In many ways, Guilty Gear -Strive- is like any other 2D arcade-style fighting game. There’s the typical roster of colorful characters, the usual process of learning button combinations for special attacks, and so on. Still, the game manages to set itself apart in many ways: its unique art style, its electric hard rock soundtrack, and (most importantly for this exercise) a handful of gameplay mechanics not found in the likes of Street Fighter or Tekken. In fact, it is mechanics such as these that make GGS my preferred fighting game of choice.
One of my personal favorites is the “dust attack.” As a general rule, crouching and blocking simultaneously is a good defensive move in fighting games. If you catch your opponent doing this too often, though, the dust attack breaks through their block and launches them into the air, allowing you to punish them with additional attacks for playing too safely. Similarly, the “Psych Burst” allows you to break out of an opponent’s attack or escape a high-pressure situation, keeping both players on their toes. Perhaps the most versatile mechanic in GGS is the “Roman Cancel,” which briefly “slows time” for your opponent, giving you the opportunity to reposition yourself, block an incoming attack, or set up a powerful special move of your own. Importantly, each of these moves either consumes some sort of energy or has a lengthy startup time (if not both), making it inadvisable to rely solely on any one of them to win.
Mechanics like these make GGS “come alive,” in a certain way. By having this many abilities at your disposal for each character, you are encouraged to come up with your own unique style of play and readily adapt to your opponent’s style in the moment. It keeps the game from ever getting too stale and makes the lengthy learning curve worthwhile, which is a difficult balance to strike in games like these. The team behind the game is currently working with Marvel Comics on a brand-new fighting game, which I hope adopts many of these same diverse and rewarding mechanics and dynamics.
