I was hoping you would talk about lei. I remember when I was learning lei how fun it was to just go into laying on the floor at round start. In low ranks players legit had no clue how to deal with that
I originally wasn't gonna talk about him at all. I tried him when he came out in Tekken 7 and was flabbergasted that he had 100 moves BEFORE the stances appeared. I gave up after about a week. But he's too iconic to not talk about so I sucked it up and did my research lol
@@qmanchu yeah that part is rough. I played lei for like 4 months as my first tekken character and I think I maybe understood how to use like 20% of his moveset. Hoping he's back for T8 tho
One of the things I really like about stance characters especially transformation typesis that if I ever start to get bored I can just switch character mid game.
I would argue that Zamasu in FighterZ is more of a stance character than Hit through flight. Flight fits all the criteria of a stance, it: - Is integral to his kit, especially since his gameplan revolves around knowing when to be in flight and what to do when you're there - offers different properties that grant him advantages and disadvantages over his default mode, and - doesn't necessarily grant him new moves, but changes how his moves work and how the player and opponent interact with him. Then again, maybe that's just me dissecting semantics, this was a really cool video! Thank you for making one on my favorite fighting game archetype!
Yknow I didn't really think of that but yeah I think DBFZ is just too simple for a true stance character. Zamasu is close but it's kind of a toss up depending on how you look at it. Glad you enjoyed the video though!
I was waiting the whole video for you to talk about Lei and when I was about to lose hope you did and You did a great job describing him. Obviously it's impossible to make him justice in just a couple minutes but still I think you did a great job.
@Tj Javier well it was mostly that if I did talk about him, he'd need his own section. I could've easily included clips but if I wanted to say anything of substance, it pretty much needed to be an individual bit Also, I'm not MUCH of a tekken player. I main Law so I had to do research to be confident about Lei
Let’s not forget about May Lee from KOF! I think she fits squarely into your “tradeoff” category, gaining a whole new set of rushdown tools (and also a new taunt) in exchange for her rekka and the ability to block.
May Lee is my favorite stance character, allthought a bit weird and with an unfortunate bug on 2002 that makes so she just can´t block again if the bug happens(its also easy to execute)
Its worth mentioning with the Smash bros series that there have been 4 throughout the series: Zelda/Shiek (the og transformation character of the series who was admittedly not as well thought out as they should've been since Shiek was so much better than Zelda in every game. They were later separated into their own individual characters) Samus/Zero Suit Samus (ZSS was previously locked behind a secret code or by using a final smash back in Brawl, which meant the whole transformation aspect of the characters really didn't come into play competitively.) Pokemon Trainer (a transformation character where you swap between 3 wildly different playstyles that cover eachother's weaknesses well. Were mired by poorly thought out mechanics back in Brawl (such as Fatigue, Type Weaknesses, and the inability to switch mons in the air), but are much more welly designed in Ultimate) Pyra/Mythra (the DLC Transformation character. Not much else to say beyond what you said in the video)
Also pre-Smash Ultimate the transformations took way too long, making it so most players just picked one and stuck to it because transforming would likely get you hit. That and the fact that the balance between Sheik and Zelda was especially poor meant it was basically better to play Sheik at all times almost. The transformation time in Brawl was especially egregious since it actually had to load the other character taking even longer than in melee and varying by the condition of your disc and drive.
Shulk could also be considered a Stance Character. He has different Monado Arts that give him enhanced jumps, speed, damage, knockback, or taking less knockback, but at the cost of being worse at something else.
@Moses X-Labs I was just talking about this under a different comment but Shulk is harder to include for me considering his moves don't change in his "stances". Just his properties do
@@Mr_Tux794 a Mode Change character will switch Normal attacks and/or Specials when they change modes (like in JoJo HftF or ASBR) while a Stance character enters a unique pose (stance) where they have different followups they can perform while in said stance, but they aren't actually changing their moves, just doing a few out of a specific special (which is the Stance)
The fact that Hit was part of my main team before I got the DLC and I didn't even know he was a stance character until this video goes to show how much of a casual I was back then.
I think there's an entire type of stance character you left out, which i would call transitory types, they're characters who only enter their stances for a moment, usually just to do one move, or to use it for a stance cancel, or sometimes because their stances are also unique movement options at the same time. Think characters like Johnny in gg, kagura in blazblue or hit in fighterz who have one or more stances that mainly serve as a gateway to some of their more powerful moves or to be used as stance cancels, or shanty in tfh and dai shi in power rangers whose stances are command runs, jumps or wallclings with unique follow-ups. Even though they only ever enter their stances for a moment, these stances are absolutely the core of their respective characters and definitely worth talking about
I do love these types! There was a ton of examples that kept popping up while I was making the video but the more I tried to justify it, the more I realized they were characters with a stance, not so much stance characters in my opinion. But I didn't think of some of the examples you listed. Kagura is interesting
@@qmanchu also movement stances are super sick, shanty's run stance has super fast start-up but long recovery so you're committing to it when you do it, but in exchange you get access to an advancing low with a low profile, an advancing multihit overhead with low crush and a steerable command jump that leads into a fast-fall attack, when you run at your opponent with this you're basically telling them "ima run in from full screen and mix you in the process, and even though I can't stop and block I don't need to because I bet you can't hit me"
If that's the case then Gen has a stance within a stance, his Crane stance wall bounce can be cancelled or do a diagonal dive kick off the wall or he can wall bounce then hop to the roof above the opponent and perform a unique vertical foot dive.
One of the weirdest stance characters I knew is Himeki Luna, she's kind of a trade off stance character and she got like 9 different stances, she got bullets that she has to manage. Some might say she's overcomplicated or over designed but her kit complements itself surprising well
To me, that's the beauty of fighting games. There's so many ways to express yourself in them. They can be intricate, overt, complicated, and subtle. But you literally never know until you try
@@qmanchu Honestly, I'm not a KoF player much at all. I've dabbled, and I can't stand all the inputs and whatnot, but anyway, Angel and a few of the other characters in that series are just amazing.
