LockedAndClush

Actually Sol's c.S got improvements in 1.1, including increased vertical range. Might explain the differences.

There are a few staple things that you should practice, more or less regardless of the character you're playing. Practice whatever lets you maximize damage from pokes in neutral (assuming you cannot turn this hit into knockdown), have some kind of conversion to corner carry/knockdown for 50 meter or whatever you character can utilize to turn hits in neutral into it. It's also worth it to practice specific situations and converting rather than combos per se - for example, when you read an opponent's Burst, the situation can have a lot of variables. Sometimes you'll find yourself on the ground and close to the opponent. Sometimes you'll be a little further away and won't have much time to close the distance. Maybe you'll even be in the air above the opponent, who knows? Take time to study and practice all these options. Some moves that you'll see yourself using defensively or in neutral open up new combo routes on counter hit. Practice not just comboing from them, but in general noticing these counter hits and converting then. It doesn't necessarily have to be the strongest combo possible, just make sure that your hits are reliable and lead to knockdown, preferably with good okizeme (very important for Venom). Definitely have one strong punish for when your opponent takes high risks and you read them properly. A combo that is reliable, does high damage and leads to okizeme. While having strong neutral game and good damage of it is, in the long run, a much more advanced and scary concept, you absolutely must have a way to punish reckless behavior. I sometimes meet players that have a good sense of what the neutral game is about, but enable me to be reckless with moves (seriously punishable stuff like VV or GV) just because I know that they cannot punish me too hard. This skews the risk/reward factor in a way that goes completely against high-level play. So, to sum it up, in my opinion you don't need anything extremely fancy that the best players sometimes do (it will come naturally once you learn and practice routes), but there's a certain minimum of competency in combos that you need to get some respect from your opponent. Still, you should focus more on converting everything you can into knockdown/corner carry/okizeme and less on adding 10 more damage to a typical combo. Both are important, but the first one is the step to more respectful, careful play from your opponent. Prepare yourself for all typical situations where your moves may connect in certain ways and always be ready to gain the advantage from them.

Been a while since I fought a competent I-No, but there was a time when I frequented that matchup, so I may be of some help. At poking-range neutral, 2S is your friend. You will go under HCL, get a counter hit against STBT (convert to 6HS for knockdown with good okizeme), it's plus on block and even whiffed recovers very fast. It will whiff a lot thanks to her hoverdash, but the fast recovery helps. Don't get too button-happy after she hovers over 2S though. Throwing out 6P in attempt to beat HCL also goes a long way, since the reward on CH is huge. The risk that comes with lengthy 6P recovery is definitely worth it, if you keep your attempts to a reasonable number. As for note at neutral/fullscreen, you have to respect it. Don't expect to get her for using it, focus on not blocking it. You won't get too rush her down for free when she throws it out, but you have plenty of options to avoid it. 2D for example, if it's done at the height you mention, it will go over your head. Obviously that doesn't give you the advantage and she will approach you, but you should recover on time to contest her approach then (keep in mind her YRC might screw this up, since 2D has plenty of recovery). She might get encouraged to do notes very low then, but that opens her up to a free IAD, and you being in her face on your terms is her worst nightmare. This way you can force her to attempt to use not just two, but three "variants" of the note, greatly increasing the chances of choosing wrong. Can't exactly help you with okizeme though, since I never had much issues with it against her. Barring using 50 meter for a super or DAA, she has no answer to anything at all. Safejumps mixed up with empty jump lows and even a simple grounded approach looking for things like 2S>Fafnir or tick WT are good enough, since she sucks damage up like a sponge. Don't overcomplicate it and try to predict these 50 meter option. You can even throw the startup of her ground Overdrive after superflash, which is optimal since it's unpunishable.

Okay, so... Jack-O' is really Aria from an alternative timeline. This timeline is the one in which That Man's experiment with Justice failed, creating a way for the Universal Will to enter the world. As there was no Justice for it to interface through, it sent the Black Beast, creating the BlazBlue universe with it (which later looped infinitely, slowly adding distinct details and removing GG characters from its history). Aria was turned immortal and her memories were erased, and she became Jack-O' in the year 2190 or later. That Man caused some weird rip in time-space-continuum that caused Jack-O' to become a part of the Guilty Gear universe before the time she was actually meant to be born in it and boom, we have a setup for the GGxBB crossover. Just doing Mori's work here.

