Fighting games. Specifically actual, competitive, 2d fighting games, the kind that make lunatics like me say words like "frame data" and "rollback netcode" and "DP into fuzzy mixup". Oh, and also Super Smash Bros I guess. They're pretty cool if you have the right kind of brain worms.
I'm bored, I wanted to procrastinate some more, and I've got fighting games on the brain. And so this concept was born: If the Good Seeds were characters in a fighting game, what kind of fighting game characters would they be?
If a prominent good seed isn't on this list, it's because their abilities wouldn't fit into a 2d fighting game very well.
Rina Callista: I went back and forth on RIna a lot: She's got great defense and really gives off a feeling of solidity, so I was thinking maybe she would be a heavy character, with a bad jump, high health and a lot of Armored moves. However, her small size means she lacks a large hitbox, which is crucial for that type of character. So in the end, I've concluded that Rina is a Shoto. Specifically, a heavy shoto with somewhat slow move speed and powerful normals, like the SFV version of Ryu. She's a solid all rounder, having a decent projectile, pretty good neutral and solid combo potential. She also lacks major weaknesses, making her pretty viable in competitive play.
Jin Muyi: One look at this weird guy and you can tell he's going to either the top of the tier list or the bottom. On paper, Muyi sounds like a typical Zoner. Long-range normals with his vine attacks, as well as some beam spam to further increase the half-screen to full-screen pressure. However, he has another tool on top of that: a busted Command Grab. A Command Grab that hits from half-screen, gives him a bit of health back, and does high damage. So not only are you blocking all of this bullshit hitting you from so far away, you constantly have to watch out for that grab. His only weaknesses are his slow movement and big hurtbox, which make him vulnerable to certain mixups. But in general, Muyi is a braindead, powerful character who new players especially love, and the rallying cry of "Nerf Muyi!" resounds far and wide amongst anyone who doesn't main him.
Xiuying Ten Jiang: Eek eek ook ook. That's right, Xiuying is a fucking gorilla if there ever was one. A fast and hard-hitting Rushdown character, Xiuying's one and only goal is to get in close and land devastating combos. Many(arguably too many) of her attacks are plus on block, which means Xiuying players are encouraged to mash buttons all day, beating the shit out of their fightstick until they open the enemy up and turn them into mincemeat. She has low health, but that doesn't matter if your opponent never gets to play the game.
Gaius Antonius: New players hate Gaius, both playing as him and playing against him. He's complicated and takes some time to get used to, but has a lot of potential if you use his tools properly. That's right, Gaius is a Setplay character. He's strong in neutral, using the large hitbox on his normals and the high knockback on some of his specials to outmaneuver and opponent and knock them down. Once he buys himself a few seconds of breathing room, Gaius can set up Aegises, which he can give commands to with some of his inputs, such as making block an attack, move forward or back, or hit the opponent. When set up and utilized properly, this can allow Gaius to juggle his opponent with long, masterful combos and rack up insane damage, but if Gaius' player screws up, he's vulnerable against offensive pressure from characters who can get up in his face and put him in the corner.
Amaranth Castellanos: In stark contrast to a weirdo like Gaius, Amaranth's gameplay is somewhat simpler. He is a Grappler, plain and simple. He has strong normals, but nothing crazy. His mobility is also average. That's because all of his moves revolve around getting the opponent into position so he can hit them with his Command Grab. But don't think you can get out of this rhythm by jumping: he has an anti-air Command Grab that hits almost as hard. Many of Amaranth's moves have Armor to help him close the distance between him and his opponent. On the flipside, an opponent that predicts what moves the Amaranth player will use and prevents him from getting in close enough to land his grabs can shut him down pretty effectively. So while Amaranth's combos are themselves relatively simple, there are still a lot of mind games involved in playing him.
Manuel Konstantinos: As you'd expect, Manuel is a Gimmick character(and a secret boss character, but that's not a gameplay type). He has a Shadow of Heaven gauge that builds over time, and he can spend part of that gauge to perform powerful and very fast specials. However, when he doesn't have enough Gauge to spend, Manuel is a thoroughly mediocre character, withlow health, low damage on his normals and not much range on his attacks. He has good mobility and a nutty air-dash but that's about it. Because of this, Manuel is not a good character for beginners, but a player who knows how to manage his resources can find him quite effective.
