Tomorrow Finally Marks the End of A Divisive Era For 'Guilty Gear Strive'

Guilty Gear Strive is the most successful Guilty Gear title yet in the long-running fighting game series, reaching over three million players by July 2024, according to the official X account for the game. Despite that, the game has been relatively polarizing among the fan base due to its streamlined mechanics, serious damage output, and one character in particular being a nightmare to fight against, despite several nerfs. However, a new dawn is coming for the game.

Tomorrow, April 9, is the release of Guilty Gear Strive 2.0, a massive update that changes virtually every aspect of the game. New mechanics will be added, every character will be adjusted, and a new season will begin.

The 2.0 update is free to all Guilty Gear Strive players across all platforms and will introduce Jam Kuradoberi as a paid DLC character.

Additionally, cosmetically, the game is getting a tune-up. A new main menu design will be added, as well as Battle U.I. skins, new voice-overs, a restructuring of the character select screen, and more.

Guilty Gear Strive 2.0 will also introduce a new mechanic called Counter Blitz, while removing the controversial Wild Assault mechanic.

But the biggest change to the game, like most fighting games, is character rebalancing, and one character in particular is seeing a drastic shake-up.

Happy Chaos has become one of the most notorious fighting game characters, due to his oppressive long-range gunshot attacks, which have very little counter-play, and the ability to refill his bullets with one of his overdrives. In 2.0, Happy Chaos is being completely reworked. Now, he can't refill his bullets with his overdrive, he can't use his Curse attack with no risk, and his At the Ready attack (which also drew his gun) doesn't pop up opponents nearly as far.

Though it's not all doom and gloom for Happy Chaos fans, as he can now fire bullets that go through a portal to instantly connect, and he got other small tweaks, according to the patch notes.

With all characters getting major adjustments and a new battle mechanic added, Guilty Gear Strive 2.0 seems set to bring old fans back and new fans in.

Guilty Gear Strive is available now for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC. The 2.0 update will be available to download tomorrow, April 9, for free.