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Nundo Bolas
Netherlands
Unspecified
Unspecified
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Introduction
Rather difficult for me to ignore this website now that I have discovered the videogames section, so I guess I'll write a quick review about Guilty Gear X2, my favorite 2D fighting game. Curse you, boardgamegeek!
For me, however, the love started with the very first Guilty Gear game, on PS1, long before I encountered what I consider to be its true successor [yeah, take that, GGX]. What made me fall in love with the original? Most probably the insane chaotic speed with which I could run across the arena with Chipp Zanuff, before ripping my opponent to shreds with a seemingly infinite repetition of the exact same kick animation, before slashing him up against the wall, thereby bouncing him back into my endlessly repeatable upercut slash-move.
Sounds broken?
Yes.
Did I love it? Oh god yes.
This is, I believe, what 2D fighting is all about. None of that overly static "dude stands still and needs to jump to advance across the screen" crap you see in Street Fighter and King of Fighters. This is what anime and manga implies; Speed, insanity, and a drug-using Mafia guy with white hair and red eyes. God, the original even allowed us to "load" up a move, like those barbarian-supermen in Dragon Ball Z do. Indeed, if you liked DBZ, this is the game you had to buy, because none of the 2D adaptations of the manga were able to provide any of DBZ's violent adrenaline kicks, and all you do in Tenkaichi is fly around.
Guilty Gear X2
For me, Guilty Gear X2 is the adult, full-grown version of the original Guilty Gear. Not only did it continue with Guilty Gear X's needed addition of more characters, the game's graphics looked better than Dizzy's theophany. Here was Guilty Gear with a very clear and stable presentation. I dare even write, that it looked better than its later editions, such as Isuka's rather failed multitap attempt and the somewhat kitsch colors of Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus.
Guess I am a purist, though, because I consider the first X2 "print" better than the far more available "castrated RobyKy" re-edition, even though the latter is probably more balanced. Balanced character rosters, however, is not what Guilty Gear is about. And let us be honest, I have never heard anyone claim that the sales of Street Fighter IV decreased, because its character roster was painfully unbalanced mess. Not to mention Ed Boon's severe onanic love affair with Mortal Kombat's Scorpion.
GGX2's roster contains twenty characters, originally organized in a system of rings that you navigate with a cursor, instead of the traditional square-to-square click approach. This is usually where I lose my n00b guests. True, GGX certainly is not for your local "can I try" non-gamer. If you have not yet mastered the hadoken quarter-swirl with your left-thumb, be sure to practice before you order this game from your local second-hand dealer. Although you can always enjoy Potemkin's HS.
The basics, however, reside in the movement system. Double tapping a direction, allows your character to run toward your enemy [thereby usually filling up its tension gauge] or double-jump. This allows far more freedom [and aerial combat] than other 2D fighting games. You can dash in the air, like a bunch of flying knights. Which is why I love this game. If you have mastered the flexibility of the movements, you should try the Dust button, which functions as a special fifth button. It allows you to sweep your opponent, if you push down+dust. In the air, however, it usually propels your enemy away. It's main function, however, is to uppercut your enemy into the air and then follow him [merely by pressing up] changing the graphics of the whole screen and allowing you to pound your enemy with improvised combinations.
Even though other fighting games might allow you similar freedoms, GGX2's fluidity and charisma provide players with an albeit different experience. The liberty and the tactical probabilities offered by the wide array of moves and very different fighting styles is what makes me come back to this game time after time after time. I have no idea how many times I have played a simple Ky Kiske versus Millia Rage match, but I can assure you, that we were still discovering alternations of defensive and offensive actions after hundreds of bouts. When you try to dodge a flying templar who creates a field of crosses mid-air, you will understand what I am talking about.
Which brings me to my main point: Guilty Gear grants players options and a wide array of alternatives. Attacking is encouraged, while more traditional 2D fighting games generally degrade into very static defensive [wait, then dodge, then counter-attack] affairs. Behavior FPS gamers tend to call "camper" tactics, which are very gratifying when mastered, but somewhat absurd if you bear in mind what initially pulled us toward 2D fighting games: Fighting.
