Thanks much for the scans, elbarto! Some interesting new info in this article, and in the site update Noise Factory made earlier in the week.
For one thing, Kurara is 14 years old in this game (not 13, as the previous Arcadia scans seemed to indicate). This means that NF is in fact moving the series forward, chronologically, as well as introducing a new plotline (the Princess Sissy event(s)) to the Gouketsuji Ichizoku saga.
I'm noticing some variations in the presentation of Olof Linderoth's official illustration. The most noticeable difference is the color of his suit. In <a href="http://www.noise.co.jp/gouketuji/image/oroff.GIF" target="_blank">the image on NF's website</a> and in <a href="http://elbarto.netmag.easyspace.com/arcadia35_2.JPG" target="_blank">the image on elbarto's 2nd scan</a>, Olof's suit is maroon or brick red. But in the illustration collage used in the advertisement shown in <a href="http://elbarto.netmag.easyspace.com/arcadia35_1.JPG" target="_blank">elbarto's 1st scan</a> (and used in 1 or 2 other adverts and fliers we've seen in the last few weeks), his suit is white. A less obvious difference, however, is Olof's sunglasses. In the maroon-suit images, his sunglasses look fairly normal. But, if you look closely at the white-suit image, you'll notice that the stems of the sunglasses (from the edges of the lenses to Olof's ears) are missing, and that the bridge across the nose is much thicker -- making them look less like sunglasses and more like a beaked domino mask (somewhat reminiscient of the ones worn by DC Comics' Nightwing or Green Lantern Hal Jordan).
Thankfully, Arcadia has provided furigana for the kanji in the new characters' names. It's nice to see that I was reading Hikaru's surname correctly (it's "Joumon"), but apparently the surname of Shintarou and his brother is "Kuno," not "Kunohe" as I had interpreted it. While we're on the subject of Shintarou's brother, I'd been pronouncing his first name as "Montarou," based on the spelling used in NF's website (http://www.noise.co.jp/gouketuji/c13_montaro.htm). Arcadia's furigana, however, indicate that his name is pronounced "Buntarou." Looking back at NF's website, the filename of his illustration (http://www.noise.co.jp/gouketuji/image/buntarou.GIF) supports Arcadia's furigana. So, at this point, it appears that the Kuno brothers' names are Shintarou and Buntarou.
elbarto:
Hadn't realised Princess Kurara's name is actually Clara.. you learn something new every day..
While we're on the subject of names, I still believe that "Clara" is an erroneous spelling. Her name, when rendered in English in her previous Atlus appearances, has always been Kurara. NF's website has both her page and her illustration files named as "clala." Her name in the opening animation of SGI/NPI is spelled "Clara," but several other character names are misspelled in this opening (Annie, Thin Nen, Oume, & Otane -- spelled "Anny," "Chinnen," "Ume," and "Tane"). Oftentimes during development of fighting games, the programmers misspell character names (especially beneath life gauges) during the design and testing phases (remember Mai's name spelled as "May" in the early screenshots of KOF EX2?). Eventually, these typos are fixed just prior to a game's release. I'm still of the opinion that "Clara" is just another example of this sort of error, and that Kurara's name (and the other aforementioned 4 characters' names) will be corrected for the final release. At least, I hope so.
Looking at the screenshots of Olof and Shintarou <a href="http://elbarto.netmag.easyspace.com/arcadia35_2.JPG" target="_blank">in elbarto's 2nd scan</a>, it appears that the fatty rockband's rear-projection screen does have at least one other phrase besides DEBU (Japanese for chubby; tubby; fatass). The kanji phrase appears to be "hyakkan" (百貫). A "kan" is an old Japanese unit of weight measurement, equal to about 8.33 pounds. Hyakkan -- or 100-kan -- would be about 833.33 pounds. SFII fans will remember this word from E. Honda's so-called "flying butt smash" technique from SFII' Turbo, "Super Hyakkan'otoshi" [Super 100-kan Drop].
The caption on the first Olof screenshot indicates that this is a projectile attack, while the first Shintarou screenshot is identified as his "Zudadada Kiick" (F-D-DF + Kick). The 2 Hikaru screenshots depict her "Chronograph" and Ippatsu Ougi techniques. Sadly, while the technique charts provided by Arcadia do list at least one technique for each character not found on the location test movelists, they still don't provide the names of each charater's Stress Shoot and Ippatsu Ougi techniques (the Level 1 and Level 2 "super combo" techniques). They do, however, indicate that some characters will have more than one Stress Shoot. Buntarou's first screenshot depicts his "Gekisoku! Slider!" technique, while the second gives us a nice shot of a Kuroko in the background.
