Gear Project

I figured I’d make a list of things that essentially defined my experience with Guilty Gear over the years. You aren’t obligated to agree, but I think in light of how so few people still play the older games, I want to point these features out. In my humble opinion these features are essential to my personal GG experience!

Summer has been rough on my hands to the point I can barely play fighting games, so I had to take an extended break from playing fighting games.

(I have a medical issue where my hands don’t sweat much and they generate heat rash easily, so I have to heat sink them by holding cold objects in the summer. Thankfully heat rash doesn’t damage my hands or skin as much as you might think, but it does itch, so I have to offset my gaming with holding cold things or just dunking my hands in cold water. The lack of sweat is just related to a larger problem I have always had involving lymph circulation, so it can’t be helped.)

I still game, but I usually play more relaxing games or just my backlog titles sparingly.

Somedays I seek very hard with all my heart to write something significant and be productive.

And more often than not my browser script subverts my attempts by not working whatsoever.

I don’t use Tumblr app, and yet Tumblr still thinks I do.

Sigh. @staff

Please make it easier to insert urls in text via iPad browsers. Highlighting text auto-activates Format Menu which suddenly decides it’s going to make all the option buttons tiny and just plain not work.

In context, I was referring to the actual functional nature of each world as we currently knew it at the time.

In the context of BlazBlue, while the Azure can generate multiple (and sometimes random) outcomes of possibilities, it is primarily “governed” by the abilities of the Sankishin: Amaterasu (Creation), Susanooh (Destruction), and Tsukuyomi (Separation of Substances). In a sense, Tsukuyomi is the “reason” Humans can live outside of the Boundary that the Azure is centralized in. Human Souls are, in theory, born or reborn from the Azure, but because of the collective nature of the Azure, they cannot remain individuals in proximity to that force. Meanwhile, Amaterasu governed what Possibilities “could exist” while Susanooh removed the remainder. There is some untold history that indicates the Sankishin were originally created by Humans, but surpassed their own built-in limits when entering the Boundary.

Compared to the Backyard, while there is a similarity to how Human will can influence the Backyard, that in and of itself is the Limit. Influence is not the same as complete Governance. While the Original Sage did create the Sage’s Testament (Tome of Origin) to somewhat control that Dense Collective of Universe-Defining Information, the original purpose of the book was to put a limit on Human control over the Backyard (though the scale of that power may or may not work as well as he originally intended).

Because of the unique History of Mankind and the Mass Tragedy that was the Crusades, along with the distorting nature of the Universal Will, I-No was born carrying an entire section of the Backyard’s power inside of her (and by extension Axl Low mirrored that power, while the Sage as Happy Chaos inherited a fragment of it).

I-No’s and Axl’s existences could potentially rewrite and govern all elements of the Backyard, much like Amaterasu and Susanooh, however the difference lies in the “assertion” of that power.

Whereas Amaterasu could “reset” all possible occurrences with Phenomena Intervention, the power of “Assertion” is closer to Susanooh’s power of “Destruction” in nature.

By choosing one Destiny, Axl Low or I-No would effectively “destroy” all other possibilities. This is further exacerbated by the Equalizing powers of the Divine Seeds: The Scales of Juno and the Flame of Corruption. The Absolute World that the Divine Seeds could generate is the exact Opposite power of Tsukuyomi: a world merged, not separated.

Bedman stated that as much as he tried to control aspects of the Backyard’s power, none of his influence could be made tangible or realized. It was not until he fully employed the Absolute World at the expense of his own life, that he could overturn his sister Delilah’s fate.

You might say that outcomes are easier to “affix” in BlazBlue’s world than in Guilty Gear’s, but there is still a “cost” involved for Observing the Azure as Carl Clover once did.

But in terms of Power, Seithr (Magic Element) is not too dissimilar to Magic as it is used in Guilty Gear. The main similarities are the risks involved in over exposure. Exposure to Seithr is dangerous for Living Beings, whereas using Too Much dense Magic can generate an Information Flare. The difference, however, is that the Backyard’s Magic Energy has near Limitless uses, unlike the Boundary that has a consuming effect on Life that over uses it (such as Blood Kain).

