Fighting EX Layer / YMMV

Fan Nickname: Thanks to only having a Working Title at the time of its announcement, Fighting EX Layer was very quickly dubbed Street Fighter EX4 after its 2017 unveiling. Something of a Nonindicative Name depending on how you view it; while none of the characters from the core Street Fighter series are present, most of the Original Generation EX characters are, and their stories are more or less a direct continuation of the ones found in the EX games.
Memetic Mutation:
- Thanks to Matt and Woolie, the fact that one of the game's main mechanics is named the Gougi System quickly became memetic, likely owing (at least in part) to Inherently Funny Words for non-Japanese speakers. When Fighting EX Layer was first demoed, the word was also bracketed in the manner of Stands from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (i.e.「GOUGI」), thus leading to a myriad of crossover jokes.
- A number of Tetris: The Grand Master players have joked that they would buy the game just to fund the next TGM game.
- Though possible trademark issues necessitated that Arika call the game Fighting EX Layer instead of Fighting Layer EX, many fans jokingly gave the company a hard time by saying the inability to abbreviate the title to FLEX was a huge missed opportunity.
- With the inclusion of Terry Bogard as a Guest Fighter, if fans aren't joking about how Arika is trying to do their own version of Capcom vs. SNK 3 in response to Geese Howard being in Tekken 7 alongside Akuma (seeing as the EX characters belong to both Capcom and Arika), they're cracking jokes about how this game continues the tradition of SNK characters looking better in other games than they do in KOF XIV (and SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy).
- April Fools' Day. Arika made a 7-year-long April Fool's joke about the development of the game. Then in 2019, they made another April Fool's joke by releasing Fighting EX Layer -α. Then in 2021, they released Another Dash for the Nintendo Switch. Both Arika and its fans joke about how news for the game always involve April 1st in some way. (The streak was broken in 2022 with no new updates on FEXL, but Arika still ended up unveiling a teaser/proof of concept for their latest project, Prayer to Death, on April 1st that year.)
Moe: The calm, borderline stoic Lady of War Hokuto is seen as such, largely thanks to her character art depicting her as more youthful than her appearances in the Street Fighter EX series. As it turns out, this is partially because "Hokuto" is actually her younger sister Nanase (who arguably already fit the bill back in the EX days), with Sanane merely being Nanase's Identical Stranger from a branch family of their clan who was implanted with Nanase's memories.
Tainted by the Preview: While the pre-release buzz for Fighting EX Layer was predominantly positive, the stark similarities between this game's Gougi System and the Gems of the ill-fated Street Fighter X Tekken led to more than a few fans calling for the mechanic to not be a mandatory feature like the Gems were (either by allowing players to toggle the Gougi decks on and off or making it its own separate mode), citing the Gems' questionable implementation in SFxT as one of several factors that led to the crossover's quick downfall. While it is impossible to fight without the Gougi System in the final release, the Gougi decks were ultimately deemed to not be as balance-breaking as many feared ^note, with a very simple and easily comprehensible method of deck selection. That the light version's default five decks aren't terribly underpowered compared to the additional ten accessible in the standard version ^note is likewise seen an improvement over SFxT, where complaints abounded over some of the DLC Gems due to how superior they were when stacked against the base game's selection.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: How some players feel about Kairi's moveset being changed back to his traditional shotoclone moveset from the first Street Fighter EX as opposed to the more unique playstyle he gained in later EX games.

YMMV / Fighting EX Layer

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