My brain is MELTING | Guilty Gear Strive - Asuka Starter Guide 

Strive players: "we want more complex characters" Daisuke: B E T

Can't wait to Askua to summon Exodia mid round

Cannot wait until Asuka explains Pot of Greed again.

Asuka mirrors are going to be genuinely fun to watch. Heart of the cards

"Ey dude lemme check my moves rq" "Sure bro" *2 hours pass*

You can tell this is a character Daisuke has been wanting to make playable for more than 20 years, and now he finally got to go all out on implementing him into the game.

This breakdown is giving me the same vibes as the Mario 64 “half A press” video.

All right, class, open your textbook, today is Part 3 of playing Asuka in Guilty Gear Strive. Now, if you look at Figure 34.B and calculate this equation -

I love it. He should be absolutely ridiculous. He's been the main force behind GG's story for the longest time and he finally makes his playable debut after many years. He should be absolutely insane, imo.

This feels like one of those characters that are explained so intricately that it sounds like a nightmare to play, but when you actually get your hands on the character and try him out, all the moves make a lot more sense.

To be fair, if you're an all-powerful wizard with the power to do almost anything; you would fight with a bunch of different spells that all do something completely different. Makes sense for him.

Gotta love the juxtaposition between Asuka and Happy Chaos, both That Man. Asuka has unique mechanics out the ass, has a million things going on, and is generally trying REALLY hard to be complex. Happy Chaos just has two unique resources and seems simple on the surface, but his technical execution is insane.

Asuka matchups will be a hell of a ride… for both players

When Max said, "uh oh the announcer is talking slower..." I almost died😂😭. Just when I thought DMC Dante had a ridiculous amount of moves in UMvC3, Asuka's like "hold my beer".

Who knew that Break A Spell would come full circle and end up being advice on what to do against Asuka, since you can quite literally break them with your fists

Basically, his Test Cases are decks, and his spells are cards out of those decks.

You can make a whole new game out of this guy. It's like playing an RPG character in a fighting game.

I like how max compares asuka to an mmo class at the end because my first reaction when I saw the spell decks was "wow I wish astro or summoner in ffxiv played like this"

Honestly, this character just makes me think of Hero from Smash Ultimate. But they reduced the luck a bit and added more strategy and management.

Asuka solidified “final boss character” as an official archetype

I was hoping that Asuka would be a ridiculously complicated JRPG villain, and I'm not disappointed.

Makes you long for the days of the Behemoth Typhoon lmfao

"Wanna play the boss character!? Fine! Here it is! Good luck!!!" Genius move from Arc Systems

This is what happens when people complain about GGS characters being too simple.

Asuka a Yu gi Oh player, brought several decks to the battlefield

Asuka being Happy Chaos' student really puts into perspective how powerful HC really is.

First.... Asuka R# prepare to break your own mind. While trying to understand/translate his command movelist. This man came to duel with yugioh cards. I'm starting to understand the whole system now. Just spam. 🙂🙂🙂 Mods. I'm gonna have gonna have some fun with the mods.

Yo I heard you like card games, so we put a card game in your fighting game, so now you can shuffle while you shimmy.

Asuka defo feels like a limit test on what and how strive takes these kind of kits, I feel like with season 3 we're going to see more complex and interesting kits (and hopefully older character updates, thats my pipe dream)

This feels weird. Asuka LOOKS complicated, but the more I watch this guide, I feel that Happy Chaos when he's not being played lame and, in my tiny-brained opinion, Goldlewis feel more complex than Asuka. Like he's gonna be hard af to master of course because he's gonna have a huge amount of improv, but playing him casually just comes down to paying attention to what spells you have in stock and you should be mostly fine.

Asuka R# is going to be the nightmare matchup to remember.

Poor Max, he still hasn’t mentally recovered from the Mario 64 Half-A press video lol.

The thing that got me into Guilty Gear and maintains it as my favorite fighting game franchise even above Street Fighter is that it does Rule of Cool the best. Everything about it is just so sick, and Asuka feels like a culmination of that.

I love that from a pure input standpoint he isn't complicated at all and then when you look at what the inputs do.... OH LAWD!

