Guilty Gears Glorious Character Design 

the thing about grounding your character design is "how many heads would this turn walking down the street?" and i think that's where strive hits that balance perfectly. all of the characters have fantastic (in both senses of the word) designs, but if you stripped away features, they wouldn't be so outrageous. sol without the spikey hair, headband, or all the belts and straps? he's a guy in chaps a jacket, probably a biker. gio looks like an office worker with no AC. testament fits in perfectly at a goth nightclub. i made replica hoodies for bridget and may, and wear them all the time. the only thing anyone ever asked about was the cartoonishly large zipper on my bridget hoodie. the fact these characters all look like they might not be walking down the street, but could exist somewhere in the world, is what makes them so cool. the only characters who really break this are the valentines, but they're supposed to be otherworldly and not technically from earth so it makes sense in context.

"I want more people to play this game" Took this right from my tongue. This game is criminally overlooked. It just itches me that we don't have giant community like MK has for e.g

Reasons why Guilty Gear Strive has the best character designs Reason 1: Nagoriyuki Reason 2: see reason 1

I honestly appreciate Giovanna's unbuttoned shirt, because it really fits with her story. She works for the president, but is constantly at odds with her superiors becaude she isn't formal. She doesn't wear the badge she's meant to, doesn't show up on time, lays on the roof rather than doing her job etc etc. Her having an unbuttoned shirt almost more adds to the lazy feel she's meant to have, like she can't be fucked to do it up

Guilty gear strive’s ramlethal is what got me into fighting games in general. I saw a cute girl with HUGE, and I mean a massive pair of swords, and I got excited. I wish I could play with those swords everyday

Wowie this does not feel like a video that should have less than 200 views. This is some incredibly high effort/high quality stuff.

Man, that introduction of GG starting around minute 2 was the most hype inducing piece of editing I've seen a WHILE.

When I think of great character designs in anime, I think of JoJo's which I feel Guilty Gear took a lot of inspiration from. When I think of great fantastical yet grounded designs, I think of Arcane. Both work for different reasons, JoJo's because it combines Western influences while still feeling very Japanese, and Arcane because it decided to tone down the fantasy fluff of League of Legends but not too much to the point where the characters lose their identity. Shapes and colors matter in terms of design.

Hey this is a great video but I have to point out a few things that are inaccurate: 1. The part about Lucina and Marth looking the same is a strawman arguement; yes they are related so they look alike, but in the game Lucina is pretending to be Marth so of course they want them to look nearly identical for plot convenience 2. 1:12 The two characters you pointed out are Japanese, not Caucasian 3. And Axl isn't the comic relief character in Strive, in the past he was and is still a laid back and goofy character, but in Strive he's got ahold on his powers and his whole plotline is to save people and to try to reach out to I-No as a friend. If anything, the villain Happy Chaos is the comic relief since he's always fucking around and constantly screwing with Nago and Sol

This video is amazingly edited and presented apart from a few volume mixing issues you have created a piece of art. I was astonished to find that the video hadn't even passed 1k views. Just know your audience is out there and you're top notch quality vids deserve to be seen!

I think a big part of Guilty Gear's un-sameness is the focus towards characters who are mostly adults. Of course there is a lot more to it but just the age differences towards most mainstream anime-inspired stuff already changes how characters act and the dynamics between them significantly, at least to me. Imo it's such a shame that a lot of anime is very formulaic because as a medium it has a lot of potential that we might have even not began to tap because safe and well-estabilished stuff sells. My favorite anime tends to be those who don't use the same old dynamics or use them in a very different context. Like Lupin III, we have a Lancer (arguably two) and the fan service girl, but everything else that happens around these characters is different compared to most mainstream anime, so it gives a new flavor to even the more common tropes

I basically disagree with everything you said about anime designs being too fantastical, i love how anime is the only medium to take a "subtlety is for cowards" approach to it's visuals and tone and make it work. It's so refreshing in a world of media that's so afraid of being silly and straying too far from a grounded hyperrealistic ethos. Regardless, I somehow think guilty gear strive has the perfect balance and i loved this video.

Great video really, but the audio levels with sound effects & music are really LOUD.

The algorithm really has not been kind to you. You 100% deserve more recognition, this is some high effort/quality content! Hope to see you continue!

