Post by nomoneydown on Feb 23, 2014 20:51:45 GMT -8
This is my list of my Top 10 Favorite Females in Fighting Games. Because sometimes, girls just wanna have fun.
When it comes to fighting games, it's usually the male characters that get both the attention and mascot status, especially in crossovers. It's understandable. I don't know what the likes of Street Fighter would be doing with themselves if they didn't have Ryu to be not only a proper series main character, but also a motivational speaker to show that there's always room at the top to make yourself better.
But when it comes to myself and fighting games, in just about every series I've played, my most picked character happens to be female for a multitude of reasons. Most of the time, they have the more exciting playstyle. And they tend to have more diversity in both personality and appearance. Not to say they don't have their usual suspects, like most are from Asia and fight in a Chinese dress, and there's another majority where they're blonde and brainwashed, but even those archetypes have a little something to them that sets them apart from one another. And it's my duty to pick out 10 of my absolute favorite femme fatales the fighting game world has to offer. I'll be measuring these... sizing them up by... examining them in... this is more difficult to write when I'm not making words to be taken out of context.
ANYWAY, I will be categorizing them by playstyle, design, and personality. And typical rules apply. Only one character per franchise, and it has to be from games I've played to the point where these characters are my, how you say, "mains". Also, these characters must have originated from a fighting game to begin with. So the likes of Catwoman from Injustice or Jun the Swan from Tatsunoko vs Capcom are out of the question. And this list is VERY personal, so it's time to see if my training has paid off.
~Number 10!~
When it comes to the Darkstalkers franchise, you're expecting either Felicia or Morrigan to make the cut. Both characters represent their places well. The cutesy, funny category and the sexy, dominating category. Alas...you'd bee wrong.
Meet Q-Bee. She is the leader of a race of soul bees in the realm of Makai. Her purpose is simply to feed. Her race lives for hunger, and they live for souls. And as of the events of Vampire Savior... they live to survive. Jedah Dohma has been revived from a hundred year slumber, and he wants the world of Makai for himself. This sort of requires a cleansing of the world, and every living soul that occupies it. Q-Bee sees this as a chance to rob Jedah of those souls he intends to collect for reasons, and feed her family for many generations to come.
Before I go any further, it's important to note Q-Bee is not a name. It is a title. This basically means she is the leader of about 100 other bees. That's a lot of mouths to feed. Most of them are male, only good for reproducing, and die off rather quickly. The rest are female, and in rare cases, are born with the necessary honey sacks to produce nutrients, and thus, bear the title of Q-Bee. This is shown in her playstyle where one of her signature moves traps her opponent inside an egg of which another Q-Bee hatches from instantly.
Actually, let's focus on that movelist. It's a very flexible amount of special moves. Things like charging grabs from the ground and air, diving off the wall with her stinger attached, and throwing a slow moving ball of honey that traps their opponent inside of it. Also, my favorite is where she calls upon a hive of bees to feed off the opponent while she tends to one of the children on the side.
Furthermore, let's focus on her design. Look back up at the picture. Her eyes are up there... above her face. Those aren't just decoration. The eyes on her face are fake. This is demonstrated by the way she's hunched down in her neutral pose. Because those are the eyes eating you metaphorically. That's an incredible detail!
Fighting games have many different varieties of human/animal hybrids, but Q-Bee is, so far, the only bee girl known to fighting games. It's telling when she got brought in to Namco X Capcom as a grunt unit near the final stretch of the game. Because there's so damned many of them running around out there! Of all the new characters added into Darkstalkers from Vampire Savior, the same category occupied by B.B. Hood, Jedah, and Lilith, it's Q-Bee that stood out to me the most. And it's Q-Bee that is my favorite Darkstalkers character.
~Number 9!~
Mortal Kombat does have a few hard-hitting women among all the hellspawn, color-coded cyborgs, and Johnny Cages that inhabit the realms. However, as a kid, I remember loving the ninjas the most. Especially my favorite at the time, Reptile. Shooting acid, mindgames with orbs, and he can turn invisible! Definitely an overlooked creature back in the day of Sub-Zero/Scorpion worship.
But there's a difference between my favorite character, and my best character. And in Mortal Kombat 9, I found my best character that would eventually turn into my favorite MK character to this day...
And she doesn't look a day over 500.
Meet Princess Kitana. She was originally the daughter of the ruler of Edenia, Queen Sindel. Until Shao Kahn invaded it when Kitana was very young, and took it for his own, along with Kitana, of which she then became Shao Kahn's adopted daughter, to which she believes is her father. She served Shao Kahn during the Mortal Kombat tournament up until the point where she was sent to kill Liu Kang... and failed. Liu Kang spared her because losing a fight isn't worth killing yourself over in a tournament titled Mortal Kombat. And in the next tournament, she learns the truth that Shao Kahn's right hand, Shang Tsung, had been developing an evil clone of Kitana called Mileena. She... takes it well, and decides to fight alongside the good people, and Johnny Cage, of Earthrealm.
There's not much to say about her design, because in the past MK games, she was one of 3 palette swapped female ninja characters. And it wasn't until the later games that she started to have a style all her own.
But it's her playstyle that wins the day. Even back in her debut in MK2, people were raving about how deadly Kitana was in the right hands. All the ridiculous combos she could do that no one else could really match. Revolving around her twin fans, and her trademark move where she spins her opponent upwards, levitating them in the air for setups. And she's just as deadly from afar in MK9, where she can throw her fans at you straight ahead with ground and air versions, and one of her fan throws happen to signature her X-Ray, making it not only a great punishment tool, but a spectacular combo ender. Granted her fatalities are among the tamest in general, but it's a pretty irrelevant negative when compared to how she beats you during the fight as opposed to afterwards. It's a combination of speed and variety that led me to choose Kitana as my favorite Mortal Kombat character.
~Number 8!~
When I mentioned the "blonde and brainwashed" archetype at the start of this countdown, this is often the one character that pops into people's heads. And she's one of the most popular characters in her series in more ways than one. A fine character who only got better with age and each evolving game.
She's sent more people running home to their mamas than most video game villains. Sarah Bryant from Virtua Fighter.
You'd think I only added Sarah to this list so I had an excuse to play her theme from Virtua Fighter 2, no doubt the most iconic in the entire series. But you'd be wrong. There's more to this character than bells and whistles.
To start with, she's probably the most developed of all the Virtua Fighter characters. In the beginning, she was kidnapped and brainwashed by a rising organization called J6 while investigating her brother Jacky's car accident. And she was sent into the game's fighting tournament with the directive to kill Jacky. She was rescued by Jacky at the end of VF2, but had lost her memories, and competes in the following tournament in VF3 in the hopes that fighting will somehow jog her memory. Turns out it did, and she gets her memory back in VF4. But she still has trauma over being forced to kill Jacky. Was it truly a result of the brainwashing, or an exaggeration of her desire to defeat Jacky? So from then on, she fights her brother in preceding tournaments not to kill him, but to surpass him as a rival.
This is a neat spin on the brainwashed category, because like most others in her category, she carries those events with her, but unlike the others, they don't rule her life. She uses it as a motivator in her training rather than a burden.
Her design hasn't quite escaped the blue suit she's had since 2, but it's simple, and it works with her signature kick-based offense. Especially from VF4 onward, when she just mixed a bunch of martial arts styles into her repertoire. A little Taekwondo, Savate, and some Jeet Kune Do from her brother. And through this, she developed the Flamingo stance where she stands on one leg while the other is arched upward ready to attack. Through this, she gets plenty of on-hit strikes that give her a strong mix-up game.
