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Make Your Move 25: Moveset Design Contest — Contest is Donezo! MYM 26 Starts March 17th!

OldManHan

OldManHan

Smash Rookie
Joined
Jul 29, 2020
Messages
11
Location
Void between dimensions
The vengeful magician borne from a deep grudge for humanity, driven to the allure of the dark arts. Reincarnated after years of unexplained disappearance, Mima makes her triumphant return!

An extremely versatile heavyweight, Mima commands absolute respect from her opponent, no matter the distance. All balanced beautifully by her demanding meter, Mima excels in almost all scenarios if given the opportunity to shine!


docs.google.com

The Vengeful Magician

Mima The Vengeful Magician --------------------------------------------------------------- Series: Touhou Project Mima is a very popular recurring character in Touhou, although she only existed in the non-canon PC-98 era of the series, consisting of the first five games. She is a Vengeful Spi...
docs.google.com docs.google.com
 
ComicWaterz

ComicWaterz

Smash Rookie
Joined
Oct 27, 2018
Messages
7
chaddicus (It's actually a poorly made Geno Moveset)
🤡
Submitting because of spite ;3333333

Backstory: One day in the FFC Server, we decided to hold a Discord Tournament. Han had joined at the time and made Kasen, which in my 1 year break from movesets. I tried to compete. Remaking the first moveset I ever made. Geno from Super Mario RPG. Unfortunately, history did not see it this way, as I had gave the small wooden puppet Street Fighter Guile's Flash Kick.

and it is still one of the most broken movesets i've ever made.
 
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A

AwfulBeast

Smash Rookie
Joined
Sep 10, 2022
Messages
8
docs.google.com

Dame Dedtime Moveset (Yo Kai Watch 2)

Uh Moveset Time ******* So Yo Kai Watch 2. Underrated game, go play it. This moveset is for the ugly ***** who is also the main villain, Dame Dedtime (Yeah haha it is dead time haha). She controls time and hates humans. So that includes Mario. Cool. Time for her to kill that asshole in this move...
docs.google.com docs.google.com



The main villain of Yo Kai Watch 2, Dame Dedtime, makes a sudden debut onto the stage of MYMS! This is probably my best moveset to date, and I'm just excited to see what people think about it.
 
U

UserShadow7989

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Aug 13, 2007
Messages
314
So many newcomers, so little time! Really, really little time. Thank you all for joining in and sharing your wonderful creations with us! Now allow me to add one more to the pile- meant to have a neat little story mode-ish snippet here and will probably give the set a second pass later, but for now, I'm just happy to have it out.

Hailing from a Jojo's Bizarre Adventure fan game, Joey Operetta joins the fray!
 
PeridotGX

PeridotGX

Smash Hero
Joined
Jun 8, 2017
Messages
9,031
Location
That Distant Shore
NNID
Denoma5280
Wow, that's a lot of sets that were posted today. I see someone posted a Regigigas set. I respect that, Regigigas is a cool Pokemon. In fact, I think there's only one thing cooler than Regigigas (aside from Regice, I suppose)...
Image

Two Regigigas! Or is it Regigigases? Regigigii? Regardless of how you pluralize this Pokemon, no Make Your Move 25 is complete without two of them, and I'm here to provide the second course.
docs.google.com

Regigigas (MYM)

REGIGIGAS READIES ITS BODY Regigigas is a fourth generation Pokemon, making it's first appearance in Diamond and Pearl. Despite this, it's impact can be traced one generation prior: It created Regirock, Regice, and Registeel of the Hoenn region (as well as Regieleki and Regidrago of Galar). T...
docs.google.com docs.google.com

It's been awhile, huh! A certain twitter account got me back into the MYM spirit, and with the contest coming to a close I didn't have much time to write something - so I decided to reuse one of my old movesets from a previous non-Smashboards contest. I didn't want to use one of my better sets (those other contests have slightly lower standards), it would take too long to upgrade them, but I didn't want to post a bad set either. Regigigas was in the perfect sweetspot. It did require a bit of editing, as it's original context had a bit of an ARG aspect to it. I think I scrubbed most references to that, but if a mention to "Regiwood" is still in there, that's why. Obviously it's a coincidence that we're getting two Regigigas sets. This isn't a set that I'm expecting to score well, it's mostly something to say I was here for MYM25 (it's also in a bit of a Dodongish state but I'll fix that). I'm already Deep into a concept for a MYM26 set that I think will be far more competitive, so there's that. Until then, here's a Regigigas that I think has some fun ideas.
 