7:14 The joke here is that Dan is super loved by fans because of his design. (gameplay and look/personality) And I love it'

You know, I've had a similar experience with growing tired of the anime formula for character designs but the series that managed to be a breath of fresh air for me was, believe it or not, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Yeah, the guys are huge and could lift a car with one hand at 17, but they all dress really well, have faces that are more grounded and even pull clear inspiration from high fashion, which isn't common in anime/manga. They have a sense of elegance in their exaggeration

idk, i actually like the super over the top designs in anime and anime inspired media, that's a big part of the fun. though, i suppose that you did acknowledge that it's not 'bad' but rather 'not for you'.

I dunno, man. Nago, for example, has a lot of lil details, yea he's not overdisigned, but those details still make him a lot more complicated. Someone like Tanjiro from demon slayer has less details, but the things that he has stand out a lot, like the scar on his forehead or his green/black suit. By that logic, Nago is more overdisigned than Tanjiro. I think you just really like GG and i unerstand it, i like GG too, but i don't think popular anime charaters are overdesigned.

You could make a character study on Goldlewis's design alone.

Bro, this video deserves a lot more views, IT’S AMAZING

This popped up out of nowhere for me so the algorithm may be blessing you

Fantastic work, dude! Looking forward to your next video!

"I'm not going to spoil the story" Bro you just put there the absolute best moment of Strive's story mode there. Anyway, good video, commenting for the RU-vid gods

This made me smile. Guilty Gear is something that I’ve only recently gotten into, but DAMN did it hook me.

very well put together video, i love your style

Great video, glad to see it and I hope it gets more attention

Love your videos. Keep up the hard work!!!

Good God how does this video have less than 1k views this was so good!

This only has 6.5k views? The fuck? If i didn't know any better, I'd think I was watching a high profile youtuber! This is some seriously good shit, dawg. Keep it up, it's only a matter of time.

2:10 what a glorious transition! I enjoyed every second of this video! VERY high-quality content... And the number of subscribers? That is bullshit blazing!

Funny that this was next in my watch later right after the designs video!

the algorithm is cruel, making channels with such high quality content slip under the radar this much. my man, you made so many videos, but some got fucking 4 views, FOUR but that also means something, you made this video fully expecting this, you knew what you were going into, there was absolutely no financial incentive for this, the sole reason for this video's existence is that you felt this passionate for the topic, there was no reason to stretch it out, there was no reason to hit the 10 minute mark for ads, this genuinely needed 17 minutes to express what you truly felt about this funky game, and honestly i'm very happy to see it, i'm definitely subbing

how do u have only 298 subs? thats some real high quality video here

How the FUCK does this not have more attention dude

i love gg designs but thank god i'm not the guy who had to model all those details for xrd and strive (yeah it's all meshed on details aside from the text decals)

It appears that the blessing of the algorithm has descended upon you. Godspeed, brother.

Bro i just realized the amount of views this video have. And lemme say, i think u deserve more.

I literally brought the game JUST to play as Nagoriyuki. The most badass character design in anime ever made. I didnt even care that hes a hard character to play, thats the power of good visual designs.

Why does this have less then 1000 views?! This is so god

How do you not have thousands of subs? Us Meta’s gotta stick together

Amazing video, really wished you had more subs.

Wtf why do you have only these few subs? You deserve more!

great video! just a little headsup to the sound mixing. sometimes througout the video i had to lower the volume only tho crank it up again after a few moments because i couldnt hear what your talking ablut properly.

guilty gear was responsible for me liking games like street fighter, and potemkin was the first character I ever saw in strobe gameplay, as I saw BIG MUSCLE MAN grab his opponent and SCREAM AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS, and I said that “holy shit I wanna be like that”.

dang man this is good

Chainsaw man has a funny man made of chainsaw and I think that character design is funny and good

Youve also gained a new subscriber 😁

"they're all the same" meanwhile jojo:

One punch man honestly has pretty good character design. Never really falls into any pits

This video is helluva underrated

2:10 the second he said the daredevil and that music started playing I started doing a head bang knowing it was gg the series

To answer the first question "But bro... I don't think it's a joke anymore"

Yeah, that was about my reaction to DNF Duel as well.

WHY DOES THIS NOT HAVE MORE THAN 1K LIKES, THAT IS A TRAVESTY

14:34 can confirm that goldlewis is super attractive (Seriously though tell me that a giant Texan that swings his alien around in a coffin isn’t the coolest thing you’ve ever seen)

wish they kept axls jorts they were so funny

banger intro btw

i was drawn to this game by GGxrd faust. Im now a dedicated faust main with 400+ hrs combined across XX Xrd and Strive

*produced before Bedman was released for Strive.

