Arc System Works just put on its biggest show of the year, bringing top players from around the world together to battle it out for the title of Arc World Tour Champion in both Guilty Gear Strive and DNF Duel, but the implications of the event span beyond the competitive scene.
After crowning Mocchi as the 2022 Arc World Tour champ for GGST on the back of an incredible Sol Badguy performance, ArcSys announced the next DLC fighter for the game and another wave of content coming in the near future.
Bedman Is the next daredevil, which confused a lot of fans because the actual lore of the character returning for anyone who hasn’t played other Guilty Gear games is pretty wild. This is because this iteration of Bedman is actually “Bedman?” or the original Bedman’s sister Delilah being brought into the spotlight as the first playable iteration of the classic character.
She isn’t actively participating in the fight, but rather acting as a sort of semi-controller for her deceased brother’s Reinforced High-Density Bed Frame to bring havoc to the battlefield. The “error-prone” guardian machine could imply a lot about future story threads. Fans can play the character on April 6 alongside a new stage.
This is not the end of GGST’s Season 2 DLC roadmap yet, as another character and stage are set to drop in May, but ArcSys is getting out ahead of that. The teaser points to Asuka Āru Kuroitsu, otherwise known as the series’ main antagonist of sorts, That Man, finally joining the roster as a playable fighter for the first time.
If that wasn’t hype enough, ArcSys also confirmed a third season of content is currently in development too, with more details on that to come in the future.
This is truly a huge push from the company to retain interest in the nearly two-year-old game that has helped push fighting games into an incredible space for online play and post-launch support.
Earlier this month, GGST also launched on Xbox consoles and was added to Game Pass. Since the game now has crossplay, anyone playing Strive on Xbox, PlayStation, or PC can seamlessly compete against each other—widening the pool for matchmaking and helping maintain a healthy playerbase.
And, while Guilty Gear was the main event, DNF Duel got some much-needed love as well.
The multi-game legend GO1 absolutely demolished the competition in the playoffs, going on a 9-0 win streak to lift the Arc World Tour trophy. Along with that, the game is finally getting its first wave of DLC—though for many fans it is a bit late.
Spectre was revealed as the first DLC fighter, with a showcase of her character along with a new Awakening system and some other changes. She won’t release until this Summer, but we also got a roadmap showing a new character coming for Fall and Winter, along with at least two more planned for 2024.
Hopefully, this support will give it a boost as fans wait for additional news and keep praying for crossplay to be implemented in ArcSys’ newest title.
