TheRealBobMan

End some block strings in 2H. It's +6 I think? Or at long range go into f.S because that's also + on block, and then go into 5K/6P/2S/5D/HCL depending on what you think they'll do. Also, instead of just pressuring, remember that you can high/low mixup off of 5K and c.S. Don't always do it since the overhead options leave a gap. TK Sdive is like 18frames of startup if you want to make sure it'll actually hit, and 5K/c.S have 12/13 frames block stun respectively. With the extra airdash in +R it's a little more rewarding to go into j.D FDC j.K/j.S if you have meter, but you'll still have that 8 frames landing recovery if it's blocked, which still opens you up. Once you have them thinking about going ground-to-ground against you with say 6P, you can STBT under them. Once they start to poke with stuff like 2D to beat that, you can TK Sdive or even VCL FRC. Of course it depends on what character you're playing against, as some of them have hitboxes that cover most of those options and force you to play different. Also, if you have meter, you can 5H/2H into FB-Note. That gives you enough time to set up another mixup. FB-Dive is pretty awesome at sniping people who jump, and since you can cancel it at any time from frame 6-60, you can go right back into pressure if they block it, even if they're on the ground.

While it's cool that Epic games cared enough about what a Japanese fighting game company wants out of an engine, it's not exactly amazing. If they don't update their engine with stuff that other developers want, those developers wont license their engine. If it's a useful enough tool, it makes a lot of sense to add it in case other developers want to use it. But yeah, that's really good news. It shows that ASW is a little more connected in the West, and also means that if they make a full jump to next gen, there will be slightly less work to do in the transition.

Wanted to remind everyone that while Xrd has been in arcades for a while, Ramlethal and Bedman are still new, so people don't have as much experience with them compared to a character like Sol. When I played the demo I was still throwing Bandit Revolver on reaction because that's trained on instinct after playing for so long. By now I would assume the top players have a general understanding of her gaps and gameplan, but without frame data they might not know where they can IB into guaranteed punishes, and/or might not know how to optimize their punishes. It's also really hard to defend against a character when you have to learn new animations/telegraphs. Recognition comes from experience. So... I want to see what Ramlethal can do with j.D FDC. It'd probably be even harder to use than I-No's since you have to aim her j.D up/neutral/down, but since she moves back with the neutral one, it has one extra option over I-No's (potential crossups and double crossups). It's scary as **** to think about her 2D being jump cancelable when she might be able to j.D FDC like I-No and immediately land, or float after she short hops into a sword set and go into overheads. Of course she might not get all of that, so we'll just have to wait and see. I should have tested it but I didn't think of that until after E3, and I could barely do it with I-No since we had to play pad. I doubt I would have been able to angle it with Rammy.

Yeah, there's a lot of "stealth" nerfs going on with I-No. We can still combo in the corner with Sdive, but it doesn't float on hit at mid screen so we can't really use it as a mixup tool (and remember that while I might have been messing up, I couldn't get combos even when I RC'd Sdive and had the time slow). Sdive also seems to wallbounce people back out of the corner from time to time depending on spacing, which is really annoying and stupid. I don't think Kdive causes floorslide on CH anymore, so lost some starter potential there too. Losing dives as starters hurts primarily in the 'bait > punish' department, followed by the mixup department. Pretty big detriment. STBT-S doesn't seem to lead to anything ever other than a reset opportunity, so it's pretty much a combo tool, though it's not as important to use as before. You see, you'd do 'whatever > 6P > STBT-S' because STBT-S builds like 9% meter while doing a little more damage than 5H, so you could follow up with 5K > HCL and usually have enough for 6FRC6 to do 35%+ damage and corner push. Now you'd need 50% for RC, and the damage wont be quite as good because of the RC prorate. Then STBT-H can lead to a combo on CH, but the float is so minor and they get pushed out so far that you're basically only going to get to combo into 5K or 6P, which out of the corner isn't going to lead to big damage (probably only going to get j.S > j.H > Sdive knockdown). HCL's range nerf hurts her punish game. I also miss the buffed vertical hitbox where her body is (better j.K confirm options), though I feel like it may have been a little too big in +R (didn't need to reach so low that it'll beat GV or Sol's 2D, since that defeats the purpose of VCL as a cold-read kind of poke). I don't know if people like the old/current f.S, but I kinda like the utility of the AC/+R version. On the one hand, I HATE that you get f.S when you're point blank instead of getting c.S, causing your combo to drop, but when you actually have it as a zoning tool that's +5 on the first active frame (in +R, I think it's even in AC) and active for like 10 frames, it's pretty nice, even with the terrible Forced Prorate (60% in +R, 50% in AC). Sure, I can use it in combos now, but it's pretty easy to just use 6P > 5H instead so why bother most of the time? Until I see some frame data and try to figure out a use for it, I feel like it's not helpful. 2S nerf hurts her mixup game pretty bad, and it also doesn't have as much range going for it, so that hurts in the punish game just like HCL. It's way worse for the mixup game though since we can't mixup off of 5K and c.S any more. Before you could j.K/2K into c.S into TK-Sdive/2S, and off of 2S still had some options on block. We still have j.D FDC for overheads since the dives wont work, but what's the point off of 5K and c.S if the only low we have is 2D now? It doesn't have the range to mixup off of max range 5K, and you don't get a follow up off of it either since it's the last move in your chain (and really minus on block too!). It's also a lot less safe to try since they could IB the c.S or 5K and DP or BS before 2D starts, whereas the gap was much smaller with 2S (9 frame startup vs 12 for 2D, if that hasn't changed). Gotta spend more meter to combo off of a throw. Can't combo off of 0-frame airthrow. Gotta use the command throw, which if it follows GG convention will be slower than a regular throw. I feel like this is a fair tradeoff for having good range on instant airthrow since the air command throw is actually really good (can use it out of ground moves that you can't jump cancel, restores jump options, can use during an airdash). Maybe nerfing her mixup is ok for a game that's supposed to appeal to new players, but they took too much away in the process. Losing Sdive as a starter is huge. Losing HCL range for knockdown at 2/3 screen to get oki hurts. Hell, even damage is sort of homogenized in this game (everyone does 50% with their first combo, then does like 20% for their next 2-3 combos), which takes away from I-No's hugely variable damage. It was cool doing only 15% off of a throw with meter, 20% off of a low, getting 35% off of an overhead, and 50% off of whatever the fuck if you spent meter (2S JI'd via HD into HCL 6FRC6 for high damage off of lows, j.S off of highs into HCL loops, Fortissimo for the invul starter, etc). She can still hit hard off of Fortissimo, but for the most part she always seems to do the same damage, which is around her average damage from before. I haven't really seen burst damage for kills on their last 40% health, but combos still need to be optimized so whatever. On the plus side, while it's never really a good idea to go for Sdive/Kdive overheads, we can YRC into j.K/2K for mixup? And STBT might suck, but we can YRC into mixup? *edit* Wanted to point out that I generally think of 5D as a shitty zoning tool rather than a mixup tool. Gets more mileage that way. The hitbox is actually pretty big, so if you bait them to stay on the ground with a mid/high note and 5D from like max f.S range, odds are run into it like an idiot or dash break and crouch block out of instinct, which gets them hit. Just kinda sucks when they then jump at the last second and you get NOTHING for the hit.

