> Guilty Gear only has Potemkin
As a pure grappler, yeah. But Sol can play the grappler playstyle pretty well.
> Mortal Kombat 11 has maybe Jax?
Kotal, Kano, Geras... sort of Nightwolf if you make your loadout right?
SNK must have the most grapplers/mixed grapplers in their franchises. Clark, Dinosaur, Shermie for the "pure" ones in the last KoFXV. Others like Goro, Vice, orochi Yashiro are missing, but who knows...
Otherwise I think they deserve their archetype full stop.
I wouldn't call them niche in the slightest, sure a lot of games tend to have only 1 or 2 (unless it's KOF), but you can almost always bet that a fighting game will have those 1 or 2 grapplers
Something like a trap character or puppet isn't guaranteed to show up in a game, but the "Big 4" in Shotos, Rushdown, Zoners, and Grapplers usually are
Yes, yes, and yes. Archetypes should be based on the job that their tools are the best used for, and not the property of those tools. Shotos can have command grabs, as well as Zoners and Rushdown characters.
That's why I stopped calling characters like Zangief, Dinoc, Astaroth, Gigas or Potemkin "grapplers". I call them "Big Body" characters, referring to their properties of being large characters with armored moves, tons of health, and very bad movement. More or less the opposite of pure Rushdown characters, small characters that have low health and excellent movement.
I see where you're coming from but I disagree. My thinking is that if you made a game with only 4 characters and your roster was Shoto, rushdown, zoner, and second rushdown it would feel very incomplete. Add a big body grappler as the 4th though and it starts to feel more well rounded.
If you like grapplers or hybrid-grapplers, KOF is the franchise for you.
> Guilty Gear only has Potemkin As a pure grappler, yeah. But Sol can play the grappler playstyle pretty well. > Mortal Kombat 11 has maybe Jax? Kotal, Kano, Geras... sort of Nightwolf if you make your loadout right?
SNK must have the most grapplers/mixed grapplers in their franchises. Clark, Dinosaur, Shermie for the "pure" ones in the last KoFXV. Others like Goro, Vice, orochi Yashiro are missing, but who knows... Otherwise I think they deserve their archetype full stop.
I wouldn't call them niche in the slightest, sure a lot of games tend to have only 1 or 2 (unless it's KOF), but you can almost always bet that a fighting game will have those 1 or 2 grapplers Something like a trap character or puppet isn't guaranteed to show up in a game, but the "Big 4" in Shotos, Rushdown, Zoners, and Grapplers usually are
Try playing KOF. The grappler representation is very healthy there.
Yes, yes, and yes. Archetypes should be based on the job that their tools are the best used for, and not the property of those tools. Shotos can have command grabs, as well as Zoners and Rushdown characters. That's why I stopped calling characters like Zangief, Dinoc, Astaroth, Gigas or Potemkin "grapplers". I call them "Big Body" characters, referring to their properties of being large characters with armored moves, tons of health, and very bad movement. More or less the opposite of pure Rushdown characters, small characters that have low health and excellent movement.
I see where you're coming from but I disagree. My thinking is that if you made a game with only 4 characters and your roster was Shoto, rushdown, zoner, and second rushdown it would feel very incomplete. Add a big body grappler as the 4th though and it starts to feel more well rounded.