Hmm. A style suitable for beginners, that works as a solid offensive and defensive form, and can be built upon…only GlyphGryph wouldn’t take that as a reason to keep it around. :-/
Yep, “Kung Fu” is not a martial arts style of itself, despite my using it hear to refer to “whatever cinematic MA animal styles get kept”. It’s Chinese MA, generally. Literal translation is “hard work”/“great accomplishment”.
8 styles listed, at hand:
An Ch’i
Chin Na
Pao Chuan
Praying Mantis KF
Shaolin KF
White Crane KF
Wing Chun KF
Wushu KF
And apparently T’ai Chi isn’t that far removed.
As for style-chaining: I was going for progression into more difficult forms, not necessarily “better”. Kevin’s got it with the “prerequisite” line. I’d been thinking that a Pentjak Silat or $KUNG_FU_STYLE instructor would need some convincing to teach the player, for instance. (No, simply beating up the instructor wouldn’t work.)
Re better/worse styles: Situational.
Boxing may be pretty good against a single human target, but loses out against groups.
Capoeira works well against groups, but loses out in a confined space.
Dragon Style KF let intellectuals still fight effectively, but doesn’t have the raw damage output of KM or MT.
Krav Maga can special on every turn, but that’s it.
Taekwondo soaked damage like nobody’s business but had trouble dishing it out.
Muay Thai did good damage and evened the odds against large critters, but the blocks didn’t work as well.
I’d say the way to go would be to level up several styles and switch as needed.