As they stepped up and began the game, the first thing that popped into existence was the character selection screen.  The characters were on a rotating ring, and moving the stick moved the ring in the same direction.  Circling all the way around, they discovered that there were actually<em>seven</em>characters available, but one of them was shadowed out and thus not a choice.  In response to his question, Jason affirmed that he knew who he was playing after having gone around the ring an entire circuit.  When he picked the very blonde and very American Joy, Anthony discovered that she was then locked out on his ring via the same shadowing out as the hidden character.<br/><br/>That left Aika, Genjo, Raul - and the other two characters that had not been seen in the splash screens during the attract mode.  They were the game's two Ryuujin.<br/><br/>The first was Nori Ogura, an Earth Ryuujin.  Like Genjo, Nori had been introduced in<em>Legacy of the Dragons</em>, but as a 'Hero of Another Story' type character.  He'd defeated a smaller but similar gang of Yama King worshippers in his own home city, much as Shun and Eichiro had in the original game.<br/><br/>The second was Yuyu Mizusawa, a Fire Ryuujin.  Yuyu was the daughter of the Takemikazuchi Shrine keeper, and its sole Ryuujin defender.  She had gotten a mention at the end of<em>Legacy of the Dragons</em>when Eichiro had sent the protagonists to Hisashiro to retrieve the Sword.<br/><br/>"Let's see..."  Anthony scrolled through the five options left.  Genjo and Nori were grapple-heavy characters of the 'strong but slow' variety, though Genjo was nominally faster than Nori  Yuyu, on the other hand, was a lot of speed.  At the same time, the game designers had revealed that Fire Ryuujin were designed around a high-octane offense involving frequent use of the Ki Meter.  This was offset by Yuyu having access to a special move that totally refilled her Ki Meter...but left her vulnerable while the move was being performed.  That could work out - if he needed to refill the Meter, he could tell Jason when he was, and have him cover the move.<br/><br/>That left Raul and Aika.  Raul, as an Okami, had the special 'Serpent Counterstrike' mechanic that they'd introduced for Teresa in the previous game.  It relied on letting the enemy attack you and then countering for a large chunk of their health bar.   The problem was that the timing of the attack had been designed to be difficult in execution, as it could one hit KO any lesser enemy, and two-shot any miniboss.<br/><br/>And Aika.  He knew how the Tennin fought, thanks to extensive time playing both<em>III</em>and<em>Legacy of the Dragons</em>.  The problem was that their combo system was fairly rigid, with only a limited number of moves strung together on chains, but the designers of<em>Guardians</em>hinted at a special ability that Tennin might be able to unlock in a playthrough of the game that would help this...but otherwise remained silent on it.<br/><br/>For about a minute, Jason would see his friend flip between Aika, Raul, and Yuyu, before finally picking Aika.  "The designers said the Tennin would get some special combo chain ability.  I want to know what it is."<br/><br/>The next thing that popped up on the screen was a list of 'Occupations':<br/><br/>Billboard Girl<br/>Business Representative<br/><em>Miko</em><br/>Police Officer<br/>Street Race Queen<br/>Student<br/><br/>Scrolling up and down the options changed the outfit that both Joy and Aika (their sprites were still on the screen) we wearing.  "Right, this is the job system that they were talking about..."