Oh I was one too before learning the game. Mash kick and any random direction to do cool moves
A Celebration of Black Characters in Games
- Thread starter Neoxon
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practicing his target combos in 3S got me into actually learning fighting games w/o just mashing lolWaiting for Dudley
They did him dirty in T7 storymode
Sean in SFV, Eddy in T7
I don't know what brazil did to piss japan these past years but it looks serious
Nice write-up on Leroy, Neoxon. I do have one question, though:
Did you mean to say "pit-bull terrier"?
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Thank you for the kind words. Also, he's finally here! Normally I would have waited until 8 AM to post it. But since I already had Zasalamel's section done & it's a somewhat decent hour in the morning, might as well post it.
DAY 5: ZASALAMEL (SOUL CALIBUR)I know, two Bandai Namco characters in a row. But I specifically said one per franchise, not one per company. So Zasalamel is still fair game. As for his story, it may get a bit complex considering that there are two timelines to take into account: The old timeline of Soul Caliburs II through IV & the new timeline seen in Soul Calibur VI. But his origin story across both are about the same, so I'll specify the parts specific to each game where I can.
Zasalamel's final boss form in SCIII, Abyss. Damn, it's been a while.
In the original timeline, Zasalamel was part of a tribe that protected the Soul Calibur, after trying to wield the weapon in question, Zas was cast out by said tribe. From there, he cultivated his magical talents (thanks to his photographic memory, where he only needs to see something once to perform it himself, not unlike Marvel's Taskmaster) as well as seeking out once-lost knowledge until he re-learned the art of reincarnation. He succeeded, with his memories being retained through each rebirth as well as his body matching his original once he's fully grown. But there was one catch to the whole reincarnation thing, Zasalamel couldn't really turn it off. As such, he as basically doomed to reincarnate for all of eternity. Not even the Soul Edge (the opposite of the sword he was once sworn to protect) could kill him for good. This part specifically was from his debut game, Soul Calibur III, where he served as an antagonist keeping anyone who was in his way of taking his own life. He even had an alternate form that was one of SCIII's final bosses, Abyss. Anyway, he tried going back to back to his old tribe, only to find that they've already died out. Zasalamel eventually came to terms with his eternal reincarnation, taking it as an opportunity to impart wisdom upon humanity to help the world grow & progress (as of Soul Calibur IV). So in a way, Zasalamel eventually found peace……..until the timeline was reset. In the new timeline, Zasalamel's origin is about the same in that he was cast out by the tribe (called the Guardians of the Spirit Sword in this continuity) & eventually granted himself reincarnation, not realizing that it was more of a curse than a blessing. But this time, he found a light showing a bright future for the world between rebirths. So basically Zasalamel side-stepped the heel-turn part of his life & wanted to work towards making that bright future a reality, which helped him look on the bright side of his reincarnation ability. In a way, it's great that even though Zasalamel made the same initial mistakes between timelines, he came to realize the blessings that come with his ability to reincarnate. Plus it serves as a way to not make those who watched Zasalamel grow & come to terms with his mistakes feel cheated by the timeline reset. And hey, he actually has a black English voice actor (Keith Silverstein). So good job there, Bamco. As for how Zasalamel plays, he tends to excel at controlling the space of the battlefield, methodically putting the player in positions where he wants them to be. From there, Zasalamel is able to finish the job with either modified versions of his techniques from the Guardians of the Spirit Sword or his scythe Kafziel ("Angel of Death"). As a Kilik main, I haven't played too much of Zasalamel. But facing someone who's good with him is a pain in the ass, which I suppose makes sense considering that he's one of the better characters in the game competitively.
Zasalamel's designs over the years, namely his most recent & his earliest looks.
As for his design, I'll focus on the Soul Calibur VI & III versions of his design since those are the two which differ the most (his SCIV look isn't too far removed from his VI design anyway). Zasalamel is a bald black man with a golden left eye (the eye remains gold regardless of his reincarnations), with a tattoo around said golden eye to further draw your attention towards it. And like most of the other black fighting game characters I've covered, he primarily wears white to contrast with his skin tone with gold accents (I'm starting to notice a trend with Japan-made black characters in fighting games). The biggest parts of his SCVI design are his comically-giant pointed gold shoulder pads & his feather-like cape which dominate his silhouette, while his gold chest plate & emerald green cuffs complementing the rest of his design. The green of said cuffs actually serve as a great way to break up the whites & golds with a more vibrant color than the black of his inner thigh section & abs. It's a decent design that tells you the core essentials you need to know about Zasalamel. And while it's hard to communicate the idea of eternal reincarnation through character design, the whole ancient wizard look in addition to the infinity symbol on his chest does as good of a job as it can with communicating the idea. But at the same time, it's a bit complex in its execution with a lot of design elements fighting for your attention. If nothing else, it gives him a unique silhouette (& I love the cape). As for his SCIII design, it's much more simplistic than his SCVI look (following the "less is more" mentality). In here, green plays a larger role in the design, with the white being slightly less prominent than it is in later iterations of the design. He also rocks a sleeveless robe, showing off his muscles, complemented with long white fingerless gloves with a black strap & gold accents. The infinity emblem is here as well, a design element that's retained his his later redesigns. And the larger presence of green at his lower section is meant to break up the large amounts of white in his long thigh-high boots. I actually generally prefer his SCIII design, but I don't hate his later designs.
With all that said, I do have one major complaint with his SCVI look in particular. That complaint would be the inconsistency of his skin tone. In the actual art, his skin is consistently dark across all of his incarnations. But in-game, his SCVI version is much lighter in skin tone than before the reboot. And you can't even use the reincarnation excuse since the specific part of his lore is that each reincarnation of Zasalamel grows to be exactly the same physically as the original. So I'm not sure why Bandai Namco decided to lighten his skin. On the more detailed side of things regarding my gripes, his palms are the same shade as the rest of his skin, which is a recurring thing for more stylistic games. I only bring it up now because Tekken 7 actually went through the effort of giving Leroy Smith lighter palms. But it's something that I hope is rectified in games going forward. But outside of that, I really like Zasalamel. He's an interesting & complex character who I enjoyed seeing grow throughout the games he was in. And as mentioned already, I respect both Bandai Namco not completely walking back on his character development in SCIV despite the reboot (which I'm still surprised by, as I thought they would want to bring back Abyss in some capacity given the reboot) in VI & how he plays from a mechanical standpoint (writing this makes me want to hit the lab with him). Actually…….there is one more complaint. Throughout Soul Calibur's entire existence, HOW THE HELL IS ZASALAMEL STILL THE ONLY BLACK CHARACTER IN THE ENTIRE FRANCHISE!? SERIOUSLY, WHAT THE SHIT, BAMCO!?!?!? *breathes* It's fine, at least Soul Calibur has a black character.......unlike a CERTAIN other fighting game franchise Bandai Namco develops for another company (*cough*Smash*cough*). There, I got it out of my system. But yeah, great job with Zasalamel…….just fix his skin tone next time……..& his palms.
Thanks for taking the time to read today's post. Be sure to come back tomorrow for the next character in the Fighters Section of Black Characters of Gaming Celebration. As for tomorrow, it's kinda hard to tease the Mortal Kombat character without outright giving it away, so I'll leave them as a surprise.
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I love this write up about Zasalamel, especially his outfit. It was one of the standouts from SC3. You are also correct; you would think the stage of history would have another Black character gunning for the sword, but I'm glad the one we have is unkillable and isn't a magical negro stereotype, because SCIV had me scared he was leaning that way.
Excellent write up as always! And I'll throw my MK guess in the ring and see if we get another time travelin' Black man in Geras, whose design I immediately fell in love with.
Excellent write up as always! And I'll throw my MK guess in the ring and see if we get another time travelin' Black man in Geras, whose design I immediately fell in love with.
Haven't played the new Soul Caliber games but Zasalamel looks like he would play a lot like Kilik. Looks like he would be fun as hell to use. Sucks he was introduced after I stopped playing the games.
Didn't say this before, but damn fine thread you got here Neo.
Didn't say this before, but damn fine thread you got here Neo.
Seeing Zas on the cover of 3 was a game changer
I tried him out a bit in the new one and he plays nothing like Kilik. He is very fun and uses time powers. Where would put some orbs on you and the more you have the longer he can freeze time. If he has his back to the ring out you best back away. And he has an insane super that hits everyone.
All around dope but alittle too many just frame combos
I played SCII with my brother a lot but SCIII was the first time I really started paying attention to the story and it was cool to see a black character as a main focus at the time.
I definitely agree with you about how it's weird that there's only one black character despite all these characters traveling the world and fighting each other. Certain continents of the world just aren't represented at all in SC; I don't think there's any Latin American rep either unless I'm forgetting someone.
I definitely agree with you about how it's weird that there's only one black character despite all these characters traveling the world and fighting each other. Certain continents of the world just aren't represented at all in SC; I don't think there's any Latin American rep either unless I'm forgetting someone.
Zas was a great addition to SC3 among the rest of the new additions all being great, for once.
About his outfit and coloring of it being mostly white, part of it is definitely for contrasting with his skin (yeah, this happens a TON in Japanese stuff) but also could be done for different reasons like as a symbol for power, enlightenment or going way back (like the time periods SC takes place in) as a symbol of mourning/funeral since he basically dresses like a reaper and uses a scythe.
About his outfit and coloring of it being mostly white, part of it is definitely for contrasting with his skin (yeah, this happens a TON in Japanese stuff) but also could be done for different reasons like as a symbol for power, enlightenment or going way back (like the time periods SC takes place in) as a symbol of mourning/funeral since he basically dresses like a reaper and uses a scythe.
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It truly was a sight to behold. If only he was less obscured in shadows in the NA box art.Seeing Zas on the cover of 3 was a game changer
I tried him out a bit in the new one and he plays nothing like Kilik. He is very fun and uses time powers. Where would put some orbs on you and the more you have the longer he can freeze time. If he has his back to the ring out you best back away. And he has an insane super that hits everyone.
All around dope but alittle too many just frame combos
I get that they were trying to play up the mystery, & you can still clearly tell that he's black from his arms. But him being on full display, with Namco showing absolute pride in his design is something I appreciate about the EU version of the box art.
Atleast they didnt remove him entirely from the coverIt truly was a sight to behold. If only he was less obscured in shadows in the NA box art.
I get that they were trying to play up the mystery, & you can still clearly tell that he's black from his arms. But him being on full display, with Namco showing absolute pride in his design is something I appreciate about the EU version of the box art.
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Well, it's one of the Briggs. Just not the one most would think of when you say "Mortal Kombat".
DAY 6: JACQUI BRIGGS (MORTAL KOMBAT)As I mentioned in the Leroy section, black women in fighting games are very hard to come by. It's definitely gotten better in recent years between Twintelle, Master Raven, Giovanna, & Darli Dagger. Even way back in the 90's, we had Elena. But outside of them & a few others, we haven't had a ton of black women who are playable in fighting games. And even then, a number of them are marred with colorism in one way or another (be it a refusal to make them darker-skinned or, in the case of characters like Darli Dagger, over-sexualizing them). These are topics covered better in celes' thread on the topic, so definitely check that out (link's in the Twintelle section). Anyway, onto Jacqui herself. Part of the reason why I opted for her over her more famous father Jax is for two reasons. One, as I said earlier, black women are hard to come by in fighting games. Two, I generally find Jacqui to be a more interesting character than her father, both from a story & a mechanical standpoint. So yeah, onwards to her lore.
The new generation in MKX. A shame that not all of them returned in 11.
Jacqueline Sonya "Jacqui" Briggs is the daughter of long-time series veteran Jackson "Jax" Briggs. As such, I should probably preface this with the relevant parts of Jax's story that led to Jacqui. In the rebooted Mortal Kombat timeline introduced in MK9, Jax was brutally killed by Sindel & later enslaved by Quan Chi as one of his revenants. Though fortunately for him, he was eventually freed from Quan Chi's control alongside Scorpion & Sub-Zero 25 years before the events of Mortal Kombat X. During that time, Jax's guilt for the things he did under Quan Chi's control led him to leave the military, but he did eventually marry Vera. And thus, Jacqui came into existence. Now we move to Jacqui's actual story. Jacqui is one of the four new Special Forces members introduced in Mortal Kombat X alongside lifelong friend Cassie Cage (Johnny Cage & Sonya Blade's daughter), Takeda Takahashi (Kenshi Takahashi's son, Hanzo Hasashi's disciple, & Jacqui's boyfriend, later fiancé as of MK11), & Kung Jin (Kung Lao's nephew &, to my knowledge, Mortal Kombat's first openly gay playable character). Though in Jacqui's case, she joined the military against her father's wishes, with Jax fearing that Jacqui would endure the same hardship that he had to face while with the Special Forces. Jax does eventually accept that his daughter wants to join Special Forces, even giving her a handgun (which he teaches her how to use) as a gift. But despite her father's newfound acceptance, Jacqui admitted that the people she & Cassie had to hurt &/or kill along the way weighed heavy on her heart. Still, she persevered because she knew her father endured worse, so she could do the same. And going by her accomplishments with Special Forces, she's been doing a great job of living up to her father's legacy (not to mention being a solid pilot). From there, she faced the likes of Kotal Kahn, D'Vrah, Reptile, Ermac (the one who took her father's arms), and Ferra & Torr. Even if she didn't ultimately take down Shinnok (that was the Cage Family), Jaquie more than proved herself. Then she was put through the emotional ringer in MK11 where her father was played like a fiddle by Kronika with the false promise of using the new timeline to wipe away the trauma he faced. Granted, she had the younger version of Jax backing her up for most of the story, & Jax eventually came to his senses (the first time thanks to Raiden talking some sense into Jax near the end of the story, & in the re-do of MK11 Aftermath by Raiden's brother Fujin), but that doesn't discredit the betrayal Jacqui had to deal with. But at the same, she persevered & helped bring down Kronya. Even in her (non-canon) arcade ending, she still valued her dad's happiness over her own despite everything, even if it meant wiping herself from existence for that to happen (thankfully this isn't canon, as it'd be a shame to lose Jacqui). Though within the actual canon story, Jacqui sadly isn't a super-major player compared to the likes of the Cages, Raiden, or Liu Kang in the grand scheme of things, but she isn't a completely underutilized character either. So I'm at least thankful for that.
Jacqui is actually really damn good in MK11.
As for how she plays mechanically, she's very much a rushdown character with pressure options for days (A.K.A. Right up my alley as a Karin main in SFV). Though s far as how she fights, she's mainly a kickboxing practitioner (a martial art that I'm surprised isn't used more often, though it is used for the likes of Min Min in ARMS) who relies on tech-enhanced attacks to varying degrees. In MKX, this comes in the form of her multi-purpose gauntlets. They have a range of abilities outside of the typical strength enhancement such as plasma blasts, shotgun rounds, or even machine gun rounds alongside rockets. Which of these set of weapons you get for her gauntlets will vary depending on which variation you chose for Jacqui, a mechanic unique to MKX. In MK11, Jacqui adds leg exo-augmentation to bring her kicks more in line with her punches in addition to having electrical currents that can go between her arm & leg tech. This results in faster punches & kicks that help put even more pressure on her opponents. Jacqui also has a barrier, but she doesn't use it nearly as much as I'd like (we could have gotten an Aegis Reflector in MK11 ;_;). Anyway, Jacqui is considered to be up there as one of the best characters in the game tier-wise (alongside the likes of Liu Kang & Cetrion). Exactly how good she is relative to the rest of the cast is still up for debate (as some argued early on that she was broken), but most of the pros seem to agree that she's really damn good. Of the two, I personally prefer MKX Jacqui. But that's mostly because I prefer MKX from a gameplay standpoint to MK11 (which is a topic for another time). With that said, let's move on to Jacqui's designs.
Jacqui become more tech-based between games, which I can appreciate.
Jacqui's design differs quite a bit between MKX & MK11. In MKX, she has her hair braided & tied back. She also has more standard military garb, though she has two primary variations of it. Both are a pale navy blue, but one is a cameo shirt with the sleeves rolled up & a bullet-proof vest on, while the other is just a tank top. These are accompanied by her gauntlets, which differ in look depending on the design. The tank top version has more basic gauntlets, whereas the full outfit trades those gauntlets in for what look to be more advanced variants. Going into MK11, the first thing I noticed is the improved skin rendering tech at display, which has done wonders for Jacqui (& basically everyone else in the cast). And if Spider-Man: Miles Morales on PS5 is any indication, I'm excited to see what other developers (like NRS, in this case) can do with the new hardware with regards to skin rendering. Either way, it's nice to see MK's black characters look well-moisturized (since, as I just said, Jacqui isn't the only one who saw this improvement). As for Jacqui's actual design in MK11, it seems like she iterated on the tech further, adding a full vest & the leg….gauntlets (I'm not sure what to call them)her greaves (thanks, @The Adder). The vest in particular has white accents & baby blue lights. There's a little bit of boob plate going on that kinda sticks out to me, but there have been worse instances as she clearly isn't being sexualized in MK11. I mean, she was a bit in MKX with the tank-top alt, but that marked the beginning of NetherRealm Studios moving away from sexualizing their women. Anyway, the gauntlets are green with gold accents, which lines up with Jacqui trading in her blue tank top for a green one in addition to wearing her braids down more (with some of them still tied up). Not to mention that Jacqui's one of the few cases where one's skin tone becomes darker between entries, something I didn't notice until writing her section & a change that definitely won't say no to (usually it's the other way around). In a way, her MK11 design leans more into the engineering prowess of Jacqui, putting that aspect of her character front-&-center while making green, white, & gold her 3 main colors. And honestly, I'm glad that they did. I've always liked her character & her play style, but now she's leaning more into her own visual identity. The black army person archetype isn't uncommon in media, so it's at least nice that MK11 did more to set Jacqui apart from the usuals of that archetype.
I'm not sure I really have any complaints about how Jacqui is handled. It's weird, as usually I have at least a few things to say on this topic. But nope, no issues regarding her VA, no white hair (outside of old age) & blue eyes, no overt colorism (though again, I wish we had more dark-skinned black women in gaming). NRS did a pretty good job here. Though granted, this is the first Western-made fighting game that I've covered, so a couple of things could be noted in the transition. For one, there's less of a reliance on blue eyes & white hair (as mentioned earlier), though she still has white for the tech-based parts of her design. This makes sense, as a shiny white with gold accents gives off the "high-tech" vibe that NRS was clearly going for with Jacqui's MK11 design. I still wish that all 4 of the new Special Forces kids made the cut. Kung Jin was a fun archer & it's a shame that the game's first gay character didn't return, & it's kinda weird that Takeda (Jacqui's own fiancé) didn't return. But I'm at least glad that at least Jacqui & Cassie came back. And while the timeline seems to have been rebooted again, I hope that it didn't remove her or the others from the equation. From her character to her play-style to her tech-based visual identity, Jacqui Briggs is a legitimately great addition to the Mortal Kombat kast. Please keep her around, NRS.
Thanks for taking the time to read today's post. Be sure to come back tomorrow for the last character in the Fighters Section of Black Characters of Gaming Celebration. As for tomorrow, we all have our weaknesses, but this character shows how important it is to pick ourselves back up.
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That was a great write up, Neoxon.
