Guilty Gear Strive is the most beautiful fighting game ever made. Sink your teeth into the tower and grind your way to the celestial realm, where the champions of the fighting game community await you. Lab anywhere and perfect your combos on any device and get yourself ready to reach the top with GeForce NOW Powered by Pentanet.
Guilty Gear Strive is a fighting game like no other, there are so many stellar aspects to cover it’s hard to know where to start. I could start with its soundtrack, which puts most top-charting albums to shame. I could start with an art direction that is to die for. I could start with the gameplay, breakneck, unceasing, stylish beyond belief. Or I could even start with a story that requires at least some level of intoxication to truly understand. Instead, let's just start with this; Guilty Gear Strive is a fighting game that I will never forget.
Since Guilty Gear Strive was added to GeForce NOW Powered by Pentanet, my phone has become my ultimate training partner. I attend a lot of local tournaments, and so every extra second spent training is worth it. At lunch in the office, on the train, wherever.
GeForce NOW has given me that edge to improve my game every chance I get. It’s even let me smash out one quick run of the arcade, or hop into multiplayer for a few rounds when I just need to blow off some steam. Cloud gaming has revolutionary for fighting games, especially for those who want to be the best at them.
I could frame screenshots from this game on my wall.
I've been a fan of fighting games for a long time. When I was young, I would play them all, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, the ones you've all heard of; I've played them all and been bad at most of them. But until Guilty Gear and its sibling Blazblue, I'd never really taken fighting games seriously. When Guilty Gear Strive came out, I decided this was the one, this is the one I would master and climb with.
Let me tell you. Fighting games are truly special; there're few purer forms of competition than two people entering and one walking away. Fighting games are that feeling without the bruises, but maybe with a bit of blood, sweat and tears. The fighting game community is one of the world's most wonderful video game communities, spanning games, consoles, languages, and nations. The FGC is a community that breaks down all barriers. All you need to do is find the right game for you and dive headfirst.
Why you should be playing Guilty Gear Strive
Guilty Gear as a series has been around for a long time now, almost 25 years. However, it's always existed as a niche title, never quite experiencing the explosion in popularity it rightly deserved. That changed with Guilty Gear Strive, the first Guilty Gear to pass over 1 million sales. So, what made it different?
The series relied significantly on knowledge carried over from previous titles. This meant it had a devoted and expert fanbase but needed help appealing to newer audiences. Guilty Gear Strive was a chance to start fresh. With more approachable mechanics and revised systems, it was a new Guilty Gear for a new generation.
But it was still exceedingly Guilty Gear. Guilty Gear is known for its unbelievable character designs, nonsensical story, mechanically deep gameplay, and its truly fantastic music. As a brief aside, the music in Guilty Gear is written by the game's director and usually performed by his band. He grew up on 80's metal, and you can feel it in every track.
The game is built on a foundation of expression for both the developers and the players. You can create an identity for yourself through your playstyle and how you master the mechanics, but before that you need to find your main.
For me, it's Anji Mito, a Japanese fan-dancer with a cocky attitude and a penchant for spinning right through his opponents' attacks. People say Anji's not meta, but unless you're literally on the world stage, that should never hold you back. I love Anji because he lets me play aggressively, even on the defence, but more importantly, I think he's cool as hell.
How could you not love that face?
With 22 characters available, all so distinct, you might as well be playing a different game; I'm sure you'll find someone who fits your fighting fantasy. Guilty Gear has everything from classical swordsmen to assassins with magical hair to doctors wearing paper bags on their heads. If there's a character archetype, you'll find them here, with a blisteringly awesome song all about them for you to rock out to while you practice.
So, what're you waiting for? Fighting games can seem unapproachable, but if you take the leap, you'll find a whole world to discover, a welcoming community happy to help you learn, and a new hobby to sink hours into. I love fighting games, and I love Guilty Gear Strive, this game is truly special to me, and I've made some wonderful friends playing it. If this piece convinces even a single reader to try the game, I'll consider that a massive win. You can check the game out on Steam here.
This spotlight was written by Pentanet team member "Motley" and does not represent the opinions of Pentanet or NVIDIA.
