I have a strained relationship with fighting games. They're a genre of game everyone around me has had the time to understand and enjoy thoroughly, so it always made sense to pick some up for myself. The motivation behind playing every fighting game I've ever owned was always playing with friends. UNIB, DBFZ, P4AU, SkullGirls, SF4 and 5, Tekken 7, and Guilty Gear Strive were all purchased on recommendation from friends; something that we could all play together. This isn't to say I don't enjoy some of those games, but this strain I feel towards fighters has always been consistently building. Eventually, it reached its peak. Suddenly, fighters went from games we could resort to for game nights to endurance tests. How long could someone stand getting the pulp beaten out of them one-sidedly? How long could someone ride the high of winning over and over? How long could we keep lying to ourselves that this might be "it." The game we play for more than just 5 hours. The fighting game we dedicate to.
That "it" game never came. The skill gap between individuals grew wider, arguments on the functionality of certain games grew tired... and so did I. I didn't want to buy the newest fighter again just to pretend I've wrapped my head around the tutorial, hop in a match with friends, get swept, get sour, practice combo trials to my limit, get swept... rinse repeat. "Hitting the lab" sounded good on paper, but it never seemed like a good division of my time. Why waste all of my time "practicing" something I'm not understanding the fundamentals of when I could just be playing a game better suited for me? Perhaps it sounds like my inner conflict was unfair and I was making up my mind before trying, but all things considered I was beginning understand that I just didn't like fighting games. I grew resentful to the idea of playing one whenever it was brought up. I often blamed the genre itself.
It felt like I had effectively wasted all that time. Totaling the playtime of all of the fighting games I own on Steam, I have a sum of 218.9 hours in the genre. Adding mental estimations of times from fighters I've played on other consoles, the number increases to somewhere around 700 hours. ...Subtracting games that don't "count" like Smash, Lethal League, Rivals, (games I enjoy more than your traditional fighter...) we're down to 132.3 hours played dedicated entirely to fighters.
Guilty Gear Xrd: Rev 2 currently makes up 26 of those 132.3 hours. 19.6% of all of my time spent playing fighting games has been from Rev 2.
I've enjoyed every minute.
Rev 2 was initially a casualty of the lifelong attempt of trying to get myself "into" fighting games; it came and went without a sound. I can't even recall how my first experience with it went. This last October, Rev 2's rollback beta ran from the 17th to the 31st. My friends and I thought: why not? We don't need to spend money on a new game, we haven't played this in a while, rollback should make it better... let's try it out! My only other experience with Guilty Gear after my initial taste of Rev 2 and before my playtime during the rollback beta was with Strive; a game I would say I dislike. Hopes weren't high, but after my first play session, something felt weird. I wanted to play again the next day, and the next day, and the next day. I wanted to try the arcade mode, play people online, try out new characters! This was particularly unusual for me. I never want to play a fighter on my own volition, especially without my friends. So, what changed?
For a while I couldn't understand it, partly because I was having so much fun playing. I could sit here and tell you "THIS CHARACTER MADE THE GENRE CLICK FOR ME!" or "REV 2'S MATCHMAKING AND ROLLBACK MAKES THE GAME GOOD!" but I'd be lying to you. Yes, Rev 2 has characters I enjoy playing as, but nothing that shifted any opinions I had on other games. It wasn't one character that saved the day for me or something. Yes, the rollback and matchmaking system is inviting and offered ease to any mitigating circumstances, but I've continued to play even with the reinstated delay-based netcode. It had nothing to do with that. After thinking on it critically while playing the game, I think my love for Rev 2 and attributes I will grade future fighting game endeavors on stems from a few things.
Aesthetic, Clarity, and Time.
Aesthetic goes without saying. I like how the game looks, I like how it sounds; I'm a big fan of it as a whole. I try not to talk about or take into consideration artistic preferences too much in these reviews since it's such a subjective thing, but Rev 2 just executes everything it sets out to do in such a charming and unique way. The cultivation of technique through how the game's character models interact with the camera and shaders ppaved the way for games like DBFZ, DNFDuel, and even Strive to really iterate. In my opinion, however, Xrd is the best looking out of these games as it fits nicely into my own personal mold for what I specifically want. It's just a joy for me personally.
