Human and Gear survive together!

Okay, this should be the last part.  I hope so at least.

So yeah.  Time to cover all the spinoffs, from ho-hum Isuka to the horrific Dust Strikers and then end it on a somber note with Judgment.

Lets rock.

Guilty Gear Isuka
2004 - Arcade, PS2 and the Xbawks (Japan only)

Characters introduced:  A.B.A. (technically her first apperance), Robo-Ky mk.II and Leopaldon

Story: Nada
---------------------------

Isuka.  The much divided game, either you like it, or you don't.  Unfortunately for all of you, I actually liked it so that leads to me having meterial to talk about.

Isuka is something of a Super Smash Bros. game, mixed with actual fighting mechanics and GG's cast.  Four characters can fight at a time, each with about two lives worth of health and fight on two plains of the arena (foreground and the background) ala Final Fight, except it doesn't run that smoothly (not that it ever ran smoothly).

Since you're going to have enemies around you, to turn around you have to hti the L1 button, which seems to be where the unnessary hate stems from because you will get to doing that pretty fast (I personally found jumping between the foreground and background to be the annoyance).

For the main portion of the game, you have to fight a large sum of battles until you reach Level 100.  You don't go through 100 levels, but you gain them sort of like a RPG.  Except I never really figured out how you do gain levels, it just happen during all the madness.  Once you hit Level 100, you wind up in Antartica and take on the reletivly hard boss, Leopladon.

The other modes of play is Boost mode, which is a forgetable side scrolling beat 'em-up that paved the way to the much better Judgment that comes down the road a bit later.  Theres no real plot, and the bosses are a buffed up Sol and Ky.

Another feature is the Robo-Ky Factory, where you can customize a Robo-Ky to mimic moves of other characters.  Personally, I didn't **** around with this.

The graphics for the game are rather nice.  Though all the characters have their sprites carried over from The Midnight Carnival (which are carried over from By Your Side), they're given a different colour pallet, adding more depth to them and I think they look really good this way.  The backgrounds are some of the best, but generally lack anything animated sadly, but their designs are quite awe inspiring, such as Wilderness Gravestone, Kingdom Cemetary and China, which reappears later in Accent Core as Jams new stage (her old one having to unlocked).

The music's probably the best aspect.  Due to the fact characters share stages now, the music is dedicated to a particular stage rather than characters, but it still fits the locations like a glove.

I don't know whether to recommend it or not.  While I personally like it, it's not for everyone.  But if you go in with a open mind, it shouldn't be too bad, ya dig?

CHARACTERS
A.B.A. technically appears in this game first, but I listed her profile with Accent Core so check there for details on her.

LEOPALDON
Theme song:
Kill DOG as a Sacrifice to DOG (Isuka)




The boss of Isuka.  There is absolutely no information on him, other than it's a man who has found a active Gear and has taken command of it with his dog.  The Gear is a female, judging from the mark on it's arm.

ROBO-KY Mk. II
Theme song:
Holy Orders? (Isuka)




A Robo-Ky that is loyal to a mystery scientist, rather than the P.W.A.B..  He can use custom moves, rather than immitations of Ky's or that of the rouge Roby-Ky appearing in #RELOAD.

Guilty Gear: Dust Strikers
2006 - DS

Characters introduced: Gig

Plot: Despite a storymode, I couldn't find a plot.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Someone at Arc System Works* was determind to get Isuka's four player brawl deal done correctly, as this is clearly inspired but decided the DS of all things would be the best way to continue with that formula.  And thus, this pile was born.

Dust Strikers can be summed up in two words: A Mess.

As I said, it has the four fighters thing ala Isuka, but now has a vertical playing field with Donkey Kong platforms to jump on.  Despite the DS having enough buttons for a Guilty Gear game, the fighting system is dumbed down for the dumb audiance who thinks the DS is the second coming of Christ with special moves not really requiring much in terms of input to pull off (Hell, I think you can do quite a few by just pushing the A button).

Instead of having a button to turn around like in Isuka, the characters automatically do it, and not very well.  It takes a few moments for your idiot to register that they're being raped from the otherside.  Occasionally, objects for whatever reason appear on the battlefield and their not too useful.

Theres other modes of play rather than the main attraction.  Theres a storymode, but theres not really a story.  The characters say and do things they normally wouldn't, with everyone getting into fights for the sheer Hell of it, and even then, whoever was forced to write this "plot" isn't actually aware of who anyone is, since Bridget is now a girl.  Here's a sample of typical dialog featured in the game. 

This is about four lines into I-No's storymode:

A fight starts over May thinking I-No wants Johnny, despite Johnny not having to do with anything, ever.


I-No more or less just says "Hi" to Baiken, and then suddenly everyone wants her dead.


Slayer, acting like someone on a message board when I-No mentions she's hunting monsters.


I've only beaten it once (as Bridget of all people) when the game came out and I really don't know what the boss of it, Gig, a giant flying insect with a angel on its tail, has to do with anything.  Its just sort of there.  There's also spelling and grammar issues which make these articles look like A+ English meterial.

Theres also minigames you can play.  Just the typical trite BS you can find in a Mario Party game.  Move along.

Positives?  The character sprites look pretty decent, I prefer the pixel art version of the Isuka portraits over the original stuff, Kingdom Cemetary is a arena (hey, I like that place) and the music mostly interesting remixes of older titles (live guitars too, a rarity on the DS).

But still, I don't recommend this game.  Period.  If you want to play Guilty Gear on the go, but don't have a PSP, I highly suggest you hunt down Guilty Gear X: A.E.  It's AI maybe nonexistent, but it's much more superior to this.

Now lets talk something positive!

Characters

GIG - A giant insect (a Gear?) with a angel for a tail.  Just sort of floats up and down, hoping for you to put it out of it's misery.

*To tell you the truth, I'm not even sure if this was developed by Arc System Works.

GUILTY GEAR JUDGMENT
2006 - PSP


Characters introduced:  Raymond, Inus and Judgment

Plot: A week passes with no communication from the island of Isene, but when refugees are found, the world learns of the shocking experiments a scientist named Raymond is preforming with the islands inhabitants.

