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 Arc
System Works producer Toshimishi Mori and Guilty Gear series
creator Daisuke Ishiwatari recently sat down with Destructoid to talk
fighting games. In the interview, Ishiwatari shares his thoughts on the
pro fighting game scene, Dragon Ball FighterZ, and hints at what
the future holds for the Guilty Gear series. Interestingly, he stated that
after releasing Guilty Gear Xrd REV2, the team learned what they
need to improve upon. One of those improvements will be to reduce the
amount of gameplay systems in the next installment because it's "too
complicated" for some players.
Daisuke Ishiwatari has worked at Arc System Works for over two decades, so
he knows a thing or two about the evolution of fighting games. Regarding
the current fighting game eSports scene, Daisuke had this to say:
"Arc System Works has worked on multiple fighting games, not
just Guilty Gear but others as well. Our thinking behind
this strategy is that fighting games are a communication tool, so
if there's more out there there's more communication. But EVO is a
larger user base, so Arc has been focusing on tapping into
everyone, so our titles are appreciated on a larger stage."
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Ishiwatari continued by
making some comments about Arc System Works most recent fighting game
release, Dragon Ball FighterZ.
"What we can
say is that Dragon Ball FighterZ was developed based on
the lessons learned through previous Guilty Gear and
BlazBlue titles, but for Guilty Gear specifically it's
important for us to maintain the people we've already won over. At
the same time we do want to expand the userbase so more users are
coming in. Daily, we're trying to figure out what our balance
point is to satisfy our users that are already with us and new
users."
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On the topic of "new
users," Ishiwatari was asked about a possible Nintendo Switch port of
Guilty
Gear Xrd.
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"That's a
really good question. One of the goals for Guilty Gear is
achieving high quality graphics. Specifically on that point the
Nintendo Switch might not be a good match, but that's not our
final conclusion. We're still working on that."
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When asked about Guilty
Gear being a series mainly attracting a hardcore / niche audience,
Ishiwatari had this to say:
"After
releasing Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 it's clear what we
need to improve on. The key is to win over more users because of
the complex controls. But if we implement everything the game will
no longer be Guilty Gear. It's hard to balance out all
the improvements. One thing that we have to do in the next
installment is to reduce the number of systems [mechanics];
it's too complicated for everyone. You can expect that in the next
game."
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The interviewer also asked
Ishiwatari: "Most people think of fighting games when they hear the name
'Arc System Works.' Do you feel like that association puts you in a
corner, or conversely, are you okay with it?" Daisuke responded:
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That's generally
accurate. Looking at our portfolio obviously there's a lot of
fighters. But thanks to working on them we've been able to expand
in scale as a company. With more people the expectation is to be
able to work on other genres, so I think that people can expect to
see more games in the future other than fighters."
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Ishiwatari also talked about
some of his artistic inspirations for character / game design...
"It's not
really related to my life per se, but the core concept behind my
character designs are using things that people are familiar with.
Like Bedman [a fighter in Guilty Gear who sleeps on
a bed while he fights, pictured above], everyone knows that
household item, so I focus on things like that."
"What I do
is in my every day life if I see something that could be
interesting in a game I'll take note. Basically I have a huge list
of notes that I might want to use as a weapon or the basis for a
character. What generally happens though is that when production
starts and I review that list, I can't really remember why I put
that down. In the end I'll go through production trying to figure
out what my purpose was and I'll come up with something brand new
[laughs]."
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Last but not least, when
the interviewer asked Daisuke Ishiwatari how long he plans to continue making games,
Ishiwatari responded:
"Until I
die."
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What a great answer. 
I think all of us can agree that we'll continue to play fighting games as
long as creators like Daisuke Ishiwatari continue to make awesome games.
TFG
Webmaster Comment:
I've
always been an advocate for more "intricate" fighting
games with deep gameplay systems... I've actually been against the
idea of "dumbing down" fighting games since 2009-ish
with SF4 (and even before that, really). However, Guilty
Gear in particular has always been a difficult game for me to
get into due to the vast amount of mechanics required to master.
Roman Cancel? False Roman Cancel? Fortress Defense? Force Break?
Slashback? It's certainly not intuitive or easy for newcomers or
casual players to wrap their heads around, let alone master. The GGXrd series
was a step in the right direction in streamlining a few things,
but is still one of the most intimidating fighters to get
into.
Upon hearing the next Guilty Gear game will have fewer systems
in order to be "less complicated," I'm actually glad to
hear that. If it was a fighting game other than Guilty Gear, I
might have the opposite response. However, for Guilty Gear I think this will be a
good thing. I think something slightly more intricate than
Dragon Ball FighterZ, but significantly less complicated
than GGXrd, would be a nice balance.
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Stay tuned on FightersGeneration.com for full coverage
of Arc System Works fighting games, including the upcoming BlazBlue
Cross Tag Battle.
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