How I Learned To Love Charge Characters (And Why You Should Too)

Experimenting with things outside of your comfort zone in fighting games can help you expand your skillset and imagination. I've been seeing a lot of hate against charge characters lately so I wanted to show them some love. I hope you enjoy!

BGM: 3rd Strike Theme Instrumental
3rd Strike Sean and Oro Stage Theme
KOF 2000 Kula Diamond Theme
Marvel Vs Capcom: Captain America Theme
Rivals Of Aether Hodan Theme
BBTAG Vatista's Theme
Naruto UNS 2 Theme

[TrueUnderDawgGaming]

It’s worth noting that charge attacks are often faster or more damaging than regular specials. So the reward is there, but it’s also just fun memorizing the rhythm 👍

[Baiano]

Guile having perfect frame moves in SF6 is also a great addition and rewards old school charge character players.

[ZogDaMegnivizint]

I recommend chargers, because basic chargers like Guile and Chun force you to have a defence. It won't magically make you GOOD at defence, but when two of your best tools are accessed via turtling you have to do it, a LOT, and you might get better at knowing when to press and when to block.

[blacklite]

My favorite charge character was M Bison. Psycho crusher and scissor kick are great examples. He was great in SF5. How his walk speed is slow but his dash is the fastest and a teleport. They really made it like he’s conserving all of his psycho power for specific explosive moments. It makes you play very precise. He’s just always plagued by less than ideal antiairs

[ApexGale]

I'm a big fan of charge characters whose charges feel natural and intuitive. I love playing Big Band in Skullgirls because his charge input blends perfectly into his combos

[rooflemonger]

I started with charge characters cause motions were too hard when I was a kid. However I could mash punch for hundred hand slap and hold back and hit forward. Charge is the most blessed inputs

[peteking]

For me, it was Balrog. Something about the Dash Straight or Dash Low being threatened by the same charge, and the way you need to pre-plan your combo routes so that you will have charge, while at the same time just being a big dude throwing punches was really really satisfying.

[uastyrdzhii]

As a Pot main I learned to appreciate the charge input for hammerfall with the crazy tech you can do in +r with hfb

[MiraiVFD]

vatista, despite being one of the most technical characters i ever played, is the one who made charge characters click to me, and going back to games where i could not previously play characters i liked due to being charge characters was so liberating

[GinkgoPete]

Can't wait for you to be one of the big FGC Creators. Just amazing, high quality content. 👌

[gyytgy]

Leona from KOF has always seemed like the coolest fighting game character to me but I’ve always been too intimated by her charge moveset

[StrikerF]

I clicked on this video with no expectations and left with knowledge and appreciation towards this kind of characters. Dude this was sick to watch, thank you so much!

[Fynmorphover]

My favorite archetype is the fencing charge character lol. Polnareff in Jojo heritage, Mitsuru in Persona 4 Arena, Parasoul in Skullgirl. I really love the feeling of holding back to prepare an attack/an extension.

[IchimanVRSNA]

I may have yet to main an actual charge character with only charge specials, but Vanessa from KOF was the one who ignited my appreciation for charge characters after maining her in both KOF 14 and 15

[doomsdaypoptart]

Someone who fell in love with charge characters in sf4 specifically Vega it was heart breaking in sf5 being a shoto. The elegance and grace that you feel storing charges really is something magical when done in combos and mix ups. Cheers!

[cosmogang]

Honorable mention: Urien from Third Strike. He is the epitome of charge character goodness and everyone knows you don't play Urien unless you are a godlike player. Also, you can't talk about Urien without mentioning the concept of "charge partitioning" which is the next level of charge mastery. Brilliant video.

[princesssweepzzt]

I never liked the idea of playing charge characters until I picked up Granblue and was determined to learn Charlotta, and I learned pretty much the basics to how to use a charge character properly through her trials and using her online!

This was an awesome video and a great explanation of charge characters and why they're so cool! Another more obscure charge character that I think is super cool is Saki from Arcana Heart, as rather than having a defensive playstyle like most charge characters, she's actually meant to have a much more aggressive and rushdown playstyle, and also has a charge dive kick in the air like Vatista if I remember correctly!

[nailwind]

My first ever character was Vatista and I loved it. The execution required to play her made me more confident in general to give everything in fighting games a chance. So that experience carried over and changed how I approached new things ever since.

[setnom]

How have I never seen anyone make a vid for the love of charge characters? Great video! Subbed.

[speedypichu]

Honestly, I think the thing that originally made me turn off from charge characters, was the fact I did not know they were charge characters, as for a long while my only fighting games were Smash (in general 3 of them) MK11 and SFII. The thing is that I didn’t know what the charge display meant, so I thought it was just broken since it was similar to a scorpion spear and wouldn’t come out. I eventually learned watching the core a gaming video about Ryu v. Guile, and that leads to here after like 1-3 years.