[AC+R] News & Gameplay Discussion

[Circuitous]

AC+ is already on US PSN. +R is currently only on the (Japanese) Vita, however. Once it hits consoles, AC+ will be patched to it.

[Jotamide]

any clue of when is the USA release of Vita and PS3/Xbox? I'm almost tempted to just get the JPN PSN version. (I do have Japan PSN account, and know how to swap my vita to USA account to JPN account)

No official statements yet. Time to spam this guy?

[iminthenet2]

Which characters are recommended for beginners? I'm still having trouble picking my main on Guilty Gear.

[Solid Gold Wall]

faust / potemkin / ky

[TheRealBobMan]

I would also say May, and to a lesser extent, Jam and Baiken. Play around between those 6 and see what fits your playstyle most.

[Sophisticat]

Whichever one you want. Maybe cycle through the roster to get a feel for your preferences. Then hit up the chara-specific forums and get grinding.

[Skeletal Minion]

May or Potemkin. Effective tools for most situations, easy gameplan.

Simplified examples:

May: Play air footsies with air normals or OHK mixup, dolphin loop, repeat. Good normals. Only have to learn one BnB. Great reversal (even if it costs meter). High stun, which sometimes wins matches unexpectedly (try landing a 6P on Dizzy).

Potemkin: Slide head for knockdown > Hammerfall break > OTG combo, 6H or Gigantor > Slidehead unblockable, 6K/5K/5P/5S/Potbuster for oki that resets into itself, meaty unblockable Slidehead > OTG combo is also a solid option. During oki, even picking the "wrong" option has a high likelihood of still being favorable. Highest defense in game.

Both characters don't require much effort to get a lot out of them, and they do get a lot. Neither have especially glaring faults that could be hurdles for beginners (maybe Pot's lacking mobility, but once you get down Hammerfall Break and Slidehead to get in, you'll be fine).

My two cents, can't say much about the other chars people mentioned since I'm not as familiar with them.

[Osuna]

I always thought dolphin loops were awkward for beginners? As a beginner I liked potemkin because the reward I got for my efforts was pretty significant. Imo, Testament is similar in that regard.

[TheRealBobMan]

Oh yeah, how could we forget Testament?

[Solid Gold Wall]

and to a lesser extent, Jam and Baiken

i think baiken's kinda like anji in that their execution is fairly easy, but actually performing well with them takes a lot more practice.

[White Man]

Which characters are recommended for beginners? I'm still having trouble picking my main on Guilty Gear.

Manly players start by learning I-No, Zappa, and Robo-Ky all at once. Godspeed on your journey, brother.

[The Katz]

Manly players start by learning I-No, Zappa, and Robo-Ky all at once. Godspeed on your journey, brother.

Because this is basically how I started I completely agree with this. I highly recommend Zappa; he forces you to learn good spacing, hit confirms off of weird hits, and the fundamentals of a good mix-up game to be mildly effective.

Sol and Ky are 'easy'/good for a starting character, I guess. I have no idea why I haven't seen either suggested. Sol rewards you for being offensive, has a good defensive option (teaches you the do's and don'ts about reversals), and has generally easy combos for mild-to-strong reward. Ky rewards you for good spacing/zoning (use of normals and abilities to keep the opponent away or to force them into a disadvantageous position), has an 'okay' reversal, solid normals, and a surprisingly deep mix-up game when you look further into the character.

Whichever one you want. Maybe cycle through the roster to get a feel for your preferences. Then hit up the chara-specific forums and get grinding.

This is honestly the smartest idea, and you should really disregard everything else and follow this advice.

Edited April 6, 2013 by The Katz

[pharosngm]

I started off with Jam and Johnny as mains whereas most of my friends started with Jam or Venom. I would recommend just going into practice and trying all of them out vs. a bot to figure out which you find the most fun then work from there

[Marisa]

Ultimately, I'd recommend checking out the whole cast. While there are characters that are easier to learn the game with, having fun learning is going to get you more excited and you'll probably learn faster/better.

Knowing what kind of character you typically like would make suggestions a lot simpler.

Some of the more typical archetypes are:

Shotos - Sol and Ky

Charge - May Venom

Grappler - Potemkin

Zoner - Axl

Speedster - Chipp

Shadow/Puppetmaster - Eddie Bridget

Clearly not all inclusive, but it's a start. GG's cast is pretty diverse, so if you have a favored play style it should be fairly accommodating.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

[White Man]

Sol and Ky are 'easy'/good for a starting character, I guess. I have no idea why I haven't seen either suggested.

