Yes, I wrote almost complete teams, because as you can see, West Japan does not have a Potemkin!  I’ll update this post again when they decide on a Pot player.

I already wrote about Arc Revo Cup finals happening this weekend, but remember that Mikado is also holding a special 5on5 along with the aforementioned East vs Japan 25on25!  It will be happening on the exact same day that the last chance qualifiers are being held, the 18th.  Jonio has already posted the stream link, which is set to go live on 13:30, which is around 9:30PM PST Friday.  So the Mikado events will be happening almost simultaneously with the last chance qualifiers.  It’s gonna be a really cool weekend for GG, so don’t miss it!

Much to my surprise, the event will also be streamed for free on both Nico and Twitch! The last chance qualifiers for all games will be happening on the 18th at 12:30 Japan time on the Godsgarden Twitch channel. This is around Friday 8:30 PST. The finals are taking place on the 19th, and will be streamed on the Arc Fes twitch channel starting at around 12PM Japan time.

There have been more Arc Revo Cup qualifier videos released since my last post, so you can see them after the break!

2013/4/20 Qualifiers and Area Finals at Goi Chariot

Rai(Ky) vs Touji(Axl)
3:19 Goran(Testament) vs Ten(I-No)
5:40 Endou(Chipp) vs Koichi(I-No)
8:35 Goran(Testament) vs Touji(Axl)
9:54 Koichi(I-No) vs Jigoku Ningyou(Zappa)
11:30 Koichi(I-No) vs Touji(Axl)

Area Finals
13:38 Kishitaka(Sol) vs Koichi(I-No)

2013/4/20 Qualifiers at Amusement Park Neverland
GAKU(Robo) vs Ain Killer 2013(Eddie)

2013/4/20 Area Finals at Amusement Park Neverland
GAKU(Robo) vs Ain(Ky)

6
Slayer: Yuuryou Driver F, En, Hase, Dogura, Tanabata, Kanata

5
Dizzy: Makki, Kisshi, Takehara, Bonanza, Aonao

4
Faust: OsakaB, Nage, Kiisha, LEO
May: LARK, Kedako, Azesuke, Godolphin
Johnny: Magatoro(aka Satou), BLEED, Kabegiwa no DC, DKJ

3
Zappa: eki-chan, Chonari, Ashura
Potemkin: FAB, Konsome, Haaken
Millia: Woshige, Nabe, JUN
Sol: NOB, Roi, Kishitaka
Jam: Teresa, Jajamaru, LOX
I-No: Erufi-yu, U-Zen, Koichi
Axl: Ibe-san(aka Nekomimi), AZ, Jyun
Eddie: Tsu, STS(aka Toruso), Mani

2
Ky: Rozu, Hayashi
Chipp: Samitto, Senpai
Bridget: Ruu, saryu
Venom: Fino, Blackberry
Anji: AGF, Taka

1
A.B.A: Teroda(aka Tsubu)
Justice: Tsujikawa
Kliff: BoB
Baiken: Sonmin O(aka Kuni)
Robo: GAKU

0
Testament
Order Sol

I-No by Yamaneko

Here is the current list of gold ticket winners on the GG side. Keep in mind that the official site is slow to update at times, and still doesn’t have some old results up(like Satou winning the gold at Cat’s Eye Yachiyo).
eki-chan(ZA)
FAB(PO)
Makki(DI)
Rozu(KY)
Hayashi(KY)
OsakaB(FA)
Samitto(CH)
Woshige(MI)
NOB(SO)
Nage(FA)
Roi(SO)
Kiisha(FA)
Chonari(ZA)
Yuuryou Driver F(SL)
Teresa(JA)
Teroda(AB)
Ashura(ZA)
LARK(MA)
Tsujikawa(JU)
Jajamaru(JA)
Erufi-yu(IN)
BoB(KL)
Satou(JO)
Kisshi(DI)
Sonmin O(aka Kuni)(BA)
En(SL)
Konsome(PO)
Ruu(BR)
U-Zen(IN)
Ibe-san(AX)
saryu(BR)
STS(aka Toruso)(ED)
Fino(VE)
AGF(AN)
BLEED(JO)
Taka(AN)
AZ(AX)
Hase(SL)
Senhai(CH)
Kedako(MA)
Takehara(DI)
Haaken(PO)
Mani(ED)
LEO(FA)
Blackberry(VE)
Azesuke(MA)
Godolphin(MA)
Kabegiwa no DC(JO)
Dogura(SL)
Tanabata(SL)
GAKU(RO)
Kishitaka(SO)
DKJ(JO)
Kanata(SL)
Aonao(DI)
Koichi(IN)
Nabe(MI)
Jyun(AX)
JUN(MI)
LOX(JA)

