open/close all folders
Guilty Gear: The Missing Link
- Millia's Chaos Move, Iron Maiden, fires a barrage of hair projectiles that home in on the opponent. That on its own is enough to make it incredibly annoying, but there's more — outside of the homing properties, the projectiles are pretty much identical to fully charged Living Lancers, so they're huge and beat pretty much every other projectile in the game. It gets even worse in Chaos Mode, where Millia can potentially steal the round by spamming it.
- Ky's Instant Kill, Zwei Voltage, is generally considered to be the best in the game. The initial attack is huge, has a very short recovery period, and shrinks Ky's hurtbox down to around his knees. This makes it fairly strong on its own, but these properties also allow the Ky player to spam it and force the opponent into a checkmate. Some charactersnote can escape this, but the rest of the cast is kind of just screwed, especially if Ky has the life-lead.
- Testament's Chaos Move, Nightmare Circular, fires a huge projectile that applies a poison effect. Unlike later games, the poison damage adds up FAST, and can even kill. Dealing with both that and the million other things Testament throws at you is difficult, especially when fighting them as the game's sub-boss.
- Justice has two:
- Imperial Ray fires a laser that sweeps across the entire screen in front of Justice. The range alone is enough to make it overpowered, but there's more — it also combos into itself, can stun after just two uses, and is completely safe on block. It also builds a ridiculous amount of meter on hit, allowing for easy access to...
- Her Chaos Move, Gamma Ray, is generally considered to be the best in the game by a large margin. While it takes more than a second to start up, when it does come out, it deals a ridiculous amount of damage, and if it gets blocked, the pushback and blockstun are so great that it's actually safe in most situations. If Justice ends up in Chaos Mode, she basically wins the game, since the rest of the cast struggles to contend with even one Gamma Ray, let alone a constant barrage of them.
Guilty Gear X
- Johnny's Bacchus Sigh spawns a mist cloud that slowly travels towards the opponent. If it touches them, Johnny's next Mist Finer becomes unblockable for the next six seconds. On its own, it's merely obnoxious, but Johnny also has a number of setups that allow him to apply it basically for free off of a knockdown while also leveling up Mist Finer. And since a Level 2 Mist Finer knocks the opponent down...
Guilty Gear XX
- As a boss, I-No has an AI-exclusive attack known as Megalomania. After a brief delay, she fires a long barrage of projectiles in one of three patterns. If even one of them hits, all of them home in on you, and the damage adds up fast, even on block. And no, despite appearances, you can't just jump over I-No to dodge them. If you do that, all of the projectiles home in on you from the start.
- As a playable character, she has Ultimate Fortissimo. While the input is somewhat awkward, the attack itself comes out almost instantly, with the startup time consisting entirely of Overdrive freeze frames. As if that weren't enough, it's incredibly safe on block and allows for follow-ups on hit.
- When fought as a boss in Story Mode, Dizzy has her own exclusive Overdrive known as Wings of Light. There are three possible variants based on how close you are to her when the move activates. If you're far away, it drops a laser that tracks your position. If you're at least a character-length away, it fires a laser that sweeps across the entire screen around Dizzy. If you're right next to her, it fills the entire screen with lasers. All three variants deal an insane amount of damage, especially the close-range version, which can potentially kill you from full health.
- Testament has two:
- Zeinest puts a web at Testament's position. If you move near the web, it activates, holding you in place for a brief period, allowing Testament to follow up with basically whatever they want. As if that weren't enough, the web is also completely invisible until it activates, and can interrupt just about anything.
- HITOMI plants a tree in the ground underneath Testament. If you pass over where the tree was planted, it sprouts up and launches you upwards if it hits, allowing for free follow-ups. The tree is also completely invisible until it activates, but unlike Zeinest, the planting animation for HITOMI is very subtle, making it easy to forget about when you're dealing with everything else Testament is throwing at you.
- While Justice is no doubt a shadow of her former self in +R, she still has a trump card in the form of Nuclear Blast. It sends out a missile that travels along one of five paths, depending on which button is held down. This missile ignores or destroys almost every projectile in the game, and cause a huge explosion when the opponent gets close or you release the button, making it difficult for them to approach, especially if multiple missiles are on the screen at once. While hitting Justice causes all onscreen missiles to disappear, that can be difficult to do in a lot of matchups. It should also be noted that this single move is the only one that they actually buffed from her original competitively-illegal version. It used to only have the P (straight-low) and S (90-degree arc) version trajectories, and there was a cap on how many could be on the screen at once. When she became fully playable and tournament-legal in +R, they added the three extra paths to it (straight-high, 45-degree arc, and 135-degree arc) and made it so that she could fill the screen with as many bombs as she wanted, turning her into the terrifying zoner she is seen as today.
Guilty Gear Xrd
- Elphelt has Miss Travailler Fire. It's a huge, disjointed shotgun blast that comes out incredibly quickly, is surprisingly safe on block, and can be canceled into Reload and repeated for some truly suffocating pressure. If you wait a bit before firing, it becomes even stronger — the blast now comes out on frame 1, has an even bigger hitbox, is outright plus on block, and splats the opponent against the wall for an incredibly long time if it hits them in the corner. Any Elphelt that manages to enter Shotgun stance while the opponent is cornered is considered to have basically won the round, and this move is a big reason why.
Guilty Gear -STRIVE-
- Potemkin has Garuda Impact. It launches a jet of fire from his gauntlet that staggers on hit and inflicts Guard Crush on block, allowing Potemkin to follow up with practically whatever he wants... including a Potemkin Buster. While it is somewhat slow to start up, its properties make it incredibly easy to just drop on top of someone after a knockdown, with its massive range allowing it to potentially even beat some reversals.
