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Character Exploration Thread - Day 79: Axel Stone (Streets of Rage)

Technomage

Smash Champion
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Jan 18, 2019
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2,289
It's been over a day or two, and I don't recall any of the people running this thread saying anything about an extension; so, shouldn't we be moving onto the next character on the list? :drshrug:

Edit: Oh wait, someone actually did state an extension for Jace today, so nevermind.
 
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Gengar84

Smash Hero
Joined
Dec 9, 2009
Messages
5,751
Man what does it take to get max nominations on this thread lol? I don’t think I can possibly contribute more than I did and I was still beat in points. Ah well, no big deal 😊.

x10 Magus (Chrono Trigger)
x10 Battletoads
 
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Gengar84

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Dec 9, 2009
Messages
5,751
I think a horror game character would be really cool and unique. My personal choice is Nemesis from Resident Evil but Pyramid Head looks cool too. I haven’t played Silent Hill so I don’t know much about him. What are some of Pyramid Head’s abilities in that game that could lend itself to a Smash moveset?
 
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Technomage

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Jan 18, 2019
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Alright, next up is arguably the creepiest character we've reviewed so far; Pyramid Head!
View attachment 317695
First question, can we have a rundown on what Silent Hill's all about for the uninitiated?

Nomination: Amiya x25
I don't know much about Silent Hill, but after doing research on Pyramid Head, I can tell you that he is the physical manifestation of Silent Hill 2 protagonist James Sunderland's guilt and desire for punishment due to killing his wife after snapping.

To tell you the truth, that's all I know. Maybe someone else could/would give a better introduction? :drshrug:
 
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GolisoPower

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Joined
Sep 17, 2017
Messages
4,368
THE DARKNESS...HAS COME!

For those who are unaware, Silent Hill is a series of psychological survival horror games made by Konami. The games take place in the titular fictional smalltown in Maine, where visitors are faced with manifestations of the darkest parts of their minds. Pyramid Head here is a driving figure of Silent Hill 2, being a manifestation of protagonist James Sunderland's guilt and desire for punishment, and has become the mascot of the franchise. For better or worse. With so much horror game content in Smash Bros as is with Fatal Frame, Eternal Darkness and Resident Evil, we're honestly, surprisingly lacking in a horror game character to play as. I mainly picked Pyramid Head as the horror game character because:

1) Konami has been generous in giving Smash content: letting Metal Gear back in, and adding Castlevania too, they've given Smash a lot to work with.
2) Silent Hill 2 is the height of the series and often considered one of the best horror games in the entire history of gaming.
3) I remember a post on this site a while back saying that Masahiro Ito, although he's rather exasperated at Konami's repeated use of Pyramid Head in the franchise, is alright with him being used in crossovers, as he did congratulate the Dead by Daylight team for making the Silent Hill Chapter.
4) Although Pyramid Head is from a rather gruesome game series (those poor Mannequins), he has also appeared in child-friendly content before with some Track & Field games and more shockingly Super Bomberman R.

As for how he'd play, I imagine him being a super-heavyweight that's all about inflicting extensive debuffs on his foes and killing them if they don't overcome them. Like this, for example. As for how much we can take from his other appearances, like DBD and more recently Dark Deception, I think it'll be majorly source material, but with a few things from Dead by Daylight.

Noms:
Astral Chain protagonist x10
 
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ZelDan

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Nov 19, 2011
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New Hampshire
I've never played Silent Hill, as I don't really have any interest in horror games/movies/shows.

That said I did just have a crazy idea of having a stage based on PT (that game that was supposed to be a tech demo for that Silent Hills game before Konami went full Konami). Like, you have a scrolling stage that goes through the hallway and obviously things seem normal/okay at first, but the stage of course repats at points form the beginning and each time it repeats it subtlety/gradually changes and gets crazier after each repeat.

Now, maybe bringing this up is odd as Pyramid Head isn't even in PT (or I assume he isn't atleast), but still its an interesting Silent Hill-related idea I had I figured I'd bring up.
 
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Paraster

Smash Lord
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Nov 29, 2018
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1,463
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The 104 Building
Noms: Cadence x5, Neku x5

Pyramid Head strikes me as incredibly slow and lumbering; would he be roughly Incineroar speed or could he be faster than he seems? And what would his up special be?
 

GolisoPower

Smash Master
Joined
Sep 17, 2017
Messages
4,368
Noms: Cadence x5, Neku x5

Pyramid Head strikes me as incredibly slow and lumbering; would he be roughly Incineroar speed or could he be faster than he seems? And what would his up special be?
I think it would have to be something related to this:


See that thing poking out of his head? I think that could play a big factor into his Up Special. I know people would be probably sick of tether Up-Bs after Joker, Byleth and Min Min, but honestly, this is a facet of Pyramid Head people seem to overlook.

