Winners’ Finals and securing himself at least a second place finish. Abadango would eventually get third, losing to top Japanese Sonic KEN and Nairo’s rival during his trip to Japan. The Tokaigi Grand Finals was actually a repeat of last week’s Umebura qualifier, with KEN resetting the bracket 3-0 from Losers’ but failing to seal the deal in the second set. KEN will no doubt be gunning for Nairo in the future and with the Sonic main attending Frostbite later this month, he’ll be grinding out top level Zero Suit Samus experience any chance he gets.

Japan did mount an effective defence for the rest of the bracket, with top Lucario Tsu-, Villager god Ranai and hidden boss Kirihara taking the fourth and fifth placings, with the next highest foreign player being RNG|Dabuz at seventh. Dabuz was actually sent into Losers’ in the very first round, losing to world’s best Olimar Shuton who will be also making the journey to Frostbite. He defeated Japanese Bayonetta Hiro and C9|Ally, before falling to KEN and earning him seventh. SHIG|9B joined him at the seventh spot, with the rest of the foreign detachment of PG|ESAM, eLv|Mr. R and Ally getting ninth. In a rather underwhelming performance, DNG|Kameme didn’t even take a game in the bracket, going 0-2 to both ESAM and Tsu-. Both regions must starting to be catching up to Megaman’s bag of tricks.

With more Japanese players coming to US tournaments with the aforementioned Frostbite, as well as Frame Perfect Series 2 later in the year, the Eastern and Western edges of the Smash world are growing ever closer. As seen with the performance of the Japanese Duck Hunt triumvirate at Genesis 4, both nations are capable in putting major dents in each other so let’s hope for more back and forth action as the year goes on.

Source: Tetra_76; NicoNico