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Best lead protagonist in a fighting game?

About Terry, I liked that in Garou he
didnt interfered in Rock choice in joining Kain
other protagonists would go "NO HE IS EVIL, YOU ARE EVIL TOO NOW!", shame that Garou 2 wasnt released : \

I liked them bit about them in the King of Fighters anime shorts.
 
Another choice would be Alex from Street Fighter 3's run.

tnzirNx.jpg

The protagonist Street Fighter deserves. Can't wait for another cast reset.
 
Shame that capcom hate new main characters in estabilished franchies. Sean is a punchbag, Alex is strong but in his end he is defeated by Ryu, Apollo has the spotlight stolen by Phoenix...
 
Donovan, from Night Warriors / Vampire Hunter.


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Badass outfit w/ prayer beads

Non-emo half-vampire

Has intelligent sword that can attack on its own

Surfs on said intelligent sword

Summons spirits of fire, electricity, snow
 
Came in to discuss sol badguy in detail, and OP did just that. Sol Badguy is a kickass and awesome lead fighting game protag in every way possible.

Second favorite is hard to choose. I have a soft spot for Iori, K', and Kula. Ryu from SF, and a whole lot of other amazing characters. I miss playing FGs a lot.
 
Shame that capcom hate new main characters in estabilished franchies. Sean is a punchbag, Alex is strong but in his end he is defeated by Ryu, Apollo has the spotlight stolen by Phoenix...
This is because the fanbase seems generally opposed to progression or change in casting. Nero was usurped by Dante in DMC4, too.
 
Wouldn't the main character of Soulcalibur actually wield the Soulcalibur though? That would make Xianghua the protag.

Well she did finish off Cervantes in Soul Edge (with the help of Sophitia breaking the offhand blade). But after that you can probably say the Soul Calibur wielders are the leads.
 
I think Sol Badguy is a really good main character to be honest. He's pretty complex and has a lot of history. He's also notoriously amazing at pretty much everything. Strength-wise it's like making the last boss the main character (though Justice, Slayer, and Dizzy I believe are considered more powerful).

Sol's a great lead character in a cast of great characters that can stand up to him in their own unique ways. I think the only fighter that can match Guilty Gear's diversity in cahracter design is Darkstalkers.
 
Are you okay?

terry-12s.gif
terry-bwg.gif

Terry Bogard

Street fighting guy that is just so strong that no one can match him.

Feats:
-Killed his rival in the first game.
-Took rivals' son and raised him into also awesome fighter.
-Can (power) dunk on anyone, including basketball based fighting game characters.
-Actually changed outfits.
-Sometimes looks like a Pizza Hut delivery man from the '90s.
-Is a nice guy.
-Rising taco.
-Busta Wolf.
lol This whole post. And yes, he is a very nice guy. He even asks is you are ok during the fight right before destroying you.

Also my choice as well.
 
I always thought Kazuya's run in the early Tekken games were neat. He's a good guy gone bad done right.

tekkazu-1.jpg


I always thought it was interesting how Tekken 1 had Kazuya as the hero and Heihachi as the villain. All we know in the first game is that Heihachi was a dick when he was raising Kazuya and threw him off a cliff when he was a child to toughen him up.


In Tekken 2, we find out that Kazuya sold his soul to the devil to survive that childhood cliff toss. Also, in Tekken 2 they flipped it. Heihachi is the main protagonist and Kazuya is the final boss. What makes it even more interesting is that Kazuya was way more evil when he had the power of the Mishima Zaibatsu than Heihachi was (Kazuya kidnapped scientists, hired bodyguards to assassinate those who oppose him, and experimented on animals to make them fighters that serve him)

tek2hei-2.jpg


at the end of Tekken 2, Heihachi kills Kazuya to get rid of the devil gene. He then raises Kazuya's son Jin.

what I also found interesting about Kazuya was his Tekken 5 ending, which showed that he still has his old nice guy persona in him somewhere, but it's heavily tainted by the Devil at that point and it's too late to go back. He ends up killing his own grandfather Jinpachi, who raised Kazuya lovingly as a child and was more of a father figure to him than Heihachi ever was. Shit is messed up.

edit: I also want to shout out Kazuya's Tekken 2 ending. Heihachi tries to save Kazuya from the devil, but...

edit 2: Heihachi reminds me of Joe Jackson (Michael Jackson's father) haha. On the surface he was tough as hell and unfair (
and abusive
) toKazuya, but he only wanted him to be the best. He also raised Jin for most of his early life without any problems. It was only until
he got infected by the devil when he decided to say fuck it.
And in Heihachi's twisted mind, he was helping Kazuya become strong by throwing him off a cliff and adopting Lee Chaolan to push him even further. Tekken story man, shit is fucked up haha
 
Another choice would be Alex from Street Fighter 3's run.

tnzirNx.jpg


Unlike Ryu, Alex seems to have a lot of character that differentiates himself greatly from Ryu. He's a grouch and in the ring he things real highly of himself. He can be a real dick, but when you're that strong I think you deserve that attitude.

