I enjoy fighting games in a casual sense, which is to say I don’t plan online and I struggle to finish some Story or Arcade modes against the CPU, especially for more technical fighting games that are typically sourced from Japan. These include like every SNK fighter and those from Arc, like BlazBlue and Guilty Gear. I have dabbled in these series off and on over the years, but never committed to them in full largely because I found it so difficult to get into them and become consistent at being good and performing skilled attacks, counters, and defenses.
Yet, with every new release I get a chance to play, I’m cautiously optimistic that the pieces will fall in place and the total package will be something I can see myself continuing to play in the weeks and months ahead. With Guilty Gear Xr -REVELATOR-, I might have finally found a technical 1v1 fighter that I can sink my teeth into for a long time to come. I still don’t know jack about the story and the Guilty Gear universe, granted — and, at this point, I’m willing to give that part of fighting games up. Years ago, with Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat and so on, knowing some about the lore of the game’s universe and the characters was moderately important to me, but anymore, I just want a great gaming experience when it comes to fighters. -REVELATOR- does include a Story Mode, but, as the prompt before you enter this mode explains, this is a control-free mode. You can literally kick back and read the subtitles (no English dub available) as the story so far is presented over the course of some two hours or so. In full disclosure, I have not watched all of the story mode and it’s not because I mind the subtitles, I think using those carries an extra authentic weight to the presentation, but instead it’s because I don’t see anything to invest in, story and character-wise. I would literally rather be playing the Tutorial mode, which is how I started my time with -REVELATOR- and, wow, it’s a wonderful way to do so.
Despite playing all types of fighting games for many years on a variety of platforms from Arcade to current-gen, I never felt more ‘taught’ than I have with -REVELATOR.- Oh I have felt schooled, punished, and frustrated before, with other games, don’t get me wrong — but -REVELATOR- sought to teach me all of the ins and outs of the game and does so in such an inviting and positively reinforcing way. The basic tutorial is not overly wordy — yet it also does more than just pop-up instructions and wait for you to get through them. Instead, it’s written in a nice matter of fact manner, with just the right amount of hand-holding to make it accessible and give the player a sense of accomplishment as you go from the most fundamental components to the more advanced ones and beyond. The core tutorial took me about twenty minutes to complete and it made a huge difference in how much fun and success I was having in Guilty Gear, and likely in how I’ll approach other fighters going forward.
Better still are the additional modes available in the Dojo where you can free-train with user-specified criteria and take on dozens of additional tutorial missions that continue to teach a newcomer every detail about the game and the hows and whys of what’s what. I don’t know any Guilty Gear experts, but even pros could probably learn a thing or two from the most advanced guides included here. To that end, I really have to tip my hat to Arc System Works for taking a step back and giving players a convenient and enjoyable training tool. It breaks down some barriers and apprehension that lesser skilled folks like myself may harbor.
-REVELATOR- caters to newcomers with its new Stylish mode, too. I think this was borrowed from another IP of theirs, BlazBlue, but it basically allows players to button-mash to achieve legitimate combos. It’s an option that you can avoid entirely, but, for accessibility sake, I can appreciate it being included here. The better and more fulfilling/enjoyable route is to go through the tutorials and use the classic Technical mode of play.
Awesome training/tutorial tools, great accessibility, and a Story mode that is really just a video aside, several multiplayer modes and additional single player ones are here too. Despite getting much better in my skills and my understanding of the finer details of the game — which, obviously, translate pretty nicely to other fighting games — I didn’t spend a great deal of time online and I also was not able to test local versus mode. But, I did spend time playing single player against the CPU a lot in the MOM and Arcade modes. MOM mode, which sounds weird but I found out stands for Millions of Medals mode, is not new to the series, but it fits the brash, somewhat zany yet serious, and ‘metal’ vibe of Guilty Gear perfectly. You’re in a sort a survival mode in which you play against one CPU character at a time. You have to knock their lifeline down three times, but, you can use an assist like the ability to throw bombs to ding their HP meter. Each time their HP meter empties, they spill tons of golden medals that you can dash over and collect. Once the CPU character is nearly defeated, they start flashing red and will self destruct if you don’t finish them off quickly or use the ‘master key’ function (basically press all buttons once at the same time) to instantly finish them. A match breakdown is shown afterwards and then it’s on to the next one. Your health meter refills only slightly as opposed to the enemy’s that fills up completely each time you drain it. MOM is a cool mode that’s challenging and rewarding both in what you’ll learn in battle and in all the loot you net.
Arcade mode remains my favorite however, as you get to experience each character’s story briefly before the events of the actual Story mode. There are now twenty-three playable characters too, with some coming back from previous series entries. It’s about as colorful and dynamic of a roster as you’ll see in any fighter. While it doesn’t have the sheer number of fighters as some other popular games in the genre, the difference in each character’s appearance, personality, and most importantly their unique fighting characteristics, give -REVELATOR- a boost of depth that some other fighters don’t reach.
While twenty-three characters and the other improvements over -SIGN- are cool, it’s still disheartening to see how much paid DLC is already available that really could have been included on disc/in the release. It’s a discouraging nickel & diming (if only) practice that fighting games have become very un-shy about utilizing. It’s not a trend I am a fan of, but it’s become engrained in the sale of new games in the genre it seems at this point.
I’ve yet to touch on -REVELATOR-‘s outstanding presentation, so I’ll do that now before heading to the summary. Despite being built on an Unreal engine, -REVELATOR- is presented as a 2D fighting game, and it’s a sight to behold. The technical quality and framerate are right where they should be, but it’s the detailed artwork that we’ve come to expect from the series that elevates the game to another level. From the main menu to the backgrounds to the character animations, -REVELATOR- gushes with visual confidence and impresses through and through. The audio holds its own too thanks to a bangin’ soundtrack, and the total package benefits from zippy load times as well.
With that, let’s head to the summary…
