That’s not to say that the combo system to Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus is dumbed down in any way. Just about every move in a character’s arsenal has their own weird attributes and mechanics that can change depending on combat. Once the advanced techniques like Slash Back, Dead Angle, Force Breaks, et cetera come out to play, combos can change in surprising ways and if you’re not careful with what buttons you’re pressing, you could end up wasting all of your super meter and standing around waiting to get pummeled. Guilty Gear is most definitely a game you can pick up and play casually but against someone that’s taken the months to perfect their technique, prepare to get worked over.
Playing online
In perhaps the single greatest achievement to the series on consoles, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus finally features a working network play function for those that want to reach out and touch somebody. For the sake of argument, Guilty Gear XX #Reload for PC’s had online play first, but this is a first for the PS3/360 entries. Within the network play are separate leaderboards and ranking systems for both ‘ranked’ and ‘player’ matches. The latter allows for any combination of the overpowered versions of characters including gold/EX characters as well as the two hidden boss characters (or you can disable them all together) and is meant for more casual play. Ranked, on the other hand, is where most of the players you’ll find online are. Leaderboards are prominent as well are stat/win tracking in a number of categories that show the world just who’s got the best hustle with Bridget. The only downside to the network play is exactly what brings me to my next point.
NOT
Playing online
While Arcsys is traditionally known for having some of the best netcode in the business, it doesn’t quite work in Accent Core Plus. In no less than ten out of ten matches, I found myself with games that felt like they were dropping frames or far behind the action. There was always a constant bit of lag and the entire game felt sluggish during these matches. At the same time, matches in Blazblue felt just like the opponent was sitting in my living room so there’s a bit of parity to the performance of Guilty Gear‘s online play. Between matches against players over in Japan or even across town over PSN, the same network issues kept popping up. Thankfully Arcsys is well aware of the issues with the network side of things and is planning on rolling out some improvements with the upcoming patch, but it’s still a glaring issue that’s a huge blemish on an otherwise polished game. Oh, and there aren’t any lobbies.
Just a port
Aside from the online play functionality and a minimal bit of anti-aliasing, there isn’t anything that sets the PlayStation 3 version of Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus apart from the PlayStation 2 entry. The game is still presented in the same 4:3 fashion as the previous games, only with letterboxing on either sides of the screen with no option for full widescreen. With the anti-aliasing, there’s a minor touchup to the interface and character models but it’s little more than a filter. In comparison to recent digital fighters like Marvel vs Capcom Origins and Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online, Accent Core Plus feels like little more than a port with a modem plugged into the back.
An impending rebalance
It’s been known for quite sometime that Accent Core Plus isn’t going to be the definitive version of the game, so some people may find themselves wanting to wait until the +R update rolls out. The glaring issues of non-existent lobbies and spotty netcode are sure to be fixed with the upcoming patch, but it goes without saying that these are both items that should have been included with the original game.
VERDICT
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus has a great deal of content for newcomers to the series or players that may have skipped the last couple entries but for those that have been keeping up with every new release may find themselves with little content separating this version from the PlayStation 2 release. The addition of online play is a HUGE improvement but still requires some tweaks to be fully usable. If you prefer to focus on local multiplayer, I can’t recommend this entry enough but for those that want to cut their teeth against the best in the world may want to wait for the +R patch that brings the game up to arcade standards.
[Editor’s Note: Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus was reviewed on the PS3 platform. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]
