Guilty Gear 2: Overture released

[Blackgenma]

So heres some filler to hold you over till the Valentine guide, and while I REALLY want to type it up right now (what? I want to type two guides in a row in two consecutive days? well aren't I productive?) the only reason I want to type it up is to procrastinate studying for school, So I'll shut up and post this video and type the combo inputs for it.

Valentine combo video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB9ngzYid0w&feature=PlayList&p=4465865F0DCEC112

combo inputs are listed in the order they are shown.

(L) 4x, - keep pressing x until she stops attacking. she does everything by herself.

(L) 4x, x, x, 8x (zest)

(L) 8x, MC, 8y

(L) x, x, x, MC,4x, x, x, 8x, (land) (left step) 4x, x, *x, x, 8x, (zest)

* the flip kick is the only thing that hits, everything before after the left side step whiffs.

(L trigger) (right side step) 2x, MC, 2x. (walk up to them) (L) 6x charge and release.

hard attack, (L) j, x, 8x, MC, 8x, (Land?) j, 8x, (land?) j, 8x, (land?) j, 8x*

*I'm am not to sure about the input of the 8x loop, but I think this is whatis going on. if I'm wrong, someone please correct me

Video by PandaKingEX

thats all folks.

[NeoVid]

Dammit, Genma, you wrote up Paradigm right before I got to work on my Servant guides, and I was going to start with Dr P. I'll leave that one for a while, then. Once I do get to it, can I redo some of what you wrote?

Also, I happened to run into a new player, gamertag Metalsnake27, who's looking to get serious about the game.

All right, on to

Servant Breakdown

The power of the various tribes tends to be ranked in this order:

Paradigm: Excellent

Valentine/Raven: Very Good

Ky/Sin: Good

Izuna: Weak

Sol: Suck

With the weaker armies tending to be more basic, though harder to actually win with.

In these guides, I'll try and do an analysis of all of the Servants in the game, with some basics on how to use the armies. Unfortunately, I'm the only one here with no multiplayer experience, and I can't look up the in-depth info in Exhibition mode's pause screen while I'm writing. Damn. Suggestions welcome... also, I really should register with NicoVideo one of these days.

The first army I'll write up is

Sin's Tribe

This is the most versatile army, being the only one in the game that has every servant type available. The major weakness for them is the fact that they are the most expensive in the game to summon, meaning that you will have the lowest number of troops on the board out of all the Masters. This makes it a difficult army, as you will have to play intelligently to get the most out of your smaller numbers. Getting the majority of the Ghosts is as vital as it is hard. The Illyrian army's versatility means you can have a counterstrategy vs any other Master... but that means you'll spend even more mana unlocking unit types.

Swordsman

Your only initially available unit, this basic melee has no real downside other than its 225 cost. One of the better melees, due to having a strong secondary attack that does good damage with massive knockback, which they use often.

Gauntlet Body

Your armor. Not a particularly amazing armor unit, and also seems even slower than most, but solid. The painful mana cost means that these guys won't be showing up right away, and not in big numbers. This hurts, due to armors generally being the most useful troop type.

Springbock

Few armies get strong mobile units, so these guys can make a big impact on a match. Nearly 100 mana cheaper than Gauntlets, while having the best mobility (surprise) of anything in this army, they're a great counter for the common reliance on armor units... especially since their special skill makes them kill armors faster than any other mobile.

Wise Man

The magic unit for this army is nothing special. A single Wise Man in a mob of troops can keep defense buffs on many of them, but the fact that you'd use so few Wise Men means you'll probably think twice about spending the time and mana to unlock them.

Twin Trigger

This is an INSANELY effective ranged unit, firing beams that plow through and knock down any enemies lined up with the shot. A couple of these ladies at the back row of a fight can cripple the enemy with barrages of knockdown shots. Be careful not to let them get in melee and die. Grouping pairs or trios of Triggers and sending them into combat after your other units generally keeps them out of harm's way.

Convict Hammer

Your elite armor unit works well as the center of your main offense. Being highly difficult to kill, increasing the offense of nearby allies, and even casting dispels often means that you can trust a group of servants backed up by him to take care of themselves in most situations. Amazingly, he isn't even the best elite in this tribe.

Quadro Bailiff

A heavy-hitting elite ranged, fast as most mobiles, able to take care of itself even at short range... and not really needed in the same army that has Twin Triggers. Damn.

Heaven's Libra

Elite Magic. The unit that your Master should carry around as his bodyguard, thanks to a single, fight-winning support skill. He puts down rods that completely destroy the damage resistance of any enemy in a huge radius. When your opponents are taking nearly double damage, it's hard to lose a fight. Its one attack lobs a blast that knocks down every enemy in a large radius, also useful for defense.

