High Level Japanese Guilty Gear XRD Lobby

There will be another high-level Round Robin first-to-three Japan Lobby being hosted by Mr. Biscuits. With the help of Zidane and Ruu, Biscuits is able to bring some of the best players in Japan into one lobby, and provide English commentary.

The japanese players that will be in attendence are as follows: Daiji (Ramlethal),  Kedako (May),  Isamu (Venom),  Sabamiso (Bedman), and  Susumu (Chipp). The lobby will be on Saturday, June 13th at 9:00 a.m. EST. The prestream will go live at 8 a.m. The stream wil be hosted at Mr. Biscuits Twitch channel.

If you want something to watch while you wait, check out Biscuits playlist of his First Lobby featuring such players as Woshige, and also his Second Lobby featuring such players as FAB.

-Revelator- Play Guide Reveals Throw Techs, Other New Mechanics

The location tests for Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator- will start later today in Japan, and Arc System Works has released a manual for players who will be coming to the event. The guide not only shows the move listings for Jack-O and the returning Johnny (who sees some tweaks and new additions) but also details several new features for Revelator.

One big addition to Xrd is the return of throw breaks. First added to Guilty Gear during Accent Core, throw breaks return as a one-button input like in those older GG titles. There is no indication of the length of the throw break window yet.

Another addition to Revelator is that of a generic blitz shield follow-up, that will cost 25 percent tension. Finally, players will be able to spend their Burst meter to supercharge one of their character's Overdrive attacks.

Players will be able to find out more details about these and other changes as the location tests occur on June 5-7 in Japan.

Jack-O Joins Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator-

The mystery character for the upcoming location test of -Revelator- has been revealed, and her name is Jack-O. According to an image uploaded to Twitter from this week's Famitsu, Jack-O is a woman working for Guilty Gear's enigmatic antogonist That Man, although little else is known about her. A ball and chain is attached to her leg and she holds a mask that seems to mirror the appearance of the face on the ball and chain.

Guilty Gear player Ho-chan also says a new system change is coming to Revelator that will allow players to “trigger a fatal blow after successfully activated blitz shield.” It's unclear at this time what that could mean.

With the location test coming up on June 5-7, it's likely that more information about the new game will be available soon. Hit the jump for the full image of Jack-O.

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Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator- Adds Johnny, a Mystery Character

Famitsu has announced the location test for Arc System Works' newest Guilty Gear Xrd iteration, named -Revelator-. The game, which will test during June in Japan, will mark the series return of Johnny and also adds a new mystery character to the series. -Revelator- will also introduce the option of Stylish Mode controls, a feature originally found in BlazBlue.

The Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator- tests will occur on June 5-7 at Sega Akihabara Building 1 in Tokyo, Sega Nanba Avion in Osaka and Neo Amusement Space a-Cho in Kyoto. Further testing will happen on June 19-21 at locations to be announced.

Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R Coming to Steam on May 26

The final version of Guilty Gear XX will be heading to the PC platform very soon.

Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R will be available for Steam on May 26. Developed and published by Arc System Works, GGXXAC+R will feature the same content from the digital console release such as the rebalance to the existing cast including previously banned Kliff and Justice, M.O.M. mode and online modes. A digital soundtrack will be available as a bonus for owners of the game. A price for the game has not been revealed as of this announcement.

You can check the trailer after the jump!

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AnimEvo Lineup, ASW-Sanctioned Team Events Announced for Evo 2015

During the May 18 episode of Super Desperation Radio, Daryl "DJ Cream" Bunao and Alan "St1ckbug" Bakes joined the cast to announce the side airdasher tournaments that will be taking place at Evolution 2015. The two announced eight titles that will be part of AnimEvo, which be handled by a collaboration of East and West Coast organizers.

In addition, Bakes also announced that Arc System Works and Aksys Games will be sanctioning two 3-on-3, single-elimination tournaments for BBCPEX and Xrd aside from the main tournaments at Evolution. The entry fee, prizes and rules for the tournament, however, are still to be announced in the future.

Check out the full list of games below.

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Guilty Gear Xrd Console Update to Arcade Version 1.1 Coming May 8

UPDATE: Aksys Games has revealed that the patch will launch in North America sometime on Friday, May 8. 

Arc System Works has announced that Xrd console version 1.05—the equivalent of arcade version 1.1—will be releasing May 8 in Japan.

