Thoughts on Skullgirls and Fighting Game Character Archetypes

[IronWolf616]

Hey Guys just thought I'd share a few things that I thought of when I gave the hamster that runs my brain too much sugar:

If you like skullgirls, and I'm assuming if your on here you do, odds are you're probably a fighting game enthusiast like myself. Which wanted to bring this up; through all the fighting games I've played over the years certain characters fall into certain archetypes that are more or less standard for the genre. So I figure I'd try and construct a list of what we do and don't have as far as those archetypes go. Characters my also fall into multiple catagories, but if broken down their true essence will fall into only one, hopefully anyway. That being said, I may have screwed up the placement of some or more of these, or missed an archetype of some description, if I do, please tell me so below:

Balanced:
Basically the Shoto character, with balanced stats across the board, usually hero/heroine of the story character, that most likely does a move off the dragon punch motion.
Skullgirls Ex: Filia, Parasol
Other Ex: Ryu(Street Fighter), Heart(Arcana Hearts), Ragna(BlazBlue)

Zoning/Projectiles:
This is the character if you let stay out of reach they will ruin your day with a wide array of projectiles and supers, all without having to get their hands dirty.
Skullgirls Ex: Peacock
Other Ex: Sentinel(MvC), Hawkeye(MvC), Taskmaster(MvC)

Rush Down:
This character wants to get up in your face and stay there, beating you down as fast as humanly possibly.
Skullgirls Ex:Annie?, Ms. Fortune, Valentine?, Double, Annie?
Other Ex: Wolverine(MvC)

Grappler Guy/Gal:
Another character that wants to get up in your grill but for a different reason: TO @#$% you up with super damaging command throws!
Skullgirls Ex: Cerebella, Beowulf?
Other Ex: Iron Tager(Blazblue), Potemkin(Guilty Gear), Zangeif(Street Fighter)

Killer Combos:
You never want to let this character hit you unless you want to combo'd for a couple of minutes. While the hits are weak together they add up.
Skullgirls Ex:Ms. Fortune?, Valentine?
Other Ex: Arakune(Blazblue)

Counter King/Queen:
This character has a very distinct move or moves that allows them to block and then counter an opponent's move if stuck during the counter frames.
Skullgirls Ex:
Other Ex: Wolverine(MvC)

Puppet Master:
This Character fights with the assistance of another character or thing on screen to help them set up various actions or combos.
Skullgirls Ex: Taliesin?, Ms.Fortune
Other Ex: Carl(BlazeBlue)

Aerial Ace:
This character can fight on the ground but truly excels at staying airborne and combing of dive-bombing the ever-loving heck out of you.
Skullgirls Ex: Squigly, Hive?
Other Ex: Sadira(KI)

Stance Dancer:
This character can do various commands that make them switch to a different stance that you can do different moves out of depending on the given stance.
Skullgirls Ex: Squigly
Other Ex: Litchi(Blazblue), Kagura(Blazblue), Siegfried(Soul Caliber)

Parry Prince/Princess:
This character sees your moves and hits back matching them move for move with their own strikes or blocks until they can overwhelm you.
Skullgirls Ex: Big Band
Other Ex: Q(Street Fighter 3: Third Strike)

Super Armor Slugger:
These characters you don't want to mess around with, even if you hit them they'll still carry on and hit you right back.
Skullgirls Ex: Panzerfaust?, Big Band
Other Ex: Hulk(MvC), Juggernaut(MvC)

The Tricky Trappers:
These guys are similar to the zoners, but instead of projectiles they leave stationary traps on the screen setting up vicious combos or other shenanigans.
Skullgirls Ex: Parasol, Eliza?
Other Ex:

Charge Up Champs:
These characters can opt to take more time to do their moves, but taking that extra time means extra damage or other miscellaneous effects.
Skullgirls Ex:Isaac?, Painwheel
Other Ex: Makoto(Blazblue)

Glass Cannons/Pixie?:
While they may have qualities of other archetypes, these characters are distinguished by their high damage output and severely low defenses.
Skullgirls Ex: Filia?, Hive?
Other Ex:Dizzy(Guilty Gear), Zero(MvC)

I've also not placed a few Skullgirls characters up there for fear of misclassification, so please tell me where to put the remaining ones! >.< Or if you have any other examples, or changes you'd like to add to a given category let me know!

Also characters that have a "?" next to them are ones I'm not so sure about.

 

[Immaevilspacewhale]

I think someone like Hawkeye or Taskmaster from MVC3 would fit zoning/projectile more than Sentinel
Zero from TvC/MVC3 is a good example of glass cannon
Charge up champ might go to Isaac? not too sure about that
Rushdown could be Annie

 

[Candra Software]

Uh, Q wasn't in the Street Fighter Alpha series, you mean Street Fighter III: Third Strike. I personally think Ms. Fortune and Valentine fall into either the "Rush Down" or "Killer Combos" category.

