Guilty Gear _still_ deserves way more! Here's a fluid and living series of fighting games, with an _actual_ story, _actual_ plot and _actual_ ongoing character development, with new characters coming forth and old characters dying off as the overarching story demands. And it has more than enough cutscenes to tell us that yes, there are actually _several_ story lines developing these ongoing changes. Why does Sin Kiske exist? Because Ky Kiske grew up and fell in love with his former enemy Dizzy, and they got married, Ky succeeded as king of his nation, and Ky and Dizzy apparently had some really heady honeymoon sex; here enters Sin. Where's Justice? She's dead; her son Sol Badguy killed her before she could scour Earth in a massive purge. Where's Testament? He's off chilling out and being humble in the Soul Forest somewhere, after trying to one-up Justice at the whole "global purge" mission only to get the living shit kicked out of him by Dizzy and her sentient "wings". Why does Chipp have Answer as his aide and major domo now? Because that last war with the Gears left the Colony without a leader, so Chipp stepped forward to fill the power vacuum and become their President; unfortunately, Chipp is a far greater fighter than he is a leader, so Answer is constantly having to run Damage Control and clean up Chipp's messes. Why does Potemkin wear armor and a military uniform now? Because he rose up and led the slave rebellion against Zepp, Zepp's government collapsed at the hands of the rebellion, a new libertarian government was formed by the former oppressed turned victors, and Potemkin - war hero that he was - humbly declined a position of leadership in that new government, instead installing himself as the foremost champion of freedom at the fore of Zepp's new military and government. Why do Venom and Robo Ky run a bakery now? Because Robo Ky still believes that Venom can amass enough wealth to rebuild Robo Ky's body, but Venom still carries a torch for Zato-1 and was maintaining a low profile as a back-alley peddler until Zato-1 could return and rebuilt their Assassins Guild, but Venom refused to be swayed or corrupted by enemy assassins, so Zato-1 established the bakery in order to reward Venom for his loyalty and unwavering determination in the face of extreme adversity by providing him with a more comfortable legitimate business with which to maintain his low profile. And Robo Ky is still along for the ride. Who are Ramlethal, Elphelt and Jack O'? They're the Valentine sisters, the latest products of the Backyard, who gave us Justice, who tried to kill and/or conquer us all before Sol Badguy killed _her_ first. And Ramlethal initially took the fore as the Big Bad of the Backyard's latest invasion of Earth, but it was actually _Elphelt_ who was secretly being groomed to become the new Justice and destroy Earth in a great cataclysm, as the bedridden psychic Bedman figured out by poking around in Elphelt's mind. Fortunately, Elphelt conscientiously defied her destiny, so Ramlethal and Elphelt are hanging out with Sin and his parents now, while Jack's still out making mischief somewhere. And I-No keeps mucking around with time travel (even though she no longer serves That Man), but fellow time-traveler Axl Low is still stemming her efforts to wreck the entire timeline. And after a heart-to-heart with the fallen messiah Raven, Asuka has challenged Sol Badguy to the duel to end all duels, threatening to kill Sol once and for all. And after Sol tries to train himself for the upcoming fight with Asuka by picking a fight with Ky, we finally learn that it was _Ky_ - not Sol - who was always holding back for fear of flat-out murdering his partner-cum-rival after we watch Sol provoke Ky into a state of genuine rage and immediately get curbstomped. So now Sol has _even more_ reason to dread the upcoming fight with Asuka: Sol's not as awesome as he thought he was. Stay tuned for the next Guilty Gear installment, folks! So the Guilty Gear series is _bristling_ with plot and story and has done so since its conception. But, meanwhile, scads of gamers still line up and clamor for the latest installment of Street Fighter, the story of which never has evolved beyond "Oh, Bison and his lackeys are still fucking with everyone on Earth, and a few fighters are still fighting Bison and his lackeys, and Akuma still has it out for Ryu, and there's also a shitload of other fighters like Blanka, Zangief, Honda, Fei Long, Rose, Ibuki, Makoto, Dudley, Elena and Necro, but they don't really matter. Oh...and I think Sagat quit on Shadowloo to hang out with Dhalsim, and Juri wants to kill Bison, or maybe she's still working for him, or maybe she's the Starscream to Bison's Megatron. Nobody knows!" Hell, it took Mortal Kombat to its _tenth_ installment (not counting all two Mythologies side-scrollers) before it started evolving its story beyond "Shao Kahn wants to conquer the Earth Realm again". Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade, Liu Kang, Jax, Kano and Sub-Zero are all _growing old_ now. Johnny and Sonya married and had a daughter together, then divorced because Sonya's a workaholic who never found enough time to be a wife _or_ a mother, so Johnny divorced her since the love was gone and Sonya wasn't really a part of his life _or_ Cassie's life anyway. Jax also had a daughter with a civilian woman, then retired, then came back out of retirement to keep his daughter Jacqui out of trouble; Jax broke Johnny's jaw after Johnny recruited Jacqui into his "Young Earthrealm Defenders" team (along with Takeda, Kung Jin and his daughter Cassie), but Jacqui told her Dad off and joined Johnny anyway. Shang Tsung's still dead, and now Shao Kahn is dead too, _Kotal_ Kahn has stepped forward to take Shao Kahn's place as Outworld's new Emperor, and Kotal Kahn actually seems to give a rat's ass about his people's welfare (and isn't the least bit interested in being an evil tyrant, a regime change which thus alienated Mileena, Rain, Barakka, Barakka's _entire race_ and the rest of Shao Kahn's torch-bearers). _And_ Kotal Kahn actually has experience at leading a civilization to prosperity, back from when he masqueraded as an Aztec god and became their god-king! And Scorpion's back from the dead _and_ back from Hell, and he has a new trainee - Takeda - with which to help him revive the Shirai Ryu clan. Raiden made a new Shaolin monk out of Kung Lao's cousin Kung Jin after catching the latter thieving an heirloom from his temple. And Sub-Zero has made peace with Scorpion (and has forgiven Scorpion for killing his brother, the _first_ Sub-Zero) while revealing the treachery and injustice of the Lin Kuei's former grand master. Kitana's still alive and in the Nether Realm now (reigning at Liu Kang's side), but her twisted clone Mileena was finally put to death by Kotal Kahn's lackeys, as was her paramour Barakka. Oh! And we have two new sentient Outworld species coming to light: One race in the insectoid D'vorah, and another race in the symbiotic duo of Ferra and Torr; D'vorah and Ferra/Torr joined Kotal Kahn's government as his enforcers and defenders, along with Reptile (who still has yet to find the rest of his race), the soul-stealer Ermac (freed from slavery by Shang Tsung's death) and a new gunslinger: Erron Black, an outlaw who was granted everlasting youth by Shang Tsung two centuries ago. And now, Shinnok has been obliterated by Cassie Cage (while she was saving her father from D'vorah and Shinnok), D'vorah betrayed Kotal Kahn in order to serve Shinnok and her own ambitions, Kotal Kahn is crying out to the Elder Gods for justice in the wake of Earthrealm's decisive and less-than-justifiable victory over Outworld (while Ferra/Torr, Reptile, Ermac and Erron Black were busy regrouping in the wake of that rout), Jax has been killed by Erron Black in an act of self-sacrifice, Erron himself may or may not be dead (depending on whether Cassie, Jacqui, Takeda and Kung Jin killed him or merely kicked the shit out of him after he murdered Jax while trying to gun them all down), Torr may or may not be dead after Ferra hit puberty, evolved into a stupid brute to take Torr's place and acquired a new rider of her own (depending on whether or not Ferra/Torr's ending is canon and/or taking place in the here-and-now, as opposed to being set in the future many years from now), Kano is off in some hellhole beating the shit out of his bastard son and training him to take his place, and Raiden has told Liu Kang and Kitana that Earth is tired of taking shit from both Outworld _and_ the Nether Realm and will now become the unholy aggressors instead of the righteous defenders. Stay tuned for Mortal Kombat XI, folks! So now Mortal Kombat is trying to have a smidgen of the story development _and_ character development that Guilty Gear has always had. Remember Street Fighter 3, when Capcom had intended to make Ken and Ryu the _elderly_ mentors of Sean and a new generation of fighters, but then Capcom chickened out and rehashed the same old same-old? It just goes to show how unwilling Capcom is to make a few sacrifices for the sake of the overarching story. Apologies for the long-winded rant. Rock on, Guilty Gear! Maybe Potemkin _will_ accept the position of Zepp's supreme leader in some future sequel! :-)
I actually read through that entire comment. I really respect your love and dedication to this franchise. Can't wait for whatever ArcSys and Lord Daisuke have planned for GG in the future!