Jacqui was the weakest newcomer in MKX imo. Her design was pretty boring and she had the spammiest variation in the game. But NRS improved her a lot in 11. she no longer has cheap projectiles and her Alterative outfit is one of my favorites in the game!
Jacqui was the weakest newcomer in MKX imo. Her design was pretty boring and she had the spammiest variation in the game. But NRS improved her a lot in 11. she no longer has cheap projectiles and her Alterative outfit is one of my favorites in the game!
Another great write up. The point about colourism with the women characters is a good one. There aren't many dark skinned women to choose from. Raven from Eternal Champions 2 is an earlier example with darker skin but her stereotypical voodoo theme wouldn't go over well today. Jacqui is a better pick.
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Funny enough, I just noticed that Jacqui's skin tone got darker between MKX & MK11. I guess I never saw MKX & MK11 Jacqui side-by-side like this until I did the write-up.
I like Jacqui in MKX but hated how drab she was compared to the rest of the roster. The military in MK has never dressed like the military and that is especially true of the Special Forces and OIA. MK11 did her right and I was glad for ir.
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So that's what they're called. Thanks, I've edited the write-up accordingly.
And yeah, I'm glad that MK11 did right by Jacqui.
SC VI Zasalamel is a really fun character because it's implied his vision of the future is literally from the original timeline, and more specifically his ending from SC IV.
Never understood why Zasalamel wasn't in Soul Calibur V. He's like the one character with a legit excuse to be there.
What the hell is going on with her hair every picture i look at it looks like feathers or something.
Week 1: Fighting Game Characters
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Since I'm pretty sure that I'm gonna hit the character count limit in the OP, I'm gonna put completed weeks in their own dedicated posts. Not only will they be threadmarked, but you can also access them via a link in the OP. Also, now that the poll for the fighting game characters ended, here are the results.
WEEK 1: FIGHTING GAME CHARACTERS
DAY 1: TWINTELLE (ARMS)
Let's be honest, you all knew I was gonna start with the Silver Screen Queen who should have been the ARMS rep in Smash Ultimate (not hating on Min Min, mind you, she's the 2nd best pick they could have made). And as many of you are aware, Twintelle is one of the few instances of melanin in a Nintendo game (lord knows Smash Ultimate could used some). Regarding her story, Twintelle started her career in the spotlight as part of the same record label as Ribbon Girl. But according to Biff (the announcer for ARMS), she eventually decided to pursue a career in acting, so she & Ribbon Girl parted ways in terms of them working together. This soon led Twintelle to establishing Twintelle Productions, eventually resulting in a productive career as a world-famous actress in the world of ARMS (thus earning the aforementioned moniker). To address the obvious elephant in the room, Twintelle is the only known character who possesses the ARMS gene that had said gene materialize in the form of her hair rather than her actual arms. Twintelle also possesses the ability to slow down time around her opponents, which helps Twintelle stand out compared to her fellow combatants (Fun Fact: That mask is a free mask issued by ARMS Labs & is meant for being able to take control of said extendable limbs, as the arms would be more-or-less useless without the mask being on). This fact has caught the interest of ARMS Labs, who have tried & failed to have Twintelle come in for examination.
Twintelle always comes dressed to impress, fitting considering her status as a top-tier actress.
As for her design, Yabuki's team at Nintendo EPD Group 9 (in cooperation with Nintendo of America & Nintendo of Europe) did a great job with Twintelle. She's probably the 2nd biggest fan-favorite of the ARMS cast (at least in the West, Ninjara is in 2nd over in Japan), behind only Min Min. As far as her design is concerned, it's a great one. Twintelle skin complexion jells perfectly with her white sleeveless shirt, which is styled extravagantly in a way that shows that she takes her fashion very seriously. And on that topic, her shoes are basically sneaker heels are the perfect expression of her duality of form & function. Normally I'm not big on characters wearing heels in fighting games (namely for practicality reasons), but I'm known to make exceptions when they thematically fit the character in question. And the symbolism of Twintelle's sneaker heels are so great that I'm willing to make such an exception here. As for critiques that I have with Twintelle, I have two. One, I wish that they gave Twintelle a bit more muscle. Canonically, Twintelle hits the gym quite often & is actually stronger than series poster boy Spring Man. As such, I wish that Nintendo took a cue from Street Fighter & let her have a decent amount of muscle for her regular arms.
Even with her normal arms, Twintelle benches more than Spring Man.
Another issue I have is with her voice actress. Because ARMS did all of its voice recording in Japan, Nintendo EPD Group 9 stuck with actors in the general area of the studio. In Twintelle's case, she's voiced by French singer Adeyto Rex Angeli. Having white actors in PoC roles seems to be a recurring problem with Nintendo (Claude, Cyril, & Dedue being recent examples for Nintendo's characters of color), one that I hope is addressed going forward. And even outside of Nintendo, Twintelle is far from the only character who has this problem (even of the characters I have planned). To take a bit of a tangent to focus on the topic, the most famous example of this is Nadine Ross from Uncharted (she was in the running to be listed under Action), being voiced by Laura Bailey. While granted, Laura was cast prior to Nadine's design being finalized, she should have been recast when Nadine's design was locked in. Going back to Twintelle, while this isn't a big problem with Twintelle specifically, I wish that there were more black women with darker skin. There are some examples in gaming already (one will be talked about later in the month), but there should be more. But that goes more into colorism in games, which is a topic that was covered in beautiful detail by our own celes (who was actually among the people who helped me out with this thread). Please check out her thread when you get the chance.
www.resetera.com
I guess Twintelle being more sexualized than the others does fall into colorism to a degree, but one could also attribute that to her profession as a film actress (but even then, the argument remains). Thankfully ARMS doesn't sexualize her too much, & the degree to which she is sexualized never feels degrading to her character. But if that's thanks to NoA & NoE's assistance with Twintelle's creation or because of the game's E10+ rating preventing things from going too far is unknown. Still, it's something to consider & an issue that I hope is fixed in the near future. Though regarding Twintelle as a whole, she's a great character who I hope gets a chance to shine even more in the future, both within ARMS as a franchise & hopefully as a character in the next Smash game (because Smash's lack of melanin is getting annoying at this point).
DAY 2: NAGORIYUKI (GUILTY GEAR)
One of the two newcomers in the base roster of Guilty Gear Strive, I did have some apprehension towards including a newer character from an as-of-yet-released game. But considering that we know quite a bit about him already & have seen him in action, I thought I should go ahead & bring up Nagoriyuki since he also represents a positive change in the industry. Not to mention that I want to give props to upcoming games that are bringing us black excellence. As as his lore goes, Nagoriyuki is a Nigerian vampire with a strong sense of honor & happens to be very kind. His gentle nature contrasts his large build & his vampiric nature, though most of the blood-sucking comes from his blade rather than doing any of the actual biting himself. It's also heavily implied that Nagoriyuki is the disciple of series veteran Slayer, which would make sense given that they're both vampires & Nagoriyuki still doesn't have full control over his bloodlust. As you can tell, I can't really go into as much detail about Nagoriyuki's lore since we don't have Guilty Gear Strive in our hands yet, so I can't get into too much of his lore right now. Even with this gameplay, he was described by Arc System Works as a "One Shot" character. That in conjunction with the gameplay we've seen of Nagoriyuki looks more like he plays like a Samurai Shodown character than a Guilty Gear character. Though obviously with Guilty Gear's mechanics such as Roman Cancels & Burst, he won't feel too out-of-place in the game mechanically. With that said, I can talk about his design, which is actually part of the reason why I decided to list him.
Nagoriyuki mainly wears white with orange & black being his secondary colors in addition to purple & red accents. This does go beyond the tried-&-true "three main colors" ideology when it comes to character design, but Nagoriyuki definitely makes it work. The white of his coat contrasts well with his darker skin, with his dreads being on-point. Nagoriyuki also primarily wears a horned helmet with exposed teeth (the mouth part of which does open up so he can eat when necessary). When his blood meter reaches its maximum, he goes berserk & the mask comes off. If anything, I wish he didn't have the mask, but I don't hate it. And while you could say that the idea of a black guy going wild is a stereotype in & of itself, it's mainly in a vampiric sense than the typical stereotype and serves to contrast his usual personality of the gentle giant. Of course, the reason why I wanted to talk about Nagoriyuki is because he represents a positive trend in the industry with regards how they handle black characters: Their willingness to listen to criticism.
A change that I didn't expect Arc System Works to make, but one that I greatly appreciate.
In his original incarnation, Nagoriyuki lips were unicolor & of a lighter shade than the rest of his skin. This unfortunately invokes an offensive racist stereotype from back in the day, a fact that seems to go over the heads of most Japanese developers, artists, writers, & beyond. I even did a thread drawing attention to this fact. But come October 2020, you could imagine my surprise when I saw that Arc System Works actually listened to fan criticisms about his lips & actually corrected them. Now Nagoriyuki's top lip is darker than the rest of his skin, with his bottom lip retaining the original lighter shade they already had prior to the change. This is more in line with how black lips actually are, & I can't give Arc System Works enough props for making this change. If I had to point out any gripes beyond the now-fixed lips, I'd say that I wish his eyes were brown (a lot of the Japan-made black characters have blue eyes, from Twintelle to Nagoriyuki to Giovanna).Likewise, it'd be nice if Nagoriyuki's palms were a lighter shade to properly represent how the hands of black people are. Scratch that, Arc System Works actually made his palms slightly lighter.
.....They did it......they actually did it.
Any potential critiques about his character will have to be saved for when the game is actually out, but I don't see anything overtly problematic about Nagoriyuki at the moment. So with that being said, I'll count my blessings where I can, as this is a great step forward for how black people are represented in games (especially Japanese games). I can't give too many other thoughts without actually getting the game (which I have every intention of doing), but everything we've seen of Nagoriyuki is filling me with both hype for the game & hope for the future. Good job, Arc System Works. Hopefully more developers follow your example.
DAY 3: SEAN MATSUDA (STREET FIGHTER)
Street Fighter III was an interesting time for the franchise. While Third Strike is often heralded as the best entry in the franchise by the core fanbase (myself included), SFIII as a whole took a pretty difficult road towards that fame given the issues that its predecessors (New Generation & 2nd Impact) had. One of the initial struggles that SFIII had was the lack of any returning characters from Street Fighter II or Alpha (more so the former) beyond Ryu & Ken. The shoto fighter who served as one of the marquee newcomers of the Street Fighter III series of games, Sean Matsuda. For the record, it ultimately came down to him, Elena, & Dudley as far as who I would go with for the Street Fighter character. But the decision came to who I had more to talk about, both good & bad. And honestly, Sean is worth the discussion on both fronts. Anyway, onto his lore. Born to an Afro-Brazilian mother (Brenda) & a Japanese father (Yuichiro), Sean is the youngest of the Matsuda children (behind eldest brother Fabio & the middle child sister Laura, the latter of whom would make her playable appearance in Street Fighter V). Following the death of his grandfather Kinjiro (at the hands of Vega/Claw, if Street Fighter: Resurrection is any indication), Fabio took up Kinjiro's old dojo &, in turn, the pure form of Matsuda Jiu-Jitsu. Because of this, family tradition dictated that Laura & Sean couldn't practice pure Matsuda Jiu-Jitsu. The two got around this by finding their own takes on the martial art. Laura's is closer to the original form with her own personal flair, which can be seen in Street Fighter V. Sean on the other hand mixed it with another martial art, Shotokan. Enamored by the feats of long-time Shotokan practitioner Ken Masters, Sean decided to mold his Shotokan moves after Ken. The result is a mix of Shotokan & Matsuda Jiu-Jitsu, as we see in Street Fighter III. But the thing is, Sean is still really wet behind the ears with regards to the Shoto moves he knows, to the point where one of his supers is a regular Hadoken. Sean plays like an unrefined shoto on account of his limited training & mixing things with Matsuda Jiu-Jitsu to make up for his Shotokan shortcomings, which helps set him apart from Ryu & Ken. Hell, Sean event throws out a basketball (performing said taunt increases the stun damage that Sean's attacks inflict), which is honestly a nice touch of individuality compared to Ryu & Ken. These facts as a whole add a lot to his character. It's just a shame that he was only really good tier-wise in 2nd Impact. But given that Sean always has something to prove & hates being seen as weak, he maintains a constant drive to better himself on all fronts.
The Matsuda family has a surprising amount of backstory to them.
Sean has had a couple of designs throughout the canonical Street Fighter timeline (one of them is shown in the initial image), but I'll focus primarily on his first playable appearance in Street Fighter III & his Character Story Mode appearance in Street Fighter V. For the former, there's not a whole lot to talk about. He wears a yellow gi that better taken care of like his idol (Ken) with a black belt & red padded gloves. It's nothing overly unique, but the yellow color gets the point across that he's more vibrant & outgoing compared to Ryu & Ken (though this personality trait is not too far off from the latter). Sean also has a solid-ass fade on the sides in addition to some dreads at the top front part of his head. Likewise, his earrings show that he isn't afraid to accessorize where he can. Sean's design is textbook "less is more", & I honestly appreciate that. Though his Street Fighter V Character Story Mode design does give us a younger, more casual Sean, before he practiced Shotokan in earnest.
Not a bad Sean design, if only he was playable in Street Fighter V.
To be honest, I actually really like this design (much more than his Cinematic Story Mode look). Despite being earlier in the timeline, it's probably a natural step towards making Sean more of an individual from a design standpoint. He still has the red gloves & earrings, but the gloves have more prominent padded finger holes compared to his gloves in SFIII. Likewise, he adopts a more personalized pair of sweats (customization that I wish Laura went for with her default design). And he tops it off with red sneakers (which would probably be Air Jordans if Capcom was willing to pay the licensing fee), which complement the gloves perfectly. This is actually a really strong design that's honestly slept on. Maybe it can come back as an alternate costume if Sean returns in Street Fighter VI (please come back). Though while we're on the topic of SFV's story, I'd might as well bring up one of my criticisms about Sean that pertains to said story. In Laura's Character Story, Bengus drew Sean to be considerably more pale than he actually is. This problem was eventually corrected in the Cinematic Story Mode, but the problem still persists in the 2D story drawings, which honestly annoys me. I get that Bengus didn't exactly have a lot of time to make those drawings, but still.
If I had to criticize anything else about Sean, it's how he was treated & his English voice actor. For the former, he's seen as a bit of a joke. In Street Fighter V, it's somewhat understandable that he isn't as proficient at fighting. But he has at least some knowledge of Matsuda Jiu-Jitsu by that point, so he should at least be able to put up a decent fight. Not to mention the fact that he was only really good in 2nd Impact before being nerfed to irrelevancy in Third Strike (a fact that still stings to this day). As for the VA part, he faces a similar issue as Twintelle & Nadine in that his English voice actor is white (Chris Rickabaugh to be exact). As mentioned before, this is a recurring problem with black characters in games. But it's even more apparent for Sean since his Laura (his older sister) actually has a black actress voicing her in English (specifically G.K. Bowes). Though I guess Devil May Cry 5 may have been a wake-up call for Capcom (in reference to Morrison's white, as well as racist & transphobic, English VA), as they've been more careful on such matters in recent years (namely with the General in MHW Iceborne). So hopefully this is a problem that will correct itself going forward for all people of color in Street Fighter, not just Sean or Balrog. With all that said, Sean perfectly encapsulates the idea of the new generation taking over. But currently he has the potential to do just that, potential that Capcom has yet to capitalize on due to both sleeping on Sean as a character as well as their hesitance to move the Street Fighter timeline forward. Let's just hope that he gets another chance to represent said generation going forward, ideally in Street Fighter VI.
DAY 4: LEROY SMITH (TEKKEN)
Choosing a black character for Tekken was legitimately a tough call, as it was either him or Master Raven (both Tekken 7 newbies). Ultimately, I decided to go with my boy Leroy for a reason I'll explain at the end. That said, I do recognize that black women in fighting games are hard to come by, something that I'll touch on with one of the upcoming characters I have in the pipeline. Anyway, Leroy Smith is one of Tekken 7's DLC characters who just oozes cool & black excellence. To start with his lore, Leroy's family was killed to violence incited by the Mishima Zaibatsu (likely during Heihachi Mishima's time as head of the Zaibatsu) known as the Big Apple War. Narrowly surviving the ordeal & not wanting to ever feel helpless again, Leroy left New York to travel the world for 50 years as a trader. Following his visit to Hong Kong, Leroy wanted to stay & master the martial art of Wing Chun in the hopes of using his skills to bring back peace to New York by taking down the criminal element that plagues it (plus it's not like the police are gonna do anything about it). But though Leroy knew that it was gang violence that took his family from him, he didn't learn of the specifics regarding the Mishima Zaibatsu until he came across a gang lord who was around at the time. From there, he entered the King of Iron Fist tournament in the hopes of facing Heihachi. Though given Heihachi's demise in Tekken 7's story, Leroy likely won't be able to settle the score anytime soon (unless Heihachi is later resurrected).
In the words of TFS Vegeta: "OH MY GOD, HE'S SO GOD DAMN COOL!"
As for how Leroy Smith plays, he in theory excels in defensive play to where he counters his opponents moves, capitalizing on their mistakes & punishing them hard. In fact, a lot of his moves draw inspiration from the Ip Man movies, which I can definitely appreciate. Within the lore, Leroy went for Wing Chun because he was fascinated by the martial art's ability to fight multiple opponents at once through going after his opponents' openings. At least one of those still rings true for how he actually plays. Though I say "in theory" because in practice, Leroy Smith is a jack-of-all-trades from a mechanical standpoint. This would normally be fine…..if he was also a master of none. Granted, that's true now. But when Leroy first came out, he was a master of all. He dominated the competitive scene for the time he first came out (& this was right before the pandemic screwed everything up). It's a shame, as it did sour the character for a number of people. Though as of now, Leroy was nerfed to not be overpowered. But even now, he's still a really good character. I guess the saying "Fear the elderly in a profession where many die young" fits perfectly for Leroy, because he's a force to be reckoned with.
Leroy's design definitely follows the "less is more" logic, & I couldn't be happier about that.
Leroy Smith's design is simple but effective. His default focuses on three main colors: white, red, & gold. Like with Twintelle & Nagoriyuki before him, Japanese developers seem to really like contrasting darker-skinned characters with lighter-colored clothing & hair. Though in the case of Leroy, the white hair makes sense given his age (plus Nagoriyuki doesn't have white hair). Also like Nagoriyuki, Leroy's dreads are on-point. The red of his pants also serve as a means to break up all the white in the upper part of his body (the jacket of which has black writing on the back with gold details at the front & cuffs), returning to gold for his shoes for a bit of familiarity from the upper part of his body. On top of that, he rocks some stylish shades, which obscure the fact that Leroy seems to be blind in one eye (likely from the injuries he suffered after the Big Apple War). Of course, Leroy isn't the only star of the show, as he also brings his dog Sugar along with him (who he calls upon for some attacks). They're a sort of pit-bull terrier who rocks some fancy bling for their collar in solidarity with their owner's own chain. Sugar marks the 2nd pet to help their owner in combat, as Kazumi Mishima also fights alongside her pet tiger. Leroy also rocks one other prominent outfit, which has him shirtless (showing off his tattoos) with large black pants. This is accessorized with silver bracelets, a cloth necklace, & a silver sash wrapped around his waist which features a large gold ring at the middle (acting as a belt buckle of sorts). This is a much more simplistic design, but it's just as striking as his default (hence why I mentioned it). And hey, Bamco actually remembered to make Leroy's palms slightly lighter than the rest of his skin ("slightly" being the key word here).
