Guilty Gear -Strive-

[HandsomeDead]

I don't know how to give impressions on this without getting in the weeds.  In terms of features it's an old fashioned 2D fighting game.  You have an arcade mode (which is kinda interesting in that the better you do the harder the end boss gets) and there is a story that is literally an anime that you just watch, which is what the last game did too but it's still wild to me.

 

There's also a pretty intense Mission Mode that does it's best to teach you the deeper mechanics of the game which if you're the studious type could work pretty well.  I could do with spending more time in it myself but getting wrecked by someone using my character then trying to rip them off in the next match is more fun for me.

 

It's the good netcode that saves it though.  Well, the matchmaking is pretty rough at the mo but it plays really well in game.  It just means there's always people to play with.  This came online at midnight and I was ready to play it so I went to the east coast of USA since it was a more sensible time there and while it was a little choppy visually my inputs were barely delayed, if at all.  I really hope they put this in a DBFZ2, in fact it would be shocking if they didn't.

 

I've not saved many fights yet since I think I'm still pretty scrubby but my Gio is coming along a little.  And this fight with Zato was fun when I wasn't put in the corner with all his nonsense:

 

 

[Maf]

It’s downloaded but it’s too late to start a fighting game now. We’ll play some tomorrow if you’re up for it.

 

I prefer learning by losing instead of training rooms too. I’ll spend some times learning what the buttons do then have some matches.

 

See how well this goes when I can’t jam on square anymore lol 

[HandsomeDead]

Yeah, we can spar @Maf but I hope you've seen it played.  The Roman Cancel mechanic isn't taught early and it's pretty instrumental and I learnt it from messing with the previous game (and it functions differently in this one).  

 

I can't chat in game due to my stick not having a mic jack but if you have Discord or something I could explain as while it's not difficult to do once you get it, it's not immediately apparent, unlike the core mechanics in DBFZ

[Maf]

Is that the thing where you slow time to combo combo’s together? I’ve been watching bits of this game here and there and this is what it looks like.

 

No idea how to do it but I think I get what it’s for?

 

Also I like that in this game it has that burst mechanic which looks like a “Get off me” kind of panic button. 

[Snaggletooth]

The only 2 things I'm really not liking with this at the moment are the amount of time the comunicating with server message takes when booting up,

And the same repeated narator pre fight ramble being the same every damn time at least its skippable.

 

Oh did also have a few bad frame rate drops in geovanas pre fight cinematic, swear it went down to about 10fps, before picking back up for

the fight, this happened to anyone else?

[HandsomeDead]

I skip the pre fight stuff now, but in the beta I checked it once and I assumed it was an aesthetic choice so it looks like anime which often runs at around 14 FPS on tv.  It was the same with DBFZ where the cutscenes were in a low framrate but the game wasn't.  I can't remember if Xrd had a similar thing but it looked purposeful to me.

[Maf]

I dun fucked up. This game is hard yo lol

 

At first I thought I’d play through the story mode. But there is no story mode. Story mode is literally a movie.

 

Then I thought I would try the mission modes. I cleared all the level 1 stuff but even then it was like “Just do a half circle back, forward + HS” I was like oh I see this is easy mode ?

 

Then it was like just hit the next button after the first button lands. Rhythmically. Yeah, Ok, I’ll just learn guitar while I’m at it

 

This is common in fighting games, I know. But there is something about the way hits work in this where it’s just harder. I could talk a lot about this and how it’s the second hardest thing in fighting games but maybe another time.

Then I went in to training mode and picked Gio because she had a 3 star difficulty rating and looked cool. Immediately I can’t feel how these buttons are supposed to work. Not that I’m trying to create combos but I can’t find a button that feels like it should come after the first button. If that makes sense. Every attack I do feels like it is an individual strike instead of having any flow to it. Which is just not good. 
 

Oooh I think I was overconfident. This is a difficult video game. I can just feel it in the buttons. 
 

Fighting games do not play like any other game. It doesn’t matter what you’ve played or on what mode you’ve played it games do not ask you to hit buttons like fighting games do. It is so difficult.

 

But I will try more. But I dunno how far I’ll get. This game is not playing.

 

[HandsomeDead]

@Maf if your main concern right now is just how to attack and do metreless bread and butter combos it'll probably worth just hitting up some combo videos.  

 

If you're using Gio the main button you need is S, she gets a lot off it, especially close S.  And she slides like she's on ice when you dash and hit S or K so it's good for getting in.

 

There's not many combos until you use metre but don't worry about that yet.  I guess I can list the metreless things I use a lot:

 

K, 214K (good for getting in and quick for getting people off you)

CS, 2S, HS, 214K (total B&B)

CS, 2S, 2HS, 236K (this one can be messed up easy with poor spacing but it's damaging)

 

There's others but I'm (I'm sure I have an air combo that ends in super) but using these will get you to the 5th floor if used right.

