FrozenRoy
Smash Lord
"My five requests that so many humans in the past have failed to complete...
How many can you fulfill?"
The Sinner of Eternity and The Instanteous
Kaguya Houraisan
How many can you fulfill?"
The Sinner of Eternity and The Instanteous
Kaguya Houraisan
The final boss of Imperishable Night, Kaguya Houraisan is the most important piece of the game's taking of plot from the ancient story, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. Indeed, this story is considered the oldest existant Japanese narrative.
In the original tale, Taketori no Okina is out cutting bamboo, when one day he discovers an infant the size of a thumb inside the bamboo. Rejoicing to find such a beautiful girl, he takes her home and him and his wife raise her as their child, giving her the name Kaguya-hime. Every day after this, Taketori would find a gold nugget inside the bamboo he cut down, quickly becoming rich. As this happened, Kaguya-hime grew up to be a woman of ordinary height, but extraordinary beauty that, despite Taketori's best efforts, spreads far and wide.
Eventually, five princes come to Taketori's house, intending to take Kaguya-hime's hand in marriage and eventually persuade him to tell a reluctant Kaguya-hime to take one of their hands in marriage. Unwanting to become married, Kaguya-hime agrees to marry any of them who can complete the task she gives them, and concocts five impossible tasks: The first, to bring the Buddha's stone begging bowl from India. The second, a jeweled branch from the mythical island of Hourai. The third, the robe of China's legendary fire-rat. The fourth, a colored jewel from a dragon's neck. And finally, the cowrie of a swallow. Seeing these tasks as impossible, some of the princes attempt to deceive her, but she sees through each one. Another gives up after encountering a great storm, while the last dies in his attempt.
Following this, the Japanese Emperor Mikado comes to Kaguya-Hime's house to see this strangely beautiful girl, and he too falls in love with her. Although she does not give him the impossible requests, he is still rejected, although the two become friends, Kaguya-hime rebuffing any and all attempts at marriage. The summer of that year, Kaguya-hime would stay up and cry every night she saw the full moon, and although her parents worried for her she would not say why, her behavoir becoming increasingly erratic until she reveals that she is not from Earth, but from the moon, and that she must return there. The exact reasons why she is on Earth varies, from a temporary punishment to a celestial war.
As the day of her return to the moon drew closer, the Emperor sent many of his guards to attempt to stop Kaguya-hime's return, but all are blinded when the moon's heavenly emessaries alive. Kaguya-hime says that although she loved her friends on Earth, she had to return to her people. Writing sorrowful notes of apology to her parents and the emperor, she takes a small taste of the elixer of life and attaches it to the letter that she sends to the Emperor. The Emperor, reading the letter and becoming overcome with sadness, asks his guards which mountain is the closest to Heaven and commands his loyalest guards to burn the the letter, in hopes it would reach Kaguya-hime, and to burn the elixer, because he did not wish to live forever without Kaguya-hime. Legend has it that the word for immortality would become what the mountain was known by: Mount Fuji.
It is said that the smoke from the burning still rises to this day.
Touhou's version differs in a few ways: Kaguya is exiled from the moon due to drinking the Hourai Elixer, an elixer of total immortality, and therefor was probably not discovered as a thumb-sized infant. In addition, Kaguya does not wish to return to the moon even after her exile is over because she has fallen in love with Earth and the Lunarians (that's their name in Touhou) send emissaries to bring her back. She enlists the help of her dear friend, the maker of the Hourai Elixer and leader of the emissaries, Eirin Yagokoro, who slays all the other emisarries in betrayal. To hide from the Lunarians, she and Eirin flee to Gensokyo, hiding in the ancient manor Eientei within the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. This is also what kickstarts the plot of Imperishable Night: Eirin replaces the true moon with a false moon to prevent any Lunarians who may find them due to taking in Reisen Udongein Inaba from finding them, which our heroes investigate.
While in Gensokyo, Kaguya Houraisan was reunited with Fujiwara no Mokou, the daughter of one of the men who was rejected by Kaguya via her Five Impossible Requests. Because Mokou also drain the Hourai Elixer, stealing it from the Emperor's guards (More on that when we get to Mokou), she too is immortal and has a heavy grudge. Because of this, Kaguya and Mokou have spent the last 300 years endlessly murdering each other nearly daily after their reuniting.
