White Man

I have a friend who's a pretty hardcore Doctor Who fan. I once asked him how he managed to keep track of the plot, which, from what I've seen and heard, is a total clusterfuck full of retcons and parallel realities and general time travel nonsense that requires a three-dimension flowchart to follow. He told me the appeal of the series wasn't so much in the story itself per se, but the characters and their individual stories and the lore behind the different planets and races and whatever. Over the years, the writers have created a universe full of mythology that, despite being hung together rather haphazardly, gives fans a lot of richly layered content to pour over. I kind of feel the same way about Guilty Gear to an extent. Looking back over the games' chronology, it's tough to argue that the writers came up with a lot of stuff as they were going along. Plot aside, though, I think the series has a lot of legitimately interesting characters and an equally interesting setting. While I wouldn't mind a "retelling" of the events leading up to Xrd, I hope they don't retcon anything that's happened thus far. Even if they could fill up a couple of gaping holes in the plot, I'd hate to lose big chunks of that detailed mythos we've accumulated over the past 15 years.

Re-watching some of the videos, I noticed something interesting... When your health drops below a certain point, your HP bar starts flashing and your opponent's tension gauge glows. It doesn't look like the gauges fill automatically or gain tension more/less quickly, so I have no idea what the glowing effect signifies. Possibly a new IK mechanic that hasn't been implemented yet? (Sorry if this has been brought up or resolved earlier; this thread's exploding page count makes brief mentions of anything easy to overlook.)

Haven't seen this video posted anywhere yet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaEqPADscLA Really nice, clear footage of some May matches against Potemkin, Ky, and Venom.

Wait, wait, wait... The patch for the Japanese version of the game translated the movelists into English?? EDIT: Oh, that's right, language options. Derp. So the movelist translation must now change based on what language you have selected, I'm assuming.

Good to see the stages are still wonderfully surreal, haha. That gameplay footage was tasty nice. In my mind, I pictured it running a lot slower than old GG for some reason. It's too hard to tell if the game speed is exactly where AC is at, but it definitely looks quick, which is good. I don't know how I feel about the camera jerk on dusts yet. On the one hand, it's kind of jarring when you're not expecting it. On the other, I assume it shouldn't be too tough to get used to after seeing it a couple times... Plus it does give dusts a nice little flavor punch that helps you feel the hit, like landing one is something of an event. I assume it's the same way for Overdrives. Whether or not the effect becomes annoying after repeated views is what remains to be seen. A blessing upon the souls of the departed heroes who were dragged out into the alley behind Club SEGA and executed by ASW employees moments after uploading this precious footage to YouTube.

I had a similar (sort of) question regarding character health in general: Based on everything you saw, what do you think about characters' HP values compared to AC/+R? Do characters take roughly the same amount of hits before getting KO'd, or generally more/less? I always thought GG had excellent momentum regarding combo damage and general round length, so it'd be great if they kept that aspect roughly the same in Xrd. I know the popular trend in fighters these days is to nerf everyone's damage and make rounds last longer, but I personally like 'em a bit shorter.

HEAVEN OR HELL DUEL ONE ROCK THE FUCK OUT Pretty happy and psyched about everything I'm seeing/reading so far. Many thanks for taking the time to share all this info, Elven!

Soooo... Netcode is basically the same, still no lobbies, none of the little extras that were in the Vita version (stages, new sidebars, etc.), and at least some of the old bugs/glitches are still present. Totes worth the ten month wait.

I like to imagine Daisuke keeping rock star hours and groggily rolling out of bed at like 2 pm, gently pushing aside the hands of the beautiful women whose names he doesn't know all trying to pull him back under the covers. Then he walks out to the kitchen of his mansion, makes a screwdriver with almost no OJ in it, downs it, then calls the boys at the ASW home offices while pouring himself a bowl of Froot Loops and is all, "Yo fellahs. Let's rock." Five minutes later, the update goes live.

I wouldn't mind these developments as much if it hadn't taken them over a year to get this game on consoles. Even after all the promotion they did, the hype factor for TTT2 was already starting to wind down before the game even came out.

This has me a little worried too. If player match lobbies continue being restricted to two players, that would be a huge blow to the game's online longevity even if they succeed in making the netcode less terrible. Maybe the larger lobbies were the main issue holding up the patch, so they said screw it and decided to stick with 1 vs 1 only... Whatever the case, I'm just glad there's some news on the patch. With Xrd obviously being way closer to completion than anybody thought, I was honestly starting to worry console Plus R was going to get ash-canned.

