The History Of: Guilty Gear
Have you ever wanted to see a sleeping man in a robotic combat bed beat up a surgeon wearing a per bag? Arc System Works eccentric games offer all that and more. Daisuke lshiwatari recalls how the series rose from obscurity to become a heavyweight contend
Nick Thorpe rocks out with developer Daisuke Ishiwatari and talks us through this unique fighting series
When Play reviewed Guilty Gear in 1998, the review opened with the assertion, “If you’re not Capcom or SNK, people don’t want your old school beat-’em-ups. They won’t take you seriously.” This harsh statement bore some truth at the time but it would sound ludicrous if said today, as players most definitely take Arc System Works’ fighting games seriously. Its original properties Guilty Gear and Blazblue are staples of tournaments and the developer has been entrusted to create fighting games for licensed properties, including Persona 4 and Dragon Ball Z.
It’s fair to say that the developer is one of the world’s premier creators of fighting games, and the road to that level of respect started with the Guilty Gear series – a 2D fighting franchise in which armed and unarmed fighters battle to protect the world from living weapons known as Gears.
The key creative force behind Guilty Gear is Daisuke Ishiwatari, who has served as the series’ director as well as providing character designs, graphics, music composition and even voice acting. “I’d always dreamed of making my own fighting game after being heavily influenced
from playing Capcom’s Street Fighter II back in my student days,” says Ishiwatari. “But fighting games at the time essentially all had character designs based on actual martial arts. I thought the characters and worlds of manga and anime were interesting, and wanted to make a fighting game with the kinds of superhumans who could fly – a game that allowed you to move more freely and broaden the players’ imaginations. So the idea at the time was for a game that gave you an exhilarating rush.” That feeling was conveyed with the inclusion of some outlandish movements such as double jumps, midair dashes and aerial recoveries. “With the first Guilty Gear, we viewed the excitement the players felt from the moment you touched it as more important than its structure as a fighting game, and thought of it more as an ‘action game where you can fight each other’.”
The influence of manga and anime on the character design of Guilty Gear is easy to see. The most prominent characters in the story, Ky Kiske and Sol Badguy, have the requisite spiky hair but are otherwise relatively down-to-earth designs, but many other members of the cast are truly bizarre. There are only ten standard fighters in the game, plus a couple of unlockable bosses and a hidden fighter, but there are no palette swaps or fighters with suspiciously similar fighting styles – fighters are unique, and often have playstyles that are distinctive within the genre. With that in mind, we had to ask – was there a conscious drive to create such distinctive and interesting characters? “Thank you for calling the characters interesting,” says Ishiwatari, clearly proud of his creations. “I think it stems more from my own mindset than
Guilty Gear itself. Whenever I come up with an idea, I always imagine the players’ reaction to it. When I do, I want to provide the players with as fresh an experience as I can, such as how the character moves, how they play, how they speak, and how they think. I try to make it so that they’re not all that easy to predict.”
As well as having distinctive characters, Guilty
Gear is well known for its connections to rock and heavy metal – for example, Ky Kiske’s name was derived from combining Helloween’s Kai Hansen and Michael Kiske. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that the soundtrack is filled with guitar riffs. “At the time I came up with Guilty Gear, a more techno-style soundtrack was the norm for fighting games,” says Ishiwatari, when asked why the team chose to focus on this genre. “As a fan of hard rock and heavy metal, I believed that distorted guitar sound would allow for better expression of
the backgrounds of the characters fighting each other and the feel of the game’s overall world. So basically, because it matched my tastes.”
Another distinctive aspect of Guilty Gear is its inclusion of Destroy moves – instant death techniques that don’t just win the round, but the entire match. “It was a completely shallow idea I had when I was young. Since the characters were fighting with weapons, I figured one wrong hit could kill them in a single blow,” confesses Ishiwatari. But that only takes care of the creative theme – what about the game design aspect? “Fighting games are developed around the structure of competition. As a result of that, the gap between the two players’ skills reveals itself quite clearly over the course of the match,” he explains. “A match with a wide technical disparity between the combatants isn’t fun for the players or the spectators, and gives no thrill to what is supposed to be a serious competition. What I wanted to do was add the possible thrill of some sort of accident occurring to everyone.” Destroy moves have always been hard to actually land, as they’re slow and practically telegraphed, but they are still one of the most divisive aspects of the game. Some love the spectacular attacks and innovation, and others feel that there’s too little risk for such an enormous reward. The original Guilty Gear’s
Destroy moves are particularly reviled by solo players, as this is the only game in the series where computer opponents use them. Despite being controversial, Destroy moves have remained a constant part of the Guilty Gear series, but their power has been reduced – and the team has considered removing them. “Now fighting games have become a mainstay of esports, so there exists a need to control those sorts of wild card factors in the game’s design,” says Ishiwatari. “If we ever make another Guilty Gear, we might do away with instant-kill moves,” he laughs.
