I really like Guilty Gear Strive. Since online play was made available earlier this week, it has captured my attention. With 15 distinct characters, each with its own appearance, demeanor, and playstyle, it is well balanced. Additionally, Strive will show you the door leading to its greatness, unlike past Guilty Gear games, which have proved to be too complicated for a large number of players.
And such insight! The series’ excess has been removed in Guilty Gear Strive, revealing a snappy, fashionable, and colorful fighting game with an instantaneous thrill to play and an alluringly inventive core. Yes, some of the intricacy from earlier iterations has been removed, but Strive is still rather deep.
Arc System Works has successfully navigated this delicate situation. How to appeal to both newbies and seasoned Guilty Gear fans at the same time? The Japanese studio’s designers came up with many solutions. Strive is a little more tolerable since it seems a little bit slower, even if the game’s sheer weight contributes significantly to its rapid speed. Strive is a powerful tool. With each cut, it seems real and dramatic on television. In this game, a counter hit—the most prevalent fighting game mechanic—rocks the screen, temporarily slows down time, and triggers an announcement that says “counter!” In case you missed it, the word “COUNTER” even appears in front of your eyes. with Strive, like with other fighting games, you counter a lot. Here, however, it’s very apparent.
Compared to earlier Guilty Gears, Strive is less dependent on combos, yet spectacular combinations are still achievable. Universal mechanisms, such the Dust overhead, Dust launcher, and Dust sweep, control the majority of the characters. Each character has a limited set of special techniques and command normals to master, all of which are standard input instructions from combat games (quarter circle movements, hold back then forward, etc.). Instead of chaining blows all the way from weakest to Dust, Guilty Gear’s universal Gatling combo system now emphasizes stronger attacks, such as slash and heavy slash. It’s another instance of Arc System Works cutting unnecessary features. Before, doing a lot of damage usually required nailing a lengthy combination. For Strive to do substantial damage, shorter combinations are needed. You just need to use an Overdrive attack after a slash into a strong slash to significantly reduce your opponent’s health bar. Because of this, Strive feels more comfortable in the neutral area, or when both characters are at a distance where neither has an advantage. Nobody is in the corner, both are standing, and neither player is putting pressure on the other.
Do not misunderstand; combo masters will undoubtedly succeed. However, Arc System Works has included an additional mitigation mechanism. Similar to other fighting games, you have a clear advantage if you can pin your opponent at the conclusion of the level. lengthier combinations, more damage, and the pressure of having your opponent pressed up against the ropes. Strive has a wall break mechanism that, at sufficient damage, causes the stage wall to finally collapse, allowing for a stage change. Importantly, both characters are back in stage neutral when they land in this new area—the wall breaker—giving them a minor recovery edge over their opponent who has been knocked down.
This is a truly intriguing new feature for Guilty Gear, and it perfectly captures the intention of the game’s makers. There’s just so much time you can be bashed up against the wall before the stage transition space is reset to neutral. You have one more opportunity to battle.
A game of Strive may end in the blink of an eye despite all these mitigating mechanisms. As stated by Arc System Works, Strive ups the damage to allow novice players an opportunity to leave a mark with a few hits. Rounds go by quickly, particularly if you’re being smashed by Potemkin’s Buster or are the victim of a rushdown character like Giovanna—a recent addition.
It’s most enjoyable to run down your opponent in Strive. The majority of the cast is suited for an all-out offensive tactic, while a few characters—brawler Potemkin, hard-hitting vampire samurai Nagoriyuki, and cunning Faust—offer an alternate playstyle. For instance, poster boy Sol Badguy and May, who calls upon aquatic creatures like dolphins to subdue her adversary, are both excellent choices due to their unrelenting assault style. Attempts to aggressively discourage blocking and cautious play. If this is the case, your Tension meter will be penalized negatively. If you kick ass, your Tension meter will get a positive benefit. Blocking is for Tetris, I picture the designers at Arc System Works telling themselves. Guilty Gear is meant for submission.
And what a stylish defeat it looks! The most visually stunning 2D anime game to date is definitely Strive. It’s eye-catching, intricate, and flawless. There is a lot going on in the arenas; in some, there is ambiance lighting, while in others, there is the motion of enormous monsters. The visual style of Guilty Gear is disorganized, but still manages to function. It has science fiction knights, witches with guitars, enormous sword-wielding bounty hunters, demon assassins, insane doctors, and, well, just about everything you can imagine mashed into a futuristic America enhanced with magic. There’s a lot happening. Not everything is to my liking. The unrelenting rock music from Guilty Gear creator Daisuke Ishiwatari becomes annoying after a while. However, Guilty Gear Strive never gets old.
