Adol Christin's Journey Towards Smash (Cold Steel 3 on Switch!?)

YsDisciple · Oct 22, 2020

Flik said:
Having grown around arcades in the 90's, I can't imagine Terry or SNK in general being as much as a niche as Ys or Falcom games. I mean, unlike Falcom games, I never had to actively search for SNK stuff, it always felt close to me, even on internet. But maybe it's because I'm just that much into fighting games...

Anyway:

I wonder what would be the "must have" spirits for a general Ys spirit board. Back to Terry, he came with what I would call the essential: his little brother, their best budy and his mortal enemy (and Kim Kaphwan but I'm not sure how important he is to the Fatal Fury lore in comparison), only really missing his "sister-in-law" because rating - the other are SNK all stars, not really Fatal Fury characters. Because of my limited knowledge on what is really important for the overall Ys lore, I can only think of Dogi and Feena & Reah.

On the other hand, focusing on just Ys IX stuff like what happened with persona 5 and kinda of with Dragon Quest XI seems to be a lot easier: Playable characters, important NPCs and a couple of major enemies would do the job, although I can't imagine the Monstrum Nox version of Adol being the default version like Eleven with Hero, it might give the wrong idea of what he's about.

Also, following the style of Terry's spirit board, which is more or less "Fatal Fury + SNK legends except Metal Slug why the **** is it missing". what characters would be "Falcom legends"?

Imo, Ys IX, albeit portraying an "older" version of Adol, isn't too representative of his character within the whole series since most of the time he's in his Monstrum form (which he can use only in that game). His ideal versions for ALT skins in Smash would have to be his Ys Seven (armor), and perhaps Celceta or Lacrimosa of Dana since in both he's wearing a less heavy outfit (no armor). Or they could just give him one skin (the armored one) with different colors referencing some of the most iconic characters in the franchise.

In regards to Ys lore, important characters within the series that could serve as Spirits could include:

Dogi = Adol's best buddy and right hand man, a.k.a. The Wall Crusher.
Feena & Reah = being the Twin Goddesses that greeted Adol in his first adventure, and are central to Ys I & II's plot, they would most likely be in one same spirit.
Lilia = a young girl Adol meets in the floating ancient land of Ys during Ys II; she is the first "prospect" of Adol but, we all know his heart will always belong to Feena.
Geis = a mercenary and from Ys VI: Ark of Napishtim and onward becomes Adol's rival.
Hugo Fact = albeit existed 700 years prior to Adol, he is one of the main characters of Ys Origin; also meeting the Twin Goddesses back then.

His spirit could be upgraded to Dark Fact, who happens to be the final boss of Ys I. Playing Ys I & II Chronicles, and then playing Ys Origins (completing the game with all three characters, especially Hugo and Toal), it all becomes clear.
Dana = one of the main characters (and a VERY important one) from Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana.
Pikkard = Ok, these aren't actually main characters, but these little critters are recurring cute little animals seen throughout most of the Ys games.
Seven, Celceta, Lacrimosa of Dana, and Monstrum Nox party members = in these games in which Adol meets various party members that join him in his adventure, each one is unique in their own way and also play a part in their respective games. They could be grouped into one spirit from the game they come from, or they can make spirits of the ones that play a greater role than the others (i.e., Aisha from Seven).

There are other characters that have a significant role within the Ys lore but, those are some that could serve for some spirit battles for a potential Ys Spirit Board. Now, if the spirit board were to go the route of representing different Falcom franchises, some of the names that come to mind include:

Estelle Bright (The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky)
Joshua Bright (The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky)
Rean Schwarzer (The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel)
Parin (Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure)
Dragon Slayer protagonist (could be from Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu)
Ares & Dela (Brandish)
Pipiro & Pokkle (Zwei: The Arges Adventure)

agamemenon · Oct 24, 2020

Bumping this info for those who haven't seen it yet. Sakurai is a fan of Ys, and even dedicated a section to the PCE/TG-16 port of Ys I & II in a special feature he did where he chronicles (heh) the games he's played over the years:

(see http://gamekoryaku.livedoor.biz/archives/52373667.html for the full feature)

Deathcarter said:
Never touched Ys in my life and really don't care for Adol at all but my gut feeling is saying Falcom is next in line.