[Blackgenma]

WOW! way to go Neovid! now that's what I'm talking about! little issue though. I COMPLETELY disagree with the notion of the worse the servants are, the easier they are to use. you REALLY need to play Sol online, it takes a lot of work to make your stupid, slow, ugly, next to worthless drill useful. I can't tell you just how much easier it is to play someone like Ky who's servants don't constantly die for the smallest thing. doesn't help that his tribe costs a fortune. when your paradigm, it's like it doesn't really matter, look whats on the map and counter it, than cast stratagem. you win. I mean, you have more options the better the army is, due to how much more efficient the servants are, so you may argue that their strategies could be more complex. the same applies to masters, their strategies can be more complex the better they are. Sol's about the most complex master in the game, but he's not hard to play as is he? there is also the fact that although each tribe has their strengths, some characters do better against others. Valentine is unlucky, because her tribe actually cannot completely destroy sol's tribe, despite them being way better, giving him much more leeway on his actions. (remember, she has no armor type, Sol's tribe's biggest weakness) so If you can make a comparison or a match up list on the character tribes, it would be great. I'll let you redo what I wrote if I deem it good enough regarding the paradigm guide. oh, and I see you placed your GG2 mains in your sig. I'm gonna copy your idea! I'm a copy cat!

[NeoVid]

There used to be smileys of the Overture characters... where'd they go?

[Blackgenma]

NeoVid, edit out the part where you say that stronger Servants are harder to use, or I just might NEVER let you edit anything in my guide EVER. but no, serously, remove it, it's an eye sore. where did you get that Idea anyway? i'v'e beat the computer before on level 3 with paradigm just spamming units, and having paradigm sitting on is butt. what you put down is a grievous error, and should be edited out as soon as possible. don't feel bad about Editing your guide, I've edited My Sol guide like 25 times already. I'm rather satisfied how it is now, much more useful than what I first put up, and a lot better written too. It ensures your guide will never ever be out of date. I don't know whether you care about that, but I do. I also happen to have a copy of all my guides saved on my computer for whatever reason, and I keep each one up to date with what I post here. really though, remove that line, it's very misleading.Think of it like this, Dr. Paradigm is a very difficult master to use, but it sure as hell ain't because he's good. Sol's Tribe is very difficult to use, but is sure as hell ain't because its good. OH MAN! Dr. Paradigm's units are cheap! he can summon 4 squads at the beginning of the match! is servants are balanced and reliable, and his tribe suffers from no major weakness. he has two types of units available from the start, saving even more mana! he can even make due without resorting to summon his Armors! his elites are very reliable, and since his standard units are so cheap, he can buy them very quickly.he has a special skill that makes everything on the map run MUCH faster! using his servants is still SOOOOO hard to do though! I mean, should I send my bowers to ghost 9? or 12? or should I split them and tell them to go to both! yeah, I think I made my case. I'll shut up now.

[Aedesyr]

Woah, these guides are just what bi needed. I tried to go online just today(without offline training except for the campaign mode on easy)and i got owned various times by silly japanese. Urgh. By the way, if ya feel to crush some noob, add me on xbl. (p.s. gg european release sucks. i asked every single videogame shop and no one even knows it exist. I hate 505 games/halifax)

[Blackgenma]

Never forget though, It all comes down to practice. the guides help, but they aren't very useful in making you a good player unless you practice too. I know it sucks getting your ass handed to you by some of the Japanese, but you can learn from them, try your best, and when it's done, go check out the replay. see what they did and think of ways you could have prevented it or countered it. Don't go online until you completed campaign on at least normal. it may sound like a pain, but Campaign does help you learn. keep the hint feature on and the handicaps regarding the organ off. so no organ wait or organ assist. use exhibition mode for general practice. when you unlock free mission mode, and you want to learn characters you haven't played as yet, go play some of the free missions with those characters (do them on hard for some challenge, it can be pretty fun to boot). it will help you get a better understanding of their units and their abilities as masters, and even their personal skills. you want to be at least comfortable with the game system and able to defeat the computer at level three consistently in exhibition mode before you go online. the single player content is there to hone your basic skills, so take advantage of it. if you have someone to play with locally, try playing with them after you teach them how to play (the tutorials in free mission do a good job of teaching you quickly), it's way better than playing the computer, and is pretty fun, if you don't mind the few limitations of split screen.

