Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator follows in Guilty Gear Xrd: Sign’s footsteps and wholeheartedly embraces the kind of story mode you wouldn’t expect from a fighting game. Once you kick it off, you’re essentially watching an anime with optional visual novel elements. It spends about 10 minutes refreshing you on the events of the previous game in a rather stylish fashion, then does its best to make the latest chapter in a story that began in 1998 not only understandable, but comprehensive enough to make you care about each character.
Before we get into this – there will be no spoilers in this Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator article. We’re just here to talk about how Arc System Works handles it, since many incredibly major and important things happen.
To start, Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator’s story mode is absolutely gorgeous. The character designs and animation are top notch. Every character looks amazing. It’s befitting such a stylish series. I especially enjoyed the change in perspectives. Guilty Gear is an active and dynamic game, and the unexpected viewpoints as characters interact and actions take place make everything more interesting to watch. It also highlights the detail that went into each character’s design, as they’re near identical to the actual fighters.
It also has a great translation and localization. Which is important, since there’s no dub. You need to rely on Aksys’ work to understand what’s going on, and they did a good job of maintaining the proper tone. I could see some people taking issue with Jam’s occasionally stilted speech, but it does match the character since she’s not a native language speaker.
The visual novel elements inserted into Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator are much appreciated. You can press triangle at any time to check in with Guilty Gear terminology, if this is your first encounter with the series. It’s also possible to press the L1 trigger to see any missed dialogue, in the event things are happening too fast or you need to step away. Of course, you can also pause and, if you’ve seen the story once before, skip to different chapters.
Perhaps the best part of Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator’s story mode is the reward you get for watching. It gives you 50,000W$. That’s a good start to unlocking Raven in the Gallery, as he’s 200,000W$. I mean, I considered watching it satisfying enough. We get a deeper understanding of a number of characters who were fairly enigmatic prior to this entry. But knowing I can use Raven after spending a few hours sitting through what’s basically a well-executed Guilty Gear movie is event better. Also, it ends on a “to be continued,” so it leaves you wanting more.
The Arcade mode’s Episodes are handled quite well too. It’s for people who want to learn more about the characters and world while more enjoying a more active experience as they go through Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator. Almost every character’s Episode begins with a brief introduction, with many of them having mid-run additional story segments and an ending also continuing their adventure.
Keep in mind, I said almost. Jam Kuradoberi is left out. Everyone else has a storyline in their Arcade mode Episode. She doesn’t. Which doesn’t seem to make sense. Johnny’s a returning character, and his Episode was handled properly. Jam does appear in the Story mode. She’s clearly doing something during the events of the game. It’s odd she’s excluded here.
Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator does a fantastic job of getting its message across, not counting the Jam situation. The story mode does a great job of continuing the story in a way that absolutely engages fans of the series. It covers every major character and there’s genuine growth and progress. The Arcade mode’s Episodes act as a nice supplement for almost every character as well. Plus, going through the story mode and the Arcade’s Episodes should give you enough W$ for Raven.
PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 owners in North America will get the game on June 7, 2016. People in Europe can start playing on June 10, 2016.
Published: Jun 1, 2016 01:30 pm