Guilty Gear is a fighting game series that features a very diverse cast of characters, amazing music, and striking visuals. The series is known for its unique art style, incorporating both 3D and 2D animation in an anime style, as well as its difficulty and complexity.
‘Guilty Gear Strive’ is the latest installment, with its initial release in June of 2021. The game has received continuous updates and balance changes in the last two years, the most recent being ‘Guilty Gear Strive: Season Three’, released on August 24th of this year. ‘Guilty Gear Strive: Season Three’ added new mechanics, a new character, and changes to already existing mechanics, attacks, and characters.
One of those changes to pre-existing attacks changed the speed, specifically for Ky, who is a well-rounded fighter using his sword as well as lightning magic, who had his ‘far slash’ and ‘heavy slash’ sped up which is a great thing for Ky as his moves were somewhat slow and felt awkward to use. Axl, who is a time-manipulating British guy who uses a sickle and chain to attack from afar, also had his recovery on ‘crouching punch’ sped up, so he recovers faster after using it allowing him a little more leeway for error. Potemkin, who is a bulky and slow character focused on using throws and big attacks, also had some changes, one of them being his punch having a lower hitbox and hurtbox.
A hitbox is a zone in which an attack will hit and deal damage to an opponent. A hurtbox is a zone in which you will be hit and take damage from an attack. This means he can hit crouching opponents. His ‘special slide head’ was also changed. It no longer guard breaks, which is when someone blocks a powerful move and causes a stun animation leaving them at a disadvantage, and it doesn’t launch as high, but he recovers faster after using it. One character who I’m very happy to see changed is Sin Kiske. Sin is the son of Ky and is half gear and half human. Sin had a lot of changes like his far slash. The speed was increased by a lot and the speed of his special attack, Elk Hunt, was increased too. Sin got the ability to cancel into a super attack from a special attack with no use of his unique resource, the stamina meter, which allows him to do follow-ups for moves.
Other attack changes were more complicated. Nagoriyuki, who is a vampiric samurai who uses his unique move set and long reach to open up enemy defenses, had his ‘forward heavy slash’ changed, so he can no longer special cancel it. Now, it’s a guard break and hard knockdown. This means if he ends a combo with a ‘forward heavy slash’, then the opponent has to spend a longer time getting off the ground.
The ‘burst’ mechanic also saw some updates. Previously, burst would build very slowly and would create a small blue burst of energy that would knock back an attacking opponent, but blue burst now affects the entire screen and regenerates much faster. Burst-safe routes will no longer work, and the player will need to use more burst baits, which is canceling an attack or stopping an attack to block the burst and continue the combo. Gold burst no longer gives you full meter, and instead gives you positive bonus which gives the player a passive meter gain over time, and increases the amount of meter you gain for attacking and blocking.
The burst gauge now regenerates at a much faster rate than ever before, making the new mechanics- ‘wild assault’ and ‘deflect shield’- usable. Both of these new mechanics use half of the burst gauge to activate. ‘Wild assault’ can be 3 different colors, corresponding to unique effects. Orange is all about combos, and it gives a huge burst of speed. Blue is a guard break or a stagger, which forces the user to time a button press to break out of the stagger earlier. White grants you invincibility, and guard breaks an opponent. They can be combo-ed into from normal attacks, but you can not cancel into ‘wild assault’ from specials or supers. ‘Wild assault’ can then be canceled into attacks, dashes, or jumps. If an opponent blocks or is hit by an attack, they lose around 12.5% of their burst gauge, and around 25% if the user charges the ‘wild assault’.
‘Deflect shield’ is the other new mechanic, and while wild assault is offensive, deflect shield is defensive. It can block both high and low at the same time, eliminating mix-ups, which are intended to confuse an opponent by doing something they did not expect. If an enemy’s attack is blocked, then it pushes the attacker back. It’s useful, but there are downsides; if the enemy knows you are going to do it, they can stop attacking or grab you instead. Guard breaks will also negate the shield.
