Bonus points for Hisako's theme: 1: The child choir near the end of the song are actually mimicking the original Killer Instinct main theme in deranged sounding voices, which is entirely fitting for obvious reasons. 2: When translated, the Japanese lyrics in the song somehow take on two feelings at the same time: Disturbing to the max AND strangely comforting. Tying into Hisako's lore, the lyrics essentially worship Hisako and make references to her backstory throughout the song, but the lyrics also make it clear that Hisako isn't just some rage filled nightmare fuel demon spirit: She's pissed at Ultratech for disturbing her village, but she doesn't really consider anyone else to be her enemy, and is even framed in the lore as a much more rational onryo that is even willing to help those who intend to fight Ultratech. In fact, in the lore, it was Hisako who taught Kim Wu to use her dragon powers to fight Ultratech, so Hisako is actually a fairly good natured spirit despite her being an onryo. 3: Referring back to the lyrics, notice that a lot of words get repeated twice in a row. This might not seem significant, but if you do a little research, you learn that people in Japan sometimes repeat the same word twice; This is believed to be a way to prove themselves of not being yokai as, in Japanese mythology, yokai are typically incapable of repeating the same word twice. By sometimes repeating the same word twice throughout the lyrics, Hisako's theme can almost be taken as a peace gesture, which also fits in with her character in Killer Instinct 2013: You don't piss her off, and she has no reason to be hostile to you; She'll even help you out if you give her the opportunity. If you DO piss her off, though, no amount of running and hiding will save you from her wrath. "If you want peace, prepare for war." She comes in peace to anyone that doesn't piss her off, but if you reject her peace, well, you basically resign yourself to death. Sidenote: Hisako being called the Eternal Child in the lore isn't lighthearted in any way; She wasn't even 20 years old yet when she was killed, soooooo.......OOF!
Would of been nice to have Scorpion or Noob on the ghost Scorpion is a Spector and Noob is a Rath which are types of ghosts, hack you could of had Shang Tsung or Quan Chi for the witch part since their mostly classified as sorcerers hack they both been called warlocks which are male witches
I like how Thorgi and SugarPunch released videos about Monsters in fighting games within a hour of each other. Thorgi with a best of list and Sugar with a fighting style video.
i cant believe you missed the fact that when squigly charges certain moves she bounces like a jiangshi (chinese zombie/vampire). maybe its not our western idea of a zombie but its still important and should count
In shocked he left out Hsien Ko as well. I guess it was between her and Raptor, and Raptor is a more obvious Western take of a zombie. But honestly i would've cracked the "one per series" rule just for Hsien Ko over the skeleton guy. Or zombie liu kang lol.
I wasn't totally sold on Valkenhayn being a top werewolf since I thought at first he just shifted between human and actual wolf (I say that being aware that werewolves have roots in stories of people just becoming wolves), but him being able to shift individual limbs at a time for specific attacks ON TOP of his Astral Finish including a full-on werewolf form was SUCH a massive sell for me, good god he's so cool!
23:01 Lord Raptor's real backstory is even more metal than that. He committed the mass murder of a hundred of his fans and his own suicide in a live concert by performing a song called "Sacrifice", the lyrics based on a book he found that detailed a way to give sacrifices to the King of the Makai. And he did this to receive power from Ozom, then due to its brutally cruel nature, Lord Raptor's soul was baptized by the dark and reborn in the form of a zombie.
The thing about how "Vampires are a more violent and unrecognizable version of one's former self" really makes me think of Donovan. It's so sad, Donovan's relationship with Anita was super sweet, but we all know what happened in the end 😞
The funny thing is that Rachel is technically the most accurate vampire gameplay vice. That's because the modern depiction of a bloodsucking bat transforming pale monster isn't the original, they were originally dark wizards (or witches) who got their powers through unholy means and were weakened but not killed by sunlight
I'd categorize zombies and skeletons separately. Skeletons are unavoidably magical, since there has to be some kind of animating force keeping all of the bones together. Zombies lean heavily into the presumption that they still ambulate on the remaining strength of their rotting muscles and tendons, which is why they famously stagger around and such. Skeletons are typically able to snap themselves back together if the bones get separated because there is no singular locus of life -- they're animated externally. I also usually picture zombies as being more primal and hungry -- motivated by only the animal portions of the brain -- and skeletons are more mischievous and intentional. Plus, they can play their ribs like a xylophone without exception.
