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

[Dan Quixote]

Since Black Mage is pretty high up I'll put my 15 noms toward Shovel Knight this time.

I'll admit that when I saw this name in the nominations list and then on the title of the thread, I had no idea who she was. But after seeing all the images posted by Amageish, the memories all came back. Yeah, I remember this game somewhat, the art style was quickly recognizable and I recall a lot of people liking the designs. (Probably because the monster girl trope kinda exploded in in the 2010s) Unfortunately I don't have much to add because I've never touched it myself, but I do have a question. The idea of classic modes facing horrors of the night already exists twice, so how would Zoe put a spin on it?

 

[amageish]

The idea of classic modes facing horrors of the night already exists twice, so how would Zoe put a spin on it?

We touched on classic modes a few posts back, but I think recreating one of the game's endings is a good approach to it. Alternatively, it can be all romantic pairings (assuming we have enough of those to fill a Classic Mode?) or maybe some deity-esque beings to tie into the fact she's worshiped by some cultists as a god of sorts (assuming that isn't already a classic mode theme; I honestly can't quite remember what themes are in the game versus ones we've pitched before in this thread).

 

[ZelDan]

Don't know anything about Monster Prom, so...

x5 Isaac
x5 Shovel Knight

 

[amageish]

I'm just going to tag SharkLord , as I think it's past time for Zoe's day to conclude at this point... I know there's still noms for people to redeem, but they can do that during the Genshin Impact day.

 

[SharkLord]

Yeah, let's cycle over the noms ahemtoday . Though, I'm gonna be a bit busy this morning so I'll set up the rest of the changes now.

Y'know, maybe I should be a bit stricter with the day changing. Usually I gauge it by the most recent post, but it feels like after said most recent post it just kinda goes silent.

 

[amageish]

Y'know, maybe I should be a bit stricter with the day changing. Usually I gauge it by the most recent post, but it feels like after said most recent post it just kinda goes silent.

I think playing it by ear is a fine enough approach, though, yeah, we've had some silences after the first 24 hours in the past few characters especially... Choosing when to call it done sounds like a tough job though; I don't envy you.

 

[GolisoPower]

So if you haven't heard about Genshin Impact at all, then forget a rock, you must've been living under a mountain.

Basically, it's a game in what I'd like to call the Wildlike genre, or games that take after the BotW formula. However, Genshin is entirely free to play and they just came out with the island nation of Inazuma, so there's now even more content to experience.

As for the Traveler, he/she is your player character. He/she uses a sword, one of five different weapon types in the game, but what makes them stand out is their affinity for the elements. See, there are 7 elements in the world of GI: Anemo (Wind), Geo (Earth), Electro (Lightning), Dendro (Nature), Hydro (Water), Pyro (Fire) and Cryo (Ice). Currently, the Traveler has access to the first three elements, and in certain cutscenes has been shown to use them simultaneously, which could add to its uniqueness.

However, there's another mechanic that sets itself apart from BotW that Genshin possesses, and that's Parties. Basically, you have a gacha pool where you can summon characters to form a party of 4 to fight with. These can range from Mona, a Hydro Catalyst user who is skilled in astrology, to Beidou, an Electric Claymore user who managed to kill a legendary monster by herself without the main source of power in this game, Visions, to Tartaglia, a Hydro Bow user that can effectively switch weapons at the tap of a button. For the sake of ensuring it doesn't get too crazy, I believe it just to give the Traveler access to Adventurers he has only encountered in Archon Quests. Perhaps as a Duck Hunt-style Down B?

 

[Rie Sonomura]

What music would they come with?

Octoling xHalf
Ori xHalf

 

[PeridotGX]

Would the Traveler be the Genshin character they go with? I don't know much about the game, but aren't there more popular characters from the game? I feel like they'd pull a Min Min situation here.

 

[Perkilator]

Would Link be used in the reveal trailer?

Noms:
Sakura Shinguji x5

 

[GolisoPower]

What music would they come with?

Octoling xHalf
Ori xHalf

Ohhh, girl, believe me, there is some sick tunes that Genshin possesses, and they're real bangers. Oh and just as a reminder: the below playlist is for Mondstadt, aka the starting area. Liyue and Inazuma also have some awesome soundtracks to listen to as well.

Would the Traveler be the Genshin character they go with? I don't know much about the game, but aren't there more popular characters from the game? I feel like they'd pull a Min Min situation here.

