How WaG Chooses Fighting Game Characters

We here at What’s a Geek have several people who are a part of the local Fighting Game Community (or the FGC, for short), or are just interested in fighting games in general. So given that, we’ve asked said staff members about how they pick their characters that they choose to play in fighting games.

Leandro (The Host of Salt):

Well, just a little background on my FG experience: I used to play FGs REALLY casually. Just dicking around in Smash Bros., Tekken, Soul Calibur, and the Marvel Vs. series with my friends. Back in those days, I used to pick characters whom I was familiar with, and was a fan of (in the case of Smash and Marvel); I picked characters such as Kirby, and Samus, or Dante, Amaterasu, and Megaman (granted, that’s for the more recent Marvel vs. Capcom 3, going further back, I would pick people like Ryu, Ken, Cyclops, Juggernaut, etc.). Or, in the case of Tekken and Soul Calibur, I would pick characters who I thought were “cool”; like Raven or Zasalamel respectively (apparently, I thought black dudes were cool).

I really got into FGs and the FGC in 2012 with the release of Persona 4 Arena (or Persona 4 The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena in Japan, I still think that’s a FAR superior title). I got into that game because I was, and still am, and huge fan of Atlus and the Persona series; and thanks to P4A, I am now part of the local FGC (this is probably why P4A is still my favorite fighting game, and one of my favorite games of all time). Anyway, the character I chose to main in that game was Aigis. The reason I chose Aigis was because she is one of my favorite characters in the entire series. I also chose to use Elizabeth as a secondary character for the same reasons. Aigis is THE hardest character to play in that game, but I stuck with her just because I love her character. This sets the precedent of how I chose my main characters.

Moving on my timeline of FGs that I play: P4A was basically my gateway drug to Arc System Works games. Of course I played the sequel to P4A: Persona 4 Arena Ultimax (otherwise known as Persona 4: The Ultimax Ultra Suplex Hold in Japan…we really got shafted naming-wise with these games). I TRIED, to keep maining Aigis, but her changes didn’t sit well with me, so I had to give up my waifu. In that game, I picked up Elizabeth’s sister: Margaret. She was super fun to use, and a lot more simple in comparison to Aigis. I picked up the game again, briefly, last year. That time I wasn’t feeling the desire to put time into characters (I however did try to relearn Aigis, still too hard) so I decided to play with Minazuki (with Persona). Rather than going with characters I like, or am a fan of design-wise, I just picked up the character that jives with my preferred playstyle: rushdown. So that’s my character history for the Persona 4 Arena series. 

Moving on, let’s talk about my Blazblue character history. I picked up the series in Chrono Phantasma. Given my lack of prior experience with the series, I just went with characters whose design I liked for my potential main. First I tried Izayoi. She looked cool, played cool, played like Aigis, was WAY too hard for me to play execution-wise. Then I moved on to Bullet. I LOVED her design, but (INITIALLY) I didn’t enjoy her playstyle. So I finally settled with Azrael. Simple rush-down character, with a VERY simple yet high damaging combos. He served as my main for the duration of me playing that game. Getting into Chrono Phantasma Extend (CPE), this is when I really got into using Bullet. Her buffs in this game were enough for me to understand, and enjoy her playstyle. So, she was my designated main pick for CPE.

Now, we get into the game I’m currently hardlining and playing regularly: Guilty Gear Xrd. I’ve always liked Guilty Gear, back in the day I would buy a copy of any GG game that was available to my system of choice, and would just dick around and admire the characters. I was always a fan of I-no’s character and design. However, in -Sign- rather than I-no, I picked Ramlethal. Ram was WAY too cool for me to pass-up. Her playstyle didn’t originally jive with my preferences, but I stuck with her cause I was too big of a fan. I eventually tried picking up I-no. I got “DECENT” with her, but her execution barrier is way too steep for me to put in the required time to “git gud”. So I just stuck with Ram through-out that game’s life span. In the sequel, Revelator (which I reviewed btw) I still stuck with my main gal Ram. I do desire to try and learn the tower defense character that is Jack-O, or main waifu Dizzy.

This is getting a bit long so I’ll just give the brief down-low on how I picked my Street Fighter V character (oh, look I reviewed that, too). The immediate second I saw Laura’s trailer, I knew that I would pick her. Her playstyle is almost EXACTLY like Bullet’s so I knew I’d like her. But then, I heard Juri’s coming too… She came out last week … She got me back into SFV… Bye, Laura.

So, yeah, this is how my character choosing process works. An outline/TL;DR version of the process would look something like this:

1. Does a character fit my waifu aesthetic? If yes go to (2), if no go to (3)
2. Can I adjust to the character’s playstyle? If yes, yay I have my main, if no go to (3)
3. Is there a character whose playstyle I enjoy/find interesting? If yes, profit, if no go to (4)
4. RUSHDOWN!