Guilty Gear Strive Review Live + A Quick Update! (Patreon)

Heya folks. I finally got another one of these out! It's been a bit since my last review, but I went and made my longest review script ever again and Strive is some of the best materials a video editor could ever hope for, so it ended up getting a lot more love than my usual reviews just because the raw material was so fun to work with.

First, a quick update: You all might have noticed that after the last video, the patreon tripled in both patrons and income. I've said it a few times already, but I'm humbled that so many people leapt to keep this channel afloat, and I'm happy to say that we're close enough that First Five's financial solvency is pretty much inevitable. We're already in "make it work" territory where it might require some pretty strict budgeting, but I can get by. But we're also only a few hundred off of my original number for going full-time, and after that, it'll be full steam ahead. Also if you haven't heard, that means I have two GTDM videos to do and I've already gotten started on the first one where I'm going to be talking about Descent!

But alright, the main event: Guilty Gear Strive. GG as a series is pretty much known for two things: 1. being really god damn pretty, and 2. being one of the most complicated games in one of the most complicated subgenres in one of the most complicated genres in the medium. In exchange for that complexity, Arc System Works has cranked out some truly unique and incredible fighting game characters to play, but that doesn't sound much like First Five material, does it? But here's the twist: ArcSys has been working for years to try and change all of that, and with Strive, they put accessibility front and center. There's a ridiculous number of tutorials, the game's execution requirements have been simplified, and the damage has been cranked way the heck up so you can still accomplish something reasonable in three smacks instead of 30. And as a perpetual fighting game scrub who's struggled with those execution requirements for over a decade, I think I'm pretty well positioned to talk about whether it worked or not. Spoilers: It did! It worked oh so well and I haven't enjoyed a fighting game this much in years.

Next up, we've got a whole bunch of things on the horizon. Surprise old school Fire Emblem-like Dark Deity is getting the review treatment next, and then it's quarterly wrapup time. There's also the Descent GTDM floating around in the background, but that's probably going to take a bit to finish on top of everything else I'm working on. But regardless, there's a ton to look forward to in the near future!