>>42700>embarrassed by the series aestheticsI think it's a bit hard to say that Guilty Gear even had solid, well-defined aesthetics to begin with. There is obviously influence from rock and other anime/manga of the era, but as a whole it feels produced on the basis of whims rather than any particular goal beyond being cool and appealing, y'know? And while that works and can produce some very striking imagery (Order Sol and Kliff's stages in XX, for example), it's not gonna do so for long as the talent loses grasp of what's "cool and appealing" with the passage of time. Xrd already had pretty frankly confused designs like Kum, Bedman, Raven and the Valentines which feel like they can't decide if they wanna indulge in being gritty, dark and metal too or just represent plain jokes/otaku appeal, and by Strive whatever conflict may have been happening there just collapses into selling out and making gacha character designs (with few exceptions, some good some bad).
It doesn't help that the world is basically anything goes nonsense.
>Even complaining about the new shitty mechanics will get people defensive because of the latest culture war!Yeah, the FGC is eternally cursed by having most of their analysis and design review dripfed from influencers and pro players whose main interest is defending their livelihoods at all costs, which means that calling a game truly, honestly bad and advocating people completely disengage with it because of it's lack of artistic merit is taboo. I don't know if there's real concrete FG analysis that starts from "what experiences and player behaviours do these mechanics create" instead of vague notions of correct design or balance or fairness, but if there is then it certainly isn't popular.