Last year's Guilty Gear Strive has been hugely successful in the fighting game space. The game's lore, online, and soundtrack have made it one of the best games of last year. It also shows no signs of slowing down, with DLC character Bridget being announced at EVO 2022 recently. The official Twitter of the game announced one million copies shipped.
Of course, all fighting games have a large roster of powerful characters, and Strive is no different. The characters run the gamut from weak to strong, both in gameplay and in story. Before jumping in, it's best to know what the situation is regarding character power levels. There are tons of characters who have unexpected strengths and could tilt the game in your favor.
May
May is a member of the Jellyfish Pirates, a group of almost all female air pirates from around the world. Despite originating in the air, May's abilities are mainly nautical in nature. This is due to her unique ability to use both water magic and ki. These abilities have made her a force to be reckoned with in Guilty Gear Strive.
May's "Mr. Dolphin" attack has caused her to dominate Strive's competitive scene. She can summon a dolphin quickly and easily to either ride, shoot as a projectile, or shoot a different projectile. These attacks are near-instant and tough to deal with. For being such an unassuming girl, this pirate is actually quite tough.
Jack-O
Jack-O was one of several video game characters to become a meme. This sells her short, though as she's an extremely complex character with a lot of depth to her. She's an artificial recreation of a dead human who tries her hardest to fill the void of her original, but struggles with self-doubt. She also is intimately connected to the Source of Guilty Gear's magic, the Backyard.
This ended up making her one of the strongest characters in the lore and really strong in the games. This is especially true in Xrd, where she can summon endless minions to constantly attack the opponents. This ability was scaled back in Strive, but she's still one of the tougher characters.
Happy Chaos
For a long time the main villain of Guilty Gear, "That Man" was an enigma. Strive finally brought him to the main stage as the character "Happy Chaos." While the story is more complex than that, he's still a powerful villain with a mastery of all magic. His character description calls him "the gunslinging broken messiah," so one knows he must be tough.
Happy Chaos is a bizarre, gimmicky character. He mainly fights with guns that must be manually reloaded but can aim anywhere on the screen. He can create copies of himself and illusions for more shenanigans. This makes him tough enough in gameplay, but in the story mode he also has the ability to mind control others, making him extremely tough for the heroes to beat.
I-No
I-No isn't the strongest in of gameplay but she is connected strongly to That Man and the world's backstory. She's a witch with the ability to time travel, making her one of the strongest characters, lore-wise. In fact, in Strive's story mode, she ascends to Godhood and almost destroys all reality.
I-No was created to act as a watchdog for reality and protect it like a guardian angel however, she lost her purpose and became corrupted by forces like That Man. She then merges with Happy Chaos and almost destroys all reality before being beaten by the heroes. Her lack of powerful gameplay options in Strive makes her rank lower in strength overall, but she's still an impossibly tough customer.
Ky Kiske
Ky Kiske is the main rival character in the video game series. He stands in contrast with the bulky protagonist Sol by being svelte and quick. Ky is a crusader who fought in numerous conflicts and became a leader and despite being a normal human, he's able to fight against some incredibly powerful supernatural threats.
Ky has a mastery over lightning magic that gives him quick movement and good projectiles; in addition, his sword is long and gives him tons of reach in a fight. Guilty Gear Strive gives him his biggest power boost in the form of his Dragon Install and his wife gave him the ability to transform into a powerful demonic form able to match the protagonist.
Axl Low
When Axl Low first debuted, none would have thought he would become one of Guilty Gear's strongest characters. He was a man out of time from the 90s who could barely fight and was often the butt of jokes, accidentally jumping through time at inopportune moments. By the time of Strive, though, he's mastered his time powers and become deadly with his dual-chain sickle.
He doesn't use his time powers too often in his moveset except for teleportation and movement. He does stop time more than a few times in the story mode, though, illustrating his mastery. Instead, what makes Axl deadly are that his sickles have a long reach and can nullify jumping attacks easily. This makes Axl one of the more beginner-friendly fighters in the game.
Ramlethal Valentine
Ramlethal is an artificial human similar to the aforementioned Jack-O. Her connection to the source of magic is also more intimate. She is the direct successor/daughter to the master of magic, and when she declares war on humanity she has the power to back it up.
This power comes in the form of two massive swords that float ever by her side. She uses familiars to control them, slashing or flinging them ahead, or even sending them out to act independently of her to control the arena. Luckily, she ends up abandoning her vendetta and ing the heroes, meaning her immense power is no longer to be feared.
Nagoriyuki
Nagoriyuki is the difficult final boss of Strive's arcade mode. He's a massive hulking vampire with cybernetic implants and a samurai sword. He's an incredibly tough foe to face off against in the arcade mode. Given he was trained by the series' equally formidable Vampire assassin Slayer, it's no surprise.
Nagoriyuki has been alive for hundreds of years due to his vampirism. He also doesn't need to bite someone to suck their blood, but just slash them with his massive blade whereby it's automatically sucked into his body to increase his power. He can enter an altered state after consuming enough blood and become nearly invincible, making him one of the hardest bosses the series has ever seen.
Potemkin
Potemkin was born into a life of servitude, but rose through the ranks and eventually reformed his country and abolished slavery. He became a decorated war hero and a political activist known around the world. He's also a giant with metal fists who can pile drive opponents through the stratosphere.
Unlike other characters in Guilty Gear's top tiers, Potemkin is just a really strong human with some special gear. He manages to be one of the most dominant characters in the game through his skill at grappling as he's big and slow, but hits incredibly hard. Potemkin usually needs only one opening to defeat an opponent; unleashing a series of unstoppable grapples.
Sol Badguy
Sol Badguy is the main character of the franchise and the titular "Guilty Gear." He was once a scientist involved the in the creation of a new magical life form called a "Gear." After some complications, he would become one himself and gain devastating fire powers. Many years later, Sol uses the powers he never wanted to end the magical threats once and for all.
This includes showdowns with the creators of magic and beings made of it, as well as I-No's God form. His "flame of corruption" abilities and "Dragon Install" allow him to fight on the levels of these literal gods and defeat them. Additionally, Sol is also the most powerful character in normal gameplay as well. He has projectiles, feints, counters, grapples, anti-air, and plenty of other attacks for any situation. It's not often the protagonist is the most powerful character in a fighter, but Sol stands apart, just like the series as a whole does.