"There's still a bit of work to do to attract new players" - ArcSysWorks' Daisuke Ishiwatari on Guilty Gear Strive, the game's legacy, and more

During the Arc World Tour finals, I had a chance to speak to Daisuke Ishiwatari, Ken Miyauchi, and Akira Katano from Arc System Works. If those names are familiar, they should be. Daisuke Ishiwatari is the creator of Guilty Gear, Ken Miyauchi is the producer of Strive, and Akira Katano is the director. As a long-time fan of both Guilty Gear and especially BlazBlue, it was a real pleasure to be able to speak with the three of them through a translator.

Sadly, we couldn't get all our questions answered as we had limited time for our chat. The others should hopefully be answered in the near future, and we’ll edit those in at a later date.

We also had another minor technical error, where our first question didn’t get recorded. I asked Daisuke Ishiwatari, a man who wears many hats, which role he likes the most. According to the Guilty Gear creator, whatever he’s doing at the time - whether it’s writing, composing, or designing characters - that’s what he enjoys doing the most.

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Daisuke Ishiwatari, Ken Miyauchi, and Akira Katano talk Guilty Gear Strive

Q. As one of the creators of Guilty Gear, how does it feel to see the game last so long - from 1998 until 2024?

Daisuke Ishiwatari: Back then when I was first creating Guilty Gear, I was just a young man with a lot of creative juices and I just wanted to create something. So I was really in the moment and I wasn't really thinking about the future. But if I, right now, 25 years later, went back in time and told my younger self that, hey, Guilty Gear is still going, it's still popular, I think my younger self would be very surprised.

Ken Miyauchi: For me when I first started getting in touch with Arc System Works, it was BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger. And, I've been playing BlazBlue for the whole series, and at that time I was just a college student and had never expected that I would work in Arc System Works. And, even if I graduated, I went with a totally different company, working in a different area.

But then once I decided about moving into Arc System Works, I got into Guilty Gear, got on Guilty Gear Strive. And being a producer, I just think it's kind of like a miracle that came together, supported by a lot of community fans supporting the game. Without it, I wouldn't have my life like this. Yeah, it's really amazing and I feel like it's very important for us to keep this kind of miracle happening and continuing as long as we can.

Akira Katano: 25 years ago, Guilty Gear was coming out and I was a player myself. And I've invested a lot of time into many different tournaments. And once I joined Arc System Works, I started by working on Accent Core Plus R.

As I realized working at Arc System Works, I come in with a different, uh, many different perspectives: as a sort of casual gamer, as a more hardcore tournament player, and as a developer. So I have all these different perspectives, and what I realized is that the fighting game community is made up of very many different communities. And it's a cooperating effort that really makes the fighting game community what it is. And so there are casual fans, and there are also fans like me who have enjoyed these titles for 25 years.

From my perspective, I really want Guilty Gear to not just end at 25 years, but to continue on. These 25 years are just another stepping stone for greater things to come.

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Q. I love GG/BB so much, but if there's anything I've noticed, it is that the games can be very daunting for new players - particularly BlazBlue's intense, long combo chains. Is that something you're looking to make easier in whatever game comes next for ArcSys?

Daisuke Ishiwatari: Yeah. So, as you say, I think BlazBlue, and also back then, the Guilty Gear X series was a combination of all of these different system mechanics that led up to those games, right? So we had such a huge history of developing different mechanics for BlazBlue and the X series. There was just a lot, and it became very complex because of so much that was stacked, stacked up and there was a history of it.

And Guilty Gear Strive was our sort of game where we wanted to sort of reset this whole thing and really start from the ground up again as far as, I don't know, building the mechanics in the systems. But we do feel that there's still a little bit more work to do in terms of attracting new players.

Akira Katano: So with Guilty Gear, our goal is that we want it to be accessible at this sort of entrance point. Like when we first go into it, we wanted it to feel accessible and easier to get into. But we didn't want the game to necessarily be easy.

We wanted there to be some challenge. We wanted there to be value in practicing and learning mechanics and making those efforts feel worth it. And so Guilty Gear Strive is a game where we really studied how we can make those paradigms work within a single game.

Jason Parker: I mean, there’s a reason I stopped playing Jin and Ky as much and started learning Potemkin and Iron Tager! I wanted small combos and big damage.

Ken Miyauchi: So that's something that we really also care that there are a variety of players around who demand very different types of fun or enjoyment. So introducing those kinds of like, for example, short combo but big damage. We want to create those kind of characters along with technical characters like Carl Clover or Zato.

There are people who love creating set plays and doing really technical things. So we try to not steer into one side but try to be, how do I say, broad to appeal to many types of players.

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Q. If you could buff any character in Guilty Gear Strive, who do you think deserves to become a top-tier, unstoppable dunk machine the most? Without any community complaints, if you could buff your favorite character, who would it be?

Daisuke Ishiwatari: Personally, I think Sol Badguy, from the story perspective too, you know; he has a very unique ability, he's very unique. He’s the only one that has this sort of special power. So I think in reality, if we did fight him, there would be no chance. No one would have any chance of beating him. So I would make that happen.

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Daisuke Ishiwatari, Ken Miyauchi, and Akira Katano are in attendance at the Arc World Tour finals alongside Arc System Works’ CEO, Minoru Kidooku. The event will take place from March 21 through March 23, 2024.