Guilty Gear was released for the Playstation in Japan in May 1998, with Sammy handling publishing duties. Atlus picked up the game for a North American release in October of the same year, while European players had to wait until Studio 3 published the game in May 2000. Reviews were mixed – at the bottom end,
Official Playstation Magazine awarded it a 3/10 score. In Play, the game scored 43%, with the graphics criticised for obscuring the action. The reviewer also felt that a fast-paced fighting game was normally a good thing but that Guilty Gear
“takes it way too far”, and that the Destroy moves were a negative inclusion as “there has never been a more irritating way of being defeated by a computer opponent”. CVG’S review was more positive, stating that the game was “initially totally unappealing,” but that patience would be rewarded – “take time figure out some combos and it gets a lot better”. The magazine also praised the effort put into the roster and recommended the game to hardcore 2D fighting fans as an alternative to Capcom and SNK’S games, with a final score of 3/5. Eurogamer was impressed, scoring it 8/10. The reviewer was pleased that he had “felt a lot more endeared to [the characters] than I had expected to” and that “the combination manoeuvres border on the absurd”.
The original Guilty Gear gained a cult following and sold well despite that mixed critical reception, and reports of an arcade sequel were floating about by early 1999. Bringing Guilty Gear to the coin-op environment posed new challenges for the development team, particularly with regard to the game’s graphics. “Because Arc System Works was a newcomer in the world of arcade games, we consciously tried to make something that would catch the eyes of passing players. One solution to that was high-resolution graphics,” remembers Ishiwatari. “It was originally suggested by Sammy, and the team expressed disapproval at the time.” The 2D fighting genre as a whole had been struggling to progress graphically since the introduction of the exquisitely animated
Street Fighter III in 1997, as the existing players in the market were either content to reuse existing sprites, or shackled to older hardware. Ishiwatari and his team had no such constraints, but the shift to a 640x480 presentation for Guilty Gear X came with both advantages and disadvantages. “Making the characters’ facial expressions easier to see and broadening their expressions was good, but the downside was that you had to do it all in traditional pixel art, even when making a single character,” says Ishiwatari. Despite arriving between classics such as Garou: Mark
Of The Wolves and Capcom Vs SNK, the striking presentation allowed the game to stand out. “Looking at it in hindsight, I believe it was the right call,” admits Ishiwatari. “The team felt vindicated after it received high praise from players.”
The underlying philosophy of the game design also had to change for the arcade market. “Since the first Guilty Gear was made for consoles, we figured that even if there were some issues with game balance, as long as the game was fun, friends could just laugh that sort of thing off,”
remembers Ishiwatari. “But because Guilty Gear X was an arcade game, making it unfair would mean causing the players to waste their money. So we went back to square one on the game’s design and ended up focusing on making a competitive game.” New techniques were added, including the Dead-angle attack and the Roman Cancel, and the Destroy moves were wholly revamped into a risky one-shot affair – while a successful attack would still win you the entire match, an unsuccessful one saw you lose your super gauge. Guilty Gear X also added a group of five new characters while retaining most of the original cast, giving the game a healthy roster of 16 fighters.
