What Makes Characters Good?
A look at how cohesive movesets create powerful gameplans
Most of the people I’ve been playing Guilty Gear Strive with lately are new to the series, and some of them have barely even touched the genre. I often field questions about characters, such as when to use certain tools or how to counter matchups, alongside explanations of what makes those options good (or bad.) Likewise, when someone is having a difficult time understanding how a tool or character is designed, I contextualize how effective they are in certain situations. This is especially the case when I have to discuss characters that are perceived either as exceptionally good- the nascent top tiers like Sol, May, and Ramlethal- or as exceptionally weak- characters like Ky, Anji, and Faust that seem to lack the rest of the roster’s options. When breaking down characters in this way, it helps players studying the game understand the situations in which their main shines, as well as how to approach stronger or more problematic matchups.
Often, when looking at a tool that is bad on paper, you can see how it forms the bulk of a character’s gameplan. A conversation that I’ve had, and a recurring debate I’ve seen, is about GGST Ky’s new moveset, specifically replacing Greed Sever with Foudre Arc. Legacy players especially seem to think that Ky’s new special move is very weak, since it no longer provides him a standing overhead option to mix up blockstring pressure besides the situational universal 5D. However, it’s important to recognize how this tool brings Ky’s gameplan together in GGST and makes his pressure incredibly threatening. While Foudre Arc is no longer a mixup tool used in tandem with Stun Dipper, it covers an insane distance quickly and is excellent at stealing back turns when the opponent is in Shock State, which is basically all the time.
Consider how Ky starts his offense. He doesn’t have anything especially fancy in this game, trading Grinder oki for Shock State’s pure damage and frame data bonuses. He’s also the closest thing this game has to a typical shotoclone, and he has a lot of good neutral tools like big, safe pokes (basically every S and H button) and a varied fireball game. Any short bread-and-butter combo will end in Dire Eclat, which applies Shock State and a knockdown. Even though Dire Eclat is -11, it’s got a lot of pushback and is hard for some characters to challenge without Instant Blocking. On a knockdown or while Ky’s opponent is locked down by Charged Stun Edge, Foudre Arc can be used to safely close gaps and start pressure again. Even with its slow startup, Ky travels far and fast, even more so if Foudre Arc is performed out of a dash. (Also, being slow and punishable never stopped Ky from pressing the 19f Greed Sever raw or at close range.) The perpetuity of Shock State makes Foudre Arc an excellent re-buy tool during blockstrings, as a meaty, against opponents who have been pushed back, and a great counter against abare low pokes. Understanding how one tool fits into a character’s gameplan like this can not only help you find value in that tool, but it also allows you to formulate the rest of their strategy and strengths.
I also often get questions about matchup advice in my chat, often about I-No, so I often must define what makes my character strong to help other people understand the counterplay. I personally think I-No is a top-tier character in this version despite her changes and high-risk gameplay, mostly because her offense is still exceptional and she has strong command normals that give her more routes and options than the limited Gatlings would suggest. Instead of looking at a single tool that only forms a part of her gameplan, like I did with Ky, we’re going to look at a defining character mechanic and see how exactly that informs her stellar offense. The cornerstone of I-No’s gameplay, and what sets her apart from the rest of the cast, is her Morrigan hoverdash.
I-No’s hoverdash replaces her ability to run or dash along the ground. It puts her in the air on frame 5 and lets her do anything she wants in the air on frame 10. Since she can’t do a normal grounded dash, and her walk is very slow, this means that any forward movement is a highly committed action. I-No will not be playing the same type of footsies in neutral that other characters do. On the other hand, this also means that I-No has access to instant overhead mixups that most other characters don’t have access to, making her very difficult to defend against. On paper, this implies that I-No is easy to counter- just anti-air or block high. However, her hoverdash is complemented by her grounded movement, namely the fast and low-profiling Stroke the Big Tree special moves. When her hoverdash is combined with her ability to stall in the air for far longer than even pixies like Chipp and Millia (using her j.D, Sultry Performance divekick, and followup hops) as well as her Big Tree lows and other good normals like 2K and 2D, it can be difficult to figure out how to block her correctly even when you know what she’s doing. Guessing wrong on your block or picking the wrong abare mash option will earn I-No either a huge knockdown, followed by Antidepressant Scale oki, or a huge counter-hit, followed by free flashy damage.
These are two examples that are fairly straightforward, but they should give you a sense of how to determine a character’s strengths. We can break this down into a sort of flowchart:
- On paper, what does it seem like this character is good at? Look at everything in a character’s kit and think about how they might play at a glance. Do they have a wide variety of tools for multiple situations, or are they highly specialized?
