The design of the characters is also different from the previous part, but the updated costumes are not immediately apparent, and at first it may even seem that they are the same as before. However, if you compare directly, you can see how much the various items of equipment have been changed. Sol now has an unbuttoned biker jacket and a simple black T-shirt underneath, while Axel has pants and a plaid jacket instead of shorts. The authors tried to maintain the style, while changing the details so that it did not cause rejection among the fans, but at the same time refreshed the appearance of the fighters.
Unfortunately, there are no alternative costumes for the heroes. As before, here you can choose one of six colors, but I would like to see other looks or at least some kind of customization of the appearance, besides the color. Opportunities like these could add the necessary variety after long hours of play.
There are fifteen characters in Guilty Gear -Strive. Initially smaller, but the witch I-No is unlocked after completing the arcade. On the hero selection screen in the profiles, you can see their style and the degree of ease of development. For example, Kai, Sol and Mei are labeled as balanced and light enough, while the newcomer Noriyuki is signed as a master of single attacks and is considered by the developers to be quite difficult to use. It turned out to be unlike other participants in the battles, as it is rather slow. However, his attacks hit hard and reach far, which compensates for this shortcoming. He has a special blood scale that fills up after a successful hit on an opponent and allows the black vampire to fall into a bloody frenzy, which opens up additional powerful attacks. I really liked this newcomer. It is also worth noting that the list of techniques for many fighters has undergone changes. Some heroes have lost some of the old moves, but got new ones.
Everything about the combat system and visual style has worked well for Arc System Works. On the other hand, the studio paid little attention to single content. In fact, apart from the training mode with missions and the arcade, there is only a story mode, which has no gameplay. There we are offered to watch a cartoon on the game engine. The story itself can delight fans of Japanese animation, although it will be quite difficult to figure out the plot along the way. Fortunately, there is an encyclopedia in the main menu where you can find answers to all your questions. But all this is only for those who speak English, because the “great and mighty” -Strive- is not translated. Otherwise, fans of a single player will be bored here.
Guilty Gear -Strive- puts a lot of emphasis on multiplayer. It is presented here as a separate pixel game, at the beginning of which you need to create your own avatar. The editor allows you to customize your hairstyle, clothing, body shape, eye color, hair and equipment, as well as arm yourself with melee weapons. Next, we are offered to choose a server, which is presented in the form of a multi-storey tower with different rooms. Russia is singled out as a separate region, which makes it easier to find rivals with good ping. After choosing a server and a room, the avatar goes to the location, where it meets the same pixel people under the control of other players. In these lobbies, you can just chat, go fishing to discover various arts and soundtracks, and most importantly, this is where you can find an opponent for sparring. Depending on the results of your fights, the avatar will move across the floors of the tower. The more victories, the higher it rises. You can move between the levels on your own, but you cannot go below the prescribed floor, but no one forbids you above. Made so that experienced fighters quickly rise up and then not come across to novice players.
This time, the developers have built an online mode based on the Rollback Netcode technology, which, in contrast to the more familiar system based on the “delay” (Delay-based netcode), allows you to comfortably play with people who are very close to you. far away and even on another continent. It is worth noting here that I played online only during various beta tests, and in the full version of the game, received before the official release, in the lobby I could not find a single sparring partner on any of the servers.
The soundtrack is worth mentioning separately. Each new part of Guilty Gear is a new music album by Daisuke Ishivatari. Here he continues to develop ideas used during the recording of the soundtrack for GGXrd… Swinging riffs, cool vocals with a little splitting and drums will delight fans of post-grunge and heavy metal. In some compositions, the soloist’s voice does not always try to be melodic and breaks down into a jerky growl. It is a pleasure to play with such down-to-earth music, and some tracks will surely settle in my player for a long time.
