Guilty Gear Xrd Sign Gets December Fight Date

Arc System Works’ new fighter is actually a blast from the past, with the Guilty Gear series set to return with the ridiculously titled Xrd Sign getting a December release date courtesy of a flashy new trailer.

For those of you who have only recently gotten into fighting games and have never heard of Guilty Gear, it’s a brawler from the PS2 era and back from the team responsible for the more recent releases, BlazBlue and Persona 4 Arena. If you’ve played either of those games, then you know that Arc System Works like to make their fighters fast and frantic, with loads of over-the-top combos, flashy visuals, pulse-pounding music and a cast that makes about as much sense as this latest offering’s name.

As you can see in the announcement trailer, the latest Guilty Gear is set to arrive on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 on Dec. 16, just in time to deliver a royal beatdown to family and friends visiting for the holidays. You can also expect to see plenty of fan-favorite characters make a triumphant return, including Sol, Ky, May and Faust.

It’s been quite a while since the last Guilty Gear game hit the scene and, according to Aksys Games Director of Production, Frank DeWindt II, the development team is plugging in a lot of what they’ve learned from more recent fighters in order to make this the biggest brawl for the series to date.

“The series has been around since time immemorial (and by that, I mean for 16 years!),” DeWindt said. “It’s been redesigned from the world of 2D, to incorporate both 2D and 3D elements, making it a veritable feast for the eyes kind of experience, thanks to some technical Arc System Works magic and the Unreal 3 engine. Thanks to that, 3D models have been fashioned to create the illusion of 2D sprites without anyone being the wiser.”

As you can see in the announcement trailer, it all looks rather lovely in motion. Along with the upgraded visuals, the fighting engine has also received a big update, as well as a few new characters for the roster. DeWindt specifically makes not of Bedman, a guy who is strapped to and fights with a bed. See, I told you the roster was a bit wild.

You can go ahead and pre-order Guilty Gear for your console of choice, which comes in standard and Limited Editions. The LE will come with a special box, a “vocal collection,” a character book to help introduce you to the franchise, as well as a belt buckle keychain fashioned after the one worn by Sol Badguy.