Sean English offers here an in-depth breakdown of Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2’s defensive options, as based on the current demo for PlayStation Plus users. Note that it’s aimed at players of at least an intermediate skill level. If you’re very new to the game or series, you’ll want to check out some of the Guilty Gear Crash Course series!
We start with neutral, which is posited here as largely being movement. Good movement keeps you unpredictable, out of threat range, and all the forward movement will be building your meter. From here we see a summary of tools to reduce risk and slow the match down: FD brake, YRC as a neutral tool, and defensive air throws to stop your opponent from getting away with murder.
Next is the inevitable situation: blocking. One of the more difficult parts of the game—especially when you’re new—is escaping pressure. The example used here is a long string into Carcass Raid, a move from Venom that has tons of frame advantage on block. You want to escape before it connects, and this well-edited video gives you a tree of options that set a framework for how you should be looking at escaping from pressure.
The rest of the video delves into the mechanics of instant block, faultless defense (FD), blitz shield, and burst. Most importantly it shows you how to use these effectively, including a little breakdown on good places to burst—another difficult thing to learn if you’re new to games with a burst mechanic.
Source: Sean English