The latest entry in the Guilty Gear series, Guilty Gear Strive, has been undeniably well-received by the gaming community, holding a 9/10 rating on Steam and a 7.9 Metacritic user score for PlayStation owners. However, Arc System Works has dropped the ball on this title regarding its loading times for connecting to the game’s network. While the loading screens aren’t infinite (thankfully), players certainly do feel like a good chunk of their time has passed. One particular individual has gone as far as showing off a playthrough of Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance in the time it takes for the main menu of Guilty Gear Strive to load up.
You can beat Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance AND watch the entire end credit sequence, before you can get into the main menu of Guilty Gear Strive pic.twitter.com/dxp3lokAfL
— AkitoBass @ ACPR (@AkitoBass) July 15, 2021
Granted, the playthrough itself is handled by a speedrunner who beats the game at an unnatural speed, but the fact still remains that Strive‘s loading times are trying players’ patience. The primary issue stems from the game attempting to slowly connect to the game’s network. This problem has even discouraged some players from playing altogether. The agonizing progress bar topped off with loading notifications of “Preparing network…” and “Communicating with server…” is far from visually enjoyable compared to something like some cool character artwork or even a spinning shape or logo to stare at.
Long-drawn-out loading times aren’t a new matter to gamers. For years, many titles have been plagued with lengthy loading and connection durations. The reason that the community is focusing its complaints on Guilty Gear Strive is likely because we now live in a modern age where convenience is key, and a high-speed automated response for a user’s action is considered a standard criterion. If you are running a high-end gaming PC or playing the game on a PS5, you would probably expect the loading times of any modern game to be “less sluggish” than in the past. Hopefully, Arc System Works will get their network’s act together and soon have a fix for this rather annoying ordeal.
