UserShadow7989
Smash Journeyman
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2007
- Messages
- 314
((For the original version of the set, click here.))
An inexperienced young witch from a world of magic, where every magician has their own innate talent. Where others may summon a powerful and unique creature as their servant, or manipulate gravity itself, 18 year old first year student Marin has the specialty of... bubbles.
Marin is a nervous and often depressed girl, the result of her sheltered upbringing and the mocking her ability has earned her. Nevertheless, she is determined to make the most of her underwhelming power. Stray bubbles follow her wherever she goes, the protective quality of her creations granting her fleeting courage. This and her aversion to socializing makes her better known by her nickname: The Bubble Witch.
Marin's pastel blue outfit is loosely based on a stereotypical witch's costume. A pointed hat sits slumped atop her head, and a cloak draped over her shoulders flows down to her waist. Beneath the cloak is a lighter-shaded one-piece dress whose sleeves fall just short of her wrist-length gloves and whose skirt reaches down to her knees, concealing the upper half of her black leggings. A pair of button-on shoes round out the ensemble.
Marin is physically unremarkable. Pale skin that speaks of too much time in the library, shoulder length black hair that frames a nervous expression, and light blue eyes hidden by thick glasses. Her outfit's only recognizable trait is the sphere-shaped sections of fabric removed from her sleeves and the edges of her cloak. It's her bubbles that make her identifiable at a glance, and her wand that draws the eye.
Most wands are a simple shape or charm at the end of a nondescript stick. Inherited from her mother, Marin's wand is stylized after a sunflower, closer to a staff in size between its long green grip and yellow ring-shaped headpiece. Unfortunately for Marin, the comparison has been made between her wand and toy bubble 'wands' often sold to children.
Marin's motions convey nervous caution and discomfort, all slight or rushed with little in between. When she walks, she holds her wand to her chest protectively. When she runs, her free hand is used to keep her hat in place. When she dashes, concern for her possessions fade and she charges ahead (or more likely away) blindly with her head low. Even standing idle, she shuffles her feet uncomfortably and glances left and right out of paranoia, and her crouch involves throwing her arms over her head as a shield.
The air is where Marin finds comfort and confidence. Her first jump is a smooth bending of the knees and gymnastics-grade take off, and her second simply creates a small bubble below her that bursts as she leaps off of it. Even when falling her only actions are to tuck her legs to her chest and hold onto her hat.
o Ground Speed o o o 6.5 o
o Air Speed o o o 6.5 o
o Jumps o o o 6.5 o
o Size o o o 6 o
o Traction o o o 4 o
o Weight o o o 3 o
o Fall Speed o o o 1.5 o
o Abilities o o o Crawl o
Where most lightweights make up for their lacking durability with speed, Marin's stats don't really do anything to compensate. She has a strong recovery thanks to her floaty nature and aerials, but generally she doesn't want to be hit hard enough for them to come into play. Size-wise she's a hair shorter than Marth and a little wider due to her slouched posture.
o (Neutral Special) o (Bubble Magic) o
Marin displays her mastery of magic in the most graceful way possible: frantically waving her wand like a bludgeon. Each swing is a disjointed hitbox that deals 3% damage and minor push-back, made twice a second. Accompanying them is a trail of bubbles created from the wand's headpiece, an effect that is the most important tool in Marin's arsenal.
Bubble Magic produces 5 pokeball-sized bubbles every second, which act as the backbone to Marin's abilities. Each one appears at the edge of the attack's hitbox, where they float in place until acted upon or their impressive 12 second duration ends. Those within half a battlefield platform of Marin are drawn towards her at the speed of Ganondorf's walk. Contact with an enemy causes a bubble to pop for a meager 1% damage and no knockback or hitstun.
The bubbles are bizarrely durable in all other regards. When one intercepts an enemy's attack, there's a cumulative 0.1 second delay where it freezes up in the middle of the animation, each bubble deducting 1.5% from its damage. If a melee hitbox (including disjointed moves) is reduced to 0% damage or less by this effect, the attacker is pushed back and stunned for half a second plus the end lag of the attack, where projectiles just vanish without further harm.
(3% x 2 per second) (1% x 5 per second)
o (Side Special) o (Capture Sphere) o
Sheathed in a brilliant gold, Marin performs an exaggerated swing with her wand. The motion suffers from a lengthy start up and punishable ending lag if whiffed, doing an underwhelming 10% damage for the trouble.
Like Marin, it's more dangerous than it appears. This move has a grab priority hitbox. When Marin's wand strikes an opponent, its golden aura jumps onto the victim and expands into a Capture Sphere, trapping them as it floats upwards at a rate of 3/4ths a battlefield platform a second. Escaping it has the normal grab difficulty, and small bubbles that make contact with it pop and add 0.1x the grab difficulty each (to a maximum of 1.5x the norm).
Notably, Marin's attacks can affect her Capture Sphere. Damage is suffered by the person inside of it, and knockback or means of influencing bubbles work just as well on the Capture Sphere as they do on anything else. Even better in the case of the former, in fact, as the victim's weight is reduced by 1/4th until they escape. Opponents choosing to charge through her bubbles instead of attacking them are in for a nasty surprise if they're not careful.
(10%)
o (Down Special) o (Bubble Dress) o
A gray aura surrounds Marin's wand as she holds it aloft. With a gentle motion, she waves it over herself, creating a form-fitting bubble around her body.
Bubble Dress serves as a temporary barrier around Marin, protecting her from all damage and hitstun (but not knockback) until its 10% stamina is depleted. Her already slow fall speed is reduced by half, and her moves are not interrupted if she is struck in the middle of them unless the attack bursts her Bubble Dress or does greater than flinching knockback.
The Bubble Dress can be enhanced with Bubble Magic. When one of Marin's small bubbles makes contact with her while Bubble Dress is active, it is absorbed into the Bubble Dress, adding 2% to its stamina up to a maximum of 30%, at which point bubbles are no longer absorbed by Bubble Dress until it takes damage.
This allows Marin to take a more aggressive stance that capitalizes on her mobility and the difficulty in hitting her through her various defenses. Alternately, it's a convenient way to move her set up with her, as using her Down Special again disperses the Bubble Dress into a small bubble for every 2% stamina it had left (rounded up) over an area the size of Bowser around her. Grabs can still affect Marin, but the damage and effects of a pummel or throw is subtracted from her Bubble Dress's stamina rather than added to her damage percent until it is popped.
(N/A)
o (Up Special) o (Float) o
Facing the camera and lifting her wand up high, Marin swings downwards with all her might, creating a bubble the size of her full health shield beneath herself.
This bubble acts as a handy platform for Marin, just wide enough to accommodate her atop itself. By pressing a directional button, she can 'steer' her platform in any direction at the speed of Ganondorf's dash, and the bubble will follow her horizontally (but not vertically) should she choose to jump off of it. While standing on her large bubble, Marin has full access to her ground attacks, allowing her a wider variety of options in the air.
The top of the bubble is a solid platform to anyone else, but to Marin, it's a fall-through platform. By double tapping the down button like one would normally fall through a thin platform, Marin drops herself inside the bubble and can attack from its relatively safe confines.
This is not without drawbacks- Marin being in the bubble slows its movement speed to Ganondorf's run, and effects that move bubbles are only half as effective on it as they normally are. Marin does take knockback in the bubble, with her weight suffering a minor decrease while in it. To exit the bubble, she need merely jump or drop down again (the latter ending the move prematurely).
The bubble has 20% stamina. It loses 4% every second it remains out and bursts once that stamina reaches 0, giving it a duration of up to 5 seconds should it not take damage. The player can see when the bubble is nearing the end of its duration as it will begin to quiver and lose its perfectly spherical shape. When it pops, Marin enters freefall if she was on it or in it, or is simply unable to use her Up Special again until she lands if not.
(N/A)
o (Neutral A Combo) o (Panicked Swings) o
With only slightly more control and grace than in her Neutral Special, Marin flails at her opponent with her wand. This is a three hit combo, the first two strikes being an up and down motion akin to the aforementioned attack but over a broader area, and the third being a quick horizontal 'slap' with enough force to make her pitch forward slightly, taking a step ahead to regain her balance.
Marin's Neutral A Combo is her quickest means of attack at the cost of being one of her weakest, the first two hits doing 3% each and the final blow doing 4%. What makes it so useful is the reach of her swings; the first two covering a large swath of the area in front of her, including slightly above and slightly below her (the latter being enough to hit an opponent holding a ledge she's standing on), as well as decently far from herself.
It's very easy for Marin to intercept an opponent attempting to take the 'easy way' of dealing with her bubble walls by scooting forward after making one and poking the opponent when they're just short of the wall itself. The final hit of the move has more noticeable ending lag to it, but pushes an opponent away slightly as well, letting her set up for one of her mildly slower tilts or beat a hasty retreat.
(3%, 3%, 4%)
o (Forward Tilt) o (Magnetic Bubbles) o
Gripping the base of her wand in both hands, Marin takes a step back and swings it like a bat. This does 6% damage and flinching knockback, with a sweetspot right at the tip of her wand at the moment it is fully outstretched that deals 9% and mild knockback. The sweet spot is easily noticed, as a purple glow wraps around Marin's wand and becomes more visible from the start of the animation to until it disappears at the end.
What happens if Marin 'misses' is where it gets interesting. The moment the sweet spot at the tip of her wand disappears, the purple glow shoots off the wand and forms a bubble, which floats forward at the rate of Ganondorf's walk. While it lasts only 5 seconds, it otherwise looks and acts like a normal bubble from her Neutral Special with small sparks of energy inside of it, unless there's an opponent or other bubbles within a Stage Builder Block of it.
Sparks fly off the Magnetic Bubble and attach to other bubbles, pulling them along. A similar spark will latch on to the nearest opponent, adjusting the Magnetic Bubble's course to float towards them until another opponent moves closer or the current target moves out of its range, after which it will continue flying in a straight line. Upon contact, the Magnetic Bubble bursts for 2% damage and flinching, and all bubbles it was pulling will continue floating towards the victim for a full second.
Bubbles affected by this move deal an additional 1% damage and flinching for the duration. Only 5 can be drawn by a Magnetic Bubble at a time, handy to avoid draining the supply.
(6% or 9%) (2% x 1~6)
o (Down Tilt) o (Gust Ball) o
With a swift sweeping motion, Marin attempts to knock her opponent's feet out from underneath them using her wand. This move hits both behind and in front of Marin, doing 6% damage and pushing the victim away. Opponents in motion who are close enough for the attack to hit are tripped and knocked to the ground. Due to the best way to deal with a bubble wall being to charge through it before attacking, Marin can very easily counter such an approach by moving forward and quickly throwing out a down tilt.
