As many of you know by now, I love fighting games to pieces. And one of the things that fascinates me most about fighting games are the rosters, specifically the process that goes into selecting them (which is likely why I'm seen in roster speculation threads so often). I've always been curious about the thought process behind fighting game rosters & the building blocks of a good one. Such curiosity has led me to looking through various fighting game rosters over the years, leading to the existence of this thread.....& the title. But to be clear, this isn't an analysis on each modern fighting game's rosters. While I will take an analytical look at some rosters, I probably save the super deep dive into each game's roster for future threads (where I'll likely refer back to this thread as a template for how I judge said rosters). With that said, here we go.
One more thing before we start, special thanks to Clov for helping with the finalized thread name.
I can't take full credit for the last two sentences, as they're a modified version of a sentence that Platy suggested (thank you, Platy).
PLAYSTYLE DIVERSITY
I won't talk about this from an echo fighter perspective, since their inclusions in Smash are basically harmless to the rest of the game (to borrow one of Sakurai's analogies, Echoes are basically dessert for the main course known as the rest of the roster). But echo fighters only really applies to the Smash games. With that said, while its great to have a decently-sized roster, its equally as important to have a number of unique play-styles within that roster. To use Street Fighter V as an example, despite its 16-character roster at launch, Capcom did a pretty good job in making sure that each of them were unique in how they play. This only improved as time went on, especially with characters like Ed with his 2-button special inputs (which also extends to fellow Neo-Shadaloo member Falke). Even now, while there are quite a few rushdown characters, there aren't really any characters I'd consider too similar to another. Even Kage is pretty unique compared to his shoto cousins, acting as more of a hybrid of Evil Ryu & Dan from previous SF games. Looking at Dragon Ball FighterZ, Merged Zamasu did a great job of standing out in a game where a lot of the characters played similarly. Even UMvC3 did a pretty good job in making each of its characters pretty unique. The most amount of mechanical overlap was actually between Ryu & Akuma (surprisingly not Wolverine & his artificially-created daughter, X-23), and even they were pretty different. This ultimately goes back to what was said earlier about making the most of the roster size. Granted, larger rosters are eventually gonna get to a point where there's a decent bit of overlap in terms of how each character plays, & Smash Ultimate is proof of this (Pikachu/Pichu, Link/Young Link/Toon Link, Marth/Roy, Mario/Dr. Mario, etc.). But there's still a good amount of things that can be done to alleviate this to an extent.
FAN REQUESTS
Appeasing fan requests is a sure-fire way to attain hype for your game, be it for the sake of nostalgia or a newer character that has grown a sizable fanbase willing to push them for inclusion in any particular fighting game. Many fighting games, more so from longer-running franchises, have used this to great effect. For Smash, the Fighter Ballot was used to bring in characters like Simon Belmont, Ridley, & King K. Rool. Capcom even had a similar popularity poll for Street Fighter that resulted in Karin's inclusion in SFV. Even UMvC3's developers had their ear to the ground to include fan requests like Phoenix Wright, Strider Hiryu, & Vergil (but no Mega Man, weirdly enough......though we eventually got X in MvCI). On paper, you can't go wrong with fan favorite characters. But the down-side to relying too much on these kinds of picks is that you may potentially end up with a roster that's either low on gender balance, diversity (in terms of people of color), play-styles, or any combination of the three (I'll talk about the first two later). To use Smash as an example, half of Ultimate's 6 base roster newcomers (unique & echo) were dictated by the Fighter Ballot. But that combined with "Everyone is Here" & the current state of the Fighters Pass, while succeeding in garnering maximum hype & sales, resulted in a roster that (while great in every other regard) is sorely lacking in gender & ethnic diversity. What I'm saying here is that sure, bring in fan-requested characters. But don't rely on these kinds of picks too much.
