GUILTY GEAR -STRIVE- is the first fighting game I seriously got into (besides smash ultimate but we don't have to talk about that, please) and it's just, it's really good.

I think as a fighting game it feels more approachable than most others. A lot of stuff is streamlined across the cast, namely cancel options (with a few notable exceptions). Combos restricted by gravity scaling rather than air tech windows lead to combos being decently short but make doing the combos themselves fun as every move you choose to use matters with how it would affect later ones. There's a lot of tools and system mechanics that can grant you a lot of immediate reward when you first start leaning into them but also have a lot of depth when you take the time to look into them too. I think strive does a good job making the steep entry of playing fighting game not as overbearing as other experiences while still maintaining depth.

the game looks unique and visually stunning. it's anime but it's also 3D?? devil's work. character design is also crazy. every character's design feels well-matching with their personality in a way that is loud but not cartoonishly overstated in the way other anime fighters might be. every and i mean *every* character design in strive is an upgrade to it's predecessor. faust in particular is my favourite i think. it's just the way he's animated and brought to life... its so... yeah... also all the stages are incredibly beautiful with a lot of them having their own peculiar quirks. and the way area shift has you actually explore more of the stage is really really cool!! it's also *audibly* stunning. every character has a vocalised song! what! it's so good. i love necessary discrepancy so much.

each character's gameplay feels distinct from one another. if i talked about each character's little quirks in detail, i could be here for a whiiiiile so i won't do that. but you have to take my word for it that there's just a lot of fun stuff. pretty much every character has their own gimmick. it's fun. they're all really fun, except sin and asuka i really hate those two, but every character has their fun ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ you can subject your opponent to. and the stuff besides the gimmicks is fun to use hjrghjggdfhj.

guilty gear strive is also incredibly gay and so is a lot of the community, and so am i now! hello! the fact that this game has both a non-binary character and a transgender character as important playable characters is such a bold thing to do for a commercial game so it's awesome that strive did this. bridget really took the internet by storm too. i met so many people through guilty gear and in doing so learnt a lot about myself. i would not have been the same person if i had never gotten this game. this game has brought me some of the happiest days of my life and has given me an identity i can truly call my own.

i love roman cancels in their many colours, i love roman cancel drift, i love fast roman cancel. I LOVE RESOURCE MANAGEMENT. ROMAN CANCELS ADD SO MUCH. i love charged dust as a pre-emptive whiff punish, i love sol's blunt but very heart-driven personality, i love ky's eternal dedication to his wife, i love may's awkward but strong normals. i love chipp for being such a loser /pos, i love how much of an absolute unit potemkin is, i love faust's items, and his special moves, and his normals, and his character, and the way he utilises system mechanics and... ahem...... i love millia hdisc, i hate zato for being such a loser /neg, but also i love eddie, i love ramlethal's character arc, and lucifero, and her character theme is one of favourite songs of all time, i love nagoriyuki's badass design and blood resource, i love anji's ccchhhesst and his elegant fit, i love i-no's hoverdash and how her gameplay centralises around it and how she's sexy but she own it girlboss style, i love goldlewis's behemoth typhoon gimmick, i love jack-o's minion gimmick, sending them in varying trajectories and using special moves with them, i love happy chaos's character as an antagonist so much and his toxic yaoi with daryl and how his gun gimmick fitting destroys the rules of the game lol, i love testament's succubus gimmick and stain and their gameplan and their chill enby aura, i love bridget becoming as popular as she has even though she's reddit </3, i love how testamet and bridget both being gender diverse characters got released back to back, i love sin's relentless optimism and his weapon being a flag and his little cross pendant and his casual outfit, i love the way bedman's character evolved from xrd to strive and how its error gimmick and normals can lead to a certain mechanical feel to his offense, i love that asuka despite being in a fighting game is actually a deckbuilder, i love johnny for being so cool and fathercore, i love elphelt for being so vibrant and colourful, i think like what aba and that key have going on, i love slayer's dedication to his eternal wife, and also pilebunker loops and kara bite and dandy mix, i love QUEEN dizzy's glow up and that she has ice physics and that despite having TOD combos, unblockable AOE damage, fish, chestnuts, and ice physics basically only she benefits from, she is one of the worst characters in the game lol, i love how venom controls neutral and offense kinda with his balls and NOT WITH STINGER AIM STINGER AIM IS NOT YOUR LAYER ONE unless you are A FOOL and i like that thing that unika and bridget had going on in dual rulers and how it was the peak of dual rulers.

i think i'm getting to the point where i don't enjoy the game as much as i used to, having run out of things to learn, but to have squeezed more than 3000 hours, an amount of time i have not matched before and will likely never surpass with any other game in future, speaks to the game's quality. i will always love guilty gear strive and everything it has done for me.

buy this game.

This game is difficult. The method of controlling the player is simple but awkward and difficult. 'No amount of forward progress is guaranteed' so the unreliability of your tool will often be your downfall. The game is harsh in that sense but it feels honest in a way that's difficult to describe. You're entirely responsible for your mistakes but all that happens is you start climbing up from where you've once fell. The lack of that guarantee too helps make the forward progress feel more rewarding as every obstacle you overcome is a commendable effort. No obstacle is just in a vacuum where you merely go from one to the next. Every obstacle exists in a connected world and overcoming the present obstacle is too have also overcome each obstacle before it, however many times it took to overcome this one. I think the variability of how progress is lost in this game feels fresh and fun too. In most games you'd fail and restart the current room or level or world or whatever. The experience is basically forced to begin again from some point. Getting over it having the way you lose progress be baked into the experience makes the whole experience of playing the game feel uniquely linear compared to games that just reload you from some point. The variability of it too can change the experience of some obstacles. Each obstacle has some level of difficulty to overcome and associated risk of failing said obstacle. the risk can be practically non-existent sometimes or it can be threatening. By design of verticality of the game, there is more risk the higher up you go as you have a longer way to fall. The further in you go, the bigger weight the obstacles have and the bigger feeling of gratification there is. This makes reaching that end really worth it. To overcome the challenge and prove to yourself it can be done.

The unremitting uncertainty of progress in this game makes this game a bit of a comfort game for me bizarrely enough. It's always a challenge and there's no real pressure to be always making progress the same way I might in literally anything else. You're supposed to fail here but the game really embraces it in it's core design. The narration is nice and relaxing. I kinda understand the stuff Bennett Foddy is saying and it's nice to hear him ramble over and over on repeat playthroughs. I think it's kinda funny though that the game is also designed in such a way that if you get mad at this kind of stuff, you will hate these things. Each word Bennett utters is a taunt, you can't keep hold of the progress you have etc, etc. Still, regardless of your approach to the game, that reward is the same. this game is art, maybe? the experience just doesn't feel like anything else i've played before

thanks mr foddy