SoWL

Gotta repost this short playstyle description here, since it's pretty much all we have on him right now:

I thought all the CS archives would be moved over here

It's like you guys never played Persona.

Not sure how much Celica/Lambda talk is allowed in the main thread, but I guess I should stay on the safe side and keep talking here. Is that supposed to prove me wrong? Both those sources say that she has a different Drive from Nu, and that she's based on one of her forms. That's it. If this was SF or some other fighting game, this would've already been more than enough to justify a new character, but ASW's track record clearly shows how deeply they care about character variety, so I'm more inclined to believe that it won't come down to just those two points. This isn't Hat Noel or something like that, why do you expect the worst-case scenario?

I'm not sure I do, unless you mistyped "Kokonoe" as "Carl". Eh, whatever. The fact that they've made the decision to re-introduce Lambda over Jubei or Nine means that they had their reasons to do so. It might be because they only had the time and resources for 1.5 characters, it might be because she's more relevant in the upcoming story, or it might be because Zeta Condom wasn't getting paid enough. The end result remains the same: we get an extra playable character, she's not the exact same copy of Nu, and you don't have to buy her if you don't want to. But hey, we're all adults here, if you want to complain about videogames on the internet, who am I to stop you? Honestly, this reminds me of the Terumi announcement, except that people are much more pessimistic this time. Is it because we already have some experience with old Lambda, so everyone just assumes her to be the same, especially with the lack of info on her new version?

Ahem. Kokonoe was Kokonoe Tier in 1.0. Carl wished he was that good. But yeah, I sure hope Mori actually tests the newcomers this time.

Guess what's easier, recycling old Lambda/Nu sprites or drawing new ones for Jubei/Nine from scratch.

Yet.

You know what else is controversial? Homosexuality. And yet Kanji didn't stop anyone from localizing the original game.

Or switch it to "Bipolar", because that's exactly how you translate Tsundere into English. At least that's what the localizers believe.

I'm bracing for the original Awakening the Chaos, you know, just in case. As for Celica, I'm expecting another vocal theme for some reason, maybe because of Drive Qualia. She also might get some VS tracks against Ragna, Jin and/or Terumi/Hazama.

With hugs and smiles. She's going to be like Platinum, except it's impossible to hate her. That is why Terumi gets weaker around her.

Now this article got a lot of interesting info. Rentarou: - 236A/B/C makes him shoot his gun. Different buttons have different trajectories, and you can then use your Assist to get closer to the opponent. - 214A/B/C makes him perform some close-combat attacks. 214A is a straight punch, 214B is a sweep, and 214C is a jumping hit. All these attacks have Extended Action, greatly affecting their properties. - 214[A] makes Rentarou's fist glow, blowing the opponent back on hit. It also becomes hard to punish it on block. - 214 doesn't change much, but deals greater damage. - 214[C] becomes an overhead. - j.214A/B/C makes Rentarou perform a downward kick. Different buttons have different reach. The EX version ground-bounces the opponent. Also, Rentarou can mash C to perform more kicks. - His neutral Impact Skill is an anti-air uppercut after a dash, while his backward one is an overhead. - Rentarou's Trump Card drastically increases his movement speed. - His supers is the usual auto-combo and the super-uppercut that's similar to his IS. Yukina: - 236A/B/C is a Sekkarou thrust. The reach increases with the button's strength. After hitting the opponent, you can press the button again to pull them in. The EX version adds an extra hit after the pull that blows them away. - 214A/B/C makes Yukina jump and charge forwards in midair. The jumping height increases with the button's strength. You can then press an additional button to either charge again (A) or dive down (B and C). - j.214A/B/C is similar to grounded 214A/B/C's B and C follow-ups. Extended Action makes a small shockwave as Yukina lands. - Neutral Impact Skill is a two-hit attack. Though it's easily punishable, its hitbox is good enough to be used in combos. For example, you can cancel it into an Assist and follow it up with the EX thrust. - Downward Impact Skill is an anti-air palm thrust from the screenshot. Apparently, it comes out pretty fast. - The Trump Card is a powerful overhead swing with Sekkarou with great range. Thanks to its upper hitbox, you can also punish jumping at medium distance with it. - Her auto-combo super is the only one that can be performed in mid-air. Moreover, since the opponent is locked in place on first hit, there's no way for them to drop down in the middle of the combo. - The other super makes her charge forward before landing the first hit and proceeding with another auto-combo. Enju: - Neutral Assist makes her jump in from beyond the screen and kick the opponent. Its fast start-up makes it easy to use in combos or keep the opponent in place. - Directional Assist summons her in front of the player, as she kicks the opponent up in the air. Since they can't recover from it up until the knockdown, feel free to follow it up with your favorite combo. - She also has a third Assist option that is performed by holding down the Assist button. If you do, Enju appears and applies a status effect to the opponent that lasts about 10 seconds. If they try to call their own Assist while it's active, Enju appears again and kicks their Assist away, preventing them from doing anything. Kojou: - Neutral Assist makes him summon Regulus Aurum, a golden lion, which strikes the opponent with homing lightning strikes. The start-up is quite slow, but Kojou appears right where you stand (not in front of you), so you can protect him during the summon. - Directional Assist makes him summon Al-Nasl-Minium, a crimson bicorn, which attacks the enemy with crimson light. It comes out faster than the neutral Assist and floats the opponent on hit, allowing you to follow it up with an aerial combo.