Like her forward tilt, Marin creates a special type of bubble if her initial attack 'misses'. A faint green glow slides off her staff and forms a sphere with a miniature tornado whipping about inside of it low to the ground. The Gust Ball mostly functions like a normal bubble, with a few minor changes. Its duration is cut to a still respectable 5 seconds, and it will slowly move up and away from Marin at half Ganondorf's walk speed (hardly something to worry about).
When the Gust Ball is popped, be it by attack or contact, a large burst of wind pushes everything within 1 Stage Builder Block away a Block's worth of distance away from it. This includes opponents (who do not suffer hitstun and will even continue an attack animation), and Marin herself should she be wearing her Bubble Dress (who likewise suffers no hitstun).
While the normal version of this move is good up close, the Gust Ball is best used to scatter bubbles over an area or repel an approach, and is especially useful should Marin whiff the swing itself and be left close to the opponent.
(6%) (N/A)
o (Up Tilt) o (Blast Orb) o
Marin stabs upwards with her wand, a cloud of black powder surrounding it. The upward motion allows Marin to hit slightly in front of herself as well as directly above, though it doesn't provide much coverage against aerial foes or opponents behind her. The motion does 7% damage and light upwards knockback, with a sweet spot that deals 10% and slightly better knockback at the wand's tip at the point in the animation it's at its highest.
Like her other tilts, Marin's up tilt creates a unique bubble if no opponents are hit. A small pile of black powder sits in the center of the bubble that marks it as a 'Blast Orb'. It lasts only 5 seconds and otherwise carries the qualities of a normal bubble as created by her Neutral Special. When popped, a blast of fire and smoke fills an area the size of Kirby, bubbles caught in the initial explosion bursting and creating their own smash ball-sized hitboxes.
Foes caught in the initial explosion suffer an impressive 12% damage and medium knockback, with the secondary explosions causing a lesser but by no means minor 8% damage and a little less knockback. Blast Orbs caught in any such explosion will themselves detonate, possibly creating a chain reaction!
If hit by the main explosion, Marin's Up Special bubble bursts and launches her upwards half a battle field platform without putting her in free fall or inflicting damage, and her Bubble Dress has half its health transformed into normal bubbles that float a little ways away from her.
(7% or 10%) (12% or 8%)
o (Dash Attack) o (Bubble Trail) o
Bubble Trail is activated by holding the A button during a dash. As she sprints, Marin adjusts her hold on her wand so the headpiece is above her head. The resulting air movement through its hole causes it to create bubbles in her wake, with the same qualities as the bubbles made by her Neutral Special but at the rate of two every second as opposed to five. Upon release of the A button, she skids to a stop, swinging her wand in a downward arc that leaves a final pair of bubbles and deals 11% and mild knockback.
Though it lacks the volume of her Neutral Special, creating bubbles with her Dash Attack allows Marin to stay on the move while doing so. Due to how close the bubbles are to her when she makes them, Marin's Bubble Dress will automatically absorb the created bubbles rather than leaving them behind as a trail; handy for recharging her protective armor while evading her opponent.
(11% + 1% x 2) (1% x 2 per second)
o (Forward Smash) o (Autumn Wind) o
A powerful overhead swing. Marin closes her eyes in concentration as she channels a wind spell into her wand, covering it in a green glow. Upon release, a crescent-shaped burst of wind as tall as Ganondorf and half a stage builder block wide flies forward a distance of 1-2 battlefield platforms, depending on charge. The swing itself and the crescent do anywhere between 13-18% damage and moderate knockback. The force of the motion causes Marin to stumble forward slightly and suffer an unpleasant amount of ending lag.
Besides being one of Marin's stronger attacks, Autumn Wind serves as an easy way to move her bubbles around. A strong breeze lingers for 2-4 seconds after the projectile portion of the attack itself vanishes, covering a portion of the stage 2 battlefield platforms wide and 1 tall in a steady gust of wind. Bubbles, items, and characters alike within this area are pushed in the direction Marin was facing at the speed of Ganondorf's run. Anything that moves against the wind has that deducted from their speed, and anything moving with it adds it to their speed.
This also has a handy effect on Marin's Side and Down Specials. Capture Spheres are blown away just as normal bubbles, potentially becoming a way to deposit a foe off stage or give their maker breathing room. While in her Bubble Dress, Marin takes reduced knockback when it would send her against the wind and the increase to her move speed by the wind is doubled while running with it. Whether she takes advantage of this or not, Autumn Wind creates an easy way for Marin to cover a portion of the stage in bubbles and hinder an approaching opponent.
(13-18%)
o (Down Smash) o (Cold Front) o
Wide area, low power freezing magic. Shivering from the cold, Marin mumbles words of power through chattering teeth, a deep blue tint covering the area around her. Powdered snow flaking off of her wand, she slams the tip against the ground to create a pair of icicles on either side of her.
The cold temperature is applied to an area one battlefield platform wide and one battlefield platform high, centered on Marin. Enemies who enter the area have their movement speed reduced by half until they leave. The duration of Cold Front is determined by the charge time, lasting anywhere between 3-6 seconds. The icicles deal 15-21% damage and above average horizontal knockback that can KO fairly early, though their use is hampered by needing to be directly next to a ground-bound foe.
Cold Front affects bubbles within it. A thin layer of frost covers them as they are flash-frozen by the temperature change, causing them to descend at roughly the rate of Ganondorf's walk. These bubbles return to normal a second after leaving the affected area.
Enemies that touch frozen bubbles cause them to burst, making the victim suffer a brief moment of stun equivalent to flinching knockback in addition to a bubble's normal damage. Capture Spheres rise at only half the rate they normally do inside Cold Front, which makes damage racking easier, and Marin's weight is increased by half while wearing her Bubble Dress in a Cold Front.
(15-21%)
o (Up Smash) o (Heat Wave) o
A basic, unfocused fire spell. Marin wraps both gloved hands around her wand and mutters an incantation, the air around her turning red. With a shout, she thrusts her wand straight up, a globe of flame in its headpiece.
The increased temperature is applied to an area one battlefield platform wide and one battlefield platform high, centered on Marin. Enemies who enter the area take 3% damage (but no flinching or knockback) every second. The duration of Heat Wave is determined by the charge time, lasting anywhere between 3-6 seconds. The swing itself does 12-17% damage and a respectable upwards knockback that can KO fairly early, though its use is hampered by needing to be directly beneath the foe.
This isn't Marin's only trick, however. Bubbles within the affected area turn red and begin to rise upwards from the heat at the rate of Ganondorf's walk, returning to normal a second after the bubbles escape it. Touching a red bubble or an attack using them inflicts 2% damage in addition to whatever damage the bubble/attack itself would deal. Capture Spheres ascend at 1.5x their normal rate while in Heat Wave's area of effect, making them more effective as a KO option, and Marin's jumps and aerial maneuverability are improved by 1.3x while in her Bubble Dress.
Frozen bubbles will turn into normal bubbles when affected by heat wave, and red bubbles will become normal bubbles under the effects of Cold Front.
(12-17%) (3% per second) (2+X% x Y)
o (Neutral Aerial) o (Aqua Ring) o
Marin does a quick 360 spin with her wand outstretched. A long and thin bubble is left in its path around her, forming a simple ring that pops half a second afterward. Her wand and the bubble do a mere 6% damage and push enemies back roughly half a stage builder block. This simple pirouette is quick and makes for an effective spacer despite its range leaving something to be desired.
There's a few tricks to this move besides the damage. The brief window of time the ring exists does not count as part of the attack's lag or the time it takes to complete the animation, meaning Marin can enter into a different attack before it bursts. The ring also has an effect on nearby bubbles- those that are within half a stage builder block of Marin when she uses this move have their position flipped horizontally- a handy way to bring bubbles behind her to the front to block a hit. The bubbles deal an extra 1% damage and push the opponent back just like the rest of this move while in motion from its effect.
Besides the swap, the bubbles otherwise stop in place and lose momentum for half a second, letting her pause the movement of her swarm from an effect like one of her Smashes. This also applies to Marin's Bubble Dress; while her Down Special is active, Marin can negate knockback from a move that knocks her off the ground but fails to penetrate the defense, leading to a swift comeback before the opponent can take advantage of her sudden departure from the stage.
(6%) (X + 1% * Y)
o (Forward Aerial) o (Bulky Bubble) o
Thrusting her wand forward, Marin's magic pulls any bubbles within a Smash Ball of the thin, disjointed hitbox's path to its edge to form a single large bubble. A quick move with decent reach, and aim-able at that. The thrust's paltry 5% damage is just a bonus; the resulting hitbox centered on her wand's headpiece is what Marin's really attacking with.
If only one bubble is drawn to the headpiece, the hitbox functions as a normal bubble. 1% damage, no knockback, and the defensive effects. When more are absorbed, however, the hitbox grows in size, damage, and knockback. At two bubbles, it deals 2.5% damage and flinching knockback, carrying the defensive benefits of 2 bubbles. This scaling continues up to a maximum of 10 absorbed bubbles, making a Crate-sized hitbox that deals 14.5% damage, moderate knockback, and has the defensive benefits of all 10 bubbles.
Upon contact with an opponent, the bubble bursts, spraying its component bubbles back at Marin and ending the attack. Otherwise, Marin keeps her wand extended with her large hitbox active for as long as the attack button is held. Releasing the attack button simply lets the large bubble separate again. This is one of Marin's best offensive moves, and can be used to exclude a few bubbles from the movement effects of her other attacks (the pull towards the tip taking priority over the other movements when a bubble is in range of both).
(5%) (1% + 1.5 * 0~9)
o (Down Aerial) o (Bubble Bounce) o
Suddenly snapping out of her leg-hold mid-air pose, Marin stomps with both her feet, falling quickly. She descends at a speed comparable to the Star Fox series' characters during their fast-falls, her feet a small hitbox that deals 10% damage and spikes the foe downwards. Unless the attack button is held, Marin will exit the pose after falling half a battlefield platform, otherwise she will continue to drop at that rate until the button is released.
The obvious uses of a stall then fall are here (minus the stall part of the equation): Evading an attack, KOing a foe attempting to recover, hitting an opponent as you jump over them, and so on. What sets Bubble Bounce apart from its kin is its namesake.
Upon successfully hitting an opponent, Marin forms a large bubble between them and herself. This bubble, squeezed between the two fighters, forcibly resumes its spherical shape by launching Marin upwards and pushing her opponent down (this being what inflicts the knockback of the move). It lingers for 2 seconds as a solid wall/platform that prevents the foe from passing through it (such as to pursue Marin or recover) until it pops. The boost is enough to elevate Marin half a battlefield platform, roughly where she was when she used the attack in most cases.
If Marin's bubbles are below her, they are gathered beneath her as she passes until the attack portion of the move ends, up to a maximum of 5 small bubbles or 1 big one (from her Up Special). In the case of the former, assuming she doesn't hit an opponent, she condenses the bubbles into a single bigger bubble she can use to launch herself up as normal, though it is smaller and produces only a fraction of the boost if there are less than 5. It then separates back into the small bubbles that made it.