Yeah, I thought my friend had told me that he asked them about English Voice Over stuff, but I was so burned out that I wasn't even sure anymore. Thanks for confirming that. English VA should get some people to play it that otherwise might not have cared. The Limited Edition better include the complete soundtrack in the highest quality possible.

Yeah, uh... i was seeing that in vidyahs before we even got +R in the US. It's really ****ing awesome, so I guess it's cool that you posted about it since no one should really miss it now? Sometimes you get so caught up in other stuff that you miss the little things, so it's all good.

Nah, YRC works on startup through active, assuming the active frames didn't connect (IE if the other player isn't in hit/block stun, which they wouldn't be if it whiffed). If the throw has more than 1 active frame you can YRC on whiff and go for something else.

Nah, he should remove his eyepatch, his eye should turn into the confection witch from Madoka, and it should bite your head off. It might help if instead of saying "dumbed down" you actually say "simplified". You're making it sound like gameplay depth was removed, which isn't necessarily the case when simplifying things. I would say the RISC gauge is simplified compared to the Guard Gauge from before. I like the Guard Gauge more because you can see it drop below the neutral value, which helps you figure out when you should press on with your combo and when you end in knockdown. However, the RISC gauge removes the guessing game for new players that comes with having the gauge be at 50% most of the time. It's harder to figure out intuitively what it does that way, whereas with RISC only showing the positive values when a player blocks attacks and dropping back to empty over time or when they then get hit, it's a little easier to figure out what the meter does. It also takes up a little less space and looks more stylish. As you can figure that the gauge hit neutral at X point in a combo anyway, you haven't really given up that much information by removing the "below neutral" values from being displayed, so it's only "simplified" and not "dumbed down". I'd like to have the old meter because it's what I'm used to, but I like how elegant the new one looks. Having the meter only show positive values gives them a little more fidelity in describing just how full it is, as it doesn't have to dedicate 1/2 of the display to negative values. I wont go into huge detail because this is the GG thread and not a BB thread, but your statement about GG having fewer wakeup options, or whatever it was, is misleading. Here's what happens: GG knockdown happens and you're waking up. No matter who you're playing as, you can: Commit to blocking the other player's string and wait for more options Reversal Throw Reversal Backdash 1-Frame Jump IB immediately followed by another action You can also use a reversal attack, even if you don't have a completely invul-on-startup move (the other player might try to throw or do some stylish shit, and everyone has 6P for upper body invul). Most characters at least have 1-use of OTG burst or Reversal Gold Burst. Now let's look at BB. You can: Emergency Tech Forward Emergency Tech Backward Lie there and risk getting hit but maybe avoid a forward/back tech bait The third option gives you another tree of: Delayed roll forward Delayed roll back Stand up And all of this shit occurs before you use almost the exact same wakeup options that you would use in GG (you do them right after the tech)! Except that throws in BB suck so you can't reversal throw. And backdashes pre-patch in CP sucked so reversal backdash was a shit idea unless you were Tager, Kokonoe, or Valkenhein. So uh... you have block, reversal attack (non "completely invul on startup" moves aren't as worth it as attacks are generally slower in BB and you can just throw break anyway), or 1use of Overdrive mode which has startup invul. Putting a teching system in front of the wakeup options doesn't exactly make the game deeper, and the lack of the teching system doesn't cause the game to be "dumbed down". You're putting a layer of "1/3 chance to get hit, 1/3 chance to escape, 1/3 chance to be put back into a defensive position" on each knockdown, which occurs before the yomi layers of oki/wakeup take place in games without the tech system. It's not causing the yomi layers to get any deeper, it's just putting 2 layer deep decision in front of the wakeup game. It's different in Smash because teching also changes your position, and position is more important in that game because you KO by pushing the other player past the blast lines, and there are platforms that might restrict oki options depending on which direction the player rolls. I'll stop now. I'd have stopped before this, but I don't want someone new to Dustloop to come into this thread looking for info on Xrd, see him complaining that Xrd is a dumbed down BB or whatever, and then see the discussion drop because "stop arguing" without an explanation that GG is still really deep. Mike Z is right about stuff like 'command throw > YRC > punish whatever beat the throw attempt' being dumb though. The more I think about it, the more I feel like we'll see meter chicken at high level play. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it could put an emphasis on meter management and option selects over making cold reads. On the one hand, it's more obvious to low/mid level players that "something exciting" happened when you see a YRC, but on the other hand, it's much more exciting to make those cold reads when you're playing. We'll just have to see how the metagame advances when the game comes out. Seriously though dude, stop complaining that Xrd doesn't have a lot of content WHEN THE CONTENT ISN'T ****ING FINISHED. Are discs being pressed yet? Is the game out? Didn't think so. They're going to add some kind of survival mode because it's already in the arcade version, and they know how successful it was with BB and P4A. It'd be stupid not to include it when that kind of shit gets non-FG players to play fighting games. They're going to add story mode because why the fuck wouldn't they add story mode? The PS4 version would be FUCKING DONE RIGHT NOW if they weren't adding story mode. The demos show that the VS game play is done, so what else is there? Besides adding Sin I mean. There's a chance that they'll add English dubbing if there's enough demand. Send them an E-mail or something if you're passionate about that. I heard the dubbing thing from a friend who was at AX for a lot more time than I was. Not sure on the accuracy of the statement as I had a raging headache and was burned out from working insane hours, so I barely remember that he even said it. I forget who he asked or if the info was volunteered at the Aksys Panel. Maybe someone else has more info?