Guilty Gear X was released to arcades in the summer of 2000, with conversions
“IF WE EVER MAKE ANOTHER GUILTY GEAR, WE MIGHT DO AWAY WITH INSTANT-KILL MOVES” Daisuke ishiwatari
for the Dreamcast and PS2 arriving later. The game attracted more favourable reviews than its predecessor, with Dreamcast Magazine awarding the game 80% and Play doing the same for the
PS2 version. Edge awarded the game 8/10 too, with the reviewer claiming that “no other title looks quite this inviting” and praised it as a game that “should entice most fighting disciples”. The review in Official Playstation 2 Magazine also scored the game 8/10, as the reviewer felt that the game “achieves a level of balance and depth that means you never, ever, truly master it”. Guilty Gear X would receive a couple of enhanced versions
– Guilty Gear X Plus in 2001, a Japan-only PS2 upgrade that added a couple of extra characters, and Guilty Gear X 1.5, an arcade-exclusive
update from 2003 that added moves and rebalanced the game. Overall, Guilty Gear X was the game that established the series as a serious competitor to the major fighting franchises. Why was that possible? “Because I was young, that’s why. I sincerely believed that my ideas couldn’t possibly be boring,” says Ishiwatari. “I am grateful for the support Arc System Works and Sammy provided the team and I back then.”
While Guilty Gear X was a success, its sequel is even better and became the basis of 2D entries in the series going forward. Rather than being a complete overhaul as its predecessor had been, 2002’s
Guilty Gear XX builds on the content and systems
of Guilty Gear X. Four more characters join the main cast for a starting roster of 20 fighters, with the new Robo-ky joining Kliff and Justice as secret characters. Building on the previous game’s strong fighting mechanics, the new Burst gauge governs the use of the Psych Burst, and sweep and launcher attacks are moved to their own specific button, the Dust button. The PS2 conversion also features EX versions of the main roster, alternative takes on the standard characters with altered moves and gameplay. If that sounds like a lot of complexity, you’re right. This is intentional, and something that Ishiwatari feels is crucial to the series. “With the rise of entertainment on cellphones and the internet, the desire to play games could decline in this day and age. The complex handling that Guilty Gear demands may be too much when taking that into consideration. But it is that complexity that also gives Guilty Gear its identity,” he says. “I also believe that it makes the players reflect on their own idiosyncrasies and makes practice and improvement more meaningful. It adds value to them pushing their skills to the limit. The problem is whether they should be made aware of that in advance, or to see if they can push through it without knowing.”
Of course, the complexity of Guilty Gear XX only added to its strategic depth, and the game achieved prominence on the tournament scene, with fighting game legend Daigo Umehara winning the Guilty Gear XX championship at Evolution 2003. “Like other highly competitive
games, the main stage for fighting games is after they’re released,” says Ishiwatari, regarding the importance of the competitive scene. “Tournaments are important in several different ways; as a place to nurture the player community; as a place to confirm player trends and their desires for games; as a place for creators to confirm they have a responsibility for games and players. I believe the exchange of player and creator intentions is important.” The result of that feedback was that Guilty Gear XX received a number of updates, keeping the game relevant in tournaments for the rest of the decade.
2003’s Guilty Gear XX #Reload rebalanced the entire cast and fully reworked the Robo-ky character. In 2005, Guilty Gear XX Slash added two new characters, as well as adding moves and altering move properties for roughly half of the existing cast. Additionally, a visual overhaul saw the addition of new stages and a revamped HUD. Guilty Gear XX Accent Core followed in 2006, with enhanced Force Break special moves, Slashback parries and throw breaks. The cast was rebalanced again with new moves added,
Kliff and Justice were removed, and all character voices were re-recorded. Guilty Gear XX Accent
Core Plus followed in 2008, restoring the two previously cut characters and adding more game modes and features, and Guilty Gear XX Accent
Core Plus R brought a close to the XX series in 2012 by rebalancing the cast again, with many new Force Break attacks added. “So far, the series’ visible complexity has steadily eased up with each game,” says Ishiwatari. “I believe we can make more daring changes to the series in the future. Trying to add our own personal touch on top of that is also a challenge for the future.”
Between Guilty Gear XX #Reload and Guilty Gear XX Slash, the 2003 arcade release Guilty Gear Isuka took the existing characters and fighting mechanics and tried to make a four-player game out of them. While it looked nice and had a solid base to build from, it was a bit too much for many – with the adoption of a button to turn your character and
Fatal Fury-style multiplane arenas, it was very chaotic. It received 6/10 scores from both games™ and Official Playstation 2 Magazine, with the latter declaring it a “honest stab at genuine change” that “dilutes what Guilty Gear does best”.
