History VideoGame / GuiltyGear

* KiManipulation: Pretty much everyone from Asia, which is part of why the surviving Japanese are so highly valued.

* MacGuffin: The Cradle in ''Xrd''. It is unknown what exactly it is, but it is treated as a DoomsdayDevice. It is revealed in ''Xrd'''s story mode that The Cradle is a heavily shielded mobile base used by the Conclave that also [[spoiler: houses the body of Gear Commander Justice, whom they are planning to revive with the upcoming St. Elmo's Fire]].

** All of the Valentines in ''Xrd'' have some kind of unique mechanic based on another genre of gaming. Ramlethal has canned combos similar to other fighting games like ''Franchise/MortalKombat'', Elphelt primarily [[ThirdPersonShooter uses guns]], and Jack'O takes advantage of her [[MultiplayerOnlineBattleArena Servants]].

* PhlebotinumOverload: [[spoiler:Dr.Paradigm's plan to stop the Conclave's plan to reactivate Justice. Since they could not prevent the charging-by-lightning plan without destroying most of Illyria, he decided to let the Conclave's plan proceed, and have Dizzy to add her Gamma Ray to the process and overload Justice.]]

* PowerAtAPrice: The Forbidden Beasts are named so for a reason. In order for a human to properly fuse with them, the host must first offer up something in return. Zato sacrificed his eyesight for Eddie, but what Millia unwillingly gave up to obtain Angra when taken in by the Assassin's Guild remains unknown. That's not all, unfortunately; as time goes on, [[PowerDegeneration the Forbidden Beast will slowly eat away at its host's mind and eventually kill them]], as seen with Zato's eroding sanity and eventual death (although Eddie claims to Millia it was not his intention). This problem is the cornerstone of Millia's ''Accent Core Plus'' story, as she grapples with Angra's murderous thoughts and fears she'll share Zato's fate once the magic in her hair fully awakens.

** This is justified to a degree: Dizzy is [[spoiler:Justice]]'s daughter, has the ability to resuscitate dormant Gears (which makes her a target of the GovernmentConspiracy), and is called [[TheMessiah "the hope of the world"]] by That Man (who always seems to know what lies ahead), while I-No is one of That Man's servants and was the only one playable until Raven [[AscendedExtra was given his turn]] in ''[=GG2=]'' (thus usually providing the most direct link to her enigmatic master). The two, while not quite DemotedToExtra, also lose some of their direct presence in later games: Dizzy [[spoiler:is put into stasis due to a timeseal Ky caused to prevent her sublimation and [[LivingMacGuffin serves as more of a plot device]] [[LivingMacGuffin than an actual character]] in ''Overture'']], and I-No is overshadowed by other plot-centric villains and characters (Crow in ''AC+'', [[spoiler:Ramlethal Valentine]] in ''Xrd Sign'' and [[spoiler:Jack-O and Ariels]] in ''Xrd Revelator'') after ''XX''.
* StanceSystem: ABA has her normal mode and Moraha mode, which is activated by landing a command grab. Moraha mode gives her increased speed and much better attacks, but if her time limit runs out, she becomes vulnerable for a whole second. In Normal mode, she's easily the worst character in the game.

** Lover: [[spoiler:Jack O' Valentine was born with the purpose of becoming a vessel for Aria reborn, that succeeded to an extent by the end of ''REVELATOR'', in ''STRIVE'' she feels incomplete and lost for Aria to truly come back is not possible but Sol accepts Jack-O' for who she is, and so Jack-O' erases her self-doubts at the end]].

* TimeSkip: ''X'' and ''XX'' take place not very long after ''1'', going no further than 2181. ''2'' jumps all the way to 2185, and ''Xrd'' jumps further forward to late 2187. ''=REVELATOR='' ends right as November 2187 does.

* UnusualHalo: Jack O' Valentine has a glowing circular halo with four pointy triangles.

** ''Guilty Gear 2: Overture''. It's set after a 5-year TimeSkip (with some rather big developments happening during that missing chunk of time), all characters gone except for Sol and Ky (who are redesigned), and all the other settings are gone. The characters part is lessened after Xrd comes in, confirming that characters from the Assassins' Guild (Millia, Zato/Eddie, Venom, Slayer), Jellyfish Pirates (Johnny, May), Potemkin, Chipp, Axl and I-No are still around. ''REVELATOR'' and ''Rev 2'' eventually confirmed the whereabouts of everyone except for Testament, Bridget and A.B.A..