There is something unique about the world of Damon & Baby that is best defined as a “cutoff history” that connects BlazBlue with Guilty Gear.

By “Cutoff History” I mean a separate world that synthesizes two naturally “incompatible” worlds in its own way, by rewriting its own rules and definitions.

If you think of Guilty Gear as an “unlikely future” (of this real world’s history such as the Y2K bug changing history compared to the Dawn of Revival of 1999), BlazBlue would be considered the “impossible past” (a history that never existed in this world but is somehow connected to our Mythology, particularly in Japanese Folklore).

This is how Daisuke Ishiwatari originally encapsulated his writing perspective of BlazBlue and Guilty Gear (though Toshimichi Mori had more influence on the former).

In that sense Damon & Baby is the (Impossible) “Missing Link” between these two histories, but only is so by taking fragments of one concept or another and placing them in the world in a cohesive coexisting way.

Playing and Making Games casually will always be a thing for creative people. Whether it’s making custom characters, coming up with story scenarios in RPGMaker or a Visual Novel Maker app, people are always making stuff.

But what about the Physical elements in Role Playing Board Games or playing the role of a Dungeon Master? People have their own character sheets and stuff they built from scratch. You can’t delete ideas, you can only really Patent and Copyright them.

Board Games are still and always will be a pastime that while it does trend in and out, has almost indelible aspects that history cannot take away. Chess, Checkers, Solitaire, Shogi, Mahjong, Battleship, Monopoly, these are entertainment pillars born from History.

When I think of physical media, be it movies, books, music, it comes in layers: like when you visit a library to rent an 8-track player or VCR to play old media. Some stuff is so old you have to use a Microfiche viewer to look at Newspapers from 100 years ago.

But here’s the thing about that: Public Libraries preserve these media as a Public Service. They accept donations, sure, and sometimes major industries donate, but it’s never in the spirit of making a profit so people can access the media. It’s pure preservation.

I can go to these Libraries and read Comic Books, Graphic Novels, listen to Radio Drama CDs, watch old movies, all because I invested in a Library Card and occasionally pay a small rental fee.

But what if Libraries made the same decision the Videogame Industry is currently making towards Physical Media? Would Government institutions stand for it? Would world organizations protest?

Can Libraries make the open excuse that “oh everyone looks at our content digitally so we have to do this” and justify the elimination of physical media? I highly doubt it, especially given the historical value of many of the collections in existence.

A saying I heard once: “There is no end to books”. Be it fiction, be it history, be it documentation, mankind will keep producing things. Books are simply one form and platform that this “endless media” can take the form of.

But what about Videogames? An amalgamation of storytelling, art, music composition, interactive media, and so many other genres that you can try and fail to squeeze games in to as a category. What makes Games different from a Library Book?

Entertainment is the so called “Lightning in a Bottle” that people try so hard to capture and sell for profit, and really that’s what it boils down to for most: profit. The passion for “making” games is only there for a select few now.

Technology marches on. We use Digital Media out of convenience, possibly because we’re tired of physical media breaking down, possibly because we need more room, possibly because it’s currently cheaper than owning the physical copy (or vice versa).

But does convenience justify eliminating one option over the other? People still buy LP Records, they still buy Laser Discs, they still buy 8-track cassettes. Whether it makes more profit or not shouldn’t matter, especially if there is still Demand.

There’s companies out there like Hamster Corp making self contained Emulated classic games and selling them as part of the “Arcade Archives” collection. But at what point does a Game get to join that Archive?

If that Archive is reduced to a “tap” (as Kojima put it) that people have to constantly pay to have access to, is it even Entertainment at that point? Especially if that Archive can be removed at any given time?

Monopoly of Service is considered Illegal, especially if businesses aren’t allowed to flourish and compete with the same media, or if said media can’t be bought or sold at competitive prices. So can you blame people for filing a Lawsuit when Businesses pull this shady practice?

