Tier list for Garou Densetsu: Wild Ambition.
Great game actually with a fun system and balanced on offense and defense. Most chars seem pretty viable as well aside from Raiden.
S+ Tier
Geese Howard - Amazing buttons. Huge damage on combos and he gets a mix-up after his BnB combo ender. Great mix-ups. Jaieken is safe on block vs a lot of chars. Most of the cast can’t play footsies with him because the range on his normals is huge and can convert to huge damage. Can combo into his super and then out of it and gets a mix-up opportunity after that. Good mid range game thanks to ground projectile reppuken. Has a reppuken fake which is great for getting opponents to commit then get a punish. Only weakness is that he has no solid reversal options so he is weak to very strong pressure/rushdown. He has his counters but he has to guess correctly and he can’t counter energy/projectile attacks. This one flaw keeps him from dominating the cast though so its fair and he is still a monstrosity
S Tier
Terry Bogard - Great rushdown, mix-ups, command grab on standing opponents, and great damage output. Great reset potential due to light burn knuckle resetting the opponent on hit, giving Terry a mix-up opportunity. Awesome range on his fierce attack. Solid range on his buttons. Can do huge damage off a stun because of restun combos using round wave and fierce attacks if he has bar. Rising tackle is very good as it hits low and on all around Terry’s body. main flaws are power wave has longer recovery then any other projectile so its bad for zoning, and his stand heavy has terrible range so its only good in combos. Neglible flaws however which do not detract from his gameplay, as he is one of the bosses of this game and for good reason. Terry is a beast.
Andy Bogard - Solid rushdown and mix-ups. Also has a command grab on standing opponents. Great dragon punch that can be combed into and leads to a hard knockdown. This gives Andy a free safe jump/mix-up. Buttons are ok. Fireball is good with great recovery and his zoning is aided by a fireball fake. Good damage output. Cons are that his overhead is a little slow, is two hits and only the second hits overhead making it easy to block on reaction. His fireball while fast with good recovery, will disappear if it goes beyond mid screen. And all his buttons hit at about the same range making him more linear in footsies, thus he relies on his fireball a bit more or out right rushdown. But even so the younger Bogard is a force to be reckoned with and one of the best chars in the game.
Ryo Sakazaki (Mr.Karate) - Amazing zoner. Fireball explodes and does more damage and knocks down when hitting with the explosion. Can be charged as well and has a good air fireball. Super fireball can be done in the air as well. Great dragon punch. Light goes right up while heavy has him run forward before doing it. And heavy will grant hard knockdown. Combine these options with a fake fireball AND a fake regular fireball and you have the best zoner in the game by far. High damage output. Decent mix-ups and solid buttons overall. Only character in the game that can charge and build gauge. Kinda broken. Only real flaw is that his stand heavy has very poor range, hits high and has horrid start-up. Other wise he would be the best. still top tier though.
Ryuji Yamazaki - Great zoning with serpent arms. solid control game. Decent pokes. Has a command grab and a counter so he can be tricky. Doesn’t really have a reversal though, and his damage while good is outclassed by other top tiers. Getting max damage on his overdrive is very difficult as well because of mashing requirement. His counter can also be attacked and then blocked if the attack recovers quick enough. He is still frustrating to fight and try to crack open. He is worthy of top tier status.
A Tier
Kim Kaphwan - Great footsies/pokes and high damage. Can cancel any normal into his overhead. This gives him a solid mix-up game that is ever present. Crescent Moon Slash is good for rushdown, goes over lows and light version is safe. Forward throw gives him an easy and reliable safe jump set-up that leads to another mix-up opportunity. Flap in cloud special also leads to a hard knockdown and is another way to get that hard knockdown after a hit confirm. Only thing keeping him down is that his reversal has extremely poor horizontal range, his mix-ups aren’t super threatening and his command overhead can’t combo into anything. Still he is a dominant footsie character with great damage potential and satisfying tick throw based rushdown backed up by solid specials.
Billy Kane - Great pokes/footsies due to pole. Hard to get near him without getting lit up by pokes or outfootsied unless you have a projectile. Pole is a disjointed hitbox that will beat most buttons head on because it’s not attached to Billy. Lack of good rushdown/mix-ups and mediocre damage push him out of top tier and into high tier. Still he is great at what he does.
Toji Sakata - Good pokes. Disjointed hitboxes thanks to his club. Has a physical counter and a projectile counter. Overdrive is a command grab and he has a normal command grab too so turtling up vs him is not an option. Good character. Lacking a good reversal and solid consistent ways to set-up for his grabs puts him in A tier, but he is no slouch.
Joe Higashi - Great specials and buttons. Tiger Kick beats everything. Amazing priority. Exploding Hurricane Upper is an amazing zoning tool. Golden Heel Hurter is awesome for pressure and footsies. His only issue is damage. He can’t combo into his super or overdrive so while his damage is good, he can’t consistently crank out huge damage and end games. Other then that though he can handle pretty much anything thrown at him thanks to his solid toolset.
B Tier
Li Xiangfei - Solid all around character. Solid buttons, combos, has a dragon punch, two command grab specials and an overdrive command grab. Her rushdown is ok, and as such she relies on her grabs more. Since grab set-ups aren’t consistent or very strong in this game she drops down in tiers. She is solid without any glaring pros or cons.
Mai Shiranui - Well balanced. Decent pokes and she uses a fan for some of them and has good damage output. Can combo into her super/overdrive. Has a projectile and a reversal. Her reversal lacks invincibility frames however and she can be hit out of when its not spaced well or when an opponent does a well timed meaty. She is balanced overall and has a decent toolset.
C Tier
Tsugumi Sendo - Decent buttons and has tools for any situation, but they are all situational and must be used wisely. Solid damage output. A lot of throws and unfortunately that works against her. Mix-ups are solid though and she has the tools to open opponents up. She requires a lot of thought however and lacks the same all purpose options that higher tier characters have. Risk vs reward seems to always be skeed against her and that is her main issue.
D Tier
Raiden - Worst character in the game. Reliant on command throws, but they don’t hit hard enough for the amount of planning it goes into setting up his grabs. His dragon punch type move loses invincibility before he charges his opponent, making it one of the worst dp moves in the game. Poison breath is good for anti zoning and anti footsies but he lacks consistent ways to deal damage and thus win games. He has to take risks and the reward just isn’t there.
Didn’t tier Duck King as I haven’t earned him yet.
Command grabs overall are more of a gimmick in this game to keep your opponent on their toes. You gotta be point blank and most of them don’t hit hard enough. For a pure grappler like Raiden and Tsugumi to a lesser extent that’s not acceptable. For other chars its ok because the command grab merely augments their offense.