A pre-existing big bubble launches her the full distance and does not separate nor gain any of the special qualities specific to the one made by this attack. The first 5 small bubbles caught beneath Marin are not absorbed into her Bubble Suit, but others interact with it as normal. Regardless of how she uses it, this move grants Marin a few more evasive and defensive options than her opponent, which is something anyone with her low weight can appreciate.
(10%)
o (Back Aerial) o (Foamy Fall) o
Spinning around (sometimes with a short voice clip of Marin yelping in surprise), the bubble witch swings her wand out to swat her opponent. The sudden strike has poor reach compared to the rest of her moves and is even weaker to boot, dealing only 5% and lacking any usage of her bubbles to compensate.
There are three benefits of this move. First, it changes the direction Marin is facing quickly so she can attack. Second, a foe hit by this move enters free fall for half a battlefield platform of distance- excellent for stopping a recovery dead or setting up for the Down Aerial.
The third is arguably the best- when an opponent is hit, a bit of fluid splatters off of Marin's wand onto them, usually towards their face or sensory organs if they have any. This fluid catches on the wind as the opponent moves through the air, producing a single bubble in their wake for every quarter of a battlefield platform they move, up until the 15th bubble or their landing.
The closest Marin has to a move that generates bubbles for her and one of her better weapons against agile foes, it suffers from requiring a hit to work and lacks the production rate of her Neutral Special or Dash Attack (though it certainly supplements them well). Multiple hits can stack several instances of this effect, though it's difficult to pull off and all instances end upon the foe landing.
(5%) (1% * 1~15)
o (Up Aerial) o (Bubble Lift) o
With a simple, calculated wave that clashes with her normally frantic swinging, Marin creates a single long but thin bubble above herself. Resembling a battlefield platform in dimensions, it acts as a solid wall or floor for foes and a fall-through platform for Marin. Foes touching the platform without attacking do not pop it and do not take damage unless it is under the effect of one of Marin's moves that modify the damage or knockback of the affected bubbles; otherwise, it acts as a normal bubble with similar qualities.
The platform can be manipulated by Marin's attacks like the rest of her bubbles, though it gradually loses altitude over time and descends at half the rate of Marin's fall speed for each person standing on it. Contact with the floor below or an opponent's attack will pop the Bubble Lift, and once popped Marin must make contact with the ground before she can replace it. Only one Bubble Lift can exist at a time. Entering this input again while one already exists causes Marin to perform a quicker swing with a less focused, more nervous expression.
Regardless of which version she uses, Marin suffers little lag with this attack, and deals a single, solid hit of 7% damage and flinching knockback. The platform serves as a less risky way to access Marin's ground game, a recovery booster, an emergency wall against a foe above, and a larger hitbox for her bubble-manipulating moves.
(7%)
o (Grab) o (Suds Splash) o
Marin's expression twists and her eyes squeeze shut. She forces herself to be brave, adjusts her hold on her wand, and swings it as if it were a net, a bit of whatever matter her bubbles are made of sloshing from its headpiece.
Should the liquid or the wand itself make contact with a foe, the former springs to life and hardens into a rubbery substance around them, the headpiece hooking on whatever extremity is convenient. This grab has decent reach and scarcely any end lag, making it a decent option despite Marin's preference for keeping the opponent at arm's length.
As a final note, Marin can grab an opponent while riding on or in her Up Special bubble. Inside, directional inputs will steer it like normal, and she can jump to exit it. If on the bubble, a directional input will throw the opponent. Note she can't go back in the bubble while holding a foe since the down input is then mapped to her throw. If she has time, she can reposition herself a little before performing the throw.
o (Bubble Grab) o (Bubble Boost) o
There's another way Marin can utilize her grab. Should she fail to grab an opponent and at least one of her small bubbles come in contact with the grab hitbox, it is pulled into the center of her wand's headpiece at the end of the animation.
Time is not subtracted from the bubble's duration while in the headpiece of Marin's wand, though a successful attack using her wand as a hitbox will cause it to pop with whatever effects it would normally have. Besides being a good way to keep a special bubble in reserve, Marin receives benefits depending on the type of bubble held.
A Magnetic Bubble continues to pull her bubbles along, doubling the speed with which they gravitate towards her. Items and even small opponents are very gradually pulled in as well, and a successful hit with a wand hitbox knocks the victim prone with an electric shock.
A held Gust Ball has the opposite effect on bubbles, repelling them at half the rate they are normally pulled in. Marin moves a hair faster, jumps higher, and is otherwise a tad more 'floaty' than normal. A successful blow and the resulting destruction of the Gust Ball sends her and the for flying away from each other, Marin a set distance of half a battlefield platform, her opponent with medium knockback.
Her Blast Orb is the odd one. Instead of directly moving her bubbles, it causes any bubbles in motion from one of Marin's attacks to detonate upon popping- dealing an additional 2% damage and light knockback on contact on top of the normal effects. If Marin hits something with her wand while holding a Blast Orb, it explodes, doubling her ending lag but dealing 1.5x the normal damage and knockback.
Grabbing a normal bubble has a different effect. The rubbery gunk coats the bubble in a gray tint, resulting in a 'Metal Bubble'. It moves at half the rate of other small bubbles, subtracts double the damage from an attack, does no damage but does not break on contact, and reverts to a normal bubble upon destruction or 5 seconds pass. While held, it adds 2% damage and modest knockback to Marin's wand hitboxes, and does not burst upon use like others.
Special bubbles get priority over her normal ones, in the order listed here. If there are two of the same, the closest to Marin is picked. She can release her bubble laglessly at any time by pressing the grab input.
(X * 2 OR X + 2%)
o (Bubble Grab) o (Launch) o
There's one last thing to talk about before moving on to Marin's throws. When she grabs a non-standard sized bubble (prioritizing them over the normal sized ones and lower than actual opponents), like a Capture Sphere, her Up Special bubble, or a bubble platform from her Up Aerial, she does not use her standard throws.
A directional input simply has her propel the bubble in the chosen direction anywhere from half a battlefield platform to a full battlefield platform, depending on how hard the input was pressed. Speed up a Capture Sphere's ascent a little, move that bubble platform, or simply turn her fledgling Up Special into a wall.
o (Pummel) o (Rapidfire) o
Each press of the A button causes Marin to jerk the opponent towards her and then push them back using her hold on them with her wand's headpiece, creating a bubble from the motion. The shake and the bubble do 1% damage each, and Marin can do this up to twice a second. With a quick thumb and an injured opponent, you can really rack up the number of hits here.
The bubbles made by Marin's pummel, though doomed to destruction, are in fact normal bubbles like the rest of her moveset. This means they can be modified by Heat Wave and Cold Front, or any other effects she might have active.
While the number of effects are limited by the fact Marin is in mid pummel and only a few linger on long enough to use her grab, getting this move off with those effects active is potentially devastating- the damage boost from Heat Wave making each bubble more damaging or the stun from Cold Front letting her get in extra hits making this a shockingly effective damage racker.
((1% + 1%) up to twice per second)
o (Forward Throw) o (Chilling Wind) o
Happy to remind opponents that bubbles are not the only thing she can make, Marin produces a blisteringly cold wind that she unleashes into the slime covering the opponent. The slime hardens and shatters, tossing the foe away from her with frozen chunks still stuck on them.
Though the knockback is a little lacking for a KO move, the opponent is stunned and is unable to control their direction in the air or use an attack to stop their momentum for 3/4ths of a second after they normally would, making it much more powerful than it first appears. Besides that, this move does an okay 11% damage.
(11%)
o (Down Throw) o (Slime Coat) o
With a flick of her wrist and a step back, Marin releases the opponent, still covered in gunk. For the next 5 seconds or until grabbed again, any of Marin's attacks that move her bubbles will also move her opponent.
Further, certain effects work differently on them. Cold Front lowers their mobility by 25%, Heat Wave increasing the knockback they take. Magnetic bubbles will grab them like other bubbles, doing 1% damage (but no hitstun) every half a second until they get away from its pull or it is destroyed. Gust Balls and Autumn Wind push the foe twice the distance. Blast Orb causes the Slime Coat to explode, ending the effect and dealing double the usual damage and knockback the secondary explosion hitbox normally inflicts.
The opponent and Marin are left nearly frame neutral to each other at the end of this throw (the opponent having a very slight advantage), just out of reach of Marin's grab. While it's possible for her to chain grabs, her opponent will likely be able to respond because of this lead, and as this move does no damage on its own, it would serve no purpose.
(N/A)
o (Back Throw) o (Voltage) o
Like her forward throw creates wind and ice, her back throw channels lightning. Bolts of electricity surge through her staff and into the opponent, and with a shout of effort, she spins on her heel and tosses the opponent away, stumbling in the process.
This attack is one of Marin's strongest- a solid 15% damage. The opponent is pushed away with light knockback, coming out of this with frame advantage over Marin as she recovers from her misstep, but suffering from a bigger problem than knockback.
For the next 5 seconds, whenever the opponent gets within half a battlefield platform of a small bubble, it is drawn to them by a string of electricity, The bubble will not actually be pulled in close enough to make contact with the foe, being held about a Smash Ball's width away from them. Up to 10 bubbles can be affected by this.
Between their natural pull towards Marin and their held distance from the foe, this ensures whatever attacks they make against Marin will be forced to go through her bubbles first. A big problem if there are any special bubbles in the mix and certainly not negligible even without.
(15%)
o (Up Throw) o (Exploder Balloon) o
The gunk holding the opponent in place begins to inflate and pull away from their body, but Marin isn't planning on releasing them gently. By using a weak fire spell, she has begun to fill the gunk with hot air, causing the victim to slowly drift into the air.
Marin soon finds herself holding the opponent overhead. The opponent is still able to escape the grab, and the duration can still run out on its own. Once she has the opponent off the ground, however, there's no escaping what happens next. Either by the grab duration running out, the bubble reaching its maximum size, an attack striking the bubble or Marin, or the held foe's struggles finally making headway, the 'Exploder Balloon' lives up to its name and detonates in a burst of heated gasses.
The damage and knockback depend on what size the bubble was when it destroyed. It takes a full three seconds to go from its minimum size (barely off the opponent's body) to its full size (a Smash Ball's width in each direction from the foe's body) normally. However, if its edge makes contact with any bubbles, they are pulled in, shaving off a tenth of a second each. The 'Exploder Balloon's destruction leaves them in its wake, returning them to roughly their original position if a bit higher off the ground. A handy barrier should the foe try to come straight down on Marin.
The Exploder Balloon does anywhere between 9~18% damage and moderate to high vertical knockback. A fairly reliable KO move, also handy in getting the foe off the ground and into the air where Marin can utilize her full moveset against them.