Owen23

Owen23

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Dec 30, 2021
Messages
142
WHO'S THAT POKEMON?
alcremie.png

It's... Alcremie!
​
Alcremie is a Pokémon who resembles a drop of whipped cream. When a trainer gains it's trust with Alcremie, it will treat them to it's sweet berries. It's cream also gets sweeter and sweeter the happier it feels. It also has many variations, depending on the time, direction, and duration for which it was still a Milcery.

It's Gigantamax form resembles a big cake, complete with all of the sweets that were used to evolve Milcery. It's cream when in Gigantmax form seems to be endlessly pouring. The cream stiffens if gets hit by an impact, A harder one results in harder cream. It also launches a thousand missiles that are made of cream, so if you get hit by one of them, your head will swim.

Statistics and Playstyle​
Alcremie is a light-weighted fighter, making her seem a little weak, but she's a fighter with sweet, strong, attacks. Alcremie is about the same size as Kirby, but a few inches smaller. Due to her being a light-weight fighter, her fall speed is fast, but her walk speed is a little slow, her run speed however, is a little fast.

Specials​
Neutral B - Sweet Kiss
Alcremie will blow a kiss, sending a little heart flying through the screen, if an opponent comes in contact with it, it will deal 12% damage. However, each use of Sweet Kiss has a little cooldown though before you can use it again.

Side B - Sweet Scent
Alcremie will make a puff of sweet smoke appear, causing an aroma of sweetness to be on the stage, dealing 9% damage. The scent does have a cooldown once it's used. Meaning you can't use it for a few seconds before using it again though.

Up B - Decorate
Alcremie will toss a batch of sweets up into the air, doing about 6% damage, the sweets however, will be random everytime. So the sweets will be different if you use Decorate again.

Down B - Dazzling Gleam
Alcremie will use a powerful flash, surrounding her for a few seconds before cooldown. The attack does deal 14% damage, and it will reflect any projectiles. The powerful flash also acts as a shield too.

Standard Attacks​
Jab - Alcremie will do a smack, dealing 3% damage.
Dash Attack - Alcremie will do a forwards-twirl, causing it to deal 6% damage.
Forward Tilt - Alcremie does a simple punch, doing about 11% damage.
Down Kick - Alcremie will do a spin that causes 6% damage.
Up Tilt - Alcremie will do a jump while doing a hands-in-the-air pose, doing about 4% damage.

Aerials​
Neutral Air - Alcremie spins around, causing to deal about 10% damage.
Forward Air - Alcremie will do a simple jab, dealing 3% damage.
Back Air - Alcremie does an arm swipe that deals 7% damage.
Up Air - Alcremie will do a upwards twirl, doing about 6% damage.
Down Air - Alcremie will use it's lower part of it's body to do a simple thrust that deals 12% damage.

Grabs​
Grab - Alcremie will grab the opponent and do a jab that deals 4% damage.
Pummel - Alcremie will tackle the opponent, doing about 6% damage.
Forward Throw - Alcremie will simply throw the opponent, doing 3% damage.
Back Throw - Alcremie throws the opponent by doing a twirl, sending them flying and doing about 12% damage.
Down Throw - Alcremie will grab the opponent using her two hands, following by her throwing the opponent, dealing 7% damage.
Up Throw - Alcremie will grab the opponent and throw the opponent upwards, doing 11% damage.

Smashes​
Forward Smash - Alcremie throws a glob of cream, dealing about 14% damage.
Down Smash - Alcremie does a slam attack with her body, doing 17% damage.
Up Smash - Alcremie throws one of her berries upwards, causing the berry to deal about 11% damage.

