qwerty

No Johnny, no life. But seriously, give it time. I get the feeling many XX characters will find their way to Xrd's select screen, and those who don't will probably have some sort of spiritual successor. That, and we already have two new designs with Bedman and Ramlethal. Even if they aren't exactly the kind of characters I want to play personally, they're at least interesting enough right now that they'll probably evolve and flesh out with the rest of the cast. Admittedly, even though I do like Xrd a lot, my heart just isn't in it yet. More well designed characters will help with that, I think.

The way I see Johnny being balanced in Xrd is by making his setups meter dependent. Bacchus Sigh will probably have AC recovery but will be YRC'able, and I doubt Ensenga will be YRC'able. I do see him keeping Jackhound, but he probably won't be able to use it as a long range confirm such as in AC/+R. It'll keep projectile invincibility and launch on air hit, but the stagger on ground hit will likely be pretty minimal.

From #R onwards, I'd argue that Johnny has gotten stronger with each iteration. The reason he was low tier in AC was because of the system direction not benefiting that type of character; he was an honest character in a game that, at times, hinged on being tactically bankrupt. If you go and look at the changes he from Slash to AC, the only nerfs were Jackhound becoming a Force break (which wasn't really a nerf since that became a requirement and he got the highest tension pulse in the game to make up for it, but I digress), Divine Blade scoring knockdown instead of bouncing (which they fixed in +R with the new CH effect), and the worthless fall arc on Level 2 High Mist Finer. Past that, he really got nothing but buffed: new ways to score knockdown, 3H (a truly godly meaty), mist cancel on all but two normals, new gatlings, Killer Joker, the list goes on. +R doesn't have nearly as many moments as AC did, and they continued the trend of giving Johnny more and better options. They even gave him a Level 2 High reminiscent of the one he had in Slash to give him a reliable corner knockdown confirm from midscreen. I can envision Xrd Johnny as being pretty similar to Slash Johnny. They'll probably give him the old bounce effect on Mist Finers, with Jackhound serving its purpose as a meterless way to extend MF combos. I doubt he'll have the up coin at first, but perhaps later on they'll give him some of the moves from AC onwards. I don't see any issues with the system currently that would cripple Johnny, so he's a pretty safe bet for the next game.

I can only sit here and dream of Johnny with YRC. Upcoin YRC -> air throw? My body is ready.

Most characters are both stronger and more fleshed out than their AC counterparts, if you ask me.

The only issue I have with Xrd right now is that it's pretty vanilla. I'm confident that will change over time, however. (And I want Johnny, dammit)

I want Johnny. And Baiken. And ABA. And a personal letter of apology from Daisuke for not including them to begin with.

Gah, stupid Tapatalk. I'll use this post later.

Er, I meant 1. Nice catch.

One of these days, man. I'll probably be back next Spring. In the meantime, learn stick and come to Japan. You wouldn't have trouble with two thirds of the playerbase here, Zappa or otherwise. The one third you would have trouble against would make the trip worth it.

http://rapgenius.com/Kanye-west-to-the-world-lyrics#note-1064114

Sol gets in poking battles with Ky and Johnny now, and that meterless confirm is a much bigger deal than you're giving it credit for. I find the latest tier list to be pretty agreeable, but this game is hard to call below low S/high A tier. Likewise, I would remain open to characters changing positions as time goes on. Remember that AC Millia was once considered C tier (lol) and that neither AC Zappa or Venom were given due credit.

Neutral game and offense usually aren't fleshed out early in a series. In Xrd the only outlier is Faust, who has more offensive options than anyone. Eddie is stronger on offense to be sure, but his game plan is much more straightforward. In Ky's case, he's been designed to excel at converting any hit into a corner knockdown. His "flowchart" is pretty simple: knockdown is good, corner knockdown is better, corner knockdown with seal is best. I think the game will inevitably end up heading in a more XX kind of direction in this regard, where you'll have to decide whether to go for damage or knockdown, meter or tensionless, etc. Right now every hitconfirm is basically launch -> VT loop or press buttons -> Stun Dipper -> seal. It's not necessarily bad, just sort of plain and kind of unexpected from a game that calls itself Guilty Gear.

The good news about this matchup is that you now have actual answers to 2H. Gone are the days of counter mashing 2H! In block strings, you have a few options depending on your frame advantage, listed from safiest to riskiest: - Preemptive up coin (usually have to push him out with FD for this to work) - IB -> Mid MF - IB -> DBT -> DB At neutral as well as in your block strings, Mid MF will beat it clean so long as you aren't too close. Lastly, I discovered a pretty janky OS on accident awhile ago that beats 2H. The input is: [1]K -> S+H~5H If you time 2K to beat 2H, you get the cancel in to 2S 5H. If you time it too early, you get a Slashback and 5H counter hit.