She later gets her Step, which allows her to cancel certain strikes to step backward or forward quickly, and you better believe she has yet another mix-up opportunity with this. Sarah's playstyle does emphasize speed, but it's also incredibly important to take advantage of her Flamingo style, as well as knowing when to use the Step. So she's certainly not a character for beginners, but is one of the most satisfying to play, and one of the most unpredictable to fight against. It's appropriate that she's among the Virtua Fighter cast that entered the Dead or Alive tournament for DOA5, because this blonde bombshell is no pushover, sweetie. All of that and more is why she's my favorite Virtua Fighter character.
~Number 7!~
Pop quiz.
This is Hinako Shijo from the King of Fighters series. She's a Russian/Japanese high school girl. Can you guess her fighting style just by looking at her? Go ahead. I'll give you 30 seconds. Take a guess.
...did you say "sumo wrestler"?
The best part about Hinako is how badly she breaks the mold of other sumo wrestlers in fighting games just by being female. There's nothing more to her character. She loves sumo, and spends her winposes either gushing about how awesome sumo is to herself, or to her fallen opponent. And much like an ant, lifts characters more than twice her weight and size off the ground like it's nothing. Otherwise shy and quiet, she's a complete fangirl of the sport, and has no trouble demonstrating it when necessary.
Her playstyle is much like the sumo style itself. Fast and furious palm strikes that eventually lead into either devastating judo-like throws, or just shoving her opponent to the nearest corner. In 2003, she even takes a page out of E.Honda's book, and tries for a Sumo Headbutt.. and fails.
I know that Hinako isn't necessarily among the most beloved characters in the KOF roster. Hell, she's been one of the most despised ever since she debuted in 2000. But understand this. KOF no doubt has some awesome characters, especially in the category of females that have espers, assassins, ninjas, and girls that shoot ice from their hands just to name a few. What makes Hinako my favorite in the series is that she practices a martial art meant for heavier-set men, and she's a 16 year old debutante. Something that's so obviously a template for a joke character, but SNK chose to play it straight, and I love them, and Hinako, for that very reason.
~Number 6!~
So this next entry is from the Soul Calibur series. Home to some beautiful women to be sure. And yet, this character is not only upbeat, but playful to her foes. She's always there to fight in the name of her friends, and insures justice will prevail.
The flower in the breeze that is Xianghua.
When it comes to Xianghua, I see only fun. And it's not just with her gameplay, which we'll get to, but in terms of character. For someone who fights for a just cause, she certainly doesn't mind toying with you in battle. Most of her winquotes are just that. A cheesy one liner followed by a "...just kidding!" or a childish laugh. You'd think that means she doesn't take her task at hand all that seriously, but she was born in a family with THE task. Her weapon, Krita-Yuga, was secretly the sacred sword, Soul Calibur, and with the help of Kilik, shattered the original cursed sword, Soul Edge. This event jumpstarted her neverending mission of tracking down the remaining pieces of the cursed sword. But she's usually among friends in this regard because of her cheerful personality.
It's hard to talk about design when she's had so many costumes over the years, but the one pictured above from Soul Calibur IV is probably my favorite because it's so detailed. Things like the butterfly on her choker, and the flower on her hair are nice touches. Just a beautiful outfit.
But her true beauty lies in her fighting style, a mix of various Chinese martial arts surrounding the use of short weapons like a Dao blade, or a Jian double-edged sword. But Xianghua's personal touch is having dozens of feints in her offense, and most of them lead to parries that leave your opponent wide open for counterattack. My favorite part about her fighting style is the... style it demonstrates. Her attacks just flow beautifully, almost as if she's dancing rather than fighting. There's so many different methods in which she either spins her body, or spins the blade itself in hand. It's what makes her stand out among the cast. Sure, she's a character based in speed, and is very comboable, but her true strength lies in tricking her opponents every step of the way.
With such a happy demeanor in both appearance and battle, it's no wonder Xianghua's my favorite in all of Soul Calibur.
~Number 5!~
Tekken. It's safe to assume no other franchise has characters as weird as Tekken does. Between the kangaroo, the panda, and the wooden puppet, as well as a boxing dinosaur, it's not just a game of human fists and feet.
Sometimes, there might be an android with chainsaws and mobility thrusters in front of you. Then you're in trouble.
Alisa is a character I found myself attached to from Day 0. Ever since her debut in Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion, she has been a pleasure to control.
She's actually an android created by Doctor Bosconovitch, who's basically responsible for every other android and bioweapon in the entire Tekken series, including the aforementioned kangaroo and boxing dinosaur. This means she was funded by the Mishima Zaibatsu, and thus, serves Jin Kazama as another bodyguard, and answers to his every command. Upon your first look at her, she does resemble an innocent young girl, and while she herself is not that into violence, she's still one hell of a secret weapon.
Alisa's normal behavior is that of a kind, polite manner of speaking. She apologizes that she has to fight you, and offers you a helping hand, and concern of potential injuries when she wins. It's the mere deception of her human-like qualities that sets her apart from other androids and combat cyborgs. Besides her robotic tone and behavior demonstrated in the Blood Vengeance CGI movie, Alisa is meant to act like an average girl with pink hair and an elaborate violet dress... Fair enough.
Then you get to her playstyle. First off, it's worth mentioning Alisa has two stances. The normal stance is full of some rather unorthodox attacks, and in some cases, seems more like she's figure skating. Tons of spinning in place, leaping like a ballerina, and all of that is even before she brings out her special mobility. She has what is known as a Boot. No, not the common footwear, I mean in terms of a computer bootup. With this Boot, she puts up her wing thrusters, and dashes straight ahead. In this attack, you have optional followups, such as a sliding kick, a mid launcher, or a regular flurry of left-right punches. And out of those punches, she can actually enter her second stance, known as her Destroy Form.
In this form, she lets loose her twin sawblades and has some rather fast strikes, and in the case of her appearance in Street Fighter X Tekken, these strikes actively do chip damage on block. What's the catch? She can't block in this form, and she also can't throw, nor do any attacks from the air. She also has no normal kick attacks, as her kick buttons are instead idle animations for her to rev up her sawblade. She can, however, enter Dual Boot. Much like the regular Boot, this allows her to charge straight at the opponent with optional followups, only this time, she can dodge to the side at any point during her dash. And this extra bit of sidestepping also applies to her Destroy Form. She also has several normal moves that allow her to enter Destroy Form at the end of the string, so it's essential that you master both entering and exiting Destroy Form at any given situation.
And that's not even taking into account the amount of moves where she literally uses her head. One of her signature throws, Spam Bomb, has her offering her head to her opponent as a present, which explodes on contact. There are also some pre-fight intros in Tekken 6 where she's wearing her head on her sleeve. And she even comes with her own Rocket Punch! While it's incredibly slow in regular Tekken as you'd expect from any long-range attack, it's much more useful in Street Fighter X Tekken, when it's her projectile that not only backs her away upon firing, but can also be shot at multiple angles like Gouken's fireball in Street Fighter IV.
This is an incredibly fun character that you can't necessarily say doesn't fit in the same tournament as a fighting panda. Alisa is in a league all her own in terms of overall weirdness, if not for her unique fighting style, than for her hidden armaments. And that's why she's my favorite Tekken character.
~Number 4!~
So now we enter the world of Blazblue, and if you've been noticing a pattern in my personal choices, I dig characters that have a speedy offense, and have a pension for mixups in their overall gameplay. And this character's specific Drive lives and dies on the mixup. It doesn't help she's also my favorite character in the story, and through thick and thin, I've been representing her since the beginning.
Let's all try to act surprised that Noel Vermillion is my favorite Blazblue character. I know you're all in shock, so I'll try to contain my excitement just this once...
...and fail! I LOVE YOU, NOEL! YOU'RE SO CUTE, I JUST WANT TO EAT YOU UP! YOU'RE SO SWEET LIKE HONEY! AND-
Leave me alone, you creep! *BANG BANG*
Cripes! You make one elaborate love letter, and get a restraining order in return... how did she even send a restraining order to me from a video game world?
