MultiVersus, the insanely popular platform brawler from Warner Brothers and Player First games, has a lot of characters in it that all play so incredibly differently. In fact, MultiVersus' newest one, Lebron James, is unlike any other character on the roster.
So, to help categorize them a bit, the characters are separated into different Classes such as Tank, Assassin, Support, Mage, and Bruiser. Bruisers, such as Garnet, Batman, Jake, Shaggy, Taz, and Lebron, are especially interesting, so let’s go over how they work in greater detail and how players are "meant" to utilize these types of playable characters.
4 They're Sort Of The “Hybrid” Class
While Bruisers are their own unique class, a lot of them play sort of like they’re multiple classes. For example, Lebron is a Bruiser, yes, but he also has some Support character type mechanics with his Passes both offensively and defensively. Meanwhile, Garnet is also a Bruiser (and part of the free character rotation) but is as heavy as a Tank with a heavily Armored standard Combo. The main consistency between the Bruisers is that they’re inconsistent, so it’s actually more beneficial to think of them as completely unique characters.
Players will want to mess around with all the Bruisers, test all their normals, goof around with their specials, and see how "natural" they feel to pick up and play. Some Bruisers actually even become more complicated mechanically the better someone gets with them, such as Batman, while others stay relatively simple and just rely on good reflexes and relatively smart choices, like Shaggy.
3 Normal Attacks Are Their Bread & Butter
Another commonality that most of the Bruisers have is that their Normal Attacks, not their Specials, chain into each other exceedingly well, and all feel very natural. Or, if their Specials are part of their combos, it's in a way that links two separate combos. The only two outliers to this design principle are Jake, whose stretchy powers and floaty properties have him play a bit differently (and this is also his weakness), and Lebron James, who technically has two “sets” of Normals with and without his basketball (which fans are dubbing as his LeBall state and his LeHands state).
Still, Bruisers (on average) seem to flourish the most when they’re chasing down their opponent aggressively, using their Aerial, Ground, and Charged Normals to combo them for massive damage. This isn’t to say that their Specials aren’t good or useful, just that they aren’t as much of a “central” part of their combos as they would be for a Mage or Support character. Take Shaggy for example, his Normals are all so insanely overpowered that he doesn't really even need to use any of his specials to KO opponents (though plenty of players spam his Chiller Instinct Kick anyway). Bruisers can absolutely play around their Specials if they want, but their Normals are what they play around their Specials with.
2 They're The Frontline & The Finisher
In MultiVersus, the different Classes may separate the characters, but at the end of the day, they’re all just jumping into one big dogpile. That said, Bruisers do seem to be the Class most consciously designed for being "in the thick of it". So, when a Bruiser is on a team with a Support, the Bruiser should expect to be the frontline going all-out on the enemies while the Support has the option to, well, support them from behind.
On that same train of thought, Bruisers are also all pretty great at KO'ing as well. Taz has his Slam-Wich and Feed the Beast, Batman has his Bat-Kick and Bat-Slide, Garnet has her Crystal Combo and Starburst, Jake has his Hambone Brake and You Axe'd For It, and Shaggy has his Like Knee Strike and Get Down Man. Even Lebron James, the Bruiser who was thought to have the least KO Moves, is slowly having more of his moves found to be stronger than they originally appeared.
1 Play With Their Gimmick & Use It Against The Enemy
And finally, because each Bruiser plays so differently from one another, players will need to figure out where their “gimmick” lies. For example:
- Taz is based around Tasty Stacks as well as all of his moves that have relatively fast animations. This allows anyone to pick him up and enjoy themselves, and also allows him to constantly stick to and pressure an opponent pretty easily.
- Batman is based entirely around his Gadgets like his Batarang, Grappling Gun (when it's not working against him), and Smoke Bomb, but it's how he combos in-between using these Gadgets that matters.
- Garnet's gimmick is based around her attacks being slower and having larger windups, but using that to hit the enemies in unique ways such as her two-part Crystal Combo or her star-patterned Starburst.
- Jake is all about throwing opponents off with his oddball stretchy attacks and using that to punish them for reacting poorly.
- And finally, Lebron is based entirely around his Basketball, using his Passes and lots of small hits with his Normals to ultimately capitalize on with a Dunk when the enemy has their guard down.
Basically, this is all to say that it's important to learn what each character’s “gimmick” is and how to best utilize it against the opponents. Garnet players will use their weight advantage against the enemy and push forward while Batman players will pick their moments carefully to either pepper the enemy with Gadgets or capitalize on a long combo. Just because they're all Bruisers, doesn't mean they all have the same playstyle, so players need to approach each one differently if they want to "Master" them.
MultiVersus is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.