As someone who either mains or always ends up play casually stance characters I can't recomand them enough, same thing with puppet characters. Sure they may look intimidating at 1st but start small and work your way up because they are super fun not to mention most of them can juke a ton of stuff some characters may struggle with.
There's stance characters, then there's Tira from Soul Calibur.....who switch stance randomly-ish too.....Nightmare/Siegfried are kind of stance characters too.
6:47 ah, BlazBlue Central Fiction, a game that is arguably just as complex as "Guilty Gear XRD Revelator," with the game like Revelator having legacy skill, meaning if you haven't stuck with the game since the original back in 2008 you have a MASSIVE hill to climb in learning frame data for each character's normals, gatlings, and overall mobility options that can be used on offense and neutral. Then there are the game's plentiful system mechanics, such as having a half a dozen options on defense that you need to master such as having four ways to block based on specific scenarios for example, and the game having a multitude of wake up options with each having a specific use, and that's not even going into the Drive mechanic, which is a unique action for each character, which there are OVER 35 of, which MOST of the cast plays VASTLY DIFFERENT from each other. Mainline BlazBlue games were HUGE in japan, with it being popular in many Japanese arcades, and as Obama stated in a podcast with Blasted Salami that the series had at one point been up there even with the almighty Tekken in terms of popularity. With many veterans like Dogura ( who is one of the best players in Guilty Gear who uses Slayer) and Fenrich ( who is arguably the best BB player, and currently one the best in DBFZ) representing the series for a long time . Sadly, The series just never took off over here in the west. However, the lack of popularity nationwide doesn't equate to the game's quality.The fact that is arguably the most unique AND complex 2D fighter on the market, but isn't talked about hardly at all in the west was always baffling to me. Especially when I read comments, and watch videos of people in the FGC complaining about how boring fighting games have gotten recently, or how easy it has become and yet will REFUSE to give the game a try. Thankfully, that seems to be changing, for instance Lord Knight, a tournament player who plays a variety of different fighting games made a fighting game tier list and put "BlazBlue Central Fiction" near the top, as well as popular Guilty Gear content creators like Obama saying on blasted salami's podcast that "BlazBlue Central Fiction" is arguably just as hard as Guilty Gear Xrd. Even Punk, arguably one of the best players in Street Fighter 5 said that BlazBlue was one of his favorite fighting game series. For those who want to see high level game play in order to get a grasp of how hype this game can potentially be for you, I'd recommend a video titled "BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Grand Finals - Evo 2014" on youtube, and while the game represented there is not Central Fiction, I think it works, since Central Fiction is more of an evolution of Chrono Phantasma any way. Other channel's include "Burst Recap" and "Jourdal" for more high level Japanese play. Finally, "BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle" and mainline BlazBlue games are two SEPARATE things all together, with "BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle" having it's own set of rules with the system mechanics, and SIMPLIFYING ALL of the characters. It's for these reasons that you can't approach "BlazBlue Central Fiction" in the same way that you would "BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle".
Its not as complicated as it seems, at super high level it is super complex, but just play it, find a character you like and go mess around in the lab with him, characters in tekken have só many moves that you can play one character in vários different ways
Just find a character you like, learn that characters key moves, and learn those moves' frames and which ones you can punish with. Practicing movement is a bonus.
I am noticing when teasers come out for new characters, with the penchant for animators to give characters lots of bonus cancellable animations after a normal attack that some mistakenly speculate it to be a stance. I very much like Gen, the way he switches from being a charge character with tricky normals to a button mash, dragon punch character with classic chain normals makes him very unique (also a 0 hit super finisher and the challenge of switching stances from matis dash super to crane air grab super always fun to pull off)
Lol ngl I did this same thing when the Ed trailer dropped. Granted I wasn't necessarily the most wrong since he needs to hold a stance to get psycho snatcher but you're so right about this
Great video. I've never wanted to pick up a stance character more than now after watching this video. I rarely play them because they all seem to have tradeoffs, even the non-tradeoff types, which tends to make learning one stance seem unviable. A lot of stances tend to feel gimmicky too which makes the entire character not seem fun if their stances - their core thing - are just gimmicks. Though actually (and I had forgotten this until now) I used to play Lei back in T3. I do enjoy playing Leo in GG though because the high risk/reward gameplay is too thrilling to not enjoy.
Another Stance character in Smash is Shulk who I think would count as a Tradeof Character, because between stances all his moveset is intact, what happens is that he has 5 different arts that change his stats which are: Damage, Knockback, Speed, Jump, And Defence, but each lowers stat when in use.
Zelda is one of my favourite smash characters of all time, but with her being so low tier in melee I main Sheik instead. I do love finding small opportunities to switch mid game, but it often falls flat. however, in project M I was a Zelda main. one day at a local I was talking to a fellow Zelda player about what to do in the snake matchup, and they just said "switch to sheik, she can chain grab him", and so I locked in Zelda, got into the game, immediately hit down-b to throw the snake player off their game. before smash ultimate added a usable version of pkmn trainer as well as Pyra and Mythra, PM sheik/zelda was the first time I think a true stance character was realized in a platform fighter, and I personally think they're the most fun to play stance character in any fighting game, perfectly embodying the flow and crash you mentioned in the vid
I'm not usually a fan of most stance characters, but really like Kagura from Blazblue. He has 3 stances that each go into 3 unique specials each, which automatically end the stance. They can also be cancelled into each other, but without repeats so combos don't get boring.
