Can you explain why so many folks seem to prefer Xrd to Strive? I have both, have played both for a few hours (maybe 15 for Strive), and I don’t get it. What am I missing?
OKAY. I CAN EXPLAIN.
i've had this ask in my drafts for almost two months. i wanted to answer it while riding the energy after Resshou, then I watched Xrd top 8 at Frosty and wanted to answer it, and a lot of times I just end up playing Xrd instead of talking it up (not joking -- I put in like 100 hours between this ask arriving in my inbox and me finally answering it 😬). I can't speak for everyone but I can give a few reasons why I like Xrd over Strive:
I like the Gatling system
Xrd's Gatling table is suuuuper open, which can feel daunting at first but I think allows for very creative combos and attack plans!! The straightforward routing really helped me to get a foothold on offensive in the beginning - sometimes I see new people who will mash a chain button to hit confirm (i.e. 2K 2K 2K) before continuing, but usually you can just as easily do 2K f.S 5H and, with practice, pick routes from that divergence point depending on hit/block/whatever.
Comparatively, I didn't really like Strive's Gatling table. Notice how none of the H buttons below can cancel into D anymore?? if I connect a 2K, I can't go into f.S at all. AFAIK, the preferred knockdown for Millia in Strive is 2K -> 2D, and it feels like a bastardization of the open expressiveness that XX and Xrd's Gatling systems have. I'm using Millia as an example here, but I don't think she's unique in the problem.
Anyways, my point for Xrd: really freeform combo system is fun and there's a lot of room for players to grow within it. I saw a random Millia player do some wild confirm in Xrd by going c.S -> 6P -> 6H the other week and it's a concept that had never crossed my mind before. Even just changing one button on your Gatling route can change up all of the expectations by the opponent, and you're given a lot of options to pick different buttons while you're on offense.
No ranked mode
... I wanna try to avoid dunking on Strive too hard, but I do think that Xrd's community of player matches is way more functional and healthy than the "10 floors + celestial" fragmentation of the Strive playerbase. Ranked modes are kind of a cognitohazard in fighting games IMO and can leave players worrying too much about a numeric stat value rather than the experiences and insights they take away from a match. This doesn't all become easier just by entering an Xrd player match lobby, but I think it's nice to think less about points and just play some games. Maybe you get your ass kicked, but with enough time you can start kicking ass yourself, and then people will just say "you've gotten scary" instead of watching a number go up +12 over and over and that's wayyyy more fun
"dead game" still lives on
it's incredibly liberating to play a game that will not have any more patches IMO. there's no pro tour, there's no more rebalancing, and if a Johnny wins Xrd at Combo Breaker 2024, no one is coming to save us. it's good!! you can either learn the game as it is, or you can figure out if it's not for you! The crystallization of Xrd also means that you can study deeper on problems without the foundations changing underneath you; @pattheflip's end of 2023 retrospective mentioned that Xrd continued to be the game that was most rewarding to study and practice for him, and he's been playing this shit for waaaaaaay longer than I have. A game sitting on final patch presents a wealth of problems to creatively solve, instead of a number of problems that people hope will get "adjusted" in a few months.
Ultimately, what continues to draw me to Xrd personally is that it's fun. It's challenging and it's a big mountain of info to learn, but it's not insurmountable. @chastity recently described Xrd as the "Goldilocks gear" -- more gear than Strive, but not too much gear like +R is --- and I kinda agree with that sentiment. The time slowdowns on RCs are a great aid in keeping bearings, but it's still pretty fast and has lots of opportunities for executional skill which I think Strive let go of.
Of course, fighting games need a second player, and I really wouldn't be playing Xrd so much if not for the amazing community around it!! Hoely Order, Play Guilty Gear, all the NA netplay events that have popped up and kept people showing up to play each other have each been instrumental in getting me to play + learn more. It's one thing to say "I think this game is good" but random netplay matches may be bad luck if you're starting out - find a discord, find some brackets, play some folks with intent as well as just playing for fun. I'd send you in a direction to look from here but I don't actually know what server I'd recommend 🤧 I hope you are at least inspired to play and practice more Xrd!!!! It's a good game
