Style Select: Monsters In Fighting Games
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- Опубликовано: 30 окт 2022
- On this Halloween episode of Style Select, we explore the experience of being a Monster in a fighting game!
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#fightinggames #FGC #monsters #halloween 
Игры
I love the fact that Arakune got his own tier for being a [BAG FULL OF BEES]
Need more beebaggers in fighting games. It's an under-represented demographic.
And the "BBBBBEEEEEEEEEESSSSSS!" achievement.
THIN RED LINE MAX VOLUME
Hold on is he actually a bag full of bees????
I would have been disappointed if they didn’t mention Arakune
I find it super funny that whenever arakune showed up on screen the otherwise quiet chat would erupt in "BEES!!!"
"Not the beeeeesss!!!"
BEES
AAAAAHHHHH! OH, THEY'RE IN MY EYES!
Sugarpunch is Nicolas Cage
Bnuuy Reisen Udongein
Here is an idea for a style select episode: Tag team. Two or possibly more fighters who fight at the same time so like ice climbers or the maids from melty. I'm interested to see what can they bring to the table and what kinds of fighters like that even exist
Not a bad idea. Most characters like this play like puppet characters. The Melty maids wouldnt be a bad example, but Rosalina would also fit the same thing. Theres been tons of ways to have people fight in a tag team though; even if you wanna limit the idea to just two characters actively on screen at the same time.
Juli and Juni, Rainbow Mike and her tag team partner.
Does Videl and Gohan and No 18 and 17 count?
Ah yeah, it's definitely a subtype of Puppet characters- I'm thinking immediately of Zato1 from Guilty Gear and Ken and Koromaro P4A
I wanna see an evaluation on Hol Horse then
the sheer pride I felt for my son when ABI yelled "BAG FULL OF BEES"
I think an episode on Joke fighters would be interesting, and analyzing how a joke character can vary depending on how far the joke is taken, or how much a joke character can be made usable. Like showing how characters who are intentionally weak but still have unique tech that can make them fun to play
Pretty sure he did this already
@@seedem7861 did he do a style select on gag characters?
Robo-Ky would be interesting to analyze if this comes up as he’s a cross between a joke character and a mimic fighter
@@lynnusuk2092 I think Robo-Ky would have been in the robot video this outvoted.
There are characters who fight normally, but bad. Characters who fight unintentionally, or with things that aren't considered deadly or even threatening. And then there are characters who just fight with gags and nonsense.
I am so glad this won the vote, I love monster characters in media and I love it even more when they're playable
We all have a monster deep down inside us.
@@livingcorpse5664 that's so true dude, every time I replied to my teachers with "bad morning" my brain immediately played "Monster I Have Become" from three days grace
Me, too. Though, I am okay with any of the styles recommended for Halloween.
"Being human just isn't enough." Ending on that note while seeing first person footage of a person being mauled to death by merkava is amazing writing. Got chills just thinking of it. Beautiful video my friend! 😁
Not just mauled, just straight up getting eaten
Man I love Merkavah
Well.... being a monster dosent mean much in a anime game lol
@@dez87
You are right. It's an aesthetician. And a cool one at that.
Same here man ducking chills
There's a notable Fighting Game and set of characters that are very monster centric that never came up in the video: Pokken! I feel like Pokken is sadly very misunderstood, with many mistaking it as an arena fighter (in reality, the game's got pretty much all the same systems and fundamentals as traditional fighters, down to height states, cancels, just-frames, etc), but as it relates to this video, I think it does a really amazing job giving it's unorthodox, monster character designs interesting animations in the context of a fighting game: Sort of like Darkstalkers or Bloody Roar, basically the entire cast is monsterish, so they have to use monsters to represent different fighting game archetypes, but there's WAY more body plan and anatomyical variety in Pokken then either of those franchises, which gives the room for more creativity.
