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[Shun]

Disclaimer: A lot of these archetypes mostly apply to 2D and Anime fighting games but can be applied to other genres as well such as Gundam, Tekken, Smash etc. These other games may have their own archetypes or may not have a 2D centric archetype. (Does Tekken have a zoning character?) I may be missing examples from games I don't play or are unfamiliar with such as Killer Instinct, feel free to contribute and help us categorize.


This thread has probably been made before but I wanted to make a more in depth guide so that newcomers and casual players can easily identify who they like using.

So just curious, what kind of characters do you lean towards and use when playing different fighting games? Or do you just scum and go with whoever breaks the game/easiest to play? Do you stick with your character regardless of their tier? Do you keep them while learning a better tier character within the same archetype?

Do you prefer rushdown, zoning, grapplers? Characters that thrive and live off oki/wakeup game? Puppet Characters? Stance Characters?No preference, just pick the design you like best? Glass Cannons?

Does gameplay mean jackshit to you? Do you just always choose the boxers, the asian guy, female characters only?

Obviously there will be some overlap but here are some common examples for reference:

All-rounders
Street Fighter: Ryu
Guilty Gear: Sol Badguy
Persona: Mitsuru
BlazBlue: Ragna, Hakumen, Hazama
Tekken: Mishimas
Sandrock Gundam

Rushdown + Vortex + Rekka
Street Fighter: Fei Long, Gouki, Ibuki
Guilty Gear: Jam, Millia, Elphelt
Persona: Aegis, Akihiko
BlazBlue: Bang Shishigami, Noel, Valkenhein
Tekken: Bob, Lars, Nina
Smash: Fox, Sheik
Gundam: 00 Quanta

Trap/Zoning:
Street Fighter: Dhalsim, Sagat, Guile
Marvel: Sentinel, Hawkeye,
Gundam: Lunamaria Gunner Zaku
Guilty Gear: Venom, Dizzy
BlazBlue: Rachel, Kokonoe

Mixup/Powerhouse? Not sure how without people saying that these characters aren't defensive, zoners, etc.
Dictator, E. Honda, Boxer, Urien, Azrael, etc..

Grappler
Traditional: Zangief, Potekmin, Kanji, (Armor) King?
Semi: Bullet, Abel, Jaycee, etc.

Puppet
Zato, BlazBlue Clovers, Rosalina, Ice Climbers, Ken/Koromaru, Ms. Fortune, etc.

Stance. Specials and other moves change depending on your "stance"
Gen, Litchi, Lei Wulong, etc.

Some characters belong in multiple categories like Bullet from BlazBlue (Rushdown/Grappler), Naoto from Persona (Trap Zoning/Rushdown), Urien relies on mixups and pressure, etc.

Do you like easy to pick up or hard to learn?
Piss easy to learn and be good: Elphelt
Piss easy to learn, hard to be good: Ryu
Hard as shit to learn and hard to be good while being top tier? Fucking Naoto...

I tend to gravitate towards Rushdown characters who thrive off okizeme pressuring and/or stage control. Or Vortex characters not named Cammy. I also gravitate towards female characters for some reason.

Millia, Jam, Noel, Elphelt, Ibuki, Gouki, Naoto, Bob, etc.

Exceptions to my rule would be Bullet, she's a rushdown character but doesn't thrive through oki and lives off throws. She's also never gonna leave bottom tier :[
In Gundam I use Lunamaria and Kshatriya because I'm scum and I can't 3k rushdown Quanta at all.

If I missed any or made a mistake please let me know and I'll edit or add to the OP! What are your preferred archetype(s)?

 

[Ouren]

Where do Cammy and Elizabeth from P4A fall?

 

[DryEyeRelief]

top tier

 

[pillowtalk]

I'm all over the place. I tend to pick whichever character feels easy for me to use in whatever game I'm playing. I'm really interested in stance characters though, but my brain just have a hard time with them.

 

[LegatoB]

The cute one.

