The Story Timeline Order of Guilty Gear Games
Guilty Gear is a franchise of fighting video games, known for their anime aesthetics, sci-fi environments, unique characters and fast-paced fighting gameplay. Due to its uniqueness and polished gameplay, Guilty Gear video games earned recognition and prestige among fighting game fans, and are played by players around the world.
What Are Guilty Gear Games Like?
In general, Guilty Gear video games are fighting games featuring multiple unique characters, special moves and combos, a deep fighting system and fast-paced fighting gameplay. Unlike more ground fighting games, such as Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and The King of Fighters, which are generally called "footsies" fighting games, Guilty Gear games typically feature a fast-paced combat gameplay which includes different air attacks, as well as air dashes, allowing the game characters to quickly move in mid-air. For this reason, Guilty Gear games are usually called "air-dasher" fighting video games.
While most Guilty Gear video games are traditional fighting games, there are some exceptions, such as Guilty Gear Isuka, which is a beat 'em up game, and Guilty Gear 2 -Overture- is a third-person hack-and-slash game, among other exceptions.
Is There an Order to Play the Guilty Gear Games?
Guilty Gear video games can be played and enjoyed in any other. However, there is a deep lore in the Guilty Gear series of games, adding to its background story which unveils the motivations and reasons of the different Guilty Gear characters. Not only that, there is a continuity permeating the different Guilty Gear games, which is better appreciated if these games are played in the chronological story order. For this reason, while it is possible to play and enjoy the Guilty Gear video games in any order, it is suggested to play these games in chronological story order for the most comprehensive story experience possible.
The Chronological Story Order of Guilty Gear Video Games
This is the chronological story order of the Guilty Gear video games. This is the chronological order of the story events that happen in the different Guilty Gear games. This is the suggested order in which to play the Guilty Gear games for the most comprehensive story experience possible.
In some cases, some Guilty Gear games are known by different names, such as Guilty Gear XX and Guilty Gear X2, are two different names for the same game. These should not be considered different games. I included both forms of the name because there are some people who know that game as Guilty Gear XX and some people who know it as Guilty Gear X2.
In other cases, there are multiple versions of the same game, with different names, such as in the case of Guilty Gear XX, which is also known as Guilty Gear X2, and different versions such as Guilty Gear X2 #Reload, also known as Guilty Gear XX: The Midnight Carnival #Reload, as well as the versions Guilty Gear XX Slash, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus and Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R. Considering that there are different versions of the same game, as well as some different names, I decided to include all of the names of these different versions of the game in my entry, considering that there are people who know this game by different names. Despite all of these different versions and names, they contain the same story, which is the story presented in Guilty Gear XX.
Guilty Gear | Guilty Gear Petit
Guilty Gear X | Guilty Gear Petit 2
Guilty Gear XX | Guilty Gear X2 | Guilty Gear X2 #Reload | Guilty Gear X2: The Midnight Carnival #Reload | Guilty Gear XX Slash | Guilty Gear XX Accent Core | Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus | Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R | Guilty Gear Judgement
Guilty Gear 2 -Overture-
Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign-
Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator-
Guilty Gear Strive
Guilty Gear Petit is a handheld version of Guilty Gear, and for this reason, these games share the same storyline. Thus, I have included both games as a single entry in my chronological story order list.
The same logic applies to Guilty Gear Petit 2, which is a handheld version of Guilty Gear X, and for this reason, these games share the same storyline. Thus, I have included both games a single entry in my chronological story order list.
Guilty Gear Judgement is a handheld version of Guilty Gear XX, which may also be called Guilty Gear X2. While Guilty Gear Judgement features an additional single player beat 'em up mode when compared to Guilty Gear XX, the game contains the same storyline as Guilty Gear XX, and for this reason, I included both games as a single entry in my chronological story order list.
Due to the gameplay and camera perspective differences between Guilty Gear 2 -Overture- and the other Guilty Gear video games, some people assume that Guilty Gear 2 -Overture- is a spin-off game. However, this is a mistake. Guilty Gear 2 -Overture- is canonical to the Guilty Gear games story and lore, and contains an important part of the Guilty Gear games story.
Spin-off games, such as Guilty Gear Isuka, were not included my chronological story order list of Guilty Gear games because these games do not feature a storyline. Instead, I wrote these games in a separate list, which can be found below in this article.
Guilty Gear Spin-Off Games
In general, these are games that lack a storyline or a story mode. For this reason, these games can be played in any order and were not included in my chronological story order list.
Guilty Gear Isuka
Guilty Gear Dust Strikers
Pro Jumper! Guilty Gear Tangent!?
The Story Timeline Order of Guilty Gear Games
Considering the years in which each Guilty Gear game takes place, I wrote a timeline of the Guilty Gear video games. The years in this timeline should be considered fictional years in the Guilty Gear games universe, and for this reason, these years could be called "Guilty Gear years", "years in Guilty Gear time" or "years in the Guilty Gear games universe".
2180 Guilty Gear | Guilty Gear Petit
2181 Guilty Gear X | Guilty Gear Petit 2
2181 Guilty Gear XX | Guilty Gear X2 | Guilty Gear X2 #Reload | Guilty Gear X2: The Midnight Carnival #Reload | Guilty Gear XX Slash | Guilty Gear XX Accent Core | Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus | Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R | Guilty Gear Judgement
2185 Guilty Gear 2 -Overture-
2187 Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign-
2187 Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator-
2187 Guilty Gear Strive
As it can be seen in this timeline that I wrote, most Guilty Gear video games take place at the end of the 22nd century, and are set at very approximate times to each other. In some cases, multiple games take place in the same year, such as Guilty Gear X and Guilty Gear XX which take place both in 2181, as well as Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign-, Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator- and Guilty Gear Strive, which are all set in 2187.
In the cases of the Guilty Gear games that take place in the same year, while I did not find the month in which each game takes place, which could make my timeline more detailed, I did find the information in regards to the relation between these different games, in the particular aspect of their chronological relation, as to whether which game is set before the other. Thus, while my timeline only contains years, and not months, it is chronologically precise and accurate.
Sources of Research: