SmashBoards Creates: Guilty Gear Cross Tag Battle (Job #5: 10 Guilty Gear Strive characters)

[Perkilator]

Guilty Gear Cross Tag Battle​

Taking inspiration from another thread, I decided to make my own creation thread where I instead do a spiritual successor with Guilty Gear in the title. This is meant to be a 2.5D fighting game crossing over other 2.5D fighting games developed by Arc System Works.

Spoiler: Job List

1. Roster size
2. Gameplay hook
3. 10 DBFZ characters
4. Game modes
5. 10 Guilty Gear Strive characters
6. 10 Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising characters
7. 10 DNF Duel characters
8. 2 Double Dragon and 3 Kunio-Kun / River City characters

Spoiler: Playable characters

Goku​	Vegeta​	Strive​	Strive​	Granblue​	Granblue​	DNF​	DNF​	River City​
Frieza​	Piccolo​	Strive​	Strive​	Granblue​	Granblue​	DNF​	DNF​	Double Dragon​
Krillin​	Tien​	Strive​	Strive​	Granblue​	Granblue​	DNF​	DNF​	River City​
Trunks​	Majin Buu​	Strive​	Strive​	Granblue​	Granblue​	DNF​	DNF​	Double Dragon​
Android 17​	Jiren​	Strive​	Strive​	Granblue​	Granblue​	DNF​	DNF​	River City​

Spoiler: Gameplay

Each franchise’s characters have their own unique gameplay style.

• Guilty Gear characters have the Tension and Burst Gauges. They can preform Roman Cancels.
• Dragonball FighterZ characters have Ki Charge and a reflector.
• Granblue Fantasy Versus characters feature Bravery Points, which can be used to extend combos and special attacks.
• DNF Duel characters are all about MP, which refills over time but is drained by using powerful MP attacks. If they lose all their MP, they become exhausted.
• Kunio \ Double Dragon characters are the most like a regular fighting game character, their moves are based on beat- em up gameplay.
• Taking from BBTag, the game features an assist meter. Players can also have the second character use assist attacks to extend combos, keep the opponent away, or alternatively use all meter on "Cross Burst" to escape from dangerous situations. Even if one character on the team loses all of their health, the match continues until both are down.

Spoiler: Game Modes

• Arcade
  • Similar to its DBFZ iteration, where your performance determines which route you take
• Survival
  • Your score is determined by how many rounds you can survive
  • Rewards range from in-game currency to health/meter refills

 

[Perkilator]

Job #1: Roster size​

How many franchises should be represented, and how many characters from each franchise should be included? For me, the franchises they should represent are:

• Guilty Gear (obviously)
• DNF Duel
• Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising
• Dragon Ball FighterZ

My ideal roster size would be 53 characters, the same number that BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle ended with. 12 from each of the four franchies represented, and five guest characters.

 

[Janx_uwu]

I don't really understand. What franchises are we supposed to have it cross over with?

 

[Perkilator]

I don't really understand. What franchises are we supposed to have it cross over with?

Any 2.5D fighting game developed by Arc System Works.

 

[Janx_uwu]

Beat 'em ups are fighting games, right?

I think it would be fun to have one with Double Dragon, River City, and Battletoads. Sol Badguy was an assist in River City Grils 2, which the double dragons were in as DLC, so the crossover is nearly complete already!

 

[Perkilator]

Beat 'em ups are fighting games, right?

I think it would be fun to have one with Double Dragon, River City, and Battletoads. Sol Badguy was an assist in River City Grils 2, which the double dragons were in as DLC, so the crossover is nearly complete already!

Y'know what? Beat-em-ups and fighting games are pretty much brothers, so I'll allow beat-em-up characters for this project.

