Guilty Gear Strive Second Open Beta Date Announced

Following a highly successful open beta in February, Guilty Gear Strive has been one of the most anticipated fighting games ahead of its June release. One of the many reasons for the positive response among its fans is the transparency between the Arc System Works developers and the player base, which led to Strive ultimately being delayed from its original April 9th release.

While the open beta was well received, one of the major critical complaints about Guilty Gear Strive was the online lobby system. The required tutorial for players to understand how the online lobbies work and how casual matches were handled caused some players to criticize the clunkiness of the lobbies. Shortly after, Arc System Works released a player survey for players who participated in the beta, allowing the fans to express their concerns. It would appear these recommendations and feedback from the players would serve as the backbone for Arc System Works to initiate a second open beta sooner rather than later.

Arc System Works announced the second open beta last night on Twitter, with the basic details showing the start date and end times of the service. The second Strive open beta will begin on May 13th at 8:00 PM PDT and will conclude on May 16th at 7:59 AM PDT, lasting from Thursday night to Sunday morning. Players who have not downloaded the client from the first open beta may download the second open beta client on May 7th at 10:00 AM while those who participated in the first beta will have their clients automatically updated.

This beta will also allow players to access two previously unavailable characters, Anji Mito and I-No, the latter of who was introduced as the final character on the main roster for Strive following the first open beta. Changes to the player lobbies are now a traditional "duel station" setup, allowing players to standby while they wait for their opponent, allowing players to potentially have a more streamlined online experience.

Days after news of Strive's delay was made public, it was assumed that Strive would have one more beta following the player survey as a means for Arc System Works to fix whatever bugs may have persisted in the previous beta. The second open beta test is once again exclusive for consoles, yet cross-play between the PS4 and the PS5 versions will be enabled, testing the compatibility between the two consoles.

Several changes were made to the gameplay mechanics, balancing specific characters and situations that may potentially occur during player matches. One large unintended bug that may be fixed for the second beta was an infamous infinite combo glitch that Giovanna could do, taking advantage of the juggle system during a simple loop. There are many other changes and additions that Arc System Works have introduced for the second open beta and with the start time being two weeks away, Guilty Gear Strive fans won't have to wait long to enter the fray once more.

Arc System Works is a developer famous for creating stylish fighting games like Guilty Gear and Blazblue that sell well in Japan and have been picking up steam in the United States. The reason the games go over so well with fans vary, but the main one is because of how true to anime the games are.