We learned something fun this weekend about the upcoming Dragonball fighter. Over at Eventhubs, Velociraptor reports that "[Android] 21 can actually hit foes with a special grab technique that allows her to perform their own special moves against them." Observe:
Now, we've seen plenty of move-copying characters in games before, usually as amalgam-type final bosses. Most recently, SFIV's Seth combined a handful of other characters' moves (Sim's stretchy fierce, Guile's sonic boom, etc.) with some original attacks, but this type of character is an old tradition in fighting games, going back at least as far as Soul Blade's Inferno and Virtua Fighter's Dural.
Typically, however, these characters have a static, preset list of copied moves, which means that you, the player, have no choice in the matter - which, in turn, means that there's no ability to copy moves in a strategic or tactical way. The Seth/Dural/Inferno archetype is, therefore, the absolute most basic and least interesting type of move-copying character.
Capcom had a real opportunity to do better with Rogue, who appeared in X-Men vs. Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom 2. She was the perfect character to have a more dynamic move-stealing ability, given that her entire schtick is that she "absorb[s] and sometimes also remove[s] the memories, physical strength, and superpowers of anyone she touches." But Capcom dropped the ball with her, choosing instead to give her incredibly boring temporary stat boosts of one sort or another:
This, too, gives the player very little to work with. Knowing that you're gonna take slightly less damage for the next few seconds, for example, doesn't really change the way you play: your mixups are the same, your pressure options are the same, and so on.
So, to this point, Android 21 stacks up nicely. By allowing the player to actually be creative and purposeful when it comes to copying other characters' moves, Android 21 does successfully avoid being yet another stale, cobbled-together amalgam character. And obviously she's a huge step up from Rogue. But, at least in my opinion, she still represents a missed opportunity.
For one thing, from the video, it seems like the DBFZ team is playing it slow for now: it looks like Android 21 can only borrow one move at a time, and the original character can still continue to use that move. In this way, Android 21's copycat ability can be seen as a slightly better version of Kirby's neutral B, which only ever copies the opponent's neutral B.
Whether Android 21's ability turns out to be balanced in the context of the full game is, of course, an open question. My initial guess, though, is that she won't be overpowered at all - if anything, like Kirby, she might end up being a little underpowered on the whole as a character. If so, the DBFZ team should consider buffing her move-copying skills so that she can borrow more than one at a time.
Yet even that wouldn't really break new ground. After all, the FGC has already seen a character who could copy every move from every character: Shang Tsung.
Another one-time final boss, Shang Tsung traditionally has a small number of unique moves plus the ability to morph into every other character in the game, complete with their whole moveset. So even if Android 21 does gain the ability to copy multiples moves at once, she'll still just be a toned-down version of a character we've already seen.
Does that mean that there's nowhere left to go? Have we covered all the ground here? I, for one, don't think so. If the DBFZ team really wants to bring the hype, there is at least one totally new ability that they could give Android 21: the ability to steal moves. See, at least as far as I know, no major fighting game has ever featured a character that actually removes other characters' abilities. This is a weird omission, when you start to think about it. Our stories are full of characters who debuff and disempower other characters - as I've already mentioned, the X-Men have Rogue, but there's also Ty Lee from the Avatar universe, Tobi from Naruto, and a whole bunch more. Yet, unless I'm very much mistaken, there has never been a character of this type in a major fighting game, a streak that continues with Android 21.
So, sure, I'm still excited for DBFZ. Now that the Marvel series took a step back, we need a new franchise to step up and give us insane, boundary-pushing, multi-character chaos. I just wish they had chosen to be a little more chaotic with Android 21. Making her a slightly stronger version of Kirby is a very safe choice, and this is supposed to be a game that avoids safe choices. Maybe she'll turn out to be perfectly balanced and this will all turn out to be moot. But someone out there really should take the opportunity to give us a character that truly steals (or at least seals) moves and leaves opposing characters weaker than they were before. Maybe that's a lot to ask for. But if you never ask, you'll never get what you want, right?
