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Character archetypes you always go for in fighting games

RedSwirl

Junior Member
Most fighting games seem to at least have a few character archetypes in common from Street Fighter to Tekken to Virtua Fighter. I'm not talking about fighting strategy styles (zoning, grappler, etc.), but things like relatively common character designs and backstories. There almost always seems to be the main character and his mirror/rival, the ninja, the crazy guy, the wrestler guy, etc. Maybe it's because a lot of them seem to have reliably predictable fighting styles.

For some reason I've almost always gone for the Chinese guy. You should notice a pattern with all my fighting game mains:
Yun
Forest/Marshall Law
Recca Lee
Kilik
Jan Lee
 
Demons. Demon + zoning moveset + lots of thinking required to play = happy Karst.

I'll try to get 2/3 if I can, but games that don't have all 3 generally don't get a lot of play from me. I need the aesthetics to be on the same level as the gameplay.

Defenders_Vol_3_3_Textless.jpg
This guy is my holy trinity. To me, he is the best fighting game creation ever. Ever.
 

joe2187

Banned
Ninjas

or characters with a lot of tricks and options,

and apparently cats

My Mains in most fighting games have some sort of feline motif, I dont even like cats.
Taokaka
Felecia
King/Armor King
Ms Fortune
and now...even cammy

 
I dunno if I tend to go for a certain character type but I do actively avoid using characters with projectiles. Just not that fun of a playstyle for me.

I guess I either choose whoever's the buff chick or the swaggest dude in the cast going that I play characters like Makoto, Vanessa and Slayer.
 
It varies, but I always try to avoid the mesomorphic "main guy," he's usually pretty boring and everybody uses him. Except for Kyo in KoF, he's one of the coolest characters ever.
 
For the longest time, shotos. Then I got a bit esoteric with Third Strike and have mained zoning characters for the most part. Particularly Remy, Axl and Viper.
 

tribal24

Banned
i always love rival/ mirror characters such as Ken and Charlie, and Characters like Chun-li and Cammy, the main females of the franchises.
 
I tend towards luchador style characters, weird characters and joke characters. El Blaze, Ramon, King/Armor King, El Fuerte all day. If I had to pick one favorite fighting game character, I'd go with Dan Hibiki. But I also like mixing things up and trying new stuff.

One thing I almost always do is go for different characters in each installment of a fighting series, favoring brand new characters if I'm familiar with the older cast. For example with Street Fighter: Ryu is my main in SF2 only, SFA it's Rolento, SF3 it's Hugo/Q, SF4 it was El Fuerte/Juri. I connect the character to the game, Ryu is SF2 for me and it doesn't feel right playing him in any other game.
 

sephi22

Member
The Sub-Protagonist
For some reason I gravitate towards morally good characters that are not the main character. I find that in most fighting games, the lead is too bland or too goody-two-shoes (Ryu). I tend to pick guys like Ken, Long (Bloody Roar), Andy (Fatal Fury), etc.

Comic Relief
I also like 'joke' or rather funny characters that are viable. Kuma's been one of my mains since Tekken 5. El Fuerte's my main in SF4. I'm planning on maining Teddy or Yosuke in P4A, whenever it comes out in EU.

The Oddball
If a fighting game has a primarily human cast, but there's a non-human character, I try them before anyone else. Eg: Kuma, Teddy, Amaterasu, etc.

The 'cool' villain
I like villains. But I like villains that have style. Wesker, Yamazaki [FF/KOF], Shenlong [Bloody Roar], Hazama [Blazblue]

Ninjas
Ninjas. Scorpion, Sub Zero, Strider, Bakuryu, Andy
 

trimon

Member
Always the weird, undead or bad guys. Sometimes they fit all 3. I just wanted to be different :b

Yoshimitsu
Voldo
Scorpion
Cervantes
M. Bison
Zato-1
 

Loona

Member
Sort of plausibly strong female characters with grounded/realistic looks:
Vanessa (KoF, the VF one looks interesting too)
Makoto (SF)
Tina (DoA1)
Mila
 

RedSwirl

Junior Member
Thinking about it now, there actually don't seem to be a whole lot of Taekwondo characters in fighting games. KOF has Kim, and after apparently much fan demand Capcom introduced Juri to Street Fighter, but those are the only ones I can think of.
 

