Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- goes gloriously 3D

Fighting games held onto sprites longer than many other genres, but they too eventually began shifting into 3D and some of their charm was lost in the process. Sure, Street Fighter 4 looks pretty, but it's not quite the same. After fifteen years of sprites, Guilty Gear is finally going 3D with Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- and oh my! it emulates that sprite-y style magnificently.

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Fighting games held onto sprites longer than many other genres, but they too eventually began shifting into 3D and some of their charm was lost in the process. Sure, Street Fighter 4 looks pretty, but it's not quite the same. After fifteen years of sprites, Guilty Gear is finally going 3D with Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- and oh my! it emulates that sprite-y style magnificently in the Unreal Engine.

Developer Arc System Works announced the face-puncher during its Arc System Works Festival over the weekend. Platforms, release dates, and all that are a mystery for now.

Details: no. Gorgeous trailer: yes. Gosh, it took me a while to even notice that these weren't hand-drawn sprites fighting. Come, watch, enjoy:

From The Chatty
  • reply
    May 20, 2013 6:45 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- goes gloriously 3D.

    Fighting games held onto sprites longer than many other genres, but they too eventually began shifting into 3D and some of their charm was lost in the process. Sure, Street Fighter 4 looks pretty, but it's not quite the same. After fifteen years of sprites, Guilty Gear is finally going 3D with Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- and oh my! it emulates that sprite-y style magnificently.

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      May 20, 2013 6:50 AM

      [deleted]

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      May 20, 2013 6:50 AM

      That is some fucking 3D sorcery right there. That shit looks amazing.

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      May 20, 2013 7:17 AM

      Wow they actually made it look like their old shit by not interpolating the animation frames. Really impressive. They could have made it much smother, but then it wouldn't look like Guilty Gear

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        May 20, 2013 7:28 AM

        Yeah, that was hard for me to wrap my brain around, I was thinking: But... why is it only 30fps? I guess that is Arc System's style though.

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          May 20, 2013 7:49 AM

          I would guess the game is 60fps, but this video isn't. He was referring to the character animations having the small number of frames normally associated with hand-drawn animation, when they could have easily had the models animate smoothly (which would have looked weird with this art style).

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            May 20, 2013 8:25 AM

            It may be whatever frame rate the sprite based games run at since so much about this game is about frame timing. Running extra frames or using something like frame doubling to run at a higher framerate could really screw up the overall feel of the game.

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            May 20, 2013 10:15 AM

            That's what I was talking about. The Arc Sys character animations are normally only 20 or 30 fps, not sure. When Alice said 3D, I was expecting some buttery smooth 60fps movement like in Street Fighter.

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      May 20, 2013 7:41 AM

      I aaw this last night and nearly broke my chair in excitement.

      Can't wait.

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      May 20, 2013 7:54 AM

      Xrd

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      May 20, 2013 8:26 AM

      Wow that's impressive

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      May 20, 2013 9:26 AM

      That's interesting... it not only looks like 2D... you can literally see the animation frames somehow. That's kind of a cool way to please both 2d and 3d fans. It's a gorgeous look too.

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        May 20, 2013 10:17 AM

        Honestly it's looks so much like sprites I'm wondering why they're bothering with 3D models in the first place. What aesthetic or gameplay benefits does it achieve.

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          May 20, 2013 10:22 AM

          maybe they'll have matrix-style 3D slow-mo encircling shots for something

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          May 20, 2013 10:23 AM

          It was probably easier and cheaper than hand-animating the same art would have been.

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            May 20, 2013 10:24 AM

            They can use a skeletal system and map a given move across a whole slew of characters.

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          May 20, 2013 10:23 AM

          Easier to animate I suppose.

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            May 20, 2013 2:04 PM

            Oh yeah, definitely. And then they can just to costume switches and share moves between characters etc with very little effort. Actually, having it look and play like 2D but actually be in 3D is kind of the best of both worlds for everybody. It's kind of brilliant.

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      May 20, 2013 10:31 AM

      I don't really dig on Guilty Gear but gosh do I love the names of their games. Xrd! XRD.

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      May 20, 2013 10:49 AM

      Actually it reminds me a lot of how Fez looks exactly like 2D pixel art until it starts rotating.

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      May 20, 2013 11:43 AM

      No Bridget, No Buy. Do the right thing ASW

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      May 20, 2013 2:22 PM

      Cool. Too bad I'm garbage at these games.

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