We went from knowing very little about Baiken’s new incarnation in Guilty Gear Strive to just about everything in a day’s time this week, and now we get to learn a little more from the team putting her together.
Arc System Works just released the 9th volume of their Developer’s Backyard blog where they dive into more details regarding Baiken, Happy Chaos and the upcoming Combo Maker mode.
Penned once more by Strive Director Akira Katano, he unsurprisingly states they “received many requests for her addition to the roster” thanks to her popularity from previous titles.
Katano also reveals Baiken will have something of a unique pre-battle introduction sequence from the rest of the cast though he doesn’t elaborate what that is exactly.
As can be seen in her gameplay trailer and character introduction guide, Baiken has changed quite a bit from her previous iterations as a more defensive fighter into one that’s more of an all-rounder — or a balance-type character as the game refers to them.
After giving a general overview of her special moves, the director writes Baiken’s true potential unlocks while she is close to the opponent, which should be fairly obvious given her new tether mechanic that physically ties both characters together for a limited time.
Unfortunately, Katano doesn’t go into detail at all regarding just how much they changed the fighter from where she was in Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2.
It’s easy to see why Baiken’s previous guard-cancel and guard-point dash follow-ups could be especially strong in Strive’s systems, but it still would have been nice to hear from the heads in charge what their thought process was on removing or changing 80% of her specials.
The only real deeper insight we get regarding Baiken’s gameplay is confirmation that her new Hiiragi counter does indeed have an “incredibly short” active window, so it remains to be seen how effective the move will actually be in the heat of battle.
This new blog post does confirm though that Baiken’s new English voice actor is Patty Mattson, who you may recognize as Sylvanas Windrunner in World of Warcraft / Heroes of the Storm, Bass Cannon Neith in Smite or Miss Anthrope in Captain Underpants.
Delving into the new Combo Maker mode, Katano confirms players aren’t just limited to creating flashy strings but also mixups and setplay as well.
It’ll include a handy tag searching feature as well to look for setups for specific game states like 100% Tension Gauge or close standing Slash starter. There’s also category tags such as “Beginner Friendly” or “Flashy Combo.”
The Combo Maker will even apparently choose recommended combos for individual players for what the game thinks they’ll like or should work on.
Since Happy Chaos didn’t receive a Developer’s Backyard update for his release, the previous DLC member finally gets his developer breakdown here too.
There’s not a ton of new information to dig up from it, however, except Katano suggests playing his Arcade route to see his inner mental state not shown in the story and he’s a complete novice with no training when it comes to physical combat, which certainly comes across in his moves.
Baiken and the Combo Maker are set to drop this Friday, January 28. You can read the full Developer’s Backyard on Guilty Gear’s website and the Version 1.13 patch notes here.
