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Wow, I've got a backlog. You guys were busy while I was gone! Here's three reviews to make up for it; hopefully I'll get to more tomorrow.
ZOMBIE MASTER
This is a very intriguing set. The usefulness of the minions seems overpowered until I remember his lackluster stats. Things flow pretty well here, mostly centering around the minions (which is good, considering that he pretty much can’t kill any other way). I like how this was explicitly designed with FFA/team battles in mind; his ability to support an
ally and in turn be supported adds depth to the moveset and gets people thinking about uses in both 1 vs 1, team battles, and FFA. Anything that gets people thinking is okay in my book. :D
The one problem with this set is that I kept thinking that plants would totally own this guy’s zombies. XD
SMOT
First off, those captions are just too cool. Very nicely made.
However, this set was a bit confusing. For one thing, you seem to have stated both that homunculi move and that they stay in place. I’m not sure which it is. I get that some attacks move the homunculi, but nonetheless, I’m not sure if they move on their own. Maybe tweak the wording somewhere?
Overall, it was an interesting set. The mindgames here are intriguing, as is the sheer amount of passive damage involved. However, I’m not a fan of the jumplessness of Smot; I like jumps and a real aerial game rather than a changed set of standards. Still, it makes sense with the character, so it’s tolerable.
In short, it’s a well-executed concept, save for some confusing wording. It’s not one of my favorites, though, despite being a long-needed legendary poison type.
GRIM POPPET
This set seemed solid. Some decent interactions with the kegs of acid and detachable arms here. However, it wasn’t a particularly interesting set. Granted, it was a one-day set, so I shouldn’t expect a masterpiece, but overall it just didn’t grab me at all.
I did like your narration style, though, even if it doesn’t exactly fit the Grim Poppet. Mild snarkiness=good. :D
[COLLAPSE="Smot"]It's funny because I thought you were going to do Seviper, but this is something else. It's quite commendable that you basically made a god-muk OC, since the whole ordeal of getting one's head around an OC and implementing them is usually more difficult than using existing characters....this is also quite fitting for all the elaborate moves he has in his arsenal, even if Smot himself doesn't -LOOK- like godly material (perhaps he could've looked cooler, lol). It was only when I got to the playstyle section when I realized just how complicated Smot was upon your elaboration, and that he wasn't just a simple Pokemon but rather something akin to an overworked god who'd be difficult but very interesting to use. The overtone of the set feels surprisingly deceitful in that manner, especially given the contrast of the simplistic nature of the Pokemon world and the various images you use for the attacks in contrast to Smot and his minions' appearances (mostly the latter given Smot actually looks like a Pokemon) as well as the name homunculi, which is alien to the Pokemon world.
I'm sorry if this comment wasn't all that great (the set wasn't the easiest to get into, but then again I shouldn't be talking...), but you should know that you do have a fan in me with this work.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't all Smashes have a similar if not same charge time of 2 seconds? If so, it'd be easy enough to say that the attacks have a similar charging time to a Smash for the future.
[/COLLAPSE]
[COLLAPSE="Kang the Conqueror"]Better late than never. There are some things I've been wanting to say and should have said a long time ago, so I'll just say them now. I greatly commend you on the mastery of the time-travelling mechanic and taking it all the way, because I tried that with a set I made in the past but didn't fully elaborate on it, especially what with the ingenious idea of implementing it into 3v1 style...speaking of which, I absolutely love the way you implement the CPU past foes as being hostile to the future players; it's like something taken directly from a Marvel scenario and makes perfect sense to make them under AI control given that they're not the "main characters" of the story anymore, but still important.
Perhaps the implementation of the soldiers don't feel massively Marvel-ly when the attention generally seems to be focused on the big bad, but that in itself does absolutely nothing to detract from the absolutely amazing sense of atmosphere you've built up in this set that fits to a -T- for a Marvel villain, which is great considering your adoration for that franchise. Perhaps Kang's no Doctor Doom, but this is a set you should be very, very proud of and could be considered a definite Nate set, especially given how much love it's already received beforehand.[/COLLAPSE]
Squee, Spleen and Spoon are a trio of goblins that hail from the popular custom Warcraft III map Defense of the Ancients (or DotA). For some reason, no characters directly from this map have yet to grace MYM; cameos such as Cairne or Kel'Thuzad don't count, as their movesets would be radically different if they were based off of their DotA incarnations.
These three goblins, known collectively as the Goblin Techies, are actually an unusual kind of hero from all the others. Unusual in that they're utterly worthless in combat and frail as glass, yet infamous for killing entire teams of heroes with a single key press. That's because their real abilities lie in planning ahead and littering the battlefield with explosives, dealing terrible, terrible damage to any unlucky players who so happen to trip upon them.
Size: 3 (They all move together as one character.)
Weight: 2
Ground Speed: 3
Air Speed: 3
Traction: 9
Jump Height: 2
Fall Speed: 5
Neutral Special -
- Land Mines
"That'll be a blast!"
One of the Techies (that's what they're called anyway) drops a single explosive mine beneath them, it being visible for perhaps a tenth of a second before burrowing into the stage. The mine itself is twice as large as the usual sensor mines in Brawl, and colored as shown in the icon above, but it'll only attach itself to floors. Used in the air, the mine will drop until it plants itself into the stage or falls into the abyss, but it won't do anything but flinch {1%} foes while falling. Even once embedded into the stage, the mine won't go live until second after it was first created.
Once it does go live, however, it'll activate the moment a foe (not the Techies) steps right on them, exploding in a massive Bowser-sized radius. The damage depends on the player's position; anyone in the heart of the blast takes a whopping 30%, while even those on the very fringes of the explosion take at least 15%. However, the Techies seem to have some truly odd mines. These mines don't deal any sort of knockback or flinching when they explode, meaning foes can waltz through them if they don't mind the damage. Oh, wait, what? I see. They actually don't deal knockback unless the foe is at 180%, wherein they'll instead be blown sky-high (and well past the blast zone) if they step on a mine. The Techies have a one-second cool down between mine-laying, and they have a maximum limit of 20 mines out at a time. Of course, they could always overlap mines to make the best of the foe's mistakes.
Down Special -
- Stasis Trap
"Do not run, we are your friends!"
The two goblins not covered in a barrel set up a mystic voodoo ward. No, it isn't explosive. The ward remains visible for two second before becoming invisible, it simply remaining in its place. However, the Techies can plant these in the air; probably because voodoo magic from the ward.
Unlike the mines, the ward lasts only a paltry 15 seconds before disappearing for good. However, it also activates when a foe comes within a two SBB radius of it. It's got a delayed reaction, though. It'll take two seconds after activation before the ward does its magic, stunning every foe in a Smart-Bomb-explosion-sized area for a whopping five seconds. Since stun here is identical to the one from ZSSamus' blaster, they'll be stuck in midair as well, so they'll have to button-mash free while the Techies spread mines with aplomb.
Side Special -
- Remote Mines
"Light the FUSE!"
More mines? More mines! With a tap of the input, the one goblin in a barrel punts a small barrel of explosives forward. Used on the ground, this capsule-sized bomb will fly in an arc land a BFP away from the Techies, sitting itself upon the ground. In the air, it'll travel farther to land farther (duh). It'll take a second and a half before these bombs fade to invisibility as well.
These last a whole minute before falling apart, but Techies can fling as many of the bombs as he wants. Of course, he'll have to wait before a previously-flung bomb becomes invisible before throwing out another one. However, these explosives don't activate when a foe comes close; rather, the Techies will need to hold down this input such that all three of them will pull out a remote (you know the one) to press a red button at the same time. The closest remote bomb, and any others within a SBB radius of it, will detonate in a BFP-radius big-a-boom, wrecking a uniform 25% onto anyone within range and sending anyone at 100% straight into the horizon. Man, for such big explosives, they have rather sane knock back, don't they? The Techies can't blow up a remote bomb until it becomes invisible, by the way.
Up Special -
- Suicide Squad, Attack!
"We come in peace!"
The Techies explode. No, really. Hold down this input, and the Techies will only be able to move around as one of them yells the quote above. Just release the input to attack as normal, but collide with any foe while holding the input to blow yourself (and the foe). It'll be a gigantic 35%-damage KOs-at-90% kaboom, but the Techies lose a stock when they use it. No better application for a suicide bomber, eh?
[Placed inside collapse tags due to potentially unsettling imagery][and got edited... shucks.]
Ghost of the Infirmary A terrifying and deadly phantom. In a past life, he may have butchered children in the school Infirmary. But now he has no cause to be so... nice
When a player picks up the Cosplay Mask and becomes the Ghost of the Infirmary, their physical form gives way, leaving them as a shadowy husk of their former selves. This greatly lightens their weight, and makes the player alltogether more floaty. Knockback on all the player's attacks takes a dramatic hit, requiring them to rack oh so much more damage before they can KO effectively...
Side Special: Hair
Thick sinewy strands of black hair lash out from the ghost, flinging themselves two stagebuilder units forward before flopping to the ground. This hair latches onto absolutely anything it can, people, things, even the stage itself, knotting everything in its path together in a jungle of hair. If caught by some hair, the foe will find moving difficult, until they either move far enough away for the hair to snap, or until they destroy or attack the area where the other end of that strand of hair has latched onto. Naturally, as the foe becomes entangled in more and more hair, either solution becomes all the more difficult. Hair does dissapear eventually, and the attack comes out slow enough to avoid. But even without being specifically latched to anything, the foe will have their movement impeded if they attempt to move through an area covered in hair.
The second purpose of hair, is that it nullifies... just about anything. Traps won't work, projectiles fall out of the air, items won't function. Anything you coat with hair will become effectively useless.
The initial stages of this attack, as the hair first shoots from the ghost, also functions as a tether recovery..
Up Special: Into Black Smoke
The Ghost channels his inner hentai, melting his body away into a stream of acrid sentient smoke. You can direct this stagebuilder unit sized cloud of mallice in any direction you choose, potentially moving three stagebuilder units in 3 seconds (which I'm informed is pretty slow). Foes can knock the ghost out of this attack simply by attacking the smoke.
However, catch the foe inside this smoke, and they will begin inhaling it subconciously. This not only prevents them from using any attacks until they leave the smoke, but it will begin damaging the foe too. For the first second they will take 4% damage, for the second they take 20%, and the third and final second piles on another 40% damage. Keeping the foe inside of your smoke is therefore of utmost importance. In fact, if you manage to keep the foe breathing your evil in for the full three seconds, part of you will remain with them, for the rest of the entire match, constantly dealing 4% damage per second to the foe. This effect does not go away when the foe is KO'd, and it can be stacked with itself, building up quite the impressive curse.
Start and end lag of this attack are pretty difficult to work around, though keeping the foe inside the entire attack will also stun them long enough to avoid being punished while transforming back
Down Special: Closed Spaces
There are many worlds out there, and this move allows the ghost to pass through into just one of them. The ghost sinks under the ground where he stands. He now stands upside down, underneath the platform he was on. The manouver does not descriminate against solid ground, which he will simply treat as another fallthrough platform. This lasts until you reinput the move. And.. oh yeah, you can move around and attack and whatever whilst inverted like this.
Essentially, the ghost is now upside down, up is down, your jumps go down, and gravity makes you fall up. As previously mentioned, solid ground is no longer an issue in this state. He can pass through it just fine, yet can still use the surface of a solid stage as a platform. He'll appear to be inside the stage, though his shadow will still appear on the topside of the stage, giving away his position.
If you're having trouble understanding what this move is about... think of it like how in a river or lake the reflected image of a tree would look like it's upside-down, under the water's surface.
Since the ghost is likely to be now hidden inside the stage, it is incredibly difficult for foes to attack him. They can hit him by attacking the area of the platform he's standing on (e.g. with D-Airs, D-Tilts, or D-Smashes).
This move is excellent for getting to and fro without interferance. You can also use it as a cowardly little hidey hole which you can pop into and out of at will. And there's something to be said about using certain attacks whilst upside down. A D-air that hits UP!? Madness!
Neutral Special: You need Scissors
The Ghost dissapears abruptly, for up to 1.4 seconds depending on how long you hold B. Once released, the ghost instantly reappears directly in front of the furthest foe, with 0.8 seconds of super armor. Argh!
You can use a regular attack at this point to hurt the foe, after which you teleport back to where you originally were.
Alternatively, you could just wait... staring into the opponent's soul, automatically floating after them when they move. If the foe remains facing the ghost, and doesn't make him flinch/take knockback, for 1.2 seconds, the foe will lose their minds, and then their head. No, really, they'll rip off the top of their own head in their madness. From then on, for the rest of that stock, that decapitated head counts as a KOable target, and KOing either that or the foe themselves will count as a KO against the foe. The loose head is really light, so the foe will need to keep it safe at all costs. It'll automatically (and creepily) hop towards the foe, and make adequate jumps in order to keep itself from being left behind, but it's otherwise highly vulnerable.
Two things to note; first of all, if you manage to drive a foe insane while they're are in midair, they will fall helplessly to the ground first, then remove their head. Secondly, the foe can still be driven mad if they grab you, regardless of what pummels or throws they try
[COLLAPSE="Grim Poppet"]As soon as I saw this set, I was inspired to and did make one in a similar vain...little fellows do have noticeably good potential for these kind of sets, as I would know from liking Yu-Gi-Oh!, the parallel of MTG.
The arms can get a bit confusing given the fact that they can be spread across the floor and you can attack with them for camping tools, but with the attacks being described in a fashion that assumes you're using them attached - not really all that big of a problem though. From reading this, I'm sorta getting the idea that this is the kind of set, in the one-day nature of sorts, that brings up a mechanic or two and milks them out across the attacks to the point where it can actually get surprisingly predictable for the reader to some degree, especially since you know the mechanics aren't really handled in greatly creative ways. Granted, this IS a one-day set and it's not like you had any more time to think up anything better - in that pretense it's probably better than your previous two (those two did have mechanics to them, which seems to be commonplace for one-day sets), despite not really being exciting. Having the set be for a generic monster thing with no personality would probably add to that factor as well.
Also, there are two things I know from this set. Your main movesetting interests lie in Homestruck, Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Magic: The Gathering (kind of common sense though), and you're actually using more exclamation marks in your writing style like with your creme egg mini - I almost never saw you do so before then, but perhaps it's a sign of informality and casualness.
[/COLLAPSE]
If no new sets come up I might try and get to those I didn't get to before...then again it might be hard for me to say anything new about them.
Roman takes out his cell phone and calls the foe the furthest away from him, prompting them to take out a cell phone and answer Roman’s call. Like in real life, it’s quite possible to dodge a phone call, and Roman will have heavy end lag if the foe does so. If he successfully calls them, though, not only will he stall the match for a few very painful seconds, he’ll force the foe to take out a bowling ball. The bowling ball is a heavy throwing item like Bonsly that takes a long while to throw with similar power, but is thrown in a much more predictable trajectory as it rolls along the ground. The main advantage of this is that the foe cannot attack while they are wielding the bowling ball, giving you an ideal chance to pressure them.
Side Special – LET’S GO BOWLING
Roman takes out the same bowling ball that he can force foes to carry with his Neutral Special, serving as one of his better KO methods. Seeing he can actually –choose- when to use this move, it’s far more practical.
Up Special – Freeloading
Roman leaps up into the air 2 Ganons as he says “Why don’t I crash at your place?” before falling downwards, dealing 8% and downward knockback that’s competent. Upon landing on the ground, Roman falls asleep, healing 5% per second until he wakes up and creating snoring shockwaves around himself every 1.2 seconds that deal 7% and GTFO knockback. Note that if Roman lands on top of a foe as he crashes, he will hit them with a grab hitbox as he “sleeps over” with them. Both Roman and foes will exit this stance in prone when they get out of it.
Down Special – Loan
Roman reaches forward with his hand for what appears to be a grab, but actually does no stun at all to the foe. If successful, he will take a wad of cash, stating “I’ll pay ya back by Tuesday! Promise!”, dealing 15% to the foe and healing himself of 15%. This is nigh lagless, making it much more broken than it appears. The catch is that as Roman is attacked, he’ll drop the cash he “borrowed”, dropping one dollar for every 2% he takes. Dropping a dollar damages Roman by 1%, and at that point either Roman or the foe can pick up the dollar by running into it like coin mode dollars to get healed by 1%.
I'll be reviewing some of the sets I've read in no particular order, mostly because it's 4:07 AM GMT by the time I'll have started this post and would like to get some sleep for the long haul tomorrow. Apologies to those I have chosen to save for another day, though you will have yours commented on soon enough.
To start, let's go back at least 100 years in the future with Ratigan, a set so unabashedly in favor of what Ratigan does best- leave all the dirty work to his mass amounts of minions and even more massive amounts of trap set-ups. Sure, the number of traps Ratigan has to work with are numerous enough, but the potential mazes you can create and activate with the record player is insane, to say the least. You don't make the mistake some other mostly non-attacking sets make by giving Ratigan actual attacks that make the additional benefit of integrating well with his traps. The big issue here that I share with some others, however, is the obtuse manner in which Beast Form is handled. While I can agree that there's no perfect way to utilize his Inner Rat and the way you implement it is likely the best we can get, I still feel that the bonuses offered don't really mean all that much in the long run, considering Ratigan will really want those traps up to apply pressure. The last thing I can really say is that the mass amounts of traps will no doubt divide readers. One may argue that there are too many of these things while another could make a counterpoint that claims the large number of traps helps with Ratigan's depth. It's all fairly subjective either way, though you work rather well with what you're given.
Rhyperior is a set I had the pleasure of previewing prior to its release. Yes, I know some of you are wondering why I would take pleasure in such a thing. Others are likely scoffing at me for joining the Warlord Bus in the "people that like/are fine with Rhyperior" section. The rest are likely indifferent, but I digress; Rhyperior is a set that reeks with raw power, and Joe reflects upon the character choice very well. Solid Rock is a mechanic that applies to Rhyperior's initial rushdown game, when he makes use of his sluggish yet strong normal moves and Horn Drill (His knowledge of the game made this single attack a mother trucker). When his super armor is gone, however, he can use his rock-blasting cannon to shift to a more defensive playstyle since his slow moves become impractical. It then becomes a balancing act to see how long you can last while on the pursuit and switching to the defensive style of post Solid-Rock Rhyperior. Admittedly, the set can seem very strong at times- some claim overpowered, even- though that's the only real way someone like Rhyperior can be portrayed without betraying the character itself. Sappy, I know... okay, he's arguably mini-boss material akin to Whispy Woods in MYM11.
Shiftry has some rather neat tricks that take off and then settle down shortly after it looks like it's getting somewhere. Statistically, he seems very strong, and when you apply the whole "hide under leaves" thing- which he seems to do in every other move- he suddenly overcomes his Wario-Tier ground speed. Honestly, there's so much good from abusing the hell out of your cover that staying above ground seems practical only for making more leaves. You can use your wind to blow leaves around and save yourself from having to be constantly on the move and spamming whichever move spawns leaves that happens to be the least laggy. Seriously, it seems like less of a ninja set and more like a Smash Brothers Tycoon set, where you gather leaves for wins. And then there's some disconnection like DSpec, though one may argue that you can hide in the grass after taking a hit and then sucker punching the hell out of the foe. The smash mechanic is a nice change of pace as well but I'm worried that it detracts from the main playstyle that's trying to emphasize a ninjaesque sense of gameplay, though one can argue it has the mindgaming of a ninja.
Woll Smot is the culmination of when Smady needs a Poison Pokemon badly enough to the point where he needs to make an OC out of it. Not that I'm complaining about such a thing, it's a very entertaining read, if you can get past the cornucopia of design flows between his homunculi/substitutes. On that matter, though, I'd like to address how beneficial substitutes are in favor of homunculi, the latter of which seem best for filling up and recovering. A matter of high-risk, modest reward vs. Substitute. This is all very likely to be subjective, but oh well. Anyway, Smot's amount of integration with his minions in almost every move dictate how in control he is of his own element, going so far as to split himself apart just to make more of his mini-me's. The rest of it heavily prefers sticky or gooey environments to make hitting things with Smot easier, either into a homunculi or some other nasty set-up you have. It's all incredibly Smadian, the most Smadian I've seen in months. Unfortunately, the very notion that I'd have to bring the overall utility of homunculi into play should be enough of an indicator that there are issues. While no set is perfect, except for
Julius Rock
this one is certainly worth a read.
Grim Poppet is one of those day one sets that somebody managed to get rolling along, so it's natural that the first thing FA went to for inspiration was MtG. Not such a bad thing but a little variety would be nice once in a while so long as it isn't a set wherein there's only, like, two or three actual attacks (hippo). As for the set itself, it's admittedly rather simple; you have four arms, three of them holding large cans of acid, and you can manipulate your acid/arms to your heart's desire. Either detach the arms with seemingly no little gain involved once they've hit the ground or dump the contents of your acid barrel for a nasty surprise, even if you deal more damage with those cans full. It might just seem like I'm nitpicking, but there doesn't seem to be much of a reason for Grim Poppet to lose ANYTHING except the acid, and even then he can simply get some more from the invisible man in the sky. You do come up with some strong concepts, especially with detaching arms in mid-air in tandem with ground smashes, but it all comes up short when a fully functional Grim Poppet is just more efficient without any of the gimmicks presented.
Cherry is a dog. Bark bark bark. Okay, I really am getting tired now so I guess I'll cover the dog, Greed-ler, and Billy. So here we have an even simpler set for the same activity burst... BY Kat. Well, this is just the shepherd leading his flock now isn't it? Though I must admit that Cherry is a rather lackluster set by all standards; it makes use of a rather item-central playstyle: hell, even her advanced movement is determined by where her bone/ball/item of choice is located. It's all very expected by the foe and doesn't really offer much else outside of pitfalls. And even then it's encouraged to use those to hide items Cherry may want to use later, though the manner of detection is humorous and intuitive enough. On a more positive note, Cherry manages to make use of her playstyle in an even more inventive style; begging to the audience for what she needs to make her viable? While your style of thinking is usually bright, Kat, you seemed to fish pretty hard for Cherry to work. I know this is for a day-set, I believe, and that I can hardly have the same expectations for this as, say, Yutaka or Agiri, but I can still point out what's wrong with a set regardless of how long it took to make it.
Once-ler is our case-in-point. While reading him, I drew several comparisons to my own Coachman set. The difference being in how long it took to make either one, with Dave making Once-ler in a day and me making Coachman in... not a day. Anyway, Once-ler tries to do several things at once; make use of truffula tufts for thneeds, work around the annoying Lorax, utilize his woodcutter, etc. It's all rather disjointed and unrelated to the point where the most ponderous part of the set is the Lorax himself. Honestly, his purpose seems to completely contrived especially when you consider he never actually plants any seeds but only defends the trees from Once-ler and then provides a seed for some bright-eyed whelp to plant. If you ignore the number crunching as a particular roundtable mentioned, you still get a rather unfocused set: you can claim it's a sandbox set all you'd like but that doesn't excuse general clusterf*ckiness. You're all over the place at some points, between thneeds being rather obsolete if the foe knows to keep hitting the Lorax just once, the gobbldy goop that can be lit aflame, and the axes that can cut every single tree down in one move, assuming you can get any trees up at all. Like I said, you're all over the place with this one.
Billy Hatcher had a plan that I could see coming a mile away. What I hadn't planned was for your once-mocked (Mostly by me, I admit) writing style to absolutely fit for the character of choice. I'm aware that he's able to break open eggs to get stuff but I'm not going to force that potential catastrophe upon you since there are too many options to bother listing if you were to try that out. Onto the set itself: you transition the game mechanics well into the Brawl/MYM engine, making it so that you can't simply rush around the stage to grow your egg. You need to protect it from being used against you, though the very addition of the Eggsplosion all but nullifies that possibility. Seriously, I find it funny that even after Eggsplosion is introduced, you make it sound like the foe taking your egg away from you is threatening when really, he's playing into your hands. Perhaps Billy plays less like an egg manager and more like a terrorist con artist. That could also be my brain telling me it's time to sleep but I digress; love the way you portray the character in the set and even though there's some hiccups with how it works, you manage to make a good set out of someone without much to go with excluding the hatch summons/abilities.
It's great to see you back making sets, Twilt, and that's not just a friendly gesture – I've always liked that pulpy and over-the-top feeling that your sets emote, and this one is no different, evoking the spirit of Vergil in a bombastic way. This is done largely through the orb system, which makes a lot of the more simplistic pressure and positioning a bit more interesting. Having to keep mind of your orbs, and understanding the ramifications of using them, strikes a nice and appropriate balance for Vergil. Usually I strongly dislike the use of mechanics and while this one didn't feel wholly necessary, the set felt far more interesting as a result of its inclusion. It's not original in its execution, but it's almost refreshing to see a straightforward swordsman for once, without it going overboard on the spacing as it easily could have. For what it is, it's well done.
I'm not the best person for criticising this sort of set – it plays to in-smash and overt simplicity in lieu of what is supposed to be a dominant special mechanic, which is just about the opposite of what I feel comfortable commenting on. However, I did feel there were a couple of flaws here – the sheathing mechanic laid onto a few moves was a good idea, but repeating it on multiple inputs felt like it would become repetitive and play against Vergil's flashiness. I also didn't feel like the throws did anything meaningful, outside of some necessary spacing and rewarding the grab with a shortcut into his mechanic, which fulfils what you'd want in a grab, but is the one area of the set that has obvious room for improvement. In all, though, the set's balance between clever use of the mechanic and functionality, which combines to help, rather than detract from the character, is what makes me like it.
I actually like Elsa Maria, if only because its characterisation is top notch. It could easily be a lot better – there's lots of untapped potential. Even coming from someone who hasn't watched Madoka I can see that there's room here for adding more to her minions, but also taking more advantage of her dampening effect on the stage as well. While what is there isn't particularly creative, I sort of love it for that same reason, as it fits the inhuman nature of the witch and gives the set a distinct feel of encroaching upon the opposing player passively, just by putting her hitboxes out there. It's not the best executed set, sure, and with Medusa, maybe not even the best tentacles set, but it's still pretty dang cool and works extremely well with the character in mind. If only she did make use of her unique set-ups more, rather than being very fair-weather about interactions and such, I could see myself really liking this set. Still, very enjoyable, very thoughtful build-up, and not even that far off from Doc Scratch for me.
So Garbage Man drops garbage, shoots oil and can burn this all up with a flamethrower? Do I like this? Is that some sort of joke? Yeah, I really do love some of the bizarre concepts put to use in this set, and it's executed very well too given how you could've just lumped the whole set by creating a dependant trash system that just lets you play, again, into the truck aspect. What you did here is brave, and I commend you for it [shocked no one else has already] in trying to make an entirely different set from Beezwax, and fixed pretty much all the problems I had with that set quite neatly, or as best you could in the statistics section. And again, not skimping out on any inputs at all. Not absolutely everything is beyond simple spacing or positioning that every character generally needs, but it's all distinguished enough by itself, but also within this crazy little sub-genre you've created. Aside from that, everything here is very tasteful, whilst still being absurd – scooping up trash, dropping it in another place dynamically: using the hover car mode to turn the truck into a UFO of fiery, trashy death... all great. As you allude to, pretty hardcore unbalanced, but at this point, it's silly to complain, there is no way you could balance this set without making it play unnaturally.
I'll be another hipster in a forming line that says they like Rhyperior. I was surprised actually, going in thinking I'd hate the writing style, how hilarious I found that, which probably aided to the general feel I got from it. He gets a leg in the match with his rock solid armour, to shield him when he builds up his more laggy attacks, then later on when it's diminished, he actually starts to move in on the foe, when they'd naturally be susceptible to a kill anyway due to aforementioned attacks. It's not a brilliant strategy to use, but it feels an appropriate fit here. What Rhyperior does aside from that is more standard, but is varied enough and works into his heavyweight archetype to stand out from a lot of past sets. It's nothing outstanding in this aspect – while I would say I care a lot in comparison for the laggier moves that emphasize Rhyperior's extreme physical strength – but the set had already won me over by that point. It's lots of fun, and a welcome addition to the JOE! Library of kicking *** and ****.
The way Professor Ratigan is handled is really well thought out, the fact it isn't perfect only really talks for how difficult this character is to pull off, perfectly. I love that the standards actually have some relevance character-wise between the tilts and the inner rat stuff – in the down tilt it's not particularly strong, as the one example, but the rest of it is great. Even if it's just visual stuff like him “fuming” in the jab to reference smoking in the other jab. The mechanic itself is really clever with how it works into a Kupian trademark of risk-and-reward, forcing Ratigan to play smartly with his traps. This is almost excellent as an aspect of the total set, if not for the fact that it isn't that smartly adapted into the playstyle, at least not the transition – it mostly just changes up what exact spacers or rushdown moves you have to use [Ratigan does need these kinds of moves]. I would have liked if overall, his strategy had to change more, but as said, it could never be perfect.
The other big part of the set is really the main course, which necessitates the first part of the set – the traps, and I wholeheartedly welcome them in a set like this. It's great to see you play around with ideas like the bottle, the tripwires, the layers of traps setting off traps, and this genre is far from overplayed. Chain reactions have been dead ever since Strangelove, and you pull off a really good one here – Ratigan has a breadth of options with how to set off his traps, which is by brute force on your part, giving him plenty of options to trick foes. This was a good way to go with the traps; though it required more work [like special smashes], it paid off. In terms of the characterisation, there are some stranger moves in here like the cement shoes, the money piles from Hamm and the tail in his normal form [maybe that one's just me], but overall it was top notch stuff from that angle. Really enjoyed this moveset, among my favourites posted so far.
Shiftry's a set I read a long time ago and I never cared for it [man this comment block is turning up negative]. It lacks killing moves outside of the counters, the logic isn't there with him disappearing beneath his leaves and the two tornados, while central to the character, just have token appearances, without adding much to the playstyle, in my opinion. It's perfectly functional outside of the lack of kill moves, but it leans too much into the invisibility, to end up feeling irritating to play against. Shiftry would probably want to spend most of his time in the leaf pile, because he is very versatile coming out of it and the foe has practically no way of telling where he is. This is made lopsided by how lacking he is above ground, having to rely on some very risky strategies to score kills. What is worse here for me, is that I do actually like the set-up quite a bit with the leaves – it has plenty of potential, and you pull off some of it early on with the obscuring in gusts of leaves plus some Cutesy-ish leaf manipulation, but for me it never led anywhere that met my high expectations. I don't know, maybe it was just the grab game that left me feeling salty about the whole experience, because the character just doesn't feel like he has anything going on beyond directly interacting with the leaves.
Going into Master Hand I didn't really like it, but I feel a bit better about it on a second read: it's a fitting playstyle for the character, but also takes too much creative liberty from his boss fights. Being able to manipulate the stage to such a degree is obviously a great boon for a manipulative, giant hand – it's probably the easiest to imagine on a body shape like this too. You have a problem with inputs here, though – the grab game is lacking, there's no reason not to have one here [though I know you hate them] and aside from that, the specials just aren't a great fit either. This not taking into account the missing aerials. It makes sense, but you could've incorporated more moves in another area or something. What is there is fine and dandy, on the whole at least – re-placing parts of the stage to your fancy, as said, it's wonderfully in-character and an obtuse, but imaginative way to go further with the character. I guess why the set isn't too great for me, is that this kind of set needs moves to create versatility when interacting with a mechanic like the set has, so in the end, the lack of moves for me is what really dampens my reaction to it. The best Nick sets are sandboxes, of course, but without as many options in the sandbox, it just isn't as fun.
I can imagine someone from a different perspective to me coming along and liking Cacturne, as it has all these weird things going on that I can't appreciate. To me, a lot of the set feels weird on a Pokémon species, perhaps the best example being Pulverise, where he gives the foe a punch to the genital triangle? I've never been a fan of straight-up teleports either, and while this does give Cacturne competitive style, it comes across as a bit too much on a cactus Pokemon. There's no focus here, because there's no fundamental part of the set that's played into hard by anything else. The neutral special has a thing going on, as does the blocking off of the stage, and you do have one of the best parts of the set in your ability to block a foe off and then teleport right up next to them, but that's about as deep as it gets. I guess it just may not be your style to give sets too much of an advantage in situations you create yourself, but yeah, most of the moves here are quite distinctively cut off from everything in terms of flow. It's a character that fights best close-range... which isn't particularly interesting, and says nothing for Cacturne as a Pokémon.
As far as one-day sets go, Zombie Master's alright. He has a venerable runaway playstyle centred around his oddball re/animation, which is fairly unique as far as summoners go. There's quite a lot of filler in the moveset – mostly just for very basic Brawl functions, or typical stuff like stalling, stunning and giving Zombie Master versatility, which he needs, but it does feel stretched when he has so much he could work off of with summons. There's some cool stuff happening in the set, stuff like summoning up the five Skull Servants and having a whole army while being a featherweight, but largely stuff that happens later in the actual set doesn't take nearly enough advantage of it. At the same time, though, it has some creative stuff going on, so much so that the set at least remains captivating for most of its reading, which is probably the best you could've done in one day. This is more true when considering you also had to type up the minion descriptions, and they're all differentiated enough, so to expect too much more would probably be unfair. I guess you could've expanded this beyond the one-day format, but then that's like, the whole point of a Zombie Master moveset. If nothing else, a sign of improvement for you, Roy.
Grim Poppet reminds me of Treebeard from Lord of the Rings quite a bit, albeit with large buckets and the ability to transform. The set plays off of these quirks of the character well, making him into a defensive, taciturn fighter that relies on his chemicals to not get pulverised due to his poor statistics. The set works in some awkward ways, though – I'm finding it hard to imagine him breaking down into a bunch of arms, as in the up special, and just the way the chemicals work in the neutral special is a bit of a dead end. Without being able to play off the acid in some more dynamic form than just a puddle you can form, the set feels a bit tired by the end. They're used more as static, but deadly platforms, when it seems a bit silly that he's really able to balance these huge buckets of liquid so well, especially in the middle of a fight. What you do with the arms – flipping them around – and the acid, forming into a bit of literal stage control, with Poppet as the stage, is quite interesting, but it would've been better if there was another layer to it. It's fun enough, but I would think it'd end up being fairly predictable in an actual fight.
Cherry's a fun, compact set with little clever ideas sprinkled here and there. The main appealing point here is the ball or bone being obscured by the pit Cherry can dig up, and using games of the mind to trick the opponent into thinking you're going for one or the other. In this way, it's a very fitting way to pull off a dog playfully toying with someone as if they were the master, a surprisingly fresh characterisation. Where the set obviously doesn't stand up as well, is in its moves that come off as redundant, or out-of-place on certain inputs. There's lots of different moves that comprise entirely of running in a certainly direction, attacking generically, rushing, without that much differentiation. It is there – you have a working playstyle, which is commendable on such a rushed and basic moveset – but it's not varied enough to make the majority of options worthwhile. Oh well, good for the one-two hours spent on it.
So, uh, Billy Hatcher then, he has an egg he has to grow, and a basic moveset in which to accomplish that one goal, which is a decent way to go with a set like this. I like the easy scaling here, with the moveset never reaching far out to bring into question the simple logic presented early on. At the same time, there's nothing here that exactly grabs my attention as particularly interesting. Basically, you have an egg – roll it around, punch it in different ways for a slightly altered reaction. It actually feels odd after finishing the set, looking back on that “eggsplosion” - clever how that works into keeping the egg away from you, which only a few moves really do. Aside from that, though, Billy's not going to be scoring many kills that are beyond hitting with his egg, which is a bit of a nuisance. The level to which you're forced to baby your egg is too high for my liking, and I can't imagine many people wanting to play with this moveset in an actual game because of it. It's probably a good fit for the character, so you were right to call this one annoying right off the bat.
Once-Ler is a fascinating character choice, but the way you approach him – ostensibly due to wanting to make the set with a fast turnaround and show off something you love – is too heavy-handed. You stuff the best parts of the characterisation immediately into two overbearing mechanics, which do not mesh naturally. For example, the woodcutter itself presents a torrid of logic problems when there are all types of other ways to cut down the trees with your axe. The Lorax feels counter-intuitive to force away with your attacks [or the opponent's] when his trees are the main focus of the set, and even if he plants a seed, it's a long-winded affair. It's also clear from the specials – with the tacky cigar and randomly powerful boomerang axe – that you didn't have great ideas, so I really think the set would've been better condensed into a more traditional Smash format. Easier said than done, but it would at least take care of some of the logic problems (one especially egregious one is Lorax planting trees on a battlefield, when in the fiction it's his environment that is being taken over).
The thing is that the set doesn't stand up well to scrutiny, and there's plenty to complain about. I haven't even mentioned that grab game. There's no focus here – as you title the post, it's super chaotic, and that'd be okay if it was a sandbox like you say it is. It's a strict flowchart, from getting the trees, into using the grab game to make thneed, which in the end is not actually that useful, especially compared to what you do to get to that point [a huge moving platform, flame trails, powerful falling hitboxes]. Sure, on the way to get there you can deviate a bit, but the whole point of the character is making this stuff, and in the end it gobbles up the grab to do it; it's hard to even imagine how this plays into the trees, the lorax, the woodcutter and all the other stuff out on the stage. Is Once-Ler really that chaotic? He seemed like more of a character to react to what he has in front of him. By giving him something to react to, you make the set feel isolated.
That's a shame mostly because you do have some genuinely cool ideas in certain moves. I liked a lot of the stuff you did with his inventions [the boot, the claw] and also more general stuff like the vat of chemicals he throws out to then light on fire. If you removed all the tree stuff, you'd have a perfectly fine set with just the woodcutter and a Brawl moveset of axe attacks. At least then, you would sort out problems like when he throws away his axe... getting rid of a lot of his melee moves. Like with Hook, lots of spacing or positioning in this set, but it all felt more thoughtful here for some reason – the way he goes about it has some personality to it for sure. Focusing more on the character, than trying to recreate the film's plot, is where this set becomes good. I actually did at times enjoy reading this, despite how it's very flawed.
Glissa, the Traitor, formerly known as Glissa Sunseeker, was an elf from the plane of Mirrodin, from the metallic forest known as the Tangle. In a quest to expose the secrets of her world, Glissa vanished, and was branded a traitor for the recent losses her tribe had suffered. Unbeknownst to them, she was not dead, but sleeping beneath the surface, where Phyrexian acolytes were seeing to her assimilation. When the Phyrexians launched their assault on Mirrodin, Glissa quickly rose to high rank in Vorinclex’s faction, where her Mirran knowledge of items and artifacts, combined with the power of Phyrexia’s oil running through her, truly made her a force to be reckoned with. As such, Glissa's cosplay focuses on manipulation of the foe through items.
(And if you're ridiculous enough to play with cosplays on and other items off, then it serves you right that this cosplay will be relatively useless.)
Neutral Special ~ Glissa’s Scorn
Glissa delivers a wide downward slash with her bladed claw, jagged dark-green slash marks trailing it briefly. The range is similar to that of Marth’s Forward Smash, and the attack suffers a fair amount of end lag, but it comes out quickly and deals 10% damage with decent knockback. More importantly, if the struck opponent is holding an item of any kind (including pin-ons like the Franklin Badge), the item will explode in a pitch-black burst of oil and smoke the size of a Bob-omb explosion, dealing 18% damage and high knockback to the foe and anyone (except Glissa) close enough to be hit.
Up Special ~ Corrosive Gale
A putrid-looking green wind encircles Glissa, and she flies in the direction the control stick is tilted. She flies about as far as Lucario does with Extremespeed. She suffers some lag at the beginning, but almost none at the end, and deals no damage to opponents hit as she flies. Instead, the infectious gust around her, which extends beyond her body on every side by about a quarter of a Battlefield platform’s length, destroys all items, traps, and non-energy projectiles (such as Samus’s missiles or R.O.B.’s gyro) that it touches. Unlike those destroyed by Glissa’s Scorn, these do not explode, but dissipate into a black mist and sink into the stage.
Down Special ~ Oilcraft
This move can only be used from the ground. Glissa plunges a claw into the earth below, the area immediately around it suddenly changing to a small pool of sludgy black oil. After a moment, she’ll retract her hand, holding a crudely-shaped green and black version of the last item she destroyed via Corrosive Gale. These Phyrexian variants on Brawl’s items generally function like the ones they resemble, with a few changes to some of them to represent the black oil’s influence (corrupted Assist Trophies release small Phyrexian minions instead of the usual cast, the smoke released by Smoke Bombs deals small amounts of damage to those within it, etc.). Glissa can have up to three items queued for drawing from the oil, the last three she destroyed with the Up Special. Destroying more than that, obviously, pushes the oldest ones beyond recall. Using this move when Glissa is already holding an item will cause her to drop it and reach down for a new one. Using it when there are no items to retrieve will cause Glissa to pull up a mass of black sludge that immediately drips through her fingertips to the ground, useless.
Side Special ~ Caress of Phyrexia
Glissa attempts an average-ranged, average-speed grab. Upon a successful grab, she will turn them around and pull them in close, covering their face with her other claw in a way that makes it looks as though she’s trying to suffocate them. They’ll take a steady 3% damage per half-second until they break the grip, but more importantly, Glissa is slowly infecting them with the Phyrexian contagion. Once an opponent has taken 24% damage from this move, it will change significantly. If Glissa is holding a corrupted item when she grabs an opponent who’s been sufficiently contaminated, she’ll force the item into their hands, where it will graft itself into their grip, unable to be dropped or thrown. For this reason, throwing items naturally work particularly well for this. Glissa will then toss her opponent forward into prone for a measly 4% damage. She can only have one Phyrexian item attached to each corrupted opponent at a time, and if she uses this move again, it will act like it does before the infection is complete. Of course, opponents holding items, particularly those who can’t get rid of them, are prime targets for Glissa’s Scorn.
ah ha ha It's MEEEEE. Tee Double-Yu! You know, that guy who made that Roooom? Zo anyways, I'm here because the ALLEEIN told me to and now I fight to the fight death D:
Okay, okay, when I come in, I sit in zee chair that evil aleein put me in to play games because I am champyon. I pick up controller and get tu cawntroll THE VIDYA GAMES!!!!! ha ha ha so I cawnut moove or eneefing so I half to STAAAAY STEEEEEEEL LIEK RAWK. Means eye canut moof or treep like other peepull.
