Guilty Gear board game perfectly translates the video game to tabletop

I never imagined that Guilty Gear’s iconic pre-battle bark, “Heaven or hell? Duel on! Let’s rock!” would show up anywhere but in a video game. But now I’ve found myself saying it out loud whenever I start a match of Guilty gear Strive: The Board Game. Adapting video games to the tabletop isn’t new, but the way it’s done here translates the fighting game into something I never thought possible.

Image: Level 99 Games

Polygon was given an exclusive preview of the game in development by Level 99 using a specially designed demo deck that featured fighters Sol Badguy & Ky Kiske. That same deck is available for free, while supplies last, on Level 99’s website. It even comes with a commemorative coin engraved with “heaven” on one side, “hell” on the other. The set will also be available for attendees at this year’s Evo 2023.

This new expression of the Guilty Gear franchise doesn’t just throw a bunch of familiar characters on a board and ask you to play Monopoly or whatever you’re thinking of. This book breaks down fighting games, focusing on how you should think to be able to master them. This results in a tabletop strategy game that is surprising.

Guilty Gear is a series of highly-technical fighting games. The idea of adapting it to a boardgame seems intimidating. You’ve got features like basic attacks, special attacks, counterattacks, special meters, EX attacks, frame data, blocking, movement, install transformations, and space control, just to name a few. Level 99’s design takes all of that and more, distilling it down into a slower-paced experience where each element is made to represent a separate game mechanic, directly mirroring its virtual sibling.

Image: Level 99 Games

“There’s a lot of tactics in fighting games,” Level 99 president David Talton told Polygon in a recent interview. He’s tried his hand at plenty, but never felt comfortable enough to consider the competitive circuit. “I wondered if I could isolate those tactics from the execution required while still retaining that fast-paced, back-and-forth flow they’re known for, but lower-level players like me can’t seem to grasp.”

Play a game Guilty Gear StriveTwo players fight each other with unique cards. It takes the same amount of prediction and hard decision-making to win in a Best-of-3 match as it does with a conventional fighting game.

The first thing that both players do is select their fighters. In the final version of the game, there will be a total of 20 characters. Each character comes with a unique set of battle cards, an always-in-play ability, and its own install transformation — a secondary physical form that amplifies a character’s strengths or gives them access to an all-new ability. All of these moves are directly inspired by the actual Guilty Gear fighting games, including Ky Kiske’s electric projectile, Stun Edge, which has a range of two board spaces and gives the player frame advantage. In the virtual world, the winning condition is to hit your opponent until their life bar drops to zero. Like the tabletop version of this fighting game, you are free to be brutal or tactful.

Image: Level 99 Games

To play, the game board is divided into nine spaces. The characters start at either the end or the middle of the board. Force is a resource that you can generate by discarding the cards in your hand. It allows you to move away, toward or even over your opponent. Card uses include executing various attacks, as well as generating force. As in a traditional fighting video game, you’ll need to manage your range and resources to pull off certain actions and attacks. This makes it even more critical to manage your Force.

Attack cards are plentiful for every character and each one offers a unique experience. Some cards let you move to an opponent without having to use Force. Other cards pushes or pulls the enemy from you. Along with these standard abilities, you can also find Ultra Attacks as well as secondary effects called Boost on many attack cards. The two alternate attack options give you access to skills and special attacks that will make your character stronger. When a player strikes with one of these cards, they need to take into account its range, power, speed and guard. When it’s used, like in a typical fighter, the opponent can take a guess or predict and counter with a card of their own. Each player reveals their card face up. Whichever attack has higher speed goes first, and if the power is higher than their opponent’s guard, the opponent is stunned and can’t counterattack. Similarly, if they’re pushed out of range and their attack range is too low, then they simply can’t reach for the attack. It’s a brilliant adaptation of the moment-by-moment action in the classic Guilty Gear style.

If you’re a fighting game fan and this all sounds familiar, that’s because it is. It’s similar to frame advantages in fighting games. Being pushed away from range means you must restart your neutral movement. All of these concepts translate from the fighting game to the tabletop very well. The years I spent playing video games allowed me to transfer my knowledge to the tabletop and come up with several tactics to gain an edge over my opponent.

For example, I’d constantly get my opponent in the corner and try to keep them there so they can waste extra Force resources in order to jump over me and escape. It’s even possible to shimmy and mix up opponents here by spending Force to retreat from a cornered opponent, bait a counterattack, and use a ranged attack to possibly stun them and get free damage. What’s hilarious about these transactions is that, just like in a typical fighting game, you can sort of mash for dear life if you don’t have the resources currently by Wild Swinging, which entails topdecking a random counter card during the attack sequence. I cracked up whenever that worked for me and my opponent would say, “Nice mash.”

Of course, the name of the game here is Guilty Gear, and aside from mechanics, there are a lot of little smells of the game here and there that prove that the license wasn’t wasted. Leo’s forward and reverse stance modes each have their own move list. Zato gets an additional character in Eddie that gives him the ability to use two different board areas to attack. There are just so many big nods to the series that show fans this isn’t just some slapped-together project. Especially when the coins used for the life bar come decorated with the iconic “heaven” and “hell” on both sides. And yes, you can use resources to cancel moves into other moves and basically combo an opponent’s classic Gear style.

What’s the best part? Guilty gear Strive: The Board Game will be fully compatible with other Level 99 Exceed fighting games — including BlazBlue, It’s Dark, Street FighterThen, there’s even Shovel Knight. Finally we can all experience Guilty Gear vs. Street Fighter — albeit in a slightly different gaming genre.

Image: Level 99 Games

Level 99’s Kickstarter campaign will begin on Aug. 22, and run through Sept. 14, allowing fans to order the base game for a reduced price. Level 99 anticipates that the retail price of this game will be $99. The final product will include 20 characters to play, a total of 695 cards, two neoprene playmats, and beautiful engraved metal coins — just like the ones being given away today. And if that’s not enough, then the $179 collector’s edition, sporting beautiful acrylic standees for each character, may satiate the Gear in you.

Guilty gear Strive: The Board GameIt is obvious that this was a labor-of-love. Guilty Gear Fans looking for new ways to play the game or as a collectible can enjoy this. It will appeal to fans who may not be comfortable in the world of twitch reaction fighting games, but enjoy board gaming. Anyone who loves fighting games and the feel they give to the world can enjoy what Level 99 did here.