Arc System Works has released the 11^th edition of their Developer’s Backyard blog for Guilty Gear -Strive-. In it, the team takes time to explain all sorts of news and details regarding the game and also gives the official stance on the gender identity of Bridget, a recent DLC addition to the Guilty Gear -Strive- roster.

The latest Developer's Backyard is finally here! Hit the link below: https://t.co/YqMRg2MiVz
— Arc System Works America (@ArcSystemWorksU) September 14, 2022

Bridget is a popular Guilty Gear character that first appeared in the series’ third title, Guilty Gear XX. After being added to the Guilty Gear -Strive- roster as a DLC character in August of this year, Bridget’s gender and story have been a hot topic among fans.

Throughout the series, Bridget has been characterized by her feminine attire. Born as the younger of twin boys, the village Bridget was born in held a superstition that male twins would bring misfortune and insisted that any younger male twin be put to death or exiled from the village at birth. Not wanting to do this, Bridget’s parents hid her gender and raised her as a daughter resulting in the character’s feminine appearance in games.

Not wanting to cause her parents pain, Bridget begins acting like a man and proving the superstition to be unfounded. This backstory has led to Bridget being a popular otokonoko character, a term which refers to males with a feminine appearance, among fans.

However, Bridget’s appearance in Guilty Gear -Strive- saw the gender symbol on her outfit change away from the male sign, with cutscenes in the game addressing the character’s gender identity. This caused murmurs to spread through the community about whether Bridget was transgender instead of a male character with a feminine appearance.

That brings us to the latest Developer’s Backyard where Daisuke Ishiwatari, an Arc System Works company director and general director of the Guilty Gear series, made a statement about Bridget’s gender. It sounds like the company has received a lot of questions on the matter leading to the following response:

“We’ve received many inquiries about Bridget’s gender. After the events of Bridget’s story in Arcade Mode, she self-identifies as a woman. So, as to whether ‘he’ or ‘she’ would be the correct pronoun for Bridget, the answer would be ‘she.’”

In Bridget’s backstory mentioned above, her exploits and success while behaving as a man brought prosperity to her village and overturned the superstition. However, Bridget didn’t feel comfortable continuing to live as a man after this, and that’s where her story in Arcade Mode begins.

Ishiwatari also stated:

“After her exchanges with Goldlewis and Ky, Bridget faces parts of herself she has tried to ignore, and makes a big decision for herself. I hope that all of you will watch over her path after her courageous choice to stay true to her own feelings.”

Bridget’s introduction on the official website hasn’t been totally clear regarding the gender identity of the character, and since she appeared back on the scene, fans have been discussing the matter. There was even a case where someone posed as Arc System Works and posted fake responses as if they were official (related article). But now Ishiwatari who leads the Guilty Gear team has delivered a clear answer to fans and put the discussion to bed.

Guilty Gear -Strive- is now available on PC (Steam), PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. The rest of the blog post discusses the slightly delayed Crossplay Beta Test scheduled for late September into early October, the July Season 2 survey results, the Q&A corner, and more. Check it out here for more details.

Written by. Nick Mosier based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2022-09-14 23:41 JST)

Taijiro Yamanaka

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