WTF - The Guilty Gear Franchise

Guilty Gear is one of those franchises that weirds the hell out of you, but you just can't help loving it. They're an addictive series of fighters with solid gameplay and beautiful - albeit over-the-top - visuals. What separates Guilty Gear from similar franchises is the sheer number of titles in the series - Almost all of them spin-offs. That combined with it's unique quirkiness makes Guilty Gear a real WTF franchise.

 No, I really don't know what's going on here.

 First, let's take a look at the games themselves. There is technically four games in the series, not including the spin-offs.

- Guilty Gear
- Guilty Gear X
- Guilty Gear XX
- Guilty Gear 2

That's not all that bad, only four games. But the possibility that you played Guilty Gear X or XX just on it's own is very, very, very, very, slim. Now, here's a list of Spin-offs of the series.

- Guilty Gear X Plus
- Guilty Gear X Advance Edition
- Guilty Gear X Ver. 1.5
- Guilty Gear XX #Reload
- Guilty Gear XX Slash
- Guilty Gear XX ^ Core
- Guilty Gear XX ^ Core Plus
- Guilty Gear Isuka
- Guilty Gear Petit
- Guilty Gear Petit 2
- Guilty Gear Dust Strikers
- Guilty Gear RoA
- Guilty Gear Club
- Guilty Gear: Judgement

Seriously, what the shit?  There are 4 main titles, and 14 SPIN-OFFS. What's the purpose of that? Clearly Arc System Works have gone batshit insane, or they really love money. The core games make up less than a quarter of the total number of titles (Exactly 22%) That's fucked.

Seriously... The Fuck?

What also makes Guilty Gear standout is it's choice of soundtrack. It's Hard Rock/Power Metal-inspired goodness. I like it. It's different than most fighters out there. Which is a great thing. The presentation is also something that's a little different. It's commonplace now to see over-the-top Anime-inspired fighters, but Guilty Gear was one of a kind when it was first released. The game also has it's own cast of frighteningly strange characters. Like Faust, A former doctor who wears a brown bag on his head, or Bridget, a boy who was raised as a nun and seeks to prove his masculinity...

Guilty Gear. What the fuck?


- Kyle K.