My absolute favorite fighting game of all time, GG as a series seeks to be a video game representation of metal as an expression of freedom and individuality and this game does the most to fulfill this goal not just in its art direction and writing, but down to its bare mechanics through options like Roman Cancels, DAA, FB, and each characters bizarre individual mechanics. This is a game that's so cool that even when I get hit with a 2-0 where I didn't even touch the opponent, I can't feel any negativity because even seeing it happen felt so goddamn cool.

the music is great as always but the game in every other respect feels like a departure from what i loved about previous gear games, it all feels too clean, simple, and slow for me to continue feeling anything special for it. i really did hope the game would eventually reach the level of XX or Xrd through updates but around the time of jack-o i realized that this was likely never going to happen.
i can be grateful at least for it introducing people to the previous entries, though i still feel disconnected from everyone that sticks to it since it hardly feels like the same series to me anymore.

edit: dropped by another star with the recent build up for a new character drop making me realize this is the first time ive actively wished for a game to not include a character i like

Tonally, I feel like this game loses a lot of what I loved about the first, everything feeling far less grim and grounded, or as grounded as a game about space gunmen collecting power granting items can be, but the absolute achievement that was porting over the gameplay and feel of RoR1 is something that has to be commended.
if i have to choose one place where it really does downgrade from 1, its that where in 1 your character choice and their abilities are always relevant even into looping runs, in 2 after your first loop, the majority of characters become hold M1 and press your other buttons when they get off cooldown.