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Riot.EXE

Fighting Game Enthusiast
(He/Him)

HEAVEN OR HELL! Swords and ideals will clash again on the battlefield April 9th, as GUILTY GEAR STRIVE drops! Are you excited for it? What about the other games in the series? All started on the ol' PS1 as one of those few "actually decent 2D fighting games" on the console, since those tended to NOT BE GREAT on it. Most of us roman canceled our way through nearly a decade and some change of the X series, ending with ^Core+R (which is about to get rollback on steam!?!), and then there was the DANGER TIME era of the XRD series (because there was no way they were calling it "XXX") So, with all that said, LET'S ROCK...and talk about all this nonsense, shall we?
 

Peklo

Oh! Create!
(they/them, she/her)
Here's to a fighting game series that's 22 years old and has had women as final bosses every single time in that run, to exceedingly great effect. I'm hoping Strive doesn't break the streak.

The first game is still my favourite of them, for purposes of best embodying the series's invoked garage rock aesthetic in all parts of the production, from sprite art to the instrumentation and more. The later games might be more competitively relevant and sleeker in presentation and mechanics, but I'll always love what they were going for in the debut installment.
 

Riot.EXE

Fighting Game Enthusiast
(He/Him)
Here's to a fighting game series that's 22 years old and has had women as final bosses every single time in that run, to exceedingly great effect. I'm hoping Strive doesn't break the streak.

The first game is still my favourite of them, for purposes of best embodying the series's invoked garage rock aesthetic in all parts of the production, from sprite art to the instrumentation and more. The later games might be more competitively relevant and sleeker in presentation and mechanics, but I'll always love what they were going for in the debut installment.

So we just don't talk about Isuka then?
 
Love this series. Must have played thousands of matches in GGXX in college. Didn't play Xrd as much as that, but still enjoyed it a lot. Stayed up all night to play the Strive beta during the pretty-inconvenient-for-Americans times it was running, and look forward to playing it for real.

While the games from XX onward are very well balanced for competitive play, the brokenness of the original makes it one of my favorite fighting games to play against the computer. There's so much dirty stuff you can do in that game that's fun to do, but not to be on the receiving end of. The aggressive AI helps, too.

+R with rollback, you say? Looks like I'll be buying Accent Core for a fourth time, then.
 

Riot.EXE

Fighting Game Enthusiast
(He/Him)
Love this series. Must have played thousands of matches in GGXX in college. Didn't play Xrd as much as that, but still enjoyed it a lot. Stayed up all night to play the Strive beta during the pretty-inconvenient-for-Americans times it was running, and look forward to playing it for real.

While the games from XX onward are very well balanced for competitive play, the brokenness of the original makes it one of my favorite fighting games to play against the computer. There's so much dirty stuff you can do in that game that's fun to do, but not to be on the receiving end of. The aggressive AI helps, too.

+R with rollback, you say? Looks like I'll be buying Accent Core for a fourth time, then.
Yeah, Twitter's been lit the hell up about it. The conversations are interesting because it's new heads not knowing what they're gonna be in for online, and all the old heads are like, "YOU DON'T WANT THAT SMOKE, TRUST US!"
 

spines

cyber true color
(she/her, or something)
the only time i've played missing link was for a couple "credits" on a ps1 sitting around at magfest. i got a few matches into the single player as millia and then may instant killed me at the start of round 1, giving a game over. that's an unforgettable moment, to say the least. after that i tried zato, who is pretty baffling in that game given how much i was expecting something a little more like the later versions.

x i know virtually nothing about. midnight carnival is one of the most fun fighting games to watch, ever, with the marriage of xx's complex systems to a lot of really, really janky and unbalanced characters; footage is also virtually impossible to find through any real means on youtube due to the fact that searching anything like "ggxx" "guilty gear xx" etc. will just pull up tons of matches on newer versions, while the specific name doesn't turn up a lot of versus footage. i spent quite a long time training moding accent core (and later the update) when i was in a bit of a dead spot with fighting games many years ago, frustrated by everything, and it was pretty fun all the time even not playing anyone, enjoying all the characters and trying to see what i could understand about it on my own. when xrd: sign came out i was nearing my college graduation and didn't want to commit to buying it; i went to a casual night and ran over all the blazblue players with my AC knowledge, but six months later i felt impossibly far behind. i played for a while, but midway through revelator my usual "main character crisis" ended when i decided i was just done with the game.