GENDER & ETHNIC DIVERSITY
Just as important as gameplay diversity is diversity when it comes to gender & race. Speaking from personal experience, my own cousin (visiting from Washington DC) gravitated straight to the likes of Black Panther, Storm, Luke Cage, & Miles Morales in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 and even questioned where Black Panther was in UMvC3 (though to be fair, he had played MvCI first during our session). Having various demographics represented in your roster is important. And in recent years, most of the recent batch of fighting games have done better in making sure that they treat the characters & what they represent with respect. Capcom worked with GLAAD to make sure that Poison was treated with respect in Street Fighter X Tekken with regards to her being a transgender woman, efforts that extended to her later appearances. Even in Tekken 7, Harada & his team visited Dubai & Saudi Arabia to learn more about Middle Eastern design & culture in order to create Shaheen for Tekken 7. And while not pictured here, Capcom worked with Sony & Pluto Games (Sony's Middle Eastern distributor) to get Rashid right. Obviously not every fighting game franchise has to go to such lengths to get their characters right, but the effort is greatly appreciated. Just having women or people of color in your roster can go a long way as long as they're treated with respect (I.E. not an offensive stereotype), & Jacqui Briggs in Mortal Kombat X & 11 alongside her father Jax (a Mortal Kombat mainstay) is an example of this done right. The same can be said of characters like Leo, Eddy Gordo, & (more recently) Leroy Smith in Tekken 7. We even got Najd in King of Fighters XIV, who was actually a fan-created character that won a contest to be in the game. Not to mention ARMS with characters like Twintelle & Misango. Likewise, as far as avatar characters go, there should be a few instances where the female version of the character is the main one. To use Smash Ultimate as an example, while it did make Inkling & Wii Fit Trainer's female versions the main ones, it could go further by making Female Corrin & Female Villager the defaults as well. There's also the topic of unique body types that should be done to a decent degree. To use Street Fighter V as an example, while there's a fair bit of body diversity with the guys, the ladies don't have that nearly as much. A good number of SFV's women are well-toned in terms of muscle, sure, but their body diversity leaves much to be desired. Of course, I can't really fault SFV alone for this, as it's a common problem across a multitude of fighting games. But all the same, this is something I hope gets somewhat rectified in the future. In short, representation matters, especially in fighting games where the rosters are vast.
If you want to know more about the female fighter ratios of various fighting games, feel free to check out one of my other threads on the subject.
FRANCHISE REPRESENTATION
This can mean different things depending on the fighting game in question, so I'll do my best to cover the types of rosters that would apply to this category in whatever form they do.
FUTURE-PROOFING
We can't always know what the future will bring. But when it comes to crossover fighting game rosters, the developers can get a pretty good idea of what's coming down the pipeline for certain franchises. Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 in particular did a pretty good job of this, as we got characters like Hawkeye, Rocket, & Doctor Strange ahead of their respective MCU debuts (Doctor Strange in particular wouldn't get his movie until Phase 3......in 2016). But as some of you may not know, Marvel Studios split off from Marvel Entertainment a few years ago, so one could figure that planning far ahead is now harder than it used to be. But fortunately for the latter party, Marvel Studios announced their entire Phase 3 slate prior to the split & updated it in a timely manner, so we still got characters from then-upcoming movies like Black Panther & Captain Marvel. Of course, MvCI relied too much on keeping current with the MCU & ignored legacy picks like the X-Men & Doctor Doom, but I went over that 2 sections ago. As for Smash, Roy is kind of an example of future-proofing gone wrong. He was originally meant to be an easy clone to advertise his then-upcoming Fire Emblem game during Melee's development. But due to Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade getting delayed in Japan, it kinda screwed over Sakurai & his team with regards to how they portrayed Roy since he went through some pretty extensive rewrites in said delay. This resulted in Smash Roy being portrayed much differently than FE Roy, something that has carried over to future Smash games (for the most part, as I feel like Ray Chase did a pretty good job of injecting some of Roy's actual personality into the character in Ultimate). Since then, Sakurai has aired on the side of caution when it comes to representing new franchises. For reference, Brawl didn't feature any significant content from Super Mario Galaxy, the Inklings were saved for Ultimate rather than be