The most obvious examples is Aegislash and Chandelure: these are OBJECTS, not even creatures: a sword with arms holding a shield and a chandelier, respectively. Aegislash swings itself around, does stabs, throws it\s shield as a projectile, etc all on it's own, whilring it's body through the air as if it's being swung from the perspective of it as a sword, but as if it's doing acrobatics and flips and twirls from the perspective of it as a creature. From a gameplay perspective, it's a stance character, where different specials can be cancelled into a state where it equips it's shield to it's body, games perma-armor, and switches to a more zoning focused moveset, vs it's poke and footsie centric normal one, and switching back to it's normal form gives it different buffs that boost damage, speed, enables extra just-frames etc depending on how often it does it. Chandelure, on the other hand, is even less vaugely humanoid, and unfurls it's chandlier "arms" to do long distance stretchy normals, spins around like a top, hangs in the air as if it's dangling from a ceiling, etc. She's the game's purest zoner, unleashing Skullgirls Peacock levels of projectiles against the enemy to lock them down and chip them away (with her specials also piercing armor and focus attacks), and using long range graps to catch the enemy if they get complacent at a distance. Interestingly, she's also characterized and animated as a sort of ditzy hyperactive character.
Scizor is one of the game's more humanoid characters, a bipedal bug with pincers for hands, but even he is animated and characterizeda traditionally as a mech! One of his intro animation is the classic Gundam launch sequence, and he has a special run and midair hover state where he gains energy jet boosters from his wings. He charges his claws up like cannons that fire projectiles, too. Sceptile is also a somewhat more conventially designed character, albiet still nonhumanoid, as a bipedal lizard, who actually occupies the role of the game's obligatory ninja character, with a mid range fast iaijutsu Leaf Blade move, leaf shuriken it can place as space control tools, bullet seed and leech seed bomb traps, a subtitute log counter, and of course an anti air izuna drop grab in leaf storm.
I coulg o on for ages, Suicuine is quadrapedal serene wolf like Pokemoin, and there's a lot of interesting animations that character uses to do things like pokes, sweeps, grabs, etc that you wouldn't expect, while Garchomp, a big shark-dragon, really leans into the more monsterish elements of it's designs, running around like a velcioraptor, using it's tail and teeth to attack, and having a lot of more feral animations, probably the closest thing to a "Monster" archtype in the game itself.
More fighting game youtube’s need to talk about Pokken. It is a lovingly crafted and very fun to play game. It is also the only fighting game i’ve seen with a relatively low skill floor but still has a high skill ceiling.
Jedah doesn't just stretch his fingers out, he first cuts them using the thumb on the same hand, which is why it's not extended. It's easy to miss since there are only like two spritesfor it, but makes perfect sense.
Now that aside, as someone who's currently animating two characters that fit into this category in 3D (one of them being Merkava from UNI), I find the "unnatural" category to be pretty interesting to animate, probably more so than "imrovised fighter" like Jedah. To take Merkava as an example, it quickly becomes very clear that his body moves only the parts that are actively being used for the attack and once they are done, they just fall limp. Even when they are used, he often swings them wildly, even his punches are completely disconnected from how a human performs them, throwing his fists out like a flail rather than a piston. This extends to non-offensive actions too, like walking, getting up, even recovering in mid-air. It's a very zombie-like manner of movement on a (somewhat) living being, something that cannot be found in real life, further distancing it from the norm. This thing is not a human, it's not an extra scary animal, it's just a monster. At the same time, he has human mind and constantly speaks in combat in a normal human voice with a filter, even the screeching is all human (somehow, props to both japanese and english voice actors for nailing it).
It's a style of animation that I've come to both love and hate, the former because it creates a unique body language and the latter because it's a huge pain to add *more* movement to sell it AND being forced to make it happen in pretty short timeframes at times.
It's interesting to see those really unnatural characters animated and get a whole moveset, because you see the designers basically have to invent a whole new codified concept for how their body even works. You start watching Merkava and you can see that he's not completely nonsense, his body and movement have rules, they're just not rules that you as an onlooker actually know or understand, at least not at first.
i want to buy UNI purely because of Merkava, hes just too cool
Thank you for your hard work. It's cool because animators like you are pretty much creating a new life form, having to imagine how it moves and works differently than all the life forms we know.
