The latest entry in the storied Guilty Gear fighting game series arrives in Guilty Gear -Strive-. The first main game in the series since 2015’s “Xrd Revelator”. Strive acts as a soft reboot for the franchise even going under the working title of “New Guilty Gear” during the early stages of it’s development. The new title intends to cater to veterans as well as allow accessibility to brand new players who were looking to give the advanced fighter a try.

Guilty Gear Strive is a 2021 fighting game, it it developed and published by Arc System Works.

Editor’s Note: Media access to the Guilty Gear Strive beta was provided by Arc System Works in support of this preview. Slight story spoilers may be present within this preview. 

Beginning way back in 1998 on Playstation the Guilty Gear franchise has become unanimous with the fighting game genre right next to Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, King of Fighters, and Smash Bros. The series was most noted as being one of the few fighting games to feature a prominent story for it’s world and some insanely difficult gameplay. Arc System Works is looking to rectify the latter with a soft reboot meant for new players to get in on a lot easier, while also keeping veteran players of the series in mind.

While the beta for Guilty Gear Strive is like most betas a taste of the full product it does give a solid idea of what to expect. What’s more surprising is the fact that it gives you a hefty handful of characters to play around with. Upwards of about ten plus and something I really appreciate is that they even detail the easy of difficulty for each character to use so newcomers can get settled in before they feel confident enough to choose their favorites. While other fighters in the past have claimed to have an ease of play for newcomers (and some honestly do) I commend Arc System Works for going so above and beyond for letting players know who they should feel more comfortable playing as no matter their current experience or lack thereof. As someone who’s fairly familiar with fighters, but unfamiliar with Guilty Gear outside of general knowledge on how difficult the game mechanics are I have to say this makes me smile. If you go on gaming message boards you’ve probably seen them full of threads asking just how hard the game is. It’s an attractive looking franchise so naturally anyone who’s curious about it’s fancy artwork and stylish move animations would what to experience in some fashion right? 

The gameplay on the surface is pretty basic for fighting games you have your punches, kicks, high, and low attacks as well as specials known as “Burst” meant to give you an edge in the fight. Luckily the beta contained a tutorial and training mode to toy around with. So you’re not completely hopeless if you choose to play online against others. The characters have different battle types such as long range and balance among others leading to a ton of variety. Unfortunately though, the variety is at the mercy of the ease of use so some characters no matter how interesting their play style may be will be harder to use than others. Another issue is that the individual character’s battle type has it’s own pros and cons. So it’s going to take time and effort finding the character that’s right for you if you’re serious about joining in. I was going to talk a bit about the story, but seeing as how story mode is locked in the beta and Strive is likely to have hundreds of new players I’d rather save it for the review.

With a genuine and attentive attempt at making their historic fighter playable for everyone Arc System Works is trying their damnedest to make it one of the most open invite fighting games in a long while. The gameplay for Guilty Gear Strive is still advanced for premier players so no one feels ostracized which is a rare feat. I’m not sure how much I’ll get into the Guilty Gear series as I’m a player who enjoys gaming for the story just as much as the gameplay and with a series as long-running as Guilty Gear that’s going to be tough. That being said from a pure gameplay standpoint Guilty Gear Strive has my attention, but that could be said for the series as a whole for the last decade or so. Guilty Gear Strive releases on PC, Playstation 4, and Playstation 5 on April 9, 2021.