Like I see all the love Sakurai gave SNK and I'm of the mind that the last fighter has to, in Sakurai's mind, have some real sense of significance to their inclusion in beyond just being a popular character/franchise and I don't think something hugely popular like Resident Evil or Doom would be held back until after the holiday period instead of Terry Bogard who a lot of people were unfamiliar with. And then I remember him putting in a Mii costume of Gil of Tower of Drauga fame of all characters and while its a different game from a different era made by a different company, it still makes me think, "If he respects the Grandfather of Action RPGs that much to give him such an acknowledgement, I wonder how much he loves the company that many people would say perfected the genre?"

Seriously, I have over a dozen Japanese 3rd parties I'd like to see before Adol but I believe that if Sakurai loves Falcom half as much as he does SNK, then Falcom has the last pack virtually on lockdown. Anyway good luck to you guys.

Abade said:
I like to throw in my support for Adol or any Nihon Falcom character in general. Looking at how influential Nihon Falcom is such as revolutionizing action role playing games and pioneering video game music, it is perplexing that Super Smash Bros Ultimate, a “celebration of video game history” still haven’t included Nihon Falcom in it.

Sakurai is a fan of the Ys series. He's mentioned in interviews that he has Ys I & II on the Wii Virtual Console (https://sourcegaming.info/2015/05/25/sakurai-answers-100-questions-from-fans/) and has given glowing praise to Ys Seven in a Famitsu column (https://w.atwiki.jp/gcmatome/pages/4581.html, search 桜井政博).

He apparently also tweeted praise for VIII (based on a cursory search through JP Twitter), but said tweet may have been deleted.

http://archive.fo/ytnPx
http://archive.fo/EJlTH

These two tweets were made within hours of each other, which suggests that Sakurai made the tweet around that time.

Nihon Falcom did say they would like to be in Smash

https://nintendoeverything.com/falcom-on-reason-for-porting-ys-viii-to-switch-future-support-and-smash-bros/

Also, here's a supposed Falcom leak that was posted on 4chan. It was posted just 3 days before the Ys IX Switch reveal trailer. However, it's still not known if it's real or not; it's interesting nonetheless. https://arch.b4k.co/v/thread/513418360/

Calane · Oct 24, 2020

agamemenon said:
Bumping this info for those who haven't seen it yet. Sakurai is a fan of Ys, and even dedicated a section to the PCE/TG-16 port of Ys I & II in a special feature he did where he chronicles (heh) the games he's played over the years:

(see http://gamekoryaku.livedoor.biz/archives/52373667.html for the full feature)

Also, here's a supposed Falcom leak that was posted on 4chan. It was posted just 3 days before the Ys IX Switch reveal trailer. However, it's still not known if it's real or not; it's interesting nonetheless. https://arch.b4k.co/v/thread/513418360/

Being liked by Sakurai is always a plus, but it's Nintendo who's picking the characters for the DLC. Not sure how much this helps our chances, but at least we can assume Sakurai wouldn't turn it down if Nintendo wanted to include a Falcom rep. This also probably means Sakurai's first choice for a Falcom rep would be Adol since he's an Ys fan. If that'd really be the case, then that's great news for us.

As for the 4chan rumor, I'd LOVE to believe it, but the last part throws me off a little. I believe rumors that give reasons for Nintendo's choices tend to be fakes, but it did get Ys IX coming to Switch correct (which I don't think was seen as a guarantee before the announcement).

It's probably fake, but I guess it's something to hang on to at least. I'll keep it in the back of my mind.

YsDisciple · Oct 24, 2020

I continue thinking on that Falcom documentary video and yesterday I remembered Ys vs Sora no Kiseki. I truly hope that game gets localized some day. I mean, checking out the gameplay videos and the game trailer, it looks sick af. Then it got me thinking; with how Koei Tecmo has now handled both a Fire Emblem, and most recently a Zelda Warriors-esque game, imagine if one day we got a Zelda vs Fire Emblem game (a-la Ys vs Sora no Kiseki). That would be pretty wild.

