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tokin fuyou

If ASW had to cut returners from the next Xrd

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Just wondering, and strictly speaking hypothetically here, but if they wanted to keep the roster for the next game/installment manageable and really had to cut returning characters from being playable, what would you guys be willing to put up with not making it in? I mean that as in you may see them in the story or mentioned/alluded to but not playable. And you can be willing to at least tolerate that. I know really big rosters may be fun for most but are also a technical nightmare to keep balanced. There's a good chance some characters would end up becoming unviable for competition. It's happened before in other fighting games. That's also a lot of matchups to have to learn.

Just a thought experiment, something that crossed my mind, nothing more. You can also mention currently playable characters in Revelator/Rev 2 if you don't think they may be playable in the next installment for some reason. My guesses in this dept. would be Bedman, Jam (my main, BTW), and Jack-O'.

I'd probably go with characters that are dead in the story or had their story resolved in a previous game (again, just ones I would be willing to put up with if it really had to be done): Kliff, A.B.A, Holy Order Sol, and Zappa, off of the top of my head. It's not that I don't like those characters, I really do, but I can understand if they end up not included. Same goes for Bridget--popular meme character, but I wonder who would end up seriously playing him for more than five minutes every now and then? I'm kinda split on him. In the grand scheme of the story, he is only a bit character, so I can see him being possibly cut (unless ASW caves into fans swearing up and down that they'll play him seriously--Phoenix Wright, anyone?). I'm also split on Robo-Ky--fun, but I can take him or leave him.

Returning characters I see absolutely making it in are Testament (important to the overarching plot), Anji (Outrage piece user), and Justice/**** (obviously). I'd be really surprised if any of them end up cut.

As a bonus, what previously unplayable characters mentioned in the story do you think could be playable in the future, aside from "That Man", as new characters? Spin off games and side media count too as long as it's Guilty Gear universe related. My idea would be maybe one of the following: Tyr, Mizuha, Solaria, Leopaldon, Crow, Nekomata, Izuna, Geena, or Judgment. Fanny is just a female version of Faust, so she's out, and I imagine that Dr. Paradigm likely wouldn't be a choice unless he takes Jack-O's place. Gabriel is probably out too, unless they change Pot's victory animation for this matchup.

Discuss, but please keep it civil. These are just ideas and "what-ifs".

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Why would you even make me think about this?? T-T

But anyways, I'm thinking you're pretty spot on. Testament and Anji are probably the most likely to come back, and I'm actually surprised that we haven't seen Testament yet. I think May briefly referred to him in Johnny's episode mode though. I'm not too sure about Justice, I at least think it'll be a while before we see her again. Same with Robo-Ky I do think we have a chance of getting Zappa back eventually though. From what I understood in the story mode, he hasn't completely cured his possession issue, only figured out how to prevent S-Ko from taking control of his body. So they could write him back in as an active fighter.

As for the characters that we haven't seen in any form in Xrd yet, as much as I would love to have A.B.A back, she's possibly the least relevant character that was ever in the main series, and her story in AC was pretty conclusive. That could be easily retconned though, but I'm not expecting her anytime soon. Same deal with "legacy" characters like Kliff and HOS, I would expect them to come back at around the same time as Justice.

And finally, I can't imagine that they would be removing any characters. Perhaps replacing them with different versions of them in the cases of Bedman and Jack-O', but they'll still be there in one way or another. I don't think roster size would be too much of a hurdle for Arcsys to balance. I thought USF4 was pretty decently balanced with a large roster, and Arcsys is one of the most (probably the most) competent and capable developers out there right now.

Anyways, that's just my two cents.

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They should never have removed Zappa, Order Sol, Bridget and Robo-Ky. They actually had unique gameplay mechanics that made playing them a completely different experience compared to the run of the mill characters. And when FORCED to remove them, at least come back with alternatives. Players that played these characters intensively during the AC period are now left stranded among the rest of the cast that doesn't really do what those characters did. Out of the new cast, I feel 3 characters either don't add value or don't add value effectively. Kum is basically a mix between Slayer and Eddie and in my opinion is a waste of a character slot. Answer wasn't really the answer BB players were looking for (kek). And Jack-O seems to have been a bad implementation of the mechanics.

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I think relevance to the plot doesn't matter in the slightest when it comes to who will be playable in the future. My evidence for that would be Answer, who Daisuke chose as one of two new characters in Rev 2 despite being less relevant than even Randy.

I remember from an interview that Daisuke wants Robo-Ky playable, and in the very recent interview on Shoryuken he declared that Bridget is the number one wanted character in Japan at the moment. So I think these two seem relatively likely for next returning characters.

As for new characters, it's a complete free for all. So many characters that might make it playable, and as Answer showed this is completely unpredictable.

Sadly, I'm guessing the majority of characters (both veterans and new ones) will be left behind.

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Ishiwatari said in one interview that story relevance actually does play a role in who gets added to the roster, I think even mentioning that as a reason Bedman made it into Sign over a returning character.

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On 1.3.2018 at 8:36 PM, redsilversnake said:

Ishiwatari said in one interview that story relevance actually does play a role in who gets added to the roster, I think even mentioning that as a reason Bedman made it into Sign over a returning character.

That's nice and all, but it's pretty much proven to not be the case at this point.

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All Answer proves is that story relevance isn't the only factor, which has been true since Sign (where Axl and Potemkin, for example, weren't terribly relevant). If it didn't matter at all, though, Jack-O probably would never have been added.

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