Job #163: Joe Musashi (Shinobi)
Moveset:
General playstyle: Joe Musashi is a fast, combo-oriented character with a good reach on his normal attacks thanks to his sword Oborozuki. These are balanced with his low stamina and high end lag on his faster moves. He can wall cling and wall jump.
Notable normal attacks: Musashi’s normal attacks are mostly carried out with his ninja katana Oborozuki, though he’ll make use of kicks in several of his attacks. His jab is his three-hit sword combo while his forward smash is his charged slash attack.
Specials moves:
Neutral Special: Shuriken. Musashi quickly flings a shuriken directly forward on the ground and diagonally downward in the air. It takes some time for him to throw another one but they have a high hit stun on contact. If Musashi holds the button in the air, he can use a Fireball where he launches eight flaming projectiles all around him. However, this technique can be used only once before he lands and increases his landing lag significantly.
Side Special: Inazuma. Musashi slashes in front of him with his sword and causes three bolts of lightning to strike in front of him. These bolts can combo into each other at certain opponents.
Down Special: Bunshin. Musashi creates a copy of himself in a burst of smoke. This clone will copy his movement with some delay and can attack with highly reduced damage. Musashi takes damage if the clone is hit and can only use it again after a long charging period.
Up Special: Tatsumaki. Musashi forms a hand seal and creates a small tornado under himself to launch him upward. The tornado pulls opponents in and hits them multiple times before launching them away.
All-Star Move: Mijin no Jutsu. Musashi runs a hand through Oborozuki’s blade, which starts to glow with a blue aura. He then plunges it into the ground, dragging nearby opponents down with him if he’s in the air. Upon impact, Musashi will cast a forbidden technique that vibrates the entire floor of the stage, burying anyone it touches and dealing heavy damage before launching them. There’s no limit to how many times he can cast this technique in a match but some say that if used too many times, the user of this move would be trapped in the subatomic dimension.
Other:
Aesthetics: Musashi is based on his Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed appearance where his design carries aspects of Jiro Musashi. He has color palette swaps based on other Shinobi protagonists such as Hibana, Hotsuma, and Jiro Musashi, as well as enemies in the series like Neo Zeed. He’s voiced by Toshiyuki Morikawa in Asia and Casey Robertson in other regions.
Entrance animation: Musashi appears in a cloud of smoke and fire, doing a hand seal before brandishing his sword.
Taunts:
Taunt 1: Musashi takes out a scroll, inspects it, and then pockets it back. Depending on the special he last used, this taunt may have a wind, fire, or lightning effect.
Taunt 2: Musashi does a short knife trick with a kunai, saying “Come get me.”
Taunt 3: Musashi performs nine hand seals while also chanting their names: Rin, Pyou, Tou, Sha, Kai, Jin, Retsu, Zai, Zen.”
Victory Animations:
Victory theme: A short excerpt from
Destroyed by Fire
Victory 1: Musashi rides on a motorbike before jumping from it and launching gracefully after an aerial front flip.
Victory 2: Musashi stands and slashes forward with his sword a few times as shadow clones all around him jump, run and attack. He sheathes his sword, dispels his clones, and says “Pathetic.” or “…is that your best?”
Victory 3: Musashi stands with his back turned to the camera. He briefly looks at the screen and says "You fought well." before vanishing.