This would be greatly appreciated even if only Sol and Ky are playable, if only to get a look at how everything is laid out and possibly get a rough idea of how many characters they're planning to include in the final game.

No Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, no bububu-bu bu-bubuy. Pretty sweet they're finally making a proper Shonen Jump fighter. The DS games were neat little distractions, but an honest-to-god console fighting game is something that feels long overdo. Shame it has a snowball's chance of ever leaving Japan... I just hope it isn't region locked.

I said basically the same thing much earlier in the discussion (and got my kneecaps broken over it), so I absolutely agree with this.

Actually, a lot of Tekken fans weren't particularly happy about the way their favorite character(s) lost more than half of their command moves. The engine makes virtually no compromise between the two systems; it's literally just SFIV with a tag mechanic and Tekken characters added in. You could theoretically get around that with a CvS2-styled customization system, but the core gameplay engines for SF and GG are so different that it would have to go way deeper than "pick whether you want air-dashing or parrying". Making a system that retained the feel of both source engines AND was balanced would be a development nightmare. They could go it (get enough talented people working on something and you can do pretty much anything) but should they do it? Like I said though, the bigger issue in my mind is the aesthetic differences. ASW character designs have such a defined, expressive style that I'd hate to see them get pulled through Capcom's "make everything goofy and generic" filter. Just look at what happened to the DS characters in Tatsunoko and Marvel 3, then remember that they were already Capcom characters to begin with. I'm not going to fault anyone for disagreeing with me on this because I know it's a really personal thing, but I just don't see the worlds of ASW coming together with the worlds of Capcom without something getting lost or changed in the process. Maybe they could make it work in a way that would surprise me; maybe the end result would be a complete disaster. Since a crossover fighter between the two companies hasn't been announced or even rumored, we'll likely never know for certain.

ALL the oh hell nos. Anybody remember Sammy vs. Capcom? That was on track to be a real thing way back when. Can't say I'm too sad the deal fell through for whatever reason. ASW and Capcom have very different aesthetic styles that wouldn't necessarily mesh all that well with each other (not to mention very different core gameplay systems). To nail any kind of aesthetic consistency, you'd need to keep it franchise-specific... Like, Guilty Gear vs. Darkstalkers. That might have worked. GG and BB characters going up against Ryu and friends, though... Nah, I'm not digging the idea.

Didn't expect a loketest nearly this quick... But yeah, it's probably just to let players road test the basic engine and get their feedback on it. Which is really awesome if that's the case. Shows ASW is committed to getting the "feel" of the game right from as early on as possible and making sure the long-time fans are happy. Good god though, that HUD needs some work. I've seen a lot worse in other games (*coughsfxtekkencough*) but that's a strong candidate for the least attractive healthbar design in a GG title to date.

You sure it wasn't this guy?

People don't like to lose. That is an inarguable fact of human nature. Losing occasionally (or even frequently, depending on your familiarity with the game) should be tolerable if you're mature and walk into the situation with the right attitude. But I'll go out on a limb and say that NO ONE can be expected to enjoy playing any game when they're losing 100% of the time. I know a lot of people here are going to bite my head off for even suggesting this, but you might want to consider throwing the occasional round for the sake of keeping your buddy's win rate above 0%. Not saying you need to be obvious about it, but in situations where it's the final round and you're both low on life, just let him land a free combo and take it. Yeah yeah, you're doing him a giant disservice by rewarding poor play and he'll never learn that way and he'll be eternally damned to scrubdom and shut up David Sirlin no one likes you. If letting him get a free win now and then is what it takes to keep him interested in the game, ultimately that's better than him getting frustrated and walking away from it permanently, forever killing an activity you both enjoy. Now, if you've managed to create such a gap in your respective skill levels that you're just destroying him match after match where he can't possibly win unless you severely handicap yourself, you might want to look into alternatives to playing competitively. AC+ has a TON of single player content; take advantage of that. I remember years ago, I had a friend over to play the game on the PS2, and we had a blast taking turns trying to beat MOM mode with the difficulty turned up. We were technically playing the game together, both improving and learning new tactics for our characters, but the shared goal of beating the CPU turned the experience into a cooperative one where we were both cheering each other on. Instead of him vs. me, it was us vs. them. You can also try taking a joint tour through mission mode. Same shared goal mentality there, plus it's a great way for him to learn more about the game's various system mechanics.