In terms of actual Touhou abilities and stuff, Kaguya is a Hourai Immortal, as she has drank the Hourai Elixer. This means Kaguya is completely, totally and utterly immortal. Indeed, the very concept of death has been removed from Kaguya's body. She does not age, cannot die, regenerates from any wound (with varying amounts of time) and regenerates to full instantly if her body is distinigrated or whatnot. Indeed it is possible even going back in time would not allow one to kill Kaguya due to the mechanics of this. She also has the power of manipulatng the eternal and the instanteous, which she used with Eirin to create the Hourai Elixer in the first place. The full extent of this power is unknown, but she is easily able to tear apart the heroes' spell to stop time from advancing that night and it is theorized this is why Eieintei has remained eternally pristine. It is also theorized that she can effect quantum effects and manipulate alternate timelines with this power. After the events of Imperishable Night, Kaguya opens up Eieintei more and now often shows exhibits of Lunarian artifacts and treasures for Gensokyo to admire. She is lonely from her long isolation and will tell stories to anyone who is willing to listen. Regal, refined and powerful, Kaguya is a forced to be reckoned with.
Fanon can be divided into two camps: Kaguya treated as a joke and Kaguya treated seriously. Due to various effects, Kaguya is often treated as a joke, such as being a NEET, an unemployed nerd who sits around surfing the internet or playing games all day, due to spending 1000 years in isolation, and needing to call on Eirin for assistance in combat (Ironically, it is Kaguya who comes to Eirin's aid in the game), due to the fact that Kaguya is a particularly easy Touhou final boss (Indeed, some consider Eirin, the "fake" final boss, to be harder than Kaguya). More serious portrayals, which are also closer to canon, tend to emphasize Kaguya's eternal rivalry with Mokou, her refinedness and in some cases ignorance and her substantial power. It is also popular fanon that Kaguya is related to Sakuya, for multiple reasons: Their names go together (Sakuya means Flowering Night, while Izayoi is literally Sixteenth Night, or the night after the full moon. Kaguya's name means shining, sparkling or radiant night and is associated with the full moon), Sakuya has a mysterious past and it is suggested she is not human (Ergo, a common depiction is that Sakuya is actually a Lunarian), they both have time powers, Eirin's profile mentions she is surprised to see Sakuya (but not why) and Sakuya's time stopping watch is named the "Luna Dial", suggesting a lunar connection.
Statistics
Kaguya's elegant princess form is very similiar to another princess' form in Smash Brothers, Peach, but she is a decent deal heavier, about the same weight as Ness and Lucas. She is not, however, particularly fast and travels at Ike speed, with somewhat poor traction.
Aerially, Kaguya is a floaty character who doesn't control particularly well or go through it particularly fast, which makes her susceptible to over the top kills and not the best choice for a bobbing, weaving aerial assault. Her first jump isn't particularly good, but her second jump is actually fairly fine, and she has a float that has the exact same everything as Peach's. She has no other special Brawl powers.
Mechanic: Hourai Immortal
As mentioned, Kaguya is a hourai immortal, who has had the very essence of death removed from them. She regenerates from any wound, revives from any death and does not age. Fortunately Brawl is not about killing your foe but merely KOing them and Kaguya can be KO'd, so she is perfectly beatable. However, she will regenerate from wounds during the course of the battle, healing 4% every 2 seconds. Note that does not mean she heals 2% in 1 second, but will heal it in 2 second chunks. Healing is interrupted if she is in hitstun from a foe's attack at that moment.
Specials
"This half-finished eternal night that you have made...
With my spell to manipulate eternity, I'll tear it all away.
The dawn shall be upon us soon.
How's that?
With this, your spell of eternal night shall be broken, and the dawn shall come!"
With my spell to manipulate eternity, I'll tear it all away.
The dawn shall be upon us soon.
How's that?
With this, your spell of eternal night shall be broken, and the dawn shall come!"
Neutral Special: Eternity Lock
Kaguya places a single palm forward and concentrates hard, causing the area a Battlefield platform in front of her and a little over a Ganondorf up to flash monocrome for a moment. This does not last long, so the timing is a bit strict to hit with this. An opponent hit by this doesn't take damage, but will have their character's color palette turn muted and monochrome and take flinching. They have been eternity locked.
An opponent hit by this will take no damage, though they will take knockback, until Neutral Special is used again. When you use it, the opponent takes all the damage they would have while eternity locked, and is flung away with the highest knockback of all attacks they were hit with during that time, though it knocks them away at the % they were at when you cancelled the Eternity Lock (IE if you did 40% and they were at 30%, they would be knocked away as if at 30%).
So, what's the point of this move? Quite simple, really: Using it locks the opponent at that % until you cancel it, allowing you to keep them in certain damage ranges for your attacks. For example, let us say you had an attack that true combo'd into another attack at 30%. You could put the foe into an Eternity Lock at 30%, then you can always have that combo ready even as you're actually dealing the foe damage!
