Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign- (PS3/PS4)

[bork]

The Japanese version is out -and has been been patched to offer full English text and voices, if you want to get it early- and it is AMAZING.  Arc has recreated the look of GG perfectly using polygon models.  These look so much like sprites and the 3D camera views added to certain supers and instant kills are just insane.  The visuals look like something ripped right out of an anime.




Game play is similar, but I would describe everything as more accessible now and all of the characters feel pretty easy to pick up and play, especially newcomer Ramlethal.  Haven't tried the other new character, Bedman, yet. Jeers to Arc for making the other three newcomers DLC, however, and as of this time none of them are available yet.

I've been messing with all the characters and really like the way Ramlethal, I-No, and Chipp play.  I usually tend to go for the faster characters or the bigger grapplers, but Potemkin feels weird to me.  Maybe I just need to use him more.  I've always preferred BlazBlue's Iron Taiger to Potemkin though.

Online offers pretty much every option you can think of and the game is cross-play.  Most of the people I played online were PS3 players, in fact.  The PS4 version is arcade perfect and runs at 1080P/60 FPS, with some of the cinematics and super moves dipping down to 30 FPS or lower.  The PS3 version is 720P and apparently offers PC-like graphics options, with a performance option disabling background animations to offer 60 FPS, and a more graphics-oriented option that runs at 30 FPS.  I'm not sure why anyone would want to play a fighting game at 30 FPS, but it's cool that they offered that option and to my knowledge this is the first time any console fighting game has done this.

There's a big story mode in the game, but I haven't tried it out yet.  The game recommends playing through arcade mode first.  Have been messing around in training mode and played online, most against Japanese players.  The netcode is typical Arc, I.E. great.  Finally something to get me playing my PS4.  Anyone else getting it?

[Bebpo]

I love GG but I didn't like the demo.  Coming from years of Blazblu it just felt off.  The graphics are insane, but the transition to ANIME CUTSCENE every time you do a super is real distracting to me and doesn't feel natural at all. 

Still gonna get it and give the story mode a full shake, but I was surprisingly meh on the demo.  Yeah it looks JUST like GGXX; they recreated that perfectly in 3d, but not really sure it's adding anything that makes it worth playing over just firing up GGXX #Reload besides pretty graphics which as I said are a bit jarring for me in their transitions.  Also I heard some fighting game community people talking down on it saying it's even slower than 2d GG and 2d GG is slower than Blazblu so it's a pretty slow fighter now.  I have a feeling I'm going to be meh on the full version and 3rd Sign ##GGY edition in a year or two will be where I'm sold.


Also no Baiken, Johnny, Dizzy, Bridget are like half my favorite characters that I main so I'm a bit pissy about that and I'm sure they'll be in the next version of this.  I mean Johnny is fucking the main white dude in the series, why would you cut him over Axel. 

[The Legend of Sunblade]

From playing the demo, the english dub is hilariously bad. The actual game itself is rock solid though, would pick it up if I wasn't penniless. First time I ever touch anything GG related.

[bork]

I love GG but I didn't like the demo.  Coming from years of Blazblu it just felt off.  The graphics are insane, but the transition to ANIME CUTSCENE every time you do a super is real distracting to me and doesn't feel natural at all.

Those anime-style cutscenes only happen with certain moves.  I don't know if things are different in the story mode but online you don't see it as much.

Still gonna get it and give the story mode a full shake, but I was surprisingly meh on the demo.  Yeah it looks JUST like GGXX; they recreated that perfectly in 3d, but not really sure it's adding anything that makes it worth playing over just firing up GGXX #Reload besides pretty graphics which as I said are a bit jarring for me in their transitions.  Also I heard some fighting game community people talking down on it saying it's even slower than 2d GG and 2d GG is slower than Blazblu so it's a pretty slow fighter now.  I have a feeling I'm going to be meh on the full version and 3rd Sign ##GGY edition in a year or two will be where I'm sold.

GGXX is dated as hell.  This was a much-needed update.  Like I said, it feels like a much more accessible version of Guilty Gear.  It's the Street Fighter IV of the series...they have started all over again in a lot of ways.  So of course you're going to get some people stuck on GGXX hating on something new.  Same thing happened with SF4.  And they all ended up playing it anyway. 

Also no Baiken, Johnny, Dizzy, Bridget are like half my favorite characters that I main so I'm a bit pissy about that and I'm sure they'll be in the next version of this.  I mean Johnny is fucking the main white dude in the series, why would you cut him over Axel.

Hey, you got five new characters to try (if you want to pay for it  ).  Give it a chance instead of going in with such a negative view.  Although you're only going to play it by yourself, aren't you?  What's the point?  Just Youtube the story mode dude.

[bork]

From playing the demo, the english dub is hilariously bad. The actual game itself is rock solid though, would pick it up if I wasn't penniless. First time I ever touch anything GG related.

