Guilty Gear Strive is nearly upon us. Developer Arc System Works has held a number of beta tests, each with its own set of issues pounced upon by the anime fighting game series’ fans. But the bigger picture is this: with Strive, chief creator Daisuke Ishiwatari aims to do the seemingly impossible – make Guilty Gear accessible.
Guilty Gear’s reputation precedes itself. Perhaps it would be better to say Guilty Gear’s reputation hangs around its neck like a cowbell. Bong! Here comes another Guilty Gear. Head for the hills! This one’s even harder than the last! Long combos, brutal timing, multiple complex mechanics and tricky characters – Guilty Gear has it all and then some. Play online as a newcomer against the series’ modest but seriously properly into it fanbase and, well, you can imagine how hard things can get.
With Strive, Arc System Works hopes to finally “open up” Guilty Gear, 23 years after it made its debut on PSone. That’s what Daisuke Ishiwatari told me in a recent interview over Zoom. Over the course of 45 minutes, I chatted with Ishiwatari about the development of Strive, what it sets out to achieve, and tried to get some insight into the various design decisions the team made along the way. We discuss everything from tweaks to Guilty Gear’s famous Gatling combos, the addition of wall breaks, modes that failed to make launch because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, Strive’s already controversial 2D lobbies, new characters and the seemingly overpowered poster boy Sol Badguy – who, by the way, Ishiwatari voices himself.
