History Main / CharacterRosterGlobalWarming

* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' ended up experiencing a lot of this with its Tank heroes ([[DamagerHealerTank a role classification]] whose purpose is [[StoneWall shielding damage]], [[DrawAggro drawing aggro]], [[MightyGlacier up-close brawling]], or some combination of the above), with only 3 of the 11 initial post-release heroes being Tanks. At some point, Blizzard realized that Tanks were very difficult to design for and properly balance since in a fast-paced HeroShooter setting, their entire purpose is to slow things down, creating a lot of "noise" that either leaves them overly dominant, really unfun and boring to play compared to Damage or Support heroes, or worst of all: ''[[ComplacentGamingSyndrome all of the above]]''[[note]]Many of the game's [[DorkAge more infamously stagnant meta states]] were when Tanks synergized in a way [[GameBreaker that actual straightforward Damage heroes were redundant]], and the only practical option was pitting tanks against each other in [[PaddedSumoGameplay a sloggy 6v6 sumo match of shields, healing, and close-up brawling]][[/note]]. Blizzard has since increasingly compacted the role as being a bit of a niche requirement, and in ''Overwatch 2'', it was announced they were limiting teams to just ''one'' Tank per team to loosen things up[[note]]This itself was an extension of Blizzard's implementation of a hard "role lock" limiting the amount of an archetype per team to 2, seen as effectively the nuclear option following many failed attempts to reduce Tanks' synergistic dominance without making them completely unusable[[/note]], allowing their HeroShooter to be more of a ''shooter'' while still tweaking around Tanks to be fun and useful without getting totally out of hand.

* ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'' started with Goro, [[VideoGame/IkariWarriors Ralf, Clark]], and Chang Koehan. It took them about six years to add Maxima, a year to add Seth, three more to add Tizoc, and about another six to add [[VideoGame/FatalFury Raiden]]. Although there have been other grapplers in the series, they have generally always been {{Fragile Speedster}}s.

** ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate Ultimate]]'' adds [[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry King K. Rool]], [[VideoGame/{{Metroid}} Ridley]], [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Incineroar]], and [[Franchise/{{Castlevania}} Simon and Richter]] as new heavyweights, plus [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Piranha Plant]], [[VideoGame/BanjoKazooie Banjo]], plus [[VideoGame/FatalFury Terry Bogard]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses Byleth]], and [[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2 Pyra]] as [=DLC=], as well as bringing back Snake. But with all the veterans returning, this makes 27 out of 89 playable characters heavyweights, slightly lowering the ratio.

** ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate Ultimate]]'' adds [[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry King K. Rool]], [[VideoGame/{{Metroid}} Ridley]], [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Incineroar]], and [[Franchise/{{Castlevania}} Simon and Richter]] as new heavyweights, plus [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Piranha Plant]], [[VideoGame/BanjoKazooie Banjo]], and [[VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses Byleth]] and [[VideoGame/FatalFury Terry Bogard]] as [=DLCs=], as well as bringing back Snake. But with all the veterans returning, this makes 26 out of 89 playable characters heavyweights, slightly lowering the ratio.

** ''VideoGame/StreetFighterV'' seldom brings in characters of this type. The game launched with Zangief and Birdie, Season 1 added Alex although Urien was brought back with his already-light case of this trope just about completely gone, Season 2 added Abigail, and Season 3 added Cody and G. That's six out of 34 characters.

** ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate Ultimate]]'' adds [[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry King K. Rool]], [[VideoGame/{{Metroid}} Ridley]], [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Incineroar]], and [[Franchise/{{Castlevania}} Simon and Richter]] as new heavyweights, plus [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Piranha Plant]], [[VideoGame/BanjoKazooie Banjo]] and [[VideoGame/FatalFury Terry Bogard]] as [=DLC=], as well as bringing back Snake. But with all the veterans returning, this makes 25 out of 84 playable characters heavyweights, slightly lowering the ratio.

* ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' has experienced a {{Downplayed|Trope}}, but noticeable case of this over the course of its 10+ year development. While tanky champions are still being made and the {{metagame}} periodically dips in favor of tank-heavy play, Riot Games' attitude towards balance and overall game design has swayed passive defense and more towards damage for a variety of reasons. The primary focus has to do with how tanks inherently slow down games, and metas where they're the most viable tend to reward passive play and thus become far more of a drag, and further complications come in the form of "bruiser" champions; [[LightningBruiser bulky, but mobile and painful initiators]] that often make the point of [[StoneWall a more defensive-oriented tank]] redundant (at least for when they're functioning as intended). Riot determined that these two distinct forms of {{Mighty Glacier}} can't functionally coexist, and thus more and more, modern tanks lean more into dealing damage or effective crowd control as a means of expressing value. It's quite telling that since 2018, there's at least one damage-dealing [[TheJuggernaut "juggernaut"]] champion being developed for the game each year, but the defense-oriented [[StoneWall "warden"]] champion category has received no new additions since 2017.

* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' ended up experiencing a lot of this with its Tank heroes ([[DamagerHealerTank a role classification]] whose purpose is [[StoneWall shielding damage]], [[DrawAggro drawing aggro]], [[MightyGlacier up-close brawling]], or some combination of the above), with only 3 of the 11 initial post-release heroes being Tanks. At some point, Blizzard realized that Tanks were very difficult to design for and properly balance since in a fast-paced HeroShooter setting, their entire purpose is to slow things down, creating a lot of "noise" that either leaves them overly dominant, really unfun and boring to play compared to Damage or Support heroes, or worst of all: ''[[ComplacentGamingSyndrome all of the above]]''[[note]]Many of the game's [[DorkAge more infamously stagnant meta states]] were when Tanks synergized in a way [[GameBreaker that actual straightforward Damage heroes were redundant]], and the only practical option was pitting tanks against each other in [[PaddedSumoGameplay a sloggy 6v6 sumo match of shields, healing, and close-up brawling]][[/note]]. Blizzard has since increasingly compacted the role as being a bit of a niche requirement, and in ''Overwatch 2'', it was announced they were limiting teams to just ''one'' Tank per team to loosen things up[[note]]This itself was an extension of Blizzard's implementation of a hard "role lock" limiting the amount of an archetype per team to 2, seen as effectively the nuclear option following ''many'' failed attempts to reduce Tanks' synergistic dominance without making them completely unusable[[/note]], allowing their HeroShooter to be more of a ''shooter'' while still tweaking around Tanks to be fun and useful without getting totally out of hand.

[[AC: [[MassivelyMultiplayerOnlineRolePlayingGame MMORPGs]]]]
* ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasy'':
** In 2016, Bakura is the last R character to be released (and he is still the portrait for the R Trial Character – a placeholder for any upcoming / character). The R character roster then remained stagnant for 2 years until Spinnah was released in 2018.
** Played Straight with Elmott's case: He has 3 versions of himself. The problem is, all three are of the Fire Element and all three are SR-rarity characters. In short, he never changed elements nor rarity.

* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' ended up experiencing a lot of this with its Tank heroes ([[DamagerHealerTank a role classification]] whose purpose is [[StoneWall shielding damage]], [[DrawAggro drawing aggro]], [[MightyGlacier up-close brawling]], or some combination of the above), with only 3 of the 11 initial post-release heroes being Tanks. At some point, Blizzard realized that Tanks were very difficult to design for and properly balance since in a fast-paced HeroShooter setting, they tend to be really "noisy" and can very easily be overly dominant, just really unfun and boring to play compared to Damage or Support heroes, or worst of all: ''[[ComplacentGamingSyndrome all of the above]]''[[note]]Many of the game's [[DorkAge more infamously stagnant meta states]] were when Tanks synergized in a way [[GameBreaker that actual straightforward Damage heroes were redundant]], and the only practical option was pitting tanks against each other in [[PaddedSumoGameplay a sloggy 6v6 sumo match of shields, healing, and close-up brawling]][[/note]]. Blizzard has since increasingly compacted the role as being a bit of a niche requirement, and in ''Overwatch 2'', it was announced they were limiting teams to just ''one'' Tank per team to loosen things up[[note]]This itself was an extension of Blizzard's implementation of a hard "role lock" limiting the amount of an archetype per team to 2, seen as effectively the nuclear option following ''many'' failed attempts to reduce Tanks' synergistic dominance without making them completely unusable[[/note]], allowing their HeroShooter to be more of a ''shooter'' while still tweaking around Tanks to be fun and useful without getting totally out of hand.

* ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear XX'': Around two dozen characters and exactly one big guy (Potemkin). Eventually averted in ''Accent Core + R'', but only because the developers rebalanced former SNKBoss Justice into this so she would be tournament viable. ''Xrd'' would drop Justice but add newcomers Bedman (in ''-SIGN-'') and Kum Haehuyn (in ''-REVELATOR-'') as heavyweight fighters.

* ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' handles this very oddly: every MightyGlacier in the series is a boss and is only playable in [[DreamMatchGame the]] [[VideoGame/MortalKombat3 full]] [[VideoGame/MortalKombatArmageddon cast]] games -- the only exceptions are Shao Kahn and Goro in the Gamecube version of ''[[VideoGame/MortalKombatDeception Deception]]'' and ''Unchained''.

* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' ended up experiencing a lot of this with its Tank heroes ([[DamagerHealerTank a role classification]] whose purpose is [[StoneWall shielding damage]], [[DrawAggro drawing aggro]], [[MightyGlacier up-close brawling]], or some combination of the above), with only 3 of the 11 initial post-release heroes being Tanks. At some point, Blizzard realized that Tanks were very difficult to design for and properly balance since in a fast-paced HeroShooter setting, they tend to be really "noisy" and can very easily be overly dominant, just really unfun and boring to play compared to Damage or Support heroes, or worst of all: ''[[ComplacentGamingSyndrome all of them]]''[[note]]Many of the game's more infamously stagnant meta states were when Tanks synergized in a way [[GameBreaker that actual straightforward Damage heroes were redundant]], and the only practical option was pitting tanks against each other in [[PaddedSumoGameplay a sloggy 6-man sumo match of shields, healing, and close-up brawling]][[/note]]. They've since increasingly compacted the role as being a bit of a niche role, and in ''Overwatch 2'', it was announced they were limiting teams to just ''one'' Tank per team to loosen things up[[note]]This itself was an extension of Blizzard's implementation of a hard "role lock" limiting the amount of an archetype per team to 2, seen as effectively the nuclear option following ''many'' failed attempts to reduce Tanks' synergistic dominance without making them completely unusable[[/note]], allowing their HeroShooter to be more of a ''shooter'' while still tweaking around Tanks to be fun and useful without getting totally out of hand.

* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' ended up experiencing a lot of this with its Tank heroes ([[DamagerHealerTank a role classification]] whose purpose is [[StoneWall shielding damage]], [[DrawAggro drawing aggro]], [[MightyGlacier up-close brawling]], or some combination of the above), with only 3 of the 11 initial post-release heroes being Tanks. At some point, Blizzard realized that Tanks were very difficult to design for and properly balance since in a fast-paced HeroShooter setting, they tend to be really "noisy" and can very easily be overly dominant, just really unfun and boring to play, or worst of all: ''[[ComplacentGamingSyndrome all of them]]''[[note]]Many of the game's more infamously stagnant meta states were when Tanks synergized in a way [[GameBreaker that actual straightforward Damage heroes were redundant]], and the only practical option was pitting tanks against each other in [[PaddedSumoGameplay a sloggy 6-man sumo match of shields, healing, and close-up brawling]][[/note]]. They've since increasingly compacted the role as being a bit of a niche role, and in ''Overwatch 2'', it was announced they were limiting teams to just ''one'' Tank per team to loosen things up[[note]]This itself was an extension of Blizzard's implementation of a hard "role lock" limiting the amount of an archetype per team to 2, seen as effectively the nuclear option following ''many'' failed attempts to reduce Tanks' synergistic dominance without making them completely unusable[[/note]], allowing their HeroShooter to be more of a ''shooter'' while still tweaking around Tanks to be fun and useful without getting totally out of hand.

* Non-{{fighting game}} example: There's three MightyGlacier classes in ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' (out of a dozen or so): The Generals (standard glaciers that appear in every main game), Wyvern/Dragon Riders (flying glaciers), and Fighters/Pirates/Brigands (more of HP sponges than anything else, and the last two veer towards GlassCannon). Generally, you only get one or two characters of each of those classes, though if the roster is really big (like in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemElibe Sword of Seals]]'' or ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn Radiant Dawn]]'') you might get three (or four for Generals), and some early games don't even feature playable Brigands. Every other physical class tends to have more characters in it, and aside from [[JackOfAllStats Paladins]], they all are of the FragileSpeedster type to a degree. Also, Dragon Riders generally come from mid-game onwards, generally the last class that will join you aside from [[DarkIsNotEvil Dark Magic users]] (justified in that [[HeelFaceTurn they're used by the enemy army]]). Considering how in ''Fire Emblem'' [[OneStatToRuleThemAll speed really matters]], limiting their numbers isn't exactly for CompetitiveBalance, so...

