Daisuke Ishiwatari

is a South African-born Japanese video game developer, illustrator, and composer. He is best known for creating the 2D fighting game series Guilty Gear. He designed the characters, storyline, and wrote the music. He also voiced the protagonist, Sol Badguy, until 2007.

Ishiwatari has worked on several other games for Arc System Works, such as Blazblue as a composer and illustrator, and Battle Fantasia as a voice actor for the character Freed Velez.

Ishiwatari is a metal and rock composer. He's collaborated with other musicians such as Jason Charles Miller, ,

He is also the Chief Creative Officer of Arc System Works.

Career 1995-1998: Guilty Gear (1998) Ishiwatari studied at , and got a part-job at Arc System Works in 1995 after only a year into his courses. He conceived of the idea for Guilty Gear while he was still in vocational school. During his part-time work before graduating, he would serve as a playtester for various Super Famicom games, releasing as Guilty Gear for the PlayStation 1 in 1998.

Ishiwatari had intended for the game's protagonist, Sol Badguy, to be voiced by Koichi Yamadera. However, they were unable to get him onboard, so Ishiwatari decided to voice the character himself; a choice that he admits felt impudent. For illustrations, Ishiwatari found himself taking inspiration from the artwork for various Capcom titles. and as the project was made up of a very small team; it sold well enough to be considered a success.

1999-2006: Guilty Gear follow-ups

A new Guilty Gear game for arcade hardware was commissioned by publisher Sammy Studios in February 1999. X was seen as a great continuation from the original title, and would receive praise for its characters, graphics, and soundtrack.

Following the success of the Guilty Gear X, the series would receive many ports, updated versions, and spin-off titles. Some of these titles included: the Wonderswan handheld titles, Guilty Gear Petit and Guilty Gear Petit 2, directed by Emiko Iwasaki, and the expanded sequel to X, Guilty Gear XX.

Ishiwatari would continue to direct and compose music for the series. Three albums using the music from Guilty Gear X would be released featuring added vocals by Japanese band. Jason Charles Miller would do two albums covering the soundtrack to Guilty Gear XX with vocals. For the South Korean release of the updated version of XX, Guilty Gear X2#Reload, the game would include a brand new, exclusive soundtrack composed by Ishiwatari and Korean musician, Shin Hae-chul. As such, rights of characters introduced in Guilty Gear X or Guilty Gear XX were owned by Sega Sammy Holdings. Due to this, and inspiration that Ishiwatari had received from playing more games from European and American developers, such as First Person Shooters and Real Time Strategy games, he and his team decided to make a Guilty Gear title that was not a fighting game. Guilty Gear 2: Overture would release in November 2007 in Japan for the Xbox 360. Media outlets would liken the title to MOBA and RTS games. Several outlets compared it directly to the Dynasty Warriors series. Overture would receive more mixed reception critically than previous titles.

Ishiwatari (right) and BlazBlue creator, Toshimichi Mori, (left) signing autographs at FanimeCon 2010, cropped.

At the same time, a new fighting game series was also in development at Arc System Works, BlazBlue, and would release its first game, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, in November 2008. Ishiwatari would also compose the music for this series.

2011-2017: Guilty Gear Xrd In 2011, Arc System Works would fully purchase the rights of Guilty Gear from Sega Sammy Holdings. Now no longer concerned with rights issues, a new Guilty Gear fighting game would enter production the Spring of the same year under the name Guilty Gear Xrd. Ishiwatari would return as the project's director as part the newly-formed "Team Red" development team in Arc System Works. Ishiwatari would also compose the music for this title, and it would mark the first time Ishiwatari would work alongside Naoki Hashimoto of the band Outrage, who would return for several tracks in Xrd.

