The Challenge of Balancing Anime Fighting Games Posted Mar 25, 2023
Anime lends itself to many types of video games, but few are as great fits for interactive entertainment as fighting games. Ever since Dragon Ball popularized the manga fighting tournament with the Budokai Tenkaichi, the idea in anime has become a staple in any which involves combat. There's a problem here, however, in that few characters in anime are created of equal strength. This raises the question of how balancing fighters can work, and what developers do or don't do to address the challenge.
What is Balancing?
Balancing in fighting games refers to the act of making different characters roughly capable of fighting on the same level. Even though there are many different archetypes in fighting games, like grapplers, zoners, and rush-down characters, the idea is that each should be able to compete. Without balancing, players who want to win will all gravitate toward the highest tier, which is boring to watch. This is what happened with the character Leroy after his release in Tekken 7, and the threat is constant in the world of anime games too.
The Anime Equation
Anime series can be filled with a whole range of characters with different styles and strengths. Consider Baki characters as an example, where the main characters of Yujiro and Baki are the standouts in terms of strength. Yujiro is the strongest man in the world, while Baki continues to grow as the series progresses.
If a game was to make their strengths accurate, characters like Biscuit Oliva and Kaoru Hanayama wouldn't be able to compete, which means the game wouldn't be fun. Instead, styles, characters, and placement within the story all need to be taken into account and sometimes deliberately ignored when balancing a fighting game, even if the results don’t make sense.
To Address or Ignore
The two ways to go about the power difference in anime fighting games is to either address the issue head-on or just completely ignore it. Most take the latter approach, with titles like Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm and Jump Force ignoring canon in favor of placing competitors on a bizarrely equaled field. Sure, it makes so sense for Goku, capable of leveling solar systems, to struggle against Yugi Muto, who is armed with magical playing cards, but just go with the flow of it, and it's still fun.
Speaking of Dragon Ball, one of the games that went out of the way to explain equal power is Dragon Ball FighterZ. In this game, the story mode introduces a device that equalizes all power levels, meaning technique is all that matters at the end of the day. While this concept still doesn’t hold up to scrutiny, it still explains why someone like Videl can compete against literal gods, so it’s a nice touch.
Whether looking at mechanics or contributions from the story, it’s never easy to balance fighting games that come from anime. As games, the target is always going to be to make the experience fun, even if the result makes no sense from a canonical point of view. Besides, if it gives Yamcha some time in the sun, isn’t it worth getting a little weird with it?