Damn, even his secondary design is strong as hell......just like his kit. And hey, lighter palms!
As for any critiques, the only one I really have is that they should have better balanced him at the start so that Leroy would have had a better impression from the get-go. But outside of that, I don't really have any complaints about Leroy. I could also nitpick by saying that he falls into the Japanese trend of white hair for black characters. But Leroy is one of the cases where his white hair is actually justified given his age. Though I am curious to find out who his English VA is, as we don't really have any information on them (& probably won't get any until Tekken 8, assuming that Leroy returns). Either way, Bandai Namco really hit it out of the park with Leroy Smith. And in a way, he perfectly encapsulates what Tekken is about form a mechanical standpoint thanks to his jack-of-all-trades play-style (& is actually the reason why I ultimately went with Leroy rather than Master Raven). I really hope he returns in future Tekken games.
I know, two Bandai Namco characters in a row. But I specifically said one per franchise, not one per company. So Zasalamel is still fair game. As for his story, it may get a bit complex considering that there are two timelines to take into account: The old timeline of Soul Caliburs II through IV & the new timeline seen in Soul Calibur VI. But his origin story across both are about the same, so I'll specify the parts specific to each game where I can.
Zasalamel's final boss form in SCIII, Abyss. Damn, it's been a while.
n the original timeline, Zasalamel was part of a tribe that protected the Soul Calibur, after trying to wield the weapon in question, Zas was cast out by said tribe. From there, he cultivated his magical talents (thanks to his photographic memory, where he only needs to see something once to perform it himself, not unlike Marvel's Taskmaster) as well as seeking out once-lost knowledge until he re-learned the art of reincarnation. He succeeded, with his memories being retained through each rebirth as well as his body matching his original once he's fully grown. But there was one catch to the whole reincarnation thing, Zasalamel couldn't really turn it off. As such, he as basically doomed to reincarnate for all of eternity. Not even the Soul Edge (the opposite of the sword he was once sworn to protect) could kill him for good. This part specifically was from his debut game, Soul Calibur III, where he served as an antagonist keeping anyone who was in his way of taking his own life. He even had an alternate form that was one of SCIII's final bosses, Abyss. Anyway, he tried going back to back to his old tribe, only to find that they've already died out. Zasalamel eventually came to terms with his eternal reincarnation, taking it as an opportunity to impart wisdom upon humanity to help the world grow & progress (as of Soul Calibur IV). So in a way, Zasalamel eventually found peace……..until the timeline was reset. In the new timeline, Zasalamel's origin is about the same in that he was cast out by the tribe (called the Guardians of the Spirit Sword in this continuity) & eventually granted himself reincarnation, not realizing that it was more of a curse than a blessing. But this time, he found a light showing a bright future for the world between rebirths. So basically Zasalamel side-stepped the heel-turn part of his life & wanted to work towards making that bright future a reality, which helped him look on the bright side of his reincarnation ability. In a way, it's great that even though Zasalamel made the same initial mistakes between timelines, he came to realize the blessings that come with his ability to reincarnate. Plus it serves as a way to not make those who watched Zasalamel grow & come to terms with his mistakes feel cheated by the timeline reset. And hey, he actually has a black English voice actor (Keith Silverstein). So good job there, Bamco. As for how Zasalamel plays, he tends to excel at controlling the space of the battlefield, methodically putting the player in positions where he wants them to be. From there, Zasalamel is able to finish the job with either modified versions of his techniques from the Guardians of the Spirit Sword or his scythe Kafziel ("Angel of Death"). As a Kilik main, I haven't played too much of Zasalamel. But facing someone who's good with him is a pain in the ass, which I suppose makes sense considering that he's one of the better characters in the game competitively.
Zasalamel's designs over the years, namely his most recent & his earliest looks.
As for his design, I'll focus on the Soul Calibur VI & III versions of his design since those are the two which differ the most (his SCIV look isn't too far removed from his VI design anyway). Zasalamel is a bald black man with a golden left eye (the eye remains gold regardless of his reincarnations), with a tattoo around said golden eye to further draw your attention towards it. And like most of the other black fighting game characters I've covered, he primarily wears white to contrast with his skin tone with gold accents (I'm starting to notice a trend with Japan-made black characters in fighting games). The biggest parts of his SCVI design are his comically-giant pointed gold shoulder pads & his feather-like cape which dominate his silhouette, while his gold chest plate & emerald green cuffs complementing the rest of his design. The green of said cuffs actually serve as a great way to break up the whites & golds with a more vibrant color than the black of his inner thigh section & abs. It's a decent design that tells you the core essentials you need to know about Zasalamel. And while it's hard to communicate the idea of eternal reincarnation through character design, the whole ancient wizard look in addition to the infinity symbol on his chest does as good of a job as it can with communicating the idea. But at the same time, it's a bit complex in its execution with a lot of design elements fighting for your attention. If nothing else, it gives him a unique silhouette (& I love the cape). As for his SCIII design, it's much more simplistic than his SCVI look (following the "less is more" mentality). In here, green plays a larger role in the design, with the white being slightly less prominent than it is in later iterations of the design. He also rocks a sleeveless robe, showing off his muscles, complemented with long white fingerless gloves with a black strap & gold accents. The infinity emblem is here as well, a design element that's retained his his later redesigns. And the larger presence of green at his lower section is meant to break up the large amounts of white in his long thigh-high boots. I actually generally prefer his SCIII design, but I don't hate his later designs.
With all that said, I do have one major complaint with his SCVI look in particular. That complaint would be the inconsistency of his skin tone. In the actual art, his skin is consistently dark across all of his incarnations. But in-game, his SCVI version is much lighter in skin tone than before the reboot. And you can't even use the reincarnation excuse since the specific part of his lore is that each reincarnation of Zasalamel grows to be exactly the same physically as the original. So I'm not sure why Bandai Namco decided to lighten his skin. On the more detailed side of things regarding my gripes, his palms are the same shade as the rest of his skin, which is a recurring thing for more stylistic games. I only bring it up now because Tekken 7 actually went through the effort of giving Leroy Smith lighter palms. But it's something that I hope is rectified in games going forward. But outside of that, I really like Zasalamel. He's an interesting & complex character who I enjoyed seeing grow throughout the games he was in. And as mentioned already, I respect both Bandai Namco not completely walking back on his character development in SCIV despite the reboot (which I'm still surprised by, as I thought they would want to bring back Abyss in some capacity given the reboot) in VI & how he plays from a mechanical standpoint (writing this makes me want to hit the lab with him). Actually…….there is one more complaint. Throughout Soul Calibur's entire existence, HOW THE HELL IS ZASALAMEL STILL THE ONLY BLACK CHARACTER IN THE ENTIRE FRANCHISE!? SERIOUSLY, WHAT THE SHIT, BAMCO!?!?!? *breathes* It's fine, at least Soul Calibur has a black character.......unlike a CERTAIN other fighting game franchise Bandai Namco develops for another company (*cough*Smash*cough*). There, I got it out of my system. But yeah, great job with Zasalamel…….just fix his skin tone next time……..& his palms.
As I mentioned in the Leroy section, black women in fighting games are very hard to come by. It's definitely gotten better in recent years between Twintelle, Master Raven, Giovanna, & Darli Dagger. Even way back in the 90's, we had Elena. But outside of them & a few others, we haven't had a ton of black women who are playable in fighting games. And even then, a number of them are marred with colorism in one way or another (be it a refusal to make them darker-skinned or, in the case of characters like Darli Dagger, over-sexualizing them). These are topics covered better in celes' thread on the topic, so definitely check that out (link's in the Twintelle section). Anyway, onto Jacqui herself. Part of the reason why I opted for her over her more famous father Jax is for two reasons. One, as I said earlier, black women are hard to come by in fighting games. Two, I generally find Jacqui to be a more interesting character than her father, both from a story & a mechanical standpoint. So yeah, onwards to her lore.
The new generation in MKX. A shame that not all of them returned in 11.
Jacqueline Sonya "Jacqui" Briggs is the daughter of long-time series veteran Jackson "Jax" Briggs. As such, I should probably preface this with the relevant parts of Jax's story that led to Jacqui. In the rebooted Mortal Kombat timeline introduced in MK9, Jax was brutally killed by Sindel & later enslaved by Quan Chi as one of his revenants. Though fortunately for him, he was eventually freed from Quan Chi's control alongside Scorpion & Sub-Zero 25 years before the events of Mortal Kombat X. During that time, Jax's guilt for the things he did under Quan Chi's control led him to leave the military, but he did eventually marry Vera. And thus, Jacqui came into existence. Now we move to Jacqui's actual story. Jacqui is one of the four new Special Forces members introduced in Mortal Kombat X alongside lifelong friend Cassie Cage (Johnny Cage & Sonya Blade's daughter), Takeda Takahashi (Kenshi Takahashi's son, Hanzo Hasashi's disciple, & Jacqui's boyfriend, later fiancé as of MK11), & Kung Jin (Kung Lao's nephew &, to my knowledge, Mortal Kombat's first openly gay playable character). Though in Jacqui's case, she joined the military against her father's wishes, with Jax fearing that Jacqui would endure the same hardship that he had to face while with the Special Forces. Jax does eventually accept that his daughter wants to join Special Forces, even giving her a handgun (which he teaches her how to use) as a gift. But despite her father's newfound acceptance, Jacqui admitted that the people she & Cassie had to hurt &/or kill along the way weighed heavy on her heart. Still, she persevered because she knew her father endured worse, so she could do the same. And going by her accomplishments with Special Forces, she's been doing a great job of living up to her father's legacy (not to mention being a solid pilot). From there, she faced the likes of Kotal Kahn, D'Vrah, Reptile, Ermac (the one who took her father's arms), and Ferra & Torr. Even if she didn't ultimately take down Shinnok (that was the Cage Family), Jaquie more than proved herself. Then she was put through the emotional ringer in MK11 where her father was played like a fiddle by Kronika with the false promise of using the new timeline to wipe away the trauma he faced. Granted, she had the younger version of Jax backing her up for most of the story, & Jax eventually came to his senses (the first time thanks to Raiden talking some sense into Jax near the end of the story, & in the re-do of MK11 Aftermath by Raiden's brother Fujin), but that doesn't discredit the betrayal Jacqui had to deal with. But at the same, she persevered & helped bring down Kronya. Even in her (non-canon) arcade ending, she still valued her dad's happiness over her own despite everything, even if it meant wiping herself from existence for that to happen (thankfully this isn't canon, as it'd be a shame to lose Jacqui). Though within the actual canon story, Jacqui sadly isn't a super-major player compared to the likes of the Cages, Raiden, or Liu Kang in the grand scheme of things, but she isn't a completely underutilized character either. So I'm at least thankful for that.
Jacqui is actually really damn good in MK11.
As for how she plays mechanically, she's very much a rushdown character with pressure options for days (A.K.A. Right up my alley as a Karin main in SFV). Though s far as how she fights, she's mainly a kickboxing practitioner (a martial art that I'm surprised isn't used more often, though it is used for the likes of Min Min in ARMS) who relies on tech-enhanced attacks to varying degrees. In MKX, this comes in the form of her multi-purpose gauntlets. They have a range of abilities outside of the typical strength enhancement such as plasma blasts, shotgun rounds, or even machine gun rounds alongside rockets. Which of these set of weapons you get for her gauntlets will vary depending on which variation you chose for Jacqui, a mechanic unique to MKX. In MK11, Jacqui adds leg exo-augmentation to bring her kicks more in line with her punches in addition to having electrical currents that can go between her arm & leg tech. This results in faster punches & kicks that help put even more pressure on her opponents. Jacqui also has a barrier, but she doesn't use it nearly as much as I'd like (we could have gotten an Aegis Reflector in MK11 ;_;). Anyway, Jacqui is considered to be up there as one of the best characters in the game tier-wise (alongside the likes of Liu Kang & Cetrion). Exactly how good she is relative to the rest of the cast is still up for debate (as some argued early on that she was broken), but most of the pros seem to agree that she's really damn good. Of the two, I personally prefer MKX Jacqui. But that's mostly because I prefer MKX from a gameplay standpoint to MK11 (which is a topic for another time). With that said, let's move on to Jacqui's designs.
Jacqui become more tech-based between games, which I can appreciate.
Jacqui's design differs quite a bit between MKX & MK11. In MKX, she has her hair braided & tied back. She also has more standard military garb, though she has two primary variations of it. Both are a pale navy blue, but one is a cameo shirt with the sleeves rolled up & a bullet-proof vest on, while the other is just a tank top. These are accompanied by her gauntlets, which differ in look depending on the design. The tank top version has more basic gauntlets, whereas the full outfit trades those gauntlets in for what look to be more advanced variants. Going into MK11, the first thing I noticed is the improved skin rendering tech at display, which has done wonders for Jacqui (& basically everyone else in the cast). And if Spider-Man: Miles Morales on PS5 is any indication, I'm excited to see what other developers (like NRS, in this case) can do with the new hardware with regards to skin rendering. Either way, it's nice to see MK's black characters look well-moisturized (since, as I just said, Jacqui isn't the only one who saw this improvement). As for Jacqui's actual design in MK11, it seems like she iterated on the tech further, adding a full vest & the leg….gauntlets (I'm not sure what to call them) her greaves (thanks, The Adder). The vest in particular has white accents & baby blue lights. There's a little bit of boob plate going on that kinda sticks out to me, but there have been worse instances as she clearly isn't being sexualized in MK11. I mean, she was a bit in MKX with the tank-top alt, but that marked the beginning of NetherRealm Studios moving away from sexualizing their women. Anyway, the gauntlets are green with gold accents, which lines up with Jacqui trading in her blue tank top for a green one in addition to wearing her braids down more (with some of them still tied up). Not to mention that Jacqui's one of the few cases where one's skin tone becomes darker between entries, something I didn't notice until writing her section & a change that definitely won't say no to (usually it's the other way around). In a way, her MK11 design leans more into the engineering prowess of Jacqui, putting that aspect of her character front-&-center while making green, white, & gold her 3 main colors. And honestly, I'm glad that they did. I've always liked her character & her play style, but now she's leaning more into her own visual identity. The black army person archetype isn't uncommon in media, so it's at least nice that MK11 did more to set Jacqui apart from the usuals of that archetype.
I'm not sure I really have any complaints about how Jacqui is handled. It's weird, as usually I have at least a few things to say on this topic. But nope, no issues regarding her VA, no white hair (outside of old age) & blue eyes, no overt colorism (though again, I wish we had more dark-skinned black women in gaming). NRS did a pretty good job here. Though granted, this is the first Western-made fighting game that I've covered, so a couple of things could be noted in the transition. For one, there's less of a reliance on blue eyes & white hair (as mentioned earlier), though she still has white for the tech-based parts of her design. This makes sense, as a shiny white with gold accents gives off the "high-tech" vibe that NRS was clearly going for with Jacqui's MK11 design. I still wish that all 4 of the new Special Forces kids made the cut. Kung Jin was a fun archer & it's a shame that the game's first gay character didn't return, & it's kinda weird that Takeda (Jacqui's own fiancé) didn't return. But I'm at least glad that at least Jacqui & Cassie came back. And while the timeline seems to have been rebooted again, I hope that it didn't remove her or the others from the equation. From her character to her play-style to her tech-based visual identity, Jacqui Briggs is a legitimately great addition to the Mortal Kombat kast. Please keep her around, NRS.
The gym at which T.J. Combo trained in the original Killer Instinct (pre-reboot)
Tyler-Johnson Garrett made his debut in the original Killer Instinct & eventually returned in the reboot in its 2nd season of DLC (he was also a bonus character for buying the Combo Breaker edition of the game). In the original timeline, T.J. Combo had to fight his way to the top from the bottom all the way to heavyweight champion & maintained his title for 5 years straight. Unfortunately, fame & greed got the better of him, to the point where he resorted to cybernetic implants to keep up (using most of his cash to do it). The Ultratech surgeon who did the operation eventually sold the story to the media, resulting in T.J. Combo losing his belt. From there, he worked like hell again to regain his top spot & was successful. T.J. Combo even used his newly-regained fortune to being it back to the place he grew up. But in defeating Riptor, Combo was left hospitalized, regretting ever entering the KI tournament. Upon release, he went straight after Ultratech for what they put him through. The two endings have him seeking new challenges no matter what, be it going to the future if he kills Tusk or staying in the past if he doesn't. Either way, he's always trying to get back what he lost. Not a whole lot to his story, but the reboot further added to his lore.
In the 2013 KI reboot, the initial stuff remains the same in that Combo had cybernetic implants to keep winning but was stripped of his title & banned from boxing once it was made public. But the 2013 KI game added more lore such as how he was from Galveston & it being his father (Jack Johnson, the previous heavyweight champ) who inspired Combo to aspire for the same title. But he was also prone to revenge. After being taunted by one of his opponents, he ended up filling one of his boxing gloves with quarters & breaking said opponent's nose. The exhilarating feeling of that moment drove him to find other methods of cheating. From there he just kept winning, but lost it all when he was found out & banned from the league. It was a downward spiral going forward, be it dropping out of high school given him getting in trouble or even getting dropped from the military after cold cocking the drill sergeant. He eventually moved to Chicago, looking for a new start. And though he started as just a janitor at a boxing gym, he eventually returned to the ring as the years went by. From there, he actually won the title of heavyweight champ, but he pushed himself too far between all the parties. Because of this, Combo lost his title 3 years later, sending him down a spiral of depression, back taxes, & a divorce. After being hospitalized for his shattered right forearm (punching a brick wall in a rage), he was approached by Ultratech with the cybernetic implants that would help him get back on track. From here, it becomes the story most recognize. But there are two major differences. One, Combo was exposed by ARIA as punishment for not throwing the fight against their Mark 01 Fulgore. Two, he actually ripped out the cybernetic implants from his arms. It was this, or more specifically how quickly he healed from it, that he realized that Ultratech screwed with his DNA as well. After that, Combo used what money he had left & fixed up the gym at which he got his start, renaming it "Combo Gym" & used it as a means of training young fighters (even putting up an American flag in honor of his dad). And similar to the old timeline, Combo got his chance at revenge against Ultratech, albeit thanks to the Disavowed group who hated the company as much as Combo did. He actually almost went down swinging against the Fulgore & Riptor army, but he got lucky when Ultratech called them off. Now T.J. Combo is working to become worthy of his nickname again. As you can tell, T.J. Combo has an unstoppable spirit, often to a fault. He's dead-set on winning no matter what, with all the brashness & arrogance that comes with that strength. But it's through his strength that, even though Combo will want to punish himself for falling, he'll eventually pick himself back up. This is actually why he's adorned in the American colors for his default, as the character designers wanted to convey the idea of the American spirit through Combo.
T.J. Combo's designs over the years. As you can tell, they were a little bit more subtle with the American flag iconography in the reboot.