setting aside the profound feeling of failure that the game elicited for me (i've never stopped whining on twitter, so there's no need to relitigate that right here at the moment), i just also really dislike the feeling of the slowdown mechanic. even to the extent it's supposed to be really powerful and "fun" to use, i just think it's annoying and disorienting, and then basically feels like a huge lag spike on netplay to be on the other end of. so i can't say i'm feeling optimistic about strive, which looks to be playing up a lot of the zoom and slowdown effects at least as much if not more. i don't think i'll play it. at the least not when i can't step outside the back door of the barcade and scream for a bit (before it shut down, currently temporarily, i was playing a lot of third strike and vampire savior, with the latter being a game that doesn't even have pauses when you use super moves...i really love that feeling, but in general the quick and speedy feeling of older games, even when i don't especially think they're "good", just makes playing more fun and losing less frustrating)

so hey, acr ggpo patch, huh? i'm looking forward to it, and already thinking i'll try and spend some time messing with it tomorrow if i can decide a character to start focusing on. which has always been a difficulty, although i think a better understanding of my sense of personal aesthetic has made the list of "characters i'm considering" a lot shorter than it used to be. order sol and zappa are kind of up at the front, particularly for not having been in the newer games, but regular sol and dizzy have some stuff i really like that also didn't cross over, and dizzy was already one of my favorites (as well as having a great combination of huge complexity but getting a lot of reward from relatively easy stuff; i definitely felt like she was my strongest character in the rare cases i've played before). millia's way up there too, just feel straightforward and fun to do stuff with. and then there's bridget...who i'm a little less inclined to go for than before, but the yoyo stuff really is a great combination of two of my favorite mechanics ("do this weird move" and "put something on the screen you can manipulate later") so i can't really fully ignore the option

of course there's a lot of other characters i love design-wise or in game concept (like aba, testament, or venom) but at this point i know i'm not really gonna have the heart to play them.
 
Yeah, Twitter's been lit the hell up about it. The conversations are interesting because it's new heads not knowing what they're gonna be in for online, and all the old heads are like, "YOU DON'T WANT THAT SMOKE, TRUST US!"

I never really learned +R because the friends I played earlier versions of XX with were no longer local by the time it came out, and online play was dead from day 1 on PS3. Haven't played it in years at this point, definitely going to get blown up by people who never stopped. Maybe I'll try out some different characters (I'm normally a Ky main). I used to have an Anji in XX, and seeing that he's finally coming back in Strive makes me want to try him again. Considering Justice as well, but I know not having a dash would be hard to deal with. Justice and Anji both have one of my favorite little things: appearing to have finished an air combo with a special move and then using another normal to knock down. Looks so cool.

Strive plays pretty differently than the previous games, so I kind of want to just treat it like a new thing and pick a character I have no expectations for, which I guess means Giovanna or Nagoriyuki.

so hey, acr ggpo patch, huh? i'm looking forward to it, and already thinking i'll try and spend some time messing with it tomorrow if i can decide a character to start focusing on. which has always been a difficulty, although i think a better understanding of my sense of personal aesthetic has made the list of "characters i'm considering" a lot shorter than it used to be. order sol and zappa are kind of up at the front, particularly for not having been in the newer games, but regular sol and dizzy have some stuff i really like that also didn't cross over, and dizzy was already one of my favorites (as well as having a great combination of huge complexity but getting a lot of reward from relatively easy stuff; i definitely felt like she was my strongest character in the rare cases i've played before). millia's way up there too, just feel straightforward and fun to do stuff with. and then there's bridget...who i'm a little less inclined to go for than before, but the yoyo stuff really is a great combination of two of my favorite mechanics ("do this weird move" and "put something on the screen you can manipulate later") so i can't really fully ignore the option

of course there's a lot of other characters i love design-wise or in game concept (like aba, testament, or venom) but at this point i know i'm not really gonna have the heart to play them.

Zappa definitely sounds like he'd be up your alley, and he's also really good in AC and +R. Sword Zappa is like Eddie if the mini-Eddie was invincible and lasted forever. And if you like Bridget for being able to throw something out to use later, Testament's worth a shot, too.
 
The beta for AC+R's rollback netcode is going on now, and the game, along with the rest of the series, is currently 80% off on Steam. AC+R is super fun, and it's only $3!
 

Riot.EXE

Fighting Game Enthusiast
(He/Him)
The beta for AC+R's rollback netcode is going on now, and the game, along with the rest of the series, is currently 80% off on Steam. AC+R is super fun, and it's only $3!
Yup, and then CONTROVERSY HAPPENED! (Something about Mike Z being hired on by ArcSys to assist with the GGPO thing, and then tossing him right back out when the shit was done) But the beta has also been pretty buggy. When it works, expect KILLERS from the old school!
 

GettinMelt

HUGGBEES!!!
(he/him)
Part of me wonders if Giovanna will be the boss on Strive.

$3 for AC+R, eh? Might have to get that and see if my Faust game is any rusty.
 

Riot.EXE

Fighting Game Enthusiast
(He/Him)
Part of me wonders if Giovanna will be the boss on Strive.