I think some clone blues is leaking out of the story mode. We'll see how Celica differs from Carl and Relius, but I'm not sure whether Lambda is worth bringing back. I suppose more variety never hurts.

Even Ken ended up well-liked, so I'm expecting good things from Marie. Also, playable Hanazawa: notDengeki edition!

Why not Naegi, though?

That much has been obvious ever since we've learned that shadow versions have their own voice tracks.

He obviously means that when (not if) Jam comes back, that super is probably the one that is going to be her cinematic one. That last question also doesn't imply Jam to be confirmed - people asked the same thing about Johnny, and no one jumped at their throats for the "fake leaks" or whatever.

Yeah, and now Bullet somehow manages to finish her combos in some other way and still get her Heat-Up charges, right? Can't say the same for sure about Bedman, but usually, when people use the same move all the time, it deserves it.

Oh, look, more track titles! Does the Sheep Count the Sheep? (Bedman) - that's an excellent way to express the track's main motif being repeated over and over again in different ways, like through multiple levels of reality (I'd make an Inception joke if I'd have actually watched it). Still one of the best new themes, and the name only makes it better. Starry Story (May) - ehh, I'm not seeing it. It'd have worked much better if May's stage was being shown at night, but as it is right now, all I'm hearing is Blue Water Blue Sky II. Maybe they're going to do it in the next Xrd installment, since night sea can be quite a sight to behold, especially in a world with magic and bizarre animal species and whatnot. The Lily of Steel (Millia) - Ishiwatari sure is in a lily mood lately, isn't he. This name's way too generic and could have been given to any theme of any female character ever. "Writhe in Pain" wasn't the peak of originality, either, but it at least reflected Millia's assassin occupation. I suppose she does have a bit more flower motifs in her moveset now, but I'd have preferred if the name change reflected her development in the story, not in the game itself.

Well, Kirito's only number 5 (in a 10-character roster) and has more weak points than Taiga, I wouldn't call that "close to the top". Top of the mid tier, sure. That's a whole new kind of tier bias.

I'm more sad about Shizuo's low position, though you kinda get used to it after playing grapplers for so long. It could also be the other way around, and she's low tier because not enough people play her to discover good tech.

PSN updates at pretty random times, usually around 8-11 AM by Japanese time.

Random musings after listening to the Xrd OST on my player for a couple months: - Millia vs Zato and Assassins are skipped most of the time, probably because they have that small hiccup in the rhythm around the last third of the tracks. Though even without that, both tracks still feel mediocre. - Zato and Venom grew on me pretty quickly. I now appreciate the slow parts of Zato's theme that reflect his ponderous human side, while the fast parts remind me of his shark motifs, sometimes even sounding like the Jaws theme. Meanwhile, Venom's theme might still be very detached from his character, but it sounds good enough for me to wish he had more spotlight in the story. And it's actually pretty catchy. - Chipp, Axl and Faust have their nice moments, but stay quite repetitive. Probably my least favorite themes so far, though that doesn't mean they're bad, just worse than the rest. - I expected the Sol and Ky themes to get a little more depth now that we know their titles, but they still feel the same to me: very solid, but nothing outstanding. Hope other tracks gain a bit more from their titles.

Dat kawaii Millia, though.