Case Cover
Guilty Gear Judgment (Japan Version)
Case Cover
Game File (1 of many)
Publisher: Arc System Works (Japan), Majesco Games (North America)
Japan Release Date: August 24, 2006
North America Release Date: September 5, 2006
Number of Players: 1 - 2
Wi-fi Mode: Ad Hoc
Liking the Guilty Gear series, I decided to get this game. After hearing it will have a Final Fight type of mode, I made it a must have game. However, I chose the Japanese version over the North America one since there were some differences. As a result, I gave up on the story translations for newer stuff
About the game
Guilty Gear Judgment is half new & half port. It's actually two games in one. The new game is the Final Fight style which is the actual Guilty Gear Judgment game itself. The other half is the VS fighting port of Guilty Gear XX. The Guilty Gear XX game is different between the North America & Japanese version. I'll explain what they are later in this review. The version I got is the Japanese one, so most of the stuff here will be focused more on that version.
Graphics
Since this is a 2D fighting game, there is probably not much to show on the PSP. The Judgment game is pretty good as it make use of the PSP's widescreen. The characters aren't stretched out or squished badly. You can't change the view to 4:3 on Judgment, but with XX you can. However in Judgment, they do look small as the faces are hardly seeable. When you play the Guilty Gear XX game, you will see a huge difference. However, the sprites look very bad when you get close up views of them. Most noticeable is Zappa's entrance when those bugs come flying across the screen. You can really see all the pixels.
As for the movements, it's not bad. It's pretty much what you would expect from other Guilty Gear games. It's not smooth as some of them just perform the action right away. It's like it's missing some frames to make the movement smoother.
The still portraits are the same as past Guilty Gear XX games. It has the realistic look & less anime style. Some of the realistic looks I like as they are appealing such as Jam, but some aren't too good such as Bridget. Bridget not only looks more like a guy, but it makes him look very old.
Music & Sounds
Expect the same voices & sounds from past Guilty Gear XX games here. No changes here really. There are some new sounds in the Judgment game, but most of it is the same as they are mainly peon grunts. As for the music, it still has the rock theme even in Judgment. Sometimes the music overpowers the voices & vice versa. The clarity of the sounds is good even with the external speakers. The sounds are quite loud at the lowest setting. But the voices are hard to hear a bit as it sounds muffled.
Gameplay
Depending on which game you play, there are different modes for each. If you play the Guilty Gear XX game, you get the same modes as its port such as the arcade mode, story mode, M.O.M. mode, training, network, etc. In addition, you get a gallery of pics. For Judgment, you get the standard arcade mode. For both games, you get to set the difficulty level. But Judgment only has two difficult levels. But it's not a problem as you get to continue on the stage you last left off. XX is a different story. No matter what difficultly level you set it on, the game will get harder as you progress. On my first try, I spent over 30 minutes trying to kill I-no. Due to frustration & getting low battery, I give up. The difficulty level was set pretty low & I'm not a Guilty Gear pro.
Because of the different game modes, Guilty Gear Judgment makes the controls different from the two games. Playing XX, you would play it the same way as past Guilty Gear games. With Judgment, you will play it as like Final Fight. If you have played Guilty Gear Isuka, the controls are different here. There is no turn button, giving you the freedom to move better. However, it's quite difficult to put some directional pad moves due to the direction your character is facing. You may put a move that you didn't want to do or did it at the wrong direction. Instant kills are in the XX game, not in Judgment.
Speaking of moves, they aren't too hard to pull. You can either use the directional pad or analog nub. However, you need to turn the nub on in the options or else it won't respond. Turning it on won't affect the directional pad. I'm not sure why Arc System gives this option if you can still use the directional pad anyways. Over time though, the moves may get harder to pull due to the amount of time your thumbs are going at. Some of the moves require some fancy work & your thumb may not perform them as clean as you started out due to the design of holding the PSP.
One problem I have is from the Judgment game. In the final stage, I didn't know what I was doing as I spent most of the time running in circles finding an exit. Over time, I started to think there wasn't an exit or end to it unless you died. I think this is true when I went to all the exits & collected all the items around. It made the game feel incomplete, which I didn't like.
For load times, it's reasonable. At the start, the load time is quite fast before you start selecting the game. After selecting either Judgment or XX, the game takes about 10 - 15 seconds to load. Judgment loads faster than XX; at least with the Japanese version. Also, it auto-loads any game data saved. Speaking of game data, it's separated into two as Judgment & XX gets their own saves.
Extras, Bonuses, & Secrets
In XX, you get to unlock some extra characters such as new ones or different variations. Also, you get to unlock pics in the gallery. In Judgment, you get to unlock some extra characters depending on which character story you chose. Also, you get to unlock a new character name Judgment by finding items in the final stage.
Differences between the North American & Japanese Versions
Aside from translations in understanding the dialogue in Judgment, the biggest difference is the port area. North America gets Guilty Gear XX #Reload, while Japan gets Guilty Gear XX Slash. One confirmed reason why Japan got Slash is because they already had Guilty Gear XX#Reload released for the PSP already. Why North America didn't get Slash is unknown. Some say it's due to license cost, some say it's time constraints, etc. By getting Slash, you will get two extra characters who are A.B.A. & Order Sol. Because I like A.B.A so much due to her character style & appearance, I suckered in to the Japanese version. Plus, I haven't tried Order Sol before & got Guilty Gear XX#Reload for the PC. However, Robo-Ky 2 doesn't appear here. For me, it's not a big loss since he's just a customizable character. I think the North American version gets him.
Replay Value
Although you get two different fighting game styles in one, you will find the game to lose interest fast. XX offers a lot of different modes, but it will get tired fast as you probably played them before in past Guilty Gear XX games. The same can be said about Judgment. You pretty much play different characters to get some backgrounds about them, but all the stages are the same. The only thing worthwhile is finding the letters to unlock Judgment. You get a good price for paying for two games, but it won't last long.
Overall Conclusion
If you are a diehard fan of fighting games & the Guilty Gear series, this game is worth getting. You are getting two games for one low price. However, the game can get old very quickly as it is a 2D fighting game. Even with Judgment being something different & new to the PSP game library, it's not very fun as it seems even though I like those kind of games. Depending on which version you get, my ratings is a bit different. Since I own the Japanese version, I give it a 7.5 since it has Slash in it. For the US version, I would give it a 6 for having Reload instead. Slash is a better game than Reload in my view since it is newer. Also, Reload has been around North America very long already & it makes it not worth getting again on the PSP. For a few bucks more, getting the Japanese version is a much better bet. That's my recommendation.
Last updated on June 28, 2007
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