@@BloodyBay you got almost all things right, but Sol Badguy isn’t the son of Justice - in fact he and a female which DNA served to build Justice (and valentines) were lovers back in the day when they and That Man worked together on the gear project.
Daisuke Ishiwatari a wise and talented man, a composer, guitarrist, a drawing artist, a programer, a seiyuu, a writer... Man! Is there anything this guy can't do?
Is this a unique theme that only plays when Zato and Milia face off? Because if so, that's fucking badass. I love it when video games respect their own lore and characters, and don't just treat them like playable objects.
This so plays when both EX Varients of Milla and Zato (AKA Eddie in X2 since Zato is technically a dead body with Eddie using his body as a host) are fighting each other
I've always felt this song as a conversation between both characters. One character is already possessed and the other is trying to bring him back. The second verse feels like she's begging him to return and when 1:29 kicks in, it feels like he's actually listening, that theres hope!!! But then there's 2:08 he's going back to giving reasons on why he has to keep the power and boom shit gets real again!! There's no hope... he has to stay still in the dark...
Tbh this is the greatest fighting game track ever made. Literally sounds like the penultimate battle theme, it’s both tense and melodramatic, and ever repeatable. I will never forget when it was used as the song for the first match of Xrd’s return to Evo.
This song fits the battle between Millia and Eddie pretty well. Before 0:58 its a sudden encounter between the two. Then after 0:58 Millia feels painful and hesitated to do the full strike. 1:29 its like a recall of the past days in the assassin guide. Sounds like walking insunset. Then 2:00, it seems Millia realized she must do the killing below to end Eddie's torment and she found courage again. Like Enigma songs: I love you, I will kill you, but I love you forever...
Almost 20 years since this game and still remember the promo video quote "...the devastating war between the human race and the bioweapon gears lasted for 100 years..."
Gotta love Ishiwatari and his genius. The GG soundtrack has always been one of the best in my opinion. I do really enjoy what he did with Kusano in BlazBlue though, despite going away from his signature Rock style in a few songs they all still managed to have his Rock feel. /snip Ishiwatari is a genius, you can't deny it.
GOD DAMN this song fuckin' OWNS! I can't even focus on the fighting when I hear this. The very epitiome of awesomeness. One of the best guitar riffs EVER, hands down. \m/
I really love the acoustic in the middle, it balances out the awesome intro though it completely breaks the tempo. But this would be great in a fight scene, the track can go into the acoustic part just after a major clash, and then you see two combatants slowly rise up to continue the fight despite being battered. That's how I feel the music was meant to convey.
Guess its the saddest music of guilty gear. Millia and Zato love each other so hard, its revealed in Millias story mode in fight with Eddie and in other where she cuts her hair and buries Zato
ZU BASS yes, I could kill Ino only by Zato cos he could fly away from her skulls. Changed settings. And couldnt self defence. Could kill anybody by anybody, but Ino only by Zato.
Currently at 1:39 with learning it on the guitar.... I am having too much fun learning this, especially when you get into the zone. Next on the list, Big Blast Sonic. Edit: Learned it, love it. Skipped BBS for Simple Life. Doing BBS now....
@AbsolsDarkClaw The slow part (1:29) is "Powerless", bringing the feeling of giving up, becoming weak and throw away all you love, becoming empty. Then at 2:00, it becomes powerful again, showing how one is ready to fight again, no matter how much pain lies ahead. Because through all the painful things, you know you have to keep looking forward and be ready to give up sometimes, only to emerge stronger than before, like a phoenix. This is what this song tells me.
Every time I hear this song, I think two things...1 this is the best song on GGXX...2 the tone tells me this is a song of love & betrayal. Millia must've had a thing for Zato-1