added as Wii U/3DS DLC, and characters like Spring Man & Rex were relegated to secondary roles (Assist Trophy & Mii Costume respectively.....both in Spring Man's case) in Ultimate. Though credit where it's due, we did get BotW Link, Luigi's new Polgergust, as well as stages for BotW & Odyssey. But as far as the characters go, it's understandable why Smash goes this route, as its rosters are usually planned well in advance & one can't really account for how new IPs will do that far in advance. For all Sakurai knew at the time of development, Splatoon (during Wii U/3DS DLC development) or ARMS (during Ultimate's development) could have ended up bombing. But it has the side-effect of making the roster feel kinda dated in a way. Inkling is a perfect example of this, as they're limited to how they were portrayed in Splatoon 1. Obviously it doesn't hurt Smash Ultimate's roster in any significant way, but it can raise a few eyebrows from those who may not follow the development cycle of fighting games. With that said, it doesn't hurt to have development be a bit more flexible to have certain characters account for more recent games (such as the Inkling's case). Though of course, that'll depend on a multitude of factors with regards to a game's development cycle. Likewise, something that The Turbanator brought up is the potential for future-proofing with regards to plot lines that will likely be covered in future entries of a franchise, which is likely gonna be the case for Neo-Shadaloo (Ed & Falke's group) for the Street Fighter franchise. We don't know how things will shake out now, but I can appreciate the table-setting for the time being. But yeah, while it only applies to certain scenarios, future-proofing is one of those things that's appreciated when done right.
ANALYZING VARIOUS FIGHTING GAME ROSTERS
Now that we have all of the categories properly discussed, let's look at a few rosters & judge them on how they follow each of these metrics. As stated before, I won't do a super deep dive into these rosters, as that's something I'll save for potential future threads. But with the topics we've already covered, it'd be a shame if I didn't at least do a pass-through of some rosters.
STREET FIGHTER V: CHAMPION EDITION (as of 7/27/21)
We still have one more character after Oro & Akira drop. But for now, let's look at what we have & compare it to the categories listed. SFV is one of the few fighting games out now without any guest characters, so we can ignore that category.
If there are any other fighting game rosters you want me to look at, please feel free to let me know & I'll definitely consider it. Hell, I may even add a few fighting game rosters to the analysis section on my own accord (I have a few in mind already). With that said, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the topics brought up in this thread. Is there a category that I missed in my analysis? Which one do you feel is the most important for a fighting game roster? Feel free to voice your opinions. That is what this thread is for, after all.
One more thing before we start, special thanks to Clov for helping with the finalized thread name.
ROSTER SIZE
Obviously the thing that people talk about the most is the size of various rosters. I mean, look at the amount of praise that Smash Ultimate's roster has been getting. But while roster size is a rather impressive feat for games that can get that big, it also becomes a question of making the most of the massive roster. Looking at Smash Ultimate's roster, Sakurai & Bandai Namco chose to bring back every single veteran from every Smash game up to this point. This is a rather impressive feat that should be commended. But as we go on in this analysis, there are a few cracks that will present themselves in this otherwise-fantastic roster which comes from bringing back everyone from every Smash game. Likewise, this kind of roster size isn't as feasible for games that tend to start from scratch asset-wise for each new entry, which is why games like Street Fighter always have smaller rosters for each numbered entry. While this does limit the roster size even further, it does allow the developer to re-think the character on a fundamental level if they so choose (something Street Fighter V has done for many of its veterans). Smash Ultimate relied on reused animations for many of the Wii U/3DS veterans to achieve its roster size, & (outside of a few exceptions like Link & Ganondorf) it didn't change its Wii U/3DS veterans up too much. It ultimately comes down to what the goal is for the fighting game in question. In short, size is important. But what you do with it is just as important, as we'll soon see in the later sections of this thread.
I can't take full credit for the last two sentences, as they're a modified version of a sentence that Platy suggested (thank you, Platy).
PLAYSTYLE DIVERSITY
FAN REQUESTS
GENDER & ETHNIC DIVERSITY
If you want to know more about the female fighter ratios of various fighting games, feel free to check out one of my other threads on the subject.
FRANCHISE REPRESENTATION
- Representing Various Entries of a Single Franchise (SFII, SFA, SFIII, etc.)