Speaking of his design, while Combo has had constants such has his short flat top & red/white/blue colors, he's had quite a few design changes over the years. In his initial KI1 design, he rocks the American flag quite prominently for his sleeveless shirt, paired with black/red shorts, red gloves, red/white socks, & red/white/blue shoes. Rare wasn't exactly subtle with the American imagery with this design This also carried over with his KI2 design, though he traded his black shorts for camo pants (I would say that this is a nod towards his military days, but that wasn't added to his lore until the reboot) & new red/white/blue sneakers. The biggest changes in this case are his white sleeveless gloves & his eyepatch, a reminder of the injuries he endured narrowly winning his fight against Riptor. Going onto the 2013 reboot, Iron Galaxy (they were developing KI 2013 at the time T.J. Combo was added to the game) were much more subtle with the American flag imagery than Rare was. You still have your reds, whites, & blues present in the design. But you also have grays & more black throw in as well. Combo also grew out the mustache/beard combo, which honestly works for him. The gloves are red like KI1 (adorned with a white star), but they're fingerless like his KI2 design, which can be seen as splitting the difference between the two (in addition to being a visual signifier of Combo's MMA skills). The boots he now wears are more typical for boxers, being shin-high boots that are black with blue & white accents. But the bigger changes (besides the boots) are his shirt & his scars. The shirt is now from his gym, repping that he now fights for it & the kids he helps create a better future for. But the scars are a visual reminder of the cybernetic implants he removed. They also glow blue during gameplay, which is a neat touch (& lore-accurate, since he now has DNA-based enhancements). I obviously prefer his modern design, but it's interesting to look back at T.J. Combo's earlier looks.
The scars glowing are a nice addition to his overall look.
Mechanically speaking, T.J. Combo isn't too far removed from Street Fighter boxer Balrog (nicknamed Boxer since he's called Mike Bison in Japan) in that he's all about getting in close with a ton of horizontal mobility. This does make sense given that they're both boxers, though Combo does have a few MMA attacks to complement his boxing prowess. Combo also has quite a few special moves that fit most occasions as well as a great instinct (namely in the 2013 version, which I have the most experience with). That said, Combo doesn't really have a ton of anti-air options, a meterless reversal, or the best normals. Not to mention that you really have to commit to your attacks since they aren't exactly safe. So basically be ready to go for hard reads if you're gonna pick up T.J. Combo. But once you get that read, GODDAMN is it satisfying to tear the opponent apart.
My only major complaint regarding T.J. Combo is the fact that he's voiced by a white actor in the 2013 reboot. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not hating on Patrick Seitz in any way whatsoever, he's a genuinely good dude with talent to spare. But like with the others, I would have preferred a black actor to voice T.J. Combo. That aside, I don't have a ton to critique. Black boxers are pretty common in fighting games, so I kinda wish that they did something more unique. But I'm willing to cut T.J. Combo some slack given that he's one of the OGs. But with all the expanded lore behind T.J. Combo, I'm pretty damn happy with his character. Just get a black voice actor next time…….a next time that I really hope happens for Killer Instinct.
WEEK 1: FIGHTING GAME CHARACTERS
DAY 1: TWINTELLE (ARMS)
Let's be honest, you all knew I was gonna start with the Silver Screen Queen who should have been the ARMS rep in Smash Ultimate (not hating on Min Min, mind you, she's the 2nd best pick they could have made). And as many of you are aware, Twintelle is one of the few instances of melanin in a Nintendo game (lord knows Smash Ultimate could used some). Regarding her story, Twintelle started her career in the spotlight as part of the same record label as Ribbon Girl. But according to Biff (the announcer for ARMS), she eventually decided to pursue a career in acting, so she & Ribbon Girl parted ways in terms of them working together. This soon led Twintelle to establishing Twintelle Productions, eventually resulting in a productive career as a world-famous actress in the world of ARMS (thus earning the aforementioned moniker). To address the obvious elephant in the room, Twintelle is the only known character who possesses the ARMS gene that had said gene materialize in the form of her hair rather than her actual arms. Twintelle also possesses the ability to slow down time around her opponents, which helps Twintelle stand out compared to her fellow combatants (Fun Fact: That mask is a free mask issued by ARMS Labs & is meant for being able to take control of said extendable limbs, as the arms would be more-or-less useless without the mask being on). This fact has caught the interest of ARMS Labs, who have tried & failed to have Twintelle come in for examination.
Twintelle always comes dressed to impress, fitting considering her status as a top-tier actress.
As for her design, Yabuki's team at Nintendo EPD Group 9 (in cooperation with Nintendo of America & Nintendo of Europe) did a great job with Twintelle. She's probably the 2nd biggest fan-favorite of the ARMS cast (at least in the West, Ninjara is in 2nd over in Japan), behind only Min Min. As far as her design is concerned, it's a great one. Twintelle skin complexion jells perfectly with her white sleeveless shirt, which is styled extravagantly in a way that shows that she takes her fashion very seriously. And on that topic, her shoes are basically sneaker heels are the perfect expression of her duality of form & function. Normally I'm not big on characters wearing heels in fighting games (namely for practicality reasons), but I'm known to make exceptions when they thematically fit the character in question. And the symbolism of Twintelle's sneaker heels are so great that I'm willing to make such an exception here. As for critiques that I have with Twintelle, I have two. One, I wish that they gave Twintelle a bit more muscle. Canonically, Twintelle hits the gym quite often & is actually stronger than series poster boy Spring Man. As such, I wish that Nintendo took a cue from Street Fighter & let her have a decent amount of muscle for her regular arms.
Even with her normal arms, Twintelle benches more than Spring Man.
Another issue I have is with her voice actress. Because ARMS did all of its voice recording in Japan, Nintendo EPD Group 9 stuck with actors in the general area of the studio. In Twintelle's case, she's voiced by French singer Adeyto Rex Angeli. Having white actors in PoC roles seems to be a recurring problem with Nintendo (Claude, Cyril, & Dedue being recent examples for Nintendo's characters of color), one that I hope is addressed going forward. And even outside of Nintendo, Twintelle is far from the only character who has this problem (even of the characters I have planned). To take a bit of a tangent to focus on the topic, the most famous example of this is Nadine Ross from Uncharted (she was in the running to be listed under Action), being voiced by Laura Bailey. While granted, Laura was cast prior to Nadine's design being finalized, she should have been recast when Nadine's design was locked in. Going back to Twintelle, while this isn't a big problem with Twintelle specifically, I wish that there were more black women with darker skin. There are some examples in gaming already (one will be talked about later in the month), but there should be more. But that goes more into colorism in games, which is a topic that was covered in beautiful detail by our own celes (who was actually among the people who helped me out with this thread). Please check out her thread when you get the chance.
Colorism in video games (Open spoilers)
Before I start: I just want to make it clear that you can like a character, game, an artist, a publisher, etc. in isolation while still acknowledging that looked at within the greater context, that thing you like might be contributing to the reinforcement of harmful stereotypes or imagery that...
www.resetera.com
DAY 2: NAGORIYUKI (GUILTY GEAR)
One of the two newcomers in the base roster of Guilty Gear Strive, I did have some apprehension towards including a newer character from an as-of-yet-released game. But considering that we know quite a bit about him already & have seen him in action, I thought I should go ahead & bring up Nagoriyuki since he also represents a positive change in the industry. Not to mention that I want to give props to upcoming games that are bringing us black excellence. As as his lore goes, Nagoriyuki is a Nigerian vampire with a strong sense of honor & happens to be very kind. His gentle nature contrasts his large build & his vampiric nature, though most of the blood-sucking comes from his blade rather than doing any of the actual biting himself. It's also heavily implied that Nagoriyuki is the disciple of series veteran Slayer, which would make sense given that they're both vampires & Nagoriyuki still doesn't have full control over his bloodlust. As you can tell, I can't really go into as much detail about Nagoriyuki's lore since we don't have Guilty Gear Strive in our hands yet, so I can't get into too much of his lore right now. Even with this gameplay, he was described by Arc System Works as a "One Shot" character. That in conjunction with the gameplay we've seen of Nagoriyuki looks more like he plays like a Samurai Shodown character than a Guilty Gear character. Though obviously with Guilty Gear's mechanics such as Roman Cancels & Burst, he won't feel too out-of-place in the game mechanically. With that said, I can talk about his design, which is actually part of the reason why I decided to list him.
Nagoriyuki mainly wears white with orange & black being his secondary colors in addition to purple & red accents. This does go beyond the tried-&-true "three main colors" ideology when it comes to character design, but Nagoriyuki definitely makes it work. The white of his coat contrasts well with his darker skin, with his dreads being on-point. Nagoriyuki also primarily wears a horned helmet with exposed teeth (the mouth part of which does open up so he can eat when necessary). When his blood meter reaches its maximum, he goes berserk & the mask comes off. If anything, I wish he didn't have the mask, but I don't hate it. And while you could say that the idea of a black guy going wild is a stereotype in & of itself, it's mainly in a vampiric sense than the typical stereotype and serves to contrast his usual personality of the gentle giant. Of course, the reason why I wanted to talk about Nagoriyuki is because he represents a positive trend in the industry with regards how they handle black characters: Their willingness to listen to criticism.
A change that I didn't expect Arc System Works to make, but one that I greatly appreciate.
In his original incarnation, Nagoriyuki lips were unicolor & of a lighter shade than the rest of his skin. This unfortunately invokes an offensive racist stereotype from back in the day, a fact that seems to go over the heads of most Japanese developers, artists, writers, & beyond. I even did a thread drawing attention to this fact. But come October 2020, you could imagine my surprise when I saw that Arc System Works actually listened to fan criticisms about his lips & actually corrected them. Now Nagoriyuki's top lip is darker than the rest of his skin, with his bottom lip retaining the original lighter shade they already had prior to the change. This is more in line with how black lips actually are, & I can't give Arc System Works enough props for making this change. If I had to point out any gripes beyond the now-fixed lips, I'd say that I wish his eyes were brown (a lot of the Japan-made black characters have blue eyes, from Twintelle to Nagoriyuki to Giovanna).
.....They did it......they actually did it.
Any potential critiques about his character will have to be saved for when the game is actually out, but I don't see anything overtly problematic about Nagoriyuki at the moment. So with that being said, I'll count my blessings where I can, as this is a great step forward for how black people are represented in games (especially Japanese games). I can't give too many other thoughts without actually getting the game (which I have every intention of doing), but everything we've seen of Nagoriyuki is filling me with both hype for the game & hope for the future. Good job, Arc System Works. Hopefully more developers follow your example.
DAY 3: SEAN MATSUDA (STREET FIGHTER)
Street Fighter III was an interesting time for the franchise. While Third Strike is often heralded as the best entry in the franchise by the core fanbase (myself included), SFIII as a whole took a pretty difficult road towards that fame given the issues that its predecessors (New Generation & 2nd Impact) had. One of the initial struggles that SFIII had was the lack of any returning characters from Street Fighter II or Alpha (more so the former) beyond Ryu & Ken. The shoto fighter who served as one of the marquee newcomers of the Street Fighter III series of games, Sean Matsuda. For the record, it ultimately came down to him, Elena, & Dudley as far as who I would go with for the Street Fighter character. But the decision came to who I had more to talk about, both good & bad. And honestly, Sean is worth the discussion on both fronts. Anyway, onto his lore. Born to an Afro-Brazilian mother (Brenda) & a Japanese father (Yuichiro), Sean is the youngest of the Matsuda children (behind eldest brother Fabio & the middle child sister Laura, the latter of whom would make her playable appearance in Street Fighter V). Following the death of his grandfather Kinjiro (at the hands of Vega/Claw, if Street Fighter: Resurrection is any indication), Fabio took up Kinjiro's old dojo &, in turn, the pure form of Matsuda Jiu-Jitsu. Because of this, family tradition dictated that Laura & Sean couldn't practice pure Matsuda Jiu-Jitsu. The two got around this by finding their own takes on the martial art. Laura's is closer to the original form with her own personal flair, which can be seen in Street Fighter V. Sean on the other hand mixed it with another martial art, Shotokan. Enamored by the feats of long-time Shotokan practitioner Ken Masters, Sean decided to mold his Shotokan moves after Ken. The result is a mix of Shotokan & Matsuda Jiu-Jitsu, as we see in Street Fighter III. But the thing is, Sean is still really wet behind the ears with regards to the Shoto moves he knows, to the point where one of his supers is a regular Hadoken. Sean plays like an unrefined shoto on account of his limited training & mixing things with Matsuda Jiu-Jitsu to make up for his Shotokan shortcomings, which helps set him apart from Ryu & Ken. Hell, Sean event throws out a basketball (performing said taunt increases the stun damage that Sean's attacks inflict), which is honestly a nice touch of individuality compared to Ryu & Ken. These facts as a whole add a lot to his character. It's just a shame that he was only really good tier-wise in 2nd Impact. But given that Sean always has something to prove & hates being seen as weak, he maintains a constant drive to better himself on all fronts.
The Matsuda family has a surprising amount of backstory to them.
Sean has had a couple of designs throughout the canonical Street Fighter timeline (one of them is shown in the initial image), but I'll focus primarily on his first playable appearance in Street Fighter III & his Character Story Mode appearance in Street Fighter V. For the former, there's not a whole lot to talk about. He wears a yellow gi that better taken care of like his idol (Ken) with a black belt & red padded gloves. It's nothing overly unique, but the yellow color gets the point across that he's more vibrant & outgoing compared to Ryu & Ken (though this personality trait is not too far off from the latter). Sean also has a solid-ass fade on the sides in addition to some dreads at the top front part of his head. Likewise, his earrings show that he isn't afraid to accessorize where he can. Sean's design is textbook "less is more", & I honestly appreciate that. Though his Street Fighter V Character Story Mode design does give us a younger, more casual Sean, before he practiced Shotokan in earnest.
Not a bad Sean design, if only he was playable in Street Fighter V.
To be honest, I actually really like this design (much more than his Cinematic Story Mode look). Despite being earlier in the timeline, it's probably a natural step towards making Sean more of an individual from a design standpoint. He still has the red gloves & earrings, but the gloves have more prominent padded finger holes compared to his gloves in SFIII. Likewise, he adopts a more personalized pair of sweats (customization that I wish Laura went for with her default design). And he tops it off with red sneakers (which would probably be Air Jordans if Capcom was willing to pay the licensing fee), which complement the gloves perfectly. This is actually a really strong design that's honestly slept on. Maybe it can come back as an alternate costume if Sean returns in Street Fighter VI (please come back). Though while we're on the topic of SFV's story, I'd might as well bring up one of my criticisms about Sean that pertains to said story. In Laura's Character Story, Bengus drew Sean to be considerably more pale than he actually is. This problem was eventually corrected in the Cinematic Story Mode, but the problem still persists in the 2D story drawings, which honestly annoys me. I get that Bengus didn't exactly have a lot of time to make those drawings, but still.
If I had to criticize anything else about Sean, it's how he was treated & his English voice actor. For the former, he's seen as a bit of a joke. In Street Fighter V, it's somewhat understandable that he isn't as proficient at fighting. But he has at least some knowledge of Matsuda Jiu-Jitsu by that point, so he should at least be able to put up a decent fight. Not to mention the fact that he was only really good in 2nd Impact before being nerfed to irrelevancy in Third Strike (a fact that still stings to this day). As for the VA part, he faces a similar issue as Twintelle & Nadine in that his English voice actor is white (Chris Rickabaugh to be exact). As mentioned before, this is a recurring problem with black characters in games. But it's even more apparent for Sean since his Laura (his older sister) actually has a black actress voicing her in English (specifically G.K. Bowes). Though I guess Devil May Cry 5 may have been a wake-up call for Capcom (in reference to Morrison's white, as well as racist & transphobic, English VA), as they've been more careful on such matters in recent years (namely with the General in MHW Iceborne). So hopefully this is a problem that will correct itself going forward for all people of color in Street Fighter, not just Sean or Balrog. With all that said, Sean perfectly encapsulates the idea of the new generation taking over. But currently he has the potential to do just that, potential that Capcom has yet to capitalize on due to both sleeping on Sean as a character as well as their hesitance to move the Street Fighter timeline forward. Let's just hope that he gets another chance to represent said generation going forward, ideally in Street Fighter VI.
DAY 4: LEROY SMITH (TEKKEN)
Choosing a black character for Tekken was legitimately a tough call, as it was either him or Master Raven (both Tekken 7 newbies). Ultimately, I decided to go with my boy Leroy for a reason I'll explain at the end. That said, I do recognize that black women in fighting games are hard to come by, something that I'll touch on with one of the upcoming characters I have in the pipeline. Anyway, Leroy Smith is one of Tekken 7's DLC characters who just oozes cool & black excellence. To start with his lore, Leroy's family was killed to violence incited by the Mishima Zaibatsu (likely during Heihachi Mishima's time as head of the Zaibatsu) known as the Big Apple War. Narrowly surviving the ordeal & not wanting to ever feel helpless again, Leroy left New York to travel the world for 50 years as a trader. Following his visit to Hong Kong, Leroy wanted to stay & master the martial art of Wing Chun in the hopes of using his skills to bring back peace to New York by taking down the criminal element that plagues it (plus it's not like the police are gonna do anything about it). But though Leroy knew that it was gang violence that took his family from him, he didn't learn of the specifics regarding the Mishima Zaibatsu until he came across a gang lord who was around at the time. From there, he entered the King of Iron Fist tournament in the hopes of facing Heihachi. Though given Heihachi's demise in Tekken 7's story, Leroy likely won't be able to settle the score anytime soon (unless Heihachi is later resurrected).
In the words of TFS Vegeta: "OH MY GOD, HE'S SO GOD DAMN COOL!"
As for how Leroy Smith plays, he in theory excels in defensive play to where he counters his opponents moves, capitalizing on their mistakes & punishing them hard. In fact, a lot of his moves draw inspiration from the Ip Man movies, which I can definitely appreciate. Within the lore, Leroy went for Wing Chun because he was fascinated by the martial art's ability to fight multiple opponents at once through going after his opponents' openings. At least one of those still rings true for how he actually plays. Though I say "in theory" because in practice, Leroy Smith is a jack-of-all-trades from a mechanical standpoint. This would normally be fine…..if he was also a master of none. Granted, that's true now. But when Leroy first came out, he was a master of all. He dominated the competitive scene for the time he first came out (& this was right before the pandemic screwed everything up). It's a shame, as it did sour the character for a number of people. Though as of now, Leroy was nerfed to not be overpowered. But even now, he's still a really good character. I guess the saying "Fear the elderly in a profession where many die young" fits perfectly for Leroy, because he's a force to be reckoned with.
Leroy's design definitely follows the "less is more" logic, & I couldn't be happier about that.
Leroy Smith's design is simple but effective. His default focuses on three main colors: white, red, & gold. Like with Twintelle & Nagoriyuki before him, Japanese developers seem to really like contrasting darker-skinned characters with lighter-colored clothing & hair. Though in the case of Leroy, the white hair makes sense given his age (plus Nagoriyuki doesn't have white hair). Also like Nagoriyuki, Leroy's dreads are on-point. The red of his pants also serve as a means to break up all the white in the upper part of his body (the jacket of which has black writing on the back with gold details at the front & cuffs), returning to gold for his shoes for a bit of familiarity from the upper part of his body. On top of that, he rocks some stylish shades, which obscure the fact that Leroy seems to be blind in one eye (likely from the injuries he suffered after the Big Apple War). Of course, Leroy isn't the only star of the show, as he also brings his dog Sugar along with him (who he calls upon for some attacks). They're a sort of pit-bull terrier who rocks some fancy bling for their collar in solidarity with their owner's own chain. Sugar marks the 2nd pet to help their owner in combat, as Kazumi Mishima also fights alongside her pet tiger. Leroy also rocks one other prominent outfit, which has him shirtless (showing off his tattoos) with large black pants. This is accessorized with silver bracelets, a cloth necklace, & a silver sash wrapped around his waist which features a large gold ring at the middle (acting as a belt buckle of sorts). This is a much more simplistic design, but it's just as striking as his default (hence why I mentioned it). And hey, Bamco actually remembered to make Leroy's palms slightly lighter than the rest of his skin ("slightly" being the key word here).