Anyway, let's try that again without creeping up this countdown, shall we?
So... Noel Vermillion...
Good heavens, it's like Blazblue designed this character's playstyle just for me! With twin pistols in hand, you'd figure she's a ranged character, but looks can be deceiving. You see, Noel's fighting style is known as gunkata. In laymen's terms, this means she fights with her guns up close, and fires them off as if they are extensions of her own hands and feet. This means she has some of the slickest looking moves in the series. This is especially emphasized in her Drive, which is every character's personal gimmick compressed into one single button. Noel's is called Chain Revolver. Every attack in Chain Revolver can be linked into one another for one single combo. This ensures that you'll be keeping your opponent guessing, as there's plenty of overheads and low strikes mixed in. She also has finishers in Chain Revolver that will either push your opponent away, jump at them for a throw, or kick them into the air for another combo setup.
And that's not even enough. Her weapons can actively change shape on a whim. In her Distortion Drive supers, they turn into either a gatling gun, or launch a rocket. And in the latest game, Chrono Phantasma, they turn into a motherloving rifle! This makes her sound like the biggest badass fighting games have to offer... actually, that's far from the case.
In the story, Noel's actually a complete mousy blob. She only shops online so that she doesn't have to go to stores. She writes these elaborate poems, and yet shows them to no one out of pure embarrasment. And she absolutely, positively loves animals. There's no low she won't stoop just to get her hands on a panda, and squeeze its life out- I mean, cradle it gently because they're so adorable. And she's also incredibly self-conscious of her... less than flattering image. It was a miracle she even made such close friends like Makoto and Tsubaki. So what's a weak girl like her doing with such power and awesomeness? Well...
There's another side to Noel that she was suppressing throughout the first game, but when she's pushed to her emotional breaking point, her true self takes hold. Mu-12. A being of despair and destruction. A polar opposite of Noel's shy appearance, she loses all hope in humanity and the world at large, and only seeks its annihilation. And you know what? Noel eventually takes control of this in the events leading up to the final game, so now it's just another tool of her inventory. So on top of her being able to hold the greatest gun weapons known to fighting games, she also has great power at her disposal when the time calls for it. But the real Noel doesn't want destruction. If anything, she wants to fight for those who are closest to her, and has a determination to see things through to the end.
My interest in Noel was at first for the gameplay, but it stayed for both her evolving personality and re-design in Chrono Phantasma. Actually, we haven't even gotten to her overall design.
Her change in wardrobe in Chrono Phantasma is most welcome. Ditching the beret from the older games and letting her hair hang down, and being more outgoing with her outfit was just the change her overall look needed. I actually like the redesign. It shows how she has cast aside her personal reservations of her previous life to get business done. And when one of your friends has entered in with the VERY wrong crowd out of her own despair, there's actually not much room for doubt when you're off to rescue them from their own darkness.
Noel has changed for the better. In terms of gameplay, a likable personality, and definitely in design. She may act clean, but her fighting looks so dirty. And that's why she's my favorite Blazblue character. And even after all that, we still have 3 more to go. Who could be above someone like Noel whom I can write paragraphs of sheer passion about?
~NUMBER 3!~
It's a character from Street Fighter, and at first, this was practically a reserved seat for an old favorite of mine.
On the one hand, you have Karin Kanzuki from the Alpha series. Sakura's rival from Alpha 3 that applies her family's motto "Be the winner of everything!" to her fighting, and has developed the Kanzuki style, which emphasizes, you guessed it, chains of mixup. Like Noel, this means she has plenty of opportunities to aim low after what looks like a simple chest-high palm strike, but unlike Noel, she can also end these chains with a defensive stance that counters any physical strike with both high and low versions at the ready. With no fireballs to call her own, this leaves Karin as a master of close combat. Not to mention she glows with personality. Her signature laugh should be evidence enough. And yet somehow, the sole survivor of the race to be my favorite Street Fighter character ended when Super Street Fighter IV was introduced.
*record scratch* And the Juri was out.
Imagine a Street Fighter with no pure female villains to call their own. Bison's dolls from Alpha were out of the question since they were brainwashed. But Juri is pure evil and is pure violence to boot. Only someone as equally evil as Seth can describe Juri in a simple paragraph.
"She's no ordinary fighter. She is an untamed animal who seeks to destroy and consume all that enters her sight. She has altered her own body in her insatiable quest for power. She respects no law. No morality. She does whatever it takes to achieve her goals and quench her limitless thirst."
Couldn't have said it better myself. Her motivation may be vengeance, but she thrives on her opponent's pain in battle. She acts sensual, but fights sadistic. If anything, she has much in common with your everyday spider, toying with her prey not just in battle, but with words. Her design even has some visual traits of a spider, especially with the arachnid vest she wears. And when you've stood up to M.Bison of all people, verbally mocked him, and didn't get obliterated on the spot, you must have guts made out of titanium. It's no wonder. Bison may be one of the reasons she developed this mean streak.
It dates back to Juri's teenage years where she was a growing prodigy in Taekwondo, were it not for the mess her father got her wrapped up into. He was a lawyer dealing with cases surrounding organized crime. Along the way, one case in particular concerned wounding Shadaloo, the heart of Bison's criminal operations. Because of this, both of Juri's parents were murdered, and in the process, Juri lost her left eye. But Shadaloo had some enemies within its own web.
One of them was S.I.N, their division dedicated to manufacturing weapons of science and biology, and have built such Shadaloo calling cards as Bison's Psycho Drive, one of the main conduit of Bison's Psycho Power. And their leader, Seth, seems to spring at any opportunity that allows him to overthrow Bison, and take control of Shadaloo. Therefore, he takes Juri under his wing, and to celebrate their new partnership, implants in her a Feng Shui Engine as a replacement for her left eye, which grants her an immense amount of ki for a limited time when activated.
And it's also a major part of her gameplay, being her first Ultra Combo. With Feng Shui Engine, Juri's movement speed increases, as well as the speed and flexibilty of certain normals and specials. As an added bonus, she can actively chain certain normal punches and kicks together, granting her an immense amount of combo potential.
As for the rest of her gameplay, Juri has a tool for just about every situation. One of her main moves is the Fuhajin, where she kicks up some ki energy, and when that button is held, she can store that projectile energy until released. Depending on the strength of the button pressed, this attack can be fired at certain angles, and the EX version just blasts it out immediately. She has a Kasatushi counter that on hit, allows you to dash backward, forward, or into the air depending on the button pressed. Got a fireball spamming shoto in your way? Just eat up those fireballs with Kasatushi, and close the gap. Unless the move breaks armor, you're pretty much good to go. Her Senpusha, nicknamed Pinwheel, rounds out the ground game with a whirlwind kick that moves her forward, and makes for a good combo ender.
And then her Shikusen basically acts like a normal diving kick. The difference is this dive kick also has followups by the awesome names of Second Impact and Third Strike (references, anyone?). And the EX version causes a wall bounce, which for the longest time, was the perfect setup for her 2nd Ultra, the Kaisen Dankairaku. This is an Ultra that is the perfect combo of flair and humiliation. The cherry on top of all that is near the end, with Juri impaling her opponent on top of her foot, while whispering if the seering pain feels good.
This doesn't feel like any other Street Fighter character, but that's her greatest strength. Juri is, much like Hinako, a total spin on other fighters of her specific style, and in her case, Taekwondo is usually for those that would fight in the name of justice *coughKimcough*, and Juri is instead pure evil, and a sadist as well. Destined to become a fan favorite in the years to come.
~Number 2!~
But not even turning character archetypes upside down could net you a spot above this next character. When I said this list was personal, #2 and #1 were essentially my reference points towards that exact sentence. So, with that being said...