No more FRCs, force breaks, slashback? FRCs being tweaked is a welcome change since they added unnecessary difficulty. They brought a LOT to the table, but they added difficulty that maybe didn't need to be there. The YRC/RC/PRC system isn't quite there yet, but it's a step in the right direction if you want the game to be easier to control. Losing the utility given by Force Breaks sucks, but they wanted the game to be simplified. I'll deal with it till the next version of the game is ready. Play a new character if you're frustrated with your main's changes. Half the characters are missing? (Same issue as "Roster is tiny?") Yeah, that sucks. I don't like the "new engine new game" excuse, but they're a business and want to be able to release the game 2-4 more times with 3-4 more characters each time to make some money on it. Slower gameplay? The screen freezes on cancels and the cinematic supers do add time, but the game play isn't extremely slowed down. I'd prefer it if there wasn't a screen freeze on cancels, and I'd like it if there was a way to toggle the cinematic effect for the supers, but it's not a deal breaker. The OST isn't as good? I really like most of the soundtrack. May's new theme might not be as good as Blue Water Blue Sky, but it's pretty good. Slayer's theme is awesome. This is my favorite I-No theme. I'm sure there's some music you'll find likeable in there. If you don't, you can always mute it and play the old OST. Sound effects are toned down and have less impact. Options > Sound Test > Crank the SFX setting A lot of supers and instant kills are underwhelming/bland? I'd only say that I-No's IK sucks, and that's only because it's not as cool as old Megalomania where you got hit 500 times and bled to death from chip damage. How did we go from that to 6 orbs? The supers are the same goddamn moves, plus some new ones. What's the problem? Adding a cutscene made them bland somehow? Animation is choppy? What? Where? Command lists are barely changed and lacking? So... if they've barely changed, the original command list was lacking too? I'd agree that it sucks to lose moves/tools in a new game (I kinda hate SC3 and later compared to SC2 since they changed commands for no reason and removed a lot of moves), but if that's your complaint please try to convey it properly. It's like you wanted to say "and" just to make this complaint seem worse, and did it in a way that makes your statement confusing. I mean, you're probably not complaining about the lack of new moves, considering Sol got a divekick, Ky got grinders, Millia got Chroming Rose, Zato got that shark super, Venom got QV, May got the beachball, I-No got an air command throw, Axl got a stance and Bentengari is a GOOD DP now, etc. Doesn't appeal to some old fans because it's dumbed down and doesn't appeal that much to the mainstream crowd because Blazblue is more likable? Hard to say a game is dumbed down when we don't have 10 years of emergent strategy developed. Most of the same decision making processes are there... YRC might add/remove some of it, but it's hard to gauge right now. Saying BB is more likeable is just as subjective as the OST comment. It's really hard to gauge if people are going to like BB more after they've played Xrd for a while. Older fans that don't like it might come back for the next version, or they can keep playing +R for now, and most of us would happily play with them. Still no ground teching in the year 2014? Why is this mandatory? What's the difference between other games where you'd always tech when given the chance and wake up at a certain time (no left-right roll), and this game where there's no tech animation and you wake up at a certain time? A tech system like BB adds a layer of depth to offense/defense that some players like and some don't. I'm ok with it since it reminds me of Smash, but I can also see it slowing the game down. Some characters have pretty good traps that can only be escaped one way, and so it's a yomi thing that you'd either use that escape method, or the method that beats the bait for that escape method... sort of like how with GG you might reversal throw or 1-frame jump or backdash, except that you're adding in a forward/back emergency tech, or delayed forward/back roll, or quick stand. I'd argue that this slows the game down since most options put you back on defense. GG favors the attacker, but the defensive options in GG seem a little more prone to giving the defender the initiative or at least resetting to neutral, assuming you don't guess wrong. Based on my limited experience the defensive options in BB seem to put me back on defense more often. Also, Ramlethal's music SUCKS. I don't care how delicious her thighs look, her music is terrible. Even Millia's old theme would be better final boss music. I disagree with both her music sucking, AND her thighs looking delicious. She could use a little more protein. That goofy hat is cute though.

I asked. The shirts are supposed to be an "AX Exclusive" thing. They might reprint more later, but it's very unlikely. Since XL was sold out I wound up buying L after hearing that.

