Player expression in fighting games
How characters and engines allow players to communicate in a match
I’m often asked, in response to my articles about the Guilty Gear Strive betas, if I believe GGST will promote a high level of ‘player expression.’ My usual answer is something like “yes, but it’s too early to judge exactly how high.” That being said, I think some of the people who ask me about player expression have different ideas about what that actually means, especially in comparison to myself. I’ve attempted to explore what ‘player expression’ in terms of fighting games means by defining it with three major elements. These elements go beyond the context of GGST and can apply to anyone’s favorite fighting game, although some titles will objectively have an abundance of some of these qualities relative to others.
The roster
This is possibly the easiest way to define whether a game is expressive. Having a variety of playable characters means there are a lot of different ways to play the game. Especially large rosters thus offer a wide variety of archetypes to players, and there’s bound to be some character you want to pick up. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is known for having over eighty characters, which leads to an incredible variety of archetypes and matchups. Tag fighters like Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 likewise have several dozens of characters, team composition possibilities, and assist positions. As a result, no two teams are ever completely identical, and the possible range of matchups approaches several millions. Conversely, if a roster has very few characters, and thus few possible archetypes to select from, players might have a hard time figuring out something they like in gameplay.
Characters inevitably become a part of a player’s identity. Unless you’re playing a game that encourages being familiar with most of the roster, such as tag fighters or team-based fighters, it’s rare for players to pick up more than one character. If that character is changed between versions or sequels, it can be hard to even continue playing the game due to the personal attachment, and it can be hard to learn a new character due to the sunk cost fallacy. Of course, there are still games with either small total rosters (like Street Fighter 3: Third Strike’s 19 characters) or small viable rosters (like Melee with roughly two thirds of the cast struggling at top level) that are often still touted as having high levels of player expression. In such cases, player expression arises not from the size of the roster, but from what each character in the game is capable of.
Individual character tools
Most of the time, characters are designed with a narrow set of tools befitting their archetype or specific gameplan. However, if a character has a wide set of tools, they can allow their players to get wildly creative and develop emergent playstyles. Think about Ky and Chipp in Rev2. Ky is the closest thing the game has to a traditional shoto, with Greed Sever and Stun Edge being notable exceptions to the typical kit. Once Ky opens up his opponent, he sets up his Grinders and continues his pressure with EX Stun Edges. Beyond that, his gameplan in neutral and offense is fairly linear. Chipp, on the other hand, has a billion different tools in his kit- a low profile slide, a DP, a trapping fireball, Find Me, teleports, wall cling, a triple jump, a leaf throw, a Rekka series, and air oki projectiles from his shuriken and his kunai super. Between his absurd amount of options in any given situation and his extremely fast air movement, Chipp players can develop a variety of playstyles, from pure rushdown to unpredictable mixups to hit-and-run to extremely punish-heavy gameplans.
The more tools a character has, the wider the possibility space suddenly becomes for their player, who can thus create very specific gameplans to their liking by constructing it around certain options. Even if a character’s gameplan might seem rigid and straightforward at a glance, some specific tools may be incredibly versatile, like Ky’s Grinders being useful for ending combos, starting setplay, and enhancing Stun Edge at fullscreen. This potential for developing an identity around not only your main, but the way you play as your main, is a key component of a game’s capacity for player expression. Of course, there are other options games can take beyond simply loading their characters with everything in the kitchen sink. After all, some characters will naturally be balanced by having fewer or worse options than others, so they will have to rely on a different, universal set of abilities.
Engine mechanics and universal techniques
Even if your character generally has less potential than the rest of the cast, if they can take advantage of a variety of universal tools effectively, their gameplan- and yours- becomes more diverse. We often think of such tools as being centered around movement or engine quirks that result in emergent gameplay, like wavedashing and Korean backdashing, but in reality this encompasses a variety of mechanics. Roman Cancelling in Xrd, for instance, allows every character to create combos and setplay that wouldn’t normally be possible. Blitz in the same game, as well as techniques like parrying and FADC in Street Fighter, also provide characters with normally poor defense the ability to get out of deep pressure. Such reversal options can even be used offensively, further contributing to a high level of creativity and player expression.
Engine mechanics can also double back to inflating the variety of matchups and how large the roster is. Groove select systems in games like Capcom vs. SNK 2, and equivalent systems like the Moons in Melty Blood, can completely change the tool kits and feel of certain characters. In the case of Melty Blood, the roster increases from 33 characters to 99, and the amount of matchups thus increases exponentially, much like how we discussed earlier with regards to Marvel. Beyond the way they expand the roster, they also just expand the way that you play. Grooves, ratios, and custom characters allow players who like a certain set of tools, but not the rest, to tweak them around to their liking. This can make mirror matches even further distinct from each other, since very few people will be playing certain characters with the same groove, or Critical Art, or V-Skill, etcetera. Offering universal engine mechanics that completely change how the game is played is another way that developers can foster player expression.
Conclusion
High levels of player expression are often why you’ll hear folks say “in X game, you can tell the two players in a mirror match apart just from watching how each of them are playing.” I’ve heard this statement made about +R, Third Strike, Marvel, Smash, and so on- at this point it’s a qualitative statement that suggests “My game is good,” or perhaps “My game lets me do cool shit.” Within the context of Guilty Gear Strive, it’s still hard to tell how shallow or deep the well of player expression will be- how much cool shit will be possible- for a few reasons. One, we’ve only been playing a beta, and two, fighting games always change drastically beyond their initial release version. However, we can make some objective statements about the version we’ll be playing on June 8th:
- The launch roster will be fifteen characters in size. There will be five DLC characters in the first season. Guilty Gear has historically always had a small roster regardless of the game.
- Some characters have had tools stripped from their previous incarnations. These are sometimes either scrapped entirely, tweaked in efficacy, or replaced with different moves. Gatlings have also been reduced, meaning combos are shorter overall.
- Some system mechanics have been streamlined in their uses or combined with others. While the total amount of systems has been reduced slightly, the total situations in which the remaining systems can be used has been increased.
- The movement of the game has been changed drastically. While controversial, the new airdashes allow for more variance in approaching and timing your air offense, such as easier cross-ups out of the air backdash and different arcs of descent out of the forward airdash. Movement with drift and fast Roman Cancels similarly expands the scope of approach angles.
At first, it would certainly seem like the levels of expression would be lower than previous Gears, but it’s going to take a lot of time for players to explore the game- and the developers to continue tuning based on our feedback- before anything concrete can really be said. This is why I usually simply say, “Yes, there will be high levels of player expression in GGST, but it’s hard to tell how high.” Suggesting that the possibility space will be extremely small is disingenuous both to the title’s legacy and to the amount of options present in the game. Very few people are at the correct end of the Dunning-Kruger curve to correctly determine how deep the well will be, and those who are at the correct end all have completely different assessments about the well.
If you want to find out how deep a game will be, your only option is to take a dive and explore for yourself. Hopefully, you’ll find something that lets you play how you want to play, and that’s the most important thing when picking up any new title. I’ve been known to enjoy games that, on the surface, have very little in the way of diverse options or rosters, such as Pokken and Them’s Fightin’ Herds. Usually, it’s because I’ve found something compelling in those games that made me want to keep playing them. After spending enough time playing and grinding things out, there will certainly be something you discover that lets you feel like your intent and personality are being communicated by your character.
