Balguna

I've noticed that Carl now calls Nirvana by name instead of 'nee-san/Sis'. Is this a new change or has he ever called it Nirvana in previous games?

It's only invul from frame 5, your meaty timing might just be off. That or lag is screwing with you.

Don't know if this should go in General or Combos, but I guess it's potentially useful for Fatal starters. How do you even do that Rachel combo? (starts at 1:47).

A couple quick things to note: -Good Teddies will also incorporate throws into their item mix-ups. Keep an eye out and be ready to tech if necessary. -DP is very risky against Teddie since if it's blocked, he can 2C FC for a 4k+ combo. Even if you have meter, he can 2B CH instead before you recover in time to super cancel. At the same time, it's also a really good option against him since it screws up a lot of his cross-up attempts. Do watch out for air backdash > j.C instead, since it'll catch Mitsuru due to her moving forward during the DP. -Teddie's sweep has considerable range and goes under both 5A and Coup. However, it loses to 5B and can't really be converted into anything significant without meter or OMB. The same goes for 2D Teddie, but it's pretty rarely seen, although it has the benefit of ducking under throws (but is completely vulnerable to lows). -5C > backdash > 5C isn't always safe due to Teddie's access to farther reaching and decently fast tools, like 5B and 236A.

Nah not the standard 22D, I'm aware that has uses. Do you get anything out of 22[D], as in, holding D long enough that she doesn't do the final hit which throws them away?

Is there any word on if there are any changes to her Overdrive yet? I'm guessing the 'no heat loss on block' is no longer a relevant part of Heat the Beat. At the very least we might be able to use it to gain access to a pressure tool at the start of the match with the new 5D, like how some Tsubakis OD at round start to gain charges.

So just picking up Bullet, and was wondering: is there any use for 22[D] after 623B, or the brake during Miquelet?

Neither of them are really top tier, but as long as you enjoy them really. Labrys has massive normals and high damage combos, but suffers from a few things: poor speed, a sub-par DP, and being very reliant on offensive momentum. Her 2B is also fairly slow, so she has to watch out for jump-ins despite its range. Her defensive options are either awkward and/or cost meter, and unlike say, Naoto, her normals aren't fast enough to mash out of a lot of pressure either. When she's dominating she can be very threatening, but when forced on the defensive her options are fairly limited. Her comeback window isn't as potent as Liz either, as she needs to build up to red axe to really become threatening, while Liz can be dangerous as soon as she hits Awakening. She'll get better if we ever get 2.0, however.

Yeah, that. The wiki should also probably mention that in OD, her drives become cancellable; first and second hits can be cancelled into specials, and third hit can be cancelled into distortions and Astral.

Incidentally, here's an 'easy' solution for challenge 15 (4k+ damage with CT): Push dummy into corner > OD > Crush Trigger > 6B > 5C (all hits) > 2D > 4/6D > 4/6D > 21456C Does 4079 damage.

Negative Penalty (which she JUST HIT) means 50% more damage taken. It's an amazing finish.

Just wondering, what are the properties of Risette Field's orbs, both when manually detonated or when orbiting? I'd presume projectile when detonated but don't know how they function when orbiting. Same goes for the notes. Are they projectiles or strikes when detonated?

Don't forget that unlike Yukiko, Yukari can't really hammer at you that much from fullscreen outside of Magarula - blocking high will block everything from fullscreen and give you meter for blocking, forcing her to come to you or letting you wait till you have enough meter for SB Bearscrew/TVs.. Arrows are indeed annoying, but if you're patient you'll be able to find holes in her defence. Remember that her defense is pretty weak, so if you get a chance to close in don't let her go that easily.

2D is indeed the move you're thinking of. If you have 50 meter and are in Awakening, you can also Circus Bear out of the unblockable; if Adachi is close enough to your edge of the screen or delayed it too much, chances are he won't be able to jump out of the way in time. Either way, you'll take a card from him, and Adachi doesn't have too many punishes to it, outside of, once again, 2D.

Previous years have all been using JP voices, I believe.