Playstation 2 and comparing it to other games
By now, Guilty Gear is probably forgotten. Its main adepts have made a painful switch to its high resolution nephew Blaz Blue on the next generation consoles. The Guilty Gear saga, therefore, will probably remain part of Playstation's earlier era, when Sony fanboys were still supporting the console with the most extensive games library [ever?]. Indeed, for me, Guilty Gear will forever remain the most important part of my collection; A consistent reminder of the console's superiority. A console which was in fact, two consoles bundled into one. And apart from a second spare PS2 console, the only thing missing in my collection is probably a second stand-by copy of GGX2. It is beyond any doubt the game I have enjoyed most, whose name is uttered with the macho obviousness some sports fans probably use, whenever they speak of the best boxing champion or some other sports legend. You may wonder, however, why it is so good; What makes it different from other 2D fighting games?
If I were to quickly peruse through my collection and check out the other fighting games, none of them are able to provide me with the same replay value and dedication of GGX2. Even the alternative Guilty Gear versions [apart from perhaps the original] evoke so many memorable evenings, nights, and frustrations. I have even played GGX2 for money, the most extreme bet being a 1€ to 100€ fight between Millia Rage and Sol Badguy, which we repeated several times. Needless to say, I almost lost and then decided it was better to quit. I have only played one other fighting game for money [Killer Instinct on SNES] and never got my 5€, so I guess this 100€ arrogance was rather insane. Hopefully this kind of anecdote does imply the quality of the game's allure. But I am sure others are more inclined to betting than me, so perhaps it does not communicate what makes this game better.
In fact, there are many fighting games on the PS2 platform that are so different from the GGX system, that it would be rather hard and perhaps impossible to compare with GGX2. Having said this, the Dragon Ball Z series are not very interesting from a 2D fighter fanatic's perspective. The character roster, although huge, is basically an endless alteration of the Zone of the Enders engine; Moreover the 3D arenas grant too much indistinctness to provide a very clear comparison of skill. The DBZ series did grant more clarity and a hands-on approach with earlier versions like Budokai 3. It still suffers from the same roster-clone effect; Providing us with endless alternations of the exact same moves and four-hit follow-up strikes.
When King of Fighters made its transfer to 3D arenas, we underwent a somewhat similar problem: The lack of clearly defined "edge" creates a somewhat problematic haziness. Moreover, although KOF Maximum Impact 2 provided us with a big roster of very flashy costumes, it still suffered from the clone-roster effect. Having said this, GGX2 probably comes closest to its 2D predecessor King of Fighters 2003, which is widely considered the most brutal or rough KOF in the series. [No wonder it is my favorite KOF.] Because of its aerial combat and more agile fighters, however, Guilty Gear still steals the king's crown. And even though it hosts 11 more, a lot of them seem redundant. [No offence, Shen Woo fans.]
I have already mentioned the redundancy of most Street Fighter IV characters, mostly because everybody ended up using Ken [or Sagat, if you are a good player] instead. The franchise's real problem, however, remains its very defensive style, which I do not prefer. Street Fighter IV, however, was a good game because it was Street Fighter's first succesful transgression into 3D. [Nobody seems to remember earlier failed attempts.] Street Fighter, however, fails to succesfully integrate new character models into its already existing 1980s framework. Nor was it ever really able to provide a decent interaction between its `charger´ characters and its `swirl´ shooters.
I am not here to start a war with Street Fighter fans, however. I still consider Street Fighter Alpha 3 on PS1 to be one of the most decent and best fighting games in my collection. Even though it was later recycled, lacking the World Tour and 2PvsCOM additions, it still provides us with a very balanced and stable approach. Chaos and speed, however, are not what you find in any Street Fighter game. I guess they are almost complete opposites of the spectrum. Again, as I have written above, my main problem with the series is its lack of mobility, its lack of aerial combat. I cannot fly to my opponent, I cannot run, I cannot teleport then run then fly.
Of course, the Street Fighter line is part of an older more static generation of games. Comparing the two styles, therefore, is a bit anachronistic. I might as well compare it to Samurai Shodown then, which has a lot more in common with Guilty Gear's sword-fighting Samurai versus Paladin presentation. Apart from the very outdated graphics, we see a repetition of many themes and concepts from the Samurai Shodown anthology. Having said this, Samurai Shodown's main problem remains its unclear overview of what is exactly going on. I am referring to the hit-recognition, which frequently lacks the visual rigidity of a clearly delineated precedence and advantage recognition. In other words, I am not 100% what will happen, when I am attacking my opponent. I must admit, however, that I might not have played the series enough to make such a sweeping statement. An admission that implicitly proves the franchise's lack of inter-game transition. The system does not seem stable. Every game seems to revolve around different physical laws and rules.
