Squigly's place.

[AvidArachnid]

I would like to understand from a gameplay perspective why someone would want to play Squigly. Now, I've only had the game a few months and the entire purpose of this thread is I believe I am missing something and am wrong as a whole and I would like to know why.

Squigly to me seems to be the redundant member of the cast, she's just rushdown from what I can tell, even her gimmicks like being able to move the screen are just setting her up for the same rushdown. She can combo easily, and off near everything, but there are other characters who can combo just as well, and possibly do mix ups better, her normals are good but Parasoul's are better, she has poor movement options since her gimmick is bringing you to her bit Silver Cord is blockable and center stage can get you hit pretty easily without a charge, her air game and ability to lock down are decent but there are better characters for that as well, she doesn't have much in the way of reversals and her zoning is limited to an attack with a gigantic hurtbox that puts her in danger and spending meter. There are other characters who have an easier time of opening someone up for combos and who can get a good amount from them without requiring resource for cancels to get a bit more. She is definitely more patience based than the rest of the cast, but it seems like she doesn't get any more rewarded as the rest of the cast. As said, it just seems like everything she has can be done better by others, even if you were to assert she was a jack of all trades, that doesn't really get you anywhere since she's not exactly very standout as far as damage goes or ability to open the opponent up.

I'm not saying there is anything wrong with her, I'm just saying she seems beat out by the rest of the cast for options and she is very execution heavy for seemingly not being much better at anything as a character than others beyond want CS can manage, and in a game as prided on balance as this and having heard Mike Z talk a bit about her I know that this isn't the case and I am just not figuring out what is there to make her so special. So please, explain it to me.

Just a side note I made sure to read the guide thread that is up as well as skimmed her general and tech threads before making this.

 

[mcpeanuts]

imo these are the best things Squigly has, in roughly this order:

j.LK - Best air to air normal in the game IMO, very easy to get a full combo with it by buffering a j.MK. I have stuffed Parasoul j.LP with this button on more than one occasion.
j.HP - A normal that covers half the screen. You don't usually get anything off it (unless you hit a grounded opponent from the right spacing in which case you can hit confirm it into Opera) but it's difficult to challenge and you can be annoying with it as a way to set up your other stuff (call assist, charge stances, w/e, go nuts)
Charged Center Stage - I wouldn't use this to try to get in as you suggest because it's actually kind of terrible for that, you usually just get pushblocked out and get nothing. What this move is great for though is twitch punishing moves from full screen. It's very easy to react to some sort of movement with qcf+MP, if you see during the super flash that they're committed to a button, you can super cancel into Opera and combo punish. It costs a lot of resources but it's also very low risk/high reward.

Those are all also things no one else in the game has; Painwheel j.MP is a great button but it's not half screen like Squigly j.HP, there's a lot of good air to airs in the game but for my money Squigly j.LK is the best one, and no one has as good a twitch punish move as Center Stage xx Opera.

Full disclosure I dropped Squigly a long time ago cause I think she sucks. But there are things in this game that she's the best at.

 

[Flotilla]

• Squigly is certainly not a redundant character, and in fact she has one of the most unique tools out of the entire cast. Center Stage can let Squigly apply pressure, do corner combo reps, make unorthodox conversions, do midscreen doublesnaps, all SORTS of neat stuff. Just because this can let her do more efficient rushdown doesn't mean she's just another Filia.
• Silver Cord is a hitgrab, which can make it an excellent answer to characters who rely on armored moves (since hitgrabs break armor).
• Squigly isn't really a zoner, but you can use the distance you have to charge stances which will always help you.
• Stance canceling is an excellent mixup tool that is exclusive to Squigly.

 

[Meow-Professor]

While a lot of things she has other characters do better, she still has her own exclusive things that make her interesting.

She isn't particularly rushdown, she's a mid-range mix up character. She doesn't really need to get in as she can benefit from distance (I.E allowing her to get charges to do some decent spacing).
You don't really throw out Center stage to approach, considering how long it takes. She's got plenty of tools to get in without it. Center stage is actually used for two things; one, wall-bouncing combos and grabs so you can combo off a grab with a Serpent's Tail charge; two, to punish things with a full-damage combo where you wouldn't be able to usually make it there in time.

Squigly's aerials are probably the best things she has in her kit. J.HP is a move with fantastic range to lock down opponents from a distance to get a charge. J.LK is a fantastic air-to-air, arguably the best in the game. Her Fallen Woman divekicks are great, whether tiger-knee'd into or just used to approach to put it into a grab or even a blockstring, as they are positive.

Her stance-canceling opens up a ton of possibilities for basically everything. She's got a lot of weird resets because of it along with a lot of interesting blockstrings, frame traps, etc. Her mix-ups really excel because she can stance-cancel a blocked move into her overhead or her crouching moves very quickly, both having similar animations making it difficult to tell what she's going to do (she can also combo from both her overhead and her low attack very easily).
The last reason people play as her is because she's legitimately fun and offers a playstyle nobody else in the cast has. Once you've gotten the hang of her it's a joy to use her different things in an actual match.

On what tier lists exist, yes, she is fairly low, although she's still extremely close to the other characters. That doesn't mean that Squigly doesn't have a lot to her that is exclusive to her, though.