Have you seen the chick with the overbite that plays Samsho? Sent from my PTL21 using Tapatalk

Ky is kind of a flowchart character now; most of the cast is. It's to be expected with this being a new game. It's certainly not as bad as it could have been (BBCT), and I think it will only improve from here.

I was at Mikado for a bit earlier. I saw a guy who didn't look Japanese, but I was kind of in a hurry to leave (I was just there because my friend was on his way to meet me) so I didn't talk unfortunately. I was also fairly inebriated so perhaps that was for the best.

I've been getting it in against Axl lately. Much like when I first fought Axl in AC, it felt like a pretty shitty matchup at first. Once you take a step back and really look at what you can do, however, you'll see it's actually not that bad. Let's get the dumb stuff out of the way first: yes, 6H is annoying. But if you train yourself to block it you can do so pretty consistently (I was able to block it earlier and I was hammered). Don't try to out-button it or backdash or whatever else because it's just not gonna work. Respect it and move on; you will get your chance to press buttons. You know what else is annoying? That fucking DP. That's something else you're just gonna have to respect, but at least it's unsafe, unlike 6H. Be warned: if Japanese Axl players mash this like a madman any time they get a frame out of blockstun, you can bet your bottom dollar that American Axls will be playing Shoryu FADC: The Game. You're just gonna have to live with it and punish accordingly. Okay, enough of that. What about the actual matchup? Much like AC, you're gonna be chilling at the other side of the screen, doing your walk forward -> backdash thing. Axl will press 5P and 6K a lot and you're gonna be afraid to do anything. Ideally, you'll be able to lame it out until you get about 50% tension. At that point, you'll be walking forward and blocking low to slowly get in on Axl, with neutral jump/jump ins as needed (basically if you yomi something like 2H). This is where those +R changes come in to play. If Axl whiffs something, you can now punish with Level 1 Mid MF. Even on normal hit it'll score corner knockdown, so that's definitely your go to whiff punish (not just against Axl but in general). This is more useful at roughly the max range of MF, but it works at closer ranges, too (f.S still whiffs over a lot of stuff). Failing that, you can whiff punish with other moves (5K, 2K, 2S, 6P, 5H), or you can work your way in for a tick throw and score knockdown that way. So now you have Axl in the corner. Granted, you're at Level 1 and don't have mist over him, but it's still where you want him. If you're going to place meaties over Axl in this situation, stick with lows (2S, 2K -> c.S). Reason being is, surprise, Axl players like to mash wakeup crack counter! You can always throw an upcoin for that extra assurance that he probably won't mash, but if you do that you should just tick throw him via proximity block since nobody can deal with that (JOHNNY STRONG, FOUR MORE YEARS ). Basically, as long as you don't do any obviously mistimed meaties against Axl, he shouldn't mash anything. If you have mist over him, then Level 2 Mid MF will deal with mashing jerks well enough. Another secret top tier strat is that if you jump in against Axl, you can buffer 236236 and press H on reaction vs 2S and it'll win every time! In conclusion, it's probably a half point for Axl, but that's mostly just because he's stupid now, rather than any actual shortcoming on Johnny's part. Just be patient, and if something you're trying isn't working, just hang back and figure something else out. Easier said than done at times, but that's the life of a Johnny player.

A dangerous mindset. Don't think of Mist Canceling as extending blockstrings, think of it as returning to neutral with a slight advantage. Once you accept this, things become much clearer.

I had the epiphany not too long ago that American style tournaments basically cheapen the value of victory (Well, it was more like something I've always known, but didn't fully grasp the magnitude of until I got to experience other formats). I understand that there are reasons for the format, but you can't deny that it makes winning a match count for much less than it should. That being said, I think Guilty Gear works perfectly in double elim 3v3 tournaments.

Whenever I get danger time I mash RTL like a madman

I was referring to the effect on hit. Against standing or crouching opponents, it staggers. Against airborne, OTG or re-stand, it forces an OTG slide effect. Ending a VT loop with a seal will always cause the slide effect because your opponent will be airborne when it connects.

Best combo I've seen yet. I'll have to try that. It does as much damage as a VT loop more or less and you get the positioning of ending with a seal; basically, the best of both worlds.

This is symptomatic of a larger issue, that being that combos in this game basically all do good damage as long as you get enough hits in. The damage scaling doesn't seem to really kick in until the 8th hit or so, which is part of the reason I've been saying you're best off just getting an easy knockdown. When you hit the seal OTG, nothing will combo (non-black beat) unless you RC. Even then, you won't be relaunching for a VT loop or anything. It causes a bit more hit stun than a non sealed Stunedge. If you confirm it and RC, it leads to combos even full screen. That would be correct. Quite honestly, unless it's going to kill, you should never do air RTL in combos. I also have some issues with people falling out after the first few hits but for now I'll attribute that to me being a scrub.

Don't mind me, just complaining like the scrub I am.