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Ahead of the Arc World Tour finals, I had the distinct pleasure of sitting down with Leffen — not just one of the best Smash players in the world but also a top-tier Guilty Gear player. We had a chance to talk about a wide assortment of topics revolving around Guilty Gear Strive — from the balance culture, where the game could be improved, and why he will likely stop picking challenging, complex characters.
It was a genuine pleasure to finally sit down with Leffen — an interview that we had tried to schedule more than once in the past. He had a lot of genuinely interesting insight on Guilty Gear Strive and fighting games just in general. It will be interesting to see where he stands this weekend during the Arc World Tour Finals 2023.
Leffen on where Guilty Gear Strive is great and where it could use improvement
Q. First, thanks for taking the time to chat with us today. How are you feeling about going into the Arc World Tour Finals?
Leffen: I feel pretty good. I haven't had the most time to prepare since I was playing Smash events before this, but I still feel pretty ready, and it' will be be a really fun time. Like I haven't been to an invitational of this kind in quite a while. So nice to do that. And, you know, we've done some boot camping the days leading up. I've been in America for a little bit. So, yeah, it's been really fun hanging out with everyone. I’m excited to play.
Q. Is there anyone at the event you're looking out for, or are worried about the matchup for?
Leffen: So, the draw I got for my bracket is actually like, Slash is maybe the hardest opponent for me. So that was going to be a really tough one. Outside of that, there's no one I'm really afraid of, but I would really like to play a lot of Asian players because I haven't gotten the chance to play them a lot. So, hopefully, I make it out of groups and get the chance to do that.
Q. How does it feel to be not only one of the best Smash Melee players but also one of the top GG players, with your victories like 1st place at EVO 2023?
Leffen: Yeah, it's pretty interesting because the scenes are slightly different. Like Guilty Gear wasn't the biggest game before. And so when this game came in, it's like it started a new scene essentially. Like the fighting game scene is a part of it, obviously, but all the people who played Strive were either newer to the fighting game scene in general or at least came straight in like this is their first real fighting game.
So the scenes are different in terms of maturity. It's not necessarily an immature scene, but it's just a lot of newer players, so the vibe is pretty different. There's also a lot more Asian players. And in general, the game is a bit more global. Smash is really North America-focused. So that's probably the thing I like the most about the Guilty Gear scene that, like, we have people from Africa, from Israel, Middle East, we have Asian players, Korean players all over the world, as well as, of course, American players.
So I think that's a really cool aspect of it, that it's a bit more global, it's a bit more unknown who the best region is. I love Smash, and like, I think the coolest thing about Smash is how much legacy there is and how long the scene has been around. So there are a lot of really long-running storylines. Whereas in Guilty Gear, you might not have these long rivalries, but on the other hand, you have this like, you know, freshness and this little honeymoon phase where you haven't really seen some of the best players play against each other yet.
Q. On that note, how did it feel for you going from Smash-style games to Guilty Gear? Were there any hurdles you had to overcome or habits you had to unlearn?
Leffen: I think the biggest hurdle is probably just the patch culture in general. Smash is a game where, like I play Fox, he's a very hard character, but he's also one of the best. And so when I started, I could pick him and, like, I missed all this time and knew that all the time I invested would stay in it. My problem with Guilty Gear, and the biggest problem, has been that I would pick hard characters in the same vein, and then eventually they just get nerfed, and, you know, it's kind of random which characters get nerfed and which don't.
And so dealing with that, like, both mentally and just practically like, oh, I have to learn a completely new character because my character is no longer viable. That's a really weird, different vibe and something I've definitely taken into account for the next couple of games. Personally, I don't want to. I don't really think it's good to play these hard, like long-term investment characters anymore because if they do get really nerfed, then all that work goes into the gutter.
Whereas if you play an easier character, that's more generic. If that character gets nerfed, there are a bunch more characters like them. So, that's probably the biggest hurdle that I had to overcome. And it's something I'm struggling with right now with my main recently being nerfed.
Q. You are well-known for your Happy Chaos skills, which is, to many, an incredibly challenging character to play as. Before I did this interview, I spoke to a few people who said, and I quote, “F**k Happy Chaos players.” What led you to play as them, and with the balance culture as it is, is there anyone else you’re looking at?
Leffen: So I started out with Chip, then he got nerfed, and then I played Zato. Zato was good, but he wasn't quite one of the top tiers like the very best characters. And so when I played Happy Chaos or when I subbed him, it was more or less because there were a bunch of hard matchups that Zato had that I was like, OK, Happy Chaos is kind of what Zato does, but a little bit better. It was also just like a fun character, and, you know, he fit the complexity need — like, I really like complex and hard characters. And when Happy Chaos was released, he was more of a zoning, keep-away character and then he became more aggression-based as he kept getting changed.
And so that's what I really enjoyed about playing him, that he became more and more like my style. Now that he's, you know, people still don't like Happy Chaos, but people are a lot more OK with him now because he's not one of the best characters. For me, I'm okay with playing a character that's not one of the best, but it becomes the way he's balanced right now that basically means he's still fine. He's still one of the characters that can win, but not one of the characters that are the best at winning. And for a character where you put so much work in, it doesn't feel very satisfying to play a character where I put all this work in to be as good or a little bit worse than someone who puts way less work in.
