Guilty Gear Strive Characters Worth Knowing and Using

Arc System Works spent years refining the Guilty Gear series. By the time Strive showed up, we essentially go the pinnacle of the series. The gameplay, storytelling, and fighters are so on point. It’s a fantastic installment. So this week on Siliconera Speaks Up, we thought it’d be a good idea to go over the possible best Guilty Gear Strive characters, as a way to encourage people to learn more about the cast and perhaps explore using different fighters in-game. Because while everyone in the game is varying degrees of great, sometimes we feel certain ones deserve a little extra attention.

I’ve only brushed up a little bit against Guilty Gear Strive, but I’ve always had a soft spot for the Guitar Witch, I-No. Her capability at all ranges and inimitable sense of style make her iconic.

That said, the character you like is not always the same as the character you’re most capable with, and to this day I get phantom pain in my wrists and palms remembering my attempts to learn how to play I-No in Guilty Gear XX.

In truth, I usually get better results from the balanced, basic characters, the ones usually tagged as “beginner-friendly,” like your Sols, your Kys, and your Mays. Sorry, I-No. — Josh

Guilty Gear Strive is in my wishlist and I do plan to get it soon, but I really love what I have seen of Ky from it. His character development and the conclusion of his arc with Sol was really satisfying, and I love the more modern character design they used for him in Strive. Since he’s a really basic and beginner-friendly character, he might not be as flashy or “meta” as some others, but it means that Ky tends to have really stable match-ups and a large selection of options at any given moment. Watching really good Ky mains play is a treat and a major serotonin boost. That being said, I’ve been a Testament main since Accent Core and will likely continue to be a Testament main when I finally get Strive. — Stephanie

Why would you make me choose between my children like this?

Faust seems to exist purely to bring Bugs Bunny levels of mayhem to a game that’s already ridiculous, just not FUNNY ridiculous. His abilities to turn into scarecrows, command grab an afro onto your head the extends your hitbox, or to yank you over to play as the ball in a game of golf creates play that is endlessly absurd. Throwing in his item toss and the utter chaos it brings (as not even I know what will come out or what we’ll both do about it) allows me to break up the opponent’s game by sowing garbage everywhere. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been saved by an item I threw out moments before and had completely forgotten, or had some surprise turn a whole match around in my favor. And his shin-busting super is just the goofiest way to finish off an opponent. As someone who loves ridiculous stuff in games, Faust is everything I could want in a fighting game character.

But Potemkin…Heavenly Potemkin Buster (HPB). That moment where you know you’ve won as soon as your opponent’s in the air. The moment THEY know that they’re caught and dead. His super takes so long, and the whole while, you’re cackling as you’re just waiting to be told you’ve won, and you KNOW your opponent is boiling with rage. I am surprised it is not, in some way, illegal for a character to make me feel this good.

I have to give the edge to Potemkin, if only because I have recordings on my phone of the times I’ve landed HPB on people. I keep them, look at them, and smile to myself like others do with pictures of their families and friends. Like I said, this feeling should probably be illegal. — Joel

I think the best Guilty Gear Strive character is the one who I’ve considered the best for years: Millia Rage. I’m fascinated by not only how she uses her hair as a weapon, but how good Arc System Works is at conveying that both through her moveset, animations, and actions. It’s playful! It’s lethal! It also helps that she isn’t too difficult to use too! — Jenni

Guilty Gear Strive is available on the PS4, PS5, and PC. It will come to the Xbox One and Xbox Series X in early 2023.