Okay, here is something really interesting to think about with this new image.
Here below is the ATR teaser we got not long ago showing the new UI changes.
In case you can't see, it shows
GUARD on L1 and
ASSAULT on Square. The button for
GUARD is being depicted as two rectangles and the bottom one being highlighted and with an L inside, so this would be L1. The
ASSAULT button shows four circles with the left one being highlighted which represents Square. Pretty straight forward and what we expect from the Duscae demo.
Now... take a look at this...
Very hard to see, I know. However, you can just make out
GUARD and
ASSAULT again, right? Notice that they both seem to have the circles this time,
GUARD seems to be on the left, while
ASSAULT seems to be on the right. This would imply that
GUARD is actually on Square this time, while
ASSAULT is on Circle.
Now, we know that Japan uses alternate Cross and Circle buttons for International because of how they view these shapes. So, for the English version it would be
ASSAULT is on Cross.
These changes are
VERY big for XV, because this means that (at least for whatever gameplay mode this is supposed to be) that there is no Guard stance like in Duscae. How do I know this? Well, think about it. How do you plan on holding the Square button and pressing Circle at the same time for parrying? It does not make sense! L1 is a very relaxed button able to be used with free control of both thumbs. The only way to accomplish this decently is with a claw grip or something similar, which would be very frustrating.
So, what do I think this means? I think that this means that Square might act more like Kingdom Hearts does with the block mode. I still think you will hold down Square to guard perhaps, but parrying hopefully will now be based on your actual collision with incoming attacks deflecting just like in Kingdom Hearts.
You can also see that the weapon windows also look different, which means that from the ATR teaser they have tweaked the UI, so this must be more recent than that.
Honestly, I am very excited to see if my speculation is reality, and if it is I will be extremely excited for XV. The only major problems I had going forward were things like Block/Parry and with the weapon system, ever since the free weapon switching system was announced I was relieved/happy, this might bring me back to how I felt back when Versus XIII was first announced in terms of how happy I was with the battle system.
I believe that this might be one of those combat mode features that was mentioned previously, we will have to see.
ATR PLEASE HURRY UP!