* Non-{{fighting game}} example: There's three MightyGlacier classes in ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' (out of a dozen or so): The Generals (standard glaciers that appear in every main game), Wyvern/Dragon Riders (flying glaciers), and Fighters/Pirates/Brigands (more of HP sponges than anything else, and the last two veer towards GlassCannon). Generally, you only get one or two characters of each of those classes, though if the roster is really big (like in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemElibe Sword of Seals]]'' or ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Radiant Dawn]]'') you might get three (or four for Generals), and some early games don't even feature playable Brigands. Every other physical class tends to have more characters in it, and aside from [[JackOfAllStats Paladins]], they all are of the FragileSpeedster type to a degree. Also, Dragon Riders generally come from mid-game onwards, generally the last class that will join you aside from [[DarkIsNotEvil Dark Magic users]] (justified in that [[HeelFaceTurn they're used by the enemy army]]). Considering how in ''Fire Emblem'' [[OneStatToRuleThemAll speed really matters]], limiting their numbers isn't exactly for CompetitiveBalance, so...

** The [[BeastMan Laguz]] from the [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Tellius]] games avert this, to a extent: In ''Radiant Dawn'' you get a handful of new Laguz besides all the old ones in ''Path Of Radiance'', and most of the new ones are Tigers, Lions, or Dragons, which are of the tanky type. Regular classes play this straight, however; in fact, the one Berserker on the first Tellius game is the only playable character not coming back for the sequel, and while you get 5 [[FragileSpeedster Trueblades]], you only get a measly two Reavers, with Sentinels and Marksmen at three each. And yes, they're all "sister" classes, each specializing in a specific weapon type.

** ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate Ultimate]]'' adds [[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry King K. Rool]], [[VideoGame/{{Metroid}} Ridley]], [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Incineroar]], and [[Franchise/{{Castlevania}} Simon and Richter]] as new heavyweights, plus [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Piranha Plant]] and [[VideoGame/BanjoKazooie Banjo]] as [=DLC=], as well as bringing back Snake. But with all the veterans returning, this makes 24 out of 83 playable characters heavyweights, slightly lowering the ratio.

** ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate Ultimate]]'' adds [[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry King K. Rool]], [[VideoGame/{{Metroid}} Ridley]], [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Incineroar]], and [[Franchise/{{Castlevania}} Simon and Richter]] as new heavyweights, as well as bringing back Snake. But with all the veterans returning, this makes 22 out of 77 playable characters heavyweights, slightly lowering the ratio.

** [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU The 3DS and Wii U versions]] add [[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Robin]], [[VideoGame/AnimalCrossing Villager]], [[VideoGame/KidIcarus Palutena]], and [[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy Rosalina]] but removed Snake. They also split the transforming characters, meaning [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Zelda]] is no longer stance based and now fits this trope. Additionally, both VideoGame/DrMario and [[VideoGame/Mother3 Lucas]] were rebalanced to more closely resemble the archetype. Ignoring [[VideoGame/{{Mii}} the Miis]] because of their customizability, this allows for a total of 16 out of 52 characters.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'', where [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros64 the original Nintendo 64 game]] had two Mighty Glaciers (Franchise/DonkeyKong and [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link]]) and one StoneWall ([[{{Franchise/Metroid}} Samus]]) out of 12 characters, ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee Melee]]'' added two more ([[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Bowser]] and [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Ganondorf]]) in a 26-character roster, and ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl Brawl]]'' added [[VideoGame/WarioLand Wa]][[VideoGame/WarioWare rio]] (though he's more {{acrofatic}}), [[VideoGame/RoboticOperatingBuddy R.O.B.]], [[VideoGame/{{Kirby}} King Dedede]], [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Charizard]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblem Ike]] (even though he's a LightningBruiser in [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius his games]]), and [[VideoGame/MetalGear Solid Snake]], for a total of eleven characters out of 39 total. Quite impressive.

* ''VideoGame/WWEAllStars'' features only three "Big Man" class characters: Wrestling/AndreTheGiant, Wrestling/TheBigShow, and {{Wrestling/Kane}}. DLC adds Wrestling/MarkHenry. If one is willing to be generous, one might count Wrestling/TheUndertaker and DLC's Wrestling/DustyRhodes.

** The [[PettingZooPeople Laguz]] from the [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Tellius]] games avert this, to a extent: In ''Radiant Dawn'' you get a handful of new Laguz besides all the old ones in ''Path Of Radiance'', and most of the new ones are Tigers, Lions, or Dragons, which are of the tanky type. Regular classes play this straight, however; in fact, the one Berserker on the first Tellius game is the only playable character not coming back for the sequel, and while you get 5 [[FragileSpeedster Trueblades]], you only get a measly two Reavers, with Sentinels and Marksmen at three each. And yes, they're all "sister" classes, each specializing in a specific weapon type.

