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Indie games, everyone loves them, these small (and not so small) games that brings more variety to the game market. A very common idea is trying to bring all these games and their iconic characters into a single game with a Fighting Game being the most popular one, we have seen some attempts like Indie Pogo, Bounty Battle or Fraymakers, thought while some of these are good (and its up to you decided who), I think neither of them has being able to bring this ultimate satisfaction of what it should be a "complete" crossover on pair with games like Smash.
So here we are not going to create a real game, but still move our brains a bit and try to come as a community with an idea the most ingenous to decide how this hypotetic game might look,! The format is the usual one in these type of threads, a seriesof jobs will be providen with a timelapse before starting the next one alongisde to votations for the previous job to decide the winner! The general rule is always put the respect first even if its between screens.
This post will be further edited once new things gets added.
Alright, for the first two jobs, I was initially thinking in propose them already, but I think is better to let people decide so....
JOB 1 DEFINE AN INDIE
I know this is a really weird first job, but there it has always been some sort of debate about when something is an indie and when something isn't or if a game "stopped being indie" so I'll prefer to let to you the answer! Give a proper explanation about what you think so in the future there it will not be any misunderstanding.
JOB 2 PROPOSE A PLAYSTYLE
Fighting Games come in all sort of flavors, which one will be the one you will select? Maybe a classic 2D fighting game? a wacky platform fighter? a 3D fighting game? a secret fourth option? a mix of all? Give your ideas! You can either just respond plain to the question or try to bring a more fleshed out concept of how you see this game.
Both jobs will have till Monday for decide the outcome, so take your time!
I might come back to job 1 later; all I can think of is that an indie is from a video game company not owned by console developers (Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft) or other larger companies (Sega, Capcom, Namco-Bandai, SNK, Koei Tecmo, Activision, EA, Ubisoft, etc.), but I'm not sure where the cut-off for "larger companies" would be.
For job 2, I'm going to throw out something a little unorthodox:
PARTY ARENA BRAWLER
Not sure of a general term for this, but I'm picturing something like the game Power Stone or One Piece: Grand Adventure. Up to four characters are dropped into a 3D arena with items and optional hazards. (I'm thinking that, much like Smash, there could be a menu option that lets you toggle what items appear) Characters could have two types of attacks (like a light attack and a heavy attack, or a ground attack and a launcher attack) that can be chained together to make combos, along with some kind of super move that could be built up over time (like by successfully landing attacks and/or blocking) or automatically being made available if characters find a certain item. (a large diamond, for example - I'm not sure what, but something that would stick out)
Much like with Smash, matches could be based on time (whoever has the most KOs at the end) or lives, with characters having health bars like traditional fighting games.
Defining indie games is hard. The way I see it, indie games are generally developed by independent developers without financial backing from major publishers (and whose rights are not owned by one at the date of their submission).
This definition is a bit strict: For example, Supergiant Games's Bastion wouldn't be considered an indie under these rules as WB Entertainment publishes it, while the self-published Hades would be regarded as one.
JOB 2
I don't think 3D graphics fit a lot of indie game characters whose origin titles emphasize retro graphics.
I suggest a 2D platform fighter that allows 4 players to fight at once.
As the former host of an indie fighter thread, I'm looking forward to this one!
Job 1
For the purposes of this thread, I wanna define indie as "not owned or published by a major studio". For example, the Microsoft-owned Minecraft would be ineligble, but Terraria would be okay. This also doesn't exclude indies with any sort of console exclusivity deal, so Cuphead would still be allowed despite getting some financial backing from Microsoft.
Job 2
I agree that 3D might be a little weird for fighters with pixel graphics unless we give them non-pixel 3D models, but I think an isometric "3D" platform fighter would be neat - Something like Sonic Battle is what I have in mind.