The world nations quickly post a bounty on his head for anyone who can stop him.
--------------------------------

Ahh, Guilty Gear Judgment.  First I want to state that it's retarded that Japans version comes with SLASH, while we're stuck with another copy of #RELOAD. But oh well, lets focus on the star attraction.

Isuka seems to have inspired the portable games a lot.  Where the Dust Strikers team decided to try, and failed at, expanding Isuka's main gameplay, Judgment's development crew saw potential in Boost Mode, that side scrolling beat 'em-up, and decided to expand that.

And while it's not the best beat 'em-up in the world, they sure did make a damn awesome game!

At first, you're only given about four characters to play as, but you'll unlock more along the rest of the crew along through your playthroughs as you encounter the other characters who've came to Isene for their own reasons (it must be kind of awkward after awhile, bumping into the same 20-something amount of people all the time, around the world).

Each character has their set own of special moves taken directly from the fighters, pulled off through the specific button inputs ala the normal games.  While roaming levels, you'll find items to heal you, gain more points, or to fill up your tension gauge.

I can't remember the specific amount of stages off the top of my head, but each stage is divided into four parts, with a boss at the end.  They're not the most inspired locations in the world of Guilty Gear, but they get the job done.

The enemies though do look pretty sweet, even if you do encounter simple sprite edits of the same lizard men for the most of the game.  Bosses look absolutely sinister, and are the highlights of the enemy designs.

The game is sort of difficult.  It starts out fairly innocuous but around the third or forth level, I was hurting.  Thankfully the game allows you to pick any section of the levels so as long as you've reached the area, so it's a bit forgiving (note that only if you've gotten there with a specific character.  You cant just quit at level 4-2 as Sol, then jump to there as Ky.  You'd have to start from the beginning with him).

Judgment should be easy to find, and I really recommend it.  If anything, for #RELOAD if you want to play the fighting games on the go but at least give the main focus a shot.  At least you'll get a better beat 'em-up than Boost Mode anda better fighting game than Isuka!

CHARACTERS
Inus
The king of Hell, Raymond has enslaved him for his experiments.  Inus gets his revenge on Raymond by devouring him when the player encounters the two, but this was part of Raymonds plan so that when Inus is slained by the player, Raymond could gain Inus' power and becoming Judgment.

Raymond/Judgment
A scientist who wishes to create a bioweapon more powerful than the Gears, while believing he is doing this in God's favor (while ironicly standing against the Holy Order).  To do this, he fuses humans with demons from Hell, and seems to have been powerful enough to even enslave the King of Hell, Inus, himself.  He eventually gets eaten by Inus, but when the player kills the demon, Raymond takes Inus' power to himself and becomes Judgment.

 

PHEW!!  I believe I'm now all done.  Of course I didn't cover all the spin offs, such as the Petite titles and Raid of Arms, and I didn't touch apon Guilty Gear 2: Overture, but I'm incredibly tired right now and even then, I haven't played those (except for the former) so I can't give you my opinion.

Anyways, this was rather fun to do.  Maybe I'll find something Capcom related I like to go on and on about next.

Compassion is not the same as weakness!

Blargh.  I am horribly, utterly, ruined from PT.  I don't know how everyone else is still able to do sit ups and push ups since their school days.  I sure can't.  After running so much, I'll have thighs the size of Chun-Li's, albeit very sore thighs.  BUT I'LL MAN UP AND FINISH THIS DAMN THING.

Okay.  Time for the XX series of games, where the series has been in a never ending Street Fighter 2 rut.  Except where SF eventually evolved into the best fighter ever, 3rd Strike, by creating such a new smooth flowing fighting system and purging it's trite ethnic warriors with a group more suitable for the aptly titled street fighting*, GG has just been kind of a chilling at this point.  Oh well, at least most updates haven't just been a slight increase in speed so that gives me more to talk about (sadly for the both of us).

I'm not sure how I'll do the character descriptions, since three of them are introduced in seperate updates, and one of them is really from a spin-off game and another is from a title we never got.  OH WELL, I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

*Okay, not really, but I do like them new characters like Remy and Alex more than blockheaded Americans who look like Nazi's from the second arc of Jojo, russian bears** and starving indians, OKAY?

**Just kidding, I like russian bears.

Guilty Gear XX: The Midnight Carnival
2003 - Arcade/PS2

Characters introduced: I-No, Bridget, Slayer, Zappa and Eddy (not really "new", but in terms of storyline...)

Story: Only a few weeks after the Dizzy fiasco, the mysterious Post-War Administration Bureau begins making it's moves after observing the cast for long enough, using their Robo-Ky units to do the dirty work.

And to make matters worse, I-No appears, attempting to neutralize any percieved threats to her master...

------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's where the series hit it's stride with even more refined tweaks to the gameplay (roman cancel!), even better graphics and more detail to the backgrounds, introduced quite possibly the most iconic characters in recent fighting games (to me at least) and rocked hard with it's soundtracked preformed by a full band.

And even better, we got the storymode.  While Guilty Gear's plot is not the best in the world, it really holds up for being character driven (like Persona 3), and theres no better way to convay a story than with Guilty Gear's motley crue of characters as every one of them is interesting enough to see what happens to them, even if they're not fun to play as (except Jam, who I still don't like, but she actually has a important role in this so I trudged through her game).

With the gameplay changes, false roman cancels make my life easier than roman cancels ever did, and the burst attacks was a great idea thrown in to save you from pesky aerial combos.

In the aesthetics department, the visuals are top notch.  The character sprites carried over from By Your Side but are a pinch better and some attacks were redrawn (and for the better) such as Millia's "Lust Shaker".  The backgrounds too have been carried over, but more detailed has been given to them such as London having bystandereds, and the ghosts at the Colony.

Musically, all that I found wrong in By Your Sides soundtrack has been fixed by adding a live drummer and bass player, not keeping the synthasizer on near mute and depth to the guitars.  While a few songs are weaker to their predecessor ("The Original"), most are greatly improved such as "Keep Yourself Alive II" and "Holy Orders (Be Just or Be Dead)", and the new tunes kick a lot of ass such as "Haven't You Got Eyes in Your Head?" and "Simple Life".