** ''Xrd Revelator'' manages to trump them all [[spoiler: by revealing that Sanctus Maximus Populi Ariels is actually the Universal Will, the being that not only created the Valentines but is also the same being who first brought magic into the world, essentially creating the whole setting of the series. And not only that, but she was also an A.I. created by The Original visitor to the Backyard in an effort to guide humanity. Unfortunately she concluded that humanity's inherent destructiveness made them hopeless and the best thing to do was to exterminate them all, making her the definitive BigBad of the series]].

** In ''Strive'', Jack-O' Valentine is voiced by Nicole Tompkins (Jill Valentine) from VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Remake.

** ''STRIVE'' only had two large characters on launch (Potemkin and newcomer Nargoriyuki), but has a much smaller cast in comparison to the previous examples. The addition of large DLC character Goldlewis Dickinson evened out the ratio slightly.

** ''Xrd Revelator'' has one at the end of its story as well, despite it initially seeming to end on both a high note and a very definitive note. [[spoiler:So Jack-O merges with Justice, Aria is reborn, the Universal Will is defeated, Elphelt is saved. But That Man - Asuka R. Kreuz, Sol's former friend - confronts Sol in TheStinger and admits that with Aria whole again, it is time they settle their own business at last. And also, Aria is whole again... except her Justice half didn't want to merge, because it was wracked with guilt over the atrocities it had committed. Just what mental state is Aria going to be in when she wakes up? And that is on of top of whatever I-No is planning to do.]]

** They see a bit more use starting in ''Xrd: Sign''. When you are at match point (a victory will win the match), and the opponent's health s reduced to 20% and not in a combo, or 10% while still in one, they will enter hellfire, and your tension bar will turn gold. If you have enough meter at that point, you can then Roman Cancel, activate instant kill mode and trigger a superfreeze, and actually include the instant kill in a combo (normally it will whiff if the opponent is in hitstun). Since opponents at low health take reduced damage (some of them significantly less than others), this is sometimes the only combo that will actually finish off the opponent at that time without softening them up with another combo first.

* DreamMatchGame: ''Guilty Gear XX'' is the closest the franchise has gotten into indulging into this. The series is rather famous for removing characters from the roster if they are killed off or otherwise written out of the story. It's why Kliff and Justice were not included in the ''X'' roster. In ''XX'' the two were both brought back as secret characters, with later revisions adding them to the base roster with heavy rebalancing. A.B.A., a new character created for the spinoff ''Isuka'' was also added to the roster in one of the later revisions.

** An uncommon case among most fighters in that every final boss in the main installments (including ''X'' and ''XX'') [[AlwaysFemale has been a woman]]. In order, they are Justice, Dizzy, I-No, Valentine, [[spoiler:Ramlethal Valentine]] and [[spoiler:Jack-O Valentine]].[[note]]As a note, it does need to be admitted that there are no "story mode" final bosses in the ''Xrd'' games because of the [[KineticNovel very different format]] of those story modes; however, not only does Sol, our main character himself, face Ramlethal and Jack-O at the end of his arcade/episode mode (which serves as a prequel story to the main story mode), those two also face the greatest number of other characters at the end of ''their'' episode modes, and so are considered the nearest thing the games have to a "final boss".[[/note]] For bonus points, they all share an at least tangential connection with one or more of the other characters on that list [[spoiler:and at this point, I-no's the only one who shares no genetic relation with any of the others]]. Spin-offs ''Isuka'', ''Dust Strikers'', and ''Judgment'' break this convention with Leopaldon, Gig, and Judgment, though Gig plays around with it (he has a [[WasOnceAMan formerly human maiden]] sticking out from his lower body). [[BreakingOldTrends The trend is finally broken]] in ''STRIVE'', where [[spoiler:Nagoriyuki]] serves as the first male final boss in a main installment.

* LastLousyPoint: Digital Figure Mode in ''Xrd'' has a ''lot'' of unlockable character poses, expressions, and palette swaps for each character, which can only be unlocked randomly via fishing and are mixed in with other unlocks such as palette swaps for use in regular matches, name plates, avatar parts, and guild icons for online profile customization. ''-REV 2-'' expanded the selection with even more poses and expressions for the playable cast along with an assortment of extra characters. Needless to say unless you spend hours grinding for W$ in Episode or online matches once you run out of chances for quick and easy money from Tutorial, Story, Combo, and Mission, you'll be fishing ''a lot'' just to unlock everything. The daily chests added to a later update in''-REV 2-'' help getting unlocks slightly easier, as it gives one free random drop of items per day.