I love stance characters it’s what I always look for in a fighting game. Zafina is my prime example of what I want in my characters. Depth, a level of mastery that you need to REALLY use them. Zafina has 4 stances. Her normal/neutral stance, Scarecrow, Mantis, and Tarantula. All of them tie into each other and all of them connect to make her such a deadly weapon when practiced. It’s amazing. And what I love about Zafina is how it’s not random. And there aren’t things that weird about it like Lei Wulong who’s moves seem like they go everywhere. She’s the perfect stance character IMO. And I pray to the gods that she appears in T8. Other stance character that I love are Zeku from SFV. Two characters in one where much like Zafina YOU NEED TO LEARN THEM and if not your not playing them right. Again with the level of mastery thing So I guess the transformation type of my type.
I don't know if I consider them "stance" characters, but my favorite is the "Install" type character. Think Vira from Granblue, like a mid-to-low tier character whose whole gameplan is to "install" into a powerful character. Lots of characters have installs, but I like characters who revolve AROUND it. Like Ky from GG Strive has an install, but its almost entirely irrelevant. Wish they were more common.
As an Alisa main in Tekken. Its entirely factual Lei cooks. Its kind of serendipitous to see her in the video but unmentioned. She's gone from bottom 5 to top 5 and has changed arguably the least of any across 7/8 years of Tekken 7. The character finally has light shown on it through a few amazing female and Pakistani players. Between her destructive form(flying chainsaw arms), command stances, while standing game, and movement based stances/mixup. She's earned her spot with Lei, Hwoarang, Zafina and Yoshi as stance/mixup terror. Ps. Entirely agree, Hwoarang and Lei are the pinnacle of Tekken stances. Cosign that.
This opening made me realise that Water Benders should be Stance Fighters with benefits to switching between Water & Ice after you've set up with the other...
I pretty much started fighting games with Vanilla Cronophantasma Nu-13 unfortunately they split her stance into 2 different characters in the next version and she became way less fun imo. I really like when the stance change move is either fast enough to be used mid combo or has some special properties that give it extra utility.
Þere’s a video on þis, but þe story is nu-13 was one way, þen þey changed her drastically next game, þen chronophantasma combined þe two into a stance character, which explains why þey split again later on. I also believe þe stance version was widely considered to be overcomplicated and clunky by players of eiþer of þe old versions of þe character
As explained, there’s a whole video that goes into what happened with her. Tl;dr - she was super broken in the first game and had to be rebalanced in the next (which is what led to Lambda). They brought back actual Nu in CP, but by that point we had Lambda for way longer (6 years of her versus Nu’s 1 and only year in CT lol) so merging the two of them was to appeal to people who mained Lambda. But a lot of people mentioned that it just didn’t quite work out - it was really hard to keep track of what stance you were in since there wasn’t a real visual indicator (not like the other characters with a stance switch that made it way more obvious). I never played this version of Nu but I’d imagine having the wrong Sickle Storm come out led to a lot of frustration lol.
Even though I don’t play stance characters, I think it throws your opponent for a loop if you play an offensive character defensively and vice versa. Every characters have different tools for different matchups, and for stance characters, you usually have to sacrifice or change something for a more “favourable” time. I think if you can take a regular archetype character and change it like “a stance” character and make yourself unpredictable, they are not against the character, they are fighting against you.
Yeah, that's something I personally wonder about stance characters. Sure, they may seem more complex but does that not also make them more... linear? If they are insentivised to switch between different tools it would be for a reason, right? So, each tool is more often than not almost exclusively useful for a single purpose in a particular situation. Feels like there's weirdly enough less experimentation to do, since once you have figured out the use for every tool as well as the transitionary windows for accessing said tools, the gameplan sorta build itself in a very flowchart kinda way. Then again, I don't have a lick of experience with stance characters so it's very much a viewpoint stemming from ignorance. I do wonder what it would feel like to play a stance character but I fumble enough as is with simple inputs and a small list of core moves, so, I feel like I'd only frustrate myself with trying to comprehend the goddamn cockpit of numerous stances.
I mean he's there in the beginning and there's a lot to say about him but so much of his depth is a bit too much to talk about in a video like this unfortunately
Oddly enough stance characters have always been rather appealing. Theirs only a handful i try to play but they seem to make them quite interesting or stylish like yuzuriha. Though they do cone with quite a bit of difficulty to learn, dont expect winning in lower ranks for awhile.
Qmanchu: "The transform type took a break from Smash until they added Pyra and Mythra in Ultimate a few years ago." Pokemon Trainer: "Am I a joke to you?"
Very cool video. I only wish you had included soul calibur. For example seigfried has a few stances with different moves out of them similar to lei animal stances. Tira has a transformation stance in the form of gloomy and jolly. Kilik has monument and back parry “stances”. They a both stances about a second long with unique parry properties and unique moves out of each.
For SF6, I was always planning on Chun-li, but didn't think her stance would change her since she has all of her moves back except her slide punch which is in stance now and really isn't a deal breaker. Now, I'm curios to see what her stance can give her.
She was the character I played in the beta and lemme tell ya, you're not getting away without messing with that stance lol. It's very cool and simple to grasp though!
I'm new to playing FG (I've only played smash and bbcf) but am partial to tradeoff stances. Even if it's mainly because of the funny command grab super.
When I think of a stance character I think it would have to be someone with whom the stance they enter can also be used to play neutral to some extent. Like there are some characters who have special forms of movement that give them access to more moves (like Karin's command dash) or a stance they enter that goes into different moves that might mainly be combo tools because the stance overall is lacking in options in attacking and mobility (common among iaido characters) but having just an alt stance that expands into a few moves wouldn't really be a stance character in my eyes. Basically if the stance ends by either not pressing anything or after using one attack (whether you need to negative edge the attack or just press a button) I wouldn't really count it as a "stance" character.
@@qmanchu It'd be more just a stance-like move on a character who has a different general gameplay style. If the character is centralized around the sort of "command movement" moves I'd probably say it's more like a type of rekka character because these sort of moves usually are used for mixups or combos as opposed to stances which can be used for mixups and combos but the primary function would be altering the paradigm of the fight. Like Leo's back turn would make him a stance character but Anji's spin wouldn't, and the spin is the type of move I'm talking about here.
