Performance evaluation of BR3 characters by magazines in 2001

While sorting through my room, I came across a magazine from when BR3 was running in the arcades.
It is ARCADIA, a magazine dedicated to arcade video games.
In this magazine, articles on BR3 were serialised from the press release in December 2000 until June 2001.
The last article in that series evaluated the characters, with the exception of Kohryu & URANUS.
I therefore intend to reproduce it here.

In the article, the following six items are rated on a five-point scale.
(1 being inferior and 5 being excellent).
The sum of the six item ratings was then used as the provisional Tier.

Offensive performance

Damage figures for Normals and Strings.

Defensive performance

Defensive performance based on defensive strength corrections, body size and weight.
It also evaluates whether or not the player has a MOVE that lowers his posture.

Explosive performance

Numerical value of combo damage.
Also, whether it is easy to create opportunities to perform combos.

Counterattack performance

Whether or not the character has command throws and whether or not they have a good counterattack move.

Human mode performance

Literally, performance in human mode.

Command move performance

Performance of command moves and Beast Drive.

Shina

Offensive	Deffencive	Explosive	Counter	Human	Command	Total
4	3	5	3	4	4	23pts

• Instant death class combo damage and high performance GuardAttack.
• An excellent character who has been highly rated since the early days of the game's launch and can be given above average scores in all categories.

Long

Offensive	Deffencive	Explosive	Counter	Human	Command	Total
5	3	4	4	4	3	23pts

• Very highly rated, with combos that start with Command Throw and unblockable Strings.
• Definitely a top-class character.

Yugo

Offensive	Deffencive	Explosive	Counter	Human	Command	Total
3	3	4	4	3	3	20pts

• Well balanced both offensively and defensively, and possesses a command throw, which was rated highly.
• Although he struggles against certain characters, he can be placed high in the overall rating.

Shenlong

Offensive	Deffencive	Explosive	Counter	Human	Command	Total
3	4	4	3	3	3	20pts

• Unlike Long, Shenlong does not possess command throws or unblockable, but his offensive performance is as good as Long's.
• Whether the player can exploit the potential of his elbows. This directly affects the character's strength.

Bakuryu

Offensive	Deffencive	Explosive	Counter	Human	Command	Total
3	4	4	3	3	2	19pts

• This is a character whose challenge is how to break down defences when moves to confuse opponents or surprise attacks no longer work.
• Many aerial combos are (theoretically) avoidable, so depending on the accuracy of your opponent's recovery, you may have a tough fight on your hands.

Uriko

Offensive	Deffencive	Explosive	Counter	Human	Command	Total
3	4	2	3	3	4	19pts

• There are many opportunities for combos, but the fact that they do not result in significant damage is disappointing.
• Due to its many low-posture moves, its defensive performance was rated high.
• It lacks decisiveness, so make up for it.

Stun

Offensive	Deffencive	Explosive	Counter	Human	Command	Total
2	2	5	3	3	4	19pts

• Command throw and Beast drive performance are attractive.
• The character is not good at moving offensively on his own, so the player's defensive skills will be reflected in his win rate.

Gado

Offensive	Deffencive	Explosive	Counter	Human	Command	Total
2	3	5	2	3	3	18pts

• Throw in human mode does tremendous damage but does not have the powerful Low strike.
• This makes the method of breaking the block the biggest concern.

Jenny

Offensive	Deffencive	Explosive	Counter	Human	Command	Total
3	3	4	2	3	3	18pts

• A well-balanced character who can use her mobility and aerial combos to deal consistent damage.
• However, if the opposing character has a life advantage, it is difficult to reverse it.

Busuzima

Offensive	Deffencive	Explosive	Counter	Human	Command	Total
3	3	3	1	2	3	15pts

• Command throw is techable, so it lacks decisiveness.
• Lie-down attack is one of the few saving graces, as it has a higher performance.

Xion

Offensive	Deffencive	Explosive	Counter	Human	Command	Total
2	2	3	2	4	2	15pts

• His very long reach is a threat, but not so difficult to deal with, as his fighting style is standard.
• The fact that there is little variation in behaviour between human and beast can be both a strength and a weakness.

Alice

Offensive	Deffencive	Explosive	Counter	Human	Command	Total
2	3	3	2	2	2	14pts

• Below average performance in all aspects.
• There are no outstanding strengths and his aerial combo damage is not high.
• Command move and Beast drive would also not be worth mentioning.

The original article ends here.
After reading this far, what did you feel?

To honour the writers who contributed to ARCADIA, I would like to add a few words.
ARCADIA was a monthly magazine, but at that time the exchange of information on video games was already taking place on web forums.
Therefore, a magazine published only once a month was at a tremendous disadvantage in terms of the speed at which information was updated.
Of course, the writers tried to keep their articles up to date as much as possible by staying up to the deadline, but... it was no match for the speed of the web.

And.
Most of the writers who contributed to ARCADIA were not professional writers, but "just regular players who are used to writing manuscripts", and about six of them were responsible for BR3 articles.
These six writers were also not dedicated to BR3, but had to write articles on other titles in parallel, which inevitably meant that they could not deepen their understanding of BR3.

So now, more than 20 years later, this pseudo-Tier List is completely unreliable.
However, the active exchange of opinions among players who were sceptical about the list led to a review and re-evaluation of not only the strength of each character, but also various other factors.
Part of the result is the Tier List, which was published around 2006 and remains to this day.
(Players who are used to playing BR3 will surely consider this Tier List to be somewhat reliable)

ARCADIA's List contributed to "players re-evaluating BR3 and deepening their understanding of it".