Let's Talk World of Light!

[Pippin (Peregrin Took)]

So I checked before I made this for a dedicated World of Light Discussion Group and I didn't see one. Now that Gamexplain has given us the first ten minutes, I'd like to hear what y'all's thoughts are. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRQlnvKDIPE

We have this villain Galeem who is referred to as the "lord of light" (notice the distinct lack of capitalization, that's from Nintendo itself). I'm really hoping this isn't a "God is the bad guy" type of thing like Bayonetta or apparently SMT, but I do have a theory on that.

Spoiler: Philosophical Ramblings of a Wacky Hobbit

I remember hearing about a quote from Tolkien saying that if Gandalf used the One Ring, the land of Middle Earth would be just but not perfect because people would be forced into goodness rather than choosing it via their own free will. It was part of his understanding of the whole "problem of evil" debate. With Galeem robbing the fighters and spirits of their own free will, perhaps it's a similar idea to that. Also in the Bible Paul says Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, so not all light is actually light. Also you can tie that in with the song lyrics about "bear[ing] your torch against the cold of the night".

Getting back to in-universe, I'm also thinking Galeem is connected to Tabuu somehow with how the Master Hands disintegrated into things that looked very similar to his hands in the trailer.

In terms of gameplay, I'm intrigued with the furtherance of the Spirit ideas like they talked about in the final Smash direct. I especially liked the Eevee one for some reason. I'm approaching the mode with reserved optimism.

 

[Orlando BCN]

I’m a bit mixed about the mode. I liked the “adventure” gameplay that was found in The Subspace Emissary and Smash Run, but it seems that World of Light is nothing but event matches. I feel that beating up characters over and over will get stale, even with the different conditions. I’m still interested in finding out who the heck Galeem actually is, though.

Also, Karin is a spirit! Yay me!!

 

[TrainerFireRed]

I like this theory! I was super disapointed when smash 4 had no story/lore at all except some...final boss if you play on hard mode? Anyway, maybe we can get more info on Tabuu and them. Brawl didn't really give us much, but it did sorta kinda had lore

 

[Luigifan18]

I'll quote myself from the "Which fighters do you plan to use to take out Galeem" thread:

In the final battle, I'm envisioning Galeem periodically summoning minions throughout the fight, and the player will have to quickly take out the minions while sustaining their assault on Galeem, because if his minions are allowed to stick around for long enough, he'll perform the exact same stunt he did in the intro cutscene — destroying his minions and absorbing their energy, then using that energy to fire off a salvo of instant-kill laser beams which are extremely difficult to dodge. The more minions Galeem absorbs, the more lasers he fires. Obviously, if you get more than a certain number of lasers coming at you at once... well, kiss your butt goodbye.

Obviously, Galeem will be launching attacks of his own while his minions are on the field — not the devastating insta-kill lasers, which he has to fuel with the life-force of his minions, but these more basic attacks will still be threatening on their own... they just won't kill you instantly. I'd imagine these attacks consisting of things like smaller lasers, wing slashes, fire waves (Galeem is partially seraphim-based, and seraphim are associated with fire), and energy blasts. I wouldn't be surprised if Galeem's attacks can damage his own minions, but he'd only get to use them to fuel the instant-kill lasers if he absorbed them with the dedicated move, so part of the strategy might involve exploiting Galeem's attacks to help you eliminate the minions. As for the minions themselves... I'm not sure what they would be. Maybe they'll be Subspace Army mooks, like Primids, Poppants, Trowlets, and Armanks. Maybe they'll be false characters, like the ones you've been fighting throughout World of Light. Maybe they'll be low-HP Master Hands. Whatever the minions are, they probably won't require too much effort to knock out, so as to make it feasible to divide one's attention between fighting Galeem himself and eliminating the minions to prevent the instant-kill lasers from coming out, but the minions will be sturdy and dangerous enough to require the player to occasionally disengage from Galeem to deal with them, lest obliteration ensue.

 

[Pippin (Peregrin Took)]

I’m a bit mixed about the mode. I liked the “adventure” gameplay that was found in The Subspace Emissary and Smash Run, but it seems that World of Light is nothing but event matches. I feel that beating up characters over and over will get stale, even with the different conditions. I’m still interested in finding out who the heck Galeem actually is, though.

Also, Karin is a spirit! Yay me!!

Yeah I squeed a bit when I saw Karin as a spirit also. Juri's a spirit too which is cool.

In some senses I get what you're saying about a bunch of event matches tied together by this board (it sounds like RelaxAlax's complaints about Wii U's single player modes - all being variations of "MULTI MAN MELEE!!!"). But at the same time, I feel like having the spirits in there gives it significantly more personality.

Also, Subspace's side scrolling levels were fun in parts but were also a grind because of the generic enemies. If it had more personality like what the spirits are bringing I might have appreciated it more.