Nice video Anyway, can you explain the difference between a switch character and a transformation You put gen in a switch category but by your definition he is a transformation character
I talked about this before with someone but pretty much you can categorize him either way if you'd like. The first type is like home base. It's pretty general and almost any stance character can be considered a switch type. I mainly put Gen in there because transformation types in fighters generally can switch more freely and even mid combo where Gen's combos usually end with a stance switch. Plus the transformation types I list are straight up different models and characters, not just a stance. But it's overall arbitrary!
Pokémon trainer main here just sobbing. Pythra definitely has a bigger place in the meta but PT was around in Brawl, returned in Ult and honestly has a more interesting (if less optimal) transformation than Aegis.
Lol I didn't call him the first stance character. I called him maybe the first Equip Type. I don't even know if that's true but I was careful with my wording. I'm glad you enjoyed!
What about Bloody Roar? All characters from all the games can transform into a beast that expand their movelist, hit harder, become heavier, and regenerate some lost health.
Blooody Roar was actually probably the first FG I ever played as a kid on the Playstation, I still have the disc. Since the transformations in that game are more like a mechanic than character specific thing, I didn't think to include them. They needa bring that franchise back
as a complete noob in fighting games, who basically only played smash ultimate pyra & mythra were not that difficult to manage, to me at least since specials asides they literally have the same moveset it went down to a matter of needing reach and power or needing speed, mostly
I personally say no but it's up to you yknow? I only say he's not because his "stances" only affect properties of him himself. There's no new moves or anything. It's just movement speed, weight, knock back etc. But if you value that as a stance, it very well can be
Lei is the ultimate stance character.
Tell me about it, even some of our stances have stances
He’s Jackie chan
I was hoping you would talk about lei. I remember when I was learning lei how fun it was to just go into laying on the floor at round start. In low ranks players legit had no clue how to deal with that
I originally wasn't gonna talk about him at all. I tried him when he came out in Tekken 7 and was flabbergasted that he had 100 moves BEFORE the stances appeared. I gave up after about a week.
But he's too iconic to not talk about so I sucked it up and did my research lol
@@qmanchu yeah that part is rough. I played lei for like 4 months as my first tekken character and I think I maybe understood how to use like 20% of his moveset. Hoping he's back for T8 tho
@@Lordloss36 he should come back with a comically large amount of moves, like 200
@@liammclin5722 200 and *THEN* we add the stances _and_ make him have 8 of them too! - Harada
One of the things I really like about stance characters especially transformation typesis that if I ever start to get bored I can just switch character mid game.
I would argue that Zamasu in FighterZ is more of a stance character than Hit through flight. Flight fits all the criteria of a stance, it:
- Is integral to his kit, especially since his gameplan revolves around knowing when to be in flight and what to do when you're there
- offers different properties that grant him advantages and disadvantages over his default mode, and
- doesn't necessarily grant him new moves, but changes how his moves work and how the player and opponent interact with him.
Then again, maybe that's just me dissecting semantics, this was a really cool video! Thank you for making one on my favorite fighting game archetype!
Yknow I didn't really think of that but yeah I think DBFZ is just too simple for a true stance character. Zamasu is close but it's kind of a toss up depending on how you look at it. Glad you enjoyed the video though!
I was waiting the whole video for you to talk about Lei and when I was about to lose hope you did and You did a great job describing him. Obviously it's impossible to make him justice in just a couple minutes but still I think you did a great job.
It's funny cuz I convinced myself at first I didn't need to talk about him but the video just didn't feel right without him
@@qmanchu Yeah awesome excerpt on Lei! Curious though, wjt made you feel he didn't need to be part of a stance video?
@Tj Javier well it was mostly that if I did talk about him, he'd need his own section. I could've easily included clips but if I wanted to say anything of substance, it pretty much needed to be an individual bit
Also, I'm not MUCH of a tekken player. I main Law so I had to do research to be confident about Lei
Let’s not forget about May Lee from KOF! I think she fits squarely into your “tradeoff” category, gaining a whole new set of rushdown tools (and also a new taunt) in exchange for her rekka and the ability to block.
I'm still new to KOF so I'm still learning about all those characters but that sounds sick! I've never heard of her
There is also Jhun, which has 3 stances.
She PARRIES instead
Super Heroine!
XD
May Lee is my favorite stance character, allthought a bit weird and with an unfortunate bug on 2002 that makes so she just can´t block again if the bug happens(its also easy to execute)
yeah justice for may lee ♥️♥️♥️
Its worth mentioning with the Smash bros series that there have been 4 throughout the series:
Zelda/Shiek (the og transformation character of the series who was admittedly not as well thought out as they should've been since Shiek was so much better than Zelda in every game. They were later separated into their own individual characters)
Samus/Zero Suit Samus (ZSS was previously locked behind a secret code or by using a final smash back in Brawl, which meant the whole transformation aspect of the characters really didn't come into play competitively.)
Pokemon Trainer (a transformation character where you swap between 3 wildly different playstyles that cover eachother's weaknesses well. Were mired by poorly thought out mechanics back in Brawl (such as Fatigue, Type Weaknesses, and the inability to switch mons in the air), but are much more welly designed in Ultimate)
Pyra/Mythra (the DLC Transformation character. Not much else to say beyond what you said in the video)
I'm not gonna lie I totally forgot about pokemon trainer! They totally would count! Thanks for the reminder!
Also pre-Smash Ultimate the transformations took way too long, making it so most players just picked one and stuck to it because transforming would likely get you hit. That and the fact that the balance between Sheik and Zelda was especially poor meant it was basically better to play Sheik at all times almost. The transformation time in Brawl was especially egregious since it actually had to load the other character taking even longer than in melee and varying by the condition of your disc and drive.