Honestly, that's a tough call. On the one hand, the Traveler's already unique enough with their Elemental Attunements, but on the other hand, you're right, there are more popular characters like Zhongli, Mona and Childe that they could potentially pick from. Again, tough call.

 

[amageish]

Okay, Traveler day! Everyone's favourite silent protagonist most of the fandom really wants to talks more. I guess the safest bet is Paimon turning up in taunts and victory screens, right?

Would the Traveler be the Genshin character they go with? I don't know much about the game, but aren't there more popular characters from the game? I feel like they'd pull a Min Min situation here.

As funny as it'd be to sent Venti goofing off through Smash, I feel like Sakurai's priorities of wanting characters to be ones recognizable to any player of their original game (as reflected in choices like Byleth for 3H over any house leader) would make it unlikely a gacha game would be represented by anything but a free unit. There are other options for free units, but nobody as consistently present as the MC for... obvious reasons.

 

[GolisoPower]

In terms of the stages, we don't have all the regions accessible to do a "Teyvat" stage at all, but I could still see a Genshin stage being kind of similar to Minecraft World, where you could use certain inputs to make it either Mondstadt, Liyue, or Inazuma to fight in. There could even be some characters in the background like Kaeya, Xiao, Kaedehara Kazuha, the Raiden Shogun, Klee, etc. Then again, we could just stick with Mondstadt and call it a day.

 

[Dan Quixote]

What does Genshin Impact even mean

Alright time for what I assume will be a really fun question. I know that a lot of Genshin Impact players generate a lot of their enjoyment of the game from the cool characters in it. Seen lots of fanart on Twitter, lots of fanfic elsewhere, and generally just a lot of stans for all the major characters to the point where even I know a lot of their names and personalities despite never playing the game myself. Cuz of all that, can GI fans gimme a rundown of what some of the Spirit Board fights would be like? What references they would make to the characters and such?

Also would the male or female Traveler be the default costume on the character selection screen? Since tbh I see them used equally in promotional and fan art. And whichever is default, would they be called Traveler by the announcer or Aether and Lumine?

 

[Verde Coeden Scalesworth]

Sadly I must abstain. I don't know a lot of these games, unfortunately. Not even slight videos or memes, etc.

 

[GolisoPower]

What does Genshin Impact even mean

Alright time for what I assume will be a really fun question. I know that a lot of Genshin Impact players generate a lot of their enjoyment of the game from the cool characters in it. Seen lots of fanart on Twitter, lots of fanfic elsewhere, and generally just a lot of stans for all the major characters to the point where even I know a lot of their names and personalities despite never playing the game myself. Cuz of all that, can GI fans gimme a rundown of what some of the Spirit Board fights would be like? What references they would make to the characters and such?

Also would the male or female Traveler be the default costume on the character selection screen? Since tbh I see them used equally in promotional and fan art. And whichever is default, would they be called Traveler by the announcer or Aether and Lumine?

So to answer the Spirit Board fights question, I'd imagine it being majorly based on the more popular summons of the game that you encounter through the main story like Diluc, Xiao, Childe, Zhongli, Venti, Rosaria, etc., with a hint of some enemies like Hilichurls, Ruin Guards, Treasure Hoarders and Fatui, among others.

As far as the announcer call goes, I imagine it'd be like Steve and Alex, where both can be called by their name based on which you use. As for the default, if we're going by the roster, it would have to be Aether, as that's the guy who you see often in promotional material.

 

[SharkLord]

Alright, I'm back

To be honest I don't think the Traveler would work well as a Genshin rep, at least not for the time being. Their main thing is using all seven elements, but as of current they only have three available. It appears you get a new element for every new region, and it also seems like miHoYo wants to keep Genshin going for a while, so it seems like we won't have a complete Traveler for a while. I mean, sure, we could make something from scratch or reuse other people's abilities, but that just feels kinda slapped together and incomplete. This might come off as kinda odd reasoning, but I feel like we should be able to use their full potential for a moveset, and we know that potential won't be finished for a while, so...

I think it'd work better if we used someone like Amber, who's the first unit you get aside from the Traveler themselves, is front-and-center in a lot of the advertising, and already has all her abilities completed from launch rather than slowly being completed alongside the game itself.

 

[Schnee117]

All I really know is Paimon would be a support spirit and could be a healing/food booster effect in reference to the Emergency food option and there's Amber as the first other character you recruit and she has Bow related stuff and an explosive decoy thing so a Link that likes using Neutral and Down Special could be the battle.