This man got the power of God, Anime and MMO games on his side

I’m pretty sure I’d have an easier time understanding Asuka’s moveset and gameplay than whatever I learned in the second half of chemistry class in college this year.

I like how Max further explained that while he likes character complexity, that it can be a bit too much and overwhelming, and there's a delicate balance. Characters can either be too simple and not much fun or they can be too complex and you rather not even bother with them, or the game for that matter.

“My only complaint is that Asuka is too simple” said no one in the history of guilty gear.

I’m honestly surprised he’s not even more complex, I fully expected him to have all of this + 12 other unique mechanics and resources to manage

I can already see people yolo gold burst, do the 2nd super, and come up with crazy spell combinations from all 3 decks that somehow is a TOD...and I'm all for it.

I feel like a large chunk of Asuka's spells do boil down to projectiles that you dont have to think much about.

When designing Asuka, I'm pretty sure they just said, "what if we made a Warhammer 40k codex into a character?" And this is what they came up with.

I want to see a pro TCG player who's also good at fighting games main him. I want to know how they'd apply TCG principles to this character.

Shang tsung from MK and Amakusa from Samsho also fall under this. Mages/sorcerers are just badass.

I like how in TCG terms you can switch your Asuka deck based on the matchup. Invest into either dumping your deck with multiple chant, float spells with bookmark so you can build and ideal hand, or side deck into the appropriate matchup with change test case.

I love how the first 2 test cases have specific functions, and then the third one is just "I dunno, here's a bunch of weird shit."

I love these types of high speed spell slinging characters in fighting games. Wizard from yomi and Asuka are both so epic. Need to try him out asap

A good guilty gear player can learn this but can't learn how to properly shave

Watch Asuka throw out a Thwack from out of no where or even a magic burst and 1 shots you.

If at any point you found yourself screaming as loud as possible mentally, then Daisuke's job is already done. Probably hands down the most complicated character we've ever seen in not just an Arc System Works game, but just in any fighting game. The best I can think of that probably comes to mind for "complex characters" (outside of ASW titles), probably would be Gargos and/or Eyedol from KI since you had their movesets for bosses that did some crazy things like "teleport punches, minion summoning, and smack yourself to change movesets." I loved watching them in action, but man if we see some players pick up "That Man" and hit Top 8, we are going to see some really insane stuff.

When I heard “you can check the move list,” that’s when I knew they went overboard with this guy. It’ll be fun to see people go crazy with him but dear god is it gonna take some time

This is a really good simulation of being told the rules to a trading card game

Ahead of SF6's release, I've been getting a bunch of fighting games I missed out on (most recent was KI) and was pondering Guilty Gear Strive until I noticed Mortal Kombat XL on sale. Never played a GG, but was into the original MK trilogy back in the day, so I'm hoping the MKX file isn't still bloated with MK11 ads 😂

This character feels like the epitome of a half button press

All these move names, mechanics, and inputs are like the slowed down version of what non FGC people think they hear when they hear the commentarry for an intense match.

Asuka feels like a Xrd character that made into strive by mistake

This dude is going to be a menace, i feel it. I am getting HC vibes from peoples reactions (pre-release). Too complicated, too much management etc. Well, people figured out HC and they will figure out this guy, and if someone was able to master all of these spells, using them as they come in optimal ways, I can see it being very strong.

They somehow made a character more complicated than Nine the Phantom

Just the special cancels alone have my brain hurting

I'm glad that fighting games are finally providing a character that all the FF14 Raid Fanatics can finally play! Good on Arc Sys for bringing players in from all over!

"Character Ability Manager" really does sound like a job title, which feels accurate, since you probably need to practice like it's a full-time job to truly master Asuka.

While watching that Starter Guide I audibly sighed "Jesus Christ!" when the narrator started explaining that there are 3 different pools of spells and when the spell cheat sheet came up.

Every time I see his Starter Guide I see a new move, that I haven‘t realized before lol

Seems an interesting take on the zoner architype. Instead of just staying away and shooting projectiles, you've a management system that both keeps you on your toes and gives good mixup opportunities to throw the opponent off.

The kind of character I’ll never play but will love to watch get played by a master

Hisoutensoku prepared me for this character

Down back forward plus heavy slash activates the spell card Pot of Greed. Its effect is unknown.

