I actually expected Leon saying "It's alright I guess" followed by one of those shitposts where it's an hour of complete silence occasionally broken up by a random sound from the game.
Join us Leon. Watch me play so you can Strive. (I'm only halfway through the video) EDIT: Your opinion was cool but but I definitely felt like you were missing info as far as how the game works. Especially on the defensive end. It's a long discussion though. I don't even fault you because if you don't like how the game feels at a glance then there's no way you would be motivated to learn more about it.
@@BanchoGato How so? I think he was overlooking the weaknesses of the backjump escape and YRC isn't quite as useless as he says, but other than that I have to agree that meter use is dull and defense is almost relaxing in how little it gives you to do
Yeah, I find it weird that he said he doesn't like to go in training mode but had so much confidence in what the defensive options were, specially since he skimmed over Burst so quickly.
Everyone says multiple times in that video that the lore fucking sucks but it's stupidly entertaining, I remember going through the comments and there's a lot of people mad that the lecture doesn't take the lore seriously, like... imagine caring about fighting game lore
Ironic, since this game has the mechanic of un-escaped combos with the greyed out combo meter like I have the desire to actually learn what the real name of that mechanic is. Which is to say not a lot.
I really wonder what that fabled October Update will bring. On one hand it's rare for a patch to shake up things drastically, on the other hand DBFZ exists and they just went "screw it, let them tag-cancel specials" for that game. We'll see.
I mean it's sort of the Arcsys curse that their games start off as a bit messy, then improve with time. In the past that meant titles like GG Xrd and the first few Blazblues were somewhat messy and poorly balanced, but hey did have a sauce that gave them the potential to evolve into Rev 2 and Central Fiction, which might be 2 of the strongest FG games ever released. I see a lot of that in STRIVE. The core philosophy they have and some of the mechanics and ideas I really gel with, but it certainly feels like a prototype more than anything. Hopefully with the way the game has turned into a massive hit and the devs being so open to changes and updates this means that STRIVE will actively be improving over the course of its life cycle rather than us having to wait for STRIVE ;aishdogfli;uahs or whatever to really nail the formula.
I mean ArcSys could just decide to make the PRC 25 meter and it could change a lot of the meta... They could even allow some whacky stuff like buffing the tension gain from instant block by 10x and it would change the game drastically
It's too soon to expect a massive shakeup when they've not even released half their season pass's content. I wouldn't expect major new mechanics or updates beyond balancing until Season 2.
@@iannordin5250 The best way I've heard it described was by LordKnight who said Strive has a *really* strong foundation, and it's genuinely playable at the moment, which speaks well for when it eventually gets changes/addons as most GG titles do. So when we get Strive +ultra whatever the hell they call it, we may be looking at a game with everything everyone wants.
Real quick, I loved your review and found it entertaining. However, I felt that using Skullgirls as an example for a game with poor meter options isn't entirely fair. If you're playing a team, things such as safe DHCs and Alpha Counters allow for more utility in meter use for defensive play. Even as a Solo character, the use of snapbacks add depth through meter use as well, as one could decide to use the meter for health regen at the cost of less damage. I completely understand if the game wasn't for you, but it does have more thoughtful meter than just using one vs three bars.
I see Leon complain about meter in some games a lot and I dont always think his criticisms are valid. He sees supers in some games as just "a bar which allows you to end a combo with a lot of damage" when in so many games it is much more then that. In something like SFV you dont have fully invincible DPs anymore unless it is an EX one so if you want to reversal you need to spend your precious meter which is a big decision you have to make, especially since if the opponent blocks it you're eating another combo. Or in something like KOF 14 you can enter max mode to make yourself safe after using an unsafe move in pressure. Even in something simple like engaging in a fireball war with someone if they have meter for an ex fireball or even a Super thats a fireball that can drastically change how you go about zoning and playing in that match now that they have access to such a move. I like Leon's videos but I dont think he sometimes knows what he is talking about with certain points.
@@tonybamanabonitomatopowers6057 he tends to make big conclusions that anyone with more knowledge can easily call out like his “kof is a link heavy game” comment.
I'm pretty optimistic about Strive's future, as just about every great fighting game has had a painful start. Though it needs a lot of work, I very much like the direction they're taking the series with it
I wouldn’t say strive has a painful start the launch was receive with generally positively reactions a lot coming from old players I wouldn’t say strive is in any way bad just very different in a few ways but in a way old players can accept and enjoy not like what happened Blazblue hope the take care of their other ip but this is generally a very good video
I think that there's some legitimate issues with Strive's potential longevity and the limits it puts on creativity as it is, but honestly I don't see any issues that couldn't be fixed with simple balance changes and expanding some systems. I think the big question is whether or not Arcsys wants to ultimately push it in a more complex direction or not, because so far they haven't indicated anything of the sort. What they have is I think a pretty solid canvas but the question remains as to whether they want to put any paint on it or just leave it blank.
I think this sentence is the fundamental reason some people (mostly legacy players) are so skeptical about this game: they do _not_ like the direction, and don't see any patch that follows the current mindset that arcsys has that will substantially bring it closer to what they want. In this sense, I think the comparisons between Strive and previous first iterations (Sign, XX) are really inappropriate; people didn't think Sign and XX were bad because they perceived a disagreement with the developers about what the game was supposed to be, they disagreed with the developers about what the game _was_ at that moment. A lot of people (myself included for disclosure) have the exact opposite problem with Strive; what the game _is_ right now is "fine," especially for a first version, but the vision for the game is not in alignment with what they want, so it will stay that way forever, just fine.
Strive is doing great, it's just has changed it's audience a bit which GG boomers don't appreciate. I've been since XX, mainly because of the story, and Strive is the first GG where I really got into online. I don't feel like the game is limiting at all, I feel like it is more heavy (metal). Instead of air-dashes feeling like characters have some booster jets in their ass, they feel like, well, dashes, in air. Instead of long-ass combos where attacks soon start to do pixels of damage, and it's more about quantity, we have system where every hit feels crucial, and heavy. I'm okay with Strive how it is. I guess it could use some more mechanics. But I hope they don't change the core of it. I don't want the Microsoft-Flight-Simulator air-dashes, I don't want 30 hit combos out of jab, I want the game expanded but not changed. GG-Gameplay-vets have +R. It has rollback. It can still be easily playable.
Yeah I feel like base strive is already a good game just with poor mechanical balancing. The game needs major changes but they game doesn’t have to be rewritten completely they just need to tweak the frequency that some systems come into play whether by making them more/less powerful as options or by just changing the numbers
I love your videos and stream Brian! I feel like after having listened to your advice in your videos, I leveled up as a player. Thank you, keep up the good work.
re: Counterhit slowdown in the aesthetic section: The slowdown isn't just an aesthetic indicator, it also allows you to option select for normal hit vs counterhit, which can be incredibly useful for some moves, especially in the midrange. I think this functionality is probably worth keeping even if there can be some annoying situations that come of it.
yeah, it doesn't eat the input but it let's you option select. For example if Faust uses his j2k he can input first 236p and then 236s and it will automatically use love on block (safe) and mix mix mix on hit(combo extender). But I agree with Leon that if you don't know this it just feels weird to play with
Extended Counter hit hit-stop is a staple of every fighting game since atleast the early 2000s for that exact reason. Strive’s is just long af. Do people actually not know this >.>?
@@jasonbarry3301 It's not that counter hit-stop hasn't been seen before, but to say it's a staple since the 2000s isn't quite correct. While Strive does have a long af hit-stop, it's jarring for players who haven't dealt with this system before. Not a bad system just different ya know
@@TaroTrashBin idk if I agree with that hot take. Certain things should stay in certain camps. Good arc sys Air dashes are nice but I wouldn’t want them in kof because it would destroy everything involving jumps. This works in tekken because a counter hit launch is pivotal to every characters ganeplan and is pretty unobtrusive to the player. Strive’s is incredibly long and the difference between thinking about and preparing a block string and doing a counter hit combo is drastically huge and kind of necessitates using RC depending on your character just because you’re in the middle of choosing your safe on block move to end that safely and now you’ve got a high damage opportunity. I think literally every other 2d fighter today handled this significantly better. Mainly because the big thing that decides this always a specific attack so you can keep in your mind at all times you’re fishing for this; things like crush counters in SfV requiring heavies, smash attacks and dragon ball doing the same and not being based on counter hit, hell I think soulcalibur and to a lesser extent mk11 do this phenomenally by making it’s about doing specific moves under specific circumstances like hitting a side walking enemy with mitsurugi’s qcf A or landing a grab/command over head with jax when he has max heat to either boost damage or open a new combo opportunity while also giving the move lists more merit than sheer optimization, use best 10 moves ignore the rest. There’s thought and decision making here. In strive it’s really just being able to recognize that your opponent is a F’ up and was pushing buttons. It just doesn’t feel like the mechanic fits in guilty gears style unless it was more intentional like off of HS or big moves like fafnir and Garuda.
@@Neogears1312 I think the time counter hit-stop itself isn't the issue in Strive personally. It's fine to emphasize those moments that carry a bit more weight to the flow of a match. The problem I think Strive has is the frequency of the counter hit-stops. The slowdown in pivotal moments are great but when that occurs as frequently as it does in Strive, it kind of ruins the pacing of the match. As for needing an RC, I would argue that the need for an RC after a counter hit is somewhat situational, as counter hits put your opponent in a longer stun state. That being said you're right that there are certainly characters who, depending on circumstance, do need that RC to follow up.
@@naomisisk4663 It's true that if you let Xrd Jack-O get her win condition she kind of just wins. 3 level 3 houses with you blocking in the corner is definitely not very interactive but you ignore everything up until that point. Consider that every 5K or f.S she touches you with is essentially a 50/50 between 3H and house set. Or consider the constant interaction of deciding whether go after her or the minions/houses at any stage in the match. There's plenty of interactivity there. If Jack-O wins every interaction and you put yourself in the wrong spot through your own poor choices then yes, she's not very interactive.
When I first watched the part about roman cancel, I was like "Yea makes sense, all these options being at 50 meter makes them hard to use" but then I actually played the game, and realised that you build meter mad fast so it doesnt matter, so fast infact that using any of these adds an additional meter penalty.
On a more serious note, critiques like this are important because they spark interest in the older games. People want to see what the fuss is about, and with that kind of exposure to a broader variety of fighting games (and rollback netcode giving people a good reason to play despite low player numbers) I think we might even see a return to greater complexity in the future. On that note, pardon me while I go play GGXXAC+R for the first time ever.
That game is amazing but maybe look into either playing with some friends or joining a Discord for matchmaking, the game's actual matchmaking system is horrible
I wanna learn XX but that games skill ceiling is INSANELY fucking high, and Xrd would be cool to learn but it's netcode is trash and I can't find people online; it feels like Strive is just the best option right now in terms of Guilty Gear to play
@Kayden McCallum it honestly is, simplifying movement, movesets, combos and blockstrings objectively provides less options than there would've been if they hadn't cut them out but complexity and depth isn't necessary for fun, which is what I think you actually mean, Street Fighter might have less depth than Guilty Gear XX(mainly due to there being less potential variables and options you need to consider) but that doesn't make Guilty Gear XX a better game by default cause you might not like the options GGXX offers you and prefer the more limited pool of more perdictable and consistent options that SF gives you, so complexity is necessary for depth but a ridiculous amount of depth is not required for fun
True I still remember a sol vs ky match years ago that absolutely blew my mind how much this shit looked like a fucking anime battle movement and skill wise.
Honestly this whole Strive vs Xrd thing kinda reminds me of the old Street fighter 5 vs 4 debate. Fighting games are in an interesting place where it's difficult to please both newer players and older ones.
It's because everyone has *their* game. The one game they actually funnel a bunch of time and energy and thought into. The game they figure out. Your first experience with something is typically going to be the most memorable, the one you call back to, and frequently, the one you enjoyed the most. This happens a lot with games because of aforementioned learning, it's a compound thing. Thus, when new or different things come out that are new or different, it is difficult to adjust on a subconscious level, regardless of how open minded you try to tell yourself you are.
@@dj_koen1265 This. You can't just say oh well this game just isn't for you, in response to legitimate issues. You can't just say "it's a taste thing" when the game just has a problem
This video has become a very interesting time capsule of how Strive was and was played at launch. It definitely feels like the game has developed significantly both on the player and developer end since it so it's fun to look back on.
The game was always good Leon was tripping in this video. Sol was OP as fuck on release, and a few system mechanics were too strong/weak, and the wait times to actually get into a match could be gruelling especially for highest level players. These criticisms are fair for sure but aside from the last one it can be bloated and the rest is nitpicky. The damage output is ridiculous but it’s clear it was always very intentional and at this point you could argue it ended up being in the game’s favour, and perhaps trendsetting with the damage output we’re seeing on Version 1 street fighter 6 right now But really at a fundamental level the combat gameplay, art style, tutorials, character designs, soundtrack, voice acting, audio+visual feedback on everything from landing combos to counters to grab techs were phenomenal on release. Combine that with perhaps the best netcode a fighting game had seen at the time and easily the best from a Japanese fighting game, it’s no wonder how so many people from outside of GG/BB space got into this game early on, how so many stayed, and how this is by far the best selling original IP anime fighting game of all time. The game has improved over time (well aside from playing vs Ram), but it was always good. It’s certainly not as complex as previous gear games, and I assume this where the overwhelming majority of critique came from from big GG heads
This is exactly what I was thinking, especially with the more recent changes in season 3. I'm glad to see it didn't go the way some people thought it would.
re: the aesthetics. I think overall the game is overall extremely pretty, but I think the new intros and outros for each character are actually a huge downgrade from xrd. No longer are the animations sweeping and dynamic, but people just kind of wander into frame. It's kind of a shame, considering how good the game looks graphically.
I heavily disagree. I think the Xrd intros are good no doubt, they definitely feel limited to “cool intro, and then hold pose and talk” (like an anime with holds) and while Strive does something similar, I think a lot of the subtlety of the animation makes up for it. Like they might seem kinda simple, but the subtle movements of hair, clothes, and the detailed movements of the face are so good. Plus intros like Chipp, Axl, Ino are still pretty sick, and the Nagos outro is definitely the sickest with how subtle his animation is with how it’s so easy to miss him taking a breath after the mask comes off. I think if anything is wrong with Strive Intros/Outros is that with such a small cast I’d really hope they’d have more interesting dialogue for the intros. Like with only 15 characters and all these detailed intros and yet none of these characters say anything interesting.
They try to make up for it with camera angles but they aren’t impressive, that’s kind of a cheap fix The new intros feel like they’re made to fit the characters into the stage rather than introduce the characters if that makes sense and that isn’t great. Also the outros suck so much ass compared to Xrd. Guilty Gear lore isn’t good but the philosophy is and the character interactions in Xrd were great for just adding bits of that and there were so many it was awesome to see. And all in all- in a fighting game you usually get attached to specific characters aight? So watering down their intros and outros so hard to make them fit in the frame of the stages and outro screen and these camera angles honestly takes a lot away for me because it makes them all so much more bland. And I don’t dislike changing up the camera angles like this, it’s really smooth. These camera angles and shit look very clean but what they actually convey is kinda boring. It feels like they sacrificed more meaningful and just cooler Xrd-style intros for this. I think Axl has a cool intro but he’s like the only one (incidentally, “just walking onto the stage” works for his character better than anyone else anyway, the rest shouldn’t really have sacrificed more dynamic shit and if they had enough time and dedication I could still imagine sick intros landing on the stage).
It's the same for me but more for the lack of instant kills, they were a fun thing and an excuse to put a great cinematic for the characters. They'd have probably been my forst pick for what to cut if time and rescources were an issue (and with rona I imagine they were), but I'm a lil sad
I’m surprised he doesn’t like KOF very much considering how much he likes movement, KOF games are like street fighter games but with sprinting, rolls, multiple different kinds of jumps, and specials that generally shoot the character around the screen. (Like Power dunk and burn knuckle)
As much as i want to like kof I personally cant get into it I mean i would love it if there was some magical perfect kof game but they all have some fatal flaws to me
to me i dont really like the links in kof, but i still like some of these games (mainly the ones with chains and target combos), theyre filled with characters, and the characters are pretty cool.