@@brunop.8745 he's pretty fun too and decent as well.
Your merkava mod that you made was amazing. It was so cool
Not sure why but I love the "Not human" at 2:47, featuring Ivysaur and his two best friends: Kusaregedo, the ghoul that eats human flesh, and Shuma gorath, the eldrich god
Makes sense when you realise Ivysaur is a poisonous plant/animal hybrid.
@@ArcCaravan yes but he is also a small plant friend XD
@@bakireggie7795 Monsters can be friends.
My favorite part about fighting game monsters is a subtle implication all of them carry at first glance, even if the story proper doesn't really follow through with it. Like you said, the very concept of a 'combo' shouldn't even something a mindless...well, MONSTER should be able to comprehend. And yet, when put into the hands of skilled players, not only can they combo, but they can navigate neutral, run set-play and hit you with all manner of hard to defend against tricks. On a metatextual level, their ability to this...
Implies that none of them, *none* of them, are quite so 'mindless'.
And that can be more terrifying than any amount of body horror.
Sometimes that's the scariest part about a monster movie, learning that it can think. How the hell did the Xenomorphs know how to cut the power in Aliens?
Remember the raptors in Jurassic Park, and how they tended to act surprisingly intelligent sometimes? It's exactly like that
Ah yes, the ‘It can think.’ trope.
What makes a monster truly dangerous is that it can also use that trait humans possess to even the playing field.
Intelligence, ingenuity and thought.
Humans feel like we've "won" the game of evolution. We decended from persistence hunters so were able to just keep chasing and chasing and chasing; never outrunning, but always eventually catching. And despite the fangs, claws, hooves, venoms, scales, quills, sheer size, etc. we outdo them all with brain power; we string some sinew across a bent stick and launch a sharp rock on a stick at them from a safe distance. That's why true monsters are so frightening; what can out persistance hunt a persistence hunter? What can force a *Human* to run and run and run, but it just always to... be there... whenever we think we're safe. What has fangs and claws and scales and venom... *and* the brains to think on par with us, if not surpass us?
@@brunop.8745 "You focus on it and *swoop* you didn't notice the other two from the sides" "Clever girl"
6:28 This is fascinating for body horror dicussion. Another great example is Dizzy in +R, she is uncomfortable and look likes she's in pain everytime the twisted gears come out of her body, check out her 5P 5H 6H and OD
Such a shame Xrd removed a lots of body horror elements, the idea of sweet harmless girl contains twisted disgusting monsters inside is very interesting
Sounds like a side effect of Dizzy developing into a less miserable person.
I have someone better zappa
I'd love to see an episode on "Brutes" or "Tanks". Characters like Hulk in MvC, Big Band in Skullgirls, Astaroth and Rock in Soulcalibur, Potemkin in Guilty Gear and such. Characters whose style is mostly throwing their weight and strength around
The way despite their looks they often have very deliberate and calculated moves. I remember being surprised when I tried playing Astaroth decently and he's all about control and moving the opponent around, not unlike Ivy. I guess this is how SoulCa makes grapplers work in their unique way, as a 3D fighting game with weapons.
That archetype is called “Big Body”
@@Biouke yeah, a lot of Brutes, grapplers, and Tanks in fighting games are usually very smart. IE: Potemkin(war vet and revolutionest), Tager (scientist), BigBand(detective), and Bullet (military captain).
@@notimeforcreativenamesjust3034 Which fits in a gameplay sense too, because most Brute or Tank types will offset their strength with abysmal speed, and lack of ranged options aside from far-reaching melees, which can be as much a detriment as a boon. Which means despite their first impression, they usually can't actually just go full primal and play hyper-aggressive, but have to figure out ways to herd opponents with speed advantage into the right situation before they go full apeshit on them.
B L I T Z T A N K
The greatest fear is fear of the unknown, anything can technically be a monster.
"Sometimes being human just isn't enough."
What better way to end the horror filled halloween episode than with an existential crisis XD Great job on the video!
