Well, the same could be said of any fighting game where there's a person with a bad/mid char that always gets far on tourneys, but it'll only get you so far thou.
But still i would be grateful to hear Linkster's deeper views of the char
Thanks for some input there, Ph00t.
Paprika is absolutely rad. Like Song said, I'd mirror Cam's opinions in that it's somewhat matchup based, but she's got relatively even ones across the board save for Olly IMO.
Her neutral is... pretty good, actually. It's as good as it needs to be. She can microspace really well with her run, and also has a backwards run, giving her even more spacing potential. 2b is a pretty solid move that can even stuff the occasional air approach with its hitbox. Paprika absolutely
steamrolls in the right scenario, and even in her Olly matchup the fight can be decided by a single touch. She has what is the only 50/50 in the game where the only prior setup is putting the opponent into stagger, which she can do out of
every combo relatively easily with 6a, and averages ~1500 damage a combo before super, passing 2000 if she does and going into a
six way oki after level 1, and on top of THAT she averages 800-900 damage a reset. She
doesn't need a strong neutral with that much steamroll potential.
Her High/Low is okay for what it is. You can play a good game with 2a and command grab, even doing tick throws to keep your opponent on guard against everything you do. Heavy cartwheel is the fastest grounded overhead in the game and has the damage to count, too. If you're playing Pap right, your opponent will be pushblocking
absolutely everything because of the fear you can instill.
Paprika's level 2 right now is fairly mediocre for its intended purpose of gift delivery, but never underestimate basket burst. I could like, extol the virtues for an hour of catching someone at not-full JD with it, but basket burst also creates a minefield of gifts that Paps benefits from massively given that many of her more unsafe moves become a lot more safe, and rolling 6 pots is chip damage heaven. It can also be used as a free escape from corner pressure, since you can use it to warp to the far side of the camera and have what's basically an explosion of chip damage to cover you,
and you can block out of it. It is kinda bad to use for tossing gifts, which
seems like its primary purpose, but basket burst more than makes up for it.
Paprika's AA moves are slightly lacking, but 6a is a good AA on its own, and usage of medium cartwheel can stuff air moves before the opponent has a chance. Using it when you're anticipating an opponents move leads into a full combo on a pretty dang optimal starter, too. Generally, I end up forcing the opponent into a far more grounded approach, and generally blocking a medium cartwheel while airborne leaves me able to block against most characters. You can even try to go into launcher if they block it for a frame trap attempt if you're really concerned about them mashing out.
... Projectiles? Um, if you're trying to play a projectile game with Paprika, something is wrong. Her gifts aren't intended to be used in a projectile game, they're intended to aid in locking down the opponent. Dropping a gift on someone basically wins you neutral for as long as they're on top of it.
I think Paprika is a great character. She's not bad, and in fact i'd say no character in this game is bad. She just happens to lack in neutral for a very good reason. While it's true that a good neutral is fairly relevant to a characters use in a game, it's not a be-all-end-all. Yun from Third Strike typically ranks as 1 or 2 across most tier lists, and has since 2000. Heck, in general, in SF4 and SF5 the best characters weren't neutral oriented. You're trying to set a standard for characters that isn't really there, Paprika is fine and she fits into her role great.