I'm only using Japanese voices.  In fact, there's a bug right now that fucks up online matches if you play dub vs. sub matches.  Arc has already submitted a patch to Sony that fixes this.  They actually inform you of stuff like this on the main menu, in an info section, which is pretty cool.  Nice to get immediate responses from a fighting game developer like this, and in-game, at that.

[Bebpo]

Yeah I will give it a fair shake when the cheaper US version is out in 2 weeks.

But my GG mains were: Baiken/Dizzy/Sol/Slayer, so yeah 50% of my mains are missing >_<  Also like using Chip/Johnny/Potemkin.  I'll try out the new characters and see if any jive with me.

[bork]

Johnny apparently has an in-game model in the story mode.  If he's not DLC later on down the line, you just know he'll get added to the inevitable update to this game, along with the other missing characters.

[The Legend of Sunblade]

He and Dizzy show up as cameos during story mode. They're probably shoo-ins for DLC/updates since they already took the time to re-design them visually.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

[Himu]

Guilty gear xrd sign language prostate tickle slash

[thisismyusername]

Nice that the Japanese version offers English. Seems Arc is slowly learning that people don't want to wait.

I just wish they'd give a PC version.  That and a PC version of ^C+R. :'(

Any gameplay videos of the PS3 version at 1080p (or 720p I guess) out there yet? I'm curious how that looks after the PS4 version trailers.

[bork]

No PS3 footage that I've seen yet.  Really interested in seeing how it compares.

Esphelt is now up on JPSN.  The character is pretty unique and mainly relies on long-range attacks.  She has a grenade, a sniper rifle (which gives you a reticule that you can then move around the screen, allowing you to actually aim anywhere and shoot), and a much larger gun that gives her a different attack stance and lets you follow up with various attacks or movements, including CQC. 

There was also an unlock for Sin Kiske that I went ahead and got too.  He seems to be entirely unique and nothing like Ky.  Uses a staff.

[Bebpo]

So I'm guessing the DLC characters won't have a story mode?

[thisismyusername]

How's Chipp in comparison to his XX counterpart?

[bork]

People are saying that the PS3 version having a 30 FPS mode is bullshit.  Apparently it's 60 FPS with dips on the quality setting, and the performance setting is a solid 60 FPS with toned-down effects.

[bork]

And people are also saying that the Story Mode has no game play.  All cut scenes.

[Bebpo]

And people are also saying that the Story Mode has no game play.  All cut scenes.

This has been normal for arc for a while.  Story mode = visual novel with occasional battle. Though in this one I guess you're watching anime cutscenes instead of reading text so I can see it some people liking it more or less.

But if that's not your thing, that's why there's arcade mode.  Win/win.

[nachobro]

And people are also saying that the Story Mode has no game play.  All cut scenes.

4.5 hours of cutscenes. But you get 100K W$ from it so that will help in buying the extra character in-game.

[bork]

4.5 hours of cutscenes.

[kick51]

*plays demo for 10 seconds*

oh who am i kidding, i am not gonna get into this

[bork]

*plays demo for 10 seconds*

oh who am i kidding, i am not gonna get into this

[kick51]

I'm sure it'll be a good fighting game, I'm just saying there's zero chance of me personally getting into the mechanics, so it's kinda pointless.  GG is a complex game and if you're not good at it, it feels like shit to play. 

[bork]

I'm sure it'll be a good fighting game, I'm just saying there's zero chance of me personally getting into the mechanics, so it's kinda pointless.  GG is a complex game and if you're not good at it, it feels like shit to play.

Xrd is easier to get into compared to the previous games.  Give it a chance.

[Mr. Nobody]

Call you still "kill" opponents?

[bork]

Call you still "kill" opponents?

Yup.

[bork]

Heads-up, Gamestop is selling the regular edition of the game now!

[thisismyusername]

Call you still "kill" opponents?

Instant Kill is always part of Arc titles. But it's a long notification set-up to where if you get hit by it, you'd generally be hit by something else.

[Bebpo]

Got this from Amazon today.  Not bad, but it makes me sad because I never noticed the PS4 d-pad sucks until this game.  That's a shame because PS3 d-pad was good enough for fighting games without having to get sticks or 3rd party controllers, but PS4 d-pad is just not good enough for the execution level of this game.  Are there are any decent Saturn D-pad style controllers for PS4?  I don't use sticks for 2d fighters.


Also the challenges are hilarious.  It's like here's the moves, here's one or two easy BnB combos, now here do 10 things in a row with jump cancels roman cancels just defense cancels all within milliseconds.  ^^;


And I haven't played GG since XX#Reload but wtf Slayer feels really different now.  He used to be pretty standard Dudley with a bit of Shoto, now he's all fucking weird like Faust.  His combos are really strange going by the challenge mode combos.  He doesn't have much in the way of traditional BnBs.  He used to be one of my mains, but in Xrd don't think I'll be using him.  Will start out with some more traditional characters.


PS.  This seems a pretty big step back after Blazblu.  Not sure if I'll stick with this all that long, especially since new update of BB is coming to PS4 now.

