Don’t bother posting if you’re just going to say this is stupid or you prefer balance. We’re all aware of that.
I personally accept that balance will never be perfect. I’m cool with the fact that there are characters who are tough to fight against. I don’t mind going against the odds in a 4-6 matchup, although 7-3 is pushing it. I honestly have fun knowing I’m fighting against the odds, well not always :P.
With that said, which characters do you think fit for being on the strong side?
----My answer----
Any character that feels somewhat like a boss character.
The original bosses (Dictator, Claw, Boxer, and the King). I also think Juri fits for a strong character since she’s got the powerful tandem engine in her. Seth too (although he’s a pain to fight). Akuma, Oni Akuma, and Gouken because they’re masters. Rose since she’s a powerful psychic. C. Viper since she’s got her crazy technology to help her.
I think that’s it for me. I don’t want ppl to get the wrong idea and think I really want imbalance. I’m just saying if we’re going to have imbalance (which we always are), at least have a top tier character feel like he/she could be a top tier character in real life.
Thread Evolution: This thread has evolved into what qualities/traits are you okay with a top tier having and what qualities/traits are you not okay with them having. It seems to speak to what we enjoy most about the fighting aspect of Street Fighter and what we seem to not enjoy as much… Ultimately everyone has conflicting views but a majority consensus seems to be at least that Vortex mixups are not enjoyed and we don’t like our top tiers mainly representing them. It’s hard for me to truly define what a vortex is, but I feel like it’s a fighting strategy of multiple safe steps, or at least steps of high reward compared to risk. This sequence of steps is fullproof to the point of straight up resembling rock, paper, scissors in order for the defender to at least safely defend against them all. An improper defense results in the Vortex netting some nice damage and resetting itself or some variation of itself. They generally don’t require too much thought for how powerful they are. It detracts from the heat of the fight because it puts the attacker into autopilot mode until the vortex ends.
I come from a computer programming degree. When I think Vortex, I think that a computer program could easily be made to execute the series of steps for them (no options weighed, no significant risks to influence a change in their strategy, just straight up do vortex procedure with slight safe random variations here and there to keep them fresh, and loop it indefinitely until the opponent escapes or they lose lol). I don’t like it when I could literally hit my “enact procedure” button and have an unthinking Vortex loop taking up a significant portion of my fight time. Funny enough, I now have more respect for El Fuerte because at least his “Vortex” style has more risk, less payoff, and is constantly requiring him to think and commit to single choices that will either payoff, be neutral, or hurt him in some cases. Other vortexes pretty much don’t require you to have to think about your opponent at all when you’re enacting them because their generally low risk coupled with high mixup and dmg ability enables them to be auto-piloted for repetition after repetition.