Eh in most of the games shown the monsters usually aren't even that strong lore wise lol
@@dez87 Lore doesn't matter when you are talking about gameplay mate.
@@SirGrimly then my point DEFINITELY still stands if we are talking about gameplay lmao
@@dez87 Congratulations, you are so far into the meta slave hole that you have completely missed the entire point of this video.
Really appreciate your breakdown of Jedah, especially considering pretty much everyone in the Darkstalkers roster is a masterclass in character design. When you also consider his hysterical voice, and the fact that one of his supers has him literally stamping his opponent's death warrant, Jedah sure manages to stand out in a league of his own in the already eclectic cast.
"Fighting a monster is never a fair fight"
It isn't for the monster if you're Beowulf.
It's also why Doom guy isn't a fighting game character.
@@samuelevans738 yeah
Probably one of ky facorite things when it comes to monsters fighting, is Pokken Tournament's Chandelure. It is a CHANDELIER that is BEATING YOU UP. *_YOU CAN GET MIXED BY A CHANDELIER_*. The attacks it does fits it being a chandelier too, swinging it's "arms" in ways that sweep, anti-air, slap, bash, and all that good stuff
This makes me wish more Pokken Tournament characters were shown. The entire roster is monsters, give or take their scale placement.
@@ArcCaravan
They seem to range from “Humanoid Beast” to “Not Human” generally, with some in “Arakune” level.
Sonic the Fighters and Sonic Battle are also good examples, though mostly at the “Humanoid Beast” end.
I love monster fighters, and Darkstalkers is the top of the list, but it’s also great to see games like Killer Instinct, BlazBlue, and even Guilty Gear incorporate the monster aesthetic, that inexplicable weirdness that makes them special!
Perfect end to the Halloween season! 🎃 Hope to see more monster content soon, perhaps a breakdown of the entire Darkstalkers cast (your BB Hood vid is still a great one)!
Heck in Godzilla fighting games some of the monsters have weird moves even by kaiju standards, like they are monstrous even compared to other monsters. When you think about it, it is scary that a monster can be to other monsters what monsters are to us.
Ah, yes, my favorite character archetype: BAG OF BEES
Lol
I've never really looked at Jedah's animations that closely. MAN it's wild what they would animate back then.
Easily the best series you've done.
Try to recall is pretty beast though
I hope we can see the Robot select one day because I need to see some Fulgore and Huitzil action
I wanna see the magic select with Nine and Dr Strange. Feels similar to the gun video in that both feel antithetical to fighting games. Would be nice to see a scale like this video with how much the topic is implemented into a character.
All grapplers are monsters because their gameplay is based in fear of the command grab
I love the Fact you Showed GIGAS as being on the lower end as a Monster that is more Humanoid. He's human yes, But he has that Savage Monster side. It may have only been brief, but as a GIGAS fan I appreciate the mention.
"A macabre martial art"
Damn right.
idc about the face thing or the egg thing I still love Q-Bee and nobody can stop me
The Relius and Arakune bits got me lol those were golden
both a bag full of bees and a bee full of bags, truly legendary
I FUCKING LOVE these style select videos! I also want a tee shirt with "Arakune is a BAG OF BEES" on it.
WHEN IS BOXING
I'm glad this topic won, the video was well put together and the "bag full of bees" moments got some chuckles out of me.
5:18 As an avid monster hunter biology fan glavenus did not in spit fire to it’s sword tail or they even breathes fire, the metallic sword tail gets superheated by a special fangs on it’s mouth use to sharpen it’s tail and the friction causes the tail to be lit ablaze and they simply store the super heated metal flakes in it’s specialized flame sac and then it can spit it out super heated.
The best news i had for this Halloween, great video!
I don't know why I find the "B A G F U L L O F B E E S" line so funny
Your track record on these style selects is constantly great
I leave this comment in hopes that the algorithm blesses you with its presence
3:11
For people, like myself who want to laugh at the funni loud part.
ans the deal with the perfect ending for this style select.