Alright, so sometimes it is dull. The five hours of non-interactive cutscenes that make up Strive’s narrative mode center on a Joker-like figure who wrecks the day of the US President. The Guilty Gear mythos is absurd, let’s face it. There are superhumans, flying ships, demons, and machines that contain fragments of the souls of the deceased. At one point, the head of security for the president appears out of nowhere and throws away a rocket. That’s OK! Regretfully, the tedious storyline is a boredom fest. There isn’t much action, therefore the majority of the excessively drawn-out narrative is devoted to folks chatting away on future keyboards and discussing very serious topics. many serious issues, each more serious than the previous.
While Guilty Gear Strive’s 2D combat are stunning, the plot sometimes seems a little off. The characters’ legs move quickly as they skate on the ground instead of running as they should. When there is action, it’s also not very good. Though there is the occasional touching moment and series fans will enjoy watching what happens to their favorite characters, Guilty Gear Strive’s narrative mode falls short of the greatest fighting game storylines available.
The narrative mode is a component of an otherwise unsatisfactory single player package. The dojo has a tutorial, training (thank goodness, you can queue up for matching from training), and Mission mode, which is an excellent effort by the devs to educate those who have never played Guilty Gear before how to play it. Even character-specific matchup strategies are taught via missions (rival fighting game creators, pay attention!). I particularly like the command list, which includes brief contextual summaries and small movies that demonstrate how to do certain moves. However, upon launch, there isn’t a digital figure mode or a combination challenge mode. There are also a survival mode and arcade mode, which regrettably lacks original cutscenes. It’s the end for lone gamers. No, Guilty Gear isn’t Mortal Kombat.
The allure, therefore, is online gaming. The netcode seems to be holding up rather well, thank goodness. With the exception of the odd game when the action slows a lot, the most of my matches have been playable. Because Strive makes use of crowd-pleasing rewind netcode, the user experience is enhanced. The lobby system is something that is not enjoyable to use. It’s unnecessary to dress up as an avatar and get ready for battle at a duel station in this 2D retro-themed lobby. Once again, I see that Arc System Works is aiming for something unique, but also something that will grow with time. My little avatar is able to grasp a stick. or a blade. or a baseball bat. More accessories, I believe, are on the horizon.
I do my hardest to put all of that aside and go right into a fast match, which forces you into training and takes care of the matching while you practice. Thus, you can very much disregard the lobby. However, it doesn’t improve the flow in any way, particularly when the game unexpectedly switches from training mode to the lobby due to a failed matching attempt.
Digging into Strive’s systems and expressing oneself via competitive play is the goal. This is a very fulfilling workout. The Roman Cancel system, which allows you to slow down opponent time and make attacks combine that otherwise wouldn’t, is the key to it all. Another excellent illustration of how Strive maintains depth is this. The Roman Cancel comes in four flavors, each having a practical use. Trying out all of them is a lot of fun.
I don’t want to emphasize how accessible Guilty Gear Strive is. After all, it’s still a Guilty Gear game. It remains a fighting game, too. Dragon Ball FighterZ, the fantastic fighting game from Arc System Works released in 2018, is simpler to play. Though not as simple as earlier Guilty Gear games, Strive is still challenging. The farther you get into it, the more you’ll need to consider. As I indicated before, there are four varieties of Roman cancel. Additionally, there are four distinct kinds of blocks! There are four gauges to monitor: the hit points of the characters, the burst (which allows you to break out of combos – and there are two types of burst! ), the tension gauge (which is similar to the super meter from other fighting games), and another (tiny!) gauge for what’s called R.I.S.C. (basically an anti-turtling meter). It’s a lot, and the Strive user interface could be too information-packed.
Additionally, while Strive’s initial character count of 15—quite modest for a fighting game—seems to make things easier to handle, each character is a game inside a game. The majority of fighting games use interchangeable characters to expand their playable cast. When I say that each of the fifteen characters in Strive plays distinctly differently, I mean it. Consider the terrifying vampire samurai Nagoriyuki. He is not able to double leap, air-dash, or dash normally. However, he is the only character in the game that can change into a beserk by using his blood gauge. He may use a special Overdrive and his attacks alter in this condition.
“Guilty Gear’s characters are nowhere near as iconic as, say, Street Fighter’s, but Daisuke Ishiwatari’s creations are way cooler.”
“Technical shadow warrior” is how Zato-1 is best characterized, and it pretty much sums him up. This blind killer uses his shadow to attack, choking his opponent with offensive confusion. Elevated by flying ball monsters, Ramlethal Valentine is a “mid-range brigadiere” with two enormous swords that hover at her side. I like Guilty Gear’s character designs, imaginative item names, bizarre attire, and unique battle techniques. I’d want to play every character! The characters from Guilty Gear aren’t quite as well-known as those from, say, Street Fighter, but Daisuke Ishiwatari’s designs are nonetheless far more awesome.
A Guilty Gear game is something I’ve never been able to get into before. Fighting video games are my favorite. I like video games like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Marvel vs. Capcom, Tekken, Soul Calibur, and Virtua Fighter; but, Guilty Gear has always eluded me. Strive reaches out a helpful hand that I have firmly grasped. And I don’t plan on letting go.