Shulk could also be considered a Stance Character. He has different Monado Arts that give him enhanced jumps, speed, damage, knockback, or taking less knockback, but at the cost of being worse at something else.
@Moses X-Labs I was just talking about this under a different comment but Shulk is harder to include for me considering his moves don't change in his "stances". Just his properties do
@@qmanchu would Shulk count as a tradeoff stance character?
lei is like how non stance character players view stance characters but for real
All Stand-On users kind of have a stance in Jojo's Bizzare Adventure: Heritage for the Future
I'd call that a Mode Change over a Stance tbh
I want a sequel so bad
@@Xenoblade_Natsuwhat's the difference?
@@Mr_Tux794 a Mode Change character will switch Normal attacks and/or Specials when they change modes (like in JoJo HftF or ASBR) while a Stance character enters a unique pose (stance) where they have different followups they can perform while in said stance, but they aren't actually changing their moves, just doing a few out of a specific special (which is the Stance)
The fact that Hit was part of my main team before I got the DLC and I didn't even know he was a stance character until this video goes to show how much of a casual I was back then.
I love the love-letter to Lei at the end...
And huzzah for Chun's SFVI iteration!
You have to be the most underrated fighting game TH-camr. I love your videos
I think there's an entire type of stance character you left out, which i would call transitory types, they're characters who only enter their stances for a moment, usually just to do one move, or to use it for a stance cancel, or sometimes because their stances are also unique movement options at the same time. Think characters like Johnny in gg, kagura in blazblue or hit in fighterz who have one or more stances that mainly serve as a gateway to some of their more powerful moves or to be used as stance cancels, or shanty in tfh and dai shi in power rangers whose stances are command runs, jumps or wallclings with unique follow-ups. Even though they only ever enter their stances for a moment, these stances are absolutely the core of their respective characters and definitely worth talking about
I do love these types! There was a ton of examples that kept popping up while I was making the video but the more I tried to justify it, the more I realized they were characters with a stance, not so much stance characters in my opinion. But I didn't think of some of the examples you listed. Kagura is interesting
The Virtual Fighter monk... "Good grief!"
Someone seeing the movelist... Or experiencing it PERSONALLY
@@qmanchu also movement stances are super sick, shanty's run stance has super fast start-up but long recovery so you're committing to it when you do it, but in exchange you get access to an advancing low with a low profile, an advancing multihit overhead with low crush and a steerable command jump that leads into a fast-fall attack, when you run at your opponent with this you're basically telling them "ima run in from full screen and mix you in the process, and even though I can't stop and block I don't need to because I bet you can't hit me"
I'd call those like Hit, Vaseraga, and Yuel Stance characters and the ones like Narmaya, Zeku, or Gen as Mode-Change characters tbh
If that's the case then Gen has a stance within a stance, his Crane stance wall bounce can be cancelled or do a diagonal dive kick off the wall or he can wall bounce then hop to the roof above the opponent and perform a unique vertical foot dive.
As someone who leans towards stance characters, this was a great analysis! Subbed!
One of the weirdest stance characters I knew is Himeki Luna, she's kind of a trade off stance character and she got like 9 different stances, she got bullets that she has to manage. Some might say she's overcomplicated or over designed but her kit complements itself surprising well
Just looked her up and she looks nuts! Thanks for sharing. My favorite part of making these is when people show me stuff I'd never seen before
Link please
I need to see it in action!
@@Ramsey276one just search for Luna Himeki from vanguard princess
So Happy Chaos and Jack O in steroids.
It is the strange characters that give fighting characters the spice to be unique!
The first character I ever fell in love with was Lei Fei back in Virtua Fighter 5, so I'll always have a lot of love for characters like these.
3:07 This aspect of Vega wasn't introduced until SFV. In earlier games, the claw only affected his hitboxes and stats.
First a video about charge characters then stance characters, you really understand me
I gotchu
Props for the depth of this video, also mentioning the master of Bushinryu himself, Zeku 🔥🙏🏾🔥
💯
As a Lei Wu Long player I love the mix ups and defines Tekken and makes the game so fun given it's 3D play style
Wow this one is really good - very insightful, well categorized, awesome explanations! I kept wanting to hear what was next haha
Between this and the charge character video you've got me wanting to try out some characters that I've never really thought about playing much!
To me, that's the beauty of fighting games. There's so many ways to express yourself in them. They can be intricate, overt, complicated, and subtle. But you literally never know until you try
I have always considered Lei Wulong and Angel(KoF) to be the ultimate in stance characters, and they're perfectly designed as such, imo.
Angel is such a well designed character to just have fun with. I need to play more KOF
@@qmanchu Honestly, I'm not a KoF player much at all. I've dabbled, and I can't stand all the inputs and whatnot, but anyway, Angel and a few of the other characters in that series are just amazing.
As someone who either mains or always ends up play casually stance characters I can't recomand them enough, same thing with puppet characters. Sure they may look intimidating at 1st but start small and work your way up because they are super fun not to mention most of them can juke a ton of stuff some characters may struggle with.
Also there's soulcalibur which has A LOT of stances
There's stance characters, then there's Tira from Soul Calibur.....who switch stance randomly-ish too.....Nightmare/Siegfried are kind of stance characters too.
mah boi lei got dat screentime OwO
Quality stuff! Keep up the good work
6:47 ah, BlazBlue Central Fiction, a game that is arguably just as complex as "Guilty Gear XRD Revelator," with the game like Revelator having legacy skill, meaning if you haven't stuck with the game since the original back in 2008 you have a MASSIVE hill to climb in learning frame data for each character's normals, gatlings, and overall mobility options that can be used on offense and neutral. Then there are the game's plentiful system mechanics, such as having a half a dozen options on defense that you need to master such as having four ways to block based on specific scenarios for example, and the game having a multitude of wake up options with each having a specific use, and that's not even going into the Drive mechanic, which is a unique action for each character, which there are OVER 35 of, which MOST of the cast plays VASTLY DIFFERENT from each other.