@@AlynRapi yeah I can agree with that. I only play basic characters like Kyo and iori and they have pretty easy to understand combo structure, mostly iori because u just gotta combo into the rekka and that move just does the work.
Just gonna put down my thoughts before I get tainted by this review: When I bought it, I hated it. Gatling combos were nerfed to hell, roster felt empty, options felt lacking in many ways using characters I was familiar with, it didn't feel worth playing it or sticking to it. The presentation felt very corporate, felt like this is just some lesser franchise who got hold of the rights to use Guilty Gear characters in a different IP. But the more I played it, the more I enjoyed it. As I and a lot of other people began to discover more about the changed characters and mechanics, I began to realize that there's a lot of potential with the game's new sort of style and I like it a lot. I play with my own little friend group and all of us but one have changed our mains to something each other didn't expect, so in that case, ArcSys was pretty brilliant in making Guilty Gear fresh again. If I ever wanted to play something like the older ones, I still have Accent Core and Xrd. That being said, the roster feels empty and I really miss Jam ;_;
With how much this game is selling, they're gonna give it a lot of support, no doubt about it. I dont think its unreasonable to expect most past characters to make a return, or at least most characters from Xrd
After watching a second time, I still agree with all of your points, but I get the impression that XRD is the only fighting game you really like. Like, almost all of your good examples are from XRD and you practically said that it's the only fighting game you think is great. I'd honestly like to see a video on what you think the problems with the genre as a whole are.
I wonder why that is, perhaps because it's the last game in the series before strive, arguably the best one in the series, and his personal favorite, the one he knows best. It's the easiest to compare to in order to put the problems and improvements into perspective, both in general and for him specifically. It's crazy how thinking about it for two seconds just answers your question.
@@internetsavage8733 I don't have any problems with the comparison, but the implication that XRD is the standard all games should be judged against rubs me the wrong way. For example, on movement Leon didn't really give any examples of how more limited movement could work well. He basically just said he only likes games with free form mobility. It comes off as criticism of ideas rather than execution. I don't like Strive either, but I do think other games are great despite not being XRD, I'd argue some are even better than XRD.
@@hijster479 once again, it does make sense to compare it to the latest guilty gear installment and the closest game to strive. And about the second point fair enough, but let me answer that question specifically while I'm at it. Look at any millia replay from guilty gear xrd or a version of x/xx pay attention to her airdashes. Write down what you notice and now the problem is obvious. That type of freeing movement is found in every airdasher I've ever played. I'll even give an example of strive millia's airdash used well. Jubei in bbcf has a command dash and a normal airdash. The airdash is freeing while the command dash starts and stops. One is used fpr movement and the other is for mixups. Millia having only latter feels awful because she doesn't feel like she's zooming around neutral, she feels like she was made for a situation she barely has the tools to get into. That type of underwhelming design is littered all across strive, even if millia is the worst offender for the airdashes
To be fair, part of the problem with the Celestial Challenge is the massive skill gap he mentions in Celestial. If you were to fight a player like him or someone else more average for your challenges, you'd have a better chance of getting in. It's honestly a bit of a crapshoot because of that massive skill divide, so it can be too easy, or it can be nearly impossible. I made it into Celestial twice, and as a pretty mediocre player, both times felt like a fluke because I was just fighting people that were honestly worse than most of the floor ten players I beat to get the challenge opportunity.
@@joeriley1219 I feel it was designed this way on purpose, just to keep people playing. It's such an odd system. I've seen decent, sponsored players struggle or at least have anxiety about it. Very weird.
Its interesting looking back at this video after all this time. Strive has improved a lot since release, I still like Rev2s gameplay more, but goddamn Strive scratches a certain part of my brain that other fighting games dont. Hella looking forward to playing Slayer too.
With regards to YRC, in addition to plus frames, when they leave the guard crush state from the hit of the YRC, they are not throw invuln like other types of blockstun/hitstun, so you actually have the opponent in a strike/throw mixup that heavily disadvantages them. You can layer this with meaty lows, throw baits, etc.
This really is incredibly well put together, Leon. Having just bought the game after some time of delaying, I’m starting to see a few of these problems myself (also being a low-mid tier Venom in Xrd looking for a new home in Axl), and while I am probably going to keep playing to have a Fighting Game I can play with friends reliably, I know to also gauge my expectations on how long it might hold me. You really put a bunch into this one, and I hope you’re proud of just how well you did on this video. It flows just like a lot of your other videos despite having a lot more to say this time around. Excited for the “Strive is good, actually” video once Jack-O drops
I would recommend last blade 2 if you want something slightly familiar with good rollback like strive; it’s an snk game made by the people who would go on to form arc system works and by extension guilty gear. Even the head man Daisuke Ishiwatari, the head designer for guilty gear started here as a background artist funny enough. You can kinda see where a lot of influences like Gatling came from with speed mode and some of the originators that would influence guilty gears classic cast.
Like you alluded to at the end, I think one of the biggest reasons that the game has gotten so much hype and praise is simply because it feels easier to pick up from the perspective of a complete newbie to the genre. Personally I've fucked around in Tekken 6 and DBFZ from time to time but I've never really felt like I "get" a fighting game enough that I care to put time into improving, until Strive. Part of that is the relatively simple systems, and part of that is just that the game looks and sounds incredible and the character designs are top-tier.
36:10 Allow me to explain how BlazBlue (Centralfiction) uses resources, then! You essentially have three resources, with some characters having a unique resource, like Valkenhayn's wolf meter or Rachel's wind meter. These are as follows: Heat (or meter), Overdrive, and Barrier. To get Barrier out of the way: it's Faultless Defense, but it's got its own bar. It drains when you use it to block attacks while not taking chip damage and increases pushback. You start with a full bar and slowly regain it over time. Once you've run completely dry, you'll somewhat quickly refill the bar, but you will take extra damage while in this state. One character in particular, Izanami, can use a special move to essentially make every attack thrown her way be ineffective in exchange for rapidly draining her Barrier gauge, but that's entirely unique to her. Overdrive is a resource that can be spent in two ways: on activating Overdrive, or used as a Burst. Once used, it begins to refill over time. It does not reset between rounds. Overdrive is a temporary power-up state that increases your character's abilities in some way, increases the damage of their supers, and locks the opponent out of using their own Overdrive to activate a Burst. You can either activate it in neutral, or you can cancel into an Overdrive activation on hit or block, or even while you're blocking. If done in neutral, you get the full Overdrive time, but if cancelled into in some way, you only get half the time. You frequently use it as a reversal of some sort when done while blocking, to steal rounds when cancelled into, or as a desperate attempt at a comeback when done in neutral. It's also invulnerable when activating, so you can dodge through attacks with it. In essence, it gives every character an install super of some sort. If you're currently getting your face bashed in, you can also choose to spend your Overdrive on a Burst instead, functioning exactly like in Guilty Gear. In this way, you have to choose which option is most valuable to you, or if it's even worth using to you. If you're currently winning by a large margin, is it worth activating Overdrive to guarantee the kill, but start the next round without access to it? If you're likely to lose, do you Burst and try to mount a comeback, or do you accept the lost round and start the next round with all your resources? I think this is far and away the most interesting resource management in BlazBlue. Lastly, we have Heat, which is just like tension: your meter. Unlike Overdrive, it does reset to zero after each round. You can spend 50 out of a potential 100 to use a super, or you can blow 50 of it on a Counter Assault, which is BlazBlue's name for Dead Angle Attacks: an invincible attack done out of blockstun to get your opponent off you. 50 Heat would also buy you a Rapid Cancel, which is exactly like a Roman Cancel in Guilty Gear. You can also spend 25 Heat on a move called a Crush Trigger, which will break the opponent's guard unless they Barrier it. Jin, in particular, can also power up his special moves by spending 25 Heat and doing them with a different input. That about covers it. I don't imagine many people will read through that big block of text, but I'm obsessed enough with this series that I figured I should at least put my obscure, near-useless knowledge to something resembling good use.
@@hijster479 to be honest, I lost interest moment overdrives were announced. I hate non-universal universal mechanics. Especially if it does things like change frame data.
at the start: damn i like this game and he's making some good point on why he doesn't! when realising he is a May main: damn those where 40+ minutes that will never come back. shame.
I'm someone who absolutely is absolutely in love with strive. I've been playing fighting games for years but never too seriously because I never had people to play with and the online was always so so for me so I just never had the motivation to break past my skill limits and get better, but strive feels like it's designed to be easier to understand for people who only sort of know whats going on and I love that. Admittedly tho, the better I get at strive the more I see what can be done in the older games and the more I start to understand them and the more appealing they become to me.
I enjoy seeing your video style evolve from british Core A Gaming with a dash of sarcasm to british shammy(no shade tho I love both of those channels keep it up leon)
This might be the best GGST guide I've ever seen..? No joke, I think you've done the Strive community a huge favor, because this is a very more thorough and comprehensible overview of how the game systems actually work and what sorts of decisions they reward.
Quite a bit of this is rough though. Obviously I don't think that he thinks he knows everything, but making an in depth review that includes mechanics and gameflow require quite a bit more than 100 hours of play. Saying things like YRC and FD are bad, or implying that there's little mix are pretty big indicators of this. Though most of it is fine because he's coming at it from the more subjective standpoint of how fun or interesting something is, which is cool.
@Awawawa CM As I said, I'm not really speaking about the more subjective aspects of the review, I mentioned at the end that most of this is perfectly fine. If you feel like air dashes and movement feels clunky, you can say that, that's fine, you can also say that you prefer more gatlings, combo variety, meter usage etc. My problems are coming from him making claims that just aren't very true. Sure, he could have a thousand hours and still say subjective things I disagree with, but he wouldn't say things that are just uninformed, and if a lot of conclusions stem off of the initial uninformed statements, then your conclusion is tainted.
When one of the beginner level pieces of lore is that Japanese people are a rare and nearly extinct race of superhumans with magical powers, that's how you know the stories wild.
I would love to play more xrd. However after playing strive, pot feels the so much fun. It also has rollback and I much prefer the new RC system. I can see why people would prefer the older games but after my time in xrd, xx and strive, strive was the game that gave me the motivation to really improve.
See as a Potemkin player that’s kind of been the worst part about strive. I generally do not enjoy it because if I wanna play a character i think “wtf aren’t you playing xrd or accent core” but Potemkin feels very fun to play in this style and much like axl for Leon he’s the I play you because you anger me the least character. Xrd I can’t play my main because he’s just terrible compared to this, but in strive I can’t play my secondary because he not only feel ugh to play without Gatling, it’s also sol who’s a brainless top tier and I miss when he actually was difficult to learn but very easy to master after words.
@@Neogears1312 I feel the kicker for most is that it has GGPO. Like I know a lot of people who prefer UNICLR, MVC, street fighter etc. but because of no roll back they just go to strive. Like no good net code is that much of a burden.
@@Neogears1312 if you don't want to play sol because he's good that's an ego problem. Why do you have to insist on playing characters who you thinks re actively worse?
I'm new to fighting games, and I still find -Strive- frustrating in a lot of ways. Repetitive combos and matchups, overwhelming characters and nonsensical damage outputs make my enjoyment of the game fall flat on the ground. It's a bloody good time with friends, and it has its moments, but, again, as someone who came to fighting games in 2020, I've played better. And 60 bucks for Strive when Tekken 7, SV5, MK11 and other games offer MUCH MORE, both in single and multiplayer is almost criminal. The connecting issues and duel stations are just the cherry on top of the cake. Been following your channel since 10k subs Leon. Great video as always.
SFV offers a lot more now, but at launch it also offered very little just like GGST, and Tekken 7 has way more characters (even since launch) but other than that it's also very lacking even now. MK11 however already offered so much than either one of them or GGST since launch, and it's still the best fighting game in the genre as a complete package right now.
@@suematsu7254 It's game is incredible, MK11 is a read-heavy game, that focuses on decision making and testing the player's ability to make reads, along with super strong neutral and having a place for every archetype in the genre, on top of the ability to customize your moveset with the Kustom Variation system. Learn your facts #FACTS
Just like GGX and Xrd Sign, the first version is always lacking. And just like those games, the title will only improve as new updates/balances/characters starts to be added.
Yeah it's a bit obnoxious that after years of flawed launches the majority of the FGC still loves to compare newly released games to final versions of old one. You can praise third strike all you want, new generation had a top tier with a one button infinite and was an absolute mess regardless. It's simply not possible to improve on a fighting game without running through safer iterations first to let the players and the devs work together through feedback what would be best for the game.
Strive will be better with time, but it could never evolve into smt Xrd/+R fan would apriciate. I remember enjoying Sign and Calamity trigger. But first iteration of Strive? Not really.
This is something people tend to forget a lot for some reason, fighting games initial launches are typically never fully representative of the final product. Between several to many new iterations and nowdays boatloads of DLC the difference is always night and day. Compare World Warrior to Turbo, they're completely different beasts and same goes for most other established series. Fighting games are a very odd genre compared to most, and you can't really review or analyse them the same as any other. Look at how drastic some of the updates were for other Arc games like DBFZ, same is guaranteed to happen here.
Guilty Gear is my fav FG series and I still feel that Strive has room to grow. SFV was hated first year but it had to get to a point where it got fun for a majority of people. Strive right now is my fav FG atm. Maybe even my fav GG game and it’s so good to know that (hopefully) its can only get better than this. Also, Daisuke intended for this game to be way different from the past games. It’s understandable that veterans hate this game. I just feel that they should play what they like instead of complaining 24/7. There’s a game for everybody. And strive is a game for me :). P.S. Strive has the best rc system of any gg game. Idgaf what you think.
I agree with this comment completely. I tried some of the previous Guilty Gear titles over the years and had bounced off for them for onereason or another. Strive has kept my attention a lot longer than any of the other previous games even though it has only been out for a few months. I think this game has brought a whole new generation of fans to the series and to the genre which I think is a tough pill to swallow for those who prefer +R or XRd.
"Everybody should play what they like", well, it's a cool thing to say when you are a Strive fan. Your game have actual people in it (4000). Now, imagine you like Rev2(130) Or +R (150). Good luck trying to find opponent similar to your level.
@@Dozer22334 I think people will eventually migrate back to those games as well. Maybe new fans of strive will be inspired to try some of the earlier titles eventually. Rev2 is a rough one though due to the netcode
@@Dozer22334 bro I just played plus r yesterday. It’s not hard to get a match in that game. Can’t say the same for rev 2 tho especially with its netcode. it’s still possible to find discord’s to find people to play with but ik it’s not easy.
@2d fighter fan There’s is a difference between criticism and downright saying a game you don’t like sucks ass almost everyday. Leon is critiquing and stating his opinion of the game but you do t see him complaining most of the time. He’s accepted that the game is boring to him so he couldn’t care anymore. It’s good to state your opinions of the game. It’s essential. But a lot of people won’t leave shit alone and will shit on the game and people who like it. That’s not critiquing, that’s being a sad ass mf. Again, there’s a difference. And I’m not just saying “play another game” I’m saying PLAY WHAT YOU ENJOY. I hate bbtag, but you won’t catch me playing the game just to be a twitter warrior about. Now there are people who WANT to enjoy the game and they are trying to but it isn’t fun for them yet. And I get that. But I still don’t think you should suffer through something just because it’s “popular” or you feel like you need to like it. I wanted to enjoy DBFZ again but the game pissed me off. A lot of people are enjoying it rn but I deleted the game for the better because ik it’s bad for my mental health. Don’t force to play something you clearly dont fuck with.