* ''VideoGame/BattleFantasia'' has only one glacier fighter in Donvalve.

** ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate Ultimate]]'' adds [[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry King K. Rool]], [[VideoGame/{{Metroid}} Ridley]], [[VideoGame/{{Pokemon}} Incineroar]], and [[Franchise/{{Castlevania}} Simon and Richter]] as new heavyweights, as well as bringing back Snake. But with all the veterans returning, this makes 22 out of 77 playable characters heavyweights, slightly lowering the ratio.

** ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate Ultimate]]'' adds [[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry King K. Rool]], [[VideoGame/{{Pokemon}} Incineroar]], and [[Franchise/{{Castlevania}} Simon and Richter]] as new heavyweights, as well as bringing back Snake. But with all the veterans returning, this makes 21 out of 77 playable characters heavyweights, slightly lowering the ratio.

* ''MortalKombat'' handles this very oddly: every MightyGlacier in the series is a boss and is only playable in [[DreamMatchGame the]] [[VideoGame/MortalKombat3 full]] [[VideoGame/MortalKombatArmageddon cast]] games -- the only exceptions are Shao Kahn and Goro in the Gamecube version of ''[[VideoGame/MortalKombatDeception Deception]]'' and ''Unchained''.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'', where the original UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 64}} game had two Mighty Glaciers (Franchise/DonkeyKong and [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda Link]]) and one StoneWall ([[{{Franchise/Metroid}} Samus]]) out of 12 characters, ''Melee'' added two more ([[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Bowser]] and [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Ganondorf]]) in a 26-character roster, and ''Brawl'' added [[VideoGame/WarioLand Wa]][[VideoGame/WarioWare rio]] (though he's more {{acrofatic}}), [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem ROB]], [[VideoGame/{{Kirby}} King Dedede]], [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Charizard]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblem Ike]] (even though he's a LightningBruiser in [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius his games]]), and [[VideoGame/MetalGear Solid Snake]], for a total of eleven characters out of 39 total. Quite impressive.
** The [=WiiU=] and [=3DS=] versions add [[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Robin]], [[VideoGame/AnimalCrossing Villager]], [[VideoGame/KidIcarus Palutena]], and [[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy Rosalina]] but removed Snake. They also split the transforming characters, meaning Zelda is no longer stance based and now fits this trope. Additionally, both VideoGame/DrMario & [[VideoGame/{{Mother3}} Lucas]] were rebalanced to more closely resemble the archetype. Ignoring the Miis because of their customizability, this allows for a total of 16 out of 52 characters.
** ''Ultimate'' adds [[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry King K. Rool]], [[VideoGame/{{Pokemon}} Incineroar]], and [[VideoGame/{{Castlevania}} Simon and Richter]] as new heavyweights, as well as bringing back Snake. But with all the veterans returning, this makes 21 out of 77 playable characters heavyweights, slightly lowering the ratio.
** Super Smash Bros. tends to have characters that blur the line of MightyGlacier such as Donkey Kong (who is very fast for his size) and Wario (who is heavy but very agile in the air), and many MightyGlacier characters tend to become gradually faster in later entries. Bowser is a stand-out example, to the point of almost being a LightningBruiser since For Wii U/3DS, making the series arguably fall into the global warming trend as the Glaciers get sped up.

** ''Ultimate'' adds [[VideoGame/DonkeyKong King K. Rool]], [[VideoGame/Pokemon Incineroar]], and [[VideoGame/{{Castlevania}} Simon and Richter]] as new heavyweights, as well as bringing back Snake. But with all the veterans returning, this makes 21 out of 77 playable characters heavyweights, slightly lowering the ratio.

** ''VideoGame/StreetFighterV'' seldom brings in characters of this type. The game launched with Zangief and Birdie, Season 1 added Alex although Urien was brought back with his already-light case of this trope just about completely gone, and Season 2 added Abigail. That's four out of 28 characters.

** ''Ultimate'' adds [[VideoGame/DonkeyKong King K. Rool]] and [[VideoGame/Pokemon Incineroar]] plus [[VideoGame{{Castlevania}} Simon and Richter]] as new heavyweights, as well as bringing back Snake. But with all the veterans returning, this makes 21 out of 77 playable characters heavyweights, slightly lowering the ratio.