I always found it peculiar that any discussion of GG from anyone outside the community seemed to zero in on the anime element, like the whole game was schoolgirls and dudes with katanas fighting under sakura blossoms to the sounds of traditional koto music. I suppose it's inevitable given that GG was the first "anime fighter" to gain any popularity in the US, so it's always going to be associated with Dragon Ball more so than Street Fighter. I don't think that's really the fault of ASW though. It's not like they've ever pumped the games full of sugoi kawaii desu~ne ^o^ bullshit or anything. The trailer for Xrd could not possibly be more saturated with the classic American rock and roll aesthetic, which I think is awesome. The only thing that says "anime" in that entire preview is the art style for the characters and the Japanese voices, both of which are to be expected (we'll probably get English voice options for the international release anyway). I don't think there's a whole lot else ASW can do to downplay the anime influence without changing the game's aesthetic into something beyond recognition. Now this point I can agree with 100%. ASW has historically done a lousy job promoting their games outside of Japan, and that doesn't seem to be changing. The only time their games get any real press in the US is when Aksys takes the reins. And after what's happened with BB:CP, it sounds like they're even getting left out of the loop on some stuff. To be fair, it seems like the company's communication with their fanbase is bad everywhere, with the Japanese players also getting left in the dark on the Plus R patch (although, if you want to split hairs, at least they got an official announcement it was being delayed). Also, one could take apart your analogy by pointing out that most FG players in Japan have probably never even heard of the new KI. Still, I think the point remains valid. ASW needs to step up their game when it comes to marketing outside of Japan. Quite a few serious gamers I know have never heard the title "Guilty Gear" before, which is absurd for a franchise that's seen over a dozen installments released domestically since the late 90s. You mean like they did with the original Guilty Gear. I don't think netplay should be an issue, honestly. The only game they've released for current-gen consoles with a subpar online component is AC+, which you can partially attribute to difficulties updating the old code to function online (coupled with the fact the port was obviously a rush-job). Every game they've made with an online infrastructure in mind from the get-go has been aces.

Nice. I feel like the missing modes and the lack of online play were the only things preventing the XBLA port of the original SC from being one of the best releases in the series. If they can avoid making the same mistakes with this (which they are obviously are at least in regards to online play), I think we have a viable candidate for one of the better titles in the series. Because let's not kid ourselves here, these games went downhill in a big way starting with SC3.

Wow, man. I agree with pretty much everything you're saying, but the attitude here comes off as so elitist and exclusive that I'm kind of just shaking my head. "How do we attract more good players who do the acceptable amount of homework without bringing in more filthy casuals?" I know that's not exactly what you're saying, but that's the vibe I get when I read your post, especially the quoted portion. I'm trying hard to be honest without sounding like too much of a jerk here. I know educating people is important and I'm aware of all that you do personally to spread that knowledge and I legitimately appreciate it, but this attitude that we're all chilling in some fancy club and we need to have bouncers outside to make sure people who don't clock enough time in training mode don't get through the door is TOXIC when it comes to scene growth. You have to open the gates as wide as possible and get people flooding in there, even the folks who "don't appreciate the genre/game at the level that you appreciate it." The ones who like what they see will stay and learn more; the rest will leave on their own. No offense intended, but this kind of discriminatory mind-set is one of the worst things about the entirety of the FGC in my view. I think the elitism of the community probably does more to chase people away from a long-term relationship with this genre that the difficulty of the games themselves.

Oh, well THAT clears up the console thing.

I found the discussion about input difficulty really interesting since, for me, it exposed a fundamental truth that I think covers a large potion of what this thread has been about: Whether it's something as basic as the command for a super or an advanced mechanic like timing 1-frame cancels, perceptions of difficulty and fairness are so highly individualized that expecting broad agreement on how to "balance" engine difficulty is absurd. One player's impossible is another player's boringly easy, and even if they should find an agreeable compromise, chances are it won't work for everyone else. As for the gameplay in Xrd, I'm just going to hope the end product retains that signature Guilty Gear feel to it, which I currently have no reason to believe it won't. I have my own ideas about what they should and shouldn't do with the engine--but then, so does everybody who plans on playing it. Ultimately, as long as the game meets the standards of quality the team has set with the series up to this point, I'll be satisfied.

I guess that's what happens when you have a company drop a major bombshell of an announcement and then go completely silent without answering any questions or providing anything in the way of even the most basic follow-up information. ASW is like the girlfriend who texts you a bunch of nude pics and messages about how she's gonna rock your world the next time you get together, then doesn't respond to any of your attempts to contact her for the next three weeks.