...Guilty Gear. When it comes to this series, I felt like I was the last to cross the finish line, as I didn't own a PS2 for the longest time, and importing was out of the question, so no Dreamcast version either. The only link I had to Guilty Gear for the longest time was Guilty Gear X... on the Game Boy Advance. But I still played that game to its very core, and it made many a boring school bus ride pleasant all by itself back in high school.
And I owe it all to one character, a character I've represented since those days of boring school bus rides long gone...
May. That's not just my birthday month, it's also my favorite Guilty Gear character.
First of all, this doesn't seem to match up with any of the previous characters in terms of playstyle. For one thing, she's a character with charge motions.
Yes, perhaps. But this is also Arc System Works' version of a charge character. Meaning much less time holding back or down is required to use said charge moves. That's right, those 2 second wait times for a Sonic Boom are ancient history. And May takes those charge motions literally as she rides on one of her dolphin friends charging forward like some kind of... dolphin missile. Actually, that's the brunt of her gameplay. Some of her special moves consist of either charging in riding on the back of a dolphin, or summoning a hoop in mid-air for a dolphin to jump through anywhere in sight depending on button pressed. And in one of her supers, she literally summons a screen filling whale.
...Oh oh! I've got JUST the clip to represent the agony I've put players through with this character.
Yeah. Agony is a word used to describe May's gameplay. Her main focus is on a solid defense and spacing with some lightning quick punishes. But when she's not calling on aquatic sealife, that's when she gets nasty with her personal weapon of choice... a boat anchor.
A.
BOAT.
ANCHOR.
We are talking a young petite girl of 17 going on 18 with no visible muscles to speak of, and she swings a boat anchor with the ease of a baseball bat.
I could just stop right there. Any comments I could make on her awesome pirate outfit are understandably ignored by the weapon she wields alone. But then you take into account how absurd she gets with it.
There's one move where she swings her anchor straightforwad like Johnny's signature Mist Finer, but then she almost collapses because OH YEAH SHE'S SWINGING A BOAT ANCHOR! And there's another move where she somehow catapults herself into the air with the boat anchor still in hand. And she can change her direction up to 3 times.
When I had control of May in any Guilty Gear game, I could not be stopped. At one point in my life, I was at a friend's house, and he made the mistake of buying Guilty Gear Isuka. When that "game" was popped in, I manage to go undefeated, 18 matches in a row, with May. May is not just a fighting game character to me... she is a memory all on her own. A nostalgic character of my youth representing a time where I was at my top level of fighting game skill.
I wish I had slightly more to talk about with her, but my description of May is much more abridged than others. Just a totally fun character delivering some brutal beatdowns with an unheard of bludgeoning tool. What more could you ask for? Well... settle in. It's story time.
~IT'S NUMBER 1!~
When you bear all the previous entries in mind, the likes of May, Juri, Noel, and Alisa are favorites of mine to be sure, but even still, there's one other character that has been at the top of all my fighting game character lists for over 13 years.
When I was under my former alias as RADRAD, I was downright obsessed with this character. Infamously attached to the hip as far as fictional video game characters go. She's not just my favorite fighting game character to this day, male or female alike, she's among my favorite video game characters of all time.
If you've ever known me from the days of GameFAQs or the late SNK-Capcom, or even that one time Fighters Generation had its own message board, then #1 could come as no surprise. She's from a standalone SNK title that I might have covered in my Top 10 Favorite Fighting Games. And she may just be one of the many reasons I kept coming back to that particular title...
Let me introduce you to Hotaru Futaba from Garou: Mark of the Wolves.
This is a character that even as a grown man, I have so much to talk about. But let's start with her story.
Hotaru comes from a family of those invested in the martial arts. Though fighting was not a hobby she wished to undertake, she was passed down the Kenpo style known as Juu-Kei, the Gentle Fist, by her father. A style much more soft and reserved than other kinds of Kenpo. It emphasized Hotaru's innate ability to gather ki energy into both her hands and feet, and with some personal training, took full advantage of her remarkable control of ki, but we'll get to that.
One day, her family fell apart, and with her mother dead, and both her brother and father disappear without a trace, this left Hotaru no choice but to search the world for her brother, and get some answers as to what happened, and why he left her behind. This led her to the King of Fighters tournament in Second Southtown. During one of her matches, she came face to face with a man named Gato. While fighting, she noticed some very familiar moves and techniques, including one only her brother would know. And even though Gato insisted she did not know who Hotaru was, Hotaru had sensed this was the person she was looking for. She encountered him again, begging him, as her brother, to come back to her, and tell her why he left her and her family behind back then. After Gato snaps at her, Hotaru had enough, and slapped him across the face, insisting that no matter what happened that day, that he would always be family to her. And before Gato left, Hotaru heard him mutter under his breath "...same as always".
This image is burned into my memory even today. This right here is why Hotaru is such an important character to me, not just as a character from a fighting game. I may sound like a broken record in this countdown, but she's even more unique when compared to your average cute girl character in fighting games. She's not a fighter at all, she's a girl whose life was destroyed, and she's trying desperately to put it together piece by piece, but the wounds of those events that tore her family asunder are still too great for her to fully grasp. But nonetheless, she travels the world, and is forced to fight to find answers, even though it may seem less and less likely she will ever see the truth for herself.
Now let's actually get to the fighting portion of this character. As I've stated before, Hotaru studies under the Juu-kei style of Kenpo. This means that she hardly ever makes physical contact with her opponent, and relies on her energy as a kind of extension of her body for most of her special moves. She uses it to throw an energy projectile, kicks energy upward which can actually reflect other projectiles, and has a couple of continous spinning palm strikes. She has other moves like a standard diving kick, a command grab where she runs up her opponent's body like she would run up a flight of stairs, and an anti-air move where she spins herself into the air. But where she shines are her super moves. A series of twin spinning palm strikes followed by her air spin is simple enough, then you get to her other super where she launches her opponent into the air with a somersault kick, lands on top of them, and unleashes all of her latent ki energy into one breathtaking burst. And...
Not gonna lie. When that move gets used to K.O. your opponent... it... looks... uh...
Thank you.
When you focus on her design, it can't help but remind you of other cute girl characters, especially from other SNK series. I believe Hotaru was an amalgam of all of them. Think about it. Her moveset has similarities with Athena from the King of Fighters, her hairstyle is very similar to Akari from Last Blade, and guess what? In her stage intro, she has the nearby pigeons help her out of her coat, and has a pet ferret named Itokatsu accompany her wherever she goes. So affinity to animals and nature... I'm thinking... Nakoruru from Samurai Shodown? Heck, even her own theme sounds similar to Nakoruru's Samurai Shodown theme at times.
I've stated before that another point where Garou shines is in its character animation. Hotaru is the finest example of this attention to detail at work. It shows off her playful side that you hardly ever see outside of the story. When Hotaru's crouching down for a long time, she eventually starts padding her face to keep herself focused. And her post-match taunts are probably the best in the game. When she's not sticking her tongue out in the most childish "insult to injury" around, she lets out a loud whistle, and then out of nowhere, her pet ferret falls from the freaking sky to deliver the final blow. And then she holds up her ferret in an embrace, like an owner to their pet. Now THAT is how you rub a victory in your opponent's face.
And that's why I feel Hotaru is the complete package. A gentle soul wrapped in a cute design with such humorous minute details, and a live-saving movelist to top it all off. SNK's best game in my opinion was Garou: Mark of the Wolves, and whether it is by coincidence they also happen to introduce me to Hotaru in the aforementioned game, I can't say. But Hotaru, despite her similarities to other characters, was, and will forever be, one in a million. My absolute favorite fighting game female.
...
...
...which begs the question... where does that leave the subject of video game females OUTSIDE of fighting games? Well, my curious friend, that is for yet another list altogether.
