After the first contact had last April 2020, Guilty Gear: Strive is back to open its doors for a new beta phase, proposing an updated build that we had the pleasure of thoroughly pulping. The guys at Arc System Works have worked hard for propose a real next-gen version of their flagship title, once again revolutionizing the ideas proposed last year.
Gealty Gear Strive represents a clean break with the past, looking for a balance between a winking accessibility to fighting game newbies and a solid proposition for veterans of the genre. Probably the same square already timidly attempted with Granblue Fantasy Versus, which gave birth to a title focused on the fundamentals and little more, a small mole on the path of the revolution.
From the graphic point of view, the surprising "fake 2D" in cel-shading already seen in Dragon Ball FighterZ is back, surprisingly optimized and harbinger of a jaw-breaking visual effect, enshrining and glorifying the new standard of the anime fighter of this generation.
The soundtrack is not limited to the role of a musical carpet during our fights, but manages to heroicize the action on screen, with an avalanche of screaming tracks capable of plunging us into battle and inflaming our fighting instincts, listen to believe.
The real revolution brought to the field by Guilty Gear: Strive is without a shadow of a doubt the new netcode rollback, a connection technology capable of giving the feeling of an offline match during networked matches between distant users. If until today the big drawback of fighting games has always been that of having a huge need for offline gaming, relegating online to an often uneducational training, we can finally project the genre into the future.
A functional online also implies the radiant possibility of challenging users outside our home region, therefore share our knowledge first hand and improve organically, not to mention the increased chances of meeting users of equal ability.
During our test the netcode rollback has done its job very well without ever showing the side to uncertainties or delays in the connection, giving us an unparalleled online gaming experience. We therefore believe that this technology represents a new standard for the new generation of fighting games and a sine qua non for the next upcoming titles.
The same cannot be said of online lobby, which returns to present itself in the disastrous guise of last year, where the nice pixel art and the proximity pairing turned out to be anything but functional to the matchmaking economy, with annoying teleports and matchmaking errors of all kinds. The impossibility of a rematch with the opponent only increased the frustration between one fight and another, making us waste more time in the pairing phase than during the actual game.
Among the proposed modalities aWe were able to benefit from offline training, very useful to fully test the potential of Guilty Gear: Strive outside the frenzy of clashes and fully understand the most advanced dynamics of the title. Big absent from the dojo was the framelist, which at this stage would have perhaps revealed a little too much about the balance of the various characters.
Compared to last year's beta, the damage inflicted in a few hits by the various characters has been largely reduced, making encounters a little longer, with the addition of damage reduction when low on health. Compared to Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2, we are once again facing much faster and more lethal clashes than we were used to, but the differences in gameplay are not limited to this.
Lhe perspective of simplification has depleted all the characters of their more complex mechanics, going to propose a simplified version of the title. While simplification is not always bad, the comparison with the predecessor will leave the avid veterans of the saga dry-mouthed. Many of the characters have been decidedly distorted and re-proposed with completely different gameplanes, in order to be included in a simpler and easier to approach title.
The combos have been shortened and a general standardization has been imposed on the economy of the title even about personal resources and the complexity of uncontainable set-ups. The nature of the title itself has changed profoundly and this rigidity certainly cannot embody a real benefit to the genre.
Don't get us wrong, Guilty Gear: Strive is an excellent fighting game and we can't wait to get our hands on the final version of the title to be able to talk about it in the review. If, however, you have stripped its predecessors, the sense of frustration due to the extreme simplification of the character kit will leave you with a bad taste in your mouth. Although manual simplification is always welcome, conceptual simplification only impoverishes the vertical mechanics and depth of a series that has always shone for its marvelous complexity. Strengthened by the fact that this beta was proposed 2 months before launch, we will be amazed by the changes that we believe will be made in its final incarnation.
► Guilty Gear: Strive is a fighting game developed and published by Arc System Works for PC, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, the video game was released on 09/04/2021