I haven’t posted about qualifier vids for over 2 weeks, so there are a ton of videos in this post’s backlog. Watch them after the break!

2013/3/31 Qualifiers at Takatsuki Leebros

Defure(Faust) vs Sanada(Zappa)
4:23 Kata(Anji) vs Nidaime(Potemkin)
6:43 Omito(Johnny) vs Numo(Ky)
9:00 Defure(Faust) vs Ayane(May)
11:20 BLUE(Axl) vs Miyu(Anji)
13:21 Boss(Zappa) vs Jin(Jam)
17:11 Ruu(Bridget) vs Omito(Johnny)
20:43 Hama(HOS) vs Nidaime(Potemkin)
24:30 BLEED(Johnny) vs ABP(Axl)
28:39 Kabegiwa no DC(Johnny) vs MGA(Potemkin)
32:00 Kedako(May) vs Efute(May)

Top 8
34:33 Defure(Faust) vs BLUE(Axl)
37:03 Ruu(Bridget) vs Jin(Jam)
39:33 BLEED(Johnny) vs Nidaime(Potemkin)
42:42 Kedako(May) vs MGA(Potemkin)

Top 4
48:24 Defure(Faust) vs Ruu(Bridget)
50:22 BLEED(Johnny) vs MGA(Potemkin)

Grand finals
56:02 BLEED(Johnny) vs Ruu(Bridget)

2013/3/31 Area Finals at Takatsuki Leebros
FT5 set between Ruu(Bridget) and Dogura(Robo)

2013/3/31 Qualifiers and Area Finals at Isesaki New Platon

Qualifier
Tori no Tate(I-No) vs Shichigatsu Shouka(Millia)
3:18 Fino(Venom) vs Hase(Slayer)
5:38 Hase(Slayer) vs Tori no Tate(I-No)

Area Final
8:52 Hase(Slayer) vs Konsome(Potemkin)

2013/4/6 Qualifiers at Pita MQ

N84(Slayer) vs Kedako(May)
1:50 Kabegiwa no DC(Johnny) vs Kurusu(Bridget)
2:53 Otoko Ume(Baiken) vs Takuan(May)
4:25 Dogura(Robo) vs arc(HOS)
6:07 Efute(May) vs Masato(Potemkin)
7:30 BLEED(Johnny) vs Kedako(May)
9:35 Kabegiwa no DC(Johnny) vs Takuan(May)
11:50 Efute(May) vs Dogura(Robo)

2013/4/6 Area Finals at Pita MQ

Round robin between Kabegiwa no DC(Johnny), BLEED(Johnny), Dogura(Robo)

2013/4/6 Qualifiers at Hachiouji UFO
Grand finals – Kaichou(Sol) vs Koichi(I-No)

2013/4/6 Area Finals at Hachiouji UFO
Hato(A.B.A) vs Koichi(I-No)

Hato(A.B.A) vs STS(Eddie)

Koichi(I-No) vs STS(Eddie)

2013/4/7 Area Finals at Mirai Yume

Round robin between AZ(Axl), Nikudan Heavy Kougeki(Sol), Renzayori no Shisha(Justice)

2013/4/7 Area Finals at Nagaoka Technopolis
May-san(May) vs Senhai(Chipp)

2013/4/13 Qualifiers at Jikamu Kumamoto

fol(May), Kinen Sanka(Millia), Manii(Eddie), Kinen Sanka B(A.B.A), Pera(A.B.A), RL(Bridget)

2013/4/13 Qualifiers at Game Magma X
Haaken(Potemkin) vs Yachisu(Axl)

Haaken(Potemkin) vs JUN(Millia)