Moving on to <a href="http://elbarto.netmag.easyspace.com/arcadia35_3.JPG" target="_blank">the third page of elbarto's scans</a>, the screenshots of Pochi/Poochy and Kanji depict each character's Stress Shoot (Pochi/Poochy calls forth Kintarou's giant bear attack, "Totsugeki Caesar," from GI2/PI2, while Kanji brandishes a short sword). In Oume's screenshot, she appears to produce a large mirror, as a ghostly purple image of herself grapples her opponent and sucks away at his face. According to the caption, this is her Ippatsu Ougi, and it causes life drained from its target to be transferred to Oume's life gauge. The caption for Otane's screenshot indicates that this image of the young Otane is not part of a transformation, but rather a victory pose graphic. However, the technique charts for both Oume and Otane list an extra item just below their Stress Shoot and Ippatsu Ougi (normally these are the last 2 items on each character's chart). This extra item is called "kinjite" (roughly translated, this would be a "forbidden technique") -- I believe this is a classifier (like Stress Shoot and Ippatsu Ougi), rather than a proper technique name. Given that Oume and Otane's "kinjite" occupies the last line of their technique charts, I wonder if performing "kinjite" will, like an Ippatsu Ougi, require 2 (or even 3) levels of the Stress Meter. Note also that, while Otane's "kinjite" command is QCFx2 + C, Oume's is QCFx3 + C. Given the above-average complexity of the lever-command, and the possibility that it will require Stress Meter levels, I wonder if "kinjite" might not turn out to be the technique to allow Oume and Otane to transform into their younger selves. Up to this point, we've seen absolutely no indication that transformations / alternate forms exist in SGI/NPI, but I've been desperately holding out hope that NF wouldn't leave them out (they were one of the unique, defining elements of GI/PI, ever since the series' first installment). Another nice look at Kuroko in that last screenshot, btw.
<a href="http://elbarto.netmag.easyspace.com/arcadia35_4.JPG" target="_blank">The 4th page of elbarto's scans</a> has some more nice stuff. Annie's screenshot, according to the caption, depicts her "Cosmic Throw" (her Ippatsu Ougi from GI2/PI2). Her technique chart seems to indicate that it is now her Stress Shoot technique (executed as a Command Throw -- the caption indicates that it, naturally, cannot be countered with a Guard). Keith's screenshot depicts his "Knuckle Bomber" technique, while White Buffalo's shows him calling forth a pillar of fire in the shape of a huge totem pole (this appears to be either his as-yet-to-be-named Stress Shoot or Ippatsu Ougi). This totem pole reminds me of Angela Belti's "Thunder Wall" technique, and suddenly I'm bitter all over again about her absence in SGI/NPI. Kurara's screenshot depicts one of her costume-change victory poses, while Reiji's shows his Stress Shoot. This appears to be similar to his "Ryuuki Shouenzan" Ippatsu Ougi from GI2/PI2, in which he launched his "Gekishou Hadouha" projectile, followed by a rapid sequence of punches & kicks, concluded by his "Ryuuenshou" leaping uppercut. His technique chart gives the command for his Stress Shoot as "HCB,F + C, then F-D-DF + C" -- leaving me with the impression that the projectile / rapid attack sequence is activated by the HCB,F + C, with the uppercut being manually input at the end with the F-D-DF + C. The last screenshot depicts Saizou's Ippatsu Ougi -- a "shadow copy" of Saizou emerges from the shadows beneath his opponent to attack him. Arcadia, commenting on how ninja-esque this is, says "Kore zo Shinobism!" [This is Shinobi-ism!] (a parody of SFZero's Guy -- "Kore zo Bushinryuu!" [This is Bushin-Style!]).
<a href="http://elbarto.netmag.easyspace.com/arcadia35_5.JPG" target="_blank">The 5th page</a> indicates that certain characters Hissatsuwaza (aka, "special moves") will be slightly altered if performed mid-Dash (the example screenshot depicts Reiji's mid-Dash "Ryuuenshou" uppercut). While the 'personality quiz' on this page is entertaining, I wish NF would publish an updated Gouketsuji family tree already.
Thanks again for the post, elbarto!
--Chris
