Yooooo Brisket:3
Okay, but besides the point lol. This will be more of a ramble than a review. How would I even try to review a fighting game?
So… I got into Guilty Gear a bit a few years ago. I saw some video pop up talking about Guilty Gear lore and all the crazy shit that happens in the games. I then found out again about a certain character named Bridget. I had seen plenty of memes and shitposts talking about them around the anime community online. The types of memes talking about “Everyone’s gay for Bridget” and things like that. I thought “Oh wow this is a bit older than I thought.” but I didn’t pay too much mind to it. My wife on the other hand was excited to try playing a fighting game again and bought all the Xrd games on PS4. So I tried it out and played a decent bit of Xrd.
Later on we found out that a new one is coming out - Guilty Gear Strive. So my wife goes and buys a copy for the PS4 again and we play it. It’s pretty fun but nothing too special. So it goes back on the shelf and we do not play for a while.
Fast forward a while and I see stuff about new characters getting released and eventually one of them is Bridget. I was like “Oh hey I remember that character… The femboy, right?” but something changes. I started hearing that Bridget is a girl now. I started hearing Bridget is trans… I was amazed. A character only known as a femboy by the general anime community is trans? It's still wild to think about. You know not a lot of anime or games have explicitly trans characters, and as someone who was deep in thought about their own gender at the time it was very cathartic. I was never very masculine myself and always felt put off by trying to fit into a masculine category. So seeing a character who’s whole story revolved around her trying to be masculine and now eventually saying “It’s not me.” felt good. I could relate… I could relate to a trans character’s story.
So I started not long after getting into Guilty Gear again but I had no one to play with. I bought the game on PC since I switched over to PC gaming entirely. The Guilty Gear and Vtubing obsessions would soon though see me start to make friends with other people in the fighting game community. I finally would have friends who would play Guilty Gear with me. Also of course plenty of them are trans and a couple main Bridget. So as a (now) transgirl myself I would take up the mantle and main Bridget myself. I’m getting pretty decent too! I was able to fight my way up the multiplayer tower and have fun in the process. Slowly but surely I get decent enough to go to the local anime con and compete while wearing a full Bridget cosplay!
Rambling aside though, it really feels remarkable how such a simple thing as a character in a fighting game can make an impact (even if small) in your identity. I know I’d still be trans without it but the process of realization would be different. I really feel a genuine love for Bridget in a way… She is part of my development and of my journey too.
