Bridget Comes Back To Guilty Gear As Strive Hits 1 Million Copies Sold

On August 7, Arc System Works announced at the beginning of the Guilty Gear Strive Top 8 finals at Evo 2022 that Bridget is the next character joining the game as DLC. Just like Testament, Bridget was not playable in Xrd. And seeing the insane amount of new players outside Japan that Strive brought to the table, this is the first time many fans discover Bridget in the series. Bridget will be released on August 8, 2022 as the first of the four new characters planned in the GGST Season Pass 2.

As re-explained in her new official profile for Guilty Gear Strive, Bridget has a twin brother, and they were born in a village that believed in a certain superstition: twin brothers will bring forth a catastrophe. To avoid getting Bridget killed or exiled, Bridget was raised as a girl by her parents.

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In Japanese media, Bridget is a typical otokonoko (男の娘) character. A recent example is Tsukasa Okino in 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, a game that was highly praised by many including Yoko Taro and Masahiro Sakurai. You should definitely play it. Update: Now that the patch has been released, the Japanese dialogue in-game made it clear Bridget is now a trans character. Moreover, while the official profile didn’t use any pronouns, the English localization in-game used she/her. I updated this article in accordance with it.

Bridget’s character design in GGST is quite similar to her past appearances in XX, keeping the iconic blue and white nun outfit, the mini-skirt, spats shorts, the sentient teddy bear Roger, and the giant handcuffs. Bridget looks cuter and smugger than ever thanks to Strive’s incredible visuals and will make you feel all warm and fuzzy, inside.

In Japanese, Bridget is voiced by Manaka Iwami, a relatively new seiyuu who’s been pretty popular these last 2 years thanks to voicing a few characters in viral gacha games. She’s most notably Amber in Genshin Impact and Rice Shower in Uma Musume. Manaka Iwami also voiced Tohru Honda in the Fruits Basket 2019 anime remake and Nadia Rayne in the Kiseki/Trails series, who’s making a playable comeback in Kuro no Kiseki 2 this September 29 in Japan.

Simultaneously, Arc System Works also announced Guilty Gear Strive has now shipped over 1 million copies worldwide, which is incredible for a 2D fighting game in our era. It’s also a new record for the Guilty Gear series as a whole.

As a side note, Bridget is one of the sole characters you’ll ever see that fights with a Yo-Yo and yet isn’t a direct reference to Saki Asamiya from Sukeban Deka. The heroine of Shinji Wada’s classic manga, launched in January 1976, popularized the weaponization of the Yo-Yo in (Japanese) media. TV anime series Combattler V also greatly contributed to the cause a few months later when its run started in April 1976.

You can find the English dubbed version of the Bridget trailer below. A 1st-year anniversary music video for GGST was also published by Arc System Works. Animated by Studio Sanzingen, which is specialized in 3DCG, it’s a pretty cool video retracing the story of Frederick Bulsara aka Sol Badguy, from the beginning of Guilty Gear all the way to Strive. Last but not least, the Bridget Starter Guide video is out too. Watch it all below.