You could probably make strong use of the element stuff so one of the stronger Ice characters could have an ice-afflicted stage for example.
I know there's also a character that literally has Vergil's Judgment Cut End so I want them included lol. Keqing I think? And they have an electric affinity so give the fight an electrified stage and the spirit host a Killing Edge.

I dunno, I don't really **** with gacha related stuff, it's all through osmosis from other people

 

[ahemtoday]

Sorry I'm late! Here come the noms!

Spoiler

amageish x30 (35 Total)
Gengar84 x5 (10 Total)
C chocolatejr9 x5 (10 Total)
GolisoPower x5 (10 Total)
Schnee117 x10 (10 Total)
Paraster x5 (10 Total)
Dan Quixote x5 (10 Total)

 

[GolisoPower]

Noms:
Geolyte x10

 

[chocolatejr9]

I know nothing about Genshin Impact. Can somebody explain... any of it to me? All I know is that it's constantly trending on Twitter.

Nominations: Laharl x10

 

[GolisoPower]

I know nothing about Genshin Impact. Can somebody explain... any of it to me? All I know is that it's constantly trending on Twitter.

Nominations: Laharl x10

Here, I just wrote it a few posts ago:

So if you haven't heard about Genshin Impact at all, then forget a rock, you must've been living under a mountain.

Basically, it's a game in what I'd like to call the Wildlike genre, or games that take after the BotW formula. However, Genshin is entirely free to play and they just came out with the island nation of Inazuma, so there's now even more content to experience.

As for the Traveler, he/she is your player character. He/she uses a sword, one of five different weapon types in the game, but what makes them stand out is their affinity for the elements. See, there are 7 elements in the world of GI: Anemo (Wind), Geo (Earth), Electro (Lightning), Dendro (Nature), Hydro (Water), Pyro (Fire) and Cryo (Ice). Currently, the Traveler has access to the first three elements, and in certain cutscenes has been shown to use them simultaneously, which could add to its uniqueness.

However, there's another mechanic that sets itself apart from BotW that Genshin possesses, and that's Parties. Basically, you have a gacha pool where you can summon characters to form a party of 4 to fight with. These can range from Mona, a Hydro Catalyst user who is skilled in astrology, to Beidou, an Electric Claymore user who managed to kill a legendary monster by herself without the main source of power in this game, Visions, to Tartaglia, a Hydro Bow user that can effectively switch weapons at the tap of a button. For the sake of ensuring it doesn't get too crazy, I believe it just to give the Traveler access to Adventurers he has only encountered in Archon Quests. Perhaps as a Duck Hunt-style Down B?

 

[Gengar84]

I've always been kind of interested in Genshin Impact but I have a rule that I try to avoid gacha games in general. I've got a couple questions about the games themselves to start out with. First, how enjoyable is the game for someone that wants to play without spending any money? Is it overly grindy to try to persuade you into spending money? Second, is there any truth the the rumor I've heard that installing the game comes with spyware?

Noms:
xAll Velvet Crowe

 

[GolisoPower]

I've always been kind of interested in Genshin Impact but I have a rule that I try to avoid gacha games in general. I've got a couple questions about the games themselves to start out with. First, how enjoyable is the game for someone that wants to play without spending any money? Is it overly grindy to try to persuade you into spending money? Second, is there any truth the the rumor I've heard that installing the game comes with spyware?

Noms:
xAll Velvet Crowe

Firstly, it's actually pretty fun, though not if you're a completionist that wants to collect everything. There's a lot of content to go around with fun puzzles and some hefty replay value, and the events themselves are really unique. It does get a little grindy in some parts, but otherwise, it doesn't exactly convince you to spend money at all. Besides, in my point of view, everyone seems to forget that spending money is wholly OPTIONAL. There are people who can do just fine without spending a single cent on the game, and honestly, there's no "winning" in this game so it's not "pay-to-win" like everyone is fearing IMO. But let's not delve too deep into that topic lest we risk having the mods shutting down this thread that was meant to cover fun little "What If" scenarios.

As for the spyware thing, although this is the first time I'm hearing about this, I don't think that's the case. The only more obvious game company that I could see doing that is Tencent, and I believe I remember reading something about Tencent fans attacking miHoYo a while back. I won't get into details without making this thread too uncomfortable for the day, but if Tencent is attacking miHoYo, that'd mean a whole lot less credibility on that rumor.

 

[amageish]

I've always been kind of interested in Genshin Impact but I have a rule that I try to avoid gacha games in general. I've got a couple questions about the games themselves to start out with. First, how enjoyable is the game for someone that wants to play without spending any money? Is it overly grindy to try to persuade you into spending money? Second, is there any truth the the rumor I've heard that installing the game comes with spyware?

