Interview: Talking Guilty Gear -STRIVE- and Lucy with producer Ken Miyauchi

Among the many featured games at Evo Las Vegas 2025 is Guilty Gear -STRIVE-, and as the crowd cheered on their favorite players and attendees lined up to check out Arc System Works’ latest updates, esports.gg met up with Guilty Gear -STRIVE- producer Ken Miyauchi for an interview! Miyauchi talked about the game's direction and goals, bringing Lucy from Cyberpunk: Edgerunners to the roster, Lucy's release date, and more.

In his interview with esports.gg, Miyauchi revealed that he's really happy seeing everyone enjoy Evo. However, the event also reminds him about the fighting game community's (FGC) humble beginnings. Back then, without rollback netcode, he had to drive over 14 hours to a basement where players gathered every Friday with their own consoles.

Now, players can easily find opponents online, make friends, and later meet up at major events like Evo Las Vegas 2025. Comparing the past and present, he noted that players are quite lucky to experience such a level of excitement and fun today.

Miyauchi also shared that although he started his career outside the video game industry, he reconnected with his passion after helping establish Arc System Works America in Los Angeles. There, he applied his past experience to do business development and promote Guilty Gear -STRIVE-. He also worked closely with Takeshi Yamanaka to understand the game's direction and target audience. Then, after returning to Japan, he was appointed producer for the title. His background as a player who can also bridge the communication between Japanese developers and overseas audiences proved vital.

"For me, it's really important to get the correct feedback and also know about the different environment outside of Japan because Japanese fighting game communities are mostly from the arcade era," Miyauchi said. "Of course, nowadays, it has been changing, but their feedback and their reactions [are] different compared to the overseas audience, and their favorites and their dislikes are also different. So incorporating those kinds of differences in the game design needs to be carefully considered. Otherwise, it will just mess up the game design entirely because you don't want to make a game that targets nowhere, right? So [we] kind of need to focus on what we are aiming for, what we are looking at."

He continued, explaining how Japanese video game players often grow up playing titles developed by Japanese creators. This shapes their deep familiarity and literacy with particular games. It's the same with American players. This difference extends to game design where, according to Miyauchi, Japanese games often feature user interfaces that's all about numbers and lists. Meanwhile, American games favor more intuitive designs and directness.

In fighting games specifically, the environments also differ. Japan focuses on offline play while the US is more about online play. This is partly due to differences in network infrastructure and geography.

"When you talk about neighbors in Japan, it's like a five-minute walk away," he said. "When you talk about neighbors in the US, it's not five minutes [of walking]. It's like five minutes of driving. So it's a totally different environment, the infrastructures are different. So understanding those kinds of differences and incorporating them in the game design is something that I need to make sure that Japanese developers know."

During the interview, Miyauchi revealed that his team wanted to bring a new audience to Guilty Gear -STRIVE- by introducing a guest character. They first considered someone from The Witcher series since their lead artist, Hidehiko Sakamura, is a big fan. However, CD Projekt was focused on The Witcher 4 at the time and suggested a character from Cyberpunk: Edgerunners instead.

"At that time, they were already working on The Witcher 4, and they really didn't want to do anything else before they officially released it, so they suggested Cyberpunk: Edgerunners," he said. "We looked into it, and we have a lot of staff who like Cyberpunk 2077 and also watched Edgerunners. So we looked into the characters and thought who would fit uniquely in Guilty Gear -STRIVE-. That's how we ultimately made the decision to bring in Lucy."

When we asked about the role of competitive play in Guilty Gear -STRIVE-, Miyauchi talked at length about how top players create these amazing, memorable moments that draw new audiences in. He sees these pro players as symbols of the game’s identity and he appreciates how they can draw in folks who are unfamiliar with the game. However, a game shouldn’t ever feel like it’s only for competitive players.

"Because if the newer audience sees the high-level gameplay, and if it's something that they would never understand, then it makes them feel, 'Oh, this game looks very hard to play,'" Miyauchi explained. "Technically, it's not that hard. But even if it's not that hard, they would never know because they would never get their hands on the game."

Therefore, it's important that his team works to balance updates that support high-level play while also ensuring the game remains visually clear and approachable for new spectators and players.

"I would love to see any player pick up Lucy and showcase how she plays in the tournament scene," he added. "That would be a really, really great moment."

As for parting words, Miyauchi told esports.gg that Lucy's release date will be announced soon on Aug. 3. "We will have the new character announcement on Sunday," he said. "Of course, that's Lucy, and we'll reveal her official release date announcement and also prepare a little bit of a teaser of what we are looking for after Lucy. So please look forward to it."

That's all for now. Stick around on esports.gg for more interviews, news, and updates across the FGC!