9:10
I love that Arakune has his own tier I think that’s hilarious
amazing episode! i'm glad monsters won, is a lot more fitting for the ocassion than the other two categories, but i would still love to see an episode about the other two someday.
So glad this won, even tho i like robots (specially cyber-enhanced characters like in Cyberpunk) monsters can do so many more interesting things and have so many different styles and designs :)
Still hope robots get an episode one day tho
Great video! Monsters in fighting games are easily the most interesting to me.
Loving all the Blazblue references too!
I am a little salty that my boi Jubei didn't even get a brief mention though. He's fascinating in that while he is distinctly not human (he is a cat) his animation still shows that he very clearly has a highly refined and martial fighting style. Only one that is entirely unique and fully utilises his physique, with claw strikes from both his upper and lower legs, swinging his swords by wrapping his tails around them as a grip, and generally using his incredible catlike agility. But also includes focused palm strikes, a couple regular punches and kicks and expert (flippy anime) swordplay.
I love the unique choreography that comes from the fusion of human martial discipline with feline physique and it's what's made him easily my favourite FG character of all time. Every single one of his animations has some unique flair that betrays his unique identity.
Maybe in animal episode
Well he did say he was using the ‘humanoid to not human’ end of the scale.
Jubei stands at the Beastman side of the scale, and his martial artistry is very human rather than monstrous. He’s fast, he’s small and he has claws, that’s about all the inhuman traits he has.
Compare that to Arakune who changes shape every few seconds, grows and retracts limbs every time he strikes, teleports, turns invisible and has bees coming out of the walls.
Seems like a consequence of making sure the video comes out on Halloween and prioritizing full monsters rather than feral or animal characters.
I really like when fighting games go as far to add the extra touch of naming moves something relevant to the character instead of naming something generic or just straight up not giving them names. I really like Arakune’s moves being math terms. First it is a nice allusion to him being a scientist before he was transformed into a bag full of bees. Second, think about what you are doing when you string together a combo with Arakune. You are also stringing the names of the combos together and creating equations. The longer the combo the more complex the equation.
First time I saw that Arakune super with the centipedes it literally made my skin crawl. Something about those 3D models coming out of nowhere in a sprite game was really offputting. Great video!
Ah monsters, they are always fun to see them play in FG
I always think Monster concept characters, and am quite hopeful for if they add Fiddlesticks to Project L as he is an insane amalgamation of spikes, blades, and fears manifested. He grows extra limbs out of nowhere, disappears leaving effigies in his stead, and emulates Humanity as a whole’s fears, allowing him to maybe tap into some crazy forms.
I'd love to see a Style Select on just Arakune, that would be something else.
First of all, happy Halloween to you too!! 🦇🧙♀️👹😈💀👻🎃👺🐈⬛🖤🍬🍭👺
And second of all, I always love several fighting game characters based on urban legends, creepypastas, classic horror literature, eldritch horror, any mythology & folklore from all across global cultures, and of course, *cryptids!!*
This was so fun to watch! Great job on the writing of this episode!
I love the series! I’m someone who is very interested in my shorts and being able to learn about more of them and their culture and where they come from is amazing. I am OK when we delve into guns and mechanics but I do really appreciate looking at different styles.
Only problem of that video is that its too short! Great stuff
Seems average for Style Select.
I think Garchomp makes for a good monster in Pokken Tournament. I realize that's splitting hairs from a series called Pocket MONSTERS, but Blaziken and Lucario are clearly martial artists, there's differences in fighting styles among the cast. While all Pokemon in the game take advantage of their unique anatomy for attacks, Garchomp makes special use of his claws, fins, and blades when Mega Evolved. Even their Synergy Burst cinematic starts off from the perspective of the victim as they go to town and brutalize them with heavy slashes.
Your videos make me love and appreciate fighting games more than I thought was possible
Great video as always! I love hearing of the creativity shown in these games. The examples were really interesting and spanned a broad range of games and characters. Style Select is always a banger and I know I'm in for a good time when it shows up in my feed.
this is by far my favorite style/archetype/whatever covered thus far. i love becoming a beast that strikes fear into the heart of the enemy
Your closing words are amazing!