 

[KneeOfJustice99]

Jobs #01 & #02
I reckon the angle we take this kinda depends on a few things. If we're specifically limited to 2.5D games and mainly relying on asset reuse, it does kind of leave us in a rough spot where series like BlazBlue, Arcana Heart, Under Night In Birth and River City Girls aren't on the table, but I reckon it's still workable. I'll propose the following;

• Guilty Gear (Specifically pulling from Strive.)
• Granblue Fantasy (Specifically pulling from Rising.)
• Dungeon & Fighter (Specifically pulling from DNF Duel.)
• Double Dragon (Specifically pulling from Revive.)
• Kunio-kun (This breaks the 2.5D rule, but I think it'd really funny for this character to use classic sprites. It's better than pulling from Mighty Fight Federation and being stuck between either Kunio and/or Riki.)

The big omission here is obviously DragonBall FighterZ, but I feel it might not fit as well alongside the other series included here in terms of gameplay (and, it'd be a huge selling point for an expanded release/season pass.) I should note there's a lot of recency bias; that's just to make sure source code is still accessible and models are still generally usable.

You may be wondering where the guest series is. You're... looking at them. We've got slim pickings on the 2.5D side, so our guests are in fact Granblue and DNF. Might be disappointing, but it seems the most plausible.

As for fighter count... I'll keep things somewhat conservative, if only because ArcSys games have a tendency to do the same.

• Guilty Gear - 12 fighters. It's a little smaller than Strive's launch roster, but lends enough space for some mainstays and a couple of oddballs.
• Granblue Fantasy - 11 fighters. Again, a little smaller than Versus' launch roster, but still has space for mainstays and oddballs alike. Would have made this smaller in light of being a guest series, but we don't have much to work with as is.
• Dungeon & Fighter - 9 fighters. It's a bit smaller than DNF Duel's roster of 15, but I think it still gives space to pull a variety of interesting picks. See above with the guest series logic.
• Double Dragon - 3 fighters. I'm almost certain Billy and Jimmy Lee would be submitted somehow, so the third opens up a spot based on whoever we end up seeing in Revive to pull a model from. Limited slots because of the need to convert the beat-em-up formula into a fighting formula, somehow.
• Kunio-kun - 1 fighter. A sort of gimmicky "bonus" featuring their classic design. Note that this actually opens up plenty of potential for characters, as there's a lot of fan-favourites that aren't just Kunio and Riki.

So, that's a total of 36 fighters. Might not seem like much given the theme of this website, but that's a pretty massive amount for an ArcSys game. (Note that the original Cross Tag Battle only launched with 20!)

Obviously there's space for more post-launch. Idk if we're doing that, though, and it occurs to me that our options may be a little limited depending on who we're limiting ArcSys to collaborating with. Then again, major licenses like Dragonball and Hunter X Hunter don't seem entirely unfeasible given relatively recent collaborations.

Quick note. I considered going with something chosen to mimic RWBY's inclusion, being a series or something similar that Ishiwatari took interest in, but I'm not sure how I'd do that without it seeming like I'm imposing on everyone; for instance, do we go with a Street Fighter IIX character or a B######!! character in light of the Guilty Gear series' inspirations, another smaller fighting game out there like EX Fighting Layer, or even odder stuff like an interpretation of Freddie Mercury? Too many options. Let's keep things simple.

 

[Janx_uwu]

I reckon the angle we take this kinda depends on a few things. If we're specifically limited to 2.5D games and mainly relying on asset reuse, it does kind of leave us in a rough spot where series like BlazBlue, Arcana Heart, Under Night In Birth and River City Girls aren't on the table, but I reckon it's still workable. I'll propose the following;

Huh. I guess yeah if that's what the crossover is about then I probably won't be able to contribute much, I myself don't really play those games. Ping me for the Double Dragon jobs!

 

[DragonRobotKing26]

Job 1: Roster

the roster of the characters would have Guilty Gear, BlazBlue, Double Dragon/Kunio-Kun, Granblue, Dragon Ball Z and One Piece, that is where i think how could be the roster

 

[Perkilator]

Job 1: Roster

the roster of the characters would have Guilty Gear, BlazBlue, Double Dragon/Kunio-Kun, Granblue, Dragon Ball Z and One Piece, that is where i think how could be the roster

How many characters would you suggest per franchise?