Until then, I'm nomoneydown, and I thank you for your time.
When it comes to fighting games, it's usually the male characters that get both the attention and mascot status, especially in crossovers. It's understandable. I don't know what the likes of Street Fighter would be doing with themselves if they didn't have Ryu to be not only a proper series main character, but also a motivational speaker to show that there's always room at the top to make yourself better.
But when it comes to myself and fighting games, in just about every series I've played, my most picked character happens to be female for a multitude of reasons. Most of the time, they have the more exciting playstyle. And they tend to have more diversity in both personality and appearance. Not to say they don't have their usual suspects, like most are from Asia and fight in a Chinese dress, and there's another majority where they're blonde and brainwashed, but even those archetypes have a little something to them that sets them apart from one another. And it's my duty to pick out 10 of my absolute favorite femme fatales the fighting game world has to offer. I'll be measuring these... sizing them up by... examining them in... this is more difficult to write when I'm not making words to be taken out of context.
ANYWAY, I will be categorizing them by playstyle, design, and personality. And typical rules apply. Only one character per franchise, and it has to be from games I've played to the point where these characters are my, how you say, "mains". Also, these characters must have originated from a fighting game to begin with. So the likes of Catwoman from Injustice or Jun the Swan from Tatsunoko vs Capcom are out of the question. And this list is VERY personal, so it's time to see if my training has paid off.
~Number 10!~
When it comes to the Darkstalkers franchise, you're expecting either Felicia or Morrigan to make the cut. Both characters represent their places well. The cutesy, funny category and the sexy, dominating category. Alas...you'd bee wrong.
Meet Q-Bee. She is the leader of a race of soul bees in the realm of Makai. Her purpose is simply to feed. Her race lives for hunger, and they live for souls. And as of the events of Vampire Savior... they live to survive. Jedah Dohma has been revived from a hundred year slumber, and he wants the world of Makai for himself. This sort of requires a cleansing of the world, and every living soul that occupies it. Q-Bee sees this as a chance to rob Jedah of those souls he intends to collect for reasons, and feed her family for many generations to come.
Before I go any further, it's important to note Q-Bee is not a name. It is a title. This basically means she is the leader of about 100 other bees. That's a lot of mouths to feed. Most of them are male, only good for reproducing, and die off rather quickly. The rest are female, and in rare cases, are born with the necessary honey sacks to produce nutrients, and thus, bear the title of Q-Bee. This is shown in her playstyle where one of her signature moves traps her opponent inside an egg of which another Q-Bee hatches from instantly.
Actually, let's focus on that movelist. It's a very flexible amount of special moves. Things like charging grabs from the ground and air, diving off the wall with her stinger attached, and throwing a slow moving ball of honey that traps their opponent inside of it. Also, my favorite is where she calls upon a hive of bees to feed off the opponent while she tends to one of the children on the side.
Furthermore, let's focus on her design. Look back up at the picture. Her eyes are up there... above her face. Those aren't just decoration. The eyes on her face are fake. This is demonstrated by the way she's hunched down in her neutral pose. Because those are the eyes eating you metaphorically. That's an incredible detail!
Fighting games have many different varieties of human/animal hybrids, but Q-Bee is, so far, the only bee girl known to fighting games. It's telling when she got brought in to Namco X Capcom as a grunt unit near the final stretch of the game. Because there's so damned many of them running around out there! Of all the new characters added into Darkstalkers from Vampire Savior, the same category occupied by B.B. Hood, Jedah, and Lilith, it's Q-Bee that stood out to me the most. And it's Q-Bee that is my favorite Darkstalkers character.
~Number 9!~
Mortal Kombat does have a few hard-hitting women among all the hellspawn, color-coded cyborgs, and Johnny Cages that inhabit the realms. However, as a kid, I remember loving the ninjas the most. Especially my favorite at the time, Reptile. Shooting acid, mindgames with orbs, and he can turn invisible! Definitely an overlooked creature back in the day of Sub-Zero/Scorpion worship.
But there's a difference between my favorite character, and my best character. And in Mortal Kombat 9, I found my best character that would eventually turn into my favorite MK character to this day...
And she doesn't look a day over 500.
Meet Princess Kitana. She was originally the daughter of the ruler of Edenia, Queen Sindel. Until Shao Kahn invaded it when Kitana was very young, and took it for his own, along with Kitana, of which she then became Shao Kahn's adopted daughter, to which she believes is her father. She served Shao Kahn during the Mortal Kombat tournament up until the point where she was sent to kill Liu Kang... and failed. Liu Kang spared her because losing a fight isn't worth killing yourself over in a tournament titled Mortal Kombat. And in the next tournament, she learns the truth that Shao Kahn's right hand, Shang Tsung, had been developing an evil clone of Kitana called Mileena. She... takes it well, and decides to fight alongside the good people, and Johnny Cage, of Earthrealm.
There's not much to say about her design, because in the past MK games, she was one of 3 palette swapped female ninja characters. And it wasn't until the later games that she started to have a style all her own.
But it's her playstyle that wins the day. Even back in her debut in MK2, people were raving about how deadly Kitana was in the right hands. All the ridiculous combos she could do that no one else could really match. Revolving around her twin fans, and her trademark move where she spins her opponent upwards, levitating them in the air for setups. And she's just as deadly from afar in MK9, where she can throw her fans at you straight ahead with ground and air versions, and one of her fan throws happen to signature her X-Ray, making it not only a great punishment tool, but a spectacular combo ender. Granted her fatalities are among the tamest in general, but it's a pretty irrelevant negative when compared to how she beats you during the fight as opposed to afterwards. It's a combination of speed and variety that led me to choose Kitana as my favorite Mortal Kombat character.
~Number 8!~
When I mentioned the "blonde and brainwashed" archetype at the start of this countdown, this is often the one character that pops into people's heads. And she's one of the most popular characters in her series in more ways than one. A fine character who only got better with age and each evolving game.
She's sent more people running home to their mamas than most video game villains. Sarah Bryant from Virtua Fighter.
You'd think I only added Sarah to this list so I had an excuse to play her theme from Virtua Fighter 2, no doubt the most iconic in the entire series. But you'd be wrong. There's more to this character than bells and whistles.
To start with, she's probably the most developed of all the Virtua Fighter characters. In the beginning, she was kidnapped and brainwashed by a rising organization called J6 while investigating her brother Jacky's car accident. And she was sent into the game's fighting tournament with the directive to kill Jacky. She was rescued by Jacky at the end of VF2, but had lost her memories, and competes in the following tournament in VF3 in the hopes that fighting will somehow jog her memory. Turns out it did, and she gets her memory back in VF4. But she still has trauma over being forced to kill Jacky. Was it truly a result of the brainwashing, or an exaggeration of her desire to defeat Jacky? So from then on, she fights her brother in preceding tournaments not to kill him, but to surpass him as a rival.
This is a neat spin on the brainwashed category, because like most others in her category, she carries those events with her, but unlike the others, they don't rule her life. She uses it as a motivator in her training rather than a burden.
Her design hasn't quite escaped the blue suit she's had since 2, but it's simple, and it works with her signature kick-based offense. Especially from VF4 onward, when she just mixed a bunch of martial arts styles into her repertoire. A little Taekwondo, Savate, and some Jeet Kune Do from her brother. And through this, she developed the Flamingo stance where she stands on one leg while the other is arched upward ready to attack. Through this, she gets plenty of on-hit strikes that give her a strong mix-up game.