Really great breakdown, was intrested how you'd talk about such a amorphous topic. Nicely done!
I loved this video, I feel you nailed the idea of monsters in fighting games, especially with the ending line, gave me chills. That also made me think about the line of Robots in fighting games and how it conveys that same message but in an entirely different way. I think Robots in fighting games provide an exciting idea for a style select. I love characters like Robo Fortune from Skullgirls and the works and this series is amazing, never seen anything done like it!
perfect execution of vocal delay fx. kudos to you and your channel.
My favorite fighting game monster remains Nrvnqsr Chaos from Melty Blood. A vampire who has absorbed the essence of hundreds of monsters and can manifest their bodies at will, meaning his moveset is an entire zoo's worth of talons, claws, horns, and so on. He's also a zoner who uses both big disjoints AND projectiles/traps, meaning that when he sets up there's basically no safe place on the screen. Him not being in Type Lumina is the main reason I haven't picked it up lmao
Just looked him up. He looks awesome.
Yes, came down here for this
God this episode was amazing, as a Merkov Tryhard, I appreciate putting thr feeling of playing him into words
I don't know to what extent this may count as "monsters in fighting games", but a recent 3D brawler by name of Clash: Artifacts of Chaos does a decent job at having unusual creatures make the best of their odd physiques. Main character Pseudo is quite standard on this front, as are some other opponents.
But characters like some of the Traveling Players (especially the bird one), the three-armed blue-skinned Arsakarsa, the Outcast, a Corwid or two and ESPECIALLY the blue moose-like guy, deliver on this front.
The Zeno Clash series in general deserve more attention.
Shuma Gorath is one of my favorite fighting game characters ever, so many unique animations, a great personality, and voice acting.
You naturally gravitated to Glavenus as I thought about it mid-vid. Wasn't disappointed, instaliked. Solid opening quote too.
Really want a style select where it’s just about characters who just beat the shit out of you with little to no grace or style.
They have no style, They have no grace, these fighters have a funky face.
Brawlers or Street Fighters
I wonder what Louis .M. Hunter acclaimed creator of Monster Hunter has to think about this.
I like revisiting old sugarpunch videos from time to time. No matter how many times I come back to this one, it never stops being funny to me when it gets shouted that Arakune is A BAG FULL OF BEES. XD
I like how SugarPunch and Thorgi's Arcade released videos about Monsters in fighting games within a hour of each other. Thorgi with a best of list and Sugar with a fighting style video.
Great style select video! Jedah is so awesome, I never even noticed those little details in his animations :o
A video on monsters in fighting games before Halloween ends? Yes please 💪🏽.
BTW, Talbain from Darkstalkers in my favorite monster in fighting games.
Good videp format was fun and the music choices were great
I have an interesting idea for an episode: The inexperienced/panic fighter. This is a character who doesn't have proper training but fights anyway, whether it be by choice or force.
Very well done
You've given me a brand-new respect for Jedah! He's like Capcom's own Hellraiser character! "Respeeect!"
Already seems like an interesting series
It’s always so cool to see terrifying body horror from monsters being used to make it an interesting part of their playstyle.
One idea I’ve always had is a fighting game character who’s basically cut down the middle with one side being human and the other being green, tangled, and mutated. It would use its mutated side for long range attacks and grappling moves while the human side attacks normally
This makes me think of a fighting game full of actual mythical creatures. Not fictional monsters akin to most of Darkstalkers, but actual mythical creatures like kamaitachi, Cerberus, or other such, well, what some people tend to at times call "monsters."
3:27 Okay, sorry, I was invested in what you were saying before, but then you showed me how Anacondas climb trees, and now that's all I can think about.
1:27 "Even though I could definitely name a few-!"
This tickles the Carl main in me a lot, thank you. XDD
Ι wonder if we could classify characters such as Goro or Baraka as "monsters." They might look alien to human eyes, but they are just part of races that are quite standard in their own worlds. Plus, they have either studied human fighting styles or developed martial arts disciplines based on their anatomy, exactly like how a human would do.
