Arc System Works has revealed gameplay details on their upcoming New Guilty Gear, along with some other announcements.

In their tell-all stream last night, Japanese representatives of the household name fighting game developer demoed the first footage of the tentatively titled New Guilty Gear. The demo, which was in full English apart from the voices (and English voiceover was confirmed to be on its way), was accompanied by a reveal trailer for presidential ninja Chipp Zanuff and supersoldier grappler Potemkin. Both of them were accompanied by new vocal themes, and apparently every character will now have a theme song with singing. This marks six characters for the demo at ArcRevo America in two weeks.

The team is looking for fan input on the demo, and it’s easy to see why. Aside from the placeholder UI and the lack of some attacks due to being unfinished, the footage shown paints New Guilty Gear in stark contrast to the rest of the franchise. This entry is dispelling the need for long combos by cranking damage levels up and making stage transitions occur as free combo breakers when someone is repeatedly slammed against a wall. There are many other little changes that the Guilty Gear community is currently mulling over, but you can rest assured that A. this game is being made with both newcomers and veterans in mind, and B. absolutely everything here is subject to change right up until the game launches.

At any rate, the game also features a massive number of visual indicators, explanations, examples, and tips worked into its UI and menus, all for the purpose of trying to help novice players improve. The current character select comes with a number of character statistics, ease-of-use ratings, and general categories. Even the match-endslate features breakdowns of player performance and tips and observations on their playstyle. Other details stated were that the team was considering rollback netcode but couldn’t talk about it yet, the apparent theme song Smell of the Game would be releasing on music platforms for purchase, and that a closed PS4 demo would be coming in Spring 2020.

New Guilty Gear is one of the best-looking games ever, and its approachable design only makes it look more appealing. We’ll be keeping an eye on this, and you can expect lots more news on it in the coming months.