Vintage Creep
Smash Master
So recently Nintendo renewed the Eternal Darkness franchise for the fifth time. Now this wouldn't mean much but it still led NeoGAF's people to speculate, and speculate, and speculate... I don't know if I can link the topic in question but it made me want to make a topic for the protagonist of one of my favorite survival horror of all time and probably one of the best GameCube games ever released.
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem was a Lovecraft-inspired videogame, in which a group of chosen ones from different time eras struggled against the dark forces of one of three ancient gods: Chattur'gha, Xel'lotath or Ulyaoth. The god was chosen in the first chapter of the game by the player himself, after beating the level with Pious Augustus, a roman centurion which later will become the main villain of the game.
Even though as already said the game had a total of 12 playable characters, Alexandra Roivas was the centre of the plot, and served as a link between all the different chapters of the game, so I figured she's definitely the best choice as a possible Eternal Darkness rep in Sm4sh.
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem was a Lovecraft-inspired videogame, in which a group of chosen ones from different time eras struggled against the dark forces of one of three ancient gods: Chattur'gha, Xel'lotath or Ulyaoth. The god was chosen in the first chapter of the game by the player himself, after beating the level with Pious Augustus, a roman centurion which later will become the main villain of the game.
Even though as already said the game had a total of 12 playable characters, Alexandra Roivas was the centre of the plot, and served as a link between all the different chapters of the game, so I figured she's definitely the best choice as a possible Eternal Darkness rep in Sm4sh.
Character Overview
I imagine the character as an interesting close-combat fighter with an high defensive stats thanks to the spells she acquired in the game. Basically, her normal and smash attacks would be fast like anybody else's, but the special attacks will be really hard to cast and need a deep strategic sense to know when and where to use them. She's similar to Zero Suit Samus as height and weight, but she's less agile. She uses weapons mostly rather than her own body to fight. She has a gladius and a rifle in her moveset, used in her smash attacks. In the game, to cast spells Alexandra Roivas had to stay perfectly still, and this aspect would be present in Smash Bros. Every single one of her special attack is a spell, and that makes her character really hard to master, but very satisfying.
Smash and Normal Attacks
The basic A+A+A combo will be three different strikes with her gladius, the first from top to down, the second from left to right, and the last one from right to left, hitting supposedly head, left arm and right arm of the opponent in this sequence, like in the first game if anyone remembers that.
Running+A will make her do a dive with her legs on front. Striking A while pressing left or right will make her do a swing with her sword in that direction. Basically any other normal attack on the ground is she using the gladius in different directions.
While in the air, she attacks with her legs mostly similar to Zero Suit Samus.
Her smash attack on the left or right involves using her pistol. It can be charged to make more damage.
She uses the shotgun with the up-smash attack, making the angle slightly different (45 degrees up to the horizontal line of the pistol attack we can say).
I can't imagine anything better than another swing of the gladius for her down-smash.
And yes Sakurai will have to accept a gun character in the game, boo-hoo.
Running+A will make her do a dive with her legs on front. Striking A while pressing left or right will make her do a swing with her sword in that direction. Basically any other normal attack on the ground is she using the gladius in different directions.
While in the air, she attacks with her legs mostly similar to Zero Suit Samus.
Her smash attack on the left or right involves using her pistol. It can be charged to make more damage.
She uses the shotgun with the up-smash attack, making the angle slightly different (45 degrees up to the horizontal line of the pistol attack we can say).
I can't imagine anything better than another swing of the gladius for her down-smash.
And yes Sakurai will have to accept a gun character in the game, boo-hoo.
Special Attacks
This is where the character becomes really interesting, if you ask me. Every special attack of Alexandra Roivas is a charge attack. This will be easier to understand for the people who actually played the game, but I'll do my best to explain it. You can also read this guide to understand better the concept: http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Eternal_Darkness:_Sanity's_Requiem/Magick
In the game the spells are formed by runes, which the player found during the levels. These runes where divided in three groups: the Alignments were the runes of the four ancient gods of the game, which represent health, magick, sanity and power (for the dead god Mantorok).
The Verbs represent the spell itself, for example "summon" or "protect".
The Nouns represent the object of the spell. For example "item". So if you choose the Verb "project" and the Noun "item", the effect you obtain will be to repair a broken sword, or enchant it to make it more powerful.
Now, to cast spells the character required a circle of power. The basic circle is the weakest since it has only 3 runes available: one alignment, one verb and one noun. Later in the game the player would access two other circles, one formed by 5 points and the last one by 7 points available for the runes. Every spell is still composed by one alignment, one verb and one noun even in this case: the other four slots were occupied by the special rune Pargon, which basically means "power", and made the spell stronger.
Now I tried to put this into Smash Bros.'s logic, and here's what I came up with. As already said, every special attack needs to be charged. Every spell has three different possible outcome based on how much you charge the attack, one for the 3-point circle, one for the 5-point, and the last one, the strongest of all, for the 7-point.