Leon:"i know that the majority of my audience is American, meaning that you don't speak ENGLISH" Leons viewers neither from UK or US: "*Laughs in various languages*"
I feel like Strive is to Smash Ultimate what previous GGs were to Melee. Compared to earlier titles it feels a bit like moving through tar, but the resulting experience is much more accessible to both new and mid level players. And as with Ultimate, players still get to enjoy a banger soundtrack even if they don't like the gameplay.
@Kayden McCallum Having finished his video I feel even more validated still. I didn't know other people made this analogy, could you explain those specifics?
@Kayden McCallum I really don't think much about it, I don't know the gg fandom beyond this channel if it even qualifies, and most of all I see you have no incentive to clarify your previous claim so I'll just disregard your comments now.
Haven't watched the video yet but from what I've seen Strive seems to be the Halo Reach of the GG series, where the gameplay changes are very polarising and particularly long-time fans feel that these changes sway the core gameplay too far.
Tom’s lore 101 may not be the best anymore but it was all we had for quite some time. I think it’s worth the watch if you like the banter and the chaotic classroom style lecture structure.
My short review: it's fine, I had fun. I hope they make some changes and add more complexity going forward. I don't see it as a game to play to get hype, I see it as a game to chill out after a long day.
@Kayden McCallum The Rc system is simple but has tons of depth I figure its the reason they are hesistant to make big balance changes quickly. At any moment someone will discover some disgusting broken RC setups and make a character OP. I think they are waiting to add more mechanics to the game at least I hope so. I love this game and its my first guilty gear but I only looked forward to it because I was jaded from the lack of defensive options in other games and saw the huge amount that old Guilty gear games gave to players. i hoped for that in Strive and was disappointed but ultimately happy with the end result. This game doesnt make me rage at all unlike say Tekken or SFV. I got beat for like 30+ matches in a row yesterday and I still had fun. If this were any other fightinhg game I would have been livid and questioned why am I playing at all. The simple addition of Burst makes getting beat down so so so so much more bearable. I can now accept full accountability for my loses without getting tilted. I dont even get mad about top tiers at all its insane how just adding a few defensive options changes the entire gameplay experience.
@Kayden McCallum True, Granblue is simpler than Strive, it's also deeper. You'll see more of Charlotta's smaller move set than May's in an average match and she's just Honda with a Demon Flip. Strive is missing player expression and meaningful choice, and that can be addressed not by dropping in a million random ways to use your meter, but just by making moves less all-purpose or ultra focused towards your character's already ultra focused archetype. Making it not sub optimal to use more than the same three moves again and again.
@Kayden McCallum not mandatory but preferred by many. Games like Fantasy Strike don't have much player expression and as a result end up being seen as very boring. Without player expression everyone at a similar skill level would all look like they played the same with a single character, which is what Strive looks like to me. Unlike tekken where you could put 10 skilled Hwoarangs in a room and they could have a discussion (or argument) about what moves are good and bad, and how the character should be played in certain situations because they all play differently. If you're actually trying to say player expression isn't important then you haven't been paying attention to many fgs, don't know why a lot of people like fgs in the first place, or are just desperately trying to defend games with limited expression. Player expression is one of the things that make fighting games (among other genres) a unique form of media. Even games like sfv have been adding more expressive options like multiple V skill, triggers, V shift and varying the interactions. And I don't even play sfv, I just watch it occasionally.
I hated this video when it first came out, but nowadays I find myself having little to no fun with strive. Haven't turned it on in a month or so. Winning never felt satisfying, any kind of interesting or fun combos getting bursted, all the characters feeling so confined to one play style. I had over 300 hours in the beginning and was loving it, but it's gotten real stale real quick. Anyways where's the melty blood video Leon?
1:01:25 may legit be one of the best quotes I have ever heard, this quote was so damn good I almost thought it was Sol Edit: also, 2 on 1 in arcade isn't new, that's just Dramatic Battle mode from Street Fighter Alpha
As said online monster fighting games need to do better at that. And players need to be better at vocalizing what they want. For a decade we asked for mk style single player only to go “actually this is really awful. I don’t want any of this”
@@Neogears1312 Would M.o.m mode and branching story modes from the past entries be more inline to good single player content? Or are you thinking of some other content?
Really got into the genre around 2011, and I find myself half agreeing with most of your points. Also as an Anji player, hear me out, he doesn’t have much else. Also people keep swinging into my auto-guard moves, so I’ll keep doing it.
I'm going to have to go ahead and continue watching the video cuz I'm literally 2 minutes into this hour and 13 minute probable master piece, but I wanted to make a post about my Strive experience as a new player to the GG series. I wanted to say that Strive is the first time I've played a GG game. I was interested in Rev 2, but definitely felt like I was drowning in a sea of absolute chaos. My history with fighting games is definitely lacking in the 2D anime fighting game department. I started playing Soul Calibur 2 very casually when I was younger. My only competitive experience is with Super Smash Bros Melee (and Project M). I have climbed to Celestial floor twice with Ramlethal, and have taken a break from the game and gone back to Xrd to get a feel for why people say Strive is so limited compared to Xrd. I think there's definitely some good and some bad with both iterations. I think the overall speed of the combos being slowed down due to increased hit stop is a good change. I'll pair this with the inability to air tech and the changes to the gatling system as well since these things all go together in making adjusting the way combos work. In Xrd Rev 2 and DBFZ, I feel like there's very little thought process that goes into doing a combo in the middle of a match. It's pretty much all auto pilot for me. I don't ever think about what move to do next. If I have to think about what move to do next, I've already screwed up the combo. You don't really see opportunities to create a custom combo in the middle of a match based on the scenario at hand. You're not going to create a big combo on the spot. The amount of time you have to think about your next hit in Xrd is nonexistent. You need to have labbed out the combo and practiced the very strict and tight timing beforehand. In Strive, I simply labbed out what properties my moves had, found some basic BnB combos, but I've also found a lot of opportunities mid set to create a brand new combo based on my knowledge alone due to the fact that I have a lot of time to actually think and react to how my opponent is being hit. This is especially true with the new counter hit system giving you time to actually react to landing a counter hit and not having to pre-emptively decide whether or not you're going to get a counter hit in the first place. There are still things to lab out in Strive, but I feel like there's a lot more of the Smash Bros style of combo's where you hit an enemy and are given a bit of time to react to what's happening. Every move is a deliberate choice and not a preprogrammed combo locked inside of your muscle memory. The fact that you can't tech in the air means you also are given more time to link moves together also creating more situations where reacting to the situations are okay. The timing on getting certain links is more lenient in juggle scenarios. And last the gatling changes I think are also a positive (with a caveat I'll explain in a bit). I know this is a BIG controversial one, but I've realized that the length of combos in Xrd wasn't really determined by the gating system. A lot of the longer and more expressive combos in Xrd were based on the amount of possible links and the wall splat/crumple state/ground slide state. Like how many cool Johnny combos in Xrd are actually all gatlings? So many of them are links off Mist Finer K lv 2 ground slide state, or a Mist Finer cancel to link two moves you wouldn't otherwise be able to do, or a link after his coin toss. Here's what I will say though: I think the removal of very SPECIFIC gatlings is an issue. Take 6P for example. The only thing you can do after 6P in Strive is RC or Special Cancel. This makes characters with good special cancel options a lot stronger than others in situations where 6P would be good. It's not an issue of some characters having "better options" necessarily, but it's an issue where some characters have options, and other characters just don't have any option. They also removed a lot of utility from moves which were key in providing the ability to link into more moves. As a Ram main, a great example of this is her 214K. In Xrd, it popped the enemy up after a hit allowing you to combo into her Rekkas. How cool would it be in Strive if the big ole "COUNTER" flashes after a Far slash, I have game knowledge that I can now combo into 214K because of the counter hit property, and then I get rewarded by being able to link into a 5K>Dauro afterwards. Would be cool, except 214K doesn't do that anymore. That's the kind of stuff you can do in Xrd, and I think that absolutely needs to come back universally across the cast. Strive slowed the game down but then also removed all of the options and I don't think that it was really necessary to do both at the same time. I think DBFZ showed me that fast paced combos aren't really all that cool, it was the expression in Xrd that was the fun part for me. They removed that expression by limiting everybody's utility and options from moves. Also removing a lot of command normals hinders the overall options since command normals "broke" the gatling chain and were oftentimes very good utility. That's kinda the "big" stuff, but I do also like some of the smaller changes like the new RC system (I know this is also hit or miss with people but I do like Strive's RC system more). I think the change made to how throwing works was a good one. Stuff like that. Anyway back to the video. Edit: Okay I know this is already a massive wall of text, but I definitely wanted to make an addendum. I do agree with the fact that Strive is more limited in terms of block strings, and I also agree that I'm not a fan of that change either. I don't agree with the point of view that I think it's okay to have a bunch of un-reactable mix ups on block, but I do think even the number of reactable mixups in the game are way too limited. Like you mentioned: If a character does have an option for a high-low reactable mix (May 6K for example) it doesn't lead to anything unless you have meter to spend. I don't think that makes a lot of sense. It's one of the things I disliked about DBFZ's 6M universal overhead system as well, but that game at least has the option to cover the recovery with an assist that isn't tied directly to your meter. Even uncharged dust is like... why? The Xrd Dust is generally right in between the two Strive options in terms of startup frame data, but the properties are so dramatically different. Uncharged Dust in Strive just places you at 0 advantage on hit. You return to a neutral position with no advantage, but no disadvantage. Fully charged Dust gives you insane damage. If Xrd's Dust system isn't coming back, I'd at least make it so that uncharged Dust attacks can be linked into a combo on hit. Give it some heavy proration if you're afraid of making it too OP, but it definitely feels like there are just zero good options for mixing up an opponent. The game needs more mix even if it's not true 50/50 guesses. The more things your brain has to react to, the less focused you'll be on any one of those things. A good reason why Dust is so reactable is that it's basically the only thing you have to look out for while blocking against so many of the cast. Air dashes: Just true to everything you said. Imagine you wanted to make a block string where you go for a 2K into an IAD aerial move. Oh wait, you can't. Even if you COULD do that, the air dash is so slow you're just going to get smacked out of it every time. The only thing you can do that is remotely like this is 2K into Dust. If you somehow manage to connect with a fully charged Dust, you're in the clear and will feel so big brained. If you only manage to connect with an uncharged Dust, then you feel like you wasted your time cuz you're probably playing against Sol who has a 3 frame 5K and now you're forced to block because your fastest move is 5 frames. Unless you have 50 meter and then you can RC and it's good again. LOL I really don't see them changing the way air dashes work, and I think the game is severely worse off with the way they work now compared to Xrd. I hope I'm wrong though.
@@Zeph_1000 Yep. I'm a game analyst by hobby. Breaking down and analyzing the flaws of video games is fun for me because I'm weird like that. I have 3 full journals full of hand written notes I jotted down over the course of several months for how World of Warcraft Classic could have evolved to solve nearly all of the flaws that later iterations of the game had. Pretty much everything before the Edit was what I had independently thought up just by playing Strive for 2 months and then doing Xrd combo trials for the last week or so. xD The edit was actual responses to his video. But I'm suuuuper passionate about GG as a franchise so it's easy for me to write this much about it.
Having time to think up the combo on the fly is cool. But I don't think it's that good when in actuality we get less options. And imo the gatlings make it easier to get into the other games. I knew if all else failed that P>S>HS to launcher was always gonna work.
Overall I agree, but with the air dashes, I'm trying to remember if they were even like that in the closed beta test, which used delay-based netcode. If they were only introduced with the first open beta test, which was also the first rollback test, then I expect they were changed to compensate for that. That is, from what I've seen of comparisons between Xrd and Strive, the overall airdash speed is the same, Strive just back-loads all of it where Xrd spreads it evenly. However, from playing rollback +R, airdashes are the biggest source of teleport issues with rollbacks, so if they made the airdash not move the character for a good 5-10 frames while keeping the overall speed the same, then that means that airdash rollback teleports won't be an issue (as the input will be received by the other player before any actual movement happens) until you're dealing with 200+ ms ping, at which point it's already a stretch to play smoothly.
We've come full circle, from the game launching with bad servers, to the servers bring patching into being passable, to the servers breaking and becoming worse than at launch.
The discussion surrounding Strive makes me feel like the only person on earth that loves +R, Rev 2, and Strive and would never take just one over the others. I just LOVE Guilty Gear.
I'm the same way, I could honestly play all three at random and still have fun. They're all great fighting games, and the style is what keeps me interested.
@@c0mplex_Ale 11 months ago I would have argued with you, but now I agree with you. I don't really like Strive that much anymore, and I'd rather play +R.
@@benepic3101 Hell no, typical fighting game story is "here is tournament, secretly bad guy made it, FIGHT". GG didn't even have a tournament since the first game in the series. Instead we have long history of secret organisation vying for control, apocalypse caused by humans over-developing biological weapons, magic system based on taking energy out of alternative universe of pure condensed information, and much more.
The comments you made about movement made me realise why I like SF so much. I like that every dash and jump is a hard commitment that you have to make. The deliberate nature of the movement has always felt more natural to me. I know it's basically the opposite of what you value, but helped put into context of why "I" like it so much.
Strive was my first fighting game and I have really enjoyed it. I have 250 hours in it and reached celestial a few days ago. After going back and playing plus R and XRD. I really enjoy zato/eddie in all 3 games and even tho the shift from older gears to newer gears seems dramatic I feel like I am always still learning things and being able to do new cooler mechanics as time goes by. I really like the series and the characters and I wish I would have found it sooner. :)
If you want to expand on the games you play I’d recommend garou Mark of the wolves. It’s a very friendly game for an older game. It also looks and plays incredibly well. I’d also recommend last blade 2 because it’s also good and was what the guilty gear devs made before they went in to found arc system works.
This is the first “traditional fighting game that I played” coming from tons of years into the platform fighter because guilty gear xrd rev had some of of the coolest characters i ever seen and tbh this game isn’t as cool to watch as xrd rev but for newbies like me that didn’t even know how to do a quarter cicle input consistently this game is amazing. Oh and yes moving sucks compared to what I played but i played only platform fighters where movement is 9 tenths of the gameplay Edit with “traditional fighting game” i meant 2d fighting which goal is to lower your opponents healthbar and i know GG and Street fighters are very different
If you wanna try more 2d games I think sfv is currently a very safe and fun place to dip your toes. I’d also recommend last blade 2 and garou Mark of the wolves if you’re looking to go even further and try the older games but are worried they’ll be too stiff. Last blade was also funny enough designed by the people who would go on to create arc system works, and by proxy guilty gear. So it’s a fun history lesson as well.
The thing about '5 is an average game' - you haven't played the 50% of games released that are literal unplayable dumpster fires, and probably haven't played the 40% that are obscure and confused and unpopular for good reason. You earn 5 points just for having a playable released game. 7 for being decently meh.
2 years later, i still understand the criticisms that series vets have with the game, but damn it's still fun in its own right. and goldlewis is the most fun ive had in any game ever to be honest. hehe coffin go brr
Before I finish the video I just wanna say I dropped 80 dollars on this praying it would be at least passable and to this day it is easily my worst purchase ever.
How dare you make a well crafted video with constructive feedback and respect to all preferences and sides of the arguement, and not a 5 minute rant video that helps nothing in the situation and just leaves all parties angry! gud vid
My second real 2D fighting game, and first one with a large active community (and rollback) and I have to say that I love it. The relatively small character select is a godsend for someone like me who struggles deciding if I want a small or medium fries. And the combat feels satisfying getting a 3hit combo. By far the best part is that I have a friend who got the game at the same time as me, it's great having a sparring partner who I know, so that I'm not making up boogeymen in my head while playing online.
