Guilty Gear Strive is coming soon, and the Open Beta is about to happen. Are you excited?
Many people do not realize how different Strive is from the other Guilty Gear fighting games. In fact, according to some people who had their hands on the game, Strive is almost a completely different game. Here are 5 things that make Guilty Gear Strive very different from its predecessors:
A Lot of Mechanics Are Gone
Danger Time, Blitz attacks, Blitz Shield, and Dead Angles are all gone. So it seems that the game is indeed being simplified in a way. It is not necessarily a bad thing, but it did upset hardcore fans of the franchise.
Even air dashes are not the same anymore. They now have a visual queue and a delay to happen. This is already more than enough to make the game feel different.
The Risc Gauge Is Far More Important Now
The new Guilty Gear does not have long combos like the older games of the franchise, and still, the damage is very high. One reason behind it is the Risc Gauge and how it plays a very important role in Strive.
Now, by normally blocking 3 heavy attacks, there’s already a much higher chance of taking extra damage. Because of that, just defending certain attacks become crucial to diminish the odds of being obliterated by a single combo.
This is especially interesting because although it rewards good defense, it benefits constant offense to a much higher degree. The way the Risc Gauge behaves now makes the game significantly deadlier. It’s an intriguing twist in a known mechanic.
Guilty Gear Strive Has a New Combo System
We no longer have the long combos we used to have in the older games. Also, Gatling is gone, and so are air combos. Guilty Gear Strive has a new combo structure that generally relies on juggling your opponent to take them to the corner.
Apparently, it's not possible to tech on the air anymore, so the combo will last for as long as you can juggle the opponent. That fundamentally changes the combo paths of the game. Besides that, hit stun has been changed for a lot of different moves, making it now possible to link moves that would not combo in previous games of the Franchise.
Roman Cancels now has Hit Boxes
Your adversary must be inside of the hitbox of a Roman Cancel to be affected by the slow down effect that it causes. Not only that, we now have 4 types of Roman Cancel.
Red Roman Cancel
It happens when you cancel an attack that you just hit an opponent with.
Blue Roman Cancel
This is the Roman Cancel that happens when you're moving or in a neutral state.
Purple Roman Cancel
When you Roman Cancel a special move that you did not hit.
Yellow Roman Cancel
Occurs when you Roman Cancel out of block stun.
The Game Focuses a Lot on Footsies
Love it or hate it, footsies are now a very important part of Guilty Gear Strive. It has a more grounded gameplay and highly punishing counter-attacks that lead to high damage combos. Those are characteristics that make this Guilty Gear a game you have to play much more carefully at higher levels.
As mentioned before, the emphasis on Counter-Attacks is quite obvious in this game. Not only that, air-dashes are much slower now. It seems that some characters, like Nagoriyuki, can't even air dash.
Also, Axl seems to be a clear picture of this new tendency with his One Vision skill. After activating it, Axl can stop time after landing a hit on you, a lot like a roman cancel. He's now a specialist in dishing out high damage from a long-range whiff punish.
Chip Damage Does Not Kill
Some people say the new Guilty Gear is starting to feel a lot like Street Fighter V. It has High damaging combos, a more controlled combo structure, powerful counter-attacks, and now this: chip damage does not kill.
This is a very controversial thing to be added in a Guilty Gear game, but it was the same when Street Fighter V revealed the same change. Now, ending a round becomes a more dramatic job and a good defense can lead to a comeback that would be impossible in games like Xrd.
Edit: after this article was written, we had an Open Beta. In the version of the game that we played during the beta, Chip damage would kill, but ArcSys implemented new defensive options that would prevent that from happening. Considering the sudden change, we have no idea what the final product will be like.
So, are you excited for Guilty Gear Strive? Who is your main character? Do you think that this Guilty Gear is too different from the previous one for its own good?
Let me know in the comments down below!
