Guilty Gear

Guilty Gear
Name
Kanji	ギルティギア?
Romaji	Giruti Gia
Information
Developer	Arc System Works
Publisher	JP Arc System Works NA Atlus EU Studio 3, Virgin Interactive
Platform	PlayStation, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows
Release date	PlayStation JP May 14, 1998 NA October 31, 1998 EU May ?, 2000 PlayStation 3 JP May 31, 2007 PAL August 6, 2009 Microsoft Windows WW May 15, 2019 (Steam) Nintendo Switch WW May 16, 2019 PlayStation 4 US/JP May 16, 2019 EU/AU May 22, 2019
Rating	CERO: B ELSPA: 11+ ESRB: Teen ACB: M

Guilty Gear, subtitled The Missing Link in Japan, is the first entry in the Guilty Gear series. It was first released on the PlayStation in 1998, and would see a release on PlayStation 3 ten years later. For its twentieth anniversary, it was released on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and Microsoft Windows via Steam in May 2019 alongside Guilty Gear XX Λ Core Plus R.

Despite being the series' first release, the game itself reveals little of its context, or the character's backstories; it is not until later material and games that the history of the Guilty Gear universe is thoroughly explained.

The game has two spin-offs: Guilty Gear RoA and Guilty Gear Club, which were Japan-exclusive mobile phone games released in 2006.

Gameplay

Guilty Gear is a 2D fighting game, similar to Street Fighter and The King of Fighters, but is fast-paced and focuses more on the use of combo techniques. Featuring thirteen playable characters and their respective stages, combat is one-on-one, set in best-two-out-of-three rounds. The main menu has four options: Normal Mode, Versus Mode, Option Mode, and Training Mode.

Normal Mode is a series of battles that pit the player against the CPU; by defeating all opponents, the player gets to view their selected character's ending, and earn a number of trophies in the Anniversary release. Versus Mode is a fight between two players; before choosing fighters, the background can be selected by pressing Start. Training Mode allows the practice of combos, and pressing Select will enter the Training Config menu. Option Mode allows to alter various aspects of the game, such as Key Config, BGM Select, Save/Load (which will save the Option Mode configuration), Vibration, Frame Skip, and Volume.

While movement uses the directional buttons, basic attacks use a six button layout: Punch , Kick , Slash , Heavy Slash , Taunt, and Respect. Special Moves use directional buttons plus one of these attack buttons. Taunts can be canceled, while Respect is a "reverse taunt" that cannot be canceled. Some available techniques are: Throw ( + ) is done standing close to an opponent; a launcher attack ( + ) is used to initiate aerial combos, and if it connects, one must immediately hold to follow up with a Chase Jump. Regarding defense, a Dead Angle Attack (done with a Special Move command) allows to attack immediately after blocking, and a Perfect Guard (hold while blocking) so as to not lose health during an attack.

This last technique depends on the bar located below the characters, the Chaos Gauge. Initially empty, the gauge fills up every time the character connects an attack. Its main purpose, however, is allowing a character to perform their one Chaos Move. These take a completely full gauge to use, although some can be performed when below 50% health (when the life gauge turns yellow) as the character is surrounded by a red aura and enters Chaos Mode.

All but three characters can charge one attack to do extra damage. Charging is done by pressing the specific move commands and holding down Taunt or . The character will stand there and build power, and a number will appear above their Chaos Gauge showing Level 1, 2, or 3. At any time, a character may stop charging, and release the attack. Finally, all characters have access to one Instant Kill move, not shown in their command list in-game, which will win them the match regardless of the round.

Story

The backstory for Guilty Gear is presented thusly in its game manual: Set in the 22nd Century, mankind succeeded in developing a natural, limitless energy supply, and brought about the Age of Magic. Science and industry, sources of environmental pollution and weapons of mass destruction, were thus outlawed. However, the abolition of technology did little to soothe mankind's suffering. A war erupted, fueled by rapidly developing magical theory, that saw the birth of Gears—powerful biological weapons produced by fusing human and animal DNA with magic. The powerful military state that produced the Gears as little more than slaves monopolized the manufacturing process, bringing countless other lands under its control.