NSpec (Tearing Me Apart)
so I put my hands to my head because PERSON WHO EYE'M FEYETING IS TWO FRUSTRAYTING!!!!!!!! I yell at dem and dey get nawked back. ha ha ha i am very foursfull when need to BE. best part is that eye am twotallee immune to stawn or knickbuck during moof.
USpec (ALIEN!!!)
dat eevool ALIEN COMES DOWN ON SCREEN FROM TAP ROIGHT CORNAR AND USES SYKICK ALEEIIN POWURZ ON MEEE! Lawklee, I am palaying cawntrollerr so i immune. people I fight tho not so lucky ha ha ha. they get stun but no nick back. do i say right, nick back? yea, nick back.
DSpec (Hows' Your Sex Life?)
now I no evil fighturr or bad guy or anyfing. i try to make convurrsational skills but dey do not JUST LISTEN TO ME!! Aaaaaaagh. so yea, i try to ask how their sex loife is but they don't liek talking, they all FIGHTY FIGHTY FIGHT!~ so when they tree to hit me, I sit them dowwn and tap them on head like a chILD. it no feel good but someone has to do it to try to teach the punchy punchy a lesson.
SSpec (Touchdown, T.W.)
It no secret I have friends, I have many friends. Dey give Tee Double-Yu money for the films and scripts and stuff ha ha ha. So one of my good friends, Mark, comes out about fourteen inches in front of me. why so inches, i dunno. so he takes out football and starts running toward away from me and then HAIL MARY PAAAAASSS! I catch and we all laugh ha ha ha
In the universe of Kingdom Hearts, every person is composed of the body, the soul and the heart. When a heart is consumed by darkness, it splits off and becomes a creature of darkness, creatures known as the Heartless.
The body and soul left over, however, becomes something else entirely: a Nobody. Without a heart, a Nobody is a mere emotionless vassal of memories, defying all laws of existence with its very presence. Most Nobodies are contorted shells of their old forms, with little to do but live aimlessly under the guidance of greater powers.
Some, however, retained their human appearances thanks the strength of their former hearts. Some chose to instead seek out a way to regain their lost hearts, with the goal of completing themselves. These few yet powerful and undeterred Nobodies are known as Organization XIII.
Each member is a unique entity, wielding a distinct weapon and elemental power. Each is capable of upsetting the balance of whole worlds, if it would further the Organization's goals. And each lack the ability to feel empathy, regret, and fear - not until they find the hearts that they seek.
Organization XIII has joined the Brawl…for what purpose, no one knows...
{{"What a dreadfully predictable number. And all it took was one member too many to doom them all—I wonder where she might be?" - Time-traveling completionist}}
"As lightless oblivion devours you, drown in the ever-blooming darkness!"
MARLUXIA
*The Graceful Assassin*
Marluxia, like the rest of Organization XIII is a Nobody, Rank XI within the Organization. Known as the “Graceful Assassin,” Marluxia is a vain and egotistical Nobody who believes himself superior to the other Organization members. As such, Marluxia is the mastermind behind the plot to overthrow the Organization from the inside and is 100% dedicated to completing his plot once it’s gone into action. Xemnas knew of Marluxia’s betrayal however and sent him and the other suspicious Organization members (along with Axel) to Castle Oblivion. Here, Marluxia pulled the strings behind the scenes, manipulating Vexen and the others into playing into his plan. Despite Axel’s double crossing him and Larxene’s death, Marluxia continues his plot to the bitter end, ultimately being killed by Sora in the final battle of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories.
In battle, Marluxia uses his scythe, the Graceful Dahlia, to great effect and with great speed. Marluxia uses the attribute of “Flower” in battle, effectively using flower petals as deadly weapons, tricky illusions and deadly traps. Despite his feminine appearance, Marluxia is a dangerous and deadly Nobody in battle making him quite the fearsome opponent.
Marluxia is the graceful assassin for a very obvious reason; each movement is a mixture of elegance and deadliness. Floaty, yet very controllable in the air and equally lithe on the ground, Marluxia is the epitome of maneuverability. He does however have some glaring flaws despite his egotistical nature. First and foremost, despite his average height, Marluxia, like many of the Organization XIII members, floats about, making him quite a large target. Coupled with his light frame, Marluxia isn’t too terribly difficult to smash away. Fortunately, his excellent mobility and insane reach make him an incredibly challenging character to fight against.
*SPECIALS*
Down Special: Rose Reaper
For this move, Marluxia gives almost a half-hearted shrug and lets out a quick snicker. This animation lasts for exactly as long as Marth’s Counter move and, surprise! It’s also a counter! In Final Mix, Marluxia started his battle out by whispering in Sora’s ear, causing the Nobody symbol to flash around envelope him and for a “death counter” to appear above his head. In Smash, when Marluxia successfully lands his Down Special, he’ll instantly vanish in a shower of petals and appear directly behind the foe, leaning in to whisper in their ear. This causes the opponent to receive a “death counter” above their head that starts at thirty. Essentially, each time Marluxia lands a hit against an opponent, the countdown will reduce by one. When the countdown reaches zero, Marluxia will instantly and unavoidably teleport behind the foe and slash them with his scythe, releasing a shower of petals as well as dealing 20% damage and high horizontal knockback before teleporting back to where he was previously. If Marluxia doesn't connect with this however, he'll grin and scoff, leaving himself momentarily vulnerable.
This acts as Marluxia’s primary ko method considering he isn’t all that strong normally…although he does excel in actually LANDING attacks. Once an opponent has been marked by the death counter, the only way they can increase it is if they manage to grab Marluxia and pummel him. Each pummel will increase the counter by one (up to a max of thirty). While there are certainly ways to prolong the death counter, it will never vanish until it expires; no one escapes the reaper for too long.
Up Special: Petal Storm
Raising his scythe upward, Marluxia swipes it before himself, performing a full 360 degree spin. Once the spin is complete, a whirlwind as tall as the Nobody himself will appear directly where Marluxia was as he hops backwards one stage builder block. After a momentary pause, this tornado will travel forward at Ganondorf’s run speed, only stopping when it reaches a wall or a ledge. Being struck my Marluxia’s scythe as he spins will deal 7% damage and light knockback while being hit by the tornado itself will pull the opponent along with it sort of like Link’s Gale Boomerang while dealing no damage.
The main catch of this move however is if Marluxia uses this in conjunction with petals. As mentioned in the Down Special, some of Marluxia’s moves leave behind a shower of petals that slowly float in place for a few moments once released. These petals for the most part are harmless to opponents and will fall to the ground after about three seconds or so (fully vanishing after seven seconds) but become a deadly swirling mass of death when combined with Marluxia’s Up Special. Getting hit by a whirlwind full of petals will deal roughly 1-6% damage per hit depending on how many petals are in the whirlwind. Considering most moves that leave petals behind leave about 3-4 petals, this combination will act as Marluxia’s primary way of racking up rapidfire hits for the death counter. Furthermore, considering Marluxia is much faster than the whirlwind, he can easily use this to cover his approach, blitzing the foe between his scythe and a whirlwind of petal death. Once the whirlwind dies however, all petals within it will vanish.
Finally, when used as a recovery, Marluxia will spin as normal before teleporting three Bowser widths in whichever direction the control stick is pointed. This DOES however still leave behind a whirlwind which will travel in the opposite direction that Marluxia teleported making it good for covering escapes or even gimping opponents.
Side Special: Shocking Violet
Swinging Graceful Dahlia vertically forward, Marluxia mutters “Wilt” as a dark purple, crescent shaped projectile as tall as Ganondorf flies forward after the swing. This projectile travels forward at Mario’s run speed up to 3/4ths of Final Destination and deals 10% damage on contact (6% if Marluxia’s scythe hits them on the initial swing) and moderate knockback. Marluxia can use this move both on the ground or in mid-air and can be short hopped to create rather annoying walls of projectiles.
Shocking Violet also has the benefit of cutting down any petals that happen to be in the path of the projectile as it travels. Petals that are cut become dead petals and turn from the standard pink color to a dark jet black. Dead petals fade within a brief two and a half second window but deal double the damage of standard petals when used in combination with the Up Special. This also applies to petals caught within whirlwinds; using this on a spinning petal storm will cause the petals to wilt instantly and become their more damaging form. A whirlwind full of dead petals changes both in size and speed as well as the previously mentioned damage buff. Being about half the size and twice the speed, dead petal whirlwinds are ultimately a lot more dangerous at closer ranges where they'll be harder to dodge.
Neutral Special: Aster Spiral
Swinging his scythe forward once more, Marluxia stabs into the ground and begins charging this move. As he charges, flowers begin to rapidly grow at the Nobody's feet, expanding outward in a ring around him (reaching upwards of a full Battlefield platform at full charge). Once you release the charge (or reach maximum charge), the flowers begin to rapidly decay into a black ring of death and toxins. Any opponents standing within the ring will take rapid "poison" damage of 3% per half second they stand upon the ring. This damage does not count as hits towards the opponent's death counter but will certainly cause them to watch their every step or run the risk of their death counter being fatal when it runs out.
These rings will stick around for up to eight seconds with only three rings being able to be on the stage at once. Covering the ground in these can make the opponent unable to move safely, especially when combined with an onslaught of projectiles, petals and Marluxia's excellent rushdown offense.
*GRABS AND THROWS*
Grab: Reaching forward with his left hand, Marluxia attempts to grab the opponent by their neck. Out of a dash, Marluxia’s range on this grab is quite exceptional (yet as a normal grab it’s fairly mediocre).
Pummel: Parasitic Drain
Marluxia grips the opponent’s neck tighter and grins wickedly as a flower sprouts on top of the grabbed foe's head. This flower acts exactly like Lip's Stick and lasts for x-amount of seconds, the x being how many times you managed to press the button within that time frame. While similar to Lip's Stick, this pummel actually heals Marluxia even if he's nowhere near the flower'd opponent. Marluxia will heal 1% for each 1% the opponent suffers (at a rate of 1% per second) at which time the flower will fall off.
Forward Throw: Bloody Lilium
Marluxia swings his scythe forward with his free hand, stabbing it into the opponent's chest with tremendous force. Releasing the foe's neck and grabbing his scythe with both hands, Marluxia states calmly, "There's no escape." as vines extend from the scythe and ensnare the foe. The trapped character takes a solid 6% damage and falls to the ground, wrapped in vines and immobilized for roughly a second and a half making them perfectly set up for a follow up attack.
Back Throw: Snared Hibiscus
Marluxia releases the foe and then teleports behind them, laughing as he jabs them in the back with the point of his scythe. The opponent is then knocked forward a short ways but is, more importantly, affected by one of Marluxia's nastier Flower attributes. When the opponent is jabbed out of the way, a sphere of thorns surrounds the foe, floating around them while dealing no damage. This throw actually acts as a delayed trap; after four seconds have passed, the sphere of thorns shoots inwards, dealing a nasty 10% damage and weak upward knockback.
This throw can be rather predictable and is easily spotdodged since the character has 100% free movement while the sphere surrounds them...it can however be a royal pain to dodge when synched up with Marluxia's overwhelming offense.
Up Throw: Infinite Cosmos
Marluxia releases his grip once more, spins around and impales the foe behind his back on his scythe before swinging it forward, launching the foe skyward. Marluxia then causes a vine to shoot out of the ground and snare the foe out of the air. Ultimately, this throw winds up with the foe directly before you and deals a nasty 13% damage. Once Marluxia has launched the opponent skyward, he's free to move while the rest of the animation plays out allowing him to reposition or set up a Neutral Special ring for example.
Down Throw: Forget-me-not
Marluxia yanks the foes legs out beneath them sending them toppling to the ground. Stepping onto the foe, Marluxia states plainly, "You're not even worth my time..." as he proceeds to slice the foe ten times in rapid succession with Graceful Dahlia. This deals a very solid 11% damage total but more importantly, it reduces their death counter by eleven. This throw however suffers from the downside of having a fair bit of end lag, essentially meaning that Marluxia is vulnerable to wake-up attacks in exchange for very rapidly decreasing the foe's death counter.
*SMASH ATTACKS*
Down Smash: Lily of the Valley
Marluxia raises his scythe high into the air before plunging it down into the dirt below. At this, the ground to both sides of the graceful assassin will begin to rumble. When the smash is released, a series of roots will shoot out of the ground and wrap around the stage to both sides of Marluxia. These roots will deal 5% damage upon touching them and can extend up to a Battlefield platform and a half at full charge, effectively limiting off a massive chunk of the stage to the opponent, especially in combination with the Neutral Special.
Using this move more than once will not cause the first set of roots to disappear but rather travel across the stage while the move charges. For example, if one used this on the left hand side of Final Destination and then went to the right hand side and used it, the original set of roots would travel across the entirety of the stage to reach where you are, still acting as active hitboxes the whole time.
This does obviously limit the use of this move as an instant crowd control move, but it does allow a clever player to limit the stage and thus limit the opponent's options. On scrolling stages, it may be impossible to use this move as intended, thus, it acts much like a normal smash when used on a different platform than where it was originally used.
Side Smash: Rafflesia Sweep
Sweeping his arm back, Marluxia charges his scythe well behind his head with his left arm before his face. Once the smash is released, Marluxia leaps forward and spins, swinging Graceful Dahlia diagonally downward. Striking with this move will deal around 12-16% damage with weak knockback (while also releasing some petals).
However, like Link's Side Smash, Marluxia can input the smash once more to follow this up with a series of three rapid sweeping slashes towards the foe's legs. Each of these rapid spins deals an additional 2-3% damage with the third spin dealing rather high knockback. Fairly useful as an alternative ko method, this move is incredibly punishable if the second part misses. This move can also be used to cover great distances or punish a foe from a considerable ways away with Marluxia's insane reach.
Up Smash: Sunflower Nightmare
Marluxia charges this smash by staring intently at the ground, his eyes trained on something...or perhaps he's just waiting...either way, when the smash is released, Marluxia teleports upward a full Ganondorf height before swinging his scythe downward. This deals 16-22% damage and high downward knockback. Marluxia then enters a free fall until he touches solid ground.
This move, like some side smashes, can actually be angled. By pointing the control stick or D-pad in an up-right or up-left position, Marluxia will teleport in that direction instead and swing down. Essentially, this means that Marluxia can even use his Side Smash as a gimping tool,so long as he can free fall back to the stage. This move works exceptionally well as a faux-counter of sorts, seeing as it can teleport you out of harm's way while attacking with a powerful downward strike!
*AERIAL ATTACKS*
Neutral Aerial: Spiral Peony
Your standard spinning Neutral Aerial, Marluxia spins his scythe rapidly before him, a spinning pink blur before him as he strikes to all sides. Because of Graceful Dahlia's exceptional range, this move is incredibly safe to throw out whenever you need a safe aerial approaching option. Hitting the foe with this will deal a solid 7% damage and moderate horizontal knockback as well as knocking some petals loose with the strike. A great option to rush in with some projectile backing.
Forward Aerial: Solanaceae Illusion
While this move may seem simple at first, it has a surprising layer of mindgames to it. Pressing the input for this move once causes Marluxia to swing Graceful Dahlia once over his head. If he connects, he'll deal 9% damage. Pretty simple, no?
Well, if one is to hold in a direction and tap the standard button again, Marluxia will vanish after the first hit and strike from the direction you pointed the control stick in shortly after the iniital strike. This allows Marluxia to effectively chain his Forward Aerial repeatedly providing the player can predict which direction the opponent will spot dodge and when. This can be cancelled by either not pressing anything after a strike (which also leads into potential mindgames) or by simply tapping the standard button to perform your Neutral Aerial. Regardless, with proper reading, this move can properly chain the opponent for some massive damage and hits.
Back Aerial: Poppy Strike
A crippling strike aimed directly at the foe's weakspot, Marluxia swings his right arm back, scythe in hand and lands a paralyzing blow against the foe, stunning them in place and dealing a solid 9% damage. While somewhat slow on the start up, this move can prove to be incredibly valuable when it comes to racking up damage or extra hits for the death counter. Easily one of Marluxia's slowest moves, it at the very least keeps him from being able to spam it and stun lock the opponent in place.
Up Aerial: Blossom Bomb
Thrusting Graceful Dahlia into the air, Marluxia swipes above his head in an attempt to slash the foe out of the air. Much like Marth's Up Aerial, this move is shockingly fast and covers a wide amount of space above Marluxia. If this move connects, it'll deal around 10% damage and moderate upward knockback as well as causing a small burst of petals to appear where the foe was struck allowing for an easy set up.
Down Aerial: Begonia Plummet
A stall-then-fall with a twist. Zounds! Swinging his scythe downward, Marluxia falls at double speed (which is probably the fastest way to get Marluxia grounded...) towards the ground. If he crosses a foe on the way down, Marluxia will slash in an upward arc, effectively dragging the foe directly in front of you where you can easily capitalize with your Neutral Aerial or Forward Aerial (while dealing 9% in the process).
If Marluxia reaches the ground before making contact with an enemy, he'll stand up shockingly fast before spinning in a full circle with his scythe extended, much like Link's Up Special. Being hit by this deals a bit more damage (12%) but also knocks them further away which may make it harder to follow up with.
*STANDARD ATTACKS*
Neutral Combo: Orchid Tempest
Orchid Tempest is going to be one of your best allies when it comes to reducing the foe's death counter. Pressing the attack button once will cause Marluxia to swing Graceful Dahlia horizontally once, then horizontally the other way and then rapidly spin the scythe in his hands. All in all this standard combo will typically deal around 10% or so (4% for the first hit, 3% for the second and 1% for each spin). Because of how quickly this attack can come out and because of how many hits you can get out of it (especially at lower percents), this can easily do some major damage to the opponent's death counter.
Dash Attack: Razor Zinnia
While dashing, Marluxia will sink into the ground while spinning, his scythe extended, essentially making him a living saw blade. This move comes out incredibly quickly and greatly, greatly reduces Marluxia's hurtbox size making it an excellent approach option. Striking a foe with this deals around 8% damage and slight upward knockback. Considering this move can only travel slightly more than a Battlefield platform, timing is still required so you don't eat a smash attack upon the (somewhat lengthy) resurfacing.
Side Tilt: Shadow Azalea
Marluxia's Side Tilt can actually be performed as a Back Tilt as well with quick timing. When one presses the input, Marluxia will shimmer briefly before appearing one Battlefield platform in front of or behind where he originally was. In his place is actually an identical replica made of petals! If an opponent strikes this replica, it'll explode into a shower of petals, briefly stunning the opponent in the process but dealing no damage.
This move suffers from very little end lag but can be easily punished if you get too predictable with it. The replica will vanish naturally within two seconds if not struck making it hardly a solid deterrence. With that said, one can easily follow up this strategy with any attack of their choosing during the brief period of stun.
Up Tilt: Rising Hyacinth
A very simple yet useful and comboable tilt, Marluxia simply tosses his scythe upwards causing the large blade to spin multiple times in mid-air. This attack can deal upwards of six hits of 2% damage each and has shockingly high priority and range making it an excellent defense against aerial attacks. Another great attack for tearing through the death counter however with its overall weak knockback
Down Tilt: Narcissus Bloom
Swinging his scythe overhead, Marluxia brings Graceful Dahlia down upon his opponent with a crushing blow that deals 8% damage and knocks the opponent downward. Pressing the input again causes Marluxia to automatically follow up the attack by raking the scythe towards him and pulling them to their feet directly before him (dealing an additional 3% damage).
*FINAL SMASH*
*Reaper's Harvest*
Marluxia's grabbed the Smash Ball! Now witness the power of the rightful leader of the Organization! With a press of the Special button, Marluxia lifts into the air, his arms outstretched as a black ring forms around his waist. After a brief moment, the ring goes inward and pillars of darkness jut out of the ground below all of the opponents. Each of these pillars rises up to the top of the screen and are each a Bowser in width, dealing 18% damage and high knockback. After twelve of these pillars shoot out of the ground, Marluxia will teleport over to the nearest opponent before laughing manically and swinging his scythe vertically downward upon the opponent. This slice deals a tremendous 50% damage and massive upward knockback, ultimately ending the Final Smash.
*EXTRAS*
Taunt 1: Solemn Garden
Marluxia sticks his scythe into the ground and laughs as a small garden of flowers grow at his feet. Sweeping his scythe quickly across the garden, Marluxia gets back in his battle stance, headless flowers at his feet.
Taunt 2: Petal Burst
Marluxia spins his scythe in place before swinging his scythe to the side, a shower of dead petals falling to both sides of him (vanishing almost instantly so you can't interact with them).
Taunt 3: Egotistical Bloom
Marluxia stares at the ground and asks "You think you can beat me?" He then stares off to the background and mutters, "You can try..."
*PLAYSTYLE * DEADLY BLOOM*
Marluxia's gameplay revolves around his numerous tricks and traps at his disposal, the main one being his death counter. Because of Marluxia's lack of moves that can really kill, he's going to rely on landing his Down Special and then, once he's done that, focus on assaulting the foe all out. Marluxia can do this in one of three ways; playing defensively via his projectile game, rushing the foe down with his multitude of quick, multi-hitting attacks or using both in a combination.
When it comes to destroying the opponent's death counter, you really have two strong options. Using your petals to rack up insane amounts of hits or using your melee attacks. Whichever you decide upon may influence more or less how you play Marluxia...but he does in fact have strengths and merits on both sides.
If one cares to play more defensively, they can focus on Marluxia's Side Special and petal whirlwinds in order to keep the foe at bay with a variety of projectiles. Down Smash also works quite effectively when it comes to keeping the foe at bay and keeping them within a controlled area. Side Smash or Down Special are going to be the safest way to create petals while playing defensively. Because of his long reach however, many of Marluxia's moves can be used as long ranged pokes. Also, don't forget that Marluxia's grabs are very helpful for his defensive game. Immobilizing the foe or healing yourself are both incredibly helpful moves while your up throw can give you some breathing room to get out of the fray.
When it comes to playing offensively, Marluxia has a ton of options as well. Both his Neutral Special and Down Smash are excellent at controlling the stage via highly damaging hazards that force the opponent into the air (or close to the edge/wherever you want them to be). Having an opponent in the air is an excellent place for Marluxia to be when his Neutral Aerial and Forward Aerial are such amazing damage rackers. If a foe tries to escape, you can even drag them up with your Down Aerial or capture them in a petal whirlwind via Up Aerial and Up Special combo.
If you wish for more of a combination of offensive and defensive, that may very well be Marluxia's strong suit. With his powerful ranged game, Marluxia can launch some projectiles and then rush in to assault the foe via Side Smash, Neutral Combo, Neutral Aerial, Forward Aerial, Down Aerial, Down Tilt or even his impressive dash grab. Marluxia can essentially play the classic fighting game playstyle of using his projectiles to cover his approach while also making it so that his projectiles are a very viable strategy on their own. Side Tilt is also an incredibly offensive/defensive tool. Whether you're using it to zone out an opponent or using it to launch a powerful punish, it serves a multitude of uses.
Simply put, Marluxia truly is a mastermind. He can be played to whichever strengths you prefer but ultimately plays best as a fusion of offense and defense with clever spacing and rushdown tools. Use your fiendish underhandedness to ensnare your foe with a death counter and then focus on taking it down; Marluxia's gonna have a rough time trying to play without his tricks so make sure you use each and every one of them, especially when it comes to scoring kills.
"You turn from the truth, because your heart is weak."
The 10th Nobody to join Organization XIII. He sees the world as a game, and has no qualms in dragging individuals to play with dire consequences if they lose - he's essentially the series' epitome of "forced characterization" due to forcing Sora to play a game where the first to run out of "Time" loses instead of traditional HP bars by isolating him from his friends, and does other crazy things like turning him into a dice and making him play Paper-Scissors-Rock with him. For a better idea at his awkward fighting style in the game however, I'd strongly suggest looking at his boss fight, which will naturally help you visualize the moveset a little...for one thing he's a bloody cheater who attacks you before you even have a chance to hit him!
No crazy gimmicks yet thankfully. In any case, let's not squander our time...
X Specials X
Neutral Special
Luxord's a man who prefers his one-on-one. He snaps his fingers, and giant playing cards materialize and encircle him, standing upright at Ganon's height. At no charge 8 cards will encircle Luxord and become a fortress for him, but after a second the cards will stretch out at 4 SBBs radius and 24 will be made, potentially trapping enemies on the inside to play his game with him (you can charge the attack for over a second to make 24 more cards for every extra second charged and so on, but that might not be convenient). The cards act as solids and are destroyed with one hit, but they circle around Luxord at a rate that makes a new card enter the attacking plane every 0.6 seconds, so unless you have a momentum-inducing attack you'll be forced to go through the frustration of destroying a card and waiting until that broken area circles back to you to break through. In addition, 1/5 of the cards created have fireball symbols on them, and attacking them will instantly and magically cause the offender to take an unavoidable 12% that KOs any character at 140% (even super-heavyweights), even if their attack was disjointed...
This is only made even more frustrating by the fact that the cards' backs are facing outwards, which makes it impossible to tell which card is booby-trapped...cards don't obscure what's inside the circle, however (the ones that would become temporarily transparent), which makes it possible to see the symbols on the cards as they face away from the screen; on the other hand however, cards move "clockwise" around Luxord, meaning by the time you see what's on a card it'll move behind Luxord and you'll have to wait for a good few seconds before it circles back in your direction to destroy it without fear. Luxord is free to make as many card circles as he likes...
Side Special
Luxord holds out a hand, and cards will come forth at the same rate as the Neutral Special and with the same properties, their fronts facing the screen so you know whether they're explosive or not. Needless to say though, most stages won't even be able to fit even 8 aligned cards considering how wide each one is so you can direct the control stick to align them in different ways, but if the cards do end up going off the screen they'll end up travelling backwards and overlapping with previously-made cards. Once they're made, the cards will remain frontal before they flip over and stay in place. If Luxord sends a stream of cards into a Nspec card circle however, they'll naturally widen the circle as they add themselves to the collection and can actually push enemies away, though you generally won't be getting any gimps with this method considering that the circle expands more slowly as it gets more cards and that enemies can just jump over it if they're too scared to potentially trigger an explosive card.
If you actually want to keep tabs on your cards rather than just produce unnecessary extra ones, which you'll soon find to be more trouble than it's worth given that you'll be making more blank cards than explosive ones, you can invest your circle of cards into a stationary set by touching a card connected to the circle to have the cards expand out and subsequently overlap any other stationary sets you have out. Likewise, making contact with any one stationary card will have the whole set be invested into the circle. Note that neither of these methods require you to charge beforehand, but you'll have to invest everything you have into either formation.
Up Special
On the ground or in the air, Luxord throws a hand to the floor and produces a quantity of cards similar to the Neutral Special's that scatter across the entire floor in an organized manner, showing what's on their front for one second before flipping over and shuffling around the stage in a moderately erratic yet organized manner (Ganon's dashing speed) - if there's not enough stage for all the produced cards to occupy the extra ones will hide underneath the initial ones and will simply replace any destroyed ones, showing their front for a second before flipping over and shuffling around the stage with the others...be careful not to overdo it with a multi-hitting D-tilt attack! You can invest your card circles or stationary sets by using this move while touching a card connected to one of them, which will cause the connect lot to fall to the floor in a mess. If you want to convert floored cards into a card circle but a stationary set is overlapping that same area you'll have to use the Neutral Special shortly after crouching (which has a bit of lag to it, actually), as otherwise the stationary set will take priority.
Down Special
A stylized pillar of darkness resonates from the ground, signifying the Corridor of Darkness that overlaps Luxord - if you use this out of a crouch Luxord will instead place his hand on the ground and create a SBB-wide portal of darkness beneath him. Afterwards, using this move somewhere else will initiate a portal recovery! Using this move again will obviously destroy the first corridor and make a new one, but you can choose to not warp to the first corridor if you double-tap.
Cards are not only affected by portals, but you can slap one onto them too by making direct contact with them - you'll need to crouch in order to put one onto a floored card though, but at least this way you won't accidentally put the portal onto a stationary card if there's one in the same area. As a note, if a player would end up exiting from a portal positioned on a circling card they'll have to wait until the card enters the attacking plane, though they're actually able to attack and set-up while inside the card - attacks and projectiles won't do anything from here however. Also, if Luxord plants a corridor on an explosive card, anyone who tries to enter or exit through that corridor will be blasted out the other side with damage; this is quite deadly since the corridor visual will erase the fireball print (if you placed the corridor on the front), making it impossible to tell whether the card is harmful or not without good memory. Even worse is that foes are punished for trying to destroy these portals, and if Luxord would connect two explosive cards together with portals characters will take 1.2X the damage and knockback when they leave the other side.
Note that portals will not work if the other side is inaccessible such as that card being overlapped by another, in which case the current portal will turn black and stop resonating darkness for aesthetic effect.
X Standards X
Standard
Look closely. Luxord points to the ground, flipping over all his cards to a non-flinching 1% for each one a foe comes into contact with and revealing what's on the other side of them; this lasts until you re-use the input to flip the cards back over. Aside from indicating which cards are explosive and aren't to your foe to lure them into destroying the nons, this move has even more significance with your corridors placed on cards, as flipping them over lets you change which side they're facing so characters will enter and exit from different angles - this works perfectly with your card circles, but characters will still exit the same way with your flipped stationary sets and floored cards to prevent things from getting too awkward. You could also plant a corridor on a floored card and flip it over, only to re-flip it when a foe steps on it to make them fall through the floor and out to the other side...you've activated my trap card!
Dash Attack
Out of nowhere, Luxord turns into a card no different from his others, only a composed image of himself is printed on the front. Standing upright, this card spins sideways whilst still travelling, an erratic hitbox that snaps up foes for 3% and lightly knocks them to the opposite side of the card if it makes contact with its sides - the card can be out-prioritized quite easily however, and there's a brief moment where it doesn't deal damage that fast foes can use to damage you, which is present as soon as you use the move to make up for the non-existent lag. Luxord stays in card form while you hold A, and can even go on his sides if you hold up or down on the control stick. If you release A while Luxord is between a card circle or stationary set he'll place himself in-between them and add himself to the collection, be being able to do the same with his floored cards if he's lying on his sides. Regardless of whether his cards are flipped or not, Luxord's card will always be completely visible to players, regardless of the changes other cards go through.
Enemies will have to hit Luxord out of his card form to release him and subsequently score a free hit or two on him, though they'll have to wait a good while if Luxord placed himself inside a circle of cards. To make things more difficult for his foe however, Luxord is capable of using any of his attacks while in his collection like this, he reverting to his original form to do so except for his Standard and 3 Specials that give him complete control over the card formation he's stuck himself in. In addition, Luxord is able to shuffle himself around in any of his card formations aside from the card circle at Mario's dashing speed to make attacking him even more difficult unless you cut off one of his paths by destroying a card. While Luxord can't do this with a card circle, he does get a good deal of invulnerability due to being able to stay in the background for the whole time...providing you're not silly enough to enter a card circle that's gone past the blast zone!
If Luxord uses his Up Special whilst shuffled inside a card formation, he'll teleport to the last-made portal, which is useful for escaping from a card circle if you're bored.
F-tilt
An orange spark emits from Luxord's hand as he snaps his fingers. If there's an explosive card or two within range of a foe they'll detonate at the same time, but they can be avoided like normal attacks and there's enough starting lag for this to occur - if you can't fulfill this requirement however or simply fail to hit a foe with the blast, Luxord will end up damaging himself for the same amount, which could be useful for aerial set-ups if he won't die from the knockback.
U-tilt
Luxord holds a deck in his hand and crushes it, which causes all your cards to scatter out of existence as nearby enemies take 3% with flinching from inevitable paper-cuts. The cards will come back when you re-use this input, but in the meantime any portals connected to them will be visible and usable unless one of them was still outside the attacking plane in a card circle. You can use this to keep tabs on your cards or clear the field anew.
D-tilt
Luxord swipes a smaller card ahead of him that covers as much area as the first hit of MK's F-tilt, but if you hold the move for up to a second the card will widen and cover more space in front of Luxord vertically-speaking - do remember that you're using this from a knee-crouch. Laying on its side, the card spins in place, magically defying gravity while dealing similar damage and pestering pushback to the flipper, but can be destroyed with any attack - you can only have one of these out at a time, and re-using this input will make it vanish. Aside from giving Luxord a flat-out keep-away move, the card is designed in such a way where it can just sit there and destroy Luxord's card circle and his floored cards as they move about, with the charge of the move being designed to make the card big enough to be able to touch the floor for said matter. And yes, Luxord will take damage from his explosive cards if he lets one be destroyed by the card, so be sure to withdraw it if you know that'll happen - shaving off all your blanks by yourself is quite risky, and is better done with your card circle if anything or after you've flipped your cards to reveal them.
X Aerials X
N-air
Luxord's not really a man of the air, but his aerial prowess from a 1st jump is similar to that of his boss fight - that single bound will get him halfway across Final Destination with plenty of time to bombard enemies with aerial attacks. For this move, a single card appears beneath Luxord, lying down on its sides to appear paper-thin whilst spinning, travelling with Luxord until he uses another action, is struck or lands. Both the front and back of the card pokes enemies for 1.5% with flinching knockback that can accumulate up to 4 hits on average - note that the card is a solid beneath Luxord, though it can be destroyed by enemies and easily out-prioritized....except the card has a chance of being explosive. At any point of this move you can re-use the input to have the card teleport behind a struck opponent and follow them wherever they go, standing upright until it vanishes after 10 seconds. The card doesn't deal damage this way, but it sticks to the foe closely enough to make them not want to use B-air or D-Smash type moves that would hit the card, should it be explosive. Even if the foe takes knockback in this state the card will still follow them, but if the card was connecting a portal the knocked foe will be sent through to the other side and the card will vanish - this makes it quite easy to score a cheap KO. If Luxord uses this while he's above one of his cards he'll use that one for the attack, which allows you to handpick which type you'll use instead of relying on raw luck.
F-air
Luxord produces a card in front of him that continuously spins sideways, forcing anything enemy-related that fully makes contact with it to turn around, not affecting that same object again until they fully stop touching it - this can reflect projectiles. You can have as many of these cards out as you like and they last for 5 seconds, though they cannot overlap each other and can be destroyed. These cards are not only good for cautioning enemies and gimping their recoveries offstage like a cheater, but also for misguiding their attacks and potentially getting them to hit explosive cards as a counter-measure - speaking of which, a great way to use these cards is to have them overlap with your explosive ones to annoy enemies and serve as a projectile defender.
B-air
Luxord holds a hand out behind him, making a card appear to shield him until you use another attack, are attacked or jump. Once made, this card spins around like a pinwheel and deals hits of 1% that push enemies diagonally away from it if they're struck at the top of the bottom - enemies struck on the ground are more or less likely to fall prone. The card also obviously acts as a wall, but that's quite pointless for the most since it's so thin that attacks can go right through and destroy it. Luxord can create as many cards as he likes, each with the lag of 1 Pikmin Pluck, though this doesn't power up the initial spinning hitbox. Cards still have the chance to be explosive however and their fronts will be facing away from Luxord, but unlike other cards the chances of this one explosive will be determined by the ratio of all your explosive and blank cards on the stage - if you have 11 blanks and 1 explosive onstage, you've got a 1/11 chance of making an explosive, but if ALL your cards are explosive then you'll always get an explosive card! Once Luxord lands, his produced cards will vanish unless he makes contact with one of his card formations, which will cause his produced cards to join that specific formation from where it landed - especially useful with the card circle since this is a B-air and Luxord can short-hop this behind one. If you have multiple cards created with this move when you do this the latest ones will join the formations first.
U-air
Luxord throws a hand to the ground, and all cards on the ground beneath him suddenly fly out of existence and reform on the same horizontal plane as him. All cards behave in mid-air as they would on ground, with grounded cards acting as platforms that prevent Luxord from simply falling to the ground, and snatch up foes along with them if they don't dodge in time. Despite how things sound, players can't quite stand on floored cards as platforms forever since they'll be weighed down by the character's weight, falling 3/4s as quickly at an appropriate speed. Floored cards also house unique attributes for platforms, because players can go through the back of them but not through their fronts - stacked cards fall more slowly however, meaning players can stall on them by all means. You generally lose a good deal of access to your cards by putting them in the air, though this way you can isolate them and make a new set from scratch, along with many other uses...floored cards with portal-ways beneath them will naturally be accessible with a jump or similar vertical maneuver, for instance.
D-air
A card appears in front of Luxord on its sides, then swings beneath him in a half-moon slash, as if being slashed through a register. This deals 3% along with 4% that chucks foes a little in the opposite direction Luxord is facing, but more importantly this is one of those super-magical Kat/Fibrizo-esque moves that makes all your 3 card-producing Specials target the struck foe as a card with a flipping symbol on it will spin around them until you re-use this move on them or after 10 seconds pass - this effect works even if the foe shielded against this attack. Basically, you can use your Neutral Special to cage your foe, the Side Special will make the cards appear in front of them, and the Down Special will make the floor appear above the opponent with similar properties to the U-air's if you really want to make approaches more difficult after flinging the opponent with an explosive card or something like that. Cards that the foe is touching or near when you do this will be used, so feel free to invest your explosive cards into a nice little cage or floor.
X Smashes X
All of Luxord's Smashes can be charged forever.
F-Smash
Luxord holds out a hand and creates a card ahead of him that acts as a wall - the front faces away from Luxord for a brief moment before it flips around and deals 4% with flinching knockback, with the card being tilted in such a manner that makes it impossible to conventionally see what's on the other side from there on unless you cheat by pausing and manipulating the camera. Uncharged, the card will simply be a blank, but if you charge the move for nearly a second it'll become explosive - higher charges will yield new results, with 2 seconds creating an explosive card with 3 fireball symbols on it that turns any blank cards next to it into explosive cards and any explosive cards next to it into the same kind to create a chain-reaction while still damaging enemies. 3 seconds creates a card with a stylish swirl on it that causes anyone who attacks it to create cards wherever they go in the same formation the card that was destroyed was in that'll be the same kind of the card they were touching or last touched. 4 seconds creates....a card with a skull symbol that instantly kills anyone who destroys it, but it has a creepy black aura for more forewarning considering how dangerous it is - it only lasts for 13 seconds however before it turns into an explosive card.
Luxord can only have one card created from this move at a time, and these special cards cannot be created with any of Luxord's other moves. If this move is used again Luxord can opt to have the card join one of his existing formations by tilting the control stick forward for the card circle, upwards for the stationary set and down for the floored cards. Also, if Luxord uses this move while in front of one of these formations and angles it to the appropriate one he'll mark the card with the symbol, though it'll only last for 13 seconds. If you really want the death symbol I'd suggest using the Dash Attack to place yourself inside a card circle and start charging from there - you'll have more than enough time to do so, and can even put it on a corridor to insta-kill anyone who falls into it!
U-Smash
Luxord can walk back and forth while charging this move. After charge, any card formations Luxord was making contact with will suddenly fly towards him and deal 1% with flinching per card that hits the foe as they all stack on top of each other from the nearest to Luxord to the furtherest away until a deck of cards has been made that's, needless to say, not all that thick - don't expect to reach Ganon's height unless you have at least 100 or so. Luxord will then teleport on top of the deck and it'll fall to the ground, crushing any poor foe who happened to be underneath for 1% per card and knocking them to the sides for appropriate knockback for each card, doing nothing with one but KO'ing at 245% with 25. The important thing is though, that all your cards are together in a deck that acts as a nice chunky platform where all your cards will be facing downwards as to make it impossible to tell which one is which - luck of the draw. You'll have to hack away from card to card if you want to get rid of them for some reason, though it'd be terribly foolish to attack them from the sides as more then one card will most likely be struck to the point where many explosive cards will activate at once.
Note that if for some very, very, very, very unlikely reason the card Luxord was standing on top of when he teleported was connected to a portal that led to the area where the cards would land on, the portal will simply not work.
Charging this move initially does nothing to affect the card shuffling, but when you use this move again on top of the deck you'll get an effect based on how much charge you did initially before making the deck and while on top of it. Basically, no charge will have all the cards combine into a single card - a single explosive card will most likely be made, where its power will increase by 1.2 for every other explosive card but will decrease by 1.1 for every blank card, and if there was one portal leading to another area not within the deck it'll still function. The special F-Smash cards on the other hand will automatically give their effects to the new single card. If you charge this attack however, instead of combining the cards will separate to the point where they'll rise into the air and defy gravity straying 0.05 SBBs from each other for every 0.3 seconds you charged the Smash - you'll finally be able to see all the cards in your deck this way, and you can even challenge foes to jump from card to card in order to reach you at the very top! Thankfully, you won't ever be Star KO'ed no matter how high you go with these cards, though you will take damage from the magnifying glass so I'd suggest you don't overdo things.
D-Smash
Luxord can walk back and forth while charging this move. After charge, any card formations Luxord was making contact with will stretch in upright height all the way across the entire screen both ways for thrice as long as you charged this move. Floored cards will stretch in such a way that'll cause all of them to overlap each other, in which case the one you initially made contact with to trigger this move will be on top of all the others while the ones nearest from that one will overlap the others and so on. In addition, the floored cards will also act as platforms when covering offstage areas, which gives you more ground to play around with in terms of card fun. You can block off aerial attackers with your card walls, cover the air with your stationary set to make foes more paranoid about attacking you at all, or even cover ground with one floored card at a time to make things a bit more simple. And then we have the fabled corridors, which are stretched beyond their limits in that you can block off an entire vertical space with a stationary set or even turn the entire floor into a portal, though you can't quite finish enemies off by chucking them into explosive ones as that'd be quite suicidal....do remember that you'll inevitably be going into that same portal as well! You can use this move in short bursts or try and prolong it by exiting through a card circle portal, which will automatically stretch out said circle with this move.
X Grab X
Luxord snaps his fingers to cause the vibration of all his cards for as long as Z is held down, which will begin to follow any foe they make contact with after 0.7 seconds of being touched whilst remaining in their current formation (if they were enlarged by the D-Smash as above however they'll return to their normal size) - card circles will constantly circle around the foe at the original rate they did beforehand, while cards positioned from the U-Smash will position themselves directly above the foe and so on. Cards of the same formation will inevitably overlap each other this way, and are all ripe for being attacked by your unsuspecting foe as they play right into your hands...will they kill themselves from all the damage of the many explosive cards they attack, or will they simply rid you of unnecessary blank cards? Either way it's a win-win situation for you, the Gambler of Fate...