Step 1: make them hot Step 2: make the character

1:20 You’ve got balls to sneak something like this into a video

Despite loving GGST's designs as well, I feel this video is a bit unjust to some of the pieces it's criticizing, specially regarding what's being discussed VS what's being shown. 4:42 - "anime character designs are formulaic" while showing footage of MHA, which is aguarbly one of the most distinct and creative animes of the last few years in terms of character designs (the actual story is kinda bad now, but that's not the point here). MHA is one of the few shonen shows I've ever seen that let you recognize pretty much any major character from eye-shapes alone. Could've shown pretty much any majorly popular isekai anime from the last 10 years to illustrate that point. You also show footage of Kobayashi and Demon Slayer, the former which has striking and eyecatching character designs (for a romcom anime, at least) for its main cast, and the latter being one of the only anime I've seen that uses cloth patterns as character defining aspects. Doesn't really illustrate your point IMO. 0:53 - as another user pointed out. Picking specifically Lucina and Marth seems a bit disingenuous when you could've got pretty much any other FE character and compare them (I mean, just look at how similar Marth and M.Byleth look). 5:53 - Sol isn't the "young, hopeful good guy MC", so it really doesn't fit the comparison. Your typical shonen triad metaphor doesn't really work in GG. Specially mentioning Jack-O, since she was never a "companion" character up until Strive, and her design is pretty much untouched from XRD (where she was kinda an antagonist). Dizzy seems much more of a "companion" IMO. You could also have picked Sin as the "loud best friend".

0:50 she's his great granddaughter bruh

1:15 that's very vague way of describing a character because Nathan Drake and Joel from tlou falls under this description more then 2 asian dudes

It's funny you say leon massey is gonna make a vudeo about gg's character design because he did make a video on strive but it's an hour of him shitting on strive instead

Axl the comic relief? Clearly may is over there

You’re issue is with “Shonen anime” saying anime is waaaay too general. That being said, I really enjoyed the video and the editing.

You should watch Space Dandy, my man.

What's the song called at 2:11 ?

actually, the stuff that hardcore anime fans usually like is when characters look different to each other. also, while i do agree with your critique of anime designs, the example that you chose is absolutely horrible: those 2 characters are very distinct in their faces from each other

Really great video, but I think you should work on your volume mixing, your voice is too low while everything else is really loud.

what is the music used at 3:34

"What is guilty gear? BULLSHIT" BLAZIING

I really like the video but man, you have to regulate the volume pls

Here before 100 subs

cool? i'm not saying that your opinion is wrong but seem... a bit unfair, Guilty gear designs are fantastic but that's almost every fighting game, the design philosophy behind these and shounen animes are pretty similar, you can even add league to the list if want to but every character has to wear their personality on their sleeves and it shows but how different is Nagoriyuki's "keep out" sign are from Iida's white knight attire in terms of subtlety?

10:30 i think the fma designs are perfect for the most part

2 seconds in, liking the video for Nisekoi

15:12 What anime is thiss with the blonde girl

Calling sol brash is a misunderstatement sure the guy doesn't looks like it but he's had PhD in atleast three field

