This is my first fighting game and I cannot recommend it enough. I used to think that in order to have fun with these games you need to be special or talented and that they were not for the average gamer. I always had a passing interest in them but thought that I would never be able to be 'good'. The truth is, it's not about being 'good' it is about getting better. The whole point of the game is to make progress, to grow and to learn. I started not knowing how to even dash or what the buttons even do and now I've managed to reach the highest bracket in the ranked mode. The ranked system in place receives quite a bit of flak but honestly the issues it has really aren't relevant until you're well out of noob territory, so if you're on the fence about picking this up because of the genre's reputation, take that with a grain of salt and give it a go, there are plenty of new players to match with and you will be paired with other people who also don't know what they are doing.

The characters are all really interesting and I honestly see a universe where I could have mained any one of them, not one character in this game seems lame or uninteresting. And the soundtrack is unparalleled, I love the songs in this game so much I downloaded the entire thing on Spotify and have taken to listening to it regularly on commutes as opposed to standard radio.

Game is admittedly pretty expensive, even a few years after its launch the base game is priced at $39.99 and each DLC Season Pass ranges anywhere from $15 to a ludicrous $25, with there being 4 of those now to go along with it. That being said, I do feel that while small, the base game roster has good representation for every archetype and both the most noob-friendly and top-tier characters are actually from the base roster (Sol being both lol). You can also purchase characters individually if you do not care about the other characters or songs & stages which is substantially cheaper if you know what you want.

All in all, this game is a great time ESPECIALLY if you have friends to share it with, and has become one of my all-time favorite games I have ever played. I am now a GG stan for life, and I am proud to say that I am a fighting game player.

you WILL purchase Guilty Gear Strive

you WILL purchase Bridget

and you WILL place in floor 1

I want to preface this with GG Strive is a great game for casual play. It has amazing BGM, fun lore, fun character design, and each character does a unique thing that keeps gameplay fresh. If you are looking for a fun game for casual play, or to introduce your friends to the genre, highly recommend this.

But I can't recommend it to people wanting to get better at fighting games. The game is currently designed around unseeable high/low mix, unreactable neutral skips, and even if you guess correctly, the roman cancel system means that every right guess is a wrong guess. I got to celestial twice before deciding the game wasn't for me, which is fine because not every game needs to be.