I think Asuka will be okay to pick up as he only has a couple of inputs and most seem pretty safe from the gameplay, the complex part is doing any of his stuff well and memorizing the spells, test cases and what to cancel to when throwing spells, I know that my dumbass will accidentally sacrifice my health for mana when I don't need to and die from it

What a beautiful character I'll never play

Asuka seems a lot like how Bedman works in Strive, just conceptually. Here's this character with some decent normals and only like 4 special moves. But each of those moves has approximately 4 billion ways to use them because two of the specials exist to alter the other two and blah blah blah

Asuka: Its time to duel, Kaiba. Sol: Who the hell is Kaiba? Asuka: EXODIA, OBLITERATE!

"random bullshit go!" moment intensifies!

When you look at it all together, only like half of Asuka's spells seem like they're offensive moves. The rest of them are all about manipulating his bookmarks and mana. I suspect he's probably easier to grok than he seems at first glance.

hhahah im really LOLing here. i really like when we are in this situation of having a char who name ended with a "?" mark (bedman?) and had very funny names for its moves. now we have this one, which clearly is even more funnier than the last and seems very complex. and you say "they were f*cked really hard in the head when they came up with this" AND YES, THAT'S THE MOMENT YOU LOVE THE GAME. any FG game. in this case, Strive. because... I wonder what that will prove NOW EVERYBODY CMON!!!!! That is bullshit Blazing Still, my heart is blazing If the words killed me I don't need a new world order You - soon you will know We already know the smell of the game

Playing this guy is going to feel like I’m playing a FF14 raid

GGS players: can we get someone a little more complicated? *lights dim* Daisuke: Son, you know once you start there's no going back... This mean total commitment. Once you begin the path, there is no leaving the path. Are you sure you're ready for that? I mean really ready?..

The missle knows where it is by subtracting where it is from where it isn, or by subtracting where it isnt from where it is (whichever is greater) it obtains a difference or deviation.

Comparing him to an MMO character is pretty on point. It feels like you logged into your friend's level 140 character in an MMO you've never played and you go do your first raid.

Whenever Asuka +R uses a spell.... something good happens.

I can finally count cards in a fighting game! Thanks Daisuka

The fact that he can burn Tension OR LIFE to recover Mana and keep *DRAW MAHO CAADO!!!*

i’m new to ggst but this started guide is legitimately hilarious and complex. this character is awful to play against. these spells literally take up the entire screen

Looks like Strive took some notes from Hero in Smash Ultimate. Can't wait to see what high level Asuka play looks like

"Try mixing the opponent up with forward and heavy slash. Or exhibitor metron" 😂😂

Oh man, I didn't realize they announced a sequel to Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories!

Coming from max'es Should we worrid about gg strive is pretty funny watching this lmao

Me watching the complete guide knowing full well that I'll just do random bullshit

Bro they made yugioh into a real game I’m crying 😂😂😂😂

As somebody who mained Answer for a bit, Asuka looks way more complicated. I'd call Bedman Xrd's biggest brain character. Otherwise nobody in Xrd or Strive is really too out there, so a character like this coming along is really cool!

First Mario 64 then Asuka. Really testing the limits for my mental capacity.

This that character where you can spam attacks and still do reasonably well because neither of you understand what's actually going on

This reminds me of that old visine commercial with the old guy with the glasses 🤓. It makes me fall asleep like he was Jigglypuff 😂. Shout-out to anyone sticking to this character and hope success for you .

They're using a.i generated speech now? (that sounds terrible!)

tbh it looks more extensive than complicated, you just have a lot of options but the options are not hard to input or understand

Asuka R # = a MAGISTUS character Yugioh Players: 🥰

It's funny how Max uses soul calibur and DNF characters to make a comparison with Asuka When Nine from Blazblue is right there, and she was made by the same company no less

That Man literally came to the game ready to duel with cards in hand. He's going to be a handful for both players..

Asuka is big brain and several things to keep track of he's a character with tools for every situation but with rng luck is the key but for me I make use of the cards in my hand

As a mage main / faust main for all fighting games this seems great even though i haven't played strive in some time

Think I’ll just stick to nine the phantom. Seems less of a headache.