 

[TB2]

Im not even sure myself about Galeem, im so hyped for his final boss battle in WoL, but even more hyped for the Elite league at Online, imma grind for that xD

 

[lucasla]

I think it is a interesting successor to Event Matches, mixing many modes of the game into one.

I never really had fun in Event matches of Smash 4, mostly because in each event the game forced me to play with a different character in short matches with crazy rules. The problem is that because the game changes the character at each match, it doesnt make me get better with a character that I'm not used to play, or make me get interested enough in invest time with any specific character, or the event is hard just because I'm not used to play with the character. It was just boring too cause each event I needed to adapt to a character I'm not used just to complete the event and then we already have another character in the next event and it goes on that way...It's very difficult to adapt so fast that way. There's just no connection between me and the character I'm playing in each event, and it never made me get interested in experiment other characters.

With World of Light, I expect Event matches that I will be able to play many different events with the same character, having some sense of progress and always getting better with the character I'm playing at the moment, and also trying others for more than one quick event.

 

[Garo]

Just like Nintendo of Japan a while back, Nintendo UK uploaded the "echo version" of the mural trailer:

While seemingly not tied with World of Light, this whole reverse thingy made me think up a crackpot theory of how WoL might progress and how the double trailers could actually reflect that.

As we've seen from the previews, you're almost instantly forced to pick one of three paths, after which the other paths become unavailable to you. I'm thinking this will be the case for the whole run. You proceed on your chosen path, collect all the fighters you come across, reach Galeem and beat him.

But what if you don't? Turns out the fighters you have aren't enough and Galeem reverses time, sending you back to the beginning. However, you retain all the fighters you found and can now explore the rest of the map without being locked out of other paths. Only when you've collected everyone can you truly beat Galeem.

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

It's very clear that there's nothing random about the battles in the World of Light. You have to play as Kirby when you first begin your playthrough, and after getting back Mario, you have to choose between Sheik, Marth, or Villager. And once you've made your choice, the other routes will be blocked off.

I just hope that as you advance further into the game, you'll have an opportunity to acquire special Spirits that possess fighter specific abilities. For one idea, there could be a Legend class Giga Bowser Spirit that only Bowser can use, as it changes him into Giga Bowser for the whole match.

 

[UltimateXsniper]

This is something I don't think anyone has really talked about, but I am personally glad to see that we can change alts in this mode. It's just something I didn't really expect since we never had this option in subspace. Seeing how selecting your fighters in the mode is the same as the usual character select and changing alts is really a nice touch and I'm glad it's here.

 

[VexTheHex]

I'm looking forward to and also a little nervous about finding my faves. I don't want spoiled where they are, but it'd also kind of suck for all my boys and girls to be the last ones I find. Also sorry Villager and Sheik, I'm going for Marth. Hopefully he was on his way to tea time with Peach while I know Villagers leads to Captain Falcon (tempting) and Sheik leads to Mii Swordfighter. (Eww)

 

[DutchPichu]

Does somebody know who can be unlocked after Marth?

 

[meleebrawler]

It's very clear that there's nothing random about the battles in the World of Light. You have to play as Kirby when you first begin your playthrough, and after getting back Mario, you have to choose between Sheik, Marth, or Villager. And once you've made your choice, the other routes will be blocked off.

I just hope that as you advance further into the game, you'll have an opportunity to acquire special Spirits that possess fighter specific abilities. For one idea, there could be a Legend class Giga Bowser Spirit that only Bowser can use, as it changes him into Giga Bowser for the whole match.

How's that supposed to work in multiplayer Spirit battles?

Just like Nintendo of Japan a while back, Nintendo UK uploaded the "echo version" of the mural trailer:

While seemingly not tied with World of Light, this whole reverse thingy made me think up a crackpot theory of how WoL might progress and how the double trailers could actually reflect that.

As we've seen from the previews, you're almost instantly forced to pick one of three paths, after which the other paths become unavailable to you. I'm thinking this will be the case for the whole run. You proceed on your chosen path, collect all the fighters you come across, reach Galeem and beat him.

But what if you don't? Turns out the fighters you have aren't enough and Galeem reverses time, sending you back to the beginning. However, you retain all the fighters you found and can now explore the rest of the map without being locked out of other paths. Only when you've collected everyone can you truly beat Galeem.

Gamexplain notes how Galeem is protected by a barrier and notable crystals guarded by strong puppets. It's safe to assume you'll need to break them all in order to be able to challenge Galeem, and thus have to traverse the majority of the map. Maybe breaking one is what causes the initial crossroads to be become open again, at least until you choose another path there.

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

How's that supposed to work in multiplayer Spirit battles?

My best guess is that Giga Bowser would either have stamina to balance out his knockback immunity, or he'll take normal knockback like everyone else. If the former, Giga Bowser would be KO'd once his HP drops to 0.