Just coming in to say this seems like it'll be a fun thread and I will join in for future jobs, I just don't have anything to add to the table for these specific jobs
this part i really think that is so hard to understand, a indie fighting game can be a game, despite that thare are a lot of indie games that are exclusives on PC or mobile, and that AAA companies like Microsoft have indies as Minecraft, EA bought PopCap and Sega bought Rovio, on my thought is a fighting indie game can be on consoles, Cuphead, Shantae and Shovel Knight are on those examples
Job 2: a Playstyle
a playstyle of the fighting game,i really think that could be a 3D graphics but on 2D fighting game gameplay, and probably can have combos, supers and special attacks
this part i really think that is so hard to understand, a indie fighting game can be a game, despite that thare are a lot of indie games that are exclusives on PC or mobile, and that AAA companies like Microsoft have indies as Minecraft, EA bought PopCap and Sega bought Rovio, on my thought is a fighting indie game can be on consoles, Cuphead, Shantae and Shovel Knight are on those examples
The question is more about the debate around what is considered an indie, not for the project itself but for the future submissions, I had the foresight that there it could be an ocassion were someone submitts X character but there are people who believes it shouldn't apply due X or Y reasons, I felt it was better to let people decide right now what are the limits so the next submissions can go steady. Sorry if the message was confused at first.
I would try to hold myself over the first job, I think other people has put in better words than mine my personal posture about it. So instead I'll talk about the second one.
Job 2 Submission: Pokémon Close Combat!
I suppose at least some people here have heard of the amazing fangame Pokémon Close Combat right? If not, I can quickly tell that it's a fighting game were you fight as fighting-type Pokémon (duh), thought the matter here is not the premise but the gameplay. Close Combat runs into a simplified form of a traditional 2D fighting game with a single attack button, a single special button and a defensive button, with these simple commands they can do a variety of extremely nice movesets while also providing some depth to their combat. I'm a big divided if it should be an exact cut or maybe add an additional button for variety sake or something, but I feel it's a extremely nice candidate for an inspiration here.
Alright, for the first two jobs, I was initially thinking in propose them already, but I think is better to let people decide so....
JOB 1 DEFINE AN INDIE
I know this is a really weird first job, but there it has always been some sort of debate about when something is an indie and when something isn't or if a game "stopped being indie" so I'll prefer to let to you the answer! Give a proper explanation about what you think so in the future there it will not be any misunderstanding.
JOB 2 PROPOSE A PLAYSTYLE
Fighting Games come in all sort of flavors, which one will be the one you will select? Maybe a classic 2D fighting game? a wacky platform fighter? a 3D fighting game? a secret fourth option? a mix of all? Give your ideas! You can either just respond plain to the question or try to bring a more fleshed out concept of how you see this game.
Both jobs will have till Monday for decide the outcome, so take your time!
Job #01: I'll suggest a fairly typical definition; an indie game is a game in an original IP developed by an individual or team (which will be referred to as an "indie studio") who are functionally independent during development up until the game's release. (Third-party support - be it publishing, financing, or otherwise - is permissible, so long as the game itself is developed without direct external control or third-party ownership prior to release.) As for defining an "indie studio"... let's keep it vague; a studio that is independently owned outside of the influence of a larger publisher or development studio. However, if an "indie studio" is acquired by a larger publisher or development studio (such as Embracer Group), and their IP is acquired along with it, a game that might have been "indie" at the time of release no longer meets that classification.
This definition is open enough to allow for some leeway heavy-hitters - for instance, No Man's Sky, despite being published by Sony, would still be indie because it was developed by indie studio Hello Games, while we also leave obviously indie companies still up for grabs even if they've had some external support (like French Bread, who've had games published by SEGA), while a game like Minecraft is no longer indie due to Mojang's acquisition (and therefore, the Minecraft IP's acquisition) by Microsoft.