Real answer: For a long time, I picked rushdown characters because I was bad at defending and I decided I'd rather simply avoid the situation. I'm still bad at defending, but I want to work on that, so I've been picking more all-rounder or pokey characters lately to try and change that. Characters who maybe don't have great mix-up options but have a lot of tools to try and provoke and frustrate opponents (and who tend to be easier to play).

 

[Producer]

rush that shit down

 

[Shun]

Cammy

Spoiler

Broken Tier

Vortex character. Super offensive rushdown who relies on a ton of pressure while your opponent wakes up.

Elizabeth

Spoiler

Bottom Tier

Zoning/punishing character. Relies on spacing and taking advantage of your opponent's mess ups.


I'm missing some archetypes like Setplay, Gimmick, etc. Add them later.

 

[Creaking]

I generally like Rushdown and Stance characters the most. I like to confuse the opponent, or overwhelm them with a flurry of unexpected moves. Favorite fighter in Tekken is Yoshimitsu (with Lei right up there next to him). Favorite fighter in VF is Lei-Fei.

Never been a fan of all-rounders. Too vanilla for me, and I like vanilla. Not a fan of grapplers either. Generally too much memorizing of meaningless button combos and getting really close to the opponent. Zoning for me depends on the game. I like it in a Smash Style game, but I don't in a 1 on 1 fighter.

 

[SoundPulse]

I like rushdowns more often than not, but it depends on the game/individual characters.

About the closest I ever get to a grappler is Cerebella, for instance.

 

[Astarte]

I don't have a preferred archetype. It just depends on the game, really. Tekken - Dragunov, P4AU - Kanji, GG - Jam, SF - Yang...Yeah.

 

[SalvaPot]

Joke Characters are the best, always.

I feed on the salt of my enemies.

 

[LakeEarth]

More mobile grappler types. Alex (3rd Strike), Abel (SF4). I do like traditional grapplers, but they tend to elicit the opponent to play a constant runaway game (which they should), and the constant cat-and-mouse game can get frustrating.

 

[5taquitos]

Whatever my man Guy is.

 

[Renekton]

Metrosexual fireball zoner

 

[dragonflys545]

Grapplers.

 

[Barrow Roll]

Space animals.

 

[Metaternal]

I lean towards characters that can do rushdown and keepaway. This is mostly because I suck at blocking stuff. Occasionally I'll get sucked into the powerhouses.

When's Viewtiful Joe coming back I feel empty inside

 

[Creaking]

Space animals.

?

 

[poodaddy]

I don't always play grapplers, but I really love faster grapplers who also have great normals and anti airs. Basically Alex. Not sure what that'd fall under, as it's kind of a mixture of a striker and a grappler.

 

[MasterCheeze]

Charge in SF, heavy in Smash. I like them characters with good spacing normals.

 

[PBalfredo]

Let's see, my characters are...

Soul Calibur: Cassandra
Persona: Elizabeth
Skullgirls: Big Band
SF: Dhalsim, Boxer (omega)
Smash: Ness/Lucas, Ike, Peach, ROB

Archetypes are kinda all over the place, so I dunno

 

[Muskieratboi]

Type of player is irrelevant to me. i'll play the animal. Gon, Roger, Kuma, Riptor, Shuma-gorath, Rocket Raccoon...

 

[MikeBreezy92]

Mishima's are not all rounders lol

 

[SinCityAssassin]

I like the crazy ones.

 

[QisTopTier]

I don't have a preset, I play whatever clicks with me that game and I feel like hey this toolset is strong enough to work even at a 50% chance to win.

 

[OverdriveOtaku]

Depends on the game/character/my mood.

I main an all-rounder, Sol, in Xrd, but main a rushdown, Bob, in Tekken, and in each game I play a few secondaries of each. Alex in SFIII is the only grappler type I like playing as.

I have to like a character a lot first; I could never focus on learning someone if I'm not really into the character in the first place, so that's most important.

Mishima's are not all rounders lol

Maybe not all of them, but Kazuya has moves for literally every situation.

 

[ZeroTheShadow]

Don't have one. I either play whoever I think looks sick regardless of play style or whoever is top tier & easy to pick up.

