Review of Guilty Gear Strive(PC, Xbox S/X PS5)

 

Mankind knew they cannot change society. So instead of reflecting on themselves, they blamed the Beasts.    HEAVEN OR HELL

Hey, everyone! This time, I review Xbox game pass' latest offering to the fighting game community. Is this game a Street fighter killer? Or is this game just a pretender?

DUEL 1!

LET'S ROCK!!

Arc  Systemworks' Guilty Gear series is a rising star of the fighting game subgenre. Its heritage stems back from the late 90s, where a golden age of fighting games was prevalent. The first entry of the series was released in October 1998, for the original PlayStation. 

This particular game was released exclusively for PC and PlayStation consoles on June 11, 2021. Earlier on in the month, this game was released for Xbox consoles, with cross network support.

The story is set three weeks after the events of the previous 

 entry, Guilty Gear Xrd. 

OAfter defeating the threat to humanity, known as the Universal Will Our protagonist,turned bounty hunter,  Sol Badguy enjoyed a brief, hard-won peace. Until the worst criminal in US history who created Gears and the initiated the Crusades turned himself into the  government.

 It is up to you to discover Asuka's diabolical plans, put a stop to it, while settling the score worth one of Sol's childhood friends gone rogue

The accessibility scores are as follows –

Visibility 10

As par for the course for a fighting game, there are numerous colours per character. In this case, there are a total of six colour combinations per character.

This should even out the battlefield for a player with a visual impairment. Fighting games normally are fiercely competitive, as professional fighting game tournaments, for example Evo are world renowned. So, a player with a visual impairmentshould be able  to play this game with no issues.

Audibility 9.5

There are subtitles present in the game so, a player with a hearing impairment should be able to understand what's being said during game play.

However, there are no way to customise the font size of the menus, and subtitles. This puts a player at risk of gaining eyestrain while playing this game.

Mobility 11

As standard for a fighting game, button layouts can be fully customised. Again, this evens out the playing field when playing this game. 

In a highly competitive environment, for example fighting game, were a single frame input can bridge the gap between continuing a combo attack, or your opponent landing the final blow, taking the round, this feature should be a no-brainer when taking it players with mobility impairments into account.

Gameplay  10

In short, this game has a lot of polish. The gameplay, during a match is very fluid and  a lot of fun to play. However, in terms of single player content the game seems a little lacklustre.

Arcade mode is present in this game, which is the bread-and-butter mode for a fighting game. The story mode is merely a collection of cut scenes, which seems completely pointless.

However, as with all fighting games, is the multiplayer where you should be spending the majority of the gameplay time on.

The game takes a whole new approach of matchmaking. Skill  ranks in multiplayer takes a more "Mortal Kombat" style approach. Multiplayer battles takes place in a tower.

 The floor of this tower you are on representative skill level. As you play in multiplayer matches against human opponents, you move up, and down floors  in the tower. So that way you are always against a player of your skill level. This game also has rollback netcode.

To members of the community who are unfamiliar what this feature is, rollback netcode as a way of combating poor connection quality. This is achieved by predicting which input you are most likely to perform next. This is done through machine learning.

As I have said earlier on the review, this game has a lot more focus on the multiplayer. So the implementation of rollback netcode should be a no-brainer.

In summary, Guilty Gear Strive is an excellent traditional fighting game. The lack of single player content can be seen like an  oversight.

The game's soundtrack is God tier, if you need more proof go to YouTube, search Findt your one way, crank up the speakers to maximum, and get your air guitar ready!

If you're looking for a traditional fighting game, to get yourself rarely for Street fighter 6, releasing an early June, I cannot recommend this game enough to you.

OVERALL SCORE 101.25%

See you guys in the next review!

SpartanCommander1990 out!

Roll out Spartan Century!