- This is more of a balancing act that's dictated based on each franchise, how well each entry did, & how well-received its batch of newcomers were. For example, Street Fighter II obviously did the best of the Street Fighter franchise, so of course it'll get a fair bit of priority in the roster of a future Street Fighter game. But at the same time, not everyone in SFII is really necessary. For example, not many people would lose any sleep over the absence of Dee Jay or T. Hawk. But what one also has to consider is that there are fan-favorites from other entries in the series. Again using Street Fighter as an example, Street Fighter III (specifically Third Strike) is regarded by a good number of people in the FGC as the best entry in the series despite it not selling as well as SFII. Likewise, a number of its newcomers (Alex, Ibuki, Urien, etc.) have gained dedicated followings over the years. The same could be said of Alpha, SFIV, or (later down the road) SFV, as the Karin example in the Fan Requests section proved in Alpha's case. Capcom actually kept this in mind when drafting Street Fighter V's base roster.
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*this is from Street Fighter V's EVO 2015 panel
- Green = SFII
- Blue = SF Alpha
- Purple = Newcomers (SFV)
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- SFIII & IV would later go on to receive representation via DLC in Season 1, but it goes to show that one has to consider the fan bases of each entry of the franchise when drafting rosters for a long-running series. Not everyone can be Smash Ultimate & bring every veteran back.
- This is more of a balancing act that's dictated based on each franchise, how well each entry did, & how well-received its batch of newcomers were. For example, Street Fighter II obviously did the best of the Street Fighter franchise, so of course it'll get a fair bit of priority in the roster of a future Street Fighter game. But at the same time, not everyone in SFII is really necessary. For example, not many people would lose any sleep over the absence of Dee Jay or T. Hawk. But what one also has to consider is that there are fan-favorites from other entries in the series. Again using Street Fighter as an example, Street Fighter III (specifically Third Strike) is regarded by a good number of people in the FGC as the best entry in the series despite it not selling as well as SFII. Likewise, a number of its newcomers (Alex, Ibuki, Urien, etc.) have gained dedicated followings over the years. The same could be said of Alpha, SFIV, or (later down the road) SFV, as the Karin example in the Fan Requests section proved in Alpha's case. Capcom actually kept this in mind when drafting Street Fighter V's base roster.
- Representing Multiple Franchises in a Crossover Fighting Game (Smash, MvC, etc.)
- This goes back to what I've brought up a few times, especially when it comes to Smash. When drafting a crossover fighting game roster, the obvious course of action is to bring in the main characters of each major franchise that's relevant to the game in question. On paper, this makes complete sense to go this route. The main character of a franchise is the one people are the most familiar with, so they'd better associate that character with the franchise in question. The problem with this logic is that, if followed too rigidly, it can limit the potential for various forms of representation in your roster (be it playstyle, gender, or ethnicity). This is one of the problems that Smash has when it comes to its roster, though more in regards to gender & ethnic diversity rather than playstyle diversity (Sakurai's creativity as a director helps alleviate the problems that may arise for characters playing differently for the most part, echoes aside). This is most evident with Smash Ultimate's roster, considering its low female fighter percentage & there being so few people of color on the roster. While the logic of main characters first is mostly sound, there should be a little bit of leeway to choose someone besides the main character (as Capcom has shown with the Versus games by making moves like choosing Morrigan over Donovan). Sticking with the policy too rigidly can have the aforementioned side effects, which could also be a testament to main characters in games not being diverse enough. But until the industry gets to a place where that isn't an issue, some concessions must be made to make sure there's at least some diversity present in crossover fighting game rosters.
- Likewise, there has to be a balance of relevancy vs. legacy in a fighting game roster. A good example of this would be comparing the rosters of Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, & Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite (pictured below). MvC2, while fantastic for the time & is still a solid roster to this day, didn't hold up to the test of time as well as one would think. This could be attributed to the roster's over-reliance on X-Men & Street Fighter characters which, while understandable given the assets they had to work with & the era in which MvC2 was made, kind of put a set date on the roster with the rise of the MCU in recent years. Likewise, MvCI's roster has the exact opposite problem, where it relied too much on the MCU at the cost of some of those legacy picks. UMvC3 on the other hand did a better job of balancing both, resulting in a roster that has aged like fine wine because of it making sure that it caters to more parts of both franchises. Granted, all of these roster could use some work in the representation department, but UMvC3 is closer to the balance that one should strive for.