 

[Fr0stbyte]

I usually start a game with the basic shoto. Once I get comfortable I begin to pick rush down characters and actually have fun.

 

[Finaika]

What's Mai Shiranui?

 

[ZeroTheShadow]

Maybe not all of them, but Kazuya has moves for literally every situation.

No he does not. Not even close. He is the pure Mishima of the 3. Both DJ & Hei have way more vesitile moveset.

 

[Ashkeloth]

Rushdown. No projectiles (except those used for oki). Always makes for some fun, tense matches that feel like a twisted game of tag where my reward is punching someone in the face.

I prefer pressure rushdown rather than mixup style rushdown, but not enough that I won't play either happily.

I don't mind occasionally falling back to more defensive styled characters every now and then, but they're rarely part of my core lineup.

Mains include:
Blazblue: Bang, Bullet, Hakumen
Guilty Gear: Leo, Chipp
King of Fighters: Leona, Kim, Kyo (NESTs style)
Persona 4 Arena: Akihiko, Labrys, Yosuke
Smash: Ike, Captain Falcon, Samus
Street Fighter: Fei Long, Guy, Makoto
Under Night In-Birth: Akatsuki, Linne

I will vary from this style occasionally if there's a character with a great design or personality, but I tend to stick to it through instinct most of the time.

Unlike a heck of a lot of people that seem to prefer rushdown style, I actually have a pretty good defensive game. Probably because I started off playing Vega in Street Fighter IV and him being a charge character with no decent reversal required me to learn how to block.

 

[The Yo Tornado]

I usually just play whoever clicks with me from a design/personality standpoint (they also need a kickass theme if the game has character specific ones). Terry Bogard is the only character I'm even passable with in KoF, Abel in SFIV, Bang in BB, Captain America-based teams in Marvel 3. I guess I just gravitate towards beefy dudes. Then again my subs in SFIV and BB are each's version of Makoto, and I play Labrys in P4AU so I dunno if that's a thing either. Generally I guess I'm more likely to use short-range mixup characters, but if a different archetype has a more appealing character to me I won't hesitate to use them instead.

In SFV I have Nash, Karin, Mika and Ken on my to-play list, so yeah I guess rushdown is the biggest general description I'd use on my roster of characters.

 

[Aokage]

Rather than get bogged down in individual characters' mechanics, I prefer my fighting games to include -true- "character archetypes." Some of the most interesting to me are:

- Stoic warrior whose sole purpose is to fight
- Rival character to stoic warrior who is much more handsome
- "Evil" character designed in far too appealing a way to ever be considered a villain
- Character hailing from sparsely populated third-world country in garish costume; bonus points if severely culturally offensive
- Nine foot tall man
- Asian character bearing such a close resemblance to real-life wuxia film star it is shocking he or his estate does not sue
- Black man
- Aesthetically beautiful, gender indeterminate character who is revealed to be male
- Monstrous non-human character
- Single character who is allowed to fight with a weapon in a hand-to-hand combat tournament for reasons unknown
- Curvaceous, muscle-free woman
- Character lifted directly from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
- 16-year-old girl in revealing garb implausibly doing battle with men three times her size
- Amnesiac who can only remember his fighting style
- Ninja
- Amnesiac ninja who can only remember his fighting style
- Ex-military man who participates in brawls because fighting is all he knows; bonus points if he still inexplicably wears military uniform
- "Exotic ethnic woman" who is clearly Caucasian with a light spray tan
- Android
- Strict pacifist who reluctantly fights for money to save his doomed village
- Spry, elderly martial arts master
- Virtually impossible to beat CPU last boss who is ironically bottom tier in his playable version
- Character thought dead in canon (i.e. main character's martial arts trainer or father) who is revealed to be alive in sequel

 

[Ants]

Rushdown primarily. I play Mega Man in Smash, though, so I could probably be compelled to playing zoning types in other games if the mood strikes.

