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~Guilty Gear XX Slash - Preview~
Written November 12th 2005
Guilty Gear XX Slash is the 3rd version of Guilty Gear XX. Slash was released October 28th in the arcades of Japan. After
seeing plenty of videos of the game I decided to write a preview of this game. Thus this preview is based on the gameplay
videos and an article from November's Arcadia magazine, that deals with the new features of this game. You can find a
translation of that article from romancancel.com.
GGXX/ has all the characters from Guilty Gear XX #Reload and adds two characters: A.B.A from console version of Guilty Gear
Isuka and a new character Order-Sol.
A.B.A
Those who've played GGI are already familiar with A.B.A but for those who haven't played that game, I give a short
explanation of her. A.B.A has three modes: Normal mode, Moroha mode and Goku Moroha mode. In Normal mode A.B.A is weak and
slow. In Moroha mode she is much stronger and faster but she loses her energy as she performs attacks and when her Moroha
gauge runs out she will be stunned for a long time and open for opponents attacks. Every time A.B.A is knocked down she loses
about one third of Moroha Gauge.
Goku Moroha mode is activated by using one of her Overdrives and it also consumes one bloodpack. In Goku Moroha mode A.B.A
gains lots of new abilities but Goku Moroha mode doesn't remain for a long time. This mode is used similiarly to regular
Moroha mode.
Changing modes correctly is the key to mastering A.B.A. She has various attacks that make her change modes but you can also
change modes anytime by consuming one of the three bloodpacks she has. Changing from Moroha mode to Normal mode also gives A.B.A back some life she had lost by making attacks.
Due to having two different modes A.B.A has lots of normal moves and special moves. Using her might look difficult but she's
very powerful once you master her complicated playstyle.
Order-Sol
Order-Sol is one of the fastest character in this game, his moves recover fast and are mostly safe on block. Some of his
moves are similiar to those of normal Sol but most of his specials are completely different.
Order-Sol has and additional gauge the Charge Gauge. All of Order-Sol's specials and Overdrives have three different levels.
The level of move depends on how many percents (Maximum 399%) Order-Sol has in his Charge Gauge. You can fill your Charge
Gauge by using either Charge or Action Charge. Charge can be done as special move and it can be continued as long as you
want. Action Charge gives Sol 80% of Charge Cauge. You can use it by canceling his special moves by pressing D.
However during both 'Charges' Order-Sol takes counter hits meaning that if your opponent saw the charge coming he can punish
it for a lot of damage.
It is said that Order-Sol's specials won't do much damage on Level 1 but when they reach Level 2 or 3 they become much
deadlier. Getting more than 300% percents of Charge Gauge in a round doesn't happen that often since using a Level 2 move
takes 100% of the gauge and thus you must use Charge in order to unlock Order-Sol's most powerful moves. Mastering Order-Sol
will definitely be a difficult task but it's certainly rewarding.
Old Characters
Unlike in #Reload all of the old characters have gained new versions of their moves or completely new moves. Johnny's new
Jackhound adds a great deal to his mobility and by Roman Canceling it you can follow it with a combo. I-No can now perform
vertical version of Chemical Love and she can now double jump or air-dash after her normal so-called 'Hover-dash'. There's
lots of more new moves and new versions of old ones.
Certainly properties of some of the old moves have been edited to make the characters more balanced. Opponents can now
recover Sol's j.D much faster and thus Sol can't use his Dust Loop anymore. In general lots of old combos have been taken
away, weakened or changed but it should be clear without saying that some characters who've gotten new moves can use them to
make even stronger combos than before. The players need to re-learn their characters to understand how they work in Slash.
Exterior Features
All of the backgrounds have been re-worked for this game. Some of them look significantly different but for some it's hard to
see any diffence in them. For example, it now snows in Axl's stage and it's autumn in Dizzy's and Bridget's forest stage.
However I can't find anything different in Faust's, Potemkin's and Robo-Ky's stage.
There were rumours that the background musics would be remixed or something but I can't hear any difference in them so I
guess they're the exactly same tracks that were used in GGXX and GGXX#R. Robo-Ky still has the same old factory noises as his
BGM but A.B.A and Order-Sol both have new themes and new stages. A.B.A's theme is Keep in Gates and Order-Sol's theme is Get Down to Business. Themes of the both are very good and fit perfectly into Guilty Gear's heavy metal soundtrack.
Like in most of the 2D fighting games, all of the characters have additional colour edits along with their regular ones.
Guilty Gear XX Slash is no exception to this rule and every character has five additional colours. Most of them are rather
psychedelic and weird but some of them are very cool! I haven't seen many differenet colour edits yet but there's plenty of
good ones so far. I especially like the so called "Vampire Dizzy", Dizzy with pale skin, black clothes and red wings.
Conclusion
It's still impossible to say wheter Slash is more balanced than it's predecessors or not. However it's certain that all of
the characters have had their playstyle changed more or less. I'd say that Slash is a much bigger update than #Reload but
this is just my opinion and still don't know every slightest detail.
Some might ask why Arc System, or should I say Daisuke Ishiwatari, hasn't yet made an actual sequel to Guilty Gear XX, but
I'm just fine with Slash. I would have been fine with just #Reload but since Slash looks even better I'm really looking
forward to playing it.
Click here for some screenshots from the opening movie of Guilty Gear XX Slash.
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