#too vulernable and invasive

[sodacowboy]

literally where the fuck would I go other than tumblr??

[valentinecult]

Guilty Gear -STRIVE- Story Review. (ugh finally)

Alright, the game has been out for more than a month now and I’m sure a lot of fans who’re dedicated to the story and lore have watched the story mode of Strive. 

If you haven’t watched the story mode, this review is going to have spoilers (no duh). I strongly advise you to not read this unless you’re okay with this. You’ve been warned.

Before we get into the review, I’m not going to complicate it and prefer to keep it simplistic to avoid going off track. It won’t be too long of a review, so to make it easier for myself, I’m going to do the pros and cons.

The Pros

The story mode really gave a more cinematic feeling to it unlike the XRD series. In SIGN and Revelator, the story was a mixture of anime and visual novel in terms of the mechanics. Here, the story was executed differently for the viewer. In all honesty, it felt like I’m watching a literal movie...you know, the ones you see in theaters like Marvel, G. I. Joe, etc. At the same time, it is more anime-esque due to not having the text boxes from the XRD series. 

Parts of the story mode reminded me of certains movie scenes I’ve watched before. For example, the part where Happy Chaos invaded the White House and forced the country leaders to disable the nuclear weapons reminded me of the scene from G.I. Joe 2 where Zartan, who was disguised as the President, made the world leaders disarm the nukes while using psychological warfare. 

Another thing I’d like to add is that the main story gave certain characters great closure and development, including Sol, I-No, and Axl Low. I-No’s ‘death’ was extremely sad and even sadder once you realize her true identity. The plot twist I did not expect to see coming was that I-No is actually Megumi, Axl’s girlfriend--or rather an alternate version of her from another timeline. It makes sense considering how I-No showed some sympathy toward Axl because they were both carrying a heavy burden with their powers to manipulate time. 

I’m happy that Sol didn’t share the same fate as Ragna from Blazblue where he ‘dies’ or is nonexistent from the world. After everything he’s been through, Sol literally deserved some peace and quiet for once in his life along with Jack-O (New Aria). 

Speaking of Aria, Jack-O’s development and internal struggle with her identity is very tragic. The poor girl acknowledges that she isn’t the real ‘Aria’ and felt that she is robbing another person’s life. The fact that she is having an identity crisis lead to the part where she feels that she’s a failure of a Valentine to Asuka and was willing to sacrifice herself to stop I-No, but Sol thankfully stopped her just in time to show her that his love for Jack-O is genuine. Despite her childish behavior in XRD, I really liked how they humanized Jack-O along with the other Valentines. They really helped making the Valentines feel more than just copies of Aria/Justice and become their own unique individuals. 

Lastly, I want to talk about the man of the hour....my hubby <3

Nagoriyuki. I’ll be frank with you, I was expecting him to play a role similar to Slayer. Thankfully, it wasn’t the case. Now, here is the thing, people find it sort of controversial on how they made it where Nagoriyiki is a ‘slave’ to Happy Chaos for obvious reasons that I’d rather not go into because I want to keep this review light-hearted. 

I loved how they humanized Nagoriyuki and made him a very sympathetic character. While he is insanely powerful and stronger than he truly lets on, he feels more ‘vulnerable’ than Slayer. Let me explain what I mean, you see...the difference between Slayer and Nagoriyuki in my opinion is that Slayer feels like a complete force of nature as a vampire and observer who experienced a lot of events that occurred in the Guilty Gear world. However, Nagoriyuki is far different from Slayer because you see that Nagoriyuki is internally conflicted and immensely guilty for his actions. If you play the Arcade Mode and do all routes to hear the dialogue, you see that Nagoriyuki deep down feels guilty for hurting many people, possibly when he first became a vampire. His own arcade story where he fights his darker self showed that the man is willing to stay true to his Bushido traditions and his humanity instead of drinking blood like all vampires do to remain at their peak. I was in a way right that he is no different from Sol in terms of their situation that they’re trying to remain human as possible and not become monsters. He feels more ‘human’. While it upsets me how Happy Chaos treated him and held him against his will, you can’t help but to grow attached to the poor man and seeing him in a vulernable position opens doors for character development.

His personality is likeable and endearing. I like that he showed concern for Sol’s wellbeing and warn him to run away if he is in no condition to fight during the White House invasion. It goes to show that Nagoriyuki is compassionate. While he isn’t as strong as Slayer, well in my opinion, I do admire his passionate spirit and willpower. The highlight scene for me that made me love Nagoriyuki a whole lot was when he regained control of his body and purposely lets himself lose to Sol. That showed the kind of person Nago is, he’s willing to lose and probably die as a free man than to spend of his life as Happy Chaos’ puppet hurting innocent people and tarnishing his Bushido ways. I must admit, that part kind of made cry a bit because I was unsure if Nagoriyuki survived one of Sol’s strongest attacks and it looked like he was burned to a crisp. That selfless attitude of his one of the few personality traits I adore about him. 

Same goes for when in his Arcade Story, Nagoriyuki told his darker self that he is willing to starve for eternity than to drink from humans or anyone in general. He says with certainty. To me, I like that he is willing to put others before his himself as a person. What I didn’t expect from Nago is that he has the ability to see weak points of his enemies and given how his sword screwed up Sol’s regeneration, I have to say...he is more deadly than I anticipated. I hope to see this man more in action one day. 

One more thing, I do like how Ramlethal and him had a heart-to-heart dialogue in her Arcade Story. When you think about it, Nagoriyuki is similar to Ramlethal for they both ‘work’ for powerful entities from the Backyard and are searching for a purpose as characters. Like Ramlethal, Nagoriyuki keeps denying himself for he is implied to be ashamed of his preivous actions, but Ramlethal wants him to accept himself and is willing to help him. Sadly, he just takes off. 

I’m really looking forward to seeing more of him in the future. This character has a lot of potential. 

The Cons

While I like the story, it isn’t without its flaws. 

The real flaw is that it leaves more questions than answers. 

Guilty Gear’s story and lore feels only 75% complete for me. Where is Happy Chaos? What happened to the Seeds? What happened to Faust? Where was Ramlethal and May? 

Most importantly....what is the Blood of Juno and how did Ky gain his own Dragon Install? 

The pacing of the story mode felt a tad bit rushed and doesn’t explain a whole lot of things. Heck, we never got enough decent information on Giovanna or Nagoriyuki.

There are too many loose ends and leaves me with unsatisfactory. 

However, at the same time....this makes me want to know more about Guilty Gear’s lore. With the new story mode coming this year, I’m eager to see what Daisuke has in store for us. The main story was heavily focused on concluding Sol’s story, but still...there are a lot of loose ends. 

I hope with the new story mode, we’ll be able get answers to many of the unanswered mysteries. 

I’m not convinced that Guilty Gear is ‘over’ until everything is explained!