I wanna say that some of this is coming from a skill issue. Particularly the counter hit and the Faultless portion. While largely I do agree that FD is insanely weak for what it's supposed to do, and if used without proper thought it does feel really absurdly underwhelming. To get the best out of it, you generally have to find certain moves in the string you want to FD that'd leave the opponent in a worse spot than before - first example that comes to mind is using FD on Ky's 214S. The move already pushes him away and with FD on that move alone he has to focus on getting back in, as he now has lost his previous pressure. Some characters have this but to a lesser degree(May dolphin is a good example). And when used in the air you actually descend faster which allows for proper follow ups that you would otherwise not get because of it. Counter hit on the other hand. That slow down adds WAY different properties to just about every thing involved. Because of the slowdown, charge characters, that originally weren't buffering for whatever reason, have enough time to get the commands off. That's in conjunction with the hit difference and momentum shift that alone gives. The slowdown for the counter hit is actually REALLY big when it comes to what it does and isn't just for aesthetics. Also BRC is essentially a free counter state button: hit someone with a BRC and any follow up functions similar(with a few differences) to the big counter slowdown. Especially when it comes to momentum for hitstun. I will say that for the reasons above, I can see where the confusion and dislike for those systems come from when it's not explained in the game as clearly. A lot of the info I learned about Strive, believe it or not came from labrats on twitter(this is excluding any learning I've done myself) I don't think the game is perfect but I will say that the oversimplification of the mechanics and systems is a bit too reductive for a game this new.
you actually was less pushback against Ky's 214S, that's a bad example. Since DE is around -12 ~ -14 on block, you need to IB that to punish(unless you're Sol or Ram). Pressind FD on that makes pushback greater and his recovery relative to yours lower, so you're doing him a favor
@@egrassa1480 If in the corner - unless changed this patch. DE on regular block would push him outside of most character's strike range but on the tip of Ky's. Using FD to make the push back greater makes it so Ky has to get in again to restart his pressure. Giving you some breathing room and making him have to work for it again. Yes he's safe, but you can breath and can start trying to go on the offense. It has a 25 frame recovery with -11(9 shock). You recover before he will, it'd be your turn.
I'm about half an hour into this video and so far it's been complaints about the movement being slowed down, combo structure being simple and damage numbers being too high. Never have I been able to understand someone's grievances so well, yet not give a single fuck myself for I am a Potemkin main - I am here to get 90% off of two command grabs and a stray counter hit.
24:24 this is exactly why I couldnt get too mich into dbfz (and being too dumb to learn any bnb that wasnt universal), and makes me love strive so much. It's easier to parse informatiom and it's more about constantly playing rock paper scissors, than playing rock paper 4 way ui goku mixup. I'm more a player that likes to get the most out of my opponent's bad habits than my own skill or combo execution, so I completely understand why I may love this and others not so much. Especially long term and for player expression in combos at higher level this could easily hurt For context I'm a nago/pot player in strive. Edit: you're welcome bri'hish, twas a nice time
“Whoa, giving a 5/10 might be too spicy, let me dial it back a bit” “Uhhhh yeah it’s as good as GGAC+R” Ah, yeah, I don’t think anyone will take umbrage with that
This may have been the longest RUclips video I've watched in full length, not going to lie. And I thoroughly loved every minute of it. You made a lot of valid criticisms on Strive, and although this is my first fighting game I have to admit that I've noticed some of the issues you mentioned myself when playing (especially the movement my GOD airdash is so bad I'm glad I main Potemkin). It's a great review of the game, and possibly my favorite video that you've made. and also fuck you Roar of the Spark is the best theme
as someone who 1st got exposed to GG with 2 overture on the 360 as a kid, then years later played a bit of xxac+r, i really like strive becuase of how much more accessible it is and easier by comparison to learn. though i find it hard to argue against your critiques, im sure arcsys will update it with features from xrd and overall slowly make it more complex and in depth.
I mean absolutely nothing towards Leon by this, but this video just seems like a comparison between Xrd and Strive with an obvious preference. I can't really take this video seriously when pretty much every point is just 'yeah this is good but Xrd did it better'. I know not every point Leon makes is like that, but Strive is still new and developing.
@@containeduniverselow4790 like i said, strive is brand new. of course it's not good yet. the game and developers need time. (piece of advice homie, people have different opinions)
@@containeduniverselow4790 Lots of people myself including were expecting that Strive was going to improve on everything that Rev2 and modificate some aspects to make it more easy while pleasing the fans that support them but nope Arcsys decided to listen to the easy money and make Strive another SF5
@@nyxiepawz No. They were told constantly for over a year what was wrong with the game and they continued to do what they wanted, hoping the casual audience would be enough. Every single thing they did for the game was for *new players* Were they enough? They aren't and Strive can go down in history as the first major fighting game to crash and burn in the same year. They solved the casual issue many years ago by having the *technical and stylish* modes. You *don't* force new player gameplay on veteran players and expect them to be content with it.
I can defnitly see your point, it made a lot of sense when the video came out, but not now that the patch 1.10 came out. Could you do a new short rewiew with the new many changes the new patch introducing new universal changes, including many new gattling options faster comunication with the server wich means no longer 10 minutes of loading screen at the start, flautless defense pushing further, a lot of new combo variety and a lot of fantastic changes to all characters? It Don't nead to be as long as this video, just enough to adress the changes.
Being able to slightly combo in the air now when that's *standard* in any other anime fighting game and the delay and short range of air dashes isn't enough to make the game good.
@@containeduniverselow4790 the game is good, it's just different, after playing the gama for a while you see why peaple don't mind that airdash as they did on lounch.
@@containeduniverselow4790 yes, i can do the same and go on about the qualities of the game, but let the numbers talk, it sold a lot, it is still played a lot, wich means peaple didn't abandon it, so it maneged to stick around, so at the very least, altough you may not like it, most peaple did, it's just like tekken, i hate playing it, does it make it a bad game? No, it just wasn't my thing.
@@uchihajunior5648 Why does everyone used that excuse (sales) and *never* talk about the gameplay merits? Strive is the *first* game in the series to be advertised to a global market. It has the benefit that everyone is home most of the time and *need* to play online. Without the pandemic, online play isn't required and pro players *hate* online tournaments because online isn't consistent like offline play. Social media is *far* bigger than it was in 2014. Twitch, RUclips, Twitter, Reddit, Discord, ect. The game sold because people knew it was coming for over a year. The previous games had basically nothing to build a hype train. You *had* to be a part of the anime FGC circle to know Xrd was coming because most players were stuck on Street Fighter until 2017. The hate for SFV caused a great migration and open people's eyes to other fighting games. Strive would've been dead on arrival without covid because Rev2 is the *preferred* game and +R doesn't have a PS4 version. So, people are stuck with Strive until KoF15 releases. Strive's just came out at the right time to survive. Here's the entire marketing for Xrd Sign: ruclips.net/video/urUM2Ne_vTw/видео.html - No open betas - No Developer blogs - No Twitter - No RUclips ads/tutorials - No high-profile influencers - No feedback options
I wonder if Leon is going to give this game another shot now that Venom is confirmed to be coming eventually, I didn't even see him throw a tweet out about it so- Probably not.
never before have i heard someone manage to express so well and precisely into words my thoughts about something, that i couldn't find the way to express myself
I love the game and agree with about 98.3% of this analysis. Weirdly enough this is also the first Guilty Gear where I felt compelled to actually get good with RC's.
Load times have been shortened, just block and faultless have been buffed, Sol nerfed, and many other characters buffed. The air dash forward is somewhat slugish.
New to GG, not new to fighting games, here are a few of my takes: I don't think I would like YRC if it was any more advantageous to the user - its purpose is to get out of pressure and reset the neutral, which, given the insanely high damage in general, is a major boost from being disadvantaged to having a second chance. I find YRC plenty useful, especially against oppressive mixup or blockstring characters. For example, YRC kills Zato because Eddie takes the L; any more frame advantage there would be a war crime. I also welcome the new take on gatlings - while I enjoy high combo counts off of jabs, I don't need it in all of my games. Strive shakes it up by making you think more about how you are following up a confirm rather than just pressing when you see an opening and following the standard flow of ArcSys combos (A>B>C). Initially it was weird to me that something like 5p or 5k couldn't do much, but it forced me to rethink how I handle my neutral and how I'll manipulate my opponent to get the confirm I want. For example, I play I-no; typically she'll confirm off of a j.S/j.HS or 2K. From the jS/jHS route, you have the choice of going for higher damage with the 6HS route (which usually doesnt lead to a good oki unless you have meter) or a 2K>2D follow up into oki. If you confirm off a 2K, you will (mostly) be restricted into the oki route unless you have meter to extend. So when I'm mixing up, I try to condition opponents to block low more often because the jS/jHS confirm has more options and gives me more control of the game. If both (and other new) confirms could lead to both routes through a more complex combo route, it would shift the game from "how do I want to confirm" to "how do I want to combo". This isn't an inherently bad thing, and I do enjoy it in other titles, but I like having it different for different games. A last note sort of connected to that last point, I recognize that having more varied combo routes gives players their signature and style (which again I like), but it also comes at the expense of time for learning a new character versus learning the game. For some context, I have about 900 hours in Blazblue, but I think it took me about 300 hours to finish learning my character well enough to actually start learning "Blazblue." In Strive, I started actually learning the game after about 40 hours because I was able to feel full control of my character around that point, after which I could actually begin playing the metagame and fundamentals rather than lagging behind mechanically. This is compounded by the other beginner friendly mechanics like the slower and more reactable air dashes and the counter hit slowdowns, which made it easy to begin responding to gameplay more reactively rather than by muscle memory or rehearsal.
As someone who got into strive several months ago, I found this to be interesting. This also got me to look into older games, and the thing I think is most interesting is that it was a new guilty gear fighter that wasn't a remake of a game that came out in the early 2000s, like a lot of them seemed to be. Also the name isn't dogshit.
To me, Lumina looks more of a Blazblue replacement. To be honest, I’d rather Arcsys eventually revisit Xrd in some capacity, whether that be rollback, a new version with some strive characters, or something else. Only sad thing is that it won’t happen for a long time. But yeah, Lumina is gonna be the new anime fighter for me, since my opinions on strive are basically the same as Leon’s.
Why would you expect that Type Lumina will be the REV3 you´ve been waiting for? I have never played Melty Blood but from what i´ve heard from Lord Knight and Jiyuna is that, the people who are expecting Type Lumina to be a mechanically deep, hardcore fighting game are probably in for a huge disappointment. Accordeing to them Melty Blood was always a very simple and beginner friendly fighting game and not the deep, intricate game some people make it out to be. Gameplay wise it has more in common with DBFZ than with GG or Blazblue.
![Comeback Mechanics (In Games [Mostly Fighting Games])](/img/1.gif)
"R+ is a 5/10"
Unsubscribed, blocked, blacklisted, death treat sent, hitman hired.
I can't believe this Leon macey would never
This was the review we needed idgaf about strive
Im shacking an criyng rn our lion woul neva do dis 😭😭😭😭😭😭
Fucking Xrd fans being a blight on society, as usual
"hitman hired" gotta save that one
"death treat" Sounds delicious, can I have one?
I actually expected Leon saying "It's alright I guess" followed by one of those shitposts where it's an hour of complete silence occasionally broken up by a random sound from the game.
1 hour of silence broken up by Totsugeki
1 hour of silence broken up by
*Thicc Potemkin*
Well he did say it was fine :P
This basically was the video except stretched out to 1:13 hours
Hbomberguy vibes
Local british man is upset for 1 hour, 13 minutes and 48 seconds
Wrong, he wasn't upset for the last few seconds when he showed off jack-o
Madre mia master que haces aqui compañero ?
🔜Spanish🔚
@@wednesday122 LOL.
si
Join us Leon. Watch me play so you can Strive.
(I'm only halfway through the video)
EDIT: Your opinion was cool but but I definitely felt like you were missing info as far as how the game works. Especially on the defensive end. It's a long discussion though. I don't even fault you because if you don't like how the game feels at a glance then there's no way you would be motivated to learn more about it.
Classic LK
his takes on meter use and defensive mechanics in regards to strive definitely came from a place of ignorance, or perhaps misinformation.
@@BanchoGato How so? I think he was overlooking the weaknesses of the backjump escape and YRC isn't quite as useless as he says, but other than that I have to agree that meter use is dull and defense is almost relaxing in how little it gives you to do
@@firewaffle222 I agree on that
Yeah, I find it weird that he said he doesn't like to go in training mode but had so much confidence in what the defensive options were, specially since he skimmed over Burst so quickly.
0:23 Hey now.
I never said the lore was _good_.
Dual 1 LETS ROCK
Everyone says multiple times in that video that the lore fucking sucks but it's stupidly entertaining, I remember going through the comments and there's a lot of people mad that the lecture doesn't take the lore seriously, like...
imagine caring about fighting game lore
There's no way I'd even be paying attention to this series if it werent for your lecture. The Animorphs lecture was great too
@@shiftyshitter348you’re a moron if you think it sucks lmao
the lore is what hooked me into the game. anime lore that is aware its silly is peak
absolute madman... striking the iron while is jagged and cold!
This is going to be the longest toilet break i take on my job. Good work Leon!
Don't fall in
Do not fall in
Ironic, since this game has the mechanic of un-escaped combos with the greyed out combo meter like I have the desire to actually learn what the real name of that mechanic is. Which is to say not a lot.
"Short Review"
*Looks at timer*
Well, daz a lot of ground-based footsies...
He's a Bedman main, so it fits lol
The Longman, it's spreading!
@Awawawa CM Agreed
@@katelynb4597 isn't he a venom main
I really wonder what that fabled October Update will bring. On one hand it's rare for a patch to shake up things drastically, on the other hand DBFZ exists and they just went "screw it, let them tag-cancel specials" for that game. We'll see.
I mean it's sort of the Arcsys curse that their games start off as a bit messy, then improve with time. In the past that meant titles like GG Xrd and the first few Blazblues were somewhat messy and poorly balanced, but hey did have a sauce that gave them the potential to evolve into Rev 2 and Central Fiction, which might be 2 of the strongest FG games ever released.
I see a lot of that in STRIVE. The core philosophy they have and some of the mechanics and ideas I really gel with, but it certainly feels like a prototype more than anything. Hopefully with the way the game has turned into a massive hit and the devs being so open to changes and updates this means that STRIVE will actively be improving over the course of its life cycle rather than us having to wait for STRIVE ;aishdogfli;uahs or whatever to really nail the formula.
I mean ArcSys could just decide to make the PRC 25 meter and it could change a lot of the meta... They could even allow some whacky stuff like buffing the tension gain from instant block by 10x and it would change the game drastically
It's too soon to expect a massive shakeup when they've not even released half their season pass's content. I wouldn't expect major new mechanics or updates beyond balancing until Season 2.
@@iannordin5250 The best way I've heard it described was by LordKnight who said Strive has a *really* strong foundation, and it's genuinely playable at the moment, which speaks well for when it eventually gets changes/addons as most GG titles do. So when we get Strive +ultra whatever the hell they call it, we may be looking at a game with everything everyone wants.
@@Roboardo what?
This review & Dunkey’s video is a perfect example of the two sides of strive
people who play guilty gear vs people that don't play guilty gear
@@c0mplex_Alethat literally exactly
@@c0mplex_Alei played guilty gear before strive and loved strive
Real quick, I loved your review and found it entertaining. However, I felt that using Skullgirls as an example for a game with poor meter options isn't entirely fair. If you're playing a team, things such as safe DHCs and Alpha Counters allow for more utility in meter use for defensive play. Even as a Solo character, the use of snapbacks add depth through meter use as well, as one could decide to use the meter for health regen at the cost of less damage. I completely understand if the game wasn't for you, but it does have more thoughtful meter than just using one vs three bars.