 

[IronWolf616]

Uh, Q wasn't in the Street Fighter Alpha series, you mean Street Fighter III: Third Strike. I personally think Ms. Fortune and Valentine fall into either the "Rush Down" or "Killer Combos" category.

My bad, lemme go fix that.

 

[Sydoh]

No one's a glass cannon because everyone has the same health.
No one in SG is focused on counters, but Val has one for 2 meter.
You could probably combine parry and counters into one category since they are pretty similar.

Filia's more of a pixie because her projectile can't really zone, she just has the same motions of a shoto.
I'd put Parasoul into the "Balanced" category instead of "Tricky Trappers"
Squigly for Aerial Ace
Painwheel for "Charge-up champs"
Big Band for Super Armour
Fortune for Puppet Master.

My 2 cents.

 

[SanoBaron]

Add Maxima (KoF) to super armor slugger
Zangief to grapplers
and maybe
Strider Hiryu (MvC)

 

[PKStoopKid]

I would say Double is rushdown, Hive would qualify for Pixie and Aerial Ace

Valentine is a little of Rushdown and Killer Combos though that can be said of any skullgirls(Killer combo I'm talking about)
Given a person knows insanly long combos with their character

 

[MaverickHunterX]

I could consider Parasoul as balanced. She has a very good anti-air, decent normals, and zoning tools. Her only disadvantage is her lack of air dashes and double jumps.

 

[Vadsamoht]

A thought on the statement in the OP about characters hopefully being reducible to one archetye: Good character design does not mean being made to a pre-existing blueprint unless the context of the game makes the archetype itself superior to it's alternatives at each critical decision. In more cases it's actually purposeful deviation from the archetype in a way that provides something new but also fits better within the logic/environment of the game than the archetype alone would.

A good example of this in SG is Cerebella. At a simple level, she is "a grappler with combos", but it's only possible to see the worth of this design and her implementation when you look at the alternatives. A simple Zangief-like grappler would not work in SG because of the way that the other characters and the combo system as a whole are designed. On the other hand, you'll often see beginner designers attempt to innovate at every possibly point, which would lead to a grappler who can do combos but also fly and throw out projectiles while utilizing a complex multi-stage super that has varying effects bast on the button combination used, your opponent's palette choice and what you are planning to eat for dinner. The key, then, is to push the design enough into new territory that they are interesting and useful while still remaining consistent with the internal logic of the game itself and then stop.


(I originally had a point that was going to tie this discussion back in with the thread's topic, but I forgot it. Sorry.)

EDIT: I guess the tl;dr of this is that if character design is about breaking out of archetypes in a meaningful way, then don't be too surprised if some of them have attributes from more than one category. Of course categorization like this is only useful if it is overly reductionist and I'm sure that the OP didn't actually expect each character to only appear once in the list, but yeah.

 

[IronWolf616]

A thought on the statement in the OP about characters hopefully being reducible to one archetye: Good character design does not mean being made to a pre-existing blueprint unless the context of the game makes the archetype itself superior to it's alternatives at each critical decision. In more cases it's actually purposeful deviation from the archetype in a way that provides something new but also fits better within the logic/environment of the game than the archetype alone would.

EDIT: I guess the tl;dr of this is that if character design is about breaking out of archetypes in a meaningful way, then don't be too surprised if some of them have attributes from more than one category. Of course categorization like this is only useful if it is overly reductionist and I'm sure that the OP didn't actually expect each character to only appear once in the list, but yeah.

I agree with you 100%. Just trying to place characters into various categories is just my OCD acting up, wanting to over simplify put everything in there proper places, while checking to see if theres any characters with elements of the archetypes on the way or who may surface one day.

 

[Sanger Zonvolt]

I think Glacius is a good example of a character who was designed to be one archetype but ended up fitting into many, despite in concept being a zoner, his rushdown options are too good, his moves are very safe for this, and he also has strong defensive moves like a balanced character.

He's probably going to need a nerf in the future.

 

[Arcana]

the thing about skullgirls is that I feel like all of the characters have mixes of several achetypes and that makes skullgirls even more fun to play

 

[GirlyStyle]

i think that double is more of a shoto type then filia is

 

[Daemyx]

I think you should put Testament (GG) on the Trappers exemples.

 

[alexpi]

the thing about skullgirls is that I feel like all of the characters have mixes of several achetypes and that makes skullgirls even more fun to play

most games have a lot of mix n' match for character archetypes. Hell, look at Guile in SF4. Nuckledu and Dieminion are very different Guiles, but both are effective.

 

[MaverickHunterX]

Painwheel is an obvious aerial ace with her flight skills. Filia may also count with her hairdash cancels.