I wouldn't recommend against playing Sol, but I'd be hesitant to call him an ideal "starter" character for the same reason I generally tell people not to play Ragna exclusively when they first pick up BB: their gameplay styles look deceptively straightforward, but are in fact fairly challenging with a lot of moves that are extremely easy to punish if used incorrectly and a heavy reliance on combos. Sol has decent health, at least, but he also has to deal with FRCs to maintain pressure and Sidewinder loops and all that stuff that exists to confuse the hell out of new players.

Ultimately, though, getting over the crest of that initial learning curve in GG comes more from familiarizing yourself with the system mechanics rather than mastering any one character. I think the best route is just to screw around with whoever you like and focus on getting used to your movement options, managing tension, and landing basic combos. From there, it'll be much easier to start getting deeper into character-specific stuff.

[poon]

If you are trying to learn the game to become competitive fast, pick a character that has access to all the basics because you are going to have a lot of trouble understanding the ins and outs of aerial movement if you start with Pot or even Zappa. It's very important to learn the dos and don'ts of air combat so even if you plan on maining a ground-based fighter you should learn a jumpy character early on as well.

[Osuna]

i think baiken's kinda like anji in that their execution is fairly easy, but actually performing well with them takes a lot more practice.

Ok, No One got this?

Baiken is very very Not beginner friendly. Very unintuitive gameplay, takes a lot of work and know how to get right. Execution barriers. Relatively long list of important high usage FRCs.

Also for my local groups I never recommend Chipp as a fast character. Millia gets results earlier and in the end she's a generally stronger character.

[iminthenet2]

Where can I find the tier list on this game?

[Solid Gold Wall]

Execution barriers. Relatively long list of important high usage FRCs.

if mastering frcs is an execution barrier then sure, but you're going to have to learn a few for most every character. baiken's just got a bit more than average that you need to be confident with. but once you've got those down, her combos are easy enough, other than the 5s -> j.d frc thing (which still gives me problems occasionally)

Very unintuitive gameplay, takes a lot of work and know how to get right.

most definitely. baiken's the character i started with and i spent a lot of years wondering if that was a good choice, so trust me, i definitely agree with you that she's not a good choice for starters.

[Solid Gold Wall]

Where can I find the tier list on this game?

tiers really aren't a big deal in this game at all, but there's a thread right here

[Osuna]

if mastering frcs is an execution barrier then sure, but you're going to have to learn a few for most every character. baiken's just got a bit more than average that you need to be confident with. but once you've got those down, her combos are easy enough, other than the 5s -> j.d frc thing (which still gives me problems occasionally)

most definitely. baiken's the character i started with and i spent a lot of years wondering if that was a good choice, so trust me, i definitely agree with you that she's not a good choice for starters.

I think when learning a character for a beginner a sense of results is very good. A new player not being able to finish a combo from a low without an frc I think is a serious barrier. Testament without an frc (has one of the best FRCs too) can still do awful lot, and only gets better as the player invests.

That sense of accomplishment is really helpful I think. Besides GG is really fun! I want people to be able to put a functional character together quickly so that they can think it is fun too.

That is my reasoning. It is somewhat informed by Star Demon lamenting how he must be the worst in the world because he has trouble with BnBs with baiken and he was screwing up frcs on his bad tv or something.

[TheRealBobMan]

Hm... I guess I need to revise what I look at as hard/easy. Even though you sort of need to learn a little of what everyone can do in order to use them effectively, I figured Baiken's counters helped out newer players on defense. I'd say you can learn to use those a little faster than you can learn to do stuff like IB > Backdash or SB certain kinds of traps. Everyone has to adjust how they pressure you, which should make it easier to defend yourself, and give you more opportunities to learn other kinds of skills.

Now that I'm thinking about it, a majority of the Baikens I play against don't even use her counters. Maybe I expect too much out of players who are just starting out? I guess most players start learning with "what buttons do I press to do lots of damage?" rather than thinking about "how does zoning and oki and mixup work in this game?"

[iminthenet2]

I'm still having trouble performing Force Rapid Cancel on Ky's attacks. How do I perform it?

[Marisa]

I guess most players start learning with "what buttons do I press to do lots of damage?" rather than thinking about "how does zoning and oki and mixup work in this game?"

Nailed it. Some also just like the "fancy combos" and a few others think knowing combos make them win. It's really hard to convince people that fundamentals (and for GG system mechanics) are far more valuable assets than anything else

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

[DaiAndOh]

I'm still having trouble performing Force Rapid Cancel on Ky's attacks. How do I perform it?

In training mode, bring up the command display. When you execute a move with a FRC point, the display with flash white, then blue. Time the input with the white flash (blue is too late).