Overview

Guilty Gear XX is the next part of the Guilty Gear storyline. Introducing new characters and themes, Daisuke Ishiwatari creates the epitome of the Guilty Gear sound in this one. How are the new themes in the series and are the sound improvements a drastic change from Guilty Gear X? Let's take a little journey...

Body

Many of the tracks featured in Guilty Gear XX bear close resemblance to those in Guilty Gear X Heavy Rock Tracks, meaning the veteran themes have a much more raw sound and more focus on the electric guitar. I'll spend this review looking at tracks that are just now being featured in the Guilty Gear series while I'd suggest you refer to my box set or Guilty Gear X Original Soundtrack review for discussion of returnees.

"Simple Life," the theme for Bridget, is a slower rock composition, with some piano accents here and there. The overall melody is rather strong and is a great addition to the series' music. It helps to create this feeling of bliss. Another character, Slayer, has a theme that resembles "The Original" in terms of instrumentation. "Haven't You Got Eyes in Your Head?" is a nice combination of electric guitar and saxophone. The overall jazzy feeling is even stronger in this piece.

One of my favorites, "Good Manners and Customs", belongs to perhaps the most interesting of characters, Zappa. It's an awesome combination of electric guitar, complete with solo, organ, and some nice synth work. It has the most infectious melody of all the character themes, and helps go nicely with the nature of his character. I-No's theme, "Kagematsuri (Festival of Shadows)," is rather standard for the series. Heavy focus on the electric guitar, with very little development in other instruments, it still provides a nice listen.

Finally, absent from Guilty Gear X, "Pride and Glory" makes its return in this album. This is part of the five bonus Guilty Gear X Plus Unreleased Tracks. Rather than regular piano, electric piano replaces the piano portions of this piece, while the remainder of the piece is the classic electric guitar found in the original. It's quite a pleasant listen.

Summary

Guilty Gear XX is the definitive Guilty Gear soundtrack. It offers a much improved sound, the new themes offer a fantastic treat to the listener, and the energy is so much higher than in previous soundtracks. It's a well executed album and it captures the spirit of the game amazingly. If you were to only buy one Guilty Gear soundtrack, I highly recommend it to be this one.