Quick Overview of Queen Dizzy for GUILTY GEAR -STRIVE- Season 4

Little by little, but all the staple Guilty Gear characters continue to make their way into the roster, as each season brings out at least a few of the fan favorites, while also giving them a makeover, to ensure they feel at home in Guilty Gear Strive.

The latest newcomer is a character that has been with us since the second game in the franchise, Guilty Gear X – Dizzy, or more correctly, Queen Dizzy.

As the name might suggest, this is a significantly different version of Dizzy. One that carries herself with newfound confidence and grace, reflecting her status as both a mother and a monarch of Illyria. This change covers every part of her character, from outfit and animations, to her actual playstyle.

If you've played as or against Dizzy in older installments, you might consider her to be somewhat of a zoner, and while she still has the potential for zoning in Strive, the game itself labels her as a "unique" archetype for a reason.

Queen Dizzy sheds many of the older long range tools that enabled her somewhat oppressive zoning in favor of a more ice focused moveset that turns her into a snowball machine, no pun intended.

Her new set of special moves keeps some of her key attacks from the previous installments. The ice spike, or "I used this to catch fish" offer two versions that go from mid to long range, and introduce us to her first new mechanic – ice floor.

By doing a 6S/6HS after the spike, Dizzy will coat the entire coat in ice, which does several things. First of all, the ice will retain your momentum. So if dash or perform attacks that have some momentum, the ice will continue to carry you forward. What does that mean in practical terms? Goodbye pushback. At least some of it. Using it well will empower your block strings and enable some combos that otherwise wouldn't be possible. Though be careful, the ice treats everyone equally, so much like with Baiken's tether mechanic, it might turn against you. Now, the second part? Performing a knockdown on ice will lead to a follow-up hit, creating new knockdowns and making existing ones more powerful.

Her other mechanic is freezing her opponents in place. This can be done by landing a hit with the aforementioned ice spike, or by landing all 3 hits of Dizzy's HS. Since snowballing is the word of the day, it naturally serves to build up your momentum, either by going into the ice floor, or taking advantage of the frames to approach your opponent and starting pressuring them until you hopefully score another freeze.

These attacks combine exceptionally well with the rest of her kit. Sure, she might have lost some of the full screen tools, but Michaels Sword still allows her to hit opponents from nearly the whole screen away, ensuring that pretty much every freeze can be converted into more damage, this attack's HS version also has an incredible potential for wallbreaks, so you really, really don't want to allow Dizzy to corner you.

The rest of her zoning comes in the form of the good old ice fish. Instead of offering you extra control of these summons, Strive goes for an air version and ground version. These little familiars will ram into opponents that come within their range, and hitting enemies with your other specials will help to guide them towards their target. Her only remaining projectile is a good old diagonal fireball. Though this time around you only get one and you cannot charge it. On the upside, though, it now has an extra hit if done close to the opponent, which opens up new combo options.

Her only remaining special is Wings of Light, and this one is the ultimate expression of snowballing. Doing 22HS will give you the said wing, after quite a bit of time these wings will sprout and deal very high damage over time in a radius around you. Doing so will rapidly drain your tension. It's not an easy move to make use of, but the reward explains why, since you're essentially dealing really high damage that the opponent can't even block. It's unlikely that Dizzy will be able to make use of it in every match, but when she does, you will likely end up in someone's clip for social media.

In summary, Queen Dizzy, despite seemingly like a much more settled and calmer version of herself, is actually a bit of a powerhouse that might use a single opening to start a chain of pressure that will be hard to resist. She's not without a weakness, though. Her close range buttons do not make for great pressure by themselves, you'll need ice to enable greater offense. When it comes to anti-airs, she also doesn't have much to scare you with, mostly relying on the usual 6P and 2H. While she's pretty easy to pick up and enjoy, mastery will demand that you sharpen your timing, situational awareness, and execution. So be prepared to spend quite a bit of time and practice to make the most of Queen Dizzy.