TL;DR this game feels like what ChatGPT would give you if you gave it the prompt “Street Fighter, but Anime and I have ADHD” resulting in a completely half-baked and dull experience. Every match hits the same key beats with little-to-no variation in between and can be boiled down to: Win round start -> Make opponent guess wrong once -> Positive Bonus so it’s impossible to lose -> Win. The exception to this is the occasional Gold Burst succeeding, as it’s the only way to break the cycle this game relies on for quick Dopamine hits. If you’re new to the genre or you’re just looking for a quick Dopamine rush, the game isn’t that bad if you buy it on sale, but don’t buy this game and expect it to be anything beyond surface level, save your money for SF6, Tekken 8, or whatever else comes out this year in the FGC space.

Two years after I wrote this review and everything I hate about the game still exists, and more! As I said in the TL;DR, this game is an unbalanced mess that hits the same key beats every match, and that's true now more than ever before. From removing depth like kara cancelling from Potemkin to buffing already broken characters like Goldlewis, Arcsys really couldn't care less about their players or the competitive integrity of a once beloved franchise. Since I last played, Wild Assault has been added, making a game that was already snowbally even moreso; even if you FD for an entire blockstring to create enough distance between you and the opponent, they can always use some of their Burst on yet another YOLO into plus frames option that leads into a touch of death combo on hit.

The only time I had fun on this game on my revisit was playing the 3v3 mode with friends, but it's so overdesigned that it's strictly a "for funsies" mode with ZERO chance it could ever be competitive. I know Strive is a 1v1 focused game, but with 2XKO coming soon with the idea of multiple people on one team, I was genuinely really excited for 3v3 in Strive and was completely willing to disregard the bad experiences I had in the past for this mode. Playing party mode on Dragon Ball FighterZ with friends was one of the funnest experiences I've had gaming, so I expected party mode: Strive Edition and that's it; instead, it's just kinda wacky, with spells, assist archetypes, etc. Sure, it's fun, but I could never see myself going out of my way to boot up 3v3 unless my friends wanted me to.

If you want to play a fighting game where the developers care, just play Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, or, god forbid, MK1.

Original review below:

This game is so unbelievably bad it's laughable. Forget everything you know about defense, risk/reward, and footsies because this is GUILTY GEAR -STRIVE- BABY, the antithesis of what makes fighting games fun.

Let’s dive right into the mechanics of this abomination, why don’t we? First, let’s talk about Faultless Defense, the single worst defensive mechanic I have EVER had the displeasure of using in not only fighting games, but any game ever. At the cost of a bit of meter you can hold any 2 buttons (or the macro) while blocking to increase the push back on any move your opponent does and negate any RISC gain, but where this fails is when THE GAME READS THE INPUT AS AN ATTACK AND GETS YOU COUNTER HIT. The worst part is this is an issue that CANNOT be fixed, due to an issue at the core of the game and how it handles inputs (credit to Hotashi: https://youtu.be/3uz4FIXlJbE?t=49) As for why you wouldn’t use the macro, refer to the video. The fact that a CORE MECHANIC OF THE GAME can be misinterpreted and get you killed is UNACCEPTABLE for a “competitive” game featured at tournaments like EVO, Combo Breaker, etc. where there’s money on the line.

As for the next useless mechanic, let’s talk about Burst. If you’ve ever played a Netherrealm game, this is essentially Combo Breaker, but much MUCH worse. There’s 2 variations: Gold Burst and Blue Burst, but I’m specifically referring to Blue Burst. In a game where every character off any hit can do 50% leading to sub-20 second rounds, a Combo Breaker is essential, but too bad you only get 2 (assuming it goes to round 3) a game! What’s worse is that if it manages to whiff on the plethora of Burst-safe combos in the game, the punish will most likely kill you and lose you the entire match, not just the round. As for it’s golden variation, it’s a complete upgrade in every way. Not only is Gold Burst safer, thanks to being fully invincible until the 1-9 frames of landing recovery, it also rewards you with 1/3 of your Burst meter being refilled and 2 bars of tension, which I’ll touch on later. Yes, that’s right, the main DEFENSIVE MECHANIC of the game is better used in an OFFENSIVE manner.

Ever heard the phrase “the best defense is a good offense”? Arcsys heard that and took it to heart. Don’t worry about training your reactions to block that mixup, anti-air that jump-in, or check that gap, because the RPS in the game wins HARD against blocking; part of this is due to the RISC mechanic! RISC builds up as you block if you don’t FD or IB and makes the next time you get hit hurt even more!! That's right, this game ACTIVELY PUNISHES YOU for playing defense! Incredible! There are very few times when blocking is the optimal response to your opponents pressure anyway, due to the amount of follow-ups and frametraps your opponent can threaten off anything. No, instead Arcsys wants you to mash on the move that leads into all these pseudo-plus followups, and if you’re wrong then tough ♥♥♥♥. It completely takes the “thinking” out of the equation and replaces it with just “doing” stuff until it works, keeping you and your opponent to just doing the basics and sucking the fun out of both running your offense and playing defense.

As for how meter functions in this game, it’s essentially creative mode. For 1 bar you gain access to the most anti-thinking mechanic in the game: Roman Cancel. There are 4 variations of it I’ll cover. The first, Red RC, allows you to get a full combo off ANY hit or throw, while also leaving you massively plus on block. Oh, that DP you baited just now? It’s plus. That 2-frame throw your opponent mashed because you tried to bait DP? Full combo. This line of stupidity continues into it’s counterpart, Purple RC, which allows you to reduce the recovery of ANY MOVE you throw out to 0 on whiff. That RARE burst move your opponent threw out without thinking? Completely safe. That throw your opponent smartly jumped out of? Now the 2-frame throw is option-selected and your opponent has to guess right or die. Yellow RC is the V-Reversal/Guard Cancel of the game, but a majority of the time you’ll get Blue RC instead when trying to use it and die. Blue RC, arguably the best of the 4 in a vacuum, is a mixed bag when used in practice. It’s supposed to immensely slow the startup/recovery of any move your opponent does, but fails to slow the startup anything 4-frames or faster for WHATEVER reason, leading to you getting mashed on if you try to capitalize off it if your opponent didn’t actually do anything beforehand. This wouldn’t be much of an issue either, if not for how EASY it is to get bar. Doing the simplest of blockstrings will build you half a bar, while performing a combo will build you an ENTIRE bar into Positive Bonus while your opponent gets little-to-no bar for getting hit or blocking. Positive Bonus, which you get for breaking the wall, DRASTICALLY increases the amount of meter you build for simply existing, making just TAPPING forward build a quarter bar.

I could go into even more detail about the TERRIBLE handling of balance, the lack of single-player content for $60, or what the “neutral” of the game encompasses, but as of the most recent patch, even getting into a match is nigh-impossible because the lobby system is held together by sticks and Elmer’s glue; not that the neutral has anything worth talking about beyond round start, because if you lose that, you lose the round.