D
Deleted member
Guest
TRENT
Illbleed had to have one boss set and Trent fits the bill. It's not the typical boss, as immunities aren't used to make it easy to fight three characters, instead certain moves are unaffected by stun and this allows the player to constantly attack at their opponents. This is layered on top of an overly-elaborate tentacle management system, giving a limitless control over multiple giant hitboxes that give a straightforward and peerless stage control, a very imaginative way of balancing a boss character. This alone is quite impressive – as has been noted by Big Mac, this mechanic would be interesting to see played by a supercomputer! These movable limbs let an extension of the main body creep across the stage and flows wonderfully into the minions, who have a multi-purpose. The woodcutter deal extra damage to foes that have been transformed into wood puppets, while the evil tree itself can heal off of any blood that is splattered around by the attacking woodcutter and even destroy the underling for a heal. It's an expertly balanced and creative boss even in the specials.
From there, the set grows and grows into a truly memorable work. The workmanlike pace of the set allows for a collection of moves that make use of the body type, and give some aggressive, versatile options that take advantage of the aforementioned tentacle roots, working like a mega Skeleton in a way. This is wholly necessary and while not boasted upon in the least, interesting on its own. The set doesn't fumble at all where you'd expect it to, considering the aggressive basic attacks and movement given in the roots and in particular the up special, Trent becomes the epicentre of the match and this makes for a fascinating match-up against any team. It's not only getting into position, it's picking out members to transform into wood puppets, creating a self-sustaining woodcutting industry for healing and waiting for the right moment to set, or spring, your traps. While we're on the bread-and-butter, lets also not leave out the grab game, armed with great functionality and some of the best characterised moves in the set, hanging foes from trees and eating them up, wasting none of the imagery offered from this mysterious, hilarious character. Big Mac not only shows how to balance non-immunity bosses, but also long-range grabs.
There's no doubt in my mind, this set is fantastically balanced and interesting as a boss, a rarity in this day and age. It works to put the basics in order, so that it makes room for the later dessert of traps and flashy aerials. Self-control is utterly important in executing a boss set and this one shows it in tonnes, the pay-off is a delight. This mostly comes down to two smashes: the sandstorm and the buzzsaw. It's again, simple moves; a sandstorm that picks up your woodcutters or opponents and allows for a diversified approach or manipulation of what's on the stage, the buzzsaw acts as almost the opposite, forcing the opponent to jump over it or wrecking your own roots to your benefit, or not, but it's easy to avoid. This and the aerials pile on plenty of great, creative flair onto what was an already brilliant base. The character's never far off in the design - Trent was encapsulated well in this set, coming across as a deeply intelligent, sadistic and eccentric man, fused with a tree. If there is such a thing, the mood in this set is sublime, never taking itself too seriously whilst paying homage to the source material, making it stand out to a big fan of the game. An enormous amount of care and effort went into making this moveset, it definitely shows.
Lizard
This set may be incredibly popular, but it's also old and we all need a refresher on why it's so well-liked. It's at first glance a joke set, right? It's for a generic magical lizard, who dies in one hit from almost any attack and has to hide away as a result, but is secretly a god. Learning from his mistakes in the past, FA is able to craft a convincing playstyle for a handicapped character, neither lacking in any fun. Sure, you can land that hit and it's not impossible, but you're going to have to work towards it. While a normal character has a certain roof for damage before being defeated, Lizard fills this space using a unique brand of customisable minion, the Golems. These come in a variety of different breeds, namely rock, fire and water. The movesets of these are limited but can be edited and this is played into excellently by the stereotypical copying of opponent's moves, incorporating them into Lizard's own repertoire. The combination of this and the ability to disable a handful of moves, makes every fight with Lizard a potentially very unique experience depending on how the foe approaches the match, as Lizard is largely reactionary. This obviously also plays well into his nonchalant characterisation, as he plays off the foe rather than engaging in a true fight.