As for speed, I think he would be even slower than Incineroar, since he'd be carrying around a Cloud-level Great Knife whilst wearing a big piss-off helmet of metal.
 
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Gengar84

Smash Hero
Joined
Dec 9, 2009
Messages
5,751
THE DARKNESS...HAS COME!

For those who are unaware, Silent Hill is a series of psychological survival horror games made by Konami. The games take place in the titular fictional smalltown in Maine, where visitors are faced with manifestations of the darkest parts of their minds. Pyramid Head here is a driving figure of Silent Hill 2, being a manifestation of protagonist James Sunderland's guilt and desire for punishment, and has become the mascot of the franchise. For better or worse. With so much horror game content in Smash Bros as is with Fatal Frame, Eternal Darkness and Resident Evil, we're honestly, surprisingly lacking in a horror game character to play as. I mainly picked Pyramid Head as the horror game character because:

1) Konami has been generous in giving Smash content: letting Metal Gear back in, and adding Castlevania too, they've given Smash a lot to work with.
2) Silent Hill 2 is the height of the series and often considered one of the best horror games in the entire history of gaming.
3) I remember a post on this site a while back saying that Masahiro Ito, although he's rather exasperated at Konami's repeated use of Pyramid Head in the franchise, is alright with him being used in crossovers, as he did congratulate the Dead by Daylight team for making the Silent Hill Chapter.
4) Although Pyramid Head is from a rather gruesome game series (those poor Mannequins), he has also appeared in child-friendly content before with some Track & Field games and more shockingly Super Bomberman R.

As for how he'd play, I imagine him being a super-heavyweight that's all about inflicting extensive debuffs on his foes and killing them if they don't overcome them. Like this, for example. As for how much we can take from his other appearances, like DBD and more recently Dark Deception, I think it'll be majorly source material, but with a few things from Dead by Daylight.

Noms:
Astral Chain protagonist x10
That sounds really interesting. I don’t think we’ve ever really had a character based on debuffs and that mechanic seems perfect for a psychological horror game like Silent Hill. I’m definitely interested to hear more if you come up with any specifics.

Here’s another question, what’s up with his head? Is there a reason he has a giant pyramid shaped helmet or is that his actual head?
 
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amageish

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Jul 21, 2018
Messages
3,558
Pyramid Head is such an iconic villain, though I'll admit that I find his original design/symbolic-purpose makes him very funny to have become the face of the franchise and hanging out in things like Bomberman R. It's not often that manifestations of guilt and anxiety get to do that!

I imagine Bubblehead Nurse, Heather, James, Alessa, and Robbie the Rabbit to be amongst them. And yes, Robbie the Rabbit is a thing in the games.
Robbie has to be a Mii Swordfighter Costume, right? A chainsaw is basically a sword...

As Silent Hill is a very cinematic franchise, let me ask you all this: How do you think Pyramid Head's trailer would go?

Noms: Cadence x5 (or 10? I asked a question on Jace's day about Mii Costumes, though it was arguably more of a set-up to a photoshop joke then an actual question lol)
 

GolisoPower

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That sounds really interesting. I don’t think we’ve ever really had a character based on debuffs and that mechanic seems perfect for a psychological horror game like Silent Hill. I’m definitely interested to hear more if you come up with any specifics.

Here’s another question, what’s up with his head? Is there a reason he has a giant pyramid shaped helmet or is that his actual head?
That part Ito actually left ambiguous as to play up its creepiness factor, AFAIK.


Pyramid Head is such an iconic villain, though I'll admit that I find his original design/symbolic-purpose makes him very funny to have become the face of the franchise and hanging out in things like Bomberman R. It's not often that manifestations of guilt and anxiety get to do that!



Robbie has to be a Mii Swordfighter Costume, right? A chainsaw is basically a sword...

As Silent Hill is a very cinematic franchise, let me ask you all this: How do you think Pyramid Head's trailer would go?

Noms: Cadence x5 (or 10? I asked a question on Jace's day about Mii Costumes, though it was arguably more of a set-up to a photoshop joke then an actual question lol)
I imagine a trailer for Pyramid Head involving some people with heavy baggage (Maybe Cloud or Lucas or Mythra) exploring Silent Hill for a bit before they hear the telltale sirens and Pyramid Head himself pops up. I dunno how spoilery it could be, but maybe it could be as dark as Simon's trailer but with Silent Hill using the more famous tragedies of any of these characters to haunt them (Like a twisted version of Aerith's death, a more horrifying version of Claus chasing Lucas, Mythra re-living what happened with Torna, etc.). Bonus points if Ito himself contributes to some Smash-exclusive monster designs for the characters!
 