2013/4/13 Area Finals at Game Magma X
Haaken(Potemkin) vs Koichi(I-No)

2013/4/14 Qualifiers and Area Finals at a-cho

Ls(Anji) vs arc(HOS)
3:36 Efute(May) vs Eternal(Slayer)
6:02 Defure(Faust) vs Kabegiwa no DC(Johnny)
8:37 Mirai(Anji) vs Hama(HOS)
10:31 Omito(Johnny) vs Efute(May)
12:04 Makoto(HOS) vs Mirai(Anji)
13:30 Efute(May) vs MGA(Potemkin)
15:27 Kabegiwa no DC(Johnny) vs Mirai(Anji)
17:04 Kabegiwa no DC(Johnny) vs Efute(May)

Loser’s bracket
20:39 Rena(Millia) vs Eternal(Slayer)
23:40 Ibuki Iruka(May) vs Hama(HOS)
25:31 Makoto(HOS) vs Rena(Millia)
27:17 Omito(Johnny) vs Ibuki Iruka(May)
29:31 Tsuri(Faust) vs Rena(Millia)
31:34 Omito(Johnny) vs Defure(Faust)
33:27 MGA(Potemkin) vs Rena(Millia)
36:20 Defure(Faust) vs Mirai(Anji)

Top 4
38:50 Defure(Faust) vs Rena(Millia)
40:13 Kabegiwa no DC(Johnny) vs Rena(Millia)

Grand finals
43:25 Kabegiwa no DC(Johnny) vs Efute(May)

2013/4/14 Area Finals at Leisureland Takasaki
Elvenshadow(Faust) vs Godolphin(May)

2013/4/20 Qualifiers at Sega World Hachinohe
Real Ao Kip(Jam) vs HEVEN(Venom)

Tanabata(Slayer) vs Mitori(Bridget)

Sasada(Slayer) vs Tokoino(I-No)

Tanabata(Slayer) vs HEVEN(Venom)

Tokoino(I-No) vs HEVEN(Venom)

Tokoino(I-No) vs Tanabata(Slayer)

Videos posted after the break!

2013/3/30 Qualifiers at Cat’s Eye Yachiyo
Grand finals – Abe(Zappa) vs Satou(Johnny)

2013/3/30 Area Finals at Cat’s Eye Yachiyo
Ogi-chan(Sol) vs Satou(Johnny)

2013/3/30 Qualifiers at Supernova Fukushima

No player names here, but Melon(Eddie) wins this qualifier

2013/3/31 Qualifiers at Takadanobaba Mikado

Koichi(I-No) vs JUN(Millia)
4:47 KA2(Jam) vs Godolphin(May)
9:10 Hakaman(Slayer) vs Ohiro(Sol)
13:43 Niko(Robo) vs Hiro(Anji)

Hamo(HOS) vs Koichi(I-No)
3:54 AbeC(Kliff) vs Syuuto(Kliff)
7:21 Yuuki-san(Sol) vs 490 Shinja(Millia)
10:22 Hakaman(Slayer) vs Chappu(Chipp)
15:03 Kusonage(Anji) vs En(Slayer)

DIA(Ky) vs Ogichan(Sol)
3:03 TON Toro(Johnny) vs 2rio(I-No)
7:29 BLUE(May) vs Hiro(Anji)
11:00 Koichi(I-No) vs Syuuto(Kliff)
13:47 En(Slayer) vs Ogichan(Sol)

Chibita(Jam) vs Chappu(Chipp)
3:57 BLUE(May) vs 2rio(I-No)

Top 8
8:42 Ain(Ky) vs Koichi(I-No)
13:47 En(Slayer) vs KA2(Jam)
17:26 Chibita(Jam) vs Nakamura(Millia)

Manyou(Dizzy) vs 2rio(I-No)

Top 4
4:01 En(Slayer) vs Koichi(I-No)
7:18 Chibita(Jam) vs Manyou(Dizzy)

Grand finals
12:25 En(Slayer) vs Manyou(Dizzy)

2013/3/31 Area Finals at Mikado

Round robin between Taka(Anji), En(Slayer), J.T(Millia)

UPDATE: Jonio has woken up and posted the Nico stream link! It is set to go live at 13:30 on the 31st, which is 9:30 PM PST tonight.

