Guilty Gear Strive Open up Beta Test two: Postmortem

New characters, revamped lobbies, and residue changes

The 2nd Guilty Gear Strive Open Beta Examination began at 8:00 PM PST on May 13th, 2021 and concluded at eight:00 AM on May 16th. OBT2 was preceded by a Japanese arcade-simply location test where balance changes had been implemented in the game, post-obit feedback from OBT1 and the game'south filibuster from an April 9th launch to June 11th. The about significant changes to OBT2 were the inclusion of Anji and I-No, the fourteenth and fifteenth characters in the game's base roster, an improved lobby organisation, and dramatic balance changes around air-to-ground crime.

For this postmortem, I won't be retreading ground covered in my previous essays well-nigh the Closed Beta Test and the outset Open up Beta Test. I will also begin with a preface argument: I think OBT2 is generally an improvement over OBT1, although they still haven't addressed the changes to Gatlings in a fashion that satisfies me. For the remainder of this essay, I will mainly home in on the most noticeable changes between the two versions we've gotten to play. If readers want to hear my criticisms in a video format, I have a (largely unedited) Twitch highlight here. (25min long)

I volition also not be focusing on aspects of the game that aren't strictly functions of the game engine or the UI/UX. This is a beta, so things like server disconnects and crashes are to be expected- as are statements like 'This is a beta.' I should also mention that I was able to get into the beta right away at launch time (and I take the stream footage to show information technology) so I didn't suffer from the extra two-hour long await that most people seem to have run into. Overall, the frequency of errors I experienced when playing online or connecting to opponents was significantly less than the same errors during OBT1. In that location was also no major reanimation globally during OBT2 similar there was during OBT1 (where servers were down for over twelve sequent hours) so it's condom to argue that the servers and matchmaking queues are more than stable. Of class, errors are frustrating no matter what, and this is not meant to diminish the feel of players who ofttimes had connexion problems during OBT2.

The Lobbies: What's changed?

The most pregnant change to the lobby organization is the add-on of Duel Stations. While not quite the cabinet system from Guilty Gear Xrd Rev2 and Granblue Fantasy Versus, they're essentially the same part. Kiosks are now placed evenly around the ranked Tower Floors and unranked Park lobbies, and you can see when a player is on matchmaking standby if they're queued upwards on either side of the kiosk. These cabinets too display the characters of the players on standby, so you tin seek out- or more likely, avert- certain matchups. This all replaces the role in the previous lobby where you would simply prepare up at a random function of the room, go warped effectually for your effort, and and then wait for someone in the crowd of opponents around you to successfully interact with you lot. The Duel Station setups greatly reduce the amount of clutter and haphazard organization of matches in the public lobbies.

The other major update to the vestibule system was instant rematch. This characteristic is an absolute godsend, fifty-fifty compared to the kiosks. I probably just played against xx people during the entire beta, but I played each of those players for an hour or more depending on if I was in ranked or the Park. Instant rematch completely skips menus and loading screens, and you tin play against an opponent basically forever until you get tired. Even though the amount of people I played was less than that of OBT1, I got substantially more matches played during OBT2. I concluded up spending more time in the unranked Park than in the ranked Tower, since you could rematch infinitely in the former but simply upwardly to three times in the latter. (This is three games full, by the fashion, not all-time-of-three. You can win the best of three and still play the third game out to 3–0 somebody. I don't really know if I want this inverse or not to exist like other games, since I practice like playing as many matches equally possible.) Instant rematch is such a common-sense characteristic, only it's besides and so crucial to accept to facilitate long sets.

My speculation for why Arc System Works and Team Scarlet are and so dedicated to the second voxel platformer expect is probably because it'south easier to navigate and meet everything in the lobby, specially if y'all're using a fightstick. In GBVS's public balloon-themed lobbies, I cannot see cabinets backside the camera without turning on a cumbersome right-analog toggle for my stick's lever, and in Xrd I take to hold down a push button and move the lever to practise the same. I don't think the anteroom's aesthetic is as important as how it functions, and it'due south largely easier to see everyone in information technology now, especially with the member list (and the power to finally hide the News tab with L3.) Also, as mentioned in previous postmortems, when GGST's Quick Start queue is working properly, yous get access to a broad diversity of players without having to come across the antechamber at all. Every bit of OBT2, I think the game's online matchmaking has vastly improved between beta iterations, across what rollback alone allows. Gameplay is subjective, merely if you tin can't play the game with other people, it doesn't matter if it's good or not.