 

[Creaking]

Rather than concentrate on individual characters' mechanics, I prefer my fighting games to include -true- "character archetypes." Some of the most interesting to me are:

- Stoic warrior whose sole purpose is to fight
- Rival character to stoic warrior who is far more handsome
- "Evil" character designed in far too appealing a way to ever be considered a villain
- Character hailing from sparsely populated third-world country unknown to most players in garish costume; bonus points if severely culturally offensive
- Nine foot tall man
- Asian character bearing such a close appearance to real-life wuxia film star it is shocking he does not sue
- Black man
- Aesthetically beautiful, gender indeterminate character who is revealed to be male
- Monstrous non-human character
- Curvaceous, muscle-free woman
- Amnesiac who can only remember his fighting style
- Ninja
- Ex-military man who participates in brawls becomes fighting is all he knows; bonus points if he still inexplicably wears military uniform
- Android
- Virtually impossible to beat CPU last boss who is ironically bottom tier in his playable version
- Character thought dead in canon (i.e. main character's martial arts trainer or father) who is revealed to be still alive in sequel
- Spry, elderly martial arts master

The fact that that is sometimes the core of a characters archetype in fighting games saddens me. Almost as much as the fact that the closest thing that Tekken has gotten to an out-and-out dark skinned woman is Christie. Something near to 70 characters, and they don't have a black female.

 

[Shun]

Mishima's are not all rounders lol

No he does not. Not even close. He is the pure Mishima of the 3. Both DJ & Hei have way more vesitile moveset.

In the case of Tekken it's harder because many characters are situational and very pressure /defensive centric. Archetypes are fluid and can apply in multiple ways. All around characters typically do have moves that cover a lot of situations and can recover from messing up quite easily compared to versatile, but situation characters. All rounders aren't necessarily the best characters either.

Other than DJ/Jin, who else are relatively "all around"? Bryan (He's easy to pick up but relies on mixups due to few moves), Paul Phoenix, Steve Fox? Leo, Dragunov? Nina/Anna? They're both also pressure heavy rushdown characters.

Devil Jin is definitely all around when I said Mishima. Most Mishima characters are well rounded in a lot of situations and can come back from a situation even after messing up. Some Mishimas are harder to master and learn then others like Heihachi and Kazuya since their EGWF is much harder to pull off than Jin/DJ. But in most situations they can comeback and recover much more easily than others.

Lei might be versatile but is he easier to pick up and use like other "all round" characters? I think Lei is pretty hard to learn and a lot of his moves are extremely situational. You'll get punished compared to someone like Steve who can much more easily recover from a pressure situation.

 

[XenoRaven]

I really like characters who wear a blue qipao can kick super fast.

 

[ivanthebearable]

Not sure where Parasoul, Makoto (SF), Yosuke (P4), and Iron Man/Doctor Strange (MvC3) fit on your list.

Aside from those I tend to like Harder to Learn characters like C. Viper, Shulk, Rocket Raccoon, Naoto etc. It feels satisfying to win knowing all your practice with execution and timing and your effort paid off.

From an aesthetic POV, I dig the big brute/muscular characters even though they don't tend to fit my playstyle.

 

[CoyoteSpitfire]

I tend to play characters that click with me. In some games that means zoning, in others it might mean rushdown. But, if I had to categorize my tastes, I tend to gravitate towards zoners and grapplers.

Mains:
SF4: Juri, T. Hawk, Cody
KI: Kan-Ra, Sabrewulf, Hisako
3s: Urien, Remy, Alex

 

[JB-the-Hunter]

My SF characters are Dhalsim and El Fuerte, my UMvC3 characters are Super-Skrull, Ghost Rider and Haggar, my Smash characters are Bowser and Olimar, my KI character is Aganos.

So I guess I like a mixture of bruisers, grapplers, zoners and resource characters.

 

[DeadPhoenix]

In SF i generally use ryu and sakura(although in sf4 i kinda wanted to learn how to use juri). But in guilty gear, I play May and Axel, who are almost as far as you can get from ryu(and I also HATE charge characters in sf for w/e reason making it even weirder). Then in blaz blue, I play Arakune who is a summon/trap character? idek. only thing I can say for certain is I avoid grapplers. Don't care for them... except in dungeon fighter online where my main character was a grappler.