But it isn’t limited to businesses competing over profit, consumer rights are violated as a breach of trust. What you invested in is taken from you, delisted, stolen, or discontinued. Either because it’s not selling, or because you’re not regularly buying.

Can Libraries and Museums get away with Delisting or Burning Archives and Works of Art because “no one’s visiting them” or “they aren’t making money”. Vincent van Gogh never made money off his art! It got preserved after he died!

And what about all the games dedicated to people who passed beyond this life? Will they be unceremoniously delisted as well? Forgotten by all and sundry because Digital Profits are more important?

Admittedly, half the games I own are tied to a Steam Account. And it wouldn’t be the first time Valve delisted a game if the contract for archived access to it wasn’t renewed. I lost a chance to buy Sonic Spinball on Steam awhile back over this.

I am not especially torn up about it because Sonic Spinball despite its middling popularity is still part of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, and there’s plenty of Roms and maybe even Romhacks of it on a server elsewhere.

It also is comforting to know that I actually OWN the original Sega Genesis Cartridge of Sonic Spinball, though it could probably use some maintenance after all the years of me NOT playing it.

It concerns me that for all the physical media I own, a lot of it is in Cardboard Boxes gathering more and more dust. Possibly all the copper from the circuitry is getting oxidized as well. I no longer have working video cables for my older consoles either.

Do I think physical media takes precedent over digital? Not necessarily, but nor do I feel it necessary to maintain a physical collection. Some hobbies are better suited to other people.

If you think of Game Consoles as a “Convenient PC” for people who don’t want to mess with maintenance and upkeep of a computer and ever evolving hardware, wouldn’t Digital games be the “convenience” of Physical Games?

But, in the face of all this Convenience, is it even necessary for the Industry to phase out one over the other? And by necessity I am talking about appealing to Customer Needs, not the Profit Margins of Mega Corporations who try to control everything contractually.

For every Best Buy out there, there’s a Disc-go-Round or U-BREAK-I-FIX. For every Car Lot, there’s a Repair Garage. For every Barnes & Noble, there’s a Half Price Books.

For the Gaming Industry, if making Physical Media is such a hassle, wouldn’t you save more money by not making games at all? Wouldn’t it be better to just leave making games to the people who actually, you know, CARE ABOUT making Games?

If you ask me, if there is profit to be had, instead of trying to scam your demographic, how about running a legitimate and fair business that values its customers instead? If you don’t want to, make money some other way, but leave other people’s interests and hobbies alone!

Regardless of what the A.I. Ceos at Sony think, I still have my own dream to make videogames of my own, and if my customers want a physical copy, I don’t mind breaking out a DVD Burner for the job.

Perhaps it’s all a matter of Scale. Perhaps we are all doomed to lose great games at the expense of human greed. Or perhaps we’re recreating a digital equivalent of Scribes and the Church (owning the narrative of games that exist and arbitrarily deciding what History will remember).

I think a lot about all the media we lost in Library Fires throughout history. But it could potentially be far worse if Digital media reproduces the Great Book Burning of Nazi Germany.

It’s the Future of 2188, you would think modern Cyber technology and Prosthetics would be at least somewhat streamlined and universally compatible.

There’s totally NO WAY a bio-ethically-challenged, reclusive, unkempt, world domination obsessed Mad Scientist with an obsession over Mass Production of the Queen of Vialattea would just end up in the Bodyshop business after getting kicked out of the Postwar Administration Bureau by a bunch of Former Assassins, Gears, and Robo-Replicants that hated his guts for experimenting on them, right?

Coincidences aren’t THAT lined up so neatly, are they?

If something was fishy, I am certain Robo-Ky would have mentioned it by now, or at least if he wasn’t oblivious to who built it just to get a new body to play with?

Remember, the entirety of the RK Series actually hated Crow a lot. Their memory banks probably marked notable Useless Humans like him in particular!

Though, if it even was Crow, he would probably be doing his best to hide his face and lay low all things considered. If he was using a Body Shop as a front for something else, even a certain Phantom would have picked up on it by now as well (since Venom keeps an eye on local business activities in Illyria).