Anyway, if Giga Bowser has stamina, he wouldn't exactly guarantee you a win if the opponent is equipped with a Spirit that can deal high amounts of damage. And being a big target also means that Giga Bowser would be highly vulnerable to seeing his HP get depleted by Rathalos, Galleom, Dracula, or any other boss.

It's hard to say how strong a Legend class Spirit can be, but I would think that if Giga Bowser is a Spirit, he would be in the Legend class. Also, he's the only boss who can operate like a standard fighter.

 

[Arthur97]

Does somebody know who can be unlocked after Marth?

I think I read that it's Peach.

 

[meleebrawler]

My best guess is that Giga Bowser would either have stamina to balance out his knockback immunity, or he'll take normal knockback like everyone else. If the former, Giga Bowser would be KO'd once his HP drops to 0.

Anyway, if Giga Bowser has stamina, he wouldn't exactly guarantee you a win if the opponent is equipped with a Spirit that can deal high amounts of damage. And being a big target also means that Giga Bowser would be highly vulnerable to seeing his HP get depleted by Rathalos, Galleom, Dracula, or any other boss.

It's hard to say how strong a Legend class Spirit can be, but I would think that if Giga Bowser is a Spirit, he would be in the Legend class. Also, he's the only boss who can operate like a standard fighter.

His size would make it literally impossible to avoid certain attacks. Spirits may not be balanced competitively but Giga Bowser is just flat-out not designed to be playable normally, being either an obnoxious tank or complete punching bag. And it just reeks of favoritism unless you can think of similarly powered up forms for most of the other fighters.

Do you really think the Dry Bowser or Kaptain K. Rool spirits will completely transform their counterparts?

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

His size would make it literally impossible to avoid certain attacks. Spirits may not be balanced competitively but Giga Bowser is just flat-out not designed to be playable normally, being either an obnoxious tank or complete punching bag. And it just reeks of favoritism unless you can think of similarly powered up forms for most of the other fighters.

Do you really think the Dry Bowser or Kaptain K. Rool spirits will completely transform their counterparts?

Probably not. That's pretty much what would make a possible Giga Bowser Spirit feel unique; it would possess a fighter specific ability that you wouldn't find on any of the other Primary Spirits.

Yes, Giga Bowser is imbalanced due to how big his size is, but since there are Support Spirits that can make fighters bigger (such as the confirmed Moon Spirit), I'm pretty sure that there will also be some Support Spirits that reduce knockback taken, or even make fighters metallic.

On a side note, in regards to Final Smashes, Giga Bowser would simply use the exact same Final Smash as Bowser, but he wouldn't revert back to Bowser when the Final Smash ends.

 

[Luigifan18]

I'll quote myself from the "Which fighters do you plan to use to take out Galeem" thread:

In the final battle, I'm envisioning Galeem periodically summoning minions throughout the fight, and the player will have to quickly take out the minions while sustaining their assault on Galeem, because if his minions are allowed to stick around for long enough, he'll perform the exact same stunt he did in the intro cutscene — destroying his minions and absorbing their energy, then using that energy to fire off a salvo of instant-kill laser beams which are extremely difficult to dodge. The more minions Galeem absorbs, the more lasers he fires. Obviously, if you get more than a certain number of lasers coming at you at once... well, kiss your butt goodbye.

Obviously, Galeem will be launching attacks of his own while his minions are on the field — not the devastating insta-kill lasers, which he has to fuel with the life-force of his minions, but these more basic attacks will still be threatening on their own... they just won't kill you instantly. I'd imagine these attacks consisting of things like smaller lasers, wing slashes, fire waves (Galeem is partially seraphim-based, and seraphim are associated with fire), and energy blasts. I wouldn't be surprised if Galeem's attacks can damage his own minions, but he'd only get to use them to fuel the instant-kill lasers if he absorbed them with the dedicated move, so part of the strategy might involve exploiting Galeem's attacks to help you eliminate the minions. As for the minions themselves... I'm not sure what they would be. Maybe they'll be Subspace Army mooks, like Primids, Poppants, Trowlets, and Armanks. Maybe they'll be false characters, like the ones you've been fighting throughout World of Light. Maybe they'll be low-HP Master Hands. Whatever the minions are, they probably won't require too much effort to knock out, so as to make it feasible to divide one's attention between fighting Galeem himself and eliminating the minions to prevent the instant-kill lasers from coming out, but the minions will be sturdy and dangerous enough to require the player to occasionally disengage from Galeem to deal with them, lest obliteration ensue.

I just saw spoiler footage of the Galeem fight...

Spoiler

Ha ha, wow, I was wrong. The lasers from the intro don't show up at all. Galeem does summon exploding fighters, though.