This

The only grappler in SF that isn't baby.


"At ease losah"
 
Mishima family seems like a bunch of terrible fathers seeding their own destruction. And I say that as a fan of Jin.
 
My favorite is definitely Sol. He looks cool as hell, his name is badass (and ties into his fire theme), and his attacks are some of my favorite in the entire genre. Hell, the stuff he says when he executes his moves have stayed with me since I first played GGX way back when.

What's funny is that he's the second strongest character in the series, second only to the troll that constantly harasses him (That Man). That powered state he has is awesome and intimidating.
 
I love Tekken but the protagonists bore me to death. So many good characters in the series otherwise.
 
Mishima family seems like a bunch of terrible fathers seeding their own destruction. And I say that as a fan of Jin.

From what we know, Jinpachi seemed like a nice guy who had an awful son, and was later possessed by some kind of a demon after dying, after being imprisoned by his son under a building. Kazuya could have been a good guy... but he sold his soul to the devil. Jin... I'm not sure what his deal is, except that he has a tainted bloodline and a bunch of horrible relatives.

I love Tekken but the protagonists bore me to death. So many good characters in the series otherwise.

Yeah, I feel the same. Especially since the main characters usually just end up punching each other and missing.


We're making it happen!
 
Fatal Fury Mark of the Wolves was just a straight cool game with a roster of cool guys and the lead of that game was Rock Howard. Dude had a badass stage intro and stage music.

rock-z.jpg
 
From what we know, Jinpachi seemed like a nice guy who had an awful son, and was later possessed by some kind of a demon after dying, after being imprisoned by his son under a building. Kazuya could have been a good guy... but he sold his soul to the devil. Jin... I'm not sure what his deal is, except that he has a tainted bloodline and a bunch of horrible relatives.



Yeah, I feel the same. Especially since the main characters usually just end up punching each other and missing.

most of the mishima's (including Jin) are messed up because they got infected by the Devil or some sort of demon. Heihachi is the only one that managed to stay pure from any of that, but then he's also the only one that has a fucked up view of life without the influence of them.
 
I always thought Kazuya's run in the early Tekken games were neat. He's a good guy gone bad done right.

tekkazu-1.jpg


I always thought it was interesting how Tekken 1 had Kazuya as the hero and Heihachi as the villain. All we know in the first game is that Heihachi was a dick when he was raising Kazuya and threw him off a cliff when he was a child to toughen him up.



In Tekken 2, we find out that Kazuya sold his soul to the devil to survive that childhood cliff toss. Also, in Tekken 2 they flipped it. Heihachi is the main protagonist and Kazuya is the final boss. What makes it even more interesting is that Kazuya was way more evil when he had the power of the Mishima Zaibatsu than Heihachi was (Kazuya kidnapped scientists, hired bodyguards to assassinate those who oppose him, and experimented on animals to make them fighters that serve him)

tek2hei-2.jpg


at the end of Tekken 2, Heihachi kills Kazuya to get rid of the devil gene. He then raises Kazuya's son Jin.

what I also found interesting about Kazuya was his Tekken 5 ending, which showed that he still has his old nice guy persona in him somewhere, but it's heavily tainted by the Devil at that point and it's too late to go back. He ends up killing his own grandfather Jinpachi, who raised Kazuya lovingly as a child and was more of a father figure to him than Heihachi ever was. Shit is fucked up.

edit: I also want to shout out Kazuya's Tekken 2 ending. Heihachi tries to save Kazuya from the devil, but...

Kazuya was never "good" guy, no one is raised in the Mishima family. Even in Tekken 1 his goal was to finish off Heihachi and back then he already had the early Devil Kazuya costume. Kazuya had the devil gene from birth. The selling of the soul is only in anime and that's not canon. Heihachi is just jealous of the devil gene power.
 
most of the mishima's (including Jin) are messed up because they got infected by the Devil or some sort of demon. Heihachi is the only one that managed to stay pure from any of that, but then he's also the only one that has a fucked up view of life without the influence of them.

It's pretty much Heihachi's fault for everything, if you think about it.
 
Kazuya.

Jin is an Idiot.

Kazuya was never "good" guy, no one is raised in the Mishima family. Even in Tekken 1 his goal was to finish off Heihachi and back then he already had the early Devil Kazuya costume. Kazuya had the devil gene from birth. The selling of the soul is only in anime and that's not canon. Heihachi is just jealous of the devil gene power.

Kazuya while ot being the good guy, he is more in the direction of good than most of the mishima's including jin.
 
Kazuya was never "good" guy, no one is raised in the Mishima family. Even in Tekken 1 his goal was to finish off Heihachi and back then he already had the early Devil Kazuya costume. Kazuya had the devil gene from birth. The selling of the soul is only in anime and that's not canon. Heihachi is just jealous of the devil gene power.

