17th volume of “Developer’s Backyard”(6/28 Release)

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Greetings, this is the producer Miyauchi and the director Katano.

Guilty Gear -Strive- celebrated its third anniversary on June 11, followed by the announcement of the series’ first ever anime adaptation with the reveal of a teaser visual.

The anime’s title is “Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers”!



The animation production will be handled by Sanzigen Inc., who have created many CG anime titles as well as the original music video for the protagonist of Guilty Gear -Strive- Sol Badguy’s theme song, Find Your One Way. The director Morikawa Shigeru worked on the Argonavis the Movie: AXIA series. The script and series composition will be in the hands of Norimitsu Kaihō, who has worked on writing Guilty Gear media ranging from manga to novels, drama CDs, and games. The associate producer Seiji Mizushima is known for his work on series such as Gundam 00 and Fullmetal Alchemist.

Official Site  Official X Account





We’ll be sharing more information about the anime as well as teaser footage on July 4 during our panel event at Anime Expo 2024, an anime convention held in Los Angeles.
Be sure to tune in to the stream to hear more about the anime from Miyauchi, Norimitsu Kaihō and Seiji Mizushima!

◆ Stream Schedule:
Japan time (JST): July 5　3:30(AM) to 4:20(AM)
NA time (PDT): July 4　11:30(AM) to 0:20(PM)

◆ Stream Channel:
Arc System Works America Official Twitch Channel
https://www.twitch.tv/arcsystemworksu

This new development for the Guilty Gear series is only possible thanks to the loyal support of our players. Thank you so much for your continued support.
We hope to show our appreciation by providing updates for Guilty Gear going forward.

Now, let’s discuss the game side of things. In this Developer’s Backyard, we’ll share some behind-the-scenes development stories about A.B.A and Slayer, and touch on the upcoming GGST updates you’ve all been waiting for. Be sure to read through to the end.

　　●　Introducing A.B.A
　　●　Introducing Slayer
　　●　Future Updates
　　●　Tournament & Event Information

Introducing A.B.A!

■Name: A.B.A (VA: Anna Brisbin)
■Height: 5’8” (174 cm)
■Weight: 75 lbs (34 kg)
■Blood Type: Unidentifiable liquid mixed with mercury (needs normal blood for transfusions)
■Birth Date: Unknown
■Origin: Flask
■Hobbies: Observing the world, writing in her grudge diary, planning for her remaining years (always over-optimistic)
■Values: Paracelsus, herself, anything key-shaped, anything she finds too good to waste
■Dislikes: Wasteful people, anyone she deems a romantic rival, people who don’t value their friends
■Affiliation: None
■Weapon: Paracelsus

A homunculus born in a laboratory called Flask.
She’s given the name Paracelsus to an axe closely resembling a key, and treats him as her husband.

Due to her solitary upbringing in the laboratory, she is extremely shy around new people.
She’s still emotionally immature, and shows a deeply jealous and possessive side when it comes to Paracelsus.
She may come off as belligerent, but this is only to cover for her timidity. She maintains a base level of consideration and sympathy for others.

She first sets out on a journey to find a human body for her spouse, Paracelsus.
Now, concerned about the recent changes to his appearance, she is investigating the cause of his transformation.

GG World Ver.1.37 Update
* Includes spoilers for Arcade Mode

  • The recent changes to Paracelsus bewilder her, although they turn out to be a result of her own powerful thoughts.
    Her fear of Paracelsus leaving is strong enough to alter his very state of being.
    After accepting the influence she has on him, she reconsiders her approach to their partnership.

    Lately, she's hooked on the color turquoise blue.
    Her natural hair is red, but she's dyed it blue as part of her fixation.
    Paracelsus (VA: Alejandro Antonio Ruiz)

    A.B.A's weapon as well as her husband.

    His actual name is Flament Nagel, and he is a magical battle-axe used during the Crusades, where he manipulated countless soldiers onto the battlefield to spill their blood. He makes no distinction between friend and foe, and is concerned only with sating his bottomless hunger for violence, whatever the cost to his wielder.

    [Outline]
    Paracelsus is a mysterious form of life known as a Magical Foci. Foci are originally from the Backyard when a person's memories become bound to an object. It is said that the stories of deities and monsters such as Yokai from Japanese Folklore likely originate from historical Foci. A.B.A fell in love with Paracelsus the moment she saw him because he was shaped like a key. She gave him the name Paracelsus and immediately declared him her husband, though he vehemently disagreed. He is still trying to escape from her. With the Crusades over, Paracelsus desperately seeks more carnage, asking every powerful warrior or traveler he encounters to become his new master, though so far to little success. Every person he asked to become his new master soon bore the brunt of A.B.A's furious jealousy.

