Assemble! - Fighting Game Archetype Roster - The Anti-Hero

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 ANTI-HERO

A bit darker than the hero, the Anti-Hero’s motivations for fighting aren’t as altruistic as others might be. Carrying sometimes as much prominence as the main characters of the fighting game’s story, if not being the actual protagonist, the anti-hero has some dark element to their personality and backstory that drives them to seek revenge for some great wrong or makes them more willing to resort to shady or underhanded tactics to gain an advantage over someone.

Our choice for the Anti-Hero is…

Jin Kazama from Tekken.

Starting out as the main protagonist in Tekken 3, Jin Kazama has gone through a lot over the course of the series. He was once firmly the hero of the series, the positive force of good to set against darker characters like Kazuya Mishima, Heihachi Mishima, and Ogre. However, at the end of Tekken 3, when he was betrayed by his grandfather Heihachi after believing him to be a good-hearted mentor figure, it sent him down a slippery slope. In his quest to take down anything related to the Mishimas, he took over the Mishima Zaibatsu corporation from his great-grandfather Jinpachi and used it to grind large parts of the world into submission. That isn’t even mentioning the Devil Gene, an evil super-powerful side to Jin that turns him into an unstoppable force.

Are we sure this guy was a protagonist?

For starting as a somewhat sympathetic and heroic character that became a borderline villain over time, with even the dark powers to match, but still staying as a prominent character, we now add Jin Kazama to our roster.

ADDED!

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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.