Going Back to Guilty Gear

[Seku]

Fuck that. I WANT people to drop more combos. If I'm playing against someone better than me, I HOPE he drops a combo, because if I'm on my A game, I'll be able to punish that shit and possibly win. Still though..Third Strike is proof that a game can have somewhat lenient inputs and still be hardcore.

You know what GG needs? A really super in-depth story mode. If it had that, it could attract all the weeaboos and still maintain its hardcore roots. They wouldn't give a damn about slashbacks or game mechanics as long as they could play through story mode and get something from it. I like GG's story but BB's shits all over it. I'm not even that interested in getting that good at BB as I am at GG, but the story mode keeps bringing me back because it's good. Give GG a story that's worth coming back for and you'd see all these JRPG-raised twits plunk down their money in droves.

I don't know, BB's story is kind of shallow to me ( every character can be seen in the first part (BBCT) and you can tell that the story is very predictable )

[DoctaMario]

I don't know, BB's story is kind of shallow to me ( every character can be seen in the first part (BBCT) and you can tell that the story is very predictable )

Well I don't really watch/read a lot of anime so it was new to me. But it's better than GG's story and it actually made me care more about the characters. The problem with both games is that it's hard to get the point unless you read external materials. If they hired a screenwriter to help improve the storytelling and made a robust story mode that non-hardcores could appreciate and be happy with, then they could make the real game as hardcore as they wanted. There'd be something for everyone and everyone would win without having to give anything up.

[danceljoy]

Well I don't really watch/read a lot of anime so it was new to me. But it's better than GG's story and it actually made me care more about the characters.

New to anime huh? That explains it. I have posted this rant on the other thread so I'll just going to repeat it here:

The reason I follow GG is because of the story, I'm not talented in it and nobody's playing it here. As for the story, it's a bit sensitive to compare the two, but I think the more proper way is to say that "GG could have have BB's story presentation"

For one to truly appreciate GG, especially the characters, one has to look at some side materials that a lot of people don't care about. Sadly, many side materials remain untranslated until now. If one doesn't listen to the Drama CD's, he'll miss around a a very huge part of Dizzy, Testament, Ky and Sol's character. The recently translated Night of Knives gives you a really broken background of Millia.

What Blazblue did better to GG in terms of story and character is to connect to its target audience. BB did it in two ways: the visual novel-ish story mode with lots of infos and the characters catering to appealing anime fetishes: zetta ryouki, pettankos, maho shoujo, elegant gothic lolita, shota etc. etc.

Here's a very opinionated rant of mine: I'm sick of people saying that BB is "darker, edgier and deeper" while GG is a relatively "happy" series. Being an anime critic, I say that BB is a shonen genre while GG could pass as a seinen series. Yes, I agree that BB has more woobieness and BB has more "disturbed" people like Jin, Hazama, Relius, Carl, Litchi etc. But the you don't have to be an adult to appreciate or understand those things.

However in GG, there's the whole religion and science theme. Man plays God, creates Gears, Gears kill people, a Catholic group saves humanity from extinction (but later you learn that this is because a "witch" saved a knight from dying.) Not to mention that a lot of characters want atonement for their sins like Millia, Testament, Faust and Sol.

Don't get me wrong, I like BB and I really think that GG should adapt some of BB's story-telling because GG does get confusing to people who don't read additional materials. But I just hate it when people (not you Formerly) think that GG's story is inferior because it doesn't have BB's story-mode, forgetting that GG is a lot older. Both stories have good and bad points and they are different. But I prefer GG mostly because it has universal themes, while I see BB just as a creative amalgamation of anime themes we see often.

/rant

I have been an anime critic for four years now, and I have written some reviews. I can say BB has a very good story mode but it's unfair to compare GG's story to it on that basis. I personally find nothing deep or thought provoking in BB. Yes I agree it has tearjerker moments, dark stuff.. it's pretty much a grey and black morality world. But in making fiction, it's actually easier to portray evil, twisted or suffering people than to portray realistic people. It's easier to have a story where there's a definite villain and definite victim than to write a story where you'll wonder if the villain deserves to be a villain at all. (With the exception of I-No, there's no real "evil" villain in GG.)

This is why I like GG better. Despite GG having very bizarre characters, intrinsically many of them are very much like real people in the world, or can be related to real-world issues. GG has a lot of characters you can erase since they aren't relevant to the plot, but in turn, it has characters that will make you wonder if this is really a fighting game. Who are these characters? For me, they are Ky, Millia, Venom, Zato and Testament. If future installments can improve them, Dizzy, and Sol have tons of potential for more character development. I wish I could write an in-depth analysis of them, but sadly this isn't the place to post. The Drama CD's is a must.