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GUEST CHARACTERS
With a few exceptions (Capcom fighters, KoFXIV, SamSho, Guilty Gear, etc.), guest characters have become something of a common occurrence within fighting games, especially in recent years. And one can understand why, as guest characters are a great way to garner attention towards your fighting game & build hype outside of your existing fanbase. From Super Smash Bros. Ultimate to Tekken 7 to NetherRealm Studios' recent string of fighting games, guest characters are starting to pop up everywhere. But the key is to have a guest character that fits within the context of the game in question. To use Tekken 7 as an example, it goes the extra mile to bring in some of the mechanics of their home game in the case of Akuma & Geese (going as far as to give them projectiles & super meter). But while Negan did garner a ton of talk around Tekken 7 upon his reveal, I've noticed quite a bit of blowback from a good chunk of Tekken fans since it felt like he didn't really belong in Tekken. Looking at Injustice 2, even though the use of Mortal Kombat characters makes sense given who makes the Injustice games, it kinda feels weird to have them in the game when they're gonna get their own game in a few years anyway (though going by various datamining leaks, DC's gonna return the favor with Joker being in MK11). NRS did soften the blow of Raiden getting in over various DC characters by giving us a Black Lightning premier skin, but (personally speaking) it only made me want Jefferson as the default rather than Raiden. Though that's not to say that some of its guest characters didn't do cool things, as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was probably one of the best decisions NRS ever made for guest characters in Injustice. And going by the guest characters that have either been confirmed, leaked, or hinted at for MK11, it seems like NRS is gonna continue this guest character hot streak (honestly, if you're gonna pick a DC character to show up in MK11, Joker is one of your best bets). But with Smash Ultimate, it does a great job of getting gaming icons both old & new. Granted, the guests chosen are a bit heavy on the guys, but that goes back to what I sad in Franchise Representation regarding Smash (but at least we got Bayonetta.....who had to be voted in). The only commonality between the characters is that they've all appeared on a Nintendo system at least once, but they all still feel like they belong in Smash. That alone is a huge accomplishment, especially considering that Sakurai tries to stay true to their source material as much as possible. With that said, it does seem like these guests do more to spur DLC sales rather than sales for the base game. But that isn't to say that they don't get people talking, as they definitely do. Still, when done right, guest characters can do a lot to get your game in the spotlight. But the aren't without their drawbacks, & it being done wrong will only make fans wish that you brought back a franchise-native character instead.
FUTURE-PROOFING
ANALYZING VARIOUS FIGHTING GAME ROSTERS
STREET FIGHTER V: CHAMPION EDITION (as of 7/27/21)
- Roster Size
- Street Fighter V opted to start from scratch for all its animations & models. As a result, the starting roster was a bit on the small side at only 16 characters. Comparing it to other made-from-scratch rosters, Capcom did alright with SFV, as they made the most of the size by giving us a pretty diverse roster of characters. Though looking ahead to now, we're at a pretty good place character-wise. Everyone's made from the ground-up with mostly-great animations to boot. Could some of the models be better, yeah (see Ken's hair). But with that said, Capcom did pretty good about updating the game over the years so far.
- Playstyle Diversity
- This is another thing that Capcom did really well in Street Fighter V. Even from launch, the roster doesn't really have any characters you could say are straight-up clones of one another. Even with the shoto characters, they play pretty damn differently. Of course, there's a discussion to be had about SFV's reliance on rushdown, but that's more of an issue with the gameplay mechanics than the roster itself. With that said, I'd call this a win for SFV.
- Fan Requests
- Surprisingly enough, Capcom has shown a bit of restraint when it comes to relying too much on fan requested characters. We obviously have our fair share, from Karin to Alex to Urien to Sakura. But that aside, we don't have a ton of them to the point where it comes at the cost of gender or ethnic diversity (I suppose it helps that the ladies make up a fair share of said requests). Obviously they aren't the kings of appeasing the requests that are there, as we still have Makoto who's MIA. But Capcom did pretty good on this front.