Job #02: Just for the record, I think that something more like Smash really runs the risk of ending up feeling derivitive of Faz's All-Star Strife project. With that in mind, I'll deliberately go a little offbeat... and propose a traditional 2D fighter with "free-flight", loosely akin to games like Astra Superstars, Antinomy of Common Flowers, or Psychic Force. (Wouldn't be the first time an indie crossover fighter deliberately got weird with it; just look at Indie Pogo!)
Note; characters don't necessarily have to be able to fly in their source material for inclusion, but their design should at least have some kind of explanation for how they're managing it this time around, no matter how much sense it might actually make in terms of either realism or their source material. (For instance, Quote using a jet-pack, Gunvolt using electromagnetism, or Shovel Knight using a modified, Propeller Knight-inspired helmet could all work just fine.)
Characters are always in flight during a match, and can - as with almost any other 2D fighter - move laterally forward and backward at will. However, they're also capable of jumping both upward and downward, and can perform forward or backward dashes in pretty much any state. Because of this, the game doesn't feature traditional command inputs, with moves being inputted with an attack button of choice and a directional input of some kind. The game's a four-button fighter, with Melee, Ranged, Special, and Super Moves all being on the A, B, C, and D buttons respectively; with all Melee and Ranged attacks having charged variants, while some Special or Super attacks might have charged variants depending on what they are.
An example template for this would look like the following;
Melee Moves (Moves that have melee hitboxes and are specifically suited for use up-close.)
Neutral
Uncharged:
Charged:
Forward
Uncharged:
Charged:
Backward
Uncharged:
Charged:
Upward
Uncharged:
Charged:
Downward
Uncharged:
Charged:
Dash
Forward:
Backward:
Ranged Moves (Projectiles! They can be dodged by dashing through them or blocked by holding back. You can double up as needed if you're just going to have one projectile type that can be fired in multiple directions, though.)
Neutral
Uncharged:
Charged:
Forward
Uncharged:
Charged:
Backward
Uncharged:
Charged:
Upward
Uncharged:
Charged:
Downward
Uncharged:
Charged:
Dash
Forward:
Backward:
Special Moves (Moves with unique functionality! These might include grabs, shields, summons, seperate resources, or just weirder attacks.)
Neutral
Uncharged:
Charged (If applicable):
Forward
Uncharged:
Charged (If applicable):
Backward
Uncharged:
Charged (If applicable):
Upward
Uncharged:
Charged (If applicable):
Downward
Uncharged:
Charged (If applicable):
Dash
Forward(If applicable):
Backward (If applicable):
Super Move (Moves you'll need to build up a meter to be able to use! You select one of the three in advance, with your meter length being short, medium, or long to offset their different effects. Think of this like Super Arts in Third Strike.)
Super Moves:
Super #01:
Super #02:
Super #03:
This might seem like a lot of total moves (it comes up to a maximum of 21), but it's actually less than Smash (25).
Job 1:
An indie video game or indie game, short for independent video game, is a video game created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most "AAA" (triple-A) games.
Job 2: Marvel VS CapCom Style Gameplay and Controls
Alright good evening everybody! Sorry that this startup felt a bit boring, as mentioned my intentions were to try to clarify any lineups before starting the project, talking about it.
JOB 1 VOTATIONS
It seems that most people agrees with similar terms, however, a poll will be done above the thread so people can decide by themselves what will be the final paramters, the options contemplated are the following:
Completely independent (Games that were backed or published by other companies wouldn't be allowed, as well to companies that were purchased by larger ones before the submission)
Publishers OK (Games that were published but not financiated by other companies are fine to add).
Backers OK (Games that were published and/or financiated by other companies but not owned by them are allowed).
Anything goes! (Games from companies that has been adquired by others are allowed as much as the rest, thought as a rule of thumb, the company should have start independent at some point).
For further acclaration, all this rules aren't retroactive so if during the thread the company that made X game is purchased by a larger company, that wouldn't affect the status of the characters added (or in the case that the company has more characters, those that were made before the purchase) even if the last option doesn't win.