 

[DragonRobotKing26]

How many characters would you suggest per franchise?

20 from Guilty Guer, 18 from BlazBlue,8 from Double Dragon/Kunio-Kun,18 from Dragon Ball Z and 19 from One Piece

 

[Perkilator]

• 53 ( Perkilator )
• 36 ( KneeOfJustice99 )
• 83 ( DragonRobotKing26 )

Vote for your top 3, with your own submission below 1st. For me:

1. Knee
2. Mine
3. DRK

 

[DragonRobotKing26]

1. Knee
2. Myself
3. Perk

 

[darkvortex]

1. Perk
2. Knee
3. DRK

 

[KneeOfJustice99]

1. Perk's (Space for guest fighters is a fun thought. Didn't really occur to me!)
2. DRK's (Really expansive, but DBZ and One Piece could be pretty fun to pull from.)
3. Mine (shameless self-vote)

 

[Perkilator]

User	3 x # of votes	2 x # of votes	1 x # of votes	Total
Perkilator​	3 x 2 = 6​	2 x 1 = 2​	1 x 1 = 1​	9​
KneeOfJustice99​	3 x 2 = 6​	2 x 1 = 2​	1 x 1 = 1​	9​
DragonRobotKing26​	3 x 0 = 0​	2 x 2 = 4​	1 x 2 = 2​	6​

Knee and I are tied! Vote for one submission (that's not your own) to break the tie. I’m going for Knee’s.

 

[DragonRobotKing26]

My vot will be for Perk

 

[darkvortex]

Going for Knee's.

 

[KneeOfJustice99]

Going for Perk's to break the tie.

 

[Perkilator]

Well, since it doesn’t seem like the tie has been broken, I’ve decided to count both Knee’s submission and mine as the winner. The roster will consist of 45 characters, and the franchises represented will be:

• Guilty Gear Strive - 10 fighters
• Dragon Ball FighterZ - 10 fighters
• Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising - 10 fighters
• DNF Duel - 10 fighters
• Double Dragon - 2 fighters
• Kunio-Kun / River City - 3 fighters

But before we get to choosing the characters themselves…

Job #2: Gameplay hook​

What should the gameplay of this 2.5D crossover fighter look like? My proposal is this: 2v2 with special partners like in Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes.

 

[KneeOfJustice99]

Job #02: In light of a couple of the series included here, and ArcSys's own history, I may as well suggest something a little weird; namely, the game itself is centred around a Guilty Gear Judgement-like "belt-scrolling" beat-em-up system.

Specifically; pick a character, travel along different levels while beating up a ton of enemies themed around the different included series, and fight a boss in each level to unlock them as a subsequent playable character. Rinse and repeat as needed. (Multi-player would of course be included, as well as a fighting mode, but the beat-em-up gameplay is the main draw.)

On top of that, fighters from different series would have slightly different core mechanics to one another, though in general, there'd be some reworks to movesets so as to ensure they work in the new form factor. I won't take this as far as Capcom Fighting Evolution, but here's some ideas.

