Combo Mastery - Laying the Foundation
I just jacked my brother's PS4 controller so I could play this game. With good reason, I share this information. I am not some wanton, petty thief of an older brother, though the relation does lend itself to plucking an item or two, here and there. While he's got the latest Playstation console, a personal computer and a Nintendo Switch, he lacks the foresight to extract 3,000 plus hours from a game. Despite the fact I only clocked a mere 75 hours into Guilty Gear, this particular title holds vast replayability, the word I want to coin for a game's replay value.
Yet, that isn't the purpose of this post, per se. I want to highlight how much infatuation this author possesses for the 2-D fighting game franchise. You must walk, before you run. A rapper I like to listen to said, "you gotta break a couple eggs if everyone's gonna eat."
I say, I must learn the inputs before I master combos in Guilty Gear. The variety of feats possible thanks to a few directional inputs and buttons reminds me of the alphabet. Right now, I'm a crude speaker, in terms of the game, only knowing a few swear words and conjugations. I'm only going to be able to beat back the CPU once I master the basics, despite how lethally dull that may be. At least, I get a kick out of writing about it!
Harmonious Symphony - The Soundtrack:
It's funny- I listen to such a large collection of music, my friends comment on my music trends. Japanese city pop by Mai Yamane, down to polka, I play the song if I enjoy the harmony and melody. What's more curious, I enjoyed the soundtrack to the game, long before I ever purchased a copy!
Spotify's recommendations noticed somewhere along the lines that I enjoy soundtracks to video games as ambient listening, and I do. I still return to these themes from Pokémon Platinum, for their nostalgia and drama.
Fun Fact: I saved the theme to Guilty Gear, on January 5th, 2020. I finished the tutorial for Guilty Gear -Strive- on August 17th, 2021, almost 2 years later. For those curious on that math, it's precisely 590 days.
Why?
I enjoyed the song on a whim, but when I noticed how good the game was, alongside its music, I was sold. I spent $60 on the title (on a credit card) without hesitation. This one theme for the character, Giovanna, a real looker by the way, gets me pumped to do anything from rep out goblet squats to slashing my opponents offscreen.
Artistry in Combat - Bold Characters and Visuals:
While I'm here, I'll cover just how arresting the design of these characters are. Here's my favorite character to play at the moment, Giovanna.
The people behind Guilty Gear are admirably clever too, noting that a different "skin", or colorway, for characters need not be incredibly intricate. A swap of the color palette makes Gio a different woman, meaning I am always enraptured each time I hit the player select screen.
The characters all boast personality, and I don't only like the pretty ladies in games. I-No, Axl Low, and Sol Badguy, the franchise character come to mind as people who have such interesting stories, you'd watch a show on them. At least, I am unabashedly upfront about how I would. So, among the things I want to do for myself, like collect books or write a book, when I am not involved in the mental extracurriculars, I play Guilty.