And that's not even the entire grab game itself! Once Z is released while a card is on the foe, Luxord will wave his hand dismissively to have all foes with cards on them be surrounded by grayish tendrils that magically ensnare them as all the cards they collected make themselves life-sized and circle around tendril prison in a organized yet meaningless manner (cards from your N-air will also join this formation) - this can affect multiple foes in a FFA or a Team Match, just like Doc Scratch's Grab. Note that regardless of whether the foes managed to collect 1 card or 20, this grab will always be the same in execution, but keep in mind that competent foes have enough time to dodge the initial grab, and if they manage to do that all the cards they collected for you will be dissipated - a true gambit indeed. If you do manage to pull off the grab however, you'll definitely be putting all those cards you collected to good use...
Pummel
In the exact order they were picked up, the cards fly into their respective captives whilst destroying themselves in the process - blank cards only deal 0.3%, but explosive cards pack more of a punch with a meaty 7% - excellent for damage-racking. Triple explosive cards from the F-Smash will turn any blank cards that'd strike before or after them into explosive cards, while a swirling card acts as infinite ammo but only deals the same amount as a blank card - death cards are never fired off on the other hand. As such I should probably mention now that any cards you have leftover from the grab game will return to the original positions they were in before they were picked up by the foe, so you could use this Pummel to rid yourself of any unnecessary cards. For that, the order in which foes pick up your cards does matter to a degree, though it's very unlikely that they'll ever deliberately try to mess you up, let alone be able to remember which cards are which...
F-throw
Luxord throws out a hand dramatically, which causes all the cards on his foes to scatter into the background and take aim at their respectively released captors, as if they were magical arrows that never missed their prey. Shortly afterwards, the card next in line (Pummel-wise) will fire at its respective target before the next one fires, each one hitting at the same rate as Tabuu's Off-Waves on Intense Mode. Explosive cards deal their normal damage when they strike, while the special F-Smash cards have the same effect on other cards around them as with the Pummel - what's unique about this throw compared to the Pummel however is that the death card actually be fired off, and will instantly kill anything it hits. Luxord is able to attack while his foe is busy trying to dodge his card onslaught, and while this might make this move seem downright broken as a pressuring tool it all depends on how many explosive cards you managed to save up for this move, as blank cards will not deal any damage at all...hence, it's generally a matter of foes being able to identify and memorize which cards were which in order to be able to balance between dodging the cards and hitting Luxord at the same time, but that's easier said then done as the cards themselves provide no visual indication of whether they're explosive or blank. What also makes this throw deadly is that the cards will temporarily stop firing at their captives at any time they're being grabbed, take hitstun or are sent flying, which while may not seem all that good, means that you can prolong the throw's effects by simply re-grabbing a foe or knocking them around, even being able to save your cards for the foe's next stock if you KO them before you run out.
B-throw
Luxord throws a hand back in a quick motion, causing the card next in line to return to it's initial formation near the captive. Cards from card circles will appear directly in front of the captive and remain stationary as will cards formed from the U-Smash, while all other cards remain relatively unchanged. Cards will not overlap with each other this way, so if you try to reform two cards from a card circle this way the second one will appear behind the captive and sandwich them in-between two walls, while the third one will appear 0.5 SBBs ahead of the first card and so on - this also applies to multiple cards of the U-Smash, while cards formed from stationary sets and floored ones with your other two Specials will scatter themselves in a similar way to the card circle but with no space in-between. Luxord can do this at the same rate as the Pummel, very quickly, and can use it to pick out explosive cards so they don't get in the way of his Pummel, or he can simply scatter the cards so they're close to his opponent. You do need quite a bit of memorization to pull this off strategically, though.
U-throw
Luxord raises a hand, causing all cards still circling their captives to re-appear and rotate around him at their default size in the exact same formation as an analogue clock - the cards next in line for each individual opponent will appear directly in front of Luxord and overlap each other (with multiple opponents), while the next cards will appear above that first card in a counter-clockwise formation; note that if there were more than 12 cards placed on any one foe the 13th one and so on will take the place of the 1st when it disappears, if at all. The cards spread out pretty far, and deal similar damage to the F-throw if Luxord manages to hit a foe with one of them, though strangely enough they'll go right through any other obstacles aside from the foes themselves, meaning you can set-up your other cards at the same time without worry. Don't get too excited however, as after a good 2.5 seconds or so the cards will suddenly fly up to the top of the screen and fall back down to their respective positions they were in before they were affected by the initial grab at all, one by one, with explosive cards dealing damage to any foes who happen to be in their way at the time (blank cards will simply vanish and do nothing if they hit a foe). Easily your most straightforward throw however, and it lets you keep your cards for other uses whilst creating a mini-bullet hell scenario and outright dealing damage to your foe with your stored explosive cards.
D-throw
Luxord waves a hand overhead, and suddenly all his cards return to their normal positions and his foe is released....wait, what gives!? You may think this action to be a waste of a perfectly good grab opportunity, but the moment you re-use the grab Luxord will skip to trapping all his previously trapped foes (prior to using this move) in the tendrils - not only will all the cards used for each foes' respective grab automatically be re-used for this one, but any cards they touch in-between then! What's great about this, also, is that if two players happen to touch the same card or one touches a card that was meant to be used in grabbing another those cards will magically be duplicated and used for both grabs - feel free to create many explosive cards and exploit the foes' reluctance to attack them! Be careful though, as you'll lose all designated cards for a grab if that foe dodges it, so you'll be somewhat defenseless for a moment if a foe went around and touched all your cards for this purpose...still, there's plenty of win to be had if they touched a lot of your cards and it suddenly backfires on them when you successfully grab them!
X Playstyle X
Battles with Luxord tend to be overly frustrating for his enemies; they usually feel more like mental challenges than actual brawls, especially regarding the amount of eye-to-eye co-ordination required to seek out the Checkmate along challenges...hope you've read lots of Where's Waldo!
Luxord's main goal is obviously to get his foe to attack an explosive card with a high enough damage percentage so they'll be blown away. He could simply litter the entire stage with cards to make his foe paranoid about doing anything at all, but the chances of pulling an explosive card are rather low, and confident foes will easily break through your defenses and leave you asunder - instead, try to lure your foe into attacking all the blank cards so they'll only be left with explosive ones, and assemble those cards into a win.
You should use card circles if you want to set-up, while stationary sets are great against enemies with projectiles and lingering hitboxes given the risk they'll have to go through with your cards set-out; it's ideal to set out at least one, even if you want to invest your stall-ish card circles for such a manner. If enemies attack your cards at all it'll be a win-win situation for you given that either blanks will be emptied or they'll take damage - use your F-air to misguide your foe's attacks by jumping at them from a dash.
You can't always expect to win with penalty games alone however, which is why you have the forceful grab game - this is where your set-ups actually matter, as foes will more likely or not be running into your cards in order to approach you, whether it be your U-Smash deck formation, floored cards or stationary sets, though in the end it's up to them whether they want to get to you quickly or take their time and carve out another path to avoid being grabbed...one's thing for sure though, they can't risk outright destroying your cards! The grab game is fairly self-explanatory in that the more explosive cards you have compared to blank ones the better, with your F-throw being an ongoing pressure tool while your U-throw is a straightforward killer that lets you recycle your cards. In the meantime the other two throws are better for setting up if your foe's damage percentage isn't high enough. Remember, you generally have a lot more control over the security of attacking than your foe, and you can use moves such as your U-tilt to banish or bring back cards depending on whether or not you want them for your grab, and you can even use the U-air to try and get foes to stand on them in the first place!
Luxord's a rather awkwardly focused character with a lot of set-ups for his cards. He's good at controlling the securities and pacing of the game to his own advantage and can bypass enemy weight with his cards, though he lacks a good deal of versatility and more straightforward options that a lot of other characters have...but who needs those when you have CARDS?
X Final Smash X
Look who's on top of the game! Luxord certainly is for getting the Smash Ball, though it certainly wasn't easy given his reliance on his grab game to do so when he can only really go on the offensive using his explosive cards with the U-throw, or at least without items. In any case though, Luxord utters the opening line to this paragraph as he takes out a whole bunch of cards in order to emulate the setting of his cards that had the highest count, with his previous set on the stage briefly vanishing for the duration of the Final Smash- not having one at all for some reason will make this Final Smash null. You'll probably get a lot of blank cards this way, but that'll hardly matter as Luxord will pop out of his various cards with a cry of "scatter!" as he uses two of them to whack at his foes for about 12% that KOs at 200% if he hits, all while his other cards fly about and deal small hits that pester to no end. Occasionally though, Luxord will spin around with his two cards to deal his damage whilst saying "fall!" to widen his damaging area.
This lasts for about 7 seconds before Luxord causes gigantic cards to encircle a random enemy, with him in the middle (refer to this cinematic from the linked video for a better understanding of this), challenging them to one final game! Now, you both have to button mash for control like with Bowser's Flying Slam for 2.5 seconds, and whoever wins takes all...
If Luxord wins, he'll turn the foe into a die! In this form the foe is as rectangularly as large as they would be if their body was condensed into such a form, and they roll around and jump at a speed appropriate to 3/5s of their original stats. They can attack, but they only get a generic spinning attack and a ram for their Standard/N-air and Dash Attack respectively which inflict an appropriate amount of damage for their stature and weight, but are extremely punishable and easily out-prioritized regardless. Foes can't shield, dodge or recover either, so they'll have no choice but to run away from Luxord and stay away from him for 8 seconds until they return to normal - thankfully, Luxord doesn't have the killing power to take advantage of the foe's form, but he can use the time to set-up his card formations all he likes...
If the foe wins however, every card onstage will shrink down to life-size and become throwing items that the winner and only the winner has the liberty of picking up as Luxord takes high upwards knockback that'll never kill him - any amount of cards can be picked up at once and they'll travel in a straight line at the same rate as uncharged Super Scope shots but at twice the speed. Blank cards deal similar uncharged damage while explosive cards deal their usual damage, but victims (most likely Luxord himself) will be kept in place by the hit of the next card and thus they won't take knockback from them unless the last card to hit them was explosive...yes, getting hit by 3-4 explosive cards in a row IS fatal for pretty much anybody since they kill all characters at a set rate. The initial part of the Final Smash can affect multiple foes, but the last part will choose a foe at random, usually the one with the most percentage.
Demyx is the ninth member of Organization XIII, "The Melodious Nocturne", with power over water and a kickass weapon, which is his sitar. Cowardly and a bit lazy, or at least a reasonable facsimile of, Demyx is someone who seems to radiate an aura of weakness, with even his pre-battle being pretty humorous compared to most...
And then the game slams into you that, yes, Demyx is That One Boss and he will kick your ***. Especially because of his Dance, Water, Dance move, popular in the fandom and known for eviscerating first timers by summoning watery clones...and forcing you to kill them on a time limit. And after the first time, it is a small one. Let's see how well this stands up to Smash, eh?
Measuring Nonexistance
Weight: 5 Size: 6 Ground Speed: 6 Air Speed: 6 Fall Speed: 4
Demyx isn't very heavy, but he's not super light, easy: You can knock him around a lot like another character with a lot of blue, though not from water, Sonic. Size-wise, he's a pretty tall character, or at least always seemed so in my head, so he gets about Marth's height, but he's also thin, so let's slap a 6 on him. He also isn't a speed demon, thanks to the frickin' huge Sitar he's got in a playing stance all the time, but because of the fact he is naturally pretty fast, he still moves around like...say, Charizard. And while aerial battles are not his forte, he is somewhat competent at them, being a somewhat floaty, just a bit faster than average aerial character.
This video of Demyx's final fight might be helpful for visualization.
Dancin' Specials
Neutral Special: Dance, Water, Dance!
Aaah, Demyx's signature. I think most people who know Demyx know this bugger.
Inputting this move, and you can only use this on the ground, Demyx will spin his sitar so that it's sort of floatin' in front of him, as he begins strumming a melody. The melody will replace whatever music is playing on the stage, so it's hard to miss this move being used. Anyway, after the melody completes, which takes a fair bit, six water clones will pop out around Demyx, along with a timer of 12 seconds, which will appear to the right of any number and more stylized and thick, making it easy to distinguish from any normal timer. To no grand shock, the timer is going to be important!
The timer represents however long you have to stop this move, which is done by one of two things:
1. The most obvious way to stop this is to kill all the water clones, which have a pathetic ten HP each and take knockback like Demyx at 75%. Yeah, these things are weak, but there are six of them and Demyx can move during this time, so it can be tricky.
2. Alternately, if you take a stock from Demyx, the timer will stop and the move will be broken, even if the water clones will remain until death.
Oh, right, silly me. I haven't said what happens if you don't stop it, have I? You see, you die, right there. Why? I don't know and I doubt that anyone else does...but musicians have been known to steal the hearts of their audience...
This is Demyx's main KO method, despite the fact I apparently cannot write a very long description for it, due to his lack of KO moves aside from gimps. But since it has some hard setup time and the water clones are so weak, you're going to need some help to pull it off...
Down Special: Water Clone
Demyx once again strums a tune on his sitar, though he won't have it float for this. The music he plays is lighter than his Neutral Special's and does not replace the stage's music. As he plays, water will form and writhe about in front of him, coming in to a shape that is just like Demyx's. The process doesn't take long, but I wouldn't describe it as quick either, just not too punishable, and when it finishes forming it will become a hitbox right before it becomes a minion, albeit a very weak one dealing only 4% damage and little knockback.
These water clones cannot be told apart from the ones in Dance, Water, Dance!, save for the fact their moveset is slightly expanded. The other way to tell is they have more stamina, 40 HP here, and they only take knockback equal to Demyx at 50%. They're also a bit brighter than the normal clones, though.
These clones are bigger and badder, but they take more out of Demyx and his nonexistance to pop out. Ergo, he may only have two of these out at once, although he can them out when he uses his Neutral Special, making for a maximum of eight clones at any time. You're going to want to use these guys to cause confusion in the ranks of your opponents, as they mistake them for your Neutral Special's water clones. So...yeah.
Side Special: Action Command
When you input this, a button will pop up over Demyx's head, which will be the A button or whatever equivalent the foe is using. It only stays there for a bit, but is integral to the move, as it changes based on if they either hit A or don't hit A.
If the enemy doesn't hit A, Demyx just does a very quick swing with his sitar, which deals 5% damage and pretty sad knockback, making it nothing more than a quick GTFO move. It's really nothing more than a quick attack to punish those who won't play your game, can be a bit easily shielded/dodged.
However, if they play your game and they hit A, then Demyx will turn around and, just like the action command in the game, the foe will as well, engaging in a SWEET DUELING SOLO. Characters with musical instruments will use them, like Link and his ocarina, DK and his bongos, Diddy and his electric guitar, you get the idea, while characters will do a no less deadly air solo, though it's far beyond the scope of this moveset to say what instrument everyone would air solo(I like to think Ike has a mean air guitar with that sword, though!).
Anyway, as for what this does! You gotta jam to the beat is what it does, as for about 3 seconds and with ever so slightly sped up music, the game goes a bit rhythm-y as you try to hit A in tandem with the music. This is exactly what your foe has to do, too: These are dueling solos, remember? Other buttons may be hit as well, but every time you mistime it, it takes a little off how "good" you do. And don't think there is any bar or indicator of how you're doing, either, it's all in your feeling!
Whatever happens, when time is up, the last note played will be emphasized and both players will make one final big clash of sound: Whoever timed theirs the best during the move sends out a giant circular shockwave of sound, about 3/4ths a Smart Bomb radius, that deals 20% damage and good shield hitstun, although it's knockback is a bit weak. This shockwave hits any enemies of the winner, but won't hurt teammates, so enemies can use this to clear out your water clones and you can use this to force enemy teammates away.
If, however, you manage to both not miss a single beat or hit a button out of turn, IE are perfect, then you'll double the damage output and radius of this attack, meaning any foes aside from the one in this attack will need to dodge right or be in major pain...of course, if the opponent goes perfect, they'll get this instead. On the absurdly rare occasion BOTH players perfect, they nullify each other, doing nothing.
While this attack has multiple uses, such as a very hard to time counter(As you have to use it BEFORE they hit A), a possible way to stall for water clones and a highly damaging attack...but the opponent can also damage you instead, and they can probably KO faster than you, and clear up a lot of your weaker water clones if they win. And, of course, they can just ignore the call to action anyway: Grabs are especially effective against this move.
Up Special: C'Mon, Stick to the Beat!
This move will change, depending on if it's used in the air or on the ground. Let's tackle ground first.
Use this and a big thing of water will spout up under Demyx! It's pretty much just a particularly large hitbox, hitting about a Mario above the lower platforms of Battlefield. Kinda scary, eh? Fortunately, they are not very wide, only hitting about the width of Demyx himself, maybe just a smidge more...of course, you've gotta stick to the beat against this attack! After inputting the direction, you can do B + any direction to launch another spout, similar to Marth's side special. The Up Special attack causes one directly on top of Demyx and does not move him, Left/Right causes the spout a Battlefield platform away and has Demyx move a bit that way and Down will keep him in place and cause him to make two, shorter spouts(A bit under the lowest Battlefield platforms) really close to him. All forms of the spout deal 13% damage and have some decent vertical knockback, even if it's not really a KO move, it can knock 'em up a decent amount and out of the way. They deal weak shieldstun and shield damage, though.
It's also your recovery, unsurprisingly, when used in the air, where Demyx will make a similar spout blast under him...except he'll use it to blast himself high, hiiigh into the air! It goes very high for a recovery and also pretty far horizontally, making it excellent distance-wise...but his method of launching himself do high leaves him vulnerable, as he flails around trying to regain his balance, in helpless mode. Hitting him will bring him out of it, but aside from that he won't come out of it until he lands, which is a bit laggy. If you don't have something to cover you or time so you can grab the ledge without interference, you'll probably be hit again. The spout that appears in this does the same damage and knockback as the grounded version.
Water Clones
Water Clones are summoned by Demyx's down special and neutral special. They act as autonomous beings, AKA minions, and Demyx can't really control them in any way, but like most minions, they won't harm him. Their moveset is limited, especially the neutral special ones, but this does not make them less of a threat. Their moveset can be seen in the spoiler below.
Jab: The Water Clone weakly punches the opponent. Deals a mere 3% damage with little knockback, but it's very quick.
Forward Tilt: The water clone swings it's watery version of Demyx's sitar forward slowly. Laggy, but deals 14% damage with decent-ish knockback.
Dash Attack: the Water Clone does a happy slide against the ground, arms outstretched. Does 8% damage and has some pretty good reach. Decent-ish knockback.
Neutral Aerial: Essentially performs Demyx's NAir, but weaker. Don't worry, you don't have to go read it right now. Three hits of 2% each.
Up Tilt: Does a generic upward headbutt, but uses it's watery properties to stretch far doing it. 7% damage, but has excellent range and decent-ish knockback.
Grab (Down Spec only): Strong Water Clones can grab opponents, even stretching their arm up to 3/4ths of a Battlefield platform to try and get after someone before it'll snap back with lag! They have a weaker grip than Demyx as well, able to be escaped at 3/4th the grab difficulty. This also means strong Water Clones can shield.
Down Throw (Down Spec only): The water clone slams the foe against the ground and starts repeatedly punching it. Deals hits of 2% quickly until the opponent escapes the grab and no knockback.
Forward Throw (Down Spec only): Tosses the foe forward, then tries to hit 'em with a shoulder charge. The toss does 5% damage and weak knockback, while the charge does 7% damage and pretty good knockback, but can be dodged.
Forward Smash (Down Spec only): A strong overhead smash of it's cloned sitar. It has impressive range, a good 17% damage and very nice knockback, but is slow on both ends and whiffing will cause the clone's sitar to dissolve, depriving it of it's use of sitar-based moves. Water clones won't use this a lot.
Forward Aerial (Down Spec only): A forward-downward smash with the sitar. If the clone hits with the end of the attack, it's a decent spike. Clones will make a pretty happy face while doing this. 8% damage, low starting lag but it's got pretty bad end lag, yeah.
I Like My Sitar:
Jab: Space Jam
Demyx slashes a quick note on his sitar, which produces a soundwave just barely around him, circular in nature. This does a meager 4% damage with light knockback, but unsurprisingly being a jab, comes out fast. Although this move boasts no special abilities, it's simplistic nature as a quick attack finds all of the uses of a normal jab, like it's speed and repeated use against walls and the like. Still it's far from an interesting move.
Forward Tilt: Dis-Chord
Demyx strums along three times on his sitar, summoning a watery musical note right in front of him. This musical note deals 9% damage and decent hitstun, but absolutely no knockback, so that's a tad bit annoying...well, maybe. In addition, the note will stay out until you are KO'd or hits an opponent, never changing what it does, a constant 9%, decent hitstun, no knockback. So they become a bit like a stage obstacle or trap. Comes out a bit fast, but it's ending lag isn't fast or slow.
One that you can move! But how, but how? Simple: All of the Tilts move the musical notes in their input direction. So a left Forward Tilt would move every note you have out to the left, while an Up Tilt moves them up. This movement actually happens on the second strumming, so it's possible to create chains of floating musical notes to crash in to your enemy repeatedly if lined up, but not possible to...say, infinite with just this alone. And even the chains aren't infinite, since they rely on precisely located notes. The movement from the Forward Tilt is equal to half a Battlefield Platform. If the notes go off the screen, they're gone. Similarly, if you try to create a note where one already is, or if they collide, they'll hit each other and burst.
Up Tilt: Upward Movement
Demyx once again strums along his sitar, three times just like his Forward Tilt, but at a higher sound. This creates, you guessed it, a musical note above Demyx, with exactly the same properties as the Forward Tilt. How dreadful, I know, but the idea of the Tilts both creating and manipulating the notes is a bit important, no? It comes out the same speed as his Forward Tilt.
Anyway, using this move will shove all the notes you currently have up approximately the height of Demyx himself, which has all the same virtues as the Forward Tilts, like creating chains and the like, but it can also be used to create the notes in mid-air to function as a mid-air trap.
Down Tilt: Arpeggio
Are you ready to, like, totes be not shocked or amazed in any conceivable way? GOOD. Because it's another move where he strums the sitar three times, this time at a lower sound than the Forward Tilt, to summon notes! I am sure you are surprised, just as you will be when I say they have the same properties as the other Tilts. Asleep yet?
Oh, right, where the notes are summoned. Demyx will summon one to both sides of him, but not right next to him, about half a Battlefield Platform away. So, unlike the Forward Tilt, this move is a bit ineffective to stop opponents nearby, but it can hit them from farther away. This move, like all the Tilts, will move all your notes around. Specifically, a Demyx down. This lets you reposition aerial notes or send them down under the stage if you get them over the edge, letting you hit foes who might be recovering or even chasing after you. 'S neat.
Forward Smash: Flood
Demyx extends a hand out, calling forth a fairly large watery stream-blast from it. The move itself comes out pretty fast for a forward smash, but does absolutely no damage: Nope, it just pushes the foe back, just like F.L.U.D.D., but at 2.5x FLUDD's strength. Charging it increases how far it goes: It starts at 1.5x a BF Platform's length and at maximum charge extends 2.5x a BF Platform's length. It's duration is fair, but perhaps it ends a bit quick for the average tastes, like a tempest-strung storm.
When it dies down, the water used in the attack will fall to the stage. If it falls in mid-air, it will fall harmlessly until it is off the stage or hits ground and, when it hits ground, it will stay there as a puddle, for about 10 seconds. If the entire move is used over solid ground, this means that it will cover 1.5x-2.5x BF Platforms length. The water itself acts much like Brawl's ice, as foes will slide across it but still be able to perform attacks. The water itself, however, makes it a bit trickier to perform moves, brace attacks and be able to jump, adding some lag to all of those actions. Demyx is immune to the lag raising effect due to his obvious familiarity with water, but he'll still slide across it, albeit only half as much as foes. And his water clones, being made of water, will be completely unaffected by this.
Up Smash: Teardrops On My Sitar
Demyx plays a fast-paced tune on his Sitar. Longer charge, longer tune, longer move. Playing this will cause large, round water drops to fall from above him, about two at a time, for about six uncharged and twelve charged. When they hid a mid-air foe while they fall, which they probably will, it acts as a somewhat soft spike, which if the opponent does not tech or quickly get away from, will hit them a second time. Grounded foes are weakly launched up and away. The move itself does not cause the water to appear that far above Demyx, so you can't just rain death upon your foe. The move itself does a base 14% damage per water drop, 20% fully charged. This move comes out and ends pretty averagely for an Up Smash, nothing to see here.
The water drops will always appear above Demyx's head or just to the left/right, changing around, so they'll follow you when you slide, say...on the puddles from Flood, allowing you to shower the area behind you with water drops as you go along. The ones that appear to his left/right can, when right against the ledge, fall down off the edge and down to the bottom of the screen, possibly using it's soft spike to rid yourself of those with bad vertical recoveries from returning and being a pest.
Down Smash: Tidal Touch
Demyx raises his arm high before strumming a harsh rock note on his sitar, which sends out two watery waves to each side of him. The waves don't go far nor are they very tall when this move is uncharged, about the height of Jigglypuff and just beating out the range of DeDeDe's Down Smash. Charging this move, however, will drastically help it: It'll go about a Battlefield platform's length on both sides and become about as tall as Demyx, though the waves move steadily down until the end of the move, where they dissipate entirely. This is one of Demyx's few kill moves, but it's not great at it at all, not KOing middleweights until 150%-ish and, even fully charged, you'll need to get a middleweight over 100% to kill them. Don't expect this to kill without gimps. It comes out fairly fast, though not to the point of being lightning quick or nothin', while tacking on some fairly large, but not dreadfully large, lag at the end.
Tidal Touch has a bit of a light touching interaction with the puddles from Flood, which will slightly extend the range of the move by making it not shrink as fast. This is barely noticeable at no or very low charges, but at full charge, goes a decent amount, even if the extension is less than half a Battlefield platform.
Dash Attack: Here Is My Spout
A keep dashing Dash Attack and a...very weird one. When you input it, a spout of water will pop out behind Demyx! In fact, it will pop out where Demyx first started dashing...and if you hold down the A button, then more will sequentially spout, heading towards you from where you first started dashing and following wherever you dashed, even doubling back if you somehow switched directions, like with Mario's Cape. You can stop dashing and hold down A, but then the spouts will stop while they get there, while staying dashing can keep the spouts going for a while. The spouts themselves do 12% damage and fixed upwards knockback, which will send the opponent fairly high up but not absurdly so, while the spouts themselves are pretty large, just missing hitting the top platform of Battlefield. They do very weak shieldstun and shield damage, though. Getting hit will cause this move to stop after two more spouts pop up. You cannot dash a long time, stop, then dash again to have two spouts going.
Since it starts all the way where you started, it can also be a bit of a pain if someone just attacks you from the front...
Melodious Nocturne
Grab: Melodious Nocturne
Demyx has a pretty odd grab, as will be highlighted here. The grab will start when it causes Demyx to play a note on his guitar, which will cause a bit of music to appear in front of him: You know how sheet music looks, with lines and then the notes on top? It looks a lot like that.
This is a grab hitbox! If it hits an opponent, it'll wrap around them and hold them in place. It can also do this to aerial opponents. However, they can escape at half grab difficulty in the air, so this isn't always practical. And, well, you can expand this musical grab by hitting buttons in time with the music! Yes, this means how fast your grab outside that initially little hitbox is a bit dependent on how fast the music is.
Different buttons will cause the music to do different things, as outlined below:
A button: It simply moves forward half a Battlefield platform.
B button: It moves upwards and diagonally about 1/3rd a Battlefield platform.
Jump: The sheet music sharply goes upwards, barely moving forward but moving about a Ganondorf up.
Crouch: The sheet music instead sharply moves downwards, still barely moving forward and about a Ganondorf down.
L button: Causes the sheet music to curve downwards and forward, like the bottom half of an o. Does not go as far in either direction as A or Crouch
R button: Causes the Sheet Music to move about 1/4th a Battlefield platform ahead in a very squiggly manner. Demyx does some amusingly wild music playing for this one, folks!
These are all grab hitboxes, of course. To stop using the grab, HOLD down the L or R buttons, or whatever the shield button is on your controller. This move's grab range is near-infinite, only decided by the sides of the stage, but there is no way to go backwards, so you can't really just came with just this, especially since how fast it goes is music dependent. When an opponent is grabbed, the sheet music will go away once it is done. The initial grab hitbox comes out slow for a grab, but it has good reach, anyway.
Let's get on to the pummel and throws now, shall we?
Pummel: The Squeeze
The music squeezes against the foe for 2% damage and a pummel not very fast nor uber slow.
Forward Throw: Bridge Over Troubled Water
Demyx strums a final chord on his sitar, which sends a wave of water over the music, until it begins pushing against the opponent. This will begin pushing the opponent forward as a usual water hitbox until the opponent escapes the grab, whereafter the water stream stops producing/pushing and the opponent can be free. It's pushing strength depends on how long your musical sheet is: If it's very short, such as the initial grab, then this move is very weak in strength. If the sheet is long, then it will gain speed as it goes over it and eventually can push at about 2x FLUDD strength on a very long one. So it is potentially very powerful and one of Demyx's few KO moves, but only really works on longer and thus slower and easier to get around grabs. No damage on this one, guys.
Down Throw: Lyric Dump
With a bellowing and deep noise played from his sitar, Demyx commands his sheet of music to toss the foe downwards, which it proceeds to do. The toss itself is weak, causing 2% damage and no hitstun, but therein lies some of it's potential, as it will not refresh jumps and up specials, sending foes about a footstool down when thrown and making this an awesome move to use against those returning to the stage, especially the vertically challenged. The move is almost useless over ground, though.
Up Throw: Into The Ocean
Demyx lets out a long, hanging sort of note, which causes a water spout to pop out under where the opponent is being held. It'll do 9% damage when it hits with some not terrible but not KOing any time soon knockback. The spout itself will stay out for 10 seconds, slowly going down over that time, functioning as a platform at the top. People other than Demyx or his clones will take 1% damage while on top of it, but Demyx's connection to water and familiarity with it allows him to avoid this, while his water clones avoid it via being made of, um, water. Works even when used off stage.
Back Throw: Toss It Out!
Demyx plays a troubled note with an equally annoyed look on his face, which causes the foe to be roughly tossed back by the sheet music. It has no special properties, but it's Demyx's strongest throw at 14% and the only one that doesn't do something either potentially undesirable, useless or requiring long sheet music. Decent knockback, for a throw.
Light Music
Neutral Aerial: Dem-Spin
Yeah, you can already tell this one isn't gonna amount to much, can't ya? It's pretty basic and kinda...well, generic, as Demyx does a happy little spin with his arms outstretched, dealing three hits of 4% damage and low knockback. Aside from the fact he sorta needs it or something similar to have a damaging aerial moveset, it brings little to the table. It's quick on the start and the end.
Down Aerial: Under Pressure
Demyx rears back his hands before bringing it downward, firing a pretty large and quick burst of water. It deals no damage, but instead functions as a VERY powerful water hitbox, going at 4x the power of FLUDD! It only works until the opponent leaves the Ganondorf sized hitbox, though. Demyx won't slow his fall or anything using this move either, so try not to miss, given his somewhat vulnerable recovery. It starts fairly fast, but has bad ending lag.
This can also, however, be used to reposition the notes from the tilts! If a note is caught in the stream, it'll be pushed to the end of it, thus allowing you to move notes downwards without the set amount nature of the down tilt. Neat, eh?
Back Aerial: The Swingin' Sitars
Demyx gives his sitar a very harsh backward swing: So harsh in fact, it jerks his body around, therefor switching his direction! The move itself does 13% damage and knockback that, while not a good KO move, can probably kill someone if you catch them off the stage. Aside from the direction changing, though, this move is also lacking in any particularly special qualities. It's got an average start-up, but bad ending lag. Pretty large hitbox, I mean, just look at the size of that sitar!
Forward Aerial: Wa-Gun
Demyx puts his hand forward and lets forth a somewhat quick, large burst of water. Sound familiar? Yep, this is a horizontal version of the down aerial. Yes, yes, I know, "but mirroring inputs is bad!", "that's just lazy!", "banana strawberry orange!". But he sorta needs a horizontal gimper and it makes total sense to me that he'd do something like this to do it. So...haha! Ha. Haaaaaaaaa.
Just like the DAir, it deals no damage, 4x the power of FLUDD and stops pushing outside of it's hitbox and doesn't slow down Demyx. It can also move around the notes! Hit a note with it to push it to the end of this move's range, which surprise surprise is the same as the DAir, to allow for placements other than the standard! Comes out quick, bad end lag.
Up Aerial: Nobody Was Kung Fu Fighting
With a sort of dorky faux-Kung Fu yell, Demyx does a not-so-rising uppercut. The move unfortunately does not share Demyx's enthusiasm in it's strength, as it does a mere 7% damage, but it actually has some pretty decent knockback, making it a good anti-air option...it's range can be a bit poor, however.
I am sure that you don't see this coming, but you can use this to PUNCH NOTES IN THE FACE. And by that I mean move them. The later in the punch you hit them, the less you'll move them, so just like the other aerials, it allows VARIABLE MOVEMENT!
Final Smash: The Final Countdown
Demyx activates the Smash Ball as he strums some sick beats out, a timer popping up and adding 40 seconds to the current timer if one is out, or setting it to 40 if one is not. He'll continue playing until the time is up in the background, wordlessly singing to himself as he makes a variety of radical musical moves, all of which will call water clones. Water clones will come out 10 at a time, with a new one popping up each one dies, for a total of 50 Water Clones. They have 25 HP, but don't get the enhanced movesets of the Down Special ones. At the end of the 40 seconds, Demyx will do a power slide against the center of the stage, ripping off a hard rock beat(Yes, on a sitar). If all the water clones aren't died, any hostile foes lose a stock. If they are, it merely deals 1% non-flinching damage to foes.
Playstyle
Demyx's playstyle is simple: One of someone who is a bit of a coward, not wishing to get his hands dirty...but not a weakling. While he can't KO, his damage racking moves are decent, and he is able to weave complex waves of note traps with smart use of his tilts and aerials, slide foes into them by making the ground slippery when wet, gimp the foe with blasts of water and even summon minions!
But, as mentioned, Demyx has little KO power, so how is he getting his kills? With his Neutral Special, which takes his damage racking to a different turn: Weave together notes to slow down opponents from getting to your water clones or blocking your escape if they try to KO you! Have your stronger and weaker water clones blend together for mass confusion! Delay foes with the slippery ground and make them re-emphasize their timing! It's a bit basic, but it works.
Lesse...what else...? Well, you can use your slippery-slidey to whack foes into your grab or your notes, delay foes with your Side Special, it's main use...constricting the foes movement with said slippery-slidey and notes to go with your grounded Up Special can be fun too, since it has a wide range of attack and you can also always go with the tougher method of trying to get the foe reasonably far off-stage for gimping with, say, DAir/Fair, F-Smash, FThrow/DThrow or the like. Demyx's game is pretty focused though, even if he has a lot of moves around, so it's not the best idea to slip him into a role he is not good at.
Extras
Up Taunt: Strums a little tune on his sitar, which will stay in beat with whatever song is playing on the level.
Down Taunt: A water clone appears next to Demyx, which he high fives. The clone then dissolves in an appropriately watery manner.
Side Taunt: Demyx wags his finger in the inputted direction, chiding the opponent with "You shouldn't judge anyone by appearances".
Then I shall make you see...that your hopes are nothing. Nothing but a mere illusion!
Zexion
- = -The Cloaked Schemer - = -
Zexion is the secretive No. VI of Organization XIII. Perhaps the member closest to second-in-command behind Saïx, Zexion often busies himself with concocting plans for the Organization and himself, weaving a master web of schemes. He is not one to enact the actions of these plans himself, relying on fellow Organization members to perform, whether voluntarily or unwittingly, what he intends. He uses his enigmatic lexicon, the Book of Retribution, as his weapon, as well as his powers over illusions of all kinds…
- Statistics -
Size: 5
Weight: 4
Ground Speed: 4
Air Speed: 4
Traction: 5
Jump Height: 5
Fall Speed: 6
Zexion's statistics are admittedly mediocre, perhaps the most average amongst his fellow Organization members and certainly not the largest of them. He moves while holding his weapon, the lexicon, as shown in the picture above, except that it will often be closed as Zexion moves. Always keep in mind that first impressions can be deceiving.
- Note: Illusory Damage -
Zexion's dominion over illusions is unrivaled, and there is no doubt that he makes use of these illusions to both press an assault and divert an attack. He brings along with these illusions a special trick that will be further referred to as illusory damage. Illusory damage is dealt by illusions, and should an illusion masquerading as Zexion take damage, Zexion will take illusory damage. Illusory damage appears on percentages, but cannot be healed off by any means, for it is not actually applied towards knockback scaling nor is it true damage of any kind.
Ex. A player with 50% real damage and 50% illusory damage will appear to have 100% damage, yet take knockback at 50%. Consuming a Heart Container lowers the percentage to 50%. A player with 100% illusory damage will appear to have 100% damage, yet take knockback at 0%. Consuming a Heart Container does not change the percentage.
Should an illusion disappear, any illusory damage it sustained will disappear from Zexion's percentage. Any illusory damage it dealt to opponents will subsequently disappear from their percentages as well. Zexion has the option to use any of his taunts, which will cause all illusory damage responsible by him to be erased from all percentages.
The purpose of illusory damage is to continuously trick foes as to identity of the real Zexion amongst illusions. It is important that Zexion must remain aware of the opponent's actual percentage in order to remain above the confusion.
- = - Specials - = -
- Neutral Special : Temporary Theft -
The lexicon opens upwards and begins spinning while glowing a dense silver aura; it is vulnerable during this short phase, and can be interrupted. It then flies forward at the fastest known dash speed for a Battlefield in distance, automatically curving slightly to target opponents. Any opponents it hits [12%] will only flinch, seemingly. One should never assume such simple things from Zexion.
The lexicon has in fact absorbed the opponent's health within it, now holding a charge of 12%. The lexicon may pass through multiple opponents and accumulate this charge. Consecutive hits with this input will build up aforementioned charge with no limit, though it is impractical to suggest that opponents will allow themselves to be struck this way. Zexion stands motionless when he allows the lexicon to fly forward, moving once the lexicon has traveled to the end of its distance limit and teleported back towards him. Should Zexion perform this in the air, he will continue to fall throughout the execution of the attack, still capable of grabbing ledges but unable to move back or forth.
Zexion has the capability of holding down this input in order to further charge the lexicon, which will keep the lexicon in place as it continues to glow until the input is released. Each three-fourths of a second he holds this down, the lexicon will absorb an additional 12% should it collide with an opponent. This also increases the chance that an opponent will interrupt Zexion out of this attack, however.
- Side Special : Lexicon Illusion -
Zexion opens his lexicon while twisting his hand forward to create an immobile illusion in front of him: an exact copy of his lexicon. These shall henceforth be referred to as copies, as they are indistinguishable from the real lexicon. Tilting towards another direction upon creation has a use that will become notable later on in this input. Tapping the input multiple times will stack copies behind each other, occupying the same battlefield space. Zexion may only have up to three copies around the battlefield at once.
Zexion's variety of illusions are far stronger than those commonly seen. Should a copy lose all of its health, it will not disappear until two-fifths of a second later in an illusory burst; should it sustain another hit before that time frame, that time frame will be refreshed. However, copies made by Zexion normally have no health, meaning that they will disappear quickly after sustaining a strike. Their purpose in blocking projectiles is negligible given the time Zexion must invest to create them, which is one-third of a second.
Should his lexicon have a charge of health taken with the Neutral Special, however, Zexion will place that charge within the next copy he creates. The copy will then have as much health as was given to it, but will still remain immobile.
The true purpose of copies is to replicate Zexion. Should Zexion come in contact with any copies, which he may do by moving forward after creating one or moving elsewhere then returning to the copy, an illusion identical to Zexion will instantly spawn directly from Zexion. This variety of illusion will henceforth be referred to as a clone, while Zexion and his clones will be collectively referred to as holders, as they may both hold copies. Clones take copies with them when they appear, though there is no animation to indicate this. A clone will automatically move in the direction saved into the copy when the copy was first created, otherwise choosing a direction different from Zexion's current path. Standing in place is considered an option for the clone.
A clone shares the same statistics and moveset as Zexion. It will move around by its own accord, but it will mimic Zexion's patterns in this regard, either retreating far from opponents, staying in the air or remaining close. All attacks, blocks and dodges that Zexion performs, a clone will perform as well from its position. The exceptions to this are smash attacks and grabs; while clones will mimic that starting animation and/or charging animation, their copies will then close once the attack is released, as only the real lexicon has the potency to execute these attacks.
Ex. Should Zexion perform his Jab, a grounded clone will perform the Jab as well, a dashing clone will perform the Dash Attack, and an airborne clone will perform the Neutral Aerial. Should Zexion perform his Neutral Aerial, a grounded clone will perform the Jab, a dashing clone will perform the Dash Attack, and an airborne clone will perform the Neutral Aerial as well.
Should Zexion perform his Forward Tilt, a grounded clone will perform the Forward Tilt in the corresponding direction, a dashing clone will perform the Dash Attack, and an airborne clone will perform either the Forward Aerial or the Back Aerial if facing either the same or opposite direction, respectively.
Should Zexion perform his Back Aerial, a grounded clone will perform the Forward Tilt in the corrsponding direction, a dashing clone will perform the Dash Attack, and an airborne clone will perform either the Forward Aerial or the Back Aerial if facing either the opposite or same direction, respectively.
It should be remembered that clones only deal illusory damage. Any damage they sustain, Zexion will take an equal amount of illusory damage. Clones also only have half the maximum shield health as other characters; these shields retain the original shield size, but will shrink at a faster rate. Since clones do not deal true damage, they are incapable of depleting the staminas of opposing clones, props or minions. However, all attacks done by clones retain all knockback and flinching properties of the original attack; they are also capable of dispersing weaker opposing illusions that would instantly fade with a single strike. Clones will also generate more clones should they come in contact with a copy. Clones that strike foes with the Neutral Special will not build a charge within their copies.