$3 for AC+R, eh? Might have to get that and see if my Faust game is any rusty.
Better hurry. The GGPO beta ends tomorrow. I have no idea how the original online was...
 

Alixsar

The Shogun of Harlem
(He/him)
It was complete ass, but they're supposed to launch the full thing pretty soon, I think? I never really played much of AC/AC+R so I played it last night for what was essentially the first time and

1) it was insane how much more fun than Xrd it was and
2) I miss actual Guilty Gear. It's the best feeling the world to just get a stray hit and be like "I dunno, this might work" and then IT DOES. It's a sick game.

I've never been GOOD at GG, I was always just super casual about it, but it's still fun to just mess around with and find things that work. It's such a fun set of tools to play around with. Xrd always felt "off" to me and Strive looks like wet trash, so it's pretty sad to think that this might be the last "actual" Guilty Gear ever? Ya know? But hopefully I'm wrong and somehow despite everything Strive ends up being good (in case you forgot from old TT, I thought Strive played like garbage during the beta and have been continually dumbfounded by ArcSys' decision making and justification for those decisions, and all the gameplay footage LOOKS overall pretty boring compared to XX and even Xrd, so I'm just not expecting a lot, if anything).

Edit: they extended the beta two more weeks eyyyy

Also if y'all wanna play sometime, this might actually be like...a real option now? Crazy. It's crazy. I better start labbing stuff (this, a few days after I started playing 3rd Strike again...another game that I love but am complete ass at).
 
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demi

(She/Her)
Ya I checked out Xrd for a bit and it was alright enough! But before long I found myself admitting that I liked the old character designs (art & mechanics both) way more. Plus, it's just snappier, less cinematic, and FRCs feel good to learn and execute: somebody on twitter noted that the overall effect of having to put so much of a character into your muscles creates a special kind of connection, and I think that's about right.

At the time I was actually getting more competitive with fighters, AC+R was something I really only spent a lot of time in training mode with: I wasn't participating in any scene, Akihabara Arcade didn't exist here in CO yet, my friends didn't play much, and Xrd was approaching: so I figured the boat had sailed. Rollback AC+R is so so cool, it's gonna be a huge breath of life for the game and it's honestly the Guilty Gear that I've always wanted to play, sooooo... may as well!

I started with Baiken and while I think she's really cool and I've put in many hours of good practice with her, I think I'm going to take some friends' advice and choose somebody else to learn the game with: tensionless Guard Cancels are so subversive to the usual relationship of offense/defense that I feel like I'm only learning Baiken things as opposed to, like, GG? Is nbd, just gonna take a chance and go out of my comfort zone I think with like Anji. We'll see, I'll really be starting from square one with that guy though.

One very cool thing to note with a recent update to the rollback patch is that we can all select the #Reload stages which range from moderately altered palette swaps to entirely new stages: even when I was younger, I don't think I mucked around much with GGXX until Slash, so getting aaaall of this content feels like such a treat.
 

Fyonn

did their best!
I grabbed all of Guilty Gear that's on Steam during the sale (yes, all of Guilty Gear [GG2 looms in the distance]), and have been playing it. I'm not, like, good at fighting games yet, but I feel like I'm approaching "basic competency" so a lot of stuff in AC+R and Xrd are beyond me, like using roman cancelling effectively.

I'm at the point in Guilty Gear where I'm acting with intention until the moment I hit confirm, then I'm just trying to mash out a gatling combo. There are rare occasions where I think "I'm going to end this combo with Gun Flame" and then do it and that feels great. The big obstacle I'm hitting is that I'm not consistent with complex inputs when I'm doing them fast enough to string them into a combo or on reaction. Like, no way in hell I'm landing Tyrant Rave in a combo, and sometimes I overshoot the input into a back jump even when I'm doing it out of a combo.

I've been considering getting a fight stick, but I'm not good enough at the fundamentals to be invested enough to casually drop a console's worth money on an input device, while I also feel like I might be hitting my personal skill ceiling on pad. Also, I live in an apartment now and fight sticks are loud.
 

Riot.EXE

Fighting Game Enthusiast
(He/Him)

Some news! Some modders are making a rebalanced version of Guilty Gear Xrd Rev2 (PC version) called Rev 0! Check out this trailer...there's some new moves and stuff right off the bat!


Meanwhile, in Guilty Gear Strive, Anji Mito's trailer dropped, so there's one more character left to reveal before the game drops in April. THAT Trailer is set to drop in February!
 