New special moves were also introduced for some existing characters. For example, Faust, an extremely tall doctor who has a very strong control of magic, can now hold an item he tosses out and can use later. Ramlethal, an artificial construct who wanted to destroy the world and now has joined the good guys, got a new move which is a ground pound that comes from behind the opponent and it is very good in pressure as well as combos. Giovanna, a secret service agent who uses a mix of kicks and her magic dog to rush opponents, has a move called chave which allows her to cancel into stronger special moves with enhanced properties. I-no, a guitar-playing time jumping witch, got a very strong move. It makes her go into the air and perform a huge damaging soundwave that can also guard break if it is blocked.
One of the biggest additions to the season is the new character, Johnny. Johnny, the leader of the Jellyfish Pirates- a band of outlaws that fight mostly for good- is a returning character from the series. Johnny is a gambler and a skilled one if you can even call it that. Johnny relies on natural talent rather than hard work and training and he knows it. Johnny’s personality fits him and fits the gambler motif around him.
Alright, so how is Johnny in-game? He is a strong character and absolutely a force to be reckoned with. His play style is a mix of zoning, mix-up, and okizeme. He has very long-reach moves that have decent hitboxes and hurtboxes, so he outranges many characters.
Johnny has a very strong mix-up game, with the use of ‘mist finer’. Doing a ‘slash mist finer’ is a low attack, meaning it must be blocked crouching, but if Johnny does a ‘mist finer’ in the air, it becomes overhead and must be blocked standing. With the use of jump cancels, he can easily get this mix-up started.
Johnny also has unique movement in his dash/run. Most characters will run as their dash, some may not have a dash, while some, like Johnny, have a different dash type. Johnny has a step-dash, which means that when the player uses the dash, you go a set distance. You cannot hold down the dash button to keep moving, the player must instead keep pressing it to move forward. Overall, I like Johnny. The fact that he is a good character is great because some characters at launch can feel empty or underwhelming.
An integral part of new characters coming out is the music and Johnny’s theme is much different from the other ones that have come out. Just Lean is a mixture of metal and country. It sounds unique and even opens with an acoustic guitar as opposed to crazy electric guitars or synths like most characters. It’s an amazing song and if you want to know more then check out the sidebar. Johnny’s Theme fits so well since his character is the leader of a group called the Jellyfish Pirates. One huge difference that I find cool with Johnny’s theme is that most character themes in Guilty Gear Strive tell about the character and their backstory or they tell what the character thinks or feels. For example, Ky Kiske’s theme is about him not knowing whether or not what he’s doing is right or wrong.
He feels torn between doing what he feels is right and what he’s been told is right. He also fell in love with a gear and during a war, he killed many gears on the battlefield. Asuka’s theme is about how he is coming to grips with what he’s done over the years and how he ultimately is trying to atone for what he did and trying to make it right. He even makes mentions of other characters during the song. The reason I’m mentioning this is because many themes are about the character’s journey and how it’s affected them but Johnny’s theme barely touches on his backstory and is more of a folk tale about how amazing Johnny is and all of his feats of strength and power.
Johnny’s character is a gambler and relies on his innate talent rather than training it and getting better at combat. It’s a cliche to have folk stories at the gambling table and have many parts of a story embellished to make the person seem much more extravagant and crazy than they are. So having a song that’s about Johnny and how much of a badass he is fits Johnny so much better than actually going into his backstory because of the aforementioned gamblers and outlaws hyping themselves up. The song gives you more than enough info about who Johnny is as a character. He’s a betting man, a gambler, a ladies’ man all the things that were and still said around the poker table today.
As for my closing thoughts and own opinion, the game feels fresh. I love the Guilty Gear games, and Strive is no different. The updates to burst and the new mechanics are interesting and impactful. Seeing Johnny make a return is also very welcomed; even though he is very toned down from the last game, he is still a very strong character. Johnny’s theme is also really unique and a great song. It’s a little goofy and the singer’s accent is thick but it’s still a great song. The changes to existing characters, including new moves, were a great idea and they were implemented well. Sin got some much-needed changes, and they feel much stronger and not as frustrating to play. The quality of life changes for characters like Ky, Axl, and Faust were also a great direction for the game’s health and longevity. All in all, I’m very happy with the update, and I hope the coming seasons innovate the game just as much if not more than this one did.