The Eternity Lock is an incredibly powerful tool due to this, allowing you to keep foes in perfect range for your attacks. In addition, cancelling the Eternity Lock is virtually lagless, so you can cancel it to interrupt plenty of things. Of course once you cancel an Eternity Lock you have to hit with it again for the foe to be locked...
If you want, Kaguya can instead hold down B and she will Eternity Lock herself, allowing her to keep herself at proper percentages to avoid getting combo'd by foes or, if approaching KO percentage, to keep herself alive a bit longer. It automatically is cancelled after 5 seconds, whereupon Kaguya takes all the damage and healing she would have gained during that time (The Eternity Lock also locks healing), though she will not be knocked away. She cannot use it on herself for a while after and she cannot Eternity Lock herself while any foe is Eternity Locked due to B simply cancelling the foe's Eternity Lock.
The Eternity Lock isn't too laggy to start up and it has only a touch high ending lag, but the duration of the hitbox is incredibly short, so Kaguya must be incredibly precise when trying to hit with this move. So, it is both eternal and instant. How appropriate.
Down Special: Eternally Instant
Kaguya extends both of her arms to her sides and causes a field to expand around her. The color of this field depends on if you tapped or tilted the control stick. Tilting it will cause the field to be a jet black, while a tapped control stick creates a pure white field. This field doesn't actually do any damage, so try to avoid just plain using this move in the foe's face. As a note, characters, objects and so on inside the field will take on the opposite color of the field as their appearance. For example, if Kaguya made a pure white field, her model would appear to be a totally jet black silhouette of herself. The field is a little under half the radius of a Smart Bomb.
What the field does depends on what it is. A jet black field is an Eternity Field. Within the Eternity Field, things last forever. A projectile which would enter the Eternity Field is stopped the instant it's full model is inside it, stuck in place with it's hitbox remaining on, essentially turning it into a static trap. Physical hitboxes remain long after the movements have stopped, though only the hitbox as it initially comes out, even items will freeze in place if they spawn inside. The only thing that remains moving inside an Eternity Field is players, who can move about it freely to fill it with whatever hitboxes they most desire. Hitboxes inside Eternity Fields do not have priority.
A pure white field is it's exact opposite, an Instant Field. Within the Instant Field, projectiles zip to the end instantly and as soon as they enter, their entire hitbox of the time they would have gone through the field happening in a single moment. Physical attacks have their full hitboxes and every hitbox in them come out instantly, but last for a mere moment. Items that spawn despawn almost instantly, requiring extreme reflects to use. Once again, only players are unaffected, so they go through it normally.
Fields can overlap, allowing you to expand the same field on top of itself. Opposing fields that overlap simply cancel each other out where they overlap, although this allows Kaguya to create new shapes limited only by what you can do with the placement of two circles. Both fields last 5 seconds. The lag times on each field is the same, but opposite: Eternity Fields are quick to come up, but Kaguya has long ending lag. Instant Fields takes a while to get up, but Kaguya recovers almost instantly. Both fields last 5 seconds total. Remember that opponents can use all of your field effects.
Side Special: Eternity Break
Kaguya raises both of her arms behind her, then crashes them forward, causing the area 1.2 Battlefield Platforms in front of her to go monochrome and seemingly shatter, as if it's old skin has been broken to reveal the new skin underneath (which looks the exact same). Enemies caught in this have the same effect happen to them, along with 8% damage and no knockback or flinching. While this move comes out pretty quick, the very long ending lag can feel one feeling underwhelmed. The duration of the attack is also incredibly short, requiring precision.
If an opponent is shielding this strike, however, it'll not only deal double damage to the shield, but break its internal clock, causing it to cease regenerating for an extremely long 10 seconds. They will also take extremely long shield stun from this, enough to cover even this move's ending lag. Kaguya can use this again, but the shield stun won't stack, so it is only good to get in even more shield damage...the best thing to do is to launch off one of your other attacks to put pressure on the foe. Getting hit by it without shielding causes much less adverse effects: Cooldown on any attacks the foe has will not count down. The opponent's attacks will take twice as long to charge, such as Samus' charge shot and smash attacks. Finally, this will cancel any time effects the opponent has them aside from Kaguya's. Kaguya can also use this move to "break" time stops and move freely during them along with the area of time she breaks, just like how she broke the heroines time stop at the end of Imperishable Night. This effect also lasts for 10 seconds.
The uses of this move are fairly wide, as Kaguya can use it to force opponent's to lose charge and thus help her own defensive cause with her hourai immortality, but the most important piece of this move is to strike at the enemies shield. Thanks to the long shield stun, she can follow up with a variety of moves to begin combos, and her ability to stun shields makes her an excellent shield breaker. Finally, putting this in her eternity fields is pretty nice, as an opponent who shields in it will end up stunning their shield. Do note you'll only get the shield stun once in an Eternity Field and the hitbox once in it unless the foe leaves the hitbox and re-enters. It'd be kinda stupid if they got eternally hit, after all. Eternity Break does not stack.
