Houkou Gaeshi, AKA Bellowing Roar in Accent Core + R, is one of Kliff Undersn's Special Attacks, first appearing in the original Guilty Gear and in all subsequent games that he appears in.
Overview[]
Kliff thrusts his front palm out, releasing a blast of draconic energy akin to a dragon's roar. In the original Guilty Gear, Kliff can charge Bellowing Roar by holding the 
button instead of 
. At level 2, the blast gets slightly longer, and the level 3 version gives more height to the wave while also flashing a brief image of dragon's hide with scales along the blast.
In Guilty Gear X Plus, the version travels halfway across the screen and nudges the opponent back based on the Level 1 version, while the 
version based on the Level 2 Charge version is slightly slower, but goes further and knocks away.
In the XX games, the version instead forms the beam into an energy disc with a bit more startup and damage while instead having a lesser distance knockdown; Accent Core Plus-onwards allows it to inflict ground slide instead. Both versions can be FRC'd across the XX games.
Reflex Roar
Additionally, he gains an Overdrive Attack variation initially dubbed as Houkou Gaeshi Charge Attack (咆哮返し・チャージアタック, Hōkō Gaeshi Chāji Atakku?), essentially his Level 3 Charge Bellowing Roar/Houkou Gaeshi turned into a super. Though in the XX games, it is replaced by an actual separate technique called Reflex Roar (リフレクスロア, Rifurekusu Roa?), where Kliff briefly turns into his younger self, then releases a wave that starts out as a flaming dragon's head, followed by a pale-red beam that blasts through the dragon head image as it splits apart. The blast overall inflicts an anywhere wallbounce. Plus R changes the input to finish with 
instead, but otherwise has the same motion input, while also making it inflict a blowback that wall sticks only in the corner.
Also the Accent Core games, he gains a Force Break variation done with 
only in midair, turning the blast into a dragon's head-with-beam blast akin to Reflex Roar (albeit reduced in size) that causes a wall stick only in the corner. Using it also halts Kliff's aerial momentum with a slight bounce backwards. It can be done multiple times in the air as long as Kliff has the Tension to spare, but there's notable lag between the input windows to where only a high jump would allow for 3 in a row to be done with at least 75% Tension. However, the projectile beam even if already active will immediately disappear if Kliff is counter hit during the animation. Also unlike the base versions, the Force Break version cannot be FRC'd.
In the Plus R update, the midair Force Break version instead inflicts an anywhere wallbounce, and also propels Kliff into the air backwards a bit as recoil which not only allows him to spam it up to 4 times total in the air with 100% Tension, it tactically gives him more room to position himself in accordance to his victim's wallbounce and likely allowing him to use another midair Bellowing Roar should he have extra Tension leftover. However, it has much lower blowback as if it lands through a grounded hit, the victim will only fall away and hard to the ground unless the corner was close enough to them despite inflicting an anywhere wallbounce. With this in mind, this move requires far more precision to use to make sure Kliff is positioned properly to air-combo the opponent off of a calculated wallbounce.
Details[]
To be added...
Trivia[]
- This technique's naming, as well as its stronger version Reflex Roar, may allude to the song "Let it Roar" by W.A.S.P..
Gallery[]