The wording might be a bit confused so feel free to ask as many times as you need in case you don't get it.
JOB 2 VOTATIONS
You will be able to vote for 3 of the proposals for the game's mechanics! The options are:
As usual the order depends the amount of points, so the first one gets 3, the second one 2 and the last one 1, feel free to extend in your opinions if you want!
Moving to our new job!
JOB 3 SUBMIT A FIGHTER!
We are going to get our first fighters! Since the parameters hasn't be defined yet, for this first submissions round, only characters from completely independent companies (self-published, self financiated (crownfunded is ok) and of couse not owned by another company), later submissions will align to the rules that gets dictaminated after the finalization of the pool.
Schedule:
Friday 31th: Finalization of Job 1 & 2 Votations
Saturday 1st: Finalization of Job 3 Nominations
Sunday 2nd: Job 3 Votations/Next Jobs announcement
Okay, hear me out on this one. Despite the name being Sans and Papyrus, the player exclusively controls Papyrus, with Sans loafing around in the background and not doing much of anything to help. Despite this, his name gets top billing due to being the funny Megalovania guy. To me, this feels like something Toby Fox would do as a bit, and lets both skelebros be in the match while staying true to their personalities. After all, what kind of sicko would ever split these two apart?
1. Isometric Platfighter
2. Free Flight
3. Pokémon Close Combat
Job 3: Shovel Knight
Well,i will start with the obvious one,Shovel Knight who is the popular one from the indie games and having appearaces in collabs with other games.
Shovel Knight is the protagonist from a 2D platform game made by Yaught Club Games, he is a knight that uses a shovel instead a sword that is on quest to find his partner Shield Knight,and he had yo fight against other knights that are on the side of enchantress.
I also wanted to submit Reimu or Shantae,but i think that Shovel Knight is a great option
Job #02: Just gonna presume we aren't voting for any of our own suggestions.
Isometric Platformer (I think Sonic Battle's general vibe lends really well to something like this, and it's something I'm kinda surprised I haven't seen people try making more evolutions to. Maybe a rework for the card system would be ideal, though.)
Party Arena Brawler (This seems like something that'd be a lot of fun to mess around with. I do agree that some characters might not feel great in 3D, though? It'd be something we'd have to give some consideration... unless we went for a deliberately stylised look akin to something like Rakugaki Showtime. It's part of the reason I ended up going with Faz's iso-platformer as my top pick.)
Simplified Tradfighter (Not a bad call, honestly. Seems like a good middle ground for when we get to the stage of submitting movesets so there's not too much complexity there, at least.)
Most of the suggestions made were pretty neat, though. I'd shout-out the platfighter one - not a bad call, I just don't think it'd be best for this particular project given we've already had a pretty high-profile indie platfighter project here (FazDude's All-Star Strife.)
Job #03: I may as well propose something a little odd. I think something to consider with indie-centric titles like these is that there's a lot of cool side characters, villains, and otherwise characters who aren't always just the "face" of a given franchise who'd be a lot of fun, but get passed over for more "popular" picks - so, it'd be nice to see less of a focus on a Smash-like group of "All-Stars", and maybe something a little more... eclectic. With that in mind;
Character Name: Cirno Character Origin:Embodiment of Scarlet Devil (Windows 98, 2002) Character Franchise:Touhou Project
A trend I notice with a lot of "indie" projects like this is that, outside of a couple of notable exceptions like Cave Story, a lot of "indie" projects like this tend to have very minimal focus on the doujinsoft scene; which I think is a huge shame, given the sheer amount of influence that scene has on the history of the western "indie" development scene overall. Now, there's a lot of candidates that might make sense - Akatsuki Blitzkampf seems like a good call for a fighting game in my mind - but if we want to go with outright recognisability, let's front-load with one of the most popular characters in this sense.