Mainline BlazBlue games were HUGE in japan, with it being popular in many Japanese arcades, and as Obama stated in a podcast with Blasted Salami that the series had at one point been up there even with the almighty Tekken in terms of popularity. With many veterans like Dogura ( who is one of the best players in Guilty Gear who uses Slayer) and Fenrich ( who is arguably the best BB player, and currently one the best in DBFZ) representing the series for a long time . Sadly, The series just never took off over here in the west. However, the lack of popularity nationwide doesn't equate to the game's quality.The fact that is arguably the most unique AND complex 2D fighter on the market, but isn't talked about hardly at all in the west was always baffling to me. Especially when I read comments, and watch videos of people in the FGC complaining about how boring fighting games have gotten recently, or how easy it has become and yet will REFUSE to give the game a try. Thankfully, that seems to be changing, for instance Lord Knight, a tournament player who plays a variety of different fighting games made a fighting game tier list and put "BlazBlue Central Fiction" near the top, as well as popular Guilty Gear content creators like Obama saying on blasted salami's podcast that "BlazBlue Central Fiction" is arguably just as hard as Guilty Gear Xrd. Even Punk, arguably one of the best players in Street Fighter 5 said that BlazBlue was one of his favorite fighting game series. For those who want to see high level game play in order to get a grasp of how hype this game can potentially be for you, I'd recommend a video titled "BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Grand Finals - Evo 2014" on youtube, and while the game represented there is not Central Fiction, I think it works, since Central Fiction is more of an evolution of Chrono Phantasma any way. Other channel's include "Burst Recap" and "Jourdal" for more high level Japanese play.
Finally, "BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle" and mainline BlazBlue games are two SEPARATE things all together, with "BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle" having it's own set of rules with the system mechanics, and SIMPLIFYING ALL of the characters. It's for these reasons that you can't approach "BlazBlue Central Fiction" in the same way that you would "BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle".
Amazing video. I love fighting games so this was a fun video to watch. You have earned yourself a subscriber. Keep up the good work
Hey, I just got into your channel recently. Your content is spectacular, please keep it up!!!
Of course! It's a pretty new channel so it's only up from here! Thanks for watching
Great vid and a wonderful presentation on stance characters
I'm really glad you enjoyed!
My favorite stance character is Lei Feng from Virtua Fighter.
4:27 lol I spoke too soon. Thank you for including her. 😂
Soulcaibur 3 was my first fighting game and I feel it's why I'm drawn twords stance characters. It's just what feels comfortable.
I am now more excited and terrified to learn Tekken lol
Welcome
Its not as complicated as it seems, at super high level it is super complex, but just play it, find a character you like and go mess around in the lab with him, characters in tekken have só many moves that you can play one character in vários different ways
Just find a character you like, learn that characters key moves, and learn those moves' frames and which ones you can punish with. Practicing movement is a bonus.
It is the strange characters that give fighting characters the spice to be unique!
Hell yeah
I love playing as Leo Whitefang.
Amazing video! Instantly subbed
I am noticing when teasers come out for new characters, with the penchant for animators to give characters lots of bonus cancellable animations after a normal attack that some mistakenly speculate it to be a stance.
I very much like Gen, the way he switches from being a charge character with tricky normals to a button mash, dragon punch character with classic chain normals makes him very unique (also a 0 hit super finisher and the challenge of switching stances from matis dash super to crane air grab super always fun to pull off)
Lol ngl I did this same thing when the Ed trailer dropped. Granted I wasn't necessarily the most wrong since he needs to hold a stance to get psycho snatcher but you're so right about this
You say "Flow like water" but when I even consider playing these characters, my brain flows like water right out my ear!😅😅
Great video. I've never wanted to pick up a stance character more than now after watching this video. I rarely play them because they all seem to have tradeoffs, even the non-tradeoff types, which tends to make learning one stance seem unviable. A lot of stances tend to feel gimmicky too which makes the entire character not seem fun if their stances - their core thing - are just gimmicks. Though actually (and I had forgotten this until now) I used to play Lei back in T3. I do enjoy playing Leo in GG though because the high risk/reward gameplay is too thrilling to not enjoy.
Another Stance character in Smash is Shulk who I think would count as a Tradeof Character, because between stances all his moveset is intact, what happens is that he has 5 different arts that change his stats which are: Damage, Knockback, Speed, Jump, And Defence, but each lowers stat when in use.
Zelda is one of my favourite smash characters of all time, but with her being so low tier in melee I main Sheik instead. I do love finding small opportunities to switch mid game, but it often falls flat. however, in project M I was a Zelda main. one day at a local I was talking to a fellow Zelda player about what to do in the snake matchup, and they just said "switch to sheik, she can chain grab him", and so I locked in Zelda, got into the game, immediately hit down-b to throw the snake player off their game. before smash ultimate added a usable version of pkmn trainer as well as Pyra and Mythra, PM sheik/zelda was the first time I think a true stance character was realized in a platform fighter, and I personally think they're the most fun to play stance character in any fighting game, perfectly embodying the flow and crash you mentioned in the vid
great video can't wait for the next one
I'm not usually a fan of most stance characters, but really like Kagura from Blazblue. He has 3 stances that each go into 3 unique specials each, which automatically end the stance. They can also be cancelled into each other, but without repeats so combos don't get boring.
I love stance characters it’s what I always look for in a fighting game. Zafina is my prime example of what I want in my characters. Depth, a level of mastery that you need to REALLY use them. Zafina has 4 stances. Her normal/neutral stance, Scarecrow, Mantis, and Tarantula. All of them tie into each other and all of them connect to make her such a deadly weapon when practiced. It’s amazing. And what I love about Zafina is how it’s not random. And there aren’t things that weird about it like Lei Wulong who’s moves seem like they go everywhere. She’s the perfect stance character IMO. And I pray to the gods that she appears in T8.