The next major fighting game in the series was Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign-, and it brought about some enormous changes for the series. Visually, the biggest was the abandonment of
the beautiful existing 2D visuals for a cel-shaded 3D look. “At the time, I thought about continuing with a pixel art style, but Blazblue was already handling that just fine, so we needed to come up with another approach,” says Ishiwatari. “It was then a cel-shade one of the staff members had made themselves caught my eye, and I thought we could make that work.” The team did just that, and then some – with the ability to do full 3D direction, character introductions and destroy move sequences look like they’ve been ripped straight from an anime movie.
But the astonishing achievement was that you could mistake the game for a sprite-based game during the actual fights. By carefully managing the framerate of animations, Team Red created a convincing illusion of hand-drawn animation. No other 2D fighting game had transitioned to 3D in such a way, leaving the game with a unique look.
Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign- was developed with the intention of being more inviting to newcomers,
“I BELIEVE WE CAN MAKE MORE DARING CHANGES TO THE SERIES IN THE FUTURE” Daisuke ishiwatari
“I’D STAY OVERNIGHT AND SHARE WORK, FOOD AND GAMES WITH THE STAFF” Daisuke ishiwatari
while still retaining the series’ signature feeling. “We’re particular about presenting an open-minded atmosphere when you explore the game thoroughly,” says Ishiwatari when asked about what he feels is crucial to the character of a Guilty Gear game. “That includes freedom and the parts that are called ‘complex’. Subtle systems that aren’t mentioned in the game manual. Where advanced players can achieve different results even if they play the same way. Elements where you get closer to victory by understanding and learning from that.” Many of the later Guilty
Gear XX mechanics such as Slashbacks and Force Breaks were removed, while older mechanics were improved, with expansions to the Roman Cancel and a new follow-up to Dust attacks. The new Blitz Shield gave an extra defensive option to repel most non-throw attacks and create an opening, at the cost of the Tension Gauge. The initial arcade release of Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign- featured just 13 playable characters and a boss, 12 of whom returned from previous games, as the decision to switch to 3D graphics meant that even the existing characters needed to be created from the ground up. However, updates and DLC introduced in the console version brought the roster up to 17.
Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign- arrived in arcades in 2014 and received PS3, PS4 and PC ports. The game has been developed further through major updates – 2016’s Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator- primarily added to the cast, with six extra characters including three newcomers. In 2017, Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 added Answer and brought back Baiken, bringing the cast up to 25 fighters. The Xrd series has received universal acclaim, with the initial instalment receiving 9/10 scores from Edge and 93% from Play, with the
latter stating that “in terms of pure, raw style, there’s nothing on PS4 that even comes close”. Revelator and Rev 2 received
9/10 from games™, while Rev 2 scored 8/10 in Playstation Official Magazine.
Guilty Gear survived an uneven start and has remained consistently popular for two decades, now firmly established as one of the premier fighting game franchises. “I believe it’s thanks to its core players,” responds Ishiwatari, when asked what has kept the series popular. “Because the players who continued pursuing our games at the time became our motivation, and convey the series’ appeal.” But as much as the players loved playing the games, Ishiwatari enjoyed making them. “Making games itself was fun early on in the series’ development, and I’d work all the way through the middle of the night without care. I’d stay overnight at the company, and share work, food and games with the staff. Every day was like a field trip,” he reminisces. “The memories of those days are the most important in my life.”
The developers are taking a well-deserved look back at the series’ history with the release of Guilty Gear 20th Anniversary Edition for Switch, which
consists of the original Guilty Gear and Guilty
Gear Accent Core Plus R. But the future is also
worth considering, and audience growth through the competitive scene is something Ishiwatari has clearly put a lot of thought into. “No matter how great the matches are, you won’t attract attention without star players,” he says. “Our challenge is to make something significant that will make people want to become star players for that game. That’s something that doesn’t stop with the game’s content. Also, that doesn’t just end with giving out large cash prizes at tournaments. Though of course, from an esports perspective, setting things up to assure star players’ careers is also extremely important.” But while audience growth is important, Ishiwatari’s biggest concern for the Guilty Gear series is elsewhere. “What I’m personally most attentive of is the part where you can make a lot of friends through fighting games. And through internet society, that can lead to international culture exchanges. I hope that Guilty Gear can produce those kinds of cultural exchanges in the future.” So if you’re arriving to the series somewhat late, the message is clear: come for the yo-yo fighter and the oddball with the pool cue, stay for the people you battle with.