Jack-O' Valentine Returns For Guilty Gear Strive!

Jack O' Valentine is a long time fan favorite in the Guilty Gear franchise and fans are completely ecstatic to see one of the franchises most unique characters. Jack-O' is one of three servants of That Man, alongside Raven and I-no. Very similar to Zato-1, Jack-O' is a puppet-user, Her weapon of choice is an iron pumpkin flail, matching her Jack Skellington design, and is able to manipulate/controls large screen spaces with her "Dorpos" and minions. Take a look at the full character gameplay trailer and below!

Trailer Breakdown

There's a lot to take in with the new trailer, and we'll try our best to go piece by piece to analyze the lore, gameplay, and updates they have made to Jack-O' as a character.

Jack-O's conversation with May and Sol

In the dialogue portion of the trailer, Sol and Jack-O'/May and Jack-O' are seen communicating together, with May and Jack-O's dialogue is dubbed over the story mode scene with Jack-O' and Sol. Originally, Jack-O' was created prematurely, where she was unable to complete her soul's connection to her host body, which is a synthetic version of Justice. Often childlike and inquisitive, Jack-O' is consistent with finding her purpose in life, as she is a housing for her own consciousness and Aria's soul. She talks with May about finding who Jack-O' really is, and according to the Wikia, Aria's soul is fully awakened but dormant within Jack-O' in this version of the game.

It's interesting to see that May is having a conversation Jack-O' as May's storyline is actually absent from the base story. So, now we can get to see May's storyline fleshed out with Jack-O's who is obviously linked about finding Jack-O's sense of belonging in the world. May has some intimate knowledge of Jack-O' that even Jack-O' doesn't understand about herself. Now, they will be exploring together and finding a way to have Aria return to her former self.

One key design change is Jack-O maintaining her halo in Strive, as that was an identifiable moniker to the character. However, in Xrd, Aria's soul was fully awakened, Jack-O's previously white hair turned red to completely match Aria's image, and the halo was consumed after Jack-O merged with Justice.

Jack-O's abilities

Jack can be seen with her 3 minions; one with a spear the can perform combos; one with a sword that flies, and lastly, one with a staff that can perform anti-airs. Jack-O as a summoner can give her minions bonus stats as her House level increases. Although we haven't been shown a full showcase of abilities, we can clearly see how much of her moveset is still directly related to Guilty Gear Xrd.

The minions are interactable with Jack-O's buttons and each other, which makes the set-play very distinct from Zato-1, who is more of a traditional zoner. Jack-O closely resembles a utility set-play specialist. She has access to full screen OTG's as the minions can be used as a projectile to set up full screen follow ups. The ranges of the minions are also very diverse as they travel in parabolic arches and bounces on the ground to set up tricky mix up situations. They're capable of lingering away from Jack-O' as she can maneuver independently of the minions, and they have access to disjointed options such as parries, anti-airs, and pokes. Until we get a more full gameplay trailer, we are very excited to see the lab monsters create amazing set ups with this character.

Release Date

Jack-O will be released on August 27th to all Season Pass holders, and will be available for individual purchases on August 30th.

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