Also, there are two new sets of Arc Revo vids, so I’ll be posting them after the break!

2013/3/17 Qualifiers at Game Ace

Top 4
Taka(Anji) vs Teroda(A.B.A)
2:04 Syuuto(Axl) vs Yu(Kliff)

Grand finals
4:41 Teroda(A.B.A) vs Yu(Kliff)

2013/3/23 Qualifiers at Amusement Ace Tsudanuma
Grand finals – AGF(Anji) vs BOB(Kliff)

2013/3/23 Area Finals at Amusement Ace Tsudanuma
Teroda(A.B.A) vs BOB(Kliff)

Johnny by Michairu

I’m a bit late on announcing this as well, but the Vita version of Accent Core Plus R is out in Japan! There still is no announcement of the PS3/XBox360 patch release date, so if you have a Vita and want to get a head start, the game can be obtained on the Japanese PSN store for 1500 yen.

Lux on tumblr has scanned the Guilty Gear 1st Gig magazine, which has a Daisuke interview along with a bunch of artwork. A good portion of the art is already available as unlockables in Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus, but there are some unique ones, including a really funny pimp Bridget pic. Definitely worth looking at if you’re into the art from this series.

Finally, more shaky cam Arc Revolution Cup qualifier videos have been released on the official Youtube account. Remember that the current list of qualified players for all games can be viewed on the official website here. Players qualified so far:
eki-chan(ZA)
FAB(PO)
Makki(DI)
Rozu(KY)
Hayashi(KY)
OsakaB(FA)
Samitto(CH)
Woshige(MI)
NOB(SO)
Nage(FA)
Roi(SO)
Kiisha(FA)
Yuuryou Driver F(SL)
Teresa(JA)

Videos after the break!

2013/3/16 Arc Revolution Cup Qualifiers at Spica Oomiya in Saitama
En(Slayer) vs Ain(Ky)

CV Abe(A.B.A) vs LARK(May)

CV Abe(A.B.A) vs Ain(Ky)

2013/3/16 Arc Revolution Cup Area finals at Spica Oomiya in Saitama
Nage(Faust) vs Ain(Ky)

Elizabeth by take

I haven’t written about P4U here since its arcade release, and I randomly got inspired to write about it after having a conversation with some friends about fighting game character archetypes. P4U is a game that I’ve been playing on the side since its US console release. It’s pretty fun, though I wouldn’t consider it to be a very good fighting game. It’s definitely decent for a fighting game’s 1st iteration though. But that’s a post for another time.

Elizabeth(the character I play) has some amazing damage potential and pretty decent range on many moves. But she is generally considered to be one of the weaker characters in the game. Some people even rate her as the worst character, though I don’t really agree with that assessment. Elizabeth as a character has a lot of deficiencies, the most obvious of which is the lowest health in the game. But there’s also stuff like generally poor normals, the worst guard cancel and F-Action in the game, weak defensive options, slow movement, a strong reliance on her Persona to do everything, and a limited moveset.

Now, even though her most obvious weakness is the shitty life total, it’s actually not the most important. It’s just a small factor that contributes to her being a weak character. Imagine that a patch gets released, which only increases the amount of health Elizabeth has. I’m willing to bet that it wouldn’t change anything, and that Elizabeth would still be bad. Why? It’s because the other weaknesses I listed are far more important, and they all have the same running theme: a lack of options.

When I say lack of options, I really mean lack of options in all areas: defense, offense, and neutral. One thing I’m willing to bet is that the game developers intentionally gave her limited options in order to prevent her from being too strong. And it’s because she has some qualities that sound really strong on paper, like Invigorate constantly giving her meter, practical ways to heal life, and ridiculous damage output. I used to wonder why Elizabeth has a non-functional guard cancel, but it makes sense if you think of it this way. The developers were probably thinking, “She’s constantly getting meter, so it would be really silly if her guard cancel was as good as the others”. Taking away options and/or neutering available ones for certain character types is actually very common in fighting games, and we see it all the time for grappler characters. For example, because their playstyle is based around the threat of a command grab when getting up close, they are usually given poor mobility. But in Elizabeth’s case, I feel that the developers really went overboard in neutering her options.

