A Farewell To Guilty Gear Strive
Photo by Arc System Works
Note: This post was originally created October 23, 2023.
The last time, before today, I played Strive was on 10/7. I’ve been playing less lately because I don’t care for Season 3 all that much anymore. The changes ARE fun, but I’ve long said I’m all Guilty Geared out. 😮💨
I’ve been around since the open beta, and that’s a long time (2+ years) to be on one game.
Note: This was the first video I did about Strive’s Open Beta.
However, I decided to write this for two reasons. The first is just to say farewell to Strive. If it wasn’t for my interest in Dragon Ball, and therefore DBFZ (a dream), I would’ve never heard of or considered Guilty Gear. Being online, I may have eventually, but DBFZ was my gateway to ArcSys. And, brother, I played the hell out of some Guilty Gear.
I started off playing Millia because I did get my hands on an early Guilty Gear game, and she was a character I took an interest in first. So, it was natural to pick her up in Strive. Then I started to bounce around for some reason. Some Zato, some I-No, and the DLC characters (mainly Jack-O, but later down the line). Then something about Giovanna caught my attention through all the searching.
Note: Now that I think about it, she was a reason I thought to buy Strive because I saw the character and thought she looked cool with the dog and everything.
At first, I thought she was hard to figure out. I just didn’t understand the character right away. I stuck with her, though, and managed to make my way into Celestial with her. I made a short, silly video about that too.
I leveled that character up beyond my imagination. Got really good with her! And I knew it wasn’t a fluke because I have two accounts. One under Tailpipe Jones and another. Both accounts, my Giovanna is 1000+. Those numbers say a lot about my relationship with Strive. Not just, “oh, you’re good.”
And I’m alright and do well playing the game by understanding what works. I get blown up just like anybody else, though. The point is, I played a lot of Guilty Gear. I’m well aware of my strengths, weaknesses, and so forth. I’m also well aware of who I like and don’t like fighting. This goes, in part, to a later discussion.
You know what? Let’s get into that now.
As I said earlier, I’ve been around the Strive block before, so you can imagine why I took offense to something that was said, and I quote,
tbf if you think Ky is top 5 you do not play guilty gear and you’re just talking to talk.
This guy during ECT for Strive said this in response to me saying Ky is Top 5. I rarely say things like that, but it low-key started a lively conversation in the chat. Honestly, I was just shooting the breeze BUT I most certainly play, which is what I said back to the guy.
Note: It’s all friendly, so I wouldn’t see anything in this post beyond that.
But part of the reason I even had the balls to say Ky was Top 5 at all is because he’s one of the few characters I DON’T like fighting. When I play with Giovanna (my main), there’s Ky, Happy Chaos, Leo, and Millia. Everybody else I don’t mind or have a hard time fighting them, and the majority of the time I welcome it. But I start to sweat when I come across those few characters.
I consider myself a casual but competitive player. You can’t NOT be competitive after playing a game for 2+ years, but I’m a casual because I don’t enter tournaments, study frame data hardcore, or care about advanced tech like that. I just play AND I’m fine with somebody not sharing my opinions. But this guy practically called me out, so like Jordan, I took it personally. So me being me, I tell him,
oh trust, I play.
Then he basically says he couldn’t tell because of what I said about Ky. I already said why I might think that about Ky, but I had to shoot back at him like,
I’ll beat you and convince you
…in the middle of ECT. I don’t normally talk smack like that in chat, but I’m pretty confident in my game and nowhere near afraid to play against whoever wants some.
Long story short, we ran the set. Ended up playing him 18 games, or a FT10 because he hit 10 first, and we left it after that. He played Ramlethal, and I played Giovanna. I didn’t play too well, to be honest.
And not to cop out or anything, but I started playing him with my Gold controller, which has had ongoing issues with the triangle button sometimes not registering presses properly. It caused me to stop attacking mid-match in one game while I switched controllers, which you can see happening in the video. By then, he already had me down by a game.
Overall, I played poorly. Was dropping confirms and playing like I was rusty. I did get 8 games on the guy, so I’m pretty sure I convinced him I’m no tourist. It was wild, though, because I never challenged someone in that way before. And part of why I think I was playing poorly was due to nerves. It made me have a newfound appreciation for players that enter tournaments. I get it! In the comfort of my home, I felt tension and pressure, so I can imagine it during an actual tournament, surrounded by people watching or spectating in chat.
I’ve made this post long enough, however. And shoutout to that brother too. He ran the set with me, and I respect that.
Note: I streamed our set too which starts at 4:43 and can be viewed here.