Up Special: Instant Transmission
Kaguya's entire body goes monochrome, before it disappears in an instant. Kaguya will reappear wherever she was exactly one second ago, allowing Kaguya to instantly go back to where she was...though the opponent can just hit her when she is there and one might not always have this be useful when knocked away. Starting lag is very quick and it takes Kaguya only a single frame to teleport, but it does have a bit high ending lag, so be careful about it. It also has a two second cooldown.
If you hold down B, Kaguya will instead teleport a Battlefield platform in a held direction, then enter helpless. THis has longer starting lag, but can be better used for recovery in some situations, can be used for movement and still takes only a single frame to teleport. Since it doesn't go far and deals no damage, it still makes for a bit poor of a recovery. This version does not have a cooldown and is unaffected by the cooldown.
Smashes
Forward Smash: Impossible Request "Bullet Branch of Hourai -Rainbow Danmaku-"
During battle in Imperishable Night, Kaguya uses the five Impossible Request items she asked for in battle. However, only one of them is the genuine thing: The Jeweled Branch of Hourai. Because of this, and the fact it is her last Impossible Request spellcard, it is commonly depicted as her weapon of choice. Because of this, Kaguya can be seen carrying it in Brawl.
Kaguya swings forward the Jeweled Branch of Hourai, shooting forward a single bullet that oscilates through the colors of the rainbow. This bullet is quite large, about 3/4ths the size of a fully charged Charge Shot, and travels at the speed of Wolf's blaster. At no charge, it goes 3/4ths of a Battlefield platform, while a fully charged shot goes 1 1/4th Battlefield platforms. This does 17%-21% damage and good, but odd, knockback. The knockback from this rainbow danmaku is "reversed", meaning that instead of...for example...hitting the opponent forward and away from you, the opponent is actually knocked towards you. This Impossible Request is therefor quite good for setting up for further attacks. The knockback is also odd in the sense that it actually has quite a low base knockback, but quite high knockback growth. Because of this, it specifically combos into attacks better at higher percentages. How impossible. It will KO at 180%-165%, so it isn't an especially good KO move. It best combos at 50% and over.
Down Smash: Impossible Request "Robe of Fire Rat -Patient Mind-"
The fire rat was a legendary creature that supposedly existed in China. A robe created from it was said to be able to make it's user immune to fire. No matter how much the robe is set aflame, not a single piece burns away. Is she trying to touch a phoenix or something?
Kaguya takes out this robe from her own clothing and spins the blazing robe around her, having the robe gracefully return up the other sleeve of her own robe at the end of the spin. Those struck by this enflamed item are dealt 15%-19% damage and some low knockback away from Kaguya in flame damage. Kaguya has super armor while she spins around with the robe while attacking, for the last bit of her starting lag and for a split moment at the start of the ending lag. Because of this, Kaguya can use it as a psuedo-counter or simply as a strong attack. Starting lag is fairly average, but the ending lag is a bit quick. It doesn't really have much of any range to it.
If Kaguya charges the attack, then she will get increased super armor time on the attack. At full charge, about half of her starting and ending lag will be super armored. Kaguya will gain a slight resistance to fire attacks for some moments after using this move, but it is fairly neglible.
Up Smash: Impossible Request "Jewel from the Dragon's Neck -Five-Colored Shots-"
One of Kaguya's impossible requests was to retrieve a brilliant jewel from a dragon's neck and, presumably, return alive. His request was too left unfulfilled.
Kaguya holds an arm up and levitates the jewel from her robe, allowing it to release a brilliant explosion of rainbow bullets and lasers. They don't fly off as projectiles, but instead work as a localized yet deadly explosion, dealing 19%-24% damage and strong downward spiking knockback. If opponents do not tech this knockback, they are left in prone. Although this attack has kinda long starting lag, it takes a moment for the jewel to actually fire it's shot, it has a short duration and quite short ending lag, so Kaguya can effectively combo from this on a hit. Note, however, that this move combos MUCH better at lower percentages, because at higher percentages the opponent can hit the ground and tech too impossibly fast for Kaguya to appropriately follow up. It best combos from 50% and under.
This move can serve as an excellent edge guarding move if the opponent attempts to go over you or if they are close enough to get hit by it, because it will spike them quite strongly down and off the stage. While it is difficult to set up, the reward is simply exquisite.