So that's why I'm looking at characters like Sol, maybe a new character coming out like A.B.A or other characters to swap to eventually, because I don't really believe that Happy Chaos is that good. Like he's fine, but he's not one of the best. And then I also think that because there's the sentiment of “F**k Happy Chaos,” I think it's pretty unlikely that he's going to get buffed to the top tier again.
I think ArcSys is very much like, they don't really know how to balance him in a healthy way. And so they'd rather just keep it bad rather than risk people being really mad that he's the best. So it's kind of, it's always a bit of a guess, like, you can never know what patch is coming, but you can increase your odds, and that's just what I'm trying to do.
Q. We also have a new character — well, a returning character — in A.B.A. How do you feel about the character returning for the first time in many years?
Leffen: I'm familiar, but I did not play her or against her. Like I knew, kind of knew what she did. But I think her new take is very interesting. I got to try her a little bit backstage. I don't know.
I don't know if she's going to be super amazing yet. She starts out very slow and then gets ramping really fast. And so it feels like one of these all-or-nothing characters that could either feel super impressive or super bad. But I'm really excited to try her. She probably wouldn't be like a full-time main, but I could just see her being "a secondary or as a co-main.”
Q. What is the state of Guilty Gear Strive like for you right now? Are there any places where the game could stand some serious improvements - balance or otherwise? What is Guilty Gear missing?
Leffen: I think the main thing missing is probably a good Ranked Mode. The lobby is still not that good. Getting into matches is still a bit of a hassle. I know they've talked about this, and they're considering it. So that's definitely something I would really want them to do, like just getting matches a little bit easier is a massive help.
And other big fighting games like Tekken and Street Fighter have this now much easier, and I expect upcoming games like 2XKO will also have this. Outside of that, balancing-wise, I would just want more interesting complex strategies and fewer things that make you basically hard force a guess.
There are a lot of things right now, like White Wild Assault, Anji Spin, and May Dolphin, where even if you're on the other side of the screen, your opponent can basically decide whenever they want to flip a coin and the chances of them winning is actually way better than yours, or at the very least good enough for them to do it.
They don't really feel that good cause they just kind of skipped all this. Like they didn't try to have to get in, have to set up. They kind of just skipped straight into the, you know, winning condition, and for the person getting hit by it, it feels awful.
So I think it's one of those things where it doesn't feel like good to do, and it feels awful to get hit by. It's just not very deep or complex, either. Like it's not necessarily always the best thing, but it's never a bad thing, and I really dislike those types of strategies. So changing that is probably the biggest thing for me and then maybe, a little bit better movement. I've always been a fan of games with really good movement and ways to move around the screen.
And I feel like with how good characters are and, like, you have things that attack you from the full screen, I think a bit better movement would really help make those moves feel a little bit more interactive and fun to fight because you could attack them in other ways.
Q. Guilty Gear has been called a pretty difficult game franchise to get into, but you've acclimated pretty well. Do you have any advice for people watching that might not be active but want to be?
Leffen: I think it's a really good game to get into. It's on Game Pass. I think you can buy it on sale right now for $20, which is frequently on sale. I think it's a really good game, and it looks pretty intimidating, but I think it's a very good game, especially with all the characters. They let you get started and start having fun really quickly. And for the lower levels, there is this floor system, which makes it so that you can actually rise through the ranks and have a pretty lenient learning experience, finding people from your own level.
So I think it's actually a really fun game to learn without actually being as hard as you might think. Like you, you can start doing fun stuff really fast. And I also think it's a game that doesn't really baby you. There's a bunch of games where you can have this kind of, you know, training wheels type learning movement. So, like in Tekken 8, there's Special Style, which, you know, cuts down the moves like four buttons. In Street Fighter 6, there is Modern. It's not really a thing like that in Guilty Gear. Instead the game is kind of just teaching you how to learn about games, you know, like they always will be playing at the highest level. And so, I think the learning curve is a bit smoother.
You don't have this jump at the beginning, maybe, but you never have this big plateau where, oh, I have to swap to a completely different movement style, something like that. Additionally, I just think that you should definitely give it a try if you're interested in Riot’s fighter 2XKO because I think it's the game right now that will best prepare you for that. Since there is no team game out, I think Guilty Gear Strive is the closest crossover to the upcoming game.
Q. On that note, 2024 has such an amazing lineup of fighting games. Other than 2XKO, are there any games out or on the way out that you're looking to make a mark in?
Leffen: So I haven't really decided yet. I want to play either Street Fighter or Tekken. Give them another try and see how I feel about those games. I think Rivals Two, which is a Platformer fighter like Smash. That's another game coming out at the end of the year that I'm really excited for, and then I've done some testing for.
Yeah, so that one's really looking good. I think it's the best Melee sequel that we've seen yet, without being just a direct, “Oh, we're just changing the look of the game, but it's actually Melee too.” Yeah, I'm really excited for that one as well, and honestly, like the way fighting games work right now, you kind of have new games coming out with the season.
So I'm really excited for Street Fighter 6 Season 2. It will probably have big changes. I'm really excited for a potential Guilty Gear Strive Season 4. So, you know, it's not just a completely new title, but also just the new seasons can really change how a game is played and how fun it is.
Leffen will participate in the Arc World Tour Finals 2023 this weekend alongside many of the best from March 21 through March 23, 2024. You can find more of him on X, Twitch, and YouTube.
