[Kagezuno]

Gently bumping this thread back up with some impressions of the Riders thus far, starting with . . .

Wizard: You start with him, and once you find a form-change that works best for clearing out a lot of enemies quickly (I personally go in for Hurricane--slash strike and triangle are effective crowd control moves) you're in business.

Initially he starts out with specific ring effects keyed to each Style. The Square button in each style has the same effect--he fires the WizardSwordGun a few times (breaking the bullets to create a spread of fire)

Flame:
Triangle activates the Big Ring, which slams the enemies, then sweeps them away. It's OK for mooks but wayyyy too slow for bosses.

Circle activates Kick Strike (which at your initial level is also keyed to the Triangle + Circle Finishing movie--this later gets replaced with Flame Dragon's final attack) As with your early non-super mode finishers, it's very flippy-floppy and it's very easy to flip past your target if you're too close.

Hurricane's Triangle attack is Extend, which is a golden movie--Wizard spin around and sucks up anything in the immediate vicinity. It's a great move against bosses and easily spammable because the start-up time is so short. Circle activated Slash Strike, which is like Extend, except it hits harder, hits up activation, travels out, and hits even more. These two moves with be your best friends in the early levels of the game.

When he gets Hurricane Dragon, he activates the Thunder ring, which is a field-wide assault that multi-hits and can clear out a area of mooks pretty easily. It's not as good for destroying hourglasses or bosses (Flame Dragon or Land Dragon are your point guys there) but good in a pinch

Land gets the Defend ring as his Triangle attack, which is . . .well, it hits when the walls pop up, but doesn't really . . .defend that much. Circle is Drill, which hits hard, pops out quick, and multi-hits. It's decent.

The big winner is Land Dragon's Gravity attack, which goes over a wider area than Thunder and hits very hard multiple times. It's a good happy medium between Flame Dragon's power and Hurricane Dragon's range.

I left Water for last because . . .uhm . . .Water is very disappointing. Water has the Bind ring, which does just that--immobilizes enemies for a few second, and the Bright right, which flashes a big light and stuns everyone.

I don't use Water that much. Water Dragon's Blizzard attack is really nifty--he freezes the field and smashes it with his tail, but PuToTyra's attack is a much better version of the same thing and Wizard has much more effective attacks.

Wizard's super mode, All Dragon, is a friggn' monster. You can attack omnidirectionally with any of the Dragon powers (Flame, Blizzard, Thunder, Gravity) they all do sick damage and fill the entire battlefield. It's a pretty effective boss-killer.

How are y'all finding it? Have any favourite Riders thus far?