Arc System Works revealed a new trailer for next installment of the Guilty Gear franchise (tentatively referred to as simply “Guilty Gear 2020”) at Tokyo Game Show. The trailer was revealed during a stage show featuring series creator Daisuke Ishiwatari and game director Akira Hatano.
During the 30 minute presentation, the two primarily discussed the history of the Guilty Gear series and the general philosophy behind what they plan to create. They also did an analysis of the previous trailer that was first revealed at the EVO tournament in July of this year. The two briefly discussed some of the new character design choices and new gameplay mechanics. Notable moments include mentioned protagonist Sol Badguy’s outfit containing even more belts, rival Ky Kiske showing 12 different facial expressions within one second of his super move animation and a brief mention on the mechanical samurai newcomer’s detailed helmet transformation leaving a strong first impression. Finally a new trailer was shown before the two signed off.
Previously, Ishiwatari described on Twitter that this new installment would be a “restructuring” of the series but did not go into detail about what that means. While it seems what Ishiwatari meant in particular will be remain unclear for now, fans will notice in the trailer that amidst the familiar moves Sol and Ky dish out are some curious new changes. Classic moves received new animations and properties such as Sol’s Bandit Revolver kicking the opponent further away and Ky’s aerial version of his Vapor Thrust having a completely new animation. The two also show off entirely new moves — a couple examples being Ky having some kind of launching flip kick and Sol landing a series of three punches some people theorize to be an autocombo mechanic similar to what is in games like Dragonball FighterZ and Blazblue Cross Tag Battle. The biggest takeaway is the addition of stage transitions. During the stage show, Hatano mentioned that under certain conditions players will be able to break the sides of the stage and move onto a new battleground — first shown off in the initial trailer and featured again in this current one.
After showcasing the series’ two frontrunning characters and some of their new changes, it was revealed that fan-favorite pirate girl May is confirmed to be in the game. May returns wielding her trademark anchor but ditches her old overalls from the previous game for a big sweatshirt. She also appears to have aged a little bit and looks notably more mature from prior iterations.
The trailer finishes off with information that the next new trailer will be shown at the CEOtaku tournament at the Wyndham Orlando Resort, Florida on September 27th to the 29th. According to CEOtaku’s official twitter, attendees there can also try out demos for the latest Arc System Works games including the newest upcoming version of Blazblue Cross Tag Battle as well as the latest playable builds of Granblue Fantasy Versus and Under Night In-birth Exe: late[clr]. Also mentioned during the stage show, players will have their first chance at playing the game at ArcREVO America 2019 in Los Angeles from November 16th to the 17th.
Release info is still sparse as the game is currently in development, but so far the new Guilty Gear will be available on PlayStation 4 some time in 2020.
