Visionary Nexus Network

“Play with him.”
~Rachel when summoning George XIII the Frog Troll

Next up, we have my sub/secondary Rachel Alucard, the local badass verbose gothic delicious loli of deliciousness. If you can’t tell by her very original surname, she is a vampire. And seeing a vague likeness to the Scarlets of Touhou, I’d bet my money on this being Moonlily’s main were she to play BlazBlue.

Anyway, let’s get on with it.

Height: 145 cm

Birth date: October 31

Weight: 34 kg

Blood Type: Unknown

Birthplace: Transylvania

Hobby: Tea

Likes/Important to her: Time, Teacup collection

Dislikes: Boredom, Green Peppers

Tier: A

Theme: Queen of Rose, White Requiem (vs. Ragna)

Seiyuu: Kana Ueda

English VA: Mela Lee

The current head of the noble vampire clan of Alucard, Rachel slipped out of her castle in search of fun because she hates to be bored, which she is all the time due to living a mundane lifestyle. Despite her status however, she deeply loathes her vampiric impulses. Due to the way two ribbons hold her hair in place, some of the characters call her “rabbit” because the ribbons look like rabbit ears. She seems to be stalking Ragna – this is because she accidentally turned him into a half-vampire giving him his powers. (This is also the reason behind his heterochromia.) Rachel can apparently create a small pocket dimension called Requiem, which she calls the dream world. She is often accompanied by her familiars, Nago and Gii, whom she often treats very roughly, and is supervised by her butler and guardian Valkenhayn Hellsing (more points on originality right here). Rachel is the only character seemingly aware of the full extent of the story. She has control of the Tsukiyomi unit, a device (probably Armagus) that is able to deflect the blast that was capable of destroying Ikaruga with minimal effort.

Rachel is unique. While she may have the least amount of moves in the game, she is one of the hardest characters to use correctly and efficiently; a steep learning curve, if you will. For you Brawlers out there (Odd game to compare to this HARDCORE COMPETITIVE one amirite?), she’s like Peach and Snake had a kid… and genetically modified the kid with Pikachu DNA. And fed it steroids and crack.

She is a character with a rather unorthodox style of combat in accordance to her haughty upbringing. Detesting physical contact, she relies on her “familiars” Nago and Gii to do the combat at her command, as Nago shapeshifts to several forms (his default being an umbrella) and Gii…well, gets her tea. She plays a very defensive game by luring her foes into several traps, the most deadly of which are up to 3 lightning rods she fires via Nago in cannon form at her opponent at three different distances (using the A-B-C variants), in a move called Tiny Lobella. The ‘A’ variant is a good rush stopper, whilst the B-C carry anti-air properties. These, once in place, are good to keep an opponent on their toes, as you can summon lightning on their unholy ass at any time using Sword Iris, or Baden-Baden Lily, her Distortion, which does much more damage (more on that below).

In addition to this is Impish Gypsophilia, a floating, glowing pumpkin which does no damage by itself, but is a good repellant projectile when using Sylpheed (”the wind”), Rachel’s drive (more on that later), and the infamous frog, George XIII (We call him “Froggy” ’round here =D), who just wants hugs by electrecuting the crap out of your opponent for a stunning(!!!) 8-hit combo pursues your opponent like a guided frog bomb…thing. There is a catch to these techniques, though; if Rachel gets hit (even if she blocks), they vanish. And seeing how they leave her vulnerable for a few frames when she’s summoning them, you best do this when your opponent cannot exploit your brief vulnerability.

Sylpheed, Rachel’s drive, allows her to manipulate the wind in any direction of her choosing. This is useful for a lot of Rachel’s game, but can be difficult to properly use in all of its multi-situational versatility in a timely and masterful manner. Purposes include: Blowing the pumpkin around, increasing your momentum for more damaging combos, negating your opponent’s momentum to ensnare him in a shocking trap of lightning rods (and Froggy!), retreat from a charging foe when you’re cornered, and wildly swing yourself across the stage while gently floating down holding an umbrella a la Peach in SSB. Sylpheed is limited to a 4-part gauge which slowly refills only when Rachel’s feet are on terra firma, so keep that in mind.

Despite Rachel being a very defensive character, she is not without her deadly offensive attacks and combos. Some of her attacks are very good, either doing great damage, having excellent priority (Priority Throne comes to mind; details below), or comboing with some ease (with some assistance from the wind, of course).

Rachel only has one Distortion Drive, Baden-Baden Lily, but that is all she needs. She summons lightning around herself and to the lightning rods and each hits 4 times (6 around Rachel) and does moderate damage. However, when all of this is combined, it’s powerful enough to take out over half of your opponent’s life gauge with approximately 21 hits, potentially making it one of the most damaging attacks in the game, and that is without including the ungodly potential for additional hits and combos as your opponent is stunned for one whole second by lightning (an effect shared by George XIII and Sword Iris).

Of course, our delicious loli is not without her weaknesses. She’s rather frail, and can’t take a hit. When put under pressure, it can be hard for her to escape, and her game can collapse like a house of cards this way, so you’ll need to maintain your cool (and Her Highness’s personal space) to avoid being caught in such predicament. To that end, you’ll be blocking a lot, and I mean a lot, and making severe use of several ‘counter’ moves, particularly that down-C move (which I call “Priority Throne” due to its…well, high priority) which acts as a quasi-counter to many rush-in attacks, if timed correctly. Be wary, though; if you mistime the throne–or many of your attacks– with Rachel, she (or Mr. Umbrella, rather) will be in for a world of hurt.

All in all, Rachel seems destined to be a top-tier character (according to Xéro) due to the massive damage she can inflict and the difficulty in getting enough hits on her to win the fight, although she is nowhere near evasive as Arakune or v-13. If used by someone who’d surpassed the steep learning curve that is Rachel’s intriguing fighting style– there aren’t many Rachel users, mind you– she should prove to be an interesting and deadly opponent.  It all comes down to whether Rachel can negate whatever pressure the opponent attempts to put down on her whilst gracefully evading contact with your lowly foe until Miss Rachel is at an advantageous position to teach them some manners. <3

Now, where is the Princess’s tea? THE PRINCESS HAS REQUESTED MORE TEA~!

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