I see Leon complain about meter in some games a lot and I dont always think his criticisms are valid. He sees supers in some games as just "a bar which allows you to end a combo with a lot of damage" when in so many games it is much more then that. In something like SFV you dont have fully invincible DPs anymore unless it is an EX one so if you want to reversal you need to spend your precious meter which is a big decision you have to make, especially since if the opponent blocks it you're eating another combo. Or in something like KOF 14 you can enter max mode to make yourself safe after using an unsafe move in pressure. Even in something simple like engaging in a fireball war with someone if they have meter for an ex fireball or even a Super thats a fireball that can drastically change how you go about zoning and playing in that match now that they have access to such a move. I like Leon's videos but I dont think he sometimes knows what he is talking about with certain points.
Should have just used Granblue as an example again, he knows that meter system is as basic as it gets.
hey alright
@@tonybamanabonitomatopowers6057 he tends to make big conclusions that anyone with more knowledge can easily call out like his “kof is a link heavy game” comment.
@@Neogears1312 yeah lol
I'm pretty optimistic about Strive's future, as just about every great fighting game has had a painful start. Though it needs a lot of work, I very much like the direction they're taking the series with it
I wouldn’t say strive has a painful start the launch was receive with generally positively reactions a lot coming from old players I wouldn’t say strive is in any way bad just very different in a few ways but in a way old players can accept and enjoy not like what happened Blazblue hope the take care of their other ip but this is generally a very good video
I think that there's some legitimate issues with Strive's potential longevity and the limits it puts on creativity as it is, but honestly I don't see any issues that couldn't be fixed with simple balance changes and expanding some systems. I think the big question is whether or not Arcsys wants to ultimately push it in a more complex direction or not, because so far they haven't indicated anything of the sort. What they have is I think a pretty solid canvas but the question remains as to whether they want to put any paint on it or just leave it blank.
I think this sentence is the fundamental reason some people (mostly legacy players) are so skeptical about this game: they do _not_ like the direction, and don't see any patch that follows the current mindset that arcsys has that will substantially bring it closer to what they want. In this sense, I think the comparisons between Strive and previous first iterations (Sign, XX) are really inappropriate; people didn't think Sign and XX were bad because they perceived a disagreement with the developers about what the game was supposed to be, they disagreed with the developers about what the game _was_ at that moment. A lot of people (myself included for disclosure) have the exact opposite problem with Strive; what the game _is_ right now is "fine," especially for a first version, but the vision for the game is not in alignment with what they want, so it will stay that way forever, just fine.
Strive is doing great, it's just has changed it's audience a bit which GG boomers don't appreciate.
I've been since XX, mainly because of the story, and Strive is the first GG where I really got into online.
I don't feel like the game is limiting at all, I feel like it is more heavy (metal). Instead of air-dashes feeling like characters have some booster jets in their ass, they feel like, well, dashes, in air.
Instead of long-ass combos where attacks soon start to do pixels of damage, and it's more about quantity, we have system where every hit feels crucial, and heavy.
I'm okay with Strive how it is. I guess it could use some more mechanics. But I hope they don't change the core of it. I don't want the Microsoft-Flight-Simulator air-dashes, I don't want 30 hit combos out of jab, I want the game expanded but not changed.
GG-Gameplay-vets have +R. It has rollback. It can still be easily playable.
Yeah I feel like base strive is already a good game just with poor mechanical balancing. The game needs major changes but they game doesn’t have to be rewritten completely they just need to tweak the frequency that some systems come into play whether by making them more/less powerful as options or by just changing the numbers
This is objectively a long review
Can always count on you Brian_F for letting me know how long things are
I love your videos and stream Brian! I feel like after having listened to your advice in your videos, I leveled up as a player. Thank you, keep up the good work.
Thank you Brian_F, I never would have noticed otherwise
Yooo brine f
re: Counterhit slowdown in the aesthetic section: The slowdown isn't just an aesthetic indicator, it also allows you to option select for normal hit vs counterhit, which can be incredibly useful for some moves, especially in the midrange. I think this functionality is probably worth keeping even if there can be some annoying situations that come of it.
yeah, it doesn't eat the input but it let's you option select.
For example if Faust uses his j2k he can input first 236p and then 236s and it will automatically use love on block (safe) and mix mix mix on hit(combo extender).
But I agree with Leon that if you don't know this it just feels weird to play with
Extended Counter hit hit-stop is a staple of every fighting game since atleast the early 2000s for that exact reason. Strive’s is just long af. Do people actually not know this >.>?
@@jasonbarry3301 It's not that counter hit-stop hasn't been seen before, but to say it's a staple since the 2000s isn't quite correct. While Strive does have a long af hit-stop, it's jarring for players who haven't dealt with this system before. Not a bad system just different ya know
@@TaroTrashBin idk if I agree with that hot take. Certain things should stay in certain camps. Good arc sys Air dashes are nice but I wouldn’t want them in kof because it would destroy everything involving jumps. This works in tekken because a counter hit launch is pivotal to every characters ganeplan and is pretty unobtrusive to the player. Strive’s is incredibly long and the difference between thinking about and preparing a block string and doing a counter hit combo is drastically huge and kind of necessitates using RC depending on your character just because you’re in the middle of choosing your safe on block move to end that safely and now you’ve got a high damage opportunity.
I think literally every other 2d fighter today handled this significantly better. Mainly because the big thing that decides this always a specific attack so you can keep in your mind at all times you’re fishing for this; things like crush counters in SfV requiring heavies, smash attacks and dragon ball doing the same and not being based on counter hit, hell I think soulcalibur and to a lesser extent mk11 do this phenomenally by making it’s about doing specific moves under specific circumstances like hitting a side walking enemy with mitsurugi’s qcf A or landing a grab/command over head with jax when he has max heat to either boost damage or open a new combo opportunity while also giving the move lists more merit than sheer optimization, use best 10 moves ignore the rest.
There’s thought and decision making here. In strive it’s really just being able to recognize that your opponent is a F’ up and was pushing buttons. It just doesn’t feel like the mechanic fits in guilty gears style unless it was more intentional like off of HS or big moves like fafnir and Garuda.
@@Neogears1312 I think the time counter hit-stop itself isn't the issue in Strive personally. It's fine to emphasize those moments that carry a bit more weight to the flow of a match. The problem I think Strive has is the frequency of the counter hit-stops. The slowdown in pivotal moments are great but when that occurs as frequently as it does in Strive, it kind of ruins the pacing of the match. As for needing an RC, I would argue that the need for an RC after a counter hit is somewhat situational, as counter hits put your opponent in a longer stun state. That being said you're right that there are certainly characters who, depending on circumstance, do need that RC to follow up.
Leon: *Hates Jack-o*
Jack-o: *Looks like she has Venom mechanics now*
Leon: "Holy shit, she actually looks so cool!"
Less just Venom and more mechanics in general. It can't be argued Rev Jack-O wasn't interactive for anybody.
@@naomisisk4663 It's true that if you let Xrd Jack-O get her win condition she kind of just wins.
3 level 3 houses with you blocking in the corner is definitely not very interactive but you ignore everything up until that point.
Consider that every 5K or f.S she touches you with is essentially a 50/50 between 3H and house set.
Or consider the constant interaction of deciding whether go after her or the minions/houses at any stage in the match.
There's plenty of interactivity there.
If Jack-O wins every interaction and you put yourself in the wrong spot through your own poor choices then yes, she's not very interactive.
Confirms that he'll change his mind once venom is added
@@majorghoul9017 Did it work?
@@yoshimallow idk yet, we'll see
When I first watched the part about roman cancel, I was like "Yea makes sense, all these options being at 50 meter makes them hard to use" but then I actually played the game, and realised that you build meter mad fast so it doesnt matter, so fast infact that using any of these adds an additional meter penalty.
On a more serious note, critiques like this are important because they spark interest in the older games. People want to see what the fuss is about, and with that kind of exposure to a broader variety of fighting games (and rollback netcode giving people a good reason to play despite low player numbers) I think we might even see a return to greater complexity in the future. On that note, pardon me while I go play GGXXAC+R for the first time ever.
That game is amazing but maybe look into either playing with some friends or joining a Discord for matchmaking, the game's actual matchmaking system is horrible
@Kayden McCallum Yeah, it kinda is. If skyscrapers were built the same way that apartment complexes are, they would collapse.
I wanna learn XX but that games skill ceiling is INSANELY fucking high, and Xrd would be cool to learn but it's netcode is trash and I can't find people online; it feels like Strive is just the best option right now in terms of Guilty Gear to play
@Kayden McCallum it honestly is, simplifying movement, movesets, combos and blockstrings objectively provides less options than there would've been if they hadn't cut them out but complexity and depth isn't necessary for fun, which is what I think you actually mean, Street Fighter might have less depth than Guilty Gear XX(mainly due to there being less potential variables and options you need to consider) but that doesn't make Guilty Gear XX a better game by default cause you might not like the options GGXX offers you and prefer the more limited pool of more perdictable and consistent options that SF gives you, so complexity is necessary for depth but a ridiculous amount of depth is not required for fun
@@jonnysac77 "complexity and depth isn't necessary for fun" oh boy
"i assure you that the knife that im holding was used to kill granblue"
i mean, you could have used it twice, right?
AC+R? 5/10??
COME ON GUYS, BRING OUT THE PITCH FORKS.
True I still remember a sol vs ky match years ago that absolutely blew my mind how much this shit looked like a fucking anime battle movement and skill wise.
He's right.
@@BacchusGames No
@@4boni729 SteveH vs Kusoru ?
It's pretty meh unless you were already in the rabbit hole
Honestly this whole Strive vs Xrd thing kinda reminds me of the old Street fighter 5 vs 4 debate. Fighting games are in an interesting place where it's difficult to please both newer players and older ones.
It's because everyone has *their* game. The one game they actually funnel a bunch of time and energy and thought into. The game they figure out. Your first experience with something is typically going to be the most memorable, the one you call back to, and frequently, the one you enjoyed the most.
This happens a lot with games because of aforementioned learning, it's a compound thing. Thus, when new or different things come out that are new or different, it is difficult to adjust on a subconscious level, regardless of how open minded you try to tell yourself you are.
@@Grangolus Very well said
I remember the old SF3 vs 4 debates. Oh and the old men who only like Hyper Fighting because super meter is cheesy
Saying that the criticism of simplification is just down to bias is disingenuous
Because the criticisms can be very valid and reasonable
@@dj_koen1265 This. You can't just say oh well this game just isn't for you, in response to legitimate issues. You can't just say "it's a taste thing" when the game just has a problem
This video has become a very interesting time capsule of how Strive was and was played at launch. It definitely feels like the game has developed significantly both on the player and developer end since it so it's fun to look back on.
The game was always good Leon was tripping in this video. Sol was OP as fuck on release, and a few system mechanics were too strong/weak, and the wait times to actually get into a match could be gruelling especially for highest level players. These criticisms are fair for sure but aside from the last one it can be bloated and the rest is nitpicky. The damage output is ridiculous but it’s clear it was always very intentional and at this point you could argue it ended up being in the game’s favour, and perhaps trendsetting with the damage output we’re seeing on Version 1 street fighter 6 right now
But really at a fundamental level the combat gameplay, art style, tutorials, character designs, soundtrack, voice acting, audio+visual feedback on everything from landing combos to counters to grab techs were phenomenal on release. Combine that with perhaps the best netcode a fighting game had seen at the time and easily the best from a Japanese fighting game, it’s no wonder how so many people from outside of GG/BB space got into this game early on, how so many stayed, and how this is by far the best selling original IP anime fighting game of all time. The game has improved over time (well aside from playing vs Ram), but it was always good. It’s certainly not as complex as previous gear games, and I assume this where the overwhelming majority of critique came from from big GG heads
It’s def a WAY different game but I think for the better:)
Youre delusional, the game is literally still the same.
This is exactly what I was thinking, especially with the more recent changes in season 3. I'm glad to see it didn't go the way some people thought it would.
@@FrilockfpsFr?
You gotta love the short and simple reviews
re: the aesthetics.
I think overall the game is overall extremely pretty, but I think the new intros and outros for each character are actually a huge downgrade from xrd. No longer are the animations sweeping and dynamic, but people just kind of wander into frame. It's kind of a shame, considering how good the game looks graphically.
I heavily disagree. I think the Xrd intros are good no doubt, they definitely feel limited to “cool intro, and then hold pose and talk” (like an anime with holds) and while Strive does something similar, I think a lot of the subtlety of the animation makes up for it. Like they might seem kinda simple, but the subtle movements of hair, clothes, and the detailed movements of the face are so good. Plus intros like Chipp, Axl, Ino are still pretty sick, and the Nagos outro is definitely the sickest with how subtle his animation is with how it’s so easy to miss him taking a breath after the mask comes off.
I think if anything is wrong with Strive Intros/Outros is that with such a small cast I’d really hope they’d have more interesting dialogue for the intros. Like with only 15 characters and all these detailed intros and yet none of these characters say anything interesting.
Exactly my thoughts and I haven’t played either game lol
They try to make up for it with camera angles but they aren’t impressive, that’s kind of a cheap fix
The new intros feel like they’re made to fit the characters into the stage rather than introduce the characters if that makes sense and that isn’t great.
Also the outros suck so much ass compared to Xrd. Guilty Gear lore isn’t good but the philosophy is and the character interactions in Xrd were great for just adding bits of that and there were so many it was awesome to see.
And all in all- in a fighting game you usually get attached to specific characters aight? So watering down their intros and outros so hard to make them fit in the frame of the stages and outro screen and these camera angles honestly takes a lot away for me because it makes them all so much more bland.
And I don’t dislike changing up the camera angles like this, it’s really smooth. These camera angles and shit look very clean but what they actually convey is kinda boring. It feels like they sacrificed more meaningful and just cooler Xrd-style intros for this. I think Axl has a cool intro but he’s like the only one (incidentally, “just walking onto the stage” works for his character better than anyone else anyway, the rest shouldn’t really have sacrificed more dynamic shit and if they had enough time and dedication I could still imagine sick intros landing on the stage).
It's the same for me but more for the lack of instant kills, they were a fun thing and an excuse to put a great cinematic for the characters. They'd have probably been my forst pick for what to cut if time and rescources were an issue (and with rona I imagine they were), but I'm a lil sad
I feel the same way about the intros, the game is less cinematic overall i.e. removal of instant kills
This dude called daigo ‘the guy who parried Justin Wong’
Lmaooo the disrespect
I’m surprised he doesn’t like KOF very much considering how much he likes movement, KOF games are like street fighter games but with sprinting, rolls, multiple different kinds of jumps, and specials that generally shoot the character around the screen. (Like Power dunk and burn knuckle)
As much as i want to like kof I personally cant get into it
I mean i would love it if there was some magical perfect kof game but they all have some fatal flaws to me
@@dj_koen1265 is it the same flaw in all of the games or does each game have a different flaw.
@@dj_koen1265 I too would like to know the answer to his/her question
to me i dont really like the links in kof, but i still like some of these games (mainly the ones with chains and target combos), theyre filled with characters, and the characters are pretty cool.
@@AlynRapi yeah I can agree with that. I only play basic characters like Kyo and iori and they have pretty easy to understand combo structure, mostly iori because u just gotta combo into the rekka and that move just does the work.
I was wondering what veteran FG players thought of Strive and bringing up Reach as an example made me understand instantly.
Different to make it unique and fun to some degree but not that good and fun for many do to some ideas
Reach is a good example as it is the most fun Halo and Strive is the most fun GG. They have their problems but so does every game in the franchise
same
Just gonna put down my thoughts before I get tainted by this review:
When I bought it, I hated it. Gatling combos were nerfed to hell, roster felt empty, options felt lacking in many ways using characters I was familiar with, it didn't feel worth playing it or sticking to it.
The presentation felt very corporate, felt like this is just some lesser franchise who got hold of the rights to use Guilty Gear characters in a different IP.
But the more I played it, the more I enjoyed it. As I and a lot of other people began to discover more about the changed characters and mechanics, I began to realize that there's a lot of potential with the game's new sort of style and I like it a lot.
