ElegantShadow

Hmm... Kokonoe fighting like Anakaris... Strangely enough, I actually want to see what that would be like. XD By the gods... What have you created?! x_x;

They're just small analysis on our match ups against each of the new characters that I came up with based off what I've seen in videos and read in other threads/heard from others on here. So of course they're meant to be taken with a grain of salt until we actually get our hands on the game. ^^ As a side note, how is my analysis of our match up against Izayoi? I've been waiting to see what everyone thinks of it and if there's anything that may require correction.

Hmm... I see what you're saying, but Mu's normals are actually intended to start a combo, not her Steins. And if I'm not mistaken, Nu has powerful Long/Mid-range. Also, I noticed that not many are taking into account the fact that Kokonoe is a half-Kaka. So chances are she'd more than likely be a very mobile zoner. (Think Taokaka mixed with Mu or Rachel.) Edit: I'm all for BB four!

You took the words right out of my mouth! Though, I always suspected that Kokonoe would be more of an Assist/Zoning character rather than rush-down, but I could see how rush-down may be an option for her design.

Hello, all! I just purchased Guilty Gear AC+R three days ago, and I finally decided on making Axl Low my main. The thing is though, I haven't a clue as to where I should start with learning him, so if someone could give me a little advice it would be much appreciated. I also have a few questions: Is Axl in any way a zoner and/or can he fight at long-range without much of a problem? Are his chains anything like Lambda-11/Nu-13's Drive in that they're used to limit/restrict the opponents movement options and apply pressure from a distance? Does Axl have a hard time getting a proper combo in? (I ask that because some of his Normals don't seem to link together like other characters do. So is it the above or am I just doing something wrong?) What's the number one thing I should know about using Axl? And what's the first thing I should practice while using him?

Could someone inform me of whether Act Parcer has invincibility frames or not? And if it does, then for how long is Nu invincible during it? Thank you in advance. ^^

Last, but certainly not least is Izayoi. Overview: Izayoi is a high momentum, Rush-down/Zoning(?)/Mode changing character with quite a few Teleports, movement options, and DPs. Her Drive, "Scarlet Justice," allows her to shift from her normal form into Gain Art Mode, which gives her access to faster and farther reaching teleports, better zoning, and makes her an overall stronger opponent to fight. Our disadvantage: Gain Art Mode in general. Izayoi really only has one thing against us, and that's Gain Art Mode, which is a buffed up version of her normal mode with better Zoning, Rush-down, and movement. These buffs turn an (honestly) easy match up into a complete headache. Her Movement options and Teleports. This is the true danger of Izayoi, what she lacks in any threatening long-ranged options, she more than makes up with her ability to close in on us VERY quickly and completely ignore our Drive by simply flying over it or Teleporting behind us while we're recovering. Our Advantages: Her lack of any reliable projectile. Izayoi's projectile, Sonic Saber , is FAR out classed by our 5D, 6D, and 2D Drive attacks. It's quite slow, if it comes into contact with our any of our Drive attacks it's either canceled out or pierced through and leaves Izayoi completely vulnerable to a Drive follow up and combo. Her complete dependency on Gain Art Mode. Without Gain Art Mode, Izayoi (IMHO) isn't much of a challenge. Her normal Air-dash is nothing too impressive, her overall speed is average at best, and as stated above, she possess a very small threat to us at full screen. My personal thoughts and advice: This match up is like fighting a mixture of Jin and Aigis in that she has a similar projectile to Jin's along with many DPs, and on the other hand she also changes into a buffed up version of her normal mode that gives her access to new/stronger versions of her Specials and Distortions Drives like Aigis. The best thing to do against her is to keep her out of Gain Art Mode as much as possible and zone her from as far away as you can. If she does somehow enter Gain Art mode then just be wary of her Teleports and Air-Dash. Out of the four new characters, Izayoi seems to be just slightly easier to fight than Bullet. I'd recommend using Dia Forma for most of this fight, since Gravity Seed can be used more often to Slow her approach while you zone her from a safe distance, and it also has access to Act Parcer to get out of undesirable situations. Though, if you manage it catch her in the corner then you could change to Luna Forma for stronger corner combos and Okizemes, just watch out for her DP when attacking her at close range and you should be fine. Well, that's all of them. As usual, if I overlooked or missed anything please inform me and I'll gladly add/correct it. Also, I know this overview is less than lengthy, but the reason for that is that I honestly couldn't think of much that Izayoi can do against us, this match up truly seems to be almost completely in our favor, if I'm wrong then please do explain why.