[Aedesyr]

i wrote a nice reply but it got deleted, so i'll be short. I'm kinda getting used to the game, i've even beaten a souless japanese(wohoo). Basically, the strategic element of the game is a lot deeper than i tought of in a first time(even if i didn't used the auto-organ mode on the campaign, it must be said that spamming armored and basic close combat unit is enough to beat the game on normal), wich was kinda unexcepted. But, oh boy, this game is freaking awsome. Can't wait to play with ya. (Too bad Ky is still gay. He didn't deserved Dizzy)

[Blade]

(Too bad Ky is still gay. He didn't deserved Dizzy)

I HEARD THAT! That's a lie and you know it!

[Ayumu Gardevoir]

Oh man, getting heated in here. Gay or not; he still has the best theme I've ever heard.

[Blackgenma]

gah, I really don't like Valentine, and I just want to get this guide out of the way, so I'll be quick about this.

Valentine Basics guide

Valentine has the same servants as Raven, so I'll just go straight to her personal skills.

Valentine has 460 health. Is the only character who can double jump, and her air dash goes further than anyone else’s. Her start up for her blast drive is the slowest in the game.

Brownie is her Minion. It’s an armor unit that follows Valentine and gets in the way of attackers. They will counter attack what hits them. They’re Very helpful for valentine.

Zest is an attack where her balloon blows up, takes a good amount of tension. I've seen this used at the end of 8x loops and combos. It’s also good for old fashion crowd control.

Bye Bye is a teleport skill that takes you to your masterghost; you can escape a fight easier that way. It’s a cheap skill, handy for getting away if you feel the need I suppose, since her blast drive start up is so slow.

Valentine fighting style is composed of very close range melee attacks with some quick and varied projectiles. She works best by playing defensively, unlike Sol; she should spread her units out slowly and stay with them as a lead. Her melees back her up very well, and she can sit back and blast away with her projectiles until the enemy manages to come close, where she can attack with her melee strikes.

The standard (L) x, x, x, combo isn't bad, but the first strike has very short range. On the third hit, she will jump, so you can MC it and hit them with a 8x for more damage. I'm unsure whether you can enter the 8x loop with the combo though.

(L) 4x doesn't have the range that the (L) x second strike has, but it goes into her launcher, where you can strike the enemy a few times, and finish off with the 8x loop, hit the opponent with 8x, and the second valentine touches the floor, jump again and repeat as much as possible. This is her biggest source of damage. she can also finish some of these combos from this attack with zest. An example.

(L) 4x, x, x, 8x (zest)

(L) x, x, x, MC, 4x, x, x, 8x, (land) (left step) 4x, x, *x, x, 8x, (zest)

(L) 6 x is where she spins Lucifer. a good move to do on servants, as you can charge the move by hitting x rapidly, which will hurt anyone the swing will hit. Stop pressing x and aim, valentine will unleash a heavy strike that can't be blocked. Not bad for masters thanks to it's range, but if the block and side step, make sure you MC the move to be safe.

(L) 2x is to stop side stepping mostly, but can be used as a roundabout way to attack. Try sidestepping to either direction and use this. if you hit twice in a row, you will dizzy the opponent. I' suggest using the L trigger if you are going to use it from a side step, and once you hit, MC and do it again to stun.

Her 8x on the ground is heavy hitting and good for attacking servants. I'm not too sure about attacking masters though, theres not much you can follow up with it. Good for knocking them back. Here’s a combo utilizing this move.

(L) 8x, MC, 8y

short and sweet.

Her hard attack sweeps and breaks guard. It’s great for crowd control and for mixing it up against masters. You can combo from this move as well with a jump x.

Her aerial x combo is very good, extremely reliable, and can go into 8x loops.

She has 4 projectiles, y which is weak and straight, 2y, which are two shots from the left and right, good for mix up and hiding behind a ghost. 8y is a heavy and strong projectile with start up time, great for servants and r short running masters, or for sneak attacks. Don’t spit this one out randomly; you can be punished for it. All of Valentine’s projectiles can be jumped over, so keep that in mind.

Her air Y is a series of shots with splash damage. Great for servant crowd control, and not bad to whip out on masters every once and a while you see them get careless. Even if you miss the shot initially, she will slowly follow her target.

That’s all, she's a tricky but reliable character, her units are very annoying, and help her out greatly. She’s a rewarding character to play as and is very unique. just beware of her short comings and cover your vulnerabilities. Her servants are good but their types are unbalanced, so be sure to know what you are doing with them, she relies on them more than Raven, as she is not as good at close range fighting as he is.

