GUILTY GEAR -STRIVE-

As a person who is more new to fighting games, Guilty Gear Strive is genuinely so cool. This is a LONG review (brace yourself) One of the first fighting games I enjoyed (as of 2025-2026) was 2XKO and so transitioning from that to GGS was definitely confusing, in other words if you’re a person who prefers modern controls it’s gonna be a bit of a hurdle to get used to the controls BUT MORE THAN POSSIBLE! The controls are not intuitive at first considering they are more traditional (having punch, kick, slash, and heavy slash) and motion controls (quarter circles and Half circles). But asking the community in the discussion about these are really useful! And not only that The games support for a variety of controllers made it much easier for me to enjoy the game! (Hitbkx, leverless, controller, AND EVEN KEYBOARD!!!) A controller was tough for my thumb but using a keyboard made putting inputs way easier after getting used to the layout! I thought I would need a dictionary worth of guides but turns out a single 15-30 minute video (depending on what you choose to watch) can cover a lot of the basics! Of course with every fighting game it’s important to learn the fundamentals. But learning is where it s the most fun, since there’s tons of tools for you to help, from combo trials, training and lab, and even being able to save replays from when you verse people! The hurdle to play this game wasn’t big as I made it out to be. My best advice is to not put intense pressure on yourself to learn and DO NOT BE AFRAID TO ASK FOR HELP OR SEARCH UP GUIDES. But NOW ONTO THE ACTUAL GAME. . The art style being a 3D with the most 2D style I’ve seen is eye candy And of course CHARACTERS LOOK AMAZING. Every single person has one heck of a personality just by their looks. I personally main Anji just cause I thought he looks cool and was 3 stars ease of use (btw the game lets you know how easy a character is to use by 5 stars. 1 being really difficult, and 5 being beginner friendly) Animations are just BEAUTIFUL (especially the super) the camera being 60fps and the characters ranging from 15fps just feels so bizarre but so RIGHT! It’s reminds me of spider verse. Every time you counter, grab, dust, slash, you can really FEEL the impact from the sudden slow mo, Matchmaking could be better but The casual mode of floors doesn’t have a lot of players in lower floors (only in “The Park” is where you can find a lot of players but no matchmaking) ranked is surprisingly really nice. It’s basically skill based match making which in hindsight should’ve been obvious cause… it’s rankings? But it’s not as hyper competitive as it seems, at the very least at lower levels. And there’s still a surprising number of players still playing! Of course there’s still all these frustrations that come with this game (really any fighting game in general). Sometimes you fight the controls trying to figure it out, you put too much pressure on yourself, and other times you meet a player way above your skill level. Despite all that this game is wonderful. Its characters, stories (LOTSA LORE), mechanics, art style, flows incredibly well together. If you ever catch this game for a deal and are wondering if you should play I’d recommend it. And remember a : “if your opponent is spamming an attack, you’re probably spamming a mistake” Lovely game 10/10