The Character Crisis | Video Essay

Yes yes, Chun Li is my profile picture on other platforms

Now that Johnny is out nobody should have character crisis anymore

Always choose horse as carakter.

Idk I just got really luck all 3 times.

I don’t know if I just have insane luck or if I adapt to my character, but every single first pick for me has been the character I loved the most, in any game genre. Ridley in Smash (He got replaced later, but that took time and a DLC), Faust in Guilty Gear, and anybody else always end up feeling tailor-made for me. It’s great, honestly.

I'm an Es main and you utterly killed me during this vid 💀

Is this the same Eddventure who tweeted about their Jacko character crisis before absolutely CLEANING HOUSE at CEO?

The way I tend to deal with a character crisis is to just pick random every match. Eventually I'll have the fundamentals down, things that apply to every character, since that's the only consistent thing. And by that point I'll be familiar with the roster enough to be somewhat confident in a choice!
...Well, more like multiple choices. I don't think I've ever had a single main in a fighting game. The closest I got was in Smash Bros. Ultimate, where I solidly mained Link, since Ike was changed quite a lot from Sm4sh and he was my secondary then. Then Sephiroth came out, his playstyle really spoke to me, and he's my secondary

The more characters you know, the better your knowledge of match ups is as well, worth bearing in mind.

I'm a super beginner at strive and this just hits the spot on what I am experiencing. I am hesitating on which characters I want to play from the characters I think are cool which are Zato, Axl and Chipp but right now I'm liking the fast buttons of Chipp so I think I'll stick with him, maybe make Axl as my sub.

I wonder if there are any interesting solutions to this on the game design end of things…

In real life we call this an identity crisis. Choose all of them.

One thing to also take into account that falls just outside of aesthetic is character lore for beginner players. You can like the look and even gameplay of a character like, say, May, but be turned off by something in their lore that just makes you wanna stay away from them, even if it’s as simple as “they’re just not important at all to the lore.”

I think Alpha 2 for me did it the best. There's at least 6-7 characters out of the roster of 20 that I am down to mess around with. It helps that Alpha 2 isn't too complex of a game and most characters only have 3 special moves.

Randomly saw this video but at the perfect time, thanks

Any character I find attractive with a good personality I'll main

I have character crisis with every game I play, whether it's fighting game or mmorpg or moba. But unlike some people, I don't fret over it. I welcome it. I see it as an opportunity to understand each individual character. To learn the matchups

The answer is simple, just play slayer

I think my mains generally land into 2 categories: Unga Bunga rushdown with limited projectiles for primary play, and the "annoying" characters for messing around.

The concern of pouring time into multiple characters is why I only played Luke in the SF6 closed beta. I learned and stuck there because I wanted to experience the game before time ran out

ive been having character crisises in nearly every game ive played for a year or 2 now and never recovered. ive played all of those games more than 1 year

I only disagree with one thing.....

I disagree with Es being a loli.
Like at that point the word might as well just mean "girl". We need to draw the line somewhere.

I used the pew pew man in GGST, I can't figure anyone else out for some reason..

I have no character crisis i play 4 fighting games and have 6 or more mains in all of them

Ight I jus found your channel and noticed battle fantasia on your pc, please make a video on it😭

so who's got a link to the axl in a heart meme

My Smash backstory was that I mained Peach because I couldn’t play as Daisy. Now I don’t even have to worry because they’re the same character 😂

My character crisis went something like this:
Pick up ssbu bc it was recomended by a friend
Play world of light bc thats what I saw him play
First character in that mode is Kirby, play kirby for a bit, like how they play compared to others like Mario or villager
They say kirby sux
I pick up characters like pacman and get called lame
Idk what to do now
Play different characters against my brother
Months later I play Kirby again for a match and get a nice clip on a cpu (dont judge)
Pick up Kirby again
Start winning