* LightningCanDoAnything: [[spoiler:St.Elmo's fire, the lightning so big that they had to build a castle-sized lightning rod to tame it, kickstarts Justice's body's control of Gears in ''Xrd''.]]

* The first and most notable aspect of ''Guilty Gear'' is that AirDashing and [[DoubleJump air mobility]] are fundamental to the series. While ''Guilty Gear'' was not the first game to feature improved air mobility or dashing in the air, it's considered the first fighting game series [[TropeCodifier to get it]] ''[[TropeCodifier right]]'' [[TropeCodifier and to control well]], particularly starting with ''Guilty Gear X''. The series features a huge number of air control options, all of which are variously good for offense, defense, etc., and various characters have different air performance envelopes, as one of the purposes of the series is to better simulate the crazy shonen anime air battles seen in works like ''Manga/DragonBall''. Even more so than a game like, say, ''Franchise/StreetFighter'', air offense is a vital part of a match, to the point that ''Guilty Gear'' and other games with a similarly large number of air mobility options (''VideoGame/MeltyBlood'', ''Franchise/BlazBlue'', etc.) are said to have "air footsies."[[note]]"Footsies" being a term used in the UsefulNotes/FightingGameCommunity to refer to the ground-based aspect of fighters, both players out of mid-range and trying to strategically control the flow of battle by committing to their longest-ranged, generally safest moves (known as pokes) and reacting accordingly.[[/note]]

** Testament is an androgynous character who evokes nightmarish, occult imagery. In ''Strive'', they are voiced by Creator/YuuKobayashi, who is not only no stranger to playing both female and male roles, but is known for her ''very'' nightmarish artwork. A more straightforward example occurs in the English dub as their English VA, Creator/KayleighMcKee, is [[UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} transgender]].

A new ''Guilty Gear'' game, entitled "''VideoGame/GuiltyGearStrive''", was announced with a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAJUvy4ibeA preview trailer]] at the 2019 Evo Championship Series and was released on [=PlayStation 4=], [=PlayStation 5=] and Steam on June 11, 2021. Notable changes include a new corner system where characters can "break through" the corner and smash their opponents into a stage transition, changing how corner mechanics work for the first time in the series.

A new ''Guilty Gear'' game, entitled "''Guilty Gear Strive''", was announced with a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAJUvy4ibeA preview trailer]] at the 2019 Evo Championship Series and was released on [=PlayStation 4=], [=PlayStation 5=] and Steam on June 11, 2021. Notable changes include a new corner system where characters can "break through" the corner and smash their opponents into a stage transition, changing how corner mechanics work for the first time in the series.

** The Korean OST, while it's not bad at all, it's less energic than its Japanese counterpart, and it goes full blown post-apocalyptic Heavy Metal. Which... fits the whole series in a sentence, actually. Still, it's just the Korean version.

* BorderOccupyingDecorations: The series wasn't designed for a 16:9 aspect ratio until ''Xrd''. Thus, ports of older entries to widescreen systems, such as the UsefulNotes/PlayStationPortable, UsefulNotes/PlayStationVita, and HD systems added decorative sidebars to keep the fighting in a 4:3 aspect ratio.

* SuperDeformed: ''Petit'' and ''Petit 2'' for the UsefulNotes/WonderSwan Color. As is par the course for SD fighters, the games' tone is far lighter and sillier than normal, right down to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_4IRoWrKdc amping up the comedic factor of some of the Instant Kills.]]

* TheReveal: The titular Guilty Gear is [[spoiler: Sol Badguy, one of the original researchers of the project. He's actually ''170 years old''.]]

!!Mankind knew that they cannot change society. So instead of reflecting on themselves, they blamed the Tropes. Heaven or Hell. Duel 1! Let's ROCK!

!!!Main games [[note]]''The Midnight Carnival'' and ''Accent Core Plus R'' were ported to UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} much later in life and they were ''all'' found in arcades, aside from, curiously, the original ''Guilty Gear''.[[/note]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gg_logo.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''Heaven or Hell?''[[note]]''Let's Rock!''[[/note]] ]]