Guilty Gear -Strive-:
The Board Game Kickstarter Goes Live

A New Challenger Has Appeared

Guilty Gear -Strive-: The Board Game brings Arc System Works’ hit fighting game to the tabletop, and it’s an instant buy for me. There are 20 characters included in this game, representing the base game of Guilty Gear -Strive- plus its first season pass.

I’ve sung Level 99’s praises for years because of their skill at translating video game mechanics to tabletop. Guilty Gear uses their Exceed Fighting System engine, which I can say from personal experience is a tight, exciting, and unexpectedly deep dueling card game that manages to faithfully recreate the fighting game experience.

For instance, Guilty Gear -Strive-: The Board Game introduces a “cancel” mechanic, where you can spend Gauge after certain actions to chain into other actions. That special mechanic mimics how you can cancel out of one move to start another one sooner in the video game.

For a more thorough rundown of how the Exceed engine works and why I love the game, you can check out my full review.

Exceed’s Seventh Season is On the Way

If you’re already a fan of Exceed Fighting System (like me), don’t get mixed up by the branding (like me)—Guilty Gear -Strive-: The Board Game is the seventh season of Exceed, they’re just putting the better-known IP front and center.

Despite being a little confusing for Exceed players, it’s a good move. With Strive being as big as it is, Level 99 can bring in Guilty Gear fans, then pull back the curtain to reveal that they’ve actually been playing Exceed all along.

As a side note, this also means that three seasons of Exceed in a row are Arc System Works IPs: season five is BlazBlue, season six is Under Night In-Birth, and now season seven is Guilty Gear -Strive-. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good anime fighter, but hopefully they’ll mix things up a bit when season eight comes along.

LET’S ROCK

If you’re a fan of Guilty Gear, then I highly recommend checking out Level 99’s take on it. If you’re a fan of Exceed, then… I probably don’t need to sell you on this.

Guilty Gear -Strive-: The Board Game’s Kickstarter is live now! Or, if you’re not ready to commit yet, you can grab the free Sol vs. Ky demo deck from Level 99’s website and try out my favorite dueling card game for yourself.