Free Step Dodge

My answer is simple: No. Lucky Chloe and Marie/Honoka did not ruin fighting games. Are they my favorite characters: Not at all. Do I hate them: Not as much. But to say they ruined fighting games as a whole is incorrect. What ruins fighting games is a Leroy Japan top 8, bad balancing, horrid online, tedious rank system, asinine story, un-engaging gameplay, no punishment for hack players and pluggers...

Bad character design, game getting no dev support, and so on and so forth. Do they contribute to these problems: Probably. Lucky Chloe, Marie and Honoka to me aren't really the most fun to play as or against, I don't like their design much at all (personally), the general balance they did to Honoka was bad and MR and LC are still a waste of time balance wise (to me), and their story in DOA 6 and T7 was garbage.

I don't think Marie or Honoka have the power to ruin fighting games tbh, cutesy big boobed girls and lolis were a thing even before them, look at Sakura, Kula, Nakoruru, Talim, Amy etc. It's just all about how their designs are executed, Honoka and Marie act like immature children while Talim and Amy and Nakoruru don't

Looking at the internet, it almost seems that way. But I just feel that at the end of it all, they contribute to an underlying design and gameplay issues that have been prevalent in almost every fighting game I experience. At worst, besides what I mentioned, they contribute to the same wonky mashy playstyle characters that I see in both DOA and Tekken that just makes them boring to play through.

If I had to say any characters that "Ruin fighting games", it's T7 Akuma Matata and launch Leroy and Fahkumram. That's as close as it gets for me. Them three are still balancing nightmares, they make the game un-engaging, playing them online's asinine, they're super well rounded w/ barely any flaws, and they're in majority of top 8's even w/ nerfs.

But if even by Fahk and Leroy and all that stuff, people still want a season 5 (for whatever reason), then Marie and Honoka and Lucky Chloe are not what ruins fighting games. FG's ruin FG's being in the position its in now w/ the issues that I mentioned earlier.

I feel like there is a different case behind this.

In terms of the concept of a fighting game, I don't believe they ruined fighting games as a whole as they were a refreshing pace. But in terms of the genre itself, the push for it over the importance of fighting game itself can be a possible claim.

Reason for it is that characters like these feels forced or to push a certain agenda when bringing these type of characters into a game. Whether it be from a trend or a meme. But things like this is a double edge sword that indoctrinates people to follow it and to push for a demographic as "We like this and only this, and if you don't like it go away" rather than bringing a character that can please multiple sides.

But the issue with that also is that you can't please everyone, it's too much variations that the typical answer they go for is to bring these types of character into the fold but find a way where they can overlook the typical forced "loli" / "bubbly cutesy" characters because these types of characters clashes with "fighting" game in mind.

And by clashes, it's how FGs look visually into things that make sense. If you have this type of character using the power of cutesy friendship throwing a 7 foot tall character that weights 200+ pounds who trained religiously in body and mind, it just looks weird. But that's the trick with FGs is that none of it entirely makes sense to begin with because it's not real. Especially anime fighters.

I can see this point for MR and Honoka. Especially when it pertains to the DOAX series, which to this day I wish never existed (but welp it's still getting content so it'll be around). Looking at the characters in that game and I can clearly see them pushing that type of agenda and it does feel like a take it or leave it kind of thing. If you look at it from that perspective, you can say that it's ruining....

the DOA fighting game as the Xtreme series seems to be taken more seriously than the fighter. However, I have to consider how them as characters (I'll even throw in NiCO and Kula) impact the overall fighting game. From that I have to consider these aspects: Do I like their initial design? Well no. I don't like NiCO's design at all (Idc what defense anyone comes up w/). Honoka's design isn't cool at all either...