Fighting games have traditionally been focused around the 1v1 experience where you’re the only one responsible for your own results, but what happens when you open the door to something more — and then smash the windows and set the house on fire?
Guilty Gear Strive is trying something very different with its Team of 3 mode, and after trying out the open beta this weekend, I’m walking away from my time with it intrigued, conflicted and fearing for my sanity.
Some of my favorite experiences with fighting games growing up was being able to play cooperatively with a friend in titles like Tekken Tag Tournament, Super Smash Bros. Melee and Mortal Kombat 9, which is an itch that doesn’t get scratched very often these days for a few reasons.
We do have Riot’s 2XKO on the horizon pushing that 2v2 experience with your buddies, and now we have this.
Arc System Works is basically releasing all of their limiters here in a Guilty Gear royal rumble taking place in a car that’s been set on fire and pushed off of a cliff.
Strive’s 3v3 mode feels like Marvel vs. Capcom where each assist has a brain of its own and there’s five other sets of hands trying to grab the steering wheel at any given time.
At its core, I like what the experimental game type is doing with one player set as the main and two more as assists who actively participate in the battle with their own moves or special skills.
When not the active player, you can’t just be thrown into the wolves’ den unexpectedly either, as both players need to agree to a “handshake” in order to tag out.
Each player can only be the main once per round with the added benefit that both the characters tagging in and out remain on the field together for around five seconds.
You’re also forced to share one health bar between your entire team, which can lead to rounds taking a minute or like 10 seconds depending on how fast one person is pushed to the corner and absolutely mauled.
Because of the handshake system, mains can basically just hog all of the play time if they so want with little recourse, which can be frustrating if they’re consistently getting beat down.
At the same time, however, the screen changing colors around the edges when a tag window is activated by an assisting player can just get lost in the shuffle when you’ve got an opposing character, their assist and skills coming at you.
There’s a lot to juggle both offensively and defensively that often times leads to the screen looking like a cluttered, near-indecipherable mess where you end up just pressing buttons and praying if you’re on the main.
It just feels like there’s too much with a mental stack that’s almost the equivalent of trying to play Asuka while your friend is dancing in front of the screen.
When paired up with random players, coming up with any coherent strategy is basically impossible, so you’re left trying to predict and what’s happening with the chaos on screen that’s being literally set on fire, electrocuted and filled with bubbles, secondary fighters, dummies, etc.
The skill system is very interesting and can let you set up some really cool things along with some extra support like healing your party, but I’m left wondering if it’d feel like a more cohesive way to try and play the game without them (or at least limit them).
Then you’d only have to really contend with assists and tags more like other team fighters we’ve seen in the past.
There’s also no limit to using the same characters on teams either, so you’re going to run into some toxic team setups like 3 Slayers, 3 Happy Chaos or 3 Potemkins that’ll break your spirit and body.
3v3 Gaming pic.twitter.com/WZIGIaU2B8
— HiFight(ハイファイト) (@HiFightTH) July 27, 2024
At this point, I’d say the only real way to get a fulfilling sense of enjoyment from Strive’s 3v3 is playing with two friends over chat to actually coordinate what you’re doing or just be that crazy to take it all in flying solo.
I will say the netcode held up consistently well between the six connections from my wired PlayStation 4 Pro and PlayStation 5 on Wi-Fi.
There is the occasional slowdown when things get really crazy, but sometimes that’d feel like a blessing to get a better look at what’s actually going on when you’ve got 5 characters crammed into a corner.
The full release at least looks like it’ll offer the ability to do team training and skill customization, but that won’t really amount to much if you’re constantly just pairing up with randoms.
I like a lot of the ideas ArcSys is trying out on paper here, but actually trying to sit down and play it for more than an hour feels like my brain is breaking.
Hopefully, the development team gets a lot of useful data from this beta to see what needs to be adjusted before a full release of the mode because I do want to play more in a completed and refined manner.
There’s no solid release date for Guilty Gear’s 3v3 mode yet though we do know it’s planned to come at some point during Season 4 for all players.