    While he once could interfere with his wielder's mind and control their thoughts and emotions, he finds himself on the other side of the equation after yielding in the face of A.B.A's tenacious will.
    Her thoughts are formidable enough to change Paracelsus's form, shifting him farther from his original axe shape day by day.
    His form doesn't end up human due to A.B.A's subconscious fear that he would leave her if he had a human body, a fact only Paracelsus is privy to.

    As their time together continues, he eventually comes to appreciate journeying with her, but struggles to find a way to express this.

A.B.A first appeared in Guilty Gear Isuka, then joined the playable cast as of GUILTY GEAR XX ACCENT CORE PLUS R.
As she was never playable in Xrd, she’s come up as a potential playable character idea for Guilty Gear -Strive- since early in development.



● Character Design
Anyone familiar with the series would immediately notice her new turquoise hair. She dyed her hair after taking up an interest in styling herself according to her preferences during her journeys in the outside world.



Paracelsus keeps his familiar look from previous games while A.B.A is in her standard state. When A.B.A enters Jealous Rage, however, he takes on a brand new form (with a goopy appearance).
This comes up in A.B.A’s Arcade Mode story, as the change is brought about as a result of A.B.A’s powerful emotions wielding influence over Flament Nagel, making this appearance a reflection of her feelings in a sense.

● Battle Design
We started by redefining A.B.A’s play style as focused on her key trait from prior titles: balancing a weak standard form with a powerful mode she can switch to.
We then decided on the “Jealousy Gauge” and “Jealous Rage” mechanics as a way to reflect her personality and story.
In addition, we placed the greatest emphasis on ensuring it felt scary just to have her dash up to you in battle.
There aren’t many characters in the series who wield a large weapon and can still dash quickly. Both her animations and gameplay properties really put on the pressure.

Her move names have also changed notably from the previous games.
In past titles, her move names have been single words such as “Dragging” and “Bonding.” In Strive, these moves are now named “Haul and Heed” and “Bolding and Dissolving.”
As many players have noticed, these names describe the movements and emotions of A.B.A and Paracelsus.
You might make some new discoveries if you watch their expressions during the moves with the names in mind.

Slayer Joins the Roster!



■Name: Slayer (VA: JB Blanc)
■Height: 6'1" (185 cm)
■Weight: 70 kg (154 lbs)
■Blood Type: Unable to analyze
■Birth Date: October 31
■Origin: Transylvania
■Hobbies: Haiku, competition, observing humans
■Values: Sharon
■Dislikes: Those with no dreams
■Affiliation: None (formerly the Assassin's Guild)
■Weapon: His own body

A gentlemanly descendent of vampiric lineage, who enjoys genuine combat and haiku as hobbies.
He abides by his own code of “dandyism” and can take nearly anything in stride. When it comes to battle, however, he wields overwhelming strength in great contrast to his calm demeanor.
Due to his lifespan as a vampire, all events in human society feel trivial to him.
That’s only one facet of him, however, as he finds humans and their turbulent emotions in response to such affairs both enviable and endearing.

He founded the Assassin’s Guild, only to retire after meeting his immortal wife, Sharon.
Currently, he enjoys an untroubled life in retirement with Sharon, occasionally venturing out for some people watching.

Sharon (VA: Laura Stahl)

Slayer’s wife.
She is somehow immune to both aging and Slayer's bloodsucking.
No doubt it was these traits that attracted Slayer to her in the first place.
She is quite possibly the only person for whom Slayer has no clever rejoinder.

She’s acquired a taste for haiku as a pastime, along with her husband.



● Character Design
While his design hasn’t been majorly revamped, we’ve added his draped coat and put great care into showing his overwhelming strength in his animations and poses.
Ideas such as his clothes getting left behind during Mappa Hunch and including his younger look have been brought up in past interviews and design materials. When Slayer was chosen to join the Strive roster, we were able to make these ideas a reality thanks to the dedication of the art director Sakamura, who has supported the Guilty Gear series over the years.

● Battle Design
Players would sometimes mention that Slayer seemed like a great fit for GGST. However, Slayer’s gameplay has varied in each of the past titles, so we actually grappled with the decision as to how he would fit into the roster.
I heard after joining the company that during the initial development phase for the GGXX series, he was intended to be a simple power-type character without many combos.
Looking at the changes in the series that followed, this wasn’t the case for every version of him… (This does apply to characters aside from Slayer, as well.)

With that background in mind, for this game we’ve made him a simple power-type character with relatively fewer moves, while still having in-depth techniques for players to explore.

“Haiku” also comes to mind as a defining trait of his.
As with previous games, the poems seen in-game are put together as random combinations of each line.
Currently there are 30 variations for each poem line.

A little peek behind the scenes of development: During the testing phase of game development, we need to check whether random elements like this are implemented properly. In order to check if all of the haiku lines are implemented correctly, we needed to play a ton of matches.
This means the team handling implementation testing generated an incredible number of haiku. During the process, they held a little haiku contest to decide who made the most interesting haiku.

