Guilty Gear holds a special place in my heart above all other competition games. Over Guitar Hero, Taiko Drum Master, Street Fighter, and all other games where I have to compete against other people. I took to Guilty Gear unlike any other game, and it has since become my favorite competition game. So, I bring up this week's Weekend Reading on the heels of Guilty Gear: Accent Core being released in Japan just 4 days ago, as I try to bamboozle, hoodwink, and persuade you readers with reasons why Guilty Gear is so wonderful.
Now, I feel I have need to remind you all that this is my opinion, and if I'm wrong, say so in a civilized manner. No need to turn into 4chan here. Seriously, Anonymous can go crawl in a hole and die for all I care.
As you may have noticed, I enjoy a good story. Even in fighting games, I find it more enjoyable when there's some vague reason why the people are fighting. Over its 20 year history, Street Fighter has developed a story that's considered decent, but only occassionally, and through other mediums, do you see this story unfold. Now, admittedly, I haven't played through the most recent iterations of the series because I know that the story won't be all that apparent in the game. Now, Guilty Gear has provided me with a decent story and characters that are clearly defined from one another, unlike in Soul Calibur, where we have repeat characters like Yungsung and Assassin, Cassandra and Sophitia, or Seung Mi Na and Kilik, whose moves are virtually the same, just with different skins. Really, I expect all the characters to have different move sets from each other.
It seems to me that the people behind Guilty Gear took great pains to make the game as balanced as possible. As I play through my friend's copy of Guilty Gear X2 #Reload, I don't run into any real issues with unbalanced characters, or with clear "tiers" of who to play and who not to play. Instead, each character is good as long as you learn how to play as them, thus eliminating button mashers from being any real threat. A friend of mine will button mash as Potemkin, but we have no trouble beating him, and since he'd have to spend some time with the game to learn the characters, he doesn't play. So, we lose out on that aspect, which I don't miss all that much.
So, apart from the characters who are unique in both story and moves, the other aspects of Guilty Gear that rock are the music and the art. Drawn in an anime style, the art for Guilty Gear is very sharp, and continues to improve with each game. The one good thing to come out of Guilty Gear: Isuka (which this is the only GG game I actually own, unfortunately) was the system allowing users to create their own custom color schemes for each character, something that can make the character look a lot more awesome when you're playing at home with friends. This, combined with a soundtrack of fast-paced guitar rock makes for an awesome fighting game that really can't be paralleled elsewhere.
So, are there many Guilty Gear fans out there in the Destructoid crowd? I'd like to hope so, as whenever there is a Destructoid Party Fest (temporary name), I'll be damned if there isn't a Guilty Gear tournament going. Be prepared for my hell butterflies, people!
Contest:
10:00 PM on 12.24.2006
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@Bar: The DS and PSP Guilty Gears are horrible from what I know. Go pick up Guilty Gear X2 for PS2 or Xbox. Isuka isn't worth it, so your best bet is to ebay the games. You'll likely find them for $20 or so.
Guity gear psp is two games in one
on the right hand you have the bad game called judgement ( because of the new person Judgement ) its an side scollering beat em'up which from what I heard is boring
on the other hand you have the good game guity gear X2
which has the story mode and the classic gameplay that we all love
so its not all bad
The one for the DS is trash and that is giving it credit.
I have not found a fighting game yet that can hold my intrest like GG can. The story is funny(I mean how many times did you tell your friends Bridget is a guy before it sunk in) and it is a blast to play for both new and vets.
@Hadouken
Get Firefox 2.0, has built-in spell checking for input forms (like the comment box here on Destructoid). Underlines any wrongly spelled words, but watch to make sure various gaming-specific terms are spelled right, many of them aren't official dictionary words.
Now I have a question where's the true Guilty Gear Sequel? XX has Street Fighter Syndrome!
rumor has it it's comming 360 as part of ASW 2 game deal with Microsoft.
http://www.trabusproject.com/images/joystick/joystick_top.jpg
BTW: Can any1 tell me if theres a way to use an avatar thats on your computer and thus has no URL?
You can't since no one else would see it, seeing as they have no access to your computer's hard drive. Host it up on photobucket or something and you'll be all set.
I'm pretty good with Chip but no way good enough.
Oh, and as for games, the order is:
Guilty Gear
Guilty Gear X
Guilty Gear X2
Guilty Gear: Isuka
Guilty Gear: Accent Core
X2 #Reload and Slash were just power balance issues and adding in some extra features.
Good games, though.