Arc System Works’ -Guilty Gear Strive- is an excellent Switch game and definitely the best bang-for-your-buck if you haven’t yet gone down the Guilty Gear rabbit hole. It is one of the most accessible fighting games on the market, making it a satisfying pick for casual and competitive Switch owners wanting to join the fray.
Better late than never, right? Guilty Gear -Strive-, Arc System Works’ 25th installment of the Guilty Gear series, is now on the Nintendo Switch. I don’t hold it against Arc System Works for not initially releasing -Strive on the Switch – look at how Mortal Kombat 1 exists on Nintendo’s little handheld that might or might not be a console. Even more, not many of the Guilty Games made their way to a Nintendo console at launch at all. Guilty Gear, Guilty Gear X, XX Accent Core, and XX Accent Core Plus R were pushed to various Nintendo consoles/handhelds long after their original release dates, so it shouldn’t be TOO surprising for -Strive- to be a few years late on the Switch.
One of the reasons why I’m personally thrilled to see -Strive- on the Switch is because of its accessibility as a fighting game. I’ve mentioned in my reviews of both Mortal Kombat 1 and Tekken 8 that the learning curve to figure these games out has flattened out in some respects. Fighting games deserve a casual playerbase alongside a dedicated group of diehards; when a fighting game’s inputs become less complex by design, it’s easier for a game to be shared with new players.
Guilty Gear -Strive- has adopted this approach exceptionally well, freeing itself of expansive movesets, complex combinations with precise timing, and convoluted mechanics that make the learning curve steep for the sake of complexity. Across -Strive-‘s 28 character-roster, there is so much overlap in the characters’ movesets that I had no problem when first testing each character out.
Even more, -Strive- is a smooth fighter, perhaps one of the smoothest Guilty Gear titles I’ve played. Moving and attacking feels natural and buttery, even on the Switch’s hardware, making battles feel satisfying and fluid. When connecting some attacks, the game will slow down making me feel like my attacks have weight and power to them. The instances where I knock an opponent out of the arena and into another and/or utilize Overdrive attacks incorporate cinematic highs, pushing the game closer to the gloriousness that Mortal Kombat and Tekken have capitalized on as of late.
While its movesets have become oversimplified, -Strive- layers in several mechanics that add depth to its combat. Roman Cancels return as a way to extend combos or break out of an enemy’s combo string. Dust attacks make a return as well, often used as a way to start combos and/or launch enemies into the air. These features reward those who have opted into “going deep” with their favorite characters when attempting to figure out how to chain together the simple attacks with a character’s special moves.
I want to emphasize here that -Strive- remains fun for both casual players and those wanting to be the top of the leaderboards. As someone who has played a smidge of competitive fighters, I had an immensely fun time picking up and playing -Strive- in its simplistic glory. Instead of attempting to memorize longer combo patterns, I instead had to focus on timing and watching my enemy. If you’re the kind of player who prefers to button mash and pray, you’ll have varying degrees of success.
I mentioned earlier in this review that the Switch version of -Strive- has 28 characters. Upon its initial release in 2021, -Strive- had 15 characters. Since then, it’s released several Season Passes of characters. The Switch version contains all of the Season Pass characters released in the first three passes along with Queen Dizzy from the fourth pass. The remaining characters (Venom, Unika, and Lucy) have not yet released. (Note: Queen Dizzy comes with the Switch version but is not yet available in-game).
In terms of value, the Switch version of -Strive- is a fantastic deal. -Strive- typically costs $40, with the first three season passes amounting to an additional $65. The Switch version costs $60 and contains the first three season passes of content baked right in for far less, saving the player around $50. If you’ve been holding off on trying -Strive- in hopes for a definitive edition (or at least close to it), the Switch edition is the best bang for your buck.
I’ve never known the Guilty Gear series to be lore-heavy, or at least known for its cinematic stories like any of Netherrealm Studios’ games. Yet, the base -Strive- and the Season Pass 1’s “Another Story” contain several hours of single-player campaign content. It won’t make the most sense lore-wise, even for a Guilty Gear fan, but it pulls back the curtain to give closure to two of Guilty Gear’s arguably most prominent characters.
The one major drawback of this edition is that I wasn’t able to play online against the 3million existing -Strive- players who have been playing it on PC and other consoles. It’s hard for me to punish the Switch version of -Strive- for its lack of crossplay because, let’s face it, Nintendo Switch Online has yet to play nice with XBOX Live, PS+, Steam, and other online platforms. To this day, I can’t think of a single fighting game released on multiple platforms that allows for Switch players to play with any other console players. That being said, -Strive-‘s online success is highly dependent on an active playerbase. Seeing as the game is four years old and has a large playerbase on other platforms, it would be hard to ignore the danger of the game losing its appeal for Switch owners.
That said, -Strive- runs exceptionally well on the Nintendo Switch. Being in the Midwest, I had no issue with connecting to the East Coast server and playing against other -Strive- owners. -Strive- uses rollback netcode, a protocol that predicts inputs and generally makes online play smooth even when network connections aren’t the greatest. If you’ve played Tekken 8, Street Fighter VI, or Mortal Kombat 1 online, you’re probably already familiar with rollback. Like its competitors, playing online -Strive- matches is a smooth experience.
-Strive- has some of the best online play of an online fighter I’ve played so far, which is why I’m still concerned about the long-term viability of the Switch version’s success. It remains to be seen as to how things shape up once the release hype dies down, but I’m curious as to how Arc System Works utilizes the momentum to encourage folks to stick to -Strive- as the three additional characters are released throughout the year.
Arc System Works’ -Guilty Gear Strive- is an excellent Switch game and definitely the best bang-for-your-buck if you haven’t yet gone down the Guilty Gear rabbit hole. It is one of the most accessible fighting games on the market, making it a satisfying pick for casual and competitive Switch owners wanting to join the fray.
