Review for Guilty Gear: Strive. Game for PC, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, the video game was released on 09/04/2021
Here we are. After postponements and several betas in which we had the pleasure of testing the different builds, Guilty Gear -STRIVE- finally roars on our screens. The Red Team of Arc System Works proposes us a new vision of its iconic warriors, who have set our screens on fire since the Jurassic period 1998, going to upset his iconic series to the basics.
Sol Badguy, Ky Kiske and supporting actors can finally benefit from the miraculous "fake 2D" already tested on the much appreciated Dragon Ball FighterZ, with a use of the Unreal Engine 4 to say the least miraculous and improved for the occasion. In addition to this amazing new graphics, there is really a lot of meat on the fire.
The events narrated on the screen, proposed by the inevitable story mode, continue the plot of the saga where we left it, providing an exhaustive chronology of events to update the players who are still starved of the epic of the Gear Maker and of the crazy world plots orchestrated and opposed by the Gear. Despite this, the neophyte of the saga will in any case remain unrelated, at least for the first few hours, to the events of the characters who will battle on screen.
The story is divided into 20 chapters, animated in a perfect anime style which often shows the side during the animations of the secondary characters and in the between the characters and some backdrops. 20 very long chapters, which would have made the joy of an entire Netflix series, because there is nothing to play. Nothing at all. We would have expected the classic alternation between cutscene and fighting à la Injustice or Mortal Kombat 11 and instead ...
More than chapters we are talking about real episodes of an anime, which masterfully continue the events of a very intricate plot, and of s between staid and experienced supporting actors over the centuries. Proposing a summary would be really impossible, just imagine a futuristic world, animated by a very advanced technological magic, where nothing is impossible and secular beings weave their plots, between gargantuan clashes and global geopolitical crises.
To reinforce the Single Player experience the inevitable Arcade mode comes to our rescue, very lean, which offers us the classic sequential encounters to culminate in the clash with the inevitable Boss on duty. All in less than a dozen fights, which make us foresee that what we are playing these days is just the taste of something more full-bodied that will be added later.
An essential tool for the player who wants to easily master the most advanced strings is the training mode. In Guilty Gear -STRIVE- he shows himself in great shape, with an opponent programmable at will to stage the most disparate situations and better prepare for the real confrontations that await him. Very important absent from the Dojo is the Frame List, which shows itself to be absolutely devoid of the numerical values of the individual moves.
Absence that made us frown, in a fighting scene where it is now a good practice to insert the aforementioned in order to better understand the various match ups between characters and guess punishments and answers without having to press "quick" keys without any knowledge of the cause. The lack of a Frame List it will greatly complicate the deep understanding of the various characters' kit, also here we cross our fingers for a future insertion.
If in Guilty Gear -STRIVE- the single player experience is decidedly atypical, it seems clear from the outset that the focus of the title revolves around the clash with real opponents locally and naturally online. The much-criticized lobbies in the Beta phase remained almost unchanged, but the related bugs during our gaming experience never showed up. It will therefore be possible to compete in special rooms created by individual players, in order to train in company, and in a classified mode that will see us climb the floors of a tower in order to reach the top.
All by impersonating a virtual avatar, in a pixel art scenario in clear contrast with the colors of the title. Our pixelated alter ego will be customizable, among a series of choices that will increase by spending the in-game currency to get new items. Nice choice, but definitely forgettable, in the economy of a title that points towards other contents.
The real revolution staged in the competitive landscape by Guilty Gear -STRIVE-, concerns its very peculiar netcode, perfected in the beta phase and now proposed in great form. If until now the necessity of fighting games required an offline experience, given the insufficient technologies to guarantee a frame by frame stability of the clash, we can assert that we have taken a very important step towards the future.
Strive uses a Netcode Rollback, which supplants the classic Delay based Netcode, going in simple terms, predicting our inputs and simulating our future decisions during the round, to go back once we execute an input among those possible at the moment of the action. The effect is definitely magical and guarantees extraordinary stability, going to define what will necessarily be the standard of the genre for the future.