(9~18%)
Feeling the energy of the smash ball surging through her, Marin raises her staff high and shouts. "COME FORTH!" A cloud of bubbles swarm around her staff, the colorful glow of her smash ball-granted aura and the bright shine from her staff as she casts the summoning spell creating a veritable light show.
An eastern-style dragon emerges from her staff, formed of ten crate-sized bubbles (the front most one taking the shape of a head). It swims through the air in a wavy, snake-like pattern, moving back and forth about the stage from one end to the other, up to a battlefield platform past the right/left most ledge (in normal stages), half that distance past where the screen stops panning out to show (on a walk off), or until it reaches a solid wall. Its speed is comparable to Marth's dash, though its swerving movements that take its body up and down 3/4ths of a battlefield platform make its actual rate of travel a little slower.
Each segment of the Bubble Dragon has 15% stamina and deals 8% damage with mild knockback on contact, except the head which has 30% and deals 12%/medium knockback. They take no noticeable knockback from attacks, though being struck causes the dragon to halt for a split second before it continues along its merry way. It will even plow through destructibles without difficulty. The segments act to reduce damage the same as Marin's bubbles, subtracting the same amount of damage from an attack as they deal to an opponent on contact (applied after the damage is subtracted by that segment's stamina) when struck and adding a 0.3 second pause in the middle of the animation.
What truly makes the Bubble Dragon deadly is Marin's ability to interact with it. She can 'steer' or otherwise modify it and its segments through her attacks like her normal bubbles. She can use her Side Special to implant a Capture Sphere in the dragon's chain-like body that lasts two seconds or until it captures an enemy, then disappears or detaches and acts normally, respectively. She can even catch a ride on/in a segment like her Up Special, taking control of the dragon's (rather slippy-slidy) movements by entering the head.
The dragon lasts a whopping 15 seconds or until its head is destroyed. A body segment that runs out of stamina merely bursts into five normal bubbles that Marin may manipulate, the two nearest segments attaching to each other to fill the gap. At the end of its lifespan, whatever is left of the dragon freezes mid-flight, and the segments begin to quiver. After a second's warning, they pop, dropping Marin if she was inside one (at the nearest appropriate space if it was in a destructible at that point) and leaving behind 5 bubbles each.
(8% or 12% x X)
Marin's namesake ability is her bread and butter. Attacking, defending, ammo, tools, they do it all for her. Creating and managing bubbles while fighting the opponent is simultaneously her greatest asset and her biggest obstacle. All of her attacks, except her Up Special, both create or manipulate bubbles and function as an attack.
Her focus should be on a mass of normal bubbles, as the singular special bubbles created through her tilts lack any threatening qualities on their own; save those for when you have a decent swarm going they can hide among. That said, all bubbles are fragile and take time to replace- Marin can create bubbles while moving and fighting with them for a reason. She should almost never be sitting still and 'just' making bubbles.
In a tight spot, tap the B button to create a quintet of bubbles, then turn them into dangerous hitboxes with a smash, or slip in a Side Special when the unwary foe attempts to sneak through. Call on a Bubble Dress or use her Up Special to negate the hitstun from the weakened attack and counter with a Grab or Forward Smash. Poke the opponent with a few weak tilts and aerials to build damage. A swarm is ideal, but Marin must often spend bubbles to have time to make bubbles.
Marin is surprisingly non-committal in how she uses her bubbles once they're there- only caring that they're there. She can even function (if poorly) without them long enough to repel the opponent so she can make a quick few and regain her momentum. The only time she should focus on bubbles for bubbles' sake is when she's flung the foe hopelessly past the point of recovery, the brief interlude between their loss of a stock and respawn, or when the opponent is indisposed in her Capture Sphere.
As Marin starts to gain momentum, having a good number of bubbles following her and a Bubble Dress up, it takes effort and careful play to break her defenses apart. If she's suffered some damage, she's in as much danger as anyone, but it takes some doing to inflict it between her various bubbles and her mobility.
Once she has her swarm, the next problem is keeping it intact. Since her attacking moves are also what she uses to move it around, she has to be picky about how and when to attack or risk losing her defenses as they drift away or break on the opponent for a sad amount of damage. Her strongest attacks, barring her throws, are the ones that affect the most bubbles, and are therefore the most risky once she has a proper bubble swarm.
Her Bubble Dress lets her keep a safe emergency reserve for such mistakes, and her aerials serve as a way to better organize her set up or otherwise minimize the damage from her mistakes when need be. Her standards also come in handy for this- Forward and Down tilts create special bubbles that spread out her swarm, normally a poor idea due to their function as chaff to break an opponent's attack against them, can be used to store a few bubbles aside for later that aren't within the area of effect for her mass bubble migration abilities.
Her Up Tilt's special bubble is a bit more situational. The threat of a Blast Orb in her swarm is a bit of a gamble- going off at the wrong time can cause her to botch a maneuver, but it makes succeeding with an attack much more rewarding and makes rushing through her bubbles far less appealing. Her grab can pluck these bubbles and withhold them if she sets them out too early on accident or wants a back up.
Marin's relatively straightforward throws and Side Special are her go-to moves when she needs to fight but can't afford to use up resources. Their drawback is lacking punch and being difficult to land, respectively, but her ability to rack damage with repeated hits and create a veritable minefield pick up the slack. Even when she's not directing them or using them as ammo, her bubbles still benefit her.
All in all, Marin is simple to learn but difficult to master. Setting up isn't hard, it's making use of that set up and not blowing it on a stupid mistake that will make or break her game.
o (Entrance) o (Pop) o
Marin floats down from the top of the screen, sitting atop the bubble from her Up Special. Her nervous disposition is obvious as she looks around. She steps off and stumbles as it unexpectedly pops. Gripping her wand tightly in one hand, she meekly pushes her hat up out of her eyes and assumes her neutral pose.
o (Side Taunt) o (Boredom) o
Holding her wand up to inspect it, Marin sticks her finger through the hole in its headpiece. She carefully moves her finger through the air to create a bubble with a complex shape, such as a butterfly or her own name, before apparently finding some flaw in her work and waving her wand over it to reclaim the used material.
o (Down Taunt) o (Fancy) o
Marin creates a single bubble, staring at it with an expression that speaks of peacefulness. The bubble abruptly pops, cracking her composure and returning her attention to the battle. The bubble may act as a normal bubble from Marin's Neutral Special, but due to the length of this taunt, its odd position, and its less than 2 second duration, that's more of an easter egg than anything useful.
o (Up Taunt) o ('Gotcha!') o
In a rare show of enthusiasm, Marin does a twirl and shoots the audience a thumbs-up. She then realizes she's being watched, and enters her idle animation with a blush.
o (Codec Conversation) o
Snake: Mei Ling, do you have any idea who this is?
Mei Ling: Her name's 'Marin', though she's better known as 'The Bubble Witch'.
Snake: Can't imagine why...
Mei Ling: She's a student of a magic academy in a world where magicians all bear a personal ability. Her mother helped overthrow a magic-using tyrant and retired to obscurity afterwards. Between the seclusion growing up and the mocking over her ability, she prefers her bubbles as company over people.
Mei Ling: Marin's become famous for an incident involving monsters running free in the academy. The building used to be a stronghold for the mad wizard her mother defeated, refurbished into a house of learning to symbolize hope for the future.
Snake: This might just be me, but using a madman's old stomping grounds for a school sounds like a terrible idea.
Mei Ling: It was. The monster outbreak was caused by a massive 'mother' monster below ground in an undiscovered alcove, an old pet project of the tyrant's that was running amuck without anything to keep it in check.
Mei Ling: It's hard to believe someone pulled through that with just bubbles, don't you think?
Snake: It isn't what tools you have, but how you use them.
Snake: Those bubbles of hers are gumming up my attacks, and the way she and they move around is making it hard to get a hit in in the fist place.
Snake: But that'll be her weakness, too. They're so fragile that she can't go all out. She has to pick and choose her time to attack and keep them safe or she'll be at a disadvantage. They're unfocused enough that a straight hit can squeeze though, and as long as I'm wary of any booby traps, I can probably just walk through some of them. She won't be so tough without their help.
Mei Ling: Overuse of one tool leaves the others to rust.
Snake: Is that a Chinese proverb, too?
Mei Ling: No, just an observation.
Joe's MYMini caught my attention near the end of the prior contest, and the idea of making a defensive concept then developing a character who uses it from scratch appealed to my imagination. I'm proud of how Marin turned out, her quirks and strengths and weaknesses all. Being able to finish a set (besides some extras I might add later on) after so many failed attempts over the last two years or so certainly helped my enthusiasm.
I'd like to thank those in the chat for putting up with my walls of text gushing over the work and especially Forward Arrow for previewing most of the set for me. I'm sorry for constantly fading in and out in the community, and I hope to stick around and do a few more sets this time.
Updates:
4/12/13: Replaced Back Throw, as the original did nothing to differ itself from similar abilities Marin could already access.
4/20/13: Edited the numbers on the Down Shield Special to be a little less ridiculous.
6/14/13: Replaced Shine Vision with Shine Guard. Modified any effects that previously referred to Shine Vision to build off of Shine Guard. Fixed some typos and weak wording.
6/15/13: Aaaaand replaced Shine Guard with Blast Orb, with thanks to Joe for the idea of a 'landmine' bubble (why did I not think of that before, when all three tilts could be called that?) and for pointing out that reflecting weak projectiles was really niche for Marin due to how clashing works.
10/02/13: Began rewriting the set so the writing flows better, taking out the moves made for the two contest-specific mechanics and references to them in the interest of making a long read shorter and easier. Fixed some typos, examples of poor wording, and added damage percent notations to the bottom of the two throws that were missing them.
10/06/13: Dropped a portion of the tilts involving a interaction with the Bubble Dress- rather than temporarily converting all bubbles from a Bubble Dress dispersed soon after absorbing a special bubble into that type of special bubble, Marin simply stores them indefinitely like her normal bubbles. The original version, after reading again, simply added unneeded complexity to already complicated moves, and worse still clashed with the intended playstyle.
The bubble grab was also modified slightly- besides the wording change to shorten it a tad, a held bubble pops upon a successful hit with a wand hitbox, a Magnetic Bubble subtly draws in all bubbles rather than just the usual 5 (as well as pulling lighter opponents and items), and all effects were tweaked to have different roles complementary to Marin's playstyle. Very subtly changed the grab itself (an overhead swing as opposed to a spear-like thrust).
o o o ((Bubble Witch Marin)) o o o
(No image here, check the Appearance Section!)
o o o ((Backstory)) o o o
An inexperienced young witch from a world of magic, where every magician has their own innate talent. Where others may summon a powerful and unique creature as their servant, or manipulate gravity itself, 18 year old first year student Marin has the specialty of... bubbles.
