Game:

Guilty Gear -STRIVE- (2021)

Duration: 31:16

767 views

7

DLC character #2 is here at last, so let’s get to know the fighter behind the frankly ICONIC crouch animation. Here’s Jack-O’!

Her history is…complicated. Created by Asuka R. Kruetz, Jack-O’ is meant to be a backup copy of Aria Hale, Sol Badguy’s former lover. At the climax of Guilty Gear Xrd, they succeeded in fusing Jack-O’, who contains Aria’s soul and memories, with her body, which itself was still within the powerful Gear known as Justice. Strive shows that Aria herself is too broken to ever come back fully though, and Jack-O' is effectively a reincarnation who's still a distinct person. Sol likes her just fine though.

In Xrd, Jack-O’ was inspired by MOBAs, setting down houses that spawned servants that would move forward and attack of their own accord, with Jack-O’ free to fight alongside them or use her other moves to augment them. She’s received a pretty drastic overhaul for Strive, likely due in part to make her more accessible…and because the wall break system means she’d have to start from scratch with her servants all the time. In this game, Jack-O’ summons servants herself, though they won’t move or attack unless ordered to. She can only have three servants summoned at a time and the actions she can take is dictated by the Servant Gauge, which refills over time. While she can attack with servants, defend with them or even detonate them, they’re pretty fragile, vanishing if hit (or if Jack-O’ is hit….even while blocking!) or after a few seconds. For her Overdrives, she has either a powerful command grab, or she can buff her servants to make them invincible for a time, or allow the Servant Gauge to refill faster for a bit. She's pretty technical, so let's see how I do with her!

Set 1: Lars Canyon
Giovanna (Slickwitit) vs. Jack-O’ (me)

First match of the night and…connection could be better. I can already tell speedy, aggressive fighters are going to be Jack-O’s greatest nemesis, and that’s without connection hiccups! Mostly serviceable here but still, was glad to come out on top here in the end. And now I’ve gone from level 1 to level 25!

Set 2: Castle of the Silver Fleet
Jack-O’ (me) vs. Leo (Krumpet)

Been a bit since we’ve seen Leo, and he got some pretty crazy buffs from the first major balance patch so this’ll be interesting… Hey you know what ELSE Jack-O’ struggles with? Projectiles! Here is also the only set that I actually did the defense buff Overdrive. It prevented Leo from wiping all three out with a projectile but…not much else. Still, I’m on a hot streak now! I also made sure to switch my music to Jack-O’s theme, “Perfection Can’t Please Me” so you get at least ONE set with that song. Not my usual jam but it’s not a bad song and fits her arc pretty well if you listen to the full thing.

Set 3: Lars Canyon
Jack-O’ (me) vs. Millia (Hemlock)

I’ve been bullied by far too many Millias and I can’t stands it no mores! Time to go on a rampage with my servants! Now uh…I know Millia has low health but look at about 14:18 there. With just a few hits of my servants I took off like 40% of her health! And later I land kills with Forever Elysian Driver that wouldn’t have killed a lot of the cast! Millia really does have to work hard to get her damage but my servants are surprisingly strong!

Set 4: 12-Dimentional Flux Observatory
Jack-O’ (me) vs. Jack-O’ (Dragon)

I feel like more than any other character now, Jack-O’ mirror matches are the goofiest thing. We’re not even playing Guilty Gear anymore! Dragon also shows off a fun Easter Egg; between rounds if you hold Dust down, Jack-O’ will take her mask off and stay like that for the rest of the match. You can also get if you hold taunt down, but good luck doing that in a real match…and also it has to be a specific taunt that you may not even get! I'm not sure if opponents mashing to start the next round affects this either; I never got it to work for me.

Set 5: Original Times Square
Jack-O’ (me) vs. Faust (Ninjawarrior1154)

I really liked this set, even if it does go on a bit long and pads the video out. Faust and Jack-O’ have some similarities gameplay-wise…chucking things at people! True, Jack-O’s servants aren’t randomized at all but I think the spirit is the same…you know if you also take away the fact that Faust has a big scalpel and teleports and stuff. I don’t fight many Fausts so I cherish the ones that come by when I can. This was a pretty tough set; some of these rounds were real nail-biters! Faust’s range is a real problem for my servants, but on the other hand, give me some space to set up and I can send that doctor to the doctors!

I had more fun with Jack-O’ than I kind of anticipated. She’s scaled back a fair deal from Xrd admittedly, but that works out better for someone like me. I still can’t do the really fancy stuff but I’ll probably play her more now than I would have in Xrd. And somehow I leveled up really fast with her too; she’s probably my highest character now.

Until next time, rock on!

Other Statistics