She has the same weakness as Yukiko in that her offense is almost entirely Persona based. So when she gets Persona broken, she pretty much has no options and has to run away. In addition, most of her best moves have this horrid combination of 1)slow startup and 2)tons of recovery. For example, her 5b seems like a really nice normal, since it has great range and has a disjointed hitbox. But the whiff recovery is just horrendous. To give an idea of how bad it is, if she whiffs it, every character in the game can jump into an airdash at her and she will still be in counterhit state. The effect of this is that she has to make a big commitment when mounting any kind of offense. In other words, high risk high reward. Now, there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with this concept, but it’s a problem when you have other characters like Chie and Aigis who can run some strong and extremely safe offense while Elizabeth’s offense puts herself in just as much danger as the opponent. When you block/guess correctly against Chie mixup, you escape and the situation resets to neutral. When you guess correctly against Elizabeth mixup, you get to punish her since all of her moves have a million recovery frames.

In neutral, Elizabeth is one of the slowest characters in the game. j.b is easily her best move, as it actually has decent recovery and some characters have an awkward time fighting against it. But for some reason it doesn’t hit high and some characters(like Narukami) get to just antiair it for free. Garudyne is the only air move she has that can manipulate her air trajectory, and thus it’s sometimes the only way she can avoid getting antiaired for free by the cast. What I said earlier about everything requiring a big commitment applies to her neutral game too. Most of her bad matchups(Mitsuru, Yosuke, etc) are like that for this reason. To take the Mitsuru matchup as an example, both characters have very similar optimal ranges, but at every point Mitsuru’s options are faster and more importantly, are safer. So Mitsuru can just play very safe and not take any risks, poking away and keeping Elizabeth at the max range of her normals while Elizabeth has to rely on stuff like random yomi j.d to get something started.

I also want to note that Elizabeth has a fair number of useless, or rarely used moves. In fighting games(the 2d ones, at least), every move usually has a use, and sometimes you might see a character have one useless move. But in Elizabeth’s case, she has quite a few. My friend James Xie even jokes that Elizabeth spent so many hours trying to fuse a Thanatos that had all four elemental dyne attacks that she just accepted the leftover useless moves.  Mamudoon is completely useless, and Mahamaon is almost useless as well, although its invincibility can sometimes be used to get through things like Akihiko’s Maziodyne. 2d is another move that is completely pointless in some matchups, but does see some use against characters who have counter type F-Actions(Naoto, Chie, Teddie).

So in essence, Elizabeth is a great example of the importance of having options in fighting games. It doesn’t really matter how much damage a character can do when options are just so limited. I kind of doubt there will be a P4U sequel or new patch(as the trend seems to be with non-flagship ArcSys titles). But in the off chance that there is, there are a number of changes I’d like to see done for Elizabeth!

Most important
The main theme behind this post was Elizabeth’s general lack of options, so obviously the most important change I’d like to see is for her to have more options! This can be done in a number of ways:

• Give her more attacks. One suggestion I have is a new normal. Since j.a’s hitbox isn’t very good at hitting air-to-ground and j.b doesn’t hit high, it would be great if she would get a new air normal that a)hits high and b)has a good downward hitbox. Maybe like a j.2a or j.2b command or something. It would also give her a true high/low mixup in those corner C Maragidyne setups too
• Make existing moves faster and/or safer. If she can’t get any new moves, then at least the recovery on her existing moves can be improved so that she doesn’t have to commit so hard. 5b and 5c would need this the most. One thing that I’d like to change about 5c would be to make it a one-hit move that can get a special followup if C is hit again(5cc). Kind of like C-Kohaku in Melty Blood. This would solve two issues she has with this move, as it would give her more options off of 5c as well as improve the recovery
• Give her more movement options. If she can’t get any of the above two, then she should at least get more mobility options so that she’s harder to antiair and/or lock down. Stuff like a divekick, fastfall, or even a teleport would be nice

Would be nice but not really needed
These suggestions would also be very useful for Elizabeth, but they’re not as important as the ones above.