She later gets her Step, which allows her to cancel certain strikes to step backward or forward quickly, and you better believe she has yet another mix-up opportunity with this. Sarah's playstyle does emphasize speed, but it's also incredibly important to take advantage of her Flamingo style, as well as knowing when to use the Step. So she's certainly not a character for beginners, but is one of the most satisfying to play, and one of the most unpredictable to fight against. It's appropriate that she's among the Virtua Fighter cast that entered the Dead or Alive tournament for DOA5, because this blonde bombshell is no pushover, sweetie. All of that and more is why she's my favorite Virtua Fighter character.
~Number 7!~
Pop quiz.
This is Hinako Shijo from the King of Fighters series. She's a Russian/Japanese high school girl. Can you guess her fighting style just by looking at her? Go ahead. I'll give you 30 seconds. Take a guess.
...did you say "sumo wrestler"?
The best part about Hinako is how badly she breaks the mold of other sumo wrestlers in fighting games just by being female. There's nothing more to her character. She loves sumo, and spends her winposes either gushing about how awesome sumo is to herself, or to her fallen opponent. And much like an ant, lifts characters more than twice her weight and size off the ground like it's nothing. Otherwise shy and quiet, she's a complete fangirl of the sport, and has no trouble demonstrating it when necessary.
Her playstyle is much like the sumo style itself. Fast and furious palm strikes that eventually lead into either devastating judo-like throws, or just shoving her opponent to the nearest corner. In 2003, she even takes a page out of E.Honda's book, and tries for a Sumo Headbutt.. and fails.
I know that Hinako isn't necessarily among the most beloved characters in the KOF roster. Hell, she's been one of the most despised ever since she debuted in 2000. But understand this. KOF no doubt has some awesome characters, especially in the category of females that have espers, assassins, ninjas, and girls that shoot ice from their hands just to name a few. What makes Hinako my favorite in the series is that she practices a martial art meant for heavier-set men, and she's a 16 year old debutante. Something that's so obviously a template for a joke character, but SNK chose to play it straight, and I love them, and Hinako, for that very reason.
~Number 6!~
So this next entry is from the Soul Calibur series. Home to some beautiful women to be sure. And yet, this character is not only upbeat, but playful to her foes. She's always there to fight in the name of her friends, and insures justice will prevail.
The flower in the breeze that is Xianghua.
When it comes to Xianghua, I see only fun. And it's not just with her gameplay, which we'll get to, but in terms of character. For someone who fights for a just cause, she certainly doesn't mind toying with you in battle. Most of her winquotes are just that. A cheesy one liner followed by a "...just kidding!" or a childish laugh. You'd think that means she doesn't take her task at hand all that seriously, but she was born in a family with THE task. Her weapon, Krita-Yuga, was secretly the sacred sword, Soul Calibur, and with the help of Kilik, shattered the original cursed sword, Soul Edge. This event jumpstarted her neverending mission of tracking down the remaining pieces of the cursed sword. But she's usually among friends in this regard because of her cheerful personality.
It's hard to talk about design when she's had so many costumes over the years, but the one pictured above from Soul Calibur IV is probably my favorite because it's so detailed. Things like the butterfly on her choker, and the flower on her hair are nice touches. Just a beautiful outfit.
But her true beauty lies in her fighting style, a mix of various Chinese martial arts surrounding the use of short weapons like a Dao blade, or a Jian double-edged sword. But Xianghua's personal touch is having dozens of feints in her offense, and most of them lead to parries that leave your opponent wide open for counterattack. My favorite part about her fighting style is the... style it demonstrates. Her attacks just flow beautifully, almost as if she's dancing rather than fighting. There's so many different methods in which she either spins her body, or spins the blade itself in hand. It's what makes her stand out among the cast. Sure, she's a character based in speed, and is very comboable, but her true strength lies in tricking her opponents every step of the way.
With such a happy demeanor in both appearance and battle, it's no wonder Xianghua's my favorite in all of Soul Calibur.
~Number 5!~
Tekken. It's safe to assume no other franchise has characters as weird as Tekken does. Between the kangaroo, the panda, and the wooden puppet, as well as a boxing dinosaur, it's not just a game of human fists and feet.
Sometimes, there might be an android with chainsaws and mobility thrusters in front of you. Then you're in trouble.
Alisa is a character I found myself attached to from Day 0. Ever since her debut in Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion, she has been a pleasure to control.
She's actually an android created by Doctor Bosconovitch, who's basically responsible for every other android and bioweapon in the entire Tekken series, including the aforementioned kangaroo and boxing dinosaur. This means she was funded by the Mishima Zaibatsu, and thus, serves Jin Kazama as another bodyguard, and answers to his every command. Upon your first look at her, she does resemble an innocent young girl, and while she herself is not that into violence, she's still one hell of a secret weapon.
Alisa's normal behavior is that of a kind, polite manner of speaking. She apologizes that she has to fight you, and offers you a helping hand, and concern of potential injuries when she wins. It's the mere deception of her human-like qualities that sets her apart from other androids and combat cyborgs. Besides her robotic tone and behavior demonstrated in the Blood Vengeance CGI movie, Alisa is meant to act like an average girl with pink hair and an elaborate violet dress... Fair enough.
Then you get to her playstyle. First off, it's worth mentioning Alisa has two stances. The normal stance is full of some rather unorthodox attacks, and in some cases, seems more like she's figure skating. Tons of spinning in place, leaping like a ballerina, and all of that is even before she brings out her special mobility. She has what is known as a Boot. No, not the common footwear, I mean in terms of a computer bootup. With this Boot, she puts up her wing thrusters, and dashes straight ahead. In this attack, you have optional followups, such as a sliding kick, a mid launcher, or a regular flurry of left-right punches. And out of those punches, she can actually enter her second stance, known as her Destroy Form.
In this form, she lets loose her twin sawblades and has some rather fast strikes, and in the case of her appearance in Street Fighter X Tekken, these strikes actively do chip damage on block. What's the catch? She can't block in this form, and she also can't throw, nor do any attacks from the air. She also has no normal kick attacks, as her kick buttons are instead idle animations for her to rev up her sawblade. She can, however, enter Dual Boot. Much like the regular Boot, this allows her to charge straight at the opponent with optional followups, only this time, she can dodge to the side at any point during her dash. And this extra bit of sidestepping also applies to her Destroy Form. She also has several normal moves that allow her to enter Destroy Form at the end of the string, so it's essential that you master both entering and exiting Destroy Form at any given situation.
And that's not even taking into account the amount of moves where she literally uses her head. One of her signature throws, Spam Bomb, has her offering her head to her opponent as a present, which explodes on contact. There are also some pre-fight intros in Tekken 6 where she's wearing her head on her sleeve. And she even comes with her own Rocket Punch! While it's incredibly slow in regular Tekken as you'd expect from any long-range attack, it's much more useful in Street Fighter X Tekken, when it's her projectile that not only backs her away upon firing, but can also be shot at multiple angles like Gouken's fireball in Street Fighter IV.
This is an incredibly fun character that you can't necessarily say doesn't fit in the same tournament as a fighting panda. Alisa is in a league all her own in terms of overall weirdness, if not for her unique fighting style, than for her hidden armaments. And that's why she's my favorite Tekken character.
~Number 4!~
So now we enter the world of Blazblue, and if you've been noticing a pattern in my personal choices, I dig characters that have a speedy offense, and have a pension for mixups in their overall gameplay. And this character's specific Drive lives and dies on the mixup. It doesn't help she's also my favorite character in the story, and through thick and thin, I've been representing her since the beginning.
Let's all try to act surprised that Noel Vermillion is my favorite Blazblue character. I know you're all in shock, so I'll try to contain my excitement just this once...
...and fail! I LOVE YOU, NOEL! YOU'RE SO CUTE, I JUST WANT TO EAT YOU UP! YOU'RE SO SWEET LIKE HONEY! AND-
Leave me alone, you creep! *BANG BANG*
Cripes! You make one elaborate love letter, and get a restraining order in return... how did she even send a restraining order to me from a video game world?
