System Changes:
+ New ground rush mechanic: There is no longer invincibility after being wall rushed to the floor. Meaning you can combo with an assist or something else. The window is really small though.
+ Map movement is much faster.
+ Overall, character attacks are much faster on start up
+ There's a cooldown to Dodge, and more apparent than before. Not so much in the air.
- OAD confirmed to have speed nerf. FAD feels the same.
- Multi-hitting attacks, like Squall's BF, Sephiroth's SC, or Zidane's SA doesn't build Assist that much.
Character Changes
They mainly played Lightning, Kain, Cloud, and WoL. Each match they did was dragged on as long as possible to try and bait the CPU to doing attacks and learning what they may do. This is based off of observation and comparing notes, so yeah.
Warrior of Light: Played by Mikoto and GG250
- DC combos are pretty much gone, like in UT. There's new ones though, like AA Ascension into Aerial Dayflash and some air ones, like aerial Dayflash (two hits) into Coat Buckler.
- His White Fang has weird tracking. It's not sensitive nor blunt, and doesn't always hit with all the strikes after catching somebody. Might be a technical glitch.
- Shining Wave has less of a vertical hitbox.
- Ultimate Shield sucks. Good range though if you snag somebody.
- Has to conserve jumps more, dodge cancel air combos are nerfed because of this.
+ Radiant Sword is faster and tracks a little bit better
+ Shining Wave's new tracking is almost as good as CoD's long range particle wave, except it goes to the air too!
+ Both Dayflashes are really strong pokes.
+ Most US changes are still present.
Garland: CPU encounter
+ Round Edge seems to break guard on first hit too. Might be an player error.
+ One of the two uppercuts has better tracking. Unsure which one.
+ Flare is faster than Earthquake and has a better vertical reach than it.
- Blaze still sucks.
Emperor: CPU Encounter by Kimeroan and GG250
+ All his moves seem to be faster.
+ Flare still deflectable
+ Melachony's Prison is a REALLY good HP attack. Seems to have invincibility on start up, absorb, and can hit aerial opponents too. Not to mention it's fast.
* Aerial Flare seems to not be destroyable? Brave doesn't break it, neither does Gungnir. Gungnir went right through the flare, but it stayed up. Might be a glitch.
- Lightning Crest does less hits now?
- Light Crest, while does more damage and ricochets faster, is crappier without a wall.
- Mines still dashable
Onion Knight: CPU encounter by Mikoto
+ Blade Dance/Torrent is much faster on start up
+ Fire has a better trajectory
+ Off-cue sound effects still there, though was hard to tell with all the noise.
- Still feels the same when fighting him in UT.
Cloud of Darkness: CPU encounter by Mikoto and GG250
+ Overall feels less like a rock. Was more mobile.
+ Has a surrounding tentacle BRV attack on the ground that stuns similar to the lightning attack until she swats you away.
- Still floaty.
- Fusillade is worse now? Same for O-Form. They seem to have worse tracking.
Cecil Harvey: CPU encounter by Mikoto, Assist used by Kimeroan.
+ His assist Radiant Wings is THAT good. Set it up properly and you're guaranteed a combo with the ground hit. Even then, you can strike them while they're still airborne.
+ Paladin Force range increase.
+ DK ground brv 3-hit combo has a larger hitbox.
- Still lacking in the pokes department.
- Dark Flame looks to be nerfed again.
Golbeza: CPU Encounter by GG250
+ Advances more when he attacks
+ Aerial systems have better tracking
- Assault System has less hitstun.
- Nightglow priority down, was beaten by Cross Slash.
- Never used Sector Ray. D:
ExDeath: Encountered by Mikoto
+ Low and Mid guard stop more things and are active longer.
- High Guard is slower and stops less.
- Mobility worsened. Seems slower on the ground and floatier in the air.
- Reverse Polarity got worse? Didn't stagger when blocked. (Mikoto admits to being tired when fighting him and killed ExDeath quickly.)
Terra Branford: Played by Mikoto, Encountered by GG250 and Kimeroan.
+ Fire is a strong, long range poke now. Tracks well, moves fast, does good damage for her level.
+ Ultima whiffs less off of Holy combo
+ BC is faster
+ Flood is faster, wider area of effect
+ Firaga is like JPN's SA -> FE.
+ She pewpews Assists really easily. You have to change up your style against her.
- Meltdown is slower and takes longer to fire the first charge
- Holy's tracking got worse, but not JPN level.
- Her mobility went down? She walks and dashes a bit less than before.
- Falls faster, so her stronger air attacks are not as exploitable.
- Blizzara had a tracking nerf.
- Not too good with Assist combos.
Cloud Strife: Played by Mikoto and GG250, Encountered by all three of them
+ Aerial Double Cut is GOOD. It's the personal bubble that he needed.
+ Slashing Blow absorbs now, and has better tracking. Can punish dodges more due to system change.
+ Blade Beam is a combination of JPN and US. US speed, JPN explosion.
+ Slash Blow is faster.
* Aerial Fang may guard stagger? Not sure.
+ More combos? Still can DC Climhazard.
+ Fire has more hitstun, especially Firaga
+ Builds Bar REALLY well. One Slash Blow earns almost a full gauge. Double Cut does well.
- Meteorain still sucks, both versions. Air version has less cooldown, but a focused area.
- Cross Slash has more cooldown
- Focused on walling and punishing, not so much offense buffs.
- Still slow.
- Climhazzard doesn't track well
- Aerial Double Cut doesn't track like BF or HS. It's mainly a GTFO me.
