Today is a sad day for me as I found this today on reading Shoryuken (SRK) this morning. They stumbled on an interview with Daisuke Ishiwatari and Toshimichi Mori about Arc System Works done by Eurogamer, and in one portion of it they talk about the Guilty Gear series. Here was the part that had seriously upset me:
Eurogamer: “What ever happened to Guilty Gear? Why did you stop making it?”
Daisuke Ishiwatari: “Guilty Gear got too hardcore for some people, so we wanted to reset the level of entrance. BlazBlue was the answer to it. Also, the generation of Guilty Gear players has become a certain age – maybe a little bit too old for playing games. So making that reset brings in a new generation of fighting game players. Then they will be with us for the next few years.“
Whether this is in relation to the matter that Arc System Works lost the Guilty Gear intellectual property to Sega who had bought up Sammy years ago or not is all speculation. As for me, this is a sad day because I was hoping (like many) to see a conclusion to the Guilty Gear series. I would like to make a eulogy to the Guilty Gear series as well as express my gratitude for it being in my life.
As a fighting game fanatic, Guilty Gear was a fresh face in a scene full of Street Fighter clones in the late 1990’s. The game would later evolve into near perfection with Guilty Gear XX #Reload, which I got the pleasure of playing on a REAL cabinet. Sure… There were some less than great titles in the franchise. The real fan savored the canonical Guilty Gear games. Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus will be the last of the series apparently and I am glad that it is almost perfect in rules and difficulty. I am glad to own the limited print of Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus with the soundtrack for my Wii and a pair of arcade sticks specifically dedicated to replicating the memories of playing on a Guilty Gear cabinet in my lifetime. The powerful and moving heavy metal tracks with unique mixes of jazz and Japanese folk instruments is something I will dearly miss greatly. The bizarre characters, some referencing 70’s and 80’s era rock, will be lamented indefinitely. Mr. Daisuke Ishiwatari, I am sad to see this day come. However, I am happy that I was given the opportunity to play the Guilty Gear series and have experienced a fresh take on the fighting genre that you introduced to this world. Guilty Gear, may you rest in peace as a series and long live Guilty Gear!
