Last week, I chose Guilty Gear Xrd’s ending arcade theme. Since then, I’ve been looking through the rest of the game’s excellent soundtrack. Daisuke Ishiwatari is a huge Queen fan (the main character is even named after Freddie Mercury!), so a power ballad like “Icarus” is practically expected. However, there are plenty of other songs that worth a listen. “Heavy Day” has some great vocals and riffs, “Jack-a-Dandy” has a nice jazzy sound, and even the “Menu Theme” is a fine acoustic guitar mix. Pretty sure I know what my first playlist of 2015 is going to be…
Fun fact: Street Fighter II Turbo was the only fighting game I played as a kid. No, seriously. I didn’t know about King of Fighters, Tekken, Virtua Fighter, or any of the other iconic brawlers of the old school gaming generation. So imagine my shock when I first played Guilty Gear X2, one of the greatest fighting games on the PS2. It had incredibly detailed sprites, edgy and stylish characters, fantastic settings, stunning special effects, and an absolutely killer soundtrack. My world was rocked; for that time onward, I made a point of playing every Guilty Gear game I could get my hands on.
I wasn’t the only one, either. After years of re-releases, the fans finally got the next-gen sequel they’d demanded. Guilty Gear Xrd was recently released for the PS3 and PS4, just in time for the holiday season. And from what I’ve played so far, it’s exactly what everyone wanted: several badass characters, stellar voice acting, blisteringly fast-paced combat, incredibly technical gameplay, and graphics that utterly trounce any 2D fighter before it. Of course, it has a ridiculously awesome OST. There’s the usual blends of rock and metal, though there are a few more lighthearted tracks scattered throughout. Daisuke Ishiwatari, the legendary director, artist, writer, and composer behind the Guilty Gear series, happens to be a huge Queen fan. Tracks like “Lily” are fine examples of the work he does.
Polymathically 