Monster: Tiers and Character Thoughts

As it would seem that both the japanese and the americans have both come up with a tier list for monster. Ironically, The list for the most part doesnt even begin to look alike lol. Each character has a fighting chance(Yes even Orju and Aleksander) The characters in this game for the most part are very unique in different ways. I will explain this in a little bit.



The current American tier list is as follows:

• S: Othello, Ryougen
• A: Maya
• B: Katze
• C: Orju / Rail
• D: Delga / Siely
• E: Aleksander

Now at first glace this list might look completely accurate according to how the americans play Monster. We play the game slighly different from the japanese. The japanese play the game in more of an "offense is defense" As you will be able to tell when I post the japanese tier list. The americans for the most part however tend to play more defensively to that of the Japanese. Most japanese players do not use the "Powerbreak system" Within monster the ways that most of the americans use the system.

• S　Ryougen
• A　Maya
• B　Delga
• C　Othello　/　Rail
• D　Siely　/ Katze
• E　Orju　/　Aleksandr

The list above is the japanese tier list. Now you will notice alot of differences with in the tier list than the american tier list. As you can see Ryougen is S class in both lists. So there isnt too much confusion there. Nor is there with maya. But the rest of the list is almost completely different then the american list. I will try to provide an explanation for each character as well as my thoughts on their listings.

Ryougen

Explaination: Ryougen is just too good. He has really fast pokes, Really good range, damaging combos,2 parries(one is actually a counter 623a), and almost no bad match ups depending on shift he is using. However some matches are harder than others, it doesnt affect his placing on the tier list due to the fact that he is just too good. He is a very complete character. Not to mention he isnt too hard to use. I mean while he isnt an easy character to just plug and play, Ryougen does take a good amount of skill to be decent with. You arent going to win matches with ryougen mashing out combos. It just isnt going to work.

My Thoughts: I personally use Ryougen as a main and as a really fun character to play as. I use him in freedom shift which I believe is the optimal shift to use him in. His moves become faster and he deals really insane damage off of landing a single hit( reminds me of playing 3s chun but a lot more mindful) Ryougen IS the top tier of Monster.

Othello

Explaination: Othello is a mixed bag. The americans believe he is a top tier character due to the ammount of damage he can do at ANY point in the match. While the japanese say that Othello is pretty damn slow compared to the other members of the cast(second slowest next to delga) While that could be possibly true othello is still a powerhouse. Dealing INSANE ammount of damage anywhere on the screen with only using a shift(not super) has really good mixups and Othello also has one of the best anti airs in the game. This being ignition(a+b) when the opponent is infected by the blood. Othello has alot of things going for him, That is for sure. He also has alot of things going against him as well.

My thoughts: Othello is NOT a top tier character to me. After playing him in all shifts. I believe othello is only good in monster mode. Freedom damage is just too weak and he also has really hard to perform combos. Tranquility has little to NO combo potential while shifted. Monster is really powerful for othello and gives him alot of options as well as damage. If you want to play othello Just play monster othello. One last thing on othello, Othello is considered by quite a few people to be "mindless character" This means he can mash out combos at very little difficulty. But that says nothing for his gameplay. It takes a good ammount of skill to play any character in this game. This statement is also true for othello.

Maya

Explaination: Maya has really good mix ups in freedom mode. Monster mode doesnt really give her too many tools that freedom and tranquility give her. Tranquility has all kinds of tricks for Maya. Maya has a shield that lasts for a decent ammount of time. This shield gives her one hit of autogaurd against an opponents attack. This becomes really useful when applying pressure in tranquility mode. Her shadows are also really good in this mode because they set up for all kinds of different tactics such as unblockables and really really powerful pressure tactics. Freedom gives maya the ability to move around the screen effortlessly. She also has REALLY hard to block mix ups in freedom mode. These things make Maya a really good character to play as. Not to mention Maya deals really good damage when given the ability and she also has really good pokes. The only downside to maya is that her forward dash is garbage but that isnt too much of a set back. It just makes her not broken =P

My thoughts: Maya IS and always will be a top character in my eyes. She just has too many tools to keep people away from her or to keep on her opponent. For this reason Maya is placed very very high in my opinion.