I suggest you see this video to see the animation for the casting of the spells: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr64q6Flx8Q (for example at 4:20 you can see the shield spell in action)
Except for the up-special which can be used on the air too, all other spells must be used when perfectly still, making Alexandra Roivas a character more useful for brawler matches than 1vs1.
If you saw the video, you probably got what I'm talking about. In Smash Bros., you need to charge the attack for 3 seconds to obtain the weaker effect, 5 seconds for the mid-power effect, and 7 seconds for the most powerful effect. Now this would seem like a lot of time but obviously the effect I'm talking about would be really powerful.
The attack CAN'T BE CHARGED in different times like Samus' blaster or DK's punch. It has to be launched in one single session without taking any damage.
No more chit chat and here they are, the four spells I think would suit better for the character:
B SPECIAL: Chattur'gha's Shield. In the video I linked before you can see it in action at 4:20. I chose this alignment because it represent health. Alexandra gets surrounded by those little lights (in this case red) which can protect her for a certain amount of damage. If hit, Alexandra will still respond as if it actually happened (for example gets launched in the air), but she won't get any damage.
3-point circle (3 seconds): she gets 10% of bonus damage.
5-point circle (5 seconds): she gets 20% of bonus damage.
7-point circle (7 seconds): she gets 40% of bonus damage.
UP B SPECIAL: Ulyaoth's Dispel Magick. You can see it in action on the same video at 5:40. I chose Ulyaoth, which is blue in the game, because it represents magick itself. This is the only spell which can be charged in the air too since it's Alexandra's recover as well. As you can see the runes impact on the ground creating a little earthquake. This has also the new ability of launching Alexandra in the air. She always gets launched at the same height, which is a little less than Sonic's Up-B, without any change between the 3-circle spell and the 7-circle spell. The difference is in the amount of damage the earthquake gives to the opponents. If triggered in the air, the shock waves will strike the opponents.
3-point circle (3 seconds): every character on the ground or in the line of the wave close to Alexandra trips and gets 5% of damage. Explosives close to Alexandra explode.
5-point circle (5-seconds): every character on the ground or in the line of the wave close to Alexandra gets stunned (like when the shield breaks) for 3 seconds and get 15% of damage. Explosives explode.
7-point circle (7-seconds): every character on the ground or in the line of the wave, in the stage, even if not close to Alexandra, gets striked hard (like Ike's B) and deals a 30% damage. Also every explosives in the stage explode, every poké ball and assist trophy gets activated.
SIDE B SPECIAL: Xel'lotath's Summon. In Eternal Darkness you could summon different creatures like you can see in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qArLE9qFsL0. Here's the bestiary of the game in which you can read the different effect of the creatures: http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Eternal_Darkness:_Sanity's_Requiem/Bestiary. I chose the green alignment since it represents sanity. It kinda suits it, doesn't it?
3-point circle (3 seconds): summon a Trapper. The Trappers are blind, scorpion-like creatures which wander around since they hear someone close to them. At this point, they sacrifice themselves creating a warp and they transport the victim in their Trapper Dimension. In Smash, they transport the victim in a random place on the stage, mostly in the air, far from the edges, making it harder to comeback.
5-point circle (5 seconds): summon a Zombie. A Zombie acts pretty much like the ReDeads in Melee. They wander slowly around and deal some damage to the opponents. They can be destroyed in a few attacks.
7-point circle (7 seconds): summon an Horror. This is the real deal. This is an Horror: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_v1nyF-OLG...BGs/DK62fTdIJqY/s400/eternaldarknessdemon.jpg
They are fast, strong, ugly ******** which run around the stage hitting every opponent they can and dealing a lot of damage. They can't be destroyed, but they disappear after 12 seconds.
After you summon any of these creatures, you must wait till they completely disappear to summon another one.
DOWN B SPECIAL: Mantorok's Magickal Attack. You can see it used sometimes by the boss in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvOVuDPoc9I. This attack basically consists of a brief zap to the opponent, obviously dealing damage.
3-point circle (3 seconds): a single zap to the closest opponent, deals 10% of damage.
5-point circle (5 seconds): a zap to every opponent close, deals always 10% but it launches the enemies farther.
7-point cricle (7 seconds): a very powerful zap to every opponent, 20% damage and almost certain kill at high level of damage.
And... that's all for now. Just wanted to do this. Let me know what you think, maybe tell me how to put in spoilers something since it's really really long. I have ideas for stages also but I'll talk about it later. Thanks for the reading, I'm open to suggestions and to implement in the OP other moveset if you like to.
In the game the spells are formed by runes, which the player found during the levels. These runes where divided in three groups: the Alignments were the runes of the four ancient gods of the game, which represent health, magick, sanity and power (for the dead god Mantorok).
The Verbs represent the spell itself, for example "summon" or "protect".
The Nouns represent the object of the spell. For example "item". So if you choose the Verb "project" and the Noun "item", the effect you obtain will be to repair a broken sword, or enchant it to make it more powerful.