Clones behave exactly like copies in that they do not fade immediately upon destruction in the same manner. A clone's health depends the health stored by the copy; should this health be depleted, or should the clone fall into the blast zone, the copy will be destroyed along with the clone. Clones take knockback equal to the sum of Zexion's percentage at the time of their creation plus any further damage they may sustain.
It is possible to create clones from copies with no charge at all, though such clones are easily destroyed. Clones will create copies as well should the Side Special be inputted, although only as many as the limit will allow will be created, prioritizing the eldest clone. Lastly, Zexion may only have three clones on the battlefield at once.
- Up Special : Lexicon Delusion -
This following input has multiple uses depending on whether the movement stick was tilted and whether Zexion holds his lexicon.
Should this be inputted normally, Zexion will perform an animation identical to his Side Special. The key difference is that the copy Zexion creates discreetly replaces his real lexicon, which he has left in front of himself.
With no difference in animation, Zexion can easily use both this input with his Side Special to conceal his true lexicon in plain sight. The lexicon stores whatever health it has charged when it is laid down, as well as any direction that may have been tilted towards during the starting lag. Should Zexion come in contact with his lexicon, he will create a clone as he would when touching a copy, and the clone will take the lexicon with it.
As Zexion now holds a copy, all damage he may deal is illusory; furthermore, without the power of his true lexicon, his shield is now as handicapped as a clone's shield. The clone that holds the real lexicon, meanwhile, will deal normal yet actual damage with its attacks as it mimics Zexion's inputs, as well as gaining a strengthened shield. Zexion can conceal the identity of the true lexicon similar to how he can conceal himself; opponents must now choose between seeking out the real lexicon in order to avoid taking damage unnecessarily, or the real Zexion in order to take a stock.
A clone with no health may be generated from touching the lexicon. Should the clone holding the lexicon be either destroyed or knocked out, the lexicon will drop in either the clone's location or the respawn zone, respectively, in open disarray; it will similarly do this should it sustain 30% while floating upon the stage. In that state, Zexion or any of his other clones can only walk towards it to retrieve it once more, discarding the copy in his hand. A clone will also leave behind the true lexicon should Zexion use this move while holding a copy, provided that the three copy limit has not yet been reached. All other holders will perform the Side Special if possible.
Should the movement stick be tilted towards one direction during this move's starting lag, Zexion will instead, upon the end of the move's starting lag, switch his copy or lexicon with that of the corresponding clone [Zexion = Up, First clone = Right, Second Clone = Down, Third Clone = Left]. Tilting towards two directions within the starting lag will switch the lexicon or copies of the corresponding holders, while one tilt will automatically choose Zexion as the second target. The corresponding lexicon or copies will be surrounded by darkness as the two swap between holders, indicating the action to all players. This does not impede Zexion's ability to perform another action, nor does it impede the clones. If either recipient is in hitstun, or if either's health is already depleted in the case of clones, then the copies cannot be swapped.
As long as opponents are unaware as to which holder first held the true lexicon, Zexion may easily grant his clones greater potency of power with his opponents none the wiser. He may also use this to grant a clone a copy with a different health charge, preserving any charge he may have hidden within the copies or saving a clone from a premature demise. He is also free to switch two identical copies with each other, if only to further distract opponents.
Should the movement stick be left alone after an input, and Zexion does not possess the true lexicon, Zexion will disappear into darkness and reappear above his lexicon, taking hold of it if it is alone. This is Zexion's sole form of recovery meant only to be used to preserve a stock, as it blatantly reveals both Zexion's identity and the true lexicon's position.
- Down Special : Fallacious Feint -
Zexion will mimic the animation of his Neutral Special. In truth, however, should any attack connect with the lexicon, the lexicon will flip and counter that opponent, absorbing health form the opponent [12%] and storing it as a charge. Zexion will hold this animation as though charging his Neutral Special until the input is pressed again, wherein he will close his lexicon and suffer a third-second of lag. Clones that successfully counter with this attack may make use of the health absorbed into their copies, although they are as vulnerable to an opponent's grab as Zexion is.
Double tapping the input results in Zexion mimicking his Side Special instead. The resulting copy, however, does not produce clones nor store any charge. Rather, should it sustain 10%, it will counterattack as above, disappearing as Zexion reaps the charge. The three copy limit is still respected with this input, yet clones that counter with this will also retain the absorbed health for their copies.
Holding down the input performs a different action. As long as the special button is held, the clone that holds the real lexicon will now obey all movement and jump inputs while the real Zexion moves independently. This allows more direct control over Zexion's true damage output, although it indirectly disables usage of the other special attacks. Zexion and all other clones will still mimic any further attack and dodge inputs.
- = - Attacks - = -
- Jab : Equivocal Entry -
Gripping his lexicon by its spine, Zexion strikes the area in front of him with two swift motions of his arm [5%, 6%]. He then releases his lexicon as it flies forward a stage builder block before returning to Zexion, striking any opponents it may hit [10%]. The full combination of attacks requires three taps of the input, regardless of where the movement stick is tilted towards. Zexion may attempt to desynchronize his attacks from his clones, allowing one to use a simple jab while performing tilted attacks with the others, although this would require a great deal of skill for relatively little percentage advantage. The first two strikes of the jab will chain into the subsequent move, and the third strike will move foes a short distance away with its knockback.
- Dash Attack : Capricious Charge -
Zexion's ground speed doubles as he continues to dash forward a Battlefield platform in distance, shoving past any opponents on Zexion's path [4%]. Foes will flinch should they be struck by this, and Zexion ends the attack with slight lag before resuming an idle stance.
To note is the effect of this attack should Zexion or a clone be wielding the true lexicon. Instead of dashing past the opponent, the holder will strike the foe with the lexicon [12%] as he moves, knocking the opponent a short distance upwards. It is likely that opponents will not expect this second version, at the cost of revealing the identity of the true lexicon.
- Forward Tilt : Fleeting Flame -
Zexion not only commands illusions, but also harnesses the all-powerful darkness with some of his attacks. Zexion opens his lexicon and lets it float in front of himself, exposing its pages outwards; a ball of dark fire then shoots out of the lexicon pages before Zexion then closes it to resume his stance. The fireball will travel a straight horizontal distance for up to four Battlefield platforms in length before fading, unless it should collide with a foe [12%] and cause that opponent to flinch in place for a notable amount of hitstun [compare the sweetspot on Captain Falcon's Forward Aerial].
A fireball created by the true lexicon, should an opponent come within a stage builder block's worth of distance, will curve sharply and target the nearby opponent. This serves as yet another benefit for the wielder of the true lexicon, should Zexion tire of concealing its position.
- Down Tilt : Transient Trap -
Zexion lays the lexicon on the floor in front of him, its pages opened upwards and its cover flat on the surface. The lexicon then temporarily grows to twice its size, then shuts forcefully [17%], reaching up to Marth's height. Opponents will take small upwards knockback from this attack; they may opt to dodge the move and attack Zexion, though, due to the presence of a medium starting animation. The real lexicon will catch foes in an alternative grab, holding them for 0.8x the normal grab strength of other characters, although its holder will stand in place to focus on the maintaining the lexicon, unable to move.
- Up Tilt : Momentary Modification -
The foolish would not have noticed that there is little benefit in disabling the foe's movements if one is unable to deal true damage to the foe. This input has Zexion merely flip through the pages of his lexicon for a fifth of a second; so long as the real lexicon performs this, the move's effect will become active.
The next time an holder of a copy would strike an opponent, the attack will behave as though the holder wielded the actual lexicon. That holder will then perform the next three attacks as though the former statement were true.
Ex. The next fireball created by a copy to come within a Stage builder block of an opponent will curve and target that opponent. The subsequent three tilts and aerials will then behave as though under the influence of the real lexicon.
The real lexicon will subsequently perform attacks as though it were a copy. When the fourth attack is finally expended by a copy, both the copy and the real lexicon will resume their normal behavior. Thus, Zexion may escape with the execution of stronger tilts and the identity of the real lexicon by wisely manipulating his moveset with this attack. To note, his Down Tilt becomes far more useful for trapping an opponent and attacking him with the true lexicon. Attacks that do not alter depending on the copy's identity, such as the Jab
This move will not allow copies to perform smash attacks or grabs, however. Nor will that copy become the target of the Down Special's teleport. Such powerful attacks cannot be granted to mere illusions.
- = - Aerials - = -
- Neutral Aerial : Erratic Entry -
Gripping the lexicon, Zexion strikes with a downwards front blow [8%], then swings upwards for a second strike [9%]. Zexion stalls in midair as he executes either of these attacks, but will resume falling if an attack is not immediately re-inputted. Zexion will alternate between these two strikes until he lands again, wherein he will begin with the downwards strike once more. Both strikes do nothing but flinch, regardless of the book responsible.
- Forward Aerial : Spurious Swoop -
Zexion points forward and releases his lexicon, commanding it to open facing downwards and glide forward [14%] two stage builder blocks in distance over two-thirds of a second. The lexicon flies at a small curve, initially aimed at slight angle pointing downwards but curving such that it ends the glide tilted slightly upwards instead. The true lexicon will push any foes it strikes up the end of its flight, wherein it then teleports back to Zexion, who hovers for the duration of the move, after having successfully spaced the opponent away. A copy will only flinch the foe, however.
- Down Aerial : Imitated Maw -
Zexion releases his lexicon and lets it fall, enlarging it to double its size. Once the lexicon drops below his feet, which only takes a moment, it will suddenly open itself wide similar to a pair of jaws and then clamp shut [19%], flinching any caught opponents for a good deal of time. The whole process takes four-fifths of a second to perform, also stalling Zexion in the air so as not to suffer landing lag in most situations. If Zexion wields the true lexicon, the book will angle itself left or right to clamp down upon an opponent rather than attack directly below. Paired with the Down Tilt, these attacks are ideal for punishing grounded opponents so long as they aren't interrupted during the execution.
- Back Aerial : Deceitful Dodge -
Zexion quickly moves back in the air by one and a half stage builder blocks, leaving behind a dark flickering silhouette that fades after a one second. The silhouette is a hitbox that passively damages opponents [5% per quarter second] within its range, and will also hold opponents that would come in contact with it, paralyzing them with dark magic. Zexion suffers a moment of ending animation; this is punishable only if a copy performs this attack, wherein the silhouette will not grab opponents. This attack can work well in tandem with the Forward Aerial, as it is possible to execute both at once.
- Up Aerial : Duplicate Pull -
Zexion raises his opened lexicon above him, which emits a dark grey orb. At that instant, any opponents within one and a half stage builder blocks will be sharply pulled towards the orb, unable to fight its influence. The orb only lasts a few moments seconds before it fades and Zexion resumes his normal stance.
The true lexicon offers a much more powerful version. Should the foe connect with the orb made by the true lexicon, they will be suddenly shocked [15%] and paralyzed in midair as the orb then disappears. Regardless of the copy, this input allows Zexion a degree of direct movement control against his opponents, threatening to pull them into disadvantageous positions. Zexion will likely make one of his clones perform the Up Tilt at the same time, although the Up Aerial will not be altered so long as it is executed before the Up Tilt is finished.
- = - Grab Game - = -
- Grab : Counterfeit Capture -
The lexicon and all its copies open and face forward, emitting a faint green light from their pages. The animation takes 2 seconds to complete, during which Zexion and his clones are unable to defend themselves, hovering in place if airborne. Afterwards, the green light flashes from each lexicon, and any opponent that the true lexicon faces on the same vertical level is caught in the grab, as well as any minions belonging to opponents. As expected, only the true lexicon is capable of grabbing, no matter if the Up Tilt is in effect or not.
A grabbed opponent is transformed into a giant lexicon copy that hovers in places and faces the screen open, its size comparable to a crate. The opponent's profile, taken from the character select screen, is visible on one of the pages. The giant copy has 30% stamina; if opponents deplete that stamina, they will destroy the copy and free the captured opponent prematurely. A grapped opponent must otherwise attempt to escape from the grab as they normally would, though the grab in question is 1.5 times as powerful as the norm and will not relinquish a foe automatically after a certain time. This is more significant concerning grabbed minions, as the minion in question will still be onstage yet unable to escape the grab, and the opponent will be (for the most part) unable to replace that minion, necessitating that he divert his attacks from Zexion to the captured minion. The giant copy will not block attacks nor impede players, however, and opponents who escape from this grab will have a second of immunity from being regrabbed.
Within the giant copy, opponents are trapped inside Zexion's illusory world, battered by countless lexicons. It's certainly not visible to the battlefield or the players, but the power of this grab allows Zexion to convert illusory damage done to opponents into actual damage, at a rate of 1% per half second spent trapped within the copy. The trapped opponent's percentage will be highlighted by a green-black aura behind it to indicate this conversion of damage. Turning the damage done by illusions into something useable is something Zexion should seriously consider, though whether it is worth the risk of attempting the grab is all up to him.
To perform a throw, either Zexion or his clones need only be in contact with giant copy produced by the grab, then tilt in any of the four directions. The holder currently following movement inputs will temporarily ignore the movement stick's tilt so as to allow the throw to be executed without revealing which truth behind the illusions. Although the following inputs will use Zexion, note that clones will perform the same throws, regardless of the copy they hold.
- Up Throw: Treacherous Tome -
Zexion tilts the copy holding the trapped foe upwards, its pages now facing the sky. He stands in place throughout the duration of this throw as he focuses on maintaining the giant copy's strength, increasing the difficulty multiplier of the grab by 0.3. Until the opponent is released, Zexion will not move from his place. Additional holders may perform this grab upon the same giant copy to further strengthen the difficulty.
The moment this throw is initiated, an invisible timer begins to clock down for the trapped opponent. Should Zexion or any of his clones maintain this grab for a full two seconds, the giant copy will then rapidly rise upwards, moving through the stage and taking the trapped opponent past the blast line. Zexion may ideally use this in order to knock out opponents, although there is a good chance they may break free of the grab while the copy flies upwards.
- Side Throw : Replica Compendium -
Zexion flicks his hand, commanding the giant copy to face either left or right depending on the input. The copy will then slowlymove straight towards that direction, just outpacing Zexion's walk speed. Performing this upon the same copy multiple times will increase the speed slowly but surely, increasing the copy's speed to Zexion's dash, then to Mario's dash, then finally to Fox's dash. Executing the Up Throw on this copy will halt its movement as the holder responsible performs the Up Throw; similarly, executing Side Throw in the opposite direction will turn the copy around and force it to move the other direction, maintaining its initial speed.
- Down Throw : Faux Codex -
Zexion surrounds the giant copy in a dark aura that will last for a second. This aura will damage any opponents and minions that may touch it [19%], flinching them; it will also deal that much damage to the trapped opponent should aforementioned opponent break free of the grab during this time. As the grab does not release opponents over time, the trapped opponent may simply wait until the aura disperses, after which Zexion cannot execute this throw upon the giant copy for a second afterwards. Zexion may use this upon a copy thrown with the Side Throw in order to damage numerous opponents along the way, or discourage opponents from freeing their allies and minions. Timed well, Zexion may also force the trapped opponent to choose a substantial amount of damage over being knocked out.
- = - Smashes - = -
- Forward Smash : Meteor Mirage -
The lexicon rises out of Zexion's hands as it glows with a dark aura. Upon release, an Electrode-sized shadow meteor will crash from the top of the stage down onto a stage builder block-sized area in front of the lexicon, passing through the stage until it lands there. The meteor itself sends any opponents it may collide with [23%-32.2%] far away with knockback that would prove lethal to anyone at 140%-95%. Upon crashing onto the stage, the meteor will become an explosion twice as large as the meteor itself, dealing the same damage with greater knockback that knocks out opponents at 130%-90%.
A greater amount of charge will not only increase the meteor's power, but also its number. For every additional half second of charge this move builds, another meteor will rain down a moment after the first one falls, lands a stage builder block further from the lexicon. At full charge, the lexicon will summon a row of five meteors to crash down upon opponents.
Here lies the point where the illusions are removed. Zexion's methods of knocking out the opponent all lie within his true lexicon, which is why he may find it more advantageous to let a clone charge the smash attacks for him. Though all holders will appear to charge a smash, only through attacking the one holding the true lexicon can opponents interrupt Zexion.
- Up Smash : Apparition Assault -
Zexion will lay down his lexicon upon a nonexistent table as he rapidly flips through its pages. At the end of the attack, the lexicon will hover in place and release a dark red aura that surrounds its holder in a similar dark aura. The holder becomes the one to obey movement inputs while all the others merely keep their distance. If an opponent is able to deal 10%-24% (depending on the charge) to the lexicon, it will prematurely close and end this attack, teleporting back to its holder.
Pressing any attack button will make one of the holders dash straight towards the holder with the dark aura at the fastest dash speed, powered by the dark magic. During this dash, any struck opponents will be knocked [10%-14%] towards the direction of the dash with much hitstun, though not even the stage will stop Zexion's clones from grouping together. Holders will merge with the one in the dark aura until all others are gone, in which case a final press of the attack button with force the holder of the lexicon to unleash the aura in a dark explosion around him [15%-21%] that will likely knock out those around 150%-110%. Afterwards, the lexicon will close and return to its holder as the other holders split off into different directions, with the true Zexion following movement inputs once more.
In the event that the true Zexion is discovered amidst a few healthy clones, this attack allows him to scramble their positions to begin the charade anew.
- Down Smash : Cyclone Charade -
As the lexicon charges, it will spin horizontally at a rapid pace, free from its holder’s hands. Releasing the charge unleashes a massive dark tornado three stage builder blocks tall and one block wide; its holder will be free to move elsewhere. In the midst of the tornado is the lexicon, which will keep the tornado active between three seconds and five seconds, depending on the charge. The tornado will act as a strong vortex, pulling all unbound objects from opponents to items two Battlefield platforms away towards the center at a walking character’s speed. Pressing Neutral Special during this attack will cover the lexicon in a silver aura, allowing it to absorb health from any opponents that may touch it.
Opponents will likely attempt to dash away from the tornado in an attempt to fight being pulled towards its deadly center [30%-40% total] that will fling opponents upwards with great force once the move has finished, enough to knock out any opponent at 140%-100%. Zexion and his clones are unaffected by the tornado; they may use the situation in order to push foes into the center, save for the one whose lexicon is currently within the tornado. When the move is completed, the lexicon will close and teleport back to its holder.
- = - Final Smash: Catastrophic Masquerade - = -
The true Zexion teleports his true lexicon to him, and opens it towards the screen, shouting an appropriate quote to match his newfound power. The lexicon will appear to perform a grab directed at the screen, wherein the entire stage will then be engulfed in black as Zexion laughs arrogantly.
The stage and all opponents upon it then reappear, with the background altered to a green-black shifting plane. Zexion floats above the stage in free flight - surrounded by dozens upon dozens of flying lexicons. These lexicons obey Zexion's commands:
A : Three random lexicons fly at random opponents in subsequent order [10% per book]
B : Numerous lexicons surround a random opponent on all horizontal angles. Unless the opponent jumps with perfect reflexes, they will be unable to dodge the assault when the lexicons dash at the foe [20%] with enough force to knock them upwards through the blast line at 120%.
Grab : Lexicons surround the foe, trapping them in a column that stretches from the top to the bottom of the stage. The books will merely rotate around the foe, but they will not move from their position, serving as a multiple-flinching walls on both sides of the opponent. [7% per hit]
Jump : Lexicons will form a two stage builder block tall wall behind an opponent, unable to be dodged due to it extending to the background. It will suddenly dash at the opponent a few moments later [15%], with enough knockback to be lethal to anyone at 120%.
Shield : Zexion disguises himself as one of the numerous lexicons onscreen, automatically behaving as they do. Movement will influence its direction, but it will not join in the barrages of the other lexicons. Opponents may deal 15% to it to knock Zexion out of his disguise.
This state of the battlefield will persist until 50% has been dealt to Zexion, or until all opponents are knocked out. Opponents will not respawn until the Final Smash ends, so should otherwise attempt to end it early before they sustain too much damage. Zexion's clones are not pulled into this plane, but instead wait for all combatants to return to the true battlefield. Zexion himself will keep any damage he takes in the duration of this Final Smash, and returns the lexicon to whoever held it upon the Final Smash's completion. Should the Final Smash end due to the depletion of his health, Zexion will exit it with severe hitstun. Zexion must be prepared to keep opponents away from him as his lexicon masquerade barrages them from all sides.
- = - Playstyle - = -
- = - General Advice - = -
Zexion is capable of choosing between a multitude of strategies, such that a single playstyle would insult the possibilities. Moreover, if you have read this far, then you already know each of Zexion's individual options and have already mentally strung together a hypothetical match plan. The following section is but an expansion upon possibilities that may not have been apparent in the moveset.
- On Managing Clones As Distractions -
Zexion can create three clones at once at any part of the match simply by inputting his Side Special three times, then touching it to have three clones move out in various directions. It is recommended to make use of the ability to store a direction into a copy in order to both remain aware of which clone may carry a health charge and to direct a clone to move in a particular direction of Zexion's choosing. If Zexion does this without a health charge, then all three clones are doomed to destruction against foes with wide area-of-effect attacks. However, even with no health to keep them alive, clones still have access to a moveset with attacks such as the Forward Tilt and Forward Aerial, thus striking opponents while remaining out of reach. The presence of at least one illusion should discourage smarter opponents from using their grab games. A grabbed clone will not fade if they are repeatedly pummeled or thrown, and since no opponent is likely to wait for a grabbed clone to fade, an opponent open to being attacked by the holder of the true lexicon. Time is precious, and opponents can't risk grabbing at illusions when they may be setting themselves up to be grabbed instead. Clones can absorb a barrage of projectiles or quick attacks for Zexion so long as the opponent is foolish enough to keep on striking. Simply with the threat of wasting their time and letting the real Zexion get away, opponents must strike once and allow the clone to fade away instead of following up - which would potentially let Zexion escape should he be struck. A clone with leftover health may also escape this way, if Zexion chooses to let it live.
- On Solitary Combat -
Zexion is not helpless when facing the opponent with no illusions by his side, which is a necessity considering that the match doesn't begin with access to clones that won't perish with one decent strike. In this situation, he can abandon mindgames and simply focus on attacking the opponent, though he shouldn't forget about his Neutral Special and Down Special if he wants to build up towards a more durable state of confusion for his opponents later. Paired with his lexicon, his wide array of attacks can quickly reposition opponents closer or away, though they lack the power that his easily-telegraphed smash attacks hold.
- On Managing One Clone -
A player should not be pressured to creating three clones at once and trying to manage all of them, simply because the limit allows it. It is possible to create only one clone and still maintain a high level of control while confusing opponents. Consider the opponent's perspective: they see two potential targets, one of whom they must knock out to gain a stock advantage, and one of whom has access to high-damage attacks, a long-range grab and powerful smash attacks. These two may even be the same.
- On Lexicon Management -
As Zexion automatically puts any health charge he has in the next copy he drops, a player may choose to drop the real lexicon, create a clone, then quickly swap back the lexicon to create a distracting clone which the opponent none the wiser. After all, even if an opponent is smart enough to assume that the real Zexion still holds the health charge, he shouldn't be able to tell which holder it is, let alone which one holds a mere copy.
The rank of No.V of Organization XIII belongs to Lexaeus. Stalwart as the earth itself, he stands as the largest member of the group, as well as possibly the strongest in terms of physical power. The Skysplitter, a massive tomahawk, is what he wields, as well as an affinity for the earth; Lexaeus brings his unrivaled strength against all who would dare to battle him.
Movement is not Lexaeus' strong suit, but it needn't be compared to his survivability and raw power. His great strength at least grants him decent aerial prowess. Does he really not care that he has the slowest ground speed within the game, and thus will have to chase after his foes? Perhaps he does not have to.
[[Specials]]
Neutral Special - Reticence
Standing tall, Lexaeus raises his weapon into the air and begins charging an incredible amount of physical power, surrounding himself in an orange aura. While it takes him a staggering two seconds to do this, he gains a heavy armor of sorts while doing so, shrugging off any attacks that fail to surpass 10% damage; a foe would need to land a decent strike to interrupt him out of this.
At the end of the charge, Lexaeus lowers his weapon, his outline now covered in an orange aura. He now holds a power-up charge; all of Lexaeus' attacks now deal 5% more damage and have an increased 1.2x knockback. Lexaeus also retains some of his heavy armor, ignoring hitboxes that deal 2% or less. Perhaps it may seem a small boon, but Lexaeus massive strength make these bonuses more worthwhile than they may seem.
Of course, Lexaeus may try to charge again in order to further increase his power.Though the execution is still the same, a dangerous red aura will surround Lexaeus if he is successful instead. Now each of his attacks do 10% more damage, with 1.4x increased knockback; but even better, they now all have transcendent priority (as if there were foes that could match Lexaeus' powerful disjointed attacks anyway). His heavy armor improves as well, rendering attacks that do 6% or less useless for flinching.
At this point, Lexaeus can no longer use this input anymore to further increase his power. He'll lose all power-up charges should he be KO'd, but that's the only way he'll lose them. Of course, attempting to build these charges in the first place makes Lexaeus vulnerable to grabs or smash attacks. Perhaps he should send the foe far away before attempting so.
Side Special - Monolith
Lexaeus mightily stomps down with his right foot - causing a rock spire to instantly rise from the ground in front of him. Should anyone be foolish enough to stand in front of Lexaeus, they must strike in the half-second of starting lag he suffers to interrupt, lest they be struck themselves by the rising spire (14%), taking heavy knockback.
The rock spire is one and a half stage builder blocks tall, and a stage builder block wide. It's impossible to dodge past it, and any character who lands on it will be pushed to the side as though falling past a steep slope. No matter the slope, the spire points straight upwards, though it will not overlap with a ledge. It does, however, limit anyone hanging on the ledge it overlooks to only jump up the ledge.
The spire has 40% stamina. Upon destruction, it shatters into eight jagged stones (arranged with four as the base, three above them and the final one as the tip) that will fall upon the floor and disappear a second after resting on the ground. However, should any of them be struck by any attack, including the one that breaks the spire, they will fly out and strike anyone they hit, their trajectory, speed and power (5% minimum-20% maximum, at laser speed) depending on the attack. Mere punches aren't likely to send a single stone flying at a useful speed, however, as these stones obey a weight statistc of 8. It would take a wide-reaching weapon to create a devastating rock shower with these spires, weapons such as Ragnell or Dedede's hammer - or Skysplitter.
Up Special - Skysplitter
Lexaeus throws his tomahawk upwards, his strength able to fling the massive weapon a whopping six stage builder blocks above him. Should he have at least one power-up charge, it will increase this distance by two stage builder blocks without subtracting the duration. The tomahawk rises at laser-speed, then slows as it reaches the peak before plummeting back down to Lexaeus, flinching anyone it strikes (20%) during its flight. There's little room for movement, here, however, as the tomahawk only flies straight upwards, and Lexaeus is unable to move or attack at all while it flies. That is, save his Side Special.
Pressing up will have Lexaeus leap up to grab his weapon before it comes back down to him, using a great reserve of strength. He immediately rises up to his weapon's position before grabbing it, then falls down normally. An impressive recovery, and also a method for quickly traversing up the air should your foes refuse to stand their ground on the earth.
Down Special - Hypocenter
Lexaeus stabs the tomahawk into the ground with a forceful thrust, somehow storing energy into the earth beneath him. It takes him four-fifths of a second to do this, so he may need the protection of a rock spire if the foe is not far enough. Each power-up he has will decrease this duration by one-fifth of a second, after which Lexaeus will resume battling.
Lexaeus has thrust a focus point into the stage, right below its surface. It takes merely one attack into the ground above it to set off the focus point, resulting in earth crackling from that point (which has no bearing upon the battle) and shockwaves being released upon the stage, leading the line of cracking earth.. Whoever dashes across a shockwave will instantly trip, and anyone who takes hitstun from an attack while standing on a shockwave, whether they may flinch or be sent flying, will also trip upon the floor instead. To weather them out, one must either stand and fight, or escape to the air.
The speed these shockwaves travel depend entirely on the attack that strikes the focus point. For example, Lexaeus may use Down Special again over a focus point to set it off with a strike that drives straight into the ground. Such spiking knockback, though you'd never notice it except in the most situational of events, will cause the shockwaves to stay in place, effectively keeping Lexaeus safe from deadly knockback, if he is able to use it to his advantage.
With a power-up charge, the resulting shockwaves become much more potent, instantly tripping anyone that it pass through. With that power, Lexaeus is unlikely to use a focus point as he does above, but he has other methods for doing creating shockwaves.
[[Attacks]]
Jab
With one arm, Lexaeus quickly swings his tomahawk downwards [10%] at the area front of him, sending foes back a short distance. It's a surprisingly quick attack from such a juggernaut, although it won't KO until 210%, and it's also his fastest method for setting off focus points. When the tomahawk hits the ground, shockwaves will travel at a simple pace similar to the pace of Luigi's fireballs, dealing 2% to anyone they come across.
A second attack awaits, however, for another press of the input. Lexaeus will leap forward a stage builder block, holding his weapon behind him with both arms and ready to bring it down with greater force [20%] upon the stage when he lands. This far more potent attack has perhaps a fourth of a second of lag before it lands, but not only will it KO anyone at 105%, but any shockwaves it unleashes from a focus point will travel at twice the speed of those made by the initial jab, dealing 6% instead. If the control stick was tilted opposite where Lexaeus faced upon the second input, Lexaeus will turn around to leap the other way instead.
Rocks from spires destroyed by the first hit will only cover a Battlefield platform's distance ahead and above when they fly, but the second hit will send them twice that distance instead. Of course, because of their positions, rocks will fly it slightly varying angles. Be assured that Lexaeus can still strike all of them at once to cover a large area in front of him. An unharmed spire will survive a whole jab attack from Lexaeus while still keeping him on whatever side he attacks from, but it is sure to shatter upon his next attack.
Dash Attack
With a sudden surge of power, Lexaeus dashes two Battlefield platforms forward at Sonic's dash speed. He stops at that exact distance, but also pushes any foes he runs into with him. This won't likely damage spires, but it allows Lexaeus to overcome his usual movement speed. The attack will most past ledges similar to Kirby's Dash attack in Melee, and each power-up Lexaeus gains will increase the distance he travels by a Battlefield platform. Of course, in such a state, Lexaeus should not need speed to crush the foe.
Forward Tilt
Lexaeus guards himself with his tomahawk, blocking any attacks that come his way in the half-second duration he does that. The benefit is that he doesn't need to use his shield should he expect an opposing powerful attack to come at him, such as a foe's use of his own spires. He ends with a fifth of a second of lag, however.
Tilting forward once more as Lexaeus does this will have him suddenly bend and charge forward. He holds the other end of his tomahawk with his left as he does this, shoving any foes he hits [12%] during this Battlefield-platform-long charge a short distance upwards. Lexaeus can barge through spires with this, sending the rocks upwards half a stage builder block in distance and letting them rain down behind him.
At the end of the charge, a single tap of the attack input will result in a wide horizontal sweep of the tomahawk around Lexaeus. This sweep [18%] will send foes a great horizontal distance, but the knockback scales poorly enough that though rocks will fly one and a half Battlefield platforms far in a low curve (though with good timing, he may strike the rocks that may have fallen behind him). Foes will not be KO'd until perhaps 240%.
Up Tilt
Lexaeus swings his tomahawk up with one hand. The animation andlag is similar to Ike's Up Tilt, and the range is actually just somewhat longer. Similar to the last attack of the Forward Tilt, this strike [15%] deals impressive upwards knockback yet scales very slowly. Still, shattering a spire with this will send those rocks far up into the air, about four or five stage builder blocks up, before they come down again. Foes similarly won't be KO'd by this until around 220%, but they'll be flung upwards far enough that Lexaeus would need to use his Up Special to reach them once more.
With at least one power-up charge, Lexaeus can hold down the input to rise into the air when he swings. This allows him to reach a higher area as well as ending with him in the air, able to quickly perform an aerial.
Down Tilt
Lexaeus slowly yet surely slashes the ground right in front of him with his weapon. The range is actually very low in comparison to his other moves, only probably striking [5 hits of 5%] anyone right next to him. If someone indeed gets caught, that foe will be slid across the ground at a great distance at the end of the move.
In fact, the hitbox is actually only on the ground getting struck by the tomahawk. Lexaeus is very vulnerable when he does this; even if he breaks a spire with this, the rocks will simply crumble. It's the focus points that get the most use out of this, however. The resulting shockwaves will surge ahead at Sonic's dash speed and deal8%, making a fine way to sweep across the stage.
With two power-up charges, Lexaeus will force a rock spire out of the ground midway through the attack, as though performing his Side Special
[[Grabs]]
Grab
Lexaeus simply grips forward with his free arm. His grab range is well within the norm, even if ends somewhat slowly should it miss. He can easily pummel them [5%] with his tomahawk's handle.
Alternatively, upon input, all of Lexaeus' shockwaves will suddenly disappear - to be replaced by jagged rocks rising out a SBB from the fractured earth. Foes caught by this will be imprisoned by the earth and must escape as though buried, though they may still perform any attacks possible with the upper half of their bodies. Lexaeus cannot perform throws on these foes, but he can walk towards them to grab them as they escape, or perhaps crush them with Skysplitter.
Forward Throw
Lexaeus flings the foe straight forward with great strength [5%], covering a distance of two Battlefield platforms before they land. The flung foe serves as a hitbox as well, battering foes in the same direction. Should they collide with any sort of wall, including a rock spire, they will be temporarily embedded there. Lexaeus will immediately dash towards them and strike them with Skysplitter [15%], rebounding them the other way. Should the rock spire shatter, the foe will be sent flying the initial direction.
Up Throw
Lexaeus tosses the foe straight upwards, but they're not out of his grasp just yet. He then leaps up above the foe and brings his tomahawk down upon them [18%], spiking them back onto the stage. Lexaeus ends this airborne, allowing him to use his aerials upon the downed foe.
Down Throw
Lexaeus shoves the foe upon the ground, the brutally crushes them with the hammer end of Skysplitter [20%]. Perhaps you thought that x-marked square was for mere decoration? Foes struck by this will be buried into the earth, where they're safe from being re-grabbed yet at Lexaeus mercy if they fail to escape. Fortunately, they can free themselves as easily as one escapes from DK's Side Special burials.
Back Throw
Lexaeus knocks the foe's head [10%] before flinging them behind him. The foe travels in a slow arc a Battlefield platform away, stuck in hitstun depending on their damage. At 50%, they can easily regain control at the peak of the ark, but at around 190% they'll likely land first. In the meantime, Lexaeus can freely charge up yet another strike.
[[Aerials]]
Neutral Air
Lexaeus quickly performs a horizontal slash [15%], covering the area in front of and behind him. This deals impressive knockback similar to that of the final strike of the dash attack. However, it's more useful for making rocks from broken spires fly a good distance across the stage, covering almost a whole Battlefield in length with their low arcs. The attack itself starts with a bit of lag, but will continue even if Lexaeus lands.
Forward Air
Holding Skysplitter behind himself with both hands, Lexaeus performs a powerful vertical slash [18%]. Like many Forward Airs in Brawl, this deals impressive knockback to those hit by the edge while spiking anyone hit by the sweetspot on the edge of the weapon closer to Lexaeus.
A single power-up charge gives Lexaeus the option to hold this input down, allowing him to fastfall on the downstroke with the edge of the tomahawk still pointed downwards. He suffers quite some landing lag, which necessitates that he strike someone as he plummets. Another power-up charge will create a small shockwave on the ground upon landing with this attack, which will spread a stage builder block away from him in both directions. This is different from those created by the focus points in that they only flinch [5%]. Speaking of which, focus points can be set off by the landing of this, creating shockwaves similar to those made by the second jab.
Down Air
Lexaeus brings Skysplitter down in a long vertical swing below himself. While only those right below Lexaeus will be struck [16%], they'll be sent fly up at a steep diagonal angle. Curious.
Lexaeus can strike a focus point with this attack, in which case the knockback will split that shockwaves and make them go in both directions at a slow pace, dealing 4%. Similarly, rocks from spires broken with this attack will fly in both directions, upwards yet enough to the side to avoid striking Lexaeus.
Back Air
Lexaeus reaches behind him with his weapon, catching anyone and anything on the inner edge. He then swings it forward horizontally, flinging anything caught forward at a brutal speed. The swing itself (5%) may collide with other foes along the way, but only foes caught in it are likely to be flung straight at the blast zone should they be 150% or so. Should Lexaeus destroy a spire with this swing, four rocks at most will be flung by his weapon two Battlefield platforms forward.
Up Air
Lexaeus swings his tomahawk in a wide arc above him [18%]. Effective in juggling, in that the foe is likely to be knocked close to the blast zone, and the large range is certainly useful. It takes a bit to start, though, and the ending lag is quite punishable. It would be difficult for Lexaeus to break a rock spire with this, but rocks will be spread upwards to rain across the stage if he manages it.
[[Smashes]]
Forward Smash
Lexaeus throws his tomahawk forward, it somehow traveling a straight horizontal distance across the foreground. Upon traveling a Battlefield platform in distance, which it does in a sixth of a second, it moves to the background striking anyone as it spins (20%-28%) then travels back to Lexaeus just as quickly as it left. Obviously, it strikes anyone in the background on the return trip Each power-up charge will increase the distance it travels by a Battlefield platform, though Lexaeus risks spending more time unable to do anything until his weapon returns to him.
Tilting up or down while the tomahawk flies allows Lexaeus a small degree of control in its vertical path. However, tilting back will make the tomahawk curve and fly back to him wherever it is! It will certainly smack foes when it turns around, and it can even destroy spires, but all knockback is actually negligible at best. A trip-inducing shockwave welcomes this ability to quickly strike foes from afar.
Up Smash
Lexaeus readies Skysplitter for a massive two-handed upwards slash from his left. He takes a notable amount of time to do this, as long as Lucas' Up Smash even. At the end of the start lag, he instantly performs the slash [30%-42%] which KOs anyone that's at least 70%.
Lexaeus has the option to press A up to four times during the start up lag. Should he do this, he will instead perform an astonishingly fast version of his Up Tilt [5%-10%] a number of times depending on how much A was pressed. He can perform all four strikes within a second and a half, and moves forward half a stage builder block with each strike. While they have massive upwards knockback that KOs at around 100%, their range is not as good as the first version of this attack as they don't reach above Lexaeus' head. Still, Lexaeus can chip away at his spires with this, unexpectedly launching all the rocks skyward or leaving just enough stamina for him to destroy them with his next attack.
Down Smash
Lexaeus rears his weapon above him, preparing a massive collision with it upon the surface of the stage [25%-35%]. The strike itself buries anyone unfortunate enough to be caught, and also creates an earthquake with a Battlefield platform radius around Lexaeus. The earthquake flinches foes above it [4%] every half second, and also sets off any focus points to spread their shockwaves slowly in both directions. It lasts between four and eight seconds, depending on the charge; should it destroy a spire, the rocks will continuously rebound across the quaking surface, remaining active.
[[Final Smasher - Ayers Rock]]
"My power has no limits!" With that yell, Lexaeus leaps up into the air in the very spot Lucario occupies in his Final Smash. He hefts Skysplitter above him, charging his inevitable crushing blow upon the stage for up to six seconds. However, he can press B to unleash his attack prematurely, which will result in a weaker yet still formidable strike. After all, even used immediately, Lexaeus will cause the whole stage to tremble with his attack [30%], stunning anyone standing on it. Between two and four seconds, his attack [50%-70%] will cause the rebounding force from the stage to reach up in a brownish effect and damage anyone a Battlefield platform above the stage as well, meaning a simple jump will not escape this. After four seconds, Lexaeus' impact [70%-100%] will force earth to suddenly rise two stage builder blcoks from the entire stage itself, complete with the previously mentioned effects. One would need considerable vertical height to flee from this, though Lexaeus can always time his strike as he needs it.
[[Playstyle]]
Minions? Clones? Fah! Lexaeus needs only his incredible strength to crush foes into submission, brutally hammering at everything in his path. This includes his massive rock spires - they ultimately hinder Lexaeus while serving as projectile walls, so it's far better to destroy them and let the ensuing rockslide smash the pitiful staminas of any other props foes might pull out.
But Lexaeus isn't some mindless brute (though certainly a heartless one) who batters away without a care. Lexaeus' power is enough that he can take down a rock wall with three or four unpowered attacks. It's important to decide just what the final breaking attack will be, as that attack will influence where the boulders will rain and where Lexaeus can catch his foes.
Of course, threatening to KO foes with a massive tomahawk is psychological warfare in itself, as melee-centered opponents must always watch out for Lexaeus' attacks. Lexaeus easily overpowers other attacks, and can continuously threaten with lethal strikes as he closes the distance between him and the foe. He does have the option of not using his spires and focus points offensively at all, instead setting them as walls on the edge of the stage or a place to stand without fear of getting knocked out. He must still consider how he uses the shockwaves, as they make for potential traps to force foes to stand their ground.
Lexaeus can survive not building a power-up charge at all, but he also reaps quite some benefits if he can accomplish that. The math for destroying spires changes with a single charge, allowing Lexaeus to break them more quickly and with little concern for flinching attacks. Of course, he becomes far more threatening, and keeps that threat for the foe's next stock as well.
Ultimately, Lexaeus' goal is simple: Battle and crush the foe with his pure overwhelming force. What strategy is possibly more straightforward than that?
Xaldin stands as No. III of Organization XIII. A ruthless yet cunning warrior, Xaldin sees the emotions of others with hearts as mere weaknesses to be exploited; he is, after all, one unfettered by such things. His mastery of wind and air gives him perfect control over his six lances, the Lindworm; this allows Xaldin wide reach in the battlefield as he strikes from every direction while slowly pushing foes to their demise.
Xaldin prefers the unconstrained movement offered by the air to the ground, where his mediocre ground speed is hindered by his terrible traction. His aerial prowess is very impressive for one his size, though. His float can last an impressive twelve seconds as well - so long as he has all six Stage Builder block-length lances with him. While he hold two lances with his hands, the other four are held behind him with air, floating closely along with visible wind lines trailing as he traverses the stage.