• Guilty Gear Strive's system focuses on the dual Tension and Burst Gauges in that game. Its characters can perform Roman Cancels to extend combos, and Psych Bursts as defensive tools, by spending some of those resources.
• Dragonball FighterZ's system mainly focuses on Ki Charge, a manually chargeable meter that allows one to perform quick crossups with Vanish, or powerful tools like empowered specials or supers. Its characters also have a universal Z Reflect to reflect projectiles, but it acts as a non-damaging attack on physical hits.
• Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising's system is a little stripped back in that its Skills don't have command inputs, but they feature Skill Cooldown. It also features Bravery Points, which can be used to perform Raging Strikes to extend combos or Brave Counters to reset to neutral, but are typically only recovered by performing a Skybound Art (super).
• DNF Duel's system primarily focuses on MP, which refills over time but is drained by using powerful MP Skills. If a character's MP is fully drained, they enter a state of Exhaustion, but they increase the size of their MP Gauge by up to double by taking damage. These characters also enter an Awakening state at low health, granting a certain buff and access to a unique Awakening Skill. Similar to Versus, DNF Duel's characters can perform MP Skills with simplified inputs, but gain a minor technical bonus from using command inputs.
• Double Dragon's system is unique in that it's inspired by elements from throughout the entire series, but perhaps takes the most hints from the 1995 Double Dragon on the Neo Geo, and Double Dragon Advance's take on the first game's formula. These characters have a Charge Meter which recharges faster when at low health, used specifically either for powered-up specials or for supers, and have a dodge system from Neon that works as a sort of "Just Dodge". More prominently, their attacks can feature items which can be knocked out of their hands, including weaponry and bombs, which must be picked up if lost - but can be very powerful tools if used well.
• Kunio-kun/River City's system is similar to the last in some ways. Based mainly on the River City Girls series, almost all of their attacks feature chains of some kind that lend them a very combo-heavy nature. On top of this, hitting opponents lends to these characters gaining Cash, a unique meter that allows them to expand their movelist with powerful new attacks, or heal themselves a little, between rounds.

There's also a handful of mechanics that are now universal. For example, Rising's Clash and Crush system for attacks of equal priority (determined in a chart based on which category everg attack falls into) is an example of this, allowing players to react in a number of ways of their choice.

Not sure how balanced all of this would be (thank god for the Dustloop Wiki!) but essentially, tl;dr - unique system mechanics based on game of origin, all stripped back into primarily a beat-em-up game that also features one-on-one combat modes. Profuse apologies for any mistakes, phoneposting is hell.

 

[darkvortex]

Gameplay Pitch:
Similar to its precursor, Blazblue Cross Tag battle, the game is a fighting game featuring 2V2 gameplay, with two fighters tagging. It uses Strives gameplay as it's core base, since Strive features more simplified gameplay and already has a tag mode built in, thus it is most similar in gameplay to GG Strive, however, also like BBCTB, each franchise featured in the game has their own gimmick.

• Guilty Gear characters have the Tension and Burst Gauges. They can preform Roman Cancels.
• Dragonball FighterZ characters have Ki Charge and a reflector.
• Granblue Fantasy Versus characters feature Bravery Points, which can be used to extend combos and special attacks.
• DNF Duel characters are all about MP, which refills over time but is drained by using powerful MP attacks. If they lose all their MP, they become exhausted.
• Kunio \ Double Dragon characters are the most like a regular fighting game character, their moves are based on beat- em up gameplay.
• Taking from BBTag, the game features an assist meter. Players can also have the second character use assist attacks to extend combos, keep the opponent away, or alternatively use all meter on "Cross Burst" to escape from dangerous situations. Even if one character on the team loses all of their health, the match continues until both are down.

 

[Perkilator]

• Perkilator
• KneeOfJustice99
• D darkvortex

Vote for your top 3 submissions, with your own below 1st. For me:

1. Vortex
2. Mine
3. Knee

 

[KneeOfJustice99]

1. Vortex's, because the idea of different series having their own gimmicks was handled wayyy better than in my submission, but also, it's neatly thought out and makes a lot more sense as a true sequel.
2. Perk's, because I reckon there's a lot you could do with the whole "dedicated assists" thing, even if it'd be more limited in a 2.5D setting. A small part of me thinks it'd be neat to take an approach like Code Shifters and properly dive into ArcSys's back catalogue for some of these?
3. Mine, self-vote.

 

[DragonRobotKing26]

1. Dark
2. Knee
3. Perk

 

[darkvortex]

1. Knee
2. Perk
3. Mine

 

[Perkilator]

User​	3 x # of votes​	2 x # of votes​	1 x # of votes​	Total​
Perkilator​	3 x 0 = 0​	2 x 3 = 6​	1 x 1 = 1​	7​
KneeOfJustice99​	3 x 1 = 3​	2 x 1 = 2​	1 x 2 = 2​	7​
D darkvortex​	= 9​	2 x 0 = 0​	1 x 1 = 1​	10​

And the winner is D darkvortex ! Congratulations!