- Gender & Ethnic Diversity
- As far as gender diversity, SFV does a good job of maintaining a solid >30% female fighter ratio (with each season of DLC having at least 2 ladies). With that said, a number of the designs are a bit too sexualized. And as mentioned earlier, there isn't much in the name of body type diversity (at least amongst the ladies; the guys have characters like Abigail, F.A.N.G, & Birdie). As for ethnic diversity, while SFV could do better, it's not too shabby all things considered. We have characters like Balrog, Birdie, Laura, Rashid, Menat, & a number of others in terms of characters who aren't either white or Japanese (Fun Fact: Lucia is actually Puerto Rican), so credit where it's due. We even have a transgender character in the form of Poison. So while there's certainly room for improvement, Capcom isn't in a terrible spot on either of these fronts in SFV. They just have to work towards getting better at the flaws that still persist.
- Franchise Representation
- In terms of spreading the Street Fighter love across multiple entries, SFV does okay. I say that because this roster definitely favors SFII, Alpha, & newcomers over SFIII & IV. We haven't gotten a SFIII character since Urien (though going by various rumors, that may soon be corrected with Oro in the near future), & we didn't get a SFIV rep post-Juri until Poison. At least with the launch roster, Capcom did a good job of maintaining a balance of classics & character we don't see often (or are completely new). But even then, it prioritized SFII, Alpha, & the newcomers. Granted, SFII is what put the series on the map. But a little more love for III & IV wouldn't hurt anybody. Either way, the roster does okay when you consider how big each main entry did relative to how much representation they got. It's just that, as mentioned, I wish that SFIII & IV got a little more love (though as I said, I may get my wish in the supposed Winter 2019 Pack.....at least for SFIII).
- Future-Proofing
- The only instance of future-proofing we have in SFV is the introduction of Neo-Shadaloo. And without knowing Capcom's long-term plans for the group, I can't really pass a definitive judgement on how that will shake out. But I can say that I appreciate that Capcom is planning this far ahead for the future of Street Fighter, especially if that future means finally moving past Third Strike in the timeline.
SUPER SMASH BROS. ULTIMATE (as of 7/27/21)
Since this is a crossover fighting game, I can apply both the Guest Characters & Future-Proofing sections.
- Roster Size
- There's a reason why I used Smash Ultimate as an example of Roster Size, the cast is massive. It can't be underrated how big of an undertaking getting every single Smash veteran in one game is, especially with regards to the third-party characters. Granted, they reused a ton of animations from Smash Wii U/3DS (likely including the Ice Climbers, as we know that they were ready to go for Smash Wii U before being cut due to the 3DS version). But for a cast this size, that's perfectly understandable. Are there issues with the roster, certainly, & I'll get into those in the later categories. But let's just appreciate what we have right now.
- Playstyle Diversity
- When you get to a roster of this size, you're gonna have a decent bit of gameplay overlap. But despite all that, Smash Ultimate does a great job of having a ton of diverse mechanics for each character. The fact that Sakurai has been pulling more from the source material for their movesets in Smash definitely helps matters, with this being more prevalent with the newcomers from Wii U/3DS onwards. Granted, even putting aside the echo fighters, there are a number of characters that play similarly (I mentioned the examples earlier). But even despite that, the fact that the roster is as unique as it is across this many characters is impressive in of itself.
- Fan Requests
- Within Ultimate especially, they've done a good job of appeasing general fan demand within reason. Be it Simon Belmont, King K. Rool, Ridley, Chrom, or Dark Samus, Sakurai & Bandai Namco did well in pulling results from the Smash Ballot (outside of Smash Ballot Winner Bayonetta, who had already been included in Smash Wii U/3DS via DLC). Even in the Fighters Pass, where Nintendo had more of a hand in the character selection process than usual, we got Banjo & Kazooie so far (another huge fan request since the early days of Smash). With that said, it's not all sunshines & rainbows on this front, as Smash Ultimate's focus on veterans & fan requests resulted in a few side-effects.
