Picking a character

[space and time]

I've always like GG, but I've never bothered to really get good. I've decided to up my skills a bit, but I'm not sure who I should learn. My list of candidates includes Zappa, Dizzy, A.B.A., Baiken, I-no, and Bridget. Baiken and I-no are kind of afterthoughts for me. I like both characters, but I like the others slightly more. And I think that I-no would be harder to learn than the others, for some reason. Anyway, my criteria is probably warped. Between these six I want to use the most underplayed and unexpected that's annoying to fight against. I doubt one character fits all three of those, so giving more than one recommendation is fine, with which trait they match.

[4r5]

Underplayed?

Bridget

Annoying?

Bridget

Unexpected?

I'm still surprised Jais plays Bridget.

edit: lol, bridget fits your name. He's all about space and TIME.

[space and time]

Hoo, a quick response! Awesome. Bridget fits all three, cool. Why is he underplayed and annoying to fight?

[4r5]

Hits like a little boy, takes damage like a bitch. One of the few things going for him is his great movement. But since he can't take it and he can't deal it, the risk/reward skews his successful strategies towards run away and playing the clock.

Weak character, high execution, and few people play fighting games so that they can not fight.

shrug, here. knock yourself out

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=videos&search_query=br+Emillll&search_sort=video_date_uploaded&suggested_categories=24

[EternalLurker]

I think that I-no would be harder to learn than the others, for some reason.

If he doesn't want a character that's hard to learn, Bridget is probably not a good choice, 4r5.

'Course, Guilty Gear is in general a more technical game than most fighters you'll ever play, but of that list I'd say it's probably easiest to get to a decent level with Baiken. To play her competitively is a different matter, but she has a lower learning curve at early levels than the others on that list, except maybe Dizzy if you just play basic keepaway...which I guess could match your criteria of "annoying to fight" but isn't a very effective way to play Dizzy and won't get you anywhere in the long run.

Balancing your criteria with relative ease of learning, I'd probably suggest I-No.

[4r5]

Dude, guy's username is already a built in motivator for him getting good with Bridget! If he plays Baiken, he would need to request a name change to 'good and boring'. I-no isn't all that easy either, but her difficulty is more in the combos which I guess is a step up. Anyways, real answer: Search your soul and follow your heart. (Just start trying some characters and figure it out yourself. A bunch of guys on the internet don't give much a damn who you play.)

[rtl42]

idk, i think Zappa is fairly underplayed and annoying to play against in my opinion. could be interesting, but anyways, all of the characters you've listed have their share of weaknesses, so like 4r5 said, just pick someone who you can imagine playing for a while and go for it. (and don't feel bad if you change your mind later, either!)

[EternalLurker]

Oh, I definitely think Zappa's by far the most absolutely infuriating character to fight in pretty much the entire game aside from a good Testament, nevermind just that list...but, though I'm not good enough with him to make this claim, I'm pretty sure he's harder to learn than Bridget at lower levels, so I didn't suggest him. Also I don't think Bridget is annoying to fight at all; even if he plays keepaway Bridget is just a fun character to play with or against.

But yeah, changing your mind about your character later isn't an issue, as rtl notes, so keep that in mind and don't worry too much about your first choice.

Also, if I may suggest someone who isn't on that list, try out Faust. I think he might be your type.

[bucklemyshoe]

Balancing your criteria with relative ease of learning, I'd probably suggest I-No.

[EternalLurker]

As I established multiple times, I was not referring to competitive play. But I think new players can get more out of her than, say, Zappa early on. I'm well aware that she's hard to use to her full potential (I know I sure as hell suck with her), but it's Guilty Gear, so you can make that case for absolutely anyone in the cast. No matter who is suggested as being easier to learn than someone else, someone here on DL is going to cry about it just because "My main isn't easy to learn and saying that hurts my ego." Have fun trying to argue that your favorite character is harder to learn than Zappa is, but that argument will go on forever yet get absolutely nowhere.

Really, I thought I established this enough in my original post, but I always forget that DLers will always fixate on the part of a post that makes 'em get defensive and wangsty.

[bucklemyshoe]

have you even tried to mash buttons with i-no? without understanding GG playing i-no at scrub level isn't even remotely fun. i remember back when i had no clue what it meant to TK something and I thought to do her air overdrive you actually had to press up then input the move. her easiest useful combos aren't even easy to do. im not talking about chemical love airdashes, but simple 5h jh, or lows into a chemical love knockdown. if you don't know the game mechanics then understanding how to put play on an input or jump canceling are quite a challenge.

[EternalLurker]

Balancing your criteria with relative ease of learning, I'd probably suggest I-No.

