After beating the arcade, you can enter the story mode. Arc Systems decided they wanted to take that leap as well, even though they have a traditional arcade mode. Mortal Kombat (2011) showed us that, going beyond a simple arcade mode with an ending for each character. Granted, fighting games can have an interesting story. If there is an Achilles heel in Xrd, it’s that they spent any time at all trying to make a compelling story. A amalgamation of individually interesting characters, however, does not an interesting story make. Each character is uniquely interesting, both in how they’re drawn and how they develop.
None of this is new to Guilty Gear, and returning players will find themselves right at home with a steep difficulty curve and a familiar roster of characters. Keep exploring, and the depth of Xrd seems unlimited. This leaves a lot of room for exploration, unlike fighting games with a set-in stone list of combos. Despite a detailed tutorial, much of the depth is left to be discovered, leaving you to figure out effective combos, special move setups and what the heck these characters are shouting when they attack. Xrd is never short on reminders that this isn’t Hooked On Phighters it’s not going to hold your hand and teach you the ins and outs of a fighting game. With Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, Arc System Works heard our cries, and the wait was well worth it. Even though the same exact developers were on both games, players still cried out for a new installment. Nothing could quite capture the charm of a poorly translated anime fighting game quite like Guilty Gear. It’s been too long without a Guilty Gear game way too long.