Norematch

As the title says, this is the 5th and final post with GGXrd qualifier vids from the Arc Revolution Cup. Unfortunately, all of these videos are shakycam this time around. Famitsu also ran an article on the Heisei and Last Chance qualifiers, including interviews with the winners Gazou and Haaken.

Before we get to do that though, another reminder that this weekend is the actual Arc Revo Cup event! It is on the 30th, which corresponds to Friday night the 29th for people living in the US. Mikado is also holding their pre Arc Revo Mikado Masters event in the two days leading up the tournament. More details have also been revealed about the Mikado All Stars event. It will be a tourney with a special restriction: only players who have won a gold or silver Arc Revo ticket are allowed to join! Should definitely be an interesting tourney. Remember again that Jonio will be streaming all of these events on his Twitch channel and Nico community, so check those in the next 2 days if you’re interested in watching.

4gamer has been doing a very informative series of articles about the making of Guilty Gear Xrd. Specifically, it is an interview with the developers over the methods they used to make the game look so amazing. No matter what you think about the game, it is impossible to deny how beautiful it looks. So far, there are 2 articles up, and Chev on the Polycount forums has kindly done an English translation on them. For those of you who are into graphic design, these articles are a must read. I’m not into it, but the main takeaway I got from the articles was that it really shows why Xrd had to cut down the cast size. The methods that the developers used to make the characters look so good in 3d are incredibly time consuming and require a ton of work, and it is already known that there is only a small group of people at ASW that are actively working on Xrd. Normally, making models is cheaper and faster than hand-drawing sprites, but that is clearly not the case with Xrd. They are really going to extreme lengths to make real time cell shading look perfect.
4gamer Article 1 English translation
4gamer Article 2 English translation

As usual, videos are posted after the break!
continue reading…

The Guilty Gear Xrd qualifiers for the Arc Revolution Cup have officially ended this weekend! The final 2 spots have been taken by Gazou Faust, who won the Heisei(only born after 1989) qualifier last weekend, and Haaken Sol, who won the last chance qualifier today. So the final character counts are:

5
Faust: Nage, Defure, Tejinashi, OsakaB, Gazou

4
Millia: Kanata, Toruso, Nakamura, Woshige
Ramlethal: Daiji, saryu, Karinchu, Day

3
Chipp: Samitto, Endou, Raigou
Venom: Isamu, Fino, Mortal
Sol: 012, Uki, Haaken

2
Bedman: Tsubu, LOX
Potemkin: Konsome, FAB
Ky: Rozu, Ain
I-No: Hasegawa, U-Zen
Slayer: Taka, Hase

0
Zato
May
Axl

Interestingly enough, even though last weekend’s special qualifier was intended to give new players a chance, Gazou is hardly new. He’s just younger than the average GG player I guess. You might even remember Paper Bag, his AC Faust combo video!

In addition, the Arc Revo Cup 2014 website updated with the brackets for all 3 games! I’ve went ahead and translated Guilty Gear’s below:
A Block
Endou(Chipp) vs Day(Ramlethal)
Nage(Faust) vs Mortal(Venom)
012(Sol) vs Rozu(Ky)
Fino(Venom) vs FAB(Potemkin)

B Block
Raigou(Chipp) vs Uki(Sol)
Hase(Slayer) vs LOX(Bedman)
Haaken(Sol) vs Tejinashi(Faust)
saryu(Ramlethal) vs Woshige(Millia)

C Block
Karinchu(Ramlethal) vs Kanata(Millia)
Toruso(Millia) vs U-Zen(I-No)
Gazou(Faust) vs Samitto(Chipp)
Ain(Ky) vs Defure(Faust)

D Block
Konsome(Potemkin) vs Daiji(Ramlethal)
Nakamura(Millia) vs Tsubu(Bedman)
Taka(Slayer) vs Hasegawa(I-No)
OsakaB(Faust) vs Isamu(Venom)

Just like last year, Jonio has been planning for the next Mikado Masters event to be during the days leading up to Arc Revo. It is going to be a 3 day tourney from the 27th to the 29th.
August 27: Beginner/Intermediate tournament
August 28: 3on3 tournament, special exhibition matches
August 29: 2on2, West vs East Japan event

Since there will be a ton of players from other areas during the week, there is also an All Star tournament planned for the 29th. No details about the format have been ironed out yet, though. I’ll make another update as more information becomes available!

Famitsu magazine recently had an article about some of the features included in the upcoming GGXrd console port. A tutorial mode is confirmed, which is a first for the Guilty Gear series. Mission mode returns, and the network mode has ranked and player matches like all the other ASW games. Most importantly, the netplay includes 8 player lobbies, which also have an upgraded version of the free-for-all mode from console BBCP! So there can be 4 simultaneous matches going on in a full lobby. The upgrade is that the FFA mode creates a “virtual arcade”, so that players can move their avatars over to one of the four cabs to play. So it is a lot easier to queue up to play against your desired opponent.

Famitsu and 4gamer have posted articles giving more information about the story mode. It’s an upgrade from what the previous ports have had to offer, since cutscenes are now included. Apparently, they are also rendered in the game’s engine. There appears to be a new story mode only character who wears a Valentine styled hat. One of the screenshots even has Ramlethal wearing a maid outfit.

The article also reveals more details about the Japanese LE, which is PS4 only at the moment. It includes a special 6 button GGXrd controller, which is clearly modeled after a standard Saturn pad. A Guilty Gear Xrd Vocal Collection album is in the package as well.