TITANIUM BEAST!!!

They may also be taking the SNK route, where SNK regularly didn't even reveal detailed frame data for their games. My guess is that they feel this will extend the life of the game by increasing how long it takes for everything to get figured out.

Regarding YRC Wild Throw OS, it is possible to YRC before the throw becomes active if you input it too fast, and if you don't time it properly, you will PRC instead, so it's not foolproof. Still takes some practice to do. Plus if they do jump and you YRC, air throw may be guaranteed, but unless you have another 50% meter, you don't get a really big reward, so that reduces the cost effectiveness of it. If you have 50% meter or more, it may be better to just use regular throw/5K OS and then RC the throw for big damage if you succeed.

It's the obsession with numbers and external signs of achievement. They don't care about being good at the actual game or challenging themselves to learn something new. It's kinda like trying to get a high score, or trying to find a way to break a certain number of hits/damage level in a combo. At that point, whether or not you're "good" at the game is irrelevant, because the little win counter and the achievements list both say you did something.

Probably because people only play Ranked in NA to get dem trophies/achievements and bolster their rankings. If we had better connections, I bet Ranked and Quick Match would get used much more often, since you'd actually be able to find people to play. The first point also explains why you often find zero bar connection players, these guys don't care about quality of play, they just want to lag you to death and then D/C if they end up losing to preserve their record.

Corner carry always means something. Even if you do the same damage everywhere.

Corner carry still matters. Not crucial, but it matters. That being said, his corner carry is still bonkers. Not "OMG what is this I don't even" like in 1.0/1.1, but still extremely good. Given his damage output now, I'm willing to sacrifice a little.

IIRC system voices in CP did this as well, you just had to pick the appropriate "version" of the voice. Example, Ragna system voice calls Taokaka "Tao", calls Hakumen "Masked Bastard", etc etc.

The reason I used the word vaguely there is that uppercuts are pretty much part of 2D fighters, and Ragna still takes a huge risk for a fairly low return when he attempts one. The only time there's no risk attached is when you have meter and you know for sure that you're not gonna whiff. Playing around those limitations can be pretty simple for some characters when they fight him.

So I can tell this discussion is probably going to devolve into silly stuff, but I'll just put forth how I feel and leave it at that. Ragna is an "honest" character, IMO, because there is nothing overtly tricky or overpowered about the character. He does not have any really powerful mixups, no really confusing movement, no silly wakeup setups, nothing. He is a straight up neutral character that has to win by playing the neutral game better than the other player. He is very well equipped at neutral., but as noted over the history of the game, characters who play ranged game better than him tend to give him problems, and I think this is due to the fact that not only do they beat him at his own game, but if he actually gets in on them, it's challenging to break defense with him (you have to somehow trick the other person). The only vaguely BS thing about Ragna, IMO, is his uppercut, because the invincibility is nuts and it's generally an effective tool to have in a game like BB, where offense tends to have big gaps. Of note is that the only time Ragna ends up being a high ranked character tends to be when his damage off of his neutral game gets excessive (see CS1 and Extend), and even in these cases, characters who play neutral better still beat him, which is why he dropped in rank over time during CS1. With a lot of characters getting nerfed in CP2 and his damage once again being buffed to nutty levels, it makes sense that he would at least start out at the top. But given the nature of his character, only time will tell whether he'll stay there.

What's your definition of honest, then? Cuz Ragna is like, the definition of honest, IMO.

Say that to all the oldschool Cali players who loved Alpha 2.

age of Ragna son

I dislike the new glow effect before all Dust attacks. As if they were so hard to block before. =/

In case you guys didn't see it yet, there's now a GGXrd wiki that has full frame data. http://wiki.4gamer.net/ggxrd/%E3%82%AD%E3%83%A3%E3%83%A9%E3%82%AF%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC%E6%94%BB%E7%95%A5/%E3%82%BD%E3%83%AB%3D%E3%83%90%E3%83%83%E3%83%89%E3%82%AC%E3%82%A4 Of note, according to this, DI is not invul from the first frame, rather it's from frame 7 to 19. Still have 12 frames of invul to play with before the screen freeze, though.

The fact that Overdrives don't prorate TG in Xrd is awesome, and makes DI combos off of high proration starters extremely viable. OMG THIS GAME, best Sol ever.

I think that's like, the third time that video's been posted. On another note, I noticed that there seems to be little to no reduction to Tension Gain after using an Overdrive in combos. Doing 2D -> TR into a corner combo not only does baller damage, but you pretty much get your 50% right back, which is insane. Wonder if this is legit or just an oversight in the Tutorial mode?

Might go offline once PSN updates, probably later tonight. Dunno, if it's still available for a while then yay for Sol players. :D And yes, the whole "record whenever I want and upload" feature is just too awesome. Can't wait for the full release to see what other character specialists start producing.

It would definitely be cool for majors if they used the PS4 setup for GF/top 8, especially if there are no differences gameplay wise. Game is sooooo pretty. Hoping to grab a nice bigscreen HDTV that has minimal to no input lag this holiday season so I can enjoy the full beauty of the game. :D

*watches recent matches* Yo, how about that ridic corner carry from HF RC midscreen? I really understand why they took away HF as a combo part in juggles, he'd be able to go coast to coast for free. The way things are shaking out, he probably will go coast to coast once everything is optimized. The TK GH after 5C is so genius.

I think today is the last day that the demo is available to play at all. Wouldn't be surprised if it won't let me boot it up once I get home tonight, since it will technically be 10/30 in Japan by then.

Didn't realize the TE2 was already available in Japan. Waiting for them to announce preorders for the Xrd TE2, gonna snatch that up.

Mainly just damage buffs through new combo routes. Buffs to 6A and 5C make his neutral game much scarier; he does more damage for calling out poorly timed jumps/backdashes and has to take less risk to do so. Damage off of his overheads also went up, and he got back some old gatlings that help his pressure variety a little. Ragna is the type of character that mostly hits people for good reads or them screwing up, so the amount of damage he does per opening has a big effect on how he stacks up in rankings. Some characters have a gameplan that is so effective, a damage nerf doesn't really hurt their performance that much (Valkenhayn pops to mind). Ragna is not one of those characters.

IIRC old console versions of GG always ran faster than the arcade versions. +R on PS3 and 360 is closer to arcade, which would explain why it feels slower. That being said, GG is one of those games that feels much faster once you actually know what you're doing. As an aside, after practicing with Sol for extended periods of time on the Xrd demo, I found that going back to +R and trying to do JC combos would often result in me getting empty jump cancels with no normals afterwards. Wonder if the buffer is bigger in Xrd or maybe the game is actually faster?

I'm ecstatic. Plz be top tier 4eva Ragna.

Just another day or two before we lose demo access. I've recorded a ton of stuff, hopefully I can pick through it and put together the actual good stuff to share.