How incomprehensible is the plot?

[Oaks]

I made it to the third Blaze Blue game, and the plot got so confusing I could no longer follow it.
How is it in GG? Is it somewhat coherent or another incompressible story?
If I go back at play the older ones on Steam first, will it make more sense to me?

Thanks!

[Definively Not Alchman]

blazblue plot makes absolutely no sense. you shouldn't use it as standard for anything

[⚙Praise the Omnissiah⚙]

gg plot makes no sense. you should not use it as a standard for anything.

[Rook]

Guilty Gear's plot isn't as confusing and convoluted as BlazBlue's. There's no Continuum Shifts, Phenomenon Intervention, time loops, or tons of alternate timelines (just one in GG's case, and even then it's only in one drama CD). The plot is pretty linear, it's just a matter of playing the games in order.

That said, the first two games don't have dedicated story modes (outside of a Japan-only update of Guilty Gear X), and the story modes of Guilty Gear XX and Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus have many branching paths and alternate endings for every character like the first two BlazBlue games. In Overture, Xrd, and Strive, you can play through the story modes just fine. Xrd and Strive's story modes are long visual novels with no gameplay, so you can sit back and watch and not have to worry about decisions and alternate timelines. And there is quite a lot of backstory and concepts that get thrown around. I guess Guilty Gear isn't AS complicated as BlazBlue, but it's definitely more dense and complex than, say, Street Fighter.

It IS better to play the older games. Strive directly follows up on the events of Xrd and assumes you've played that game, and Xrd follows up on the events of Overture and mostly assumes you've played that game. You won't really know who characters like Ramlethal, Jack-O, Sin, Dizzy, I-No, and other major players in the plot are unless you've played the previous games.

So here's a basic rundown of the series order to help you get started:

Guilty Gear: Most if not all of the arcade endings are canon, but the canonical winner of the tournament in this game is Sol Badguy. Justice's story mode in Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus retells the events of this game, so you don't really HAVE to play it unless you wanna see the janky, broken mess this series started as.

Guilty Gear X: Sol Badguy and Ky Kiske's arcade endings are definitely canon. Unfortunately, this is the only main series Guilty Gear game that's NOT on Steam. There was a Japan-only update of this game, Guilty Gear X Plus, that added a dedicated story mode, but it's in Japanese. Introduces Dizzy, who is pretty important to the plots of Overture and Xrd.

Guilty Gear XX: This game has a dedicated story mode, where you pick a character and go through a visual novel story and make dialogue choices that can change the route and get you different endings, like the first two BlazBlue games. Every character has only one canon ending, and it's not really clear which endings are the canon ones (usually the ones where they don't die horribly). Guilty Gear XX #Reload is the version that's available on Steam. Introduces I-No, who is VERY important to the plot of Strive, and starts to foreshadow big events later in the series.

Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus: Despite being an updated version of XX the game actually has a different plot that takes place immediately after the older versions of XX. Same deal, every character has their own story with alternate endings and one canon ending, just the actual plot is different. Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R is the most recent version of this game and frequently goes on sale for less than five dollars. The plot of this game is pretty much unnecessary, kinda filler. Still, it develops certain character's plots like Ky and Dizzy, Millia Rage and Zato/Eddie, and Anji Mito.

Guilty Gear 2: Overture: The oddball in the series, as this game is actually a hack and slash/RTS hybrid and not actually a fighting game. It takes place five years after XX and doesn't feature any returning characters aside from Sol and Ky due to rights issues with Sega Sammy at the time. Just play through the game's story mode. This game introduces Sin Kiske and the concept of Valentines, and is pretty important for the rest of the games after it.

Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-: Relies on Overture. You can still enjoy Xrd's story without having played Overture, but having the context of Overture certainly helps. Takes place one year after Overture. The story mode is a visual novel with no gameplay. You can actually watch the entire story mode on YouTube for free on ArcSystemWorks's official YouTube channel.

Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-: Like XX and XX Accent Core Plus, this update/sequel to Xrd -SIGN- has its own plot, continuing off from where Xrd -SIGN- left off, so it's best to play that game's story first. Lots of big events happen in this game, and it sets up the events of Guilty Gear -STRIVE-. Like with Xrd -SIGN-, you can watch this game's entire story mode on ArcSys's YouTube channel. Guilty Gear Xrd -REV 2- is just an update of -REVELATOR- and contains additional epilogue story content, so get that game.

Guilty Gear -STRIVE-: The grand finale (at least for the main plot). Takes place only a few weeks after Xrd -REVELATOR-, so the context of that game's plot is important. Like with Xrd, the story mode is a visual novel with no gameplay.

[Definively Not Alchman]

Originally posted by LOCK+KEY:

Guilty Gear: Most if not all of the arcade endings are canon, but the canonical winner of the tournament in this game is Sol Badguy. Justice's story mode in Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus retells the events of this game, so you don't really HAVE to play it unless you wanna see the janky, broken mess this series started as.