Marin is a nervous and often depressed girl, the result of her sheltered upbringing and the mocking her ability has earned her. Nevertheless, she is determined to make the most of her underwhelming power. Stray bubbles follow her wherever she goes, the protective quality of her creations granting her fleeting courage. This and her aversion to socializing makes her better known by her nickname: The Bubble Witch.
o o o ((Appearance)) o o o
Marin's pastel blue outfit is loosely based on a stereotypical witch's costume. A pointed hat sits slumped atop her head, and a cloak draped over her shoulders flows down to her waist. Beneath the cloak is a lighter-shaded one-piece dress whose sleeves fall just short of her wrist-length gloves and whose skirt reaches down to her knees, concealing the upper half of her black leggings. A pair of button-on shoes round out the ensemble.
Marin is physically unremarkable. Pale skin that speaks of too much time in the library, shoulder length black hair that frames a nervous expression, and light blue eyes hidden by thick glasses. Her outfit's only recognizable trait is the sphere-shaped sections of fabric removed from her sleeves and the edges of her cloak. It's her bubbles that make her identifiable at a glance, and her wand that draws the eye.
Most wands are a simple shape or charm at the end of a nondescript stick. Inherited from her mother, Marin's wand is stylized after a sunflower, closer to a staff in size between its long green grip and yellow ring-shaped headpiece. Unfortunately for Marin, the comparison has been made between her wand and toy bubble 'wands' often sold to children.
o o o ((Animations)) o o o
Marin's motions convey nervous caution and discomfort, all slight or rushed with little in between. When she walks, she holds her wand to her chest protectively. When she runs, her free hand is used to keep her hat in place. When she dashes, concern for her possessions fade and she charges ahead (or more likely away) blindly with her head low. Even standing idle, she shuffles her feet uncomfortably and glances left and right out of paranoia, and her crouch involves throwing her arms over her head as a shield.
The air is where Marin finds comfort and confidence. Her first jump is a smooth bending of the knees and gymnastics-grade take off, and her second simply creates a small bubble below her that bursts as she leaps off of it. Even when falling her only actions are to tuck her legs to her chest and hold onto her hat.
o o o ((Stats)) o o o
o Ground Speed o o o 6.5 o
o Air Speed o o o 6.5 o
o Jumps o o o 6.5 o
o Size o o o 6 o
o Traction o o o 4 o
o Weight o o o 3 o
o Fall Speed o o o 1.5 o
o Abilities o o o Crawl o
Where most lightweights make up for their lacking durability with speed, Marin's stats don't really do anything to compensate. She has a strong recovery thanks to her floaty nature and aerials, but generally she doesn't want to be hit hard enough for them to come into play. Size-wise she's a hair shorter than Marth and a little wider due to her slouched posture.
o o o ((Specials)) o o o
o (Neutral Special) o (Bubble Magic) o
Marin displays her mastery of magic in the most graceful way possible: frantically waving her wand like a bludgeon. Each swing is a disjointed hitbox that deals 3% damage and minor push-back, made twice a second. Accompanying them is a trail of bubbles created from the wand's headpiece, an effect that is the most important tool in Marin's arsenal.
Bubble Magic produces 5 pokeball-sized bubbles every second, which act as the backbone to Marin's abilities. Each one appears at the edge of the attack's hitbox, where they float in place until acted upon or their impressive 12 second duration ends. Those within half a battlefield platform of Marin are drawn towards her at the speed of Ganondorf's walk. Contact with an enemy causes a bubble to pop for a meager 1% damage and no knockback or hitstun.
The bubbles are bizarrely durable in all other regards. When one intercepts an enemy's attack, there's a cumulative 0.1 second delay where it freezes up in the middle of the animation, each bubble deducting 1.5% from its damage. If a melee hitbox (including disjointed moves) is reduced to 0% damage or less by this effect, the attacker is pushed back and stunned for half a second plus the end lag of the attack, where projectiles just vanish without further harm.
(3% x 2 per second) (1% x 5 per second)
o (Side Special) o (Capture Sphere) o
Sheathed in a brilliant gold, Marin performs an exaggerated swing with her wand. The motion suffers from a lengthy start up and punishable ending lag if whiffed, doing an underwhelming 10% damage for the trouble.
Like Marin, it's more dangerous than it appears. This move has a grab priority hitbox. When Marin's wand strikes an opponent, its golden aura jumps onto the victim and expands into a Capture Sphere, trapping them as it floats upwards at a rate of 3/4ths a battlefield platform a second. Escaping it has the normal grab difficulty, and small bubbles that make contact with it pop and add 0.1x the grab difficulty each (to a maximum of 1.5x the norm).
Notably, Marin's attacks can affect her Capture Sphere. Damage is suffered by the person inside of it, and knockback or means of influencing bubbles work just as well on the Capture Sphere as they do on anything else. Even better in the case of the former, in fact, as the victim's weight is reduced by 1/4th until they escape. Opponents choosing to charge through her bubbles instead of attacking them are in for a nasty surprise if they're not careful.
(10%)
o (Down Special) o (Bubble Dress) o
A gray aura surrounds Marin's wand as she holds it aloft. With a gentle motion, she waves it over herself, creating a form-fitting bubble around her body.
Bubble Dress serves as a temporary barrier around Marin, protecting her from all damage and hitstun (but not knockback) until its 10% stamina is depleted. Her already slow fall speed is reduced by half, and her moves are not interrupted if she is struck in the middle of them unless the attack bursts her Bubble Dress or does greater than flinching knockback.
The Bubble Dress can be enhanced with Bubble Magic. When one of Marin's small bubbles makes contact with her while Bubble Dress is active, it is absorbed into the Bubble Dress, adding 2% to its stamina up to a maximum of 30%, at which point bubbles are no longer absorbed by Bubble Dress until it takes damage.
This allows Marin to take a more aggressive stance that capitalizes on her mobility and the difficulty in hitting her through her various defenses. Alternately, it's a convenient way to move her set up with her, as using her Down Special again disperses the Bubble Dress into a small bubble for every 2% stamina it had left (rounded up) over an area the size of Bowser around her. Grabs can still affect Marin, but the damage and effects of a pummel or throw is subtracted from her Bubble Dress's stamina rather than added to her damage percent until it is popped.
(N/A)
o (Up Special) o (Float) o
Facing the camera and lifting her wand up high, Marin swings downwards with all her might, creating a bubble the size of her full health shield beneath herself.
This bubble acts as a handy platform for Marin, just wide enough to accommodate her atop itself. By pressing a directional button, she can 'steer' her platform in any direction at the speed of Ganondorf's dash, and the bubble will follow her horizontally (but not vertically) should she choose to jump off of it. While standing on her large bubble, Marin has full access to her ground attacks, allowing her a wider variety of options in the air.
The top of the bubble is a solid platform to anyone else, but to Marin, it's a fall-through platform. By double tapping the down button like one would normally fall through a thin platform, Marin drops herself inside the bubble and can attack from its relatively safe confines.
This is not without drawbacks- Marin being in the bubble slows its movement speed to Ganondorf's run, and effects that move bubbles are only half as effective on it as they normally are. Marin does take knockback in the bubble, with her weight suffering a minor decrease while in it. To exit the bubble, she need merely jump or drop down again (the latter ending the move prematurely).
The bubble has 20% stamina. It loses 4% every second it remains out and bursts once that stamina reaches 0, giving it a duration of up to 5 seconds should it not take damage. The player can see when the bubble is nearing the end of its duration as it will begin to quiver and lose its perfectly spherical shape. When it pops, Marin enters freefall if she was on it or in it, or is simply unable to use her Up Special again until she lands if not.
(N/A)
o o o ((Standards)) o o o
o (Neutral A Combo) o (Panicked Swings) o
With only slightly more control and grace than in her Neutral Special, Marin flails at her opponent with her wand. This is a three hit combo, the first two strikes being an up and down motion akin to the aforementioned attack but over a broader area, and the third being a quick horizontal 'slap' with enough force to make her pitch forward slightly, taking a step ahead to regain her balance.
Marin's Neutral A Combo is her quickest means of attack at the cost of being one of her weakest, the first two hits doing 3% each and the final blow doing 4%. What makes it so useful is the reach of her swings; the first two covering a large swath of the area in front of her, including slightly above and slightly below her (the latter being enough to hit an opponent holding a ledge she's standing on), as well as decently far from herself.
It's very easy for Marin to intercept an opponent attempting to take the 'easy way' of dealing with her bubble walls by scooting forward after making one and poking the opponent when they're just short of the wall itself. The final hit of the move has more noticeable ending lag to it, but pushes an opponent away slightly as well, letting her set up for one of her mildly slower tilts or beat a hasty retreat.
(3%, 3%, 4%)
o (Forward Tilt) o (Magnetic Bubbles) o
Gripping the base of her wand in both hands, Marin takes a step back and swings it like a bat. This does 6% damage and flinching knockback, with a sweetspot right at the tip of her wand at the moment it is fully outstretched that deals 9% and mild knockback. The sweet spot is easily noticed, as a purple glow wraps around Marin's wand and becomes more visible from the start of the animation to until it disappears at the end.
What happens if Marin 'misses' is where it gets interesting. The moment the sweet spot at the tip of her wand disappears, the purple glow shoots off the wand and forms a bubble, which floats forward at the rate of Ganondorf's walk. While it lasts only 5 seconds, it otherwise looks and acts like a normal bubble from her Neutral Special with small sparks of energy inside of it, unless there's an opponent or other bubbles within a Stage Builder Block of it.
Sparks fly off the Magnetic Bubble and attach to other bubbles, pulling them along. A similar spark will latch on to the nearest opponent, adjusting the Magnetic Bubble's course to float towards them until another opponent moves closer or the current target moves out of its range, after which it will continue flying in a straight line. Upon contact, the Magnetic Bubble bursts for 2% damage and flinching, and all bubbles it was pulling will continue floating towards the victim for a full second.
Bubbles affected by this move deal an additional 1% damage and flinching for the duration. Only 5 can be drawn by a Magnetic Bubble at a time, handy to avoid draining the supply.
(6% or 9%) (2% x 1~6)
o (Down Tilt) o (Gust Ball) o
With a swift sweeping motion, Marin attempts to knock her opponent's feet out from underneath them using her wand. This move hits both behind and in front of Marin, doing 6% damage and pushing the victim away. Opponents in motion who are close enough for the attack to hit are tripped and knocked to the ground. Due to the best way to deal with a bubble wall being to charge through it before attacking, Marin can very easily counter such an approach by moving forward and quickly throwing out a down tilt.
Like her forward tilt, Marin creates a special type of bubble if her initial attack 'misses'. A faint green glow slides off her staff and forms a sphere with a miniature tornado whipping about inside of it low to the ground. The Gust Ball mostly functions like a normal bubble, with a few minor changes. Its duration is cut to a still respectable 5 seconds, and it will slowly move up and away from Marin at half Ganondorf's walk speed (hardly something to worry about).
When the Gust Ball is popped, be it by attack or contact, a large burst of wind pushes everything within 1 Stage Builder Block away a Block's worth of distance away from it. This includes opponents (who do not suffer hitstun and will even continue an attack animation), and Marin herself should she be wearing her Bubble Dress (who likewise suffers no hitstun).
While the normal version of this move is good up close, the Gust Ball is best used to scatter bubbles over an area or repel an approach, and is especially useful should Marin whiff the swing itself and be left close to the opponent.
(6%) (N/A)
o (Up Tilt) o (Blast Orb) o
Marin stabs upwards with her wand, a cloud of black powder surrounding it. The upward motion allows Marin to hit slightly in front of herself as well as directly above, though it doesn't provide much coverage against aerial foes or opponents behind her. The motion does 7% damage and light upwards knockback, with a sweet spot that deals 10% and slightly better knockback at the wand's tip at the point in the animation it's at its highest.
Like her other tilts, Marin's up tilt creates a unique bubble if no opponents are hit. A small pile of black powder sits in the center of the bubble that marks it as a 'Blast Orb'. It lasts only 5 seconds and otherwise carries the qualities of a normal bubble as created by her Neutral Special. When popped, a blast of fire and smoke fills an area the size of Kirby, bubbles caught in the initial explosion bursting and creating their own smash ball-sized hitboxes.
Foes caught in the initial explosion suffer an impressive 12% damage and medium knockback, with the secondary explosions causing a lesser but by no means minor 8% damage and a little less knockback. Blast Orbs caught in any such explosion will themselves detonate, possibly creating a chain reaction!
If hit by the main explosion, Marin's Up Special bubble bursts and launches her upwards half a battle field platform without putting her in free fall or inflicting damage, and her Bubble Dress has half its health transformed into normal bubbles that float a little ways away from her.
(7% or 10%) (12% or 8%)
o (Dash Attack) o (Bubble Trail) o
Bubble Trail is activated by holding the A button during a dash. As she sprints, Marin adjusts her hold on her wand so the headpiece is above her head. The resulting air movement through its hole causes it to create bubbles in her wake, with the same qualities as the bubbles made by her Neutral Special but at the rate of two every second as opposed to five. Upon release of the A button, she skids to a stop, swinging her wand in a downward arc that leaves a final pair of bubbles and deals 11% and mild knockback.
Though it lacks the volume of her Neutral Special, creating bubbles with her Dash Attack allows Marin to stay on the move while doing so. Due to how close the bubbles are to her when she makes them, Marin's Bubble Dress will automatically absorb the created bubbles rather than leaving them behind as a trail; handy for recharging her protective armor while evading her opponent.
(11% + 1% x 2) (1% x 2 per second)
o o o ((Smashes)) o o o
o (Forward Smash) o (Autumn Wind) o
A powerful overhead swing. Marin closes her eyes in concentration as she channels a wind spell into her wand, covering it in a green glow. Upon release, a crescent-shaped burst of wind as tall as Ganondorf and half a stage builder block wide flies forward a distance of 1-2 battlefield platforms, depending on charge. The swing itself and the crescent do anywhere between 13-18% damage and moderate knockback. The force of the motion causes Marin to stumble forward slightly and suffer an unpleasant amount of ending lag.
Besides being one of Marin's stronger attacks, Autumn Wind serves as an easy way to move her bubbles around. A strong breeze lingers for 2-4 seconds after the projectile portion of the attack itself vanishes, covering a portion of the stage 2 battlefield platforms wide and 1 tall in a steady gust of wind. Bubbles, items, and characters alike within this area are pushed in the direction Marin was facing at the speed of Ganondorf's run. Anything that moves against the wind has that deducted from their speed, and anything moving with it adds it to their speed.
This also has a handy effect on Marin's Side and Down Specials. Capture Spheres are blown away just as normal bubbles, potentially becoming a way to deposit a foe off stage or give their maker breathing room. While in her Bubble Dress, Marin takes reduced knockback when it would send her against the wind and the increase to her move speed by the wind is doubled while running with it. Whether she takes advantage of this or not, Autumn Wind creates an easy way for Marin to cover a portion of the stage in bubbles and hinder an approaching opponent.
(13-18%)
o (Down Smash) o (Cold Front) o
Wide area, low power freezing magic. Shivering from the cold, Marin mumbles words of power through chattering teeth, a deep blue tint covering the area around her. Powdered snow flaking off of her wand, she slams the tip against the ground to create a pair of icicles on either side of her.
The cold temperature is applied to an area one battlefield platform wide and one battlefield platform high, centered on Marin. Enemies who enter the area have their movement speed reduced by half until they leave. The duration of Cold Front is determined by the charge time, lasting anywhere between 3-6 seconds. The icicles deal 15-21% damage and above average horizontal knockback that can KO fairly early, though their use is hampered by needing to be directly next to a ground-bound foe.
Cold Front affects bubbles within it. A thin layer of frost covers them as they are flash-frozen by the temperature change, causing them to descend at roughly the rate of Ganondorf's walk. These bubbles return to normal a second after leaving the affected area.
Enemies that touch frozen bubbles cause them to burst, making the victim suffer a brief moment of stun equivalent to flinching knockback in addition to a bubble's normal damage. Capture Spheres rise at only half the rate they normally do inside Cold Front, which makes damage racking easier, and Marin's weight is increased by half while wearing her Bubble Dress in a Cold Front.
(15-21%)
o (Up Smash) o (Heat Wave) o
A basic, unfocused fire spell. Marin wraps both gloved hands around her wand and mutters an incantation, the air around her turning red. With a shout, she thrusts her wand straight up, a globe of flame in its headpiece.
The increased temperature is applied to an area one battlefield platform wide and one battlefield platform high, centered on Marin. Enemies who enter the area take 3% damage (but no flinching or knockback) every second. The duration of Heat Wave is determined by the charge time, lasting anywhere between 3-6 seconds. The swing itself does 12-17% damage and a respectable upwards knockback that can KO fairly early, though its use is hampered by needing to be directly beneath the foe.
This isn't Marin's only trick, however. Bubbles within the affected area turn red and begin to rise upwards from the heat at the rate of Ganondorf's walk, returning to normal a second after the bubbles escape it. Touching a red bubble or an attack using them inflicts 2% damage in addition to whatever damage the bubble/attack itself would deal. Capture Spheres ascend at 1.5x their normal rate while in Heat Wave's area of effect, making them more effective as a KO option, and Marin's jumps and aerial maneuverability are improved by 1.3x while in her Bubble Dress.
Frozen bubbles will turn into normal bubbles when affected by heat wave, and red bubbles will become normal bubbles under the effects of Cold Front.
(12-17%) (3% per second) (2+X% x Y)
o o o ((Aerials)) o o o
o (Neutral Aerial) o (Aqua Ring) o
Marin does a quick 360 spin with her wand outstretched. A long and thin bubble is left in its path around her, forming a simple ring that pops half a second afterward. Her wand and the bubble do a mere 6% damage and push enemies back roughly half a stage builder block. This simple pirouette is quick and makes for an effective spacer despite its range leaving something to be desired.
There's a few tricks to this move besides the damage. The brief window of time the ring exists does not count as part of the attack's lag or the time it takes to complete the animation, meaning Marin can enter into a different attack before it bursts. The ring also has an effect on nearby bubbles- those that are within half a stage builder block of Marin when she uses this move have their position flipped horizontally- a handy way to bring bubbles behind her to the front to block a hit. The bubbles deal an extra 1% damage and push the opponent back just like the rest of this move while in motion from its effect.
Besides the swap, the bubbles otherwise stop in place and lose momentum for half a second, letting her pause the movement of her swarm from an effect like one of her Smashes. This also applies to Marin's Bubble Dress; while her Down Special is active, Marin can negate knockback from a move that knocks her off the ground but fails to penetrate the defense, leading to a swift comeback before the opponent can take advantage of her sudden departure from the stage.
(6%) (X + 1% * Y)
o (Forward Aerial) o (Bulky Bubble) o
Thrusting her wand forward, Marin's magic pulls any bubbles within a Smash Ball of the thin, disjointed hitbox's path to its edge to form a single large bubble. A quick move with decent reach, and aim-able at that. The thrust's paltry 5% damage is just a bonus; the resulting hitbox centered on her wand's headpiece is what Marin's really attacking with.
If only one bubble is drawn to the headpiece, the hitbox functions as a normal bubble. 1% damage, no knockback, and the defensive effects. When more are absorbed, however, the hitbox grows in size, damage, and knockback. At two bubbles, it deals 2.5% damage and flinching knockback, carrying the defensive benefits of 2 bubbles. This scaling continues up to a maximum of 10 absorbed bubbles, making a Crate-sized hitbox that deals 14.5% damage, moderate knockback, and has the defensive benefits of all 10 bubbles.
Upon contact with an opponent, the bubble bursts, spraying its component bubbles back at Marin and ending the attack. Otherwise, Marin keeps her wand extended with her large hitbox active for as long as the attack button is held. Releasing the attack button simply lets the large bubble separate again. This is one of Marin's best offensive moves, and can be used to exclude a few bubbles from the movement effects of her other attacks (the pull towards the tip taking priority over the other movements when a bubble is in range of both).
(5%) (1% + 1.5 * 0~9)
o (Down Aerial) o (Bubble Bounce) o
Suddenly snapping out of her leg-hold mid-air pose, Marin stomps with both her feet, falling quickly. She descends at a speed comparable to the Star Fox series' characters during their fast-falls, her feet a small hitbox that deals 10% damage and spikes the foe downwards. Unless the attack button is held, Marin will exit the pose after falling half a battlefield platform, otherwise she will continue to drop at that rate until the button is released.
The obvious uses of a stall then fall are here (minus the stall part of the equation): Evading an attack, KOing a foe attempting to recover, hitting an opponent as you jump over them, and so on. What sets Bubble Bounce apart from its kin is its namesake.
Upon successfully hitting an opponent, Marin forms a large bubble between them and herself. This bubble, squeezed between the two fighters, forcibly resumes its spherical shape by launching Marin upwards and pushing her opponent down (this being what inflicts the knockback of the move). It lingers for 2 seconds as a solid wall/platform that prevents the foe from passing through it (such as to pursue Marin or recover) until it pops. The boost is enough to elevate Marin half a battlefield platform, roughly where she was when she used the attack in most cases.
If Marin's bubbles are below her, they are gathered beneath her as she passes until the attack portion of the move ends, up to a maximum of 5 small bubbles or 1 big one (from her Up Special). In the case of the former, assuming she doesn't hit an opponent, she condenses the bubbles into a single bigger bubble she can use to launch herself up as normal, though it is smaller and produces only a fraction of the boost if there are less than 5. It then separates back into the small bubbles that made it.