Noms:
xAll Velvet Crowe

I somewhat fell off the bandwagon after launch, but generally found it to be enjoyable and with a nice world, not notably more grindy then your average open-world JRPG.

As for the SpyWare thing, I think people are just overly cautious of Chinese developers and people were concerned about the PC game coming with anti-cheat software, as some thought that was unnecessary for a single-player game. Personally though, I don't think it's surprising a gacha game wants to be very certain that you aren't cheating because, you know, they want people to pay to pull for the characters, not hack them in.

 

[Lionfranky]

Would switching mechanic work for Traveler? That's how in-game mechanic works. But, problem is modeling several characters just for one slot. Players can swap up to 4 characters in Genshin Impact. I kinda doubt Sakurai or next Smash director would be willing to go that far.

We all learned that hardware limit blocked Rex from joining. So, I believe Traveler summoning his companions is out of question. Maybe, next hardware may be able to fix that issue. As other already said, Traveler's gimmick would be his element. Using right elements would bring more devastating result just like in the original game.

I don't think Min Min situation can be applied here. ARMS producer/director said everyone was protagonist. And we got Kazuya over other two more popular Michima characters afterall. So, Aether/Lumine should be default choice.

Nom: Master Chief x Max

 

[GolisoPower]

Would switching mechanic work for Traveler? That's how in-game mechanic works. But, problem is modeling several characters just for one slot. Players can swap up to 4 characters in Genshin Impact. I kinda doubt Sakurai or next Smash director would be willing to go that far.

We all learned that hardware limit blocked Rex from joining. So, I believe Traveler summoning his companions is out of question. Maybe, next hardware may be able to fix that issue. As other already said, Traveler's gimmick would be his element. Using right elements would bring more devastating result just like in the original game.

I don't think Min Min situation can be applied here. ARMS producer/director said everyone was protagonist. And we got Kazuya over other two more popular Michima characters afterall. So, Aether/Lumine should be default choice.

Nom: Master Chief x Max

To make it more simple, we could just have it be like Duck Hunt's Down Special and have them summon a character so they can do their Elemental Skill.

 

[Lionfranky]

To make it more simple, we could just have it be like Duck Hunt's Down Special and have them summon a character so they can do their Elemental Skill.

I guess Rex and Pyra/Mythra situation is different from simple summon. Summoned NPC wouldn't have model or asset to take up hardware, would they?

 

[amageish]

I guess Rex and Pyra/Mythra situation is different from simple summon. Summoned NPC wouldn't have model or asset to take up hardware, would they?

I imagine they'd have models, but no tether mechanic would make things a lot easier... More Dunk Hunt and less Ice Climbers would probably be doable, especially if it's only a few options for summoning on a few moves.

 

[SharkLord]

Alright, I'm back

To be honest I don't think the Traveler would work well as a Genshin rep, at least not for the time being. Their main thing is using all seven elements, but as of current they only have three available. It appears you get a new element for every new region, and it also seems like miHoYo wants to keep Genshin going for a while, so it seems like we won't have a complete Traveler for a while. I mean, sure, we could make something from scratch or reuse other people's abilities, but that just feels kinda slapped together and incomplete. This might come off as kinda odd reasoning, but I feel like we should be able to use their full potential for a moveset, and we know that potential won't be finished for a while, so...

I think it'd work better if we used someone like Amber, who's the first unit you get aside from the Traveler themselves, is front-and-center in a lot of the advertising, and already has all her abilities completed from launch rather than slowly being completed alongside the game itself.

Following up on this, is there any specific characters you'd want to see in Smash beyond the "mascots" like Traveler and Amber? There's certainly a lot of options to choose from.

 

[GolisoPower]

Following up on this, is there any specific characters you'd want to see in Smash beyond the "mascots" like Traveler and Amber? There's certainly a lot of options to choose from.

For me, it'd have to be my girl Beidou. She's totally badass, having managed to beat a legendary sea monster by herself WITHOUT. A. VISION. Beidou's also a pirate, which we don't have on the roster, not to mention she plays a significant role in the story, taking us to Inazuma.

 

[PeridotGX]

If I'm gonna come back to this, I'm gonna go back to explaining how to purchace the game. Genshin's easy - it's free to play, and is on computers, phones, and Playstation. A switch port is also on the way.

 

[amageish]

Following up on this, is there any specific characters you'd want to see in Smash beyond the "mascots" like Traveler and Amber? There's certainly a lot of options to choose from.

