WMG / Guilty Gear -STRIVE-

Season 3 of DLC

We know it's coming after Asuka releases, but nothing specific like roster size let alone specific fighters.

• Slayer: He's been rumored for a while now and is a definite fan-favorite. Gameplay-wise, he'd probably stay pretty similar to before.
  • Seemingly confirmed via teaser; like how they revealed Asuka in Season 2.
  • JB Blanc reprising the role from Xrd -SIGN? With his Sean Connery impression?
• Dizzy: One of the most beloved fighters in the series who people were waiting for before she reappeared in Xrd. Story and design-wise, there's a lot you can do now that she's the queen.
  • Potentially the first character revealed at EVO for Season 4, just like Bridget for Season 2, and Johnny for Season 3.
• Elphelt: Another fan-favorite (arguably) of Xrd. With Happy Chaos taking the aiming mechanic, she'd probably be reworked a bit but still keep the essentials like her shotgun and grenades (like how Sin was reworked after Nagoriyuki took the chained-specials mechanic).
  • Confirmed.
• A.B.A: Another veteran that's yet to make the jump to 3D, much like Testament, Anji and Bridget before her. Besides maybe Nago, there hasn't been a fighter who uses health as a resource.
  • Confirmed.
• Fanny: A deep-cut pick from one of the series’s side game entries, Petit, who has connections to Faust and could help explore his storyline further, taking up tools from Faust’s old kit.
• A Guest Fighter from BlazBlue: Just to see the Internet explode, and to test how characters from the series would work in 3D.

Season 4 DLC predictions

Now that Season 4 of -STRIVE is announced at the end of Arc World Tour 2023, the wheels turn once again on who will be the next four daredevils to enter the mayhem.

• Jam: One of the other top-requested characters in the polls, her current absence is jarring considering how she and Slayer were rumored long ago, and it's taken until this point to add her in. Bonus points if she resembles her River City design and is voiced by Xanthe Huynh.
• Zappa: Since -STRIVE is reintroducing characters who did not appear or weren't playable in Xrd — examples include Anji, Testament, Bridget, and A.B.A — how about bringing back everyone's favorite (when he's not the High-Tier Scrappy he was in the XX games) unlucky ghost guy Zappa? When we last saw him in XX Accent Core, he was having trouble controlling his supernatural condition. But in the 6-year time skip, he's finally come to terms with himself and managed to make peace with most of the ghosts housed within him. Perhaps that will translate into his new gameplay as Zappa might be semi-conscious in battle as the ghosts continue to fight on his behalf. And perhaps S-Ko will be a part of his Instant Kill just as before, placing the poor man into a complete unconscious state yet again once she is in control.
  • He could be the Guilty Gear equivalent of Shulk in Smash; each ghost alters his stats and basic attacks in a way that makes him very dynamic and flexible.
  • Ever since what happened to Faust at the end of Another Story, perhaps part of his soul resides within Zappa as a haunting spirit that even he's not aware of, and it's up to the young man to find the zombie-like doctor he once knew and reconnect his soul back to his body in order to restore the good doctor to normal.
• Venom/Robo-Ky: They may function as a team similar to Noob-Smoke from Mortal Kombat: Deception. With Robo-Ky reduced to a talking head following his Heroic Sacrifice in Xrd, he may function as an assist character to Venom, with his propeller head, laser eyes, and rocket mouth providing help for the ex-assassin. In a way, they could function similar to Eagle and his weyekin bird spirit from Killer Instinct (2013).
  • Perhaps Robo-Ky becomes a projectile ala Lethal League, and Venom's other attacks are about positioning the head and sending him rocketing toward the opponent like a billiard ball.
  • Ogie Banks reprising his role as Venom from Xrd -SIGN-?
• President Gabriel: Now that That Man/Asuka R. Kreutz is finally playable 25 years since the franchise started, how about making another major NPC Promoted to Playable? That of course being the leader of Zepp itself, Gabriel. We can finally see what this big-nosed man is truly capable of in gameplay outside of Story Mode cutscenes. If Season 3 ends with Slayer added to the roster, and if Gabriel is added next season, then Slayer could serve as the Final Boss in his Arcade mode, and we can at last see these two badass rivals duke it out as we've long been dying to see happen in canon.
  • Obviously, his protégé and elite presidental guard Potemkin will serve as his starting opponent/tag partner in a friendly sparring match to see how much the hulking soldier has grown stronger and that he still has much to learn.

Future Image Song predictions and their meanings:

A lot of songs in -STRIVE- talk about characters' lives, experiences, and growths, so some could be curious to know the meanings behind future characters' theme songs.

• Slayer:
  • With his fascination of observing humans and meddling in their affairs and having been seemingly retired as of Xrd, his song could be about him reminiscing on how much times have changed and how he's content with living life watching from a distance.
  • His theme will go all-out with the big band instrumentation like "Jack-a-Dandy" in Xrd.
• Fanny:
  • It would be a full-fledged heavy metal remix of her original 8-bit theme from Petit, but with 8-bit synthesized accents sprinkled in-between to reflect her roots on a WonderSwan pocket spin-off title. (It'll sound similar in a way to Rash's "Enter the Battletoad" from Killer Instinct (2013), or, in a non-videogame example, former WWE Superstar TJ Perkins' theme "Playing With Power")
  • With Daisuke Ishiwatari experimenting with different forms of rock and metal over the years, from Guilty Gear to BlazBlue, Fanny's theme would be his first foray into a genre of rock/metal called Chiptune Metal (also known as Nintendocore).
  • The theme being chiptune-based would reflect upon Fanny's general innocence and naïveté, sounding high-spirited and upbeat as the lyrics weave a tale of her unbreakable dream to one day meet the man who saved her life from a disease as a little girl: Dr. Baldhead. She has no clue the very doctor she seeks is now hiding in plain sight under a new identity (Faust), and there are disturbing rumors surrounding Dr. Baldhead as a crazed Serial Killer, but they will not stop her from finding the doctor she idolized and inspired her to becoming a traveling nurse to help others in need, just as he did.
  • To make her connection with Dr. Baldhead/Faust very clear, portions of her new theme would have musical nods to Dr. Baldhead's theme "Suspicious Cook" and/or Faust's first theme "The Original".