Pretty cool list.
For S tier, I don't see Xianghua, Cervantes, or Yoshi in those areas. X has low range and damage but consistent everywhere else. Cervantes relies too much on his opponents to make mistakes, but his BBB shuts down slow attacks and his 2A+B for fast ones. Yoshi's mixups are unsafe so you just poke a lot and it feels meh.
For A tier: Nightmare, Setsuka, and Talim are my disagreements. Nightmare is a little risky but he has tools to cover every weakness. Setsuka is honestly just a poker. Her combos are risky to pull off and you're just better off sticking with the basics of Soul Calibur (when to press A, B, or sidestep). Talim lacks range and safety. Her tools are way too easy to deal with. Also Raphael is fine but I would move him up. He can handle anything (use 3A for sidestepping opponents).
For B: Mina, Cassandra, Hwang, Ivy, Azwel, Siegfried, and Taki are where I disagree, some strongly. Mina is just 50/50's. If she makes the wrong guess, she's screwed. Also sucks against pressure. Cassandra is braindead and effective at aggression. Hwang has barely any block punishment and his damage is just underwhelming. Ivy is just the harder version of Mina. She crumbles under pressure and is too reliant on 50/50 guessing. Azwel has axe low and guard damage...that's it. He's weak to aggressive characters. Siegfried has barely any neutral. Relies too much on big reads. Strongly disagree with Taki. Too many unsafe attacks and her best option is poke out the enemy with low damage. Slight disagreement with 2B but she's fine.
For C: Mostly agree but Sophitia and Haohmaru stand out here. Sophitia has tools for every situation and they work. Haohmaru has a good neutral so he shouldn't be in C tier. Mitsurugi has garbage options in everything he does so he should be lower. Maxi has no neutral and anybody who knows this can easily beat him. Just too reliant on mixups, he is by far the worst character in the game.
Xianghua: Best CE in the game hands down. Really good pokes, safe launchers, and really great at playing rushdown and neutral. She’s basically Amy without roses.
Cervantes: He’s well equipped for any situation especially with his damage department. Has a really great poking and step catcher tool in the form of his 2A and some of the best mobility within the game, especially his backstep. Meter game is some of the strongest and most versatile out there alongside really capable guard pressure. Not to mention his whiff punishment.
Yoshimitsu: Big damage with meter and really potent RO game and Soul Charge. Also really strong guard pressure and pokes. His range isn’t the best unfortunately but that’s really it.
Nightmare: I really wanted to put him in the top but he’s honestly just too polarizing imo. His damage, range, monster RO game, guard damage NTC 6BBB pressure are all relatively solid, but he’s still fairly punishable, a janky sidestep thanks to the hurtbox on his hand, has a mostly mediocre neutral, and a good chunk of polarizing matchups like Voldo, Groh, Astaroth, Cervy and Hilde (the latter two in particular taking a shit on him).
Setsuka: She has decent pokes yes but her combos aren’t risky. They just take execution to get the absolute best results from them especially given the amount of damage she can put out when she lands them. Even more so when her mechanic is at it’s max and you shouldn’t have too much trouble doing that yourself.
Talim: She’s almost entirely pretty cracked if I’m going to be completely honest. Yes, her range is bad (which does her somewhat vulnerable to Asta BA shenanigans) and yes her options are a bit committal and her neutral is mediocre. However, her damage, guard damage, mixup play, evasion and CE is ridiculous. Her 33A is a fantastic tool for step catching and she has a really good i12 with 6K. Not to mention her CE is one of the best in the game with Talim’s ability to cancel it and it being safe.
Raphael: Raph is solid but I honestly don’t think he deserves a raise. His damage, stance pressure with iPrep, punishment guard damage, and mixups are phenomenal but in terms of the basics he’s not all that great. He’s fairly linear and yes his 3A is serviceable but he still has amongst the hardest times dealing with sidestep and tech crouches. Matchups like Voldo and Taki can take advantage of this problem and also shut down his Prep game.