Other stance character that I love are Zeku from SFV. Two characters in one where much like Zafina YOU NEED TO LEARN THEM and if not your not playing them right. Again with the level of mastery thing
So I guess the transformation type of my type.
sgH 46H sgH 46H sgH in the corner my beloved
I don't know if I consider them "stance" characters, but my favorite is the "Install" type character. Think Vira from Granblue, like a mid-to-low tier character whose whole gameplan is to "install" into a powerful character. Lots of characters have installs, but I like characters who revolve AROUND it. Like Ky from GG Strive has an install, but its almost entirely irrelevant.
Wish they were more common.
Oh don't worry, that'll be a video in and of itself!
A.B.A. is the original install *character* and the definitive GG install character.
When I think of stance characters I always think first of Virtua Fighter's Lei-Fei. The ultimate stance character in my eyes.
I was really hoping you'd mention that Virtua fighter Monk guy so I'd finally remember his name. My favorite stance character I may never see again
Lei Fei is his name lmao
@@qmanchu 😍🤩 Thank you!!
I see Valkenhayn, I immediatly hit like
The Fencer really has me asking questions.
Divekick has like 4 stance characters, it's kinda crazy
As an Alisa main in Tekken. Its entirely factual Lei cooks. Its kind of serendipitous to see her in the video but unmentioned. She's gone from bottom 5 to top 5 and has changed arguably the least of any across 7/8 years of Tekken 7. The character finally has light shown on it through a few amazing female and Pakistani players. Between her destructive form(flying chainsaw arms), command stances, while standing game, and movement based stances/mixup. She's earned her spot with Lei, Hwoarang, Zafina and Yoshi as stance/mixup terror.
Ps. Entirely agree, Hwoarang and Lei are the pinnacle of Tekken stances. Cosign that.
I actually don't know too much about Alisa so it's cool to hear all of that!
This is the stance video
This opening made me realise that Water Benders should be Stance Fighters with benefits to switching between Water & Ice after you've set up with the other...
I pretty much started fighting games with Vanilla Cronophantasma Nu-13 unfortunately they split her stance into 2 different characters in the next version and she became way less fun imo. I really like when the stance change move is either fast enough to be used mid combo or has some special properties that give it extra utility.
I saw a video explain the journey of the Murakumo Unit
JEEZ
And you think the STORY is tragic?!
XD
Þere’s a video on þis, but þe story is nu-13 was one way, þen þey changed her drastically next game, þen chronophantasma combined þe two into a stance character, which explains why þey split again later on. I also believe þe stance version was widely considered to be overcomplicated and clunky by players of eiþer of þe old versions of þe character
As explained, there’s a whole video that goes into what happened with her. Tl;dr - she was super broken in the first game and had to be rebalanced in the next (which is what led to Lambda). They brought back actual Nu in CP, but by that point we had Lambda for way longer (6 years of her versus Nu’s 1 and only year in CT lol) so merging the two of them was to appeal to people who mained Lambda.
But a lot of people mentioned that it just didn’t quite work out - it was really hard to keep track of what stance you were in since there wasn’t a real visual indicator (not like the other characters with a stance switch that made it way more obvious). I never played this version of Nu but I’d imagine having the wrong Sickle Storm come out led to a lot of frustration lol.
Dang that Narmaya at 2:15 kinda nice
Even though I don’t play stance characters, I think it throws your opponent for a loop if you play an offensive character defensively and vice versa.
Every characters have different tools for different matchups, and for stance characters, you usually have to sacrifice or change something for a more “favourable” time.
I think if you can take a regular archetype character and change it like “a stance” character and make yourself unpredictable, they are not against the character, they are fighting against you.
Fully agree
Yeah, that's something I personally wonder about stance characters. Sure, they may seem more complex but does that not also make them more... linear? If they are insentivised to switch between different tools it would be for a reason, right? So, each tool is more often than not almost exclusively useful for a single purpose in a particular situation. Feels like there's weirdly enough less experimentation to do, since once you have figured out the use for every tool as well as the transitionary windows for accessing said tools, the gameplan sorta build itself in a very flowchart kinda way.
Then again, I don't have a lick of experience with stance characters so it's very much a viewpoint stemming from ignorance. I do wonder what it would feel like to play a stance character but I fumble enough as is with simple inputs and a small list of core moves, so, I feel like I'd only frustrate myself with trying to comprehend the goddamn cockpit of numerous stances.
I was waiting for lei
Can't believe I didn't see anything about my boy gen in SF4, he was the one who ignited my love of stance characters
I mean he's there in the beginning and there's a lot to say about him but so much of his depth is a bit too much to talk about in a video like this unfortunately
@@qmanchu So true, such an amazing character. Loved your vid bro. Keep going!
I was excited when people in comments were mentioning Lei... But the meant the Tekken character not Lei Fei from VF4.
I'm a stance char enjoyer unconsciously . I end up playing them most of the times
One day I'll be a good Honoka player. That day isn't any time soon, but still.
Other obscure and powerful stance characters I know are Mio from Eternal Fighter Zero and Hinokage from Wonderful World.
I've never even heard of those games but thanks for sharing! Ima go look into em asap
I hope Jayce makes it into Project L he would be a perfect Stance character
yes! perfect translation
Or Nidalee the transformation type
Oddly enough stance characters have always been rather appealing. Theirs only a handful i try to play but they seem to make them quite interesting or stylish like yuzuriha. Though they do cone with quite a bit of difficulty to learn, dont expect winning in lower ranks for awhile.
Qmanchu: "The transform type took a break from Smash until they added Pyra and Mythra in Ultimate a few years ago."
Pokemon Trainer: "Am I a joke to you?"
lmao it's hilarious because I literally mained that character in Brawl!