Anyway, let's try that again without creeping up this countdown, shall we?
So... Noel Vermillion...
Good heavens, it's like Blazblue designed this character's playstyle just for me! With twin pistols in hand, you'd figure she's a ranged character, but looks can be deceiving. You see, Noel's fighting style is known as gunkata. In laymen's terms, this means she fights with her guns up close, and fires them off as if they are extensions of her own hands and feet. This means she has some of the slickest looking moves in the series. This is especially emphasized in her Drive, which is every character's personal gimmick compressed into one single button. Noel's is called Chain Revolver. Every attack in Chain Revolver can be linked into one another for one single combo. This ensures that you'll be keeping your opponent guessing, as there's plenty of overheads and low strikes mixed in. She also has finishers in Chain Revolver that will either push your opponent away, jump at them for a throw, or kick them into the air for another combo setup.
And that's not even enough. Her weapons can actively change shape on a whim. In her Distortion Drive supers, they turn into either a gatling gun, or launch a rocket. And in the latest game, Chrono Phantasma, they turn into a motherloving rifle! This makes her sound like the biggest badass fighting games have to offer... actually, that's far from the case.
In the story, Noel's actually a complete mousy blob. She only shops online so that she doesn't have to go to stores. She writes these elaborate poems, and yet shows them to no one out of pure embarrasment. And she absolutely, positively loves animals. There's no low she won't stoop just to get her hands on a panda, and squeeze its life out- I mean, cradle it gently because they're so adorable. And she's also incredibly self-conscious of her... less than flattering image. It was a miracle she even made such close friends like Makoto and Tsubaki. So what's a weak girl like her doing with such power and awesomeness? Well...
There's another side to Noel that she was suppressing throughout the first game, but when she's pushed to her emotional breaking point, her true self takes hold. Mu-12. A being of despair and destruction. A polar opposite of Noel's shy appearance, she loses all hope in humanity and the world at large, and only seeks its annihilation. And you know what? Noel eventually takes control of this in the events leading up to the final game, so now it's just another tool of her inventory. So on top of her being able to hold the greatest gun weapons known to fighting games, she also has great power at her disposal when the time calls for it. But the real Noel doesn't want destruction. If anything, she wants to fight for those who are closest to her, and has a determination to see things through to the end.
My interest in Noel was at first for the gameplay, but it stayed for both her evolving personality and re-design in Chrono Phantasma. Actually, we haven't even gotten to her overall design.
Her change in wardrobe in Chrono Phantasma is most welcome. Ditching the beret from the older games and letting her hair hang down, and being more outgoing with her outfit was just the change her overall look needed. I actually like the redesign. It shows how she has cast aside her personal reservations of her previous life to get business done. And when one of your friends has entered in with the VERY wrong crowd out of her own despair, there's actually not much room for doubt when you're off to rescue them from their own darkness.
Noel has changed for the better. In terms of gameplay, a likable personality, and definitely in design. She may act clean, but her fighting looks so dirty. And that's why she's my favorite Blazblue character. And even after all that, we still have 3 more to go. Who could be above someone like Noel whom I can write paragraphs of sheer passion about?
~NUMBER 3!~
It's a character from Street Fighter, and at first, this was practically a reserved seat for an old favorite of mine.
On the one hand, you have Karin Kanzuki from the Alpha series. Sakura's rival from Alpha 3 that applies her family's motto "Be the winner of everything!" to her fighting, and has developed the Kanzuki style, which emphasizes, you guessed it, chains of mixup. Like Noel, this means she has plenty of opportunities to aim low after what looks like a simple chest-high palm strike, but unlike Noel, she can also end these chains with a defensive stance that counters any physical strike with both high and low versions at the ready. With no fireballs to call her own, this leaves Karin as a master of close combat. Not to mention she glows with personality. Her signature laugh should be evidence enough. And yet somehow, the sole survivor of the race to be my favorite Street Fighter character ended when Super Street Fighter IV was introduced.
*record scratch* And the Juri was out.
Imagine a Street Fighter with no pure female villains to call their own. Bison's dolls from Alpha were out of the question since they were brainwashed. But Juri is pure evil and is pure violence to boot. Only someone as equally evil as Seth can describe Juri in a simple paragraph.
"She's no ordinary fighter. She is an untamed animal who seeks to destroy and consume all that enters her sight. She has altered her own body in her insatiable quest for power. She respects no law. No morality. She does whatever it takes to achieve her goals and quench her limitless thirst."
Couldn't have said it better myself. Her motivation may be vengeance, but she thrives on her opponent's pain in battle. She acts sensual, but fights sadistic. If anything, she has much in common with your everyday spider, toying with her prey not just in battle, but with words. Her design even has some visual traits of a spider, especially with the arachnid vest she wears. And when you've stood up to M.Bison of all people, verbally mocked him, and didn't get obliterated on the spot, you must have guts made out of titanium. It's no wonder. Bison may be one of the reasons she developed this mean streak.
It dates back to Juri's teenage years where she was a growing prodigy in Taekwondo, were it not for the mess her father got her wrapped up into. He was a lawyer dealing with cases surrounding organized crime. Along the way, one case in particular concerned wounding Shadaloo, the heart of Bison's criminal operations. Because of this, both of Juri's parents were murdered, and in the process, Juri lost her left eye. But Shadaloo had some enemies within its own web.
One of them was S.I.N, their division dedicated to manufacturing weapons of science and biology, and have built such Shadaloo calling cards as Bison's Psycho Drive, one of the main conduit of Bison's Psycho Power. And their leader, Seth, seems to spring at any opportunity that allows him to overthrow Bison, and take control of Shadaloo. Therefore, he takes Juri under his wing, and to celebrate their new partnership, implants in her a Feng Shui Engine as a replacement for her left eye, which grants her an immense amount of ki for a limited time when activated.
And it's also a major part of her gameplay, being her first Ultra Combo. With Feng Shui Engine, Juri's movement speed increases, as well as the speed and flexibilty of certain normals and specials. As an added bonus, she can actively chain certain normal punches and kicks together, granting her an immense amount of combo potential.
As for the rest of her gameplay, Juri has a tool for just about every situation. One of her main moves is the Fuhajin, where she kicks up some ki energy, and when that button is held, she can store that projectile energy until released. Depending on the strength of the button pressed, this attack can be fired at certain angles, and the EX version just blasts it out immediately. She has a Kasatushi counter that on hit, allows you to dash backward, forward, or into the air depending on the button pressed. Got a fireball spamming shoto in your way? Just eat up those fireballs with Kasatushi, and close the gap. Unless the move breaks armor, you're pretty much good to go. Her Senpusha, nicknamed Pinwheel, rounds out the ground game with a whirlwind kick that moves her forward, and makes for a good combo ender.
And then her Shikusen basically acts like a normal diving kick. The difference is this dive kick also has followups by the awesome names of Second Impact and Third Strike (references, anyone?). And the EX version causes a wall bounce, which for the longest time, was the perfect setup for her 2nd Ultra, the Kaisen Dankairaku. This is an Ultra that is the perfect combo of flair and humiliation. The cherry on top of all that is near the end, with Juri impaling her opponent on top of her foot, while whispering if the seering pain feels good.
This doesn't feel like any other Street Fighter character, but that's her greatest strength. Juri is, much like Hinako, a total spin on other fighters of her specific style, and in her case, Taekwondo is usually for those that would fight in the name of justice *coughKimcough*, and Juri is instead pure evil, and a sadist as well. Destined to become a fan favorite in the years to come.
~Number 2!~
But not even turning character archetypes upside down could net you a spot above this next character. When I said this list was personal, #2 and #1 were essentially my reference points towards that exact sentence. So, with that being said...