- Gender & Ethnic Diversity
- This was the main side-effect of Smash Ultimate's general focus. As far as gender diversity, it's unfortunately amongst the lowest of any modern fighting game (not the lowest, but that's not exactly a bragging point when you're Bottom 4). While I understand that the percentage was gonna be on the low side already due to every veteran being brought back, it's still an issue all the same. And the current state of the Fighters Pass doesn't exactly help matters. Things look even more grim when you look at ethnic diversity, where you only really have Ryu, Ken (he's 3/4 Japanese, in case you aren't aware), Ganondorf (who's a racist stereotype in & of itself), Joker, Min Min, & Kazuya as far as non-white humanoid characters go. The issue of Smash's anti-Blackness in particular is one that I've covered in length in another thread, so check that out when you get the chance. There's also an issue with body type diversity amongst the ladies, but that's an issue with almost every fighting game (body type diversity as a whole is actually pretty good). But yeah, diversity is the main sticking point with Ultimate's roster, but it's as much a flaw of the industry today as it is a flaw of Ultimate's roster.
- Franchise Representation
- Obviously this is gonna be debatable depending on who you ask, but I'll just give my thoughts on the matter. Overall, Ultimate does a pretty good job of spreading the love more. DK & Metroid finally got newcomers, Splatoon got its inevitable representation via the Inklings, plus we got the likes of Castlevania, Persona, Dragon Quest, Banjo-Kazooie, KoF/Fatal Fury, Tekken, & Minecraft in the game. With that said, as we focus more on third-party characters, there's less of an emphasis on lesser-known Nintendo characters. And at this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if the entire Fighters Pass was filled with third-party characters. It's good for hype, but it kinda deviates from how the series started. Granted, you could argue that Nintendo is running low on somewhat-relevant IPs, but I hope it doesn't come at the cost of a few deeper cuts like Rhythm Heaven in future games. Likewise, Zelda could use a unique newcomer at this point that isn't another variation of Link or Zelda (Impa, Pig Ganon, Tingle, etc.), while Fire Emblem has basically hit critical mass relative to how big it is as a franchise (5 unique characters & 2 echo fighters). So yeah, while there's room for improvement, Smash Ultimate does pretty good considering that it brought everyone back from past Smash games.
- Guest Characters
- This is the one thing that I feel like Smash has nailed consistently. Pretty much every third-party character in the game feels like they belong in Smash, & the category of them are vast. From platforming legends like Sonic & Mega Man, to genre-defining titans like Ryu & Hero, plus more recent favorites like Bayonetta & Joker. Plus, especially for the newer third-party characters, Smash does a great job of bringing some of the mechanics of their own games along for the ride. The only gripe I could really say for third-party characters is that they raised the bar to the point where we don't get as many first-party characters as we used to, but that also comes from us having as big of a roster as we have right now. As of now, Smash is the golden standard for how to handle guest characters.
- Future-Proofing
- This is another category where Smash Ultimate kinda falters. I understand that Sakurai doesn't want to risk putting in an IP before it has time to prove itself (see ARMS having to wait until FP2 as well as the likes of Ring Fit Adventure & Astral Chain likely having to wait until the next Smash game). And the last time that he included a then-recent character, it kinda back-fired (see Roy). But the instances of future-proofing in Smash are kinda inconsistent. While you have stuff like Luigi's Poltergust G-00 from Luigi's Mansion 3, you also have the Inklings being limited to their Splatoon 1 incarnations. Even Samus is still stuck with her Other M design when Samus Returns was an option (it's even her Fighter Spirit). Likewise, despite both the fans & Intelligent Systems pivoting towards Female Corrin, Smash stuck with Male Corrin as the default. I understand that game development can be tricky when it comes to these kinds of things, but it's stuff like that which sticks out to me as someone who's been following the series for so long. I'm not saying to roll the dice on new IPs, but rather to be more consistent for future-proofing the little things like designs for established characters.
TEKKEN 7 (as of 7/27/21)
Just pretend that Zafina & Leroy Smith are in there.