Damn, even his secondary design is strong as hell......just like his kit. And hey, lighter palms!
As for any critiques, the only one I really have is that they should have better balanced him at the start so that Leroy would have had a better impression from the get-go. But outside of that, I don't really have any complaints about Leroy. I could also nitpick by saying that he falls into the Japanese trend of white hair for black characters. But Leroy is one of the cases where his white hair is actually justified given his age. Though I am curious to find out who his English VA is, as we don't really have any information on them (& probably won't get any until Tekken 8, assuming that Leroy returns). Either way, Bandai Namco really hit it out of the park with Leroy Smith. And in a way, he perfectly encapsulates what Tekken is about form a mechanical standpoint thanks to his jack-of-all-trades play-style (& is actually the reason why I ultimately went with Leroy rather than Master Raven). I really hope he returns in future Tekken games.
DAY 5: ZASALAMEL (SOUL CALIBUR)
I know, two Bandai Namco characters in a row. But I specifically said one per franchise, not one per company. So Zasalamel is still fair game. As for his story, it may get a bit complex considering that there are two timelines to take into account: The old timeline of Soul Caliburs II through IV & the new timeline seen in Soul Calibur VI. But his origin story across both are about the same, so I'll specify the parts specific to each game where I can.
Zasalamel's final boss form in SCIII, Abyss. Damn, it's been a while.
n the original timeline, Zasalamel was part of a tribe that protected the Soul Calibur, after trying to wield the weapon in question, Zas was cast out by said tribe. From there, he cultivated his magical talents (thanks to his photographic memory, where he only needs to see something once to perform it himself, not unlike Marvel's Taskmaster) as well as seeking out once-lost knowledge until he re-learned the art of reincarnation. He succeeded, with his memories being retained through each rebirth as well as his body matching his original once he's fully grown. But there was one catch to the whole reincarnation thing, Zasalamel couldn't really turn it off. As such, he as basically doomed to reincarnate for all of eternity. Not even the Soul Edge (the opposite of the sword he was once sworn to protect) could kill him for good. This part specifically was from his debut game, Soul Calibur III, where he served as an antagonist keeping anyone who was in his way of taking his own life. He even had an alternate form that was one of SCIII's final bosses, Abyss. Anyway, he tried going back to back to his old tribe, only to find that they've already died out. Zasalamel eventually came to terms with his eternal reincarnation, taking it as an opportunity to impart wisdom upon humanity to help the world grow & progress (as of Soul Calibur IV). So in a way, Zasalamel eventually found peace……..until the timeline was reset. In the new timeline, Zasalamel's origin is about the same in that he was cast out by the tribe (called the Guardians of the Spirit Sword in this continuity) & eventually granted himself reincarnation, not realizing that it was more of a curse than a blessing. But this time, he found a light showing a bright future for the world between rebirths. So basically Zasalamel side-stepped the heel-turn part of his life & wanted to work towards making that bright future a reality, which helped him look on the bright side of his reincarnation ability. In a way, it's great that even though Zasalamel made the same initial mistakes between timelines, he came to realize the blessings that come with his ability to reincarnate. Plus it serves as a way to not make those who watched Zasalamel grow & come to terms with his mistakes feel cheated by the timeline reset. And hey, he actually has a black English voice actor (Keith Silverstein). So good job there, Bamco. As for how Zasalamel plays, he tends to excel at controlling the space of the battlefield, methodically putting the player in positions where he wants them to be. From there, Zasalamel is able to finish the job with either modified versions of his techniques from the Guardians of the Spirit Sword or his scythe Kafziel ("Angel of Death"). As a Kilik main, I haven't played too much of Zasalamel. But facing someone who's good with him is a pain in the ass, which I suppose makes sense considering that he's one of the better characters in the game competitively.
Zasalamel's designs over the years, namely his most recent & his earliest looks.
As for his design, I'll focus on the Soul Calibur VI & III versions of his design since those are the two which differ the most (his SCIV look isn't too far removed from his VI design anyway). Zasalamel is a bald black man with a golden left eye (the eye remains gold regardless of his reincarnations), with a tattoo around said golden eye to further draw your attention towards it. And like most of the other black fighting game characters I've covered, he primarily wears white to contrast with his skin tone with gold accents (I'm starting to notice a trend with Japan-made black characters in fighting games). The biggest parts of his SCVI design are his comically-giant pointed gold shoulder pads & his feather-like cape which dominate his silhouette, while his gold chest plate & emerald green cuffs complementing the rest of his design. The green of said cuffs actually serve as a great way to break up the whites & golds with a more vibrant color than the black of his inner thigh section & abs. It's a decent design that tells you the core essentials you need to know about Zasalamel. And while it's hard to communicate the idea of eternal reincarnation through character design, the whole ancient wizard look in addition to the infinity symbol on his chest does as good of a job as it can with communicating the idea. But at the same time, it's a bit complex in its execution with a lot of design elements fighting for your attention. If nothing else, it gives him a unique silhouette (& I love the cape). As for his SCIII design, it's much more simplistic than his SCVI look (following the "less is more" mentality). In here, green plays a larger role in the design, with the white being slightly less prominent than it is in later iterations of the design. He also rocks a sleeveless robe, showing off his muscles, complemented with long white fingerless gloves with a black strap & gold accents. The infinity emblem is here as well, a design element that's retained his his later redesigns. And the larger presence of green at his lower section is meant to break up the large amounts of white in his long thigh-high boots. I actually generally prefer his SCIII design, but I don't hate his later designs.
With all that said, I do have one major complaint with his SCVI look in particular. That complaint would be the inconsistency of his skin tone. In the actual art, his skin is consistently dark across all of his incarnations. But in-game, his SCVI version is much lighter in skin tone than before the reboot. And you can't even use the reincarnation excuse since the specific part of his lore is that each reincarnation of Zasalamel grows to be exactly the same physically as the original. So I'm not sure why Bandai Namco decided to lighten his skin. On the more detailed side of things regarding my gripes, his palms are the same shade as the rest of his skin, which is a recurring thing for more stylistic games. I only bring it up now because Tekken 7 actually went through the effort of giving Leroy Smith lighter palms. But it's something that I hope is rectified in games going forward. But outside of that, I really like Zasalamel. He's an interesting & complex character who I enjoyed seeing grow throughout the games he was in. And as mentioned already, I respect both Bandai Namco not completely walking back on his character development in SCIV despite the reboot (which I'm still surprised by, as I thought they would want to bring back Abyss in some capacity given the reboot) in VI & how he plays from a mechanical standpoint (writing this makes me want to hit the lab with him). Actually…….there is one more complaint. Throughout Soul Calibur's entire existence, HOW THE HELL IS ZASALAMEL STILL THE ONLY BLACK CHARACTER IN THE ENTIRE FRANCHISE!? SERIOUSLY, WHAT THE SHIT, BAMCO!?!?!? *breathes* It's fine, at least Soul Calibur has a black character.......unlike a CERTAIN other fighting game franchise Bandai Namco develops for another company (*cough*Smash*cough*). There, I got it out of my system. But yeah, great job with Zasalamel…….just fix his skin tone next time……..& his palms.
DAY 6: JACQUI BRIGGS (MORTAL KOMBAT)
As I mentioned in the Leroy section, black women in fighting games are very hard to come by. It's definitely gotten better in recent years between Twintelle, Master Raven, Giovanna, & Darli Dagger. Even way back in the 90's, we had Elena. But outside of them & a few others, we haven't had a ton of black women who are playable in fighting games. And even then, a number of them are marred with colorism in one way or another (be it a refusal to make them darker-skinned or, in the case of characters like Darli Dagger, over-sexualizing them). These are topics covered better in celes' thread on the topic, so definitely check that out (link's in the Twintelle section). Anyway, onto Jacqui herself. Part of the reason why I opted for her over her more famous father Jax is for two reasons. One, as I said earlier, black women are hard to come by in fighting games. Two, I generally find Jacqui to be a more interesting character than her father, both from a story & a mechanical standpoint. So yeah, onwards to her lore.
The new generation in MKX. A shame that not all of them returned in 11.
Jacqueline Sonya "Jacqui" Briggs is the daughter of long-time series veteran Jackson "Jax" Briggs. As such, I should probably preface this with the relevant parts of Jax's story that led to Jacqui. In the rebooted Mortal Kombat timeline introduced in MK9, Jax was brutally killed by Sindel & later enslaved by Quan Chi as one of his revenants. Though fortunately for him, he was eventually freed from Quan Chi's control alongside Scorpion & Sub-Zero 25 years before the events of Mortal Kombat X. During that time, Jax's guilt for the things he did under Quan Chi's control led him to leave the military, but he did eventually marry Vera. And thus, Jacqui came into existence. Now we move to Jacqui's actual story. Jacqui is one of the four new Special Forces members introduced in Mortal Kombat X alongside lifelong friend Cassie Cage (Johnny Cage & Sonya Blade's daughter), Takeda Takahashi (Kenshi Takahashi's son, Hanzo Hasashi's disciple, & Jacqui's boyfriend, later fiancé as of MK11), & Kung Jin (Kung Lao's nephew &, to my knowledge, Mortal Kombat's first openly gay playable character). Though in Jacqui's case, she joined the military against her father's wishes, with Jax fearing that Jacqui would endure the same hardship that he had to face while with the Special Forces. Jax does eventually accept that his daughter wants to join Special Forces, even giving her a handgun (which he teaches her how to use) as a gift. But despite her father's newfound acceptance, Jacqui admitted that the people she & Cassie had to hurt &/or kill along the way weighed heavy on her heart. Still, she persevered because she knew her father endured worse, so she could do the same. And going by her accomplishments with Special Forces, she's been doing a great job of living up to her father's legacy (not to mention being a solid pilot). From there, she faced the likes of Kotal Kahn, D'Vrah, Reptile, Ermac (the one who took her father's arms), and Ferra & Torr. Even if she didn't ultimately take down Shinnok (that was the Cage Family), Jaquie more than proved herself. Then she was put through the emotional ringer in MK11 where her father was played like a fiddle by Kronika with the false promise of using the new timeline to wipe away the trauma he faced. Granted, she had the younger version of Jax backing her up for most of the story, & Jax eventually came to his senses (the first time thanks to Raiden talking some sense into Jax near the end of the story, & in the re-do of MK11 Aftermath by Raiden's brother Fujin), but that doesn't discredit the betrayal Jacqui had to deal with. But at the same, she persevered & helped bring down Kronya. Even in her (non-canon) arcade ending, she still valued her dad's happiness over her own despite everything, even if it meant wiping herself from existence for that to happen (thankfully this isn't canon, as it'd be a shame to lose Jacqui). Though within the actual canon story, Jacqui sadly isn't a super-major player compared to the likes of the Cages, Raiden, or Liu Kang in the grand scheme of things, but she isn't a completely underutilized character either. So I'm at least thankful for that.
Jacqui is actually really damn good in MK11.
As for how she plays mechanically, she's very much a rushdown character with pressure options for days (A.K.A. Right up my alley as a Karin main in SFV). Though s far as how she fights, she's mainly a kickboxing practitioner (a martial art that I'm surprised isn't used more often, though it is used for the likes of Min Min in ARMS) who relies on tech-enhanced attacks to varying degrees. In MKX, this comes in the form of her multi-purpose gauntlets. They have a range of abilities outside of the typical strength enhancement such as plasma blasts, shotgun rounds, or even machine gun rounds alongside rockets. Which of these set of weapons you get for her gauntlets will vary depending on which variation you chose for Jacqui, a mechanic unique to MKX. In MK11, Jacqui adds leg exo-augmentation to bring her kicks more in line with her punches in addition to having electrical currents that can go between her arm & leg tech. This results in faster punches & kicks that help put even more pressure on her opponents. Jacqui also has a barrier, but she doesn't use it nearly as much as I'd like (we could have gotten an Aegis Reflector in MK11 ;_;). Anyway, Jacqui is considered to be up there as one of the best characters in the game tier-wise (alongside the likes of Liu Kang & Cetrion). Exactly how good she is relative to the rest of the cast is still up for debate (as some argued early on that she was broken), but most of the pros seem to agree that she's really damn good. Of the two, I personally prefer MKX Jacqui. But that's mostly because I prefer MKX from a gameplay standpoint to MK11 (which is a topic for another time). With that said, let's move on to Jacqui's designs.
Jacqui become more tech-based between games, which I can appreciate.
Jacqui's design differs quite a bit between MKX & MK11. In MKX, she has her hair braided & tied back. She also has more standard military garb, though she has two primary variations of it. Both are a pale navy blue, but one is a cameo shirt with the sleeves rolled up & a bullet-proof vest on, while the other is just a tank top. These are accompanied by her gauntlets, which differ in look depending on the design. The tank top version has more basic gauntlets, whereas the full outfit trades those gauntlets in for what look to be more advanced variants. Going into MK11, the first thing I noticed is the improved skin rendering tech at display, which has done wonders for Jacqui (& basically everyone else in the cast). And if Spider-Man: Miles Morales on PS5 is any indication, I'm excited to see what other developers (like NRS, in this case) can do with the new hardware with regards to skin rendering. Either way, it's nice to see MK's black characters look well-moisturized (since, as I just said, Jacqui isn't the only one who saw this improvement). As for Jacqui's actual design in MK11, it seems like she iterated on the tech further, adding a full vest & t
I'm not sure I really have any complaints about how Jacqui is handled. It's weird, as usually I have at least a few things to say on this topic. But nope, no issues regarding her VA, no white hair (outside of old age) & blue eyes, no overt colorism (though again, I wish we had more dark-skinned black women in gaming). NRS did a pretty good job here. Though granted, this is the first Western-made fighting game that I've covered, so a couple of things could be noted in the transition. For one, there's less of a reliance on blue eyes & white hair (as mentioned earlier), though she still has white for the tech-based parts of her design. This makes sense, as a shiny white with gold accents gives off the "high-tech" vibe that NRS was clearly going for with Jacqui's MK11 design. I still wish that all 4 of the new Special Forces kids made the cut. Kung Jin was a fun archer & it's a shame that the game's first gay character didn't return, & it's kinda weird that Takeda (Jacqui's own fiancé) didn't return. But I'm at least glad that at least Jacqui & Cassie came back. And while the timeline seems to have been rebooted again, I hope that it didn't remove her or the others from the equation. From her character to her play-style to her tech-based visual identity, Jacqui Briggs is a legitimately great addition to the Mortal Kombat kast. Please keep her around, NRS.
DAY 7: T.J. COMBO (KILLER INSTINCT)
You had to have known that I wasn't gonna leave Killer Instinct hanging, especially after its spectacular showing this week thanks to our own Maximilian. Black boxers aren't really uncommon in fighting games. Though two of the more common examples people bring up hail from Street Fighter, namely being Balrog/Boxer & Dudley. I guess Twintelle would count towards this as well, but ARMS is a completely different beast from just boxing & that's the gimmick for the entire cast anyway. That said, onwards to T.J. Combo's lore.
The gym at which T.J. Combo trained in the original Killer Instinct (pre-reboot)
Tyler-Johnson Garrett made his debut in the original Killer Instinct & eventually returned in the reboot in its 2nd season of DLC (he was also a bonus character for buying the Combo Breaker edition of the game). In the original timeline, T.J. Combo had to fight his way to the top from the bottom all the way to heavyweight champion & maintained his title for 5 years straight. Unfortunately, fame & greed got the better of him, to the point where he resorted to cybernetic implants to keep up (using most of his cash to do it). The Ultratech surgeon who did the operation eventually sold the story to the media, resulting in T.J. Combo losing his belt. From there, he worked like hell again to regain his top spot & was successful. T.J. Combo even used his newly-regained fortune to being it back to the place he grew up. But in defeating Riptor, Combo was left hospitalized, regretting ever entering the KI tournament. Upon release, he went straight after Ultratech for what they put him through. The two endings have him seeking new challenges no matter what, be it going to the future if he kills Tusk or staying in the past if he doesn't. Either way, he's always trying to get back what he lost. Not a whole lot to his story, but the reboot further added to his lore.
In the 2013 KI reboot, the initial stuff remains the same in that Combo had cybernetic implants to keep winning but was stripped of his title & banned from boxing once it was made public. But the 2013 KI game added more lore such as how he was from Galveston & it being his father (Jack Johnson, the previous heavyweight champ) who inspired Combo to aspire for the same title. But he was also prone to revenge. After being taunted by one of his opponents, he ended up filling one of his boxing gloves with quarters & breaking said opponent's nose. The exhilarating feeling of that moment drove him to find other methods of cheating. From there he just kept winning, but lost it all when he was found out & banned from the league. It was a downward spiral going forward, be it dropping out of high school given him getting in trouble or even getting dropped from the military after cold cocking the drill sergeant. He eventually moved to Chicago, looking for a new start. And though he started as just a janitor at a boxing gym, he eventually returned to the ring as the years went by. From there, he actually won the title of heavyweight champ, but he pushed himself too far between all the parties. Because of this, Combo lost his title 3 years later, sending him down a spiral of depression, back taxes, & a divorce. After being hospitalized for his shattered right forearm (punching a brick wall in a rage), he was approached by Ultratech with the cybernetic implants that would help him get back on track. From here, it becomes the story most recognize. But there are two major differences. One, Combo was exposed by ARIA as punishment for not throwing the fight against their Mark 01 Fulgore. Two, he actually ripped out the cybernetic implants from his arms. It was this, or more specifically how quickly he healed from it, that he realized that Ultratech screwed with his DNA as well. After that, Combo used what money he had left & fixed up the gym at which he got his start, renaming it "Combo Gym" & used it as a means of training young fighters (even putting up an American flag in honor of his dad). And similar to the old timeline, Combo got his chance at revenge against Ultratech, albeit thanks to the Disavowed group who hated the company as much as Combo did. He actually almost went down swinging against the Fulgore & Riptor army, but he got lucky when Ultratech called them off. Now T.J. Combo is working to become worthy of his nickname again. As you can tell, T.J. Combo has an unstoppable spirit, often to a fault. He's dead-set on winning no matter what, with all the brashness & arrogance that comes with that strength. But it's through his strength that, even though Combo will want to punish himself for falling, he'll eventually pick himself back up. This is actually why he's adorned in the American colors for his default, as the character designers wanted to convey the idea of the American spirit through Combo.
T.J. Combo's designs over the years. As you can tell, they were a little bit more subtle with the American flag iconography in the reboot.