RM8

Member
Plenty of them. Mains are bolded:

- Joke characters / Animals / Cute characters: Servbot, Dan, Panda, Jigglypuff, Roll, Arthur?, Kirby, Rocket Raccoon
- Freak characters: Dhalsim, Alsion III
- Chinese girls: Xiaoyu, Lei Fang, Li Xiangfei, Eileen
- Japanese girls: Kasumi Todo, Aoi Umenokouji
- Tomboys: Makoto, King
- Eh, blonde guys I guess: Eliot, Leo, Rock Howard

I know I am nitpicking, but Leo is a girl.
Didn't Namco state that Leo didn't have an official gender? I just pretend he's male, lol.
 

Loona

Member
Thinking about it now, there actually don't seem to be a whole lot of Taekwondo characters in fighting games. KOF has Kim, and after apparently much fan demand Capcom introduced Juri to Street Fighter, but those are the only ones I can think of.

KoF has Jhun and May Lee too.
 
I prefer to play neutral characters, but ultimately I play whoever is well balanced and has a varied skill set. Juri and bison errday.
 
Plenty of them. Mains are bolded:

- Joke characters / Animals / Cute characters: Servbot, Dan, Panda, Jigglypuff, Roll, Arthur?, Kirby, Rocket Raccoon
- Freak characters: Dhalsim, Alsion III
- Chinese girls: Xiaoyu, Lei Fang, Li Xiangfei, Eileen
- Japanese girls: Kasumi Todo, Aoi Umenokouji
- Tomboys: Makoto, King
- Eh, blonde guys I guess: Eliot, Leo, Rock Howard


Didn't Namco state that Leo didn't have an official gender? I just pretend he's male, lol.

TTT2's bikini bundle definitely says Leo is a girl
 

enzo_gt

tagged by Blackace
Either the really good guys (Ryu, Sakura, Iron Man) or the really bad guys (Bison, Nightmare, Akuma).

I hate grapplers and charge characters especially.
 

Alx

Member
In recent games I usually preferred the "agile and unpredictable character", mostly female : Christie (DOA), Eileen (VF), Viola (Soulcalibur), Zafina (Tekken),...
 

LuuKyK

Member
Fast characters, specially if they use their legs to attack. I remember one of the three secret maid characters in Soul Calibur 4 that had gauntlets in her foot, that was probably my favorite fightning style ever. Sadly I've never seen her again. :(

Also, I HATE grapplers. They are beyond boring, mostly because they are slow as fuck.
 

Solune

Member
I tend to pick characters that are good all around and are "cool" to me.

Cammy (SF)
Kyo Kusanagi (KoF)
Rock Howard (Garou)

Other than that characters with large hitboxes seem to resonate with me.

Vergil/Dante (MvC3)
Mitsuru (Persona 4 Arena)
Yuzuriha (Under Night in-Birth)
Riesbyfe (Melty Blood)
 
Plenty of them. Mains are bolded:

- Joke characters / Animals / Cute characters: Servbot, Dan, Panda, Jigglypuff, Roll, Arthur?, Kirby, Rocket Raccoon
- Freak characters: Dhalsim, Alsion III
- Chinese girls: Xiaoyu, Lei Fang, Li Xiangfei, Eileen
- Japanese girls: Kasumi Todo, Aoi Umenokouji
- Tomboys: Makoto, King
- Eh, blonde guys I guess: Eliot, Leo, Rock Howard


Didn't Namco state that Leo didn't have an official gender? I just pretend he's male, lol.

They revealed her to be a girl at the Blood Vengeance event.
 

jaypah

Member
I roll Shoto because 1991 called and yada yada yada. Then I just use the random button.

Vega and the other beautiful characters

Vega is ridiculously fun to use. Before champion edition was even announced I knew I wanted to play as Vega.
 
I tend to pick characters that are good all around and are "cool" to me.

Cammy (SF)
Kyo Kusanagi (KoF)
Rock Howard (Garou)

Other than that characters with large hitboxes seem to resonate with me.

Vergil/Dante (MvC3)
Mitsuru (Persona 4 Arena)
Yuzuriha (Under Night in-Birth)
Riesbyfe (Melty Blood)
Yeah, but what makes those characters "cool" to you?

Vega and the other beautiful characters
So Mileena...?

Edit: Damn, beaten like a low tier character.
 
Beast like in attacks and appearance, close up face clawing and melee brutality is the way to do it.
Blanka is an obvious one in this style, i'd count cat characters like Felicia and Taokaka as well.

I'm trying to find a way to tie Vega in here, he's got a claw and attacks like a savage beast, that totally works, major bonus points for also being masked and multiple suplexes to appease the wrasslin' fan in me.
 
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