Now, we've seen plenty of move-copying characters in games before, usually as amalgam-type final bosses. Most recently, SFIV's Seth combined a handful of other characters' moves (Sim's stretchy fierce, Guile's sonic boom, etc.) with some original attacks, but this type of character is an old tradition in fighting games, going back at least as far as Soul Blade's Inferno and Virtua Fighter's Dural.
Typically, however, these characters have a static, preset list of copied moves, which means that you, the player, have no choice in the matter - which, in turn, means that there's no ability to copy moves in a strategic or tactical way. The Seth/Dural/Inferno archetype is, therefore, the absolute most basic and least interesting type of move-copying character.
Capcom had a real opportunity to do better with Rogue, who appeared in X-Men vs. Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom 2. She was the perfect character to have a more dynamic move-stealing ability, given that her entire schtick is that she "absorb[s] and sometimes also remove[s] the memories, physical strength, and superpowers of anyone she touches." But Capcom dropped the ball with her, choosing instead to give her incredibly boring temporary stat boosts of one sort or another:
This, too, gives the player very little to work with. Knowing that you're gonna take slightly less damage for the next few seconds, for example, doesn't really change the way you play: your mixups are the same, your pressure options are the same, and so on.
So, to this point, Android 21 stacks up nicely. By allowing the player to actually be creative and purposeful when it comes to copying other characters' moves, Android 21 does successfully avoid being yet another stale, cobbled-together amalgam character. And obviously she's a huge step up from Rogue. But, at least in my opinion, she still represents a missed opportunity.
For one thing, from the video, it seems like the DBFZ team is playing it slow for now: it looks like Android 21 can only borrow one move at a time, and the original character can still continue to use that move. In this way, Android 21's copycat ability can be seen as a slightly better version of Kirby's neutral B, which only ever copies the opponent's neutral B.
Whether Android 21's ability turns out to be balanced in the context of the full game is, of course, an open question. My initial guess, though, is that she won't be overpowered at all - if anything, like Kirby, she might end up being a little underpowered on the whole as a character. If so, the DBFZ team should consider buffing her move-copying skills so that she can borrow more than one at a time.
Yet even that wouldn't really break new ground. After all, the FGC has already seen a character who could copy every move from every character: Shang Tsung.
Another one-time final boss, Shang Tsung traditionally has a small number of unique moves plus the ability to morph into every other character in the game, complete with their whole moveset. So even if Android 21 does gain the ability to copy multiples moves at once, she'll still just be a toned-down version of a character we've already seen.
Does that mean that there's nowhere left to go? Have we covered all the ground here? I, for one, don't think so. If the DBFZ team really wants to bring the hype, there is at least one totally new ability that they could give Android 21: the ability to steal moves. See, at least as far as I know, no major fighting game has ever featured a character that actually removes other characters' abilities. This is a weird omission, when you start to think about it. Our stories are full of characters who debuff and disempower other characters - as I've already mentioned, the X-Men have Rogue, but there's also Ty Lee from the Avatar universe, Tobi from Naruto, and a whole bunch more. Yet, unless I'm very much mistaken, there has never been a character of this type in a major fighting game, a streak that continues with Android 21.
So, sure, I'm still excited for DBFZ. Now that the Marvel series took a step back, we need a new franchise to step up and give us insane, boundary-pushing, multi-character chaos. I just wish they had chosen to be a little more chaotic with Android 21. Making her a slightly stronger version of Kirby is a very safe choice, and this is supposed to be a game that avoids safe choices. Maybe she'll turn out to be perfectly balanced and this will all turn out to be moot. But someone out there really should take the opportunity to give us a character that truly steals (or at least seals) moves and leaves opposing characters weaker than they were before. Maybe that's a lot to ask for. But if you never ask, you'll never get what you want, right?
Android 21, special character only in DBFZ
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