Honestly, I'm split between recommending this or Accent Core.  While Accent Core features every character, I really enjoyed Midnight Carnival's storymode.  If you can understand Japanese though, AC's update, Accent Core Plus is available and it features a new storymode and it's on the PSP so you can play it region free.

This is seriously, the most rockin' fighter ever.

CHARACTERS
ZAPPA
Theme songs:
Good Manners, Good Customs (all games)
Seizures (#RELOAD)
Home Sweet Grave (Isuka)


Zappa is a poor Australian with a bit of a problem.  He happeneds to be possessed by not just one ghost, but a legion of them.  And he's not really aware of that fact either.

The main ghost is S-Ko, a Sadako clone who is rumored to be Axl's girlfriend from the 20th century.  Among others are the three centipieds, a black dog and Rhoul from Fist of the North Star.

He seeks out Faust to help him figure out why he constantly blacks out and comes too with injured people all around him.

He happens to be somewhat modeled after Dio from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, and was my old namesake at this place.

BRIDGET
Theme songs:
Simple Life (all games)
Crash and Burn (#RELOAD)
Drunkard Does Make Wise Remarks (Isuka)


Here we go.  Everyone knows Bridget is really a young boy dressed to be a girl.  Despite his story being told countless times, I'll go over it again.

He was born in a village that believes twins born of the same gender are cursed.  To hide the fact that his mother bore two males, they rose Bridget up to be a girl.  Now that he's old enough, he wishes to prove his masculinity by becoming a bounty hunter.

I-No gives him a false list of bounties at the beginning of the game, and he inadvertadly assists in her plot.

SLAYER
Theme songs:
Haven't You Got Eyes in Your Head? (all games)
The Vampire Saga (#RELOAD)
Push a Bush (Isuka)

Oh man, another update, another incredibly badass character to challenge Sol.  Slayer is quite frankly the baddest vampire ever created, outside of Dracula.  Demitri wishes he could be him.

Anyways, as stated, Slayer is a ancient vampire, and founder of the Assassins Guild a hundred years before The Missing Link, only to disappear soon after it's creation.  But after Zato-1 dies, he reappears and announces that he is disbanding the Guild, only to enrage Venom.

He knows the most about what's going around the world and seems to know Sold pretty good as well, judging by their dramatic intro in Accent Core.  He confronts various characters to warn them about a coming threat along with "That Man" (I guess I should get around to discussing him soon).

He's married to a undying entity named Sharon, and he never truely loses a fight.

EDDY
Theme songs:
Feel a Fear (all games)
Dementia (#RELOAD)
Push a Bush (Isuka)


Not truely a new character, but Eddy is the shadow that Zato-1 controlled when he was still alive, granted to him as a new type of bioweapon from the P.W.A.B..

Though Zato-1 has died, Eddy took over his body and is quickly trying to find a new host before Zato-1's corpse begins to degrade, while at the same time being hunted down by Millia and Venom.

The truth behind Eddy's sudden existence in the series is that Zato-1's original voice actor had died and as respect, put Zato-1's character to rest.

  I-NO
Theme songs:
Shadow Festival (all games)
The Midnight Carnival (boss mode)
Blacklight Babe (#RELOAD)
Sheep Will Sleep (Isuka)

Maybe I refrenced Elton John too soon with Justice.

I-No, is quite frankly, the most despicable villian this side of Hitler.  Her origins are a mystery, as her P.W.A.B. report just repeats "UNKNOWN!!" over and over before assigning her with the risk rating of "S+" in their description of her.

All that anyone knows about her, is that she can time travel, doing so once to change history so, ironicly, Ky may live during the an important battle against the Gears during the war.  She's supposedly loyal to That Man, but that itself is questionable.

She takes great pride in harming those around her, especially Dizzy.  She and Sol seem to have a past together, and in some of their intros it's clear she hates him as some of her moonspeak is humorously bleeped out.  During storymode, she gives Bridget and Jam false bounty lists which helps her get rid of a few of her hits, and also enlists a dying Eddy with false promises of saving him by having him attempt to take over various new hosts.

After causing enough trouble, her master and a another of his servents, Raven, show up and generally save whatever character she was about to murder even though she claims it was for the good of his goals.

 

Well, that's all there is to say about this, lets move onto it's first update #RELOAD

Guilty Gear XX: #RELOAD
2003-ish PS2, 2004-ish Xbox, 2005-ish PSP as part of Guilty Gear Judgment

Characters introduced: Robo-Ky

Story: Same as Midnight Carnivals.

------------------------------------------------------------------

#RELOAD is, or at least was, the most well known of GGXX's updates as it was the only one we had for awhile, and on the Xbox of all things.  I didn't play much of it, as the Xbox controller sucks and no one else was on Xbox Live except two people (half of them were me), so I can't really tell what was "updated" in terms of gameplay, outside of Eddy being rather weak.

But it did get two big additions.  One, Robo-Ky who technically has been around since By Your Side, has became his own character rather than a Ky-sprite edit, and almost as big, is the Korean edition.  While I need to save stuff for his biogrophy below, lets just say his move set is borderline insane, and he plays quite differently from everyone else due to his unique tension gauge and his pressure gauge.

For whatever inane reason, the Korean edition of #RELOAD features a brand new background for Chipp Zanuff (pretty cool looking) but even more, a totally different soundtrack by a band called N.EX.T. rather than Daisuke's music.

While the Korean OST is divided amongst fans, I enjoy it quite a bit, going so far as to say I like a few songs, mostly Baikens and Anjis, over the original music, but stylisticly it's rather drastic.  It's heavy sounding since the bass plays right along with the rythme guitar.  It's got some techno-influences (don't worry, it's still metal) with a lot more synthasizer leads than usual.  And the most noticable aspect is the fact how dark it sounds.  Before I truely knew what #RELOAD was back in the day, I got the impression from the music that crap was going down hill for our heroes (Heck, just look at the song titles).

Anyways, the Xbox version of this game is largly skipable as you can get #RELOAD for the PSP (I've never had problems with fighters on that thing) which also includes the some what cool Guilty Gear beat 'em up, Judgment.  But then again, the Xbawks version is also cheaper so... do as you wish.  Of course it's stupid to buy this because of Accent Core.

