The References

[PopetheRevXXVIII]

It's not a Guilty Gear game without Metal References.

Let us discuss.

[♡ ❀ KnightNike ❀ ♡]

For my first Guilty Gear game ever and I'm also someone who listens metal/rock, the references I have discovered so far(no cheating from the internet):

- Axl is obviously reference to Axl Rose from Guns 'n' Roses
- Ride the Lightning, Kiske's super is Metallica album and also a song from the same album
- Ky Kiske is from Kai Hansen, singer known from Helloween and Gamma Ray. Kiske is from Michael Kiske, singer also known from Helloween
- Giovanna has a special called Sepultura, which is a metal band, but I know them in name only.

Those are ones I know from Strive, but I have seen characters from older Guilty Gear games and from those the references I got were:

- Zappa is obviously from Frank Zappa the guitarist&musician
- Slayer is a Trash metal band
- Testament is a Trash metal band
- The lady with the nice cleavage, different weapons and roses is another reference to Guns 'n' Roses.

That is all I got

Edit: Fixed Sepulture to Sepultura and other grammatical errors.

[♡ ❀ KnightNike ❀ ♡]

I forgot one pretty obvious lol:
- Zato - 1 minion Eddie is either reference to Eddie Van Halen or to Eddie, the mascot of Iron Maiden.

[PopetheRevXXVIII]

Originally posted by KnightNike:

For my first Guilty Gear game ever and I'm also someone who listens metal/rock, the references I have discovered so far(no cheating from the internet):

- Axl is obviously reference to Axl Rose from Guns 'n' Roses
- Ride the Lightning, Kiskes super is Metallica album and also a song from the same album
- Ky Kiske is from Kai Hansen, singer known from Helloween and Gamma Ray. Kiske is from Michael Kiske, singer also known from Helloween
- Giovanna has a special called Sepulture, which is a metal band, but I only know them in name only.

Those are ones I know from Strive, but I have seen characters from older Guilty Gear games and from those the references I got were:

- Zappa is obviously from Frank Zappa the guitarist&musician
- Slayer is a Trash metal band
- Testament is a Trash metal band
- The lady with the nice cleavage, different weapons and roses is another reference to Guns 'n' Roses.

That is all I got :superel:

A lot of those are common knowledge to long time fans. But it's a good starting point down the rabbit hole for new fans.

Nagoriyuki bear's a resemblance to Supultura's singer Derrick Green

Originally posted by KnightNike:

I forgot one pretty obvious lol:
- Zato - 1 minion Eddie is either reference to Eddie Van Halen or to Eddie, the mascot of Iron Maiden.

Both

[Slaskburk]

One of the new ones I've seen pointed out is Millia's new Overdrive, "Septem Voices".
Most likely a homage to the Russian Metal band with the same name.

[BaronCappuccino]

I like to tell myself that May, in addition to referencing Brian May, references my favorite band, Alestorm, by representing pirate metal.

[Rook]

Sol Badguy is Freddie Mercury (Mercury had a nickname, "Mr. Badguy"). Also kind of a minor spoiler, but Sol's real name is Frederick .

I-No is modeled after Japanese musician Shiina Ringo, her name comes from Brain Eno, and she does a guitar riff in one of her XX and Xrd winposes that's taken straight from "One" by Metallica.

[Slaskburk]

Originally posted by BaronCappuccino:

I like to tell myself that May, in addition to referencing Brian May, references my favorite band, Alestorm, by representing pirate metal.

Oof, that be neat. But they only became Alestorm in 2007 according to google, and May has been around since the first game, released in 1998. The Brian May part is entirely possible though.

[PopetheRevXXVIII]

Originally posted by Rainfell:

I-No is modeled after Japanese musician Shiina Ringo, her name comes from Brain Eno, and she does a guitar riff in one of her XX and Xrd winposes that's taken straight from "One" by Metallica.

The funny thing with Shiina Ringo is, her musical genre leans heavily into Jazz something Guilty Gear doesn't reference at all. She was a lot, shall I say "Whiter" when she first showed up in Guilty Gear XX. If you look Shiina Ringo up there's just as many pictures of her not looking remotely like I-no as there are where she might kind of sort of.