The 1.1 arcade update brings balance changes to many of the characters and in particular strengthens both Axl and Slayer.

There is no word at this time as to whether the patch will roll out for the U.S. version on May 8 as well, or whether owners will have to wait.

Top 3 Footage of Guilty Gear Xrd, Under Night In-Birth, Blazblue & More from KVO x Team St1ckbug

If you missed KVO x Team St1ckbug in Japan, check out the best players from multiple anime fighting games duking it out after the jump!

The Japanese streaming group OgreLive streamed the event for English speaking viewers. At KSB 2015, players competed in Guilty Gear Xrd, Blazblue: Chronophantasma Extend, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax, Under Night In-Birth EXE:Late, Arcana Heart 3 Love Max!!!!!, Aquapazza and Shin Koihime Musou Otome Taisen Sangokushi Engi.

It features English commentary from St1ckbug himself, Jiyuna and more! You can follow OgreLive's stream on Twitch!

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Full Video Archive of Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- Graphics Panel from Game Developers Conference 2015

Those wanting a look into the background of making the graphics of Guilty Gear Xrd, check out the panel archive here!

From the 2015 Game Developers Conference, Lead Character Modeler Junya Motomura on behalf of Arc System Works talks about the process of creating the 2-D-style 3-D rendering graphics in Xrd. Titled "Guilty Gear Xrd's Art Style : The X Factor Between 2D and 3D," Motomura explains the basics and advanced aspects of the graphical style such as trying to avoid issues found in cel-shading, maintaining the 2-D animation style for characters and more.

Whether you are a Guilty Gear player or a developer who wanted to know the intricacies in Xrd's renderer, this video shows off the detail and care done to it. For more info about the graphics, Japanese gaming website 4Gamer has done a two-part series (1, 2) on the graphics.

South Korean Guilty Gear Xrd Tournament to be Featured at Sony's PlayStation Arena Event on March 22

Arc System Works' latest Guilty Gear entry is one of the two games to be featured in an upcoming PlayStation event in South Korea.

Seoul's Nexon Arena will be the venue to host the featured Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- tournament at PlayStation Arena on March 22. Registered players competed in a preliminary event at Yongsan PlayStation Zone. The finals tournament will take place following the tournament for the other featured game, Pro Evolution Soccer 2015. Both Arc System Works' Kazutoshi "Pachi" Sekine and Daisuke Ishiwatari will be in attendance to promote the tournament.

If you live in Korea and want to see what the nation's Guilty Gear community is capable of, please attend! In addition to the tournament, attendees can win free games and try out new ones such as Blazblue Chronophantasma Extend and Bloodborne.  For the rest of the world, eSportsTV will be streaming the event live on YouTube!

High Level Japanese Guilty Gear XRD Streams

It is tough for someone just getting into Guilty Gear Xrd to find information in regards to either the game or where to watch high level play. If you are not familiar with the anime scene or just getting into fighting games period, it's understandable to be a bit intimdated. Mr. Biscuits is trying to bridge the gap with his streams, which are centered on both competitive play and learning the game. 

Mr. Biscuits, with the help of his translator Satou, have been putting on Japenese lobbies via PSN where the highest calibur of Japanese players come to play. These FT3 Round Robin lobbies feature a host of the best Guilty Gear players including FAB Potemkin, Hase Slayer, Endou Chipp, Fino Venom, and Gaku Sin.

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Guilty Gear Xrd 1.1 Second Location Test Changes Released

Arc System Works has released the list of changes it is implementing during the second location test of Guilty Gear Xrd version 1.1, happening Feb. 14-15 in Japan. 

The pdf contains both system changes as well as changes for every character in the Xrd cast. Changes new to the second location test have been highlighted in yellow or have added red text, while it seems that changes which have been reverted to their original properties have been struck out.

The document is again in Japanese, so players may have to find a secondary means of translation. And as this is a location test, none of these changes are final.

CEO to Present "All Anime" Tournament in October 2015

Alex Jebailey is looking to make the dreams of AnimEVO a reality in October as he throws a tournament dedicated to all games that fall under the umbrella of "anime." Taking place in Orlando, Florida, on Oct. 17-18, the event will offer nine titles:

• Guilty Gear Xrd
• Blazblue Chronophantasma 2.0
• Persona 4 Arena Ultimax 2.0
• Under Night In-Birth 
• Dengeki Bunko FIGHTING CLIMAX
• Arcana Heart 3 LOVE MAX
• Skullgirls
• Melty Blood
• Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R
  

Jebailey also said that more titles may be added in the future, and that the six games with the most entrants will have finals on Sunday with the remaining titles finishing on Saturday evening. For more information on the event, head over to the CEO website or directly message Jebailey on Twitter.

