Robo-Ky is a playable character in all versions of Guilty Gear XX.
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Robo-Ky first appeared as Ky's GG Mode version in Guilty Gear X Plus (as well as in Guilty Gear Petit 2), appearing only as an opponent in Ky's Story Mode. He is a palette swap of Ky with several unique moves. He is often in a weak, slouching stance (using the "exit menu" sound effect periodically), and would crawl on the ground in his walking animation; both assets reuse normal Ky's face-down-getup animation frames with his crouch being reused from his throw's final frames, and his running animation being a rip from Ride the Lightning.
It was until Guilty Gear XX, he is officially named and appears as a hidden character with his own slot. However, he was often deemed unfit to be played in tournaments due to being for a long time, console-exclusive content. Specific differences between the two often involve exclusive techniques such as:
- Ray Divider, a surging lightning barrier emitted from Robo-Ky slamming his fingertips on the ground.
- Impala Hunt, a low-outward-sweep-slash that is done from a forward blinking rush that can also cross-up opponents (later used as the basis for Grand Vapor Thrust).
- An inverted version of Crescent Slash called Reverse Crescent, where Robo-Ky does a forward-flipping dropping kick animation with it despite having the same upward slash graphic (and like Crescent Slash also hits overhead). However, Robo-Ky in Advance still retains the original Crescent Slash.
- Ride the Lightning travels faster, but only does a single hit instead. Like with normal Ky, it can be done in midair in XX.
- An exclusive Overdrive called Aces High, where Robo-Ky takes into the air with a vertical Ride the Lightning sphere around himself and slashes outward in a regal manner (reused for one of EX Ky's moves).
- In XX he also gains one of EX Ky's moves (Elegant Slash).
However, also combined with some of the general perks of GG Mode (where air dashes can be done at a much lower minimum height prime for instant air dashing), as well as being able to crawl under most mid-and-high-level projectiles with just its walking animation alone combined with faster running speed than most other characters, it would seem the robot had some initial advantages. However, Robo-Ky's main issues were his lack of varied gatling routes (or any), as well as being unable to make use of FD-cancelling. These issues alone forced him to be far more fundamentals-based compared to base Ky, with the particular issue of limited chain combo routes still being present in vanilla XX.
However, in Guilty Gear X Advance, Robo-Ky is instead accessed through EX Mode Ky, which causes GG Mode Ky to be swapped around. It is only in this game his Aces High Overdrive has a revised input while also gaining a new eye laser Overdrive that uses his victory animation against Sol (and is similar to his take on the original Ky's Sacred Edge in XX, which also fires an eye laser).
In X Plus, Robo-Ky initially did not speak at all in his intro quotes, and also only vibrated in his idle pose for his taunts and victory poses as he stuttered with the original Ky's voice lines. In XX however, he fully instead copies Ky's battle voice lines with a distortion effect, but also has metallic weight sounds for his landing impacts from either falling or jumping.
It is in ♯Reload that Robo-Ky finally became a character of his own; while his fighting stance is the same as Ky's, he borrows animations from several versions of Ky (normal Ky, EX Ky, and original Robo-Ky) via his entire move list being revamped. Having gained the Power/Electric Gauge in place of the Tension Gauge, which fills up slowly and requires the use of specific moves or proper instant blocking to gain power quickly, nearly all of his special moves can be powered up depending on how much power he has which makes him very resource-heavy as his special moves will consume power when used (Negative Penalty can hurt him a lot if triggered). His iconic mat laid down from his crouching , the Gimmic-KY being a prime source of easy power building also works for the opponent, but some of his other specials help with his meter gain as well. It should be noted that Level 1 specials are triggered at 0 units, Level 2 require 1-4 units, while Level 3 require 5-10 units to activate.
He also has a temperature/heat meter AKA a thermometer that indicates his current heat level as the robot can now overheat from repeatedly performs specific actions (with some actions building up more heat than others if abused willy-nilly). The gauge much like an actual dial-based thermometer tends to fluctuate rapidly, and once it reaches its limit, Robo-Ky blows up via suffering from a standard knockdown that does minor damage to himself while resetting his heat level to its original initial value. However, while his + is used to lower and exhaust his heat level, being at higher levels of heat also benefits his moves (his and normals especially) with both a fire-effect and longer hitstun/untech times, as well as enhancing the range, damage, and hit-effect of the aforementioned + .
Another perk of Robo-Ky is having unconventionally-schemed normals, such as a slide-kicking crouching akin to Ky's Stun Dipper slide portion, crouching that acts as his actual sweep (as his aforementioned crouching being an entirely unique move), a standing that can't naturally cancel into anything but can be FRC'd, and an upward-missile-launching crouching . This however, makes his gatlings rather un-intuitive which can require some workarounds for certain players. Also adding to his comical nature is the ability since #Reload to perform a delayed getup taunt with + while knocked down, which can properly throw off any wakeup-lockdown attempts upon a skilled Robo-Ky player but at the cost of 0.4% of his power gauge as the opponent also receives 2% tension.
