Lucy's guilty gear effort producer, upcoming balance changes and effort 2.00

More than four years after its release, Guilty Gear Strive is still strong, perhaps Cyberpunk’s most prolific DLC character, Lucy from Cyberpunk and released on August 21 as the last part of character Pass 4. But that's not the only exciting thing in the realm of guilt gear. During the EVO's hard-working finals, there was a trailer that announced a mysterious new chapter called Guilty Gear Strive 2.00, and Silhouhettes of both characters made it clear that long-time collectibles Robo-ky and Jam Kuradoberi will be on the Strive's increasingly evolving roster.

To get some details about Strive’s future, I caught up with Ken Miyauchi on the show so I could pick up his brain on all of these points of view.

(Editor's note: This interview has been edited in detail for grammar and clarity)

So in the final of EVO 2025, you revealed guilty Gear Struggle 2.00. Can you tell us what this version is going to have?

Ken Miyauchi, producer of Criminal Gears: Yes, we just announced the trailer showing version 2.00. We are not really explaining what's in 2.00 in particular, but the reason why we show the number 2.00 is one reason. We hope to provide new, more exciting content for the guilty gear effort, and I hope to show more details in the near future.

We also see silhouettes of two characters that will enter Guilty Gear Strive 2.00. It seems that this will be jam and robots. Can you talk about these two characters?

Miyauchi: Yes, we are proving that we are still working on developing more other characters. Of course, Lucy will be launched on August 21, but we are still continuing to develop more character updates that will be two of the two we are currently working on. So, please stay tuned.

Can you tell us what Lucy is and what her style of playing will be? Apparently, she used Cyberpunk's strings, but can you give us a little effort?

Miyauchi: Yes, I think people are watching trailers and trying to figure out what she is doing, and one of the biggest core mechanics that many players might be excited about is her QuickHack Move, which is really direct inspired by the Cyberpunk 2077 gaming mechanic. So we look a lot like Cyberpunk 2077 Quickhack visually. Her movements are very, very unique, and this is Quickhack. So her fighting style will be very unique even compared to the entire guilty gear fight. Yes, I hope everyone likes her when she is out.

Another thing about to go for guilt gear will be the ranking mode. Can you tell us about how the ranking mode is done on the guilty gear and how it differs from the regular tower format?

Miyauchi: Yes, I explain this in our own website column, Developers’ Backyard. So if you want to learn more about how to earn points and how to get a ranking and which rank, You can check it out. So this is almost the regular standard ranking matching system we've been doing, and I think all other fighting games are doing, too. We have battle points, and whenever you win the match and depending on the battle points, you will have a higher ranking, you will get a higher ranking, and you will reach the highest position, which is a rank called Vanquisher. You will be in a rating contest, almost like a rating contest. So, people who are truly competitive can continue to hone their rankings to compete for ratings and try to target them at the highest rankings. Of course there are rewards. So, I hope everyone who plays regularly enjoys playing this mode.

In the ranking competition, we also have some features that people will be excited about. I mean, I hope they have Wi-Fi metrics for us, too, and if there are bad PING showdown goals, you will be able to vote for a no-match. Therefore, these functions will be included. So I hope you can find out how to use these features.

So you also want to tweak things like RISC, WIRD attacks, and I believe Guard Crush is another matter. Can you tell us some changes to these mechanisms?

Miyauchi: So, yes, we also announced that we are making a battle balance patch, which also appears along with the Lucy character update. So we are trying to see the balance of the game and trying to combine feedback from many players on how Guilty Gear Strive is currently playing. And we think it takes several tones to fall, how do I say…game mechanics, general game mechanics, tools that everyone can use.

So, there is a lot of conditioning, but at the same time, we also want to focus on character uniqueness and make sure the character can play the way he wants to play. And I think we have a lot of feedback from players that the current version of Crime Gear strives to support characters who have more access to these game mechanics. So, not relying too much on the game mechanics, that's how we balance this patch direction.

So, Arc System Works recently announced Marvel Tokon, and I think a lot of people are wondering if there are people from the hard team moving to Marvel Tokon or what is the relationship between Strive and the game?

Miyauchi: OK, I wish I could say anything to Marvel Tokon, but unfortunately I don't have the right, and honestly, I don't know about Marvel Tokon because it's really a high-end security project that works internally in the ARC System as well.

So, is there any knowledge about the hard work of those hard-working developers?

Miyauchi: Well, we do have, this is a small company, so we have chats or discussions between teams. But yes, that's all I can say.

fair enough. So with each new update of Guilty Gear Strive, you feel like you're standing out on the list and just the modes that rank now have removed different features. Do you have any other types of features to add to the list?

Miyauchi: So we have a lot of things we want to do, which is something many players have been asking for, and I can't share any details about it right now, but I'm hoping I can show this in the next version 2.00.

Have you ever seen the guilty gear from becoming a fighting game series or even just spin-offs to do other things other than anything else? Apparently, Criminal Gear 2: Overture is an action adventure. Do you think guilty equipment is not the future of 2D fighters?

Miyauchi: Well, I don't have any plans for what I'm expected right now or anything I can share now, but as a producer, I've always been interested in extending guilty gear as an IP to different types so that people who don't fight games will also enter the IP. Yes, if I have the chance to try some different types. But yes, I have nothing to share right now.

Mitchell Saltzman is an editorial producer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @jurassicrabbit