• Change 2d. If you had asked me about my opinion of her 2d in the first few months of the game’s release, I would have said that this move was useless. Nowadays, I can see that this move has some use, but it’s still an overall weak tool. One suggestion that my friend pulsr made was to make it so that the status effect changes depending on Elizabeth’s current amount of meter. Kind of like her F-Action. It would certainly make 2d more useful, since Poison isn’t that great of a status effect in this game
• Allow her to inflict Silence. Silence is a very useful status effect in Persona, and for some reason Elizabeth can’t inflict it. So maybe her F-Action can be changed so that Silence would be a possible ailment
• Give her another Mind Charge. Currently, both the A and B versions of Mind Charge do the exact same thing. Since duplicate moves are silly, I’d like for the B version to do something completely different. One thing I thought that would be interesting would be to make B Mind Charge restore a Persona card. Elizabeth loses cards easily, and she is pretty much powerless when Persona broken so this would be very useful. Mind Charge also has the great property of acting as a Pause button for Elizabeth, so this would be a way to give the move more utility when Elizabeth is already in Awakening
• Give her a functional guard cancel. Please.
• Make her F-Action unbreakable. Her dp is super slow and doesn’t do any damage. It doesn’t need to be throw breakable too
• More health. I know I said earlier that her low health is not that important, but it would be nice to have more. The reason I mention this is because it doesn’t make sense for Elizabeth’s character type to have low health. I play low health characters in other games(Millia in GG, Archetype Earth in Melty Blood, Morrigan in Vampire Savior), and it makes sense for them to have crappy health because of the type of options they have. Generally, characters are given low life when they have significantly more options than the cast or when their movement is on a level where some characters cannot keep up. Elizabeth has none of these, so it doesn’t make sense for her to have the lowest health in the game.

Since there are a ton of videos embedded in this post, I’ve put them after the break here!

2013/2/23 Qualifiers at Nihonbashi Athena

Hiroto Frog(Eddie) vs Yohechi(Slayer)
1:30 Roz(Ky) vs Kabegiwa no DC(Johnny)
4:45 BLEED(Johnny) vs Defure(Faust)
8:27 Efute(May) vs Enna(May)
12:04 Mirukki(HOS) vs C.R(Sol)

Hiroto Frog(Eddie) vs Rikka(Ky)
2:56 MGA(Potemkin) vs Kabegiwa no DC(Johnny)
6:50 Dogura(Robo) vs Defure(Faust)
10:51 Korochan(Sol) vs Riritoma(Johnny)
15:08 Efute(May) vs Kedako(May)
17:45 Zairu(Baiken) vs Real(Venom)
20:20 Giorno Giovanna(Axl) vs Mirukki(HOS)
23:28 Eternal(Slayer) vs Rokka(I-No)

TOP 8
Hiroto Frog(Eddie) vs MGA(Potemkin)
2:52 Dogura(Robo) vs Riritoma(Johnny)
5:39 Kedako(May) vs Zairu(Baiken)
9:12 Eternal(Slayer) vs Giorno Giovanna(Axl)

TOP 4
13:10 Kedako(May) vs Giorno Giovanna(Axl)
15:06 Dogura(Robo) vs Hiroto Frog(Eddie)

Grand finals
18:35 Dogura(Robo) vs Kedako(May)

2013/2/23 Area Finals at Nihonbashi Athena
eki-chan(Zappa) vs Kedako(May)

2013/2/24 Qualifiers at Akihabara Leisureland
Grand finals – Nage(Faust) vs Kiisha(Faust)

2013/2/24 Area Finals at Akihabara Leisureland
FAB(Potemkin) vs Kiisha(Faust)

En(Slayer) vs Kiisha(Faust)

En(Slayer) vs FAB(Potemkin)

2013/3/9 Qualifiers at GCom Wajiro
Grand finals – Takarin(Axl) vs NOB(Sol)

2013/3/10 Qualifiers at Tokyo HEY
BOB(Kliff) vs En(Slayer)

Ain(Ky) vs En(Slayer)

2013/3/10 Area Finals at Tokyo HEY
OsakaB(Faust) vs En(Slayer)

2rio(I-No) vs En(Slayer)

2rio(I-No) vs OsakaB(Faust)