A pre-existing big bubble launches her the full distance and does not separate nor gain any of the special qualities specific to the one made by this attack. The first 5 small bubbles caught beneath Marin are not absorbed into her Bubble Suit, but others interact with it as normal. Regardless of how she uses it, this move grants Marin a few more evasive and defensive options than her opponent, which is something anyone with her low weight can appreciate.
(10%)
o (Back Aerial) o (Foamy Fall) o
Spinning around (sometimes with a short voice clip of Marin yelping in surprise), the bubble witch swings her wand out to swat her opponent. The sudden strike has poor reach compared to the rest of her moves and is even weaker to boot, dealing only 5% and lacking any usage of her bubbles to compensate.
There are three benefits of this move. First, it changes the direction Marin is facing quickly so she can attack. Second, a foe hit by this move enters free fall for half a battlefield platform of distance- excellent for stopping a recovery dead or setting up for the Down Aerial.
The third is arguably the best- when an opponent is hit, a bit of fluid splatters off of Marin's wand onto them, usually towards their face or sensory organs if they have any. This fluid catches on the wind as the opponent moves through the air, producing a single bubble in their wake for every quarter of a battlefield platform they move, up until the 15th bubble or their landing.
The closest Marin has to a move that generates bubbles for her and one of her better weapons against agile foes, it suffers from requiring a hit to work and lacks the production rate of her Neutral Special or Dash Attack (though it certainly supplements them well). Multiple hits can stack several instances of this effect, though it's difficult to pull off and all instances end upon the foe landing.
(5%) (1% * 1~15)
o (Up Aerial) o (Bubble Lift) o
With a simple, calculated wave that clashes with her normally frantic swinging, Marin creates a single long but thin bubble above herself. Resembling a battlefield platform in dimensions, it acts as a solid wall or floor for foes and a fall-through platform for Marin. Foes touching the platform without attacking do not pop it and do not take damage unless it is under the effect of one of Marin's moves that modify the damage or knockback of the affected bubbles; otherwise, it acts as a normal bubble with similar qualities.
The platform can be manipulated by Marin's attacks like the rest of her bubbles, though it gradually loses altitude over time and descends at half the rate of Marin's fall speed for each person standing on it. Contact with the floor below or an opponent's attack will pop the Bubble Lift, and once popped Marin must make contact with the ground before she can replace it. Only one Bubble Lift can exist at a time. Entering this input again while one already exists causes Marin to perform a quicker swing with a less focused, more nervous expression.
Regardless of which version she uses, Marin suffers little lag with this attack, and deals a single, solid hit of 7% damage and flinching knockback. The platform serves as a less risky way to access Marin's ground game, a recovery booster, an emergency wall against a foe above, and a larger hitbox for her bubble-manipulating moves.
(7%)
o o o ((Grab Game)) o o o
o (Grab) o (Suds Splash) o
Marin's expression twists and her eyes squeeze shut. She forces herself to be brave, adjusts her hold on her wand, and swings it as if it were a net, a bit of whatever matter her bubbles are made of sloshing from its headpiece.
Should the liquid or the wand itself make contact with a foe, the former springs to life and hardens into a rubbery substance around them, the headpiece hooking on whatever extremity is convenient. This grab has decent reach and scarcely any end lag, making it a decent option despite Marin's preference for keeping the opponent at arm's length.
As a final note, Marin can grab an opponent while riding on or in her Up Special bubble. Inside, directional inputs will steer it like normal, and she can jump to exit it. If on the bubble, a directional input will throw the opponent. Note she can't go back in the bubble while holding a foe since the down input is then mapped to her throw. If she has time, she can reposition herself a little before performing the throw.
o (Bubble Grab) o (Bubble Boost) o
There's another way Marin can utilize her grab. Should she fail to grab an opponent and at least one of her small bubbles come in contact with the grab hitbox, it is pulled into the center of her wand's headpiece at the end of the animation.
Time is not subtracted from the bubble's duration while in the headpiece of Marin's wand, though a successful attack using her wand as a hitbox will cause it to pop with whatever effects it would normally have. Besides being a good way to keep a special bubble in reserve, Marin receives benefits depending on the type of bubble held.
A Magnetic Bubble continues to pull her bubbles along, doubling the speed with which they gravitate towards her. Items and even small opponents are very gradually pulled in as well, and a successful hit with a wand hitbox knocks the victim prone with an electric shock.
A held Gust Ball has the opposite effect on bubbles, repelling them at half the rate they are normally pulled in. Marin moves a hair faster, jumps higher, and is otherwise a tad more 'floaty' than normal. A successful blow and the resulting destruction of the Gust Ball sends her and the for flying away from each other, Marin a set distance of half a battlefield platform, her opponent with medium knockback.
Her Blast Orb is the odd one. Instead of directly moving her bubbles, it causes any bubbles in motion from one of Marin's attacks to detonate upon popping- dealing an additional 2% damage and light knockback on contact on top of the normal effects. If Marin hits something with her wand while holding a Blast Orb, it explodes, doubling her ending lag but dealing 1.5x the normal damage and knockback.
Grabbing a normal bubble has a different effect. The rubbery gunk coats the bubble in a gray tint, resulting in a 'Metal Bubble'. It moves at half the rate of other small bubbles, subtracts double the damage from an attack, does no damage but does not break on contact, and reverts to a normal bubble upon destruction or 5 seconds pass. While held, it adds 2% damage and modest knockback to Marin's wand hitboxes, and does not burst upon use like others.
Special bubbles get priority over her normal ones, in the order listed here. If there are two of the same, the closest to Marin is picked. She can release her bubble laglessly at any time by pressing the grab input.
(X * 2 OR X + 2%)
o (Bubble Grab) o (Launch) o
There's one last thing to talk about before moving on to Marin's throws. When she grabs a non-standard sized bubble (prioritizing them over the normal sized ones and lower than actual opponents), like a Capture Sphere, her Up Special bubble, or a bubble platform from her Up Aerial, she does not use her standard throws.
A directional input simply has her propel the bubble in the chosen direction anywhere from half a battlefield platform to a full battlefield platform, depending on how hard the input was pressed. Speed up a Capture Sphere's ascent a little, move that bubble platform, or simply turn her fledgling Up Special into a wall.
o (Pummel) o (Rapidfire) o
Each press of the A button causes Marin to jerk the opponent towards her and then push them back using her hold on them with her wand's headpiece, creating a bubble from the motion. The shake and the bubble do 1% damage each, and Marin can do this up to twice a second. With a quick thumb and an injured opponent, you can really rack up the number of hits here.
The bubbles made by Marin's pummel, though doomed to destruction, are in fact normal bubbles like the rest of her moveset. This means they can be modified by Heat Wave and Cold Front, or any other effects she might have active.
While the number of effects are limited by the fact Marin is in mid pummel and only a few linger on long enough to use her grab, getting this move off with those effects active is potentially devastating- the damage boost from Heat Wave making each bubble more damaging or the stun from Cold Front letting her get in extra hits making this a shockingly effective damage racker.
((1% + 1%) up to twice per second)
o (Forward Throw) o (Chilling Wind) o
Happy to remind opponents that bubbles are not the only thing she can make, Marin produces a blisteringly cold wind that she unleashes into the slime covering the opponent. The slime hardens and shatters, tossing the foe away from her with frozen chunks still stuck on them.
Though the knockback is a little lacking for a KO move, the opponent is stunned and is unable to control their direction in the air or use an attack to stop their momentum for 3/4ths of a second after they normally would, making it much more powerful than it first appears. Besides that, this move does an okay 11% damage.
(11%)
o (Down Throw) o (Slime Coat) o
With a flick of her wrist and a step back, Marin releases the opponent, still covered in gunk. For the next 5 seconds or until grabbed again, any of Marin's attacks that move her bubbles will also move her opponent.
Further, certain effects work differently on them. Cold Front lowers their mobility by 25%, Heat Wave increasing the knockback they take. Magnetic bubbles will grab them like other bubbles, doing 1% damage (but no hitstun) every half a second until they get away from its pull or it is destroyed. Gust Balls and Autumn Wind push the foe twice the distance. Blast Orb causes the Slime Coat to explode, ending the effect and dealing double the usual damage and knockback the secondary explosion hitbox normally inflicts.
The opponent and Marin are left nearly frame neutral to each other at the end of this throw (the opponent having a very slight advantage), just out of reach of Marin's grab. While it's possible for her to chain grabs, her opponent will likely be able to respond because of this lead, and as this move does no damage on its own, it would serve no purpose.
(N/A)
o (Back Throw) o (Voltage) o
Like her forward throw creates wind and ice, her back throw channels lightning. Bolts of electricity surge through her staff and into the opponent, and with a shout of effort, she spins on her heel and tosses the opponent away, stumbling in the process.
This attack is one of Marin's strongest- a solid 15% damage. The opponent is pushed away with light knockback, coming out of this with frame advantage over Marin as she recovers from her misstep, but suffering from a bigger problem than knockback.
For the next 5 seconds, whenever the opponent gets within half a battlefield platform of a small bubble, it is drawn to them by a string of electricity, The bubble will not actually be pulled in close enough to make contact with the foe, being held about a Smash Ball's width away from them. Up to 10 bubbles can be affected by this.
Between their natural pull towards Marin and their held distance from the foe, this ensures whatever attacks they make against Marin will be forced to go through her bubbles first. A big problem if there are any special bubbles in the mix and certainly not negligible even without.
(15%)
o (Up Throw) o (Exploder Balloon) o
The gunk holding the opponent in place begins to inflate and pull away from their body, but Marin isn't planning on releasing them gently. By using a weak fire spell, she has begun to fill the gunk with hot air, causing the victim to slowly drift into the air.
Marin soon finds herself holding the opponent overhead. The opponent is still able to escape the grab, and the duration can still run out on its own. Once she has the opponent off the ground, however, there's no escaping what happens next. Either by the grab duration running out, the bubble reaching its maximum size, an attack striking the bubble or Marin, or the held foe's struggles finally making headway, the 'Exploder Balloon' lives up to its name and detonates in a burst of heated gasses.
The damage and knockback depend on what size the bubble was when it destroyed. It takes a full three seconds to go from its minimum size (barely off the opponent's body) to its full size (a Smash Ball's width in each direction from the foe's body) normally. However, if its edge makes contact with any bubbles, they are pulled in, shaving off a tenth of a second each. The 'Exploder Balloon's destruction leaves them in its wake, returning them to roughly their original position if a bit higher off the ground. A handy barrier should the foe try to come straight down on Marin.
The Exploder Balloon does anywhere between 9~18% damage and moderate to high vertical knockback. A fairly reliable KO move, also handy in getting the foe off the ground and into the air where Marin can utilize her full moveset against them.
(9~18%)
oo00((!!Final Smash!!))00oo
oo00((~Bubble Dragon~))00oo
Feeling the energy of the smash ball surging through her, Marin raises her staff high and shouts. "COME FORTH!" A cloud of bubbles swarm around her staff, the colorful glow of her smash ball-granted aura and the bright shine from her staff as she casts the summoning spell creating a veritable light show.
