This game is a huge step-up from the first, and while not perfect, it's a game I can see myself returning to. It's more than I can say for the original.
My biggest complaint is with the story, or I guess you could say the lack of one. Like the original game, it features no story mode, and the arcade mode is what you use to experience what story there is. Unfortunately, however, the way this game goes about this is somehow worse than the first game. The winning quotes feel much less specific, and when you finish the thing, nothing is shown but one piece of artwork and credits, leaving you to simply assume what just went on. I thought this was super lame, and was baffled how there wasn't even dialogue exchanges near the end like the first game did. Luckily, the japanese-only updated version "Guilty Gear X Plus", DOES feature a story mode, and delves deaper into each character's stories, and it's great! I especially loved Dizzy (she deserves the world). Sadly, I'm not reviewing that game, so it leaves this particular version's story rather lackluster.
The gameplay is where this game really shines compared to the original Guilty Gear's. Everything has been improved, and it all feels much more balanced. Every character felt fine enough to play as, and one didn't seem a lot better than others, which is a great step above the first. Instant wins are also removed! Or at least, ones that don't win you the entire match. The moves feels smoother as well, and I found myself using overdrives a lot more often, it just felt much more fun. There was also the addition of difficulty options, which was great my newbie self. The updated graphics during the battle was also stellar! The pixel art is so freaking nice, it's very fluid snappy and helps make the gameplay more satisfying.
Along with the gameplay, the music felt more catchy and has definitely seen an improvement too! The ending themes are wonderful, the battle themes were good, and I loved Dizzy's pre-battle theme (I'm not really sure what to call it?).
It's odd, when I first played this game, it was like a swing of both love and disappointment. I cheered for the better gameplay and wonderful art, but then got disappointed for it's lack of story, but then understood the gameplay more, and found myself enjoying it quite a bit. This game was a major improvement for Guilty Gear, and I can't wait what the next game has in store!

I'm going to preface this review by saying that I am NOT a fighting game veteran, in fact, I believe I've only actually played like 3 traditional fighting games before this, and only one of them I am actually somewhat competent at. So, please keep that in mind as i talk about this game and the upcoming games.
I woke up about a week ago at the time of writing with an INTENSE urge to get into Guilty Gear, which was already a franchise I was a bit acquainted with and wanted to get into, with only one problem: it was a fighting game series. I'm no good at fighting games, plain and simple, but I've been meaning to get into this series and ALSO play every game in the series in order (well, mostly), so, here we are!
I was immediately engaged with this game's story from the start. None of the backstory is explained in the actual game itself, but it's all explained in the manual. Information about the world, the plot, and the characters, all of which I thoroughly enjoyed. I was actually very surprised at how interested I was with every character, their stories, and their motivations to enter the tournament with the prize of one wish being granted. While it's very clear that this is only part of a grander story, I think as it stood it was pretty neat! I can't wait to see how it advances in the future.
The gameplay is...alright. I like how snappy the attacks feel, and combined with the beautiful pixel art it's all so pretty and feels nice. The actual combat took some getting used to, but I feel that by the end I got a grasp on how to play and enjoyed most of the characters in the game. However, it did feel as though some characters were DEFINITELY better than others, and the instakill move that won the ENTIRE game pissed me off so much while playing. As agonizing as fighting felt in this game at times, I could actually see myself playing the game again in the future.
The music is also alright! Guilty Gear is known for it's great OST, and this game definitely had some catchy tunes, even if I'm sure the future games will trounce this game's soundtrack in comparison.
Overall, this game is a-okay! Everything about the game is nice, except for the actual gameplay which is a little hit or miss. But, this first entry has already grabbed me, and I'm itching to see how the series continues!

A very neat fangame, even while very obviously one, still had be enjoying it throughout each of my playthroughs.
The story of this game is an interesting case, as it's a fanmade prequel meant to fit into the story of the original game. It adds plot points of past events never mentioned in the game made by Toby Fox, and it gives us a glimpse of the past of the Underground. It focuses on the yellow (who would've guessed?) soul's original owner, a child who willingly fell into the underground in order to search for the missing children (that being the other souls). That being how it starts, the way you go through the game determines how the child, Clover, ends up reacting to the monster world around them. There's the neutral route, pacifist route (neutral not being mandatory to pacifist, and pacifist having 2 different endings depending on a decision at the end), and the genocide route. Although, the only one of the routes that can be considered "canon" to the original game being the pacifist route. I found the pacifist route to be fairly interesting with it's story, delving into ideas about monster and human souls not explored in the original game. The neutral route is a little similar, though getting very empty near the end (the game basically expects you to go pacifist first), but the final act I might've enjoyed even more than pacifist. Finally, there's the genocide route, which I viewed as about as interesting as a genocide route can be, which means being similar to the original game, with the final fight having neat ideas.
The gameplay is basically the same as the original Undertale, with fighting against monsters by either attacking them directly, or confronting them on more peaceful terms and resolving the fight like that. I love Undertale's gameplay. so I enjoyed it quite a bit, and each enemies unique moves I feel were on par to the original (most of the time) and I enjoyed it quite a bit. The bosses were also fun, except for maybe the latter half, where the fights got a little unfair and was a bit trial-and-error-y to be able to beat them. I didn't mind too much though, as the game is pretty generous with checkpoints. The boss fights were of course pretty brutal during the genocide route, but the final boss in the neutral route I found super fun and awesome. My only big complaint with the actual gameplay would be the shooting mechanics near the end, not really enjoying them and not thinking it was really up to par with actual shmups.
Want to know another reason I didn't mind fighting bosses again too much? The music is great! The overworld music is good, the boss music is great, I think it lived up to the original Undertale's "score", if not a smidge less forgettable.
You may have noticed that I didn't really criticize much of the game throughout the review, and that's because I'm doing something a little bit different with this one, as the main problem I have with it having to do with the game as a whole. The problem is simply just that you could very well tell it's a fangame. I'm not sure how to explain it, but the characters being off from now Toby Fox would right them, to the music, while great, feeling a bit off, to the sprite art and animations being TOO good, it's obviously a fangame. I know this isn't really an issue, it was bound to feel a bit off only unless they got Toby Fox to work on it with them, but it's still something I felt throughout playing.
Besides that, the game is great! I enjoyed it with each route playthrough, and could definitely see myself playing it again something. This game truly shows how quality fangames can be, with as much love and soul and what it's inspired from.