My thoughts on Guilty Gear Strive

So I really enjoy fighting games a lot, like a lot a lot. The rush I get from being in an intense and chaotic fighting game where every move you make can mean the difference between win or lose is like no other. One of my favorite fighting game series ever is Guilty Gear, with its awesome character designs, kickass music, and complex mechanics and techniques; it's probably one of the most exciting and stylish fighting game series. When Guilty Gear Strive was released a few years back I was fucking EXCITED man. Like holy shit, it looks so fucking good, the music was incredible, and it was actually dubbed (The english voices are alright, but still nice to have them). Wittle hyperlink was squirming in his old ass dingy refurbished office chair to just play that shit.

Well. Hate to break it to you and past hyperlink, but I REALLY do not like Guilty Gear Strive, like to the point I just try to avoid playing it. "Oh but hyperlink, t-the game is...it's just so good bro! It's probably the super coolest fighting game I've ever...like...played man!" Well like yeah, if you've only ever played fucking Smash Bros. your entire life I could see why you would think the Strive is a good Guilty Gear fighting game. Sounds like I am shitting on Smash Bros. too, but I want to emphasize right now that I love Smash Bros. as it was basically my first fighting game series I've ever played. From my observations, it just looks like once Smash players were getting bored with Ultimate, most went over to Guilty Gear Strive as it was the new shiny toy to play with. Anyways, there is a lot to unpack on my feelings with Strive, so I'll just go down the list, and y'all can just read it and think, "Damn, doesn't this 20 something have anything better to do than bitch online about some fighting game?" (Sadly, I do have better stuff to do, this whole post is me procrastinating though...sigh...) 

First of all, the UI for Strive sucks. Weird complaint I know, but I am a sucker for decent graphic design and user interfaces. Thing is, Guilty Gear XX and Guilty Gear Xrd has a really cool looking UI, like look at this shit man!
So notice how everything on top has this industrial, grunge kinda look? Looks awesome, then you go over on the bottom to where Strive is, and it looks flat as fuck. Minimalist design is the single worst thing to happen to graphic design I am not joking. I fucking HATE this stupid style, it's so fucking boring, it looks lazy, there is no soul put into it at all. "Oh but the other game's UI looks cluttered and too complex." Thing is, there are ways of decluttered and simplifying the UI, and still have it look and feel like a Guilty Gear UI. I will be fair and honest, the accents around the character profiles, the Burst bars, timer, and lives, do look cool. But it's just not enough, the character select screen is so basic, everything looks so basic, and boring. It legit feels like the soul of the series was sucked out and we're are just left with this fucking empty hollow husk that's trying to be like the other Guilty Gear games and it just fucking can't.

Secondly, the game speed is SO SLOW dude. And it's not my computer running slow, or bad internet, or some other excuse. Like all of the movements, the attacks, everything just feels so fucking slow and boring. "Oh but hyperlink, other fighting games have similar movement speeds, if not slower." True! Not even gonna argue that, that is absolutely true. Thing is, other fighting games like Tekken, Samurai Showdown, and Skullgirls were always slow, that is their style. Meanwhile, other games like Fatal Fury, KOF, and Street Fighter, is always tweaking and adapting the movements between games so that while they feel different between games, there’s still enjoyment in how the movement and pacing fit the identity of that specific entry. Like yeah, Street Fighter IV is waaaaayyyy slower than Third Strike, but it still feels like a Street Fighter game, it still is tight, deliberate, and grounded in footsies. The problem is that Guilty Gear was always the chaotic, highly-technical, fast-paced, heart-pounding, petal-to-the-fucking-metal, stylish fighting game. Strive is slower than Xrd, which is fucking sad because Xrd was already slower than Accent Core. 

Which leads into my last point, it wasn't enough for them to slow the fucking game down to a crawl, Strive had to go and neuter half the mechanics that made the series fun as fuck in the first place. For all you Smash Bros. fans, think of it like this: Melee is super technical, with wave-dashing, l-canceling, SHFFL, dash dancing, and other kinds of crazy shit. Then Smash Bros. Brawl comes out and half that shit is either nerfed to shit or removed entirely. Remember how there were barely any Brawl tournaments back in the day (I'm asking on a website that's mostly used by teenagers apparently.)? Because all the Melee players realized that playing a slower, shittier version of the best game sucks ass. Go figure. Same logic applies to Strive. Accent Core gave you so many fucking options to choose from to attack, chain combos, and deal with certain situations. Xrd, as annoying as some of those mechanics like danger time or blitz shield were, at least tried to add depth and complexity to Xrd (I think they are fine in a casual match, but I can see the frustration of using them in tournaments). Unfortunately, all the shit in those games that made the game fun and exciting, gone. Air mobility? Nerfed. Chaos Roman Cancel? Gone. Dead Angle? Gone. Force Breaks? Also gone. Instant Kill Moves??? Fucking nuked (I get disabling it for tournaments, but why they have to remove it entirely?)

It's okay guys because the game is streamlined now, it's now accessible to play for everyone! Isn't that fucking awesome!!! No!!! Hate to be the douchebag gatekeeper, but selling out a game and its mechanics to appeal to new players who will probably drop it when the next fucking Smash Bros. game comes out is not what I would call "awesome." Hell, I'd go ahead and call it an absolute nightmare. This whole notion that we need to water down fighting games to make it easier for new players so they don't feel left out is just silly. Fighting games are supposed to be hard!!! You are supposed to fail, learn, adapt, and overcome. That is the normal fighting game experience. And honestly, I'm being a little unfair to the new players, I get why they'd enjoy Strive if they never played the previous games, and at least the series is actually getting eyes on it now. But don’t come at me acting like this is peak Guilty Gear, its not. Don't be telling me shit like, "Oh dude this game is so fast, I can't keep up." Like damn bro that's crazy, maybe lay off the glue and crayons while you're at it. (That was rude I'm sorry. Shit.) I don't hate Strive because it's new, I hate it because it forgot what made Guilty Gear special.