Akujikan

On the System page it only shows H + Any Button (with no indication of a direction) and 2H + Any Button, so I would imagine 4H + Any Button would still be FD. Probably why low BS is 2 instead of 1.

My AC main and sub are both out (for now), but I'm still super excited for this game. Danger Time is interesting, but probably unnecessary. RC poses don't bother me, but that might be because I used to sub Order Sol and saw his Charge animation out of everything a billion times a match. Blitz Shield sounds really strong, but its both a loketest and we don't exactly have extensive evidence to show it being poorly implemented and/or ridiculous. As for the game speed, how it runs really seems to vary from video to video and I personally haven't played it, so the jury is out. As for Raml, I'd be genuinely surprised if she was Leopaldon/XX-Justice perma-boss status and not time-released. Her movement seems lacking (slow air dashes and a step instead of a proper ground dash), so spacing with her enormous swords seems like a key to her game plan, and boss-only characters usually don't bother with mundane things like strategy, haha.

Yeah, Slash Ky was mean as all get-out with his Stun Edge shenanigans, but I was more referring to Xrd Ky, haha. Return of VT loops is good news, though.

Odd to be seeing Ky nerfs when I don't think he was ever particularly amazing. That said, with that CH S-VS combo on Zato doing quite that much damage, maybe they just cranked up his bare damage at the cost of some of his options? Lord knows everyone else does super high damage in this game as is. Still a loketest though, so who knows what their gameplan is. Thanks for the info, everyone. Its much appreciated.

You hold D while blocking to activate shield, blocking properly reduces blockstun and awards GRD for each hit blocked, this much is correct. It does prevent you from throw teching and, if you block wrong (or get grabbed), you enter GRD Break which not only prevents you from gaining additional GRD for a time, it also makes you ineligible for GRD Vorpal. This means your opponent will get Vorpal by default the next time the timer for it comes around or it will forcibly remove you from the GRD Vorpal state if you were in it. Hitting an opponent who is trying to shield and putting them into GRD Break also makes a special sound, has a special flash AND has the character say something, so its super easy to hit confirm. Its a powerful tool, especially if you have no GRD to lose from a break, but you're usually playing with fire considering how quickly some mixups happen in this game and how strong Chain Shift -> Reversal is in a defensive posture. Its usually only used to try and get enough GRD to be ahead of your opponent so that you get Vorpal (and can probably use it to Chain Shift) or to create gaps in pressure on things you can see coming clearly.

If memory serves, Bedman has an animation for summoning his Deja Vu after image to attack so he can't do it while in the middle of something else. It is a fairly short animation, though, so they do come out quickly.

Thanks for all the news and impressions, guys. Ogawa's impression of Bedman is hilarious, but from everything I've seen and read, he does seem pretty absurd. But that's what these tests are for! Its also nice to hear that Dragon Install seems to have become a much more realistic and rewarding spend of meter.

"A boy who has slept through the heinous remodeling of his rollaway bed." is the most simple and hilarious way to have phrased that! I love it. His design certainly is different. My interest in him is almost entirely based on how his playstyle ends up looking at the loketest. Given his ability to hover and the ability to use all of his specials and follow-ups in the air, he might end up being very cool.

My main and sub history goes: GGX: Sol, Ky -> GGXX: Testament, Sol -> #Reload: Testament, Sol -> Slash: Testament, HOS, -> AC: Testament, HOS. As is it just makes it look like I'm going back to my GG roots, and I can't really complain about that. I'd be overjoyed to see Testament come back, and I'm really interested with how they would make Sin play in this setting should he make it to that character select screen, but I'm just too happy to be getting another GG to be depressed about roster choices.

If it turns out to be a super-auto-clash-thing then it will probably kill projectiles, but given that there will probably be some recovery on this mechanic Blitz Shielding them may not always be a good idea. I'm happy to see them adding new meaningful ways to spend meter, especially defensively. And just like the old clash system that didn't make it to this round of testing, maybe it'll get cut before the final release.

