Gamersledge First Look: Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign-

“Talk to the hand!”

This game had a modest showing at the Gamestop EXPO 2014, it was a smallish booth that didn’t fit the massive potential of this Arc System Works title. For those of us here in the states, this game is being produced by AKSYS Games.
I thought this was going to be your average Japan-fan 2-D fighter game. I was pretty far off. This is a fighting game, sure, but this fighting game is based on the Unreal 3 Engine, in three dimensions and the artwork is all reworked to look like it was drawn in 2D. As you play, you pick one of a 14 of unique characters, and move to attack your opponent, there are a series of special attacks, and when activated, they rotate the camera, making it look like included anime, but it isn’t! The game actually has a dynamic programmed camera system that rotates around the character in a beautiful flash of pomp and circumstance, often striking the opponent several times, adding to or beginning a combo attack that can spell D-O-O-M to the other player.

The Unreal engine at its finest!

One of the special Guilty Gear systems that some might not be familiar with is the ‘Tension’ gauge, this is a lot like Street Fighter Alpha’s super Combo techniques to perform special attacks. The tension gauge is built on a more aggressive play style, so it rewards you for attacking and moving toward your enemy, and actually looses ‘tension’ when you move away from the opponent.
For the demo we played, I played a character named ‘Bedman’, this is a person who is comatose, laying in and connected to a large robotic bed that moves around and attacks with flail/Morningstar-like limbs. It was amazing.

Bedman FTW!

If you are a fan of the Guilty Gear series, this should be an auto-include in your game library. If you are a fan of Fighting Games, this should be a serious contender.
Make sure to keep this on your radar, with a release set for the holiday season.

Here is our Gamersledge Exclusive Interview: