Isuka Outlive Encyclopedia notes

Detailed research notes. Quoted source text may be machine-translated.

Notes on the AW-NET pages of the Guilty Gear Isuka Outlive Encyclopedia (Enterbrain, April 2004). Only the service information and interface labels are translated, not the whole book.

Source, date and preservation

Guilty Gear Isuka Outlive Encyclopedia, Enterbrain, Arcadia Extra Vol.15, ISBN 4757718284 / 9784757718289. The original colophon explicitly gives 13 April 2004, first edition; its AW-NET registration fee is marked as of March 2004. The public Archive.org item has 182 scan leaves; the advertised 176-page body does not include every scanned cover/postcard leaf. Its uploader says the accompanying DVD is absent. Public scan, unchanged colophon image.

The separate Isuka Complete Guide scan has 282 leaves. The AW-NET keyword pass found no candidates there; that is an OCR search result, not proof the book contains no relevant material.

Registration and mobile access — printed page 004, scan leaf 7

The illustrated sequence is buy an AW card → play Isuka with it → register through a mobile phone using the USER ACCESS CODE on the used card's reverse. Cards were sold by vending machine or arcade staff. The page gives a ¥300 monthly charge as of March 2004, without an explicit tax qualifier. Later official pages explicitly give ¥315 including tax; retain the original wording rather than silently correcting the book. It says successful mobile registration also permits PC access. Original page.

The printed phone image shows Membership management — Account management beneath a Guilty Gear Isuka heading. It is an account-menu illustration. It does not preserve a carrier payment-confirmation page or the complete access-code form. The small highlighted menu text is not reliably transcribed here.

These are service-discovery routes, not a complete billing walkthrough. The independently recovered January 2005 i-mode route change is a later revision.

The same page explicitly establishes 500 uses (500 matches) per Isuka card, with data transferable when exhausted. It identifies 22 designs: 20 character designs plus two rare designs, and pictures one ordinary card and two rares. This is contemporary commercial Isuka evidence; it does not establish a universal cap for every game/test card. The OCR wrongly reads the design count as 28. Visually confirmed text takes precedence.

Isuka's displayed player name accepts up to eight half-width uppercase letters/digits. This is a game-name restriction, not an AWID/password rule.

Printed website screens — page 005, scan leaf 8

The page depicts the mobile central homepage, Isuka PC homepage, rankings, play information, Web Garage shop, Guilty Gong and venue listing. The caption says PC homepage character art varies randomly with each access. Original page.

The six ranking categories and qualifying thresholds match the recovered official help: versus wins ≥10, streak ≥5, CPU clear time after clearing, handicap wins ≥5, team win rate after ≥50 team matches, experience after ≥30 plays. Each has Holy Order, Wanted and combined views. Play records include name, rank, shared points, play count, solo/team results, highest survival level and streak, with detailed character-use/results views.

The book still describes faction distribution as planned for early April 2004. AW-NET's separately recovered dated news records it on March 26. The prospective book passage does not override the actual release notice.

What shared points bought — page 006, scan leaf 9

The guide describes 13 EX colours prepared for each character, to be added successively. These are print references, not recovered original shop thumbnails. This establishes a prepared palette set, not that all thirteen were available on every publication date. The separately dated April 28 site announcement remains the stronger full-release chronology. Prices and starting-level screen, palette gallery with English labels.

The twenty following character pages also document changes to moves, inputs, chaining, movement and other properties in EX versions. Selected English notes are saved for every character, rather than treating an EX purchase as a cosmetic unlock. EX I-No runs along the ground; EX Zappa can spend stored souls to select a possession; EX Faust adds a Mini Potemkin random item. The normal/EX base-parameter table on printed page 173 marks EX values in parentheses. Its layout and notation are reviewed; the full numerical table and complete movesets have not been transcribed. Character and parameter originals with English sidecars.

The starting-level caption gives a maximum 999. Printed page 152 separately states that without AW-NET survival is capped at level 100; purchasing starting-level control permits higher levels. With the purchased setting, Leopaldon appears at levels ending 49/99 above 100. He remains explicitly CPU-only, rather than an extra playable AW-NET shop character. Boss page 094, CPU systems page 152.

The point table gives +10 on game start, +10 on CPU continue, +1 per ten survival levels (maximum +5), +5 for CPU all-clear; solo free-for-all awards +5 per enemy. Its other rows distinguish team/solo wins, and both teammates receive the applicable award. The printed page 152 table again gives all-clear +5.