Personally, I'd buy it. Melty is one of the fighters I have the absolute most fun playing (even when I'm just clobbering its silly AI), so I've had my eye on UNiB since it was first announced. As for whether or not its a good idea, its hard to say. Its certainly a less well known company, and a new IP, so its hard to say how well it would be received on a whole. As for netcode topic, GGPO would be great, but I know that it requires your game to support save-states, and I don't know if UNiB already does/if its in the card to add support for something like that. Then of course there's additional licensing to consider... At the end of the day, I'm pro the idea, but for mostly selfish reasons, haha.

I'm super hype about this game, too. As for Yuzu, she's honestly the only character that I think legitimately needs toned down (though probably not by much, or she'd break in the opposite direction). Beyond that, I don't think the changes to hit stun deterioration and to Chain Shift give us much fear of infinites. 100% meter combos and combos in Veill Off still have high damage output, but aren't super common in actual matches.

Rare footage of Linne looking like a real character. Thanks for the uploads!

I've only seen the launcher follow-up, personally. And the start-up is pretty long on it, the only time I see people do it is after what looks like air-combo-> 66C (it could be a different 66[button], I don't know 100%) since just throwing it out there will get the stand hit, Chaos punished, or both. Also, on block, the stand roars, making it extremely vulnerable to being hit and also prevents Chaos from using it again until its done being mad that his opponent can block. Its space control is okay since if Chaos can hit-confirm his claw lunge the stand can follow-up with more attacks or Chaos can spend meter on EX Slash for an OTG combo pick up or Oki. He's going through the usual new-character throes: people are interested, everyone plays him, people are discouraged by getting murdered by other people maining characters they're familiar with, a few stick with the character until they either flesh out or are revealed to be terrible (and some people stick with them even if they are terrible, like every Zappa player to have ever lived). If I had to compare him to one of the previously mentioned stand characters, I'd say Relius is the one I associate with him the most. The stand is mobile, vanishes if hit, and after a short cooldown can be summoned again. It lacks the durability of stands like Asterius and Nirvana, but comes back much faster than Little Eddie and the other aforementioned stands (well, Little Eddie if hit. If unsummoned, I'd say they're comparable).

I did not see that coming. Its good to be surprised, I suppose, but... whoa. I would have bet the rent it was gonna be Nanase.

I think she's getting the Izayoi treatment in that she won't be available first thing and will be implemented down the line. That's what makes the most sense to me, anyway.

Okay, first is the 214D. While blocking you can spend 100 EXS and all of your GRD to do an invincible counter attack out of block stun. This is essentially a Counter Assault/Dead Angle/whatever equivalent. I have only seen it used in matches once, so I'm assuming its also unsafe on whiff or block. What I'm unsure about is that it looks like if you do this counter while in GRD Vorpal it will either not consume your GRD, not consume your meter (or both) but WILL consume your GRD Vorpal state, meaning it will be impossible to cancel your counter attack on whiff, hit or block under any circumstances. I'm guessing you'd usualy be better off with a frame gap Chain Shift about 90% of the time. Secondly is the new B+C move. Vatista always had one of these, apparently, but now they've given one to everyone that are all character specific and all consume one block of GRD on use. You can use it even if you have 0 GRD, though, similarly to how you can use Concentrate (Hold D) or Assault (6+D) even if you have 0 EXS. I'm not sure what all of these moves are for everyone, but Seth's empowers his next shadow orb to be set further away, fire faster and to not break when struck. Gordeau's is that big slash with his claw, Chaos's is his partially invincible cross-up lunge forward, so its not strictly just an attack or a movement option. Lastly, you technically can only use GRD on defense in the event of a 214D. Holding D while blocking (Shield) actually uses EXS and, in the event of a successful block, it awards GRD, has slightly improved push-back from regular blocking and adds a few frames of landing recovery to aerial attackers. I don't think it negates chip damage, but seeing as how you can't die from chip in UNiB, that's not terribly surprising. The downside of this is that, if you block wrong or are grabbed while using Shield, it breaks your GRD gauge and thus prevents your from building more GRD and entering GRD Vorpal for a limited time. It also forcibly removes you from the GRD Vorpal state if you were already in it. Well, that's all I can tell you to the best of my ability. If I'm incorrect in something, someone please say so. I'd like to not continue living in a fantasy land as far as this game is concerned, haha

