little touches like the old character intro/outros, instant kills, and easter eggs like knocking ky down 6 times to make his hair come out of the ponytail and holy orders starts playing or emotional gamma ray dizzy original outfit moment. ride the fire playing when you use dragon install even. it all brought a fun Vibe and spirit that strive is kinda sorely lacking. we barely even get vs themes here! the ui is kinda ass. movesets have been severely neutered and even though personally i sucked at gg due to how outdated and clunky the system felt to me compared to the stuff i played more frequently id take it over strive. at least rounds dont end just cause you get one solid hit in faster than your opponent and it takes one combo to end it from round start if it works out right. danger time was kinda a fun mechanic to me even though i know most people didnt agree. it was SOMETHING. it was flavor. strive is kinda mid systemwise. it does great things for characters but as a fighting game and especially as a guilty gear entry a lot of the charm came out in the wash and its a little sad when you compare it with the amount of Personality xrd had. not to say strive had none, its just suuuuper different tonally to how gg feels like its Been up to this point in terms of stylization. the main menu music isnt even fun like bruh wtf