WhenBlazBluewas first announced,Guilty Gearfans rejoiced. They rightfully guessed that the new series was the new iteration ofGuilty Gear, but with all new characters and a tweaked engine. Still, some ofGuilty Gear’shardcore fans have been holding out for another entry in the series. It doesn’t look like that’s ever going to happen, and the reason why might surprise you.
According to Toshimichi Hori of Arc Systems Works, “The generation of Guilty Gear players has become a certain age – maybe a little bit too old for playing games. So making that reset brings in a new generation of fighting game players. Then they will be with us for the next few years“.
Good thing that Nintendo doesn’t think that way. If they did, we probably wouldn’t have gottenSuper Mario Galaxy 2. That said, I admire Arc Systems Works for officially retiring a group of characters, and starting fresh with a new variation on an old theme. Capcom tried that once withStreet Fighter III, and was punished for it by fans who weren’t willing to move forward. It’s probably not a coincidence that Hori-san sitesStreet Fighter III: 3rd Strikeas his favorite fighting game ever.
This is a developer who understands the power of moving on.