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Gengar84

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Does Silent Hill have any music that would fit a high energy game like Smash? I haven’t played it but I imagine the music is slower and more ambient. I wonder how they would remix it to fit a fighting game.
 

GolisoPower

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Does Silent Hill have any music that would fit a high energy game like Smash? I haven’t played it but I imagine the music is slower and more ambient. I wonder how they would remix it to fit a fighting game.
Here's a few I think could work:

Silent Hill Theme
Tears of...
Theme of Laura
Betrayal
Promise
Mirrored Guilt
You're Not Here
Room of Angel

As for the slower and ambient music, I have the utmost confidence that if they can give MINECRAFT music so much energy, than I'd be confident in what they'd do for Silent Hill.
 

ahemtoday

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Oct 30, 2020
Messages
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Does Silent Hill have any music that would fit a high energy game like Smash? I haven’t played it but I imagine the music is slower and more ambient. I wonder how they would remix it to fit a fighting game.
Seems like I was beaten to the punch - I'm not overly familiar with SH's soundtrack anyhow, but I guess I'll leave a link to True:

Okay, uh, actually correct video now. That was embarassing...
 
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Gengar84

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Messages
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Here's a few I think could work:

Silent Hill Theme
Tears of...
Theme of Laura
Betrayal
Promise
Mirrored Guilt
You're Not Here
Room of Angel

As for the slower and ambient music, I have the utmost confidence that if they can give MINECRAFT music so much energy, than I'd be confident in what they'd do for Silent Hill.
These definitely work better than what I was imagining. I agree that there shouldn’t really be any issues fitting a lot of these songs in Smash.
 

Eldrake

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Messages
1,278
I've been feeling for a while that maybe one of the best ways to represent the video game horror genre is to use one of the monsters and have it be the type of fighter that can slug through attacks. Other than Nemesis from Resident Evil, Pyramid Head does look like it could seemingly fit that idea quite well.
 

Gengar84

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I've been feeling for a while that maybe one of the best ways to represent the video game horror genre is to use one of the monsters and have it be the type of fighter that can slug through attacks. Other than Nemesis from Resident Evil, Pyramid Head does look like it could seemingly fit that idea quite well.
Yeah, I totally agree. Characters like Jill Valentine and Leon Kennedy are cool and would probably make for fun fighters but I don’t think they capture the feel of a horror game by themselves as well as the monsters. I think Nemesis and Pyramid Head are perfect reps for the genre.
 

Yiptap

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I did come up with an assist trophy concept for Pyramid Head once, so I'll share it. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it works, I guess.

It would basically have Pyramid Head walk around sluggishly across the stage with his sword in tow. If someone gets close, he hits the fighter with his sword. It would have great range and launch very far, as well as dealing dealing 50% damage. There is a rare chance for Pyramid Head to insta-kill as well. It may sound broken, but as I stated, Pyramid Head would be rather sluggish.

Despite nomming this character, I do have a question: How could a Silent Hill stage work? I love me my stages!
 

GolisoPower

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I did come up with an assist trophy concept for Pyramid Head once, so I'll share it. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it works, I guess.

It would basically have Pyramid Head walk around sluggishly across the stage with his sword in tow. If someone gets close, he hits the fighter with his sword. It would have great range and launch very far, as well as dealing dealing 50% damage. There is a rare chance for Pyramid Head to insta-kill as well. It may sound broken, but as I stated, Pyramid Head would be rather sluggish.

Despite nomming this character, I do have a question: How could a Silent Hill stage work? I love me my stages!
I like the idea you have for an Assist Trophy. Really fits him to a T.

As for how a stage works, I would say it could be a time-based gimmick where the stage transitions at the sound of a siren? It would be a simple layout taking place in, say, Brookhaven Hospital, but it alternates between the normal world and the Otherworld, where the monsters come out to attack foes, every minute at the sound of the siren. You could probably also have patches of mist that spawn Silent Hill monsters that most affiliate with your fighter's personality or something.
 
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Yiptap

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I like the idea you have for an Assist Trophy. Really fits him to a T.

As for how a stage works, I would say it could be a time-based gimmick where the stage transitions at the sound of a siren? It would be a simple layout taking place in, say, Brookhaven Hospital, but after a minute, the sirens go off and it alternates between the normal world and the Otherworld, where the monsters come out to attack foes. You could probably also have patches of mist that spawn Silent Hill monsters that most affiliate with your fighter's personality or something.
Thank you for the compliment! As for the stage, it would be neat if the monsters you were talking about were from the same series as the fighters themselves, like goombas for Mario or Bokoblins for Link. But yeah, a hospital stage would be pretty cool.
 
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