- Fire's tracking is worse.
Sephiroth: Encountered by GG250 and Kimeroan
+ Heaven's Light has a moment of invicibility? As he starts it up.
+ Godspeed is fucking great!- quote from GG250. Ground crash, and faster.
- SC does less hits
- Heaven's Light hitbox adjusted.
- Shadow Flare does less hit stun, easier to get out of.
Squall Leonhart: Encountered by all.
+ Upper Blues builds great meter.
+ Solid Barrel does more damage, has a better hitbox
+ Combos great with assists, esp. into HP
+ Mystic Flurry tracks better, first shot goes to opponent's current position.
* Heel Crush loss magic invincibility? Was able to be hit with Lightning's Thundaga attack.
- Can't OHKO
- Beat Fang got a tracking and *damage nerf. Unsure about the damage nerf. Overall tracking nerf for all attacks outside of magic,
- Blizzard Bullet tracks less
- Doesn't build assist meter too well, especially in the air.
- Thunder Bullet doesn't pull in.
- Fought him a lot in the demo, they say it's an 'omen.'
Zidane Tribal: Encountered by Kimeroan
+ EX mode jump buffs are actually useful now.
- SA got a tracking nerf.
- Does less damage overall?
- Free Energy has a MUCH shorter range. It's almost as bad as Swordstrike from Firion now, maybe worse.
Kuja: Played by GG250
+ Ultima start-up reminds him of JPN Ultima, but not as retarded. Still can move after casting it.
+ Force Symphony is a nightmare to ground units.
+ An annoying prick to catch.
+ Holy Star has a stronger absorb effect
* Ring Holy undashable?
- His better BRV attacks got slower and hitbox adjustments for the worse.
- Two shot BRV flare attack has crappy tracking, more so than UT.
- While he can move during the attacks, its' slower than before.
- Gravity takes effect a lot faster as he glides. Glides slower too.
Tidus: Encountered by Mikoto
+ HS has better tracking
+ Actual EVADE frames on his attacks
+ Cut and Run in the air tracks?
* Computer was able to DC the actual dodge of his BRV attacks, before the attack came out. Not sure if this is legit or a glitch.
- Jump arc changed
- Less tracking for his HP attacks.
- Funny tidbit: Tidus's balls can be reflected back to him to damage. INCLUDING Jecht shot and Moogle Shot.
Lightning: Played by all.
+ One of the most diverse and versatile characters in the build. Easily has tools for just about any situation.
+ Shifts can happen mid-combo, but takes some practice to get it down.
+ Gun shots are gay. They're decently fast, safe pokes, and set up for assist combos
+ Razor Gale tracks slowly and can be set-up for traps. Undashable and unguardable (unlike Tidal Flame issues.)
+ Thunder barrier spell, (Thundaga?) serves as a shield and an assist builder.
+ Flourish of Steel links really well and easily with Smash Upper.
+ Ravager mode is by far the best all around.
+ Ryouigi Shiki's SEIYUUU! ~<3 (quote from Mikoto and Kimeroan)
+ Able to create long combos with assists. Example: Smash Upper (2 hits) -> WoL Buckler -> Set a Razor Gale as WoL attacks -> Ground Rush into Razor Gale -> Paradigmn Shift-> Scene Drive -> WoL Assist DayFlash in the air -> Crushing Blow. Did about 400 twice.
+ AT: Pardigmn Cancel- Mikoto reports being able to cancel the ending lag/animation of certain attacks and the opening of others into the next mode's attack. Example: Commando Smash Upper start up turned into a feint that lead to Waterga. The ending of Thunder was double canceled into Blitz/Gun Rush. It looks as if Lightning does a short hop or twitch when doing the skill. Unsure how to do it, as she couldn't replicate the glitch consistently.
- Complex and has a lot of tools to learn. Assist combo timing are awkward.
- Doesn't gain BRV as easily as you would think.
- Sends foe flying away too often, so you have to chase them a lot to reset your good spot.
- Completely dependent on shifting between modes. Medic is a deadweight.
- Cure spells only worthwhile in Thunder walling. Not that abusable. Could serve as a lure.
- Attacks aren't that fast, but doesn't have Cecil issues with poking. A strong mid-range fighter.
- Commando is mediocre, the gun attacks save it from being standard issue.
Kain Highwind: Played by all.
+ Ability creates some interesting stand-alone combos. Press triangle to pursuit instead of chase and you can strike again. CPU able to recover most instances though, might be used to regain ground.
+ WRECKS mages.
+ Gungnir has bullshit tracking, and totally kills heavy lag/start up attacks.
+ Jump is cancelable at any point.
+ Combos really well.
+ Celestial Shooter and Crash Dive (I think that's the names?) Change altitude while attacking, so you can keep the foe pressured and guessing with vision issues.
+ Far less complex than Lightning, but still equally scary. Great for beginners.
+ EX mode is beast! Capable of canceling just about anything means he can wreck house with the opponent, especially if they're twitchy. Example: Use Jump and cancel right before it hits if you notice your foe is gonna evade it, follow up with Thrust Lance or Gungnir to scare'em.
- Doesn't build assist too well, due to multi-hitting nature.
- In this build, wasn't doing so much damage.
- Due to assist build problems, he can't exploit his heavy combo nature as easily.
- Similar to Cecil, but not as bad, he'll probably have poking problems once they get used to his moveset.
- Lancet will have issues hitting. It's a spawn point type like Flood, so it takes a while to attack.