While I can understand any disagreements on the quality of this game's aesthetic, clarity in a fighting game is non-negotiable. You need to understand what is going on at all times. The effects animations need to be as clear and as effectively telegraphed as possible. If not, you run the risk of style overcoming substance; something I feel a lot of fighters find themselves ensnared in. That isn't to say those games don't achieve their own priorities effectively, but Rev 2, as gimmicky of a game as it can be, leaves nothing to be questioned. I've rarely asked, "what was that?", and when I have, I've never been upset with the answer. I've never scratched my head at what was going on, I've never misunderstood the intentions of a move, effect, or input. Everything is as perfectly communicated as it can be within the burst of combat. It almost seems effortless, but I can't imagine the amount of directive work it took to make sure the sheer amount of potential miscommunications didn't exist in the final product. I can't stress this enough. It is extremely impressive.
Time is probably one of the most important things to me. I can get caught up in my own thoughts relative to time for too much of itself. I ask myself dumb shit like "How much time do I have left?" "Am I spending my time wisely?" and probably dumbest of all: "Is playing video games a waste of time?" The answer to all those questions are probably as ridiculous as the thoughts themselves, but speaking about time relative to fighting games is an interesting discussion to me. A common piece of advice I acknowledged earlier when people express distaste for their fighting game experience is to "hit the lab." My immediate rebuttal to that was to complain about the amount of time that's being implied it takes to simply enjoy the game. Reflecting on that is a little ridiculous since during my playtime with Rev 2, I trained in the lab more than once. It's not an unfounded recommendation, but suddenly my strife with the lab dissipated for one reason another. I no longer found it weird to have to put "extra time" away from the main experience to enjoy myself. I chalk this up to a lot of time passing between my initial bout with Rev 2 and my current one. Between that long period, I played a ton of fighting games. So much, in fact, that I grew fatigued enough to detest the genre as a whole.
Rev 2, for whatever reason, stood the test of time, though.
This is all to say that Rev 2, despite containing everything I once claimed to be actively working against a fun play experience, is a game I will gladly boot up whenever I find the time. I want to conclude this rather lengthy review by saying that if you've ever felt similar about fighters, I implore you to keep seeking them out. It's a weird genre with a lot of infuriating culture, mechanical fundamentals, and strange priorities, but I assure you there's one out there for you. Yes, you specifically. The guy who doesn't like fighting games.
Whether or not it's Rev 2 is not for me to say, but rather for you to see for yourself.
That "it" game never came. The skill gap between individuals grew wider, arguments on the functionality of certain games grew tired... and so did I. I didn't want to buy the newest fighter again just to pretend I've wrapped my head around the tutorial, hop in a match with friends, get swept, get sour, practice combo trials to my limit, get swept... rinse repeat. "Hitting the lab" sounded good on paper, but it never seemed like a good division of my time. Why waste all of my time "practicing" something I'm not understanding the fundamentals of when I could just be playing a game better suited for me? Perhaps it sounds like my inner conflict was unfair and I was making up my mind before trying, but all things considered I was beginning understand that I just didn't like fighting games. I grew resentful to the idea of playing one whenever it was brought up. I often blamed the genre itself.
It felt like I had effectively wasted all that time. Totaling the playtime of all of the fighting games I own on Steam, I have a sum of 218.9 hours in the genre. Adding mental estimations of times from fighters I've played on other consoles, the number increases to somewhere around 700 hours. ...Subtracting games that don't "count" like Smash, Lethal League, Rivals, (games I enjoy more than your traditional fighter...) we're down to 132.3 hours played dedicated entirely to fighters.
Guilty Gear Xrd: Rev 2 currently makes up 26 of those 132.3 hours. 19.6% of all of my time spent playing fighting games has been from Rev 2.
I've enjoyed every minute.
