I wanna be.
Originally uploaded Sept. 13th, 2024.
About 15k matches and a thousand hours later, I’m still here.
Whew. How did we get here?
I like Guilty Gear. I really, really like +R, a game that came out when I was twelve years old. My first exposure to GG was a pirated version of #Reload, when I was on a fighting game kick and just wanted to get my hands on anything and everything. I mashed around with Sol, beat arcade mode and called it a wrap – moving on to the next game on the radar. I had too many things to see, too many places to be.
I started playing +R in college, specifically around the rollback beta (I had dabbled in it in high school, but I didn’t know what I was doing and the netcode was a turnoff). Since then I’ve gone to four majors, two regionals, and at least a hundred locals. I’ve joined several dozen online events, tournaments, crew battles, special battles, and so on and so forth. I’ve even hosted my own events! I’ve won, lost, won some more, lost some more. It’s been a journey.
That all started maybe, four or so years ago. And things have changed a bit, sure – I’m not the same person I was four years ago.
But I never stopped playing. I didn’t know how to.
It’s a long road to the top. I think there are a number of people, when the topic of getting into older games is brought up, they balk. They’re a little scared of the current playerbase. They go “what’s the point? Everyone is already there already. Why would I learn something that people are already good at?”
But you have to fail. You have to scrape your knees. You have to realize that you only get stronger when you give yourself a reason to improve.
And it’s going to hurt!
There are going to be times when you’re looking at wall of names on quick match and go “I don’t understand why I can’t do it.” You’re going to be sitting in that training mode, slamming your controller out of frustration because you don’t know how to pilot your character the way you can envision it in your mind’s eye.
But you can’t give up.
And then slowly, you’ll get it. Things go from muscle memory, to theory, to second nature.
But like, sure. If you’re playing to just win and nothing else, that’s a good way of going about it. A win streak is nice, a good win ratio is nicer, and a bracket win is awesome. But I’m not playing to win, nor am I playing for just myself.
I’ve met many people on my journey with this game. Some are the bitterest of rivals, forcing us to one-up each other at every turn. I’m playing for them. Others are the sweetest of friends, ones who I know have my back, no matter what. I’m playing for them. Others still belittled me with mindsets that would push others away from any game… but I’m not playing for them. I’m playing to show them they’re wrong, their time has come, and their words will never stop me.
And even still… there’s still another group of people I’m playing for.
We need to talk about Justice. My girl, Justice. I think the incarnation of Justice in +R is one of the coolest characters ever made. I’d change maybe about four things total and she’d be perfect – but more importantly, I think a lot of people who only know +R from an outside view don’t understand why a lot of the characters in the game are so cool. There isn’t a character that is lame… and I think a lot of the hate some of these characters get are from people who don’t understand what makes this fucked up video game so beautiful. The top tier triangle – Test, Baiken and Zappa – are some of these characters, but another is Justice.
I think there are a lot of people who see her at a glance, look at her counterweight, and call it a day. Or another handful of people who see nukes come out on screen and roll their eyes… but there are so many cool things she can just do in a match, both optimal and silly, that make her so neat.
The wiki says her movement is limited, she’s slow, she’s a zoner… and on the backfoot, she’s miserable. But that’s not necessarily true. And I wanted to prove that.
She’s a grappler, with her massive ground and air throws. She’s a zoner, with her nuke set, 6H and tk Michael Sword. She’s a mixup machine once you learn how to do one-hit air michael sword stuff properly. I wanted to pilot this character like you’d pilot a mech. The kind of mech you’d see in something like Getter Robo, or Gurren Lagann. I wanted to be a reason, a reason for people to go “hey… maybe I can get into an older game. Maybe I can hang with people who are twice, thrice my age who have a headstart. Maybe I can be.”
I wanted to show people just how cool she could be. So I’d take shadowplay and clip something cool the moment it happened, and overlay it with my personal music taste. I still do this… but there’s a song that really encapsulated how I felt, but I knew I couldn’t just use it for a clip on twitter.
No. It was special. It was my modus operandi in musical form. It said everything I wanted to say about Justice, and +R, and fighting games as a whole.
And that song is in this video.
I’m sure when I get better, I’ll look back on the clips in this video and go “man, that’s all?”
I’m going to keep playing this game. Not because I’m stuck – far from it. I’ll keep learning other games, and I’ll keep falling in love with this genre.
But as long as I press buttons, and as long as I can talk about it – I wanna be a reason for people to go “Hey, Justice is really cool.”
So let’s go.
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