While the Guest Characters section will apply here, Future-Proofing isn't really a factor since this isn't a crossover fighting game in the way that Smash & MvC are.
Just pretend that Zafina & Leroy Smith are in there.
- Roster Size
- Tekken 7 stands at 51 characters as of Lidia's inclusion. And while they do reuse animations from previous games, you gotta respect Bandai Namco's efforts to get the roster to where it is now. Tag Tournament games aside, this is a massive roster, especially by Tekken standards. It's no "Everyone is Here" like Smash Ultimate, but that's a bit of a tall order. Still, you'll be hard pressed to not find one of your Tekken favorites amongst this roster.
- Playstyle Diversity
- Tekken 7 doesn't have much of an issue on this front. You may have a few characters who play similarly, but the roster by & large are vastly different in terms of how each of them bring to the table in terms of fighting style. Even the likes of Armor King play nothing like King despite sharing some moves. Plus it helps that they're in a game that has solid-ass mechanics. You're gonna have fun with this cast, trust me.
- Fan Requests
- Tekken 7 is an example of doing a good job of fulfilling fan requests without being a slave to them. They were able to appease demand for characters like Zafina, Lei, Anna, Julia, & a fair share of others. The only prominent fan request left that I'm seeing across social media is for Kiryu from Yakuza (correct me if I'm mistaken, of course), & he could very well be that one character who's coming with a stage at the end of Season 3. Still, appeasing fan demand didn't mean that it held Bandai Namco back from giving us interesting choices like Leroy Smith. I feel like Bandai Namco found a pretty good balance for this roster.
- Gender & Ethnic Diversity
- This is one thing that gets slept on a lot when it comes to Tekken 7. Like Street Fighter V, Tekken 7's female fighter percentage sits at >30% (which is generally the standard). But on top of that, there are a number of characters from all walks of life on both the gender & ethnicity side of things for diversity. You have a ton of ethnic diversity with characters such as Eddy Gordo, Leroy Smith, Shaheen, Miguel, Josie, Katarina, & a number of others. Not to mention that we have a non-binary character in the form of Leo. Tekken 7 has a lot to offer when it comes to diversity.
- Franchise Representation
- As far as spreading the love across Tekken, the lion's share of veterans are from 1 & 3. But you'll find a few from 2, 4, 5, & 6. Though to be fair, Tekken 1 is the one that started it all & Tekken 3 is the biggest game in the franchise that put the series on the map for many (myself included). So it's kind of a Street Fighter II situation here. Plus the newcomers we got are a pretty solid batch this time around. Maybe we'll get one more Tekken mainstay since Season 3 has another character without a stage tied to them (to be clear, Character + Stage likely indicates a guest character) coming alongside Leroy Smith, so perhaps said character could give more love to the other 4 Tekken games if they aren't a newcomer.
- Guest Characters
- This is one that I have a few thoughts on. Akuma & Geese were perfect choices for guest characters (though they went with extra mile with Akuma considering that he's now canon to the Tekken universe via Tekken 7's story) and I'm glad that they're in the game. They were translated to Smash in a way that I could honestly see the likes of Sakurai doing if he were making a Tekken game (hell, they even brought their super meters with them). And while I feel like he'd fit better in Soul Calibur, Noctis doesn't really feel out-of-place in Tekken 7 (even though I would have preferred Tifa). The only one that actually feels out-of-place is Negan. Granted, I do recognize that he brought a ton of eyes to Tekken 7 & did his job well as a guest character. But in my opinion, it just feels weird to have him here. He plays alright, sure. But him in Tekken 7 feels......off, for lack of a better term. Then again, 3 for 4 isn't bad at all, so I'll give credit where it's due.
If there are any other fighting game rosters you want me to look at, please feel free to let me know & I'll definitely consider it. Hell, I may even add a few fighting game rosters to the analysis section on my own accord (I have a few in mind already). With that said, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the topics brought up in this thread. Is there a category that I missed in my analysis? Which one do you feel is the most important for a fighting game roster? Feel free to voice your opinions. That is what this thread is for, after all.
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