TL;DR:
+ Best looking and sounding Guilty Gear to date
+ Very welcoming to newcomers
- Missing what makes most Arcsys games stand out
- No combo mode (to be added later)
- Lack of single player content

I want to preface this review by stating this is a great game. Arc System Works are amazing at creating fighting games, and in terms of being the next generation of Guilty Gear, this is near-perfect. I also personally have found it to be worth the price tag, but there are some glaring issues that I feel hold the game back from being worth most peoples' money, at least in its current state.

To start with positives, the presentation is absolutely phenomenal. The visuals, the music, the voice acting; these are all amazing and even in sessions when I was playing with the same random person with the same characters (which has happened a few times), I felt like I was playing a fresh match every time. To specifically talk about the music, Daisuke Ishiwatari has really outdone himself, as he seems to do every game, and the vocal talent of Naoki and Aisha shines in every track. Even if you have a few bad matches (or even a streak in my case), it's hard to lose interest when the game encourages you so well.

While the mechanics in this game have been simplified over the past entries of Guilty Gear, causing some disappointment in the veteran crowd, this is an excellent starting point for newcomers or even those wanting a more relaxed version of Guilty Gear. Given the large marketing Strive got before launch, I'd assume many people are either coming other fighting games or playing Strive as their first fighting game ever. The mission mode is great in this game; if you are new to Guilty Gear or fighting games in general, this can serve as a good introduction to basics, game specific mechanics, and even some more situational instances.

Onto some negatives, the most major is that there is a shocking lack of content in the game, and I don't just mean modes or characters, which is an issue on its own but I hope this can be solved with post-launch content. This one is more targeted towards those who have already played Arcsys games but some newer players might feel disappointed, regardless. Part of what makes Arcsys games great is their focus on character interaction and world. What I mean by this is whenever any character in the roster fights another character, even if they have no interaction in the story, still treat each other as unique when it comes to a win-quote. In Strive, you get a match win-quote (which already appeared at the end of matches in Xrd), a stat summary page, and that's it. Nothing specific to who is fighting who, just the option to rematch or exit the lobby.

This point might come off as nitpicky, as it is just a minor part of the game and doesn't affect anything on a major scale, and while I do somewhat agree, was there any reason to remove a notable feature that appears in most Arcsys games? For a less minor change similar to this, just look at arcade. In Xrd, every character had a few cutscenes in their arcade story, as well as an intro and ending movie. In Strive, out of the few arcade runs I've completed so far (as Faust, Potemkin, and Sol), I only experienced two unique cutscenes for each character, and those were only a few lines each, compared to the dozen or so lines per cutscene in Xrd. Let me reiterate that this is something focused at the newer crowd, who might want to start playing Strive by themselves and take a peek into the story and single player content, only to be perhaps disappointed at the lack of presentation in these areas when so much of the game is otherwise oozing presentation in every pixel.

(This is to be added in a later date, but until it is, I will keep this section as it is currently relevant.)
Another redaction which affects newer and veteran players alike is the removal of Combo Mode. Combo Recipe is likely the successor, which pushes all combo creation and sharing onto the community rather than the developers. While I understand why Strive's mechanics prevent an abundant number of combos from being possible as in Xrd, the outright removal of Combo Mode seems unnecessary, especially since Combo Recipe isn't out yet.

To backtrack a bit, the lack of modes is a bit surprising, even for Guilty Gear which never really stood out for single player modes but has always offered it. Aside from arcade, vs, story, training, and tutorial modes, you get survival mode. That's it. No M.O.M. mode, no Combo mode, nothing. Survival could at least do what Accent Core had with the bland but nonetheless more engaging concept of stat boosts, occasional unique items, EX characters, and survival level, rather than the occasional mysterious challenger and win count.

I want to finish this review by restating that I do think for many people, this will be worthwhile. Those dedicated to fighting games made up their mind about the game long before the game's release, or are focused on online play and will disregard my points regarding single player. Additionally, I am aware I haven't touched some points such as online, and the reason for each being that many other reviews are summarizing online. For those wanting to get into the story, the Guilty Gear website has a decent summary of events before Xrd, and Arcsys have the stories of both Xrd games uploaded to their YouTube channel.

(For those who are up to date on the stories up until Strive, you are in for a treat. The earlier chapters of the story drag on for a bit (but are still enjoyable), but the last chapter alone is such an perfect and heartfelt sendoff that I could not imagine a better conclusion. To quote the ending credits, it's just beautiful.

In regards to individual stories, however, there are some problems. Without spoiling anything, anyone curious as to the stories of May, Ramlethal, or Faust will be disappointed, as they do not appear in Story Mode outside of a cameo.)

I understand the delays and struggle due to COVID, and I do commend Arc System Works and their team for their dedication and strive (pun intended) to create the next generation of Guilty Gear. But from my perspective, I wouldn't recommend this game full-price to most people.