I really don’t think so, mostly for maintenance reasons, but also neither Ky nor Robo-Ky would like that idea.

Independence is important.

Though, on the subject of family, Robo-Ky is interested in relationships, despite not exactly being “built” for it. I doubt a regular human female would be able to handle him.

The rumor mill once suggested Robo-Jam existed, and we have seen Robo-May, though I can’t really say how that would work out or even interface. Robo-Dizzy was also submitted by the fanbase at one point, but again, no real solid confirmation on that one either.

Cyborgs and Full Body Prosthesis is also a possibility, but it would be up to Robo-Ky in the end.

Yep. Not a returning character, but a GUEST is coming to Guilty Gear Strive this winter!

As Faust would say

NANI KA DERU KA NAA~ 🎶

I spent several hours messing with Playlist Mode in Guilty Gear Strive. I am really particular about having certain songs play for specific characters.

Also because each Playlist has 20 slots and some characters have fewer themes, I decided to make each list based on each Guilty Gear Characters’ Unique Personalities. What songs would Ky listen to? What songs would Goldlewis listen to? What songs would Jack-O’ listen to? It really got me thinking about the nuances of each character!

Also I made a separate list for Rival Themes and a separate list for Easy Listening songs with slower tempos. It just seemed like a good idea.

I am still a bit on the fence about the new Battle Pass, mostly because I never felt I wanted much of anything from this set other than Thunderseal. Also Dizzy’s DLC outfit could use different colors if you ask me.

Because I want to unlock more songs though, I am still doing my Daily Challenges on the Battle Pass for a little extra currency for Fishing. I don’t know how I feel about the Sharp Reload Battle U.I. yet.

In other news, I completed everything to do with Castlevania Order of Ecclesia. Honestly speaking the game is more fun on Normal Difficulty once you unlock all the game’s equipment, though by then you will be able to destroy most bosses in the game easily compared to common monsters.

Comparatively, Symphony of the Night is superior to Order of Ecclesia for the simple idea that Alucard has more opportunities to Heal from taking damage compared to Shanoa, even in Luck Mode!

The Damage Scaling they added to Ecclesia’s Hard Mode was completely unnecessary and negates the practical use of most armor and defensive accessories, literally forcing players to rely on the Heart Cuirass in order to avoid most HP damage. Even if you do reach Level 255 the effort seems hardly worth the grind because of the Damage Scaling, which can be frustrating when surrounded by constantly spawning enemies. The Death Tower especially was full of too many Spike Traps and Petrification Medusa Heads all while you are forced to rely on a Magnes magnet glyph to slingshot around to avoid everything. It was overkill.

Bloodstained Ritual of the Night and Castlevania Symphony of the Night are far more friendly by comparison, and there are actually more fun places to play around in within those games respectively. Bloodstained in particular has way more stat buffs and damage reduction along with Healing Shards that make the game much easier to deal with, even on Higher Difficulty.

While Order of Ecclesia is an engaging challenge, I wouldn’t define it as a fun challenge, as at least two bosses are too gimmicky for their own good to the point you just want to clear Boss Rush just for the rewards and be done with it.

All in all, I would say I am still glad I played the game, as it taught me a lot about everything Koji Igarashi learned when making Bloodstained after making previous Castlevania games alongside Curry the Kid.

I just hope Konami has something special planned this year for Castlevania’s 40th Anniversary. And I hope Evil Empire’s Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse can break the Curse that is Castlevania games not being popular or well designed as games.

Likewise I hope Bloodstained: The Scarlet Engagement lives up to Curry the Kid’s Legacy as a Castlevania Programmer, to say nothing of Igarashi as Director/Producer of the game’s story!

While I do like Metroidvania games as a sub genre, I don’t particularly like playing games that deliberately drum up the difficulty with gimmicks. I play games casually despite my skill level in fighting games, so stuff like Code Vein or Dark Souls or even Eldin Ring, I will cheat with every opportunity. Being unkillable is the best feeling to me!