I play with my own little friend group and all of us but one have changed our mains to something each other didn't expect, so in that case, ArcSys was pretty brilliant in making Guilty Gear fresh again. If I ever wanted to play something like the older ones, I still have Accent Core and Xrd.
That being said, the roster feels empty and I really miss Jam ;_;
You'll get Jam, so maybe that'll make the roster a bit less empty for you.
Well so far the leaks have been right and the leaks have jam as one of the dlc char
With how much this game is selling, they're gonna give it a lot of support, no doubt about it. I dont think its unreasonable to expect most past characters to make a return, or at least most characters from Xrd
I still fckin hate it after 150h
We all miss her...
After watching a second time, I still agree with all of your points, but I get the impression that XRD is the only fighting game you really like. Like, almost all of your good examples are from XRD and you practically said that it's the only fighting game you think is great.
I'd honestly like to see a video on what you think the problems with the genre as a whole are.
I wonder why that is, perhaps because it's the last game in the series before strive, arguably the best one in the series, and his personal favorite, the one he knows best. It's the easiest to compare to in order to put the problems and improvements into perspective, both in general and for him specifically. It's crazy how thinking about it for two seconds just answers your question.
@@internetsavage8733 I don't have any problems with the comparison, but the implication that XRD is the standard all games should be judged against rubs me the wrong way.
For example, on movement Leon didn't really give any examples of how more limited movement could work well. He basically just said he only likes games with free form mobility. It comes off as criticism of ideas rather than execution. I don't like Strive either, but I do think other games are great despite not being XRD, I'd argue some are even better than XRD.
@@hijster479 once again, it does make sense to compare it to the latest guilty gear installment and the closest game to strive. And about the second point fair enough, but let me answer that question specifically while I'm at it. Look at any millia replay from guilty gear xrd or a version of x/xx pay attention to her airdashes. Write down what you notice and now the problem is obvious. That type of freeing movement is found in every airdasher I've ever played. I'll even give an example of strive millia's airdash used well. Jubei in bbcf has a command dash and a normal airdash. The airdash is freeing while the command dash starts and stops. One is used fpr movement and the other is for mixups. Millia having only latter feels awful because she doesn't feel like she's zooming around neutral, she feels like she was made for a situation she barely has the tools to get into. That type of underwhelming design is littered all across strive, even if millia is the worst offender for the airdashes
@@hijster479 He brings up Tekken multiple time and talks about the genre as a whole for the half the video.
I second this idea
"Celestial is too easy to get into"
Me, after my 10th failed Celestial Challenege: Y-yeah man. So true. Ha-ha.
I'm at 40+ attempts, so I hope you don't suffer as long as I do
To be fair, part of the problem with the Celestial Challenge is the massive skill gap he mentions in Celestial. If you were to fight a player like him or someone else more average for your challenges, you'd have a better chance of getting in. It's honestly a bit of a crapshoot because of that massive skill divide, so it can be too easy, or it can be nearly impossible. I made it into Celestial twice, and as a pretty mediocre player, both times felt like a fluke because I was just fighting people that were honestly worse than most of the floor ten players I beat to get the challenge opportunity.
@@JetachiKai
I finally just gave up. Not worth raising my blood pressure over, lmao. Hope you work your way in eventually.
@@joeriley1219
I feel it was designed this way on purpose, just to keep people playing. It's such an odd system. I've seen decent, sponsored players struggle or at least have anxiety about it. Very weird.
@@thefractalcactus Thanks, I managed to get in recently. I think I just got lucky with who I got matched up against
Its interesting looking back at this video after all this time.
Strive has improved a lot since release, I still like Rev2s gameplay more, but goddamn Strive scratches a certain part of my brain that other fighting games dont.
Hella looking forward to playing Slayer too.
With regards to YRC, in addition to plus frames, when they leave the guard crush state from the hit of the YRC, they are not throw invuln like other types of blockstun/hitstun, so you actually have the opponent in a strike/throw mixup that heavily disadvantages them. You can layer this with meaty lows, throw baits, etc.
Ah yes "Short review" god Leon this is gonna be awhile
Can't wait for the long review, where it is 10X longer than the short review
I was immediately in when I saw it was over an hour. Idk, I was ready to spend 1 hour.
@@cat6833
Or its 10 seconds long
This really is incredibly well put together, Leon. Having just bought the game after some time of delaying, I’m starting to see a few of these problems myself (also being a low-mid tier Venom in Xrd looking for a new home in Axl), and while I am probably going to keep playing to have a Fighting Game I can play with friends reliably, I know to also gauge my expectations on how long it might hold me. You really put a bunch into this one, and I hope you’re proud of just how well you did on this video. It flows just like a lot of your other videos despite having a lot more to say this time around.
Excited for the “Strive is good, actually” video once Jack-O drops
I would recommend last blade 2 if you want something slightly familiar with good rollback like strive; it’s an snk game made by the people who would go on to form arc system works and by extension guilty gear. Even the head man Daisuke Ishiwatari, the head designer for guilty gear started here as a background artist funny enough. You can kinda see where a lot of influences like Gatling came from with speed mode and some of the originators that would influence guilty gears classic cast.
I thought for a second you were calling Venom a low tier in Xrd, hahahaha.
Like you alluded to at the end, I think one of the biggest reasons that the game has gotten so much hype and praise is simply because it feels easier to pick up from the perspective of a complete newbie to the genre. Personally I've fucked around in Tekken 6 and DBFZ from time to time but I've never really felt like I "get" a fighting game enough that I care to put time into improving, until Strive. Part of that is the relatively simple systems, and part of that is just that the game looks and sounds incredible and the character designs are top-tier.
36:10
Allow me to explain how BlazBlue (Centralfiction) uses resources, then!
You essentially have three resources, with some characters having a unique resource, like Valkenhayn's wolf meter or Rachel's wind meter. These are as follows: Heat (or meter), Overdrive, and Barrier.
To get Barrier out of the way: it's Faultless Defense, but it's got its own bar. It drains when you use it to block attacks while not taking chip damage and increases pushback. You start with a full bar and slowly regain it over time. Once you've run completely dry, you'll somewhat quickly refill the bar, but you will take extra damage while in this state. One character in particular, Izanami, can use a special move to essentially make every attack thrown her way be ineffective in exchange for rapidly draining her Barrier gauge, but that's entirely unique to her.
Overdrive is a resource that can be spent in two ways: on activating Overdrive, or used as a Burst. Once used, it begins to refill over time. It does not reset between rounds.
Overdrive is a temporary power-up state that increases your character's abilities in some way, increases the damage of their supers, and locks the opponent out of using their own Overdrive to activate a Burst. You can either activate it in neutral, or you can cancel into an Overdrive activation on hit or block, or even while you're blocking. If done in neutral, you get the full Overdrive time, but if cancelled into in some way, you only get half the time. You frequently use it as a reversal of some sort when done while blocking, to steal rounds when cancelled into, or as a desperate attempt at a comeback when done in neutral. It's also invulnerable when activating, so you can dodge through attacks with it. In essence, it gives every character an install super of some sort.
If you're currently getting your face bashed in, you can also choose to spend your Overdrive on a Burst instead, functioning exactly like in Guilty Gear. In this way, you have to choose which option is most valuable to you, or if it's even worth using to you. If you're currently winning by a large margin, is it worth activating Overdrive to guarantee the kill, but start the next round without access to it? If you're likely to lose, do you Burst and try to mount a comeback, or do you accept the lost round and start the next round with all your resources? I think this is far and away the most interesting resource management in BlazBlue.
Lastly, we have Heat, which is just like tension: your meter. Unlike Overdrive, it does reset to zero after each round.
You can spend 50 out of a potential 100 to use a super, or you can blow 50 of it on a Counter Assault, which is BlazBlue's name for Dead Angle Attacks: an invincible attack done out of blockstun to get your opponent off you. 50 Heat would also buy you a Rapid Cancel, which is exactly like a Roman Cancel in Guilty Gear.
You can also spend 25 Heat on a move called a Crush Trigger, which will break the opponent's guard unless they Barrier it. Jin, in particular, can also power up his special moves by spending 25 Heat and doing them with a different input.
That about covers it. I don't imagine many people will read through that big block of text, but I'm obsessed enough with this series that I figured I should at least put my obscure, near-useless knowledge to something resembling good use.
Yup, this is why I got out by the time central fiction rolled about. Arcsys always bloats it by the end of the game's lifespan.
@@HellecticMojo You think all that is bad? He didn't even mention Active Flow.
@@hijster479 to be honest, I lost interest moment overdrives were announced.
I hate non-universal universal mechanics. Especially if it does things like change frame data.
I read it since blazblue seems like a fun game
I can’t wait for the eventual “Why XRD is the only fighting game I like” video.
I'm just waiting for the video where he puts a strap on a cardboard cutout of Venom and sucks it off for 5 hours straight
Hey Leon how do you feel about jack o seeming to play like venom based on the first trailer? ; )
This is the actual ironic punishment he got from some dude at the pearly gates
See: the end of the video
@@TimBagels yeah lol I commented this before I got there, we still don't know if he noticed she looks like venom.
at the start: damn i like this game and he's making some good point on why he doesn't!
when realising he is a May main: damn those where 40+ minutes that will never come back. shame.
I'm someone who absolutely is absolutely in love with strive. I've been playing fighting games for years but never too seriously because I never had people to play with and the online was always so so for me so I just never had the motivation to break past my skill limits and get better, but strive feels like it's designed to be easier to understand for people who only sort of know whats going on and I love that. Admittedly tho, the better I get at strive the more I see what can be done in the older games and the more I start to understand them and the more appealing they become to me.
based
As another fellow Venom player, Leon's initial reaction to seeing Jack-O's gameplay is too relatable
I enjoy seeing your video style evolve from british Core A Gaming with a dash of sarcasm to british shammy(no shade tho I love both of those channels keep it up leon)
The fact that I understood this at the core of my being. Beautiful analogy
This might be the best GGST guide I've ever seen..? No joke, I think you've done the Strive community a huge favor, because this is a very more thorough and comprehensible overview of how the game systems actually work and what sorts of decisions they reward.
Idk man he doesn't mention the purpose of the slowdown in counterhits, and LK himself said the bit about defense isn't well informed.
Quite a bit of this is rough though. Obviously I don't think that he thinks he knows everything, but making an in depth review that includes mechanics and gameflow require quite a bit more than 100 hours of play. Saying things like YRC and FD are bad, or implying that there's little mix are pretty big indicators of this. Though most of it is fine because he's coming at it from the more subjective standpoint of how fun or interesting something is, which is cool.
@Awawawa CM As I said, I'm not really speaking about the more subjective aspects of the review, I mentioned at the end that most of this is perfectly fine. If you feel like air dashes and movement feels clunky, you can say that, that's fine, you can also say that you prefer more gatlings, combo variety, meter usage etc. My problems are coming from him making claims that just aren't very true. Sure, he could have a thousand hours and still say subjective things I disagree with, but he wouldn't say things that are just uninformed, and if a lot of conclusions stem off of the initial uninformed statements, then your conclusion is tainted.
Strive was so bad Leon stopped making fighting game videos
Damn shame
...+R is a 5/10 ????????
This dude is TRIPPINNNNN
Damn that was the longest Jack-O review prequel I've ever seen!
>new leon massey video
>guilty gear
>scathing but respectful review of strive
>it's an hour long
am i in heaven or is this some of miracle on earth
0:23
While the lore may not be good, it’s sure as hell fucking interesting
In the same vain, you'll leave that video not remembering jack shit of what he talked about, but it's still fun to see their banter
it is and a fun way to blow several hours
Also hot take, actually has pretty decent character writing.
When one of the beginner level pieces of lore is that Japanese people are a rare and nearly extinct race of superhumans with magical powers, that's how you know the stories wild.
Lore was good until xrd tho
I would love to play more xrd. However after playing strive, pot feels the so much fun. It also has rollback and I much prefer the new RC system. I can see why people would prefer the older games but after my time in xrd, xx and strive, strive was the game that gave me the motivation to really improve.
See as a Potemkin player that’s kind of been the worst part about strive. I generally do not enjoy it because if I wanna play a character i think “wtf aren’t you playing xrd or accent core” but Potemkin feels very fun to play in this style and much like axl for Leon he’s the I play you because you anger me the least character. Xrd I can’t play my main because he’s just terrible compared to this, but in strive I can’t play my secondary because he not only feel ugh to play without Gatling, it’s also sol who’s a brainless top tier and I miss when he actually was difficult to learn but very easy to master after words.
@@Neogears1312 I feel the kicker for most is that it has GGPO. Like I know a lot of people who prefer UNICLR, MVC, street fighter etc. but because of no roll back they just go to strive. Like no good net code is that much of a burden.
@@Neogears1312 if you don't want to play sol because he's good that's an ego problem. Why do you have to insist on playing characters who you thinks re actively worse?
26:08 this aged like a fine wine now that Slayer is actually in Strive
I'm new to fighting games, and I still find -Strive- frustrating in a lot of ways. Repetitive combos and matchups, overwhelming characters and nonsensical damage outputs make my enjoyment of the game fall flat on the ground.
It's a bloody good time with friends, and it has its moments, but, again, as someone who came to fighting games in 2020, I've played better.
And 60 bucks for Strive when Tekken 7, SV5, MK11 and other games offer MUCH MORE, both in single and multiplayer is almost criminal. The connecting issues and duel stations are just the cherry on top of the cake.
Been following your channel since 10k subs Leon. Great video as always.
But sf v started soo much worse than strive.
SFV offers a lot more now, but at launch it also offered very little just like GGST, and Tekken 7 has way more characters (even since launch) but other than that it's also very lacking even now. MK11 however already offered so much than either one of them or GGST since launch, and it's still the best fighting game in the genre as a complete package right now.
@@RoyArkon yeah, in content offers so much more than the others, shame that the gameplay its not that good
@@suematsu7254 It's game is incredible, MK11 is a read-heavy game, that focuses on decision making and testing the player's ability to make reads, along with super strong neutral and having a place for every archetype in the genre, on top of the ability to customize your moveset with the Kustom Variation system. Learn your facts #FACTS
@@RoyArkon yeah its a fun game but not as mk x
Just like GGX and Xrd Sign, the first version is always lacking. And just like those games, the title will only improve as new updates/balances/characters starts to be added.
GGX is still a major improvement from missing link
Yeah it's a bit obnoxious that after years of flawed launches the majority of the FGC still loves to compare newly released games to final versions of old one. You can praise third strike all you want, new generation had a top tier with a one button infinite and was an absolute mess regardless. It's simply not possible to improve on a fighting game without running through safer iterations first to let the players and the devs work together through feedback what would be best for the game.
Strive will be better with time, but it could never evolve into smt Xrd/+R fan would apriciate. I remember enjoying Sign and Calamity trigger. But first iteration of Strive? Not really.
XX is truly the best GG
This is something people tend to forget a lot for some reason, fighting games initial launches are typically never fully representative of the final product.
Between several to many new iterations and nowdays boatloads of DLC the difference is always night and day.
Compare World Warrior to Turbo, they're completely different beasts and same goes for most other established series.
Fighting games are a very odd genre compared to most, and you can't really review or analyse them the same as any other.
Look at how drastic some of the updates were for other Arc games like DBFZ, same is guaranteed to happen here.
>throwing shade on the PCP lecture
😩 that was what introduced me to the GG series
That's true, but Woolie's is still better. I mean, he consulted with THAT MAN.
Guilty Gear is my fav FG series and I still feel that Strive has room to grow. SFV was hated first year but it had to get to a point where it got fun for a majority of people. Strive right now is my fav FG atm. Maybe even my fav GG game and it’s so good to know that (hopefully) its can only get better than this. Also, Daisuke intended for this game to be way different from the past games. It’s understandable that veterans hate this game. I just feel that they should play what they like instead of complaining 24/7. There’s a game for everybody. And strive is a game for me :).