So far, the only moves Robo-Ky shares directly with normal Ky are:
- Standing , but cannot be rapid-fired into itself unlike original Ky's.
- Standing , which can rapid-fire into itself unlike original Ky's.
- Close standing .
- Standing .
- Crouching , but cannot be rapid-fired into itself unlike original Ky's.
- Jumping .
- Jumping , but with a drill emerging in the place of his kicking-foot and while giving a thumbs-up gesture.
- Jumping and jumping are swapped around and altered compared to original Ky's, as both also involve Robo-Ky's sword turning into a mallet and his legs in different positions.
- Grounded throw, but with his sword turning into a metal harisen/paper fan and causing a hard knockdown (older games) or a ground bounce (Λ Core); said throw also shares the same exact FRC point as normal Ky's ground throw.
- Air throw.
- Hun-KY Homerun is essentially Robo-Ky's own take on Vapor Thrust, only with no lightning-slash trail, only one button version () and its height instead being dependent on its power level (higher levels = lower height for faster recovery).
- S-KY-line is Robo-Ky's version of EX Ky's Elegant Slash, albeit with extra electrical graphics and inflicting a wallbounce, wall-stick or normal knockdown instead of a launch.
- The Overdrive Whac-KY Blow is an alternate version of the original Robo-Ky's Aces High.
The reworked Robo-Ky focuses on scoring hard knockdowns to setup his crouching mat for power build-ups, or making use of his various higher-power-level specials for a lockdown or a hefty combo due to how hard some of his moves hit. He has the highest defense, highest stun resistance, and one of the highest weight/gravity ratings of the cast (fitting due to him being a robot) despite his low guts rating, on top of having various zoning/lockdown tools that can control air space especially and/or create frame-traps.
Likewise, another move Robo-Ky could perform was the Ris-KY Lovers, a comical reuse of the old Robo-Ky's Ray Divider animation where Robo-Ky smashes a button revealed on its leading foot, overclocking his Hercules Engine (akin to Dragon Install) where Robo-Ky moves faster and rapidly gains power at a fast rate. However, a timer appears above his head where it if runs out, all his power and heat level will be lost will eject itself into an electrical sphere via a self-destruction animation (that akin to overheating, inflicts some minor damage to Robo-Ky himself), but can damage nearby foes and causes the "bubble" itself to linger if this happens for continuous damage.
While Robo-Ky was fairly average with some level of success in his reworked debut, he was somehow deemed to be fairly nerfed by the time of XX Slash despite his new additions. The robot himself is rather wonky and requires a lot of meter juggling as aforementioned between both his heat gauge and power gauge, as a huge power-consuming combo can leave him with little resources left and a huge amount of heat built. On top of him having a 5-frame jump startup and a fairly low jump height hindering his mobility, his hard knockdowns have no real way of being scored off of air combos to further hamper his air-to-air combat. Robo-Ky must also adjust to each of the properties of his specials depending on his current meter level, which can lock out certain combo routes.
In Λ Core, his new Force Break (which is a revamped version of his famous comical jumping , paralleling the original Ky's conception for his Stun Rays Force Break) also acts as a low-aerial mobility tool to setup low jumping mixups, gimmicky air option resets, and as a way to cool down his heat gauge. His + also gains the ability to have 2 extra inputs, albeit at the cost of massively raising his heat if abused.
In EX Mode, Robo-Ky has higher amount of power gauge units (essentially doubled from 10 to 20) while also having it essentially function like a normal Tension Gauge (he now gains meter at the same rate as all other characters in the same methods, along with his Tension Pulse perks working at the same rate and the like). He also gains a conventional normal attack scheme (crouching uses Ky's Stun Dipper second slash animation while crouching is a faster Ray Divider animation with a small spark that works as a great anti-air) as his moveset is almost akin to normal Ky's (along with a new + command normal that's the finisher to his What's Useless Will Always Be So). Furthermore, his specials being completely revamped, have some of them work off of Robo-Ky's Heat level instead of his power/Tension level (Fun-KY being a major example as its distance and speed traveled now depends on how high Robo-Ky's Heat is), on top of his prior unique moves having more standardized special move inputs but with further altered properties (such as prior crouching and prior + ).
In Λ Core, EX Robo-Ky also gains 2 new Force Breaks compared to the one singular one that normal Robo-Ky's version gets, and even Robo-Ky II's version of the original Ky's Greed Sever with some slight differences (such as strike invulnerability frames on the second input and an FRC point).
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