Review #261: Guilty Gear Xrd Sign

 Guilty Gear is back!

 Guilty Gear is back, but it's not exactly the same game that you might remember, whether that's good or bad depends on who you ask, but judging from the game's audience, I think it's a good thing... for them.

 As per usual with Fighting Games, modes come first: Story Mode, Arcade Mode ,VS(Online and Offline) and M. O. M. mode. Arcade and VS are self explanatory, while M. O. M. is a returning mode from previous games, a survival of sorts. What's interesting is the new Story Mode, it's about 200 minutes long and doesn't feature any fights at all, it's just... cutscenes. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, just look at Blazblue's story.... Anyways, the story is very... anime to say the least, so your mileage may vary on that, at least it's not as disgustingly cliched as Blazblue's. Speaking of Blazblue... the new characters are all sorts of terrible. Let's go one by one:
Ramlethal: A fanservice character that looks as if she came straight out of Blazblue.
Bedman: He looks dumb, but in-game he is rather fun to look at, that said, his personality is terrible because he share is with...
Elpelth: Fist of all, she is on-disc DLC while being on the game's cover, which already makes her annoying. She exists only because of her ample buxom and wide cleavage. And she is a waifu, not only due to her personality, but because she is looking for a husband. But worst of all? She shares her character trait with Bedman: She just won't shut up. And she looks as if she came straight out of Blazblue.
Leo: Another on-disc character that appears on the cover, which makes me hate him already.... but, he does fit the Guilty Gear world pretty well... which is probably why he is DLC.
Yeah, you could say that I didn't like the new characters. But hey, I liked most of the returning characters redesigns. Ky Kiske, my main, I disliked a lot, disappointingly, and I just can't take Axl seriously with those shorts(Funnily enough, they look better than they did in Guilty Gear 1!).

 But that's all superficial what really matters is gameplay, and Guilty Gear Xrd delivers in a big way. If you've ever played Guilty Gear, you'll be right at home here, as it plays just like the other games. Roman Cancels have been simplified, not longer requiring ungodly timing and reflexes. I doubt a single soul will feel the game is any more 'casual' because of this, as Guilty Gear was notorious for its complexity. And hey, even if you don't intend to play the game competitively, the game is fast and loose, so that even if you mash buttons you can easily link up normals into specials or supers.

 I normally don't really care about graphics, but this game's deserve a special mention: Guilty Gear Xrd looks amazing. At times it feels as if it was 2-D, but it's actually 3-D. And I say this as an extremely good thing, what Arksys has managed with this game is nothing short of awesome. If you play on the PS3, you might have to turn down the background animations on the Options menu in order to keep a steady 60 FPS, but it doesn't take away from the amazing character models and animation. Some might be a bit disappointed by the small roster(16 characters), but seeing how it's a completely new engine, and how great each character looks, it's very understandable. Plus, you know ArkSys, by the third-fourth iteration of the game, I bet most of the old cast will be back.

 As great as I found the game to be, I just didn't have as much fun with it as I thought I would. Maybe I'm just burned out from ArkSys fighters, since they are all more or less the same. That said, don't let me deter you from getting GGXrd, I'd hesitate to call it the best game in the franchise, but it's a great foundation for future iterations.
 7.5 out of 10