Loyal (To A Fault): Examining Character Loyalty In Fighting Games

Character loyalists are the kinds of people who drive the same car for 20 years because they don’t want to move on, even if the radiator’s constantly leaking and the brakes don’t quite work as they should. They refuse to drink Pepsi when their beloved Coke isn’t available. They wear their team colors with pride, whether they’re undefeated, .500, or winless. Personally, I am, too, a loyal dog when it comes to fighting games. I find the characters that I connect with emotionally and stick with them. Now, obviously, I have alternate characters that I enjoy to play on the side, but when the best comes and challenge me to Street Fighter, Tekken, or Injustice, I know who I’m going into battle with.

No fighting game character elicits more emotions from me than Ryu. Ryu has been in my life longer than most of my friends and family members and he’s been my right-hand man for over two decades, across countless titles. Sometimes, like Super Street Fighter II Turbo and Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom, Ryu is a very strong character, which only helps me enjoy playing as him. In some games, like Ultra Street Fighter IV, Street Fighter x Tekken, Capcom vs. SNK 2, and Street Fighter III: Third Strike, Ryu is a middle-of-the-pack character that still gives me the ability to win consistently against strong opponents. Sometimes, like is the case in Street Fighter V, Ryu isn’t exactly the strongest character, so I need to compensate a bit by leveling up my game to ensure victory with the ordinary man.

Is there a competitive advantage to being a character loyalist? R/Fighters moderator CH4F seems to think so. “Fighting games [are] a lot about anticipation, reads and mind-games - things that you can't learn in a single game,” they said. “Things like the combos or the character knowledge is the ‘what’. It doesn't give you the ‘how’, the ‘when’ and especially the ‘why’."

The moderator continued to explain. "Since mind-games are that important, you don't have just to perfectly know how it all works your character. You need to have something more. An affinity or a feeling (to make it all come together). It perfectly works on games like Guilty Gear, Tekken, or Virtua Fighter, since the main engine doesn't really change from game-to-game. It doesn't on games that totally change their engines, like Street Fighter."

Ultra-Combo.com member OhAnodyne has a reason that draws more from emotion. “Some people are character specialists,” they said. “They feel a strong attachment to one fighter for whatever reason–be it design or playstyle or a mixture of the two-- and then dedicate that time to playing that character and only that character…but that doesn’t mean they aren’t learning about other characters while doing so...Often times these specialists are extremely strong because they haven’t split time learning others, they put all of their time into making sure their main is as strong in all aspects as they can possibly be.”

If you’re sitting here saying, “What kind of crap is this? Just pick a top-tier and win!”, I can tell you that you’re not alone, but that’s a conversation for another day. Today, we connect with our emotions and our love for our favorite characters.

One of the most successful loyalists has to be FOX|Tokido. Tokido and Akuma have been seen battling alongside each other since 2008's Street Fighter IV, and they show no signs of breaking up any time soon. Tokido explained this about Akuma after his victory at Evolution 2017, as well as his second place finish at Capcom Cup 2017.

On an edition of his Twitch show, Tokido said Akuma has an A+ ranking in Street Fighter V’s Season 3, so there’s no reason to think that Tokido will move on from the demon.

To be honest with you, I’m not exactly sure what drew me to Ryu in the first place. It could’ve been that he was the main protagonist of the Street Fighter series, so I wanted to play as the good guy. But, my reasons now make a lot more sense, at least I think. In the story, Ryu isn’t driven by anything other than challenging himself to be better. Not even the best - just, better. He’s always looking for the next strong opponent to test his skills against. When he wins, he’s humble and reassuring. When he loses, he doesn’t make excuses. He picks himself up and vows to get better. I love that mindset and I think that’s truly how you improve as a person, not just in fighting games, but any facet of life. It’s so much easier to keep pushing forward and continually strive to get better than it is to maintain a negative mindset about things. It’s that mindset that inspired me to write the Low-Tier Hero series for Twin Galaxies, in order to deliver that sort of mindset to others who may struggle with being frustrated with fighting games.

For more examples of character loyalty, check out my guy Pawclaw as he discusses what life as a Ganondorf player is like in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. If you’re of the opinion that you need to pick a strong character to win, you’ll enjoy learning about Daigo’s choice of character in Season 3 of Street Fighter V.