My drunken, sleep-deprived opinion is that this is going a little far. This is why our community is sometimes perpetuated as "elitist" and other mean words. @Ally: In case you're still reading, I guess that's legit. I don't like BB as much as GG, but I sorta like that BB gives me the impression that it's GG mixed in with Smash (just think of the tech system). They emphasize different skill sets and have different execution requirements and burdens of knowledge. I'd rather play GG because I like the mechanics more, but there are things about BB that I can respect and/or enjoy I guess. As far as liking I-No's supers, Fortissimo is still an amazing move even if it's not as flashy as it could be, but overall her flashiness has taken a huge hit from AC. Part of that comes from her being significantly easier because of the systemic changes to the game (FRC vs YRC and her reduced use for cancels to do optimized damage), but it does hurt my desire to play her a little bit. Also, if I had to rate all IK's on a "coolness" scale, I'd put hers at last, which is a big disappointment for me. With everyone else you see the other player get ****ed, but with I-No, you only see the hit-sparks as they get "destroyed", AND the move that's known for causing you to bleed out 30% of your health in chip damage from being hit 50000000 times only has like 6 orbs on screen. What the fuck were they even thinking when they designed that? It was cooler as a boss/EX only super, and her old IK was cooler than that. So uh... if I actually have time off to go to AX, I'll play some more and try to figure out more stuff. I'm going to assume it's the same build, because it'd be insane from a logistical standpoint to create a more fleshed out demo in such a short period of time. I'm pretty hyped to learn Ramlethal. I'm wondering if you can combo into an IK if the hit is OTG... that's high on my list of things to try out because of the ramifications of that sort of bullshittery. Just imagine Ram-Chan doing a 65% combo into "Does it Blend?" super to get them to their last 10% HP, then you use the duration of the super to go into IK stance and hit with IK OTG for the kill. I hope that doesn't work, even though it'd be sort of situational and not necessarily "that" strong, though it'd be pretty strong. *Off-topic note-to-self edit* Don't ever try to shave with a straight razor while drunk again. *on topic edit* Not sure if people are noticing this, but the health meter starts flashing at different times when you get into IK threshold. If they get "reset", it'll start at maybe 10-15% health left, but if you're mid-combo, it occurs at like 5-10%. Don't know exact values yet, but those are some rough ballparks. If you can combo into IK's OTG, it goes just a little further in the direction of "you have 420 HP, but you REALLY only have 400 because you can OTG IK those last 20 points". I really doubt it'll work, but it's a thing to test. As you haven't been able to combo into IKs before, I wouldn't be surprised if this actually was a thing.

Xrd isn't even out and you're saying it's not as good as BB? What? How about waiting to find out what features it has before ragging on the netplay which isn't implemented yet? If you don't like something, you don't like it, but at least be fair about it. It seems silly to have this attitude when the game isn't complete yet and as far as I know you haven't tried it. Anyway, as far as localization questions, remember that I already asked about Europe and as Aksys doesn't handle localization operations there, they have no feedback that they can give. The only thing they were able to tell me was that it's really hard to release a product in Europe without a physical presence there.

Even though I'm still going to play I-No, I think I'm most hyped to learn how to play Ramlethal in Xrd when it comes out. Might even switch mains considering it looks like I-No is a little less about why I found her fun, and Ramlethal looks somewhat close to it. You know, sometimes when I watch footage of her it looks like she builds meter from moving forward. As far as I've been reading that's not the case? But then I see it in very small amounts from time to time... anyone have any idea why?

Dammit dude, you live in Japan. Why the hell are you 'California Bursting'? Teasing aside, congrats on beating FAB and making it to Grand Finals. That's seriously awesome!

I couldn't ask Ishiwatari anything that I had wanted to. As Aksys doesn't develop the game, the info they have is more limited (no info on stick compatibility). I asked about Europe and mentioned region locking, but they gave the standard "we don't know and if we did know we couldn't tell you because business reasons" answer, which is fair, especially since they don't localize in Europe. The guy also said that when it comes to Europe, it's very hard to publish there unless you're physically there. It might be easier to get digital sales going in that case, but that's just me speculating. Sorry I couldn't get any more info. But on the plus side... have they given Xrd a console release date in Japan? Since we found out we're getting it by this holiday season, I didn't even think to check. If we're getting it at the same time, that would probably mean they can start up on EU quicker, since what usually happens is JP Arcade > 1 year > JP Console > 1 year > US Console > 6 months > Europe Console and JP Arcades get the next version already. If JP/US get the console launch at the same time, EU might actually get it around or even before the next version is announced. That's not as good as having it at the same time as everyone else, but it's an improvement, and with the digital stores and ease of creating a foreign account on PSN "importing" is easier. @rage0ne: If you want more footage to show your friends to be excited over, or reference videos for whatever version of the game you guys decide to start playing now (I also suggest AC+R), there are various threads on this forum, and my signature has a link to a database of videos (including games besides GG). Not sure who updates that thing, but thanks to him/her again for keeping it stocked with the latest footage! *Edit* Also, here's a character introduction series for AC+R that several community members worked on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfouOVyyhiM&list=PLj34EySs1Ieb8Wjnj9H2Q-G4mdPXTd_xH It's a great way to get an idea of what each character can do.

Wait, so you can't grab a Gold Burst on startup anymore? Why the hell did they do that? Or specifically just with command throws, they won't let you grab the burst until it's in recovery?

The Dpad feels pretty good, but I still prefer a stick layout for the buttons, and I mess up some inputs on pad that I wouldn't mess up on stick. I'd rather use a PS4 controller than a PS3 or PS2 controller though.

Has anyone seen I-No grab a burst with the command throw? I tried it during E3 but no one gave me the setup for it. We can use the command throw FROM THE GROUND, meaning that if it's possible to throw a burst with it, we have potentially the best burst bait options in the game. Any non jump cancelable normal (like 2S/2H) into air throw. : ) Should be possible to beat those moves no problem with a good read, though there would need to be enough of a frame gap if they're doing it in a block string. Would probably have to IB whatever hit came before those.

