a very, very weird game
it's a huge innovator with its insanely good netcode, showing it is an absolute necessity for fighting games, strive is probably the one with the best online play currently
however, it is a large departure from the rest of the series as it stripped away many of guilty gear's core mechanics in favor of making it simpler and easier to get into
while this did work to an extent as the playerbase was gigantic early in strive's lifespan, it hindered player retention as the game currently feels limited and straight up has some dumb shit in it
that damage goes crazy
additionally, the game has some weird server issues despite how good the actual netcode is
like the online just doesn't work in certain countries
the lobbies, ranking, and ui are also lacking too
while this game does have a ways to go, i really do enjoy playing it because unlike most fighting games, it's actually functional (in the US at least) and i'm excited to see how it develops from here