Hey! if you in 1998, all you had was a ps1 and wanted a 2D fighter, it was either GG or dealing with incredibly bad versions of capcom's or snk games.
it was janky but i had loads of fun with that.
and in all fairness every single 2d game back then was a busted mess, the standards were very low

[strider_sp]

In Xrd and Strive, it gets as straightforward and boring as it gets, even ignoring and/or retconning important events and stuff from previous entries. GGXX was the sweetspot of storytelling, way better than what came after, complex but not convoluted.
Non-canon stuff would make us care about newcomers. This is completely absent from these late entries.

[Morty2989]

GG's terminology makes complete word salad out of every story beat. I stopped trying to follow it ages ago.

[Brazjazz]

WoolieVersus did an amazing job compiling all the lore from GG games and telling the complete history in a cohesive and entertaining way. Definitely recommend you give it a go.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiSdC6Lp8c7OkrBhzdQsQhGL_7jT0cSTv

[Rook]

Originally posted by mattvieir:

WoolieVersus did an amazing job compiling all the lore from GG games and telling the complete history in a cohesive and entertaining way. Definitely recommend you give it a go.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiSdC6Lp8c7OkrBhzdQsQhGL_7jT0cSTv

To this day I still have no idea where he got the whole "I-No goes around through time and creates a whole bunch of alternate timelines" part of XX from. I've played XX and Accent Core Plus and not once did I get the impression that was what was going on, aside from Sol's AC+ story. He makes the game sound way more complicated than it really is.

It has been years since I played the stories of those games though, so I might just be forgetting things.

[Kiyaya]

Originally posted by LOCK+KEY:

Originally posted by mattvieir:

WoolieVersus did an amazing job compiling all the lore from GG games and telling the complete history in a cohesive and entertaining way. Definitely recommend you give it a go.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiSdC6Lp8c7OkrBhzdQsQhGL_7jT0cSTv

To this day I still have no idea where he got the whole "I-No goes around through time and creates a whole bunch of alternate timelines" part of XX from. I've played XX and Accent Core Plus and not once did I get the impression that was what was going on, aside from Sol's AC+ story. He makes the game sound way more complicated than it really is.

It has been years since I played the stories of those games though, so I might just be forgetting things.

Probably just a creative way of including all the non-canon endings in the XX Series.

[Emerald Lance]

Originally posted by Kiyaya:

Originally posted by LOCK+KEY:

To this day I still have no idea where he got the whole "I-No goes around through time and creates a whole bunch of alternate timelines" part of XX from. I've played XX and Accent Core Plus and not once did I get the impression that was what was going on, aside from Sol's AC+ story. He makes the game sound way more complicated than it really is.

It has been years since I played the stories of those games though, so I might just be forgetting things.

Probably just a creative way of including all the non-canon endings in the XX Series.

That's exactly what it is. When all is said and done, That Man chides I-No for acting so careless with time travel and he makes her fix everything.

The years are definitely causing you to forget the stories. I-No's time travel shenanigans is front and center in XX; her screwing around with timelines for the giggles WAS her Midnight Carnival.

[ウスラトンカチ]

imo xrd sign has the best story & xrd revelator/rev2 has the best ending

[Molotov Milkshake]

It's probably not as confusing as BlazBlue, but it is plenty crazy :D

[Oaks]

Thanks for the answers everyone. I watched some stuff as suggested above and that helped a lot. It doesn't seem quite as nonsensical as BlazeBlue.

The thing with BlazeBlue is that I liked the first two games a lot and the plot made sense for the most part - granted I was fuzzy on a few things, but I could follow it.

I tried three times to get into the third BB game on Steam and just couldn't. It leaned hard into the parts I didn't understand and made no sense to me.

Looking forward to GG.

[Rook]

Originally posted by Oaks:

Thanks for the answers everyone. I watched some stuff as suggested above and that helped a lot. It doesn't seem quite as nonsensical as BlazeBlue.

The thing with BlazeBlue is that I liked the first two games a lot and the plot made sense for the most part - granted I was fuzzy on a few things, but I could follow it.

I tried three times to get into the third BB game on Steam and just couldn't. It leaned hard into the parts I didn't understand and made no sense to me.

Looking forward to GG.

That's cause Chronophantasma relies quite heavily on side material. You won't really know who Celica is unless you've read BlazBlue Phase 0... which only came out in Japan (though thankfully there is a full fan translation).

[Oaks]

Originally posted by LOCK+KEY:

Originally posted by Oaks:

Thanks for the answers everyone. I watched some stuff as suggested above and that helped a lot. It doesn't seem quite as nonsensical as BlazeBlue.

The thing with BlazeBlue is that I liked the first two games a lot and the plot made sense for the most part - granted I was fuzzy on a few things, but I could follow it.

I tried three times to get into the third BB game on Steam and just couldn't. It leaned hard into the parts I didn't understand and made no sense to me.

Looking forward to GG.

That's cause Chronophantasma relies quite heavily on side material. You won't really know who Celica is unless you've read BlazBlue Phase 0... which only came out in Japan (though thankfully there is a full fan translation).

Aha, ok, I did not realize that.

At least we get the major titles on PC. Switch only has Central Fiction, which probably a particularly confusing place to start.