Mina: Mina really isn’t just 50/50s. Her zoning game is pretty strong. Her guard damage is the strongest in the game next to Sieg’s, 22B is a great launcher, Soul Charge is cracked with guard pressure, and her Oki, although much more committal after the 1KK nerf is still really good. And she actually has two decent options when dealing up front and centre. These being her horizontals in 66A and 2A. Leaving her here as far as I’m concerned.
Cassandra: Much like Raphael, she does suffer from really bad stepkillers not to mention her range is mostly short and her crouch grab combos aren’t very consistent similarly to Astaroth. Her damage, guard damage, Soul Charge/DF, movement and safety on block with her plus frames are really good points about her.
Hwang: He was a difficult one for me to place tbh. I ultimately settled with mid tier since he does run hot and cold. He’s actually really solid with fundamentals and has some good tools such as his 3A series and his 2B albeit yes his damage in this department isn’t great. Though he does actually get some pretty big damage and unique effects with his talismans. Though you do need to micromanage your talismans to avoid killing yourself as the matches progress. He’s complex to say the least but I’d say he’s balanced.
Ivy: She’s taken a hit to her up close game with X-mas tree getting the boot up it’s ass. But mid to long range she is still very good. Much like Mina her zoning is top notch and she has some of the most disgusting Oki in the game, which is the crux of her 50/50 play. Neutral is fine but nothing special. Meter game is average and guard damage and punishment is decent.
Azwel: He does have a decent poke and punish game in sword stance thanks to the i10 AA. And axe stance gives him some decent rushdown capabilities even if you ignore the Axe low. And his soul charge is fairly good especially since 66A+B becomes a ridiculously good tool to throw out. Spear is mostly useless however…
Siegfried: It takes more than a good neutral to get somewhere in SC6. Sieg’s neutral might not be that good and he’s susceptible to punishment however his spacing game is very good with tools like 22A, 3A4, and iagA. Also has the best guard damage next to Mina and he has the big comeback factor with his Dark Legacy which generates the LHs and the big source of his damage. He has a safe CE, and his WR B is also a relatively decent launcher which tracks slightly. He’s polarizing but I don’t think he’s horrible.
Taki: She’s the definition of a counterpick in this game. Taki has one of the best launchers in the whole game with 3B and the best i10 guard punishment with her A:6 which she can gain a LH from. Her CE is relatively safe and her Soul Charge is relatively good. Though yes she’s mostly linear and her stanceplay is risky is relatively weak without a setup. Keeping her at the lower end of the mid tier.
Maxi: He actually does have a decent neutral game. 6A+B in particular being one of his best options for it. It tech crouches, safe, and slighty tracks. Though yeah, he’s not all that great…
Haohmaru: He’s honestly just not all that swell. His neutral isn’t bad but it’s not all that great either. Backstep is nice and Rage can give you big payouts but you’ll almost never get much of a chance to use it…
Mitsurugi: His options aren’t that bad. 2B is a great vertical to use in neutral for example. He has a respectable neutral game and his 50/50 game is standard. But he is super linear and doesn’t really have a decent horizontal for step catching. Not to mention Shura Blade is mediocre.
Sophitia: Honestly relatively the same deal as Mitsu. Her options aren’t terrible but doesn’t really measure up as the game goes on. Her punishment game is slightly more versatile than Mitsu’s but her mixups don’t really exist. Her meter game isn’t very good either and there’s just much better options out there that cover much more than Sophie can (such as Groh, Cervantes, and Xianghua).
But like I’ve said before it takes more than good neutral to go above and beyond the game and the C tier is basically littered with these characters where “Yes, you can play the neutral game well and a few other small tidbits but other than that you don’t provide much…” It’s why I have Voldo in B tier for example since he has good neutral but he also provides more than that with his 666B whiff punisher and his multipurpose CE, and evasive moves such as 22A and 1K.
And of characters being good without a solid neutral, Astaroth is an example. He’s a terrible character fundamentally but his scary damage off of reads, having one of the best Soul Charges and being the only character to punish Soul Charges through his CE allow him to compete with much of the cast.