Ok, let me explain what "Tension Pulse" is since it seems like we're getting things mixed up, and I was the person who first posted about it. Load up AC/+R, go into training mode, set tension to infinite, and look at your tension meter flashing. The rate at which it flashes is your Pulse. Unfortunately, the white bar that moves across the tension meter in Xrd is just an aesthetic effect, just like with the health bars in Persona. It always moves at the same rate, and it moves for both characters at the same time. If there's anything more to it, I couldn't figure it out between all of the videos I've watched and all the time I spent playing, which was at least 50% of the time I spent at E3, and I went all 3 days. Now, certain actions prorate your tension gain. These actions include Faultless Defense (green block), Dead Angle, RC, FRC, and Force Break, and do so for about 4? seconds. So, if you use any of these actions, you get less meter for a while. Supers DO NOT prorate your Tension Gain, and neither do Slashbacks. This does not affect Tension Pulse. Now, you're sitting in training mode right? Hit select or whatever button resets training mode. See how fast your meter is flashing? Backdash a until you're at full screen distance. Notice how it's barely flashing anymore and you might even be in Negative Warning state depending on which character you're playing? (IIRC Zappa and Pot suffer the least penalty for backing away, which makes sense for them). This is your Tension Pulse being reduced. Go ahead and pause, set your meter to 0, and unpause. That will reset you to 0% tension, though your pulse should be unchanged. Walk forward and look at how fast you get meter. Now hit the reset button and walk forward, again starting at 0%. Notice how much faster you build meter? Tension Pulse is a modifier that changes how much meter you get for your actions. A combo could give you 20% meter when you start it at Negative Warning, which is with a Pulse of nearly nothing, or 50% if your Pulse is racing because you've been dancing all over your opponent's face. Another cool thing is that IB and SB raise your pulse, and can actually raise it past your character's maximum. If you want to have some fun, go ahead and set it so that the CPU has 0% meter, then set it to block all with SB or IB. Attack it a bunch of times, pause to reset the meter to 0%, then take control of it and walk forward. It'll get full meter in like 1 second. Now, if you hit Negative Penalty, yeah, your Tension gets taken away and your Tension Gain is nerfed to shit for 10 seconds, even in Xrd. Don't run away too much! Also, there was that great thread about the guy who got into I think #R's code and was looking at the formulas for figuring out stuff like Tension Gain and Negative Penalty, which helped my understanding of this. Running away does hurt your Pulse, but specifically, being at full screen hurts it the most. If you're backed into the corner and backdash because that's the right defensive option to do, the game doesn't punish you anywhere near as bad as if you're backdashing at full screen or doing super jump > airdash away from your opponent nonstop while they're in the other corner or at half screen. Oh yeah, and because it was brought up, I don't think Blitz Shield prorates your meter gain, which is why it can be a useful defensive option despite being somewhat hard to use and sort of risky (whiff factor with the meter spent on it, and because IIRC they can't block Overdrives and possibly IKs). You also get back 12.5% meter when it successfully repels a non-projectile attack (not sure about when it absorbs projectiles). So yeah, similar to how some moves can prorate your damage, certain actions prorate your meter gain. That said, they do not affect your pulse, so you could RTSD and go balls in with 4 FRCS to do pressure, and while your meter gain will go to shit after you've wasted all of it, if you can keep the lockdown going for another 4 seconds, your meter gain would be through the roof. This made the decision to FD vs IB a really important one. You could get certain punishes with IB that you couldn't with FD and vice versa, but there were some deeper things to consider when either/or could work. GB goes up at 1/2 value when you're already in blockstun, so an IB could be the difference between 5K > 5H building 13GB and 23GB, even though your pulse goes up. If they get in after you IB'd and didn't use the reduced blockstun to escape, you'd suffer more damage. Is that worth it? Pot has the health to get away with it if he gets hit, and probably would like to avoid FD since he'd have even more meter to use. Since he can IB > backdash > Pot Buster it's kind of good to IB random things for meter since at any time he can make you whiff and punish you, though you could still punish him for it. Other characters might not want to take the risk as much. It's a cool layer of depth most people haven't thought about. So yeah, for Xrd I tested Tension Pulse out by RTSDing on someone, then walking forward. I then backdashed into Negative Warning and walked forward. Same Tension Gain from what I could discern. That was the best I could do in a combat environment (sorry Mike, I should have asked to test this stuff with you when we played!), and I feel bad as a QA Tester for not being more thorough. Still, this is better evidence than anything else I've been able to get from videos. The absense of this mechanic is actually really disappointing to me as I feel that the Guard Bar (now RISC) and Tension System really set GG apart from other fighting games. That said, the Tension System is still different from other fighting games since you get meter for actions other than landing normals and whiffing special moves. I hate that in other fighting games, you get meter by hitting the other guy, just to spend it to hit the other guy again a little harder. Some go the "extra mile" and have EX moves with different properties, but to me that's a sissy little thing that barely adds anything to the gameplay in most cases. I can use my DP, but if I expect you to DP with your better DP, I can use my EX DP TO BEAT THAT YEEEEAAAA In GG you have to make the decision to build more meter vs spend meter to avoid chip and GB+ vs doing unburstable damage with Overdrives vs use a Reversal Overdrive vs RC a DP on block to become safe vs Dead Angle out of pressure vs FRC to extend your combo efficiently vs FRC/RC to create unorthodox mixup... the tactics are amazingly built, and it only works because you can build meter more freely than in other games, yet you don't get so much that degenerate strategies emerge. I downplayed the importance of Tension Pulse being absent because I don't want to be that guy that makes everyone think the game sucks right when we finally have a way to attract new players after almost a decade. You still get plenty of meter, and most of the decisions are still there. You still have your meter gain prorated when you use FD/YRC/RC (maybe PRC, not 100% sure), and don't have it prorated when you use Overdrives. You still lose all your meter when you get Negative Penalty, and you practically can't get meter for 10 seconds. The plus side is that being at full screen doesn't drop your pulse, which means that maybe it's not too bad for Axl, though being at full screen with his stances does eventually cause Negative Penalty, so it's sort of a moot point since it just delays that effect. *Shrug* I'm sad because they removed a really cool system, and sadder because it's not like it accomplished making the game easier to understand. Almost all of you didn't even know what I was talking about when I said Tension Pulse, and the visual feedback was built right into the meter in a VERY elegant way, so I can't fathom why it's gone (it's not like they did it to get a meter off the screen). I don't think removing that system alone will hurt the game too much though, and I really hope they put it back in with the next iteration, though tweaking the Cancel System comes first. Anyway, that should start things off. I'll let some people read that and start posting responses, and maybe I can explain more stuff when I get home from work tomorrow. Despite things that I don't like about the game, I have a lot of fun playing it. At a glance I kinda want to say it probably isn't as mechanically sound as Accent Core, but it simplifies a lot and should help us get more people into the scene. It's also a good starting point for rebuilding the series since they remade everything in 3D in a different engine, and it should have good netcode, and amazing content sharing capabilities with PS4. If PS4 can load video directly to youtube now on top of streaming content, it should be easy for anyone to learn to be an Event Organizer and host Tournaments or Casual Sessions, given they have the space to get people together to play. If that leads people to start playing AC instead of Xrd, sure. Maybe my perspective is just different as I used to play Melee, which isn't quite as well designed as AC (though it's fun for emphasizing different skills and for different gameplay!), and had Brawl drop on my nutsack, which is infinitely worse than Xrd (and blatantly shat on the nutsack of everyone who played competitively with tripping). But yeah, if people were going to say "Xrd sucks because No Tension Pulse", I'd probably wind up calling them sissies anyway. For 99% of players, it'd just be a cached thought - they need an excuse to not do something hard, and it's a response that people would accept or let slide because it's this thing that someone who knows something said, kind of like when you memorize answers for a test and don't actually learn what they really mean. If you don't like the game for other reasons, or because we later discover that the lack of pulse really hurts the game that much, it'd be a different story. We'll just play +R (or AC if you're a Venom main or something - still kinda want to learn #R to play with some local Johnny and Eddie players, since I-No actually deals with Eddie kinda well).

