Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 Review (PS4)

The Guilty Gear series is long-lived series of (mostly) 2-D fighting games.  It may not be as old as Street Fighter or King Of Fighters, but it has been around for 19 years, so it's not the new kid on the block.  It is, however, a bizarre series with an interesting story.  Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 is no exception.

2-D fighting games have always (and likely always will) be compared to Street Fighter.  This is understandable because Street Fighter is the standard setter.  However, I am here to tell you that this is NOT a Street Fighter clone.  If you're good at Street Fighter and think you're going to come in doling out beatings, you will take many ass-whuppins.  Some of the moves may be performed the same way and some of the same tactics may work temporarily, but get ready to change tactics on the fly.

The first thing you'll notice is the selection of characters.  They are a diverse lot.  You have characters who look normal, characters who look abnormal, badasses, hot chicks, powerhouses, fast-but-weak types, overpowered teenagers and kids, and straight-up weirdos, among others.  The best part is they all play differently.  There aren't any clones here.

Hot chicks...

...badasses...

...and weirdos.  Yes, that is man with a giant scalpel fighting a boy lying in bed.

There are some bizarre moves in here, too.  For example, there is a nine-foot tall doctor who has a move where he attacks you by disappearing and opening a door that materializes out of nowhere.  Another character is a one-armed female samurai who can stomp on the ground, causing a tatami mat to kick up and hit opponents who are unprepared.  Yet another character can summon cute little servants who can attack and level up (yep, like an RPG).  It's craziness at it's peak.

Tatami Mat!!!

This is what happens when you ask Jam for a discount.

After selecting your character and beginning combat, the next thing you'll notice is the speed of the combat.  The rounds can feel long, but the speed of the fighting is fast.  Seriously, you have to have Jedi reflexes to play this game.  If you're a slow gamer, stay away.

This game's graphics are nice, but the presentation is awesome.  Each character gets an intro scene, a winning scene, and a death move cut scene, all of which are anime quality.  The attention to detail is where the game shines.  For example, check out the Edinburgh Magicpolis stage.  There's a lot going on in the background while the characters are fighting, all with no slowdown.  It's quite impressive.

Also, the game doesn't cut corners on the cutscenes.  The characters' colors match up during the cutscenes match up with the characters' colors in-game.  These cutscenes are fully animated for each and every color combination for every character.  Whether they hand-drawn or digital, it must have been painful for the creators to do that for each and every character in each and every cutscene.  Just check out the differences in these shots of the same move.

The music is good, especially if you like rock.  There's some good stuff here.  Unfortunately, there's no sound test, which is baffling.  Seriously, I could listen to I-No's theme all day.

There are other things here.  There's a story mode, which is basically an anime to be watched.  This shouldn't be confused with Chapter Mode, where you pick a character and actually play though their story.  If you're confused about some things or a new player, there is a glossary and a timeline explaining the events and characters important to the game.  It's quite a read, some break out the reading glasses.  You can use money (called World Dollars) earned in combat to buy things from Gallery Mode or fish for item.

Fishing for things potentially gives you items you can buy from the gallery for cheap then it would normally cost.  Fishing is also the only way to get digital figures, as well as poses and colors for them, and backgrounds to put them in.  It's something to do when all the fighting is over.

A digital statue of Millia.

Fishing allows you to create scenes like this and more.

At the end of this day, this is no mere clone of Street Fighter or King Of Fighters.  Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 has it's own identity and is happy with it.  It's filled to the brim with stuff, including game modes I didn't touch on here.  Throw out every thing you know about Street Fighter before diving into this one.  It's a must for 2-D fighting game fans.  Play it.