Megalomania

Megalomania
Name
Romaji	Megaromania
Information
Type	Instant Kill Overdrive Attack
Character	I-No
Commands	+
Appearances
Game	Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign- Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator- Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2

Megalomania is I-No's boss-only attack in several iterations of Guilty Gear XX. It also serves as her second known Instant Kill in the Xrd games, and as a normal Overdrive Attack in Guilty Gear -Strive-. It consists of I-No summoning winged speakers and creating an array of magical energy bolts that pelt her opponent relentlessly.

Overview

Boss version

In Guilty Gear XX, whenever I-No is fought as a boss (when Instant Kills are disabled), I-No will fly away to her corner of the screen during specific intervals. She will then emit a glyph and materialize a pair of floating speakers—each with a large white wing—that will create an array of red square reticles with an X on them and the labels "WARNING" and "CAUTION", in one of three different patterns. After a short amount of time, I-No will then fire energy balls (with pink hearts inside of them) along the path of these reticles.

While I-No is in her Megalomania state: She can be hit, but she takes no damage and the animation can never be interrupted while she also becomes immune to throws; jumping over I-No (if she is not in the corner) results in the balls all instantly homing in on the player regardless of targeting range. If she has meter (usually having an infinite amount), she can Force Roman Cancel during her current array setup in order to switch to a new pattern, though there is enough time to think ahead to avoid it.

The patterns or trajectories are as follows:

• An upward curve line. The best way to avoid this is by standing at the opposite corner from I-No, though larger characters need to crouch.
• A zig-zag pattern. One should head to the exposed upward curve and move along the said curve by walking towards I-No, then away for later variations; crouching may be needed during certain pauses.
• A vertical fanning pattern, which fills the screen in near entirety. The best solution is to move near I-No and double jump or high jump just as she is about to unleash the balls. The barrage is much shorter than the other two patterns in spite of its range.

In regards to the balls themselves, they all inflict 1 point of damage each, and being hit by one causes all other balls (even those that have already passed by or left the screen) to instantly home in and strike the victim. While they can be blocked, they have a property that occasionally prevents some of their chip damage from being negated by Faultless Defense (which can raise the defender's Guard Balance to full), and ignore defensive modifiers upon inflicting direct damage. As a result, avoiding the attack entirely is the only option, as the attack can easily exceed 60 hits. Moves that completely negate projectiles (e.g. Tyrant Rave, Gamma Ray) can shield against the array if timed right, but it is still better to avoid the attack outright.

EX and Gold I-No can also use it, but it costs both full Tension and Burst gauges to use.

Instant Kill

In Guilty Gear Xrd, Megalomania is I-No's Instant Kill, with it being a cinematic. To use it, the player has to land an Instant Kill attack, which uses her standing attack animation. The caution/warning labels now instead have a row of 3 skulls replacing them.

Overdrive

Megalomania returns as one of I-No's Overdrives, with it having two versions now. The initial version acts as a command grab, with it catching any grounded opponents that are close to her. If I-No successfully lands, it will trigger a brief cinematic where the opponent is launched onto a wall before she fires her energy projectiles; it will only Wall-Break if the character was close enough to a wall.

If it whiffs however, I-No will still fire the projectiles, albeit noticeably less than before, covering part of the screen. A opponent should be wary, as even one hit of the projectile will make them unable to Burst and be susceptible to the rest of the attack. This version overall does less damage though compared to the command grab version on its own.

Trivia

• In Tales of the Rays, Megalomania is one of Alice's Mirrage Artes, as Alice gains a costume for I-No.

Gallery

• 

  Guilty Gear Xrd.

• GGST Megalomania Development.png

  Guilty Gear -Strive-.

References

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