Hardest fighting game character(S) to master (2D or 3D)

[Retsudo]

What Character in a fighting game you found to be very hard to master?

As some might know, Im big on fighting games. And pretty good at them I might say. But sometimes you come across a Character that seem kinda hard to master. When I say master, I dont meen a character to cheese your way through with. A fighter that require skillz to get you through.

The characters I found hard to master
1. AOI, Vanessa, Akira, and Shun from the VF series.

[Tempest]

I always though Zangief was kinda hard to master.

Tempest

[portnoyd]

In Marvel vs Capcom 2 (fa fa fa), any non-god/top tier character is difficult to master, but can become truly dominating if you do. The game is good like that.. no character is a complete throw away. (Yes, not even Roll, Dan, or Servbot)

dave

[Ascending Wordsmith]

Any grappling character is hard enough for me. 360 commands are NOT the easiest to pull off in my case. Zangief, Sodom, Birdie, and other big fighters are just too tough for me to use.

[ubersaurus]

On the other side of the spectrum, Magneto (one of the big 4 of marvel vs capcom 2) is tough to learn, due to the fact that a bad magneto is very predictable and easy to fight off, whereas a good one is all over the place, rushing you down, and overal killing you.

V-ism Akuma in Alpha 3 would be another tricky one, simply because he's got V-isms that are tricky to get the hang of (since they require grabbing off the ground, and every opponent has a different timing for that), and then you get into the crouch cancels...but he's considered the 2nd best character in the game so its worth it.

But in general lower tier characters are harder to master...you'll never get as good the results against better characters, and you'll have to work a hell of a lot harder in a match to be victorious, but it's worth it.

My vote though? MK2 Shang Tsung. You gotta learn all the characters in the game to be good with him. (Fun fact-the last Midwest Challenge in 2002 had an MK2 tourney..the winner did it with Shang Tsung, and on that final opponent, final round it said Finish Him...and Tsung made his little friendship rainbow).

[Arqueologia_Digital]

Mmmm...good question, i think the hardest fighters to master are:
Zangief, Sodom & M. Bison (SF Zero 3)
Akira, Shun & Pai (VF series)
Shang tsung (MK II)
Shinnok (MK IV)
Maxima, Brian Battler & Yamazaki (KOF series)

[WiseSalesman]

Ice Climbers in Super Smash Bros. Melee.

[ubersaurus]

I almost forgot..the infamous duo of Strider/Dr. Doom in MvC2. Used correctly, they can function almost as one character, bringing out some damn powerful traps and lockdown techniques. However, only a handful of people are any good with the duo...but together and used correctly, they are powerful enough to hang with the best characters.

[IntvGene]

...From my favorite series - Vampire Hunter / Savior:

That damn mummy, Anakaris!

All those button combos and tapping... I hate it. I would rather take the 360's over those. I find once you learn the speed of the 360 motion for the game, it's nowhere near as bad.