I'd probably go with Venti. A very traditionalist choice as he was somehow both one of the game's first big husbandos AND one of the game's first big waifus due to his androgynous look/voice, but I like him. Also I want someone musical in the game and am very willing to compromise.

Or I'd cheat and say Aloy, because I am giving her my noms for the day. Aloy x 35.

And on that note, Paimon told me she was tired of all the overused "emergency food" memes and provided me with a helpful list of things that you should consider eating first.

Spoiler: The Noms List

50+ noms
Fulgore - x90
Sakura Shinguji - x85
Laharl - x85
Madeleine - x80
Black Mage - x75
Axel Stone - x75
Shovel Knight - x75
Velvet Crowe - x75
Octoling - x72
Filia (Skullgirls) - x70
Geolyte (Meteos) - x65
Hearthstone Innkeeper - x65
Saber - x65
Heavy - x60
Chibi-Robo - x55
Ichiban - x55
Isaac (Golden Sun) - x55
Aloy - x55

26-50 noms
Rintarou Okabe - x50
Bubsy - x50
Estelle Bright - x50
Master Chief - x50
Endo Mamoru - x45
Ryu Hayabusa - x40
Rivals of Aether rep - x40
Klonoa - x40
2B - x40
Wilfre - x30
Wadanohara* - x30
Zero Escape Rep - x30
Sly Cooper - x28
Trauma Center Content - x27

11-25 noms
Chun-Li - x25
Meowth - x25
Ori - x22
Master Hand - x20
Mega Man X - x20
Morrigan - x20
Brian - x15


5-10 noms
Crypto - x10
Daitoryo - x10
Gunvolt - x10
Darkest Dungeon Content - x10
Doomguy - x10
Alm - x5
SMT Content - x5
Frogger - x5
Jonesy - x5
Ezio - x5
9-volt - x5
Nathan Drake - x5
Spyro the Dragon - x3
Tracer - x3
Chell - x3

I don't know how Paimon thinks humans work if she believes you can be sustained off of the knowledge of what characters people want to discuss in this thread, but she worked really hard on the list, so I figured it was worth sharing nonetheless.

 

[Paraster]

Noms: Rivals of Aether x10

 

[SharkLord]

Alright, tagging ahemtoday to post the extra noms

 

[ahemtoday]

Oh, hey, it's Hat Kid's day!

Spoiler

GolisoPower x35 (40 Total)
Rie Sonomura x5 (10 Total)
PeridotGX x10 (15 Total)
Perkilator x5 (10 Total)
amageish x20 (25 Total)
Dan Quixote x5 (10 Total)
SharkLord x10 (15 Total)
Schnee117 x5 (10 Total)
C chocolatejr9 x5 (10 Total)
Gengar84 x5 (10 Total)
L Lionfranky x10 (15 Total)

 

[Eldrake]

Thread title reminded me that I still got A Hat In Time in my backlog, but Guild Wars 2 and Guilty Gear has been eating my time.

I can talk a little though. My first thoughts are "Sakurai probably wouldn't do the hat swapping mechanic, but I could see hat swaps as part of special moves." and "We definitely need more cute characters in Smash."

Also got great music that I don't think anyone could possibly complain about.

 

[ahemtoday]

So, honestly, if I was doing a moveset for Hat Kid, the first thing I'd do is put the dive on side-B. It's such a big part of movement in that game that it kind of has to be in there somewhere. Maybe it could cancel your attacks for combos or something, I don't know.

 

[amageish]

Oh, yay, Hat Kid day! I love Hat Kid's design and the game's OST is just so great.

That said, my love of Hat Kid is apparently not mutual, as the game (at least on PS4) makes me incredibly motion sick to play. I don't know why; motion sickness from games is usually just something I deal with from first-person games, but something about A Hat in Time just knocks me out within minutes of playing.

Ergo, I have two questions to ask:
1) What area from the game do you think is famous enough to get a stage?
2) Would Bow Kid be an alt? I don't know much about her beyond her design and that she was revealed with art by the Curiomatic team, but I think she's a Luigi-esque character?

 

[GolisoPower]

So A Hat In Time is a game I've only heard from seeing that smug dance meme and from word of mouth on how good the game is. It seems to accomplish what a lot of people say Yooka-Laylee failed to do and be a fun collectathon that in a sense captures the spirit of Banjo-Kazooie. Come to think of it, I really want to get A Hat In Time whenever I get enough money to purchase it.

Noms:
Geolyte x20
Saber x20