I also like Blazblue, but I found its characters very anime-ish, and I found no character that I will really love. To be fair to BB people, I'll say that BB has more story in one game than one GG game has. BB has a more organized story and has more planning involved.

But remember: BB is new compared to GG and was made by the same company. That explains the improvement. Ever wonder how GG's story would turn out if it has a BB story mode from the start?

The problem with both games is that it's hard to get the point unless you read external materials.

I agree, but it's harder to understand GG than BB.

[Wirya]

You said some real stuff there, danceljoy.

[Pestilence]

So many moves seem to be in the game simply for the purpose of using them in combos rather than for actually playing the game. Most of the moves themselves have little utility outside of combos or autopilot blockstrings because of either poor hitboxes or slow speed and this lack of move definition makes the game more a matter of memorization and blindly throwing out moves based on your odds per the scenario than one of reacting to what your opponent actually does.

Another thing I hate about BB. So many command normals. ...so I play Mu. Mu has 5C, 6C, 3C, 2C, JC, and J2C. That is 6 freaking normals mapped to 1 button! + there is specials.

[DoctaMario]

New to anime huh? That explains it. I have posted this rant on the other thread so I'll just going to repeat it here:

I have been an anime critic for four years now, and I have written some reviews. I can say BB has a very good story mode but it's unfair to compare GG's story to it on that basis. I personally find nothing deep or thought provoking in BB. Yes I agree it has tearjerker moments, dark stuff.. it's pretty much a grey and black morality world. But in making fiction, it's actually easier to portray evil, twisted or suffering people than to portray realistic people. It's easier to have a story where there's a definite villain and definite victim than to write a story where you'll wonder if the villain deserves to be a villain at all. (With the exception of I-No, there's no real "evil" villain in GG.)

This is why I like GG better. Despite GG having very bizarre characters, intrinsically many of them are very much like real people in the world, or can be related to real-world issues. GG has a lot of characters you can erase since they aren't relevant to the plot, but in turn, it has characters that will make you wonder if this is really a fighting game. Who are these characters? For me, they are Ky, Millia, Venom, Zato and Testament. If future installments can improve them, Dizzy, and Sol have tons of potential for more character development. I wish I could write an in-depth analysis of them, but sadly this isn't the place to post. The Drama CD's is a must.

I also like Blazblue, but I found its characters very anime-ish, and I found no character that I will really love. To be fair to BB people, I'll say that BB has more story in one game than one GG game has. BB has a more organized story and has more planning involved.

But remember: BB is new compared to GG and was made by the same company. That explains the improvement. Ever wonder how GG's story would turn out if it has a BB story mode from the start?

I agree, but it's harder to understand GG than BB.

I read that rant post earlier (was it in this thread?) and it was an excellent post! I can see what you're saying about GG's story vs BB's, but if one needs to read/listen to outside stuff that hasn't been translated to truly appreciate the story, then that tells me that what we have is a story that hasn't been told very well in-game. Granted, I had to read a story FAQ to really get BBCT's story, but at least I had that option and there was enough in-game to get a good sense of what was going on. The whole time loop and Ragna unwittingly causing the end of the world was interesting to me even if it was a more routine plot to someone more into anime.

Are there any good sources I could read to try and get a better idea of what's going on with GG's story that you'd recommend? And it might be pretty cool to read any plot/character stuff you wrote. I may not be the only one who thinks so.

[danceljoy]

Are there any good sources I could read to try and get a better idea of what's going on with GG's story that you'd recommend? And it might be pretty cool to read any plot/character stuff you wrote. I may not be the only one who thinks so.

T.T Sadly, I haven't written any character analysis yet, but I think I have an essay on why I love the GG universe. I actually want to avoid a battle between GG and BB because I think they both have their own good points. For now, I just recommend all the Drama CDs and GGR charts that can be found in DeviantArt although it's just around 10% of what has happened so far. Oh, you can find lots of GG materials on Blade's sig and many of them have summaries, but it's hard to read through all the text. Also, I there's a guy I know who wrote a paper for his university that describes the religious elements and symbolism in GG, though I have to ask his permission to post its contents here.

OK, maybe next week or the next I'll refrain from fanfiction and write everything I feel and think about GG and post it somewhere in dustloop.