Unforgiving breakneck combat aside, the Guilty Gear series is well-known among fighting game players for its offbeat character designs and unhinged visuals. A dandy vampire who fights with a Queensberry boxing style. A scantily-clad witch with a demonic guitar and the power of blaring rock and roll at her disposal. Assassins who fight with pool balls and their own hair. A towering, gibbering doctor who pesters his opponents with a giant scalpel and a dizzying array of household objects that he pulls out of thin air. So it stands that a young girl piloting a mechanical suit meant to look like a wizened martial arts master would fit right alongside Guilty Gear’s menagerie of misfits.
That’s exactly what the latest addition to Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator – Kum Haehyun – happens to be. A recent article from Famitsu reveals more about Kum Haehyun’s backstory:
The head of the Kum family and descendant of “Tuners” who can control the flow of energy. Kum Haehyun is a female, unknown to all, and normally rides inside of the humanoid artificial body Jeonryeok Kum (“Full Power Kum”). Only the Kum family are able to manipulate the flow of energy, but their presence in the world is scarce.
Haehyun’s true face can only be seen briefly in combat when she is taking damage. Otherwise, she maintains the facade of Jeonryeok throughout the entire battle. Though she appears in Guilty Gear Xrd: Sign’s story mode, this is her first appearance in the series as a playable character.
Likewise, her gameplay is also relatively unknown. No trailers for Haehyun exist yet, though she appears to use devastating power strikes in combat. The Famitsu scan noted that her moves will be “easy to pull off,” however. And Guilty Gear community member Baf0 translated a section of the scan on his Twitter:
Haehyun possesses a fireball move that can be placed behind her opponent with additional button presses.
The Famitsu scan also teases new training modes for Revelator, as well as an updated Story Mode.
Haehyun will be joining newcomer Jack-O and Guilty Gear returners Johnny and Jam. Another returner, Dizzy, won poll asking fans to nominate the next playable Xrd character back in October last year, but no details have yet been released on her since the poll.
The aforementioned Famitsu issue announced that Revelator itself will launch for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 consoles in Japan on May 26th this year. A tweet posted today by localization studio Aksys Games, meanwhile, revealed that the game will hit North American shores on June 7th for both PlayStation consoles.
The Japanese edition of Revelator will cost ¥6,800, and a limited edition of the game (which comes with a visual fan book) will cost ¥9,800. No cost has been announced for the North American version of the game, though it is likely to be somewhere around $60 given the conversion rate from ¥6,800.
Foreign fans who wish to get a head start on the game, though, can create a Japanese PSN account and purchase a Japanese copy of the game. Sign’s Japanese release received a Day 1 patch that included English menu text, so if Revelator follows suit, comprehension issues for English speakers should be no problem.
In addition, early buyers of Revelator will receive a code to redeem Kum Haehyun through download.
Credits go to Gematsu for translating the Famitsu article.