I've been waiting to play this game for three years, and now that I've finally got to play it, I can say my experience was both exciting and disappointing.
Gameplay [Exciting]:
I love fighting games, but because I only played them when visiting my cousin's house, I never had the chance to work at being "good" at those fighting games. Luckily, Guilty Gear Strive's streamlined controls (compared to previous GG titles) made it a lot easier for me to jump in and improve my craft.
For example, the character Asuka is labeled with an “Ease of Use” score of 1/5 before you select him. Normal fighting game knowledge would lead me to believe that the inputs for his specials are hard to perform, but his specials are just quarter-circle forward and back. The difficulty comes in how much stuff you need to pay attention to outside of your inputs (i.e. spell slots, mana, etc.).
Fighting games are about understanding the toolset you’ve been given and Strive makes that toolset more accessible without sacrificing complexity in its mechanics. It’s not only a blast to play, but it’s first time that I actually WANTED to practice my moves in training mode.
Single Player Content [Disappointing]:
This game is a wasteland if you don’t play online.
Now, the mission mode is great. It not only teaches you the mechanics of the game, but it tells you when to use these moves. It hammers home that, yes, HOW you use your moves is important, but WHEN to use those moves is even more important.
All that leaves are the Arcade, Survival and Story modes. Sure, Arcade mode can be fun, but the game doesn’t really encourage you to play it outside of unlocking a few hidden trophies. It sucks because there are days when the online is down for maintenance, and I don’t care enough about the game’s other content outside of that arbitrary fishing minigame.
Story Mode [Excipointing?]:
The story is… good. Like, really good. Not even in comparison to other fighting games, it’s just very well-written.
There is a bit of a knowledge barrier to it however, given it’s the “final chapter” of a story that’s spanned 25 years, and I know most players will be adverse to reading up on lore when they could just go unga bunga playing Sol Badguy online. Still, I would consider skimming through the GG World section, particularly the correlation chart, and read up on some things before starting the story. It will make certain revelations in the Story Mode hit WAY harder. Even if you don’t catch up with the story or still don’t understand it, there’s enough insanity and character moments to make the story mode worthwhile.
The problem: there's no gameplay. And the cutscenes look like ass, unlike the rest of the game.
Overall, the game is great.
Gameplay [Exciting]:
I love fighting games, but because I only played them when visiting my cousin's house, I never had the chance to work at being "good" at those fighting games. Luckily, Guilty Gear Strive's streamlined controls (compared to previous GG titles) made it a lot easier for me to jump in and improve my craft.
For example, the character Asuka is labeled with an “Ease of Use” score of 1/5 before you select him. Normal fighting game knowledge would lead me to believe that the inputs for his specials are hard to perform, but his specials are just quarter-circle forward and back. The difficulty comes in how much stuff you need to pay attention to outside of your inputs (i.e. spell slots, mana, etc.).
Fighting games are about understanding the toolset you’ve been given and Strive makes that toolset more accessible without sacrificing complexity in its mechanics. It’s not only a blast to play, but it’s first time that I actually WANTED to practice my moves in training mode.
Single Player Content [Disappointing]:
This game is a wasteland if you don’t play online.
Now, the mission mode is great. It not only teaches you the mechanics of the game, but it tells you when to use these moves. It hammers home that, yes, HOW you use your moves is important, but WHEN to use those moves is even more important.
All that leaves are the Arcade, Survival and Story modes. Sure, Arcade mode can be fun, but the game doesn’t really encourage you to play it outside of unlocking a few hidden trophies. It sucks because there are days when the online is down for maintenance, and I don’t care enough about the game’s other content outside of that arbitrary fishing minigame.
Story Mode [Excipointing?]:
The story is… good. Like, really good. Not even in comparison to other fighting games, it’s just very well-written.
There is a bit of a knowledge barrier to it however, given it’s the “final chapter” of a story that’s spanned 25 years, and I know most players will be adverse to reading up on lore when they could just go unga bunga playing Sol Badguy online. Still, I would consider skimming through the GG World section, particularly the correlation chart, and read up on some things before starting the story. It will make certain revelations in the Story Mode hit WAY harder. Even if you don’t catch up with the story or still don’t understand it, there’s enough insanity and character moments to make the story mode worthwhile.
The problem: there's no gameplay. And the cutscenes look like ass, unlike the rest of the game.
Overall, the game is great.