I meant in terms of marketing and advertising. Back when Tekken 1 dropped all of the flyers always had Kazuya posing in the front of the cast like Ryu did with a similar outfit, and the only back story then was "he wants revenge from his father". We only learn what his true intentions were as the series progressed and the story got fleshed out. Back then everyone was writing him off as the stereotypical fighting game protagonist. That's what I meant when I called him the "good guy".

It's similar to how a lot of people thought Sagat was this evil villain back in Street Fighter 1 (he was the final boss) and SF2 (he was the sub boss). It was only when the Alpha series came out that they fleshed out his story and everyone realized he's not evil at all. Just talking about how these characters were perceived by the public at first.
 
Right, so... we all know who the Villain is in Soul Calibur, aka NIGHTMARE, but who is the lead? Not Kilik?
 
Siegfried most likely. And that lame Patroklos guy from V

Honestly though, it kind of varies from game to game. Siegfried WAS Nightmare in SoulCalibur and SoulCalibur II, so it couldn't have been him. The role of the protagonist is kind of shared, with each of the good-inclined characters doing their part.

I'm still waiting for the game where Lizardman is the hero.
 
Two Smash Bros. mentions so far, and they're side characters. At the very least give Mario some credit, he is Nintendo's Ryu :P
 
Another choice would be Alex from Street Fighter 3's run.

tnzirNx.jpg


Unlike Ryu, Alex seems to have a lot of character that differentiates himself greatly from Ryu. He's a grouch and in the ring he things real highly of himself. He can be a real dick, but when you're that strong I think you deserve that attitude.

Beat me to it. I love Alex.
 
Honestly though, it kind of varies from game to game. Siegfried WAS Nightmare in SoulCalibur and SoulCalibur II, so it couldn't have been him. The role of the protagonist is kind of shared, with each of the good-inclined characters doing their part.

I'm still waiting for the game where Lizardman is the hero.

Yeah, in the first few games wasn't it Sophitia? Then it was Siegfried, and now it's Patroklos.

Haha, seeing Lizardman be the hero would be weird considering he's been Soul Edge aligned for much of his existence. Aeon Calcos is forever mad!
 
I'm going to have to say Ragna the Bloodedge. Most fighting game main protagonists have pretty bland personalities. Ragna though isn't shy about being funny. Or being friends with the joke characters. At the same time, he knows how to be serious.

It also helps that BlazBlue has a story mode and a narrative structure that lets Ragna lose a lot. Some fighting game protagonists feel too invincible, story wise.
 
The protagonist Street Fighter deserves. Can't wait for another cast reset.

Always thought it'd be interesting to have a new Street Fighter series where Sean and Sakura were the protagonists, and leave Ken and Ryu out of it. You get your shotoclones, but each is a twist on the idea.

Capcom would NEVER EVER do it, but I wish they'd be brave (stupid) enough to try. It was nice to see them say that Alex was the protagonist of SFIII, but even then they never really pushed him (and so long as K&R were around, players wouldn't see him as the protagonist no matter what).
 
Honestly though, it kind of varies from game to game. Siegfried WAS Nightmare in SoulCalibur and SoulCalibur II, so it couldn't have been him. The role of the protagonist is kind of shared, with each of the good-inclined characters doing their part.

I'm still waiting for the game where Lizardman is the hero.

Well he is the protagonist of every SC game except II and V, he even was the main character in Soul Calibur Legends for the Wii. IIrc Sophitia is the protagonist of II, since she was the one that killed Nightmare and freed Siegfried from his influence
 
Are you okay?

terry-12s.gif
terry-bwg.gif

Terry Bogard

Street fighting guy that is just so strong that no one can match him.

Feats:
-Killed his rival in the first game.
-Took rivals' son and raised him into also awesome fighter.
-Can (power) dunk on anyone, including basketball based fighting game characters.
-Actually changed outfits.
-Sometimes looks like a Pizza Hut delivery man from the '90s.
-Is a nice guy.
-Rising taco.
-Busta Wolf.

it helps that terrys legacy exists far into the future of the snk world. he is that dope
 
Always thought it'd be interesting to have a new Street Fighter series where Sean and Sakura were the protagonists, and leave Ken and Ryu out of it. You get your shotoclones, but each is a twist on the idea.

Capcom would NEVER EVER do it, but I wish they'd be brave (stupid) enough to try. It was nice to see them say that Alex was the protagonist of SFIII, but even then they never really pushed him (and so long as K&R were around, players wouldn't see him as the protagonist no matter what).

I had the exact same idea. I would love for them to put Ryu in as a last boss and then just stop using the character. The evolution of Ken/Ryu's fighting style as through more refined/grown up Sean and Sakura would be great and give some new life to the series.
 
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