Why T5DR is the best fighting game of all time

Why T5DR is the best fighting game of all time

Fighting games, to me, have always been about the player interaction. Mind vs mind. Hence to me, fighting games that encourage this interaction and promote it in an environment of just the right amount of complexity and variety to provide lots of depth, while not being overly complex, are the best. This is why I think Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection is the best fighting game of all time.

- Strategic executional variance (lots of variety between rushdown and turtle characters, in terms of
tools and execution)
Tekken 5 DR has a relatively small character list for a Tekken game with 34 characters (36 if you want
to count Panda and Jinpachi), but even so, the playstyle diversity is quite massive. We have characters that are extremely simple, such as Paul, Feng, and to an extent Law, while on the other end of the spectrum we have characters such as Lei, Xiaoyu and Yoshi. However, regardless of the amounts of tools your character has, you can still play them however you like. It's equally possible to play a rushdown Kazuya as it is a turtle Kazuya, and it's equally possible to play a rushdown Lei as it is a turtle Lei. Different characters are better at one style of play than others - Law is a safer rushdown character with fast pokes and FC/BT mixups and DSS compared to Paul who has to wait for his turn to go for high risk high reward - but for the most part it's possible to play a character in the way that you want to play them, unlike other and especially most 2D games where your playstyle is often limited by your character choice. There are also characters with difficult as well as easy execution. Feng is an easy execution rushdown character, while Law on the other hand has a higher executional ceiling with DSS and e-slide.
Different character archetypes and execution ceilings cater to different kinds of players. It allows people to play aggressive or defensive characters that are technical or not technical, as well as allowing people to put their own spin on characters. If you want to play a turtle Kazuya, you can be a brick wall and never let anyone in. On the other hand, if you want to be a rushdown Kazuya, you can maul people with strong offensive tools, knock them down and destroy them, This holds true for characters with less execution requirements as well - you can play a rushdown Julia with FC mixups and throws, or a turtle Julia with keepaway with magic 4 and to an extent elbow.

- Movelists are small so don't have to learn a billion moves.
Tekken has often been criticised for having too many moves to learn, and for the most part it's justified. However in DR, movelists are not as bloated as they are in newer games. Some characters still have large movelists, such as Lei or Yoshi, but for the most part characters don't have terribly bloated movelists, and not everything has a 3 hit string attached to it. This serves to keep the learning barrier to the game low, as well as allowing players to focus on a couple of good moves, rather than providing a lot of options that overwhelm new players.

- Combos are relatively short and not super complex
Another complaint about Tekken that's often made is that its juggles take too long, especially with bound, or tailspin. In DR there is no such mechanic. There are still some characters with relatively long combos, such as King with  dash jab combos into iSW, which takes a bit of time, but for the most part combos don't take as long as they do in newer games. This serves to keep the pace of the game going, and you don't have to sit through a long combo that takes up a lot of in game time and takes away from the flow of the game.

- The movement is extremely free and crisp.
This is the biggest plus point for me as far as DR goes. Sidestepping and backdashing in DR covers a lot of distance and has really good evasion. This removes emphasis from individual moves and allows player to overcome strong moves by moving around them and punishing them for a lot of damage. Take EWGF for example. EWGF is one of the strongest, maybe even THE strongest move, in the whole game. However you simply cannot use EWGF alone and win against a good opponent who understands how to sidestep it and punish it. You need to be competent at movement yourself and understand the timing of the opponent, whether it be related to their sidesteps, their ducks, or their advances, to be able to use EWGF and turn it into a great keepout move as well as an aggressive move.
EWGF on block is also an incredibly strong position, as it is +5 on block and pushes far away. However this plays back into movement, as the post EWGF block situation leads to a spacing mixup. You have the advantage yet you are far away - overextending and wavedashing in after it might cause you to get sidestepped and launched or counter hit out of your approach, but if you can bait someone to attack after EWGF is blocked, you can force them to whiff and then whiff punish them. All of this comes from not just the character matchup but from an understanding of your opponent, their tendencies and decisions and your experience and skill at the game to punish those tendencies and decisions.

To conclude, in my opinion Tekken 5 DR is the best fighting game of all time because it has a lot of strategic variance and incredibly free movement, and to a lesser extent short movelists and combos that keep the learning barrier low and keeps the pace of the game going. It allows players to be creative with their character and use their skill at and experience in the game and use it to overcome just about any matchup in the game.