I'm really sorry, but I couldn't talk to him about anything. They really wanted to get people in and out in an hour, and any chance I had to say/ask anything wound up going to him liking my shirt (the Jellyfish Pirate shirt from brokentier) and asking me where I got it before Aksys nudged me out. They weren't even going to let me ask to have my soundtrack signed and instead were going to make me get a signed poster, but when he saw me holding the Best Sound Collection he offered to sign that for me. So uh... looks like tension pulse doesn't exist anymore. I tested it a little more thoroughly today and there's no difference that I could tell between meter gain when staying in the other player's face and meter gain during negative warning. That said, you still get meter for "acting aggressive", and you get a lot of it. I suppose doing it this way still rewards moving toward the opponent without punishing zoning too much? Negative Penalty is still a thing and you lose all your meter along with having an extended period of time (probably still 10 seconds) where you can't build meter, but you don't get reduced meter gain when your pulse is low. I managed to beat Crosswise Heel clean with I-No's IK, among other moves. Also tried Slayer's IK out when I got one lapse in the line and played against a CPU, and it also seems pretty invul. IK's might universally be DPs, but again, I couldn't test too thoroughly in that environment. I don't expect people to be winning tournaments with this, but if you're not prepared you could get screwed pretty bad by IKs this time around. Before there was the issue that it was unsafe to go into IK mode, but it's quite a bit safer even without the screen freeze because of time slow RC. You can use a move with untechable knockdown or plummet or something, then RC > IK mode and be safe. It'd be high commitment to make it worthwhile (would probably want 100% so you wouldn't bleed to death), but you could win a round off of a gamble this way. Also, because Mortal Counters have so much stun it might lead to IK setups, which might help you make a comeback when you're otherwise screwed I guess we should expect some great Kusoru vids. On that note, I think out of all 3 days I saw Danger Time 4 times, and never had it happen myself despite multiple clashes during my games. When Axl beats Sol, he outright calls him Freddie. When Axl does his introduction vs I-No, he says he's been looking for her chest. She tells him to get out of her timeline. While I don't think you get meter for it, it looks like the game is doing that thing from BB where if you IB the first hit of a multi-hit move, you'll IB all the hits. I IB'd Rensen and got the "Just" icon 4 times and flashed 4 times.

Yeah, I can't wait to be able to sit down with this game and an arcade stick and actually learn more complex stuff in training mode. The PS4 pad feels great, but I can't tech or j.D FDC to save my life on this thing.

