Character Archetypes

Character Archetype is the defining term for a character's general strategy and gameplay style. In fighting games it is common to see certain recurring archetypes that compose and evolve the metagame.

Archetypes are universal: they can be applied to nearly every kind of game, be traditional board games, sports games, among others. The purpose is to inform the player what type of opponent they might encounter, and how to apply a plan of attack against said archetype.

There two categories of archetypes: offensive and defensive. In each one there are four basic archetypes: rushdown, turtle, zoner, and grappler. Those, in turn, have different variations to specific kinds of strategy.