The New Daredevils: Anji and I-No

In OBT1, I was mainly playing Giovanna, but in OBT2 I stuck to I-No the entire time. I was generally familiar with her Rev2 iteration- I had picked upwardly I-No when I start got Rev2 and I revisited her when she was appear as character 15. In the shakeup from Rev2 to GGST, I-No's most significant changes were the loss of Vertical Chemic Love and jump-cancellable j.D, Megalomania combining the function of Longing Agony with a proximity unblockable, and her inputs being universalized equally quarter circles or half-circumvolve-back-forrad (632146) super inputs. (There are also minor changes like the loss of 6S and the Sterilization Method command throw.) Overall, I-No is still the same queen of air motion and loftier-low okizeme. J.S and the ability to chain Sultry Performance hops for ridiculous overhead mixups make full in the gaps left past VCL and j.D, and her rushdown and pressure is still powerful. While overall ane of the more hard characters in the GGST roster, this is the easiest iteration of I-No to pick up, and Rev2 I-No already arguably had a low skill floor.

I never played Anji, but I played some long sets confronting friends who played as him. While Fuujin's rekkas no longer have autoguard, it doesn't really seem like his mixup potential suffers as a result. Fuujin itself seems safe enough on block to bait opponents trying to mash out of rekkas, and more chiefly, every variant of the Suigetsu dodge (on its own or fastened to Fuujin and Gou) lets Anji completely skip neutral. Shitsu butterfly oki is as well incredibly underrated. Even without the autoguard and special overheads that aren't Fuujin follow-ups, Anji is a threatening bruiser who can avoid your own pokes and pressure and punish you lot with large damage, either with a throw later on Suigetsu into butterfly oki and Fuujin pressure level, or simply by spending fifty Tension on a large-ass counter super. Anji seems both simple to pick up and an particularly oppressive gorilla who straight upward does not care well-nigh half of what you lot attempt at mid-screen.

Rebalance: Air movement

The changes to air movement and ground-to-air interactions are the most controversial aspect of OBT2'southward gameplay, so let's become over them in detail.

• Gravity seems to take been adjusted overall. In loops, repeating the same move applies more gravity and pushback, like how other Guilty Gear games already forestall infinites. This is obviously to prevent things like Sol's 5K dash cancel Grand Viper infinite from OBT1.
• Whatsoever air action except for empty single jump has recovery frames on landing. This has been institute by SKD to exist about three frames of completely inactionable landing recovery. For (brief and reductive) comparing, +R has one to iv frames of partially actionable landing recovery, and Rev2 has no landing recovery on any air actions apart from j.D, which has iii frames of inactionable landing recovery.
• Jumps and air dashes had their superlative and altitude reduced. This is global, but also affects each character differently. For instance, while Millia's jump height and airdash distance are both lower, her airdashes are both still about the same length as each other, forward and back. Sol and Ramlethal, on the other hand, have extremely diminished backwards airdash lengths.
• There are now most five frames of pre-jump blitheness. This prevents up-back chicken blocking, which was so prominent in OBT1.
• 6P has been buffed across the board. Mostly, the hitbox is larger, the upper body hurtbox is smaller, and the motility is now more active. This makes it more effective equally an anti-air merely has some… unintended consequences when interacting with grounded moves.
• Blockstun when using meterless blocks in the air has been increased for the defender, ostensibly to incentivize both anti-arrogance and aeriform Faultless Defense.

Almost of these changes are fine, and some of them probably will only experience 'weird' in awfully specific situations. As an example, someone who plays Rev2 might be able to leap over an opponent and so one-frame throw them immediately upon landing, simply in that aforementioned state of affairs in +R, the aerial opponent is more than likely to go thrown upon landing instead since their offense has been delayed past a frame. Since you can still brainstorm combos and proceed pressure after successful air options, the landing recovery doesn't seem to exist a major detriment to criminal offense. This works because your opponent is ofttimes in plenty hit- or blockstun for the landing recovery to not affair. Punishes will only happen on successful anti-airs or on whiffed air buttons. Likewise, things like boosted pre-jump animation and buffed 6Ps let defenders to respond fairly to aerial offense.