So, yeah, Cirno. While I'd understand the mindset behind people wanting to include characters like Reimu or Marisa, I think part of the appeal of an indie game like this specifically is that we can get away with picking characters that might be more unorthodox or interesting; and the immense number of ice-based attacks she has access to would make her an interesting, highly-mobile zoner. Beyond this, her ability to freeze projectiles could lend to her having a little more of a unique vibe compared to other Touhou candidates!
Beyond this, Cirno's the subject of a massive number of memes in the Touhou fanbase and on Japanese social media as a whole, as well as having been featured as a prominent reoccuring character in a lot of different media; to the point of being the main playable character in spinoffs like Great Fairy Wars. She's also generally one of the first side-characters to be included in games with larger playable rosters, such as the fighting game Touhou Hisoutensoku, due to her pretty massive popularity. Oh, and if you don't recognise her image from above, let me try this one.
Like I mentioned earlier, I think the big appeal of an indie project like this is that we can get weird with it. I wouldn't want to seem like I'm labouring the point, but it feels like a good call in my mind to branch out beyond just "big faces", and maybe approach this from different angles. Just my two cents!
Party Arena Brawler - I was initially skeptical of this idea but after giving it some thought, it could actually be a lot of fun. I think having an intentionally low polygon look would work better for some simpler character designs but that's neither here nor there.
Isometric Platformer - This one seems like a good fit for most potential additions. However, we might need to decide on how we'll handle the special moves.
PKMN Close Combat-esque - The simpler moveset scheme could work well, though I'm not familiar with the game.
JOB 3: Globule (Decline's Drops by Moulin aux Bulles Studio, 2024)
This one was pretty hard because I don't want to suggest a character without even knowing how the game will play. In the end, I went with someone who has a pretty self-explanatory fighting style.
Decline's Drops is a platform brawler similar to Subspace Emissary and Globule is a wooden puppet who dons a pair of boxing gloves to punch chickens and take revenge for her garden. Her game is pretty underrated and I think she'd be neat in a crossover like this.
I'm pretty sure this counts - let me know if it doesn't, since the game was bought by Nicalis, but I wanted to nominate him at some point if his game does qualify. Quote is from the game Cave Story, a Metroid-like game that was developed over the course of five years by one person, Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya.
As a lot of the weapons in Cave Story are projectiles, Quote would likely be a zoner, though he's got plenty of appearances in other games like Blade Strangers that give him more to work with for melee attacks. For example, he uses the Blade as an actual sword rather than throwing it, along with punching, kicking, and smacking people with his pistol.
I'm pretty sure this counts - let me know if it doesn't, since the game was bought by Nicalis, but I wanted to nominate him at some point if his game does qualify. Quote is from the game Cave Story, a Metroid-like game that was developed over the course of five years by one person, Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya.
As a lot of the weapons in Cave Story are projectiles, Quote would likely be a zoner, though he's got plenty of appearances in other games like Blade Strangers that give him more to work with for melee attacks. For example, he uses the Blade as an actual sword rather than throwing it, along with punching, kicking, and smacking people with his pistol.
Ngl I was thinking on nominating him too and I'm unaware of how is the legal scene right now, as far as I know Pixel's Cave Story and Nicalis Cave Story are two different things, if someone knows better it would be good to known.
Tbf it seems that Backed/Published games are winning by a landslide so even if he isn't he is very safe to give another shot.
Ngl I was thinking on nominating him too and I'm unaware of how is the legal scene right now, as far as I know Pixel's Cave Story and Nicalis Cave Story are two different things, if someone knows better it would be good to known.
Tbf it seems that Backed/Published games are winning by a landslide so even if he isn't he is very safe to give another shot.
...isn't Nicalis still an indie publisher anyway? Even if you wouldn't want to include games published by larger entities, I'd argue there's a pretty significant difference between being published by companies like Nicalis, Inti or WayForward compared to, say, Sony... that's just my two cents, though.
