Last month, Arc System Works announced rather befuddling new character for their latest fighting game, Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-: the young-girl-piloting-an-old-man-mecha, Kum Haehyun. Fans then eagerly awaited news on Dizzy, the next character announced in the lineup. But rumors lurked in the shadows of Twitter and Twitch.tv chats of an unannounced sixth character. One by the name of Raven. Sure enough, Raven has made his appearance as the next playable Revelator character as of this week’s issue of Famitsu.
Guilty Gear community member Baf0 has translated some of the Famitsu scans, including Raven’s backstory and playstyle synopsis. The below graphic contains a translation from Gematsu:
Xrd is actually not Raven’s first appearance in the Guilty Gear series. He first surfaced in 2000’s Guilty Gear X (and before that, in a novel titled Guilty Gear X: Lighting the Argent), but Xrd will mark his first incarnation as a playable character. Once a proud knight, Raven miraculously escaped a brutal death and was cursed with immortality. He eventually became the right-hand man to Guilty Gear’s primary antagonist, That Man. Though he is usually a calm and polite man, Raven’s apathy and inability to die have left him a masochist, as pain is the only sensation that he can feel.
Raven’s possesses long-range normal attacks that involve stretching his limbs, much like Dhalsim from the Street Fighter series. This grants him an ideal range for poking and pressuring his opponents in the mid-field.
His penchant for pain also plays into his special attack, called “I Want It Here.” When activated, this ability allows Raven to fill a special meter when he takes damage from an attack. This meter – which can be seen above Raven’s Tension bar – can be used to power up his attacks and give them new properties, meaning that Raven players will have to deftly balance between dealing damage and taking it in return for… well, dealing more pain.
Raven’s airdash also takes the form of a horizontal glide, which seems to function similarly to Jedah’s airdash from Capcom’s 1997 fighting game, Vampire Savior.
In addition, a silhouette can be seen in the upper right corner of the Famitsu scan.
This shadow belongs to Guilty Gear veteran Dizzy, who won poll last October that asked fans to nominate the next playable Xrd character. Fans are speculating, in this case, that we will hear more about her transition to Xrd very soon.
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.
Credits go to Famitsu for the images.