Axl originally lived in the 20th century, about 150 years before the events of main storyline. During this period, he fell in love with a girl named Megumi. He grew up in the slums and eventually found himself in the middle of a gang war. Thanks to his strength, he was able to put an end to the conflict in six months (with no casualties). It was sometime after this victory when Axl was forced to go through his first time slip into the 22nd century. Axl enters the Sacred Knights Tournament in hopes of finding a way to get back to his own era. He was apparently led to believe that the winner of the tournament could have a wish granted to them.
After the tournament, Axl has tried to find a way to return to the past while suffering from the random time-slips. He is also one the few people who knows Sol's real identity and calls him "Freddie". He even seeked help from Faust, who unfortunately couldn't anything to his condition. Eventually he decides to find That Man and his servants, I-No in particular, to ask them for help.
In Guilty Gear Xrd, Axl confronts I-No yet again to tell her to bring him to That Man with important information from The Original. I-No brings Axl to The Backyard to meet That Man. Axl tells That Man the message, and then learns that he has no way out to escape.
Axl is the resident zoner of Xrd and while his chains may remind you of the limbs of a certain fire-breathing yoga master, he has the tools to rumble with opponents at any range instead of relying purely on keep-away tactics. If you can react to (and predict) opponent's jumps, Axl is more than capable of tagging them with his phenomenal anti-airs, some reaching more than half the screen (horizontally, diagonally or vertically). His ability to easily convert the anti-air hits into highly damaging combos with loads of corner carry is also second to none. If the opponent remains grounded, Axl's Rensengeki is an extremely potent keep-away tool that rips through opposing projectiles, has a built-in anti-air follow-up, and can be YRC'd into a lightning-fast projectile to control any approach with ease during the YRC slowdown.
Axl's main weakness is his subpar mobility; his walk and run are slow, his airdash distances are short, and his jump is really floaty. Using movement to avoid opponent's attacks and pressure is really clunky so matchups against high-mobility characters become that much worse. Even when you manage to escape the corner with jump or high jump, Axl's airdash moves him so little distance out of corner that he has to make additional efforts with j.2S, jS and such (for preventing airthrows, antiairs, and other chasedown attempts) to survive the landing. Another lacking area is Axl's offensive momentum; although his ground throw and frame traps have good damage, his mixup options and blockstrings are much less oppressive than most of the cast, meaning he usually has to grind out his wins in the neutral instead of riding a single hit to victory. In addition to that, most of his long-range pokes have dramatically extended hurtboxes, making Axl exceptionally vulnerable on the lengthy active and recovery frames against various attacks and approaches. However, with a great low-profile 2K, a fully invincible DP, and 4-frame parries, Axl is far from helpless once the opponent gets in, so if hitting the opponent for 40% of their life off of a single anti-air sounds appealing, give this goofy time-traveler a try!
Strengths/Weaknesses
Strengths |
Weaknesses
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- Long-reaching normals and specials that allows pressuring and damaging the opponent at any range
- Strong anti-air game that leads to big damage and/or knockdown
- High average damage with low execution barrier
- Good combo convertion ability, both without and with 50% meter
- Rensen YRC: a top class pressure and neutral tool in the form of beam-like projectile
- Benten: a meterless full-invuln DP that makes opponents think twice about their offensive patterns
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- Normals and specials are slow and situational; covering the wrong angle and range leaves you extremely vulnerable
- Poor mobility, especially in the air; escaping from the corner is difficult without meter or hard reads
- Pressure is very reliant on plain frame traps and throws; the unorthodox mixup moves are slow and/or risky
- No quick (<6F) or self-canceling normals for easy abare, hitconfirming, and burst baiting.
- Needs mastering very different gameplans for all sorts of matchups to play effectively at higher skill levels
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