Guilty Gear series

Placeholder logo for the series' latest entry.

Guilty Gear (ギルティギア, Giruti Gia?) is a series of Japanese fighting games developed by Arc System Works, and designed by artist and music composer Daisuke Ishiwatari. It has variously been published by Arc System Works itself, Aksys Games, PQube, Sega, Sammy Entertainment and Kiss Ltd.

The series is well-known for its detailed anime-style graphics, colorful characters, technical gameplay, and the numerous references to hard rock and heavy metal music that serve as inspiration for its characters and soundtracks.

Media

Games

Main series

• Guilty Gear (1998)
• Guilty Gear X (2000)
  • Guilty Gear X Plus (2001)
  • Guilty Gear X: Advance Edition (2002)
  • Guilty Gear X ver 1.5 (2003)
• Guilty Gear XX (2002)
  • Guilty Gear XX ♯Reload (2003)
  • Guilty Gear XX Slash (2005)
  • Guilty Gear XX Λ Core (2006)
  • Guilty Gear XX Λ Core Plus (2008)
  • Guilty Gear XX Λ Core Plus R (2012)
• Guilty Gear 2: Overture (2007)
• Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- (2014)
• Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR- (2015)
  • Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 (2017)
• Guilty Gear -STRIVE- (2021)

Spin-offs

• Guilty Gear Petit (2001)
• Guilty Gear Petit 2 (2001)
• Guilty Gear Isuka (2004)
• Guilty Gear Club (2006)
• Guilty Gear Dust Strikers (2006)
• Guilty Gear RoA (2006)
• Guilty Gear Judgment (2006)
• Pro Jumper! Guilty Gear Tangent!? (2011)
• Guilty Gear Vastedge XT (2013)

Drama CDs

• Guilty Gear X Drama CD Vol.1 (2001)
• Guilty Gear X Drama CD Vol.2 (2001)
• Guilty Gear XX Drama CD Red (2003)
• Guilty Gear XX Drama CD Black (2003)
• Guilty Gear XX Drama CD Night of Knives Vol.1 (2004)
• Guilty Gear XX Drama CD Night of Knives Vol.2 (2004)
• Guilty Gear XX Drama CD Night of Knives Vol.3 (2004)

Novels

• Guilty Gear X Lightning the Argent (2001)
• Guilty Gear X The Butterfly and Her Gale (2002)
• Guilty Gear Begin (2018)

Manga

• Guilty Gear Xtra (2003)
• Guilty Gear Series Story Digest Comics (2020)

Allusions

• The series has two iconic phrases "Heaven or Hell" and "Let's Rock", which are said by the announcer at the start of almost every battle. The first phrase is the name of a song by German power metal band, Gamma Ray, or a Black Sabbath album called Heaven and Hell, or the last verse of the Queen song.
• "Tension" alludes to the tension of a string of an instrument, namely a guitar.
• "Overdrive" alludes to an electric guitar effect.
• When someone is defeated, the announcer and on-screen text say "SLASH" which alludes to the guitarist who has played with Guns N' Roses named Slash. Slash is also the name of the attack button set to Δ (triangle) by default on PlayStation systems.

Trivia

• The X and XX games and their updates are stated to be gaiden entries to the series, with the X standing for "extra". They are considered canonical, but their multiple endings are largely inconsequential or are outright contradicted by Overture, the true continuation to the original Guilty Gear and second "main" installment, or by the Xrd games (as Xrd stands for "third") that follow from there.
• According to Daisuke Ishiwatari, the series' story theme revolves around seeking the answer to the question, "What does it mean to be human?".

External links

• GUILTY GEAR シリーズ一覧
• Guilty Gear at Wikipedia