Rocktober 11th: Guilty Gear (series)

Japan loves fighting games.  With Capcom and SNK dominating the genre for nearly twenty years, gamers have enjoyed a plethora of titles.  Due to the saturation of the market, original titles are rare but when they are released they’re ground breaking.  Guilty Gear, created by South African born Daisuke Ishiwatari, is one such ground breaking title.

Originally released in 1998 on the Playstation, Guilty Gear attracted attention with its detailed sprites and heavy metal soundtrack (an oddity in a genre defined by synthesized tracks).  As Guilty Gear’s popularity grew, so did its colorful cast ranging from a one-armed samurai to an absurdist, giant scalpel wielding doctor that could break the laws of physics.  While GG’s gameplay elements of aerial juggles and a “power meter” where similar to competing fighters, one of the game’s defining features is an instant kill mode which allows a character to perform a difficult-to-hit move that destroys the enemy in a single hit.  Failing that your overdrive meter shatters putting you at a distinct disadvantage.

Guilty Gear’s most distinctive features are the art and music.  While Capcom continued to use simple sprites, Guilty Gear focused on elaborate hi-res sprites with detailed backgrounds.  The result was a game that looked like an animated movie in action.  The game’s music, mostly composed by Ishiwatari himself, has a distinct heavy metal tone.  Numerous rock and roll references are liberally inserted into the game from a sampled guitar solo from Metallica’s “One” to characters named after famous musicians.  The soundtrack and characters have been the basis for multiple OSTs, drama CDs, and an anime series.

As Arc System Works moves on with their new series BlazBlue, their work on Guilty Gear continues with new designs and projects.  Although Capcom’s recently released Street Fighter 4 is dominating Japanese arcades it’s only a matter of time before a new Guilty Gear game sweeps everyone back into its hard rocking roots.