Other games, such as the Mortal Kombat series and its far more superior SoulBlade rival, were able to provide us with a consistent physical habitat. It did not matter whether I was playing Deadly Alliance or Deception. And, even though Soul Calibur IV traded Soul Edge's realism for bigger boobs and pinker weapons glare, the basic framework of the game is still intact. Perhaps SoulCalibur's precision was even better than GGX2, because it is far more difficult for SoulCalibur to present its gamers with those cool kind of lightning crash effects, whenever two equivalent strikes hit and thereby negate themselves. [Indeed, GGX2 also has this!]
If you are a gore fan, however, I guess the MK franchise will always provide you with the finish him advantage. Even though Guilty Gear does include one-hit Destroy kills, it does this with a more fantastic, sometimes ironic gesture. Instead of heads popping off, Slayer will provide you with a Japanese poem and Dr Baldhead causes a nuclear mushroom cloud animation. Again, we are invited into very unrealistic "anime" realities, instead of Mortal Kombat's somewhat 1980s gothic-ninja kitsch symbology. From a fighting system perspective, however, both the original 2D MK series and its 3D aftermath were very simplistic and frequently disorganized failures. Having to learn every character by heart seems logical, but in the MK series the learning process lacked an overall concept. One could never expect a certain thing to happen, because buttons did not even correspond to a certain effect or weapon.
Hence, if I were to compare Guilty Gear to other fighting games that have appeared, I guess it would be a combination of the character designs from Darkstalkers and Samurai Shodown, rather than the "Western" conservative esthetics of King of Fighters and Soul Calibur. Having said this, none of the mentioned games allow as much mobility. Which makes me come to the conclusion that this is where Guilty Gear's superiority is to be discovered; The mobility and fluidity of the GGX2 experience is why we keep coming back to this title. Even its successor, BlazBlue failed to bring us the same impression of speed and mobility, even though its animation is far more fluid and its graphics were very beautiful.
The veteran holy shit factor
It is very hard for me to explain why I love this game so much. Even though it has a very bizarre and complex storyline, this is certainly not why I love it. [Which reminds me of the only reason why I like the Mortal Kombat franchise.] Fluidity and mobility seem to be the key aspects to love this game. Even the character grid, although it provides us with a variety of very different and exotic characters, is not why we keep coming back. [We usually replay the same fight over and over again, anyway. Usually selecting the same characters.] What then is the magic of Guilty Gear? The sound, perhaps, or the symbolic color-scheme antagonisms throughout the character rosters; White blue versus red brown? I have no idea. Perhaps my rather long and alienating recitation of alternatives betrays my failure to indicate what makes this game superior. [At least from my perspective.]
I guess it all comes down to the "veteran holy shit" factor, that most games fail to provide. Each and every game provides its gamers with a "holy shit" experience. The Mortal Kombat series, for example, became famous because of its finishing moves and its gore. Nintendo's Killer Instinct competitor, although it provided finishers, provided its audience with the "holy shit" ultra combo system. These days, almost every videogame allows its users a supersupermove combination, usually with a lot flashy graphics and/or explosions on screen. In Guilty Gear, however, these initial holy shit moments are eventually replaced by what I will call "veteran holy shit" moments; Which is not about cool special moves or combinations, but the veteran's ability to dodge and/or play with his or her opponents. In other words, strange stuff begins to happen, because the precision of the hits allows players to exploit certain movement range and attack range benefits. This is possible, because the system does not cloak its players into very short and/or limited areas of effect. They can affect a wide range of mid-air heights and blind spots, because the moves never really cover everything.
The only fighting game that allowed me such blind spot dodge reaction interaction, was most probably the Soul Calibur games. Perhaps the only fighting game that I grant equal status to Guilty Gear. Even though the latter provides us with a far more creative and interesting character design and a very spectacular soundtrack. Moreover, the SoulCalibur series are beginning to suffer from kitsch and tacky additions. [I will never forget the horror that was the addition of armored opponents in SoulCalibur 4.] While Guilty Gear's franchise has also produced a line of lesser non-fighting variations [not to mention the Isuka disaster], it certainly never decided to strip its system of its enduring qualities; clarity, mobility, and speed.
Graphics
8/10 Animated Artwork
8/10 Special Effects
Sound
9/10 Music
8/10 Voice Acting
9/10 Special Effects
Gameplay
10/10 Design
10/10 Replay value
Overall
8/10 outside niche
10/10 within genre
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Ash Ketchum
United States
Pallet Town
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I LOVE this game. So fun! I even bought it on Wii barely end of last year. I also have Guilty Gear Advance which is not so much fun but I like it!
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Posted Wed Nov 30, 2011 7:25 pm