P.S. Strive has the best rc system of any gg game. Idgaf what you think.
I agree with this comment completely. I tried some of the previous Guilty Gear titles over the years and had bounced off for them for onereason or another. Strive has kept my attention a lot longer than any of the other previous games even though it has only been out for a few months. I think this game has brought a whole new generation of fans to the series and to the genre which I think is a tough pill to swallow for those who prefer +R or XRd.
"Everybody should play what they like", well, it's a cool thing to say when you are a Strive fan. Your game have actual people in it (4000). Now, imagine you like Rev2(130) Or +R (150). Good luck trying to find opponent similar to your level.
@@Dozer22334 I think people will eventually migrate back to those games as well. Maybe new fans of strive will be inspired to try some of the earlier titles eventually. Rev2 is a rough one though due to the netcode
@@Dozer22334 bro I just played plus r yesterday. It’s not hard to get a match in that game. Can’t say the same for rev 2 tho especially with its netcode. it’s still possible to find discord’s to find people to play with but ik it’s not easy.
@2d fighter fan There’s is a difference between criticism and downright saying a game you don’t like sucks ass almost everyday. Leon is critiquing and stating his opinion of the game but you do t see him complaining most of the time. He’s accepted that the game is boring to him so he couldn’t care anymore. It’s good to state your opinions of the game. It’s essential. But a lot of people won’t leave shit alone and will shit on the game and people who like it. That’s not critiquing, that’s being a sad ass mf. Again, there’s a difference. And I’m not just saying “play another game” I’m saying PLAY WHAT YOU ENJOY. I hate bbtag, but you won’t catch me playing the game just to be a twitter warrior about. Now there are people who WANT to enjoy the game and they are trying to but it isn’t fun for them yet. And I get that. But I still don’t think you should suffer through something just because it’s “popular” or you feel like you need to like it. I wanted to enjoy DBFZ again but the game pissed me off. A lot of people are enjoying it rn but I deleted the game for the better because ik it’s bad for my mental health. Don’t force to play something you clearly dont fuck with.
Leon:"i know that the majority of my audience is American, meaning that you don't speak ENGLISH"
Leons viewers neither from UK or US:
"*Laughs in various languages*"
I feel like Strive is to Smash Ultimate what previous GGs were to Melee. Compared to earlier titles it feels a bit like moving through tar, but the resulting experience is much more accessible to both new and mid level players.
And as with Ultimate, players still get to enjoy a banger soundtrack even if they don't like the gameplay.
@Kayden McCallum Having finished his video I feel even more validated still. I didn't know other people made this analogy, could you explain those specifics?
@Kayden McCallum I really don't think much about it, I don't know the gg fandom beyond this channel if it even qualifies, and most of all I see you have no incentive to clarify your previous claim so I'll just disregard your comments now.
Haven't watched the video yet but from what I've seen Strive seems to be the Halo Reach of the GG series, where the gameplay changes are very polarising and particularly long-time fans feel that these changes sway the core gameplay too far.
Hey neat he said that in the video
Thats what he said in the podcast with that blasted salami right?
"I haven't watched the video yet, but uh..."
/skips to the first timestamp
Tom’s lore 101 may not be the best anymore but it was all we had for quite some time. I think it’s worth the watch if you like the banter and the chaotic classroom style lecture structure.
Except the lore is nonsense and only enjoyable from an ironic “this makes no sense” perspective. I think that’s most of Leon’s point.
@@ImortalZeus13 almost like it’s a comedy video.
@@ImortalZeus13 I will throw hands over this point right here.
My short review: it's fine, I had fun. I hope they make some changes and add more complexity going forward. I don't see it as a game to play to get hype, I see it as a game to chill out after a long day.
@Kayden McCallum The Rc system is simple but has tons of depth
I figure its the reason they are hesistant to make big balance changes quickly. At any moment someone will discover some disgusting broken RC setups and make a character OP. I think they are waiting to add more mechanics to the game at least I hope so. I love this game and its my first guilty gear but I only looked forward to it because I was jaded from the lack of defensive options in other games and saw the huge amount that old Guilty gear games gave to players. i hoped for that in Strive and was disappointed but ultimately happy with the end result. This game doesnt make me rage at all unlike say Tekken or SFV. I got beat for like 30+ matches in a row yesterday and I still had fun. If this were any other fightinhg game I would have been livid and questioned why am I playing at all. The simple addition of Burst makes getting beat down so so so so much more bearable. I can now accept full accountability for my loses without getting tilted. I dont even get mad about top tiers at all its insane how just adding a few defensive options changes the entire gameplay experience.
@Kayden McCallum True, Granblue is simpler than Strive, it's also deeper.
You'll see more of Charlotta's smaller move set than May's in an average match and she's just Honda with a Demon Flip.
Strive is missing player expression and meaningful choice, and that can be addressed not by dropping in a million random ways to use your meter, but just by making moves less all-purpose or ultra focused towards your character's already ultra focused archetype. Making it not sub optimal to use more than the same three moves again and again.
@Kayden McCallum not mandatory but preferred by many. Games like Fantasy Strike don't have much player expression and as a result end up being seen as very boring. Without player expression everyone at a similar skill level would all look like they played the same with a single character, which is what Strive looks like to me. Unlike tekken where you could put 10 skilled Hwoarangs in a room and they could have a discussion (or argument) about what moves are good and bad, and how the character should be played in certain situations because they all play differently. If you're actually trying to say player expression isn't important then you haven't been paying attention to many fgs, don't know why a lot of people like fgs in the first place, or are just desperately trying to defend games with limited expression. Player expression is one of the things that make fighting games (among other genres) a unique form of media. Even games like sfv have been adding more expressive options like multiple V skill, triggers, V shift and varying the interactions. And I don't even play sfv, I just watch it occasionally.
I hated this video when it first came out, but nowadays I find myself having little to no fun with strive. Haven't turned it on in a month or so. Winning never felt satisfying, any kind of interesting or fun combos getting bursted, all the characters feeling so confined to one play style. I had over 300 hours in the beginning and was loving it, but it's gotten real stale real quick. Anyways where's the melty blood video Leon?
1:01:25 may legit be one of the best quotes I have ever heard, this quote was so damn good I almost thought it was Sol
Edit: also, 2 on 1 in arcade isn't new, that's just Dramatic Battle mode from Street Fighter Alpha
4:46
No, there's definitely a lack of content. Love or hate the game, of you're not an online monster, you have jack to do
As said online monster fighting games need to do better at that. And players need to be better at vocalizing what they want. For a decade we asked for mk style single player only to go “actually this is really awful. I don’t want any of this”
@@Neogears1312 Would M.o.m mode and branching story modes from the past entries be more inline to good single player content? Or are you thinking of some other content?
Really got into the genre around 2011, and I find myself half agreeing with most of your points.
Also as an Anji player, hear me out, he doesn’t have much else. Also people keep swinging into my auto-guard moves, so I’ll keep doing it.
I'm going to have to go ahead and continue watching the video cuz I'm literally 2 minutes into this hour and 13 minute probable master piece, but I wanted to make a post about my Strive experience as a new player to the GG series.
I wanted to say that Strive is the first time I've played a GG game. I was interested in Rev 2, but definitely felt like I was drowning in a sea of absolute chaos. My history with fighting games is definitely lacking in the 2D anime fighting game department. I started playing Soul Calibur 2 very casually when I was younger. My only competitive experience is with Super Smash Bros Melee (and Project M). I have climbed to Celestial floor twice with Ramlethal, and have taken a break from the game and gone back to Xrd to get a feel for why people say Strive is so limited compared to Xrd.
I think there's definitely some good and some bad with both iterations.
I think the overall speed of the combos being slowed down due to increased hit stop is a good change. I'll pair this with the inability to air tech and the changes to the gatling system as well since these things all go together in making adjusting the way combos work. In Xrd Rev 2 and DBFZ, I feel like there's very little thought process that goes into doing a combo in the middle of a match. It's pretty much all auto pilot for me. I don't ever think about what move to do next. If I have to think about what move to do next, I've already screwed up the combo. You don't really see opportunities to create a custom combo in the middle of a match based on the scenario at hand. You're not going to create a big combo on the spot. The amount of time you have to think about your next hit in Xrd is nonexistent. You need to have labbed out the combo and practiced the very strict and tight timing beforehand.
In Strive, I simply labbed out what properties my moves had, found some basic BnB combos, but I've also found a lot of opportunities mid set to create a brand new combo based on my knowledge alone due to the fact that I have a lot of time to actually think and react to how my opponent is being hit. This is especially true with the new counter hit system giving you time to actually react to landing a counter hit and not having to pre-emptively decide whether or not you're going to get a counter hit in the first place. There are still things to lab out in Strive, but I feel like there's a lot more of the Smash Bros style of combo's where you hit an enemy and are given a bit of time to react to what's happening. Every move is a deliberate choice and not a preprogrammed combo locked inside of your muscle memory.
The fact that you can't tech in the air means you also are given more time to link moves together also creating more situations where reacting to the situations are okay. The timing on getting certain links is more lenient in juggle scenarios.
And last the gatling changes I think are also a positive (with a caveat I'll explain in a bit). I know this is a BIG controversial one, but I've realized that the length of combos in Xrd wasn't really determined by the gating system. A lot of the longer and more expressive combos in Xrd were based on the amount of possible links and the wall splat/crumple state/ground slide state. Like how many cool Johnny combos in Xrd are actually all gatlings? So many of them are links off Mist Finer K lv 2 ground slide state, or a Mist Finer cancel to link two moves you wouldn't otherwise be able to do, or a link after his coin toss. Here's what I will say though: I think the removal of very SPECIFIC gatlings is an issue. Take 6P for example. The only thing you can do after 6P in Strive is RC or Special Cancel. This makes characters with good special cancel options a lot stronger than others in situations where 6P would be good. It's not an issue of some characters having "better options" necessarily, but it's an issue where some characters have options, and other characters just don't have any option. They also removed a lot of utility from moves which were key in providing the ability to link into more moves. As a Ram main, a great example of this is her 214K. In Xrd, it popped the enemy up after a hit allowing you to combo into her Rekkas. How cool would it be in Strive if the big ole "COUNTER" flashes after a Far slash, I have game knowledge that I can now combo into 214K because of the counter hit property, and then I get rewarded by being able to link into a 5K>Dauro afterwards. Would be cool, except 214K doesn't do that anymore. That's the kind of stuff you can do in Xrd, and I think that absolutely needs to come back universally across the cast.
Strive slowed the game down but then also removed all of the options and I don't think that it was really necessary to do both at the same time. I think DBFZ showed me that fast paced combos aren't really all that cool, it was the expression in Xrd that was the fun part for me. They removed that expression by limiting everybody's utility and options from moves. Also removing a lot of command normals hinders the overall options since command normals "broke" the gatling chain and were oftentimes very good utility.
That's kinda the "big" stuff, but I do also like some of the smaller changes like the new RC system (I know this is also hit or miss with people but I do like Strive's RC system more). I think the change made to how throwing works was a good one. Stuff like that.
Anyway back to the video.
Edit: Okay I know this is already a massive wall of text, but I definitely wanted to make an addendum. I do agree with the fact that Strive is more limited in terms of block strings, and I also agree that I'm not a fan of that change either. I don't agree with the point of view that I think it's okay to have a bunch of un-reactable mix ups on block, but I do think even the number of reactable mixups in the game are way too limited. Like you mentioned: If a character does have an option for a high-low reactable mix (May 6K for example) it doesn't lead to anything unless you have meter to spend. I don't think that makes a lot of sense. It's one of the things I disliked about DBFZ's 6M universal overhead system as well, but that game at least has the option to cover the recovery with an assist that isn't tied directly to your meter.
Even uncharged dust is like... why? The Xrd Dust is generally right in between the two Strive options in terms of startup frame data, but the properties are so dramatically different. Uncharged Dust in Strive just places you at 0 advantage on hit. You return to a neutral position with no advantage, but no disadvantage. Fully charged Dust gives you insane damage. If Xrd's Dust system isn't coming back, I'd at least make it so that uncharged Dust attacks can be linked into a combo on hit. Give it some heavy proration if you're afraid of making it too OP, but it definitely feels like there are just zero good options for mixing up an opponent. The game needs more mix even if it's not true 50/50 guesses. The more things your brain has to react to, the less focused you'll be on any one of those things. A good reason why Dust is so reactable is that it's basically the only thing you have to look out for while blocking against so many of the cast.
Air dashes: Just true to everything you said. Imagine you wanted to make a block string where you go for a 2K into an IAD aerial move. Oh wait, you can't. Even if you COULD do that, the air dash is so slow you're just going to get smacked out of it every time. The only thing you can do that is remotely like this is 2K into Dust. If you somehow manage to connect with a fully charged Dust, you're in the clear and will feel so big brained. If you only manage to connect with an uncharged Dust, then you feel like you wasted your time cuz you're probably playing against Sol who has a 3 frame 5K and now you're forced to block because your fastest move is 5 frames. Unless you have 50 meter and then you can RC and it's good again. LOL
I really don't see them changing the way air dashes work, and I think the game is severely worse off with the way they work now compared to Xrd. I hope I'm wrong though.
Holy fuck, that's a lot of text even before the edit
@@Zeph_1000
Yep. I'm a game analyst by hobby. Breaking down and analyzing the flaws of video games is fun for me because I'm weird like that. I have 3 full journals full of hand written notes I jotted down over the course of several months for how World of Warcraft Classic could have evolved to solve nearly all of the flaws that later iterations of the game had.
Pretty much everything before the Edit was what I had independently thought up just by playing Strive for 2 months and then doing Xrd combo trials for the last week or so. xD
The edit was actual responses to his video. But I'm suuuuper passionate about GG as a franchise so it's easy for me to write this much about it.
Having time to think up the combo on the fly is cool. But I don't think it's that good when in actuality we get less options. And imo the gatlings make it easier to get into the other games. I knew if all else failed that P>S>HS to launcher was always gonna work.
Overall I agree, but with the air dashes, I'm trying to remember if they were even like that in the closed beta test, which used delay-based netcode. If they were only introduced with the first open beta test, which was also the first rollback test, then I expect they were changed to compensate for that. That is, from what I've seen of comparisons between Xrd and Strive, the overall airdash speed is the same, Strive just back-loads all of it where Xrd spreads it evenly.
However, from playing rollback +R, airdashes are the biggest source of teleport issues with rollbacks, so if they made the airdash not move the character for a good 5-10 frames while keeping the overall speed the same, then that means that airdash rollback teleports won't be an issue (as the input will be received by the other player before any actual movement happens) until you're dealing with 200+ ms ping, at which point it's already a stretch to play smoothly.
@@dominiccasts It's just the little pause at the beginning of the airdash makes it feel clunky. But that's something they can change later.
We've come full circle, from the game launching with bad servers, to the servers bring patching into being passable, to the servers breaking and becoming worse than at launch.
A never ending cicle
The discussion surrounding Strive makes me feel like the only person on earth that loves +R, Rev 2, and Strive and would never take just one over the others. I just LOVE Guilty Gear.
I'm the same way, I could honestly play all three at random and still have fun. They're all great fighting games, and the style is what keeps me interested.
Same, although I tend to enjoy strive more coming from tekken. I actually enjoy the slower pace strive has taken. But yeah GG overall is fucking sick
This is the correct comment. Good stuff!
but strive ain't nothing like guilty gear
@@c0mplex_Ale 11 months ago I would have argued with you, but now I agree with you. I don't really like Strive that much anymore, and I'd rather play +R.
1:07:24
"I'm sure someone out there likes it"
It's me, I'm the someone
Me, curled up in my bed at 10am, pitch black, speaking in a squeaky gremlin voice: *ye*
Its kinda neat seeing a different perspective on the game, and I think this was really well presented and respectful (as always). Thanks Mr. Massive.