Characters
ROBO-KY
Theme songs:
Holy Orders? (GGX-GGXX: Midnight Carnival and Isuka)
Under Construction (Day/Night) (#RELOAD and forword)
Vortex Infinitum (#RELOAD)


P.W.A.B.'s android agent, based on extensive research into Ky Kiske.  Though there are dozens apon dozens of Robo-Ky's built, one of them appears to have a few bugs in his programming and is on the lunatic fringe.

By Accent Core, the P.W.A.B. begins views this lone Robo-Ky as a threat, but not a major one and assigns him with a "D" risk rating.

 

Okay, onto the title we never got, and I never played!  This will be (thankfully) short!!  I'm only writting it up because of one key factor introduced.
Guilty Gear XX SLASH

Characters introduced: Order-Sol, A.B.A.

Plot: Ditto

-----------------------------

Right.  I never played this.  I quickly looked it up at reputable sources (wiki) and it says new moves were added to the characters.  So.  Yeah.

But one thing we're all aware of that was added, was A.B.A. from the enjoyed/hated Isuka game, and another (paradox)-challenger to Sol's badasses, is his younger self as Order-Sol from his Holy Order days!

Now those I can comment on!  A.B.A. has more moves and is generally more playable than she was in Isuka, and she now has a rather cool Instant Kill, not like you'll have a chance to ever use it since she's god damn slow.

Order-Sol though, is completely awesome all the way around, and seems kind of over powered too.  In addition to his tension gauge, he also has something I'll call a rage meter, because it's name has slipped me.

His attacks seem rather weak at first, but the more filled the rage meter is, the more powerful (and cool looking) his attacks become.  But to fill up that meter, leaves you standing wide open so you'll have to look for moments when you can successfully charge up.  And he also happens to have a psuedo-instant kill, called All Guns Blazing.  It's more like his overdrive attack, plus one more strike to add more pain to his punch (but because how much damage the overdrive does, plus one more super hit, chances are enemy X will be dead after all said and finished).

Of course, that more or less just took away a good portion of what I could of saved for Accent Core, so lets mosey onto the...

Characters
ORDER-SOL
Theme songs:
Get Down to Business (SLASH and so forth)
Keep the Flag Flying (vs. Ky)



Oh man, this is just awesome.  Sol.  In his Holy Order uniform!!!

Anyways, fanboyism aside, this is Sol during the war against the Gears.  Instead of the Fireseal, he weilds a big ass caveman sword that looks like it could hurt more.  And for a sprite edit, theres more effort put into him than Ken, Lilith, those twins in Street Fighter Alpha, Shadow Dio and so forth.

Anyways, in SLASH, under the right conditions during the boss fight against I-No, when she loses she'll open a time portal to escape and there is a chance you'll get dragged 2172 A.D. and face off with him.

His storymode in ACPlus is how he obtained the Fireseal.

A.B.A.
Theme songs:
Keep in Gates (SLASH and beyond)
Quicksilver (Isuka)

A.B.A. is a artifical lifeform built at Frasco, a creepy mansion/lab/chapel thing.  Before she woke up, the scientist working on her was taken away the military, and when she came to, she found herself alone, and lived that way for ten years.  During this time, she developed an affantiy for keys as they represented the possibilty of opening doors to a new world to her.

While wondering outside of her home one day, she stumbled across a giant, key shaped living weapon from the war laying on the ground.  She instantly claimed it for her own, naming it Paracelsus, and sat out on a quest to find a artifical body for it.

I just want to take a second here, and make a theory that the scientist who was working on her could of been Crow, who shows up as a P.W.A.B. scientist with a horde of Justice clones.  The two has a shared ending together, but because I lack knowledge in Japanese, I'm most likely wrong.

Okay! Next!! Accent Core!! I'll just tackle Plus, since outside of the addition of story mode and Justice and Kliff being playable, they're largely the same.

Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus
AC: 2007 - Arcades, PS2, Wii ---- ACPlus: 2008 - PS2, PSP

Characters introduced: None! (Well, Crow, but he's a NPC)

Story: Having to deal with I-No and the sudden onslaught of Robo-Ky's sent by the Post War Administration Bureau onto our heroes, now a scientist from the P.W.A.B. named Crow has appeared and has unleashed a horde of clones based on the most feared Gear of them all, Justice.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm mostly going to focus on Accent Core Plus, here.  This is what struck me to write this lengthy blog, as it comes off as a "farewell" game.  Not the end of Guilty Gear for sure, but the sign of a coming rest for the now.

Accent Core Plus features every character up to this point, dead or alive, tweaked to perfection with every background in the series (older ones need to be unlocked), many of the songs including a few classic ones such as "No Mercy", "Still of the Dark" and "Fatal Dual" and of course, it has it's massive storymode where casualties kind of run high (depending on your ending of coruse, and depending how well I can tell what's exactly going on).

ACP is quite frankly, a packed game.  Among all of that, theres a brand new gallery with a majority of Daisuke's art and a bunch of amature stuff, Master of Medals is back, tag, 3 vs. 3 from GGX Advance Edition and you can unlock interviews with all of the voice actors, playing their characters (so cool!)

The version we have released, plain old Accent Core features none of that but none the less it's the perfered version to get right now since it has nearly all of the characters and all of the tweaks so far, but I highly recommend getting Accent Core Plus for all of the bonus features, whether your understand them or not.  Plus it's GG on the go!

Anyways, since theres really no new characters introduced, I'll discuss all of the NPCs mentioned thus far.

CHARACTERS, YEEHAWWW
THAT MAN
Theme songs:
The Man (GG2)

The creator of the Gears.  He's still virtually a mystery, and only Sol and Aria/Justice knew him before the war.  He is hunted by Sol Badguy and Baiken, and to the former he was the lone figure she saw walking towards her when the Gears attacked Japan during the War.

He, along with Slayer, seems to know of a coming threat that will require all of the cast to team up and battle against but so far no word on what that is, but when shows up in Guilty Gear 2, he comments that Sol's Tyrant Install is what will save humanity from this new enemy.

RAVEN
Theme songs:
Worthless as the Sun Above Clouds (GG2)




So far Raven appears to be the only truely loyal servent to That Man, as Justice and I-No both appeared to have their own agendas.

