Over the past few months, Arc System Works has unveiled two new characters for Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-, Kum Haehyun and Raven. They’ve also recently unveiled a video that goes over Haehyun’s nuances, as well as footage of both characters being played by some of Guilty Gear‘s top competitors.
The Guilty Gear website was just updated to include Haehyun in its lineup. Her introductory video can be viewed below:
For those who don’t speak Japanese, Guilty Gear community member greatfernman has translated some of the video’s key points and compiled them in handy document, which can be found here.
Kum Haehyun is the head of the Kum family, and she happens to be a gifted descendant of the ancient Tuners. Since Haehyun’s clan forbids women from leading the family, she adopts the robotic suit, Kum Jeonryeok, as her public facade, appearing as a wizened martial arts master to the public at large.
In the Guilty Gear universe, Tuners are rare individuals who are able to manipulate the flow of energy. This process evidently requires an immense amount of power, as many of Haehyun’s winning animations show the robot suit overheating, exploding, or otherwise malfunctioning in a comical fashion.
As for her gameplay, Haehyun’s basic combos make use of links rather than Guilty Gear’s “gatlings.” While gatlings consist of normal moves that can easily cancel into one another, links consist of combos wherein moves can only be comboed together if one move is executed immediately after the conclusion of the previous move. In short, this means Haehyun’s combos are a little more difficult than those belonging to the rest of the cast. Guilty Gear Battle Planner Pachi assures us in the above video, however, that Haehyun’s links are actually rather easy to perform.
Like most of the cast, Haehyun possesses a run, double jump, and air dash. She is able to move along the ground while crouching, which looks rather amusing in practice.
Haehyun’s special moves play off of her Tuner theme in a very unique way: she is able to control the trajectory of her own projectiles, to a degree. Her fireball, Choudengan, travels along a linear path like your standard Hadouken. The Haehyun player, however, can control the direction it travels in mid-flight by moving the joystick back and forth. This property allows creative Haehyun players to employ tricky setups in their gameplan, such as using the projectile to cover Haehyun while she advances along the screen. Choudengan comes in Slash and Hard Slash versions.
Her anti-air special, Shiinken, is an upwards kick that is input using 623 (forward > down > down-forward, like a Shoryuken) and Kick. The K input can be held to build up a charge; when fully charged, Haehyun will begin spinning along the ground like a top and can be controlled by the player. While spinning, the player can release the charge to finish the topspin with the regular kick, or a juiced-up version that hits many times like Ryu’s Tatsu from the Street Fighter series. If the player inputs 623K, then 4 (back), Haehyun will not jump when performing the move. Though this input is awkward, it is important to note that Shiinken briefly makes Haehyun invulnerable. As Pachi points out, an invulnerable anti-air is a very strong tool in a fighting game.
Uncharged versions of the move will flash a blue light. Charged versions, meanwhile, will flash an orange light.
Hayabusa Otoshi (214K, or down > down-back > back) is Haehyun’s gap closer. It’s a rushing attack that travels farther and becomes stronger (presumably dealing more damage) as the player holds the K button. If the player holds back after the input, Haehyun does a downwards kick that hits overhead. This, too, can be charged. The in-air version can also be steered with the joystick.
Haehyun possesses two super moves. The first among these is the Shinkun Choudengan. Similar to the regular Choudengan, it’s a ball of energy, but much, much larger. It can also be controlled in up and down directions in addition to the regular left and right.
Her second super, Arahan Sanzenshou, causes Haehyun to charge up a colossal clap. The player can hold the input button to begin charging the clap. As the charge builds, a large, mystical ring appears around Haehyun. If the opponent is inside the ring, Haehyun can actually control their position! Though players can still block and move within the ring, the super can be comboed into, meaning a Haehyun player can control her opponent while they’re still reeling from the hitstun. This move has many practical applications. For example, players can use it to push opponents back if they think their opponent is going to rush in, then pull them in to punish their opponent’s whiffed move. Or the Haehyun player can just use it as a combo tool. Note that a fully charged clap is unblockable.
At the end of Pachi’s demonstration, we can see the next breakdown for Raven starting up. Expect to see his video within the next few days. In the meantime, you can catch some footage of both Haehyun and Raven as played by some of Guilty Gear’s top players, such as Machaboo, Nage, FAB, and Ogawa.
Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR- is currently available for play in Japanese arcades, but will launch for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 consoles in Japan on May 26th this year. North America will receive the game on June 7, while Europe will get their taste of Revelator on June 10.