A familiar face from Overture, Raven makes his second playable appearance in the Guilty Gear series. Known as "The Undying Disease", Raven makes full use of his immortality to feed his masochistic love of pain in battle, which in turn leads to him fighting even harder than before. As a direct subordinate of the powerful and enigmatic "That Man", Raven is not one to be underestimated in battle.
At first glance for those familiar with Jedah Dohma of Darkstalkers fame, it's easy to draw parallels between the two, but by no means is Raven a clone. Raven brings his own flair to the table, which combined with the great reach of his normals, excellent ability to lead into knockdowns, and his unique "Excitement Gauge", the "Undying Disease" can be deadly in the right hands.
Strengths
- Excellent corner carry during pressure due to his airdash length and Grausam Impuls (236S) special move
- Solid mix up off sweeps
- Very good combination of range, speed and some extremely low profiles on normals
- Versatile projectiles that can be used for both zoning and pressure
- An anti-air command grab to complement the zoning game
- A forward dash with extremely fast top speed and invincibility in the middle to make it very easy to cross under opponents and phase through projectiles
- Can punish almost anything close-ranged with a correctly timed super armor stance
- Combos can be fairly burst safe
- Damage and properties on certain normals, specials, and supers can be improved by gaining "Excitement" levels
- Great gatling options and all moves but 5D are special cancelable
Weaknesses
- Has difficulty escaping the corner in the air, since the airdash goes towards the ground
- Limited combos make punishes weak in general
- Slow initial acceleration on the ground dash makes it difficult to adjust spacing and continue pressure without jumping
- Reliance on Excitement Gauge to increase damage of combo routes and Getreuer (214214H/D)
- Relatively slow normals, and all but c.S(+2) are negative on block (all but 5D can be special cancelable to make them almost always safe)
Excitement
Raven's "Stages" of Excitement
The Excitement Gauge affects the damage and properties of some of Raven's attacks; the higher level it is, the more damage Raven's normals, specials and supers inflict. Each level gives a 3% damage boost, giving a 30% damage boost at full. It also changes certain properties of specials, giving Scharf Kugel (236HS) more hits, making Grausam Impuls (236S) faster, and letting Raven combo off his command grab "Wachen Zweig" (63214S/HS). Upon reaching a certain level, the face of the Excitement meter changes.
- No Smile: Levels 0-2
- Regular Smile: Levels 3-5
- Tongue Smile: Levels 6-10
Each round the gauge starts at level 0 and increases when Raven uses his special move "Give it to me HERE" (214K) to absorb the opponent's attacks. While using "Give it to me HERE", his gauge will slowly increase over time even if Raven does not absorb any attacks. Hitting the opponents with certain specials also fill the meter.
- Grausam Impuls: 1 Level
- Wachen Zweig: 3 Levels
- Verzweifelt: 5 Levels
Note, if Raven doesn't gain Excitement within a 10 second period, the Excitement meter starts to drain. This timer is reset by landing the various specials and Supers, along with using "Give it to me HERE" to gain levels and a missed or RCd anti air command grab will reset the timer.