Hello Duelists!
Duels of Fortune's first-ever Character Popularity Poll has ended, with an absolutely astounding 103 RESPONSES submitted! You guys SERIOUSLY shattered our expectations with this, thank you so much to everyone who voted!
We know what you're here for though, so let's not waste any time! Here are the results for each category!
Favourite Fighter (Gameplay)
For the playable fighters, we split the voting into two categories: favourite gameplay, and favourite character.
In the gameplay category, the vote actually ended with a TIED first place! But which fighters' playstyles were the most beloved of all? Well...
It was none other than our karate boys, Shoto Kanji and Derrick Stone! Quite the amazing coincidence! And as a cherry on top, our beloved guest character Ember from Hyper Team Recon is right behind them in third!
Here are the full results from this category:
In a sad, yet painfully fitting tragedy, Guy didn't manage to get a single gameplay vote. Keep your chin up, bud — you'll get 'em next time. Maybe.
Favourite Fighter (Character)
This is the category we were personally most interested in. With Story Mode still being in the works, all that's available on the characters is lore entries and snippets of dialogue from match quotes, and we were very curious to see how the fighters would stack up with just that much to go off.
If you can believe it, this category ALSO had a tied first place in the end! What are the chances?! Let's see who in our cast resonated with you guys the most...
Our main man Clyde Brightstar ties with Derrick Stone for first place, with Lumina Blackjack as a very close third! ...Wait, Derrick again?! Yeah, you guys REALLY seem to like him on both the gameplay AND character fronts, and we can hardly blame you. He's just such a loveable, goofy guy!
We're very happy to see Clyde at the top as well, seeing as he's going to be the main protagonist of Story Mode. If you guys are fans of him now, just you wait!
Full results:
Unlike the previous category, not a single character was left unvoted for, which we're VERY happy to see! Poor Shoto though, all alone in last place...
You may also notice that we left the guests, Johnson and Ember, out of this category. Those characters were of course created by their respective owners, not us, so it didn't feel right to include them here. In their places, we added Shin and Roy Urboi as options, two costume characters who will both appear in Story Mode (albeit, with one of them having a MUCH more prominent role than the other). We were quite impressed to see them manage 3 votes each!
Favourite Fighter (Combined)
Just for fun, we decided to take the combined totals of both the playable fighter categories, and put them into a single list!
Not gonna bother with a big reveal here, because the results here should be apparent based on the previous two categories. So here are the full results right away!
In terms of average rating across both categories, Derrick is unsurprisingly the favourite by a landslide, with Lumina following as a convincing second place, and Clyde and Shiverskull tying for third! Despite not placing top 3 in either category, the Captain still got enough votes in total to sneak his way there when the votes were combined!
Also, despite only being selectable in one of the two categories, Ember somehow managed to outplace ERROR, Guy, AND Callowman in total votes. CALLOWFANS, WHERE ARE YOU AT?!
With the playable fighter results now out of the way, it's time to get into the results for the optional bonus categories! These proved to be quite interesting in their outcomes, so let's check them out!
Favourite Costume Character
We simply HAD to give some love to our cast of alternate costume characters, with how cool and unique many of them are. That being said, it was almost inevitable who the uncontested top spot would go to...
It's the mother-anglin' Evilobster, baby! Being such a popular character in his own game, Schwarzerblitz, it's no surprise that he would be just as beloved in Duels of Fortune! Shin and Roy Urboi ended up tying for second place below him, which is very nice to see!
Full results:
Favourite Boss Character
This category received 94 votes, which was the least of any category, but that's still more than enough to see some solid results! So which boss is the boss of them all? According to you guys, it's...
The Arcade Mode secret boss, Masked Oni! Seems his mysterious nature and fast-paced battle made him quite a memorable opponent! Trailing behind him with a pretty sizable gap is The Pill, followed by Tiny Evil Clyde. The sillier bosses also turned out to be quite popular.
Full results:
Favourite Summon Character
The companions that some of the playable characters fight alongside are important, too! We felt it was only right to give them some dedicated appreciation. However, one of them in particular ended up completely sweeping this category, and you might be able to guess who...
It's Chip Blackjack, Lumina's undead brother-slash-puppet, who received a whopping 43.2% of the votes in this category! Sylvan's bodyguard Withers and Annie's robotic helper Gizmo took second and third place respectively, but neither were particularly close to matching Chip's dominant placement.
Full results:
Sadly, none of Shiverskull's crew managed to crack the top 3, sitting at the bottom instead. Better luck next time, mateys!
It only occurred to us after the voting began that we probably should've included Derrick's dog Rocky and Johnson's sharkman friend Shaz in this category as well. Oh well, they can show up on the next poll!
Favourite Non-Playable Character
This was the category that shocked us the most. While the frontrunner wasn't too surprising, it was most of the results beyond that which made us either pop off or scratch our heads in confusion. That being said, I think most of you already knew who would be leading the pack here...
First place by a landslide goes to Master Locks, the karate instructor/hairstylist who has already captured the hearts of many fans! In second place is the King of Hell himself, Collin Calcium, and third place is a tie between The Shadow and... Wood Demon... we can only assume that he was carried by the memes.
Full results:
It's mostly the silly characters who ended up near the top, but our boy Bronze has done quite well for himself, too! How a creature like Candy the Cane has received 4 entire votes is beyond us, but we won't judge.
We will, however, be introducing more NPC lore entries starting in the Azutron update! That way, you folks will actually have something more concrete to go on for the next time we do a poll like this! Plus, it's always fun to learn about the characters who don't get much time in the spotlight, right?
Most Anticipated Fighter
Out of the upcoming fighters who are publicly known, we wanted to see who was the one people are most excited about! And the results are quite intriguing...
The gunslinging mercenary Lance Marshall is undoubtedly the most hyped of the bunch! Below him, the duo fighter Miko Starfinder and the sports/workout-themed Punching Bag were constantly trading second place throughout the week, so the fact that they ultimately tied for it in the end is quite poetic. Finally, we have the soon-to-release Azutron S-Type, who we assume probably didn't do as well since he's already nearing completion, and the majority of his moveset is publicly known. He doesn't quite have that mystery factor to him anymore, like the other three do.
Do note that these results won't affect the order in which we develop fighters. However, luckily for you many Lance fans, he's already planned to be coming later this year, so look forward to that!
Before him, though, the next fighter after Azutron will be a surprise. A mysterious "samurai" who we've been holding off on revealing for several years... we hope you're excited to hear about them once they're ready!
Grembo
Grembo.
Grembo.
And that's the results! Once again, we'd like to thank everyone who took the time to fill out the form. If you missed your chance, don't worry, because we'll definitely be doing one of these again once Story Mode is at least partially released. By then, there'll no doubt be even more characters to choose from!
For now, though, we'll continue to work hard on bringing more characters and content to the game, and work our way towards our ultimate goal of Story Mode! The Azutron update is entering the final stretch now, so the wait shouldn't be much longer!
Thank you all so much for your continued support of Duels of Fortune! We'll see you again very soon!
- Ben and Kaleb