RadRed

I reckon my situation is very similar to this one. I was always a fan of the fighting game genre, but it really wasn't anything beyond casual nonsense. The Soul series was always my absolute favorite as far back as the days of Soul Edge in the arcade. I played all the later Soul series installments and jumped at the chance of buying the Limited Edition of Soulcalibur IV for the PlayStation 3. That would be the first fighting game that I really went out of my way trying to master. When Arc System Works announced BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger I was incredibly excited to see what their next big project would bring. Next to the Soul series, Guilty Gear was my favorite fighting game series with me having played every iteration of Guilty Gear XX up to that point on the PlayStation 2. I saw the announcement trailer and wasn't disappointed. The main character that caught my eye was Noel Vermillion and I immediately decided that given the chance to play it I would use her. Later found some matches of Kaqn back in the day and gained interest in Ragna as well. I was this friend. :3

As someone said earlier in the topic, it's more similar to the change from Calamity Trigger to Continuum Shift Noel rather than Rachel. A character that was never all that strong even in the best of hands but still got considerably worse. It's really a shame because after playing as Makoto for the first time back when she released I really fell in love with her playstyle and moveset. Eventually she became my secondary character. Now I have to deal with Arc System Works stripping most of the stuff that made her halfway decent for no legitimate reason just as I did with Noel. It's not Continuum Shift Rachel nonsense, but it's still pretty bad.

They're destroying Makoto. My goodness. She was never all that powerful, but these changes make it seem like Arc System Works believed her to be one of the top characters. Still wanting more information on Noel, despite being worried they're going to make her even worse than she is already in Continuum Shift.

Noel next please. Tsubaki too because she deserves it.

Same. She's my primary interest as far as changes go at the moment.

Hahahaha. I was wondering when someone would catch that. Makes it all the more amusing that it was you. Anyway, I'm starting to think certain stuff is entirely fake. Slower 2C for Makoto, Act Parser A crossing up when done close enough? It's absurd.

Makoto's 2C is even slower? It was already unbelievably easy to react to in the first place, I reckon.

I believe so looking at this page on the Japanese BlazBlue website. I reckon you have a point, but I think certain match ups would be a bit more interestin' if some characters had more of an increased chance of guard crushin' their opponent. It'd certainly prompt me to be more mindful of my defensive skills and I think it'd do the same for other players.

I dunno about that. Back in the midst of playing it, I sincerely thought that Calamity Trigger was a really solid and fun fighting game (It still is), but in retrospect, a lot of aspects of it ranging from character balance to the actual game system itself were.. to put it bluntly; pretty awful. Hahaha. The Barrier Burst system was poorly thought out and the 'character balance' was laughable at best. Other things I'm rather wishy-washy about, such as Guard Libra in comparison to the Guard Primer system. Granted, I find that I prefer one over the other on a case by case basis. I understand how Guard Libra in combination with the properties of Barrier Burst made match ups like the Nu vs. Tager unbelievably stupid (Legacy Edge into Barrier Burst, hahaha), but I'm still not entirely sure if that warranted Tager getting a whooping ten Guard Primers in Continuum Shift. Certain characters heavily benefit from the Guard Primer system whereas others have a rather difficult time guard crushing the opponent which kind of bugs me. Overall tho', I think the combination of system changes (Guard Primer, Break Burst, etc.) as well as the better (but still not good) balance make Continuum Shift a much better game. I can only hope that Arc System works continues to work and improve BlazBlue to the point where it can possibly come close to or match up to quality of the often praised Accent Core +. It can't be perfect until they add Jubei to the roster tho'. Nope; never.

So I reckon I'll probably be heading up to Xanadu this weekend with a good friend of mine if all goes well. I'm not 100% on that sure tho'. Hope to see some of you there and maybe even befriend ya.

Hahahaha. Well, if what you say is true, then I'm rather fortunate that I haven't bothered trying it in matches.

For me the biggest reason why this match up sucks for Noel (or a mediocre Noel like mine) is Gadget Finger. Once Noel gets hit by it, gets reset and becomes magnetized, it's a game of rock-paper-scissors basically? 'Tis not the most fun situation for Noel. Not at all. A friend told me that TK Revolver Blast helps? Not sure on the details. I'll admit that I haven't tried it. I usually avoid using Noel for this match up entirely and pick Makoto or Ragna for it.

I'm wondering if I should stop being naive and wishing for Noel to get better and concede to the fact that she'll probably never be decent again. I'll still play her, but I'll be damned if it doesn't seem like Arc System Works has no idea what to do with her most of the time.

Mashing drive doesn't work against the players I fight, sorry. It may work on you or other incompetent players, but that isn't something a Noel player should rely on at all in Continuum Shift. I may not be the most knowledgeable player around but I find the easiest way to get 5k+ with her is in the corner. Even then you still have to typically land something like a throw, 6B, CH 5C, or a 3C in order to get into it, which isn't all that easy against someone who is decent under pressure. *shrugs*

I'm worried about Noel, as always. To see her damage output take another hit is a little disheartening.