+============>\ \ \Specials/ / / <============+
\ \ \Neutral Special - Wyvern/ / /
With no visible movement, Xaldin allows one of the four lances behind him to stay in place. That lance will now hover in that spot, bobbing slowly in the air. Xaldin can group stationary lances together by using this input again close to one; the lances will steadily spin in place around the space in between them to indicate that they are grouped.
Xaldin may opt to tilt after input, which will cause one of those four lances to instead point and rush at the inputted direction at the speed of Falco's lasers. The flying lance will rebound off of surfaces at corresponding angles and run through foes {12%}, flinching them. The lance will travel two Battlefield platforms in distance before stopping, aligning itself vertically and remaining in place as this move originally intended.
Xaldin can set up his four extra lances wherever he wants around the battlefield, grouping them in one spot or spreading them across the stage. He won't make them follow him again if he passes by them, but he does have his ways of accomplishing that. Still, Xaldin will always have two lances in hand to attack the foe himself. Why does he want his extra lances spread across the battlefield? Well, for one thing, they'll mimic his smash attacks...
\ \ \Down Special - Lindworm/ / /
With no visible movement, Xaldin allows one of the four lances behind him to stay in place. Perhaps you expected something different?
This lance seems to function the same as the ones left behind as the ones left by the Neutral Special, even copying Xaldin whenever he performs a smash attack. However, while they can be grouped together, they can't be thrown a certain direction. The only way to confuse both varieties is to make all of them stationary. Using either input close to a lance laid down by the other one can group both kinds together, so both kinds will spin in place as well.
When Xaldin re-inputs this attack away from lances laid down by this move, those lances will suddenly point towards Xaldin and dash back towards him! They're far more painful {15%}, but they also drag foes they strike with them and straight towards Xaldin. They'll also ignore any stage and pass through it to return to Xaldin, though foes will obviously be left behind. Of course, this means Xaldin may only have a single lance or group of lances created by this input out at once, and only those lances will fly back to him, leaving behind the first kind of stationary lance. However, Xaldin can re-input this no matter whether he's moving, attacking or taking knockback, beckoning his lances for a surprise attack. I shouldn't need to explain the benefits of confusing the foe as to whether they should watch their backs for those seemingly docile solitary lances or not.
\ \ \Up Special - Dragonreign/ / /
Xaldin disappears in a rush of air, taking his lances with him. After a half second, he reappears four Stage Builder blocks above and one block ahead of his original position - poised with all his current lances surrounding him like an arrowhead. He immediately dives straight down at a breakneck speed upon reappearing, catching foes with his lances {18%} and dragging them down with him. Upon landing, foes are left in prone while Xaldin recovers from a half second of lag.
This is one of Xaldin's most powerful moves, pulling foes out of the sky and into a more vulnerable position. However, in the air, this move functions similar to Bowser's Down Special in that Xaldin instead aligns his lances and skips to diving straight down. Useful for returning to the ground, but Xaldin won't stop diving until he hits the stage, so how does this function as a recovery?
In truth, the actions described above only occur if Xaldin has no spare lances around the battlefield. If he does, however, he'll disappear and instead reappear at the oldest lance's position, diving down from there instead. I should mention that each lance deals 3% of the total damage, and that Xaldin includes the lance he teleported to in his attack, retrieving it at the same time. At the very weakest, Xaldin does 9% with this attack.
Xaldin only takes one lance with him at a time, however. If he grouped all four lances in one place, used Up Special and successfully snagged a foe, the three other lances will still remain above him. So long as he re-inputs it immediately, he can dive down three more times upon the foe before they can escape, dealing plenty of cumulative damage. Alternatively, Xaldin can use set his lances at far locations to quickly move to different parts of the battlefield, chasing or escaping towards more advantageous positions.
What, is the foe smart enough to remember the order you set your lances? Lances set down by the Down Special actually come last in the order queue of this move, meaning that if you place a lance down with this then throw one with the Neutral Special, the foe may not expect you to dive down from the second lance instead. If Xaldin only set down lances with the Down Special, his Up Special will target the youngest of these, but will still prioritize any made by the Neutral Special. It will not teleport Xaldin to lances that are still traveling.
Lastly, I suppose Xaldincide is possible with this attack, but both characters will lose their stock at the same time. Where's the fun in that anyway?
\ \ \Side Special - Zephyr/ / /
Xaldin arranges his current lances into a spiral patter in front of him, then spins them to create whirling ball of air. The ball is as large as a Bumper, and leaves behind a trail of swirling lines. After casting, the ball moves straight forward at a fast pace, taking a second to cross five Stage Builder block's length. If Xaldin only has his two lances when he inputs this, the ball will only last for two seconds, but each additional lance will increase the ball's lifespan by one and a half seconds.
Whether it lasts two or eight seconds, the ball of air will toss any foes it runs into upwards {7.5%}, about two and a half stage builder blocks in distance. While that is set knockback, it still makes the ball a good way of tossing grounded foes where Xaldin can fight them better, or will force them to jump anyway. Upon re-inputting this with a ball of air already out, that ball will disappear as Xaldin makes a brush-off motion with his right.
+============>\ \ \Attacks/ / / <============+
\ \ \Jab/ / /
Xaldin quickly swipes horizontally {8%} to his left with his left hand lance. With another press, he follows up with a rising diagonal slash {4%} with his right hand lance. For the third, last attack, he holds both lances to his sides as though gripping two sheathed swords, then strikes out with both lances at once in an X-shaped slash {12%} that tosses foes into the air. The third attack has small knockback that won't KO for the most part while the previous two attacks merely flinch the foe long enough to follow up. It's somewhat punishable at well, should foes dodge the third strike.
\ \ \Dash Attack/ / /
Xaldin walks and twists to collect all of his lances with one arm, sweeping them across the area in front of him {2% per lance}. This attack will retrieve any lances set by his two specials as well as flinch any foes it hits. Xaldin continues to walk as he completes a full body turn, resulting in his lances sweeping across a second time {4% per lance}. The lances have somehow enlarged on the second attack, reaching a whole Battlefield platform in front of Xaldin to knock foes a good distance. Xaldin suffers three fourths of a second of ending lag as he pulls back his lances, but can rack a great amount of damage if he catches foes with this whole attack.
\ \ \Forward Tilt/ / /
Xaldin holds his lances out on his sides, then brings them together in a pincer attack in front of him. The lances converge a stage builder block and a third away {12%}, but they won't hit the the area between that point and Xaldin. Foes struck by this are knocked a very short distance away, and if they're shielding, the attack will hold that shield in place until the foe releases the shield button. This attack is easily telegraphed and quite punishable too, so Xaldin isn't likely to use this himself.
Of course, that's why Xaldin can make the lances behind him perform the attack instead. Should Xaldin input any of his three tilts while performing of any of the attacks listed in this section (save for his dash), the lances behind him will perform that tilt by themselves, manipulated by the wind. Xaldin can double-press this tilt to make all four lances perform the attack, which will double the damage should it land. If Xaldin only has one spare lance behind him, though, it will fill in a random side and only do half the damage, while also failing to hold shields.
Lances performing tilts independent of Xaldin are unable to be used until the attack is over , wherein they'll then move back behind Xaldin. These also suffer twice the amount of ending lag, and if the foe can outprioritize them, the lances will be knocked away and float aimlessly for about three seconds before realigning and returning to Xaldin. Xaldin can use his dash attack to regain his lances in the middle of their attacks as well as those left by his specials. Still, Xaldin needs to watch when he makes use of these extra attacks, bringing them out when he can bring the foe to his mercy.
\ \ \Up Tilt/ / /
Xaldin suddenly raises his right arm, spinning a lance at a blistering speed {6 strikes of 3%} for half a second. He takes a moment to lower it afterwards, so it's vital to catch a foe in this lest Xaldin be punished. Foes can't DI out of the lance, and will be knocked upwards by the last hit a short distance. The knockback on that scales decently, so Xaldin can use it as a good juggling tool. Only one lance may perform this independently at a time.
\ \ \Down Tilt/ / /
Xaldin sweeps a lance across the ground, covering a distance short of a stage builder block. The lance trips anyone standing in its path {5%}, while prone or tripped foes are pushed away and into the range of the forward tilt. It should be noted that Xaldin can make his lances perform the same tile he is preoccupied with, allowing him to quickly trip and push a foe or attack with two Up Tilt lances at once.
+============>\ \ \Grab Game/ / / <============+
\ \ \Grab/ / /
Xaldin commands at least two lances at his disposal to surround the area in front of him; he may do this in the air. The lances will stand vertically as they move into position, taking five-sixths of a second to do so; with all six lances, an invisible hexagonal prism is formed, while only two lances will form a simple walled space. Xaldin only needs to press the grab input during the start-up to add another lance to the grab. He can even use the lances in his hands for this grab, if that's what he has left, though he may end up with only one lance in hand. With only one lance, Xaldin becomes handicapped as you can imagine, losing hitboxes on some of his attacks. Should he have none at all, Xaldin will lose access to his float and all his attacks - bar his Up Special and Neutral Aerial.
After the start-up lag, the lances will spin around the area they surrounded, dealing rapid flinching damage {0.5% per lance, one rotation} that pushes foes towards the center. Normally, they'll simply hover in place for two seconds, forming a hitbox barricade.However, after that time frame they'll start generate a whirlwind inside them, pulling in nearby foes. Slowly starting as a vacuum that pulls items, minions and enemies from a stage builder block away at a crawler's pace, the lances will spin even faster over eight seconds as the whirlwind becomes stronger, eventually becoming inescapable from two Battlefield platforms away at the last second. The whirlwind affects the entire stage, obviously weakly pulling those far away while dragging nearby foes with more force. While the center of these lances may be safe at the beginning, anyone caught inside the whirlwind will be stuck inside until the move ends, wherein they'll be shot out with enough force to KO at 120%.
The benefit of adding more lances to this is that without reducing the duration of the move, each additional lance skips two seconds of that process. If Xaldin is willing to invest all his lances into one, he can idly stand by as foes try to outrun its pull for the whole ten seconds. That is, assuming the foe doesn't strike Xaldin while he performs this grab in the first place. If his concentration is interrupted, the lances used for the grab will not spin and instead hover in disarray, not returning to Xaldin until three seconds later.
Xaldin immediately surrounds himself in a large orb of wind, it protecting him from most attacks. His lances will spin around him in various directions as well, though this attack really does nothing more than push foes away in corresponding directions when first formed. Force them upwards, downwards or to the side depending where they are, but the point is that they are blown outside of Xaldin's area. Holding down A will keep the orb active, allowing Xaldin to move around with an almost-impenetrable shield until he needs to attack once more. Furthermore, since the orb acts almost like a solid, it will not pass through the ground and instead stand on it like a normal ball would.This will keep Xaldin from landing and instead suspend him in the orb, allowing him to use his superior aerial mobility to quickly slide around the stage, then land once he has moved to a position more to his liking.
\ \ \Forward Aerial/ / /
Xaldin points forward with one lance, and all his current lances rear back pointing towards the spot in front of that lance. A moment later, they all stab towards that spot at once {4% per lance}, each lance adding a fraction of knockback deadly to anyone at 160%. Xaldin really only attacks with five lances at the most with this attack, yet it's still a devastating aerial with good range and fast execution. Xaldin knows better than to miss or land with this attack, however.
This is one of Xaldin's few moves that pick up lances left by his specials and tilts, as well as those set up by his grab game. Certainly useful considering the power of this attack, though Xaldin may end up erasing his own set-ups this way. As a note, the dash attack gathers lances set by the grab as well.
\ \ \Down Aerial/ / /
Xaldin sweeps below himself with a lance, covering a large area {5%}. This covers the air beneath Xaldin, and does flinching knockback that serves a good purpose for pestering foes from above or juggling them. The move is incredibly quick in execution - so much so that tilting down during this move will have Xaldin follow it up by stabbing downwards with his other lance {9%}. This second attack is a weak meteor smash that will send the foe ground bound, so its usage is up to Xaldin and where he wants the foe to go.
\ \ \Back Aerial/ / /
Extending his right arm behind him, Xaldin commands two lances from behind himself to rapidly spin like a propeller. The lances produce a wind effect that pushes foes away while also creating a wide vertical hitbox {10 strikes of 4%} that knocks foes a short distance back and lasts two seconds. Xaldin leaves those lances in place as they spin, though he can have all four floating lances create a wind tunnel. The lances can't be knocked out of spinning and will return to Xaldin a few moments after they stop. Should Xaldin have only one spare lance, he'll use that to perform a half-powered version of this input that still lasts for two seconds. With no spare lances, Xaldin does it himself with his right-arm lance, but only for half a second and with half the power.
\ \ \Up Aerial/ / /
Xaldin releases hold of his lances as all of them suddenly stab upwards in a sequence. That is, each of Xaldin's available lances will point upwards and thrust a Capsule-length in that direction {6% each} consecutively, each one stabbing right after the previous one. While the start up and the move itself are a bit laggy, foes struck by this will be hit by all the other lances in the sequence, and are likely to be KO'd at 170%. If Xaldin can land this upon falling foes, or those trapped by his grab, then all the better.
+============>\ \ \Smashes/ / / <============+
\ \ \Up Smash/ / /
Xaldin relinquishes his hold on the lances in his hands once more as all of his lances prepare to stab upwards. Though the lances don't increase in size as they do this, they still reach a whole stage builder block above as they lunge {7%-9.8% per lance}, with an ideal 120%-90% lethal total knockback. While lances left by the specials will still do this, they'll also move back down to their original positions once the attack is complete. The start up and ending lag take a bit of time, however.
\ \ \Down Smash/ / /
Xaldin strings together all nearby lances, including those set down by his other moves if they're close enough to him. He then rotates them above him like a massive rotor blade, reaching as far as three Battlefield platforms on both sides with all six lances {10 strikes of 2%-3%}. Xaldin twists the stringed lances from the meeting point of his own two handheld lances, which make up the base; additional lances are added to this base from their ends, meaning that Xaldin may end up spinning an asymmetric line of lances and hit foes only half the time. Speaking of foes, grounded foes will flinch if they don't have low crouches, while airborne foes struck by this will be flinched and juggled for the whole duration. Knockback on the final strike is negligible; Xaldin will be using this more to damage rack.
\ \ \Forward Smash/ / /
Xaldin readies all the lances at his disposal to form horizontally behind him for a potent strike. Upon release, each lance enlarges to a Battlefield platform in length and stabs forward around Xaldin, effectively striking anyone next to Xaldin {5%-7% per lance} and dealing exceptional total knockback that KO's at 155%-100%. The lances will linger in this state for a moment, protecting Xaldin, until they shrink and fly back to position. Lances left behind by the special will only stab a stage builder block length forward, but are still potent by themselves and will return to where they were placed. Remember that each lance does a fraction of the knockback stated above, and thus will add up to different, lower knockback strengths with fewer than six lances.
Xaldin jumps up as all his lances come together and form a snakelike group. He lands on the head of this "snake" as it flies into background and below, out of sight. After a few moments, Xaldin reappears from below, his lances covered with wind such that the snakelike form now resembles more a serpentine dragon, its head notable as it rears up and looks at the stage as Xaldin stands upon the head. The whirlwind beast suddenly opens its maw and prepares a massive wind blast in its mouth; Xaldin will yell out the quote above when the windstorm is finally unleashed, sweeping across the stage in a Smart-Bomb-explosion-sized hurricane beam from the beast's mouth. Foes struck will find it quite similar to Samus' Final Smash {45% total}, and are also likely to be blown into the blast zone at 70%. Upon ending, the beast disassembles into Xaldin's lances as they return to normal and follow their master once more as he lands back on the center of the stage.
+============>\ \ \Playstyle/ / / <============+
Ah, so many choices, so few lances. What Xaldin does with his lances is up to whatever he's got in mind. If he leaves them across the battlefield, he can quickly move across in a deadly dive, force foes to contend with a dangerous vacuum effect or fool them by suddenly calling his lances back to him. Should he keep them within reach, he can attack with multiple lances at once or create painful combos, or make great use of his aerial game by floating above the opposition. Committing to one six-lance KO method is fine, but it indeed requires Xaldin to forsake his other options.
Xaldin's best option is to make his lances do various actions rather than grouping them. He'll need to split his lances across tasks, and thus learn how to manage his lances effectively. Even if they may be weak in pairs, Xaldin has the ability to take advantage of the small influences these independent lances may do. Of course, afterwards, it's all a matter splitting between strategies until the foe's hopelessly pinned down and ready to be knocked into the abyss.
An MYMini 0 Entry- "You've really put Organization XIII in a pickle."
~=-=-=Xigbar the Freeshooter=-=-=~
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Xigbar is the second highest ranking member of the Organization XIII: a group of people that are literally shells of their former selves, though he attempts to feign emotion through his apparently carefree personality. As the second-highest ranking member of the Organization, you'd think Xigbar would be either extremely influential or powerful, but as it turns out, he is neither. Granted, he still plays an important role for the Organization and is a strong fighter, but he prefers to get stuff done rather than sit around and play politics.
Unlike a majority of the Organization members, Xigbar doesn't use any sort of melee weaponry or magic for weapons; he instead prefers a pair of rapid-firing guns that fire a small variety of ammo. In some games, he can combine the two weapons to create a very powerful rifle. All of them equally deadly, mind you. And while I said he doesn't use any magic on his weapons, he still has a masterful control over space... not outer space you twit. As in the physical concept of space; he can teleport at will, laugh in the face of gravity, and warp his shots around arenas. He sometimes never even has to fire at his foes directly, instead firing arrows and letting spacial rifts do the aiming for him. However, Xigbar doesn't have to depend on these powers to emerge victorious; he's perfectly fine with filling you full of lead while dodging everything you throw at him.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Stats? As if!
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ground Speed: 4 (He's the master of space and gravity, not speed. He'll be running at a speed slightly below average than most of the others, but at least his traction isn't garbage like some other character [cough Xemnas cough.])
Aerial Speed: 9.5 (Xigbar likes staying active, which means staying in the air for more than two seconds is one second too long for him. He'll be falling as fast as Melee Fox, though that's a double-edged sword from what I hear; it makes his aerial attacks far more potent but prevents him from recovering more effectively. The latter would be far more of a problem if it wasn't for his amazing recovery.)
Aerial Control: 10 (I know, I know: the master of space and gravity getting a ten in aerial control? More predictable than the response to this text color. Still, his relatively large size and low weight kind of screw him over at some points but for the most part, Xigbar'll be floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee.)
Power: 3 (While you think getting filled full of "lead" would be painful, Xigbar puts more of an emphasis on leaving his opponent in the dust while wearing them down with crystal bullets. As a result, a majority of his moves aren't very strong unless they're at close range, in which case his gun moves have a shotgun-like effect. But why are they getting close to someone named Freeshooter in the first place?)
Attack Speed: 10 (Most of his attacks stem from his arrow guns, which have rapid firing capabilties. I'll go more into detail once I get to his moves, but having two ranged weapons that can shoot several projectiles in a short amount of time is pretty darn neat. For him.)
Jump Skills: 10 (He is the master of space and gravity. He has three normal jumps that each span the distance of Falco's first jump. And his recovery move can be used up to four times and won't put him into helpless at all. Needless to say he pretty much has airborne access down to the letter.)
Weight: 2 (You'd think that a master of space, and by extension gravity, would be able to manipulate his own body weight, right? Well, weighing yourself down on purpose isn't very practical according to Xigbar, considering his combat style. So what does that mean? He prefers to maintain his low, almost Falco-like, weight to make moving around easier. A risky decision...)
Height: 7 (Xigbar might've lost his heart but he hasn't lost his height; for all intents and purposes, Xigbar is still a humanoid and as such, is about Captain Falcon's height.)
You were probably thrown off at the mention of three regular jumps. Yes, he has three jumps that are all travel the same distance as Falco's first jump, but what I didn't tell you was that he can actually USE all three of his jumps regardless of how he got into the air in the first place. For instance, if he walks off an edge, he can use all three jumps. If he takes knockback, he can use all three jumps. Basically, if you didn't already use the first jump to get into the air, you're free to use however many jumps you want.
Second, I lied about them being actual jumps: they're teleports. Yes, instead of jumping, Xigbar instantly teleports Mewtwo style a Falco-jump away in the direction of your choosing in any direction. In other words, you can choose to fake out the opponent by teleporting directly upwards, use an aerial normal/special, and then warp back to the ground or further away. The possibilities are nearly endless and are yours for the choosing. Additionally, wherever Xigbar appears after a "jump", he leaves behind a small singularity half a second after he appears in that spot. These black holes are slightly smaller than Kirby and do not affect any character in the least bit and will disappear if Xigbar loses his current stock, but they DO draw in projectiles, including Xigbar's. How this applies will be explained later on. Best part is that these singularities will last the entire match and Xigbar can have as many as four of these on-screen at once, with the newest singularity replacing the oldest one.
Last but not least, Xigbar has access to a "float" of sorts. I hesitantly use the term float because it's the closest I can come to explaining it without making it seem senseless; if you hold the jump button while airborne, Xigbar will peform a front flip in mid-air... and stand upside down. While still airborne. He can do this regardless of where he is in the air and can even use it to make coming back to the stage easier. But this isn't just some gimmick, either; he can walk, dash, and even use ground normals/specials while in this pseudo float, since he's technically standing. Just, well, upside down and in mid-air. Xigbar is free to leave this gravity defying state by inputting a vertical motion; it doesn't matter which, up or down work equally well. If he's attacked during this pseudo float, however, he's unable to enter it again until he touches the ground once more. Same goes for when he exits it manually. The float itself only lasts four seconds anyway, so it's not like Xigbar can remain in the upper levels of the stage and rain hell down upon his enemies.
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Specials? As if!
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NSpec (Red Letter Day):
Xigbar raises one of his arrow guns to about neck level and keeps it there as long as the player holds down the special button. You're able to angle the direction the projectile travels in, even being able to turn around if need be, though you still can't move. Once you let go of the special button, Xigbar fires a fairly large arrow-shaped projectile that travels about as quickly and is as large as Luigi's Fireball, deals 7% damage, deal enough knockback to negate any chance of consecutive strikes from the same arrow, and will never dissipate regardless of what it hits. Yes, that's right: these arrows will travel through anything on the stage. Opponents? Check, and they can pierce. Items? You betcha. Reflectors? You probably thought characters like Fox or Ness laugh at Xigbar but this single projectile actually ignores those barriers, striking directly at them. Counters? Characters with countering specials such as Marth or Lucario will still have theirs activated if NSpec strikes but it still keeps trucking. The stage? Hyrule suddenly becomes a worst nightmare for Xigbar's enemies. The only way for these nasty things to disappear is if it flies offstage. Even if Xigbar loses a stock they'll keep flying.
Even better is the firing rate; if you repeatedly spam NSpec in tandem with short hopping, you can have as many as five out at a time. Seriously, imagine the potential 9-1 match-ups due to a constant line of these just blocking off every potential path? Yeesh. While these are the only projectiles with a limitation other than USmash, they're also the only ones that cannot be influenced by the opponent at all. They can feel free to strike at it all they want but it won't get them anywhere. Lastly, you can use this while in your pseudo-float, and angling the shot doesn't put you out of the float. Oh, right, you've probably guessed by now but the arrows are influenced by the singularities created from jumps. Whenever an arrow comes about a Bowser radius within the singularity, it'll be drawn toward it, the projectile entering and disappearing into the black hole. Where will it appear you ask? Well I'm glad you asked...
USpec (Defying Gravity):
Xigbar slightly pauses in mid-air, then dashes in the direction the player inputs (If there's no input, then he simply travels upward.) While these don't take you as far as his jumps, they still take Xigbar a fair distance and like I previously mentioned, you can perform this move up to four times in any direction. You're even able to slightly arc the flight path of the dash similar to Lucario's recovery move. Even after using it a fourth time it won't put Xigbar into helpless, making it an excellent way to approach the foe and an even better repellant for would-be gimping attempts. Unfortunately, there's no damage or knockback on the move and Xigbar can be hit out of the dash by a crafty foe since he can't attack during the dash proper.
While it seems rather basic, there's a secondary function in using this move as well. Whenever Xigbar performs a dash, he leaves behind a rather large disc-shaped portal angled in the direction that Xigbar leaped toward. Given what you already know, Xigbar can have up to four of these on the screen at once, with the newest one replacing the old one. However, they don't directly interact with foes nor Xigbar himself; they just sit there for the entire match, even if Xigbar loses a stock. But I mentioned that singularities and projectiles have a function and that I'd explain it, so here it is: projectiles that fly into singularities will launch out of the portals generated by USpec. And every time the projectiles come out of a portal, they gain a speed boost, able to reach Falco laser levels.
Though this may get confusing if I don't elaborate first. Let's say you have four singularities and four portals on-screen and you fire an NSpec into the first singularity you created. Without missing a beat, that arrow will emerge from the earliest portal you created and will fly at whatever angle the portal is facing. You're even able to angle portals so they can fire toward another singularity or even the same one in order to create a never-ending loop assuming you don't die. Alternatively, you can create a second singularity in the way of whatever flight path the first portal sends the arrow into, meaning THAT arrow will fly from the second earliest portal. I guess in layman's terms, projectiles that fly into singularity one fly from portal one, portal two from singularity two, etc. You can create mobility hell for your opponents if you manage to angle each portal and singularity right.
DSpec (Spacial Scramble):
There's a slight twinkle in Xigbar's eye that is so subtle that the only way to know what happened is if anyone is directly looking at Xigbar- he doesn't even move, sans the brief smile on his mug. So what does happen? Nothing on-screen changes and everything stays the same... except his portals and singularities. Whenevr Xigbar DOES use this move, the connectivity between each singularity and portal on-screen is scrambled, meaning that singularity one won't always lead to portal one. In other words, not even Xigbar will know where his arrows will end up. This can apply to any of your projectiles currently flying back and forth between singularities and portals, but keep in mind this can screw up your arrow barriers or traps and the scramble will discontinue when you make the same input. If you decide spawning new singularities or portals after scrambling everything currently on-screen, they won't be affected by the scramble until you perform it again, in which case the already scrambled singularities/portals won't go back to normal. Use this to catch the foe off guard, since it's considerably difficult for the foe to detect any change in the singularity/portal relation until it's actually seen and the animation for Xigbar to perform it is only visible if the players focus their attention on Xigbar. In which case they're taking their eyes off their own character, which is rarely a good idea.
SSpec (Marking the Target):
Xigbar barely holds back a sadistic grin before dashing forward a fair- let's say three Bowser lengths- distance, either skidding to a stop for .70 seconds of recovery or stabbing the foe repeatedly with his arrowguns' sharper points. You're able to perform this in the air, which leads to Xigbar leaping off the foe while spiking them. Even better is that Xigbar isn't put into helpless so you can use this as a sort of pseudo recovery move. You know, since his recovery isn't already amazing enough. There's still a fair delay between the recovery frames of the move and when you're able to perform another input, though, so it's not ideal for recovery. This deals a fair amount of damage, about 15%, and leaves Xigbar in a safe spot for your pained foe to do naught but wallow in pain. Not enough knockback to consider it a killing move, however. After such a brutal display, Xigbar teleports backwards, laughing at the foe's impending misery; they're covered in bright red barbs from Xigbar's arrowguns so how could things get possibly worse?
Simple; what Xigbar just did was "plant" a singularity similar to the ones he spawns by jumping directly onto a foe, meaning for two seconds when it spawns, projectiles will be drawn toward that new singularity- and by extension, the host foe. After two seconds, physics sets in and the singularity dislodges itself from the foe, but the damage will likely have already been done. Better yet is that THIS singularity acts independently from currently set ones; you can tell from the slightly different shading on that singularity from the ones you spawn. It won't last the entire round, however- only for a good five seconds after dislodging- and Xigbar can only have one of these special black holes out at a time. If projectiles manage to fly into these, they spawn out of a random portal. To offset this, the gravitational pull these singularities have on projectiles are significantly weaker than those on normal singularities.
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Normals? As if!
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Jab (Suppressing Fire):
Xigbar aims both of his arrowguns in front of him and shoots out a brief barrage of projectiles. The firing rate is about Fox's NSpec firing speed but each projectile travels at the speed of Falco's laser for two seconds before dissipating and dealing a minor 2% damage on contact with the foe and minor flinching. Needless to say, these rather frail crystalline bullets shatter upon contact with any solid object. These things are very small, however, being as long as a blaster laser but thinner than a Deku Nut. Foes have an easier time spotting them due to their neon purple glow as they travel and have an even easier time with dispatching them, as it only takes a single jointed hitbox to destroy a single arrow. You can easily infer from that that using these particular kinds of projectiles on their own is a bad idea. The player can mash the attack button to continue this assault for as long as they want or until they're struck by the foe. Unfortunately, regardless of how long you've been firing, Xigbar takes about half a second to reload his weapons after he stops firing, unless he's hit out of it by an opponent, in which case he takes damage. Xigbar is even able to strafe using the movement stick and angle their firing range by tilting the movement stick up or down. In addition, Xigbar can fire a bunch of these projectiles into a singularity in order to grant it the same effects as any other projectiles caught in a singularity, meaning you can create a frail yet very fast-moving line of bullets in order to buy time for creating said lines with NSpec. Though you may not have guessed, you're able to use this move while in your pseudo float- you can even angle your firing rate and strafe, even shooting directly at your singularities to create even more havoc.
FTilt (Combined Efforts):
Xigbar swings both of his arrowguns forward in a vice-like motion, as if it were a giant claw. Since this is one of his few moves where he doesn't shoot projectiles, you can probably guess the range on this attack is relatively poor, reaching only to about half a Bowser-length. It's fairly quick, though, ending as quickly as it began, and is threatening not only in it's decent damage (6%) and knockback, but for its secondary effect; similar to DSpec, if Xigbar lands this on an unlucky foe, they're body is covered with crystals that jut out painfully. Unlike DSpec, however, these crystals are noticeably different in that they are light purple. Yes, you can have both kinds of crystals embedded into your opponent at the same time. These purplish crystals have a different effect as well; after three seconds since exposure, they detonate, causing the foe to flinch a little and receive a single point of damage. While this is a minor effect and pathetically low damage, it disrupts their movement for a short time, meaning Xigbar or his projectiles have a chance to ruin a foe's day if these purple barbs happen to detonate while a foe is fleeing from/pursuing Xigbar or navigating through singularity/portal fields. Ah, one last thing; you can use this while in your pseudo float, though this is mostly to prevent foes from trying to knock you out of float.
UTilt (Jagged Crescent):
With his hand ever-pressed on the triggers, Xigbar swings both of his arrowguns over his head in a half circle, shooting out barrages of projectiles idential to those from Jab. Same power, same durability, and the same distance. The main difference is firing speed, but only because Xigbar is keeping the trigger held down for the quarter second duration of this move. The projectiles will also cover a considerably large area above Xigbar that negates direct aerial approaches, since the closer a foe is to Xigbar when he uses this move, the more damage they take due to the lack of spread on the projectiles. What, you expected a UTilt to NOT somehow protect/attack foes from above/knock them into the air? Unfortunately, Xigbar's movements are uncharacteristically deliberate during this attack and he leaves his side hurtbox open, meaning foes can take advantage of an overly cautious Xigbar, fake out an aerial approach, and then take the fight to him. Of course, this still requires planning on the foe's part and Xigbar has more than one way to prevent a foe from getting into the air; this just happens to be a way for him to cover a very large area above him and act as an anti-air.
DTilt (Knee Capper):
Xigbar is... still a relatively large target while crouched. Like, he's only on one knee, which still puts him at Mario height. I digress, just thought I'd like to get that out of the way first. Anyway, Xigbar shifts his knee so that he's spinning on his elbow while rapid-firing with his other arrowgun, releasing a barrage of projectiles at about Ganondorf's knee level and below. The player can keep spamming this move in order to create a low-hitting cyclone of hurt, although these projectiles will still travel at the same speed and distance of the jab version. And unlike the Jab, he can't aim or move around during, not to mention he leaves his upper hurtbox wide open and pretty much invites foes to take an aerial approach.
However, there's some extra effects that come with landing this move, particularly having to do with mobility: should Knee Capper strike any foe with two or more arrows, their jumping, running, and dodging speeds/distances are halved. Only doing these exact actions for a second and a half straight will get rid of the debuffs, which puts them in a bad position as their reduced mobility can make things easier for Xigbar to either retreat or set up more projectile traps/zones. Using this during your pseudo float might be incredibly demanding on your execution, but mastering the timing makes DTilt a very good air-to-air attack.
Dash (Crystal Hive):
Xigbar hunches over while dashing, landing on his knees and using his mastery over space/gravity to continuously slide across the ground while rapidly firing his arrowguns forward. Players can angle the direction of the shots by tilting the movement stick in the desired direction and can continue the slide by holding down the attack button. You're even able to switch directions while maintaining the dash attack by double tapping the direction opposite you're traveling in. Like with all of Xigbar's basic arrowgun moves, this deals a minor amount of stun and damage while traveling the same speed for the same amount of time. However, since you're sliding, you can obviously crash into opponents, tripping them at percentages under 30% and dealing 5% while you're at it.
When I mention his defiance of friction, I'd like to add on by mentioning he can actually slide offstage and possibly into blast zones if Xigbar isn't careful; when you come out of the dash attack, you keep all the momentum from the attack proper. Those of you with a decent memory also might be wondering if you can use this move while in your pseudo-float, to which I heartily reply yes! You can slide across the sky while angling your arrowgun attacks to constantly barrage the foe as you move to and fro. Alternatively, you can take advantage of the pseudo float to keep firing projectiles into your singularities to start up traps, barriers, etc. You'll automatically come out of the dash attack once your time in pseudo float is over, maintaining the momentum you had while dashing.
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Smashes? As if!
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FSmash (Rules of Engagement):
Xigbar looks to his sides as two portals appear adjacent to him, one in front of him and the other behind him. Two identical portals soon appear in front of and the nearest foe to Xigbar and will continue to follow them so long as Xigbar charges the move. Once the charge is released, both portals stay still as Xigbar shoves both his arrowguns through each of his portals as they reappear out of the enemy's two portals, with Xigbar firing some rounds in the opponent's face/back if successful. He will then draw his arrowguns back to him, taking less time than you'd think to recover. While the projectiles from both arrowguns will clash with each other if they miss their target, marking them with SSpec makes this task considerably easier since the gap between the enemy's portals freezing and the guns actually firing them is a little over one fourth of a second, meaning quick or reflexive foes can weave their way out of the attack. That is, unless the projectiles track him. As for damage, well, I'd say refer to his other crystal projectile-based moves for reference but this one truly IS different, isn't it? Ah well; the projectile storm causes about 12% damage uncharged and purely vertical knockback, not enough to reliably kill, but the fact that Xigbar can use this move to attack the foe ANYWHERE on stage- not to mention he's able to use this during his pseudo float- is enough of a deterrent for foes to stand around like a lazy arse.
USmash (Comedy Bomb):
Xigbar appears to keep the trigger pressed on one of his arrowguns, dark purple energy gathering at the barrel. Depending on how long you charged the attack, Xigbar aims upwards- you can angle this move, naturally- and fires one to four orbs the size of Kirby upward in a line. Keep in mind that these orbs are made of the same crystals Xigbar uses in several normal attacks. After about a single second of traveling upward at Samus' NSpec speed, they all detonate, spreading crystalline projectiles in every direction with stats identical to his Jab arrows. However, opponents can take hits from the intial orbs for 7% apiece with enough knockback plus stun to ensure they're hit by the detonation... which would be deadlier if the actual projectiles were reliable enough to hit the opponent for anything more than 13%. It gets even worse if you have more orbs since the knockback per individual orb puts them in a bad position for the follow-up detonation to deal any real damage. Worse still is that Xigbar leaves himself wide open- he's shooting into the air, after all- and doesn't even bother to cover his sides! The orbs won't disappear if he's hit, though, so that's nice.
You can probably guess that you can fire these orbs into singularities for use in your projectile traps. While they are certainly larger than most of what Xigbar has to offer and don't exactly stand out other than the detonation effect, you're likely wondering how this is particularly useful. Well, let me ask you this: let's say a foe is running rampant around your projectiles traps and is closing in on Xigbar. Luckily, he has a bunch of USmash orbs cycling in between a pair of portal/singularity combos. If they attempt to approach him, Xigbar can cut off one of the singularities/portals so that they fly at the foe, taking a mere second to detonate. Hell, the mere threat of their pursuit completely breaking down can leave some foes hesitant to keep at it, giving Xigbar a temporary edge. Oh, and you can use this while in your pseudo-float as well, but only if you time it right. Otherwise, you accidentally fall out.
DSmash (Blue Legion):
Xigbar quickly bangs his two arrowguns together before firing a single projectile, similar in appearance to a blue bolt of lightning with a pitch black coloring inside of it, toward the ground. This thing deals a rather large 11% damage uncharged and can bounce off of any physical surface on-stage, and will last forever. It's somewhat similar to NSpec in that they both last forever unless they fly offstage and are about the same size as and travel at Luigi's fireball speed. However, Blue Legion has a huge downfall that NSpec lacks; opponents can directly attack Blue Legion to deflect it back at Xigbar, though he can do the same with his limited amount of melee attacks. Or he can just redirect it back at them with his singularities/portals, it's not all that difficult if you plan beforehand. This can act as a distraction device, however; fire off Blue Legion for you and the foe to reflect around while you set up singularitiies and portals to spam. Otherwise, you can utilize Blue Legion as a simple ranging tool or even an anti-projectile weapon, since it'll bounce off projectiles like they were nothing.
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Aerials? As if!
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NAir (Buzzsaw Massacre):
Xigbar goes vertical with his arms- and arrowguns- outstretched, firing without abandon as he does so. He'll basically cover every angle nearly three times before settling himself into his aerial combat position, taking under less than a second to do so. As you can likely guess, he's still using his normal projectile's statistics and the very nature of the move makes it extremely versatile for a whole number of reasons. For one, you can use it for offensive approaches to prevent foes from jumping or running away due to the sheer amount of angles covered, as well as for defensive maneuvers for when the foe is being rather insistent about attacking Xigbar without mercy. You can also use it for when you're surrounded by singularities to pretty much instantly create a projectile lines/traps/what have you. Hell, it's even good as an anti-air and gimping tool since Xigbar quickly covers the vertical portions of the screen with far-reaching, fast traveling, and annoying projectiles. The one true con about Buzzsaw Massacre, other than it's low damage and lack of killing potential like most of his crystal moves, is the long ending lag that leaves Xigbar open for punishment.
FAir/BAir (Directional Influence):
Xigbar stops all of his aerial momentum before opening up a small portal directly in front of/behind him, depending on the input obviously. At the same time, an equally small portal opens up either behind or in front of Xigbar's nearest opponent. After each of these opens up, Xigbar thrusts a single arrowgun into the hole akin to FSmash before firing off a brief volley of five arrows total before drawing it back to him. While you can likely guess the arrows in this move have the same statistics as every other crystal arrow attack, his initial thrust deals its own damage, regardless of how meager (6%) it may be. At any rate, it's important to note how that if Xigbar's arm or gun are attacked during any point in this move with any sort of attack, he instantly exits the attack animation early and goes into an extended recovery animation as he begins to fall toward the ground... unable to DI. Therefore, it's extremely important not to overuse this move as you'll only be putting yourself in danger of potentially screwing yourself over. Thankfully, the attack's beginning lag is very quick and the ending lag doesn't leave Xigbar himself too open.
UAir (Iron Curtain):
Xigbar clangs both his guns together while firing them both at the same time, causing his clashing flurry of crystals to collapse toward the ground at his sides, effectively creating a pair of razor rains in front and behind him. These two streams of projectiles only last until they're past Xigbar's legs, meaning they have exceedingly short staying power, have slightly less bad killing power (Only deals about 9% if foes are exposed to an inch of the rain with decent downward angled knockback), not to mention they cover a pathetic area around the Freeshooter. As such, Iron Curtain serves mostly as an aerial approach/retreat barrier with low starting lag. However, for that particular function, UAir is quite good- the durability of each curtain strong enough to fight back against a wide variety of aerial moves, some projectiles, and even a handful of smashes. Better yet is that the curtain will remain with Xigbar even as he's in his ground recovery animations, meaning you can potentially shorthop to your heart's content while providing yourself a safe method of advancing/retreating... that doesn't involve screwing with your opponent's movement options with projectiles. Don't get me wrong, UAir is still quite useful in a pinch, but this is a near-strictly defensive tool.
DAir (Ground Zero):
Xigbar pauses in mid-air as he looks downward, loudly shouting, "Look out," before teleporting directly downward toward the ground. In case you're curious about levels with varying levels of height, Xigbar will teleport to the highest possible solid ground. This includes platforms you can pass through, so there's no making virtually impossible chase sequences on stages like Temple or New Pork City. You can probably guess that using this over pits causes an instant death so we're not going to question the practicality of that. We CAN go into detail, however, over how this results in Xigbar quickly transitioning his approach from aerial to ground-based, or even how you can dupe foes into the air in order to either run underneath them to trick up their pursuit/retreat, goad them into projectile traps, etc. While the teleport itself doesn't deal any actual damage, there's some fixed knockback on the landing teleport that ensures Xigbar's safety unless the foe uses an armored move. In which case, Xigbar gets a face full of whatever the foe is carrying, but at least you only need to worry about instant reactions from a handful of foes.
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Throws? As if!
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Throw/Pummel (Swaggity Shweeze Gravity Squeeze):
For a grab, Xigbar sure doesn't do anything noticeable. He just crosses his arms, closes his eyes, and chuckles. Oh, but what's this in front of him? A globe of dark purple energy briefly appears in front of him before disappearing... that is, unless there happens to be a foe in that field. In which case, Xigbar has control over their center of gravity, effectively rendering escape useless. In other words, Xigbar grabbed them without ever having to move a muscle. Not to say this grab animation is subtle, as Xigbar's rather noticeable abandon in caution brings attention to what may be in front of him, but it's certainly a difficult grab to actually detect due to the somewhat difficult to see orb that IS his grab hitbox. And speaking of which, it happens to be slightly larger than normal grab hitboxes, and attempting a dash grab only increases this distance further. His pummel, however, is a bit more interesting, as each time Xigbar performs it, he crushes the foe by increasing their gravitational pull, causing their bodies to nearly crush under the new pressure. While it certainly looks painful, even if it isn't at a meager 2%, it does something extra for Xigbar- however many times you land this pummel on the opponent, their movement speed is decreased by 15% if they come out of the throw naturally for two seconds! As in the'll move considerably slower if you ONLY use pummel and not throw them, since this negates the bonus, and their normal movement speed slowly comes back to them. Take advantage of their weakness by pursuing them into projectile zones or retreating to create one!