This is the exact line you quoted and to which you seem to have taken offense as (I assume by your user title) an I-No main.

Zappa, Dizzy, A.B.A., Baiken, Bridget

So who on this list are you saying is easier to use "at scrub level" while matching his criteria of "underplayed/unexpected" and "annoying to fight"?

Zappa? Definitely annoying to fight, fairly underplayed, but not easy to use or even understand.

Dizzy? She's generally not annoying to fight unless she's playing pure keepaway, at which she's not very good in AC anyway, which makes it less annoying since she'll just die. I'm also not sure that she's as underplayed as I-No.

A.B.A.? Like Zappa, hard to get the hang of one of the most integral parts of her gameplay.

Baiken? Not annoying to fight and most certainly not underplayed.

Bridget? Without a good understanding of GG's mechanics most Bridgets will rely too much on his Yo-Yo, and overusing it is a great way to have it in the wrong place when you really need it on defense. Since Bridget isn't particularly good at getting out of pressure that means death.

As I already said, you've been focusing on the part of the post that upset you. I didn't say she was easy to learn. I said that, given the criteria (which rules out Baiken and probably Dizzy), she's not as useless for a new player as the others on that list.

"Mashing buttons" as you say isn't the level I mean. That's ridiculous. The OP said he was trying to become better at the game. I doubt he wants to mash buttons. You're treating "new player" as "complete nub at anything involving a screen", in addition to ignoring the qualifiers I've made to my statements repeatedly in my posts.

[tolore]

Baiken? Not annoying to fight

what? baiken is often cited as one of the most annoying people to fight at least as far as I know. People don't like having their block strings ruined.

"Mashing buttons" as you say isn't the level I mean. That's ridiculous. The OP said he was trying to become better at the game. I doubt he wants to mash buttons. You're treating "new player" as "complete nub at anything involving a screen", in addition to ignoring the qualifiers I've made to my statements repeatedly in my posts.

I think that's the worst kind of person to recommend ino to. her basics are ridiculously hard. I think you massively over rate the difficulty of zappa and ABA. They have odd mechanics that you have to balance, but execution and strategy wise they are both easy.

personally difficulty wise i'd probably rate them(this is a rating from getting from low to mid levels of play)

Bridget, ino, dizzy, aba, zappa, baiken

annoyingness

Baiken, Bridget, dizzy, zappa, aba

all them are pretty underplayed, baiken being the most used, and bridget being the least.

Baiken will rape someone REALLY hard if they don't know how to play against her(guard cancels really wreck peoples day), even good experienced players can lose to scrubby baikens if they don't have matchup experience. I can't really say the same for any of the other characters. SO i'd say she wins for unexpected(though i'm not entirely sure what you mean by that).

[space and time]

I'm not new to GG or any of the characters. I've been playing for years. I've always only played casually though. A character's learning curve doesn't really concern me, or I wouldn't have bothered to put I-no on the list. From what I can make out of this discussion so far, Zappa, A.B.A., I-no, and Baiken are annoying to fight. And Bridget is the most underused.

[EternalLurker]

Really? I've never found any level of Baiken annoying to fight, but I guess I can see the issue. I find having a note in my face every single time that I wake up, without fail, to be far more irritating, and that's something even a complete newbie can do far more reliably than Baiken's pressure-escape tricks, even assuming that new players care enough about block strings and corner pressure for Baiken to be a problem anyway.

You didn't rank how annoying I-No is to fight, on that note, tolore. :P

Anyway, s&t, if you don't care about the learning curve then Zappa would be my first suggestion for being extremely irritating to fight, at least for quite a bit of the cast. Personally, I find A.B.A. and Bridget far too fun to be annoying to fight, but others say Bridget's irritating, so that's your call. Based on your new post, however, I'll reiterate my previous non-listed suggestion of Faust. Give him a serious try. I think he matches your criteria several times over.

[space and time]

I like Faust. His and Zappa's randomness are what really draws me to them. I was trying to cut the list of potential mains down. You mentioned I-no and her notes. What about Zappa and Faust make them annoying to fight?

[EternalLurker]

Until you've really learned your character's matchup against Zappa, he's irritatingly unpredictable. Part of it are his somewhat ambiguous animations, and of course his sprites' general weirdness adds to that sense of disorientation. It's mainly the sheer number of different forms he has, though. He's not that bad once you're accustomed to fighting him but, since he's fairly underplayed, the majority of people aren't. His sword and dog forms are also just lame to fight for a good portion of the cast.