Like That Man, nothing is known of Raven except he is a parallel existence to Axl Low, which is why he's forced into timewarps, and he is virtually unkillable as he shrugs Sols and Fausts attacks in one of the novels.  In Guilty Gear 2, Sol calls him undying and diseased, refrencing to his super healing abilties.

The coin over his left eye may mean that he maybe a undead entity.

CROW

A scientist working for the P.W.A.B., he seems to be the creator of the Robo-Ky's and the Justice clones running amock (and as I theorized, A.B.A.'s creator as well).

Because I don't truely understand moonspeak, I can't comment on his motives outside of how absolutely creepy he looks when confronting people (sorry, couldn't find his storymode picture).

POST-WAR ADMINISTRATION BUREAU
The P.W.A.B. appear to have became something of the prime antagonist of the series, sending out their various weapons to capture people who are proficiant in various fields of magic, or kill any threat to the organization.

They were made during the war against Gears originally to help rebuild the world after we won against the Gears, but it appears back then they had their own agenda as they're the ones who transformed Testament into a Gear, and later on, gave Zato-1 the bioweapon "Eddy".

It's still unknown who they truely are, and it appears they're long gone by the time of Guilty Gear 2: Overture.

PARACELSUS
That big key thing with the mean face that A.B.A. weilds around.  In Accent Core Plus, during her storymode, he'll occasionally go crazy towards other characters.  Perhaps he wants their bodies?

SHARON
Slayer's wife.  She's immortal, even surviving having her blood drained by Slayer, and it appears nothing can harm her as evident in one of Eddy's endings in the Midnight Carnival.

TSUYOSHI
Chipp's master and father figure, who was killed by an assassin named Volf.  Appears in flashbacks in one of the novels.

VOLF
The assassin who killed Chipp's master, he was sent on another mission to take out Erica, the president of America, only to fail and get killed by Venom for his incompetence.  Only appears in one of the novels.

ERICA
President of America in 2187, who plans to form an alliance with Zepp to rid themselves of the Assassins Guild problem.  A murder plot was made on her, but ultimately Chipp saves her life.

GABRIAL
The current president of Zepp, the floating nation that still uses technology, he helped throw out the military dictatorship that ruled over Zepp with Potemkins help by the end of the Missing Link, and has strong ties to the Johnny and Erica.

JELLYFISH PIRATES
All female-sky pirate team, plus one penis named Johnny.  All of their names are that of months.

ROGER
Bridgets self-aware teddy bear weapon of death

So yeah.  That takes care of the Midnight Carnival.  Next, and hopefully last, the rest of the lot like the much reviled Isuka, Judgment and Dust Strikers (to which all are just fine except for the last)!!!

!!!

 

Don't Gears have the right to live?

Hola, tirones.

Continuing on from this morning, lets jump ship to By Your Side and its ilk!

Guilty Gear X: By Your Side
2001 - Arcade/Dreamcast/PS2

Characters introduced: Venom, Johnny, Anji Mito, Jam and Dizzy

Story: A year after Justice's death, though the world is in peace, everyone is still shakened up.  And to make matters worse, a brand new Commander Gear was spotted in the countryside.  The world governments quickly put a bounty on her head, offering 5,000,000 world dollars to whoever can defeat her.

-----------------------------------------

So if The Missing Link is Street Fighter 1, then this is clearly Street Fighter 2 of Guilty Gear.  Or perhaps the Missing Link is the first Terminator.  It has a vision, but no real budget.  Then Terminator 2 comes along with a budget, but the vision is kind of scewed.

But none the less, By Your Side is what made Guilty Gear popular.  It features some of the most biggest, most detailed hi-res sprites in a fighter (okay, a good fighter not counting Art of Fighting), beautiful backgrounds, a crips (yet flat sounding) metal soundtrack, smoother controls and better, a more refined fighting system.  Now you wont be losing to cheap AI that decides to instant kill you the second you're about to win!

Five new characters where added, six if you count Baiken being unlocked from the outset (how many people honestly unlocked her in the original game?).  This is also where the Assassins Guild subplot started to get more interesting, with the introduction of Venom, more or less forming a seperate storyline running coherently with the main plot.

I replayed it a bit for the sake of this article, and in a way it hasn't aged very well.  Not due to gameplay, graphics and what not, but because GGX is just devoid (obviously) of all the stuff found in it's successors.  Though the Japanese got a few updates with things like story mode and Kliff and Justice being unlockable characters, ours is just a barebones port of the arcade game, but with the arranged soundtrack.  Which I just want to state, despite some of the superior compositions By Your Side has over the Midnight Carnival ("A Solitude That Asks Nothing in Return" and "Bloodstained Lineage" for example) , I can't stand it's flat guitars, clicks for drums and non-existent bass.  I honesty like the arcade soundtrack more, despite being synth.

It's even more weird to go back and play without the Burst gauge or the false roman cancel.

Whole heartedly, you should just skip this and find any of the XX titles.  Midnight Carnival (or Accent Core Plus if you can read Japanese) if you want story mode, or Accent Core on the PS2 or Wii for all of the characters sans Kliff and Justice (who show up in ACPlus).

Guilty Gear X: A.E.
2002? - Gameboy Advance

A GBA port of a PS2 game.  Uhh...?  Well, it's not so bad.  In fact, I kind of like it a lot despite the fact I can play #RELOAD or Accent Core Plus on the PSP instead.

Lets just get the bad out of the way.  Once again, A.I. issues.  Though this time it's a complete reversal from the Missing Link, there is no real challenge.  Even on hard.  And also the controls can be kind of wonky at times, but that's just because the GBA is built for people with petite hands.

Anyways, other than that, it's the complete PS2 game, plus a few additions such tag battles, 3-on-3 battles and a sprite editor which is pretty cool.  All of the characters and moves are still present, with their respective backgrounds (albeit very dark looking) and their theme songs (albeit 8-bit, which is kind of cool).

I recommend you hunt this sucker down if you don't have a PSP to play the XX games, and only own a DS.  It's far superior to Dust Strikers in every way possible in terms of gameplay, and I would hate for you to play that expecting a real GG experience.

