Fighting Games and Filler Characters

[ArcanePedro]

Recently I got Super Street Fighter 4 on my new 3DS (woohoo) and I'm playing through the aracde on hardest with every character for the titles and for completetion's sake.
But I just couldnt help thinking...why do I need so many characters to pick from?
Look at Ryu, he's a well rounded balanced, easy to use character but does he really need 7 different palette swaps? And some of the characters just seem specifically designed to be ineffectual (I'm looking at you El Fuerte)
So, do you think fighting games have too many filler characters and would benefit from a streamlined character list? Or do you like having those extra couple of characters to ignore when you just select your favourite?

 

[cgentero]

Its a sequel thing, fighting games rarely improve game mechanics instead just add new areas and new characters. One of the reasons I liked Blaz Blue was the small cast that way I could learn strategies against every character.

 

[-Seraph-]

SOME fighting games do have "clones" in them, CAPCOM is very notorious for this with street fighter. It really sucks too because it's a waste of space and tends to reek of poor balance and imaginative design. I hate these superfluous characters so much and it really detracts from the game.

Thankfully a lot of good fighters don't have these characters.Some might have the "useless" characters, but clones aren't as common. I much prefer it when fighters have a cast of characters that are all unique, keeps things interesting. It's okay to have 30 characters as long as none of them are clones.

 

[Legion IV]

Recently I got Super Street Fighter 4 on my new 3DS (woohoo) and I'm playing through the aracde on hardest with every character for the titles and for completetion's sake.
But I just couldnt help thinking...why do I need so many characters to pick from?
Look at Ryu, he's a well rounded balanced, easy to use character but does he really need 7 different palette swaps? And some of the characters just seem specifically designed to be ineffectual (I'm looking at you El Fuerte)
So, do you think fighting games have too many filler characters and would benefit from a streamlined character list? Or do you like having those extra couple of characters to ignore when you just select your favourite?

just.... this reeks of a troll thread am not gonna bother arguing, not gonna feed this troll.

 

[Space Spoons]

I like a lot of variety in my fighting games. True, there's nothing wrong with the tried-and-true "fireball, rising uppercut, spinkick" formula that Ryu perfected, but I think it's interesting to see different fighting styles being brought into the mix. Hakan, for example, plays unlike anyone I've ever seen in the SF franchise, and was a worthy addition to the cast, in my opinion.

Incidentally, if you think El Fuerte is designed to be ineffectual, you must not play against many real people who use him.

 

[-Seraph-]

just.... this reeks of a troll thread am not gonna bother arguing, not gonna feed this troll.

Wow really dude? How is he trolling when he brings up a perfectly legitimate question? There are cases where what he says IS true, no need to bring in that type of attitude as that doesn't help the discussion.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

That's what I love about Arcsys. Guilty Gear and Blaz Blue don't have as many characters, but each one is unique in their own way and effective for the most part.

This. The reason I love popping in Gulty Gear X2 from time to time. Quality>Quantity

 

[Psycho Cat Industries]

The more the better I say so long as it doesn't end up being a constant repeat of the last game.Really,I prefer the extras,even the random characters like kombot and mokujin.In Soul Calibur I used Kilik and did well except when fighting knightmare and siegfried who disabled the monk's range factor with big as all bastard-swords.

 

[zaiggs]

I definitely agree for certain games. I recently picked up Tekken 6 for cheap and I felt that many of the characters were filler. Maybe it's because I haven't followed the franchise for very long and there's some story behind all of these characters that I don't know.

Super Street Fighter 4 I felt had a tamer version of filler characters. Some were new characters added in SF4, and other were returning from previous SF games (I'm sure the same is true of Tekken 6).

I'm mostly turned off when there are multiple characters with pretty much the same moves/playstyles.

 

[Legion IV]

just.... this reeks of a troll thread am not gonna bother arguing, not gonna feed this troll.

Wow really dude? How is he trolling when he brings up a perfectly legitimate question? There are cases where what he says IS true, no need to bring in that type of attitude as that doesn't help the discussion.

oh Seraph not you, i thought you'd back me up, your the guilty gear guy.

First off he said how theres 7 carbon copys of the same characters, WHO?! Whos the carbon copy, we have Ryu and Ken HUGE gameplay diffrences, sure they started out as a 1 player 2 player thing, what would you rather have capcom just take him out or give him stuff to make him diffrent? They chose to make him diffrent so hes not a copy, and what Akuma? hes one to? BS everybody should know Ryu and akuma are DRASTICLY diffrent like almost polar oppsoites in there playstyle.

Then he says useless characters? Useless how? how is Elf useless? Theres so many videos of him kicking ass in tournaments so how is that useless? So thats why hes a troll either hes a troll or a complete casual fighting game player who knows nothing.

Now take no offence this to this i'll always respect guilty gear players so your the man but somthing you said i gotta argue. How are these supposed "Clones" bad for balance? i assume your taking a hit at SF4.

Have you played the game recently? its one of the more balanced games out there now so i have no idea how to came to that conclusion at all.

 

[-Seraph-]

I was primarily stating that he is posing a legit question in the general sense of things. Sometimes fighting games suffer from clones and clone always suck because the are superfluous. They just clutter things up and do nothing towards the overall balance of the game, it just reeks of lazy design. I wasn't taking a jab ant any real specific game but SF did suffer from it at times, I'm just talking about things in a broader sense.

Calling him a troll was uncalled for though as he said nothing that would even imply that.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

I'm interested in knowing who he considers on the SSFIV cast to be clones, actually. The only ones I can think of that play remotely close to each other are Ryu, Ken, and Akuma, and they have plenty of differences to set them apart (Akuma especially. The only thing he shares in common with the two of them is similar moves).

 

[Mr. GameBrain]

Melee.

That is all.

 

[ArcanePedro]

After reeling from the shock of being called a troll, (I can see where it's coming from, but I was being serious)
I am genuinely sick of having 20+ characters to choose from when,(personally) I would need (at most) 15, but I know that most people will disagree.
Now I'll admit that I've never been a fan of El Fuerte, but then again maybe if I was a better player I would as I could see how a perfect player (or even just an above average one) could make him into the mexican equivalent of chuck norris.
On the palette swap thing, yes, I know the play styles are drastically different for each but your average player isn'y going to be able to do all of the moves from all of the different incarnations of the Ryu archetype.
Admission: I wrote this mostly out of anger of trying to beat Seth on hardest with El Fuerte but I am glad I did as it seems to have started some decent discussion.