- What seems to be their defining mechanic, if any? This doesn’t necessarily have to be a unique meter or an engine quirk, but it often can be. How does this mechanic change the flow of the game, and what does it offer to your character that other characters don’t get?
- What are their especially strong tools? What buttons seem to be very powerful in most situations? If there’s a particular move that leads to a lot of favorable opportunities or gets used in a lot of combos, this will tend to define the character. Of course, top tier characters will have more of these privileged tools.
- How reliant are they on resources? Can their gameplan begin quickly, or are they restricted by setplay or meter management? Do they have to rely on universal system options for things like big damage or defensive situations? This goes double for characters with unique meters.
- Where are they strong? Are they only good at a particular part of the screen? This isn’t necessarily about the range the characters play at, since creating space at round start is easy. This is more about whether a character is strong at midscreen, but weak at the corner, or vice versa.
- What is their ‘win condition?’ What situation can they create that more or less guarantees their victory, if such a situation exists? Think about whether this win condition is unique to them as well- and think about what your opponent needs to do to turn it around or prevent it from happening.
- What are their ‘worst’ tools, and why do you think they’re so bad? Are they genuinely outclassed by other options, or could there be a situation where they still work? It’s possible that some of these so-called bad tools still find crucial uses.
- How difficult is it to access your character’s gameplan or good tools? Do they require a lot of time, practice, and patience in order to see results, or do they start snowballing right away? Remember also that sometimes characters who are easy to pick up might still be weak, while complicated characters can often be very strong.
- Above all, does every element of the character, including the above, come together in a cohesive way? Are there any tools that feel out of place, or is there something that they’re missing that the rest of the cast has? If a character has a ton of tools and mechanics, but their kit feels bloated and none of them complement each other, they may be overly complex or difficult to use.
So, I-No, for instance, excels at aerial approaching and rushdown due to her unique hoverdash and downward-angled airdash, which grant her quick and powerful overhead pressure. Big Tree and 6H are some of her strongest ground tools, while all her air normals and Sultry divekicks make for an incredibly powerful airgame. I-No has no resources of her own but relies substantially on meter for her reversal super and universal defensive options. I-No is strong anywhere on the screen, but her meterless corner damage is much higher than her power at midscreen. Once I-No can get in and score a knockdown, her note oki combined with her powerful air meaties can be difficult to escape unless the opponent guesses correctly. While most of I-No’s tools are strong, Chemical Love’s horizontal hitbox whiffing on dashing, crouching, and some standing opponents makes it a highly situational poke, instead being used as a daring callout or in wall combos. I-No’s atypical movement, even for an anime fighter, makes her very difficult to get the hang of at first, especially when you begin mixing in her divekick mixups and things like tick throws off regular grabs or Megalomania, but her unparalleled pressure makes her incredibly rewarding to play. Every tool in I-No’s kit comes together to create an aerial rushdown character who even manages to stand apart from other pixies like Chipp and MIllia.
You can repeat this process for basically any character and highlight their strengths and weaknesses this way. The easier it is to answer this checklist, and the more in-depth the answers are, the better a character probably is. Conversely, a weaker character might have fewer answers for each part of the checklist. I began with the Ky analogy at the beginning mostly because I wanted to provide some insight into why a character perceived as middle-of-the-road or with ‘weaker’ options (either compared to other characters or to legacy iterations) might still be very strong if you change your way of thinking about their toolkit. Of course, it’s still possible for some characters to be genuinely weak or to lack options that other characters have access to- Faust, for instance, has no way to earn a wallbreak knockdown since his supers don’t break the wall, and his items are possibly more detrimental in this iteration, so he lacks the safe and reliable okizeme that other characters take for granted. Still, thinking about weaker character in this way can still help you figure out strong points to focus on when picking them up and developing them further.
Try not to hyper-fixate on what your character ‘can’t do’ or what ‘bad options’ they have. While it’s good to understand your weaknesses, downplaying your main without learning how to circumvent their low points (or without understanding why those weaknesses exist) will stagnate your growth in the long run. Legitimate issues with a character will be rectified later on in the patch cycle but waiting for those patches without adapting to the game or learning problematic matchups means you won’t know how to deal with those situations in the future. This is especially true if, despite nerfs, the matchup doesn’t fundamentally change, or certain top tiers remain strong. Instead, figure out your character’s strengths and build a gameplan around that. You can also use this checklist to figure out what makes other characters strong, and then figure out what you need to defend against or play around. It’s for these reasons that giving thought to what makes characters good or bad is one of the most important tools for a new player to hone so they can improve.