FThrow/BThrow (Bullet Sponge):
Xigbar teleports so he's standing on top of the foe's stomach/back, depending on the direction of your throw... so he's basically sideways. He aims both his weapons at the paralyzed foe and starts firing away, slowly pushing them out of Xigbar's gravity trap before being shot out. All the while, Xigbar slowly flips himself around so he ends up in his pseudo float, dealing around 15% damage to the foe and enough knockback to kill at 125%. But like I said, he also ends up in his pseudo float, which is a nice plus if manage to land this throw at higher altitudes, but you also sacrifice the speed penalty you'd get if you let foes out of the throw naturally. However, if Xigbar can benefit from the automatic pseudo float coming out of the throw or can kill the opponent with the throw, by all means do so.
UThrow (Razor Shower):
What the- Xigbar's guns have started glowing brightly! It's like they're about to blow up, and it seems like such until Xigbar aims his weapons toward the sky and fires a wide array of bright pink lasers as thick as ROB's fully powered NSpec. These will, despite their appearances may suggest, phase through opponents and deal no damage or knockback. The firing animation, however, WILL leave Xigbar armored for a brief moment. After firing his visually impressive payload into the air, Xigbar delivers a boot to the head toward his unwanted guest, laughing while he does it. The kick itself does a small 4% damage and will never ever kill someone under 250%. However, I imagine your attention is still focused toward the lasers shot into the sky? They do come down, I assure you- just not as thick lasers, but as shards of razor-sharp crystals! They can cover a large area around the stage but will not fall though any platforms or physical objects. Plus, the damage is rather horrid at 2% per strike, averaging out to about 10% per throw, and there's no knockback on shards- just stun. While this hail storm will actually strike every foe on stage for chaotic results, they'll be more likely scrambling for cover if they see Xigbar perform this on anyone unfortunate enough to be grabbed in the first place. Naturally, if anyone happens to be in the air when the razor shower strikes, they'll take some noticeable downward knockback- not enough to be considered a meteor smash but it's still quite a potent gimping mechanism if it works.
DThrow (Singularity Bomb):
Xigbar crosses his arms together, looking like he's trying to go super saiyan with all his yelling and clenching up. This is all just concentration on Xigbar's part, even if he's being incredibly over-dramatic about it. At any rate, while his foe still struggles in his bindings, the singularities around the stage suddenly have their absorption rate and range increased exponentially to the point where they will ignore the direction and velocity any projectile is traveling in. Foes are able to escape from this grab at normal difficulty and are free to wail on Xigbar should they choose to- the move is active as soon as he makes the input anyway. His attempt to go Super Saiyan lasts for a good two and a half seconds before each singularity you created explode, sending whatever they drew in toward its nearest opponent at whatever speed and velocity each projectile was traveling in. Needless to say, with Xigbar's numerous amounts of projectiles at his disposal and their varied effects, it's possible to completely ruin a foe's day by suddenly summoning all your projectiles into confined spaces, only to shoot them all toward the opponent a short while later.
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Final Smash? As if!
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(The Final Frontier):
With the power of the Smash Ball at his disposal, Xigbar does the one thing he does best: teleport around various points of the stage and release a salvo of lasers, around twenty or so, that are all angled toward the center of the arena. Now normally this wouldn't be ideal, as foes can potentially dodge around them, but these particular projectiles are so numerous that it'll be difficult enough to get out of a single volley unscathed. They'll also travel through everything and anything, so that's a nice bonus. Each laser deals an individual 3% damage, I'll let you do the math when the average amount of lasers that strike at a target out of twenty is sixteen. At any rate, you still have some control over Xigbar but only his movement between blinks, during which time he's, needless to say, completely invulnerable. You have about ten seconds of this unstoppable salvo period, so about five different volleys, before you lose control of Xigbar completely as he cackles manically, roaring, "Time for the main event!" and circling around the border of the stage. When I reference the border, I really mean the outlier right before the blast zone. Anyway, he swiftly travels around the outlier, summoning a metric ton of lasers all poised to careen toward the stage in the direction they're facing. No hope for your victims here, as they're almost guaranteed to take damage. Once all the lasers have dissipated, Xigbar reappears in the same spot where he started the final smash, looking almost... tired out.
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Playstyle? As if!
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... No, really, "as if!" What, you think I need to spoon-feed every intricacy of the most blatantly obvious zoning set in the movement? Maybe I should pick up your morning newspaper for you, wipe the drool from your simpleton face, and carve up whatever poor woodland creature you manage to find when you break the chains. Okay, to be fair, he has more than one way of actually zoning out his competition, but there's still more to it than that. Xigbar's kind of zoning is a way for him to remain offensive on the defensive, as every action he takes normally goes toward setting up a nigh impenetrable barrier for your victims. Even his very jumps can realign the trajectory and speed of whatever projectile it draws in, with his USpec portals ready to fire in whatever direction you desire. The implications here are even more obvious, although it'll be a bit more difficult to actually set up your singularities than your USpec portals since every jump you make results in the creation of the former. As such, you have an equally large reliance on using your pseudo-float to make getting around less of a hassle. While you may worry this leaves you open for punishment, Xigbar shouldn't have much of a problem getting around considering his awesome movement. With that, he can easily set up at least two singularity-portal connections and throw in some nasty NSpec arrows to set up a retreating ground of sorts. If the opponent manages to find their way around it, simply use DSpec to scramble whatever you've set up and cause a little unexpected chaos. And if the foe is simply being too persistent for your own liking, paint them with SSpec to remind them why Xigbar isn't as helpless at close range as one might think.
How one uses Xigbar's normal tilts separates the Dave from the Bobs. At first, they seem like potent spamming inputs that basically cover whatever angle anyone can attack Xigbar from sans FTilt, which is another close-range option that Xigbar needed- SSpec won't do the job alone, you know. While it's plausible for one to use these attacks in such a basic manner, it won't do very well against seasoned vets. In tandem with your singularity-portals, it's far more powerful in a few different ways. For one, you can pelt anyone trying to manually break through your NSpec arrow lines and pester them if they're taking their sweet time. Additionally, Xigbar can actually use these arrow-shooting attacks to fire some into singularities, adding them to whatever killer conga line the Freeshooter currently has going. Lastly, there's one possibility that not all of you may have kept in mind during all of this- his standard tilts in combination with the pseudo float. Yes, you can absolutely stand upside down in midair and fire down at the opponent or use the dash attack to quickly slide across the battlefield in the strangest manner possible, all while angling the autofire toward your target: either a victim or a singularity. Choices choices.
Smashes help expand Xigbar's counters against the foe who is no doubt navigating the bullet hell you've created, since continuous fire alone won't save the day. FSmash is for those meddling campers and zoners who think they can outdo what the Freeshooter does best as well as pester foes that might be trying to buy time. It's one of his only ground normals that doesn't result in a projectile being made and you're still able to use it during pseudo float so by all means, go right ahead with bothering the hell out of whoever you're targeting. USmash mixes up the projectile bonanza with a ticking time bomb that can ruin the foe's approach option. It's also great for FFAs due to the potential splash damage that comes with an exploding crystal circle and acting as nearly fail-safe insurance for when stuff does hit the fan. Same could be said for DSmash- bouncing off virtually everything while lasting indefinitely helps out, especially considering there's no limit to how many of these things Xigbar can have out at once. The mindgame potential for DSmash ping pong is also an excellent distraction for whatever you may really be setting up. Admittedly, the timing for USmash and DSmash are strict for use in pseudo float and you could argue the same for UTilt and DTilt. This part does require practice, however, as does the utilization of every tool Xigbar has at his disposal.
Since his natural element, method of movement, and basically everything else important for him revolves around remaining airborne, it's only natural for Xigbar's aerials to be as helpful as any other attack in his repertoire. NAir is a jack of all trades; the uses for it are already described in the input proper and there's not much else I could justify that isn't already there, other than using it as soon as you come out of pseudo float for a very safe recovery option for when you're falling back toward hopefully solid ground. FAir/BAir helps you continue pestering your opponent at a lesser scale than FSmash, but in the case you miss, you can at least time it right to either shoot your whiffed projectiles toward a singularity or not leave yourself open, as an expectant foe is Xigbar's worst nightmare. UAir helps with his air-to-air game due to covering his arse in a consistent manner and DAir is a generic fastfall, though not to the extent where it's all I had for an idea. It's indeed a bit simple, but it'll take Xigbar straight to the ground without having to suffer through all that gravity garbage or possibly waste a singularity.
While one might think Xigbar and throws don't mix, his has some actual value to it. Even if it's just repeating his pummel on an ensnared opponent, anyone who manages to grab with Xigbar is very much rewarded for their effort. Speaking of which, pummel's slowing capabilities don't need to be mentioned any further than that. Seriously, it slows down opponents, which, for someone like Xigbar is a goddamn blessing. Each lateral throw puts Xigbar at a very advantageous position, mostly due to ending up in pseudo float, since he's given himself more time to do whatever he wants, whether it's retreat to set up more of his feared zones or to follow up with FSmash/FAir/BAir to continue the pestering. UThrow is even better for pestering, even if it's more situational, and FFAs due to covering the entire stage. Plus it gives Xigbar good insurance for any foe dim enough to try and pursue the Freeshooter any further rather than scramble for cover. Last but not least, DThrow. Oh boy, DThrow. An all-in card if I've ever seen one in a set: you potentially sacrifice your entire set-up for the kill you need, as every last one of your projectiles careen toward your poor sap of a pincushion. A risky proposition, but if you need that winning kill look no further.
Ah yes, for extras. You see, whenever Xigbar has more than fifty projectiles on-screen at once, this starts looping. It won't end until either Xigbar loses a life or if he gets to one hundred projectiles on-screen at once, in which case this takes precedence over every other OST the stage may have, including the original 50-projectile loop.
"Heed me, Kingdom Hearts! Lend me your power so we may be complete!"
Xemnas... the de facto leader of Organization XIII and one of the most important and powerful characters in the Kingdom Hearts franchise... as well as the oldest Nobody... there is no other who surpasses him... He wields... the power of nothingness... that sounds confusing, I know... what I mean is that, well... he can summon nothingness in several different forms... such as his red laser swords that come from his hands... or dark spheres that drain their victims of life... needless to say, his authority and mastery over the power of Nothingness is absolute...
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Stats... and other things... out of ten...
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Ground Speed: 4 (As he walks, runs, or remains still... he always remains above the ground... he doesn't even use his legs or feet to move... just as a true master of nothingness should...)
Aerial Speed: 5 (He already remains above ground... on the ground... so while he's still rather sluggish in the air... he's slightly more comfortable... while moving through the air... just as a true master of nothingness should...)
Aerial Control: 8 (He wields nothing sans robes... he is a shell of a man, free from emotion... he controls nothingness... he flows through the open skies as nothing would... just as a true master of nothingness should...)
Power: 3 (Xemnas' power stems from nothingness... the very nature of nothingness is the absence of something... in this case, the absence of magnificent power... behind his blows... instead relying on what cannot be seen... to emerge victorious... just as a true master of nothingness should...)
Attack Speed: 6 (Ethereal weapons that can be summoned ad infinium... are his only true tools that he needs... despite his deliberate movements... nothingness represented as effortlessness... just as a true master of nothingness should...)
Jump Skills: 5 (He is not a master of wind... nor of earth... he lies in between... just as his title suggests... with nothing to weigh him down... and nothing to really propel him upwards...
just as a true master of nothingness should...)
Weight: 2 (Just as he wields literally nothing... Xemnas weighs close to nothing... exactly as he feels nothing... or uses, essentially, nothing to fight... just as a true master of nothingness should...)
Height: 8 (A contradiction to his mastery of nothingness... Xemnas maintains an imposing figure... due to his leadership and power... however... he floats ever so slightly above the ground... through the power of nothing... just as a true master of nothingness should...)
I'll stop writing like that. Even I started to yawn with all those ellipses... there, just did it again. Before we can get anywhere, I'd like to add one more statistic:
Traction: 0.1 (Oh my word is his traction awful. Like, he makes Luigi look graceful after a dash. It'll be discussed more in depth in the next section but seriously, you're better off doing anything else instead of simply stopping after a dash. The damn thing has BEGINNING LAG.)
Yes, here we have a mechanics section before we even get started on the moveset. First of all, you're likely wondering why this mechanic section is titled as more of a special move. To that I reply with this: remember when I mentioned Xemnas had horrible traction? I really meant it- he's the only character in the game with starting lag on his dash, requiring a good half a second of prep time before he gets into it. Even if you stop dashing, he'll slide hella far without any interruption on your part- if you started dashing from one edge of Final Destination and let go of the movement stick once you hit the middle of the stage, you'll slide all the way to the other end. And even the speed of the dash isn't anything to write home about, as you no doubt checked out in stats section. If there's anything good to say about this damn thing it's that while he dashes, his lower hurtbox rises from the ground ever so slightly, meaning automatically dodging low-hitting attacks is even easier.
However, the beginning lag for his dash isn't entirely a bad thing. Since Xemnas obviously isn't able to dashdance like normal people, starting a dash and then inputting backwards instead has Xemnas near instantly roars, "Guard," and puts up a segmented glass screen one Ganondorf tall and a measurement too thin to put in Brawl terms long. You'd likely guess that such a screen reflects projectiles and allows Xemnas or allies of Xemnas' projectiles through, so here's a cookie for being observant. However, you'd less likely infer that the screen will also block off opponents' movement; they won't even be able to dodge through it. Such a screen lasts for a whopping ten seconds and can actually be placed in the air if Xemnas makes the same input, although setting it up in the air forces Xemnas to stall his descent slightly. Not to mention he can only have one up at a time- attempting to make the same input will instead have Xemnas go into his dash beginning lag before stopping in his tracks.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= "If light and darkness are eternal, surely we nothings are the same! Eternal!" =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
NSpec (Nothingness)
Xemnas floats slightly higher above ground- if he's in midair, he'll simply float in place- as a dark outline suddenly surrounds him, with the madman uttering, "Come forth". Suddenly, the outline surrounding Xemnas slowly expands so long as the player holds down the special button. During this time, he leaves himself more than a little defenseless so if a foe is constantly at your doorstep, it's better to instantly make what you want before the foe can take advantage. Needless to say, you're able to charge and store this move through conventional means like with Donkey Punch or Aura Sphere. However, unlike the former, Xemnas is unable to power up an already-charged NSpec; if he tries making the input again, he'll simply release what he had stored. Speaking of which, this outline can be as small as Bowser or as large as Giga Bowser.
So what happens when Xemnas releases his charge? He expands his arms in a pseudo hug while the background behind him and inside the outline suddenly turns completely white. It'll even overlap with platforms or interactive parts of the stage, though they do count as solid objects that Xemnas or even the foe can stand on/pass through. However, opponents cannot even access whatever is INSIDE this outline, for Xemnas has spawned his own patch of Nothingness as large as however much you charged it (See previous paragraph for reference). Unfortunately for Xemnas, not even Nothingness is permanent- a little under a second after Nothingness appears, it slowly begins to shrink, usually taking fully charged Nothingness a good ten seconds or so to fully disappears into oblivion. Of course, there MUST be a reason to even summon this thing in the first place, right?
Let's say Xemnas is inside of Nothingness: if you attempt to jump inside of a patch, he instead goes into a sort of levitation state, letting him freely move in any direction, simultaneously allowing him to use his aerial moves at the same time. If you wish to remain grounded, simply hover back down to the ground. Additionally, Xemnas can use Nothingness as a sort of shield from aggressive foes: any part of a hitbox that overlaps with Nothingness is entirely ignored, meaning Xemnas can stand at the edge of a patch of Nothingness and come out unscathed. Last but certainly not least is what happens when foes come into contact with Nothingness: regardless of whether or not its spawned on top of a victim, anyone that isn't Xemnas instead moves behind the white backdrop, due to them existing and Nothingness only allowing people like Xemnas in... unless he's fighting other Nobodies. At any rate, anyone caught behind Nothingness enters a heightened hoop state for as long as they're back there, taking damage around 2.5x the normal rate.
That's not all, dear reader. I know what you're thinking- "AGIRI TWO POINT OH?!?" Don't worry, this is the second to last paragraph. Anyway, Xemnas happens to have a different NSpec when you already have some Nothingness on the field. While I mentioned that Nothingness slowly shrinks over time, I didn't mention how one could regain it- that dilemma is solved with this toggle state you can turn on and off with NSpec. Unfortunately, you're only able to enter it when you're inside Nothingness, but are able to exit out of it whenever you want. Worse still is that Xemnas is completely stationary during the toggle state and has an ENTIRE FREAKING SECOND once he exits out before he can do anything else. So what's so damn special about this new mechanic? Xemnas is able to move his patches of Nothingness around the field at the speed of Volt Tackle with the movement stick, though the actual Nothingness isn't physically there and only the outline is visible. Luckily, during this toggle state, your Nothingness also gains size at a slightly faster rate than it decreases, meaning you can spawn the smallest possible patch and increase it over time during the toggle state. Better yet is that once you exit the toggle state, the actual Nothingness comes back instantly, filling in whatever extra space was made during the passive expansion. Don't worry about screwing yourself over in terms of mobility, though- Xemnas remains completely immobile when he uses the move, even when he's inside/outside of Nothingness, and can even sporadically re-place his patches so that they're in different spots when the Nothingness reappears, but he's still inside his patch, meaning he retains his levitation while inside of it and is still protected. If that wasn't all, you're able to actually place objects inside of Nothingness and when you pilot a patch, these objects will move around WITH the patch, staying in the same spot it was summoned/inside of. This can include normal items as well as Xemnas' own projectiles.
What's most interesting about this new mechanic, however, is that you're able to move Nothingness INTO the stage, such as the entire middle chunk of Temple. If you find yourself stranded inside a part of the stage without any Nothingness to help you out, don't worry either- you re-materialize at the lowest point of the stage. This process is very slow, however, and gives the foe plenty of time to prepare their strongest attack. You're also likely wondering how in God's name you'd be able to do this if you're winning a timed match! Surely, you could wait things out until the clock runs out or wait for your foes to weaken themselves! While that's true, Xemnas is also technically underground... and while he may be a shell of a man, he still needs to breath. If he spends more than one second inside Nothingness when it's mostly underground, he'll start rapidly gaining damage, a startling 5% per half a second. And to prevent cheap Xemnas users from repeatedly moving their Nothingness around to avoid that limitation, the shrinking rate for all patches fully inside of the stage is multiplied by three. That should hopefully encourage Xemnas players to use this useful aspect to get whatever they want to get done quickly so they can get out before their health starts getting too high.
USpec (Void Twin)
After about half a second, a shell of darkness envelops Xemnas for a moment, basically rendering him invisible under that cloak of darkness. Like with NSpec, using this in midair causes Xemnas to stall for a bit. While Xemnas is inside this shroud- and he can be for up to five seconds or until someome strikes the shell- the player is able to aim in any direction for the follow up attack after Xemnas shrouds himself in darkness, though this follow up is available at any time while Xemnas is still inside his shell.
Once the player chooses a direction for Xemnas, he suddenly springs forth from the shell of darkness as it dissipates, though this time he's wearing a garb that emphasizes white on the same intensity as his normal garb, swinging his ethereal blades in a twister formation. If you're worried about foes being able to predict this easily, feel at ease knowing Xemnas will have tracking capabilities throughout, though you'd think he'd be smarter. The attack itself can hardly be called lethal either, ranking in at 11% total and killing at 170%. He'll do this for about two or three SBB lengths before stopping and... fading away? Yes, this is merely a twin created from nothingness, one that can disappear if the foe strikes at a proper angle. But what's this- ah, Xemnas reappears from literally nowhere about one Shiek USpec away in the direction of your choosing. The ending lag is swift enough to allow Xemnas to perform virtually any attack near instantly upon reappearing, though keep in mind that neither of these functions will occur if an opponent breaks your darkness shell prematurely. Worse still is that if Xemnas' shell breaks while in midair, and even if he successfully completes a teleport, he'll be put into helpless. That is unless he's inside of Nothingness.
While this is certainly a devious attack, and Xemnas is one hundred percent safe during the entirety of the move once he's gone, this still seems like a rather lackluster recovery move. Perhaps we can spice it up a bit? If the player holds down the normal attack button while Xemnas remains inside his shell, the same thing as before happens- a white robed Xemnas rushes forward, ethereal blades whirling. However, and as you've likely already guessed, THIS particular Xemnas is actually you- once the move ends, all the white on Xemnas' cloth fades from existence. It still does about the same damage and knockback, but the player can actually influence the curve of Xemnas' rush. However, you're not immune to retaliation if a foe decides to strike you during the rush and this version is obviously inferior for general recovery and movement. At least you won't go into helpless if you use this version. If you manage to mix up these two versions, however, you'll likely keep foes off guard. Which is always a good thing.
DSpec (Invitation to Nothingness)
Xemnas crosses his arms in an "X" shape, with his elbows angled downwards, going into deep focus. Once he does so, a dark sphere of energy envelops every foe on the field at once, slowly damaging them over time without flinching. This attack is normally stopped by inputting a reaction command but fortunately for Xemnas' enemies, all they have to do to stop this attack is to strike Xemnas even once. Worse yet for the leader is that the ending lag is incredibly harsh, more or less ensuring that he'll be open for a reverse Warlock Punch. But that's assuming you leave yourself open for such a thing, since while you can't use this in the air, you're still able to use it inside Nothingness. At any rate, the damage dealt to foes is relatively quick, dealing around 1% per half a second... until one of their stocks reaches 100% or above. Then it starts going down. Oh, by the way, this attack completely ignores shields and any kinds of dodging, because they can't escape from their own existence being torn apart.
... Wait, what was that about the enemy's percentage going DOWN? Why in God's name would you want to HEAL your opponent of their wounds? Hell, their percentages go down even FASTER than they did before, with 3% subtracted per second! The reason for this is simple: the Invitation to Nothingness drains the life force of all its victims, meaning that it could only work on truly whole beings. If they weren't at their fullest, there would technically be nothing to drain, and in this case, it shows: the closer a victim's percentage is to zero, the less colored they look. And once a percentage reaches zero, they fade completely from existence, losing a stock. Needless to say, this is an excellent way to kill foes if you're able to successfully set up Nothingness to hide behind while you whittle your foe away, piece by piece, until literally nothing remains. Quite fitting, no? Just make sure you're not struck at any point during the decrease or the whiting out will be interrupted and Xemnas will have to work his opponent's percentage back to 100% again.
SSpec (Twilight Thorn)
Xemnas raises his arms into the air as a faint outline of a rather large Nobody flashes for an instant, before black and white thorns shoot out from behind Xemnas in the direction he's facing, covering a huge distance- nearly the entire main level of Battlefield. It's not just horizontal range either: some of the more jagged ends of the thorn can even cross onto some of the platforms, although the consistency if questionable at best. As for the thorns themselves, they actually act as persistent hitboxes that strike the foe every half a second for 4% damage and minor knockback. This basically means that they're in a rough patch if they're hit early on by the thorns, especially considering they last for an additional second after Xemnas summons them. Unfortunately, he'll need an unfortunate amount of preparation time to do so- nearly a full second of beginning lag and a slightly less bad ending lag. Still, you've got your Nothingness- you should've inferred this by now.
While your other specials limit how your foe can play against Xemnas, this SSpec is really for pestering foes at long range when you're either inside Nothingness or have enough distance between you and your opponent. The additional benefit that you're able to angle where the thorns travel during the start-up animation makes this an even deadlier attack, assuming you have the time to set it up. And while damage isn't anything to write home about, but the fact that it's a persistent hitbox and the thorns last for a short time after being summoned makes it an excellent method of zoning or crowd control. As for the outline mentioned in the previous paragraph, don't worry about it- it's purely aesthetic and shouldn't worry you or your opponent.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= "I'm what's left or... maybe I'm all there ever was." =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Jab (Naught Storm)
Xemnas lifts a single open palm into the air, the limb sparking with blue electricity, as a single ethereal blade spawns directly in front of the opponent nearest him. The blade itself is as long as Falco's blaster but slightly thicker, and acts as a constant hitbox that tracks opponents for a quarter of a second. Half a second after its summoned, the blade suddenly surges toward the foe at Sonic dash speed, shattering on impact with any surface and dealing 3% damage and minor knockback on struck victims. And before you ask, yes, the electricity from Xemnas' palm deals very minor damage, 2%, with even more minimal knockback. However, since this is a jab attack, it can obviously be spammed, so if you want to keep summoning ethereal blades in front of your opponent, feel free to. However, this is obviously an attack not to be used at close range- the ending lag is rather sluggish and the beginning lag isn't too good either.
You've likely inferred by now that there's an additional mechanic for making this move far more useful, and you'd be right. After the initial blade, Xemnas is able to continuously spam blades while, at the same time, tilting the movement stick in a direction of your choosing. This affects the initial placement and direction of every blade; for instance, tilting the movement stick upward instead has the blade spawn directly beneath the opponent, tracking them for a quarter of a second, and then shoots upwards after an additional quarter. If you want a blade to cover his aerial endeavors, simply keep the movement stick pressed downward so foes will unable to remain in the air for too long. With the minor knockback on each blade, you can potentially continue comboing your victim from blade to blade until their health gets to too high of a percentage for such a tactic to be feasible.
FTilt (Nullity Break)
In a surprising feat of quickness, Xemnas thrusts his palm forward, or at an upward/downward angle depending on your tilt, as an ethereal blade shoots out of his hand. Like previously mentioned, the attack comes out rather fast- less than a tenth of a second- but Xemnas retracts his blade rather slowly if he misses. While I can't speak very well for its vertical hitbox sans the upward tilted one being a decent anti-air, its horizontal range is at a rather impressive one and a quarter SBBs. The power behind the initial stab, however, is less impressive, weighing in only at 4% with nonexistent knockback... I kid. When I refer to nonexistent knockback, I mean to say this attack doesn't cause knockback at all. When the blade successfully strikes at any foe, Xemnas decides to pull them closer to him while his unfortunate foe is still stuck on his blade like a pig. Since this is an obvious command grab, it should also be said that it'll plow right through shields. Something helpful for Xemnas when a majority of his arsenal can be shielded/dodged. From here, you can pull off a few different things, but if you manage to draw a foe into some Nothingness, why not just keep him stuck? Naturally, if you do nothing, the foe manages to slip himself off the blade and goes directly into prone. Getting run through by a blade made of nothing still hurts, y'know. Given his lack of a dependable close-range game outside of Nothingness, this is a genuinely bad idea. Unless you draw them into Nothingness, in which case it's a pretty cool story bro.
Let's say you DO want to use the external functions of this attack- well, it's technically a command grab but tomato tomatoe. If you input forward with your foe in your clutches, Xemnas quickly pulls out his ethereal blade while thrusting his other palm into the opponent's chest, the latter cackling with dangerous-looking blue sparks, as another ethereal blade spawns from this palm. The new blade is considerably longer, long enough to leave the foe barely stuck to the tip a good four Bowser lengths away, before Xemnas retracts his weapon quickly enough for the foe to fall to the ground like they were in helpless. This entire attack deals a surprisingly hefty amount of damage, 11%, when you take the initial stab into account. It also leaves foes at a considerable distance, giving Xemnas enough time to retreat and rethink things, or possibly allow him to go on the offensive. Unfortunately, Xemnas doesn't have super armor during any of this and if he's interrupted, the attack will end prematurely. And considering how long this throw actually lasts, that is not a completely impossible occurrence.
Inputting back with your pig of a foe has Xemnas roughly pull the ethereal blade from their stomach while he summons a second from his other palm. In a quick flurry of blows, Xemnas spins thrice- during the first, he swipes their feet to trip them into the air. On the second, he smashes his second blade into the opponent's side, and on the third, he flings them in the direction opposite he was facing when he successfully landed the attack. While it deals more damage than the forward command at 16% total, it doesn't put foes into helpless- they can freakin' tech out of it- and puts them at a closer distance to Xemnas. However, unlike with the forward command, you get some area of effect damage on foes nearby, and you can even use your stuck foe as a pseudo projectile for oncoming foes, since this command finishes rather quickly.
UTilt (Rarefaction Cube)
It seems like Xemnas took some directive from the underlings he controls- the Superior lifts an open palm into the air as a small white cube with even smaller cubes circling around it suddenly sprouts from his hand. No sooner has he created this new obstacle than he does lowering his limb back to his side. These cubes act as invulnerable, sans on reflection, absorption, or hit, mines that deal minor damage at 5%, with even littler knockback, but are helpful enough as obstacles the foe must get around. This is due to two main reasons: for one, these cubes last forever, which is obviously helpful when you also consider they're nearly indestructible. Two is that you can have up to five of these on-screen, with the oldest one being replaced by the newest. However, I haven't really gotten into how large these cubes are... and frankly, they aren't. These floating mines may float a full Ganondorf above the ground, but they're also as large as a mere PK Thunder projectile, not including the tail. The smaller cubes orbiting around the main one help expand the hitbox a tiny bit, but there's still no denying this attack is pretty damn tiny. And like most of Xemnas' other attacks, the Nobody takes his sweet time with his movements- half a second starting lag and slightly more than that on the ending lag. On the bright side, you're able to place these cubes inside of Nothingness and when you pilot it around, they will follow wherever the patch goes. Even if it's inside of the stage, although I don't know why you think that'd be useful.
DTilt (Call to Nothingness)
Xemnas lazily lifts a single arm into the air as he performs a "come hither" motion with one of his hands. A bit of an... odd gesture for someone like Xemnas to make, no? Don't let this supposed motion fool you: he's not calling for you, but for the very Nothingness he controls. If there's nothing onstage- and I literally mean nothing- then congratulations, you wasted time and three-fourths of a second of ending lag for absolutely no gain whatsoever. However, if you happen to have a patch of Nothingness on the stage when you utilize this move, it moves toward Xemnas at a speed inversely proportional to how far it was from Xemnas. If it's anything past a full Final Destination away from Xemnas, it'll travel at Captain Falcon dash speeds. If it's between that and half an FD away, it'll go at Mario dash speeds. Anything below that is merely Ganondorf walk speed. You may infer- and infer correctly- that the patch of Nothingness will slow down as it gets closer to where Xemnas first used this input, slowing to the point where if Xemnas stands still, he's barely making contact with the border of the patch. Even more convenient is that anything stored inside Nothingness gets transported along with the patch, although the Call does little to prevent from the patch of Nothingness from deteriorating even while it travels. Luckily for Xemnas, Nothingness says, "Screw you!" to convenient physics as it will go through literally everything in its way just to get to Xemnas. Smart Xemnas players can even use this to drown foes in Nothingness or to bring it up as a pseudo shield to buy more time.
Dash (You Shall Go Together)
Xemnas throws out a rather feeble-looking left hook that reaches a short distance in front of him, a mere Mario length. At least one can argue the starting speed is good, while his stumble after a whiff is painful to watch and wait for at three-fourths of a second. The attack itself is a mere 2% and won't get any knockback awards any time soon... but it'll go through shields, at least. Since this isn't a left hook at all, but another command grab that several enemies can duck under. If Xemnas manages to catch a foe, regardless of whether they're on the ground or in the air, he'll spin them around in his death grip, whispering the attack's name, before throwing them into the air. If Xemnas latches onto a slightly heavier foe such as Vol Opt or Kang, the Superior will simply slash at them multiple time to juggle them into the air, dealing the same amount of damage as the toss. Why? I don't want to give people any ideas regarding bias. Anyway, after Xemnas throws the foe into the air, said foe has about a full second of helplessness due to starting out their descent as footstooled. However, when they reach the apex of their ascent, Xemnas teleports so that he's directly next to them, cruelly laughing all the while. This teleportation is nearly instant with no ending lag whatsoever, allowing Xemnas to perform an aerial follow-up with whatever move he desires. As far as dash attacks go, this one is fairly high risk, high reward; given the potential you get with an automatic upward throw, you could lead your foes into a waiting patch of Nothingness, some Goose Eggs for a follow up SSpec, etc.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= "Denizens of light, answer this: why do you hate the darkness?" =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
FSmash (Discipline)
Xemnas begins spinning both his hands together as the seldom-seen blue sparks being cackling even louder than before. After a quarter of a second after C-sticking or once the player is finished charging the move, two incredibly small thunder orbs shoot out from between his swirling arms, and though the distance covered depends on how long you charge it- ranging from directly in front of Xemnas to halfway across Battlefield- one orb only ever goes directly in front of him, while the second orb can actually be angled through the influence of the movement stick. Unfortunately- or fortunately, depending on how you look at it- the second orb will never travel as far as the first one, usually falling behind two SBBs away. So what can you possible do with such tiny orbs? Well I forgot to mention that a quarter of a second after they're released, they almost instantly inflate themselves to the size of Bowser, making them a much bigger threat. Unlike a majority of Xemnas' projectiles however, these giant obstacles don't last very long when they've ballooned- only a mere three seconds will they persist before burning out. Luckily, their very presence serves as a "go ahead, try me" sign for aggressive players- while the orbs themselves are lacking in damage, maxing out at a mere 12%, the knockback is light enough to ensure that they're hit multiple times, either by bouncing off each orb like a ping pong ball, or by the same orb because they're just THAT big. In addition, any enemy projectiles traveling through these orbs won't be burnt out, but they'll have their damage halved each time it passed through one.
But with the short lifespan, this thing wouldn't be very useful. And you're right. However, since these projectiles are essentially made of Nothingness, despite what their appearance may suggest, they can potentially live forever... so long as they're inside of a patch of Nothingness. And remember when I mentioned you can "pilot" Nothingness? Well get this: while the lifespan of both orbs cannot be increased at all, just paused, while inside of Nothingness and they lose life when the Nothingness is piloted, they actually move ALONG with the Nothingness, even when it's technically gone. Meaning you can potentially use the combination of FSmash and NSpec to create a fully controllable, if not short-lived, projectile. Alternatively, you can give yourself further protection while inside of a patch of Nothingness, since their damage happens to stack along with the passive damage enemies inside of Nothingness suffer from. However, don't try adding an additional pair of orbs; doing so replaces the last one, and they disappear as soon as you start the input. Worse still is that if Xemnas is hit while the orbs are out, they're instantly extinguished. This wouldn't be so much of a problem at long range, but when you're close, the rather lengthy starting and ending lags make pulling this move off a slight problem.
USmash (Domination)
Xemnas' arms rise into the air, an action I'm sure our dear readers will be plenty sick of by the time this set is over, as an ominous-looking circle forms on the ground around Xemnas. The swiftness of when this circle appears is dependent on how long Xemnas charges the attack, with a full charge taking... however long a fully-charged smash attack would take. This would normally sound like a bad thing but the charge actually determines the length of the following action: less than half a second after the circle is complete, a dark barrier comprised of two black walls surrounds Xemnas, obscuring everything inside from view. As I mentioned, the charge determines the height of each side, with minimum charge only going up to one Bowser while a full charge reaches two and a half Ganondorfs. The barrier itself will lightly knock back opponents with 7% damage, obviously reducing whatever killing potential USmash had. You won't be using it for the damage, even if that's just a bonus: whatever attack or projectile clashes against the barrier is rebuffed, with physical attacks instead leading to the barrier out-prioritizing and damaging the offender and projectiles getting flat-out demolished by the dark energies. As for what happens when it goes down, that's the Xemnas-user's decision. If he does nothing or holds the control stick downward, the barrier goes down as he's instantly back in his fighting stance- no lag whatsoever. If he holds the control stick left or right, he'll reappear from a dark portal a short distance away from the barrier with the animation ending as soon as the barrier disappears... so half a second. You can perform this particular escape maneuver into a patch of Nothingness to compensate for any crafty foe waiting on your departure. As you might've guessed, Xemnas can slightly angle where he may reappear but be careful, as you may accidentally perform a different follow-up. If the user happens to hold the control stick up, one of two things happen. If there's no current patch of Nothingness on the field, he simply emerges from a portal directly above the barrier with the same ending animation time as if he held the stick to the sides. However, if there happens to be a patch of Nothingness somewhere on the stage, Xemnas will respawn directly in the middle of it, requiring the longest possible recovery time of the three- a staggering second and a quarter. While it's your safest bet for follow-up unless your opposition has a projectile, it's also the most risky if your patch of Nothingness is close to disappearing. On the bright side, it'll follow along with a moving patch of Nothingness and your bevy of potentially stored projectiles can hide you from possible retaliations.
DSmash (Tyranny)
Xemnas' arms extend outward- left and right- as his ethereal blades also sprout out of his hands. This dual-sided attack deals 11% damage and minor knockback... this can't be it, right? Of course not, this isn't MYM3! Once Xemnas' ethereal blades emerge from his hands, several more ethereal blades shoot out of the ground and into the air in a pattern. Assuming Xemnas is in the middle of Final Destination, when he uses the attack, two ethereal blades equidistant from Xemnas on both sides shoot up and into the air. Then a second pair does the same, only closer to Xemnas. You can probably guess where this is going, but not exactly how many pairs there are. Four at max, but Xemnas actually beings his recovery animation after the third pair has emerged. Each ethereal blade has the same statistics as his Jab ones, but due to how the blades work, you're able to knock foes into each subsequent blade that emerges shortly after. Consecutive blades emerge nearly instantly after the one before it, after all, meaning you can rack up some serious damage, especially if you land the initial strike or outermost ethereal blade launch.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= "I cannot feel... sorrow... No matter what misery befalls the worlds. No matter what you think, what you feel, or how you exist." =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
NAir (Malice)
Xemnas briefly floats in mid-air before swinging two ethereal blades from left to right, one after the other, in a complete circle. Each slash deals 4% and 7%, respectively, with the knockback on the first slash light enough to ensure the second one lands. A rather odd feature of the second slash is that its completely vertical, sending the foe directly upward and slightly over Xemnas' head. Since Xemnas takes his time to slow his descent to a halt, observant foes will know when to avoid this attack, though that's not a difficult feat to perform. The slashes themselves are rather low-ranged, only reaching a full SBB forward and covering rather little vertical distance. Luckily, this NAir prides itself on its speed and relatively quick ending lag- in fact, this move has the quickest ending lag of all of Xemnas' attacks at one tenth of a second. The Superior still leaves himself open during the attack, but if he lands it, or whiffs it but God forbid you TRY to whiff something in Xemnas' set, he'll remain moderately safe due to the quick recovery.
Quite a vanilla sex "kick," but luckily that's not the end of it. If you happen to hold down a direction during a successfully connected second slash, Xemnas disappears in a wisp of smoke after finishing his ending recovery. Depending on the direction you chose, Xemnas will adjacent to the foe in the direction opposite of whichever you inputted. If you inputted left, he appears to the right. Up, directly below. Et cetera. Needless to say, it helps Xemnas with his rushdown game since his reappearance is quick enough to allow an almost instant follow up from NAir. If heavier foes are at a low-enough percentage, you might even be able to continuously combo them with follow-up NAirs after weaker aerials. One method of approach Xemnas users prefer is to short hop using this attack; since Xemnas can't dash on command and dodging isn't always reliable, the Superior prefers short hopping in order to exact an offense. Landing this attack not only pops foes into the air but gives Xemnas numerous follow-up choices. As you can guess, there's a limit to how many times you can perform this auxilliary function in order to prevent infinite combos on larger characters. As such, attempting to perform a fourth teleport follow-up in a row doesn't cause anything in particular to happen- the attack comes out normally. Be sure to make that third follow-up count.
FAir (Veneration)
Xemnas unsheathes two ethereal blades from his palms before performing multiple backflips, using some unknown force to propel himself forward two SBBs before stopping and unsheathing his weapons. While you might think this sounds like a completely horizontal move, Xemnas will actually retain all his vertical momentum he had prior to inputting this attack, which means he'll drag the foe down with him if they're struck during any part of the backflipping. Even better is that Xemnas acts as a constantly moving hitbox during the actual... moving. For reference, he'll perform four flips before another invisible force slows his rotation down so that he ends up in his aerial combat stance. Unfortunately, the time required to settle one's self from such rapid spinning is as lengthy as it reads, requiring a little under a full second for Xemnas to settle back into his aerial fighting stance. The recovery time is shorter if the attack's animation isn't finished before you hit the ground but you still don't want to leave yourself open regardless. Ah, I've seemed to completely skimp on mentioning the killing power this FAir as well- each strike deals ascending amounts of damage, resulting in 16% total damage, while the knockback is impressive enough to take down heavier opponents at 120%. While the applications for this move are admittedly limited, those limits are still quite useful once you've learned to master them. Like I mentioned before, you retain all vertical momentum upon activating this move and the animation for landing before the attack ends is shorter, giving you a very potent pseudo aerial approach game that can potentially be made up for if you have some projectiles or Nothingness covering your tracks. Additionally, using this at the end of NAir chains makes for some incredibly nasty air-to-air combos that'll more than discourage enemies from trying to go toe to toe in midair.
BAir (Goose Egg)
It's a phrase, you uncultured swine.
Xemnas leans back in the air a bit as he opens up one of his hands, releasing a cackling ball of white static that forms into a vague outline, before a white portal appears inside of the outline. From there, it'll float until the end of time or if Xemnas loses a life. The Superior can have up to two of these on-screen at a time and are the size of a barrel on its side. At the very least, these strange things did something... right? Well, not on its own: they just sit there for the entire match until a third one is made or their purpose is fulfilled. Rather bland on their own, but what is this function I speak of? Whenever Xemnas uses his SSpec (The thorn one), each white hole rumbles a bit before firing an equally wide and equally long array of black and white thorns TOWARD the opponent. Refer to the SSpec for specifics regarding damage and knockback, but on the plus side, each white hole has a brief burst of energy that pushes foes back before they fire away. Unfortunately, after they do release their thorns, they fade away from existence, meaning Xemnas will have to set up new ones if he wants to continue screwing with the opponent's navigation options. This is really Xemnas' only aerial that works awkwardly when attempted in an aerial link combo, as it just has Xemnas place out a portal while giving the foe a chance to recover; the actual recovery animation from Xemnas placing a portal is relatively short, forcing the Superior into a half-a-second recovery animation. The only other problem is that Xemnas will keep falling even during the animation, so it's best to cover your potentially exposed rear either by ensuring it lands in Nothingness or if you've covered yourself by other means. A couple of things: first off is that the white holes can't be destroyed by enemy attacks, though they do nothing to hinder them either. The second pointer is their thorns won't disobey the game physics- thorns won't travel through the stage at your whim... unless you can cover that part of the stage with some Nothingness. In which case, they'll go through the entire chunk of Temple if you place your Nothingness correctly. The only question is how you freakin' get those goose eggs into position! Well if you read NSpec, you would figure it out pretty quickly...