Yeah, so if anyone wants to play +R or even AC instead of Xrd for whatever reason, I'll happily play with you guys, and if I can find some time to learn #R I might be willing to do that too. That said, this is a great opportunity to get more people to play with, so we should embrace that. Or we could be the one club at school with 4 members that doesn't let anyone else join. I walked by Ishiwatari in the hall today. Didn't get to talk to him, but I swung by the Aksys booth about 30 minutes later and saw him there, which confirmed my suspicion that he was busy and shouldn't be bothered. The autograph signing is tomorrow so I'll voice everyone's requests as best as possible in the short time frame they give me. EU localization, PS3 arcade stick support for PS4, and GIVE US THE GODDAMN SOUNDTRACK IN HIGH QUALITY ALREADY. LIVE STREAM THAT SHIT STRAIGHT INTO MY BLOODSTREAM. I asked an Aksys rep about Europe Localization even though they don't handle that, and he said that generally it's REALLY hard to get something localized for EU without having a physical presence there. He couldn't really go into more detail than that, but there's some info. When there were about 20 minutes till closing, Mike Z made it over to the setups for the first time and I played with him for about 4-5 games. He complained about Xrd about as much as I complained about Smash while I was at the Invitational, so I guess it was funny to be on the other side of that. Sucks to be a Pot main, though is main complaint is that you can YRC moves on startup, which feels really different from what he felt GG is really about. It's certainly going to be a very different game because of that mechanic. I guess I kinda agree with him that the cinematic supers start dragging after a while, but that's probably because he hit me with HPB about once per game we played. That one lasts a long time, probably longer than any other cinematic super, and I think that May's whale does more damage so that kinda sucks (spending so much time on a hit that's actually not quite as strong as grab supers in other games). That said, I'll happily live with it if it gets more people to play the game. At least it's not 5 seconds of a skull breaking in MK or something. He also pointed out that the camera spin when a round ends probably starts up and happens too quickly, which can sometimes make it hard to determine what move won the round. If there's any part of the game that can afford to be a little slow, it's probably a round ending, so if they gave an extra 0.5 second before the spin it'd be less jarring. Otherwise, he nitpicked about things that were non-issues and even admitted that he wouldn't knock the game for those, like the loading screens being a little longer than he would expect for PS4 (come the fuck on it's a demo on a new console). To finish up with wishlist things and whining, I'm growing to not like the pauses/poses on YRC/RC and I hope they go away or get adjusted in some way with whatever next iteration they make. But once again, that's not going to stop me from playing the game. I'm having lots of fun with it. So anyway, I've been trying to get an opportunity to throw a burst with I-No's command throw, but haven't been able to yet. Since she can use it from the ground, she can even cancel into it from a non jump cancelable ground normal, which could mean she has the best burst baiting in the game. I tried to do Chipp's old impossible dust (5D > IAD j.K > 6H), but couldn't connect with the j.K at all. Mostly it's trying to play pad again and the lack of ability to just sit and practice, but I don't think you can really ID anymore. The combos are just different. *fart* Ramlethal feels ****ing weird, but she's cool. Damage output feels crappy if you're just using her "mash square" combos, but her swords are fun to use. That new May overhead is a 6K. Not sure if this has been confirmed before or not. Blocking Chipp's Bankai Messai (the "totally safe!" super where he dashes in and punches 30 times) causes the RISC gauge to max out. Also, once it's flashing it seems to stay flashing until it drops to about 1/2 way? Then, while it looks like it builds really fast, I forgot to consider that the guard gauge started at 50% and then scaled up and down, whereas RISC only shows the scaled up portion. It's likely that it's the same maximum value and build speed as before, but visually it fills up faster since it starts at a 0 value and is mapped differently to the gauge. There's no arcade mode with the demo. If only one person plays, they get a relatively braindead CPU to go 3/5 with. It kinda randomly moves around and does stuff, just like a typical 'normal mode' CPU in a fighting game. I played against a CPU Millia once near the end of the day, right before Mike showed up. With I-No, I'm not sure if it's possible to combo off of mixup Sdive mid screen since it knocks down now. I've tried to RC it into a combo multiple times and it always drops. Either I'm still not timing it right because of that posing effect throwing off my timing, or you'll just always hit them OTG. However, at the cost of weakened meterless mixup we get to knockdown with Sdive in situations where that wouldn't have worked, so that's a thing. Oh yeah, so I don't know if anyone has noticed or talked about it before, but during one match I saw a large part of Slayer's stage break off of a wall and fall on Sharon's head while she was reading. She almost acted like she didn't notice, which was pretty funny considering it broke ON her head as it was landing. The backgrounds are really fun to look at. Man, I'm ****ing tired. Also it seems like there's less free stuff at E3 with each coming year. Besides that poster I was holding up, I got a bag with Teddie's face on it (wanted to get more for friends but they ran out), and a Smash T-shirt. I also got an energy drink from playing Sunset Overdrive, which was actually better than I expected. I wouldn't have played it, but a co-worker let me cut in line with him so I didn't have to wait for an hour, and while I wont go buy an Xbone to play it at least I had fun. Also, can we stop paying attention to minecraft yet? No one cares that it's on PS4 and Xbone because everyone that cares about it already has it for like 8 other platforms. Those setups could have been GG setups goddammit! Gonna watch No Game No Life and go to bed. I wanna get there early tomorrow to make sure I can talk to Ishiwatari.