Something fun about I-no visually that you didn't point out is how her hoverdash has her positioning her guitar to be visually reminiscent of a witch flying on a broom. While much of her animations and visuals aren't quite witch-y I Do really like that detail
I feel like an honorable mention for one of the most unique fighting game monsters is A.B.A from Guilty Gear. She's a homunculus that was created by a scientist called Frasco and was locked in his lab for several years until one day she decided to venture out to the outside world, taking notes of what she learns (her notebook resembling the necronomicon btw) and finding a giant key shaped demon key called Flament Nagel, only for her to call him Paracelsus and claim he's her husband
Damn would love to see this become a reoccurring series with new monsters each time. I’ll even throw in some suggestions for entries. Frankensteins Victor (Darkstalkers) Ms.Fortune (Skullgirls) Astaroth (Soul Calibur) Adam (Omen of Sorrow) Mummies Anakaris (Darkstalkers) Master Mummy (Arms) Kan Ra (Killer Instinct) Eliza (Skullgirls)
Certainly I wanna see more of this, not to mention there's so many classic monsters to pick and choose. I know for sure there is a fair bit of mummies in fighting games worth mentioning.
Your original Darkstalkers retrospective is what got me so into the series, and after playing it in Capcom Fighting Collection it's now one of my favorite fighting games! This video was really fun, I'd love to see more like it!
It's hard to top Talbain when it comes to werewolf fighters, but Valkenheim does have his merits. That being said, I really wish if Capcom ever gets serious in reviving Darkstalkers, they let ArcSys work with them.
I would give squigly's gameplay bonus points because her game plan is exactly like a zombies. She is one of the slower characters, but she has a move that centers the stage on her and traps the opponent close to her. This is just like in zombie movies where they aren't a threat until it corners you in a building and there is no escape, and that feeling of being this inescapable slow moving threat really fits the zombie character.
As for animating Demitri, it’s actually pretty simple. His coloring is based off of two base palettes for each color choice. All of the colors are the same except for the color responsible for his aura. Palette A will include the aura color for one frame, palette B has the other aura color. When animating, the game simply alternates between palette A & B which gives you the flash back and forth between the red and yellow auras. Source: PalMod. Pretty fun software and Discord community
This video series is such a neat idea and I'd definitely be down for more of these. Also glad to see Jon making his way to the top of the list in his category
This is honestly a really fun concept! I'd love to see another video like this sometime, either for more monsters or maybe just other types of fighters in general.
Another fighting series with monsters for add are the Touhou fighting games spinoffs. There we have Remillia Scarlet (vampire, who use her wings, red magic and adorable charisma) her sister Flandre (a destructive overpowerful vampire with other set of attacks) Marisa Kirisame (the witch, the more classic ever, spells with lots of flashing stars, her broom and MASTER SPARK) Youmu Konpaku (half ghost half human/phantom, with her ghost half at her side, and who can use it for double self attacks, including the fact who she use double japanese swords) and Yuyuko (Youmu master and princess of ghosts, powered with luminous butterflies who will send you to death) And in the witchy class we have a bunch who are less classic than Marisa but fit anyways, like Alice, Patchouli, Byakuren (is a nun and a magician) and even Sumireko, who have psychic powers, but her apparence in the games is more like a magic performer.
Happy Halloween Thorgi! And yeah, I am COMPLETELY on board for this style of episode as a new series. Hope we see you tackle the biggest, baddest bosses next!
Hsien Ko could have fit the vampire or Zombie roll due to her being a jiangshi, so it's a shame she didn't make the list.. But great video! I'm really happy Tessa got some love here too. XD
I think seeing who's the best protagonist, the best rivals, ect would be interesting to watch. (Hope to see some blazblue mentions involved since it does some appreciation)
So my brain just connected that in BlazBlue, there is a Hellsing serving the Alucard family. Meanwhile in the anime Hellsing, Alucard serves the Hellsing Family. Oh thats cheeky. Thats very, very cheeky.
I would totally down to see this spring off into it's own series. I love hearing you talk about fighting games with all your passion and I have learned so much from you over the years.
this whole video is a fantastic concept and a great way to just gush about fighting game characters, I'd love seeing the same concept but with a different theme in other videos! Also, I personally would put Zappa before Hisako, but that might just be my guilty gear bias
Honorable mentions for fighting game vampires: Arcueid and Roa from Melty Blood. Yeah their designs definitely scream "anime vampire" more than classic vampire, but Melty Blood being based on a visual novel about vampires and a group of people able to kill them means I think they deserve a mention.
This was great! I would love to see more of this style series. I agreed with just about all of your points and opinions on your rating system!! Keep going. Also a game that doesn't get enough love that would be great to mention at some point is Chaos Code! Should have a sequel out soon
I really enjoyed this format and would love to see you do it again, either with more monsters or any of the other categories you mentioned. It's a fun, different way to talk about characters and tropes that gets me thinking about them in a way I wouldn't have. Nicely done.