UAir (Annihilation)
Despite what the name of this particular input may imply, instead of perform any sort of attack, Xemnas will... just stay airborne for a brief second. He can't even more around or turn, he simply stands there until the second is up as he falls back to the ground. The beginning animation is quick enough that a follow up float after a linked NAir is very good. Much like the ending lag, which requires Xemnas to leave his imaginary roost after a quarter of a second. There's obviously more to this move than that, right? Naturally: during Xemnas' brief float in midair, he can use a single ground normal or special attack while he's in this float before gravity kicks in and he starts falling back to earth. While you're not able to perform any sort of aerial attack while in this float, you can potentially follow up with one by performing a small flurry of jabbed lasers to keep them in hitstun when you come out of it. Ah yes- since you're in a pseudo floating state, there will be some obvious changes to your ground moves to compensate for Xemnas' very brief situation. His specials remain the same except he can now teleport/angle himself downward during USpec. Like I mentioned before, repeated Jabs can keep the opponent in hitstun long enough to follow up with FAir/DAir or, if you angle it properly, another NAir. Hell, you can potentially link Jab lasers between NAirs if you can get the angling down. Even better is that UAir's quick ending lag overrides whatever horrid ending lag the move you may be using may have! In this case, the quarter second of UAir replaces the half-second ending lag of Jab... which I noticed I failed to mention in the actual input description. Ah well. Your tilts help provide even more damaging options for Xemnas to end NAir links, such as FAir- they can't tech out of the back input of FAir if they're airborne after all- and is the only way for Xemnas to mobilize his ground game/primary goal with UTilt and DTilt. Heck, you can even use UTilt and, if the Nothingness is in that weird distance, can possibly help you recover from certain doom if need be. Smashes aren't changed that much aside from DSmash, which gets a huge boost- lasers now fire into the sky as well as toward the ground, covering that much more area around Xemnas.
DAir (Triumph)
Xemnas raises both his arms into the air as ethereal blades simultaneously shoot out from his palms, aimed in the air. While this is starting to sound like a UAir gone wrong, Xemnas will actually remain in the air wherever the player makes the input. Yes yes, a stall and fall, I know. At any rate, Xemnas only stalls for under a quarter of a second before dropping in the fastest fall in the entire game. I'm talking marginally faster than Kirby in Stone form. As soon as he begins dropping, Xemnas then lowers his ethereal blades so that they're directly in front of him as he descends, with the player being able to slightly influence the angle of the Superior's fall. It truly is slight, though, so if you use this over a pit expect absolute ridicule. On the other hand, striking any foe during the fall results in a cataclysmic meteor smash that makes them fall even faster than you, making this a prime gimping tool for foolish foes attempting to get back into the arena. Range-wise, it could certainly be better: it reaches out about three-fourths of an SBB but considering you can sort of move around during the descent, that range could potentially increase. As for pure killing potential, it only deals 6% damage and strictly downward knockback except on grounded foes, in which case they'll normally get killed at around 225%. As you've no doubt guessed, this DAir is also amazing for use at the end of aerial links if you happen to end up being right above Nothingness and intend to drag your foe into it. Right, I forgot- should Xemnas ever happen to fall into a patch of Nothingness during the descent, you can input up or the Jump button and all his momentum stops instantly. As for ending lag, it's unsurprisingly slow even on hit- Xemnas withdraws his ethereal blades into his hands in a movement that takes over three-fourths of a second to finish.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= "Can you... spare a heart?" =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Grab (Interdiction)
Xemnas brings both of his palms back in his best Saiyan impression as dark waves begin pulsing from them, before a last burst of black/white thorns clash with his hands and a flash of white electricity shoots across the stage. This obviously won't go through everything, though it'll go through a lot, only ending at solid pieces of the stage and pass-through platforms. That said, it still has infinite range and doesn't act as an actual grab hitbox- yeah, you can hit standing or aerial foes with this "grab" if they're in the way of its hitbox. Speaking of which, it's rather slim, about the size of Pikachu's Thunder, but the speed of the electricity is flat-out amazing- it'll go across the entirety of Final Destination as soon as the beginning lag completes. Said lag, however, is an entirely different story: Xemnas needs a full second and a quarter before the bolt flies across the stage and if he misses, he dons a look of supposed exhaustion as he takes another second to recover from the whiff. Fun fact, you can actually perform this grab while levitating inside of Nothingness and you can even aim it. The benefit of even being inside of Nothingness also makes up for the grab's inherent flaws without compromising the pluses.
I've a talent for going on about a move without actually explaining what it does, don't I? The first foe struck by the bolt in its path suddenly materializes in front of Xemnas, unable to move, as the Supreme begins constantly shocking the foe with an electric-looking force similar to the one used to ensnare his victim, dealing about 2% per second. This grab state cannot be escaped from by normal means- the victim can't break out of it and attacking Xemnas directly, while helpful, just gives him back his mobility options. Luckily, it just so happens that Xemnas and his victim instantly teleport themselves to whatever patch of Nothingness that happens to be on-stage, assuming there is one. Otherwise, the two just remain in place. How in God's name can you not call this overpowered in anything but a Free for All or Team Match? While being in any of those match-ups makes things considerably easier, the following happens regardless: as soon as Xemnas begins damaging a foe, two copies of the former's current victim appear. At one edge of the stage- always the one furthest from where Xemnas and his victim are located- is a dully colored version of the victim- their Nobody- while at the other end is a nearly pitch black version of the victim- their Heartless. The former victim temporarily plays the role of their Nobody as they strive to free their body from Xemnas' clutches, and the only surefire way to do this is to grab your Heartless at least ONCE. They won't make things easy, as they fight like with Level 9 A.I. and will attack anyone in their path, though they'll primarily focus on the Nobody version of whoever's being tortured. On the bright side, both versions act as "new" characters and as such, start with their own percentages at zero. Your original character's damage indicator is even temporarily replaced by your Nobody's. And if you happen to get caught in the grab but Xemnas has your body in some Nothingness, the Nobody user is granted immunity to the effects of Nothingness, due to, you know, being a Nobody, so he can attack Xemnas directly. But I digress; if a Nobody successfully manages to grab their Heartless just once, both copies disappear as your body regains a sudden burst of energy. So literal that it breaks the grab and knocks Xemnas or anyone else around the invigorated foe away enough to give them time to recuperate, though that may help Xemnas as well.
As I mentioned before, you can attack Xemnas and discontinue any further damage dealt to your body, but that only results in your body dropping to the floor like a 0% character in a stamina match. Worse yet, Xemnas and your own Heartless, though the latter won't do it on purpose, can knock your body around the stage and if it happens to get KO'd, you lose a stock as your Heartless/Nobody forms disappear immediately after you've returned. You also may be worried about what may happen if your body reunites inside of the stage. Don't worry about that- the Nothingness patch, since that is the only realistic way for Xemnas to do such a thing inside of the stage, expands over time. Keep in mind you're immune to the Nothingness and can pass through it at your own leisure, and reuniting with your Heartless sends your body straight to the nearest stand-on-able surface. And you can try KO'ing Xemnas as a Nobody, but doing so only serves to respawn him with no stocks lost. What, you think some random Nobody could seriously hinder the ruler of all Nobodies? You can't even deal damage to him and knockback remains constant at whatever percentage he is at, though the latter may not be such a bad thing if you can get him away from your body/Heartless. The road runs both ways, however- Xemnas can't force a stock loss if he KO's you or your Heartless, as you aren't complete beings and as such, don't represent a full stock. I'm aware this sounds rather contrived so I'll break it down for you- when Xemnas activates the attack, he essentially splits his victim in two: their body and their heart. The implication here is that Xemnas is attacking at nothing, since the two entities that would make up the victim are gone. And Xemnas can only rack up damage on the foe unless his victim's Nobody/Heartless attacks them. If a Nobody or Heartless version of a interred character is KO'd, they instantly reappear back where they started, with no harm done for either side.
And in case you're wondering what happens if Xemnas nabs someone who's ALREADY a Nobody, he instead summons their original body while displacing the opposing Nobody character in the same spot as a Nobody version of someone else, with an accompanying Heartless to complete the change. They obviously won't get their body back but they also don't like Xemnas screwing with something that's not theirs. If a Nobody character grabs their Heartless, they gain the same vigor burst but quickly look a little somber afterward when the realization that they didn't get their body back settles in. Same situation with a Heartless character. And due to their prior resistance to Nothingness, the bodies are given the same immunity to the harmful effects as their Nobody counterparts.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= "Do you remember your name?" =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
As the supreme being of nothingness, it only makes sense for Xemnas' primary goal to destroy his opposition's very existence to the point where they simply fade away. Everything else revolves around whittling his opponent's health to that sweet spot that subjects them to an Invitation which, needless to say, is Xemnas' most effective way of taking away his foe's stocks. Given that particular special's horrendous start-up times, however, it can also go unsaid that whoever you target won't stand around and let Xemnas whittle them down to nothing. Enter Nothingness itself- a space only Xemnas has access to that he can even use to store his multiple projectiles and hide away for what may very well be the killing Invitation. You're still vulnerable to projectiles but Cipher's Screen helps rectify this weakness by ensuring whatever the foe throws at you won't hit at all. In addition, the screen limits enemy movement and allows Xemnas to summon up his multitude of long-lasting projectiles, either to ensure their survival inside Nothingness or making it even more difficult for the foe to stay on the offensive. His SSpec happens to be the only one in his specials repertoire and on its own, it's rather tame. It serves as a basic damage dealer but in tandem with BAir, it turns from a simple projectile into a web of immobility for your foe. It makes racking up the opponent to 100% that much easier and fills every role well, either in a one-on-one or a free for all as a damage dealer, stage control, or splash damage attack.
It can't be emphasized enough how important every ground move is to Xemnas in his quest to reduce his adversaries into nothingness. Even his dash attack, given his horridly lagging start-up, leads into a free NAir, which in turn leads to a potentially devastating combo that leads to 100% for the foe. Stuff such as Jab, UTilt, and FSmash create minefields that can be difficult for anyone you fight to navigate through and can chip away at your opponent to the point where they reach the ever important hundred percent. USmash limits the foe's ability to pursue Xemnas since he can potentially fake out with a near instant recovery or allow him an easy escape, while FTilt is a command grab that will go through shields when the opponent expects you to throw out a quick UTilt or Jab. Not to mention the mass damage on any of the options. Even the admittedly under-elaborated DSmash can close the distance between you and the opponent if need be, potentially launching them into one of your several traps and even into Nothingness.
Alas, the word "versatility" must come into play with how lethal his aerial game can be. For someone who only has access to his minefield game while he's grounded, he has a deceptive number of options while airborne. Even if his jump height and speed are fairly unremarkable, his excellent aerial control and ability to cancel his NAirs to continue barraging the opponent in midair contribute heavily to ensured damage that will almost always lead to a 100% on your victim's percentage. Hell, it's not just for mere damage potential either, with the most obvious defiant input being BAir. FAir gives Xemnas a reasonable manner of approach should he decide to push a foe into his minefield/Nothingness or simply to pressure the foe into making a mistake, and adding this at the end of NAir chains can act in two roles at once: damage racking and keeping up the offensive on anyone else in the fight. Faking this move out with DAir is an excellent way to screw with the opponent, as the angle of which Xemnas lands varies greatly and puts your enemy on their toes. Not to mention the blatantly excellent gimping potential. Last but not least, UAir links your ground game to your aerial game, allowing Xemnas to plant cubes further into the air, follow up NAir chains with even more lethal finishers, and provide a quick escape via a linked DSmash/USpec if need be.
Xemnas' grab is one of the primary centerpieces for what Xemnas wants to get done, but it's also a high risk high reward scenario, with both increasing ever higher the more opponents you're facing. During the move proper, it ensures foes take constant damage yet keeps Xemnas in place unless he happens to be attacked during the attack. Regardless, landing this grab even once can quickly turn the tide of battle as even though it lacks the degenerative qualities of the Invitation, Xemnas can still build up a bunch of damage in a limited amount of time, with the Heartless version of your victim acting as a potential ally/shield while you whittle away at your foe's health. While it's entirely possible to rack up too much damage for the Invitation to be practical, it still leaves them at a dangerously high number. I suppose it's as high a risk and reward for the victim as it is for Xemnas.
..... Is that all?
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= "No more permanent than that radiance of yours." =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Final Smash (The Armored Controller)
Xemnas begins to laugh before literally fading from existence... bringing the entire stage with him. That's right, we've got ourselves a Final Smash that doesn't just involve changing Xemnas, but flat out erasing the entire stage, background and all. However, that doesn't mean our poor victims aren't subject to open space, oh no; as soon as the stage disappears, an ominous grey line is drawn across the entire ground portion of the map, acting as a walk-off stage similar to Eldin Bridge. So while foes are simply standing around, where's Xemnas? Simple: he's now in the background in his Armored Controller form, sitting upon his throne. Said form is two Giga Bowsers high and four Bowsers long, and cannot be stunned or hurt..
[COLLAPSE="picture reference"]
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However, due to the good graces of somebody, Xemnas' health percentage is temporarily replaced by a stamina gauge starting at 300%. Now either this final smash can last for a full thirty seconds or Xemnas can be attacked enough time to reduce the 300 to zero and end the Final Smash prematurely. Of course, this is considerably more difficult depending on how many players there are but tough *****. Anyway, you're likely wondering what Xemnas can actually do since sitting around as the prince of bel air can get rather boring. While you've no doubt witnessed his gigantic, relatively speaking, sword that he can swing in whatever direction you input with the movement stick in tandem with normal attack for a whopping 30% damage and immense knockback, he has more up his sleeve than that. Floating near him are the weapons of a few Organization members he's decided to... borrow. The additional weapons/inputs are as follows:
NSpec (Water Form): Acts exactly as Demyx's water form except it will last indefinitely, though it has slightly less HP than the actual musician's manifestations.
USpec (Eternal Fire/Sharpshooter): Both of Xigbar's arrowguns begin firing at an incredibly rapid pace at whoever is closest to the guns. At the same time, a ring of fire appears on the ground, singing anyone near it for a massive 35% damage. Your arrows will usually force them into the fires due to the knockback.
DSpec (Wind Lances): All of Xaldin's lances appear from behind the Armored Controller, spinning at the same time in a very close proximity. This draws in foes from anywhere on the stage, though the intensity is proportional to how close they are to the tornado. While the tornado itself does no damage, it sets up your foe for an inescapable sword attack...)
FSpec (Lunatic Shockwave): A slightly larger version of Saix's signature claymore appears directly above the Armored Controller with its blade head facing the ground. Half a second later, it drives itself into the dirt, creating a rather intimidating shockwave three Ganons high. Deals 17% but causes knockback similar to Isaac's Hand.
BSpec (Fair Game): The Armored Controller decides to draw one of the many cards from Luxord's deck. Do so at your own risk, as there is an additional card that may result in the instant ending of your Final Smash period.
After thirty seconds or the 300% is gone, the Armored Controller fades away while the stage reappears. Xemnas follows suit very soon after.
Stinky Pete is clearly the best of the Org XIII movesets. His involvement in the plot was such a great twist I didn't even know about it till I saw this moveset!
For serious though, congrats to all of you for actually finishing this thing. In terms of number of sets I think it's the biggest organized event in MYM history!
So, yes, in case it wasn't obvious - I regret my actions here. I hope to have a more formal apology to MYM up on the Bunker sometime soon- just wanted to get this out in the thread.
Erk... fifteen movesets? I have no idea how you guys managed fifteen movesets for an organization with thirteen members. (Unless the Prospector and Iron Tail or whatever his name is doesn't count; speaking of which, hasn't Iron Tail been done already?)
Needless to say, my brain is exploding slowly at the sight. Still, I'll try to get reviews for them in... eventually... maybe...
Quite appropriate, though, considering it was Friday the Thirteenth. I assume that was planned?
Yeah, Kat, that's not the final version. I just wanted to get that in there to prove that I did have his moveset mainly done. I'm working on the presentation right now for him, and his main feature will be in that version that really makes him unique. Hint: Moon, give me your power!
The Prospector, AKA Stinky Pete, is the main antagonist of Toy Story 2. In the universe of the series, Pete is a character in a show called “Woody’s round-up”, serving as the primary comic relief in the series due to his hillbilly status. The specific Prospector toy in the film, though, is much more refined and wise, at first coming off as a mentor figure to Woody while it is still assumed that Al is the main antagonist of the film. Pete is a very bitter individual, having never been owned by a child and was simply bought by Al the toy collector, who has never taken him out of his box. Al intends to ship Woody, the Prospector, and a whole other horde of merchandise to a museum in Japan to make a huge profit. Due to Woody being the main character of the toy series he’s from, the Prospector needs him to get shipped to Japan, and he wants to be put on display in the Museum so that he can live on forever without having to deal with children. He tries to convince Woody that Andy will grow up and abandon him, a fate which Woody would have been wise to listen to come Toy Story 3, but Woody foolishly refuses to believe this.
The Prospector doesn’t have any stats that feel out of place in particular outside his impressive aerial speed. It’s just an impressive aerial –speed-, though, so he’s not as similar to Wario as you’d think from the stats due to poor aerial control – Bowser actually has high aerial speed in Brawl but poor air control, to give a comparison. None the less, it’s still notable, considering Pete’s ground movement is considerably worse than the Koopa King’s.
Far more notable is the fact that the Prospector drops from the top blast zone while contained within his box for his entrance animation, and the box doesn’t go away. While still in his entrance animation, though, the Prospector opens up the top of the box, enabling both him and foes to jump in and outside of the solid box. The box faces the camera, making it as wide as a platform and 1.2x as tall as Ganondorf. Melee attacks can hit foes standing on the other side of the box if they’re right up against it, the box stretching a bit, but no further than a Kirby width while keeping a hitbox in-tact.
The box is capable of taking knockback, heavy as Wario at 40%, and if it takes enough knockback it can tip over. The exact amount of knockback varies based off physics – if the box is standing upright, dealing horizontal knockback will be more likely to tip the box over if you attack a higher up portion of it. That said, it doesn’t just tip over all of a sudden – you can make it tip slightly with a single attack, then attack it again to make it tip over fully. As an example, it takes Bowser’s fsmash to make the box tip over in a single hit if you attack the bottom portion of it. If someone is inside the box, they can prevent the box from being tipped over from simply standing on the portion that’s careening to the side – heavier characters like the Prospector can do this more easily. Keep in mind that as the box tips over, the portion of the box that’s open, the “top”, will shift. The box can go horizontal, and from there either go back to normal or go upside down.
The Prospector only gets one box per stock, so he has to be careful in making sure it doesn’t just get thrown off the stage. Upon death, the Prospector respawns inside a fresh box, his old one vanishing if it survived.
SPECIALS
Neutral Special – Black Gold
The Prospector does a huge overhead slam of his pickaxe for Warlock-Punch level lag that deals 23% and knockback that KOs at 70%. A Warlock Punch isn’t all that useful, though, as the main appeal of this move is that it will cause a geyser of oil to shoot up from the stage where you hit it. The geyser is as wide as Bowser and 2 Ganons tall, and pushes anyone it enters to the top of it while dealing 10 hits of1% and flinching per second (The Prospector being immune to these hits). The geyser lasts for 10 seconds. If used inside the box, the geyser will come from under the box rather than inside it, and the box is capable of being pushed into the air by the geyser as you’d expect.
If you somehow manage to get the foe inside an upside down box and use this move, DIing away will be almost impossible.The box will be floating in the air a bit above the oil, though, so foes will have a chance to knock the box away from the oil if not properly pressured by Pete.
Taking this another step further, the box is capable of filling with oil by the scenario described above, among other more situational ones. If you can make the box right upright after getting some oil inside it, the oil will stay inside of it reliably, dealing 3% per second to foes who stay inside of it (no damage). Spilling the oil out of the box causes a hitbox like when the oil geyser first appears.
Side Special – Shockwave
The Prospector slams his pickaxe in front of him, dealing an immediate 14% and knockback that KOs at 130%. If they’re hit by the pickaxe, they obviously won’t be hit by the ripple that’s generated in the ground from this (Taken from Pete’s Toy Story 2 final boss fight), which travels forwards 2 platforms at Ganon’s dash speed and loops around the stage like a hothead, though it actually does so correctly and can loop around stages like Final Destination and other more complicated stages. The ripple deals 20 hits of 1% and flinching during its’ existence, and will drag foes with it.
If the ripple has to travel through a box or some other wall that’s not a literal stage manipulation (EED soldier’s walls), you will be able to visibly see the ripple as a “bump” traveling along the bottom of the box, the “bump” still a hitbox. The underground nature of this projectile enables it to travel through boxes to camp at foes on the other side very competently. In addition, if a box is tipped over onto its’ side, this can be very effective at carrying foes inside the box. If the box is removed from the equation entirely, this functions as a good spacer, but can also potentially be a kill method as the dragging nature of the hitbox drags foes under the stage if they cannot DI out quickly enough. Note that this move will not knock foes out of prone, but the fact the Prospector is so slow means his projectiles will outrun him, preventing infinites in all cases except for if the foe is up against a wall, in which case they should be able to DI upwards enough to avoid getting hit by one then tech their landing.
Up Special – Shovelware
The Prospector swings his pickaxe upward as he rises upwards 1.35 Ganondorfs, the pickaxe dealing 7% and knockback that KOs at 160%. A largely unremarkable recovery, but do note that this recovery is better than it looks at first glance as if the prospector makes contact with the bottom of the stage, he’ll dig through it with his pickaxe. Play Prospector if you never want to deal with edgehoggers again.
Down Special – Prospect
The Prospector attempts to mine for gold in a very laggy animation before greedily pocketing it himself, taking inspiration from the character his toy is based upon. This heals the Prospector for 10%, but takes a lengthy 2 seconds, longer than a Warlock Punch. This is needed in combination with the Prospector’s Side Special to enable him to competently camp against the likes of MYM characters – the threat of healing can enable him to force foes to approach into/out of his box more easily than simply sending mass projectiles at foes can, in some cases. If you managed to hit a foe on the other side of the box with a Side Special fairly close up, this can be a good reward rather than following up with an attack, as they’ll be getting dragged for too long and be too far away to prevent your mining. Unfortunately you can't use this inside the box, but you can use this with the box in-between you and the foe to potentially make them approach into it.
STANDARDS
Neutral Attack – Pick Spin
Pete rotates his pickaxe around rapidly, causing it to deal 5 hits of 1% and flinching per second. The size of the pickaxe is exaggerated for this particular move, meaning foes will be forced to DI about a third of a platform’s worth away from you to escape this move. Such a simple spacing move is useful for when the foe’s right next to a trap and they need just a little extra push, and also obviously works well inside the box.
Dashing Attack – Gold Rush
Pete runs forwards with his arms out in front of him for a platform’s worth at slightly better than his usual pitiful dash speed (3/10 instead of 2/10). Over the course of the move, 11 hits of 1% and flinching are dealt to foes, pushing them along with Pete as he goes. Obviously this can push foes into the box, but this move can also push the box itself – if Pete uses this move against the side of the box, he’ll push it as he runs in place, moving it half a platform forwards over the course of the move.
Forward Tilt – Shove
The Prospector shoves anyone in front of him down, dealing 5% and putting them into prone. This has 1.25x the lag if used on a box, but will cause it to tip over guaranteed as Prospector pushes against it.
Up Tilt – Workin’ on the Railroad
The Prospector does a generic swing of his pickaxe forwards like some of his other moves, but then goes to raise it behind his head again, bringing it back so far it touches the ground behind him, all while still facing forwards. He then swings the pickaxe forward again and this repeats 6 times over a duration as long as Wario’s dsmash. While the animation itself sounds realistic, the speed it’s played at isn’t, as the Prospector swings his pickaxe to him to either side at equally fast speeds as if he were some kind of wind-up toy. The pickaxe deals 7% throughout the duration of the move and spikes foes down to the corresponding side of the Prospector, being good anti-air for foes approaching into a box but also good for knocking foes into traps. Foes will also end up humping the ledge against the Prospector a lot more than most characters, so this move helps with that too, as the spiking can actually deal the full knockback against foes there.
Down Tilt – Jig
Stinky Pete turns to face the camera and lifts up his right leg up before bringing it down, then does the same with his left leg and then his right leg once more. Each stomp deals a paltry 7% and flinching, though this can be more useful against enemies in prone. You see, most characters that aren’t overly small will end up getting hit by all the Prospector’s stomps if they get hit by one due to their prone state increasing the width of their hitbox in most cases.
If this is used in the center of a box, this enables the Prospector to shift his weight back and forth to either side of it as if he was standing only on one side of the box. If used rapidly in place, this can cause the box to slowly begin tipping more and more each time the prospector does this move. Making the box raise a bit on either side is useful, as while the box is not hard enough to be a hitbox as it falls by itself, if it pins a foe against the ground they’ll take 5% and enter prone, getting pushed out from under the box to the nearest side.
SMASHES
Down Smash – Pitfall Trap
The Prospector attempts to make a pitfall trap not unlike how Snake plants mines with his dsmash, albeit making actual use of his pickaxe to do so. The trap lasts for 10-20 seconds, and pitfalls foes to deal 5-10% to them as you’d expect. If the move reached half charge, though, the foe will not be traditionally pitfalled and instead will be spiked inside the stage fully. From here, the foe need not button mash to escape, but simply must dig their way out by holding the control stick in any direction. Their horizontal position is represented by a very small mound of dirt as they move about, but no other indication to their exact location is given as they move about at Ganondorf’s walking speed. They can choose to come out either the top or the bottom of the stage, as well as simply come out of the ledge. Foes take 1% per half second while underground.
If they run into any other pitfall traps along the way, they’ll be pushed out the bottom of the stage. Any oil geysers, they’ll exit through said oil geyser. The Prospector can also obviously predict where the foe will come up and keep an upside down box over it, or a upright box just so the foe immediately is forced into prone as they come up from the underground. If the Prospector is using his Down Special at the point where the foe comes up, he will automatically grab them, abandoning the gold he was attempting to dig up.
The Side Special ripple can hit foes if they’re within half a Kirby of the surface, dragging them along with it as normal, very easily into an oil geyser or pitfall trap. Keep in mind the ripple can also hug the bottom of the stage like a Hothead and even the ledge, so you can potentially hit them with the ripple no matter where they come out of the stage. The ledge is generally quite a predictable and preferable place for them to go due to the invulnerability frames they’ll get from it, but your ability to drag them under the stage with the stage hugging ripple makes it less of a get out of jail free card for the foe.
Forward Smash – Pickaxe Spike
The Prospector does yet another overhead swing of his pickaxe. This laggy swing deals 18-29% and pitfalls foes. If used on a foe who is already pitfalled, they will still take the damage, but will instead be hammered inside the stage, the same state described in the previous move. If this is used over the horizontal position of a foe burrowing about inside the stage, this will cause them to get knocked downwards 1.5 Kirbies into the stage, unfortunately not directly forcing them through it. While no damage may be a bit questionable at first, the fact there’s no damage means either foes get immediately spiked through the stage or they simply don’t know if they were hit by the move or not.
Up Smash – Burnin’ Biscuits
The Prospector holds his buttocks in pain for a counter move. If struck, he’ll proclaim that his “biscuits are burnin’” as he shoots upwards 1.5-3 Ganondorfs, dealing 22-36% and knockback that KOs at 110-65%. As he comes down, he’s still a hitbox, but with only three quarters of the original power as he went up. Note that the Prospector can DI as he’s in the air here at will, making hitting with this move far more feasible, but also enabling the Prospector to use this move for evasive purposes, easily moving in/out of a box if the top is facing upwards.
AERIALS
Up Aerial – Cling
This is indeed one of those standard issue uairs that drag foes down as the Prospector grabs the foe’s feet, making the two characters fall at the faster of their two falling speeds, though either character (Almost always Stinky Pete) can choose to make them fastfall on demand. Attacks must deal at least 8% to knock Pete off the foe’s ankles, less he drag them off-stage for a gimp or into the box. The Prospector can let go early by hitting any button, though he’d be most wise to use the jump button as that will have him immediately jump as he gets off, or at least the shield button to air-dodge the foe’s inevitable stomp dair.
Why drag them off-stage for a gimp? The Prospector isn’t suicidal, he intends to live forever, you see. If the Prospector specifically drags the foe –under- the stage rather than simply away from it, he can use this move again to cling to the bottom of the stage. He can cling to the bottom of the stage for up to 5 seconds, and unclinging and reclinging won’t refresh the timer, the Prospector having to plant his feet on the ground to do so. When time runs out, though, the Prospector can just use his Up Special to return the other side of the stage. Unclingling and reclinging is still useful to gimp the foe, but he’ll also be clinging because he can use his specials while clinging!
Side and Up Special function as you’d expect, but Neutral Special becomes especially glorious – the oil that you mine out will shoot out of the bottom of the stage! Thanks to gravity, there’s no vertical range limit on it when used in this way, meaning you can make a stream of oil all the way to the bottom blast zone. Down Special unfortunately does not heal you under the stage to prevent you from being too cheap, instead shooting out light rocky projectiles that travel .8-1.35 platforms and deal 5% and flinching. The Prospector can also use his grab from this stance, and he’s intelligent enough to angle his grab downwards a bit more than usual.
Forward Aerial – Swing
The Prospector swings his pickaxe in an upward motion in front of himself, dealing 9% and some good vertical knockback. That’s all the move does, but it’s all it needs to do for the move’s intended purpose of stage spiking. Get under the stage and knock the foe upwards with a quick and easy move. You can also knock them into the top of a box to knock them out the bottom if the box is upside down or just bounce off to the other side if the box is sideways, leaving the foe in prone if they don’t tech in the later case.
Down Aerial – Slam
Stinky Pete turns to face the camera and does a downward swing of his pickaxe. Slamming it into a foe will deal 12% and spikes foes as strongly as Ganon’s dair. Why use the fair over this move? Sure, you can still gimp a foe at any time with this move, but it’ll be a lot harder than with the fair, thanks to extra lag on the move. Aside from some versatility to make going under the stage to gimp the foe less painfully predictable, this aerial can actually knock foes into the box, as you can’t exactly stage spike foes into one very well.
Back Aerial – Infighting
The Prospector turns around and does a belly flop behind himself, dealing 6% immediately and hitting foes with a grab hitbox as he fast-falls as fast as Sonic’s dair. If you hit some sort of surface immediately after hitting with this move, this move does another 15%. Very shortly after grabbing the enemy, the Prospector enters a cartoon scuffle with the foe, them getting covered up in a dust cloud with Pete and the foe’s limbs/weapons coming out at random angles. Foes must escape this at 1.5x grab escape difficulty. They’ll take the initial damage of the belly flop and 1% per quarter second inside the scuffle, and the Prospector can move the scuffle about at Mario’s dash speed until they get out in any direction, defying the laws of gravity, making the foe the Prospector’s main ticket to get back to the underside of the stage to survive if he got too ambitious with his gimping attempt. In addition, if the dust cloud pushes against the box, it will move the box at half the cloud’s movement speed.
This will do knockback that KOs at 150% if you attempt to belly flop on top of a foe on the ground rather than one in the air, and the move has rather bad landing lag in addition to leaving you in prone if you whiff it. The one instance where you –can- use it against foes on the ground is if they’re in prone, in which case the move functions like it does on aerial enemies and does the full 21%. In this case, the positioning uses are rather obvious.
Neutral Aerial – Stinky Pete
The Prospector farts – they don’t call him Stinky Pete for nothing. This creates a wario sized gas cloud. Being inside the cloud causes foes to take 1% per quarter second, flinches them once every 1.5 seconds, and be unable to dodge. The gas cloud travel vertically at the speed of Ganon’s walk, lasting forever until it goes off a blast zone or Pete farts again. If the cloud comes in contact with a wall, it will float horizontally to get around said wall before resuming the usual vertical movement. This means while the cloud won’t last forever in a box normally, you can shift the position of the box around to prevent the cloud from getting out.
The cloud also has obvious uses off-stage when dodging is vital to avoid getting gimped, seeing they can’t just shield instead in the air. The cloud can be a nice alternative to Side Special ripples under the stage seeing while under the stage it will hug it much like a ripple, but unlike the ripple only flinches the foe very rarely, meaning that you can prevent them from dodging and do a bit of damage without refreshing their recovery, potentially.
Grab-Game
Grab - Threaten
The Prospector has a standard grab, but after he grabs somebody he will go into a very Warlordian stance as he knocks the foe onto their backs before pinning them down with his foot and bringing his pickaxe against their neck. On grab-escape, foes enter prone automatically. The foe will obviously not enter prone under the stage.
Pummel – Dig in
The Prospector pokes the foe’s neck lightly with the tip of his pickaxe for 1% with a bit of lag. If, however, the foe escapes the grab as they’re being pummeled, they will instead take 15% and knockback that KOs at 120%. Sure, on land there’s no real rush to escape Stinky Pete’s grab, but inside a falling box things can get rather frantic. This extra effect does not work under the stage.
Forward Throw – Comical Swing
Pete swings his pickaxe like a golf club, dealing 11% and diagonal forward/upward knockback that KOs at 140%, being Pete’s best killing throw. If used under the stage, Pete will go to grab the side of the stage – as in, the part in-between the top and bottom, while holding the foe below with his pickaxe. He’ll then perform the same throw on the foe and go back to clinging under the stage, it simply being an animation change. This means foes will slide along the bottom of a stage for a while until they stop taking their vertical knockback, potentially enabling them to get hit by a pitfall trap upside down, in which case they will indeed be sticking out of the bottom of the stage while pitfalled.
Back Throw – Fling
The Prospector throws the foe away from him for 6% and set backwards horizontal knockback that KOs at 150%. If the foe does not tech their landing, they will enter prone. Pete isn’t done with this throw, though, as he digs his pick into the stage to shoot a small Kirby sized rock about one Ganondorf over the foe before it obeys the laws of gravity and goes to hit them. This rock deals 11% and knockback that KOs at 120%. This doesn’t directly zone foes on-stage, but the fact jumping is so immediately awkward means if you have pitfall traps on the stage and can corner the foe between you and the box, the box can actually become the safest haven (Particularly for a defensive character) to flee to. Speaking of, the rock unfortunately will not be generated if the throw is used inside the box. Under the stage, though, the rock gets shot out downwards rather than upwards just like the foe falls via gravity, meaning foes will have to awkwardly maneuver around the rock over their heads before attempting to recover.
Up Throw – Toss Up
The Prospector throws the foe upwards for 7% and vertical knockback that KOs at 175%. While that sounds weak, the base knockback is actually rather high while the knockback growth is what’s pitiful. This pretty much gives you the benefits of the fair, but you can’t use the fair while a foe is grabbed, now can you? Spike a foe off the bottom of the stage or throw them up against the top of the box to spike them downwards. In the later case, they can tech the landing, but due to the walls of the box you should be able to tech chase fairly well. Fair is the preferred of these two moves under the stage, while inside the box hitting with fair is a bit impractical due to how congested the “arena” is, thus this throw is more used.
Down Throw – Bury
The Prospector buries the foe for 10%, instantly putting them into the buried state from the stronger version of your pitfall trap dsmash, forcing them to dig around to get out of the stage. While the throw will simply only deal damage inside the box, surely, you would use no other throws but this on the surface? Yes, but only if you have some set-up going.
It can also be surprisingly useful –under- the stage. Sure, using this when under a pitfall is somewhat of a waste of a pitfall trap, but the main situational use here is if you have an oil geyser shooting out of the bottom of the stage – dthrow then follow up with Side Special. While risky as it might enable them to get back to the top, if all else fails you can get a free hit on them with your Up Special as you burrow through them back to the top, beating them long before they get there.
Final Smash
Stinky Pete causes gold to rain from the skies in a rip-off of Lucas’ Final Smash. While the gold will never KO unlike said FS, the coins heal Pete on contact rather than damaging him.
Playstyle Summary
The Prospector KOs mainly through gimping, if that wasn’t obvious already. Lack of KO moves isn’t the problem for him, it’s more how annoying it is for the Prospector to rack damage – he rather has fast very weak moves or strong slow moves, with not much in the means of middle ground. To get them off-stage, AKA under the stage, you have two main options, but you can be working towards both of these options at the same time. The first option is to use the solid nature of the box to push foes towards the edge and/or catch them inside it and bring them to the edge while they’re in the box. The second method still makes use of the box, but more as a method of defense as the Prospector goes to set up pitfall traps about the stage – preferably getting in some of the versions that put foes deep inside the stage. If the foe somehow reaches a high percentage, regular pitfalls are actually always preferred, though, as they won’t be able to escape the regular pitfall before you can fsmash them, giving you free damage. The box can be used as a defensive tool here by luring foes inside it through use of your Down Special, then exiting the box as the foe enters it to get space – usmash is a pretty good method of doing this, as it enables you to flee the box while still actually fighting the foe at the same time.
Once you have a set-up with some pitfall traps, the box becomes even more useful. Aside from pushing foes off of the edge with it, you can dump foes out of the box onto pitfall traps. Foes can tend to forget where traps are if they roll inside the box with you for a long time, as the box shields them from the pitfall traps embedded in the stage. If you suddenly make the box go horizontal, though, so that it’s on its’ side with a trap right at the exit of the box, things can work quite nicely combined with some of the Prospector’s more basic moves. This works best if one of your main goals of bringing the foe under the stage is by bringing them in the box directly, then turn the foe stopping the trip early against them.
Once they’re inside the stage, you can bring them to other pitfalls to send them under with Side Special, catch them as they out the top with Down Special, or simply confuse them further with fsmash. If you manage to scare foes enough they go out of their way to reach the ledge, a well timed Side Special can still take them under.
Once you actually do get under the stage, you’ll want to stick close to the top by making liberal use of your uair. The way to get a guaranteed kill in most cases is to knock the foe into an oil geyser upside down, as those can kill characters regardless of how good their recoveries are - yes, even Nappa. Against chars with good recovery like him that somehow manage to evade the oil geyser, you can make use of your nair as they come up against the stage to fight you to prevent them from dodging your fair and dair spikes. You can potentially even wait for a gas cloud to start making its’ way towards the foe, then fire a ripple so that they overlap at the point the cloud’s going to overlap the foe, preventing them from dodging the ripple and hopefully dragging them into a pitfall or said oil geyser.
It’s possible to go down deeper than you can reach the stage with, but you’ll have to use your bair. It’s worth the risk, though, as the bair can bring you up to recovery while moving you horizontally to move the foe towards the upside down oil geyser at the same time. Aside from the bair, bringing the box along can also be highly beneficial if you brought the foe off-stage inside it directly. Not only can it help you get some extra jumps, but if you turn the box upside down then spike it with dair it can very easily spell foes’ doom out for them. While losing your box is a pity, you can still undoubtedly do some damage on the next stock, particularly if you already have some traps up to work with. Wackier still, you can keep the box above you and the foe as you get off-stage, go in a “suicidal” gimping attempt with fair and dair liberally, then go in the box and knock it upwards/towards the stage en mass to recover. It’s difficult and will probably get you killed by the respawning foe, but worth a mention.
If you want to make sure that both you and the foe get shipped to Japan at the same time, you can attempt a suicide KO. Bair and uair can do this in very obvious ways, but again, the box works wonders here, and spiking the foe through the stage via pitfalls can help you keep the box around for a suicide KO later. Simply pressuring the foe to keep them inside the box is fairly easy with Pete’s prone abuse, however basic, and it’s a far better use of it than the basic damage racking it can get you.
The Tempura Wizard is an enemy introduced in the new 3DS title, Kid Icarus Uprising. It is a more dangerous version of the enemy Eggplant Wizard, who is known for teleporting around and attacking with magic projectiles that will turn Pit into an eggplant. This state of being leaves Pit unable to attack for a short period of time, leaving him mostly vulnerable to the other monsters in the room. The Tempura Wizard on the other hand, flies around in a floating bowl and launches explosive magic spells that will deep fry Pit! This mechanic is explained in more detail below. However, it does the opposite of the Eggplant spell, and makes the Tempura Wizard the most dangerous monster in the room.
When Tempura Wizard launches a magic spell, it is lobbed through the air and lands in an explosion the size of a Bob-omb. If an opponent is caught in the blast, they will be deep-fried, dealing 2% per second to the opponent for about three seconds. The opponent will cease being deep-fried after about six and a half. When the opponent is deep-fried, they trip more often, run about 3/5 normal speed, and their dodging is delayed slightly. They also fall faster and have larger landing lag when jumping or falling. They cannot attack or grab ledges. They can run into opponents to inflict the same three second burn on others. However, if they make any physical contact with the Tempura Wizard's fork, he will be able to instantly kill them with one bite. It's dangerous stuff!
* * * STATS * * *
WEIGHT: 8
SIZE: 9
GROUND SPEED: 5
AIR SPEED: 4
FALL SPEED: 2
Tempura Wizard is a little weird in the stats department. He's large and floaty, but dashes surprisingly fast along the ground. But it does work in his favor.
* * * SPECIAL MOVES * * *
Neutral B: Tempura Grenades
When the B button is held, the Tempura Wizard will lob anywhere from one to five tempura spells in the air that will go about two bowsers up in the air and land in random spots in a 2 battlefield platform radius and explode around him. The explosions will deep-fry the opponent.
Side B: Deep Fry
The Tempura Wizard launches a Tempura projectile forward that goes about three battlefield platforms in a straight line before exploding. If it hits an opponent or they are caught in the explosion, they will be deep-fried.
