Fighter Archetypes

Rushdown

Close range fighters with few projectile options.  Their playstyle consists of getting in, staying in, and breaching the opponent's defense with mixups.  Characters like Cammy, Akuma, Makoto Nanaya, Linne, Seth (Under night) and countless others are characters with the sole goal of getting in and staying in.

Grapplers

Fighters with special grab move inputs, ranging from half-circle to 360 degree to even 720 degree motions, that usually can't be teched/escaped (example: trying to combo into a command grab gives the opponent a chance to break it) and does massive damage.  Used to consist of larger characters like Zangief and Potemkin but characters like Cerebella, Lilith (Vanguard Princess), Shermie, and Clark to name a few.  Note that some of the aforementioned character may not have dashes they make up for it with good normals or tools for getting in.

Zoner

The polar oppose of rushdown characters and prefer to fight at range with either projectiles or long limbs/weapons, the latter of which is not exempt from taking damage due to how hurtboxes and hitboxes work.  Also depends on the game.  Characters like Dhalsim, Axl Low, and Phonon use long reaching normals to keep other characters at bay.  And yes, attacking their extended limbs at the right time, most often a dragon punch or good normal, will result in punishing them or trading attacks.  Projectile zoners consists of characters like Guile, Peacock, Nu and anyone who use projectiles to keep opponents at bay but are not limited to doing just that as they can get in and do some damage while they have the advantage.

Reversal

These characters are functionally rushdown characters but they have defensive options that standout from the rest.  They must play smart, condition their opponent to behave a certain way or read their opponents in order to get their damaging reversals off.  Parries don't often cover ALL forms of attacks: some reverse high and mid attacks but can't stop lows, others stop lows and only lows and in 3D games only certain attacks can be parried.  Asuka from Tekken and Geese are notable examples of characters with excellent parries that make opponents second guess themselves and attacking randomly.  Hakumen's entire gameplan is to counter his opponent while spending his unique meter to keep pressure on them.

Charge

Characters that belong to this category usually hold back.  Or down.  Some charge characters are often seen crouching to prevent themselves from walking back while they charge (GUILE) or some of the offensive oriented ones like Chun-li and Vatista can press the attack and use charge attacks during combos.  In the Guile's case while he only has two special attacks they are VERY effective and if he gains the lead he doesn't need to do anything outside of zone with his projectile and keep opponents at bay with good normals.

Shoto

The jack of all trades in fighters and are often recommended to introduce people into fighters.  A simple fireball, rising attack, and a move that sends them forward while attacking are the most notable tools of a shoto.  Ryu, Ken, etc are of course what most think of when it comes to this archetype but there's also Ky Kiske, Katalina, Hyde and Kyo Kusanagi  among others that are easy to learn to shotos.

Puppet

As the name implies these characters control...a puppet of sorts that fight alongside them.  The puppet is often immune to damage while inactive and can only be hurt while activated or attacking.  Sometimes balanced by needing some form of resource to be used, though in some cases they're free but they carry a greater risk.  Carl Clover, Ms. Fortune, Eddie/Zato-1, a majority of Jojos with a stand fighting with something and have to work a little harder than others to big rewards.  Ms. Fortune can get caught in a big attack or combo with her head and take extra damage while a Jojo, if attacked too much with their Stand active, will be stunned and unable to call their Stand for a few seconds.

Stance

One of the tougher archetypes around because stances range from stance where you have access to certain attacks to having an entirely different moveset.  Lei from Tekken is a man of many stances while Xiayou, from the same game, has a single stance but she gets many options during it.  Street Fighter's Gen and GBF's Narmaya both have two different movesets and even supers depending on what mode they're in.

Composite

Characters that aren't just satisfied with their own moves and have to borrow moves from others.  Android 21 steals energy from fighterz and depending on what race they were she gains special moves.  Seth from SFV can steal a move from someone and use it against them while Double's entire existence is well, a mess of other fighters in Skullgirls (she even uses moves that had to scrapped from the other girls).

Joke

Dan

Mimic

Even greedier than composite characters and steals entire movesets from other people and sometimes even their appearance.  Shang Tsung from the MK series is one of the most well known characters of this archetype as he not only has his own unique moveset he can switch to his opponents in the middle of the match.  Soul Calibur also has its own "variety" in mimic characters ranging from a old weaponmaster, to an man with an owl's head to one of the series' own mainstays in Kilik (though he only copies male characters while Elysium copies females).

Setplay

Characters that fall into this archetype have a plan and they stick to it.  While many fighters want to knock their opponent down and press the advantage setplay characters excel at this by keeping them guessing and not letting up at all.  Millia Rage is a perfect example of this.  When she knocks someone down she uses her delayaed projectile and incredibly high speed to keep her opponent from trying anything funny and keeping them locked down until she can knock them down and try again.