Yet among their ranks, a rebel appeared and announced herself to be self-aware—Justice. She gathered an army of fellow Gears and declared war on all mankind. Despite heavy initial casualties, humans put their differences aside and formed the Sacred Order of Holy Knights to combat the Gear menace. After one hundred years of brutal war, the Crusades came to an end when the Order sealed Justice inside an impenetrable dimensional prison, and the masterless Gears were rounded up and destroyed.

However, in 2180, five years after the end of the Crusades, the walls of Justice's dimensional prison unexpectedly begin to erode away. Assessing the threat before them, the world's leaders quickly organize an international fighting tournament to select members for a proposed Second Sacred Order. Few take notice of its suspicious rules, but the prize is tempting: The victor gets to make a "single wish... any wish at all".

In-game, once the combatants fight through all stages of the tournament they find out the true meaning behind: Testament appears before the combatant, saying he only needs the blood of one more "sacrifice". He is defeated, but his own blood is all that he needs to achieve Justice's complete resurrection. She awakens, ready to fight, and the character must defeat her. Canonically, the tournament's winner and the one who kills Justice is Sol Badguy. However, the events of each character's ending can all be considered more or less canonical, save victory in the tournament: Justice's words make Ky Kiske question himself; May is reunited with Johnny; Dr. Baldhead decides to become a healer again; Gabriel frees Potemkin, who joins the revolution in Zepp; Eddie takes over Zato; Kliff Undersn finds his peace, etc.

Characters

Playable characters

Sol Badguy Ky Kiske May Dr. Baldhead Potemkin

Chipp Zanuff Zato-1 Millia Rage Axl Low Kliff Undersn

Hidden characters

Unlocked if Normal Mode is beaten using Sol or Ky with no continues up until Testament.

• Baiken

Boss characters

Unlocked by beating Normal Mode with any character, continues or no continues.

• Testament
• Justice

Non-playable characters

• Johnny
• Gabriel
• Tsuyoshi
• Millia's Admirer

Development

Daisuke Ishiwatari conceived the game before joining Arc System Works while he was in a vocational school. Eventually, after Ishiwatari entered the company and working on other things, one day he revealed to the president he wanted to make a game in Street Fighter-likeness. With the president's acceptance, Ishiwatari started to work on it along with a cast of about twelve people, "Team Neo Blood", for a development process that lasted a year and a half. With influences of the manga Bastard!!, Ishiwatari created the series hoping it would appeal not only to game fans but to anime fans too. Originally, the game was designed with rendered 3-D visuals, but this was later replaced by hand-drawn artwork.

Ishiwatari was convinced that the game "should be something difficult". His main focus was to create a product that would satisfy its players, and that could "expand the possibilities of the game itself." A different layout of buttons, "one of the things that defined" the game, was necessary because "we wanted to come up with something different to the other games – it needed to be different." For this reason, Instant Kills were added; their function was to add tension to the fight as someone who was winning could be defeated suddenly, which is "something we really wanted to be a strong theme for the game."

Trivia

• Justice is referred to as a male in-game and its manual despite being female.
• For the original North American release handled by Atlus, the company let players choose the game's box art by voting for their favorites from three available box arts.
• Placing the disc in a computer or CD player will allow the player access to one untitled audio track.
• Computer-controller characters can taunt and respect—something they never do in other games in the series.

Gallery

PSX cover art (JP).

PSX cover art (NA).

PSX cover art (PAL).

Promotional flyer.

Related material

• Guilty Gear Complete Bible
• Guilty Gear Original Sound Collection

External links

• GUILTY GEAR 20th ANNIVERSARY PACK
• Guilty Gear (video game) at Wikipedia
• Guilty Gear Credits (PlayStation) at MobyGames