Job #3: 10 characters from Dragon Ball FighterZ​

As the title says, pick 10 playable characters from Dragon Ball FighterZ. Submitting movesets for each characters is optional, but you can do so if you’d like. For me:

1. Goku
   • Starts out in his base form moveset, but you can expend a bar to go Super Saiyan, temporarily switching Goku over to his Super Saiyan moveset
2. Vegeta (Super Saiyan)
3. Frieza
4. Piccolo
5. Gohan
6. Krillin
   • Has a new super where he and Android 18 team up and beat you down; based on 18’s Meteor Attack from FighterZ when Krillin and 18 are on the same team
7. Trunks
8. Broly (Dragon Ball Super)
9. Beerus
10. Android 21
    • Now a stance character who can switch between her Lab Coat and Majin forms on the fly

 

[DragonRobotKing26]

User​	3 x # of votes​	2 x # of votes​	1 x # of votes​	Total​
Perkilator​	3 x 0 = 0​	2 x 3 = 6​	1 x 1 = 1​	7​
KneeOfJustice99​	3 x 1 = 3​	2 x 1 = 2​	1 x 2 = 2​	7​
DragonRobotKing26​	3 x 3 = 9​	2 x 0 = 0​	1 x 1 = 1​	10​

And the winner is D darkvortex ! Congratulations!

Job #3: 10 characters from Dragon Ball FighterZ​

As the title says, pick 10 playable characters from Dragon Ball FighterZ. Submitting movesets for each characters is optional, but you can do so if you’d like. For me:

1. Goku
   • Starts out in his base form moveset, but you can expend a bar to go Super Saiyan, temporarily switching Goku over to his Super Saiyan moveset
2. Vegeta (Super Saiyan)
3. Frieza
4. Piccolo
5. Gohan
6. Krillin
   • Has a new super where he and Android 18 team up and beat you down; based on 18’s Meteor Attack from FighterZ when Krillin and 18 are on the same team
7. Trunks
8. Broly (Dragon Ball Super)
9. Beerus
10. Android 21
    • Now a stance character who can switch between her Lab Coat and Majin forms on the fly

Lol,it's on my profile instead darkvortex

 

[KneeOfJustice99]

User​	3 x # of votes​	2 x # of votes​	1 x # of votes​	Total​
Perkilator​	3 x 0 = 0​	2 x 3 = 6​	1 x 1 = 1​	7​
KneeOfJustice99​	3 x 1 = 3​	2 x 1 = 2​	1 x 2 = 2​	7​
D darkvortex​	= 9​	2 x 0 = 0​	1 x 1 = 1​	10​

And the winner is D darkvortex ! Congratulations!

Job #3: 10 characters from Dragon Ball FighterZ​

As the title says, pick 10 playable characters from Dragon Ball FighterZ. Submitting movesets for each characters is optional, but you can do so if you’d like. For me:

1. Goku
   • Starts out in his base form moveset, but you can expend a bar to go Super Saiyan, temporarily switching Goku over to his Super Saiyan moveset
2. Vegeta (Super Saiyan)
3. Frieza
4. Piccolo
5. Gohan
6. Krillin
   • Has a new super where he and Android 18 team up and beat you down; based on 18’s Meteor Attack from FighterZ when Krillin and 18 are on the same team
7. Trunks
8. Broly (Dragon Ball Super)
9. Beerus
10. Android 21
    • Now a stance character who can switch between her Lab Coat and Majin forms on the fly

I'll try and go for a decent mix. Might seem like there's a couple of notable omissions, but this feels it'd be likely to get some future content down the line like the last game, so it's no huge loss. Note also that I don't want the DBFZ characters to feel narratively insurmountable compared to characters from other series, too, and that I'd just like there to be a variety of fighting styles and body types if possible.

