Giving this a great rating before it actually deserves it; as it stands netcode in my experience is not not functional in the slightest (can’t even join player lobbies or connect to an opponent, been forced to use steam remote play, if anyone has any ideas/solutions on how to fix/improve the experience away from steam remote play, please reply with them, that would be awesome) and without the confirmation that rollback is coming this would have a much worse score. That being said, with what I’ve played against some friends via more unconventional online methods it’s really fun! I don’t have too much to say due to everything just being really solid. Movement feels good, not too loose like ACR was for me, mechanics are generally really sound, and the game looks and sounds great. Only flaw with the sound design really is that I wish there was a harsher noise on inputting an overdrive, they kinda feel weightless in this game and it feels like they just “happen” rather than being a big moment. I dunno what my relationship with this one is really gonna be, if it'll be closer to the way I play strive (Striving to get better in a more serious manner) or if it'll just be more of a “chill with friends” game like ACR is to me, but right now I just know I’m loving it.
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Here’s where you want to stop reading if you don’t care about me venting my frustrations when it comes to fighting game communities. To put it bluntly, the mindset that gatekeeping is a good thing is not only wrong, but toxic and obnoxious. Reason I’m putting this under my Xrd review is specifically because I’ve made the mistake more than a couple times of going onto twitter and seeing people share that sentiment. Even then this isn’t just an Xrd problem. I’ve seen this regarding Smash as well, specifically between Melee and Ultimate, which leads me to believe this is more of a universal problem in fighting games in general. As someone that’s really enjoying Xrd, seeing clips and tweets of people saying “lol go back to strive” after beating someone that likely has a pretty small (especially comparatively to the person winning who likely has at least a couple years of experience) amount of hours in the game is making me doubt not only if I want to actually start practicing and trying out Xrd for real, but if I want to play fighting games in general. Talking down to players like this achieves nothing except crushing someone that likely genuinely wants to learn how to play your favorite fighting game, and making your player numbers dwindle after a second chance and resurgence in popularity. It’s nothing but selfish, toxic behavior. There’s a gigantic difference between disliking Strive, which for the record I can totally see the reasons why people do, and making fun of new people getting into your game from Strive. I said this already and I'm going to reiterate; this is not just a problem with Guilty Gear. So to every FGC out there; is it so hard to be welcoming and encouraging of new players to your game to improve? It really shouldn’t be.
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Here’s where you want to stop reading if you don’t care about me venting my frustrations when it comes to fighting game communities. To put it bluntly, the mindset that gatekeeping is a good thing is not only wrong, but toxic and obnoxious. Reason I’m putting this under my Xrd review is specifically because I’ve made the mistake more than a couple times of going onto twitter and seeing people share that sentiment. Even then this isn’t just an Xrd problem. I’ve seen this regarding Smash as well, specifically between Melee and Ultimate, which leads me to believe this is more of a universal problem in fighting games in general. As someone that’s really enjoying Xrd, seeing clips and tweets of people saying “lol go back to strive” after beating someone that likely has a pretty small (especially comparatively to the person winning who likely has at least a couple years of experience) amount of hours in the game is making me doubt not only if I want to actually start practicing and trying out Xrd for real, but if I want to play fighting games in general. Talking down to players like this achieves nothing except crushing someone that likely genuinely wants to learn how to play your favorite fighting game, and making your player numbers dwindle after a second chance and resurgence in popularity. It’s nothing but selfish, toxic behavior. There’s a gigantic difference between disliking Strive, which for the record I can totally see the reasons why people do, and making fun of new people getting into your game from Strive. I said this already and I'm going to reiterate; this is not just a problem with Guilty Gear. So to every FGC out there; is it so hard to be welcoming and encouraging of new players to your game to improve? It really shouldn’t be.