This is a fighting game that introduced me to look at the screen. It rewarded me for observing, understanding, punishing and talking to my opponent. As it was my first FG to do that, it will have its special place in my heart.

This game also has a character that I struggled to play with, to understand, and to effectively use her options: Poison.

But first, the game: The rollback is not good. I can not, and I do not want to, give it a higher rating because of the terrible netcode that this game has. It unfortunately means that the game is completely dead after the launch of SF6, because nobody (rightfully so) is subjecting themselves to the atrocity that this game has for a netcode.

This is one of the best balanced fighting games that I've ever played: Even the joke character is viable, and by that I mean he plays pretty good and has solid tools. Some of the cast feels incomplete without V-Trigger, which is an unfortunate reality of the earlier launches. After a while though, they are mostly complete and their V-Trigger is either a really strong that would never be integrated with their kits, for example: Oro's VT2 (Tengu Stones), Menat's VT2 (Wisdom of Thoth), Juri's VT1 (Feng Shui Engine) and so on. V-Skill can also be either completely useless (like both of Cammy's V-Skills) or extremely useful (like Poison Cartwheel). The rest of the V mechanics are really well balanced: V-Reversal is a powerful "get off me" tool, safe and reliable; V-Shift is an excellent tool that is able to shut down happy grapplers, avoid chip kills and unblockable setups, extremely important to the game the higher you go.

Now, how does it play? It is a very neutral focused game, and the priority system from L<M<H makes it so that you are reward for taking risks at the right moments, with the exceptional reward of a crush counter. One of the bad things about it is that backdashes are also considered in counter hit state during the very few startup frames, so you can get locked into oppressive situations. However, the game's pressure is not infinite; There is always a risk when you try to extend your turn, which means that you can look out for that and be rewarded for being patient. Blocking goes a long way in making you gain more V-Gauge, but also avoiding getting crush countered. Dashes are by far the most difficult thing to check in the game. Being at minimum 16f, they are barely reactable: A dash into a 3f means that you have 18f to press you own 3f before getting pressured. You can, however, use good buttons that render little risk to whiff punish, which means that they can bait for that and dash after seeing said button, which means that you TALK WITH YOUR OPPONENT!!! This is true beauty. Nobody gets away with mashing and doing things mindlessly; You can deny your opponents attempts to refuse communication. It rewards attentiveness, knowledge and the ability to act at the right time. This is Street Fighter.

It is one of the most beautiful games to watch at high level, with a neutral so clean that'll inspire you, and reactions that may seem inhuman.

To my personal experience, I took a long time to learn how to talk to my opponent. I wasn't used to it, I only did my things and hoped it would work, but that's not how it makes you a better player. I loved Poison's design, but I was scared of trying a character that I didn't think I'd be able to successfully use to its best. Still, I tried her after being more knowledgeable with the game.

I got my ass handed to me many, many times. I suffered with those good, long range normals, but that required precise timing and space awareness to not get whiff punished or jumped into. I confused myself with her whip versions while fishing for jumps or movement. Of 100 matches, I only won 20. But I didn't give up. And it made me love her even more when I did know how to use her tools, and how to take advantage of my opponents habits. There may never be a chance for me to play with this Poison again, seeing as the game is dead, and she isn't and probably won't be in SF6 for a long time (or never). But I did enjoy finding a character like her, that made me appreciate fighting games a lot more.

SFV was good for me. Poison for SF6.

It is rough around the edges, and can be even rougher at times, but it is undeniably a good fighting game, considering the whole package.

Having been on dustloop for so long and with so many resources makes it a very good game to dive deep into, however, its overwhelming character strength creates a gameplay that will be defiant of common and basic fighting game knowledge. For example, you're not anti airing Sol's j.H. That is a thing, and many tools/normals of this game will be unsolvable problems or be so incredibly strong that there is absolutely no way to deal with unless avoiding the situation entirely. Mixing that up with the fact that you can be barred by tricky execution and the lack of buffers, you can feel pretty discouraged from continuing your journey.

But it's not all lost; You have unending ways to interact with the game, even in a single matchup. You can experiment and you may find many niche situations with even more niche answers, or you can bulldoze your way through to make them play your game. Neutral is a spectrum; There's decisions that you can make, and they may seem good in paper, but the match always plays differently from what you can think of. That freedom, the lack of constrictions can be a very experimental ground, and if you like not being held by anything whatsoever to freely express your own will, this might be one of the best fighting games to do so. However, that is my review and I don't like this shit. haha. Lack of boundaries means that you can hardly talk to an opponent if he wants to stay in his own world, and his character (any character can do this, this is not exclusive) is perfectly able to sustain his gameplan by being so hard to constrict in any way whatsoever that you can feel like you're playing against brick walls.

The roster is one of the best, all of them are unique and beautiful in their own way, supporting almost every playstyle even if their archetype is not supposed to do so. Good music and rollback netcode, to top with some of the best features in a fighting game: Replay takeover and the quick match lobby, makes the whole package of GGXXAC+R something worth trying out, at least once.

Flawed, but fun.

One of my favourites open world games, with a world actually worth exploring. The biggest flaw of this game is the mechanic of threat level in areas. Upgrading yourself and your car with unlocks that come with lowering said threat levels, but that makes the game way easier as the enemies lessen with the level of the area. Even though it has that and a really cliché story, the combat, driving and its mechanics are stellar, one of the most hype and adrenaline inducing chases and fights. Things feel heavy, from the car rams to the punches, to the shotgun and the throwables.

The open world is justified: everything that you can see, you can explore. Every little place was made so that you can find something there, a card from the past, some bullets, a camping site, an old car, you name it. That's what an open world must feel like, not filled with buildings that you can't access and are just there to compose a landscape.

Worth the time I've spent into, loved every second of it.