Rev 2 was initially a casualty of the lifelong attempt of trying to get myself "into" fighting games; it came and went without a sound. I can't even recall how my first experience with it went. This last October, Rev 2's rollback beta ran from the 17th to the 31st. My friends and I thought: why not? We don't need to spend money on a new game, we haven't played this in a while, rollback should make it better... let's try it out! My only other experience with Guilty Gear after my initial taste of Rev 2 and before my playtime during the rollback beta was with Strive; a game I would say I dislike. Hopes weren't high, but after my first play session, something felt weird. I wanted to play again the next day, and the next day, and the next day. I wanted to try the arcade mode, play people online, try out new characters! This was particularly unusual for me. I never want to play a fighter on my own volition, especially without my friends. So, what changed?
For a while I couldn't understand it, partly because I was having so much fun playing. I could sit here and tell you "THIS CHARACTER MADE THE GENRE CLICK FOR ME!" or "REV 2'S MATCHMAKING AND ROLLBACK MAKES THE GAME GOOD!" but I'd be lying to you. Yes, Rev 2 has characters I enjoy playing as, but nothing that shifted any opinions I had on other games. It wasn't one character that saved the day for me or something. Yes, the rollback and matchmaking system is inviting and offered ease to any mitigating circumstances, but I've continued to play even with the reinstated delay-based netcode. It had nothing to do with that. After thinking on it critically while playing the game, I think my love for Rev 2 and attributes I will grade future fighting game endeavors on stems from a few things.
Aesthetic, Clarity, and Time.
Aesthetic goes without saying. I like how the game looks, I like how it sounds; I'm a big fan of it as a whole. I try not to talk about or take into consideration artistic preferences too much in these reviews since it's such a subjective thing, but Rev 2 just executes everything it sets out to do in such a charming and unique way. The cultivation of technique through how the game's character models interact with the camera and shaders ppaved the way for games like DBFZ, DNFDuel, and even Strive to really iterate. In my opinion, however, Xrd is the best looking out of these games as it fits nicely into my own personal mold for what I specifically want. It's just a joy for me personally.
While I can understand any disagreements on the quality of this game's aesthetic, clarity in a fighting game is non-negotiable. You need to understand what is going on at all times. The effects animations need to be as clear and as effectively telegraphed as possible. If not, you run the risk of style overcoming substance; something I feel a lot of fighters find themselves ensnared in. That isn't to say those games don't achieve their own priorities effectively, but Rev 2, as gimmicky of a game as it can be, leaves nothing to be questioned. I've rarely asked, "what was that?", and when I have, I've never been upset with the answer. I've never scratched my head at what was going on, I've never misunderstood the intentions of a move, effect, or input. Everything is as perfectly communicated as it can be within the burst of combat. It almost seems effortless, but I can't imagine the amount of directive work it took to make sure the sheer amount of potential miscommunications didn't exist in the final product. I can't stress this enough. It is extremely impressive.
Time is probably one of the most important things to me. I can get caught up in my own thoughts relative to time for too much of itself. I ask myself dumb shit like "How much time do I have left?" "Am I spending my time wisely?" and probably dumbest of all: "Is playing video games a waste of time?" The answer to all those questions are probably as ridiculous as the thoughts themselves, but speaking about time relative to fighting games is an interesting discussion to me. A common piece of advice I acknowledged earlier when people express distaste for their fighting game experience is to "hit the lab." My immediate rebuttal to that was to complain about the amount of time that's being implied it takes to simply enjoy the game. Reflecting on that is a little ridiculous since during my playtime with Rev 2, I trained in the lab more than once. It's not an unfounded recommendation, but suddenly my strife with the lab dissipated for one reason another. I no longer found it weird to have to put "extra time" away from the main experience to enjoy myself. I chalk this up to a lot of time passing between my initial bout with Rev 2 and my current one. Between that long period, I played a ton of fighting games. So much, in fact, that I grew fatigued enough to detest the genre as a whole.
Rev 2, for whatever reason, stood the test of time, though.
This is all to say that Rev 2, despite containing everything I once claimed to be actively working against a fun play experience, is a game I will gladly boot up whenever I find the time. I want to conclude this rather lengthy review by saying that if you've ever felt similar about fighters, I implore you to keep seeking them out. It's a weird genre with a lot of infuriating culture, mechanical fundamentals, and strange priorities, but I assure you there's one out there for you. Yes, you specifically. The guy who doesn't like fighting games.
Whether or not it's Rev 2 is not for me to say, but rather for you to see for yourself.
boxcat
11 months ago