Watching the Cygames Cup meant that, aside from the Top 8, I was waiting for the brand new character trailer for Ilsa. If you don’t know already, she is the final character that will be available for Granblue Fantasy: Versus Rising‘s 2nd Season. Considering I have no idea who she is according to the story of Granblue Fantasy, I was curious but also a bit weary.
Considering that characters like Elphelt in Guilty Gear Xrd, Happy Chaos in Guilty Gear Strive, and other characters which use guns in fighting games haven’t been done incredibly well (also Launcher in DNF Duel), I am cautious. Let’s check out the trailer and I’ll give my impressions regarding what I see.
Originally I viewed this in Japanese, but decided to use the English trailer considering that’s the language I typically play in. What I have to say first off, is that the voice actress did an AMAZING job.
The emotion that is given to Ilsa fits with the demeanor of a hardened officer. She seems incredibly callous, blunt, and accepts nothing less than what she considers to be your best, and that’s not good enough the first time around. Even the line, “I’ve built a whole new set of drills to bust your ass!”, the opening one, is INCREDIBLE.
As far as her aesthetic, I think she looks amazingly well. I love how she is a mix between what I consider military and marching band’s Drum Major. It’s stylish and fitting; gives an air of femininity and sex appeal while still being imposing. I thought it looked fairly good before, but seeing Ilsa in motion really cements that fact for me.
As far as her actual gameplay style; I’m not really sure it’s to my liking. Seems like a mix between Launcher (primarily because of the slow moving diagonal-downwards missile) and Gunner in DNF Duel. Though, she has what appear to be rekka that are quick similar to the revolver animations of Noel from BlazBlue; which might not be a coincidence since Arc System Works seem to take inspirations from their own characters (such as Zooey having Sol Badguy’s Jumping Dust animation and even the iconic “Dust Loop” attack pattern). I also saw rainstorm, an iconic move from Dante of Devil May Cry which has also been borrowed from Star-Lord in Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls.
Overall, the character looks interesting aesthetically and is voiced amazingly, but the gameplay lacks in a lot of ways that I find gun-based characters seem to have. She doesn’t seem game ruining, similar to how Eustace was properly balanced so he doesn’t rip apart the game (which says a lot since both Elphelt in Gulity Gear Xrd and Happy Chaos in Guilty Gear -STRIVE- are considered to be game-ruining characters). Seems to engage the enemy a fair amount and only has a few tools which are meant to be used from far range; which is a good call.
Ilsa comes out February 10th, which is less than a month away. I’ll definitely try her out and let you guys know my feelings when that happens!
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