If you come across a haiku you really enjoy, please go ahead and share it on social media!

Future Updates



The addition of Slayer on May 30 marked the end of the Season 3 characters. I’m sure everyone is curious about what kind of updates and characters await as GGST heads into Season 4.

Development for Season 4 is going well, and we plan to share some major news next month. While we would like to reveal as much as we can about the updates we’re working on at the moment, for now we can only share the expected timing of the upcoming battle balance updates.

● Coming Late July, 2024: Minor Balance Adjustments
We’re planning this battle balance update to focus on changes for universal battle mechanics such as the Burst Gauge and Wild Assault as well as changes only for characters who currently struggle to reach their full potential.
While this means some characters will not receive any individual changes, the adjustments to the battle mechanics result in changes to balance for many of the characters. We don’t plan to add any new mechanics or moves at this time.

●Coming Late October to November, 2024: Major Balance Adjustments
This is when the large-scale balance changes will be made.
We expect the changes listed and their effects to greatly impact the overall game balance.
These changes would be planned for all characters. Stay tuned for more information.

Tournament & Event Information

Finally, let’s catch up on AWT tournaments and events.

GUILTY GEAR -STRIVE- LIVE CONCERT at ARC WORLD TOUR FINALS 2023



The first live concert for Guilty Gear -Strive- took place during the ARC WORLD TOUR FINALS 2023 in Los Angeles!
This was the first Guilty Gear concert since Rock on 2Night GUILTY GEAR LIVE 2016. The venue was teeming with excitement and many fans joined in singing along. We’d like more fans to have the opportunity to experience these concerts, so we hope to hold one again in a different location.
You can watch the live concert in the ARC WORLD TOUR 2023 stream below. You can follow along with the comments as well, so be sure to check it out if you missed it!

Stream archive

ARC WORLD TOUR 2023

From March 22 to 24, players who overcame the competition in the qualifiers and topped the charts of the AWT point rankings fought for the ultimate title in ARC WORLD TOUR FINALS 2023.

The event began on the first day with the LCQ, the final chance for players to earn a spot in the finals tournament. The matches started at high intensity and gameplay level, with PAR|Aarondamacc’s Happy Chaos and Apologyman’s Faust winning the right to move on the day 2!



Day two featured group battles with the event placement and point ranking qualifiers split up into groups A to D. The top two placing players within each group moved onto the Top 8 tournament held during day three.
Allow us to introduce again the prestigious players who made it all the way here!



Solo | Verix from Senegal won the day two group battles and the Top 8 tournament! He triumphed with his incredible Nagoriyuki, after showing his astounding potential at Ultimate Fighting Arena last November!

Stream Archive

All of the players did amazing all the way from the qualifiers to the finals tournament, captivating even our development team. Thank you again to everyone who helped make AWT2023 a success!

Before the spark of the battle had time to cool, we kicked off ARC WORLD TOUR 2024 with EVO Japan in April!
Let’s enjoy AWT2024 together just like we did AWT2023!

ARC WORLD TOUR 2024



AWT2024 ups the game by not only adding more qualifier events all over the world, but also with the addition of online tournaments.

The tournaments are divided into Platinum, Gold, and Silver categories, with different points available from each.The winners of the 5 Platinum tournaments earn a spot among the 16 slots in the finals, as these events are large-scale and require many matches to come out on top.



The online tournaments classified as Silver events start from August. While they are worth fewer points than the Platinum and Gold tournaments, each point is more valuable as there are more slots open based on the point ranking compared to AWT2023.
Refer to the tournament rules on the AWT2024 Official Site for more details about the AWT2024 rules.

EVO Japan 2024

AWT2024 kicked off with the first Platinum event, EVO Japan 2024 (held April 27 to 29). The victory went to the formidable American player TempestNYC, who also showed his incredible abilities in AWT2023!

He earned his spot in the AWT2024 finals in a staggering victory where he rarely lost even individual rounds.

The results of the tournaments held from April to May are as follows.

Arc World Tour 2024 - April/May Update and Results

The current tour points ranking stands:

Starting August, there will be online tournaments held using the PlayStation Tournament feature. You can join from the comfort of your own home, so definitely take this opportunity to try out joining an online tournament!
Thank you for sticking with us to the end of this long update.

That’s all for Volume 17 of Developer’s Backyard.
Thank you for sticking around until the end.

We’re currently accepting submissions for topics you’d like us to discuss in a future Developer’s Backyard, as well as questions and comments via the form below.

Check out the official GGST X for the latest info!
https://twitter.com/GUILTYGEAR_PR

For English tweets follow https://twitter.com/ArcSystemWorksU

Developer’s Backyard Submission Form

Click Here!

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