So for the past few weeks I've really been loving Guilty Gear X Heavy Rock Tracks; enough so that I shopped around and bought a copy. I've read this is more of an arranged album so I'm a bit weary of where next to drop my cash in the series. Any fans wanna help a Guilty Gear newbie out?

Others' answers may differ, but for my money the only necessary Guilty Gear albums are:

- Guilty Gear X Heavy Rock Tracks (which you already have)
- Guilty Gear XX The Midnight Carnival Original Soundtrack
- Guilty Gear XX Sound Alive
- Guilty Gear XX #Reload Korean Version

You may want to give Korean Version a listen first to see if it's to your taste, as it has a number of tracks I don't really care for, but I consider the good to outweigh the bad in this case.

EDIT: And I should add that Heavy Rock Tracks is not an arrange album. You'll notice that the subtitle of the album is "The Original Soundtrack of Dreamcast!!" So, yeah.

Guilty Gear is popular enough that you can pretty much plug any track name into youtube and hear every version.

I don't know how others feel about it, but while I love most of the series music (and found the Korean tracks a delightful "interpretation", so to speak), my favorite is still the original Guilty Gear Original Sound Collection (which is probably pretty hard to get now). Back in '99 or 2000, stuck in study hall, had my first MP3 player (CD-based!) and listened to a random album I grabbed back when nobody questioned FTP downloads as the primary option for non-Japanese obtaining the music. I was hooked from the first track.

(incidentally, that excellent first track was cut from the Sound Box release to make room for the character ending tracks, which had previously been left to a separate CD. I think it may not even be originally part of the game, but I haven't played GG, so I wouldn't know.)

I also rather grew to like the Isuka score over time, even though it's more experimental than the regular stuff. "Sheep will sleep" and "Riches in me" are favorites of mine. I didn't really like the extra tracks that were added later, though (Fill de vent, Quicksilver, etc), but I suppose I haven't really given them a chance.

"Guilty Gear XX Sound Alive" is a live concert album, which I'm usually not that fond of (with some exceptions), but there a few VGM-listening feel good moments as when the audience audibly cheers for the final song (track 21).

Actually read that in the review on this site for it. Thanks for the clarification.

Unfortunately the shithole I live in has dial-up availability only. I sample very infrequently because its so time consuming. It's both a blessing and a curse.

Thanks for the input, you guys. I'll check these out, but keep the opinions coming...

Sound Alive is great if you like raw interpretations of stuff. A bunch of things are a bit faster and unrefined but it makes for awesome listening. They also have a couple of new interpretations for certain songs.

You can skip out on the GGXX album if you buy Accent Core Plus. That is pretty much the whole soundtrack with Holy Order Sol and A.B.A added in.

Korean version is a must listen to. The songs made for it have a completely different sound and are quite refreshing when you tire from Keep Yourself Alive? and some of the less remarkable themes on the original.

In short I agree with pretty much everything said so far.

I'll also reiterate that Vaerean has the major bases covered. I'll throw in Guilty Gear Isuka as well (the soundtrack, not the game), although that's when the music starts to veer away from its hard rock foundations in my opinion. Still a number of great tracks, though.

Are you saying the game comes with a soundtrack? 'Cause if so, I might just have to upgrade my copy of Guilty Gear XX (no subtitle).

Although I know other people might strongly disagree with me, I'd recommend you give more priority to BlazBlue than much of the series, as it has some of Ishiwatari's best.

There is a surprising and disappointing lack of Isuka in this thread.

Yes, Heavy Rock Tracks is probably the best of the bunch, but Isuka is easily the second as far as I'm concerned.

Yep I mean that one. Try it out sometime. The mechanics are tweeked out as hell and a bunch of the characters play a tad differently now. Its nice to see all the new work they put in it. Its also cool that all the stages from Slash and #Reload are in there.

Bonus Tracklist
http://vgmdb.net/album/12998

You know what else was surprising and disappointing? Isuka.

Zorbfish, keep in mind that while Guilty Gear XX Original Soundtrack and Guilty Gear XX Sound Alive are both great albums, much of the content (i.e. character themes) you will already have heard before. Granted, these tracks are largely accepted to be superior on these versions, but they still have the same old melodies. There are several great new tracks too, however, so don't let the retreads dissuade you. Of the two albums, the GGXXOST has more substance, but GGXXSA is a live performance.

On the other hand, the tracks on Guilty Gear Isuka and Guilty Gear XX #Reload Korean Version are all brand new. Take Isuka if you're fine with a little bit of variety, and Korean Version if you're fine with a different composer altogether. They've grown on me personally, and I think they're worth checking out.

And I'd like to echo the BlazBlue recommendation. Same composer as Guilty Gear, and some kickass new tracks.

Isuka is doo doo. #reload Korean Version rules all.

My two favorites are #Reload Korean (because it rules all!) and also Guilty Gear 2 Vol.2, the latter of which is harder hitting than Isuka and kind of hearkens back to GGXX but with 100% less butt rock. It's a "truly exceptional release", and Chris's review over at SEMO pretty much nails it on the head with a great writeup. To quote:

As far as the other stuff goes, I used to love Sound Alive and wrote a really positive review for it four or five years ago which was just re-edited and published over at SEMO recently. It's an energetic performance and is a great companion piece to GGXX, but over the past few years I started to favor #Korean and recently GG2V2 much, much more than the original trio of Guilty Gear CDs. That's just me, though - you should check out all of the GG releases that have been mentioned as well as GG2V2 on my recommendation and see which ones you care for the most! Youtube is a great resource for streaming music from soundtracks to see if they're something worth picking up.