Not gonna find one that has a “big” community. You’re either gonna have to settle for niche titles, older games, or both.
Koihime is a footsie heavy game
Akatsuki Blitzkampf has familiar SF-style gameplay + parries
If you’re willing to loosen your constraints to “games with good neutral”, then play any of the old classics. You’re guaranteed to get games on FightCade. Some of the older GG titles are great, but everyone has moved on. Melty is of course fantastic but I believe the Steam version’s netcode sucks.
Marvel to me, as an admittedly casual as fuck player who can’t even use half the systems competently, is supposed to be busted. I just pick it up and laugh at all the dumb and/or crazy and/or awesome shit going on. Me and a buddy of mine still have tons of inside jokes from playing Marvel Super-Heroes on the PS1 back in the day when we barely could pull off supers, and those old-ish cross-over games will always have a special place in my scrubby heart even if I still can’t play them for shit. I can understand how most of those games are goddamn nightmares in a competitive setting, though.
Ken doesn’t really have an archenemy. His entire raison d’etre is being a foil to Ryu. Meanwhile, Ryu probably sees Akuma as his archenemy, while he as quite a few people gunning for him depending on the timeline. Hell, Bison’s probably more of an archenemy to Guile and Chun-Li. Ryu just feels like he doesn’t take much that personally. He just punches bad guys in the face and moves on.
Ryu is his own arch-enemy. It’s a really good way to interpret not only Ryu’s character, but also the journey of the player. You’re not only fighting your opponent, but your own bad habits and bad decisions during the match. Whereas Ryu is doing all of that AND trying to get a grip on the dark hado.
If you just say that this character or that character is Ryu’s arch-enemy, whenever that enemy is defeated his motivation as a character has to change.
That’s exactly what I was talking with a friend of mine a while ago. Ryu is his own rival/archnemesis because he is always fighting his inner self (trying to get better at every fight) and the Satsui no Hado.
And yeah, since SFIV I see Bison as an enemy for Chun, Guile and Cammy.
As much as it pains me to say this, I think the presentation hurt VF. It’s a pretty-looking game for sure, but there’s not much in the way of character design. VF is meant to be the most realistic fighting game (while still being video gamey), but sadly the designers never thought to make some interesting-looking characters. Goh, Jean and Brad come close (I’d add Vanessa too, but then you look at what they did to her from VF4 to VF5…). I think even little things like hitsparks and beefier sound effects would help. Fleshing out the story would help more; as it is now, it’s just…there.
I definitely don’t think the gameplay is the problem. In fact, I think the misinformation surrounding the game’s perceived “complexity” hurt VF’s chances more than it helped. VF is very easy to get into since there’s only 3 buttons, but what’s amazing is how much mileage you can get out of those 3 buttons. Also, VF is still the gold standard when it comes to tutorials, and it was the first series to have a frame data counter. And they have the most robust training mode. So if anyone was intimidated by VF, I would bet money it’s because somebody told them that it was hard to get into.
Anybody else feel the genre needs a shake up? Like how Smash introduced a alternative to beating one down till their health is depleted, and how you fight? I think the genre is long over due for a new series that introduces a whole new way to play fighting games. I’m gonna put some real thought into this and write whatever ideas I can come up with.