Now, to cast spells the character required a circle of power. The basic circle is the weakest since it has only 3 runes available: one alignment, one verb and one noun. Later in the game the player would access two other circles, one formed by 5 points and the last one by 7 points available for the runes. Every spell is still composed by one alignment, one verb and one noun even in this case: the other four slots were occupied by the special rune Pargon, which basically means "power", and made the spell stronger.
Now I tried to put this into Smash Bros.'s logic, and here's what I came up with. As already said, every special attack needs to be charged. Every spell has three different possible outcome based on how much you charge the attack, one for the 3-point circle, one for the 5-point, and the last one, the strongest of all, for the 7-point.
I suggest you see this video to see the animation for the casting of the spells: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr64q6Flx8Q (for example at 4:20 you can see the shield spell in action)
Except for the up-special which can be used on the air too, all other spells must be used when perfectly still, making Alexandra Roivas a character more useful for brawler matches than 1vs1.
If you saw the video, you probably got what I'm talking about. In Smash Bros., you need to charge the attack for 3 seconds to obtain the weaker effect, 5 seconds for the mid-power effect, and 7 seconds for the most powerful effect. Now this would seem like a lot of time but obviously the effect I'm talking about would be really powerful.
The attack CAN'T BE CHARGED in different times like Samus' blaster or DK's punch. It has to be launched in one single session without taking any damage.
No more chit chat and here they are, the four spells I think would suit better for the character:
B SPECIAL: Chattur'gha's Shield. In the video I linked before you can see it in action at 4:20. I chose this alignment because it represent health. Alexandra gets surrounded by those little lights (in this case red) which can protect her for a certain amount of damage. If hit, Alexandra will still respond as if it actually happened (for example gets launched in the air), but she won't get any damage.
3-point circle (3 seconds): she gets 10% of bonus damage.
5-point circle (5 seconds): she gets 20% of bonus damage.
7-point circle (7 seconds): she gets 40% of bonus damage.
UP B SPECIAL: Ulyaoth's Dispel Magick. You can see it in action on the same video at 5:40. I chose Ulyaoth, which is blue in the game, because it represents magick itself. This is the only spell which can be charged in the air too since it's Alexandra's recover as well. As you can see the runes impact on the ground creating a little earthquake. This has also the new ability of launching Alexandra in the air. She always gets launched at the same height, which is a little less than Sonic's Up-B, without any change between the 3-circle spell and the 7-circle spell. The difference is in the amount of damage the earthquake gives to the opponents. If triggered in the air, the shock waves will strike the opponents.
3-point circle (3 seconds): every character on the ground or in the line of the wave close to Alexandra trips and gets 5% of damage. Explosives close to Alexandra explode.
5-point circle (5-seconds): every character on the ground or in the line of the wave close to Alexandra gets stunned (like when the shield breaks) for 3 seconds and get 15% of damage. Explosives explode.
7-point circle (7-seconds): every character on the ground or in the line of the wave, in the stage, even if not close to Alexandra, gets striked hard (like Ike's B) and deals a 30% damage. Also every explosives in the stage explode, every poké ball and assist trophy gets activated.
SIDE B SPECIAL: Xel'lotath's Summon. In Eternal Darkness you could summon different creatures like you can see in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qArLE9qFsL0. Here's the bestiary of the game in which you can read the different effect of the creatures: http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Eternal_Darkness:_Sanity's_Requiem/Bestiary. I chose the green alignment since it represents sanity. It kinda suits it, doesn't it?
3-point circle (3 seconds): summon a Trapper. The Trappers are blind, scorpion-like creatures which wander around since they hear someone close to them. At this point, they sacrifice themselves creating a warp and they transport the victim in their Trapper Dimension. In Smash, they transport the victim in a random place on the stage, mostly in the air, far from the edges, making it harder to comeback.
5-point circle (5 seconds): summon a Zombie. A Zombie acts pretty much like the ReDeads in Melee. They wander slowly around and deal some damage to the opponents. They can be destroyed in a few attacks.
7-point circle (7 seconds): summon an Horror. This is the real deal. This is an Horror: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_v1nyF-OLG...BGs/DK62fTdIJqY/s400/eternaldarknessdemon.jpg
They are fast, strong, ugly ******** which run around the stage hitting every opponent they can and dealing a lot of damage. They can't be destroyed, but they disappear after 12 seconds.
After you summon any of these creatures, you must wait till they completely disappear to summon another one.
DOWN B SPECIAL: Mantorok's Magickal Attack. You can see it used sometimes by the boss in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvOVuDPoc9I. This attack basically consists of a brief zap to the opponent, obviously dealing damage.
3-point circle (3 seconds): a single zap to the closest opponent, deals 10% of damage.
5-point circle (5 seconds): a zap to every opponent close, deals always 10% but it launches the enemies farther.
7-point cricle (7 seconds): a very powerful zap to every opponent, 20% damage and almost certain kill at high level of damage.
And... that's all for now. Just wanted to do this. Let me know what you think, maybe tell me how to put in spoilers something since it's really really long. I have ideas for stages also but I'll talk about it later. Thanks for the reading, I'm open to suggestions and to implement in the OP other moveset if you like to.
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