Up B: Tempura Bowl
The Tempura Wizard produces a large bowl the size of bowser and sits inside it. While in the bowl, Tempura Wizard can move freely at about the speed of Mario's walk. However, he cannot attack except for dropping explosive tempura bombs straight down with the A button, and cannot eat opponents from the bowl. He can hop out with B, causing the bowl to sit on the stage. Tempura Wizard will not be able to make a new bowl and must use the one that is there, or wait for seven seconds after his bowl is destroyed. The Tempura Wizard can also be knocked out of the bowl if he is attacked enough while flying.
Down B: Tempura Bomb
The Tempura Wizard places a Tempura Bomb on the stage, which blows up after two and a half seconds in a slightly larger explosion than most attacks. The bomb can be picked up and thrown by anyone before it explodes. Only three tempura bombs can be onstage at a time. If three are placed in rapid succession, he will only be able to place one at a time for the next eight seconds.
* * * STANDARD ATTACKS * * *
A: Prod
Tempura Wizard reaches forward and prods the opponent with his fork. This move has long reach, a battlefield platform and a half, but does no knockback and does 1% damage.
Dash Attack: To Go
Tempura Wizard runs into opponents while shooting a tempura spell, essentially deep frying anyone he hits with this move. The Tempura Armor lasts a second after the move, however.
Up Tilt: Airdry
Tempura Wizard stabs his opponent with his fork and tosses them into the air, dealing 2% damage. This move sets up well for the Fork Harpoon.
Side Tilt: Stun Magic
The Tempura Wizard scrapes his fork up through the dirt and sprays it ahead of him into his opponent's eyes for 3% damage, stunning them for about two seconds. They get stunned for an extra second if they are tempura'd.
Down Tilt: Trip Magic
Tempura Wizard swiftly crouches down and brings his fork into his opponent's shins, knocking them onto their butts and leaving them vulnerable. This move does 4% and is one of his fastest attacks.
* * * SMASH ATTACKS * * *
Forward Smash: Kitchen Lance
Tempura Wizard pulls back for a quarter second and impales his opponent on his fork, keeping them impaled there as if in a grab, or until they get flung off in one of his attacks. The move does 17% damage, and an extra 3% when they are on the fork when it is used to attack.
Up Smash: Fork Harpoon
Tempura Wizard throws his fork upwards, letting it fly up about three bowsers, before it comes straight back down at Sonic's dash speed. On the way up, the fork does 5% damage. On the way down, it does 10% damage and holds the opponent to the floor in a grab.
Down Smash: Frying Fork
Tempura Wizard dips his fork in a deep frier, and for the next eight seconds all of his fork attacks will deep fry opponents.
* * * AERIAL ATTACKS * * *
Up Aerial: Tempura Lob
Tempura Wizard throws three tempura spells up in the air, which fall below him in random trajectories and explode on the platforms.
Forward Aerial: Fork Torpedo
Tempura Wizard holds his fork in front of him and spirals forward like a torpedo, propelling himself forward and leaving a trail of deep-frying gas behind him.
Back Aerial: Bad Gas
Tempura Wizard farts out hot gas, deep frying anyone who touches it. The attack propels him forward a short distance as well, but is mostly for deep frying intruders on his personal airspace.
Down Aerial: Tempura Hunter
Tempura Wizard falls down at about a 20 degree angle forward, attempting to impale opponents below with his fork. The move launches small puffs of hot gas on either side, tempurafying any opponents who just barely get out of the way of the attack. Anyone who gets hit by the attack is safe from becoming tempura. Sometimes being impaled may just be the safer bet. The impaling does 17% damage.
Neutral Aerial: Tempura Armor
Tempura Wizard gives himself Tempura Armor in a flash of hot gas, deep-frying any opponents who touch him for three seconds, or who touch the gas explosion when the attack is used.
* * * GRAB GAME * * *
GRAB
Tempura Wizard impales his opponent on the end of his fork.
PUMMEL
Tempura Wizard spins the fork in their colon, making a mess of everything involved. 3% damage.
Up Throw: Bowl Shot
Tempura Wizard throws his opponent upwards and dashes a short ways away, leaving a bowl underneath them. If the opponent lands on the bowl, it breaks dealing 10% damage. If they miss, they land and take 3%.
Forward Throw: Oil Hydrant
Tempura Wizard releases the opponent, and drenches them with boiling oil, deep-frying them and pushing them away a moderate distance of 2 or so battlefield platforms.
Back Throw: Gas Leak
Tempura Wizard makes a hot gas cloud behind him and throws the opponent directly into it, deep-frying them and stunning them momentarily.
Down Throw: Bowl Fry
Tempura Wizard throws the opponent down and traps them in a bowl. When the opponent breaks out by attacking the bowl, they will become tempura'd in an explosion of hot gas and oil.
Final smash: Hungry Tempura Wizard
The level begins to flood with boiling oil, deep-frying anyone who touches it. The Tempura Wizard will be able to move freely through the oil without hindered movement, while opponents will become extremely unmobile and will take 5% per second while in the oil. The oil will recede after about ten seconds.
* * * OVERVIEW * * *
He's a wizard made of tempura, and he turns people into tempura not-wizards so he can cannibalize them. That's all there is to say on the matter.
Iron Tail is a villain in the vein of the Burgermeister from the stop motion Easter Special “Peter Cottontail”. His namesake comes from his tail getting run over by a child on rollerskates, resulting in him having to amputate it and get a prosthetic tail. Ever since, Iron Tail has sworn vengeance on children everywhere, and intends to ruin the Easter holiday. He attempts to become the chief Easter Bunny of April Valley by challenging Peter Cottontail to a contest to see who can give away the most eggs, and due to Peter staying up all night partying (No I am not even kidding) Iron Tail wins despite delivering only one egg. Iron Tail gets his obligatory villain song upon his success, though Peter attempts to use time travel (Yes, really) to defeat him – again, who’s the villain here, folks? Well, clearly it’s Iron Tail, as he’s voiced by Vincent Price, has pet spiders and bats, is friends with those horrible people from Halloween town, and uses –MAGIC- from a spellbook!
I shall hide these eggs where you'll never find them again...
Falling Speed 8.5
Jumps 7
Traction 6.5
Aerial Speed 6
Weight 5.5
Size 5
Aerial Control 4
Ground Movement 3
Iron Tail’s iron tail gives him a bit more heavyweight of stats than a generic anthro bunny should have. While he’s far from a heavyweight, his fall speed suffers massively from the addition of his tail, limiting the mileage he can get out of his bunny jumps. His idle animation has him holding his Book of Evil Spells in one hand, using it as a tome to allow him to activate evil spells. Due to this, he usually holds items one-handed - using the tome to levitate them in midair ala Mewtwo One of his more notable properties is his being able to use smashes in midair due to this - usually something that people who aren't DBZ floating antags don't get.
Iron Tail has two pets who he makes extensive use of throughout the film. His trusty bat Montresor, whom he is constantly seen flying on the back of, and an unnamed spider. They are constantly out at all times, but stay in the background when they are not attacking, following Iron Tail around as they await orders. When in the main playing field from an attack order from Iron Tail, they can be attacked like normal characters, though will re-enter the background as soon as they are done with their attack/exit hitstun. They do have their own invisible damage percentages, both of them having weight comparable to Meta Knight. In terms of attack properties, Iron Tail and his pets can all attack separately from each other, forming something of a miniature Hugo set as they all attack at once. Of course, when Iron Tail loses a stock, the pets come back onstage with restored health.
If either of Iron Tail's minions come in contact with an item, they will step into the foreground with it and be able to execute all attacks while holding it. They will retreat into the background only upon them losing the item they're holding, which can be done by dealing 10% to them. Iron Tail can also take the item by simply running past them, which will cause them to hand it to them.
Specials
Up Special Iron Tail lets out a cry of "Away, Montresor, Away!", hopping into the air as he does so (if only to keep him from being magically stalled in midair). This causes Montresor to fly towards Iron Tail at Fox's dash speed, swooping underneath him in order to catch him. Once Montresor is underneath Iron Tail, Iron Tail is free to move about and attack as Montresor acts as a floating platform only slightly shorter than the standard Battlefield Platform - it only really has room for Iron Tail and the spider. By tapping the up special input, you can assume control of Montresor, able to fly in any direction and able to use his library of attacks. Montresor only flies 8 seconds once he has someone on his back, after which he becomes tired and falls downwards - likely off the blast zone, if Iron Tail isn't careful. Still, the main benefit to this recovery is that Iron Tail can actively stop for a moment to attack AND doesn't fall into helplessness when his pet does - the main drawback is that he is still free to be knocked away from Montresor as normal - unlike most recoveries, Iron Tail and his flying pet are two separate units.
Montresor, as said, counts as a floating solid platform, though pitfall traps/burrows cannot be placed on him, also counting any other sort of terraforming effect. The foe is free to stand on him and attack him, however, far more important is your ability to help the spider recover if he ever falls offstage. (In fact, if the input is double tapped, Montresor will move towards the spider, though won't pick him up unless he's offstage.)
Neutral Special Iron Tail performs a small spin in place while reading from the book, pointing his arm forward when stops as he yells out "GREEN!" like the large ham he is. As he cries out the name of the move, a green orb the size of a bob-omb flies forward from his hands, traveling 5 Battlefield Platforms forward at Mario's dash speed before disappearing - you can angle the direction of the orb as it moves forward, almost identically to Pit's arrow. If you are able to hit the foe with this, they will start glowing an extremely dark shade of green - a real greeney green. As soon as this happens, they begin taking passive damage of 1% per second. This only gets worse as time goes up, the passive damage increasing by 1% every 16 seconds. If you are able to get the damage up to 5% per second, they will start treating it as a hit and take the involved knockback.
As you might've guessed, this can last indefinitely - but can't stack as a result. If you do hit the foe with a second hit of the poisonous blast, all it will do is remove 4 seconds from the time it will take for it to increase another damage percent (if they had only 16 seconds before their poison damage increased by 1, it will now be 12, if he does it again they will have 8 seconds etc. This just shaves off the time needed to get to the NEXT percent, it isn't permanent.)
The only cure for the poison? Well, let's cover a submechanic that Iron Tail has - every time he takes 12% or more, a green egg will pop out of him - half the height of a capsule. If a poisoned character holds this egg for 3 full seconds, they will be cured of all negative status effects, including poison. Iron Tail has 3 of these eggs on his person, meaning that the foe has multiple chances to take them...
Down Special Iron Tail extracts one of the previously mentioned green eggs - holding it in his other hand like a normal item, doing this all with the startup lag of Link's down special. Iron Tail is able to throw these eggs around like normal items, their magical properties making them immune to breaking. If he tosses one off of a blast zone, it will return to his possession in a flash. As you might expect, once Iron Tail has taken an egg out (and this also applies to them being knocked out of him), that egg is lost from his count and he is unable to be knocked away from him. Now, as you might be expecting, you can toss eggs to your minions to have them carry them around for a bit, if you need to get some heat off yourself...
If you press the input again during the startup lag, Iron Tail will pull out a false egg - they look exactly like his normal green eggs and have the same properties - with one exception. Instead of curing any poison damage the foe has, they instead double it any poison damage they are currently taking. You really can't understate the usefulness of this, especially when you can have the foe chasing after an egg and have it turn out only to be a false one. Of course, this will only deal double damage for about a second if your foe isn't an idiot and immediately tosses it away. Of course, Iron Tail would have to have to keep the foe holding the egg if he wants the damage to keep being inflicted.
Simply pressing the crouch input while holding the egg, instead of throwing it downward, Iron Tail will turn his back to the screen as he makes a small burrow - which he places the egg in. The burrow must take 10% to release the item it's currently holding and disappear. More important in FFA/casual matches, Iron Tail can do this with -any- item, not just eggs.
Side Special The spider steps into the foreground, you giving away control of movement to it (though you are still able to attack, of course). While the spider is onstage, you can control it for 3 seconds as you are able to move around in any direction at Mario's walk speed. As it moves, it spins a webbing underneath itself. The webbing will be destroyed upon taking 20% damage. You can press the side special to exit early.
Should the foe or an item come into the web, they will get stuck to it until they button mash off with slightly less grab difficulty than normal. The foes are helpless while on the web, and multiple foes can be stuck to it at once...Obviously, the item will not escape until the web is destroyed - meaning the foe will have to painstakingly attempt to attack the web to destroy it without getting stuck to it - lord knows Iron Tail can hit them with more poison spells while they're attempting to attack it, severely hindering them.
If the foe is knocked into the web by a large amount of knockback or a wind hitbox (giving Montresor's dtilt and jab great purpose here), they will be knocked in the direction they came at double their normal speed, acting as a generic catapult which is pretty much standard in Dave sets now. The most obvious idea here is just forming the webbing to counter your foe's needs and bouncing them away.
The spider camps out on top of the webs once it is done, and will fall into prone in the foreground upon it being destroyed, stepping into the background afterwards. This gives you an opportunity to attack it, which is very much needed considering the only viable times it can be attacked are when it is maintaining webs.
It is able to form another web despite camping on top of the web - pressing the input again and a direction will cause the spider to jump off the web and run in that direction through the foreground, doing so until it comes into contact with the ledge or the input is pressed again. Once the spider stops, it will be able to spin up another web and camp on top of that. If you want to switch the web it is camping on top of, you can press the direction again, which will cause it to run over to the other web.
Standards
Dash Attack Iron Tail stops in place as he begins to perform 3 hops on one foot, each taking him a Ness off the ground as he hops upwards before hopping downwards, making a small clanging noise when he touches the ground - and so on. Each of these hops can be influenced by your aerial DI, allowing you to create an unpredictable movement pattern to which you can use to evade your foes - most importantly, allowing you to hop to evade your foe's strikes if you don't have your eggs already "hidden". A relatively obvious follow-up here is to attack with a minion as you evade their blows.
Jab Montresor begins spinning around in a circle, at such a fast rate that he ends up making a miniature tornado as tall as Ganon. He will hold this out for as long as you keep tapping the standard input, though keep in mind that he suffers a massive amount of end lag here, meaning he is extremely vulnerable. Contact with Montresor during this time deals 4% and launches you in a random direction - the same happens with items, meaning Montresor can send eggs down the path of unpredictability of needed. This is also a last ditch effort if needed, as this will also count as an attack against Iron Tail and launch him away - also perfect if you want to use some of his attack library as he soars through midair.
Forward Tilt Montresor, wherever he may be, suddenly steps forward and slides across the ground (or the sky) at a speed slightly faster than Fox's, forming a hitbox identical to Piplup as he skates across the ground, dragging the foe along for multiple hits of 3% for 3 seconds. You really can't overstate the usefulness of this, as this forms a positioner that Iron Tail can use from afar to keep his foes occupied. You can also use this as an emergency method if you need Montresor to catch you as you're knocked away from him, or if you need a much more direct horizontal recovery. Of course, you can also potentially move foes further and further away from the stage with this if you feel lucky (or if you want a suicide KO).
Montresor, as well as the spider, can collect items even if they're in the middle of attacks - this makes this attack even more valuable, as you can do something crazy like, I don't know, throw the egg at Montresor as he darts forward?
Up Tilt Montresor forms a full loop upwards, looking and acting identically to the loop seen in Meta Knight's up special. This turns Montresor into a hitbox that deals 5% damage and knocks foes away with good knockback, the most obvious purpose here being to get away from the foe and knock them as far away as feasibly possible, also helping if he is holding an egg in his mouth.
If Iron Tail is on Montresor when he uses this, he will grab onto Montresor's back in order to feasibly stay on without being tacky.
Down Tilt Montresor stops in place for a bit of noticeable start lag, before he flaps his wings in the direction you pick in the startup. This forms a wind hitbox as long as a Battlefield Platform in the direction his wings were flapped, pushing those who are effected by it a full Battlefield, in the direction that was picked. Montresor will push people around no matter what they were doing. This has more subtle uses than simply pushing foes away - you are able to push Iron Tail or the spider around if they have no control of themselves, this especially works in the spider's case, as you can position where it will build the web without having it dart through the foreground. You can also push Iron Tail upwards in midair, if you're about to go down and you want Iron Tail to make it - or for the simple purpose of having him avoid enemy attacks, as they aren't connected during recovery, as I explained earlier.
This will also blow any items that Montresor is holding, in case you want to get rid of them - the fact you can manipulate the way they're blown helps you greatly.
Smashes
Forward Smash This move is inspired by one of Iron Tail's ways of moving in the special - he seems to have a spring in his step, almost dance-like, spinning as he gives commands to his minions. When this attack finishes charging, Iron Tail begins spinning, doing so for about a second before exiting with some small end lag. During this spinning, Iron Tail drags foes around for 5 flinching hits of 1%, being incredibly difficult to DI out of compared to the Mario Tornado - this attack's main inspiration. The final hit of the attack, taking place at the last moment, deals 5-10% and decent knockback.
The main goal here is to influence the direction of your foes, dragging them along with you towards pitfalls and whatnot - they can be knocked out of this by another character, so the main thing you'll want to do is drag foes along then have Montresor come take them away - giving you yet again, another competent getaway option.
Down Smash Iron Tail turns to his back to the screen and creates a pitfall trap in the ground, looking identical to him creating a burrow from his down special. These pitfalls can be loaded with items just like your burrows too, with the obvious key effect of "olol as soon as you attack the pitfall you'll be pitfalled". After the foe is pitfalled, which functions identically to every other pitfall ever (dealing double damage if it was fully charged), whatever item was being contained - if there was one, will pop out of the pitfall. This gives Iron Tail or his minions an obvious opportunity to capitalize and take it while the foe is distracted. This is the only one of Iron Tail's smashes that won't work in midair.
Up Smash This is a counter move, in which Iron Tail begins casting a spell from his tome. If he is attacked at this time, he will grab the foe and conjour some magic bubblegum, forcing them to swallow it (yes, it's as random as it sounds. watch the film.), with 1 piece at low charge and 3 at full charge. This deals a fairly average amount of damage, 5%, and leaves the foe in prone in front of Iron Tail. However, the far more notable effect is what happens when they try to attack - there is a 25% chance of them blowing a bubble for every piece of bubblegum they swallowed (which has as much lag as Mario's fsmash), leading to a whopping 75% chance if you used this at full charge (which really isn't that difficult to land if you can get your minions to lead the foe into this, especially using moves like Montresor's tilts). They will also blow bubbles when they try to throw items, which most obviously comes in handy when they're holding fake eggs. Still, this has purposes beyond that - attacking burrows where eggs lie is much more difficult when they're blowing bubbles all over the place. You can also use this to catch an opponent offguard, if Montresor sends you flying through midair in the path of a foe's attack.
They will have this property for 3 seconds for every piece of bubblegum they swallowed.
Grab Game
Spider's Webbing If the spider isn't camping out on a web at this time, it will simply perform a leap upward, taking him up about 2 Ganons. This helps with it's maneuvering when it's running from web to web, and can also help it set up a web in midair if needed.
If, however, it is camping on a web - the web will be turned into a grab hitbox for one second - the most obvious opportunity to grab them coming from when they are sticking to it. If they come in contact with the web while it's a grab hitbox, the spider will quickly wrap them up in webbing with only their head sticking out. They can escape with normal grab difficulty, with the spider able to throw them and whatnot from this state (you can't move Iron Tail in this state, and can only use specials during this time, you can still make him jump/double jump, however). Once the foe escapes, the web will revert to normal and the spider will fall into prone in front of the web, giving a chance to attack it.
Since the web can have multiple foes on it at once, the spider -can- grab multiple foes at once, spinning one single web to cover them all. In this case, the foes have to co-operate to break free, as the grab difficulty is now increased by 4x - obviously much quicker to escape if they're all working together.
The spider can grab and throw items that are thrown into the web. He will perform his throws on multiple items if they are in the web.
Pummel The spider shoves it's arms inside the webbing that contains the foe(s), looking for something. What happens next depends on the last attack they used (which obviously makes the grab deadly if they're pushed into the web while using a prop based attack - deadly if they're trying to remove an egg)
If their last attack didn't use a prop, the spider will simply deal 3% to everyone inside. If one of them was using a prop, however, the spider will steal it and automatically throw it towards Iron Tail (-1 Bobby Vote) Any attacks the foe used that used that prop will now be replaced by attacks that have the same hitbox, yet deal halved damage/knockback, as they are replaced by halved knockback. The prop now acts like a normal item, with it being able to be tossed about and contained in burrows and whatnot - giving Iron Tail something to manipulate. If the foe picks up the prop, it will be returned to them, they will also have it returned to them if it is knocked off a blast zone.
Speaking of Iron Tail, if he picks up the prop, he will be able to use any attacks associated with the prop by doubletapping the input they're used on, just tapping/holding it will result in the normal version of the attack unless you do it twice in that short timeframe. This helps out Iron Tail more than you'd believe, considering he has a severe lack of KO moves - why not just yank the foe's away? Any sort of magic that was used along with the prop will be able to be used by Iron Tail as well, considering his massive magic syndrome. By dealing 5% to Iron Tail or any minions that might be holding the prop, they will release it.
Up Throw The spider tightens the webbing around the foes, to the point where, in classic cartoony fashion, they are shot straight upward from the level of stress they gained in the web (imagine that one part in the Spongebob movie with David Hasselhoff's chest, if you really need a reference for how something like this would work).
They take strictly vertical knockback, being dealt 6% - the distance they travel upward depends on how much damage they've taken, while it's quite a high distance from the start - standing up to the average up special, it only increases - quite useful given the poison. But yes, Iron Tail needs a move based in the air, given his main moves are aerials, smashes and specials - all of which he can pull off in the air.
Forward Throw The spider grabs the foe(s), still wrapped in webbing, and yanks them off the web before jumping 3 SBBs forward with them as they fall downwards, standing on top of them. During this time, theycan buttonmash free from this state with the same difficulty as normal to break free of the webs and attempt a recovery if they were in midair. If they land on the ground and don't break free, they will be left in prone and take 10% damage while the spider scurries to the nearest web. If they break free in midair, the spider will attempt to move to the stage (or Montresor, if he's offstage). This has one pretty blatant purpose: bring the foe offstage, or just plain suicide with them.
Back Throw The spider grabs the ball of webbing containing the foe and moves it to the other side of the web, before spinning them off of it, the web unraveling as the foe spins along the ground at Jigglypuff's dash speed. The foe travels a whole Battlefield like this before taking 4% damage and tripping. This is one of your better methods for spacing the foe, and also manages to serve the purpose of moving them to the other side of the web - which also serves quite a purpose with eggs and props quite well, as the foe will need to navigate over the giant web that still stands in their way...
When you have multiple foes, they will all wind up next to each other after this, meaning you can distract them all with a battle.
Down Throw The spider takes who/whatever's been grabbed and begins completely covers them with webbing, forming a ball of webbing 2x Ganon's size and as wide as 2 Bowsers. This reduces their size so they can fit, much like a majority of Game and Watch's throws, though parts of them stick out if they're too obnoxiously large. Still, once they're wrapped in the ball of webbing, the spider snaps it off as it falls in front of the web with a thud. From here, the foe(s) can button mash out with 2x grab difficulty as the ball of webbing is able to be attacked and pushed/knocked around. This opens up an obvious KO method, with you able to push the foe offstage for an easy KO.
If the ball of webbing is dealt 10%, whatever's inside will be released automatically - helping if you've got props or eggs or what have you inside. Of course, this isn't as useful if it's carrying multiple eggs/props, meaning the foe will have to check every single one of them, not quite pleasant if one of them is fake...
Aerials
Neutral Aerial Iron Tail holds his spell book in one hand, holding the other hand out to the side. You can move him about during this aerial, which lasts about 3 seconds, after which Iron Tail closes his spell book and enters a footstooled state, losing any jumps he might have had left. If Iron Tail does, however, come within 1 Battlefield Platform of the foe (doesn't matter if they're above, below or next to him. BFP Range is Vertical if above or below.), he and the opponent will switch spots near lag-lessly. This can definitely help set up your other aerials, especially your down aerial. When you teleport, you also switch any items you might be holding - perfect for stealing eggs back from the foe before they're cured, or even giving them fake eggs.
Iron Tail can't swap places with the foe for 3 seconds after a successful usage, to prevent infinite stalling.
Forward Aerial After a quick glance at the spell book, Iron Tail points a hand forward, about to perform an evil spell. If anything is a battlefield platform in front of his hand, it will be immobilized and float in midair for 3 seconds - unable to be knocked around or take hitstun in this state. Foe's are still able to use all their aerials (though aerials that can move them will not have the movement), and will regain all their jumps and recovery after this. A fairly obvious method here is to freeze the foe in midair so you can get away, especially if you just used nair to steal an egg they're holding., You can also freeze props and eggs far away from the foe's reach at this time.
Back Aerial Iron Tail, in a mimicry of Yoshi's back aerial, stabs his iron tail behind him 3 times. This has the same startup time as said move, as well as landing lag that is even worse as Iron Tail removes his tail from the ground. If Iron Tail manages to hit the foe with this, he will lock them in the hits, each dealing 2% and a bit of stun - the last hit knocking them away with a satisfying -CLANK!! The knockback makes this one of Iron Tail's best killers, if he can actually hit with it. Considering you have a throw for getting the foe up into the air, shouldn't you have an attack that actually HITS them? The fact Iron Tail can also DI during this allows him to poke the foe as he swoops past them in midair, likely getting back on Montresor.
Up Aerial Iron Tail casts a magic spell as he faces the screen and looks upwards - sending out a large gray spell from his gloves, as he moves down a Mario. This is comparable to Zelda's uair in terms of hitbox, dealing 17% damage and high knockback but being very situational to hit with - it can be incredibly useful in terms of dealing with opponents who are pursuing from above, but it has the burden of being quite laggy - still, it's one of your best killers - especially combined with the fact you can move upwards to KO the foe before back down onto your bat.
Down Aerial Iron Tail, with very little startup lag, enters a stall and fall state. With this, he falls straight downwards at the speed of the Ice Climbers' stall and fall, feet-first. If he lands on a foe, he will deal 4% to them and cause them to enter a footstooled state as Iron Tail uses his bunny-ness to launch himself upwards the height of Dedede's up special. Your most obvious purpose here, of course, is to get foes who are chasing you while you're on Montresor away from you, being able to jump off Montresor, ward off the foe and get right back on with no hassle.
If you use this while on Montresor, you will deal the damage to him and cause him to enter a plummeting state where he falls downwards as a hitbox dealing 8% and giving a light gimp to aerial foes. You can't really -gimp- the foe here if you want Montresor to stay around, so if you want to use this as a gimper, it's going to be at a time where you can live without Montresor - when you have a high damage percent, perhaps.
Final Smash
Madame Esmerelda is a character from Peter Cottontail, appearing exclusively in the Halloween segments. She is a good friend of Iron Tail's - the first thing he does when he learns Peter's in Halloweenland is call her and ask her if she can "frighten him away". She attempts to do so, only to become happy when Peter shows her generosity. This threatens Iron Tail's operations, so Iron Tail has Montresor fly over there and force Peter away.
When Iron Tail gains the Smash Ball, he conjures a retro-style phone out of midair and begins talking in to through the delicious voice of Vincent Price's undead spirit. "There's an irritating fighter here, Madame Esmerelda...would you be so kind as to frighten them away?" He has superarmor the entire time, and the moment he gets through the final sentence, a cackle echoes through the screen. Madame Esmerelda flies in on her broomstick towards Iron Tail, floating just above him at all times. She will be carrying the spider and/or Montresor on the back of the broomstick if they were KOed, who will jump off besides Iron Tail when she appears. While floating above Iron Tail, she conjures up a fireball every 3 seconds, which homes in on the foe at Ganon's dash speed and deals 8% damage, granting Iron Tail another defense option. Adding on to this, if a foe approaches Madame Esmerelda and gets within 1.5 BFPs, she will glance at them and shout "Boo!", causing them to become pratfalled/footstooled, taking 3%, helping a bit of his gimping as well as adding some sort of actual spacer to his library.
Whenever Iron Tail is knocked into the air, or jumps, Madame Esmerelda is always one step ahead and constantly stays above him. By holding up on the control stick, Iron Tail will cling on to the bottom of her broom, able to use aerials in this state - he can only be knocked off by her time running out or taking 10%, also able to get off by simply holding down on the control stick. By airdodging while Iron Tail is clinging, you control Esmerelda in a recovery similar to Montresor's, except lasting for infinite time, meaning you can actually have Montresor out pressuring the foe instead of babysitting him. She lasts for 20 seconds.
Playstyle
Iron Tail has hardly any damage racking options. He needs to poison the foe to damage rack. Stallstallstall, Rackrackrack, Stealstealsteal, so on and so forth. If all else fails and you're at a high damage percent, tell your pets to take the foes down with them. By all means...play dirty!
3 VS 1 BOSS
* Iron Tail's entrance is changed, he is shown reading from an evil spell book, before laughing maniacally as his 2 minions stand by his side. * Iron Tail and his minions are now constantly covered in a gray aura, it's subtle, but noticeable. * Iron Tail can escape status effects such as prone 3 times as quick. * If Iron Tail is being comboed/infinitied, after he takes 20%, he will cover himself in a very brief fire spell - but it covers his whole body and deals 13% and heavy GTFO knockback to anyone around him. * The weight of your minions is tripled. * Iron Tail has his weight altered to a 10/10. Unheard of for a boss, but this is leading up to the biggest buff in the set... * Iron Tail's minions will stay on the field after Iron Tail is knocked out, still able to use attacks, alebit they will constantly stay in the foreground and will lose their buffs - Iron Tail's dark magic no longer protecting them. However, all this time, a gray aura is forming in the middle of the stage...if the minions are not KOed in 15 seconds, Iron Tail will step out, health fully restored as the minions regain their buffs. * This also works with the minions, if one is KOed, it will reappear in 15 seconds if Iron Tail isn't KOed. Minions will not reappear if Iron Tail is KOed during this time - his revival taking priority over their's. This makes their suicide KOs more effective, of course. * The amount it takes for eggs to be knocked out of Iron Tail is doubled - a meaty 30%. * Montresor's flight time in Up Special is increased to 30 seconds. * The range of Iron Tail's poison special is doubled and moves twice as quick. * Foes are forced to hold eggs for 5 seconds before they can toss them away - mindgame potential with the fake eggs is increased. Speaking of fake eggs, those automatically double the amount of poison damage you're taking as a side effect. * Burrows need to take 20% before they will release their item. * The Web's stamina is buffed to 50%. Escape difficulty is doubled. * Iron Tail gains immunity to hitstun/knockback during his dash attack. End Lag here is doubled, however. * Montresor will automatically move towards the nearest foe while he's a tornado. Can be cancelled by pressing the input again. * Montresor will move a full Final Destination during his forward tilt, able to cancel out by pressing the input again. Foes have an easier time DI-ing out of this, however. Most obvious purpose here, of course, is just positioning yourself to save Iron Tail. * Up Tilt deals double damage. * Montresor will hold his wings out if the down tilt input is held, giving this a slight charge property as the wind gains a battlefield platform distance each second. * Down Smash will not release the item until after the foe is released, and is twice as fast to make. * If Iron Tail is attacked by multiple foes, he will place pieces of magic bubblegum in all of their mouths. Lasts 7 seconds instead of 5 - which adds up when you account for each piece of bubblegum in their mouth. * Pummel will steal a random prop used by a random foe regardless of whether or not it was the last move used. * Up Throw launches them twice the normal distance. * Forward Throw puts the foes into a footstooled state for a second if they exit in midair. * The spider releases the foes sequentially instead of all at once in the bthrow, they can deal light damage and knockback if they clash with each other like this. * Down Throw now has 3x escape difficulty. * Iron Tail does not lose his jumps if he doesn't get anyone with his nair. * The time on fair is buffed to 10 seconds. * Each hit of bair now does 5%, the tail enlarging a bit for this move to give it a wider hitbox. * The uair is now spammable, not nearly as laggy. * Iron Tail can cancel out of the dair by tapping the input again. Also actually gimps them, with strength slightly weaker than Ganon's dair.
Extras
IRON TAIL'S LAIR
As the name quite literally explains, this is the lair of Iron Tail from Peter Cottontail - here he plots to take over April Valley with Montresor and his spider, and uses it as his base of operations throughout the film.
Obviously, it serves as Iron Tail's homestage in the game. All of the above image is in the picture, the main difference being that it extends off to the left to create a very large walk-off - actually decent considering the token amount of trap/tunnel characters that are in Make Your Move. The whole thing is about as wide as Melee Final Destination. The entire bottom of the stage is solid and extends down to the bottom blast zone - the edge hangs out an entire Battlefield Plateform, and the aerial portion is quite large, meaning aerial battles will be quite prevalent. The entire thing is flat - but it's not like we don't need some giant flat stage for MYM.
Entrance Iron Tail and the spider ride in on Montresor. As they assume their places in the background, Iron Tail proclaims "Play dirty!".
Up Taunt Iron Tail looks through his book of evil spells, for something he can use to defeat the foe, chuckling to himself as he looks over his choices.
Side Taunt Iron Tell lets out an obligatory evil laugh, putting his hands on his hips.
Down Taunt Iron Tail's iron tail lets out a loud clang, shaking a bit, just as it does in the special.
Victory Pose 1 Iron Tail is turned to the foes, crying out "I hereby proclaim an end to Easter Bonnets! From now on, there will only be...Easter Galoshes!", holding out a pair of said galoshes as he does so.
Victory Pose 2 Iron Tail lets out a brief chuckle, adjusting his suit and brushing it off as he does so.
Victory Pose 3 Montresor is seen in this victory pose, as Iron Tail hops on his back and flies around the screen, laughing manically. Eventually, he stops and gives the camera an evil grin.
Victory Pose Vs. Easter-themed characters/rabbits Iron Tail points to the specified characters, letting out an order: "You've had your fun with this brawling! Now...get to work, everything must be ready for MY Easter!" He laughs.
Victory Pose Vs. Yukon Cornelius/Burgermeister/Any non-Easter Holiday-themed character Iron Tail faces the screen and crosses his arms, addressing them with his back turned: "Why don't you stick to your own holiday?"
My, my...my precious eggescope is telling me that the Organization's standards have lowered. Next thing you know, they'll put in that wretched Arrow!
On playstyle sections...it is not as much that I don't like writing them, as much as I have a very hard time writing them. That little playstyle section at the bottom? That's the product of about 2 hours of thinking, if you can believe it. XD I have a very hard time describing playstyle on stuff, I think, because when I look at what I said in my moves, it all seems...self-evident. Like when I am writing it, that all I would do is just go over what is known already, which I get the impression is not in style for playstyles? I could be wrong, but yes.
For the Side Special...yeah, that was probably a bad idea, but I just love that solo action command so much! In retrospect, it would have been smart to replace it...maybe with a counter? But yeah, this was probably a bad idea.
But it lets you imagine sick Ike air guitar solos with his sword, so I'm happy.
As for the water-clone thing...heh, yeah. It's what makes the Demyx fight so memorable, so I felt it's inclusion was a must, and it ended up being really fun to work with, even if I am sure a good deal of people won't like insta-KO mechanics.
As an aside note...gotta read through the rest of the Organization for commenting. Might be slow, but I hope it will be good.
Playstyle sections are generally done as a kind of summary/wrap-up thing. Having said that, I only make mine so long because I enjoy writing them, just a paragraph saying what their general strengths/weaknesses is fine otherwise.
Early is the main character of the Adult Swim show Squidbillies. A good ol' boy from Georgia, Early is a barely-literate, foul-mouthed, alcoholic, ex-convict. He's also quick to anger, and expresses it in violent ways via a shotgun or knives he carries on his person. Early was featured in a season 1 episode as the CEO—and resident scapegoat—at Dan Halen Industries and also runs a number of illegal home operations, including whiskey bootlegging. He is most often seen with his 12 gauge shotgun.
Neutral Special XXX Shotgun
Early pulls out his 12 gauge and ***** it at the foe, saying, "Watchu say, nancy boy?" Tapping this again will make Early aim and shoot it while laughin' like a bonafied maniac, sending a spray of bullets that deals 35% at point blank and degrading to 3% at two Stage Builder Unit's distance away.
Side Special XXX Throwin' Knife
Early takes out a dangerous looking knive and jabs it forward, warning the foe, "Come over here boy so I can shank ya." Tapping this again while he has it out has him throw it like a dart, and it deals 4% and sticks in foes, making them bleed which deals 1% each second for four seconds. You can stack this up to five times. While they are bleeding, Early says, "Woo, run red you sum'*****!"
Up Special XXX Inked
Early clenches his anus and releases a geyser of ink from his bottom which propels him upward a good distance, the same as Fox's up special. He grunts like he's ****ting mighty powerful, and it deals 10% to foes who get inked on. The ink forms a puddle on the stage which is quite slippery. He laughs when they slide on his ink.
Down Special XXX Whiskey
Early takes out some of his best whiskey and chugs it, getting a power boost of 1.5x over the next five seconds. After that, he has a hangover that reduces his speed and power to 0.5x. Be careful when drunk, though, because he has terrible traction. You can also throw the empty bottle at the foe (it's a held item after you use this) and it breaks if used as a battering item or thrown, dealing 5% on the initial hit and 7% with bleeding on hits with a broken bottle.
"How utterly fascinating."
(Yes, the image hasa white background. Sue me.)
Astamon is an Ultimate(In Japan, "Perfect") level Digimon, but is strong enough to overpower even Mega-level Digimon. It is quite charismatic and friendly to it's allies, but ruthlessly cruel to those who oppose it. Because of this, it has gained quite a following among Digimon of the Dark Area. It's prided machine Gun "Oro Salmón"(Translated to "Gold Salmon". Yes, really) fires bullets with their own free will, so they will chase enemies to the end of hell itself.
But enough about that. Let's make him a cosplay.
Neutral Special: Oro Salmón
Astamon('s cosplayer) fires off three bullets from his Oro Salmón. These bullets do 5% damage each and quite light knockback, but as you may have guessed by that little blurb there, it will track down opponent's. In fact, it's tracking is VERY good: They'll stop in place and turn around to catch foes that breeze right past them, make sharp turns and even try to predict opponent's movements, all in an attempt to track down the opponent. They might even fan out or circle around to try to trap the foe!
This move has a fast startup time, but the lag is bad, as Astamon brings Oro Salmón to his mouth and blows the smoke off of it dramatically. You can hold down B to keep firing this after the initial three, but that'll add more lag to the end of the move.
Remember how the bullets had a will of their own? That does not just mean they track down opponents: That also means they care not for their master being there or not! The bullets might not track you down, but they WILL hit you, so try to avoid that, since you'll clear your bullets away and, of course, take the damage/knockback...and of course, a clever foe might try to lead you into your bullets or your bullets in to you. As more bullets come out, this can get pretty frantic.
Oro Salmón only holds 51 bullets at a time, so if you use them all up, this move will instead simply cause Astamon to rid himself of the current empty cartridge and replace it with a fresh one, at moderate lag. The bullets travel at about the speed of an uncharged Samus' Charge Shot, maybe a bit faster.
Down Special: Silver Blade
Astamon scrunches down, blade in front of him, in a counter move. If the opponent hits Astamon with a non-projectile move, he will simply duck into the background and around the character, stabbing his knife into the opponent's back for 4% and no knockback, running away a little as he does to put some space between him and the foe. The knife remains lodged in the foe: If Astamon had a full moveset, it would probably mean he loses all his knife-using moves, but since this is a Cosplay, he only uses this one, as it's the only one he has that uses a knife.
While the knife is lodged in the opponent's back, they will take constant non-flinching 1% damage each second, until it is dislodged, which is done by travelling one Final Destination's worth of distance on the ground, with rolls getting it off a bit faster. When it's dislodged, it'll fall to the ground, requiring Astamon to recover it by using this move over it if he wants to use this move again: If it goes off-screen, such as due to a scrolling stage, then you will have no knife. Using this over a knife just causes you to pick it up really quickly.
Buuuuuuuut...
If you manage to hit a knife lodged in the opponent, which is done by the opponent getting hit by ANY attack whose hitbox would overlap with the knife, then the knife will be lodged even deeper into the opponent. After about every 8% of damage that overlaps with the knife, it'll be lodged deep enough to deal more damage, with 1% being added for every 8% you do, up to a maximum of 10% per second. At the same time, the opponent can dislodge the knife as stated by moving, which will also cause the knife to go out more and therefor do less damage. Every Battlefield platform run is equal to 8% damage taken off, so run a Battlefield Platform and you'll take 1% less damage. Rolls take off a bit more per distance traveled.
Simple, right?
Side Special: Maverick
Astamon does a spinkick, the foot covered in a bit of a dark energy. The move itself does 8% damage and is angleable like Luigi's F-Tilt, though it does pretty sad knockback, but it comes out very fast, though it has moderate ending lag. The primary use of this move is obvious, given it's angle-ability and quick start lag, which is to hit the knife with exactly 8% damage to dig it in deeper, you're probably wondering if that "dark energy" does.
This energy will cause enemies, when hit by it and shielding, to take a LOT of shield damage from it. It'll, in fact, take out about half of a normal Brawl character's shield. This is pretty good for Astamon, as people will likely want to shield the hit to avoid it hitting the knife, and shields are one of the best ways to block Oro Salmón's bullets once the timing is gotten down. This move will punish them.
Up Special: Tekeport
A pretty generic teleport, as Astamon envelopes himself in darkness as he selects a direction. Then, he'll pop up in that direction, at about 3/4th's the length of Mewtwo's teleport. This move does no damage, but the dark energies used for his teleport will stay around for about 3 seconds, both where he inputted it and where he popped out. Anyone or anything that enters this dark energy is teleported, just like Astamon was, which can allow you to mess around with enemy projectiles...or your own. Who knows, you might even teleport in front of an opponent, sidestep and have those bullets hit your foe!
It is pretty quick on both ends, though laggier at the end, and you'll go into helpless in the air, so you don't want to abuse it too much.
Cosplay Strategy:
Astamon generally wants to be picked up by a character without a projectile with a close up style, as not only will it allow them to fight back against ranged characters with Oro Salmón, but the anti-shield ability of Maverick will help stop opponents wanting to constantly shieldgrab you, while giving you a pretty good recovery(Which a lot of them lack) and even a way to tack on residual damage with Silver Blade, which likes physical attacks more than projectile ones. That's about all there is to using Astamon's cosplay. Just remember that if you just plain camp, you leave yourself open to your own projectiles being used against you!