Sweeps and throws, yeah. Even a charged B Hook if they're being really respectful. And don't forget Aki's throw doesn't send them full screen, it leads into Kill Rush followups.

Rough analogies: Yu: Jin (Well-balanced) Yosuke: Bang/Taokaka (Speed, pressure, mix-up) Chie: Makoto/Taokaka (Short-ranged, good mobility, high damage) Yukiko: Nu/Mu (Zoning, full screen pressure) Kanji: Tager (Slow, grappler) Teddie: Platinum/Tsubaki (items, long reach on normals, iffy mix-up/pressure) Naoto: Arakune/Kokonoe (mobility, traps) Yukari: Rachel/Mu (Zoning, screen control, high execution) Junpei: Bullet/Arakune (Power up) Mitsuru: Jin/Amane (Footsies, freeze, good space control) Akihiko: Noel/Taokaka (Rekkas, short range, high damage) Aigis: Valkenhayn/Izayoi (Alternate form with high damage/mobility, additional resource mechanic) Labrys: Kagura/Azrael (Massive normals, momentum based, high damage combos with momentum) Shadow Labrys: Carl (puppets, can put puppet in standby/defensive mode, strong pressure, low life) Ken: Relius (puppets, can dismiss/summon puppet, strong pressure/damage) Elizabeth: Terumi/Hakumen (meter heavy/generation, low life, poor mobility) Adachi: Hazama/Ragna (decent pressure and mix-up, benefits greatly from Awakening/Overdrive) Rise: Azrael/Rachel (setplay, space control, pressure/oki, weakpoints/notes/scan) Marie: Platinum/Rachel (item pressure, space control, weather manipulation) Margaret: Jin/Litchi (well-rounded, multiple options) Sho: Hakumen/Amane (rushdown, parries, amazing pressure, huge normals) Minazuki: Izayoi/Amane (good damage, teleports, amazing pressure) Note that these are just analogies and some of them aren't necessarily good fits. Just as how each game has some very unique characters, Persona has some unique characters as well.

One issue I can think of is that there isn't very much 1.1 play of console characters - Rise, Ken, Adachi, Marie and Margaret. It might be quite hard to find gameplay footage of them. Has there been any confirmed list yet of non-JP players attending? Hoping Brkrdave attends again, his EVO matches are always amazing. Another thing I'd be wondering would be if any JP players that jumped ship to another character after 2.0 (like Damosu going from Liz to Adachi) will be going back to their 1.1 character or adapt.

You can't Shadow Burst while backdashing, that's what the flickering's about. The second flicker is right before Akihiko's attack connects (you can't Burst mid animation unless you hit or get blocked, similar to OMC).

Souji's YouTube channel is a good resource for 2.0 Teddie in general. I'd just subscribe or keep an eye on it if you want to keep updated on Teddie.

[3/7/2015] Maddo (S.Teddie) vs Yamashita (S.Mitsuru) 1/3 [3/7/2015] Maddo (S.Teddie) vs Yamashita (S.Mitsuru) 2/3 [3/7/2015] Maddo (S.Teddie) vs Yamashita (S.Mitsuru) 3/3

New Shadow Teddie CMV by Moja

I believe you can be grabbed out of C Duck (and it'd be untechable since it's considered a CH?) whereas if you dash you can still tech it.

Personally I found the easiest way to do 24 is to just OMC the 214B. Rise starts that challenge with 100 meter so you can do that and still be able to do 236236C near the end.

2.0 Shadow Teddie combo video by Moja Nothing incredibly new, but a good base for learning the character; combo thread has been updated accordingly. 236B looks like it will be a very useful combo tool for both variants of Teddie. We haven't seen anything for normal Teddie yet, but I imagine you should be able to go 5AA > 236B > stuff for slightly more damaging combos at the loss of some corner carry (which isn't too big of a deal for Teddie). You should even be able to do actual air followups (even ending into the new j.2C into status) now due to 236B floating on hit. Mild speculation, but I suspect Nihil Hand's minimum damage might be lowered slightly; I can only guess based on the video, but I suspect it might have gone from 1400 > ~1050.