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.

i think as a casual multiplayer game, this is like surprisingly good. not just mechanically but also just as a social experience.

mechanically this game is quite robust. SCP roles are varied and deep, rich with strategy, even more so in larger servers where you have to synergise with your teammates. most of them are fun but also each have some kind of notable weakness too that makes them not completely overpower the good guys (and these weaknesses can once again be mitigated by effective synergisation with fellow SCPs). each human team is kinda split in opposing halves which allows for the sequence of gameplay to feel more complex. it's not just the humans all working together to defeat the SCPs but also the humans ensuring their team outlives the others. and so strategy as a human is not as straightforward as simple collaboration. early game dynamic with d-class and scientists in light and facility guards and scp in heavy is really fun for all. it's fairly unlikely for you to be the one to escape the facility as d-class/scientist but when you do it feels so satisfying.

socially, it's just pretty good. it's quick and easy to navigate through servers, ordered by ping. lots of players. all of the different roles and dynamic and trust and distrust and whatnot where everyone has their own motivations really allows you to interact through the game as the class you are. d-class just want to make it out by all costs, scientists want to be escorted by guards with minimal interfence, guards have a duty, mtf have the same duty but also just have this brilliant feeling of camaraderie when you all spawn in together and rush the facility. same with chaos insurgency though with a slightly different flavour. and while SCP lacks that same kind of social interaction aspect you'd get from playing a human class, i think the mechanical uniquenss of SCPs, and the sheer advantage they have over humans on a 1:1 basis makes up for it. the functionality of these roles help shape the dynamics between players sooo much it's incredible.

not to even mention everything else about the game. the facility looks incredible. the atmosphere is adequately dark and gloomy. they keycard system is satisfying. SCP 914 both the device and the big gate that locks it out is really novel. all the SCP items are quirky. there are some really funny knowledge checks you can watch new people pitfall into. there is a nuke. you can play snake on one of the keycards.

play this if you like serious multiplayer games that aren't particularly competitive