Sonya from mk9 was one hell of a fun stance character 😁
Lmao I encountered her while making this but didn't include it because she was just so busted
I saw the title but the thumbnail didn't load, and I thought this was a Ghost of Tsushima video😂. 1st second in and I was like "Is this a mod?"
Very cool video. I only wish you had included soul calibur. For example seigfried has a few stances with different moves out of them similar to lei animal stances. Tira has a transformation stance in the form of gloomy and jolly. Kilik has monument and back parry “stances”. They a both stances about a second long with unique parry properties and unique moves out of each.
10:00 he explains that here
Soul Calibur and TEKKEN are literally made by companies in a similar way.
For SF6, I was always planning on Chun-li, but didn't think her stance would change her since she has all of her moves back except her slide punch which is in stance now and really isn't a deal breaker. Now, I'm curios to see what her stance can give her.
She was the character I played in the beta and lemme tell ya, you're not getting away without messing with that stance lol. It's very cool and simple to grasp though!
2:55 Yoshimitsu
I'm not good at all in FGs, but since I played Alpha 2 many years ago I chose Gen. And more recently in SFV, Zeku.
6:34 forgot about PT tho :(
I'm new to playing FG (I've only played smash and bbcf) but am partial to tradeoff stances. Even if it's mainly because of the funny command grab super.
was wondering if youd include pyra and mythra as a stance change
When I think of a stance character I think it would have to be someone with whom the stance they enter can also be used to play neutral to some extent. Like there are some characters who have special forms of movement that give them access to more moves (like Karin's command dash) or a stance they enter that goes into different moves that might mainly be combo tools because the stance overall is lacking in options in attacking and mobility (common among iaido characters) but having just an alt stance that expands into a few moves wouldn't really be a stance character in my eyes. Basically if the stance ends by either not pressing anything or after using one attack (whether you need to negative edge the attack or just press a button) I wouldn't really count it as a "stance" character.
Curious what you'd call it then
@@qmanchu It'd be more just a stance-like move on a character who has a different general gameplay style.
If the character is centralized around the sort of "command movement" moves I'd probably say it's more like a type of rekka character because these sort of moves usually are used for mixups or combos as opposed to stances which can be used for mixups and combos but the primary function would be altering the paradigm of the fight. Like Leo's back turn would make him a stance character but Anji's spin wouldn't, and the spin is the type of move I'm talking about here.
@Zetact oh yeah, I agree with that.
Nice video
Anyway, can you explain the difference between a switch character and a transformation
You put gen in a switch category but by your definition he is a transformation character
I talked about this before with someone but pretty much you can categorize him either way if you'd like. The first type is like home base. It's pretty general and almost any stance character can be considered a switch type.
I mainly put Gen in there because transformation types in fighters generally can switch more freely and even mid combo where Gen's combos usually end with a stance switch. Plus the transformation types I list are straight up different models and characters, not just a stance.
But it's overall arbitrary!
This must be the work of an enemy Stance!
love the video but I can't believe you did not bring up Pokemon Trainer or Fei Lei!
Ngl I zoned out and thought I was watching a Core-A gaming video
Honestly, that's a huge compliment in an interesting way! Thank you! Lol
any more characters that embody all stance archetypes aside from Lei?
Lei is the epidemy of water lol
Pokémon trainer main here just sobbing. Pythra definitely has a bigger place in the meta but PT was around in Brawl, returned in Ult and honestly has a more interesting (if less optimal) transformation than Aegis.
I agree and honestly I'm kicking myself that I just simply forgot them! It was mostly because they're also a transformation type of character I think
6:29 Pokémon Trainer has entered the chat
Chun Li from from her Street Fighter 6 rendition says hi
Great video plus you pronounced Leo correctly
Lmao it's just how I pronounce it by default at this point. I know a few people with the name in real life so saying Lee-oh feels weird
Does Amaterasu from UMvC3 count as an Equip type?
lei is the ultimate stoner character
Tekken really is built different. Who has more moves? An oiled up jaguar wrestler furry or the guy with 13 different stances.
Lei will always be no. 1 on my favorite character's list ❤
shout out to Beggar So
Jhun Hoon type beat
Almost included him but didn't because I've never played any KOF he was in
@@qmanchu He's in '99, 2000, 2002 UM, Neowave, and 03. He's a favorite of mine even though I can't play stance well.
You said pyra and mythra were the next smash transformation character but what about Pokémon trainer which is 3 characters in 1
Yupp! I forgot lmao. They were my main in Brawl and I just literally forgot Brawl existed
@@qmanchu haha that’s fine lol it’s a great video regardless
What is the game at 0:32 seconds , somebody please tell
Granblue fantasy versus I think
Calling Vega the first stance character hurts me. But your video is good regardless. Upvoted
Lol I didn't call him the first stance character. I called him maybe the first Equip Type. I don't even know if that's true but I was careful with my wording.
I'm glad you enjoyed!
You should check out Jhun and Maylee from KOF 2002UM, game is dirty cheap so you have no excuse.
Jhun takes stances to a whole new level.
Lol the only "excuse" I have is that I've got way too many fighters in my backlog as is! But my interest is piqued for sure
What about Bloody Roar? All characters from all the games can transform into a beast that expand their movelist, hit harder, become heavier, and regenerate some lost health.
Blooody Roar was actually probably the first FG I ever played as a kid on the Playstation, I still have the disc. Since the transformations in that game are more like a mechanic than character specific thing, I didn't think to include them. They needa bring that franchise back
as a complete noob in fighting games, who basically only played smash ultimate
pyra & mythra were not that difficult to manage, to me at least
since specials asides they literally have the same moveset
it went down to a matter of needing reach and power or needing speed, mostly
What about Shulk in smash? Does he count as trade off stance character? With limited time stances
I personally say no but it's up to you yknow? I only say he's not because his "stances" only affect properties of him himself. There's no new moves or anything. It's just movement speed, weight, knock back etc.
But if you value that as a stance, it very well can be