An eastern-style dragon emerges from her staff, formed of ten crate-sized bubbles (the front most one taking the shape of a head). It swims through the air in a wavy, snake-like pattern, moving back and forth about the stage from one end to the other, up to a battlefield platform past the right/left most ledge (in normal stages), half that distance past where the screen stops panning out to show (on a walk off), or until it reaches a solid wall. Its speed is comparable to Marth's dash, though its swerving movements that take its body up and down 3/4ths of a battlefield platform make its actual rate of travel a little slower.
Each segment of the Bubble Dragon has 15% stamina and deals 8% damage with mild knockback on contact, except the head which has 30% and deals 12%/medium knockback. They take no noticeable knockback from attacks, though being struck causes the dragon to halt for a split second before it continues along its merry way. It will even plow through destructibles without difficulty. The segments act to reduce damage the same as Marin's bubbles, subtracting the same amount of damage from an attack as they deal to an opponent on contact (applied after the damage is subtracted by that segment's stamina) when struck and adding a 0.3 second pause in the middle of the animation.
What truly makes the Bubble Dragon deadly is Marin's ability to interact with it. She can 'steer' or otherwise modify it and its segments through her attacks like her normal bubbles. She can use her Side Special to implant a Capture Sphere in the dragon's chain-like body that lasts two seconds or until it captures an enemy, then disappears or detaches and acts normally, respectively. She can even catch a ride on/in a segment like her Up Special, taking control of the dragon's (rather slippy-slidy) movements by entering the head.
The dragon lasts a whopping 15 seconds or until its head is destroyed. A body segment that runs out of stamina merely bursts into five normal bubbles that Marin may manipulate, the two nearest segments attaching to each other to fill the gap. At the end of its lifespan, whatever is left of the dragon freezes mid-flight, and the segments begin to quiver. After a second's warning, they pop, dropping Marin if she was inside one (at the nearest appropriate space if it was in a destructible at that point) and leaving behind 5 bubbles each.
(8% or 12% x X)
o o o ((Playstyle)) o o o
Marin's namesake ability is her bread and butter. Attacking, defending, ammo, tools, they do it all for her. Creating and managing bubbles while fighting the opponent is simultaneously her greatest asset and her biggest obstacle. All of her attacks, except her Up Special, both create or manipulate bubbles and function as an attack.
Her focus should be on a mass of normal bubbles, as the singular special bubbles created through her tilts lack any threatening qualities on their own; save those for when you have a decent swarm going they can hide among. That said, all bubbles are fragile and take time to replace- Marin can create bubbles while moving and fighting with them for a reason. She should almost never be sitting still and 'just' making bubbles.
In a tight spot, tap the B button to create a quintet of bubbles, then turn them into dangerous hitboxes with a smash, or slip in a Side Special when the unwary foe attempts to sneak through. Call on a Bubble Dress or use her Up Special to negate the hitstun from the weakened attack and counter with a Grab or Forward Smash. Poke the opponent with a few weak tilts and aerials to build damage. A swarm is ideal, but Marin must often spend bubbles to have time to make bubbles.
Marin is surprisingly non-committal in how she uses her bubbles once they're there- only caring that they're there. She can even function (if poorly) without them long enough to repel the opponent so she can make a quick few and regain her momentum. The only time she should focus on bubbles for bubbles' sake is when she's flung the foe hopelessly past the point of recovery, the brief interlude between their loss of a stock and respawn, or when the opponent is indisposed in her Capture Sphere.
As Marin starts to gain momentum, having a good number of bubbles following her and a Bubble Dress up, it takes effort and careful play to break her defenses apart. If she's suffered some damage, she's in as much danger as anyone, but it takes some doing to inflict it between her various bubbles and her mobility.
Once she has her swarm, the next problem is keeping it intact. Since her attacking moves are also what she uses to move it around, she has to be picky about how and when to attack or risk losing her defenses as they drift away or break on the opponent for a sad amount of damage. Her strongest attacks, barring her throws, are the ones that affect the most bubbles, and are therefore the most risky once she has a proper bubble swarm.
Her Bubble Dress lets her keep a safe emergency reserve for such mistakes, and her aerials serve as a way to better organize her set up or otherwise minimize the damage from her mistakes when need be. Her standards also come in handy for this- Forward and Down tilts create special bubbles that spread out her swarm, normally a poor idea due to their function as chaff to break an opponent's attack against them, can be used to store a few bubbles aside for later that aren't within the area of effect for her mass bubble migration abilities.
Her Up Tilt's special bubble is a bit more situational. The threat of a Blast Orb in her swarm is a bit of a gamble- going off at the wrong time can cause her to botch a maneuver, but it makes succeeding with an attack much more rewarding and makes rushing through her bubbles far less appealing. Her grab can pluck these bubbles and withhold them if she sets them out too early on accident or wants a back up.
Marin's relatively straightforward throws and Side Special are her go-to moves when she needs to fight but can't afford to use up resources. Their drawback is lacking punch and being difficult to land, respectively, but her ability to rack damage with repeated hits and create a veritable minefield pick up the slack. Even when she's not directing them or using them as ammo, her bubbles still benefit her.
All in all, Marin is simple to learn but difficult to master. Setting up isn't hard, it's making use of that set up and not blowing it on a stupid mistake that will make or break her game.
o o o ((Extras)) o o o
o (Entrance) o (Pop) o
Marin floats down from the top of the screen, sitting atop the bubble from her Up Special. Her nervous disposition is obvious as she looks around. She steps off and stumbles as it unexpectedly pops. Gripping her wand tightly in one hand, she meekly pushes her hat up out of her eyes and assumes her neutral pose.
o (Side Taunt) o (Boredom) o
Holding her wand up to inspect it, Marin sticks her finger through the hole in its headpiece. She carefully moves her finger through the air to create a bubble with a complex shape, such as a butterfly or her own name, before apparently finding some flaw in her work and waving her wand over it to reclaim the used material.
o (Down Taunt) o (Fancy) o
Marin creates a single bubble, staring at it with an expression that speaks of peacefulness. The bubble abruptly pops, cracking her composure and returning her attention to the battle. The bubble may act as a normal bubble from Marin's Neutral Special, but due to the length of this taunt, its odd position, and its less than 2 second duration, that's more of an easter egg than anything useful.
o (Up Taunt) o ('Gotcha!') o
In a rare show of enthusiasm, Marin does a twirl and shoots the audience a thumbs-up. She then realizes she's being watched, and enters her idle animation with a blush.
o (Codec Conversation) o
Snake: Mei Ling, do you have any idea who this is?
Mei Ling: Her name's 'Marin', though she's better known as 'The Bubble Witch'.
Snake: Can't imagine why...
Mei Ling: She's a student of a magic academy in a world where magicians all bear a personal ability. Her mother helped overthrow a magic-using tyrant and retired to obscurity afterwards. Between the seclusion growing up and the mocking over her ability, she prefers her bubbles as company over people.
Mei Ling: Marin's become famous for an incident involving monsters running free in the academy. The building used to be a stronghold for the mad wizard her mother defeated, refurbished into a house of learning to symbolize hope for the future.
Snake: This might just be me, but using a madman's old stomping grounds for a school sounds like a terrible idea.
Mei Ling: It was. The monster outbreak was caused by a massive 'mother' monster below ground in an undiscovered alcove, an old pet project of the tyrant's that was running amuck without anything to keep it in check.
Mei Ling: It's hard to believe someone pulled through that with just bubbles, don't you think?
Snake: It isn't what tools you have, but how you use them.
Snake: Those bubbles of hers are gumming up my attacks, and the way she and they move around is making it hard to get a hit in in the fist place.
Snake: But that'll be her weakness, too. They're so fragile that she can't go all out. She has to pick and choose her time to attack and keep them safe or she'll be at a disadvantage. They're unfocused enough that a straight hit can squeeze though, and as long as I'm wary of any booby traps, I can probably just walk through some of them. She won't be so tough without their help.
Mei Ling: Overuse of one tool leaves the others to rust.
Snake: Is that a Chinese proverb, too?
Mei Ling: No, just an observation.
o o o ((Closing Comments)) o o o
Well, it's been a while, but I'm back again with a new set. It's been 9 contests since I made an OC set (though not since I last attempted one) and a single contest break since I entered at all (the last entry preceded by a 3 contest absence itself). Most importantly, I had fun making this set, which is something I can't remember doing for a long time.Joe's MYMini caught my attention near the end of the prior contest, and the idea of making a defensive concept then developing a character who uses it from scratch appealed to my imagination. I'm proud of how Marin turned out, her quirks and strengths and weaknesses all. Being able to finish a set (besides some extras I might add later on) after so many failed attempts over the last two years or so certainly helped my enthusiasm.
I'd like to thank those in the chat for putting up with my walls of text gushing over the work and especially Forward Arrow for previewing most of the set for me. I'm sorry for constantly fading in and out in the community, and I hope to stick around and do a few more sets this time.
Updates:
4/12/13: Replaced Back Throw, as the original did nothing to differ itself from similar abilities Marin could already access.
4/20/13: Edited the numbers on the Down Shield Special to be a little less ridiculous.
6/14/13: Replaced Shine Vision with Shine Guard. Modified any effects that previously referred to Shine Vision to build off of Shine Guard. Fixed some typos and weak wording.
6/15/13: Aaaaand replaced Shine Guard with Blast Orb, with thanks to Joe for the idea of a 'landmine' bubble (why did I not think of that before, when all three tilts could be called that?) and for pointing out that reflecting weak projectiles was really niche for Marin due to how clashing works.
10/02/13: Began rewriting the set so the writing flows better, taking out the moves made for the two contest-specific mechanics and references to them in the interest of making a long read shorter and easier. Fixed some typos, examples of poor wording, and added damage percent notations to the bottom of the two throws that were missing them.
10/06/13: Dropped a portion of the tilts involving a interaction with the Bubble Dress- rather than temporarily converting all bubbles from a Bubble Dress dispersed soon after absorbing a special bubble into that type of special bubble, Marin simply stores them indefinitely like her normal bubbles. The original version, after reading again, simply added unneeded complexity to already complicated moves, and worse still clashed with the intended playstyle.
The bubble grab was also modified slightly- besides the wording change to shorten it a tad, a held bubble pops upon a successful hit with a wand hitbox, a Magnetic Bubble subtly draws in all bubbles rather than just the usual 5 (as well as pulling lighter opponents and items), and all effects were tweaked to have different roles complementary to Marin's playstyle. Very subtly changed the grab itself (an overhead swing as opposed to a spear-like thrust).
That could only be Minami Iwasaki. She's a stereotypical taciturn with a kind nature and love for reading, but don't let that fool you; Minami ranks among the elite as a ballslinger, so much so she can put your breasts out of commission from a mile away.