Standards
Jab: Jeweled Jab of Hourai
Kaguya swings once with her Jeweled Branch of Hourai, then comes back for another quick swing and ends the combination with a surprisingly powerful looking punch to the foe. Each of the first two hits do 3% damage, while the last attack does 6% damage and knocks the foe a pretty good distance away. While it is a very standard jab, it also comes out really quick and the first two hits can be added to a lot of combos to add 6% damage with some little risky. It also is a good move to simply get breathing room and the last hit moves Kaguya forward a little. At low damage %s, the first hit leads to grabs against most characters (particularly small characters can avoid it).
Down Tilt: Impossible Request "Buddha's Stone Bowl -Indomitable Will-"
The Buddha's stone bowl is a real life object and thus one of Kaguya's requests that is theoritically possible, though in the world of Touhou where myths are real presumably they are all various amounts of possible. The Buddha's stone bowl supposedly glowed with a holy light when viewed, so Kaguya-hime could easily see through the fake bowl when it did not shine.
Kaguya levitates the stone bowl out of her robe's sleeve and slams it into the ground, causing a localized earthquake half a Battlefield platform to both sides of her, sending out lunar blue shockwaves. This quickly started move deals a nice 11% damage to anyone it hits and will cause anyone it hits to trip. The shockwaves look like they'll hit only the ground, but the energy from them licks ever-so-slightly off the ground, so it can spike people who perform low shorthops into the ground as well. After each slam, Kaguya can press A to near laglessly levitate the bowl up again and slam it down again to create another shockwave. Because there is a very large range of timing Kaguya can use for this, she can vary the timing of her shockwaves to mess with the timing of enemy dodges or shields. She can also hold down A during the initial use of this move to "delay" it a little bit.
The starting lag for this move isn't too long, but it does have fairly long ending lag. Tripping should have some pretty obvious uses of messing with or setting up the foe, but do note that it will not repeatedly trip foes inside an Eternity field, but just trip them once. Same with the damage. So no, you can't make the entire floor a death trap. This move is, however, incredibly dangerous with an Instant Field, as she can send tripping shockwaves across its entire length incredibly quickly, forcing enemies to either take to the sky in the field, go around the field or exit the field and go for a new method of approach, especially with her ability to vary the shockwave timing. This move combos incredibly well with your Up Smash at lower percents.
Up Tilt: Brilliant Dragon Bullets
Kaguya waves her arm above her while the dragon jewel shoots out rainbow bullets in the arc it travels, looking almost solid. Getting hit by these does only 8% damage and pops the foe only lightly into the air but this actually puts foes into a bit of an awkward spot as the low knockback forces them to either jump away or go into a quick air dodge to avoid from falling into this attack again. That is because the bullets from this move actually linger for about half a second or so after use, especially useful due to the fact that this move has incredibly low ending lag, though the starting lag is pretty standard. This move combos directly from Forward Smash from 50% to 75% or so, and a fun thing to do is fire off a Forward Smash, then instantly use this move to hit anyone who got hit by Forward Smash with this move's lingering hitbox, allowing you to combo off this move's hitbox even once it is gone. Very versatile and also incredibly useful as an anti-air since it can linger through poorly timed air dodges.
Since Eternity Fields start up pretty quick, you can actually catch the bullets in a new Eternity Field by starting it up quickly after the move ends, while the bullets linger. Quite useful.
Forward Tilt: Jeweled Swing
Kaguya pulls her arm back and delivers a powerful swing in front of her with the Jeweled Branch of Hourai! This is a fairly strong attack that deals 12% damage and some fairly strong, shallow knockback. It's not with a lot of KO power, but it can be dangerous near the edge due to the shallowness of the knockback. The fact that the knockback is so shallow also allows it to nicely combine with projectiles that are frozen in your Eternity Fields, most notably your Forward Smash. Bouncing foes off the Forward Smash with this can be incredibly rewarding.
It also has an incredibly precise sweetspot at the very edge of the branch. If you hit with this sweetspot, the foe will not be knocked back at all, and instead simply be stopped in place. It creates a lot of follow-ups because of the very low ending lag of this move, but this move having long starting lag means chaining them is impossible barring an opponent just choosing to stand there. A nice tool.
Dash Attack: Princess Power
Kaguya pulls both of her arms in front of her face, then throws them out to the sides in front of her as she comes to a stop. Despite Kaguya's dainty look she is pretty strong and putting the force from her dash into the attack allows her to deal 15% damage and KO at 135%, making it one of Kaguya's better KO moves. It has absolutely no combo potential, though. It also has long lag on both ends, which makes it tricky to use, but the addition of keeping its hitbox in Eternity Fields and using them to knock foes into it makes it useful.
