The Strongest Character Archetypes in Fighting Games

streamed Jan. 18, 2023

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[ADxTygon]

The strongest archetype is the character my friend plays that i keep losing to. The weakest is the one i play

[leinslines]

As a mediocre player my greatest issue with puppet characters is that finding the gap in their blockstring might as well be where's Waldo.

[dengold]

the strongest archetype is "most recent DLC character"

[VinceOfAllTrades]

I really hope there's a future video about underutilized archetypes/design-spaces. Some examples:
- R.Mika is a normal-size, normal-health, normal mobility grappler
- Gargos (KI) is a big body puppet master
- UMvC3 Sentinel is a big body, high mobility glass cannon (after they nerfed his health heavily)

[IAmEnormous]

I was thinking about glass cannons the other day, and came to the conclusion that it's only OK if it's funny. Like, yes, Chipp can do everything and put you in three different mixups before you've finished blinking, but if you DP him his console explodes, so it's OK. Seth? Akuma? They didn't die in funny ways so they were too much.

[sylascole]

Another notable piece about this is there tends to be a bit more overlap between these archetypes than some of the others. A zoner/grappler hybrid is probably a little less strong or common, but set play pixies/low life characters? Or low life-puppet characters? The weaknesses tend to overlap (weak defensive tools, low life, 'weak' tools for brawling), whereas the strengths compound.

When Sajam was mentioning setplay/trap characters, IJ2 had examples of both being top 1 and bottom 1, even in the same patch. For a while, Joker was considered bottom 1 to bottom 3, despite having incredibly strong anti-air tools, a very obnoxious projectile, and some of the strongest knockdown mix available. Similarly, so was Captain Cold, who shared similar traits but had better zoning, while winning a few top tier matchups (Catwoman was a notoriously good one for him despite his general weakness). By contrast, Red Hood was a VERY strong set-play character with great footsies, one of the most annoying wakeup games in the whole cast, and looping knockdown oki. Generally speaking, if an archetype exists, you can pretty easily find a few good versions of it and several bad ones even in the same franchise.

[JillTGear]

+R Baiken’s low health is almost a non factor compared to her insane defensive tools, and the fact they can actually put her back on offense if used well.

[NeoBoneGirl]

Looping okizeme is the strongest win condition because it often has the fewest ways to interact, and any point of interaction your opponent has is a potential way to lose. Puppet characters are often good because the puppet enhances their neutral AND okizeme, but winning with okizeme is still the strongest way to win. A dev REALLY has to nerf how good oki is for other archetypes to be the most dominant

[_EesiOh]

Its crazy listening to this again and remebering that Sajam was Capcom Persona Non-Grata for a while. The thought of a world without him and yipes making Juri and Luke fireball noises all set at SF6s first Evo is a terryfing thought inderd

[dinna]

The bit about glass cannons at the beginning reminded me of characters who are **totally** balanced because of a resource or extra meter they don't actually have to manage. I can't name any in particular without looking like a scrub though. 😂

[no_nameyouknow]

When a characters weakness can be overcome with skill, it's not a weakness at the highest level. So puppet characters you might not see at low or mid levels, but you will see at higher levels. Glass cannons you can see all over because honestly, even if you don't have a lot of skill, you can still win if you have all the tools.

[BBGunRenegade]

Phoenix in Marvel 3 was the ultimate glass cannon character in my experience. Like it doesn't matter that she only has like 400, 000 because if she turns dark, most of the cast legit cannot hit her. Even before she turns dark she's still really strong

[SageArtemisia]

Rachel Alucard always comes to mind when it comes to very strong set play character. she will ALWAYS force you to play HER game in a lot of the iterations she’s in.

She’s a hybrid Zoner/set play and Rushdown with some fucked up blender to shove you in

[hidden]

The strongest character archetype: "The character the devs refuse to nerf every season despite their endless reign of terror"

[justintsui]

Its like low health doesn’t really matter if these glass cannons have good evasion due to their mobility

[RandomFactor]

It's like MTG players always say, the most amount of life you need to win is one. It's why Phyrexian Mana, which let you pay your life total instead of mana was so fucking busted because it introduced variants of staple cards that were basically just fucking free

[Gilthwixt]

@Sajam I'd love to see you do a video that's a thorough breakdown on different character archetypes and examples, possibly as a collab with other FGC content creators. The thing to me is that there's a lot of overlap with some archetypes and playstyles and no consensus on definitions. Stuff like "Is Abigail a Grappler or is he a Brawler?" and "If Sagat isn't a Shoto then why do GG players call Ky GG's Shoto?". And then there's the inconsistency between moveset and playstyle (all of the Shotos share similar movesets but play very differently from each other), or how Cammy shares the same health as Akuma but isn't a "Glass Cannon" the way he is since she's still primarily a rushdown character. Idk if it's a topic you'd be interested in diving into but I'd love to see the FGC try and nail down these concepts with strict definitions while debating them.

[FalconDove]

the strongest character is the friends we made along the way

[griin]

the best archetype is the one with great pokes, rushdown, zoning and oki while having a giant unpunishable reversal for some reason

[metroidprimerib]

At their most powerful like Morrigan in UMVC3 or in Injustice, I find zoners to be the most dominant archetypes. They just shut down SO much.