This is indeed real. Kaizen can (actually just did as I was typing this) confirm. My friends couldn't get passes but showed up for the invitational, and as I'm going tomorrow and Thurs I figured I'd pay my respects to the series that got me into competitive play and sit with them. I'll make up time playing GG tomorrow and hopefully get around to some games that people recommended I try out. I'm tired since I had a long day. After E3 I stopped by Iam8Bit for about 30 minutes, and after that we headed to dinner in Little Tokyo - I just got home. I couldn't test anywhere near as thoroughly as I'd have liked since they only have 2 setups in the Sony area, and one setup at the Aksys booth which was only open for a short time (and I left that early to show up to the invitational tournament late and be in that picture). Nobody that I could ask any legit questions to was there today, or at least I didn't bump into anyone that I could really talk shop with. When I played at the Aksys booth a guy was giving me the introduction to the game about how I should press L1 (mapped for RC) to cancel moves and "do stuff". I didn't want to be mean so I just let him give me the speech even though I felt like I know more than him. Considering most of the people that showed up for that either were playing for the first time in years or hadn't really played GG before, I didn't want to be "that elitist guy". So uh... 3 setups, only 2 of which are usually accessible since one is reserved in their business booth, pad only, and constantly switching out with other players (at least it looks like lots of people want to play it!). This also means almost no controlled experiments. One guy was nice enough to let me try 'hold tech' like in persona (I just held a button and jumped and let him hit me with a non-knockdown move), which doesn't work, so there's that. There was no PS3 version, so I couldn't test performance. No training mode. As far as game speed is concerned, since I'm not playing anywhere near optimum since I learned I-No on stick, I can't really tell a difference. Any difference is incredibly subtle. I noticed that any RISC that was cranked up when Danger Time is activated can actually deplete during that timer countdown... could probably confirm that looking at footage, but it's way easier to notice that kind of thing when you're not looking at 320p video. I mostly got info on I-No since I wanted that as like the controlled reference part in an experiment and I didn't have to spend time figuring out stuff with her. j.D still has noticeable recovery, probably 8 frames like before, which is difficult to detect from watching video. Looks like some characters might have 2 taunts and 2 respects this time. With I-No, her respects are a tip of the hat, and the hat talking like her old respect, but with her being really surprised about it. Her taunts are the old one where she leans forward, and a new one where she leans forward and sings into her mike stand. I also saw a May Taunt or Respect where she pogos around on her anchor, which looks really silly and cute. Looks like you can YRC Fortissimo (I want to experiment to see what this does with the screen freeze), and I think it's possible to YRC Desperation, or at least RC it, though the timing seems finicky for that one. The dash cancel windows on her ground normals is super late. j.D out of upwards hoverdash (input 663) does not cause I-No to shift momentum like j.D on jump startup. She continues to move upwards during the move's startup, though it falls off because the dash ends. I-No's IK has quite a bit of invul on it. I'm not sure if it's a true DP or if the invul is like May's whale (starting like on frame 5), but I went clean through someone's attack with it. If it's a legit DP, we could possibly do stuff like knockdown with meter > IK mode oki to bait a DP with the screen freeze, then 236236H in their face for a throw/DP OS if they committed to blocking. This is another thing I want to test. I wanted to figure out which moves combo into IK without spending 100% on RC > IK mode > confirm, but didn't get the opportunity. I-No can use her command throw on the ground. From the footage I've seen it looks like just a late TK, but you can actually do it much closer to the ground, or just do it grounded and have her jump forward for you. Her regular airthrow range feels great when you use the 663 dash. You can Blitz Shield while moving forward in an airdash. Any clash that doesn't trigger danger time is much more subtle than the clashes in AC. There's a bluish white hit-spark effect... they had headphones set up instead of speakers, and those things were so loud that I thought I'd blow my ears out even after fiddling with the volume for several minutes, so I only wore them once. No chance to confirm the sound effects on a clash so far, since that would be a big help in noticing them. Danger Time definitely seems to cause 1 full second of hitstun when you land a Mortal Counter, as if you RC'd on hit. I saw Sol get hit by like a 2K or something and he was reeling in hitstun for forever. Battle quotes were translated, like the character intro dialogue and victory quotes (subtitles). I remember Chipp saying something like "Why the hell does the leader look so clean? I wear all of my scars as badges of honor!" when fighting Ky... didn't write it down, but it was something like that. I did get two May victory quotes though, word for word. "Johnny says victory and defeat aren't determined by the length of your weapon." (Vs Axl) "I wont let bad people near my friends. (This lady is EXACTLY the type Johnny would like)." (Vs I-No) I-No says some blatantly slutty stuff, even vs May (no mention of daddy's milk though). She also calls Sol and asshole in their intro and makes fun of him for "finishing first" when she beats him. I derped around with Sol for 2 games. He feels damn good, and I get why people are playing him. Seems like you move super fast if you YRC when leaving the wall from Riot Stomp. No more mach-speed j.S spam in Dragon Install. Ramlethal is cool, though I feel like you'd really need to sit down and play with her for an extended period of time to get a hold of her gameplay. You angle her j.D (that dress canon that resembles Baiken's j.D) by holding up/down/neutral during it. I only tried her twice, once against a Pot that made it really difficult to figure anything out because of the stamina difference and the constant pressure into PB attempts. Played Bedman once. He seems really cool. Felt really fast for a large character, and his dash is cool. I guess if you get hit while dashing you can teleport through the hit or something? I'll have to test it more later. There doesn't seem to be any visual indication of tension pulse being a thing, but it feels like it's there. I built up a ton of meter walking forward when I stood around IBing Ky projectiles one round because I was taking it easy on a guy, and noticed less tension gain when backdashing and standing around a lot in another game. Without any way to objectively test I can't say anything for certain, but this still feels true. Just wish the tension meter still had the pulsing effect to illustrate it. RISC seems to build super fast. I saw a Millia crank I think Ky's RISC by like 50% from doing a blockstring like 2K > 2S > Lust Shaker X8? blocked hits. Smart tension use on FD and Dead Angles is going to be really important. When Ishiwatari is there on Thursday I'll ask him about the PS3 version, as well as EU localization, and ETA on the full soundtrack. As far as smash... an announcer at the Invitational did say "This ain't Guilty Gear" at one point during a match. I think the other announcer that was talking as they were looking into the crowd for the fan favorite to advance to the next round said "That isn't Smash!" one of the times I held up the poster. I didn't feel bad though since I did vote for Hugs whenever he was up, and some people were voting for characters that weren't even playing. I haven't played it on WiiU yet, but the 3DS version feels like Brawl. I saw at least one Bair that was unsafe on hit during that tournament...

I'm sure it's a joke. Besides the fact that the network infrastructure of this country is too shitty for that to happen, I'd rather meet up with 10 people at a friend's house and swear at each other for burst throws than play by myself at home with even 1 frame of input-delay from netcode. But yeah, looking forward to good netcode, good lobbies and other online features, and video capture/sharing capabilities of PS4. Should be relatively easy for anyone to stream/post and try to build hype for the community now.

The Mortal Kombat devs probably paid for the screen time. Sony also probably doesn't see as many potential sales in the revival of an anime fighter that hasn't seen a new release on their console in like 10 years (Overture being X360 only). Hyping Mortal Kombat probably makes more business sense to them, even though it's kinda dumb to not just have Xrd somewhere in their conference. In GG related news, this is the last chance for people to send me questions of shit to test before Day 1. I bought a notebook and put together a few pages of test plans (put these together during a goddamn pool party instead of being a normal person), but I don't want to miss anything, and I don't know what I'll be able to do until I get there day 1. I might be able to get on tomorrow night, and while posting everything I can probably wont be on the table for that night (will want to rest up for day 2), I'll have a better idea of stuff that I can test, and should be able to post about the systemic mechanic differences. Gonna try to get my copy of the Hard Rock Collection and Isuka soundtracks signed. Maybe I should be a derpsausage and ask him to sign my Wii copy of AC. Either they'll think I'm an idiot or a hardcore enough fan to play with shit motion controls. So you say gamespot is going to stream Xrd at 3:00PM PST? I'll try to pass by the booth and see what's up.