2018-Present: Guilty Gear Strive and new projects A new Guilty Gear title was revealed to be in development by Arc System Works at Evo 2018. The following year at Evo 2019, a proper announcement trailer was shown off revealing gameplay and that the title would use Unreal Engine 4. Later that same year, the game would be given a proper title, Guilty Gear Strive. Ishiwatari explained that this title's focus was to allow for Guilty Gear to be enjoyed by a wider range of players, while still maintaining the essence of the series. He elaborated that he aimed for past titles to be like shogi, where if a difference in skill meant the better player would almost always win. The new title would instead aim to be closer to mahjong, where opportunities could be seized by taking aggressive actions and making accurate predictions. The game was delayed to 2021, and would utilize rollback netcode to allow for easier online gameplay for players over longer distances.

Ishiwatari, once again composing music for the title, would decide to give each character their own vocal theme. Naoki Hashimoto would once again return, alongside new vocalists ,

After it's release in June 2021, Guilty Gear Strive would quickly become the most successful game in the franchise. Receiving praise from critics and winning several awards. As of June 2026, Strive had sold over 4 million copies.

After the success of Guilty Gear Strive, and now as the Chief Creative Officer of Arc System Works, Ishiwatari would direct his first new IP in over 25 years with the 2026 title, Damon and Baby. Ishiwatari's hope with the title was to teach the younger staff members how to make games in different genres, stating "It’s very dangerous to spend decades doing highly specialized work, only to realize later that you’re no longer capable of doing anything else." Ishiwatari believes Queen will always be his favorite band, but has said that he tries to listen to everything. Some of his favorite artists in 2001 included The Beatles, Slayer, and Ringo Sheena; the latter two would go on to inspire his characters of Slayer and I-No.

Ishiwatari has cited the manga Bastard! by Kazushi Hagiwara as an inspiration for character's designs and fashion. a trait that Ishiwatari would borrow into Guilty Gear. Protagonist, Sol Badguy, takes heavy inspiration from Queen lead-singer, Freddie Mercury, and takes his name from one of Mercury's alias of "Mr. Badguy." Character Axl Low takes his name from lead singer of Guns n' Roses, Axl Rose. He's stated that he doesn't fully explore a character's story in the work itself, but tries to make each character have a thematic identity, and have a clear intent on how that should be introduced and concluded. Art director, Hidehiko Sakamura, recounted that during development of Guilty Gear Strive, he was working on a character concept that would eventually become Goldlewis Dickinson. However, he was unsatisfied with the concept of a large, intimidating American Secretary of Defense who fought by swinging a ballistic missile. Sakamura thought his concept was too absurd to work, and he asked Ishiwatari to redesign the character. Ishiwatari returned by changing the weapon to an "even more absurd" idea of a coffin from Area 51 with a live alien extraterrestrial inside.

Personal life Ishiwatari was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and raised in Japan.

In December 2025, Ishiwatari stated that his child had beaten The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and that he was proud that they beat the game before he had himself.

Works Ludography + Game Credits Game Role Year Ref Bishōjo Senshi Sailor Moon S: Jōgai Rantō!? Shuyaku Sōdatsusen Playtester 1994 Virtual Open Tennis Assistant designer 1995 EXECTOR Designer 1995 Wizard's Harmony Debugger, pixel art, coloring 1995 Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls Composer of track "Man in the Metal (Iron Man's Theme)" 2026

Discography Note: This list does not include album releases of Ishiwatari's video game soundtracks with no meaningful differences from their in-game counterparts. + Album Credits Album Collaborator(s) Year Ref Guilty Gear X Rising Force Of Gear Image Vocal Tracks -Side.I ROCK YOU!!- 2001 Guilty Gear X Rising Force Of Gear Image Vocal Tracks -Side.II SLASH!!- Lapis Lazuli 2001 Guilty Gear X Rising Force Of Gear Image Vocal Tracks -Side.III DESTROY!!- Lapis Lazuli 2001 Guilty Gear XX in L.A. Vocal Edition Jason Charles Miller 2004 Guilty Gear XX in N.Y Vocal Edition Jason Charles Miller 2004