End of Guide

now all I have left is Izuna.

as a favor to you guys, I will post up some of the stuff I got from gamefaqs when I'm finished with the Izuna guide. I also REALLY need to redo Sin's master abilites again.

since I'm not good with Valentine, please tell me any flaws of the guide or if I'm missing some important things.

[Aedesyr]

Nice guide. I love/hate valentine's servants. They can be pretty annoying if used properly; it's just that valentine it's not really my type of Master. Can't wait to get Raven...too bad i have to wait 'till they make it downloadable for the EU version. By the way, is Heaven's Libra a good unit(with ky)? I still couldn't test it properly.

[PandaKingEX]

Heaven Libra is good. It's usually the first or second elite that people will unlock in battle. It's also a good servant for dragging around in your personal slot for protection, or ghost capturing assistance.

[Aedesyr]

thanks, i sually inlock only the armor elite cuz the range elite is pretty useless if ya ask me(the trigger guns are just too awsome, both cheap and powerful <3 ). Btw, it is just me or ky's tribe is A LOT expensive on mana?

[Blackgenma]

Yes, Neovid's servant rundown says they cost a lot of mana. if you had a question regarding his units, his guide should awnswer the basic stuff. either that or the Sin Guide I posted a few pages back. random rant while playing yesterday, I was defeated by an izuna twice when playing raven, thanks to doing a poor job rushing him and my force not being able to kill his armors, even with his magic unit. I was very fustrated. than I picked Sol the third time and I crushed him, it didn't make sense to me. even with the guy spamming armors, I kicked his butt with Sol. to be fair, I did a much better job rushing with Sol than I did with raven, but it stuck me as very strange regardless how I couldn't beat his units with raven's. I need more practice with his servants than. I know I constantly complain that I suck with Sol, but it just strikes me as a surprise that I can actually manage to get good results with him, better than Raven, who I thought I was pretty decent with. must practice with raven. I can manage to take over the map as paradigm, but I can't manage to kill the oponent! Sin is so hard to face as paradigm, and when his units turtle, they are hard to penetrate. gah! how does HN tappu do it!? hey wouldn't character vs character stratagies for masters and tribes be awesome? but one thing at a time, and I'm not sure I qualify for such a task.

[Aedesyr]

paradigm is just so hard to master in combat. That's why i avoid using him(even if i just LOVE his tribe. The elite armor is just the best one i've tried so far). As for Izuna, it's just me or he does great with a hit 'n run strategy in close combat? 'cause that was the only way i managed to use him decently.

[Blackgenma]

Izuna is one of the best masters in the game. he's fast and does fantastic damage on some of his combos, he's also got good range. when I post the Izuna guide, I'll put down his best combos so you guys can see his better stuff. his standard (L) x, x, x is really good, and the ways to escape it are annoying, his poke is one of the games fastest, probably beaten out only by Sol's and matched with raven's, but he gets better results with a solid hit unlike raven, who must be close to get a big reward.

[PandaKingEX]

I'll probably be back playing this in about 2 weeks, or so. I'm going to order some screws and washers, so I can fix my old 360 that I threw in my closet and forgot about.

[Ayumu Gardevoir]

...

[Blackgenma]

ha ha, hungry for some GG2 panda? what makes you wanna comeback? sometimes I feel like giving this game a break when I get my ass handed to me, or when I do something stupid and thus lose a match I could have won no problem otherwise. anyway, if you manage to fix your defective xbox and start playing again, it would be great.

[PandaKingEX]

Because this is my favorite game ever, and I just can't stay away no matter how hard I try.

[Aedesyr]

i need an hint. With ky/sin's tribe, i usually unlock armors on the second round or near the end of the first one. is that clever or i should unlock them earlier/later(owning half of the field) Oh, and i really need some hints about using valentine's tribe. I tried her once and i've been obliterated.

[Blackgenma]

I would unlock them as soon as I can after I feel I can spare the mana, usually around 4 sets of swords men are out already. I send them out according to whether I need them or not. it's really up to you though. I personally like to diversify my servants. regarding valentine, I 've been done pretty bad lately with her tribe, while playing raven. all I can say is, unlock the magic type first, and diversify your units. the first thing you unlock for elites is either an armor or the magic, but in all honesty, it's whatever you prefer. all her units are good, just practice with them.

[Ayumu Gardevoir]

Because this is my favorite game ever, and I just can't stay away no matter how hard I try.

Why even bother? You know how much I suck.

[Aedesyr]

Btw, while i was watching a replay, i saw a nice endless loop againts servants with ky. Anyone knows how to do that?