That's not all there is to the set, there's plenty of depth to every aspect. There's much to say about the rocks that can be hidden in that are scattered across the stage, for example. Lizard uses these to hide and craft Golems, creating bait for attacks to be copied or countered, whilst rewarding opponents who can outwit the deity. This creates a cool back-and-forth between foe and Lizard that makes for a great potential defensive opening, without making the character too campy or broken. At any time, he's at greater risk than Jigglypuff, balancing the set out, while any real abuse that an opponent could deal is handled by the summoned minions, there's no game-breaking or particularly jarring cut from what any other character normally can do. In this regard, it's a nice observer sort of character too, as you can build up all sorts of moves on a single Golem and pair them off with a foe, then pick away from them in the shadows. The different elements that comprise a minion, all come into play and allow for a shocking amount of versatility, as rock, fire and water each have advantages over each other that suit a certain situation. This means that, appropriately, there's no way for the opponent to cheaply corner this frail character.
Ultimately what is understated and makes up the majority of the set, may be the best part. The character is a free license for its creator, FA, to go nuts on creativity, resulting in a psychic who has a plethora of fascinating moves and these 'flashy' types of inputs are well at home on a character who unusually isn't in the actual fight. Aside from simply being enjoyable to see a blitz of writing out of the author and making for incredible depth out of the simple hide-and-seek playstyle, the edited portions of the set mean the overall set is finely-balanced to perfection. If you haven't read this set since its release, I recommend a re-read to see these large improvements, though it's not easy to forget its charm. It's a blank canvas set where the creativity is given no restrictions and carries the set along to its comfortable conclusion, being one of the most easy-reads in the whole contest. The writing style is among FA's best and it's all surprisingly logical, easy to understand despite how complex it can get, plus fairly in-smash. It truly feels an evolution of FA's style and shows the growth he has gone through over the last couple of years as a moveset maker. Blind praise aside, it deserves its support and should not be easily dismissed.
BeastMan.EXE
Commonly confused with BreastMan.EXE, BeastMan is an interesting take on separating limbs as a concept. As you'd expect on a Roy set, the interactions are executed bluntly, but unlike other Roy sets, here they are plentiful and play a big part in defining the character's playstyle. Extending out your detachable claws around the stage is a tricky business and is risky. If you place your claws too far away or in a place where they aren't useful, the cost is that of a close-range melee moveset that hampers the player. Other sets in this category are all about freedom to move body parts around largely wherever the player so chooses, but this set elects to restrict this privilege and makes it a task to create an opening. This is boosted by the fact that the regular moveset with the claws is nothing special - you can aggrieve the foe and win, but it's not built for that. The pressure is put on the character to push for that one chance to score a win, challenging the player to make use of their abilities despite the setbacks and aim for a truly satisfying victory.
This works splendidly into the characterisation of the set. BeastMan.EXE is a wild animal, a predator, who creeps up on his foe at the right moment to catch them off-guard. It's not a dull job to carry out, but ultimately can be imagined as quite fun to pull off in a match without appearing at all implausible. When you do get to play around, the tools at your disposal are adaptable too, giving you moving platforms, far-away hitboxes as you'd see in a standard set of this nature and combinations where you work together using a separated claw in various roles. It can either be a basic pressure tool, or space the foe, damage rack between the player and claw, the options available are impressive. Again, it's close to the characterisation and makes absolute sense. A hunter, but also a machine, who knows these claws inside and out: when he goes to manipulate them in a crazy manner it's not at all strange. Though what really stood out to me was the set's dedication to being in-smash and an execution that has never been attempted before, giving a set that would challenge you to adapt, rather than coddling the player.
Beyond the difficulty of playing the set, in this case a plus, the set has further quirks in how it precisely picks up and recovers claws, transitioning into a barebones set. This is largely a generic Brawl set, but is given a fair amount of effort to envision. It's a primal transformation compared to the delicate placement of claws, lashing out at melee-range foes. While not an amazing transformation, it's another piece of the puzzle, allowing for players to close the distance at any time. It can be viewed a downgrade in almost every way and a distinct punishment for screwing up on your set-up, but the way it works into getting back a claw is refreshing. If the foe gets up in your face, it's an advantage with quick headbutts, if you do manage to gain back your weapons, you can start attempting a gimp or other advanced techniques in the set. There are a surprising amount of good ideas buried just beneath the surface in this set. The focus on execution and basic characterisation definitely made a strong impression.