It’s why I like PC games with God Mode in them! I just wish more games did that. I like having an Overpowered Diverse character I can build setups with and experiment with!

Anyhow, I recently made another Strive Video, but unfortunately I couldn’t do. Reload comparison video again because I haven’t figured out how to record gameplay on my Linux PC yet.

Time will tell how that goes, we’ll see I guess.

Ky speculated the Bureau were active again, but he was very wrong.

Instead, it seems there’s a mechanical body rental shop establishment nearby.

He also learned that Sin had mistaken Robo-Ky for himself, albeit only briefly to his chagrin.

But as he began to observe Robo-Ky’s activities, he began to see areas he himself was lacking in!

A clear objective, pursuit of goals regardless of hardship, dreams to turn a barren Mountain in to the largest Tangerine Farm in Illyria, and… the happiness of Marriage.

Ky challenged Robo-Ky to a Duel in order to truly gauge his determination. Somehow, against all expectations, Robo-Ky fought well! No more constant pursuit of data, no interest in specifically surpassing Ky directly. No plans to steal, manipulate, or destroy.

Robo-Ky had evolved in to his own individual!

While Robo-Ky had had enough of Ky’s poking and prodding, and Sin’s “selective ignorance”, Robo-Ky finally set out towards his current true objective.

At first, Delilah was nonchalant, and even perceived Robo-Ky as a threat to which her brother’s Bedframe attacked in defense.

But eventually Robo-Ky disabled the Bedframe’s defense system enough to finally tell Delilah his story.

The story of how Robo-Ky met and fought her Brother, and of the nature of her brother and his true Dream. And of Robo-Ky’s one regret.

Although Delilah had doubts about Robo-Ky’s Dream, she let him share it with her anyway. And got to hear another story about her Brother.

Robo-Ky noted that unlike Bedman, Delilah appeared more reasoning and willing to talk, and although her past made her cynical, at the very least she had a secret Dream of her own.

It’s been implied that Crow Kuruwaba set his sights on capturing Dizzy for experiments and had Robo-Ky be the one to do it, but Robo-Ky was less than happy to do his dirty work, so Crow tried getting A.B.A. to capture Dizzy instead. That went about as well as you might expect.

While it’s true that Robo-Ky had an eye for the ladies, he was never particularly fond of doing anything the Bureau wanted on a whim.

Well, at least the more sentient units that weren’t destroyed by Ky or the Assassins weren’t at least. It’s also why Venom was apologetic to Robo-Ky later, as Venom had a hand in attacks on the P.W.A.B. at one point as well.

Robo-Ky never particularly wanted to play the role of a Mad Scientist’s Lackey, and basically did everything he could to avoid following commands unless they were more forced Directives. Because of how unresponsive his units were, they were deemed useless and discontinued in production, eventually replaced by the O.P.U.S. Gears and of course the Valentines.

Still, even despite being dubbed useless, he served the communities he was placed in to his capacity, even if little kids threw rocks at him in derision.

It’s not made clear at that point how many RK units even remained or even got scrapped or recycled in to other projects.

While Robo-Ky does have an eye for women, he has a decent self-maintaining standard, and as a result has more in common with Johnny than one might expect. He might be flirtatious and somewhat loud and boisterous at times, but his programming is built to serve others efficiently, so he’s not particularly as rude or selfish to other people as he comes off. Impatient, perhaps, lacking in tact, perhaps, but by no means is he particularly insensitive.

Dizzy might be somewhat confused at first (since people have mistaken Robo-Ky for Ky himself before), but a keener eye will spot the differences. She might even be flattered by his attempts to woo her, but if he did that it’s just asking for Lightning to Strike, if you catch my drift!

Ky has had more than two encounters with his duplicates, but never often has he played it off casually, or that is to say often enough.

Robo-Ky would be pushing the Lifespan of his Hercules Beetle if he tried to mess with Ky’s Wife as of now!

Latest body or not, any excuse for Ky to use Dragon Install would be perilous!

I ordered Breakfast with my Groceries this morning.

The Delivery Guy’s name is REYMARIO.

He’s on his way with my Breakfast!