...Guilty Gear. When it comes to this series, I felt like I was the last to cross the finish line, as I didn't own a PS2 for the longest time, and importing was out of the question, so no Dreamcast version either. The only link I had to Guilty Gear for the longest time was Guilty Gear X... on the Game Boy Advance. But I still played that game to its very core, and it made many a boring school bus ride pleasant all by itself back in high school.
And I owe it all to one character, a character I've represented since those days of boring school bus rides long gone...
May. That's not just my birthday month, it's also my favorite Guilty Gear character.
First of all, this doesn't seem to match up with any of the previous characters in terms of playstyle. For one thing, she's a character with charge motions.
Yes, perhaps. But this is also Arc System Works' version of a charge character. Meaning much less time holding back or down is required to use said charge moves. That's right, those 2 second wait times for a Sonic Boom are ancient history. And May takes those charge motions literally as she rides on one of her dolphin friends charging forward like some kind of... dolphin missile. Actually, that's the brunt of her gameplay. Some of her special moves consist of either charging in riding on the back of a dolphin, or summoning a hoop in mid-air for a dolphin to jump through anywhere in sight depending on button pressed. And in one of her supers, she literally summons a screen filling whale.
...Oh oh! I've got JUST the clip to represent the agony I've put players through with this character.
Yeah. Agony is a word used to describe May's gameplay. Her main focus is on a solid defense and spacing with some lightning quick punishes. But when she's not calling on aquatic sealife, that's when she gets nasty with her personal weapon of choice... a boat anchor.
A.
BOAT.
ANCHOR.
We are talking a young petite girl of 17 going on 18 with no visible muscles to speak of, and she swings a boat anchor with the ease of a baseball bat.
I could just stop right there. Any comments I could make on her awesome pirate outfit are understandably ignored by the weapon she wields alone. But then you take into account how absurd she gets with it.
There's one move where she swings her anchor straightforwad like Johnny's signature Mist Finer, but then she almost collapses because OH YEAH SHE'S SWINGING A BOAT ANCHOR! And there's another move where she somehow catapults herself into the air with the boat anchor still in hand. And she can change her direction up to 3 times.
When I had control of May in any Guilty Gear game, I could not be stopped. At one point in my life, I was at a friend's house, and he made the mistake of buying Guilty Gear Isuka. When that "game" was popped in, I manage to go undefeated, 18 matches in a row, with May. May is not just a fighting game character to me... she is a memory all on her own. A nostalgic character of my youth representing a time where I was at my top level of fighting game skill.
I wish I had slightly more to talk about with her, but my description of May is much more abridged than others. Just a totally fun character delivering some brutal beatdowns with an unheard of bludgeoning tool. What more could you ask for? Well... settle in. It's story time.
~IT'S NUMBER 1!~
When you bear all the previous entries in mind, the likes of May, Juri, Noel, and Alisa are favorites of mine to be sure, but even still, there's one other character that has been at the top of all my fighting game character lists for over 13 years.
When I was under my former alias as RADRAD, I was downright obsessed with this character. Infamously attached to the hip as far as fictional video game characters go. She's not just my favorite fighting game character to this day, male or female alike, she's among my favorite video game characters of all time.
If you've ever known me from the days of GameFAQs or the late SNK-Capcom, or even that one time Fighters Generation had its own message board, then #1 could come as no surprise. She's from a standalone SNK title that I might have covered in my Top 10 Favorite Fighting Games. And she may just be one of the many reasons I kept coming back to that particular title...
Let me introduce you to Hotaru Futaba from Garou: Mark of the Wolves.
This is a character that even as a grown man, I have so much to talk about. But let's start with her story.
Hotaru comes from a family of those invested in the martial arts. Though fighting was not a hobby she wished to undertake, she was passed down the Kenpo style known as Juu-Kei, the Gentle Fist, by her father. A style much more soft and reserved than other kinds of Kenpo. It emphasized Hotaru's innate ability to gather ki energy into both her hands and feet, and with some personal training, took full advantage of her remarkable control of ki, but we'll get to that.
One day, her family fell apart, and with her mother dead, and both her brother and father disappear without a trace, this left Hotaru no choice but to search the world for her brother, and get some answers as to what happened, and why he left her behind. This led her to the King of Fighters tournament in Second Southtown. During one of her matches, she came face to face with a man named Gato. While fighting, she noticed some very familiar moves and techniques, including one only her brother would know. And even though Gato insisted she did not know who Hotaru was, Hotaru had sensed this was the person she was looking for. She encountered him again, begging him, as her brother, to come back to her, and tell her why he left her and her family behind back then. After Gato snaps at her, Hotaru had enough, and slapped him across the face, insisting that no matter what happened that day, that he would always be family to her. And before Gato left, Hotaru heard him mutter under his breath "...same as always".
This image is burned into my memory even today. This right here is why Hotaru is such an important character to me, not just as a character from a fighting game. I may sound like a broken record in this countdown, but she's even more unique when compared to your average cute girl character in fighting games. She's not a fighter at all, she's a girl whose life was destroyed, and she's trying desperately to put it together piece by piece, but the wounds of those events that tore her family asunder are still too great for her to fully grasp. But nonetheless, she travels the world, and is forced to fight to find answers, even though it may seem less and less likely she will ever see the truth for herself.
Now let's actually get to the fighting portion of this character. As I've stated before, Hotaru studies under the Juu-kei style of Kenpo. This means that she hardly ever makes physical contact with her opponent, and relies on her energy as a kind of extension of her body for most of her special moves. She uses it to throw an energy projectile, kicks energy upward which can actually reflect other projectiles, and has a couple of continous spinning palm strikes. She has other moves like a standard diving kick, a command grab where she runs up her opponent's body like she would run up a flight of stairs, and an anti-air move where she spins herself into the air. But where she shines are her super moves. A series of twin spinning palm strikes followed by her air spin is simple enough, then you get to her other super where she launches her opponent into the air with a somersault kick, lands on top of them, and unleashes all of her latent ki energy into one breathtaking burst. And...
Not gonna lie. When that move gets used to K.O. your opponent... it... looks... uh...
Thank you.
When you focus on her design, it can't help but remind you of other cute girl characters, especially from other SNK series. I believe Hotaru was an amalgam of all of them. Think about it. Her moveset has similarities with Athena from the King of Fighters, her hairstyle is very similar to Akari from Last Blade, and guess what? In her stage intro, she has the nearby pigeons help her out of her coat, and has a pet ferret named Itokatsu accompany her wherever she goes. So affinity to animals and nature... I'm thinking... Nakoruru from Samurai Shodown? Heck, even her own theme sounds similar to Nakoruru's Samurai Shodown theme at times.
I've stated before that another point where Garou shines is in its character animation. Hotaru is the finest example of this attention to detail at work. It shows off her playful side that you hardly ever see outside of the story. When Hotaru's crouching down for a long time, she eventually starts padding her face to keep herself focused. And her post-match taunts are probably the best in the game. When she's not sticking her tongue out in the most childish "insult to injury" around, she lets out a loud whistle, and then out of nowhere, her pet ferret falls from the freaking sky to deliver the final blow. And then she holds up her ferret in an embrace, like an owner to their pet. Now THAT is how you rub a victory in your opponent's face.
And that's why I feel Hotaru is the complete package. A gentle soul wrapped in a cute design with such humorous minute details, and a live-saving movelist to top it all off. SNK's best game in my opinion was Garou: Mark of the Wolves, and whether it is by coincidence they also happen to introduce me to Hotaru in the aforementioned game, I can't say. But Hotaru, despite her similarities to other characters, was, and will forever be, one in a million. My absolute favorite fighting game female.
...
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...which begs the question... where does that leave the subject of video game females OUTSIDE of fighting games? Well, my curious friend, that is for yet another list altogether.
Until then, I'm nomoneydown, and I thank you for your time.