Guilty Gong and phone rewards — page 005

The guide explicitly says the first Guilty Gong vote chose the ringtone “Exceptional Routine Work”, already distributed through GGX Mobile. Voting spent shared AW points. Its screenshot caption also identifies ringtones and standby wallpapers as voting subjects. The title is a music-track name; no audio/download file was recovered. Original Gong article and screenshot.

This resolves the earlier unknown first winner. It does not resolve the complete ballot, point-to-vote rate, wallpaper winner, item filenames/formats, or how the earlier GGX Mobile subscription wallet related to arcade shared points. The book does not give a complete phone-download catalog.

Ranks and ranked CPU challengers — pages 006–007 and 152

The chart separates normal rank progression, rare rank progression and a still-undisclosed special route. Both cumulative wins and the listed win rate are required on the normal route. Printed rank chart.

Initial rank is Apprentice. Ten consecutive losses from the initial branch give Shamed/exposed one, or Failed; a win returns the player to the initial branch rank. The book's conditions differ from a period English fan FAQ that describes perfect losses; keep the contemporary chart as the cited primary account.

The rare branch specifies 200 wins and 90%, then KNIGHTBREAKER → NIGHTMARE at 100 rare points → HELLGATE at 200; the Holy Order equivalents are Demon hunter → Dragon hunter → Sword saint. Rare points reward beating higher-ranked players, solo victory against two opponents, perfect wins and sufficiently fast wins. Promotion also requires a win against a player of the same faction at the destination rank or above. HELLRIDER/TYRANT and Hero/Legend special route conditions are expressly to be announced, so no requirements are supplied here.

Page 152 adds occasional ranked CPU challengers while using AW-NET. It requires the rare branch and a qualifying higher-rank human/CPU win at the current rare rank; the challenger appears in the first battle once per CPU play. A rank icon and SP MATCH identify it. The text says their strength follows survival level rather than a separate special difficulty. This is additional game behavior associated with AW-NET progression; it does not establish remote human fighting.

Card-linked item activation — pages 108–109

The cabinet HUD's ONLINE indicator means AW-NET is available on that machine. The start-of-battle diagram is character selection → team-colour selection → AW-card insertion → position screen → game start. The text says card insertion reflects the AW-NET EX-character, EX-colour and CPU starting-level settings. It also describes Start displaying the medal for registered EX options. Preserve the printed sequence; it does not explain the underlying identity/read/cache mechanism. HUD page, battle-start diagram.

Physical member giveaway — final scan leaf 181

A reader-prize page offers 20 AW-NET-member-only rare AW cards using Bridget artwork. Other prizes are an arcade promotional poster, figure keychains and the soundtrack. Applications used the book's questionnaire postcard; the text does not describe spending AW points. The card art was subject to change. This printed illustration is a design reference, not a photographed final prize card. Original prize page, questionnaire postcard.

Another source conflict: the prize page gives a June 30, 2004 postmark deadline, while the postcard says June 29. Record both; neither should be silently substituted for the other. The postcard's name/address/age/email questions are for the publisher's contest, not mobile AW-NET enrollment.

Limits and next work

The complete three-book visual discovery survey now also covers all 660 scan leaves /111 contact sheets. Full PDFs contain much more ordinary gameplay/strategy material. EX-specific OCR leads are indexed separately for further visual review; unreviewed OCR is not a verified moveset list. Missing mobile billing screens, full phone reward catalogs, other games' shop inventories and operator network manuals remain open research questions.

Complete guidebook visual discovery

All 660 scan leaves /111 contact sheets across the Isuka Outlive Encyclopedia (182), NeoGeo Battle Coliseum Master Guide (196) and PS2 Isuka Complete Guide (282) were actually visually screened. The new discovery gallery links unchanged source PDFs, 660 separately labeled modern previews and per-sheet English screen notes. Coarse discovery is not a full translation of every page or proof of small-text absence.

Arcade Isuka's survival-level/points page, Bridget member-only reader-prize card and NeoGeo Battle Coliseum paid victory-message context were compared with the already preserved full-page readings. The console book's local modes, unlocks and wallpaper remain explicitly distinct from arcade AW-NET and phone redemption.

The complete monthly Arcadia discovery pass and complete selected guidebook discovery pass are now finished. Meaningful remaining work includes explicit historical Japanese operator/fan links, newly established aliases for failed archives, the identified missing magazine articles, Japanese multiplayer/network installer-manual interiors, Bato Culture, successful carrier enrollment/billing screens and authentic phone reward binaries. Global exhaustion is not claimed.