Speaking of his design, while Combo has had constants such has his short flat top & red/white/blue colors, he's had quite a few design changes over the years. In his initial KI1 design, he rocks the American flag quite prominently for his sleeveless shirt, paired with black/red shorts, red gloves, red/white socks, & red/white/blue shoes. Rare wasn't exactly subtle with the American imagery with this design This also carried over with his KI2 design, though he traded his black shorts for camo pants (I would say that this is a nod towards his military days, but that wasn't added to his lore until the reboot) & new red/white/blue sneakers. The biggest changes in this case are his white sleeveless gloves & his eyepatch, a reminder of the injuries he endured narrowly winning his fight against Riptor. Going onto the 2013 reboot, Iron Galaxy (they were developing KI 2013 at the time T.J. Combo was added to the game) were much more subtle with the American flag imagery than Rare was. You still have your reds, whites, & blues present in the design. But you also have grays & more black throw in as well. Combo also grew out the mustache/beard combo, which honestly works for him. The gloves are red like KI1 (adorned with a white star), but they're fingerless like his KI2 design, which can be seen as splitting the difference between the two (in addition to being a visual signifier of Combo's MMA skills). The boots he now wears are more typical for boxers, being shin-high boots that are black with blue & white accents. But the bigger changes (besides the boots) are his shirt & his scars. The shirt is now from his gym, repping that he now fights for it & the kids he helps create a better future for. But the scars are a visual reminder of the cybernetic implants he removed. They also glow blue during gameplay, which is a neat touch (& lore-accurate, since he now has DNA-based enhancements). I obviously prefer his modern design, but it's interesting to look back at T.J. Combo's earlier looks.
The scars glowing are a nice addition to his overall look.
Mechanically speaking, T.J. Combo isn't too far removed from Street Fighter boxer Balrog (nicknamed Boxer since he's called Mike Bison in Japan) in that he's all about getting in close with a ton of horizontal mobility. This does make sense given that they're both boxers, though Combo does have a few MMA attacks to complement his boxing prowess. Combo also has quite a few special moves that fit most occasions as well as a great instinct (namely in the 2013 version, which I have the most experience with). That said, Combo doesn't really have a ton of anti-air options, a meterless reversal, or the best normals. Not to mention that you really have to commit to your attacks since they aren't exactly safe. So basically be ready to go for hard reads if you're gonna pick up T.J. Combo. But once you get that read, GODDAMN is it satisfying to tear the opponent apart.
My only major complaint regarding T.J. Combo is the fact that he's voiced by a white actor in the 2013 reboot. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not hating on Patrick Seitz in any way whatsoever, he's a genuinely good dude with talent to spare. But like with the others, I would have preferred a black actor to voice T.J. Combo. That aside, I don't have a ton to critique. Black boxers are pretty common in fighting games, so I kinda wish that they did something more unique. But I'm willing to cut T.J. Combo some slack given that he's one of the OGs. But with all the expanded lore behind T.J. Combo, I'm pretty damn happy with his character. Just get a black voice actor next time…….a next time that I really hope happens for Killer Instinct.
- Honorable Mentions
- Venom (Guilty Gear)
- Nagoriyuki isn't Guilty Gear's first black character, as we had Venom as far back as Guilty Gear X. His moveset is interesting, the fact that he's openly gay is awesome, & his character is just overall interesting. I really hope he returns in Strive, even if he's lying low right now & is presumed dead as of REV 2.
- Master Raven (Tekken)
- Like with Giovanna, more black women in fighting games is never a bad thing. Plus she's an overall fun character to watch. I don't play a ton of her in Tekken sadly, but I've always wanted to learn how to play her. And while I'll still miss the OG Raven, I'd be lying if I said that Master Raven wasn't a pleasant surprise upon her reveal. Honestly, I now prefer her to the original. That plus, in the case of both Ravens, black ninjas aren't exactly common (outside of Banderias in KoFXIV). I just hope that she gets a black VA next time she shows up.
- Seth (The King of Fighters)
- This man just oozes cool in every part of his design. Like Master Raven, he's a character that I don't often play, but I love to watch. I really hope he returns in KoFXV.
- Jax Briggs (Mortal Kombat)
- Of course I was gonna give Jacqui's father a nod. Being one of the longest-standing veterans in the franchise, Jax is an iconic character in his own right. And while (as mentioned before) black soldiers in games aren't uncommon, Jax was actually the first of the Briggs to start setting themselves apart from the archetype in MKX. Plus he went through a lot, be it his PTSD from his Revenant days to said PTSD making him turn heel in MK11 (until Raiden or Fujin talked some sense into him). Still, it's nice to see him continue to show up.
- Dudley (Street Fighter)
- Granted, there are quite a few black boxers in fighting games, but Dudley is just so damn classy. Even the fact that he's a British stereotype alone sets him apart from the likes of Balrog & T.J. Combo. Not to mention that his playstyle is WAY more my jam than Balrog's. I just wish he had a black English VA.....maybe in SFVI.
- Venom (Guilty Gear)
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Since I'm pretty sure that I'm gonna hit the character count limit in the OP, I'm gonna put completed weeks in their own dedicated posts. Not only will they be threadmarked, but you can also access them via a link in the OP.
WEEK 1: FIGHTING GAME CHARACTERS
DAY 1: TWINTELLE (ARMS)
Let's be honest, you all knew I was gonna start with the Silver Screen Queen who should have been the ARMS rep in Smash Ultimate (not hating on Min Min, mind you, she's the 2nd best pick they could have made). And as many of you are aware, Twintelle is one of the few instances of melanin in a Nintendo game (lord knows Smash Ultimate could used some). Regarding her story, Twintelle started her career in the spotlight as part of the same record label as Ribbon Girl. But according to Biff (the announcer for ARMS), she eventually decided to pursue a career in acting, so she & Ribbon Girl parted ways in terms of them working together. This soon led Twintelle to establishing Twintelle Productions, eventually resulting in a productive career as a world-famous actress in the world of ARMS (thus earning the aforementioned moniker). To address the obvious elephant in the room, Twintelle is the only known character who possesses the ARMS gene that had said gene materialize in the form of her hair rather than her actual arms. Twintelle also possesses the ability to slow down time around her opponents, which helps Twintelle stand out compared to her fellow combatants (Fun Fact: That mask is a free mask issued by ARMS Labs & is meant for being able to take control of said extendable limbs, as the arms would be more-or-less useless without the mask being on). This fact has caught the interest of ARMS Labs, who have tried & failed to have Twintelle come in for examination.
Twintelle always comes dressed to impress, fitting considering her status as a top-tier actress.
As for her design, Yabuki's team at Nintendo EPD Group 9 (in cooperation with Nintendo of America & Nintendo of Europe) did a great job with Twintelle. She's probably the 2nd biggest fan-favorite of the ARMS cast (at least in the West, Ninjara is in 2nd over in Japan), behind only Min Min. As far as her design is concerned, it's a great one. Twintelle skin complexion jells perfectly with her white sleeveless shirt, which is styled extravagantly in a way that shows that she takes her fashion very seriously. And on that topic, her shoes are basically sneaker heels are the perfect expression of her duality of form & function. Normally I'm not big on characters wearing heels in fighting games (namely for practicality reasons), but I'm known to make exceptions when they thematically fit the character in question. And the symbolism of Twintelle's sneaker heels are so great that I'm willing to make such an exception here. As for critiques that I have with Twintelle, I have two. One, I wish that they gave Twintelle a bit more muscle. Canonically, Twintelle hits the gym quite often & is actually stronger than series poster boy Spring Man. As such, I wish that Nintendo took a cue from Street Fighter & let her have a decent amount of muscle for her regular arms.
Even with her normal arms, Twintelle benches more than Spring Man.
Another issue I have is with her voice actress. Because ARMS did all of its voice recording in Japan, Nintendo EPD Group 9 stuck with actors in the general area of the studio. In Twintelle's case, she's voiced by French singer Adeyto Rex Angeli. Having white actors in PoC roles seems to be a recurring problem with Nintendo (Claude, Cyril, & Dedue being recent examples for Nintendo's characters of color), one that I hope is addressed going forward. And even outside of Nintendo, Twintelle is far from the only character who has this problem (even of the characters I have planned). To take a bit of a tangent to focus on the topic, the most famous example of this is Nadine Ross from Uncharted (she was in the running to be listed under Action), being voiced by Laura Bailey. While granted, Laura was cast prior to Nadine's design being finalized, she should have been recast when Nadine's design was locked in. Going back to Twintelle, while this isn't a big problem with Twintelle specifically, I wish that there were more black women with darker skin. There are some examples in gaming already (one will be talked about later in the month), but there should be more. But that goes more into colorism in games, which is a topic that was covered in beautiful detail by our own celes (who was actually among the people who helped me out with this thread). Please check out her thread when you get the chance.
I guess Twintelle being more sexualized than the others does fall into colorism to a degree, but one could also attribute that to her profession as a film actress (but even then, the argument remains). Thankfully ARMS doesn't sexualize her too much, & the degree to which she is sexualized never feels degrading to her character. But if that's thanks to NoA & NoE's assistance with Twintelle's creation or because of the game's E10+ rating preventing things from going too far is unknown. Still, it's something to consider & an issue that I hope is fixed in the near future. Though regarding Twintelle as a whole, she's a great character who I hope gets a chance to shine even more in the future, both within ARMS as a franchise & hopefully as a character in the next Smash game (because Smash's lack of melanin is getting annoying at this point).Colorism in video games (Open spoilers)
Before I start: I just want to make it clear that you can like a character, game, an artist, a publisher, etc. in isolation while still acknowledging that looked at within the greater context, that thing you like might be contributing to the reinforcement of harmful stereotypes or imagery that...
DAY 2: NAGORIYUKI (GUILTY GEAR)
One of the two newcomers in the base roster of Guilty Gear Strive, I did have some apprehension towards including a newer character from an as-of-yet-released game. But considering that we know quite a bit about him already & have seen him in action, I thought I should go ahead & bring up Nagoriyuki since he also represents a positive change in the industry. Not to mention that I want to give props to upcoming games that are bringing us black excellence. As as his lore goes, Nagoriyuki is a Nigerian vampire with a strong sense of honor & happens to be very kind. His gentle nature contrasts his large build & his vampiric nature, though most of the blood-sucking comes from his blade rather than doing any of the actual biting himself. As you can tell, I can't really go into as much detail about Nagoriyuki's lore since we don't have Guilty Gear Strive in our hands yet, so I can't get into too much of his lore right now. Even with this gameplay, he was described by Arc System Works as a "One Shot" character. That in conjunction with the gameplay we've seen of Nagoriyuki looks more like he plays like a Samurai Shodown character than a Guilty Gear character. Though obviously with Guilty Gear's mechanics such as Roman Cancels & Burst, he won't feel too out-of-place in the game mechanically. With that said, I can talk about his design, which is actually part of the reason why I decided to list him.
Nagoriyuki mainly wears white with orange & black being his secondary colors in addition to purple & red accents. This does go beyond the tried-&-true "three main colors" ideology when it comes to character design, but Nagoriyuki definitely makes it work. The white of his coat contrasts well with his darker skin, with his dreads being on-point. Nagoriyuki also primarily wears a horned helmet with exposed teeth (the mouth part of which does open up so he can eat when necessary). When his blood meter reaches its maximum, he goes berserk & the mask comes off. If anything, I wish he didn't have the mask, but I don't hate it. And while you could say that the idea of a black guy going wild is a stereotype in & of itself, it's mainly in a vampiric sense than the typical stereotype and serves to contrast his usual personality of the gentle giant. Of course, the reason why I wanted to talk about Nagoriyuki is because he represents a positive trend in the industry with regards how they handle black characters: Their willingness to listen to criticism.
A change that I didn't expect Arc System Works to make, but one that I greatly appreciate.
In his original incarnation, Nagoriyuki lips were unicolor & of a lighter shade than the rest of his skin. This unfortunately invokes an offensive racist stereotype from back in the day, a fact that seems to go over the heads of most Japanese developers, artists, writers, & beyond. I even did a thread drawing attention to this fact. But come October 2020, you could imagine my surprise when I saw that Arc System Works actually listened to fan criticisms about his lips & actually corrected them. Now Nagoriyuki's top lip is darker than the rest of his skin, with his bottom lip retaining the original lighter shade they already had prior to the change. This is more in line with how black lips actually are, & I can't give Arc System Works enough props for making this change. If I had to point out any gripes beyond the now-fixed lips, I'd say that I wish his eyes were brown (a lot of the Japan-made black characters have blue eyes, from Twintelle to Nagoriyuki to Giovanna). Likewise, it'd be nice if Nagoriyuki's palms were a lighter shade to properly represent how the hands of black people are.
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]Any potential critiques about his character will have to be saved for when the game is actually out, but I don't see anything overtly problematic about Nagoriyuki at the moment. So with that being said, I'll count my blessings where I can, as this is a great step forward for how black people are represented in games (especially Japanese games). I can't give too many other thoughts without actually getting the game (which I have every intention of doing), but everything we've seen of Nagoriyuki is filling me with both hype for the game & hope for the future. Good job, Arc System Works. Hopefully more developers follow your example.
DAY 3: SEAN MATSUDA (STREET FIGHTER)
Street Fighter III was an interesting time for the franchise. While Third Strike is often heralded as the best entry in the franchise by the core fanbase (myself included), SFIII as a whole took a pretty difficult road towards that fame given the issues that its predecessors (New Generation & 2nd Impact) had. One of the initial struggles that SFIII had was the lack of any returning characters from Street Fighter II or Alpha (more so the former) beyond Ryu & Ken. The shoto fighter who served as one of the marquee newcomers of the Street Fighter III series of games, Sean Matsuda. For the record, it ultimately came down to him, Elena, & Dudley as far as who I would go with for the Street Fighter character. But the decision came to who I had more to talk about, both good & bad. And honestly, Sean is worth the discussion on both fronts. Anyway, onto his lore. Born to an Afro-Brazilian mother (Brenda) & a Japanese father (Yuichiro), Sean is the youngest of the Matsuda children (behind eldest brother Fabio & the middle child sister Laura, the latter of whom would make her playable appearance in Street Fighter V). Following the death of his grandfather Kinjiro (at the hands of Vega/Claw, if Street Fighter: Resurrection is any indication), Fabio took up Kinjiro's old dojo &, in turn, the pure form of Matsuda Jiu-Jitsu. Because of this, family tradition dictated that Laura & Sean couldn't practice pure Matsuda Jiu-Jitsu. The two got around this by finding their own takes on the martial art. Laura's is closer to the original form with her own personal flair, which can be seen in Street Fighter V. Sean on the other hand mixed it with another martial art, Shotokan. Enamored by the feats of long-time Shotokan practitioner Ken Masters, Sean decided to mold his Shotokan moves after Ken. The result is a mix of Shotokan & Matsuda Jiu-Jitsu, as we see in Street Fighter III. But the thing is, Sean is still really wet behind the ears with regards to the Shoto moves he knows, to the point where one of his supers is a regular Hadoken. Sean plays like an unrefined shoto on account of his limited training & mixing things with Matsuda Jiu-Jitsu to make up for his Shotokan shortcomings, which helps set him apart from Ryu & Ken. Hell, Sean event throws out a basketball (performing said taunt increases the stun damage that Sean's attacks inflict), which is honestly a nice touch of individuality compared to Ryu & Ken. These facts as a whole add a lot to his character. It's just a shame that he was only really good tier-wise in 2nd Impact. But given that Sean always has something to prove & hates being seen as weak, he maintains a constant drive to better himself on all fronts.
The Matsuda family has a surprising amount of backstory to them.
Sean has had a couple of designs throughout the canonical Street Fighter timeline (one of them is shown in the initial image), but I'll focus primarily on his first playable appearance in Street Fighter III & his Character Story Mode appearance in Street Fighter V. For the former, there's not a whole lot to talk about. He wears a yellow gi that better taken care of like his idol (Ken) with a black belt & red padded gloves. It's nothing overly unique, but the yellow color gets the point across that he's more vibrant & outgoing compared to Ryu & Ken (though this personality trait is not too far off from the latter). Sean also has a solid-ass fade on the sides in addition to some dreads at the top front part of his head. Likewise, his earrings show that he isn't afraid to accessorize where he can. Sean's design is textbook "less is more", & I honestly appreciate that. Though his Street Fighter V Character Story Mode design does give us a younger, more casual Sean, before he practiced Shotokan in earnest.
Not a bad Sean design, if only he was playable in Street Fighter V.
To be honest, I actually really like this design (much more than his Cinematic Story Mode look). Despite being earlier in the timeline, it's probably a natural step towards making Sean more of an individual from a design standpoint. He still has the red gloves & earrings, but the gloves have more prominent padded finger holes compared to his gloves in SFIII. Likewise, he adopts a more personalized pair of sweats (customization that I wish Laura went for with her default design). And he tops it off with red sneakers (which would probably be Air Jordans if Capcom was willing to pay the licensing fee), which complement the gloves perfectly. This is actually a really strong design that's honestly slept on. Maybe it can come back as an alternate costume if Sean returns in Street Fighter VI (please come back). Though while we're on the topic of SFV's story, I'd might as well bring up one of my criticisms about Sean that pertains to said story. In Laura's Character Story, Bengus drew Sean to be considerably more pale than he actually is. This problem was eventually corrected in the Cinematic Story Mode, but the problem still persists in the 2D story drawings, which honestly annoys me. I get that Bengus didn't exactly have a lot of time to make those drawings, but still.
If I had to criticize anything else about Sean, it's how he was treated & his English voice actor. For the former, he's seen as a bit of a joke. In Street Fighter V, it's somewhat understandable that he isn't as proficient at fighting. But he has at least some knowledge of Matsuda Jiu-Jitsu by that point, so he should at least be able to put up a decent fight. Not to mention the fact that he was only really good in 2nd Impact before being nerfed to irrelevancy in Third Strike (a fact that still stings to this day). As for the VA part, he faces a similar issue as Twintelle & Nadine in that his English voice actor is white (Chris Rickabaugh to be exact). As mentioned before, this is a recurring problem with black characters in games. But it's even more apparent for Sean since his Laura (his older sister) actually has a black actress voicing her in English (specifically G.K. Bowes). Though I guess Devil May Cry 5 may have been a wake-up call for Capcom (in reference to Morrison's white, as well as racist & transphobic, English VA), as they've been more careful on such matters in recent years (namely with the General in MHW Iceborne). So hopefully this is a problem that will correct itself going forward for all people of color in Street Fighter, not just Sean or Balrog. With all that said, Sean perfectly encapsulates the idea of the new generation taking over. But currently he has the potential to do just that, potential that Capcom has yet to capitalize on due to both sleeping on Sean as a character as well as their hesitance to move the Street Fighter timeline forward. Let's just hope that he gets another chance to represent said generation going forward, ideally in Street Fighter VI.
DAY 4: LEROY SMITH (TEKKEN)
Choosing a black character for Tekken was legitimately a tough call, as it was either him or Master Raven (both Tekken 7 newbies). Ultimately, I decided to go with my boy Leroy for a reason I'll explain at the end. That said, I do recognize that black women in fighting games are hard to come by, something that I'll touch on with one of the upcoming characters I have in the pipeline. Anyway, Leroy Smith is one of Tekken 7's DLC characters who just oozes cool & black excellence. To start with his lore, Leroy's family was killed to violence incited by the Mishima Zaibatsu (likely during Heihachi Mishima's time as head of the Zaibatsu) known as the Big Apple War. Narrowly surviving the ordeal & not wanting to ever feel helpless again, Leroy left New York to travel the world for 50 years as a trader. Following his visit to Hong Kong, Leroy wanted to stay & master the martial art of Wing Chun in the hopes of using his skills to bring back peace to New York by taking down the criminal element that plagues it (plus it's not like the police are gonna do anything about it). But though Leroy knew that it was gang violence that took his family from him, he didn't learn of the specifics regarding the Mishima Zaibatsu until he came across a gang lord who was around at the time. From there, he entered the King of Iron Fist tournament in the hopes of facing Heihachi. Though given Heihachi's demise in Tekken 7's story, Leroy likely won't be able to settle the score anytime soon (unless Heihachi is later resurrected).
