Fighting game tournament EVO 2024 took place this weekend, an annual event marked by fierce competition between the best players in the world and several update announcements for just about every fighting game going. The most exciting this year, to me: Lucy from Cyberpunk 2077 anime Edgerunners is joining the roster of Guilty Gear Strive.
Season four of Guilty Gear Strive will introduce a new Team Of 3 mode, new stages, a new character called Unika, two fighters returning from previous Guilty Gear games, Queen Dizzy and Venom, and Lucy from Edgerunners. It’s out today, and it’ll cost £23 from Steam. The base game is currently 50% reduced, meanwhile, at £18.49.
I’m a big Cyberpunk fan, but I’ve only seen a couple episodes of Edgerunners and I have no particularly affection for Lucy. My interest here lies mainly in how stunning Guilty Gear Strive looks. It’s the game I tuned into watch at this year’s EVO, because although I have only a passing understanding of fighting games, and no ability to parse high level tournament play, its character design and animation are worth the effort of trying. I feel similarly about Studio Trigger, the Japanese animation studio behind Edgerunners and Lucy’s character design. She doesn’t seem to have heard of trousers or to know what belts are for, but I want to see her in Strive.
Guilty Gear is getting its own anime. Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers is coming next year from Sanzigen Studio, and new character Unika is apparently a key character from the show. A teaser trailer dropped a couple of weeks ago.