The biggest change to game feel is, instead, the various tweaks to air movement itself: the elevation, distance, speed, and gravity of jumps and airdashes has been inverse in a very disconcerting way. As mentioned previously, Sol and Ramlethal'due south backwards airdash are very stunted- this is a poor metric, only they inappreciably move the width of a unmarried boilerplate character when they IAD dorsum. I-No, on the other hand, wasn't in OBT1, and her airdash distance forward and back is almost the aforementioned. Notwithstanding, her spring forward IAD doesn't seem to articulate most characters' heads without superjumping, a problem exacerbated by her downward angled airdash. Some actions are still fast, and it seems like the speed of the popgun IAD on nigh characters has been increased (at the expense of early actions and variable descents) simply movement in other areas feels weirdly heavier. I believe when people refer to the air movement feeling 'clunky,' they are referring to the more than plain felt changes described here, rather than the less obviously felt changes to things like pre-jump and landing lag.

It'southward mentioned repeatedly that, instead of making such drastic changes to air combat, the remainder should be reverted to how it was in OBT1 or even by Gears, and the ability to block grounded anti-airs without Faultless Defense should but be removed. I partly agree with the argument to return air unblockables to GGST and I hope in that location is some middle ground or even a total reversion to the air movement. It took quite some time for me to make the adjustment to the revised system, and I would probably be more sour on it if I wasn't playing I-No, who had a Morrigan hoverdash on top of an IAD that was at least fast and full-length relative to about of the cast.

On the other hand… this is a personal argument, just I've had situations happen to me in past Gears where I swore I was air FD braking, and and so my meter ran out and I got hit anyway by my opponent's anti-air, and that certainly feels bad. I don't know how universal that experience is, but information technology sucks to have picked the 'right' defensive selection and notwithstanding exist wrong. I imagine that removing the need for metered air blocking was intended to foreclose those situations where you FD brake and get hitting anyway at low Tension. (This is non to say that this is exactly why GGST fabricated those blueprint choices, nor am I suggesting that GGST should be counterbalanced to my preferences. Information technology'south just an educated approximate based on having played a m-plus hours of Gear and seeing those situations.)

Determination

Hopefully, ASW volition take feedback and criticism in good religion and make as many adjustments as they can before the June 11th launch. The game is in a precarious situation correct now. If information technology ends upward beingness delayed again, I imagine that would probably further erode a lot of the faith and expectations in the development squad, even if such a filibuster and additional work were needed in order to brand the game good enough to ship. In that location's less than 4 weeks remaining until launch, and major changes to the game have certainly been made in a short span previously- meet the gap between the Feb OBT and the April loketest. This game is besides slated for a debut at Evo- if information technology doesn't launch on time, information technology might get cutting entirely, but if it launches and it'south bad, it makes a terrible first impression on the global FGC. In that location'southward also some features that I'm even so waiting for more data on, like hitbox and frame information viewer in Training Mode and a timeline on crossplay functionality betwixt PSN and Steam.

I practise want to arrive clear that I still had fun with the game and I played information technology for similar twenty-something hours while it was live. I retrieve most changes to the game have been for the ameliorate. I tin can hop onto GGST and go into a Park and just play for ages and not worry nigh the skill or connection of my opponent. Damage seems to accept been tweaked laterally such that earning wall breaks and the Positive Bonus meter vitrify feels useful (1 of my biggest concerns with the past betas) even though combo impairment is still high. Characters still exert massive pressure on knockdown- Sol, Ky, Millia, Zato, Ram, and now Anji and I-No. I can still squeeze air motility into my combos, even though I'm traveling horizontally rather than vertically. It's still Guilty Gear, information technology'southward but different. I empathize that the game should be adept at launch rather than waiting for a patch, next season, or version update down the line, simply I also tin can hardly call up a time in the past decade where a fighting game didn't have janky or straight-up busted shit on launch. In the end, I merely want to have the terminal game in my easily so I can dive right in, play with a ton of people, and experiment and discover cool stuff. Of class, I can still want that last game to be better.