This is one of the most fun fighting games I've played. It's friendly to newbies with the ability to execute special moves with just one button, but complex enough to intrigue even the hardcore fighting games fans. The motions are fluid, the controls are tight, the game also utilizes a rollback net code which makes online matches fun, and you won't notice the lag to your opponent. The character roster is diverse, rarely will you find two similar characters (aside from the two protagonists). The game also has a rich lore behind it - to think it all started with a F2P phone game 10 years ago.

I played this game because I was a fan of the gacha, and after playing this I now no longer log in to the gacha because I'm grinding this too much. I got addicted to Rising, it's really good. I thought fighting games were too complicated to learn but Rising made me want to learn and it makes it a lot easier with the simple inputs.

PLAY THE ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ GAME I WANT MORE RISERS!

!!!!!!!!! Join the Vikalacord if you plan on playing her or want to learn how to play her!
https://discord.gg/vY2PJkf8Qk

Quite possibly one of the worst modern fighting games on the market, full stop, ASW turned GBVS Vanilla into Guilty Gear Strive Lite with Rising and every patch just makes the game worse. This is the only fighting game I've ever written a review on and that's genuinely how bad it is. I regret not putting as much time as I should have into Vanilla GBVS because I ended up enjoying it a lot as I got better at fighting games in general.

Vanilla GBVS was slower-paced for an anime game, hitting a nice in-between for most anime games and slower/more grounded ones like Street Fighter. The game had lower execution barriers in terms of combos, but to make up for it, players needed to develop a good gameplan and gamesense because landing a button to stop a jumping opponent would deal devastating damage. There was still cheap stuff you needed to learn how to counter, there were cheap characters, and the game did get a little worse as ASW started adding mechanics bloat at the end of Vanilla's lifespan, but you could at least take solace that it was on you to learn how to deal with it.

In Rising, they just let anyone cook regardless of skill level. It's not really apparent until you get midway into/past S-rank and you can develop some of the usual fundamentals if you're starting out, but once you reach a certain competency level, hoo boy.

Everything in Rising revolves around sending dash normals (66X where X is either Light, Medium, or Heavy) and safe on block advancing specials if your character has them. Nothing skillful matters when playing the general population: so long as your character has a get-in-for-free special alongside their dash buttons, anyone can compete and only at the very tip-top level which is a double-digit audience does player skill matter.

Can't get in? 66L. Still can't get in? 66L. Keep doing 66L, even if your character doesn't have a good 66L. Maybe a little 66H to override the buttons the opponent is putting in your face and get your hits in anyway. Did they figure you out a little with a reversal or Brave Counter (a defensive pushback mechanic)? If you have a safe advancing special that allows you to move before your opponent on block, just throw that ♥♥♥♥ out there from a somewhat safe distance. Spotdodge the advancing special? Fat chance, the opponent will still be plus, unless you're unfortunate enough to have a balanced advancing special.

It gets even worse once you get past the mid/high rank threshold and you start to learn about how dumb Brave Counter is and the general character balance. If you manage to break past the mid/high threshold, do yourself a favor and only play top tiers.

You can still play Vanilla GBVS in Rising if you know someone who just wants to play Vanilla, but both of you are going to find that you're ♥♥♥♥♥♥ stupid if you're not sending the system mechanics at all times and playing a character that is just allowed to do things on screen for free. This game is a victim of the Strive-ification of fighting games.