With some trickery of Eternity Lock, you can actually KO the foe at around 80% or 90%. Lock them at that percentage, then hit them with this move: While they are flying through the air, cancel your Eternity Lock and they will take more knockback, pushing them over the edge! This is a trick that works with plenty of Kaguya's ot her KO moves, so keep it in mind as the foe hits higher percents!
Grab Game
Grab: Lunatic Princess
Kaguya brings one of her hands to her mouth and lashes out forwards with her other. As far as grab range goes it is pretty unimpressive, but it is decently fast and has very little time to be punished. Good for shield grabs.
Pummel: Princess Punch
Kaguya brings a fist back and slams it into the foe's face (or face substitute) for 3% damage. Slow, but powerful pummel.
Down Throw: Instant Remission
Kaguya levitates the foe in front of her the same way she levitates her treasures and focuses her powers with closed eyes, before opening them and causing both her and the foe to go monochrome for a moment as she slams the foe into the ground for 7% damage that pops the foe up a fair deal. This move doesn't deal a lot of damage and it doesn't have a lot of follow-up chances due to ending lag and the size of the knockback, but it has an extremely useful secondary effect.
For the next 5 seconds, attacks against Kaguya will temporally distort and rebound against their master. Opponents will take half the damage and knockback of attacks they hit Kaguya with, though they will take zero hitstun. A strong defensive measure, the foe and Kaguya both have unique advantages here: The foe obviously takes less damage and knockback, but Kaguya can heal off her damage. However, the fact the foe does not take hitstun, but will still be knocked out of lag, means some foes can actually combo Kaguya by utilizing this quirk, especially those with odd knockback angles or pure vertical options. Because of this, Kaguya should be careful when using this move. It is also particularly good in Eternity Fields, as it offers Kaguya a degree of protection from opposing hitboxes that are stuck in them by dealing half to the foe...indeed, Kaguya can even willingly hit herself against these static hitboxes if the foe is far away and heal off the damage due to the space. You could even run into one of these hitboxes on purpose after launching a foe away to aid in a KO!
Forward Throw: Turn The Beat Back
Kaguya once again levitates the foe in front of them, their color inverting as she activates her power and in an instant, they're gone! Well, not quite: They have merely taken 7% damage from the trip and been temporally displaced to where they were precisely 2 seconds ago. A tricky throw to use, Kaguya can make use of her lingering hitboxes in Eternity Fields to place foe in dire spots with this move, in addition to creating projectiles that can easily fill areas the foe had beeen previously and to use Instant Fields to send projectiles direct to the foe's face when they're repositioned. Finally, it is obviously going to be a great move to get the foe off your back most of the time. This move has a two second and a half second cooldown, preventing someone from simply infiniting with this move: During this cooldown, it is replaced by a generic levitating toss that deals 13% damage and KOs at 200%.
Up Throw: Impossible Request "Swallow's Cowrie Shell -Everlasting Life-"
One of Kaguya's impossible requests was a cowrie shell from a swallow's nest. In some versions of the original tale, one of the princes hears that the cowrie shell is actually in a nest on the top of Kaguya's roof, and recklessly attempts to force his way to the roof to get it. In the end, his eyes and body are pecked by angry swallows and he nearly died by falling from the roof...and only gets a normal swallow's egg and shell, leaving him disgraced.
Kaguya, as with her other Impossible Request moves, takes out the Cowrie Shell and uses it, slamming it into an opponent's chest with an upward movement, cutting into them for 8% and some weak upwards knockback. The Cowrie Shell's properties wll allow Kaguya to heal up from this strike, leeching off the life of the foe for 4% healing, helping add to Kaguya's natural hourai immortality healing. This move also sets up great aerial combos, but they tend to be more straightforward than your Forward Throw combos and they cease to be effective at higher %s (80%+).
Back Throw: Eternal Suplex
Kaguya thrusts her palm onto the foe, her black time energy gushing from it into the foe, as she lifts the opponent up, locking them in place before slamming them behind her in a vicious suplex! This is Kaguya's most meaty throw in terms of damage, 14%, and KO percentage, KOing at 165%. The temporal energy embued with the foe, washing them out in a slightly monochrome tone, will cause projectiles to freeze upon striking a foe instead of disappearing, freezing for about 6 seconds: During this time, they remain a hitbox with their usual strength, allowing Kaguya to set up little miniature areas of only frozen projectile traps. However, once the freezing stops, the projectiles instantly pop and disappear like if they hit the foe usually. Your Eternity Fields will not stop this, as they will blink out of existance before it freezes them. The total time this happens to the foe is 6 seconds, but may be refreshed upon further uses of this throw.