[bork]

Wouldn't go by the Challenge Mode as the best place to find BnBs.  Check Dustloop and the like.

PS.  This seems a pretty big step back after Blazblu.

[Bebpo]

Was up all night getting a feel for all the characters.  Actually this is pretty good.  Almost all the characters feel pretty different except Sol, because Ryu always gotta Ryu and Zato seems kind of the same deal.  Everyone else has a lot of new toys to mess around with and the new characters are very crazy and cool.  Really like how in ARC Sys games 90% of the characters are non-orthodox for a fighting game.  Makes me wonder how the hell they balance these games with so many bizarre characters and tons of possibilities.  I mean Bedman's whole angle being that he can video record most of his moves and have shadow versions repeat them on command allows for some pretty insane setups.

I suck at it though.  Tried the M.O.M. mode and getting stomped right from the start.  Gonna try to figure out who I want to main in this one.

[Bebpo]

Been playing so much of this that I've gone back and started playing other Arc fighters I didn't get around to playing like P4A since basically if you know how to play GG you know how to play every Arc fighter once you learn the 1 or 2 unique sub-systems of the game.  P4A is pretty sweet and way easier with the auto-combo stuff.  In fact the auto-combo stuff seems a bit overpowered since all you have to do is connect a jab and then you get a 30%+ damage combo guaranteed outside of a combo break burst.  Liked it enough that I ordered Ultimax and will skip to that one.

But yeah, Xrd is good stuff.  Been playing online for the first time in foreeever and I'm actually winning against people which is cool (probably like 30-50% in non-ranked lobbies).  Been using Ramlethal cause she reminds me of Dizzy with strong hitting familiars and quick main attacks.  Having problems against fast rush characters like Chip or Millia but getting better all the time.  Can't wait for the latest Blazblue update on PS4 in 4-5 months.  Now that I'm back into Arc Sys, looking forward to checking out how Blaz has changed since the original which was the last time I played it seriously.  Also going back to the GG cast, I generally like the GG characters more than the Blazblue ones, but Ragna is such a better Sol Badguy Ryu than Sol.  I am soooooo bored of Sol.  Ky is still cool though and has some neat new stuff.


Also tried out some other fighting games I had wrapped on the shelf since I was in the fighting game mood.  Tekken Tag 2 looks REALLY NICE for a PS3 game.  A lot of fun too and seems like it has a ton of content.  Wanna play this more even though I'm not a big Tekken fan.  Street Fighter x Tekken seems neat in that it's something different feeling than SF/Marvel/Arc, but not really in a rush to play it.

[bork]

HOLY SHIT BEBPO PLAYED A FIGHTING GAME ONLINE!!!!!!!!!!  

[Bebpo]

Not really a fan of the gaf thread for this game.  Everyone just uses Eddie & Ephelet (top-tier characters) and just talks about how to do infinites.  No one seems to give a shit about fun, just the best possible broken way to win every match.  Everyone just watches the top-level players and tries to imitate their combos and strategies.  When I ask questions about strategies for using other characters I never get any replies.  :\

I just play fighting games for fun.  I'll play the worst character if he/she's fun and try to figure out strategies to counter other low/mid-level players.  Was using Slayer online last night (he sucks now) and trying to find ways to gain ground on enemies and kept losing but it was fun and there has to be some way to do alright with Slayer, I just need to find some good strategies.

[bork]

I just play fighting games for fun too, Beps.  There's plenty of people, even on GAF, who do the same.

I don't spend all my time looking up frame data and infinites.  I just play these games.  I enjoy learning on my own-- sure, I'll check out some strategies from time to time, but I like to just get online and play, not spend hours "in the lab."  And you know what?  I do pretty well for myself.  When I play people who do spend all their time memorizing that stuff...I can still hold my own or beat them outright.  It's a video game.  It's not fucking rocket science. 

[bork]

Bebpo, should I just stop replying to you?  You never respond.   

[Bebpo]

You mean in this thread?  I didn't see a question in your last post lol

Or are you sending me PSN invites to play and I'm not responding?  If so, I didn't see them.  I'm down to play in the evenings if I'm around!

[bork]

I dunno, you never seem to comment on anything.   

I haven't been on in a week or so.  Let's play!

[Bebpo]

Ah, sorry about that.  I read all your posts.

[a slime appears]

GameFly finally shipped me a copy and holy shit the visuals are fucking awesome. It's bittersweet for me since a few years back I tried to implement a similar animation style to make our characters appear to move more like stop-motion but our Art Director shot it down eventually since we lacked the talent and tech to pull it off. OH WELL. :'(

Anyways, I picked Chip since I vaguely remember him from the first game, the only other Guilty Gear game I've played, and got hit with a crazy amount of bullshit. If this was supposed to be a franchise "reboot" of sorts then then really should have gone back to square one instead of force feeding a crazy ass story that seems like it's starting off from Chapter 6. Aside from not understanding just what the fuck is going on it's pretty fun to play. I need to give it more time since I only played a few rounds but it's not bad.