Zeno Angelus: Zeno players are all just here to have a good time. That's because Zeno is a Mixup character. Zeno's main strength is his Fuzzies, which means that many of his startup animations look identical to one another, making his combos hard to predict. Furthermore, many of his moves can be cancelled into one-another, allowing for complex maneuvers that make him a strong rushdown despite his low damage. In addition, Zeno has incredible aerial mobility, being the only character who can air-dash twice in a row, as well as having access to a teleport and a wakeup DP, which can itself be canceled into an air-dash. Zeno's strength lies in avoiding his opponent and controlling the momentum of the fight, and if he loses that momentum he's in big trouble.
Minervina Barda: Min was probably the easiest of all the characters to typecast. I don't even need to tell you that she is a Zoner. Her health? Wack. Her neutral? Wack. Her melee damage? Wack. Those projectiles though? Now we're talking. Minervina will obliterate unprepared opponents with her poison clouds, which can be shot in just about any way you can imagine: straight from neutral, straight from crouch, up from neutral, up from crouch, up, straight or down from in the air. No matter the positioning, Min will shoot that icky fart gas at you and you've got to be ready. Okay, you managed to get in close? You're not in the clear yet, because she also has weird specials that let her jump over or through the opponent as they're used. But in general, Min is a very focused character: she wins at range and loses up close.
The Ninth Prince: Maybe the weirdest character yet, mechanically at least. That's because Princey here is a Puppeteer. Princey's normals and specials are only decent on their own(though he does have a good projectile in the form of his spears, which he can lob in an arc or throw straight); his real strength is that he can summon Ulo to fight alongside him, either attacking the enemy while he hangs back or fighting alongside him and greatly enhancing the damage and complexity of his combos. The issue with playing Princey is that you need a big enough brain to essentially control two weak characters at once. If you don't know what you're doing you'll get squashed, but if you do, you've got a powerful mainstay that can turn an opponent at full health into a twitter clip in about twenty seconds.
Magnus Centenius: At first you'd think Magnus would be another Zoner, but he's not so specialized. Magnus can do a lot of things, just not all at once: in other words, he's a Stance Character. One of Magnus' specials switches his arm loadout, giving him an entirely different set of abilities. He's got one stance for zoning, one for neutral and another for grappling. This means that he has the right tools for any situation, but needs to have them out at the proper time. If an opponent can guess what Magnus' player wants to do and performs the right strategy at the moment he changes stance - usually mixups against the grappler stance or rushing him down against the zoner stance - they can take him apart while not giving him a chance to change. A Magnus player has to think several steps ahead, and thus he's not a popular character to use. Still, in the hands of a master he's extremely dangerous.
Xiao Yingzi: Folks, we've got ourselves another Shoto. The gal's in a similar spot to Rina, having tools for every situation. Unlike Rina, she places more emphasis on zoning, with multiple strong projectiles and good knockback on some of her normals. Still, she's got a bit of everything, with a powerful DP and decent mobility, which means she's not weak at any range.
Wei Feng: This guy is absolutely another Rushdown. He has amazing aerial mobility, with a double jump, an airdash that covers half the screen and a fast divekick. In fact, everything about Wei Feng is fast. His DP hits like a truck and has only a few frames of startup, and his crouching slide comes out quickly too. He's also got an extremely powerful super that hits at half-screen, but it's easy enough so block to normally he has to combo into it. Wei Feng doesn't really have any one overpowered thing, he is just a solid character all around; a strong but extremely honest character, for those who want to win without being accused of tier-whoring. You still will though, such is the nature of online. Also, as an easter egg, if Wei Feng loses and you let his opponent's victory animation play, you can see him regenerate, get up and dust himself off, good as new.
Antonius Emmanuel Emenadora: We've got a Rushdown here, albiet one with unusually good projectiles. Antonius wants to distract you with his big, flashy projectiles so that he can run behind them and get in. He is especially adept at using his combined melee and ranged pressure to force the opponent into the corner and beat them senseless. On the flipside to his amazing offense is his lackluster defense: Antonius has poor health and mediocre recovery options, so if he loses the momentum he crumples quickly.
As stated previously, there are other Good Seeds that I wanted to include but couldn't because they wouldn't fit into a fighting game. These include:
Aretaphila Miya: Most Of her attacks don't have much of a visual tell, and they don't really work well for the genre in general.
Abel Angelus: A very prominent seed, but ultimately not much of a fighter. I couldn't think of much in the way of moves for him. Hopefully he'll show his stuff in combat some more now that he's advanced a lot.
Aliki Floros: A huge amount of her abilities revolve around healing, and healing in fighting games is generally a very rare thing, When present it is only in small amounts.
That was about everyone I can think of who is both prominent and has a well-established fighting style. I'm not really saying anything meaningful with all this, I just thought it would be cool.