1. Goku (Base) - A sort of jack-of-all-trades character who's more than capable of holding his own normally, but also makes heavy use of his unique Kaio-Ken to recover from defecits.
   • Goku (Super Saiyan) - Spending a stock of meter allows him to transform into Super Saiyan for a short time. It's most notable for opening up zoning tools compared to his base kit, but maintains a "no major strengths, no major weaknesses" nature otherwise.
2. Vegeta (Base) - A rushdown character who relies heavily on being able to get in to deal damage. He's got a lot of neat and tricky moves to utilise to that end, which can really keep an opponent on their toes.
   • Vegeta (Super Saiyan) - Like Goku, Vegeta can also expend a stock of meter to enter Super Saiyan. Unlike Goku, it's mostly notable for opening up even more pressure options, as well as helping a little in the damage department.
3. Trunks - A unique DBFZ character in that he prefers to be grounded, using sword disjoints to extend reach and relying on high mobility. I reckon he's also interesting due to the time-travel elements at play in his own narrative?
4. Krillin - Something of a team anchor, perhaps not being the best in terms of sheer firepower despite excelling at misdirection, but having a number of tools to aid his allies and take advantage of his enemies.
5. Piccolo - A unique character due to his command grab and heavy focus on mixups, Piccolo is unpredictable and important to keep an eye on.
6. Freiza - A powerful zoner with a myriad of tools to keep opponents at bay, not to mention with the threat of his special-enhancing Golden Form. While a lot of his tools work well to push opponents away, he doesn't do well when they're right up in his face.
7. Majin Buu - A slow and heavy-hitting powerhouse who might be avoided by faster fighters, but nonetheless does a fantastic job at decimating them with strong hits.
8. Tien Shinhan - A character who works well in combos due to high minimum damage values, as well as having a few ways to break through enemy defences. The highlight of his kit is likely Tri-Beam, a version of which sacrifices his life for truly immense damage.
9. Android 17 - A fast-paced character focusing on a mixture of evasion and trapping, baiting opponents into Barrier attacks and being armed with plenty of options to approach foes. (Note that Android 18 appears in his intro animations, but doesn't partake in battle.)
10. Jiren - Jiren's main goal is simple - draw an opponent out, and punish them for it. With a number of counter moves and ways to get through defence, he's the kind of character who excels at setting the pace of battle. He might be a character with a simple mission statement, but it belies high levels of complexity under the hood.

 

[DragonRobotKing26]

Job 3: Dragon Ball FighterZ Characters

1. Goku (Super Saiyan)
2. Vegeta (Super Sayian)
3. Frieza
4.Piccolo
5. Trunks
6. Killirin
7. Cell
8. Goku Black
9. Majin Boo
10. Gotenks

 

[darkvortex]

1. Goku (Super Saiyan)
2. Vegeta (Super Saiyan)
3. Trunks
4. Piccolo
5. Frieza
6. Beerus
7. Hit
8. Broly (DBS)
9. Goku (GT)
10. Android 21

 

[Perkilator]

• Perkilator
• KneeOfJustice99
• DragonRobotKing26
• D darkvortex

Vote for your top three submissions, with your own below 1st. For me:

1. Knee
2. Mine
3. Vortex

 

[DragonRobotKing26]

1. Dark
2. Knee
3. Myself

 

[darkvortex]

1. Knee
2. Perk
3. DRK

 

[KneeOfJustice99]

1. Dark
2. Perk
3. DRK

 

[Perkilator]

User	3 x # of votes	2 x # of votes	1 x # of votes	Total
Perkilator​	3 x 0 = 0​	2 x 3 = 6​	1 x 0 = 0​	6​
KneeOfJustice99​	3 x 2 = 6​	2 x 1 = 2​	1 x 0 = 0​	8​
DragonRobotKing26​	3 x 0 = 0​	2 x 0 = 0​	1 x 3 = 3​	3​
D darkvortex​	3 x 1 = 3​	2 x 0 = 0​	1 x 1 = 1​	4​

And the winner is KneeOfJustice99 ! Congratulations!

Job #4: Game Modes​

For this job, you just need to submit one game mode idea and then all of the ideas will be included in the pitch. For my submission, I'm gonna start out simple and submit Arcade Mode, which works how it does in DBFZ.