[Maf]

(What is CS?)

 

I already started looking at this

 

There’s a move in here at 1:34 where all it is is 6HS repeat and I still only get the 3 and not the 4 lol - please explain to me @Handsomeguru ?

 

Although I can quite easily do the Roman cancel combo about half way through. I’ve mapped RC and dash to L2 and L1 for ease. 
 

I haven’t ventured online yet. Just the training room. It’s hard. This game is fun, though. One of the things I’ve learned over the past year is I love training rooms in fighting games. Just practicing and learning is fun. 
 

I will go online at some point. Just not ready at all. The movement feels really strict in this game. I’m thinking of coming off d-pad but then I can’t do half circles. I need d-pad for precision. 
 

Anyway. Yes. Still playing around. Might finish this combo video then try someone else. I like Gio but maybe there’s someone who has a super which isn’t 234,234+HS in the air haha

 

EDIT: Also is this game like DBFZ where it has red and blue combos? It feels like it.

[Maryokutai]

3 minutes ago, Maf said:

There’s a move in here at 1:34 where all it is is 6HS repeat and I still only get the 3 and not the 4 lol - please explain to me @Handsomeguru ?

 

I'll give it a try without having played the game. The last three hits are basically a Rekka combo where the last two are additional inputs after the first. The very first one is a counter hit, so if you try to replicate this exact combo in training mode you probably have to set your dummy accordingly. So if it's a counter, you do it once, then wait a little, and then do it three times in quick succession.

 

Now let's see if Handsomedead can confirm this.

[Maf]

You know despite the fact it literally splashes the word “Counter” right across the screen I didn’t see that at all ?‍♂️ 

 

Dunno if that makes me feel better or worse lol

[HandsomeDead]

Mary is right about that combo.

 

And I don't think it has the red/blue combo counting system from DBFZ.  The last GG game did, a fake combo was called black beat, but I think it's just a standard system.

 

Oh, and CS is close slash.  You get different moves depending on your proximity to your opponent.  FS = far slash

[Maf]

Ah. I got the moves change on distance I just didn’t realise what it meant. When I do combos sometimes it says “Beat” in gold/yellow but other times it was in darker blue. I was wondering if that meant it was real or not. 
 

I just looked at one video and she can turn Green and do dust combos? I thought Dust was just for guard breaking. 
 

There is so much to learn  and this is only 1 character oh no

[HandsomeDead]

I just wanna give this video a shout out

 

 

Dont be afraid to fight people.  In GGS especially because it is designed so new or inexperienced players play against a similar type.  Fighting games have been getting so much more accessible.  You can get in and have as much a similar god's time as playing the latest competitive FPS.  You're gonna get owned at first there and you're gonna get owned here.  A lot of excuses come with playing team competitive games but I think the one on one nature of fighting games makes you own your own shit.

 

Since you own shit I only say all this because of Maf saying he's too afraid to go online.  Do it! lots of people are as bad as  you and because of the game's netcode you can virtually travel to relatively nearby continents to find those at your level.

 

Overall I'm just saying you'll do okay even if you're just hitting buttons.  Much more people are at your level that aren't.  And putting in the time in fighting games is the most satisfying gaming around.  It's better than a Souls game.

[Maf]

I don’t remember saying I was afraid to go online lol. I did it with DBFZ, I’ll do it here, too. I’m just trying to learn some fundamentals first and seeing what character I like. 
 

I’ve only played the game for an hour in the training room. I’m just *cracks neck* loosening up. 

[one-armed dwarf]

I mean I was gonna give it a look after reading that but then I saw the PC version has no cross play which is such a deal breaker, because of the limited pool of people to play with on that platform. no bueno

[Maf]

2 hours ago, HandsomeDead said:

I only say all this because of Maf saying he's too afraid to go online.  Do it! lots of people are as bad as  you

I just read it again and noticed this that’s 2 punches in the same line what did I do to you today ?

[HandsomeDead]

44 minutes ago, Maf said:

I just read it again and noticed this that’s 2 punches in the same line what did I do to you today ?

 

I guess you gotta block more

51 minutes ago, one-armed dwarf said:

I mean I was gonna give it a look after reading that but then I saw the PC version has no cross play which is such a deal breaker, because of the limited pool of people to play with on that platform. no bueno

 

It's not happening now but crossplay is in the works.

[one-armed dwarf]

Ok then, I will buy this game, practice in my little bubble of a dead community on PC and then when cross play exists I will be ready to immediately trash @Maf so watch out motherfucker

[Maryokutai]

Too be fair unless you're playing during some very exotic hours it doesn't really matter if there are only a couple of hundred people online in a fighting game because you only ever need to find one more person to start a game. It's not like an MMO raid or a 12vs12 FPS match or something.