I added and corrected a few things on Amane's overview, is there anything else I may have not mentioned or overlooked?

Next up is Azrael... Overview: Azrael is a fairly slow moving character who can teleport with his back and forward-dash. He also has quite a few moves with Super-Armor. His Drive, "The Terror," applies (Up to two) weak-points to the opponent, which gives his attacks extra effects, allows him to do follow ups on his Special Moves, and make certain attacks unblockable when both weak-points are on. Our disadvantages: His Drive in general. As stated above, Azrael can apply weak-points to the opponent with his Drive moves, and give certain attacks follow ups. This normally wouldn't be much of a problem, but with these follow ups he gains huge amounts of meterless damage, corner carry, and with both marks applied one of his Distortions, "Black Hawk Stinger," becomes almost completely unblockable (Save for Barrier Blocking against it in the air). This all in mind means we''re going to have a very hard time fighting him once he gets a hit in. Growler Field. Azrael's Growler Field is reminiscent of Mu's Origins in that it has Guard-Point against most attacks. However, it also has Anti-Projectile Guard-Point. That means that all of our Drive moves, specials, Distortion Drives AND 5C are negated, but that's not even the worst part. The worst part is that on top of absorbing all of our long-ranged options, Azrael also gains a projectile (Phanlanx Cannon) with ever hit of a projectile based attack and it's faster than our 5D and deals quite a bit of damage. This move single handedly makes this match up ten times harder. His Teleports. On top of having a DP that absorbs our long-ranged attacks, he also possesses a Teleport-Dash that can pass through our Drive, this means that if we were to try to either hit him with 5D or Sickle Storm Oki on him, he can pass right through it AND hit us while we're recovering. It's also somewhat like our Act Parcer Zwei in that it can pass through the opponent. However, unlike Act Parcer Zwei, it can also be canceled into a jump, which means not only can he cross us up, but also possibly hit us with a Mix-Up. Our Advantages: His lack of movement options outside of Teleports and over all slow movement speed. Although Azrael can teleport, he doesn't really have much else to get in on us. His Air-Dash is sub-par at best, and he can't run, so with proper use of our Drive he won't be able to touch us. Growler Fields. Growler Field is indeed a very scary tool, but it isn't perfect, it seems to be easily bated and it takes a little while for Azrael to completely recover from it, which means we can take advantage of that by hitting and possibly getting a Counter Hit combo off of it. My personal thoughts and advice. Remember how I mentioned that fighting Bullet in Heat-Up state was like a game of cat and mouse? Yes? Well, this match up is about the same, except replace the cat with Godzilla and make the mouse Blind, Deaf, and Dumb. Azrael truly seems like he was made just to counter our options, he's able to completely shut down our Drive, Mix-Up, and Oki with the use of Growler Field and his Teleports. The best thing to do against him is to try to keep our distance as much as possible, and if we're forced to fight him at close range, we'll have to be VERY smart about what attacks we use against him. I would actually say that this fight is basically like fighting a more mobile Tager who instead of grabbing us and taking away half our HP Bar, can take away most (if not all) of our offensive and defensive options. Out of the four new characters, Azrael may actually be the hardest for us to fight in terms of keeping him from getting to close. To be honest, both Formas have their pros and cons in this match up. On one hand Dia Forma has access Act Parcer, which could be used to get out of less than desirable situations against Azrael and (Inform me of whether this works or not) also be used to get up in Azrael's face and combo him when he uses Growler Field, Dia also has a nigh spammable Gravity Seed to slow him down, but we have absolutely no defensive options against him, aside from what the System allows us (Counter Assault and Bursting) . On the other hand we have Luna Forma, who has access to Act Parcer Zwei, Blade, and Cavalier, which could be used to stop Azrael from getting to bold with using Growler Field *I've said that name a lot in this, haven't I?* since after absorbing the Sword, we could use any one of these to get some fairly good combos in, and the damage buff is nice as well. Though, the downside is that we lose a very good way of getting away from Azrael in the form of Act Parcer and our zoning becomes a little weaker. So, it's really up to how you want to play this match. (Like with the last overviews, please inform me of any mistakes and/ or of anything I may have missed and I'll gladly add/correct it. I'll have Izayoi written out either later today or tomorrow.)

