At CEO 2021, Arc System Works announced the next character coming to the season 1 pass of Guilty Gear Strive. With a trailer to show and a crowd to cheer, Baiken was revealed as the next fighter coming to the game! She will be available in late January 2022. You can check out the reveal trailer below.
For the uninitiated to the Guilty Gear franchise, Baiken is female samurai that has sworn revenge on the character “That Man” for the death of her parents. Historically, Baiken has been considered a controversial character in the competitive scene for her attack-sealing supers and guard cancel, allowing her to cancel into specials during both blockstun and blockstop in Guilty Gear XX Accent Core +R. While toned down in Guilty Gear XRD Rev 2, she remains a powerful character – taking advantage of the Azami parry mechanic that replicates some of the same guard canceling effects.
Nonetheless, Baiken has remained a fan favorite – on the record for being one of the most requested characters in North America. This popularity was so prevalent that it opened the doors for crossovers with other franchises, including the new Samurai Shodown!
Unfortunately, the trailer doesn’t show Baiken in action yet. It will be interesting to see if they make any massive changes to her playstyle. Her design looks close to how she looked in Guilty Gear XRD REV 2. And the poem coming back from XRD seems to hint that she will be close to how she was in XRD. But this is all speculation, of course.
Guilty Gear Strive is available now for PlayStation 4/5 and PC. If you haven’t dived into the game yet, you can read our review to see how we felt about it. Are you excited to see Baiken return to Guilty Gear for another fight? Let us know below!
Via Siliconera
