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Without giving away too much, there are 20 chararacters from the off. They range from Venom – who rocks around with a snooker cue and fires balls at you, to the oddly named Sol Badguy, who has one of the biggest swords I’ve seen since Final Fantasy’s Cloud and his beloved buster sword. Every character plays differently and you will find yourself having a go with each one until you find your chosen one: mine was Ky. Oh, and before I forget, the women are stunning, of course. When you knock down Ramlethal.. yes RAM – LETHAL, she loses her clothes and lies there in angst. I can’t not talk about Faust as well – the guy with something like a paper bag over his head, who randomly finds a front door and opens it right on you… amazing!
I have to admit, that the last beat-em-up I played was Mortal Kombat X, which was visually stunning but this is something else. From the start, you are greeted with bright colours, sharp textures and backgrounds which change and move differently in each stage. Each character has their own unique style and these are all reflected beautifully. It’s pretty much one of the best-styled anime shows I have seen. Reminded me a bit of the old Marvel Vs Capcom games I used to play for hours on the Dreamcast. I honestly can’t pick any faults with the graphics and the only reason I haven’t given it a 10 is because I am sure someone will have a gripe with them, or find something I’ve missed but I absolutely love the way this game looks.
I remember people going on about how the original Guilty Gear games have the best music ever, so I suppose I went in expecting something amazing. Again, I have to be completely honest; I felt slightly let down. I mean, rather than the baby metal (standard anime music), I was greeted to a more English metal that, although was fun, wasn’t quite what I wanted. Being the resilient guy I am, I was stuck on the same part of the training mode for about an hour and the music really grinded my gears – excuse the pun. Away from music, it probably has the best use of the PS4 controller I have heard so far. The start of a fight you are treated to a sound clip sternly saying “Heaven” or “Hell”. But, by far, my favourite part is when you are about to have a fight accepted on the online mode and you hear “are you ready for a challenge?”. You damn right, invisible noise! I’m ready to kick some butt! I feel my score for the sound isn’t higher because of my expectations, but I’m writing the review so I choose. Also, when you complete the arcade mode, there is a song which could only have been written by Elton John… not quite what you expect from an anime-themed game but hey, I ended up singing along.
First things first: when it comes to gameplay, there are a few different ways of playing this so I chose to button bash. I feel this was justified as I found the training mode hard. So I stuck the game in beginner and fought the lives of all involved. It worked, even though I can tell that for a technical gamer you are going to be entertained by the great challenge this game offers. I opted against the challenge and went for the easy route and it let me. I love that it let did because sometimes, games wouldn’t have offered the average fighter a way to feel good about what they are doing – Guilty Gear does. The game runs at a fantastic frame rate – I can’t say this is a fact because my PS4 doesn’t tell me, nor do I know how to check, but even after smashing the same button a thousand times the game never seemed to slow down. Even when I was pummelling the opposition with a 38-hit combo, it still flowed. So why did I only give the gameplay an 8.5 you ask. Well, this game is clearly made for a joystick – I found it hard to dash and at times tricky to move accurately. I think this was a culmination of my dodgy gaming and slightly clunky controls. However, this can’t knock down much of the score because it didn’t affect me much – I mean, I still sat and played for hours.
Enjoyment: Seriously, what can I say; this is the most fun I have had on a game for ages. Yes, at times, it was frustrating fun, but it was fun. I found myself fishing for around 30 minutes and I didn’t really even know what half the stuff I was getting was. It just felt good and reminded me of first fishing in Zelda. This is a game I will keep playing because it is great fun.
Overall, I would say this: if you don’t like beat-em-ups, don’t buy this game. If you do, then buy it, unless you are a volatile character who likes to throw controllers at the screen. In that case, buy the game and get insurance of your television because this is a special kind of fun that you don’t want to miss out on. Believe me.
Thanks to the Youtube channels featured for the gaming footage.
Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR- is released on Friday June 10th on PS4 and PS3. Click on the packshot for the full-size version.
Important info:
- Publisher: pqube
- Players: 1-2
- HDTV options: up to 1080p
- Sound: DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1
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GRAPHICS SOUND GAMEPLAY ENJOYMENT |
9.5 8 8.5 9.5 |
| OVERALL | 9 |
I have been a video game player since 1993 and a music fan since I can remember. I studied Film and Journalism at university and ended up becoming a Primary School teacher. Video games changed my life and sent me on the right track and have stayed with me ever since.