Guilty Gear Strive review: one of the most beloved fighting sagas returns

When you hear the name Guilty Gear, the feeling of a 2D fighting enthusiast vibrates strongly and this game is undoubtedly one of the most beloved sagas by the most experienced players. Its designs, music and special care in the mechanics have always delighted those who wanted to reach the highest level in terms of "beat em up". Like Tekken or Street Fighter, Guilty Gear has many games behind it, all of them brilliant, and Strive could not be less. But, as Sol Badguy could perfectly say, let's go by parts.

The game starts

As soon as we start the game, we find an extensive menu divided into three blocks: OFFLINE, NETWORK and HISTORY.

OFFLINE

Here you will find the traditional modes such as Arcade, Survival, vs CPu or against another player. You will also find in Dojo where you can learn to play if you have never touched a Guilty Gear, this tutorial mode is very well thought out and through a series of missions you will learn the basics to become a great fighter. Even if you're already pretty good I recommend going through such training, especially because, like all Guilty Gears, each character is a world, some jump once, others have double jump, hit differently, move differently ... it takes many hours to learn to control all so you have game for a while.

RED

In the On-Line or Network Mode category there are 4 sections

• ONLINE COMBATthe Arcade mode: where you will fight against players from all over the world.
• PRIVATE GAMEthe Arcade mode: where you can play with your friends in your own lobby or visit other players' lobbies and communicate with them
• QUALIFIERr-Code: here you can check your position among the other players and consult the R-Code of the opponents which consists of a profile, the result of their battles and game history. You can customize your own R-Code by changing the player name, badges and the "open comment" to share it with your opponent when you play online.
• QUICK STARTtraining mode: In which you can practice in training mode while the server searches for an opponent worthy of you. You can specify the criteria of the opponent you want to fight.

Much more than a fighting game

In the STORY Mode you can enjoy this new season as if it were an animated series. If you've never played Guilty Gear I advise you to take a look at a summary of the previous game or the story in general, even so, if you look a little lost do not worry, in the MUNGO GG mode you can consult a glossary, the correlation diagram between the different characters and the timeline in which the story unfolds. They have it all thought out.

Maybe I would have liked the story mode to have been more interactive, like in other games, where after each fight the cinematic and so on, but who doesn't want to relax a bit and watch a good anime while enjoying some popcorn? In Guilty Gear Strive, not everything is crushing the controller and it is appreciated

PROFILE MODE AND COLLECTION

An interesting point of the online mode is that you must create an avatar with which you can not only walk around the different rooms of other rivals and communicate with them but also unlock different achievements through special coins called W$ and fishing fish

In the Profile you will be able to change the data of your R Code mentioned above and create your mini avatar. Meanwhile, in the Collection you can watch replays of the best saved games or see those of other players, visit the gallery where you will find artwork, music and other interesting content and finally the Fishing mode where you can catch new parts of your avatar, content for the gallery, and so on.

Excellent mechanics

In Guilty Gear Strive we have the possibility to play with 15 fighters in the starter pack and among them a new addition: the special operations officer Giovanna and her "dog" Rei (a spirit wolf with which you can give blows and take a nap afterwards).

We also have Nagoriyuki, the noble samurai vampire, somewhat difficult to control but once you get the hang of it is a blast, and of course, we find more familiar faces like Sol, Ky, May, Zato-1, I-No, Anji, Leo, Millia, Chipp, Axl, Ramlethal, the crazy Faust or the huge Potemkin. All of them with their own combos, fluid animations and unique designs. Baiken, I'm looking forward to seeing you.

Once you enter combat, like any fighting game, you will find a life bar and a "tension" bar in which once filled you can use special moves, in Training Mode, in addition, you will find graphics that will indicate what moves you are doing and what buttons you are using if you want to go perfecting a technique or combo

One thing I especially like about Guilty Gear is that it is very difficult to "punish" or corner the opponent, you must also learn the moves well to dodge them at the right time or respond with a lethal attack (be careful if you go with Chipp Zanuff and you hit a special with the clone activated, you will die instantly). So we can say that yes, this game is definitely more than just button mashing.

Finally, we can't talk about Guilty Gear Strive without mentioning its incredible music. The compositions of the great Ishiwatari vibrate in every fight so turn up the speakers to the maximum and feel the power of Heavy Metal.

In short, Guilty Gear Strive is a fun fighting game, accessible thanks to the training mode and a challenge for the most experienced thanks to the online mode. With original designs and exquisite music. If you are a fan of fighting games, this is definitely a good purchase.

The good things

• Excellent designs and animations
• Careful mechanics
• Music of 10, if you are a fan of heavy metal, fighting and anime, this will undoubtedly be one of your favorite titles

The bad

• Sometimes it takes a long time to "communicate with the server" which does not allow you to play for several minutes
• The interactions between the characters is scarce so you will end up getting a little bored hearing the same phrase over and over again during the Arcade mode.

We have made this review thanks to a download code for Playstation 4 provided by Bandai Namco.