In the words of TFS Vegeta: "OH MY GOD, HE'S SO GOD DAMN COOL!"
As for how Leroy Smith plays, he in theory excels in defensive play to where he counters his opponents moves, capitalizing on their mistakes & punishing them hard. In fact, a lot of his moves draw inspiration from the Ip Man movies, which I can definitely appreciate. Within the lore, Leroy went for Wing Chun because he was fascinated by the martial art's ability to fight multiple opponents at once through going after his opponents' openings. At least one of those still rings true for how he actually plays. Though I say "in theory" because in practice, Leroy Smith is a jack-of-all-trades from a mechanical standpoint. This would normally be fine…..if he was also a master of none. Granted, that's true now. But when Leroy first came out, he was a master of all. He dominated the competitive scene for the time he first came out (& this was right before the pandemic screwed everything up). It's a shame, as it did sour the character for a number of people. Though as of now, Leroy was nerfed to not be overpowered. But even now, he's still a really good character. I guess the saying "Fear the elderly in a profession where many die young" fits perfectly for Leroy, because he's a force to be reckoned with.
Leroy's design definitely follows the "less is more" logic, & I couldn't be happier about that.
Leroy Smith's design is simple but effective. His default focuses on three main colors: white, red, & gold. Like with Twintelle & Nagoriyuki before him, Japanese developers seem to really like contrasting darker-skinned characters with lighter-colored clothing & hair. Though in the case of Leroy, the white hair makes sense given his age (plus Nagoriyuki doesn't have white hair). Also like Nagoriyuki, Leroy's dreads are on-point. The red of his pants also serve as a means to break up all the white in the upper part of his body (the jacket of which has black writing on the back with gold details at the front & cuffs), returning to gold for his shoes for a bit of familiarity from the upper part of his body. On top of that, he rocks some stylish shades, which obscure the fact that Leroy seems to be blind in one eye (likely from the injuries he suffered after the Big Apple War). Of course, Leroy isn't the only star of the show, as he also brings his dog Sugar along with him (who he calls upon for some attacks). They're a sort of pit-bull terrier who rocks some fancy bling for their collar in solidarity with their owner's own chain. Sugar marks the 2nd pet to help their owner in combat, as Kazumi Mishima also fights alongside her pet tiger. Leroy also rocks one other prominent outfit, which has him shirtless (showing off his tattoos) with large black pants. This is accessorized with silver bracelets, a cloth necklace, & a silver sash wrapped around his waist which features a large gold ring at the middle (acting as a belt buckle of sorts). This is a much more simplistic design, but it's just as striking as his default (hence why I mentioned it). And hey, Bamco actually remembered to make Leroy's palms slightly lighter than the rest of his skin ("slightly" being the key word here).
Damn, even his secondary design is strong as hell......just like his kit. And hey, lighter palms!
As for any critiques, the only one I really have is that they should have better balanced him at the start so that Leroy would have had a better impression from the get-go. But outside of that, I don't really have any complaints about Leroy. I could also nitpick by saying that he falls into the Japanese trend of white hair for black characters. But Leroy is one of the cases where his white hair is actually justified given his age. Though I am curious to find out who his English VA is, as we don't really have any information on them (& probably won't get any until Tekken 8, assuming that Leroy returns). Either way, Bandai Namco really hit it out of the park with Leroy Smith. And in a way, he perfectly encapsulates what Tekken is about form a mechanical standpoint thanks to his jack-of-all-trades play-style (& is actually the reason why I ultimately went with Leroy rather than Master Raven). I really hope he returns in future Tekken games.
DAY 5: ZASALAMEL (SOUL CALIBUR)
I know, two Bandai Namco characters in a row. But I specifically said one per franchise, not one per company. So Zasalamel is still fair game. As for his story, it may get a bit complex considering that there are two timelines to take into account: The old timeline of Soul Caliburs II through IV & the new timeline seen in Soul Calibur VI. But his origin story across both are about the same, so I'll specify the parts specific to each game where I can.
Zasalamel's final boss form in SCIII, Abyss. Damn, it's been a while.
n the original timeline, Zasalamel was part of a tribe that protected the Soul Calibur, after trying to wield the weapon in question, Zas was cast out by said tribe. From there, he cultivated his magical talents (thanks to his photographic memory, where he only needs to see something once to perform it himself, not unlike Marvel's Taskmaster) as well as seeking out once-lost knowledge until he re-learned the art of reincarnation. He succeeded, with his memories being retained through each rebirth as well as his body matching his original once he's fully grown. But there was one catch to the whole reincarnation thing, Zasalamel couldn't really turn it off. As such, he as basically doomed to reincarnate for all of eternity. Not even the Soul Edge (the opposite of the sword he was once sworn to protect) could kill him for good. This part specifically was from his debut game, Soul Calibur III, where he served as an antagonist keeping anyone who was in his way of taking his own life. He even had an alternate form that was one of SCIII's final bosses, Abyss. Anyway, he tried going back to back to his old tribe, only to find that they've already died out. Zasalamel eventually came to terms with his eternal reincarnation, taking it as an opportunity to impart wisdom upon humanity to help the world grow & progress (as of Soul Calibur IV). So in a way, Zasalamel eventually found peace……..until the timeline was reset. In the new timeline, Zasalamel's origin is about the same in that he was cast out by the tribe (called the Guardians of the Spirit Sword in this continuity) & eventually granted himself reincarnation, not realizing that it was more of a curse than a blessing. But this time, he found a light showing a bright future for the world between rebirths. So basically Zasalamel side-stepped the heel-turn part of his life & wanted to work towards making that bright future a reality, which helped him look on the bright side of his reincarnation ability. In a way, it's great that even though Zasalamel made the same initial mistakes between timelines, he came to realize the blessings that come with his ability to reincarnate. Plus it serves as a way to not make those who watched Zasalamel grow & come to terms with his mistakes feel cheated by the timeline reset. And hey, he actually has a black English voice actor (Keith Silverstein). So good job there, Bamco. As for how Zasalamel plays, he tends to excel at controlling the space of the battlefield, methodically putting the player in positions where he wants them to be. From there, Zasalamel is able to finish the job with either modified versions of his techniques from the Guardians of the Spirit Sword or his scythe Kafziel ("Angel of Death"). As a Kilik main, I haven't played too much of Zasalamel. But facing someone who's good with him is a pain in the ass, which I suppose makes sense considering that he's one of the better characters in the game competitively.
Zasalamel's designs over the years, namely his most recent & his earliest looks.
As for his design, I'll focus on the Soul Calibur VI & III versions of his design since those are the two which differ the most (his SCIV look isn't too far removed from his VI design anyway). Zasalamel is a bald black man with a golden left eye (the eye remains gold regardless of his reincarnations), with a tattoo around said golden eye to further draw your attention towards it. And like most of the other black fighting game characters I've covered, he primarily wears white to contrast with his skin tone with gold accents (I'm starting to notice a trend with Japan-made black characters in fighting games). The biggest parts of his SCVI design are his comically-giant pointed gold shoulder pads & his feather-like cape which dominate his silhouette, while his gold chest plate & emerald green cuffs complementing the rest of his design. The green of said cuffs actually serve as a great way to break up the whites & golds with a more vibrant color than the black of his inner thigh section & abs. It's a decent design that tells you the core essentials you need to know about Zasalamel. And while it's hard to communicate the idea of eternal reincarnation through character design, the whole ancient wizard look in addition to the infinity symbol on his chest does as good of a job as it can with communicating the idea. But at the same time, it's a bit complex in its execution with a lot of design elements fighting for your attention. If nothing else, it gives him a unique silhouette (& I love the cape). As for his SCIII design, it's much more simplistic than his SCVI look (following the "less is more" mentality). In here, green plays a larger role in the design, with the white being slightly less prominent than it is in later iterations of the design. He also rocks a sleeveless robe, showing off his muscles, complemented with long white fingerless gloves with a black strap & gold accents. The infinity emblem is here as well, a design element that's retained his his later redesigns. And the larger presence of green at his lower section is meant to break up the large amounts of white in his long thigh-high boots. I actually generally prefer his SCIII design, but I don't hate his later designs.
With all that said, I do have one major complaint with his SCVI look in particular. That complaint would be the inconsistency of his skin tone. In the actual art, his skin is consistently dark across all of his incarnations. But in-game, his SCVI version is much lighter in skin tone than before the reboot. And you can't even use the reincarnation excuse since the specific part of his lore is that each reincarnation of Zasalamel grows to be exactly the same physically as the original. So I'm not sure why Bandai Namco decided to lighten his skin. On the more detailed side of things regarding my gripes, his palms are the same shade as the rest of his skin, which is a recurring thing for more stylistic games. I only bring it up now because Tekken 7 actually went through the effort of giving Leroy Smith lighter palms. But it's something that I hope is rectified in games going forward. But outside of that, I really like Zasalamel. He's an interesting & complex character who I enjoyed seeing grow throughout the games he was in. And as mentioned already, I respect both Bandai Namco not completely walking back on his character development in SCIV despite the reboot (which I'm still surprised by, as I thought they would want to bring back Abyss in some capacity given the reboot) in VI & how he plays from a mechanical standpoint (writing this makes me want to hit the lab with him). Actually…….there is one more complaint. Throughout Soul Calibur's entire existence, HOW THE HELL IS ZASALAMEL STILL THE ONLY BLACK CHARACTER IN THE ENTIRE FRANCHISE!? SERIOUSLY, WHAT THE SHIT, BAMCO!?!?!? *breathes* It's fine, at least Soul Calibur has a black character.......unlike a CERTAIN other fighting game franchise Bandai Namco develops for another company (*cough*Smash*cough*). There, I got it out of my system. But yeah, great job with Zasalamel…….just fix his skin tone next time……..& his palms.
DAY 6: JACQUI BRIGGS (MORTAL KOMBAT)
As I mentioned in the Leroy section, black women in fighting games are very hard to come by. It's definitely gotten better in recent years between Twintelle, Master Raven, Giovanna, & Darli Dagger. Even way back in the 90's, we had Elena. But outside of them & a few others, we haven't had a ton of black women who are playable in fighting games. And even then, a number of them are marred with colorism in one way or another (be it a refusal to make them darker-skinned or, in the case of characters like Darli Dagger, over-sexualizing them). These are topics covered better in celes' thread on the topic, so definitely check that out (link's in the Twintelle section). Anyway, onto Jacqui herself. Part of the reason why I opted for her over her more famous father Jax is for two reasons. One, as I said earlier, black women are hard to come by in fighting games. Two, I generally find Jacqui to be a more interesting character than her father, both from a story & a mechanical standpoint. So yeah, onwards to her lore.
The new generation in MKX. A shame that not all of them returned in 11.
Jacqueline Sonya "Jacqui" Briggs is the daughter of long-time series veteran Jackson "Jax" Briggs. As such, I should probably preface this with the relevant parts of Jax's story that led to Jacqui. In the rebooted Mortal Kombat timeline introduced in MK9, Jax was brutally killed by Sindel & later enslaved by Quan Chi as one of his revenants. Though fortunately for him, he was eventually freed from Quan Chi's control alongside Scorpion & Sub-Zero 25 years before the events of Mortal Kombat X. During that time, Jax's guilt for the things he did under Quan Chi's control led him to leave the military, but he did eventually marry Vera. And thus, Jacqui came into existence. Now we move to Jacqui's actual story. Jacqui is one of the four new Special Forces members introduced in Mortal Kombat X alongside lifelong friend Cassie Cage (Johnny Cage & Sonya Blade's daughter), Takeda Takahashi (Kenshi Takahashi's son, Hanzo Hasashi's disciple, & Jacqui's boyfriend, later fiancé as of MK11), & Kung Jin (Kung Lao's nephew &, to my knowledge, Mortal Kombat's first openly gay playable character). Though in Jacqui's case, she joined the military against her father's wishes, with Jax fearing that Jacqui would endure the same hardship that he had to face while with the Special Forces. Jax does eventually accept that his daughter wants to join Special Forces, even giving her a handgun (which he teaches her how to use) as a gift. But despite her father's newfound acceptance, Jacqui admitted that the people she & Cassie had to hurt &/or kill along the way weighed heavy on her heart. Still, she persevered because she knew her father endured worse, so she could do the same. And going by her accomplishments with Special Forces, she's been doing a great job of living up to her father's legacy (not to mention being a solid pilot). From there, she faced the likes of Kotal Kahn, D'Vrah, Reptile, Ermac (the one who took her father's arms), and Ferra & Torr. Even if she didn't ultimately take down Shinnok (that was the Cage Family), Jaquie more than proved herself. Then she was put through the emotional ringer in MK11 where her father was played like a fiddle by Kronika with the false promise of using the new timeline to wipe away the trauma he faced. Granted, she had the younger version of Jax backing her up for most of the story, & Jax eventually came to his senses (the first time thanks to Raiden talking some sense into Jax near the end of the story, & in the re-do of MK11 Aftermath by Raiden's brother Fujin), but that doesn't discredit the betrayal Jacqui had to deal with. But at the same, she persevered & helped bring down Kronya. Even in her (non-canon) arcade ending, she still valued her dad's happiness over her own despite everything, even if it meant wiping herself from existence for that to happen (thankfully this isn't canon, as it'd be a shame to lose Jacqui). Though within the actual canon story, Jacqui sadly isn't a super-major player compared to the likes of the Cages, Raiden, or Liu Kang in the grand scheme of things, but she isn't a completely underutilized character either. So I'm at least thankful for that.
Jacqui is actually really damn good in MK11.
As for how she plays mechanically, she's very much a rushdown character with pressure options for days (A.K.A. Right up my alley as a Karin main in SFV). Though s far as how she fights, she's mainly a kickboxing practitioner (a martial art that I'm surprised isn't used more often, though it is used for the likes of Min Min in ARMS) who relies on tech-enhanced attacks to varying degrees. In MKX, this comes in the form of her multi-purpose gauntlets. They have a range of abilities outside of the typical strength enhancement such as plasma blasts, shotgun rounds, or even machine gun rounds alongside rockets. Which of these set of weapons you get for her gauntlets will vary depending on which variation you chose for Jacqui, a mechanic unique to MKX. In MK11, Jacqui adds leg exo-augmentation to bring her kicks more in line with her punches in addition to having electrical currents that can go between her arm & leg tech. This results in faster punches & kicks that help put even more pressure on her opponents. Jacqui also has a barrier, but she doesn't use it nearly as much as I'd like (we could have gotten an Aegis Reflector in MK11 ;_;). Anyway, Jacqui is considered to be up there as one of the best characters in the game tier-wise (alongside the likes of Liu Kang & Cetrion). Exactly how good she is relative to the rest of the cast is still up for debate (as some argued early on that she was broken), but most of the pros seem to agree that she's really damn good. Of the two, I personally prefer MKX Jacqui. But that's mostly because I prefer MKX from a gameplay standpoint to MK11 (which is a topic for another time). With that said, let's move on to Jacqui's designs.
Jacqui become more tech-based between games, which I can appreciate.
Jacqui's design differs quite a bit between MKX & MK11. In MKX, she has her hair braided & tied back. She also has more standard military garb, though she has two primary variations of it. Both are a pale navy blue, but one is a cameo shirt with the sleeves rolled up & a bullet-proof vest on, while the other is just a tank top. These are accompanied by her gauntlets, which differ in look depending on the design. The tank top version has more basic gauntlets, whereas the full outfit trades those gauntlets in for what look to be more advanced variants. Going into MK11, the first thing I noticed is the improved skin rendering tech at display, which has done wonders for Jacqui (& basically everyone else in the cast). And if Spider-Man: Miles Morales on PS5 is any indication, I'm excited to see what other developers (like NRS, in this case) can do with the new hardware with regards to skin rendering. Either way, it's nice to see MK's black characters look well-moisturized (since, as I just said, Jacqui isn't the only one who saw this improvement). As for Jacqui's actual design in MK11, it seems like she iterated on the tech further, adding a full vest & the leg….gauntlets (I'm not sure what to call them)her greaves (thanks, The Adder). The vest in particular has white accents & baby blue lights. There's a little bit of boob plate going on that kinda sticks out to me, but there have been worse instances as she clearly isn't being sexualized in MK11. I mean, she was a bit in MKX with the tank-top alt, but that marked the beginning of NetherRealm Studios moving away from sexualizing their women. Anyway, the gauntlets are green with gold accents, which lines up with Jacqui trading in her blue tank top for a green one in addition to wearing her braids down more (with some of them still tied up). Not to mention that Jacqui's one of the few cases where one's skin tone becomes darker between entries, something I didn't notice until writing her section & a change that definitely won't say no to (usually it's the other way around). In a way, her MK11 design leans more into the engineering prowess of Jacqui, putting that aspect of her character front-&-center while making green, white, & gold her 3 main colors. And honestly, I'm glad that they did. I've always liked her character & her play style, but now she's leaning more into her own visual identity. The black army person archetype isn't uncommon in media, so it's at least nice that MK11 did more to set Jacqui apart from the usuals of that archetype.
I'm not sure I really have any complaints about how Jacqui is handled. It's weird, as usually I have at least a few things to say on this topic. But nope, no issues regarding her VA, no white hair (outside of old age) & blue eyes, no overt colorism (though again, I wish we had more dark-skinned black women in gaming). NRS did a pretty good job here. Though granted, this is the first Western-made fighting game that I've covered, so a couple of things could be noted in the transition. For one, there's less of a reliance on blue eyes & white hair (as mentioned earlier), though she still has white for the tech-based parts of her design. This makes sense, as a shiny white with gold accents gives off the "high-tech" vibe that NRS was clearly going for with Jacqui's MK11 design. I still wish that all 4 of the new Special Forces kids made the cut. Kung Jin was a fun archer & it's a shame that the game's first gay character didn't return, & it's kinda weird that Takeda (Jacqui's own fiancé) didn't return. But I'm at least glad that at least Jacqui & Cassie came back. And while the timeline seems to have been rebooted again, I hope that it didn't remove her or the others from the equation. From her character to her play-style to her tech-based visual identity, Jacqui Briggs is a legitimately great addition to the Mortal Kombat kast. Please keep her around, NRS.
DAY 7: T.J. COMBO (KILLER INSTINCT)You had to have known that I wasn't gonna leave Killer Instinct hanging, especially after its spectacular showing this week thanks to our own Maximilian. Black boxers aren't really uncommon in fighting games. Though two of the more common examples people bring up hail from Street Fighter, namely being Balrog/Boxer & Dudley. I guess Twintelle would count towards this as well, but ARMS is a completely different beast from just boxing & that's the gimmick for the entire cast anyway. That said, onwards to T.J. Combo's lore.
