Guilty Gear Strive update 1.21 improves PS5 input lag

Now get to Slashin’

Input lag — even in 2022, it continues to be a frustrating thorn in the sides of online fighting game players. And, ironically, while the ninth generation of gaming is well underway, it appears that Sony’s shiny new PlayStation 5 platform tends to exacerbate the issue, rather than repair it.

Case in point: Arc System Works’ Guilty Gear Strive, which currently suffers from an estimated 4.5 frames of input lag on PS5 when compared to its sibling PS4, which only suffers from around 2.5 frames. Input lag is an inevitability in almost all fighting games, but the lower a developer can get the fateful number, the better it is for all players.

To that end, ArcSys has released Version 1.21 on both PlayStation and PC platforms, bringing with it a few small bug fixes, optimized controls for the Figure Mode and much requested improvements to the server connection time on startup. Specifically for PS5, however, the input includes reoptimized input lag. This should bring the PS5 edition more in line with its PS4 and PC brethren, although ArcSys is tight-lipped on exactly how much faster your chosen fighter will respond to your instructions.

Courtesy of Kimagre Gaming, here are some post-patch results for all platforms.

お待たせしました、
「GUILTY GEAR -STRIVE-」の入力遅延を各機種v1.21で再測定しました。
PS5の入力遅延が減り、PS4Pro・PS4onPS5・PS5は同じレベルになりました！
Steam版も60Hzだと同程度です。#inputlag#GGST #ギルティギア pic.twitter.com/vT3XvWKGs6

— kimagre gaming@ゲーム検証 (@kimagreGaming) August 9, 2022

Guilty Gear Strive is preparing to launch its second season, bringing with it new characters, new stages, a new competitive season, and further updates. The wonderful Bridget is already available today, with more content coming to the title over the coming year. Guilty Gear Strive has already smashed the one million sales mark, and hopefully, this popularity will continue across the remainder of 2022 and into 2023.