Back to Ys; reading up again on Falcom's games, it's nice to know that Dragon Slayer is considered to be the foundation of action RPG games (and supposedly even inspired the gameplay for The Legend of Zelda). Truly Falcom's early games made a huge contribution for other franchises going forward in Japan. We've already got decent representation of RPG games in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with Shulk, Cloud, the Fire Emblem characters, Joker, and Hero. However, if there's one more RPG character to be added to the roster via the Fighters Pass Vol. 2, it would be nice to cover the action RPG variant with none other than Adol himself. There are other notable action RPG games out there such as the Tales of games (namely Symphonia), Kingdom Hearts, but Ys just takes the cake with the pacing of the combat and the ost (and the lore).

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate being the celebration of gaming that it is, I would expect them to also acknowledge Falcom as one of the pioneers of RPG/action RPG games around the beginning of the video game industry.

Wunderwaft · Oct 24, 2020

I support Adol in Smash. Falcom is a company I think would be cool to see in Smash and Adol is the most fitting addition from the company. I haven't played Ys yet but I do plan on tackling it after I'm done with the Trails in the Sky trilogy.

SharkLord · Oct 25, 2020

An idea for Adol that I came up with recently is that his jab and tilts change when close to the opponent, like in some traditional fighting games. The far/normal variants would take Adol closer to the opponent, like in the more recent games, while his close attacks would reference the animations of the bump system games. It's not like it hasn't been done before, either; Ryu and Ken's jab and forward tilt have the same properties, so the code for that could feasibly be carried over from them. I doubt it would cause any glitches we could pick up on, though.

agamemenon · Oct 29, 2020

Breaking news: Zero and Ao no Kiseki Kai set to be released in Korea (and probably China) for Switch next year (originally no guarantee of this for sure, as Zero and Ao are rather old games):
https://twitter.com/CLE_KR/status/1321693497150328832

From the "leak":

Discussions with NIS included things like Trails of Cold Steel 3 and 4 coming to the Switch (confirmed). Trails to Zero and Trails to Azure are planned to be announced "soon", at least for the PS4; very likely Switch will get confirmed around the same time.

The main thing is that the leak implies a release for the West, while the current announcement is only for Korea. Also, the PS4 release hasn't been confirmed yet. Still, maybe there is something to the rumor.

LucKekkai · Oct 29, 2020

agamemenon said:
Breaking news: Zero and Ao no Kiseki Kai set to be released in Korea (and probably China) for Switch next year (originally no guarantee of this for sure, as Zero and Ao are rather old games):
https://twitter.com/CLE_KR/status/1321693497150328832

From the "leak":

The main thing is that the leak implies a release for the West, while the current announcement is only for Korea. Also, the PS4 release hasn't been confirmed yet. Still, maybe there is something to the rumor.

Whoa, thanks for sharing! I'm not going to lie, the most exciting part about this for me is the Kai versions of Zero/Ao getting ports to the Switch. The next thing I'm most excited about is that, if the leak is true, then they are being officially localized. Although Zero was relatively easy to obtain and patch with Geofront's fan translation(which is an excellent translation on par with official localizations), purchasing Ao is far more complicated due to the DRM that China implemented for the PC release, thus I still haven't purchased Ao. So if it is true, then I'm relieved.

Last, if the leak is true then it means we'll be getting a Falcom character in Smash. I'm still not convinced the leak is true(which is why it's last), but it excites me regardless.

EDIT: Cold Steel 1 and Cold Steel 2 confirmed for Switch in Japan as well, holy crap!

https://twitter.com/CLE_JPN/status/1321693247228424192

Flik · Oct 30, 2020

Something I posted in another thread:

I learned about Ys in 2009 thanks to Dwelling of Duels - a monthly video game covers competition with some really good tracks like this version of "The Boy's got Wings" or this version of " The morning grow". I'd like to also highlight this version of Ys VI opening "Release of the Far West Ocean".

Here are some more tracks I like: