BlazBlue vs Guilty Gear: A Thematic Comparison

 As the two hottest, most popular and most well-known fighting game series by critically-acclaimed developer Arc System Works, Guilty Gear and BlazBlue have cemented their place in fighting game history, defining the airdasher subgenre for generations to come. For this reason, both Guilty Gear and BlazBlue are often compared to one-another. On an aesthetic level, on a musical level, on a mechanical level, these series have a number of comparisons, much of which can be attributed to their shared origins. 

I recently got into both series in the last year, and I was shocked to see that beyond some of these more surface-level comparisons, the two stories share incredible narrative similarities. I always knew a lot about BlazBlue because, well, what can I say, it’s fucking dope. But I didn’t get into GG until Strive, and the more uncovered, the more I realized just how connected these two stories are. 

Similarities in Setting:

Let’s start with the settings. BlazBlue and Guilty Gear are clearly set in two different universes, but both make use of the same worldbuilding elements. Both are set in futuristic versions of Earth and feature a mixture of advanced technology and magic, with technology fueled by magic being a pivotal part of the worldbuilding, making a version of Earth so foreign that it barely even resembles the world we live in. Access to magic is controlled by some kind of massive governmental authority in both series—the Conclave in Guilty Gear and the NOL in BlazBlue.

Both series are known for featuring species from gothic fantasy such as Ghosts, Werewolves and Vampires among their cast. Most prominently among the non-human species, Gears heavily resemble Prime Field Devices. Both are artificial beings powered by magic, namely humanoid cyborgs and androids. The Gears and Prime Field Devices each fought a war against humanity: the Crusades for Guilty Gear, and the Prime War for BlazBlue. 

• By and large, the Valentines also parallel the Murakumo Units. Both are a specific type of Gear/Prime Field Device modeled after one of the female characters central to the lore: Aria and Saya. 

Both series have characters living in the shadow of a massive war that affected all of humanity. The Crusades dramatically altered the power dynamics of Guilty Gear’s universe, whereas humanity was devastated by the Black Beast attacking in BlazBlue.

Takamagahara and The Universal Will parallel one-another: they are two of the major antagonists of the series, being robots who were created by humanity but acquired godlike powers. 

Similarities in Characters:

By and large, what surprised me the most was that both series have a focus on family, with three principal protagonists in the same family unit. However, the exact relationships between the protagonists varies between the two series: Jin, Ragna and Noel are pseudo siblings, with Noel being the clone of their sister Saya; while Sol is Dizzy’s father and Ky’s father-in-law. Individually, these protagonists also parallel one-another:

• Sol parallels Ragna. Both are gruff, powerful antiheroes with checkered pasts who are associated with the color red. They are frequently annoyed by the shenanigans of their eccentric supporting casts, but they secretly care about them underneath it all. The two are intrinsically tied to the core conflicts of their series’ backstories: Ragna was transformed into the Black Beast, and he was also sent back in time during Chronophantasma, where he became the legendary hero Bloodedge, making him both the instigator and one of the main heroes of the Dark War; whereas Sol is one of the inventors of Gears and the first Gear, making him indirectly responsible for the Crusades. The difference is that Ragna is frequently antagonized by everyone in his universe because he’s a criminal fighting against a fascist state, whereas Sol is regarded as a hero in-universe and works as a bounty hunter for a living. This fundamental difference feeds into the endings of Central Fiction and Strive. The former ends with Ragna being erased from existence to save the rest of humanity, his entire life spent as a cosmic plaything. The latter ends with Sol regaining his former identity as Frederic, Jack-O now possessing the soul of his late wife, and That Man’s benevolent qualities being revealed. Both are stories about persevering through endless suffering, but one story is one of regaining your humanity and identity, whereas another is about suffering to save your loved ones. 

• Ky parallels Jin. Both are elegant, sophisticated swordsmen who wield swords imbued with elemental magic. They are crucial to two of the major conflicts in their series, with Ky ending the Crusades and Jin ending the Ikaruga Civil War, and this led to them getting high positions in their respective militaries. The difference is that Ky is a genuinely good man who takes on leadership positions with the purpose of helping others, whereas Jin’s mind has been so warped from his sword and Terumi’s manipulations that he is sociopathic, apathetic and cruel. 

• Dizzy parallels Noel. They are initially introduced as unrelated characters who are later revealed to have a secret connection to the other two leads. Both are artificial beings made from magic (Dizzy being a Gear and Noel being a Murakumo Unit), but whereas Dizzy struggles to control her power, Noel isn’t even aware of her power for much of the story. 

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Furthermore, both series also have four major villains, which parallel each other and fall into similar archetypes. Like with the protagonists, how these parallels are executed has dramatic implications for the rest of the narrative: 

• Happy Chaos parallels Terumi. Both are cruel, sadistic beings who merely existed in spiritual forms for millennia before taking on physical forms, and their only goal in the series is to inflict as much pain and suffering as possible. They are also responsible for many events that set the rest of the roster in motion. 

• I-No parallels Nine the Phantom. Both are witches with a deep connection to the series’ lore, with Nine being one of the Six Heroes and the inventor of Ars Magus, and I-No being a time-traveling anomaly whose powers were stolen by The Original. Both are also sympathetic figures with a sadistic streak, and they were wronged in some way by the series’ main antagonist: Happy Chaos stole I-No’s powers, and Nine was killed by Terumi. 

• That Man (Asuka R. Kreutz) parallels Relius Clover. Both are scientists who dabble in magic and science to create beings powered by magic: Gears for Asuka, Prime Field Devices for Relius. In the process, they also experimented on loved ones without their consent, with Asuka turning Sol and Aria into Gears and Relius turning his wife and daughter into dolls. The difference is that Asuka is a man with genuinely altruistic but deeply misunderstood motivations, whereas Relius is actually as cruel and sadistic as he seems. 

• Hades Izanami parallels Ariels. Both are the rulers of massive organizations within their series (the Sanctus Populi and NOL) who only take on an antagonistic role late in the series, but as soon as that happens, they become the primary villain of an entire mainline installment (Chronophantasma and Xrd). Hades Izanami and Ariels are also the physical avatar for another godlike being. “Hades Izanami” is actually the goddess Izanami possessing the body of Saya, whereas The Universal Will is possessing Ariels. 

After this, we start getting into specific parallels between the cast. Again, there are a lot of these:

• Tager parallels Potemkin. Both are the resident grapplers of the game who have a combination of both brains and brawns. Whereas Potemkin is a freed slave wearing a suit of armor, Tager is a freedom fighter and a cyborg. 

• Chipp parallels Bang Shishigami. Both are eccentric, dorky, loveable ninjas with a Rushdown playstyle. 

• May and Makoto parallel one-another. May uses animal partners (dolphins) in her fighting style, while Makoto actually is an animal-human hybrid (being a squirrel Beastkin). Both are loveable, adorable and highly energetic girls and the resident “Moe” characters of the story. 

• Faust parallels Litchi. Both are highly eccentric doctors with a strange connection to magic and ambiguous moral compasses. The difference is that Litchi’s ambiguous moral compass comes from her tendency to backstab the allies if it means she can save Arakune, whereas Faust’s ambiguous moral compass comes from…just how goddamn weird he is.