Aerials
Neutral Aerial: Directed Dragon Shoot
Kaguya pulls her arm back, the Dragon Jewel effortlessly sliding down her arm and into her hand, before throwing herself forward in a spinning motion that shouldn't be too unfamiliar if you've ever played Brawl...though hers is much slower, though more graceful. Be careful that this means you can't shorthop this without landing lag, though you can full jump it. Opponents who hit Kaguya during this move take 8% damage and some weak knockback. It's pretty quick to come out, but has a bit long ending lag.
As the title may have informed you, though, this move has a more...directing purpose, likely explaining why she is holding the jewel as if pointing it. While spinning, projectiles without 1/3rd of a Smart Bomb radius will turn with her, keeping their speed as they do so...so, for example, a projectile that goes straight will go in a circle at the same speed instead. This curves downwards by default, but you can tap up quickly during starting lag to have Kaguya spin in the opposite direction during her animation and, in turn, cause the projectiles to curve upwards. Kaguya has a variety of uses for this: For example, if an opponent is offstage or near a ledge, she can curve a projectile she shoots forward under the edge of the stage to catch them unaware and possibly even stagespike them. Something particularly fun is to combine this with Instant Fields: You can throw a projectile forward and have it go through the Instant Field, then use this to curve an attack through the Instant Field again to have it traverse an area in a short time, in addition to Kaguya being able to snap change the direction of her projectiles this way. In addition, Kaguya's projectile "curving" only lasts as long as she holds down A: By releasing A early, the Projectile will assume it's new course with the same trajectory it had before, so for example your Forward Smash can be made to go diagonally, possibly after spinning it. Holding A throughout will cause it to end up back where it started. You can also use this move to rebound something into an Eternity Field and stick it in or stick in projectiles into it at an angle they normally cannot be stuck in..
ZAir: Fire Rat Rope
The Robe of the Fire Rat might not have the best properties for a grab, but Kaguya can use it for a ZAir. If you're wondering, ZAirs are done by performing a grab in the air: Try it with Link. As for the attack, Kaguya takes out the fire robe and uses it like a cloth-y tether, striking foes in front of her with the pretty long, disjointed hitbox. The hitbox depends on where you hit with it, as it has a sweetspot near the end of the cloth. Up close, you'll do 4% and some weak knockback, and you can do it as a quick shorthopped close range move...but while quick, the low knockback isn't worth much as a GTFO. If you sweetspot it, though, you'll do 8% with fire effects, and the opponent will take knockback towards you. By combining this with it's low ending lag, you can use this as a precise but potent way to start a short aerial combo. Useful to keep in mind.
Down Aerial: Brilliant Swipe of Hourai
Kaguya performs a spin as she swings under herself with the Jeweled Branch of Hourai, which causes 5 rainbow projectiles to appear along the path she swings, shooting downwards at a fairly quick speed. The swing itself is a bit low powered, 9% damage, and produces a weak spike. The projectiles travel for a decently lone one and one-third Ganondorfs and deal a stronger 11% knockback, and will in addition pop the foe up with their knockback some, though it is very average knockback. This makes the dragon bullets a good way to knock foes up into the air and this move has decently fast start-up, though the long ending lag and landing lag make it unsuitable for shorthopped combat.
If you hold down A (or the C-Stick if that is set to be able to do aerials) during this move, Kaguya will cast some time manipulation as the branch trails along, the area turning pitch black and holding the projectiles in place for 2.5 seconds. By doing this, Kaguya can set up short time aerial traps, which can lead into a delayed aerial combo, having an Eternity Field placed under them so they will launch into them or utilize them as ways to restrict an enemy's dodging options. Opponents and other objects will not be frozen in this time stop, but both enemy attacks and Kaguya's own attacks will cease to work in it, being stopped. The only hitboxes that function inside of it are the Down Aerial projectiles trapped within, which remain active.
Up Aerial: Impossible Strike
Kaguya gracefully takes the Jeweled Branch of Hourai and swings it above her as it flashes with rainbow light, dealing 11% damage and some quite high base knockback on the foe, unsuitable for follow-ups but great at getting space...at low percentages. This move has the strange property of reverse knockback growth, which means the foe is actually knocked back less the more damage they take, meaning this move turns from a large launcher into a brilliant combo move at higher damages, though it has a minimum knockback threshold to prevent silly infinites/near infinites.
By holding down A, Kaguya can cause the pitch black time stop to follow the trail of this branch as well, allowing it to become a sort of aerial counter due to very fast start-up. However, doing this takes the ending lag from a bit fast to very laggy, so any follow-up potential is lost and it is very abusable if the hit is air dodged. Just like the Down Aerial, this won't freeze foes or anything.