Final Smash​
Final Smash - G-Max Finale
A cutscene activates, showing Alcremie Gigantamaxing, following by it using giant cream projectiles to rain down from the sky, causing the giant cream droplets to hit the opponents, dealing about a sweet deal of 30 - 90% damage. The cutscene then ends as Alcremie and the opponents are transported back onto the stage.

Extra Stuff​
Up Taunt - Alcremie does a twirl, following by it posing.
Side Taunt - Alcremie waves at the player.
Down Taunt - Alcremie does a little kiss.
Entrance - Alcremie pops out with a little ta-da pose, then gets ready to battle.
Victory Pose #1 - Alcremie does a little cheering pose while hopping up and down.
Victory Pose #2 - Alcremie pulls out a berry, and then smiles.
Victory Pose #3 - Alcremie does a happy little dance before posing happily.
Victory Theme - Same as the other Pokémon fighters.
Lose Pose - Alcremie claps happily.

"Time to cream the competition!"​
 
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Daehypeels

Daehypeels

Smash Rookie
Joined
Sep 10, 2022
Messages
14
For my penultimate post, I've finally finished a certain curious choice not many of you might expect...

From Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns, the premier contest MC Stephanie arrives.
docs.google.com

ToT Stephanie

ngl due to procrastination I’m basically writing all of this last moment, really rushing things and trying to get it out all within like 28 hours – the draft isn’t even fully done as of writing this, still need to figure out Side B, D-Smash I only have a concept for, things need more work… …let’s...
docs.google.com docs.google.com

 
UnknownFate

UnknownFate

Smash Rookie
Joined
Sep 10, 2022
Messages
6
DND



This moveset is different, from other entries since it's made off of the spirit of making a Dungeons and Dragons character, rather than a...well..character. It turned to this Pokemon Trainer-like abomination. It was made in 2020 and was pulled from the original doc and tweaked a tiny bit. I imagined it as Matt Mercer switching costumes, but it's always up to interpretation
 
FrozenRoy

FrozenRoy

Smash Lord
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Messages
1,266
Location
Las Vegas, Nevada
Switch FC
SW-1325-2408-7513
The soul of a hero...

Two thousand and several hundred years since I was manufactured...and never once...did I get...to see one...​

Hailing from the Nasuverse, and specifically Fate/Grand Order, the Valkyrie Walkure represent the manufactured and mass produced Valkyrie created by Odin that function as a sort of hivemind with the intent to serve as both powerful warriors and warmaidens to bring the worthy into Valhalla. Their usage within Fate/Grand Order is somewhat different due to their appearance in the second Lostbelt, which to cut a long story short is a post-Ragnarok world where Skadi fused with the Celtic hero Scathach is the only God/Goddess remaining and the Valkyrie serve as her envoys to the humans and giants of the world. This is also why you have the quote up there: Many of these Valkyrie have never gotten to do the job they were designed for, which seems to sadden them (even if they would say they don't get sad). The Walkure of this set specifically refer to the ones you fight as encounter enemies within that Lostbelt, compared to the much more individualized and summonable Valkyrie Thrud, Hildr and Ortlinde. Basically, they're the junk food soldiers of the lot.

This set, specifically, is a sort of Echo Fighter / Semi-Clone of ForwardArrow's Valkyrie set from earlier in the contest. You can read more about the general vibe of the Valkyrie flavor-wise in that set, and I also highly recommend reading it first for a lot of reasons (this set's animations are going to be very similar, and given the entire idea is riffing on them to make an alternative it just adds more context overall).

While I will personally classify it as an Echo Fighter because it is more fun, they are arguably more of a semi-clone. This is because the Walkure do not have the 3-in-1 nature of the Valkyrie trio to fall back on, highlighting the de-individuality of the Walkure and completely recontextualizing the set as a purely solo fighter. This also means Walkure has some very different Specials, and while she uses the same animations on many attacks they are often very different. Thus making them more of a Luigi or Isabelle than, say, a Chrom. Still calling them Echo Fighters, which makes sense as officially the designation is due to development time rather than how similar they are, and translating that idea to MYM this set being an Echo Fighter makes sense given how it makes it faster to develop for the end of the contest!

