I've missed out on most of Guilty Gear Strive's second DLC season. I adore GG but my fighting game focus for most of the year both casually and in tournament has been Granblue Fantasy Versus, which is a very different FGC experience. Two fabulous new characters have arrived since last I've played, which means a chance to re-invent and switch things up.

Enter Bridget! She's tricky! She's mobile! Her teddy bear rides a flaming motorcycle! And she's pretty damn different from from the characters I usually play. So! How does it feel swinging back to the breakneckingly gnarly world of Gears and Goons?

Well, it's fun but damn'd if there's not challenges... and a bit of a design lesson to learn

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I started playing Guilty Gear when Guilty Gear XX: The Midnight Carnival released, which is the first time Bridget arrived on the scene. I didn't play her at the time. Like any FGC newbie, I found myself drawn towards that game's shoto Ky Kiske. Bridget's XX incarnation has a lot of similarities to her current state in Strive but as an older fight game, there was a bit more sauce. Bridget could toss out and recall her yo-yo in all directions for some truly weird shit, had an attack with her teddy bear Roger that could keep the enemy in block stun as she moved, and even had an unblockable combo starter with a different Roger-centric move. I didn't fuck with any of that because it was way too complex and I was pretty young!

ky was straight-forward and there's reliability to the shoto toolset which was "nice" as a newbite but which I've really come to respect now. Hell, I started Granblue playing a rushdown character (Lancelot) I eventually swapped to a shoto there! (Djeeta) and the result was more stability in brackets and steadier growth. I think learning to play a shoto simply Makes You Better At This Shit but I sure as hell haven't touched Ky in Strive. instead, I spent season one on Giovanna, who was more of a rushdown character who hit with plus frames to keep up pressure. but in season two, she's in a weird spot. she's reliably reliable and extremely tournament viable but a shift towards air routes and ongoing system changes has altered Gio's feel just enough that I wanted something new.

what's a gal to do? cook some damn Brisket

Strive's take on Bridget doesn't have as many strange options as Midnight Carnival but while she loses some of her more confusing setplay, she keeps big, partly-disjointed yo-yo swingin' normals that makes whiff punishing reliable and her corner setplay loops easily. basically, you're gonna swing those disjointed pokes in neutral, scoot in using some movement options, and when you're in the corner you knock folks down. usually with a gatling into 2D. her okizeme (ie. the shit you cycle through when your opponent is waking up) is split between very simple meaty stuff and set play where you toss out your yo-yo and do a dope ass rolling movement to set up a hi-lo mixup. anyway, that's the rundown for the uninitiated...

how's it working out? good and bad. I'm rusty as hell and Bridget's... not a stable character. first off, her health is low so mistakes are costly. second, her damage is also fairly low. that's fine but it means that where some folks have ~2 interactions to victory, Bridget's closer to 3 or 4. let's bullet point this:

• bridget is fun as fuck. her animations are bright and cheerful and the vibes are great

• starting her offense is sometimes risky. most of her movement options are susceptible to 6P and larger buttons that can catch her. getting called out hurts because even with some ways to adjusts and arrest movement, there's a fair bit of commitment.

• her DP is pretty trash but hey, she has one! Gio didn't have a meterless reversal. that said, it's an escape tool more than anything. there's little reward for hitting. this is very different from when I moved from Lancelot to Djeeta; he didn't have DP either but also Djeeta's DP is fantastic and utterly crucial in her corner routes.

• low-reward honestly feels like THE characteristic of Bridget's offense so far. this is partly because I don't really have BnBs yet but let's be real: some characters are mad privileged by comparison. (nago, Baiken, Ram etc. people who dispense phat mids)

• her setplay yo-yo toss is a decent neutral poke but a surprising benefit is that the "threat" of her air-roll slows the enemy down because they often salivate at the possibility of punishing her follow up roll. this makes it an interesting took for baiting preemptive buttons

• she has a command grab and I (mostly) keep forgetting to use it. I should! ooooops!

ALL THIS NOTED: because Bridget's so different in function to Giovanna, it's been a somewhat difficult adjustment. made all the more uh... annoying.. by the fact that there's another DLC character on the map and while he's hardly a gamebreaker, his design calls Bridget's weaknesses into focus. or at least highlights Strive's preference re: what is strong

ENTER SIN!

Sin's a very stable character with large buttons and the ability to add follow ups to special attacks (it costs a resource to do this) for extra damage or to make things safer on block. in the last Guilty Gear game (GG Xrd) his big thing was HUGE pokes and the ability to cancel special moves into special moves. this gave him a 100% safe DP with resource in that game. Sin's not quite as exciting now and while he's fairly linear in his offense, there's built in overheads and lows that he can toss into his pressure though they are fairly reactable

what's the deal Harper? Sin's not too tricky and can't really mix you much the fact is that his reward on hit is pretty damn big. which is to really say that his reward is big... for reeeellllatively little effort. and his corner carry means easily wall-breaking at will on hit.

let's be very clear: Bridget can't be allowed do too much damage because if you kept her mixup and oki options with boosted gains, she'd become overbearing. (even if Strive has significantly STREAMLINED those options to begin with, Bridget remains a very good character and certainly not low tier) but by that same token, where Sin's damage potential is nominally meant to be reined in by his reliance on stamina I do think his on-hit return even off very basic confirms is impressive and stamina requires way less maintenance than his hunger mechanic from Xrd. I don't think he needs adjustment (it's ~ way ~ too early to tweak this fella) but the DLC has definitely provided interesting design contrasts with these first two characters.

I think Strive's systems "value" a character like Sin more than Bridget. at least in the broad strokes. it certainly rewards Sin more in moment to moment interactions (think: trades) and the devs seem aware of this insofar as they've been very cautious with his frame data. they clearly want to build risk into his kit to counterbalance how much he can get off even very simple confirms. coming off Granblue, which is a very grounded and not overly volatile game, Strive readily asserts itself as inherently more explosive. it's not a matter of being a high damage game; Strive's damage has been meme-worthingly exaggerated. BUT! the system undeniably lends favor to characters who can minimize interactions frustrates those who need more exchanges or who have more highly interact-able offenses such as those greatly affected by Fautless Defense. it's hard to know where sin will go but I think he does fall into this category for the time being.

Strive won't ever adjust so that characters like Sin or comparable mids-heavy reward focused characters like Nago or Ramlethal will ever completely lose potency and really I can't imagine ArcSys would would that to happen since it'd be wretched if we all woke up tomorrow and someone like potemkin was top tier. whatever vulnerabilities bridget has will fade as I learn to better assert and loop my own offense, so I'm not worried about growing pains. she's not been quite everything I hoped and she's gonna require overcoming a lot of knowledge checks but the change of character has made returning to Strive quite fun!

djeeta brought a stability when I swapped to her in Granblue. learning how to pilot a character that leans so much into grounded footsies has made me a more consistent player. she was the perfect fit for that game. Bridget lives on the other end of the spectrum. djeeta's reliability comes with a certain lack of expression. brisket's fun will come from understanding the toolset to the point that I can cut loose.