Given that I'm (as of writing) the only person to give a rating for the game, I figure I should probably give a review. If you liked Guilty Gear X, this is just a better version of that, but the ways it improves will matter on varying levels depending on whether you speak Japanese or not.

Firstly, the game adds two more characters, Justice and Kliff (there's also Robo-Ky but he's more of a wacky alternate version for Ky). These two are nice to have in the roster, even if I don't really play them myself.

The next is that it adds a story mode, which would be a big deal, but the story is delivered primarily through text boxes before a fight. These boxes play automatically, and the text is only in Japanese (since this is a JP only release). Playing with a script open alongside the game isn't ideal but it is possible, there's no patch for this game to put English text in naturally. There are ending CGs that you get at the end of each route. Each character has three routes, and which one you travel down depends on how you fight, with a lot of different stipulations, and some fights alter the characteristics of either you or your opponent to match the events of the story. I actually think this is a really cool way to use fighting game mechanics as a storytelling device, and it elevates the game's story a bit even if it's a bitch to play. Guilty Gear X2, and its variations, as well as French Bread's Melty Blood would iterate on this a bit, and later on BlazBlue would take even better advantage of these ideas, in my opinion becoming some of the best storytelling in the medium. Going back to GGX+'s story, I think the stipulations to reach some routes can be a bit ridiculous (one route requires beating the opponent whilst the clock is on a multiple of 11 seconds), and the difficulty can definitely ramp up unexpectedly. Since some routes depend on a win/loss outcome, if you lose a crucial fight, the game might progress and you'll have to redo the whole story to get another chance at the win route. The story is essentially one arc that plays out in a bunch of different ways, rather than a long form episodic narrative, and there's no true ending, so it can get a bit repetitive as well as just feeling kinda pointless after a while, doubly so if you're not able to actually read the story without an external script.

There's also a challenge mode added, which I didn't play much of, but it was neat. The challenges are essentially fights with special conditions. These conditions are of course, outlined in Japanese text in the menu, so more external scripts are required. That being said it isn't unplayable because of this, and there's definitely fun to be had if you're a completionist.

I've mostly been talking about the new elements, but even if they aren't appealing to you, this game does still have everything else from the original Guilty Gear X. Arcade mode has no dialogue, just like in vanilla X, so you can play that without a script open, and there's no reason not to use this version if that's what you're here for. Similarly, you don't need to read much at all to just play versus matches against other people or the CPU, or to do survival mode. So even if you view all the story and challenge stuff as just extra and not worth it, there's still no reason not to just play this version over the original, given the extra two characters and balance changes. It's all around just a better game, even if those changes might not matter to you anyway.

good luck

In all honesty, as a sequel to Missing Link, I’m surprised this game isn’t talked about nearly as much as its predecessors or its successors. This game might as well be the next coming of christ as far as gameplay is concerned - next to missing link X is a massive improvement. There’s actual balance in the game, kinks that missing link had in its gameplay have been ironed out: chaos meter has been reworked into the tension system, instant kills have actually been balanced into the form you’re probably familiar with (they function the same in X as they do in XX and Xrd, sans Gold Instant Kill), the Guard Gauge makes its first appearance here, functioning essentially the same as it does in later versions of X and XX, and Roman Cancels make their first appearance here! The amount of influence X had on the series as a whole is undeniable, and turning the broken mess of Missing Link into this is a genuinely impressive feat and I’d say that this was the much needed sequel that Missing Link needed, and you can tell that Daisuke’s vision was definitely achieved in some regards at least when compared to its predecessor. Elements introduced in X would eventually be expanded upon in the XX series of games, but X provided the incredibly solid foundation for those games to work upon. The roster is also amazing, X adds such amazing characters to the roster - Venom, Jam, Johnny, Anji and Dizzy are all incredibly well designed characters with impressive variety between the five of them. Characters have also been reworked: practically every character gains new moves that are essential to how they function and existing moves have been reworked to fit the rebalanced game in place of their Missing Link incarnations.

How about the visual presentation? No longer confined to the visual and audio limitations of the PS1, Guilty Gear X is free to take full advantage of the hardware. The new spritework is amazing as all-hell (reused all the way up to AC+R!), with an insane amount of detail rendered in them along with exuding the character’s personality and style perfectly. Background stages are also beautiful in this one, reflecting the tone of the game and feel of the world of Guilty Gear perfectly. What about the UI? An element I am again surprised isn’t brought up at all is how spectacular the visual layout of this game is. It rocks so hard - the lowercase phrases scattered throughout the game combined with a robotic voice echo the heavy metal feel the game loves to flash are simply epic. Often undermined as low-quality or simply overshadowed by XX’s themes (practically every theme from X is reused in XX), X’s soundtrack is really damn good. Transitional tracks like Go! bang alongside new and reworked character themes, my favorite of which being May’s new theme Blue Water Blue Sky which might actually be my favorite Guilty Gear track in general? The Skid Row influence is insane and I love everything about it, I may actually prefer every track in X’s soundtrack to their XX counterparts. If you played this game on the Dreamcast, the sound quality was cut significantly. It’s got a charming feel to it and I wouldn’t actually say it detracts from the tracks that much, I’m mainly just a sucker for compressed audio.

At the end of the day, while certainly overshadowed by its sequels, GGX manages to serve as a competent base for the rest of the franchise to build upon. There are some flaws for sure (no story mode in the base game), but I’d certainly recommend it to any fan of the franchise to experience what is probably the most important game to the franchise in improving from its predecessors.

I love you Daisuke.