This is why I was so surprised when UNiB didn't have a Shield Bunker equivalent to begin with, honestly. Its not like French Bread had never implemented a similar mechanic before. At any rate, so far I'm really liking the changes made. The change that surprised me the most is that it looks like you can't move before the round anymore. Thanks to all those putting up videos!

May actually looks younger now than she did before, which makes me sad. Everyone else is cool, though. Eddie not being there is both puzzling and hilarious.

You mean like how everyone mourned the passing of Gold Bursts and being able to guard break people without meter in the transition from CS(E) to CP? While I am personally fairly ambivalent towards FB's as a mechanic in general, there are a few moves I'll miss. I wouldn't be surprised if FRC's and/or FB's still end up making a showing in a later version of the game, but they are simply omitted from the loketest so people will spend more of their meter on RC's and help give them feedback on their YRC and slowdown mechanics, since these are far and away the biggest change to their core system from the long XX series to Xrd (imo, at least).

After looking at RC with some time to think about it, its looking to potentially behave like X-Factor. Not in the come-back mechanic tomfoolery category, of course, but in the sense that it looks like you can do it at any time since it says it "can interrupt movement, actions and the recovery of actions,". The difference between the Red and Yellow RC's could be related to one is used while the opponent is in hit-stun and the other is used in neutral, and it would seem reasonable that you wouldn't slow down an opponent in neutral for as long as one in hit stun to reward you for using it offensively instead of just for footsies madness. To step away from speculation, though, I'm really excited that the test is going to have 7 playable characters. I'm honestly surprised to see more than Sol and Ky ready for fisticuffs.

On the subject of health and damage, do we think that Xrd will have a damage counter similar to BB and P4A? There are plenty of fighters out there that don't use them, and we obviously always have training mode for number crunching, but do we think that BB and P4A both having them is a sign of a trend for ASW?

Seems that way. I would imagine that it takes 50% to attempt the move and does a base amount of damage, which is then modified if you have any remaining Heat to burn. You know, there is a chance that it uses all of Terumi's Heat AND burns all of his opponents Heat in the process. Unlikely as this is in reality, Robo-Ky command grab has those theory wheels a-turning.

While his tool set sounds very powerful, and his Drive is a notoriously difficult to balance mechanic (not only a gauge siphon, but with Heat, a genuine deal-breaker in many situations) we haven't even the slightest idea what his movement will be like, how low his health will be (I'd bet on 10k), the range on his normals/specials or how safe any of his options will be, much less his Drives. I'll admit, its hard to have faith when we see Hazama dancing around in permanent A-or-higher tier, but I'm not going to throw up my hands and scoff just yet. I'm interested in his Overdrive, though. I'm willing to bet he gets his snake aura like Hazama's OD, but his will probably just steal meter passively as opposed to Hazama's life steal.

Actually, they did implement this after its first major update in that your GRD gauge enters a freeze-state during a combo that has a CS in it. But its still super easy to gain GRD back after a combo ends, especially if you burn a Veil Off in said second combo, so back-to-back CS combos aren't super uncommon. It really doesn't help that getting hit reduces your GRD gauge, and once you get hit in this game, there's a pretty good chance you're going to continue getting hit until your own GRD reaches zero which gives the player on offense an even easier time of re-entering GRD Vorpal to re-CS ad infinitum.