Assemble! - Fighting Game Archetype Roster - The Inhuman

This is Assemble, where we look at several different characters across multiple series to form a perfect team-up. Whatever the case may be, whether it’s a fighting game roster or an RPG adventuring party, we’ll find the best team for the job. In a change of style from the more long-form articles featured here, these articles will be shorter entries, focusing on one or two characters each, and spread out over time until the complete roster is formed.

What would a fighting game be without a roster of several different, powerful, and engaging characters? In this batch of articles for Assemble, we will be assembling a fighting game roster using characters from several different fighting games based on different character archetypes.

The picks will be based on where the characters fit in terms of game mechanics and their place in the story and world of the game. Only characters that originated in fighting games will be observed here. That means no guest characters, no licensed fighting games (unless their roster includes original characters), and no crossover titles. Finally, I’ll only be discussing games or characters that I am at least somewhat familiar with. While this means I won’t discuss all the fighting games out there, there should be at least some variety from just the major titles.

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THE INHUMAN

Whether they are a beast-man, a robot, or some type of monster, every fighting game has at least one inhuman character in its roster. They give the roster more variety and more of a unique flair, and as their appearance (and likely, personality) contrasts with the rest of the cast, their fighting style is often just as weird and wild. There are even fighting games whose entire rosters consist of inhuman characters. So, which one receives the spotlight here?

Our choice for the Inhuman is…

Orcane from Rivals of Aether.

Focusing mostly on those fighting games whose entire rosters are based around weird and wild characters, the indie game Rivals of Aether stood out not only for its characters, but its gameplay. As a platform fighter in the style of Super Smash Bros., it separates itself from traditional 2D fighters and its cast of magical animalistic creatures can use their variety of elemental powers to interact with the stage and fight their opponents in various ways.

And out of that cast, the aquatic Orcane stood out as the weirdest of the bunch for a few reasons. First, it’s not exactly clear just what he is. With most of the other characters, players can tell what animals their based on (like a raccoon, a lion, or a polar bear), but for Orcane, who seems to be a mix between a whale and a dog, it isn’t immediately apparent what kind of creature he is. Bonus points for being a quadruped too, a rarity among fighters.

Secondly would be his moves. Continuing with the elemental magic theme that runs with all of the characters, a lot of his moves are based around water and displays a big mobility mechanic for him. With a move, he can throw a large drop of water onto the stage and create a puddle. At any point afterwards, even when he is knocked off the stage, he can teleport out of the puddle, making this is ring-out recovery move, or use it as an attack by making a swarm of bubbles rise out of it. Even the Smash Bros. characters haven’t done this yet.

As the stand-out, weird, inhuman character from a cast of weird, inhuman characters, we now add Orcane to our roster.

ADDED!

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Honorable Mention: Lord Raptor (Darkstalkers)

For a fighting game focused entirely around monsters based on horror tropes, it takes a real freakshow of a character to stand out as the Inhuman. Enter the hard-rock zombie of Darkstalkers, Lord Raptor. This not-so-shambling corpse has a quirky, but sadistic personality and can use his body to attack in some unexpected ways, from stabbing an opponent with his ribs to turning one of his limbs into a chainsaw to shred his opponents like he shreds on his guitar. In the few appearances he has made outside of his series, other characters even point out how freaky they think he is.

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What did you think about this article? Want to see what other characters get picked for our roster? Do you think someone would fit this role better besides whoever got picked? Make your voice heard in the comments below. Thank you for coming.