Guilty Gear creator wanted “Hollywood,” James Cameron style for Strive

Guilty Gear’s creator, Daisuke Ishiwatari, continuously referenced Hollywood movies and film director James Cameron when discussing the direction he wanted Strive’s visual style to take.

Guilty Gear Strive is the latest entry in the Guilty Gear series, a fighting game franchise hailed for its immaculate art style and unique blend of 2D and 3D elements.

We got the chance to sit down with Strive’s producer Ken Miyauchi, as well as 2D artist Shoichi Kitazono and environment artist Genki Mamada at EVO 2024, where Mamada let us in on some unexpected information about the origins of Strive’s visual style.

“When we first started having conversations about Strive’s art direction, something Ishiwatari would often say was, ‘Hollywood!'” Mamada told us. “Rather than just making a fighting game, he wanted Strive to have more of an anime, movie or rock video type of look, with more of a grandiose sense to it. Instead of making a simple scene, he was thinking on a multimedia-level scale.

“As more tech became available, his dream of making that became more possible — things like bigger stages, more information that could be put in the game. Making it bigger and bigger was where all of that came from, and it seems like he’s been able to meet that dream with Strive.”

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That’s not all; apparently, Ishiwatari also took a lot of inspiration from James Cameron, a revolutionary filmmaker known for movies like Titanic and Avatar.

“He kept saying things like, ‘Hollywood, Hollywood,’ even mentioning James Cameron,” Mamada said.

Bringing Ishiwatari’s vision to life is no small feat. Both Kitazono and Mamada admitted that there’s a certain amount of pressure that comes with living up to Guilty Gear’s high visual standards — but it’s something the team views as more of a fun challenge than an impossible order.

“Everything that we’ve made up to now and everything that we want to keep making — yeah, there’s pressure, and we keep feeling that pressure, but it’s not necessarily a pressure that’s harsh or painful,” Mamada said.

“It’s more of a pressure to maintain a feeling of making something great that we can really be proud of. With that will to make something great, we keep that pressure, but it’s a fun pressure to want to put those beautiful things into the game.”

“Guilty Gear has a history,” Kitazono added. “It’s on us to expand upon what Ishiwatari-san built, all the designs and everything he’s put into the game. There is a pressure there, but putting that all together is also quite fun to do.”

However, all this pressure pays off when fans are happy with what they’ve made. All three admitted that they love it when fans have positive reactions to their hard work, which they claimed is their favorite part about working on Strive.

“I have a lot of pride with everything I’ve done for Guilty Gear Strive,” Mamada said. “Of course, there’s a lot of pressure too, but as a background artist, you often don’t see a lot of comments on what I’ve done. It’s more focused on the character designs, et cetera.

“But when you do see those comments — when people are very uplifting in their comments about the background — seeing that is a truly happy point for me.”

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“Having something I made show up in the game and seeing other people like it is a really fun part of the job for me, and it really keeps me going,” Kitazono added.

“We all have our own pride in making sure this title is the best of all Arc System Works fighting games,” Miyauchi said. ” And so we are very, very highly motivated to work on it. As a producer, deciding on what to do next is something that really decides the life of the title, which puts a lot of pressure on me.

“But at the same time, when we reveal things, when there are a lot of fans reacting to what they’re seeing, and seeing their excitement, their words and emotions — It’s something that gives me more energy. That’s the really big moment that gives me a lot of power.”

It’s clear that the team behind Guilty Gear Strive is immensely passionate about their work, and it certainly shows in the final product. But what keeps them going the most are fans’ positive reactions to their creations — over two thousand of which registered to compete in the title here at EVO 2024.