Note the title. Prepare yourself for some truth-bombs.
As of this post,
there’s only been one 100% new playable character announced for the latest
title in the franchise, Guilty Gear Xrd:
Bedman. He was introduced in a
blacked-out silhouette at first -- much like the better part of the BlazBlue cast when it was first making
the rounds -- but based on the shape alone, nobody could really get a good idea
of just what future players would be in for.
Or if not “nobody”, then me, at least.
And then when he was actually revealed…it
didn’t answer ANY questions. How do you
respond to a character that looks
like this?
Fortunately, gameplay videos have been
there to answer the vital questions -- or just demand further questions, but at
least now there’s something to go by. As
if taking inspiration from Death Bed: The Bed That Eats, most
of Bedman’s fighting comes from him using his nightmarish robotic bed to carve
up opponents (with his supers being more than a little terrifying). What really sets him apart from the rest of
the cast, though, is his ability to repeat his last attack via a phantom double
-- so apparently if you do an E. Honda-style sumo splash, you can input a
command and have the ghost do the same attack.
There’s no telling how effective that’ll be in the game’s run (i.e. if
Bedman has what it takes to become top-tier, or if he’ll invoke the spirit of
“losing at the character select screen”), but if nothing else he’s one of the
nuttiest fighters I’ve seen yet.
But he’s still got
nothing on Zappa -- a
character from one of the earlier games, naturally (and one that’ll likely
appear in future versions of Xrd). But that’s to be expected from a franchise that’s
as blatantly genius as this one.