Okay, first up is Bullet. Overview: Bullet is a fairly straight forward, moderately fast, and versatile, rush-down character with quite a few tools at her disposal. Her drive, "Lock-on," allows her to lock on to the opponent via creating a field around herself and quickly close the distance between her and the opponent when she's within a certain range of them. She also has Heat-Up, which not only buffs her Drive, but also increases her speed quite a bit. Our disadvantages: Lock-on. Lock-On will make it very difficult for Nu to get away from Bullet if she manages to get in. (Since say if Nu were to try to Back-Dash or Aerial Back-Dash away from Bullet, she could catch Nu with it, get a free combo in and get Heat-Up state.) Also the field grows in size when she's in Heat-Up state, which could prove to be even more troublesome if you're trying to escape her pressure or zone at mid-range. Her Speed. She isn't as fast as Taokaka, but when in Heat-Up state she does gain enough speed to dodge our Drive quite easily. Heat-Up in general. I may have mentioned this a few times before, but Heat-Up basically buffs Bullet A LOT, and turns what would normally be a fairly easy match up into a game of cat and mouse where the cat has a flamethrower and the mouse has one leg. Okay, that might be a slight over exaggeration, but this will still prove to be quite a difficult hurdle to overcome. Our advantages: Her dependency on Heat-Up. Without Heat-Up Bullet can't really do much against us at mid-long range. Her speed isn't that impressive, and she doesn't really have any safe way of getting in without danger of our zoning. Sure she has a projectile, but 5D in Dia Forma clashes with it, and in Luna Forma, 5D goes right through it, so we pretty much dominate her when she isn't in our face. Her lack of good defensive options. Bullet (To my understanding) doesn't have many defensive options outside of a DP, but it's almost completely useless against us unless we're forced to fight her at close range, so this isn't much of a problem. She's also very vulnerable to our Okizeme and Mix-Ups, which means even if we do have to fight her at close range, it will more than likely be on our terms. My personal thoughts and advice: In all honesty, I'd consider this match up to be like fighting a combination of Makoto and Ragna. So what we need to do against Bullet is to try to keep her out of Heat-Up state as much as possible, stay away from the corner, and zone her. I would also recommend using mostly Dia Forma in this battle. Out of the four new characters, Bullet seems like the easiest one for us to fight. (And I do apologize if this seems a tad... half-assed. I really couldn't think of much to say about this match up, since it's just the basic zoner vs. rush-down character fight, but with a twist. Next is Amane. Overview: Amane is a character who's quite hard to describe, he has quite a few long-ranged and close-ranged options, but almost completely lacks any Mid-Ranged options. He also has a moderate running speed, and a vast amount of movement options with his command jump. His Drive, "Spiral," allows him to power up his drill attacks and really lay on the chip damage. Our disadvantages: His C normals. Amane's normals aren't "Godlik" per se, but they can be quite troublesome when we're trying to zone. Actually, his C normals seem a tad reminiscent of our Drive in that they have a dead spot in front of him, and can be used to harass and interrupt the opponent's advances. Against us however, they will be used to stop us from zoning by interrupting our Drive. His Chip Damage and Drills. Amane's Drills at level 1 aren't that big of a threat, but at higher levels they become the bane of our existence. Not only do they deal massive amounts of Damage/Chip Damage, but they also grow stronger the more they hit us. The worst part is that they can even be used for corner Okizemes... which with our already bad defenses, means we'll either have to Burst out of it, or risk the entire match. His command jump. Amane's Command gives him a lot of movement options, and allows him to dodge our Drive, gives him an instant overhead, and makes his corner pressure nigh impossible to escape (Or at least very hard to escape.) Our advantages. His C Normals (Bare with me here). As I stated above, Amane's C normals are similar to our Drive, which means they also have very longish cool downs. With that in mind, he has just as much trouble fighting us at long-range as we do him, so it's a matter of who hits whom first. Also, I'm fairly certain that our Drive MIGHT be slightly faster than his normals, so we might be able to beat out his long range options all together. We also have the benefit of His lack of defensive options. Like with Bullet, Amane also has very few defensive options, in fact, he completely lacks a meterless DP. However, he makes up for this with his Command Jump, which as stated above makes it a little harder to catch him, but the up side is that it's very predictable, so it shouldn't be too difficult to catch him with Swords. His Lack of Mid-ranged options. Amane and Nu are about on even ground at long-range, but at mid and (to some extent) close-range we most definitely have the upper hand. My personal thoughts and advice: This match up may at first glance look almost impossible to win, but the truth is that it's all about prediction and reaction. We'll have a very hard time fighting against him at all ranges and especially in the corner, and it will only become even more so if he gets level 3 drills, but he'll have a hard time fighting us at neutral and close-mid-range once we catch him in our Okizeme and/or corner him. We also have better long-range options, but with that in mind we still have to be cautions, since a single Drill attack from Amane could mean our untimely defeat. Out of the four new characters, Amane is (IMO) tied with Azrael for our most difficult match up. I really can't figure out which Forma would be better suited for this match up. I'll write out Izayoi and Azrael later. I will have to do a little more research on the both of them, and I want to see if my overviews for Bullet and Amane are spot-on or at least somewhat accurate. If I missed anything, or if anything may require correction. please inform me and I'll add/correct it.

