Guilty Gear series

Twenty-fifth anniversary logo.

Guilty Gear (ギルティギア, Giruti Gia?) is a series of Japanese fighting games developed by Arc System Works, and designed by artist and music composer Daisuke Ishiwatari. It has variously been published by Arc System Works itself, Aksys Games, PQube, Sega, Sammy Entertainment, and Kiss Ltd.

The series is well-known for its detailed anime-style graphics, colorful characters, technical gameplay, and the numerous references to hard rock and heavy metal music that serve as inspiration for its characters and soundtracks.

Overview

Games

Main series

• Guilty Gear (1998)
• Guilty Gear X (2000)
  • Guilty Gear X Plus (2001)
  • Guilty Gear X Advance Edition (2002)
  • Guilty Gear X ver 1.5 (2003)
• Guilty Gear XX (2002)
  • Guilty Gear XX ♯Reload (2003)
  • Guilty Gear XX Slash (2005)
  • Guilty Gear XX Λ Core (2006)
  • Guilty Gear XX Λ Core Plus (2008)
  • Guilty Gear XX Λ Core Plus R (2012)
• Guilty Gear 2 -Overture- (2007)
• Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign- (2014)
• Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator- (2015)
  • Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 (2017)
• Guilty Gear -Strive- (2021)

Spin-offs

• Guilty Gear Petit (2001)
• Guilty Gear Petit 2 (2001)
• Guilty Gear Isuka (2004)
• Guilty Gear Dust Strikers (2006)
• Guilty Gear RoA (2006)
• Guilty Gear Judgment (2006)
• Pro Jumper! Guilty Gear Tangent!? (2010)
• Guilty Gear Vastedge XT (2013)

Stories

Drama CDs

• Guilty Gear X Drama CD Vol.1 (2001)
• Guilty Gear X Drama CD Vol.2 (2001)
• Guilty Gear XX Drama CD Red (2003)
• Guilty Gear XX Drama CD Black (2003)
• Guilty Gear XX Drama CD Night of Knives Vol.1 (2004)
• Guilty Gear XX Drama CD Night of Knives Vol.2 (2004)
• Guilty Gear XX Drama CD Night of Knives Vol.3 (2004)

Novels

• Guilty Gear X Lightning the Argent (2001)
• Guilty Gear X The Butterfly and Her Gale (2002)
• Guilty Gear Begin (2018)

Manga

• Guilty Gear Xtra (2003)
• Guilty Gear Series Story Digest Comics (2020)

Animation

• Guilty Gear -Strive- Dual Rulers (2025)

Other

• Guilty Gear Club (2006)
• Code Shifter (2020)
• ExplaMaytions with May (2021)
• Guilty Bear (2022)

Material

• Guilty Gear Series Best Sound Collection
• Guilty Gear Sound Complete Box
• Guilty Gear 10th Memorial Book
• Arc System Works 25th Anniversary Memorial Booklet
• Arc System Works 25th Anniversary Official Character Collection
• Guilty Gear x BlazBlue Music Live 2011
• Guilty Gear x BlazBlue Music Live 2014
• Guilty Gear Memorial Record

Allusions

• The series has two iconic phrases "Heaven or Hell" and "Let's Rock", which are said by the announcer at the start of almost every battle.
• "Tension" alludes to the tension of a string of an instrument, namely a guitar.
• "Overdrive" alludes to an electric guitar effect.
• When someone is defeated, the announcer and on-screen text say "SLASH" which alludes to the guitarist who has played with Guns N' Roses named Slash. Slash is also the name of the attack button set to Δ (triangle) by default on PlayStation systems.
• When combos are performed, there is on-screen text that says "BEAT", another musical term.

Trivia

• One way to interpret the series' title, as per GG World, would be as "gears that are guilty." The word gear can be used to mean a part of a larger machine, so one might be able to interpret the title as "the guilty machines of war." To take it a little deeper, the title could just be a metaphor that means "humans are creatures that cannot stop fighting."
• According to Daisuke Ishiwatari, the series' story theme revolves around seeking the answer to the question, "What does it mean to be human?".

External links

• GUILTY GEAR シリーズ一覧