Guilty Gear Xrd: Rev 2

A gorgeously content rich 2D brawler with style to spare, Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 puts some extra shine on one of the best fighting games available. This is one utterly essential brawler.

Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 is an fantastic game, there’s no doubt about that. Revelator was already an incredible fighting game, and for anyone who’s yet to experience it this is an easy purchase to make. When you look at the game simply for what’s new and compare price points, things start to get a little dicey. There are other additions, but they’re so minor, and if you’re a player only interested in the competitive scene, they don’t matter to you at all. Rev 2 is an amazing all-around package, and deserves just as good a score as the last game, but as an add-on it’s a bit too light for the premi...

Guilty Gear Xrd: REV 2 isn't as big of a jump as the one -REVELATOR- made, but it is a welcome one nonetheless. It still remains one of the best fighting games out on the market today, and the additions present here make an already good game even better.

Equally odd is the game’s “story mode” which you’d expect to be a series of battles interspersed with animated sequences. In fact, it’s nothing but a two hour plus animated movie, using the game’s engine. Actual in-game combat including online fights is accessed through the “battles” menu. Given that you need to have played previous games in order to get the game’s story, which is convoluted at best, it seems a bit of waste.

When it arrived in 2014, Guilty Gear Xrd was a fighting game Forerro Rocher, after a decade spent slumming it on stale Dairy Milk. It would have been rude not to go back for a second mouthful when Revelator showed up last year.

In this fighting games renaissance, accessibility has been the important factor. Street Fighter V simplified a fair few of its more difficult combos, Injustice 2 makes it easy for beginners to pick up, play and start pulling off fancy moves, and even King of Fighters XIV added a single button auto combo for players that just can’t do it themselves. But while the rest are easing the learning curve to opening the door to new players, Guilty Gear is still one of the fastest, most technical and interesting fighters you can play.

Since its release in 2014, Guilty Gear Xrd has developed a reputation as a great but underappreciated fighter. Its feverish (and sometimes overwhelming) pace is a nice midpoint between fun and complexity. Its diverse characters all have different tricks up their buckle-laden sleeves, its learning tools are second to none, and its story is more elaborate than its competition. The game’s latest update, Rev 2, may not be a good enough reason for newcomers to dive in on its own, but it rounds out enough edges that any fighting fan may need to give this anime-inspired fighter another shot.

Guilty Gear Xrd REV2 isn't enough of a change from its original release for any of the points that I made back then to have become obsolete. In the end it's just an expansion to an already great fighting game. No more, no less.