I mean how many different rushdown variations can you really have.
JC V1: more damage
JC V2: frametrap/chip
JC V3: overhead/low mixups
Sonya V1: ?
Sonya V2: ?
Sonya V3: ?
Redundant waste of character slot.
I could very easily see them building 2-3 Johnnys, or 2-3 Sonyas. Lord knows they have the move libraries (Sonya alone has had like 20 different specials) even moreso if they inherit any from their fallen / forgotten comrades, it would just be a matter of figuring out which move concepts are "core" and which ones can afford to be shuffled. That said, I think its a dangerous precedent to assume the variation plan is to have direct correlation with actual playstyles. It just seems more like they are just playing with different move / character concepts and splitting up redundant moves. At least 60% (maybe more) of the character is going to be the same no matter what you pick. So this one has a fireball, this one has a teleport, this one has a command grab or a stat buff, different strings, blah blah, this one doesn't take chip. But unless you're on some insane m2dave-esque "teleports win EVO" logic, it doesn't instantly make them a zoner / high low character, and I think personally it would be dangerous to try and design 72 "characters" that way cause you would be just automatically making bad matchups. You build half the characters to have "only rushdown" or "only grappling" variants, and that's one whole variant thats just off the table against a character who can zone in all three forms. Maybe one of them gets lucky in a 6-4 sort of way, but it would still smack of Stryker v Kenshi levels of boy I should just put the controller down levels of unfun.
I feel like some of them are obviously gonna play "a certain way" cause obvious playstyle is obvious but its not a foregone conclusion that Raiden's x or Scorpion's y is definitely going to be zoning or definitely going to be rushdown. The fact that sub can throw and explode his clone and the other guy can leverage half way across the map via interactible means traditional snow man zoning is just gone. I can really only think of like, maybe Unbreakable and Commando and Storm Lord revealed so far that are just so obviously stereotypical, but clearly F/T is gonna be rushdown no matter what you pick. Remember when Cyborg was gonna be a reset character cause he had unblockable missiles and Green Arrow was a zoner cause he had ice arrows and a slide? NRS doesn't have a lot of history (or success) making super typecast characters, I don't think they're gonna start now.
And really, Cassie doesn't look that similar, gameplay-wise, to either Johnny or Sonya, really.