The gym at which T.J. Combo trained in the original Killer Instinct (pre-reboot)
Tyler-Johnson Garrett made his debut in the original Killer Instinct & eventually returned in the reboot in its 2nd season of DLC (he was also a bonus character for buying the Combo Breaker edition of the game). In the original timeline, T.J. Combo had to fight his way to the top from the bottom all the way to heavyweight champion & maintained his title for 5 years straight. Unfortunately, fame & greed got the better of him, to the point where he resorted to cybernetic implants to keep up (using most of his cash to do it). The Ultratech surgeon who did the operation eventually sold the story to the media, resulting in T.J. Combo losing his belt. From there, he worked like hell again to regain his top spot & was successful. T.J. Combo even used his newly-regained fortune to being it back to the place he grew up. But in defeating Riptor, Combo was left hospitalized, regretting ever entering the KI tournament. Upon release, he went straight after Ultratech for what they put him through. The two endings have him seeking new challenges no matter what, be it going to the future if he kills Tusk or staying in the past if he doesn't. Either way, he's always trying to get back what he lost. Not a whole lot to his story, but the reboot further added to his lore.
In the 2013 KI reboot, the initial stuff remains the same in that Combo had cybernetic implants to keep winning but was stripped of his title & banned from boxing once it was made public. But the 2013 KI game added more lore such as how he was from Galveston & it being his father (Jack Johnson, the previous heavyweight champ) who inspired Combo to aspire for the same title. But he was also prone to revenge. After being taunted by one of his opponents, he ended up filling one of his boxing gloves with quarters & breaking said opponent's nose. The exhilarating feeling of that moment drove him to find other methods of cheating. From there he just kept winning, but lost it all when he was found out & banned from the league. It was a downward spiral going forward, be it dropping out of high school given him getting in trouble or even getting dropped from the military after cold cocking the drill sergeant. He eventually moved to Chicago, looking for a new start. And though he started as just a janitor at a boxing gym, he eventually returned to the ring as the years went by. From there, he actually won the title of heavyweight champ, but he pushed himself too far between all the parties. Because of this, Combo lost his title 3 years later, sending him down a spiral of depression, back taxes, & a divorce. After being hospitalized for his shattered right forearm (punching a brick wall in a rage), he was approached by Ultratech with the cybernetic implants that would help him get back on track. From here, it becomes the story most recognize. But there are two major differences. One, Combo was exposed by ARIA as punishment for not throwing the fight against their Mark 01 Fulgore. Two, he actually ripped out the cybernetic implants from his arms. It was this, or more specifically how quickly he healed from it, that he realized that Ultratech screwed with his DNA as well. After that, Combo used what money he had left & fixed up the gym at which he got his start, renaming it "Combo Gym" & used it as a means of training young fighters (even putting up an American flag in honor of his dad). And similar to the old timeline, Combo got his chance at revenge against Ultratech, albeit thanks to the Disavowed group who hated the company as much as Combo did. He actually almost went down swinging against the Fulgore & Riptor army, but he got lucky when Ultratech called them off. Now T.J. Combo is working to become worthy of his nickname again. As you can tell, T.J. Combo has an unstoppable spirit, often to a fault. He's dead-set on winning no matter what, with all the brashness & arrogance that comes with that strength. But it's through his strength that, even though Combo will want to punish himself for falling, he'll eventually pick himself back up. This is actually why he's adorned in the American colors for his default, as the character designers wanted to convey the idea of the American spirit through Combo.
T.J. Combo's designs over the years. As you can tell, they were a little bit more subtle with the American flag iconography in the reboot.
Speaking of his design, while Combo has had constants such has his short flat top & red/white/blue colors, he's had quite a few design changes over the years. In his initial KI1 design, he rocks the American flag quite prominently for his sleeveless shirt, paired with black/red shorts, red gloves, red/white socks, & red/white/blue shoes. Rare wasn't exactly subtle with the American imagery with this design This also carried over with his KI2 design, though he traded his black shorts for camo pants (I would say that this is a nod towards his military days, but that wasn't added to his lore until the reboot) & new red/white/blue sneakers. The biggest changes in this case are his white sleeveless gloves & his eyepatch, a reminder of the injuries he endured narrowly winning his fight against Riptor. Going onto the 2013 reboot, Iron Galaxy (they were developing KI 2013 at the time T.J. Combo was added to the game) were much more subtle with the American flag imagery than Rare was. You still have your reds, whites, & blues present in the design. But you also have grays & more black throw in as well. Combo also grew out the mustache/beard combo, which honestly works for him. The gloves are red like KI1 (adorned with a white star), but they're fingerless like his KI2 design, which can be seen as splitting the difference between the two (in addition to being a visual signifier of Combo's MMA skills). The boots he now wears are more typical for boxers, being shin-high boots that are black with blue & white accents. But the bigger changes (besides the boots) are his shirt & his scars. The shirt is now from his gym, repping that he now fights for it & the kids he helps create a better future for. But the scars are a visual reminder of the cybernetic implants he removed. They also glow blue during gameplay, which is a neat touch (& lore-accurate, since he now has DNA-based enhancements). I obviously prefer his modern design, but it's interesting to look back at T.J. Combo's earlier looks.
The scars glowing are a nice addition to his overall look.
Mechanically speaking, T.J. Combo isn't too far removed from Street Fighter boxer Balrog (nicknamed Boxer since he's called Mike Bison in Japan) in that he's all about getting in close with a ton of horizontal mobility. This does make sense given that they're both boxers, though Combo does have a few MMA attacks to complement his boxing prowess. Combo also has quite a few special moves that fit most occasions as well as a great instinct (namely in the 2013 version, which I have the most experience with). That said, Combo doesn't really have a ton of anti-air options, a meterless reversal, or the best normals. Not to mention that you really have to commit to your attacks since they aren't exactly safe. So basically be ready to go for hard reads if you're gonna pick up T.J. Combo. But once you get that read, GODDAMN is it satisfying to tear the opponent apart.
My only major complaint regarding T.J. Combo is the fact that he's voiced by a white actor in the 2013 reboot. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not hating on Patrick Seitz in any way whatsoever, he's a genuinely good dude with talent to spare. But like with the others, I would have preferred a black actor to voice T.J. Combo. That aside, I don't have a ton to critique. Black boxers are pretty common in fighting games, so I kinda wish that they did something more unique. But I'm willing to cut T.J. Combo some slack given that he's one of the OGs. But with all the expanded lore behind T.J. Combo, I'm pretty damn happy with his character. Just get a black voice actor next time…….a next time that I really hope happens for Killer Instinct.
- Honorable Mentions
- Giovanna (Guilty Gear)
- To be honest, she's probably the character I'm gonna play more in Strive. It's always great to see more black women in fighting games. And she has a lot going for her, from her high-speed fighting style to her adorable green ghost puppy. I can't wait for the open beta to give her a go. I just wish her eyes were actually brown.
- Master Raven (Tekken)
- Like with Giovanna, more black women in fighting games is never a bad thing. Plus she's an overall fun character to watch. I don't play a ton of her in Tekken sadly, but I've always wanted to learn how to play her. And while I'll still miss the OG Raven, I'd be lying if I said that Master Raven wasn't a pleasant surprise upon her reveal. Honestly, I now prefer her to the original. That plus, in the case of both Ravens, black ninjas aren't exactly common (outside of Banderias in KoFXIV). I just hope that she gets a black VA next time she shows up.
- Seth (The King of Fighters)
- This man just oozes cool in every part of his design. Like Master Raven, he's a character that I don't often play, but I love to watch. I really hope he returns in KoFXV.
- Jax Briggs (Mortal Kombat)
- Of course I was gonna give Jacqui's father a nod. Being one of the longest-standing veterans in the franchise, Jax is an iconic character in his own right. And while (as mentioned before) black soldiers in games aren't uncommon, Jax was actually the first of the Briggs to start setting themselves apart from the archetype in MKX. Plus he went through a lot, be it his PTSD from his Revenant days to said PTSD making him turn heel in MK11 (until Raiden or Fujin talked some sense into him). Still, it's nice to see him continue to show up.
- Dudley (Street Fighter)
- Granted, there are quite a few black boxers in fighting games, but Dudley is just so damn classy. Even the fact that he's a British stereotype alone sets him apart from the likes of Balrog & T.J. Combo. Not to mention that his playstyle is WAY more my jam than Balrog's. I just wish he had a black English VA.....maybe in SFVI.
Awesome stuff. I would have liked to see some Sega characters in the honourable mentions, though.
This is a great thread. :D Not a huge fighter fan, but I was pretty fond of Zasalamel in Soul Calibur 3. I would definitely check out Giovanna if I get around to Guilty Gear Strive.
Look forward to the Overwatch character!
Look forward to the Overwatch character!
As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I really like the Briggs family in MK, I just want them to do more with them than they have. In such a bombastic series, their story beats just seem needlessly sad in comparison to everyone else's since the reboot started. One of the reasons I enjoyed classic Jax is because he had agency in choosing to get his cybernetics. That wasn't the case in 9. Then he died and got PTSD when he came back. Then he turned temporarily heel. And that trajectory influenced Jacqui's whole deal. Which is fine, but it really seems like that's all there is to their characters.
I hope 12, whenever it comes out, kinda gives them a reprieve from all that.
I hope 12, whenever it comes out, kinda gives them a reprieve from all that.
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Even ignoring boxing games, Balrog's not the first. Ben Smith from Violence Fight is older although obviously not as significant.
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It was either him, Dudley, or Elena. But I will give Balrog props for being the OG.
EDIT: Oh, there was Ben.
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Even ignoring boxing games, Balrog's not the first. Ben Smith from Violence Fight is older although obviously not as significant.
You are technically correct, but you are spiritually wrong.
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Well, it's not Lúcio.
DAY 8: BAPTISTE (OVERWATCH)I have a lot of choice words for Activision Blizzard, especially regarding their decisions over the last few years. But I can give credit where it's due. And the Overwatch team has been hitting it out of the park with their characters (especially with regards to their designs). Though I guess your team having some of the last bits of the old Blizzard will do that. Anyway, Baptiste is one of the post-launch heroes added to Overwatch who's in the Support class (lord knows we could use more of them……& tanks). Overwatch has a couple of black characters (from Lúcio to Doomfist to the upcoming Sojourn), but I ultimately went with Bap since I figured that my list could use a Haitian character. Of course, there's the issue of Overwatch still not having a black woman (& the one in the pipeline, Sojourn, not being until Overwatch 2), which is honestly weird given how diverse the roster is otherwise. That aside, Baptiste is actually one of the few Overwatch characters with a considerable amount of pre-OW2 lore to go off of. Not to mention that I put a ton of hours into him as a support main. So let's get to it.
UPDATE: I literally JUST realized that today (2/8/21) is Blizzard's 30th anniversary. Talk about a coincidence.
Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it, even if you aren't on the same side of it as before.
Jean-Baptiste Augustin was among millions of orphaned children during the Omnic Crisis that led to the initial formation of Overwatch. Wanting to make a difference, Baptiste joined the military & was later stationed at the Caribbean Coalition (a pan-island defense force to fight the Omnics) as a medic. When the Omnic Crisis ended, Baptiste went into military work for Talon. Said work earned Baptiste a good amount of money, money he used for the betterment of his community when he opened up a clinic in his hometown of Tortuga, Haiti. But it was only a matter of time until Baptiste learned of Talon's true colors. Four years before Winston issued the Overwatch recall, Baptiste had to go to Monte Cristi to assassinate the Playa Cartel's leader (Daniel Fernández) for muscling in on Talon territory. By the time Baptiste & the others got to the safe house, Daniel was already gone & only his soldiers remained. Captain Cuerva then ordered the other Talon soldiers to search every single house in the area to find Daniel, terrifying the residents. Baptiste didn't want any of this & was about to leave, but then a dropship opened fire. This resulted in a ton of chaos, destruction, & looting. Baptiste, having just been knocked back by the explosion, drew his gun to a silhouette in the smoke. But Baptiste then saw that it was just a little girl, devastated & angry over the destruction of her home, a direct reflection of Baptiste's own tragic origin. It was then that he knew what Talon's true colors were. From there, Baptiste wanted out, but his longtime partner Mauga intercepted him. Eventually Mauga let Baptiste go, knowing that he would owe Mauga one later. Obviously Talon wouldn't take Baptiste's departure lying down (especially given how much he knows), so they went after his base of operations. But being one step ahead of them, Baptiste evaded capture & dealt with the strike team personally (even sending the emblems of said strike team members back to Cuerva). Of course, this wouldn't be the last time Baptiste would have a run-in with his former colleagues.
Of course Talon wouldn't let Baptiste get far, Mauga especially.
Going into the events of "What You Left Behind", Baptiste operated under the alias "Dr. Mondésir" at a small clinic in Port-au-Paix. And just as Baptiste was having issues getting medicine given Sainclair Pharmaceuticals's ridiculous price increases, Mauga & Trung Le Nguyen (Baptiste's former colleagues from Talon) came in to collect Baptiste's debt to Mauga by getting him to help shake Vernand Sainclair down for money he owed Talon. Baptiste begrudgingly agrees, knowing that he didn't have much of a choice with both Mauga & Trung present. When Sainclair was eventually cornered, he bargained with the fact that he got the recall order from Winston, saying that he had information on various Overwatch agents (he was a double-agent within Overwatch as a handler, secretly feeding info to Talon prior to Overwatch's collapse). Angered by Sainclair's actions but knowing that he couldn't kill him, Baptiste took off with Sainclair, shot his arm, & declared that Sainclair had to make his medicine free. Baptiste almost escaped, but Mauga intercepted him again. Knowing that he couldn't let Baptiste get away again, Mauga & Baptiste had one last confrontation. This resulted in a gun battle that ended in a huge explosion (from Baptiste's fake surrender, followed by throwing an explosive in the air that he shot) that Baptiste survived thanks to his immortality field. The whereabouts of Mauga after that was unknown. But given that he was originally planned to be a hero (& likely still is) before ultimately being replaced by Sigma, I doubt this is the last we'll see of Mauga. Though if I may go on a tangent, while I understand that the kit that Sigma ultimately got didn't fit Mauga's character very well, they could have added someone a bit more unique than yet another white guy. Not to mention that Sigma himself plays into negative mental illness stereotypes, but that's a topic that's been covered plenty elsewhere.
Sigma's New 'Asylum' Skin Raises Concerns About Overwatch's Handling Of Mental-Illness Tropes
Overwatch’s newest hero, Sigma, was introduced to the world on a gurney. Though the video was purposefully non-linear, Sigma had suffered a mental breakdown after attempting to harness the power of a black hole. He hollered half-coherently while being wheeled through what appeared to be a...kotaku.com
That lamp saved my team's collective asses more times than I can count. Use it wisely.
As mentioned earlier, Baptiste is a combat medic in the Support class. He's often considered a main healer (especially in recent metas) with plenty of potential to secure kills between his primary fire (a three-shot burst round) & his ultimate (more on that later). His secondary fire is a healing round that gives burst healing to whoever the shot lands on, with the trade-off being that Baptiste can't heal himself with it. To do that, Baptiste has to use his Regenerative Burst ability, healing everyone within a certain radius (including himself). The Immortality Field mentioned in the What You Left Behind section is an actual ability in the game, keeping everyone within the field from dying as long as the lamp stays up within its limited duration (though it can be destroyed prior to the end of said duration). Baptiste also has a passive ability (Exo Boots) that allows him to use crouch to charge a really high jump for the sake of positioning which, while useful from a mechanical standpoint, sadly plays into the "black people can jump high" stereotype. Baptiste's ultimate is Amplification Matrix, a giant transparent wall that increases the damage & healing potential of any projectile that passes through it. This ultimate actually saw a huge buff recently when the actual window was widened, allowing for more players to fire through the ultimate. Because of all this, Baptiste requires that you have good mechanical skill, game sense, & positioning. Those who play Overwatch well in general will excel with Baptiste, as being weak in even one of the three aspects will have you lose a lot of value with the character.
This is actually a solid-ass design, & his hair game is certainly on-point.
Regarding Baptiste's design, it's alright. Gotta give props to Baptiste's barber for that fade along with his short dreads. This is broken up with a scar on the upper-right side (his right, not ours) of his head, showing that he's been through some shit. He also has a tattoo on his right arm, but I couldn't really find the cultural significance behind it (if someone can chime in on the matter, I'd appreciate it). That aside, his outfit is mainly blue, black, & orange with a whiteish-gray abdominal guard. Though beyond his gun, Baptiste wears three major pieces of technology. His scouter (yes, they do make a Dragon Ball joke with it in-game via one of his sprays), his Exo Boosts being the gray braces around his lower legs, & the backpack he wears that both does the healing burst as well as the Amplification Matrix through the projector that protracts on the left side of said backpack. Overall, it's an effective design that, while not setting the world on fire, does its job of conveying Baptiste's character & abilities pretty well.
My only major complaint about Baptiste is the aforementioned "black people jump high" stereotype that's invoked through his Exo Boost passive ability. Outside of that, I don't really have any complaints. His design is solid, he's actually voiced by a Haitian actor, & his lore is pretty interesting. Usually this section would be longer, but I don't really have much else to say about the character that I didn't cover already. There's definitely room for improvement, but the pros of Baptiste outweigh the cons. He's just a cool character who's fun to play……if only the Support class had more characters (something that I'd imagine that they'll try to address in Overwatch 2). But seriously, we need more black women in Overwatch. Sojourn is a start, but don't stop at her. We shouldn't have gone 5 years without a single black woman being added to the roster.
Thanks for taking the time to read today's post. Be sure to come back tomorrow for the next character in the Shooters Section of Black Characters of Gaming Celebration. As for tomorrow, this character would argue that there's always room for more loot.
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Aww, I enjoyed the Baptiste write up but Lucio will always be my no.1 because of the unwavering positivity of his attitude. He's always there in the bleakest of Overwatch moments, refusing to give up the objective when it looks unwinnable.
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For what it's worth, he's definitely getting an Honorable Mention.
I appreciate that Baptiste is 1 of the few Haitians in videogames. You can count us on one hand but we outchea.
The shooter section should be interesting.
Edgar from the classic multiplayer arcade shooter/platformer Quartet stands out for me. There weren't many playable black characters outside of sports games at all in 1986 and he was one of the four characters you could use.
While the home ports on computer stuck to the arcade game's style, the Master System got a spin off game known as Double Target (although they used the Quartet name for the West for recognition purposes). The two white male characters were removed and Edgar was there as player 2.
For first-person shooters, I'm looking forward to the SiN remake this year. The original was pretty cool but overshadowed by Half-Life in 1998. I wasn't sure if its protagonist was mixed race in the original but he looks more black in the new version.
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Edgar from the classic multiplayer arcade shooter/platformer Quartet stands out for me. There weren't many playable black characters outside of sports games at all in 1986 and he was one of the four characters you could use.
While the home ports on computer stuck to the arcade game's style, the Master System got a spin off game known as Double Target (although they used the Quartet name for the West for recognition purposes). The two white male characters were removed and Edgar was there as player 2.
For first-person shooters, I'm looking forward to the SiN remake this year. The original was pretty cool but overshadowed by Half-Life in 1998. I wasn't sure if its protagonist was mixed race in the original but he looks more black in the new version.
SiN Reloaded on Steam
Nightdive Studios and 3D Realms have joined forces to bring you SiN: Reloaded!