Orju

Explaination: Well, The americans and the japanese REALLY disagree with orjus placement. Orju can be a powerhouse when used in the right hands. And can really set it off once he gets going. But Orju doesnt have too many tools in all shifts to maintain a good standing. Tranquility Orju is his best and Even then I cannot agree with the americans on this. I've been playing Orju for a good while and I have tried all shifts with Orju. Orju to the japanese really just doesnt cut the bread. Most of his moves HAVE to be enchanted for him to be somewhat effective in a match. Most of Orju's moves are garbage without enchantment. As sad as that is to say, That is true. Tranquility orju has really good Okizeme though. I believe that wake up game is orju's strong point He has several options to keep an opponent pinned down once he knocks them
down. That Makes orju a thread in that respect. Problem is actually KNOCKING an opponent down consistantly with Orju. Orju doesnt have any decent range on any of his moves. And He isnt exactly a combocentric character (outside of freedom) Not saying he NEEDS combos to win. But he needs to nail damage and pressure the opponent and outside of freedom, Orju doesnt have the ability to stay on the opponent. Tranquility he has the ability to play defensive. He has the ability to play offensive as well. Just not as well as freedom mode.

My thoughts: Being the ONLY freedom orju player. I can state that Orju is a low tier character. I hate to admit that. But he is. He doesnt have what it takes to be a top tier character and he has way too many shitty match ups to even be considered a top character. Maybe lower mid tier to low. But no where near top tier can I place orju.

My hands hurt and i need to take a break from typing in this thing haha. I know alot of people are going to disagree with what i have to say in regards to this post. But... It's just that, MY thoughts =P, deal with it<3.

Monster: The community And Misc Information

As it stands right now the monster community is pretty small compared to what it could be. We are trying our best to get monster noticed by multiple groups around the internet. Hopefully we get things rolling. For what it is our community isnt that bad actually. We have a number of people who actually play and stick with monster every day. Its a really nice thing to see when you have direct contact with the creator of the game and he asks you how people over here are progressing in monster. Feels good to say" Were getting alot better by the day" Simply because it's the truth. I am hoping that one day we will get the chance to play against the japanese. Then we can prove to the creator how we actually can stand up to the japanese community(this will be explained in another post)

As far as the game is concerned. Everyone along with myself put forth the effort to really Breaking down the game of monster. I find myself playing really weird versions of characters to see where the character potentials lie. I personally believe that every character in every shift is playable(with the exception of Aleksander because it doesnt matter what shift you pick lol) The optimal shifts for each character I think are as follows:

* Monster Othello
* Freedom Ryougen
* Tranquility Maya
* Monster/Tranquility Delga
* Tranquility Orjuice(Oops I mean orju =P){I prefer Freedom but it isnt optimal}
* Tranquility Siely
* Freedom/Monster rail
* Tranquility Katze
* Whatever shift aleksander hehe

Each character has really specific strengths in Each of the modes I listed. Using a diverse cast, It is the believe that each character, if properly played will do extremely well regardless of shift. I personally use Freedom othello, Freedom orju, Freedom Ryougen( If you havent noticed by now, I really like the freedom shift. There is just so much... Freedom? <3)

Introduction

Hey! I am Ayaimmortal. First off I would like to thank everyone for reading my blog. This of course is going to be the first entry. It isnt going to cover too much however. It is really just there to people to get to know me personally a little better before I go into speaking about Monster.

I am normally a Super Street fighter 2 turbo player. Recently I have branched out into learning Many different fighting games. Monster being one of those games. Upon coming across Monster, Upon first glance I thought that the game looked like shit. I really didnt like how the game looked. It looked "thrown together" And I had a problem with that initially. Then I actually took the time to actually PLAY Monster and needless to say, I was pretty shocked. I played the demo for a little while before actually playing the game. And was really impressed with the gameplay. It was not like all convential fighters that most people are into. It was different in almost every aspect that I can think of, mechanically speaking of course.

No one in america was really playing the online trailer at the time. Not too many people even knew about the game in the first place. So I pretty much waited to play the game anymore. I had only played it 2 times before actually stopping. Then later on, I had seen the full game was released and that people on Shoryuken.com was really getting into Monster. I decided after that to create an irc room(#8105Monster on efnet: For those of you who do not have IRC. You can download it from MIRC.com) To my suprise the first day for monster was FULL of people playing the game. Was quite a shock to say the least. To sum this up. Monster in america seems to be growing quite a bit. Xenozip, several other people along with myself are really going to try to push Monster. The game is still in development. So please keep on the look out for Monster coming to you very very soon!