This is when I start going from button masher to kinda decent at the game

Now my brother picks up cloud, I hate the matchup bc range and neutral
Start getting upset
He beats me in a kirby ditto first time playing the character
Instead of learning from what he did (I specificly remember to upsmash oos because of that match) I get upset and play other characters
I look and teirlists and see who beats character I struggle against
(Insert short falco phase here)
Pick up dark pit one day, thinking how I like multiple jumps, falling multi-hits, and has more range and speed than kirby
I see no reason to play kirby now
My pit still loses to cloud, brother calls me salty when I try to explain why I cant “just edge-guard cloud” all the time

So I have an explosive kirby with ok-ish neutral and when I land a hit they doe

Or a pit that sometimes lands neutral wins then gets little off them

Idfk what to do

i mean, why not play all of them? you payed for the entire roster, it seems like a waste to me to only play 1 or 2

Having a second character helps to belay a lot of this stuff. It's good to have your brain use new tools while it remaps your brain for the older ones.

I've been having a really weird version of some of this with dbfz, my first fighitng game, I have no prior dragon ball knowledge so no bias to certain characters outside of design, but only one character stood out to me design wise right off the bat. Android 18 looks basically how I wish I looked and so I immediatly gravitated to her, the issue came with picking the other 2 spots for my team, I looked up a lot of basic character guides to get a feel for how characters worked, but was partly limited by only owning the first dlc pass, who cares if that dlc character seems neat when they'd cost more money to play and someone else is also pretty cool. I eventually settled on learning Z broly and vegito alongside 18 and I enjoy the two additions a lot, but now I'm in a weird spot enabled more by this being my first fighitng game, where I'm, bad and especially struggle with neutral and defence, where the shorter reach of 18 compared to most of the cast and especially my other two mains makes her a character I tend to play worse than them even though I adore her visually.

I had a horrible character crisis for like... 70 hours on strive. Then I decided to say screw it and play goldlewis vs my friend, after some anger I had a blast

This is the worst thing about mobas and fighting games.

I've had 7 "mains" in Strive. My existence is character crisis. I am suffering. I've got no idea who to play in season 2 now either.

am i late? ya, but i dont care. i feel my issue is slightly different then what was described. through all my time playing fighting games i feel i dont really know what i want out of my character. i know somewhat about what i dont want, charge motions mostly, but not what i do want. i keep telling myself "if i just keep playing ill figure it out", but as more time passes i dont feel any closer to my answer.

Your mic’s volume randomly drops a decent bit at random points.

Just saying, Lots of people will skip over characters like es even if they fit them to a tee simply cuz they don't wanna be judged by "normies" dude idc judge me all you freaking want I play who i want. Don't main es (sasunoo main, even though he's "just a edge Lord") but am interested in mika from under night. And i couldn't care less what the freaking FCG thinks. In closing I just think people are to judgemental and lots of people dont pick characters for fear of being harrrased\looked down on.

Lunalu mirrors in Granblue have shown me how myopic character loyalty can make you as I clean 6-0 players who I can't even scratch when playing our mains, with characters I've done nothing but arcade mode and rpg mode missions with.
Don't be afraid to experiment a bit with every character that catches your eye, it's not wasted time, even if you never pick that character as a secondary or counter you'll still learn their weaknesses and how they try to overcome them, which you can put to good use when you face against them. Also, it's a game, you don't have to spend 100% of your play time training.

I mained bedman in xrd and i love a lot his playstyle and design, but because he is so unique, i never know who to play in every fighting game, even if i like the character i feel empty for some reason, i dont know who to play in strive, in BBCF hell, i dont even know who to play in street fighter, i need help

Bah, just main everyone and stop having a life 🥰🥰🥰

I didnt even bother tonl watch the vid but the thumbnail is fucking fire

Lmao, Blazblue CF just got rollback and i have been experienced same character crisis as you lately, it's been 20 hours and i still cant decided yet

This video help alots, thank you

I usually can get a good feel if I'll enjoy a character after around five matches, it gives me enough time to experiment on already built knowledge from similar characters.
Like, for me I really enjoy weaker characters but compensated with brutal block pressure and mixup options. The longer my opponent is blocking, the less time they have to try and hit me, plus there's the psychological pressure of having to maintain blockstrings and mixups