Now we got those out of the way, lets tackle the new characters!

Jam Kuradoberi
Theme songs:
Babel Nose (all games)
Sticks and Stones (#RELOAD)
Lady Facination (Isuka)


Jam.  The only character I actually don't like from Guilty Gear.  She's boring, loud and obnoxious.

Her goal in life is to become a master chief.  With the large bounty placed on this new Commander Gear's head, she decides to take this chance to collect the money and start her own resturant.

She eventually winds up being presured by the P.W.A.B. for her abilties in Ki in the Midnight Carnival.

Anji Mito
Theme song:
Fuuga (all games)
Ride the Clouds (#RELOAD)
Drumhead Pulsation (Isuka)


Another rare full blooded Japanese person still alive, Anji hates living inside the Colony where the rest of his "kind" are kept away to make sure they don't die out.  He constantlly escapes the Colony to satisfy his curious mind on the outside world, and seeks out the creator of the Gears for all the answers he desires.

He weilds the "Stopping Fans", Anti-Gear weapons he stole from the Colony that Sol created 100-years ago as part of a larger weapon called Outrage (with other componets such as the Fireseal and Thunderseal).

His theme song, "Fuuga" (Elegance) is Motley Crue's "Live Wire" sans lyrics.

Venom
Theme songs:
A Solitude that asks Nothing in Return (all games)
Keeper of the Unknown (#RELOAD)
Irony of Chaste (Isuka)


A member of the Assassins Guild, and one of the few, if only, respectable homosexual characters in video games that don't embarrass me with flamboyance, he is downright devoted and in love with the leader of the Guild, Zato-1 for saving him from execution when he refused to partake in the killing of others.

He sets out to find Zato-1 after he disappeared from the previous game, only to constantly find himself fighting Millia Rage who is also looking for Zato-1.

By the time the Midnight Carnival takes place, the Guild is in ruins with Slayer, the founder, attempting to disassemble it only to have Venom fight to keep the Guild together in honor of Zato-1, and he eventually becomes the new leader.

He fights with a poolstick, and is able to summon cue balls to aid him in combat.  Despite what various idiots say on the internet, thats hair hanging over his face.

Johnny
Theme songs:
Liquor Bar & Drunkard (all games)
Desert Dust (#RELOAD)
Exceptional Routine Work (Isuka)


Runner up for being the "pinnacle of badasses", Johnny is the leader of the Jellyfish airpirates and subject of Mays unbreakable love.

In the first game, he was behind bards the entire time, but managed to esacpe jail by swooning over the police woman watching over him with his admirable womenizing skills (though he tells May that he heroicly broke out).

Now that he's out, he continues on with his Robin Hood-esque ways he learned from his father, by helping out everyone who needs a hand, regadless of what they are, even Gears, despite his father being killed by them when he was younger.  When he hears of the new Commander Gear, he sets out to find her and save her from harm.

Dizzy
Theme songs:
Awe of She (all games)
Tears are Forever (#RELOAD)
Exceptional Routine Work (Isuka)


The new Commander Gear spotted in the country side, despite Dizzy being the daughter of Justice, she has no wish to harm and enslave humans, only wanting to live in peace.  But due to the fear of what she is, the world governments placed a large bounty on her and now she is constantly hunted by opposing forces.

But thankfully, Testament (still alive, despite his arena being "Hell"), found her before everyone else and wishes to protect her from outsiders.

She is not fully Gear though, as the other half of her is human.  She sometimes loses control of her powers and her angel wings, both of which are seperate entities, one being a grim-reaper like figure and the other being a angelic woman, take over her body.

Dizzy is eventually taken aboard the Jellyfish pirates ship, and Jam uses her sudden absense to claim that she defeated her to take the bounty money on her head.

 

Anyways, that's all for now.  Tomorrow, XX and it's ilk!

Heaven or Hell

I just finished beating one of Venom's story mode paths in Guitly Gear XX Accent Core Plus for the PSP.  The final battle was against one of the many Justice-clones a new character named Crow has created.  The victory against her took a good half hour, as she was more powerfual than usual, almost to the point of her Missing Link incarnation (that or I'm just not that good as Venom), but none the less the battle was physically exahusting but I felt extrodinarly satisfied, like when I beat the original Guilty Gear ten years ago.

I've been with this series forever now.  I remember first playing the Missing Link and being unsure who exactly was a protagonist since everyone but May and Ky looked evil.  Wound up going with Sol regadless since May was a girl and Ky's sword looked flimsy, and the rest was history.

I got hooked into its unique characters, I got into music through it's soundtrack, I fell in love with Daisukes raw art, it was the series I've been looking for all my life.

Flash forward 2008, we're with Accent Core Plus.  Well, Japan is, but none the less I imported it a few months ago for the PSP.  Playing it long enough now, discovering all the unlockables from Daisuke's art, old school stages (albeit with slightly different designs), the story mode, interviews with all the voice actors and every character so far that isn't in Overture playable, this strikes me almost as a "farewell, for now!" game with further proof would be Blazblue's sheer existence.

Saddened, probably wrong, but happy it's ending on a high note for the time being, I decided to make a decent overview of the series.  Mostly to spite Hardcore Gamer 101 and their terrible article on the series.  I'd seriously punch Kurt Kalata in the face for that mess ("VENOM: A MYSTERIOUS DUDE IN A MASK"), but since I'll never meet him, this is the next best thing.

Anyways, lets mosey.

The creator: Daisuke Ishiwatari

It would be a lie if I said this guy wasn't my hero.  Sure I don't know him in person.  Sure I don't know his personality.  But seriously, everything he does is just awesome.

While his role isn't as big as it used to be, he still for the most part writes the story, helped program the first game, produces most of the art for the series and wrote all the music (minus the first volume of Overture).

And Hell, he even voices Sol Badguy who is said to be like Daisuke's alter ego.  How awesome is that?

If anything, he's one of most underrated contributors in the videogame realm.  If I shook his hand, I could die and go to Heaven and not even care.

PLOT BACKGROUND
This will be slightly important (hopefully) while I off handily name various events, people and places.  I had to watch that damn animated movie on Guilty Gear multiple times to get these dates, and the font is rather tiny, so pardon me if I'm wrong.

