Guilty Gear Strive: Heaven or Hell for Gamers?
One of the fighting games that got me into the genre, was Guilty Gear; an under appreciated series made by Arc System Works (ASW), originally for the Playstation and Arcade. It was the spiritual precursor to BlazBlue, which many of us thought was the replacement, though thankfully, it seems they can co-exist. After numerous delays, the newest entry, Guilty Gear Strive, has finally been released. But does it hold a “GUNFLAME!” to its predecessors?
When it comes to graphics, this is hands down the most beautiful fighting game I have ever seen. ASW used to specialize more in 2D sprite fighters, which I always thought they were the best at, but since 2D animation has become more difficult to develop, Arc had to move on to a more 3D model. This move, however, has been their strongest to date. The shading they used on their character models almost trick the mind into thinking they're 2D sprites. It’s like an advanced version of cel shading that they've implemented since Guilty Gear Xrd, as well as Dragon Ball FighterZ and Granblue Versus. All of the character animations and expressions swell with personality and they are a treat to look at. The backgrounds aren't as lovely, but still they are distinct, interesting, and non-distracting. Perhaps the UI isn't as flashy as previous GG entries, but that's the only detractor.
By Arc System Works: Guilty Gear Strive
Guilty Gear Strive soundtrack streamed by LegacyOfKaiser
Guilty Gear oozes style, complexity, but for audio, Strive is filled with a lot of 80's rock and metal references. Guilty Gear has always been known to have a soundtrack that “rocks you”, with heavy inspiration from rock and metal from as far back as the 80's. With Strive, they continue to carry this standard, with intense tracks that really set the mood. Every character has a theme song, and this time all the themes have lyrics that relate to the character's motivation, background, or story. Personally, I think every fighting game should have character specific themes, as they tend to have more personality than stage specific ones.
The sound effects of Guilty Gear have always stood out to me as well, though I do feel like there were some changes. Although there are different sound effects in place of iconic ones, they still have that charm that makes the game great.
Guilty Gear Strive High Level Matches by RajmanGaming HD
Guilty Gear has always been a fast paced and somewhat frantic fighter, that has a steep learning curve. One of the biggest points advertised with Strive is that ARC Systems made the game more accessible than its predecessors. Mechanics and movesets are more streamlined, so its not as intimidating for beginners. For example, the character, Remlethal, can no longer place her swords down to be utilized for a future attack, though there was a certain feel to past Guilty Gear games, that retained a certain tight and fast feeling, similar to Marvel vs. Capcom as multiple hit combos were commonplace. It is still present, but it feels reduced, and there was a certain charm to all the insanity of the mechanics and aerodynamics the series provided. However, as a more casual fighting game player, it is appreciated that the game feels more accessible with a slightly lower skill ceiling, but the gap may be smaller as a button masher can now defeat a seasoned player.
Guilty Gear Strive Glossary: List of Characters
Strive does have a story mode and for what it does right, it really hits the nail on the head. It's an all cinematic story mode that's 9 chapters long, and probably takes about a few hours to watch. I appreciate that there is no need to press a button to keep the speech going, and it can be enjoyed like a movie. It's fantastic that the English voice actors returned (as the last iteration of Guilty Gear Xrd, was Japanese only) and the cinematics, perhaps, are even better looking than the gameplay portion. With many things wrapped up in the Guilty Gear story, as well as the many mind blowing revelations and Guilty Gear lore, with its very dense storyline, thankfully, has an in game glossary explaining every facet of the world. With the glossary, I even learned the name of my favorite character, Testament's, fighting style, as well as the character Johnny being the only one that knows his current whereabouts. Strive’s writing and dialogue seems more natural and cleverer, and less stiff than the previous Guilty Gear games that only had text and pictures for the story modes. Just like the Xrd entries, there are no fights or interactivity in the story mode. It doesn't feel as if fights are forced, the story isn't broken up with gameplay, and this allows character's that aren't playable to do things in the story without having to make it feel like they were so close to being playable. It also allows certain characters to do things in cutscenes that simply wouldn't work for mid game matches. On the other hand, the game would feel like a better package if there was at least one more proper single player mode.
With content and replayability, this is where the game stumbles, like many modern fighting games that aren't named “Mortal Kombat” or “Super Smash Bros.”. Granted it is not the worst offender when it comes to this, but it does falter from the standard that previous Guilty Gear games have set. Outside of training, there is only Arcade and Survival mode for single player. Like most fighters these days, they focus on the online component. Strive was delayed twice, due to the poor reception of the lobby system, and it is now more organized and a bit easier to access a match. They even included rollback netcode, which is the gold standard of fighting game netcode. I applaud them for taking the time to listen to this feedback and improve the game, if only they took more advantage of the delays and tried to expand other areas of the game in content and roster. There are fun unlockables such as selectable music from past GG games, gallery items, and/or colors for the online avatar, but no alt colors for the playable characters, which would've been ideal. Especially since Dragon Ball FighterZ and Granblue Versus had them unlockable as well..
Strive's roster as an objective fighting game is great, as every character is incredibly unique and feel like they're each in a different game. As a hardcore Guilty Gear fan however, this roster is extremely disappointing. It has only 15 characters, and the majority of these characters were in the first iteration of Guilty Gear Xrd. There is only one character that was missing from the previous game, and that was Anji Mito, who I personally never saw the appeal of, nor did he seem too requested to return. There are two new characters: Nagoriyuki, a samurai vampire, who I think is the highlight of the roster, though he isn't my favorite character to play with due to his slow speed and forced health drain mode. There is also Giovanna, a fast brawler type character with a green wolf spirit, who is cool though I wish the wolf spirit was actually a part of her moveset. Three of the characters: Faust, May, and Ramlethal, aren't even in the story mode. Ramlethal is a popular new character so I understand her being in the base roster, but why did Faust and May have to come back? They've been present in every game, so if their roster was going to be small, couldn't they have added them later so that more underutilized characters could have a chance to shine? These decisions by ASW, felt too safe and brought down the experience for me. Someone who’s new to the Guilty Gear franchise would probably be unbothered by this.
Guilty Gear Strive is overall, a solid game, and definitely worth checking out if you're itching for a new fighter. It is, hands down, a masterpiece to look at, and enjoyable to play. My only issue with it is the safe base roster and how it caters heavily to the competitive crowd variety, which is honestly becoming tiring. I can only hope that this game is a critical success, and gives ASW the larger budget it needs in the future, so that the game can be an overall bigger package that still plays and looks fantastic.
I Give Guilty Gear Strive a 4 out of 5 stars.