I'm on board for more of these~! You have singlehandedly convinced me to give Killer Instinct a chance after 20 years of pointedly trying to ignore it.
@@MagillanicaLouM I think I remember The Quarter Guy mentioned that in his video on the game some months back. That aside, the devs were absolute wizards when it came to that hardware. Game looks like it could have come out today, it's that pristine.
I really love this format for the video I love how you structured everything down at the categories went over the characters lore I would love to see more videos like this
I feel like Eliza from Skullgirls and Nagoriyuki should've at least gotten a mention in the vampire section. Both of them have blood drinking mechanics, and both of them have fascinating takes on it.
Another cool things about the witches score is that you can abstract the four multiples of 3, and 3 is a Very important number in witchcraft. THREE witches with the SIX and NINE with the TWELVE score, which is THREE multiplied by four, the total number of witches
Man, this was the most pleasant surprise! Not only did we get two Thorgi videos back-to-back, but this one was an absolute blast to watch! I'd definitely want to see more of this, and if we're sticking to the 'monster' theme in fighting games, then here's one idea: demons and devils. Obviously you gotta have a Tekken rep in there, but you can also throw in Jedah from Darkstalkers and plenty of Skullgirls to choose from. To complement that, you could also do god characters? Not necessarily those who have insane godlike power, but rather characters who are explicitly gods or deities, such as Raiden from Mortal Kombat or Orochi from King of Fighters. I would be so down for these! Finally, and though this doesn't necessarily fit the supernatural monster trope but still extremely fitting for monstrousness: fighting game psychos. Juri Han, Bryan Fury, Ryuji Yamazaki, there's tons to pick from. Who's the biggest, baddest, bloodthirstiest, batshittiest of them all?! *You* decide!
I actually do want to see this become a regular series. However, I have a new idea of my own... What if we take Peacock from Skullgirls, and use her classic cartoon-based motif to create new characters for other fighting games? Heck, we can even use Darkstalkers to provide the easiest example of what would happen, given what it was truly inspired by. Seriously, a Capcom game based on horror movie monsters, and its aesthetic is inspired by the stuff kids used to watch on Saturday Mornings in the 60s and 70s.
Really makes me wish Killer Instinct had been multi-platform. For what it's worth, Zombie Liu Kang is just his reanimated corpse. His Soul is trying to reclaim it's body after being released from Shang Tsung in Deception.
There is one bit of movement with squiggly you forgot. When she is charging a particular move she can hop around, which is a nice reference to the “hopping vampire” which is a type of undead. Sorry if this was already brought up. Great video regardless keep up the bangers man.
Wish you included Frankenstein's Monsters in here, Astoroth (Soul Calibur), Victor (Darkstalkers), Potemkin (Guilty Gear), Golem (Casetlvania Judgement), Bryan Fury (Tekkan), and plenty more men, and pieces there of, turned monstrous by work of magic, science, magic-science, and rule of cool to choose from.
Please do a Best shoto vídeo, and if one of the categories is who's the best basic tutorial character, that would ve perfect, i love your content thorgi, and I really hope that you keep growing, the FGC needs more channels like your's, to show the cassual audience that fighting games are cool, even if you'r not an EVO champion at it.
This was such an entertaining concept and a great topic to talk about. And your chaices were good too, though I think Rachel deserved the n.1 spot for the presentatiin cathegory, among other minor disagreements. The only mild criticism I have of this video is the clear omission of some important monsters, but that can be solved with a part 2. Because it definitely would be fun to cover this topic again with demons (Morrigan, Double, Kazuya, ect), arthropod people (QBee, Arakune, Anansi, ect), monster hunters/investigators (B. B. Hood, Goldlewis, ect), mummies (Eliza, Anakaris, ect) and aliens (Glacius, Pyron, ect).
Would absolutely be down for more of these! ...Not sure where to go specifically? Archetypes seems obvious, but I... do not know how one'd rank things like 'best zoner', 'best grappler' and such. ...And best protagonist/antagonist/rival also has it's own set of 'how do I do this'? ...Maybe something along the lines of 'best way a guest character translates to a different series?"
Kinda wishbthere was a miscellaneous category. Would've loved to see my boys Merkava and Arakune one here. I just love Merkava'a design and the bag of bees himself Arakune is just. He's fucking creepy, man ;
Thanks for mentioning Yoriko from Arcana Heart in this video. And speaking of Arcana Heart, can you please do a Fighting Game Retrospective on Arcana Heart by Valentine's Day?