I took one of Knee's suggestions, while I had a different character in mind initially (that I'm sure its likely someone will propose at any moment anyway), I agree wtih the statement that we need to explore more outside the common western indie games, and Akatsuki is a very fun addition!
Better know for his appearence in Under Night In-Birth that not sure if French Bread is still considered an indie company to make it count in a future, Akatsuki its pretty much Captain America (or a Kamen Rider if you know more), being a cybernetic-enhanced super soldier who holds the Blitz Motor inside him with the mission to defeat those who made him in first place. He is a close and personal fighter with a simple yet iconic playstyle, akin to his name most of his attacks are enhanced in electricty (UNIB being the one that amped him even more), I think he would be an interesing inclusion both as a doujin character and as a fighting game candidate.
CHESTO!
EDIT: Forgot my votes, heh...
Free Flight, ngl an interesing twist and I do greatly enjoyed Antinomy of Common Flowers.
Close Combat, I just think its neat lol
Isometric Fighter, seems fun! Not entirely sure how it will work but feels like an inspired idea.
Ironclad (Slay the Spire)
From the popular Card based RPG. A powerful swordfighter type character who can boost his power using demonic abilities, but this will cost him other attributes. He would also be able to equip card upgrades to give him different attacks, think kinda like Hero.
Reminder that today is the last day you can submit a fighter! Next jobs might have shorter timelapses.
Also, the winner option for our restrictions was Backers and Licensed Games are OK! Future nominations can include franchises that have had external intervention unless another company absorbed them entirely.
And for our gameplay, it seems the winner is by a landslide, an Isometric Platform Fighter! Congratulations FazDude
!
Party Brawler: 10
Platfighter: 4
Isometric: 21
Classic 2D: 3
Simplified 2D: 5
Free Flight: 8
3v3: 9
We might need a slight further exploration of the concept, so to this day and until the next job drops, conversations about the gameplay are up to discussion, Feel free to share your ideas!
I've had a quick look at the Sonic Battle manual and some wiki pages on the subject, so I'll consider myself absolutely qualified to make assumptions about a game I think looks neat but have never played. I'd argue the main "core" of the gameplay is reasonably good as is; things like a universal three-hit jab as well as dedicated upper, dash, air, and pursuit attacks seem like a good call all on the same button - but I'd consider taking a look at how we'd handle the Special attacks, plus the Guard System.
For context; in Sonic Battle, characters have to select three special attacks; one for when grounded, one for when airborne, and one for while you're Guarding. There's then three distinct Special types - Shot, Power and Trap - that you can assign to these. (Shot attacks are projectiles, Power attacks are strong melee attacks, and Trap attacks are essentially plantable mines.) You then apply these Specials to one of your three "states" - namely, "neutral/grounded", "airborne", and "blocking", with the special functioning slightly differently depending on which state you put it in.
The problem that occurs to me with this in particular is that you essentially have to submit three times as many specials as you would otherwise (with dedicated neutral/airborne/guarding variants), plus that a lot of characters might not necessarily have good Traps to pull from. I'm open to this way of doing things anyway; I'm sure people would be able to come up with plenty of unique attacks regardless - but I can see a risk of people thinking characters all feel a little... samey? One way to fix this could be to give characters a more specific, dedicated lineup of specials... but then again, I think the idea of being able to maybe customise your characters' specials to take on the specials of other characters could be a ton of fun to play around with.
Beyond that; I think it'd be neat to consider reworking Guard. I think the idea of it still being a button you can tap to Guard instantly and hold for HP recovery is cool, but I have three points for improvement - being as follows.
You should only be able to Guard attacks that come from the front, with attacks from behind being able to hit you (rewarding crossups.)
Characters should have unique animations (or something thereabout) for their Guard/HP Recovery, perhaps inspired by their source material?
Some kind of "parry" if you perfectly time a Guard would also be a lot of fun, but this shouldn't necessarily be an additional "counter" attack.