0:22 - Hey, the lore IS good. Half of the reason why I like this series is lore and characters.
HARD DISAGREE
CHARACTERS GOOD AND COOL, LORE IS A FIGHTING GAME STORY
@@benepic3101 Hell no, typical fighting game story is "here is tournament, secretly bad guy made it, FIGHT".
GG didn't even have a tournament since the first game in the series. Instead we have long history of secret organisation vying for control, apocalypse caused by humans over-developing biological weapons, magic system based on taking energy out of alternative universe of pure condensed information, and much more.
@@benepic3101 It's better than modern MK and Street Fighter that's for fucking sure.
@@benepic3101 i don't really get what you mean by that, the characters are the lore, right?
The comments you made about movement made me realise why I like SF so much. I like that every dash and jump is a hard commitment that you have to make. The deliberate nature of the movement has always felt more natural to me. I know it's basically the opposite of what you value, but helped put into context of why "I" like it so much.
Strive was my first fighting game and I have really enjoyed it. I have 250 hours in it and reached celestial a few days ago. After going back and playing plus R and XRD. I really enjoy zato/eddie in all 3 games and even tho the shift from older gears to newer gears seems dramatic I feel like I am always still learning things and being able to do new cooler mechanics as time goes by. I really like the series and the characters and I wish I would have found it sooner. :)
If you want to expand on the games you play I’d recommend garou Mark of the wolves. It’s a very friendly game for an older game. It also looks and plays incredibly well. I’d also recommend last blade 2 because it’s also good and was what the guilty gear devs made before they went in to found arc system works.
This is the first “traditional fighting game that I played” coming from tons of years into the platform fighter because guilty gear xrd rev had some of of the coolest characters i ever seen and tbh this game isn’t as cool to watch as xrd rev but for newbies like me that didn’t even know how to do a quarter cicle input consistently this game is amazing.
Oh and yes moving sucks compared to what I played but i played only platform fighters where movement is 9 tenths of the gameplay
Edit with “traditional fighting game” i meant 2d fighting which goal is to lower your opponents healthbar and i know GG and Street fighters are very different
Ain’t no such thing as a traditional fighting game dw
@@StygianWorm that's what people into smash and I think Tekken call 2D fighting games.
As i see it all fighters that arent arena or platform or something crazy ar traditional
If you wanna try more 2d games I think sfv is currently a very safe and fun place to dip your toes. I’d also recommend last blade 2 and garou Mark of the wolves if you’re looking to go even further and try the older games but are worried they’ll be too stiff. Last blade was also funny enough designed by the people who would go on to create arc system works, and by proxy guilty gear. So it’s a fun history lesson as well.
THANK YOU for actually properly using the 10 point scale.
can we expect a sequel soon, perhaps near its 1 year anniversary ？
The thing about '5 is an average game' - you haven't played the 50% of games released that are literal unplayable dumpster fires, and probably haven't played the 40% that are obscure and confused and unpopular for good reason. You earn 5 points just for having a playable released game. 7 for being decently meh.
Leon: A short review
RUclips: over 1 hour mate 😂
Been looking forward to this, champ. Your POV is something I enjoy hearing.
2 years later, i still understand the criticisms that series vets have with the game, but damn it's still fun in its own right. and goldlewis is the most fun ive had in any game ever to be honest. hehe coffin go brr
Before I finish the video I just wanna say I dropped 80 dollars on this praying it would be at least passable and to this day it is easily my worst purchase ever.
How dare you make a well crafted video with constructive feedback and respect to all preferences and sides of the arguement, and not a 5 minute rant video that helps nothing in the situation and just leaves all parties angry!
gud vid
My second real 2D fighting game, and first one with a large active community (and rollback) and I have to say that I love it.
The relatively small character select is a godsend for someone like me who struggles deciding if I want a small or medium fries. And the combat feels satisfying getting a 3hit combo.
By far the best part is that I have a friend who got the game at the same time as me, it's great having a sparring partner who I know, so that I'm not making up boogeymen in my head while playing online.
its been over a year when we getting a long review of strive?
I wanna say that some of this is coming from a skill issue.
Particularly the counter hit and the Faultless portion.
While largely I do agree that FD is insanely weak for what it's supposed to do, and if used without proper thought it does feel really absurdly underwhelming.
To get the best out of it, you generally have to find certain moves in the string you want to FD that'd leave the opponent in a worse spot than before - first example that comes to mind is using FD on Ky's 214S. The move already pushes him away and with FD on that move alone he has to focus on getting back in, as he now has lost his previous pressure. Some characters have this but to a lesser degree(May dolphin is a good example). And when used in the air you actually descend faster which allows for proper follow ups that you would otherwise not get because of it.
Counter hit on the other hand. That slow down adds WAY different properties to just about every thing involved.
Because of the slowdown, charge characters, that originally weren't buffering for whatever reason, have enough time to get the commands off.
That's in conjunction with the hit difference and momentum shift that alone gives. The slowdown for the counter hit is actually REALLY big when it comes to what it does and isn't just for aesthetics.
Also BRC is essentially a free counter state button: hit someone with a BRC and any follow up functions similar(with a few differences) to the big counter slowdown.
Especially when it comes to momentum for hitstun.
I will say that for the reasons above, I can see where the confusion and dislike for those systems come from when it's not explained in the game as clearly. A lot of the info I learned about Strive, believe it or not came from labrats on twitter(this is excluding any learning I've done myself)
I don't think the game is perfect but I will say that the oversimplification of the mechanics and systems is a bit too reductive for a game this new.
you actually was less pushback against Ky's 214S, that's a bad example. Since DE is around -12 ~ -14 on block, you need to IB that to punish(unless you're Sol or Ram). Pressind FD on that makes pushback greater and his recovery relative to yours lower, so you're doing him a favor
@@egrassa1480 If in the corner - unless changed this patch. DE on regular block would push him outside of most character's strike range but on the tip of Ky's. Using FD to make the push back greater makes it so Ky has to get in again to restart his pressure. Giving you some breathing room and making him have to work for it again. Yes he's safe, but you can breath and can start trying to go on the offense. It has a 25 frame recovery with -11(9 shock). You recover before he will, it'd be your turn.
I'm about half an hour into this video and so far it's been complaints about the movement being slowed down, combo structure being simple and damage numbers being too high.
Never have I been able to understand someone's grievances so well, yet not give a single fuck myself for I am a Potemkin main - I am here to get 90% off of two command grabs and a stray counter hit.
I can't really speak on earlier GG games, but compared to the fgs ive been playing the past 5 years, Strive is a breath of fresh air.
24:24 this is exactly why I couldnt get too mich into dbfz (and being too dumb to learn any bnb that wasnt universal), and makes me love strive so much.
It's easier to parse informatiom and it's more about constantly playing rock paper scissors, than playing rock paper 4 way ui goku mixup.
I'm more a player that likes to get the most out of my opponent's bad habits than my own skill or combo execution, so I completely understand why I may love this and others not so much.
Especially long term and for player expression in combos at higher level this could easily hurt
For context I'm a nago/pot player in strive.
Edit: you're welcome bri'hish, twas a nice time
“Whoa, giving a 5/10 might be too spicy, let me dial it back a bit”
“Uhhhh yeah it’s as good as GGAC+R”
Ah, yeah, I don’t think anyone will take umbrage with that
Umbrage is the word, Umbridge is the Harry Potter character
@@joncliffmckinley5868 I don’t know what you’re talking about :^)
@@SoMuchNoise1 me either fam
2 minutes to get into the game is a blessing, for me it takes up to 5.
This may have been the longest RUclips video I've watched in full length, not going to lie. And I thoroughly loved every minute of it. You made a lot of valid criticisms on Strive, and although this is my first fighting game I have to admit that I've noticed some of the issues you mentioned myself when playing (especially the movement my GOD airdash is so bad I'm glad I main Potemkin). It's a great review of the game, and possibly my favorite video that you've made.
and also fuck you Roar of the Spark is the best theme
Is good to see people that enjoy the game and still recognize all the flaws it has
As someone who loves how Robo-Ky plays, I'm left in shambles at the sight of you giving +R a 5/10.
as someone who 1st got exposed to GG with 2 overture on the 360 as a kid, then years later played a bit of xxac+r, i really like strive becuase of how much more accessible it is and easier by comparison to learn. though i find it hard to argue against your critiques, im sure arcsys will update it with features from xrd and overall slowly make it more complex and in depth.
I mean absolutely nothing towards Leon by this, but this video just seems like a comparison between Xrd and Strive with an obvious preference. I can't really take this video seriously when pretty much every point is just 'yeah this is good but Xrd did it better'. I know not every point Leon makes is like that, but Strive is still new and developing.
Because people understand what makes a game good and Strive isn't good. Xrd Sign *unpatched* runs circles around Strive trash.
@@containeduniverselow4790 like i said, strive is brand new. of course it's not good yet. the game and developers need time.
(piece of advice homie, people have different opinions)
@@containeduniverselow4790 Lots of people myself including were expecting that Strive was going to improve on everything that Rev2 and modificate some aspects to make it more easy while pleasing the fans that support them but nope Arcsys decided to listen to the easy money and make Strive another SF5
@@nyxiepawz
No.
They were told constantly for over a year what was wrong with the game and they continued to do what they wanted, hoping the casual audience would be enough.
Every single thing they did for the game was for *new players*
Were they enough?
They aren't and Strive can go down in history as the first major fighting game to crash and burn in the same year.
They solved the casual issue many years ago by having the *technical and stylish* modes.
You *don't* force new player gameplay on veteran players and expect them to be content with it.
I can defnitly see your point, it made a lot of sense when the video came out, but not now that the patch 1.10 came out.
Could you do a new short rewiew with the new many changes the new patch introducing new universal changes, including many new gattling options faster comunication with the server wich means no longer 10 minutes of loading screen at the start, flautless defense pushing further, a lot of new combo variety and a lot of fantastic changes to all characters?
It Don't nead to be as long as this video, just enough to adress the changes.
Being able to slightly combo in the air now when that's *standard* in any other anime fighting game and the delay and short range of air dashes isn't enough to make the game good.
@@containeduniverselow4790 the game is good, it's just different, after playing the gama for a while you see why peaple don't mind that airdash as they did on lounch.
@@uchihajunior5648
Different =/= good
I can go into extreme detail on why Strive is a bad game, can you do the same?
@@containeduniverselow4790 yes, i can do the same and go on about the qualities of the game, but let the numbers talk, it sold a lot, it is still played a lot, wich means peaple didn't abandon it, so it maneged to stick around, so at the very least, altough you may not like it, most peaple did, it's just like tekken, i hate playing it, does it make it a bad game? No, it just wasn't my thing.
@@uchihajunior5648
Why does everyone used that excuse (sales) and *never* talk about the gameplay merits?
Strive is the *first* game in the series to be advertised to a global market. It has the benefit that everyone is home most of the time and *need* to play online. Without the pandemic, online play isn't required and pro players *hate* online tournaments because online isn't consistent like offline play.
Social media is *far* bigger than it was in 2014. Twitch, RUclips, Twitter, Reddit, Discord, ect.
The game sold because people knew it was coming for over a year. The previous games had basically nothing to build a hype train. You *had* to be a part of the anime FGC circle to know Xrd was coming because most players were stuck on Street Fighter until 2017. The hate for SFV caused a great migration and open people's eyes to other fighting games.
Strive would've been dead on arrival without covid because Rev2 is the *preferred* game and +R doesn't have a PS4 version. So, people are stuck with Strive until KoF15 releases.
Strive's just came out at the right time to survive.
Here's the entire marketing for Xrd Sign:
ruclips.net/video/urUM2Ne_vTw/видео.html
- No open betas
- No Developer blogs
- No Twitter
- No RUclips ads/tutorials
- No high-profile influencers
- No feedback options
I wonder if Leon is going to give this game another shot now that Venom is confirmed to be coming eventually, I didn't even see him throw a tweet out about it so-
Probably not.
never before have i heard someone manage to express so well and precisely into words my thoughts about something, that i couldn't find the way to express myself
As a player that played Xrd for 2 months to prep for strive, I personally wish Xrd with rollback is what we got instead of this.
I love the game and agree with about 98.3% of this analysis. Weirdly enough this is also the first Guilty Gear where I felt compelled to actually get good with RC's.
Excellent review, and it has only made me appreciate strive and the Guilty gear games as a whole even more now, thank you kind sir
Load times have been shortened, just block and faultless have been buffed, Sol nerfed, and many other characters buffed. The air dash forward is somewhat slugish.
New to GG, not new to fighting games, here are a few of my takes:
I don't think I would like YRC if it was any more advantageous to the user - its purpose is to get out of pressure and reset the neutral, which, given the insanely high damage in general, is a major boost from being disadvantaged to having a second chance. I find YRC plenty useful, especially against oppressive mixup or blockstring characters. For example, YRC kills Zato because Eddie takes the L; any more frame advantage there would be a war crime.
I also welcome the new take on gatlings - while I enjoy high combo counts off of jabs, I don't need it in all of my games. Strive shakes it up by making you think more about how you are following up a confirm rather than just pressing when you see an opening and following the standard flow of ArcSys combos (A>B>C). Initially it was weird to me that something like 5p or 5k couldn't do much, but it forced me to rethink how I handle my neutral and how I'll manipulate my opponent to get the confirm I want.
For example, I play I-no; typically she'll confirm off of a j.S/j.HS or 2K. From the jS/jHS route, you have the choice of going for higher damage with the 6HS route (which usually doesnt lead to a good oki unless you have meter) or a 2K>2D follow up into oki. If you confirm off a 2K, you will (mostly) be restricted into the oki route unless you have meter to extend. So when I'm mixing up, I try to condition opponents to block low more often because the jS/jHS confirm has more options and gives me more control of the game. If both (and other new) confirms could lead to both routes through a more complex combo route, it would shift the game from "how do I want to confirm" to "how do I want to combo". This isn't an inherently bad thing, and I do enjoy it in other titles, but I like having it different for different games.
A last note sort of connected to that last point, I recognize that having more varied combo routes gives players their signature and style (which again I like), but it also comes at the expense of time for learning a new character versus learning the game. For some context, I have about 900 hours in Blazblue, but I think it took me about 300 hours to finish learning my character well enough to actually start learning "Blazblue." In Strive, I started actually learning the game after about 40 hours because I was able to feel full control of my character around that point, after which I could actually begin playing the metagame and fundamentals rather than lagging behind mechanically. This is compounded by the other beginner friendly mechanics like the slower and more reactable air dashes and the counter hit slowdowns, which made it easy to begin responding to gameplay more reactively rather than by muscle memory or rehearsal.
As someone who got into strive several months ago, I found this to be interesting. This also got me to look into older games, and the thing I think is most interesting is that it was a new guilty gear fighter that wasn't a remake of a game that came out in the early 2000s, like a lot of them seemed to be. Also the name isn't dogshit.
Strive might be kind of a miss but I'm really hyped for Type Lumina to be the REV3 we've been waiting for all this time
To me, Lumina looks more of a Blazblue replacement.
To be honest, I’d rather Arcsys eventually revisit Xrd in some capacity, whether that be rollback, a new version with some strive characters, or something else. Only sad thing is that it won’t happen for a long time.
But yeah, Lumina is gonna be the new anime fighter for me, since my opinions on strive are basically the same as Leon’s.
Why would you expect that Type Lumina will be the REV3 you´ve been waiting for?
I have never played Melty Blood but from what i´ve heard from Lord Knight and Jiyuna is that, the people who are expecting Type Lumina to be a mechanically deep, hardcore fighting game are probably in for a huge disappointment.
Accordeing to them Melty Blood was always a very simple and beginner friendly fighting game and not the deep, intricate game some people make it out to be. Gameplay wise it has more in common with DBFZ than with GG or Blazblue.