Faust's deceptive range is similar in effect. Furthermore, his item drops have a level of battlefield control which can instantly force temporary campiness depending on the opponent's position, and that's extremely annoying for aggressive players. A bomb covers the majority of the screen, meteors can counter combos if you forget about 'em and will still make you break a combo voluntarily if you don't, etc. He can also be incredibly irritating to hear when you use the right moves in sequence or just spam them. D:

[space and time]

They sound like just what I'm looking for. xD

[Chrome Homura]

What? baiken is often cited as one of the most annoying people to fight at least as far as I know. People don't like having their block strings ruined.

WTF, I got countered? THAT BITCH WAS BLOCKING GODDAMNIT!

And it didn't even cost her any meter? HAX!

Wait, it staggers too? FUCKSHIT THIS GAME SUCKS I QUIT. *slams door on the way out*

A truer story hath never been told.

He can also be incredibly irritating to hear when you use the right moves in sequence or just spam them. D:

ARE YOU- Okay! (Lol Buster Wolf) I find him hilarious. Faust is one of my favorite members of the cast. He makes both time and space his bitches and doesn't afraid of anything.

Play Faust. He needs more friends.

[tolore]

Faust is a ton of fun, he's definitely up there on the list of characters I'd play if Baiken didn't exist. As for i-no's notes, baiken has almost the exact same thing with tatami mat, they also have similarly good mix up when you wake up(i-no's is stronger for longer, baikens is SUPER strong for a shortamount of time, yay 9 frame over heads). I never really found i-no that annoying, but thats partially because the only i-no i know plays at a very high level with a lot of other people at a very high level, so (other than baiken) most people don't complain about annoyingness of characters. Also guard cancels makes i-no think twice about okizime even with a note on you.

[Luv-Sic]

Pick Johnny, word has it...he's god tier. Seriously though I know you want an "annoying" character, but like someone else posted earlier, at higher levels there aren't anymore annoying shit you can do without getting your ass punished hard, especially by some of the power house characters in the game. Most of the characters you mentioned (baiken,i-no,bridget,dizzy) have really shitty defense, so don't be surprised at how fast your life bar goes down. Now with that said, use I-no

[Oiboi]

Until you've really learned your character's matchup against Zappa, he's irritatingly unpredictable. Part of it are his somewhat ambiguous animations, and of course his sprites' general weirdness adds to that sense of disorientation. It's mainly the sheer number of different forms he has, though. He's not that bad once you're accustomed to fighting him but, since he's fairly underplayed, the majority of people aren't. His sword and dog forms are also just lame to fight for a good portion of the cast.

Faust's deceptive range is similar in effect. Furthermore, his item drops have a level of battlefield control which can instantly force temporary campiness depending on the opponent's position, and that's extremely annoying for aggressive players. A bomb covers the majority of the screen, meteors can counter combos if you forget about 'em and will still make you break a combo voluntarily if you don't, etc. He can also be incredibly irritating to hear when you use the right moves in sequence or just spam them. D:

Being one of the only like, three Zappa's still playing competitively, I'm going to have to argue with you for a minute. Since I've never played you, and you haven't named any zappa's you've fought, how much experience do you have against a good Zappa? Doesn't sound like much to me. Zappa's entire gameplay is about pissing the opponent off then taking advantage of when they make a mistake due to it. A good Zappa is -always- unpredictable, regardless of how many times you've fought him.

Faust is much, much easier to play than Zappa, and his mechanics work much the same way. He just has the reverse of Zappa's tools-- While zappa is all about being point blank and avoiding moves, Faust has great long range pokes and random lockdown tactics with his item toss. The end result is the same: Piss the opponent off, punish the mistake.

OP, I suggest just practicing with a lot of characters first. Learn the mechanics with Sol, as he's the easiest to get the hang of the game with, then move on to a character you enjoy. Don't be afraid to try out as many as you can manage, because you'll most certainly find a character that just clicks for you.

[EternalLurker]

Oh, no, I'm sure that he becomes completely unpredictable again at competitive play. I've played one tourney-level Zappa and it was a hilarious massacre (not that fighting any tournament-level player wouldn't've been, but this was about 3x worse than the two others I've played). I was just talking about intermediate-level Zappas; I've never pretended my knowledge extends very far beyond that. *points at his user title*

[bucklemyshoe]

Zappa would be my first suggestion for being extremely irritating to fight, at least for quite a bit of the cast.

You've obviously never been dizzied off one hit of may fist.

As for annoying characters, slayers animation really get on my nerves. it doesn't help that pretty much every slayer player i've gone against has completely raped me ie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkA05AivnoM

Sol's hitbox can be rather annoying (see also robo-ky)

I think nothing bothers me more than trying to chase down chipp though.

I've never found Zappa annoying to fight against.

[Zerite]

If you have the time and motivation to learn zappa, you should just learn eddie instead. It's easier, and better.