Sometime in 2010 A.D., we discover a new energy source and dub it "Magic" as it solves most of the worlds energy problems. A few years later in 2014, the Gear Project begins as a means to benefit mankind.  There are two leading scientists in this project, one who everyone calls "That Man", and another man named Fredrick.  In 2016, Fredrick undergoes the process of becoming a Gear but soon escapes and the Gear Project is brought to a hault. 

For the longest time, nothing happens but suddenly That Man reappears in 2070 and proclaims he's perfected the first true Gear, a bioweapon created with the Magic energy source.  Fredrick learns of this and begins designing the Outrage Anti-Gear super weapon, which is comprised of eight different componets (a few well known swords, a pair of fans, ect.).

In 2073 various countries use Gears as weapons in their military, but suddenly a Commander Gear named Justice becomes self-aware, and soon coaxes all of the other Gears to follow by herside.  Sometime in this year, Japan is wiped off the face of the planet, and the long war against the Gears begins.

In 2175, a man named Sol joins the Holy Order.  In 2174, through the combined effort of Sol and Ky, Justice is sealed away in a dimensional prison, and all Gears cease to function, but five years later, one is discovered to still be active which leads us to...

GUILTY GEAR: THE MISSING LINK
Playstation - 1998

Characters introduced: Sol Badguy, Ky Kiske, Millia Rage, Zato-1one, Potemkin, May, Chipp Zanuff, Dr. Baldhead (Faust), Axl Low, Kliff Undersn, Baiken, Testament and Justice

Story: A few years have passed since the 100-year long war against the magical bioweapons known as Gears has ended, with their leader Justice being sealed away in a dimensional prison.  Out of the blue, a Gear that's still active named Testament appears, and a tournament is held to see who can defeat him.  Eventually, it's discovered there is more to the tournament than let on.

--------------

So yeah.  Guilty Gear: The Missing Link.  The beginning of everything.

It's gritty, it's rocking, fast and it's... kind of broken.  This is to GG as the original Street Fighter is to the rest of it's series, except it's not terrible.  While the signs of whats to come is there, it's still quite dfferent from the rest of the series.  But first, lets get the bad out of the way: Instant Kills.

Instant Kills are kind of a trademark to the series.  Pretty much useless now-a-days, albeit I will admit occasionally in desperation against some over powered opponet in storymode (I-No), but you can at least see them coming and even if you do managed to get hit by one, you only loose a round thankfully.

Not back in 1998.  You'd not just loose a round, but the match as a whole.  And back then, the computer can use instant kills and will, including the epitome of what a SNK boss stands for (ironicly not being a SNK boss), Justice.

I don't really need to elabroate any further, but it was such a drag back then to think you're about to beat Justice for once, only for that wench to turn the tables and use her instant kill on you.  Doesn't help that I find them a bit hard to pull off so you can't mockingly use it on the computer, but oh well.

For the rest of the game though, I think it holds up pretty well, and in a way, I kind of like it more than the rest of the games in the series.  It has this raw, angry warriors spirit in it that many fighting games just dont have, even it's successors  It's incrediblly fast and brutal, supplemented by the blood pumping hard rock soundtrack which sounds like it was recorded in a garage, but that just adds to everything.

The graphics still look nice, characters are large and detailed with featuring decent animation,  with all the action sat to memorable backgrounds in the future post-apocalyptic wartorn world (the collapsed statue of liberty in Sol's stage needs to show up again).

The plot was rather neat for a "tournament" themed fighting game, with a decent twist before Justice.  Characters actually had full fledged endings, something most fighting games don't have (and even GG sort of left in the dust up till Guilty Gear X Plus, which we never even saw).

I'd still recommend people to buy it if it's possible.  While the gameplay is a lot more refined with it's sequels, the Missing Link is still a good game in it's own rights.

Characters introduced:
Sol Badguy (real name Fredrick)
Theme song: Keep Yourself Alive (GG)
Keep Yourself Alive 2 (GGX)
Keep Yourself Alive II (GGXX)
Keep Yourself Alive 3 (GG2)
Starchaser (#R)
Sheep Will Sleep (if You Become Fatigued) (Isuka)

Sol.  Main character.  Hero to all children.  Rival to Ky.  Pinnacle of badasses.

Sol is something of a carefree bounty hunter, who once served in the Holy Order during the 100-year war against the Gears, eventually leading them to victory with Justice being sealed away.  In reality, he was one of the scientists who worked on the Gear Project 100 years earlier, and became the prototype Gear (with his significant other, Aria, becoming Justice).

He's now on a mission to kill "That Man", another scientist on the Gear Project who most likely helped start the 100-year war against the Gears.  The headband he wears, happens to keep his sanity in check and keeps him from fully turning into a Gear.  He weilds a bizarre rectangular sword called the Fireseal (guess what that does) and attacks with... well, fire.

When the Sacred Order of Holy Knights tournament was announced, he knew something was up and sat forth to find out what.

Happens to be a big fan of Queen, with his favorite album being "Sheer Heartattack", and seems to only wear Riot brand of clothing.

Ky Kiske
Theme song:
Holy Orders (Be Just or Be Dead) (all games)
Pillars of the Underworld (#RELOAD)
Sheep Will Sleep (if You Become Fatigued) (Isuka)


The other main character, and Sol's obligatory rival, Ky was a commander during the war against the Gears, but since sealing away Justice, he's now captain of the international police force.  With this new tournament announced, he enters to investigate what is going on.

Ky has a scewed perspective on life, seeing things as only black and white.  While he means well, he kind of goes overboard with his sense of justice.  He uses the Thunderseal in battle, and is one of the few people in the world who mastered lightening magic.

Though he and Sol worked together to seal away Justice in the dimensional prison, he despises him for bailing out and running off with the Fireseal after the war.

Millia Rage
Theme song:
Writhe in Pain (all games)
Great Empress (#RELOAD)
Irony of Chaste (Isuka)


Former assassin, she helped the international police put Zato-1 in jail after turning her back on that life style.  Her weapon in combat is her hair, which she can control through forbidden spell called "Angra".

After Zato-1 escaped prison, she enters this new tournament hoping to find and stop him.