I've noticed there hasn't been much discussion on the topic of our match ups against Amane, Azrael, Bullet, and Izayoi. Would anyone like for me to make a small overview of them for future reference? (I realize there isn't much need for that at this time, but it may come in handy for when the actual match up thread for them are made.)

You're not wrong. Though I think what Mac Chaos is saying is that Kokonoe would literally switch between herself and a different form/character. Not quite a stance per se, but rather a tag team kind of thing.

^^^ I wholeheartedly agree.

Ah, I was under the impression you were stating why she shouldn't be playable, my bad. And as I said in my previous post, she would/might be a Summoning Character or be somewhat like Justice in terms of design.

, but my point is, she is showed us as scientist, and she will always stay as that to me. If anything, Kokonoe will either end up being an Assist/Summoner Character who calls on Tager or even another robot to attack for her, or she'll end up being the Justice of BlazBlue (As in she'll be in a giant robot suit). Edit: Also, her being a scientist has nothing to do with whether or not she'll be playable. I mean, take a look a Litchi, she's a doctor/scientist and she fights quite well.

Well, hopefully we'll see more info on XBLAZE soon, and mayhaps we'll even find out WHAT the connection between the aforementioned series, and BlazBlue is.

I must say that I'm quite excited to see some more new characters announced (And all in good timing too, the BBCP hype seemed to be decreasing a little.) Out of the two of them Terumi seems the most interesting to me. Only because his Drive sounds so... awesome to say the least. As for Kagura, well, I personally don't use Charge/Stance Characters, but it's nice to see at least one come to the BlazBlue roster. (My only question is will he be a traditional Charge Character, or will Arc System Works pull some of their magic on him.) ... October... So far... far away...

Ah, that's good to know. Thank you for the quick replies. ^^

Ah, so its only viable use is at the end of combos in which it sets the opponent up into a Sickle Storm or Gravity Seed Okizeme, and on occasion to extend combos?

Ah, I see, but why isn't it a very good Anti-Air? Does it have a large start up or something?

I've been wondering about the hitbox of Supra Rage. Is the hitbox similar to Rachel's 6A in that it hits in front, above, and a little behind her, or is it more like Ragna's 6A where the hitbox is a little in front, and above him? The reason I'm asking is that the animation of Supra Rage looks like it hits almost all around her, so I'm just curious.

Unlimited Nu https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=umiux_SHxLk Things that I noticed: Face Lift seems to be unusable. Nu Shoots out two swords instead of one. *Well, that should be obvious.* Crescent Saber sends out both the Dia and Luna version at once. Nu now grabs the opponent with Act Parcer Zwei and while holding Him/Her, she uses Calamity Sword to knock them to the ground. Sickle Storm is the Luna version and now hits about 8-10 times. Act Parcer Zwei Blade and Cavalier now connect. Act Parcer looks like it travels faster and farther. It also looks like we can do it off of any attack, even a Spike Chaser that hasn't hit the opponent. Legacy Edge can be delayed. (?) Supra Rage seems to send the opponent higher into the air. Spike Chaser is always fully charged *Though, I couldn't tell whether it was the Dia version, or the Luna version, or some mix between the two.* Gravity Seed uses 75% of the bar, but the bar recharges faster. And lastly, Nu got a new Distortion Drive. While in OD, she impales the opponent with a sword a little smaller than Calamity Sword, and then proceeds to attack the opponent from all directions with swords, and finally finishing them off with Calamity Sword. The only thing that wasn't shown was what her OD actually does in Unlimited mode, and if there were any changes to Calamity Sword.

That's quite strange, I think I remember seeing someone get Negative Penalty in one video. Though, I can't recall which one or what character it was.

Ah, I look forward to seeing what her changes are. Thank you. ^^

I've been wondering. What are Nu's notable buffs and nerfs? I haven't seen an actual list of them as of yet. [And if there is a list, could someone please direct me to where it is?]