Maybe one or two characters having a unique Guard property could be neat, though. Like how Yoshi's shield covers his whole body at all times.
Okay, this is less so a practical proposition and more of a random idea; but rather than just the pixel-art style of a game like Sonic Battle, I think it'd be a ton of fun for the game to have a visual style based on something like Rakugaki Showtime, complete with sticks to hold up the characters while they're airborne and hand-drawn sprites in a childish style.
Even beyond that, you could totally have the isometric stages (which would presumably be based on different locations in indie games) take on a similar kind of hand-crafted style, maybe made up of painted cardboard with paper and card used for a parallax scrolling effect for the background! Kind of like Yoshi's Story, I suppose? Anyway, just a thought. I think this would really make the game stand out.
I've had a quick look at the Sonic Battle manual and some wiki pages on the subject, so I'll consider myself absolutely qualified to make assumptions about a game I think looks neat but have never played. I'd argue the main "core" of the gameplay is reasonably good as is; things like a universal three-hit jab as well as dedicated upper, dash, air, and pursuit attacks seem like a good call all on the same button - but I'd consider taking a look at how we'd handle the Special attacks, plus the Guard System.
For context; in Sonic Battle, characters have to select three special attacks; one for when grounded, one for when airborne, and one for while you're Guarding. There's then three distinct Special types - Shot, Power and Trap - that you can assign to these. (Shot attacks are projectiles, Power attacks are strong melee attacks, and Trap attacks are essentially plantable mines.) You then apply these Specials to one of your three "states" - namely, "neutral/grounded", "airborne", and "blocking", with the special functioning slightly differently depending on which state you put it in.
The problem that occurs to me with this in particular is that you essentially have to submit three times as many specials as you would otherwise (with dedicated neutral/airborne/guarding variants), plus that a lot of characters might not necessarily have good Traps to pull from. I'm open to this way of doing things anyway; I'm sure people would be able to come up with plenty of unique attacks regardless - but I can see a risk of people thinking characters all feel a little... samey? One way to fix this could be to give characters a more specific, dedicated lineup of specials... but then again, I think the idea of being able to maybe customise your characters' specials to take on the specials of other characters could be a ton of fun to play around with.
Beyond that; I think it'd be neat to consider reworking Guard. I think the idea of it still being a button you can tap to Guard instantly and hold for HP recovery is cool, but I have three points for improvement - being as follows.
You should only be able to Guard attacks that come from the front, with attacks from behind being able to hit you (rewarding crossups.)
Characters should have unique animations (or something thereabout) for their Guard/HP Recovery, perhaps inspired by their source material?
Some kind of "parry" if you perfectly time a Guard would also be a lot of fun, but this shouldn't necessarily be an additional "counter" attack.
Maybe one or two characters having a unique Guard property could be neat, though. Like how Yoshi's shield covers his whole body at all times.
Okay, this is less so a practical proposition and more of a random idea; but rather than just the pixel-art style of a game like Sonic Battle, I think it'd be a ton of fun for the game to have a visual style based on something like Rakugaki Showtime, complete with sticks to hold up the characters while they're airborne and hand-drawn sprites in a childish style.
Even beyond that, you could totally have the isometric stages (which would presumably be based on different locations in indie games) take on a similar kind of hand-crafted style, maybe made up of painted cardboard with paper and card used for a parallax scrolling effect for the background! Kind of like Yoshi's Story, I suppose? Anyway, just a thought. I think this would really make the game stand out.
For the specials, I suggest this sort of layout - A tap special and a held special (tap and hold the special button respectively), with grounded and aerial versions of each for a total of four specials.
I'd argue the main "core" of the gameplay is reasonably good as is; things like a universal three-hit jab as well as dedicated upper, dash, air, and pursuit attacks seem like a good call all on the same button - but I'd consider taking a look at how we'd handle the Special attacks, plus the Guard System.