izigame.me

Before everything, PLEASE play the free demo! It has online play (ranked and online lobbies) and allows you to play as Gran + 3 rotating characters. Sometimes it's 4 rotating characters and the character choices are based off the highest performing characters at a recent major tournament for GBVSR.
I like this game and I think it's a lot of fun. I still play it. I absolutely recommend GBVSR to any fighting game fan. My intent for leaving this negative review is because I want CyGames to fix these issues. There is no excuse when compared to any other modern fighting game.

Pros

• Rollback Netcode and Crossplay
• Appreciate the customization options from: all the options available to editing your player card and character avatar, fully voice acted chibi partner that supports you (or degrades you) after matches, a Diorama mode to make cool shots with your favorite characters, and the game having multiple weapon skins AND costumes for characters. I can't stress the costume thing enough because it is EXPENSIVE to make costumes in the ArcSys engine (it's why no other ASW game does it).
• Simple inputs, combo structure, and mechanics makes this game very accessible for newcomers. Places a great emphasis on neutral and strategies and makes it very pick-up-to-play.
• Thriving Discord server with helpful and active community. A lot of offline AND online tournaments. You can still find a decent amount of matchmaking in casual matchmaking queue and online lobby (casual matchmaking depends on time, but online lobby always has some people in it). Although rank matchmaking queue can be a mixed bag due to small player pool, and players being divided by ranks.
• Balance as of 1.50 update is pretty great for the game, and addressed a lot of issues with the game such as: nerfing majority of the overbearing top tiers while buffing a lot of the weaker characters and adjustments to high damage scaling being the most notable for me.
• Cute little miscellaneous things in the game like a Guest Book that you can interact and post on, in player lobbies. Different mini-games you can play in the online lobby as well. I liked how even the EVO 2024 GBVSR champion got a player title to commemorate their victory in-game.
• To put it all in one point: graphics, music, and animations for this game are absolutely amazing and gorgeous. Seriously, if you want to see how gorgeous this game is please look up Vikala in GBVSR and see the insane amount of attention to detail they put into every aspect of the character.
• Game is continually being updated with season passes, balance patches, and having new things added. 1.5 added a Grandmaster rank, 2.1 has been announced to have major reworks to rank matchmaking.
• Really fun! Fast and snappy gameplay balanced with a footsies based neutral.
1) Simple inputs is something a lot of outsiders hate because of easy reaction super/DP, but it makes the game feel faster (more likely to react to things) and simultaneously slow down the neutral for more footsies (both players have meter and its scary to run in 66L or whiff a button due to instant super).
2) Fast meter gain and Ultimate Skills add a chaotic nature that makes it incredibly fun while you are on offense, but forces you to be patient in neutral when you know your opponent has resources.
3) Offense and defense feels well balanced. For how strong offense is, the defensive options in this game feel just as strong with things like universal reversals and Brave Counter.
4) Simple to understand and satisfying combo structure.
5) Little joys like finding out the specific moves you can Evade or Cross Over (even something as simple as a Fireball). It feels more rewarding on defense as opposed to most games where you just block, because I feel like I am being somewhat rewarded for being proactive.

Cons

• No basic Invite feature for player lobbies. We're in 2024 man, come on.
• When the room leader leaves it will disband the whole private lobby instead of simply transferring room leader ownership like most modern fighting games.
• No infinite rematch in online lobby. Sucks when you meet so you enjoy playing, but it is a constant BO3.
• No rewind, fast forward feature, frame data display, or replay takeover for replays in this game. Most of these are features that most modern fighting games nowadays have.
• Exiting out of any menu opens up a, "Do you want to return to Main Menu?" prompt every single time.
• Prompt pop-up for new challenger when you are in training mode. This lasts 30 seconds. I have had sessions where people AFK in rank or casual queue, and I am repeatedly forced to wait out these 30 seconds prompts in succession. Unlike games like Street Fighter 5/6, where the prompt doesn't pause the game, but simply notifies you there is a new challenger in the UI. EDIT: As of Patch 1.60/Vikala release, this has been reduced to 20 seconds which is an improvement.
• Before accepting a match, it shows your opponent's ping. However, sometimes it doesn't show up so I don't know what my connection will be. Sometimes it is inaccurate and the match is laggy despite the game saying the connection will be good The game needs a mutual forfeit option like for SF6 if the match is laggy because otherwise your match will constant network connection loading prompts mid-match. Example of what I mean: https://imgur.com/a/AwaLDfU
• There is no way to keep playing someone after a online lobby match, casual, or rank match. Games like SF6 and Tekken 8 nowadays have an option to invite your opponent to a custom lobby to keep playing if you really want to learn a matchup that you run into.
• Plugging in my Ethernet cable after I have already opened up the game, kicks me out back into the Main Menu, and forces me to wait about a minute to reconnect and get past the main screen.
• Input reader is incredibly sensitive, and holds onto your inputs for a long time making misinputs really common. HOWEVER, the game has 1 button specials and I highly recommend people stick to using that if they will pick up this game.
• Grand Bruise is almost completely dead and it's near impossible to play this mode without coordinating a large group of people to play. This really sucks when there are missions to gain more in-game currency or get Battle Pass levels that revolve around Grand Bruise. Furthermore, you can't wait in training mode while waiting in queue like how you would matchmaking, so you are staring at the standby screen with nothing to do.
• They need to figure out something to increase the rank matchmaking player pool. There is a lot of potential improvements they could make to the F2P demo to entice players to try out the game.
• None of the Battle Pass have yet been reran. This means all the rewards like the character costumes, color palettes, character weapons, BGMs have no way of being unlocked.
• This is a pro and a con, but I needed to critique the implementation of it. GBVSR has a "Replay Succession" feature that lets you watch multiple replays on autoplay. This is extremely convenient for someone who wants to study high level VODs and record them for personal use. However, this feature makes zero sense. It plays the replays out of order and it won't even play all of them. You can't select specific videos that you want to be played or control the order they are played in. You can sort of manipulate it by saving the replays yourself, but it still won't play all the videos and play them out of order.
• Does not rotate DLC characters in their F2P demo. This isn't a negative towards GBVSR, but I am hoping if CyGames see this review that this is something they look into for F2Pers.
• Guest Book feature in the public lobby needs some of moderation or filter. It is a great feature for engaging with other players, but some bad apples ruin it w/ hate speech or degen stuff