if i'm not wrong lucina and marth are brothers

All hail robo ky

For a video advertised as an analysis of the character designs, the video is super surface level and opinionated. Not only is half the video not even talking about the visuals, but the “analysis” basically boils down to you saying that you prefer grounded designs over fantastical ones. This is hammered in by you basically calling Xrd’s fantastical art and animation “a problem”. Truth is, both Xrd and Strive have phenomenal animation and designs for different reasons. One is not objectively better than the other. When you’re making an analysis video like this, your points need to be objective and not subjective. You can still share your opinions on certain things, but opinions shouldn’t be the main focus. The most in-depth you actually go with the analysis is pointing out the rock and metal inspirations of the characters. Talk about the color palette, shape language, how certain clothing and accessories relate to a character’s personality or backstory, anything meaningful at all. And when you actually get to talking about individual characters after having the viewers wait until nearly the end of the video, all you basically say is “new design good, old design bad”. Even if you’re going with the opinionated route, at least explain what you find appealing more than just “Axl doesn’t look like a twink anymore” or “May looks older”. Many of said observations don’t specifically apply to the Strive designs and in some cases they contradict what you’re saying. Like, Axl had jeans in most of the games, the only time he wore shorts was in the original game and Xrd. And the argument for I-no going from a sex appeal character to a badass woman like Bayonetta doesn’t work because part of Bayo’s design is getting naked to attack. I-no and Bayonetta have always been sexy badasses, it’s never been one or the other. Ironically, you point out Giovanna does the sexy badass look not too long after you discuss I-no. She goes for the same style as I-no, yet I-no is the one who gets the short end of the stick because as you firmly established “new good, old bad”. The absolute worst part of the video is right here: 10:40 The way you nonchalantly admit you aren’t a character designer, gives off the feeling that you’re saying: “I have no idea what I’m talking about, and I don’t care.” This is especially emphasized by using a Maximillian clip to express your point rather than putting it in your own words and telling people to watch it instead because it’s more insightful than your own video. Now you don’t have to be a character designer to analyze character designs. But you can research what makes certain designs appealing and make a meaningful video about it. This doesn’t just apply to art, many RU-vidrs who analyze game design have never made a game in their life, yet they still manage to bring out something insightful you may not have thought about before. If your intention was to make an opinionated piece, then the title should have been something like “Why I love Guilty Gear Strive’s designs”. However, if it was meant to be a non biased analysis, it failed on all fronts. If you ever plan on making a design analysis video in the future, here’s what I recommend watching: “ANIMATION EXCELLENCE: Rock Howard” by Sugarpunch: While the video is mainly focused on animation, there’s a sizable chunk of the video discussing Rock’s design, what makes it appealing, how parts of his design tell you what he’s like as a person, and how his design was adapted into the modern day. “The Simpsons’ Missing Bus Stop” by Kid Leaves Stoop: A video discussing the Simpsons art style and how a group of five characters from the Season 1 opening break said art style’s rules. The video goes deep into art style consistency and making characters unique from one another.

I have decided to share my personal favorite designs in guilty gear strive. I will not explain my reasons what so ever. 1. Faust 2. Happy Chaos 3. Bedman That's all that I'll give you. I won't explain why these are my favorites. I hope you enjoyed it, and if you disagree then that's fine, just don't talk to me about it.

There are rules to character design like shapes for example, square, circle and triangle that have a symbolic meaning behind it. Strong silhouettes are important to make your design distinctive and that's what Boku No Hero does best because there are a lot of characters. So using that anime as an example of bad design is wrong XD. Dragon Ball is a masterclass in character design, specially in the beginning when Goku was a kid. Anime and Manga has very different styles but very often what is popular is followed by a lot of people in the industry. The same happens with western animation or videogames.

THAT IS BULLSHIT BLAZING STILL MY HEART IS BLAZING

why does this video have less than 2k views lmao

The belts

I think you’d like berserk homie 👀

I mean idk what it is I just kinda like them

IIRC luncina was impersonating Marth for a time so not the best example I'm looking some more would be done intentionally regardless of similarity problems

eh I prefer Ram's xrd design over strive. Hell, I prefer every previous designs for all characters over strive's (not including the newcomers). well, except Axl

I agree that this is definitely a high effort video and I can see what you're going for but overall, I feel like all that was said is how much you love guilty gear. While I would say that's totally worth making a video about, I'm not sure if its worth 17 minutes lol. I heavily debated writing this comment, really I just hope you can find it constructive. The only way to get better is to keep doing and in that sense I think you're doing great, so never stop creating!! Also at 6:05, its Aria not Ariel. Get the waifus right GODT damnit

Aye work on the sound in your video. I'm tryna watch but the fact the sound goes normal to sharp increase and then back down over and over and over again is ridiculous. Rip all headphone users. Coo video tho. I can tell you just started making them. keep it up

I don’t even know what this was. I watched the whole thing and I feel I’ve gained nothing. 90 percent ramble (not necessarily bad)

"Ramlethal's design didn't look that great" and it's literally one of the best designs in Xrd. its not Guilty Gear's fault you're afraid of tiddies.

Guilty gear, Full metal alchemist, and Jojo's bizarre adventure. Thats all i give a shit about involved in anime.

14:06 brother u didn't even get to 100 subs and u already canceled yourself. Nice speedrun!

two main criticisms, the audio and the pauses. sort those out then you're good.

I would 100% be willing to sit through one of your videos, as I was interested in the points you were making but the audio levels of the music legitimately made me stop. Good stuff otherwise homie