Alixsar

The Shogun of Harlem
(He/him)
Some madmen made a game called Tough Love Arena. It's a browser game (!) that's free (!!) with rollback netcode (!!!). It has 3 characters with two variants of each, a Guilty Gear-esque Burst and Roman Cancel mechanic, a guard break mechanic, and cute-sy art that looks like someone drew it in Paint. It's one of those "simple" games, like Divekick or Fantasy Strike, and only has 3 buttons. All the characters are named after food and fit into an archetype; Beef/Pork are sorta like a shoto and a grappler respectively (Beef has the only projectile and Pork the only command grab...both have insane damage potential), Onion/Garlic are your fast characters where one has a command dash and the other has a short hop (they also have high damage potential but you have to be tricky about it), and Noodle/Rice are Dhalsim where one has an armored move and the other has a teleport.

IT RULES

COME CATCH THIS RICE AND PORK WORK

Edit now, months later: oh hey this isn't the general fighting game thread, maybe we don't even have one anymore? Oops.
 
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gogglebob

The Goggles Do Nothing
(he/him)
On the one hand, a story mode that "doesn't require matches" sounds like another danged "sit down and watch" anime movie like I recall with Xrd, which disappoints me. Xrd's story mode was neat and pretty and slid right off my brain like it was the secret to a frictionless object because "put down the controller and watch" is the fastest way for me to lose interest, even if there is a gargoyle scholar involved. That said, the interactive wiki of Guilty Gear lore looks like something that I will inadvertently spend hours combing over, so a little conflicted about presentation here.

... Oh, there's a fighting game included, too? Huh.
 

Alixsar

The Shogun of Harlem
(He/him)
ArcSys put up some match videos.

I've had low expectations for this game, and yet ArcSys keeps finding new ways to disappoint me...RED fireballs for Ky?! Get your dumb ass outta here, ArcSys. Go the fuck to sleep.
 

Riot.EXE

Fighting Game Enthusiast
(He/Him)
ArcSys put up some match videos.

I've had low expectations for this game, and yet ArcSys keeps finding new ways to disappoint me...RED fireballs for Ky?! Get your dumb ass outta here, ArcSys. Go the fuck to sleep.
You're upset that he has a dragon install now? Really? That did it?
 

Alixsar

The Shogun of Harlem
(He/him)
I'm upset about Strive for many many many reasons, but they gave my beautiful blue son RED fireballs, after he HAD blue ones in the closed beta and demos! Get outta town, making my blue boy red...there should be a law. Looks like they sped them up a bit at least, so that's nice.
 

spines

cyber true color
(she/her, or something)
strive looks better every time tbh but not in a way that fundamentally changes the fact that it certainly seems to be a game with even more stuff i disliked from xrd and less stuff i liked from xx. i absolutely don't think i'm paying anywhere near $60 for this game.

there are some funny memes. and a stage background seems to have a shoutout to the giant blue bear statue at the denver convention center, which is bizarre, arbitrary, and absolutely incredible
 

spines

cyber true color
(she/her, or something)
apparently all the moves that are designated as "you can't cancel into this" can still be canceled in practice by jump canceling normals and then doing the special before you leave the ground. i feel like this is obviously counter to the intent of the game in multiple ways and will be removed, but i do think it's really funny until then

i don't have access since i obviously didn't preorder the game, but i heard i might be able to check out the demo tomorrow. i probably will, but really out of morbid curiosity
 

Alixsar

The Shogun of Harlem
(He/him)
Apparently the netcode is fantastic, so that's nice at least. Jwong and Jiyuna were playing (west coast to Japan) without any incidents. I'm sure Wifi scumbags will still be out there lol. I'm gonna play the beta tonight, I honestly am just gonna spend like 50% or more of my time with it in training so I can actually figure out how this weird ass game works.

(...I'm still mad about the UI but oh well)
 

Riot.EXE

Fighting Game Enthusiast
(He/Him)
Apparently the netcode is fantastic, so that's nice at least. Jwong and Jiyuna were playing (west coast to Japan) without any incidents. I'm sure Wifi scumbags will still be out there lol. I'm gonna play the beta tonight, I honestly am just gonna spend like 50% or more of my time with it in training so I can actually figure out how this weird ass game works.

(...I'm still mad about the UI but oh well)
We gon' fight?
 

Alixsar

The Shogun of Harlem
(He/him)
No cuz the beta exploded. Hopefully it goes up again tonight and then maybe I can play a bit, but ArcSys hasn't said anything other than "we have to take the servers down" last night

I got like 20 minutes in training before that happened, and this game still feels super weird and makes no sense to me :cool:
 
I messed around in training mode for a while and then played half a dozen games or so online before getting kicked off the server. Kind of annoying, but on the other hand I had to work this morning, so thanks Arcsys for making me go to bed at a reasonable time I guess. The netcode does seem really good, at least, and there was less failing to connect than in the beta from last year. Gonna play a bunch over the weekend.
 
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