Axl Low
Axl Low is a
character in the
Guilty Gear fighting game series, making his first appearance in the first game,
Guilty Gear: The Missing Link, though his story and character change and develop more dramatically in the later games. He employs a strangely modified
kusarigama, which, instead of a weight at the end, has another
sickle, and a thus-far unexplained control over fire. His personality can be described as laid-back or lighthearted, and despite his consistent failure to solve his problem, he always keeps a fairly upbeat attitude.
Axl boasts a large variety of moves, including ranged attacks, aerial attacks, confusion-based tactics, counter-attack stances, a long-ranged command throw, and dragon punches. This makes him the ideal character for switching strategies on a dime. Use of tiger kneeing can produce devastating corner loops, the Axl Bomber attack being a staple. Axl excels at poking, aerial games, and cross-ups, and while not the best brawler, he isn't useless at close range. One major disadvantage is that his chains, even at long range, are usually included in his hitbox, making whiffed pokes very easy to punish. Creative use of his main overdrive "Bentengari," having several invincibility frames, can break through certain ground setups without wasting a Psych Burst if used correctly.
In Guilty Gear XX: Slash, Axl gained a new move called "Kokuugeki", which can continue air combos and even set up bomber loops if FRCed. Much like the Axl Bomber, this attack cannot be tiger-kneed normally, and requires a difficult motion to do low to the ground. Due to increased pushback, the Axl Bomber loop is now much more difficult, but several moves have become more useful, such as his counter-attack stance "Tenhouseki," which can now be FRCed, allowing it to be used as a lead-in to combos.
Background
Axl is a bit of an involuntary
time traveller, and actually comes from the
20th century, over one hundred and fifty years before most of the Guilty Gear story takes place. His main goal seems to be to return to his own time period, mainly because of his desire to return to his
girlfriend,
Megumi. For this reason, he seeks out various ways to do so, and is continually attempting to solve the mystery of why it is that he "slips" through time in the first place.
Guilty Gear: The Missing Link
Axl enters the Sacred Knights Tournament in hopes of finding a way to get back to his own era. He was apparently led to believe that the winner of the tournament could have a wish granted them. In his ending, he defeats
Justice and is hailed as a hero. This is unlikely to be canon, and
Sol Badguy's ending is more likely. He also declares that he will stop actively looking for a way to get home.
Guilty Gear X: By Your Side
In the second game, Axl is wandering about, looking for
Faust, in hopes of being cured by a doctor of such skill. He encounters various people on the way, and fights them, chalking it all up to bad luck. Then he meets up with
Sol Badguy. After this, the path splits. In one ending, Axl fights
Kliff Undersn and
Justice, and then realizes that he's been thrown back in time once again. In the other (more likely) ending, he battles Faust, and then is diagnosed with involuntary timeslipping. Faust blames this on there being an alternate version of Axl in existence.
Guilty Gear XX: The Midnight Carnival
Through story mode, Axl meets up with
I-No, among other people, while wandering about. As is the case with many other characters, I-No is the catalyst that causes the events that follow. In one of his three endings, he ends up fighting a future version of himself. In another, Axl fights with
Zappa, and afterward begins to wonder how Megumi is faring. In the third ending, he meets up with
"That Man" and finds out from him that
Raven is the cause of his timeslipping, and it is implied that Raven is the alternate version of Axl that was diagnosed by Faust. This allegedly has something to do with actions performed by Axl later on. Perhaps more light will be shed on this in later games. Interestingly, since the three endings have nothing to do with each other, and don't contradict each other in any way, it's entirely canonically possible that they all happened.
Axl seems to have some sort of story connection with I-No, as he consistently claims to recognise her. He also seems to know Sol quite well, and vice versa. He apparently has a
photograph of Sol as a child, and talks to him like an old friend. Given Sol's age and Axl's time travelling, this is more plausible than one would think.
Megumi
Megumi is Axl's girlfriend from his own era. She is
never seen and so little is known about her, except that he is obviously devoted enough to actively seek a route back in time to rejoin her. Fans speculate that Megumi later became
S-Ko. Proponents of this theory claim that it is supported by the ending in which Axl fights Zappa. This theory is not entirely unreasonable, S-Ko is allegedly the spirit of a woman whose boyfriend left her, and the ending in question leaves Axl fighting Zappa, and then wondering how Megumi is doing, possibly reminded of her by S-Ko's appearance. This implication may be intentional, but nothing can be said until more information is released.
Raven
Raven is one of That Man's four servants -- the other three being
I-No, an unknown and unnamed individual who is completely covered from head to the ankles (this character appears during one of Sol's endings in Guilty Gear X-Plus, and makes an appearance in an official artwork along with That Man and his other subordinates) and
Justice. Even less is known of him than is known of That Man, except that he has some sort of connection with Axl Low, described by That Man as a "parallel existence." It is doubtful, however, that they are in fact the same person at different times (if for no other reason than that they are voiced by different people).
In the Guilty Gear novel
Lightning the Argent, he battles both
Faust and
Sol Badguy, defeating Faust in an interdimensional battle and essentially ignoring Sol's fire attacks through regeneration. Raven at this time claims that he cannot feel the heat from Sol's flames.
Axl is clearly modeled (and named) after
Axl Rose,
frontman for
Guns N' Roses. The British flag design he wears on his shirt in XX as compared to X suggests
AC/DC. Axl Rose once wore a British Flag outfit though. During his instant kill, he occasionally yells "Have a nice day!" which is a possible
Bon Jovi reference, though it's a bit of a stretch as the band had not produced the song at that time.
In the original Guilty Gear, the opening guitar riffs in Axls theme "March of the Wicked King" are similer to the ones in the Guns N' Roses song "You're Crazy".
While Axl's shirt resembles the
Union Jack, it is not, in fact, an entirely accurate image of the British Flag.
Axl's appearance notably changes between Guilty Gear: The Missing Link and Guilty Gear X: By Your Side. In Guilty Gear: The Missing Link, he is portrayed as a very large, muscular person. However, since Guilty Gear X: By Your Side, he is portrayed as having a much more average physique, if slightly thin, and is more fully clothed. The reason for this change is unknown, however, the character designs of many characters changed considerably between the two games, most notably
Faust's.
