izigame.me

I like this game and I think it's a lot of fun. I definitely recommend GBVSR if you have a local scene or people to play with (or stick to the Discord). I am primarily leaving this negative review, because I want CyGames to fix these issues. And honestly, in this modern landscape with a lot of great modern fightin games out, there is no excuse.


Pros

• Rollback Netcode
• I can't comment much on the Campaign/Story mode, but if it's anything like the original GBVS. There is a lot of content, and is bound to keep you busy for a long time.
• Appreciate the customization options from: all the options available to editing your player card and character avatar, being able to pick a partner that supports you (or degrades you) and they are voice acted, a Diorama mode to make cool shots with your favorite characters, and the game having multiple weapon skins, and even costumes being added for characters.
• Simple inputs, combo structure, and mechanics (things like tech to mash) makes this game very accessible for newcomers.
• Thriving Discord server with helpful and active community. A lot of offline AND online tournaments. You can still find decent matchmaking in casual matchmaking queue (in the US, at the right times). Although rank matchmaking queue can be a very 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. Quite a few different mini-games you can play in the online lobby as well. Or something like how the EVO 2024 GBVSR champion literally 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.
• Game is continually being updated with season passes, balance patches, and having new things added. This last update added a new Grandmaster rank, and I really hope the game continues to do that.
• Purely subjective, but I really enjoy a lot of the mechanics of this game.
1) Simple inputs is something a lot of outsiders hate because of easy reaction super/DP, but I love how it always keep you and your opponent on your toes before wanting to press a button.
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. This in addition to how snappy and fast paced the game is reminds me somewhat of games like Street Fighter II: Super Turbo, and The King of Fighters.
4) Simple to understand and very 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 conscientious and reactive.

Cons

• There is no basic Invite feature for player lobbies. We're in 2024 man, come on.
• 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.
• Before accepting a match, it shows your opponent's ping. Sometimes it straight up 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 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, and you straight up can't do them because of this. Worst is you can't wait in training mode while standing by in queue like how you would matchmaking for matches, so you are staring at a standby screen for ages.
• They need to figure out something to increase the rank matchmaking player pool. (Even something like allowing the F2P demo to have more than 4 characters, and letting people buy individual characters to entice more people to play the game)
• None of the Battle Pass have yet been reran at the time of this review. This means all the rewards like the character costumes, color palettes, character weapons, BGMs have no way of being unlocked. It is still up in the air if this will even happen. In general too, the game should at least have a separate option to buy costumes individually from the Battle Pass.
- 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.