All this opens up new possibilities for eSport events and careers, which will finally be able to see their development also online, without of course impoverishing the local experience, the harbinger of a healthy sporting and human confrontation. But let's explore the actual gameplay of Guilty Gear -STRIVE-.
If you are an old lover of the saga, a first approach with STRIVE can seem decidedly alienating. Most of the characters have been impoverished in their kits and some absolutely distorted (we're talking about you, Ramlethal Valentine!), so much so that you initially turn up your nose and think that the great need to make yourself accessible to a neophyte public has somehow undermined the complexities of a notoriously ultra-technical saga.
Even from the combo side, the strings have been brutally shortened, limiting themselves to sequences of 4 or 5 shots with very high damage. We're not talking of course about the sheer lethality of Samurai Showdown fights, but that's the way to go. Impoverished and distorted characters, high damage and very short combos they initially portrayed the worst, but we were wrong.
Guilty Gear -STRIVE- is a title that is very easy to learn but extremely difficult to master, because the advanced mechanics (undisputed protagonist of the category the Roman Cancel in all its forms and facets) are there, representing a steep wall to climb to be implemented in our arsenal, but they are definitely game changing. More than anything else, they are stimulating, satisfying in practical and strategic application, and this is what will guarantee a good longevity to the title, giving hours and hours of fun to the most avid gamer.
For the rest, we are facing a superficially rather classic formula of anime fighting, where the sequences of "normal" (Punch, Kick, Slash, Heavy Slash and Dust) will culminate in a special more frequently, or in one of the iconic Super investing bar. To embellish the proposal, we have the Wall Break, a particular mechanic that stages the possibility of breaking the corner (goodbye pressure), inflicting further damage on the opponent, but resetting the neutral game in the center of the stage.
We do not consider it appropriate to go to deepen the possibilities of Okizeme, DP, mind games or advanced mechanics in the review, there would be really too much to write, suffice it to say that this title thrives on a basic approach, which can be faced by players of any skill level, to enchant the most hardcore players thanks to its complexity and multiple approach proposals.
From the character side, a commendable job has been done in distinguishing the various fighters, proposing in most cases always unique and stimulating approaches, so much so as to push the player to experience them all, before focusing on the inevitable "Main". Unfortunately at launch sOnly 15 characters will be available, including old glories and 2 fantastic new entries (we are talking about the aggressive Giovanna and the diabolical Nagoriyuki). The iconic characters of the brand left out of the initial roster are really many, among which the absence of Sin, Slayer and Johnny stands out, but a first Season Pass is already announced and new fighters will start adding to the roster of selections starting in July.
Last but definitely not least, the soundtrack stands out on the whole production. We are at the absolute top of the production of an OST within the videogame medium. Not interested in Strive? Andante in any case sitting on the spot listening to the tracklist. We range from Rock to Metal, up to definitely crazy pieces, of amazing quality and workmanship. It is the right charge that every match would need, with texts beautifully sewn onto the events and characters, which raise the quality of the work of the guys at Arc System Works by several points.
Guilty Gear -STRIVE- is finally on our screens, it represents a cut with the past of the series, but it starts with the right foot to define a new standard of anime fighting game that has nothing to fear from the glories of the past. Rollback Netcode is exactly what fans needed to take online gaming to the next step. The unique and biting soundtrack packages a title that screams all its personality in the player's face and is visually mind-blowing. However, we cannot exclusively take into consideration the multiplayer experience and the target of fans of the genre, in a title that touches the masterpiece, showing the side in its single player offer, which, thanks to bizarre decisions as an absolutely passive story mode, risks run out quickly in the hands of a player not interested in competetive. For everyone else: We already know the smell of the game!
► Guilty Gear: Strive is a fighting game developed and published by Arc System Works for PC, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, the video game was released on 09/04/2021