While I kind of agree that Ky's options seem ineffective, you have to keep in mind that you have projectiles that can be very effective at keeping Sol away. S Stun Edge YRC in particular is a very strong option in neutral, because it will lead to a knockdown/setup on hit, and once you have Sol in a DC HS Stun Edge, he has to either commit to something risky like HSVV or GV, or try to use meter for DAA or BS to keep you away. IAD back air S Stun Edge (even better with YRC) is also really good at catching Sol trying to recklessly re-establish his pressure. When he starts jumping/dashing in instead, switch to air HS Stun Edge. Establish that these options can stop him in his tracks and he will be far more likely to let go and allow you to safely escape. The most important thing when playing against Sol (not just with Ky, but in general for the entire cast), in my humble opinion obviously, is to learn patience and not get forced to play Sol's game just because he connected a few normals in neutral. A lot of time when I play people, better or worse players, the second I connect f.S>2S from max range midscreen, people become overly afraid. While it's obviously understandable that this option is strong for Sol, then there's no reason to let him dictate the pace of the match just off that. Jump back FD>backwards airdash/double jump (once at a safe height/distance) is just one option (particularly good in Sol vs Ky matchup) that comes to mind. Obviously by doing this one too many times you'll just put yourself in the corner, but if you don't try to escape then Sol will put you there anyway with Fafnir, Gunflame or Wild Throw, eating up your meter and health in the process (normal Sol combos hurt, but what really hurts are high RISC combos). That's not to say you should recklessly challenge Sol when he has frame advantage and can go for something very dangerous like GF YRC or Fafnir, but I always have the most trouble fighting against people who are not afraid to back off (theoretically putting themselves at a disadvantage because of the corner), rather than just let me get my game on.

While I'm indifferent to whether they changed it or not, I thought it made sense, at least. Why change so much about the character's looks without modifying her voice, winquotes etc. to reflect that change?

I have to admit that all this stuff sounds very interesting. I'm rather disappointed that Jack-O' is a Valentine (this theme is really wearing itself thin very fast), but the rest seems very interesting. The only thing that doesn't add up to me is that Sol didn't know that Justice was Aria. I don't know from where, but I was pretty certain it was at least hinted that he knows that. Anyway, if all this info appears in the arcade release, then maybe the consoles will get the game sooner than expected (I'd be content with them just upgrading the arcade mode to this, and maybe including a bonus chapter for story like BB does it with Extend releases).

I had a random thought of a badass flute or clarinet lead over increasingly heavy guitars, with a layered dual-guitar/bass/flute crescendo harmony. I don't know why. I should probably write it before Daisuke does though.

There is a thread for this, with a small list of players included http://www.dustloop.com/forums/index.php/topic/9825-xrd-id-psn-europe/ Also (unless my information is outdated, but I haven't heard about anything new in this regard), keep in mind that if you bought the game on European PSN, then you won't be able to play most people, because the EU version doesn't have any of the updates released for the JP/NA versions.

While I don't think that this is something Arc will be able to take out before Evo, I sure hope they remove it from Revelator. I don't mind option selects, but this is taking it a little too far. Some moves get just outright broken with this, and it's not even that hard to perform. This would also explain why I sometimes get specials when I decide to FD upon seeing my opponent press buttons - I would often input a command for a move and then just back out and decide to FD by going to 1 or 4 and pressing two buttons... hooray for throwing out moves like an idiot then.

I've also been getting a lot of dizzies lately. It feels very rewarding to blast a third of someone's HP with a combo and get a dizzy after a successful mixup. Leads to plenty of perfects or insane comebacks. I also love love love the P.B.B. damage increase so much over the last few weeks. While DI is still the same against more... button-friendly players (that is - wait for them to press something dumb and do GV, VV or BB), it really shines against respectful opponents. The combination threat of a long "reach" air throw, grounded throw and insanely advantageous normals together have proven to be tide-turner for me more than once. Harassing the opponent with normals until they're either out of meter because of FD or on high RISC, getting in their face with Bukkirabou ni Nageru and just going j.D>P.B.B.>RC>P.B.B. to watch the unburstable (or Burst-throwing!) salt flow.

He probably means "I can memorize the movelist after two days" or something. When I was 15 I also thought that meant "learning to play a character".

I have a similar feeling. I feel like her ghost summon and Organ based game will be very, very strong, but her normals and D specials will appear somewhat lackluster, and it will later get ironed out to weaken the gimmick and improve the fundamentals. That's how it went with Ramlethal, who was a similarly eerie (albeit not as complicated) concept. Or they'll just pull an Elphelt on us, overpowering her in both aspects from the start. Haha... please no.

That might be her 5HS, considering we heard it's a "capoeira style move".

My (theoretical, of course) understanding of this character for now (based on short footage and movelist) is as such: 22 + P/K/S places a ghost "bag". 2 + P/K/S picks up a ghost bag with the same button, and later you can press 2 + button to put it down, 4 + button to remove it (I'm guessing here, but I have no idea what else it might be) or 6 + button to throw it. 22 + HS enters a stance (it might be what appears at the end of the short clip we have, when she has a ring around herself) that allows her to interact with the ghosts and ghost bags. The only thing I have no idea about is whether the ghosts are summoned automatically (in time intervals) or if you have to press (release?) the appropriate button for them to appear. Still, she looks like a very dominant character, once her game is on.