Guilty Gear Strive Review (Steam)

by Jim Smale · June 8, 2021

In our Guilty Gear Strive Review we take on Arc system’s latest entry in the series. We got to try the game beforehand via the Guilty Gear Strive Beta. With flashy graphics, amazing cutscenes, and a deep combat system, Guilty Gear Strive promises so much but can it live up to the hype and history? Let’s find out.

Guilty Gear Strive Review Pros:

Awesome Anime-style graphics.
17.73GB Download size.
Steam achievements.
Full controller compatibility.
Remote play together support.
Japanese/English language.
Classic fighting gameplay.
Graphics-fullscreen, resolution, v-sync, anti-aliasing, image quality, scaling resolution, post-processing, textures/shadow/effects qualities, ambient occlusion, motion blur, and auto-detect.
The controller can be rebound for both in-game and the menus.
Autosave replay on/off for vs and network.
Vs game options- rounds (1-5), time limit (30/45/60/75/99/infinite) and CPU difficulty (beginner/easy/normal/hard/very hard/maniac).
R-Code- player profile showing your stats and can be customized.
Avatar- your 8 Bit character you use to move and explore the lobbies. Customize and unlock new items as you play/fish.
Fishing- mini-game in the lobby for acquiring new avatar options.
GG world- a place that gives the history, chronology, correlation, and glossary notes to all things GG (Guilty Gear).
Three main game modes- offline, network and story mode.
Offline has 1 player vs CPU, 2 players, and Dojo for practice/training.
Network has online match, player match, ranking leaderboards, and quick start (allows you to do training until a match is found).
Story mode is self-explanatory and also houses the GG world menus.
The story mode is all video-based with no interactions. Upon booting it you can choose to watch all chapters at once or rest between chapters. Each chapter is around 20 mins long.
Fast loading times.
Top Blu-Ray quality cutscenes.
You can skip, fast forward the cutscenes in story mode if time is an issue.
Excellent voice work.
Save when you want.
The timeline can be brought up in the menu of all the significant events in Guilty Gear.
Single-player offline modes- arcade mode, vs CPU and survival mode complete with leaderboards.
Dojo mode contains tutorials, missions (advanced techniques), and training.
Fifteen characters- Nagoriyuki, Milliabage, Chipp Zanuff, Solbadguy, Kykiske, May, Giovanna, Zato-1, I-No, Anjimito, Leo Whitefang, Faust, Axllow, Potemkin, and Bamlethal Valentine.
Arcade game presentation.
Each character has at least 10 outfits to unlock.
Cool Eagle flyover before a fight.
Unbelievable animations.
Adrenaline pumping rock soundtrack.
Combo counter.
Flashy text pop up for counters, slashes, etc.
Fast-paced combat.
Easy to learn block system. (just hold back)
Despite a complex set of actions, you can button mash and pick up actions fairly quickly.
Isometric view changes on final hits.
Arcade mode boasts unique cutscenes and dialogue with characters.
Special moves will trigger a very brief cutscene animation.

Guilty Gear Strive Review Cons:

Cannot change the setup for arcade mode like rounds, difficultly, etc.
It all looks really daunting, especially if you just jump straight into a match.
Slight screen tearing.
nigh-on unplayable with the mouse and keyboard.
Learning a character will take a long time even with basic combos.