So I guess I just pick whatever character catches my fancy at the time.

 

[Devil]

Rushdown usually. I like the aggressive, agile, in-your-face types, preferrably with pressuring tools from a distance as well.

Therefore my mains are Falco (Melee), Sheik (Smash 4), Law (Tekken). Also Ken and Seth but I'm rather bad at SF4.

 

[fhqwhgads]

In order, I tend to go from Heavyweights (Hakan, King Dedede), Glass Cannons (Mr Game and Watch in Brawl and Little Mac) and then Dedicated Zoners (Peacock, Duck Hunt)

 

[OverdriveOtaku]

Most Mishima characters are well rounded in a lot of situations and can come back from a situation even after messing up. Some Mishimas are harder to master and learn then others like Heihachi and Kazuya since their EGWF is much harder to pull off than Jin/DJ. But in most situations they can comeback and recover much more easily than others.

Yeah, this is pretty much how I feel about Kazuya, a pretty well rounded fighter. Maybe not the best for every situation, but has a lot of options nonetheless.

 

[Gunslinger]

Trap/zoning type. I like to play super lame. Frustrate my opponent into making mistakes.

 

[MikeBreezy92]

Maybe not all of them, but Kazuya has moves for literally every situation.

Kaz doesn't even have a hopkick....

They aren't all round characters. You're better off picking Paul, Law, or Jack

 

[Numb]

Boss
Grappler
Bruce Lee clone

Rather than get bogged down in individual characters' mechanics, I prefer my fighting games to include -true- "character archetypes." Some of the most interesting to me are:

- Stoic warrior whose sole purpose is to fight
- Rival character to stoic warrior who is much more handsome
- "Evil" character designed in far too appealing a way to ever be considered a villain
- Character hailing from sparsely populated third-world country in garish costume; bonus points if severely culturally offensive
- Nine foot tall man
- Asian character bearing such a close resemblance to real-life wuxia film star it is shocking he or his estate does not sue
- Black man
- Aesthetically beautiful, gender indeterminate character who is revealed to be male
- Monstrous non-human character
- Single character who is allowed to fight with a weapon in a hand-to-hand combat tournament for reasons unknown
- Curvaceous, muscle-free woman
- Character lifted directly from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
- 16-year-old girl in revealing garb implausibly doing battle with men three times her size
- Amnesiac who can only remember his fighting style
- Ninja
- Amnesiac ninja who can only remember his fighting style
- Ex-military man who participates in brawls because fighting is all he knows; bonus points if he still inexplicably wears military uniform
- "Exotic ethnic woman" who is clearly Caucasian with a light spray tan
- Android
- Strict pacifist who reluctantly fights for money to save his doomed village
- Spry, elderly martial arts master
- Virtually impossible to beat CPU last boss who is ironically bottom tier in his playable version
- Character thought dead in canon (i.e. main character's martial arts trainer or father) who is revealed to be alive in sequel

+1

 

[Baron Von Beans]

I *love* characters that need to "level up" in the fight.

Phoenix Wright, Sir Arthur, the goat giant head M.O.D.O.K., Frank West, Firebrand to an extent in Marvel Vs Capcom 3.

Zappa in Guilty Gear

Those are the only fighting games I've played in the past few years

Edit: Also, I have a thing for "low tier" characters. I don't want to start any derailing, but I am a firm believer that tier lists in FGS don't mean shit. I don't care who you pick, it's all about knowing the matchup, and proper defense. Wanna debate about it, PM me. But because of this, I personally love to also choose supposed "low tier" characters, and mop the floor with people.

 

[Puru]

GG: May, Order Sol
Blazblue: Hazama, Platinum
KoF: Ralf
Melty Blood: Yumizuka Satsuki

To be honest i just try everything until i find one or two that i somehow feel good when playing it and i roll with that. Generally they aren't really complicated characters. May probably has my favorite moveset ever, there's not a single attack i dislike.

 

[Acquiescence]

I go with whoever's got the most jiggle going on.