Forward Aerial: Striking Branch
Kaguya performs a quick overhead swing with the Jeweled Branch of Hourai, trading power for speed with this quick starting move...but it only deals 9% damage and the knockback is mediocre. Because of this, however, it is pretty good combo fodder, able to be added on top of combos to throw on more damage and the medium depth of the knockback giving Kaguya decent follow-up options, especially since it also has fairly low ending lag. Combined with the hitbox being disjointed, it is also useful in general aerial combat.
If you hold down A or C-Stick during this move, Kaguya will do the time manipulation from the down aerial once more, turning the trail of the attack black, with the same properties. While this move has no projectiles to directly take advantage of it, the way it stops attacks gives Kaguya a great retreating option by using FAirs like this while retreating aerially.
Back Aerial: Aerial Dragon Bullet
Kaguya extends her arm backwards, letting the dragon jewel slip into her palm as she does so, then squeezes it and releases a burst of power that is visually similar to the Up Smash. This is Kaguya's most powerful aerial, dealing 14% and pretty strong knockback...though the fact that it hits opponents towards the front of Kaguya makes it a mite awkward to KO with. It has pretty good starting lag for it's power as well, but in traditional BAir fashion it has high ending lag.
Final Smash: End of Imperishable Night
"Let us bring this endless night to a grand conclusion."
Kaguya throws both of her arms wide and to the sides of her with open palms and gathers power. Opponents have one and a half seconds to stop Kaguya during this time: Hit her in a way that makes her flinch and the Final Smash stops. Fail to do so and she will close both of her palms into a fist, the entire screen turning jet black and leaving only the stage, characters and objects as a stark white.
Kaguya will now move twice as fast, her attacks have their lag cut in half, her time affecting moves come out near instantly and do not fade during the Final Smash and she becomes all around awesome and frightening. Any time related move the opponent uses is instantly countered. Her attacks will act as if they had gone through both an Eternity Field and Instant field at once, both lingering in place and going the full extent of their hitbox in a flash. As this happens, the screen will ocassionally crack, white static-like lines cracking and striking through the monochrome black. The screen looks entirely cracked near the end of the final smash.
After 12 seconds of this, the cracks in the screen explode, dealing a potent 60% damage to everyone that cannot be dodged or shielded, though it only makes them flinch. In addition, opponents cannot use time related moves for the next 12 seconds.
The neverending night has come to a grand conclusion.
Final Smash: Hourai Immortals
This is a unique Final Smash that replaces both Kaguya and Mokou's Final Smash when they are teamed up, be it in 2v2 together or 3v1. When activated, cut-in portraits of Kaguya and Mokou will pop up (kinda like the image) as the two glare at each other: Between the glare is a visible line as if signalling their eyes have met...and like Link's Triforce Slash, any foe caught in this line is stuck in the Final Smash. Because it goes in a straight line from Kaguya to Mokou or vice versa, the range of it is variable.
Any foe caught in the glare is led to a cinematic, think Captain Falcon's Final Smash but more elaborate, of Kaguya and Mokou's rivalry heating up, as the two throw around strikes from Kaguya's Impossible Requests and time breaks while Mokou counters with fire and brimstone, the foe caught in the middle of their impressive display of brutal flames and elegant danmaku. This attack deals an insane 80% damage from all the strikes and will KO very early as the foe is caught between Mokou and Kaguya putting their energy into one big, suicidal rush at each other. It basically ruins a stock for the opponent if they survive.
Whoever activated this Final Smash will "win" the clash between Kaguya and Mokou, the other exploding from the strike...only to instantly regenerate from the death at the same damage percentage without loss of stock. And so it goes. The only other difference is in the attacks: If Kaguya activates the Final Smash, she will get a bit more focus and the upper hand in the fight between themselves, while the opposite is true if Mokou activated it.
Playstyle: Lunatic Princess
Kaguya is a character who may lack raw KO power or huge damage dealing moves, but via her impressive temporal tricks and ability to combine strikes against the foe, Kaguya is a dangerous foe. Her manipulation of eternity and the instanteous allows her to create deadly fields to play with the foe, projectiles zipping forward in a flash through Instant Fields or leaving her hitboxes lingering inside Eternity Fields.
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In Smash Keen will quickly jump above any fighters and in the half a second in the air pulls out his pogo and lands on the fighter with in. Unlike his second jump attack, the Pogo Smash deals 10% damage and horizontal knockback relative to the angle of the attack. The angle depends on where Keen strikes the top of the fighter, the further away from the center Keen is the more of an angle the fighter will shot off in the opposite direction. The Pogo Smash is an effective way to both lay considerable fire against your foes and get some distance to buy time and formulate your next move. When Keen hits the sweet spot - the very left or right edge of the top of a fighter - the attack knocks out fighters at around 175%.