Contrary to that though Doesn't I-no have an overdrive involving Angel wings? Shiina Ringo at one time had scars on her back that looked like Angel wing scars. There's also the hair cut and mole which a few photos of Shiina have.

So draw your own conclusions on if I-no is a Shiina Ringo reference or not.

[🎃MaximusBlastalot🎃]

Originally posted by PopetheRevXXVIII:

Musical genre leans heavily into Jazz something Guilty Gear doesn't reference at all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9X1Ta1jN8E

Havent you got ears in your head?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AATZMR3LgIw

Some tracks are quite dandy.

[PopetheRevXXVIII]

Originally posted by 🎃MaximusBlastalot🎃:

Originally posted by PopetheRevXXVIII:

Musical genre leans heavily into Jazz something Guilty Gear doesn't reference at all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9X1Ta1jN8E

Havent you got ears in your head?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AATZMR3LgIw

Some tracks are quite dandy.

His XX theme is still firmly in the rock catagory. But I'll give you his Xrd theme.

[PopetheRevXXVIII]

Originally posted by Fou:

The desert stage in GGST (Sol's stage?) is named Lars Canyon, probably a reference to the drums guy from Metallica, since they already made a video music clip in a canyon once.

Lars Ulrich. Which wouldn't be the only Metallica reference in Guilty Gear

[Eduga]

Slash... that is also a reference at the end of each round

[_TheIdiotBox_]

Cool topic…Never knew all this.

[Rook]

Originally posted by Eduga:

Slash... that is also a reference at the end of each round

Specifically to Saul "Slash" Hudson, lead guitarist of Guns N' Roses

[Rook]

May is named after Brian May, the guitarist of Queen. Roger, Bridget's stuffed bear, is named after Roger Taylor, the drummer of Queen.

Chipp Zanuff is named after the band Enuff Z'nuff, whose bassist is named Chip Z'nuff.

Sol once developed a superweapon called the Outrage during the Crusades, but it was too powerful so he had to split it into eight separate weapons, such as his Fireseal sword, Ky's Thunderseal, and Anji's Zessen. Outrage is a Japanese thrash metal band whose lead singer, Naoki Hashimoto, is also the guy who sings the vocal songs in Xrd and (most of) Strive.

I-No's boss theme in XX, The Midnight Carnival, is heavily based on Kurenai by X Japan. If you're wondering why they didn't get sued, I've heard that the album Kurenai is from, Vanishing Vision, is in the public domain. Could be wrong though.

The opening guitar riffs of Magnolia Eclair, Ky's Xrd theme, are straight out of Electric Eye by Judas Priest. In addition, Sol's GG1 Instant Kill and Order-Sol's EX mode Instant Kill are called All Guns Blazing, another Judas Priest song.

In Xrd Sign's story, there's mention of a Floyd Rose Tower. A Floyd Rose is a locking vibrato arm for a guitar. Zato's X/XX theme, Feel A Fear, takes some inspiration from Dead Skin Mask by Slayer. Slayer gets his name from... well, Slayer. Also, the fact that Slayer is the oldest character in the setting and has a wife named Sharon is a reference to Ozzy Osbourne.

Testament is named after the band Testament, and Venom is named after... Venom. Axl's timestop super in Strive, One Vision, is named after a Queen song. Zappa is named after Frank Zappa, Jam Kuradoberi is Cloudberry Jam, Millia's Instant Kill is called Iron Maiden, Zato's Forbidden Beast Eddie is named after Iron Maiden's mascot, Dizzy is named after Guns N' Roses keyboardist Dizzy Reed, Bedman's Xrd stage, "Nightmare Theater", is a reference to Dream Theater, Raven's Instant Kill is called Sehnsucht, a reference to Rammstein's second album. Goldlewis Dickinson is named after Gord Lewis, singer for Teenage Head, and Bruce Dickinson, singer for Iron Maiden. Guilty Gear XX #Reload gets its name from the album RELoad by Metallica, Goldlewis' theme, The Kiss of Death, shares its name with a Dokken song, "Kiss of Death". Said song is also what the character select theme of Guilty Gear XX is based on.