Guilty Gear Strive was pegged as the last fighting game of the eight generation, but following the next Guilty Gear's delay to 2021, it might also hold a new honor. At the recent fighting game publisher roundtable, news came in that Guilty Gear Strive will be making a new kind of jump for the franchise.
Arc System Works' next fighter will no longer be contained to the current generation as Guilty Gear Strive will now launch on the upcoming PlayStation 5 console. The anime fighter will still be coming to PlayStation 4, meaning players won't have to buy into the next generation for the high octane battles.
The announcement of Guilty Gear Strive's new platform was not the only news Arc System Works had for the game at the Japan Fighting Game Publishers roundtable. The publisher and developer also announced two new additions to the still growing roster. The first is Guilty Gear series veteran Leo Whitefang, who makes his stylish return after debuting in Guilty Gear SIGN.
The other character is something of a semi-reveal but a significant one nonetheless. Nagoriyuki is a new character to the Guilty Gear franchise but its not the first time fans have seen the vampire samurai. Nagoriyuki was actually first shown in the reveal teaser for Guilty Gear Strive back at EVO 2019. At the end of the teaser, fans were treated to the first glance of the new character. Almost a year to the day that teaser dropped and even after the gameplay reveal trailer for Strive, Nagoriyuki finally has a name.
The Guilty Gear franchise was not the only one that had reveals at the recent event. The Japan Fighting Game Publisher roundtable was a venue for the juggernauts of the Japanese fighting game scene to discuss the future of the genre and have some reveals. The reason for the roundtable was likely due to the cancellation of EVO Online 2020 amid accusations against its cofounder. EVO is traditionally a big venue for fighting game announcements and with the event no longer happening, the big publishers of the industry decided to press on at the usual time frame for big fighting game reveals.
The other big reveals at the event was confirmation that Tekken 7 is still getting support with the fourth season pass coming, and that Soulcalibur 6 will be getting Setsuka as its next DLC character. As for Guilty Gear Strive, the next character trailer will be coming in early October.
Guilty Gear Strive is expected to release in 2021 on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.