Their relationship, along with the introduction of Venom and Slayer, form a unique side-story in the Guilty Gear unvierse later on.

Zato-1one
Theme songs:
Black Soul (GG)
Feel a Fear (GGX forward)
Dementia (#RELOAD)
Push a Bush (Isuka)

Leader of the Assassins Guild, he practiced one of the forbidden black spells and gained control of his shadow  (really a new type of bioweapon by the Post-war Administaration Bureau called "Eddy", who I'll get to in GGXX) and rose through the ranks of the assassins guild..  He was betrayed by Milia and thrown in prison sometime before the events the Missing Link, only to be let out by Testament for his little tournament.

Later on near the end of the second game, he dies and Eddy takes over his body...

May
Theme songs:
Unidentified Child (GG)
Blue Water, Blue Sky (GGX forward)
Get Out of My Way (#RELOAD)
Exceptional Routine Work (Isuka)

Cute little member of the Jellyfish sky pirates, she has a unbreakable love for their captain, Johnny.  But sadly, Johnny was captured before the events of the game, so she and her crew hatches a plan to win the Sacred Knights Tournament to gain a large sum of money so they can free him.

Johnny later shows up in the sequel as the second most badass character in the series.

Axl Low
Theme songs:
March of the Wicked King (GG)
Make Oneself (GGX forward)
Dogs on the Run (#RELOAD)
Drunkard Does Make Wise Remarks (Isuka)

Axl is really a poor bloke from the 20th century, who somehow wound up in the 22nd century, and occasionally gets sent through more time rifts, but usually ends back in the future with the rest of the cast (he speaks to Sol like their BFFs, and claims to have baby pictures of him lol).

He too has command over fire (perhaps taught to him by Sol?) and weilds twin sickles in combat with his overly cheery disposition.  He has mysterious connections to another character named Raven, who first shows up in a few GG novels, and later as a NPC in The Midnight Carnival before finally becoming playable in Overture of all things.

Designed after Axl Rose, frontman of Guns N' Roses

Chipp Zanuff
Theme songs:
Suck a Sage (all games)
Child of the Wild (#RELOAD)
Drumhead Pulsation (Isuka)


Formally a drug trafficker in America, he got into some deep **** and wound up being chased by the mafia only to be saved by a ninja named Tsuyoshi.  Tsuyoshi took Chipp in and turned his life around, taught him the ways of a ninja and became the father figure Chipp needed.

Everything was going well until one day, the a hitman named Volf from the Assassins Guild killed Tsuyoshi.  Vowing to get revenge, he enters the tournament to get a lead on his masters murderer.  Eventually it's discovered that Venom (appears in GGX) issued the orders on his death.

Since Chipp is a American ninja, he tends to use common Japanese words that any non-speaker would know for humorous effect.

*Volf never actually appears in any of the games, only in one of the novels.  Although Venom happens to be the one who issued his commands...

Dr. Baldhead/Faust
Theme songs:
Suspicious Cook (GG)
The Original (GGX forward)
Take the Pain (#RELOAD)
Home Sweet Grave (Isuka)

Once the greatest doctor in the world, a misfortunate accident during an operation on a little girl drove Dr. Baldhead insane into killing well over one hundred people before getting captured.

Years later, he is released from prison by Testament for his agenda.  During the tournament, he discovers that the death of the little girl was not his fault, but that of rival doctors, and learning that, he disappears not too long afterwords.

Soon after Baldheads disapperence, a mysterious healer wearing a paper bag over his head appears.

Potemkin
Theme songs:
Slaves Glory (GG)
Burly Heart (GGX forward)
Megatona Furioso (#RELOAD)
Riches in Me (Isuka)

A soldier to Zepp, the only country in the world that still uses technology from the 20th century, Potemkin was sent to win the tournament only to find himself aiding in a cause to rebel against Zepp's military dictatorship with his mentor, Gabrial.

Eventually he becomes a top agent under Gabrials rule.

Kliff Undersn
Theme songs:
Pride and Glory (all games)
Vengeance Is Mine (#RELOAD)

Kliff has been troubled by Gears all of his life.  When he was six, his family came under attack by Gears, and he only survived by Sol's intervention.  He eventually joined the Holy Order, and became it's captain, only to find that his step-son decided to become a Gear himself (Testament).

He joined the Sacred Knights Tournament, fearing Justices revival when he learned Testament, still alive and well, was behind it all.  After the game, he dies of old age, but is still playable in later installments as a hidden character.

SUBBOSS: Testament
Theme songs:
A Fixed Idea (GG)
Bloodstained Lineage (GGX forward)
In the Arms of Death (#RELOAD)
Push a Bush (Isuka)

Orphaned by a Gear attack, he was adopted by Kliff and eventually joined the Holy Order as the Black Knight of Death.  However, he became mentally unstable sometime during the war, and the Post-War Admin Bereau took advantage of that by turning him into a Gear, although unlike many Gears, he retained a majority of his senses and his human form.

After the war, it seems he disappeared only to turn up years later, hoping to revive Justice by using the blood of all those slained in the tournament as a means to do so.

BOSS: Justice
Theme songs:
Meet Again (all games)
Day of Judgment (#RELOAD)



To quote Elton John: "The bitch is back."

Justice was the first mass produced Gear ever created.  She is a Commander Gear, giving her power over all other Gears and was Sol's lover, a woman known as Aria.  She gained self awareness 100-years before the start of the game, and initiated the human genocide, seeing Gears as a better species.

Eventually through the combined efforts of Sol and Ky (and some interventions by I-No, but I'll touch apon that in GGXX), she is sealed off in the dimensional prison, causing all Gears to cease... but Testament.

SECRET CHARACTER: Baiken
Theme songs:
Momentary Life (all games)
Ricochet (#RELOAD)
Drumhead Pulsation (Isuka)


A one-eyed one-armed ronin of sorts, she is one of the few remaining Japanese left on Earth after Japan was vaporized by the Gears during the war.  She is now on a mission to exterminate "That Man" and any other "devil".

She's nigh impossible to unlock, and I've honestly never played as her in the original game.

 

Anyways, time for sleep.  Tomorrow I'll try to tackle By Your Side and the Midnight Carnival.