Note: this isn’t ranking characters based on how good they are. I ain’t some pro Guilty Gear player (though sometimes I wish I was). Rather, this is me ranking the characters based on how much I like to play them. It’s as casual as you can get. Got it? Alright, cool. Let’s go.
The first season of Guilty Gear DLC is over and done with. Now, we’re just gonna have to sit back and wait for season two. So, in the meantime, let’s have a look back at all the characters we got in the base game’s roster and our first batch of newbies!
- S-tier: Chipp, Ramlethal, Baiken, Testament
- A-tier: Sol, Potemkin, Millia, I-No
- B-tier: Ky, Leo, Giovanna
- C-tier: Faust, Nagoriyuki, Goldlewis
- D-tier: May, Axl, Zato, Anji, Jack-O, Happy Chaos
You can probably figure out quite a bit about me just by looking at that. Mostly the fact that I fucking hate charge motions, given that all the characters who have them are sitting nicely in the D-tier purely because of that.
The S-tiers have each been my main at some point in time. Chipp and Baiken are my go-to picks if I’m in the mood to get in close and mess my friends up (or get messed up, if I’m playing Chipp). If I’m feeling a bit more strategic, I’ll play Ramlethal or Testament, the latter of whom is my current main. Both of them are a nice balance of ranged and melee, and Testament’s kit has so much cool stuff and varied combo potential that even their simplest moves put a big dumb grin on my face.
The A-tiers aren’t characters I often play, but I still have fun with them whenever I do. Of these, I-No is my personal favorite, though I still haven’t gotten the hang of her kit yet. Sol is my go-to pick if I don’t really care about winning or losing and I just want to do crazy shit, and Potemkin is fun to use just to scare people with his high-damage grabs. Millia is the one I’ll choose when I’ve annihilated people enough times as Chipp and I want to get my friends self-esteem back up. I’m not good at any of these guys, but they’re still enjoyable.
The B-tiers are a bit too straight-forward and dull to me. Leo is the best of the three, with his two-stance style and unga-bunga play style. Ky and Giovanna are both really good starter characters with how basic their movesets are and how easy they are to figure out. They’re both fun, but they’re never going to be my first choice.
The C-tiers are the characters I’ll reluctantly accept if the random button gives them to me. Faust is enjoyable, with all his goofy random BS. Nagoriyuki is really freaking cool, but his movement restrictions and Blood Gauge mechanics turn me away from him. As for poor Goldlewis, his half-circle built moveset and lackluster supers made him a very forgettable member of the cast.
Now, at last, we come to the D-tiers. These are the characters that I would really prefer not to play. May and Axl are really cool, but I fucking LOATHE charge motions and I never want to deal with them. Zato’s animations are cool, but I really don’t care for micromanaging two characters at once. Anji’s kit isn’t bad, but it’s really boring. Jack-O is a bit too big-brained for me; you’ve got to micromanage all of her minions and Jack-O herself and worry about spacing and it’s just a bit too much for me. As for Happy Chaos, his wacky kit and gun mechanics are just too complicated for my dumb monkey brain; I don’t want to play a resource-management game, I just want to hit shit and throw out supers!
And that’s a wrap. That’s how I’d rank the current roster of Guilty Gear Strive. Sorry if I insulted your main; it’s not my fault you chose a trash character (that’s a joke, I don’t mean it, please don’t be mad). As with every fighting game, you can’t love every single character.
I can’t wait to see where Strive goes from here. Are we going to see more familiar faces return in season two, like Slayer or Dizzy? Or are we gonna get some new faces to spruce things up? Either way, Guilty Gear doesn’t look like it’s gonna go away anytime soon.
Now, to write the tier list that really matters: the Strive soundtrack tier list!
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