What GUILTY GEAR -STRIVE- is
GUILTY GEAR -STRIVE- is the latest entry in the Guilty Gear fighting game series from Arc System Works, created by Daisuke Ishiwatari. It's a 2D fighter built with 2.5D-style cell-shaded visuals, so the characters and stages read like anime brought into 3D space. The setting is a heavy metal inspired alternate future, and the story follows Sol Badguy and his rival Ky Kiske heading into a final confrontation with That Man, the person behind the world's destruction. That story has been running for 20 years, and this game is its conclusion. The starting roster is 15 characters, each with their own moveset and style.
Playing it with friends
The main way a group plays together is Online PvP: you match up against each other and fight one on one, which is how fighting games are meant to be played. There's also Local Multiplayer for playing on the same setup, and Remote Play Together, which lets someone join your session over the internet as if they were sitting next to you. On top of that the game has a singleplayer side, including the story content, so anyone who wants to play alone has something to do while the others queue up matches.
What to know before starting
The developers built new mechanics specifically to be simple and welcoming for fighting game newcomers while staying deep for veterans, so the barrier to entry is lower than you might expect from a Guilty Gear game. One of the new additions is a wall-breaking mechanic that opens up different approaches during a round. Expect a steep-ish learning curve once you get past the basics, since the systems reward creativity and expression. The soundtrack is a big part of the package, composed by Daisuke Ishiwatari, and it plays during matches. The game is tagged as lore-rich and story-heavy, so if you're jumping in fresh, the story mode is a reasonable place to start before you take the fight online.