They’d fall from “Primal Human” to “Humanoid Beast” generally.
I love how much Killer Instinct music you used here, I noticed the themes of Hisako's stage and Sabrewulf's stage here
7:58 this last bit perfecly explains why i love to play as monsters in video games that let me do it.
Not just in fighting games.
I feel as though this vid could’ve been longer but it’s cool.
Love this type of content for games in general
Seems about average length for Style Select. What do you think could have been added to the video?
@@ArcCaravan More examples tbh, that’s the thing with videos like this. There are so many characters that can fit being a monster or fight like one that this video could reach thirty minutes if he wanted.
MK alone has characters that fight like monsters despite being human(Jason, Alien, Baraka).
It’s still good because he made a succinct video detailing the gist of Monster fighting styles
@@kyshowman6847 I think MK may have been left out because it seems he dislikes that franchise and some of its monsters are more "effectively humans with extra features" or magic than "barely if at all human". Style Select in general seems less about listing examples than it is analyzing how the style is translated into fighting games.
You forgot the other kind of monster: The players who use their ultimate attacks on wake-up
This is defiitely the coolest style select video
With luck next halloween we will get magic users.
Great video overall but the line "being human just isn't enough" is raw as hell
The writing on this video goes crazy. Playing as a terrible horrifying monster has never seemed so beautiful
Nice bit on using Monster Hunter to explain monsters making their own technique with their bodies.
Very fun video, thank you
Late as fuck but I am one of those people who basically plays Monster Characters in every single game that has them. Ridley, Merkava, Painwheel. Give me one on your roster and I am choosing them.
I feel like this video hits at part of the appeal to me, the idea of surpassing humanity, being something greater. I feel another part that I find oddly empathetic is the recurring stories that cover internal conflict, a monster who wants to be human. It's why I have a soft spot for Merkava, since his playstyle I feel represents this perfectly. His process of playing at long range, and shifting suddenly to close range corner pressure, feels like you're fighting a wild, unpredictable beast. But from a story perspective I also feel it reflects Merkava actively fighting against and holding back his instincts, before losing control of them.
Cool as fuck really
Though not exactly a fighting game, you may find Clash: Artifacts of Chaos from 2023 interesting. Prequel to the Zeno Clash series. The entire land named Zenozoik is largely inhabited by grotesque creatures, freaks and monsters often inspired by animals and medieval monster illustrations.
Player character Pseudo looks fuppin' bizarre, having a humanoid shape but more so resembling a gnarled orange mandrake with a very sore, nail-less and noseless grumpy-faced wrinkly thumb for a head. And some sporadic straight-standing hairs on his body, alongside checkerboard pattern bodypaint.
He doesn't have any special powers as such, but he *is* a martial arts master that can quickly learn and adopt different fighting styles throughout the game.
There's no real themes of "fighting against the beast" though, all Zenos in Zenozoik are just that-- Zenos.
But the series *does* have a very noteworthy and bizarre group of people who choose to deliberately go insane. Not from an external psychic or Eldritch influence, but because they decide they only want to pursue one singular thing in life. No matter how bizarre.
And to that end, they leave behind any sense of self-preservation, to be truly "free".
Zeno Clash 2 and a character in Artifacts of Chaos delve more into the origins of the Zenos, which can prove interesting. Though in ZC2's case, you've got to look for it more.
8:41 This is the most depressing setup but non-payoff for a Gigantor reference I have heard in all of 2022.
This video was amazing! I'd love to hear more thoughts on this from you!
Love ur videos!!
nice monsters won the vote and really nice video 👍
This video, yes, this, I like the vibe here.
excellent as always 👍
When you said that fighting arakune feels like being in a horror movie and immediately played Zyxx's video I almost cried
God damn this character will haunt my dreams forever
*"A step up from that are 'Humanoid Monsters'. These are your beastmen, your halfbreads, your Lycanthropes, pretty much all of Bloody Roar"*
AKA, the Furbait category.
Bloody Roar man. What a beast of a game.
Fantastic video.