Guilty Gear Xrd Ky Kiske Tutorial by Shinobi!

Alabama's Shinobi! has uploaded a basic guide to playing Ky in Guilty Gear Xrd. Shinobi, who placed top 8 at Frosty Faustings VII, takes time to cover each part of the character, from talking about the use of special moves to going into more detail about neutral and wake-up setups.

The video runs about 1 hour and 20 minutes, and contains timestamps for each of the different parts of the tutorial.

Hit the jump for the video.

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Guilty Gear Xrd 1.1 Changes Revealed

Arc System Works has released the list of changes it is implementing during the location test of Guilty Gear Xrd version 1.1, happening Feb. 4-5 in Japan. 

The pdf contains both system changes as well as changes for every character in the Xrd cast. That includes the formerly console-only characters Sin Kiske, Elphelt Valentine and Leo Whitefang.

The document is in Japanese, so many players will have to wait for others to translate the document or attempt to decipher the changes through automated means. And as this is a location test, none of these changes are final.

UPDATE: Shoryuken has posted a translation of the change list.

Video: Guilty Gear Xrd Top 8 from Frosty Faustings

Nobody.exe has uploaded the top 8 matches from the main event of Frosty Faustings VII to his YouTube channel. The event, which was held Jan. 23-24, had a Xrd bracket of roughly 100 competitors featuring the strongest players in the Midwest along with other notable players including Mexico's Kusanagi.

The grand finals of the event saw ElvenShadow, recently returned to the U.S. after living in Japan, face off against BananaKen. Viewers who would like to follow along with the bracket can find it here.

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Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- Frame Data by Kedako

Japanese Guilty Gear player and May specialist Kedako has taken the time to compile the frame data for every character—including DLC entrants—in the home version of Xrd. The data has been uploaded as text files onto Ruu's blog, and there is even a separate document containing a breakdown of all the system mechanics.

As the files are text documents, simply downloading them and opening with Notepad will cause them to look very disorganized. However, players can use more sophisticated writing programs or Google Translate to keep the formatting of the original document. For those who view the document in the original Japanese, Ruu also offered a translation of terms.

Ogawa, KOG, Dogura Coming to Northwest Majors

At the end of the Pacific Northwest Regionals Guilty Gear Xrd tournament, it was announced that three Japanese players will be attending Northwest Majors on April 24-26, 2015. While fellow players KOG—known for his T. Hawk play in both Street Fighter IV and Super Turbo—and Dogura—a top player in both BlazBlue and Guilty Gear—are big names added to the event, the major news is that Japan's top Zato-1 player, Ogawa, will be making an appearance.

Ogawa has always been a well-known name in the Guilty Gear community, considered one of the top players in the world. He made mainstream fighting game community news several months ago by supposedly saying that U.S. players were not of a high enough skill level for him to travel to the States for tournaments.

Celebrate the Holidays with Xrd Christmas Colors

Arc System Works was apparently thinking ahead to the eventual release date of Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- during development, because the company included a set of Christmas colors for the cast as downloadable content. Available now through Dec. 24 for owners of the Japanese version of Xrd and available Dec. 23-Jan. 13, 2015, for owners of the U.S. version of the game, the free DLC provides one new color for each member of the cast.

The color pack uses red, green and white palettes for every character in the cast—except Chipp, who becomes Rudolph—with some great results. To check out a preview of what the DLC looks like for each character, head on over to monoker0s' imgur. The page also shows previews of a 14th color for each character that may be the announced PlayStation Plus DLC.

Here are the DLC Colors for Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-

User Monoker0s on imgur has created albums showing off the colors for each character in the latest version of Guilty Gear, including all the downloadable colors that will soon be available.

There are plenty of old favorites for returning characters, and each fighter has both a Christmas color and a color seemingly inspired by the movie Tron Legacy. Readers can check out the albums on imgur.

Currently, Ramlethal is missing from Monoker0s' imgur, but her palettes can be found here.