 

[KneeOfJustice99]

Job #04: I'll propose Survival Mode, acting as a variation of its functionality in Strive. It's a single-player mode similar to a traditional Arcade Mode, but you begin with only a single healthbar and a short timer - if you're K.O.'d, it's game over. However, surviving subsequent rounds can grant you slight recoveries in health and time, and you can spend points scored during a round to gain additional boons like refills of health or meter.

Assumedly, your score would be based around how many rounds you're able to survive. It could potentially also result in some form of internal currency, which could be spent on things like character alts, music tracks from previous games in the represented series (or even other ArcSys stuff, honestly) and other content.

 

[Perkilator]

Job #5: 10 characters from Guilty Gear Strive​

Once again, moveset submissions are optional, but feel free to do so if you'd like. For me:

1. Sol Badguy
2. Ky Kiske
3. May
4. Bridget
5. Elphelt
6. Nagoriyuki
7. Jack-O
8. Baiken
9. Faust
10. Potemkin

 

[KneeOfJustice99]

Guilty Gear's a bit difficult to try and nail down a roster for, but I'll give it a shot. I'll note that my rationale is loosely similar to the DBFZ picks; major focus on the base roster with two DLC picks (this being with the mindset that other DLC candidates would make sense as later additions, akin to BBCTB), ideally featuring characters originating from numerous different eras, and with variety in appearance, playstyle, and weaponry.

1. Sol Badguy - A balanced character who excels when right in your face, using a variety of tools to condition his opponents and go for potentially risky plays. Given his role as pretty much the face of the series, he's pretty much a no-brainer.
2. Ky Kiske - More of a neutral-focused take on the idea of a balanced character, working well at mid-range to dictate the pace of battle. While he's comfortable at many ranges, this also comes with the caveat that he doesn't really specialise anywhere.
3. May - A versatile character with explosive damage and effective mid-range control, May's more on the directly powerful side as characters go - but with a number of charge inputs to manage and not having many mix-ups, it's important not to get predictable as her.
4. Faust - An oddball hybrid-zoner with a number of projectiles and mid-range options to cause chaos on the battlefield, Faust's gameplay is unorthodox and slightly all-over-the-place - but learning to go with the flow can really help you make the most of him.
5. Axl Low - Pretty much the dedicated zoner of the cast, armed with a seemingly endless array of long-range attacks that excel at keeping opponents at much longer than arm's length. His time-travelling nature also feels like it'd bring him into conflict with Trunks, perhaps.
6. Potemkin - He's the Grappler™. Immense damage with attacks like the Potemkin Buster essentially make him a nuclear bomb up close, but actually getting in is on the more difficult side. Even with that in mind, his more technical nature is rewarded with truly hard-hitting strikes.
7. Leo Whitefang - With a focus on footsies in neutral, Whitefang's stance-changing properties allow him to switch between one of the most offensive rushdown characters in the game and a defensive powerhouse - but a balance of these states is necessary to play him well.
8. I-No - With strange, hover-based movement and oppressive okizeme in her back pocket, I-No's got more options than she knows what to do with - and making use of them is always a good idea. Even if her neutral leaves something to be desired, she's got plenty of tools to mess up her enemies.
9. Goldlewis Dickinson - Similar to Potemkin, Goldlewis is on the slower side, but has powerful options of his own - but with the ability to enhance his specials using his unique Security Level and his shockingly versatile Behemoth Typhoon specials, he's his own flavour of heavyweight.
10. Bridget - Something of a more mobile character than most, working best with a death-by-a-thousand-cuts playstyle overall. Even if her health is on the lower side, her exceptional okizeme and setplay means skilled players can dance around their opponents with her.

 

[DragonRobotKing26]

1. Sol Badguy
2. Ky Kiske
3. Jack O Valentine
4. Baiken
5. Testament
6. May
7. Bridget
8. Millia Rage
9. Ramlethal Valentine
10. Elphelt Valentine

(Holy crap,i added 3 girls with "Valentine")