Statistics Walkure​

​

To begin with, Valkyrie Walkure shares some important stat points with the Valkyrie Trio. She is the same height as Hildr (who is the middle of the three) and she has a total of four jumps (meaning two additional midair jumps), which are exactly in the middle of the combined jump heights of the three Valkyrie. In terms of stats aside from that, the Valkyrie Walkure is on the border of lightweight and middleweight at 89 weight with speed that is on the high end but not blazingly fast as their 1.856 Dash Speed puts them around the level of Wii Fit Trainer, Donkey Kong and Pichu. Their air speed is comparitively faster with their 1.196 Air Speed being 18th in the game as befitting their flying nature. Combined with a very floaty fall speed, at 1.26 it is above Mr. Game & Watch but below Yoshi for the 7th lowest in the game, the Valkyrie Walkure is adept at sustained air combat and weaving in and out of the enemy's range.

Astute readers might notice that all of these stats are the ones provided in the Valkyrie moveset this is an Echo of. Fitting for being the "Standard" model, the stats presented are an average of Ortlinde, Hildr and Thrud's stats, which fittingly means it exactly matches none of them and thus shows off how those three have some more "uniqueness" to them! It also gives Walkure a game feel unlike any of them, allowing her to fulfill her own niche despite being an Echo of a 3-in-1 set of itself Echoes.

Specials Walkure​

Down Special - Mobility Amplification


So, the Walkure don't have the trio mechanic of the Valkyries. What to do, then, with the Valkyrie Swap? In swoops the Valkyrie Walkure's one skill as an enemy, and one the normal Valkyrie do not possess, in Mobility Amplification. This has also been translated as "Increase Mobility" but Mobility Amplification both sounds cooler and is more in line with how the Valkyrie speak. Walkure closes her eyes and tilts her eyes back, the symbolic "wings" behind her glowing as divine light bathes her. This animation is reasonably lengthy, so the Walkure will want some space before she attempts to use it, taking about...33 frames to finish and then another 8 before the Walkure can move as "ending lag" but where the buff is still applied if hit. 41 Frames isn't bad for an entire attack overall, but this having no hitbox obviously makes it more vulnerable.

This attack grants Walkure a buff for 12 seconds, which can be stacked twice more for a total of three layers. Every time it is stacked, the duration is also refreshed to 12 seconds. Using it after the third time will refresh the buff but not improve it in any way. Being KO'd removes any buff on the Walkure.

As for the buffs themselves, they are rather myriad but take some effort to properly utilize, and are as follows:

- A universal 1.1x/1.2x/1.3x buff to the damage of the Walkure's attacks, which is NOT applied to knockback. This just generally makes the Walkure hit slightly harder, which is always handy.

- A large amount of the Walkure's spear-based attacks gain a sweetspot on the tip of the spear, with the exact amount of the spear that is a sweetspot depending on the level of buff. At maximum buff, the front 1/3rd of the spear is a sweetspot. Most attacks get a special sweetspot hitbox mentioned, but some use a default bonus of +4% damage which DOES apply to knockback. Damage from the sweetspot is increased by the universal damage buff of the previous buff. Not all of the Walkure's attacks gain sweetspots.

- The Walkure gain an omnidirectional jump which can be performed by holding down the jump button and selecting a direction, with holding the button causing the Walkure to enter a special, longer jumpsquat animation (+6 frames) in order to accomadate the time to select a direction. This causes the Walkure to launch in the chosen jump direction at 1.2x her normal air speed (which depreciates back to her normal air speed fairly quickly). This jump replaces the normal midair jump that the Walkure would use and goes 1.4x its normal distance. So if you used it as your second jump, it is 1.4x that and you still get your 3rd/4th jump. Or if you used it as your 4th jump, it goes 1.4x that smaller jump range and it is still your final jump. The Walkure gets 1 omnidirectional jump per level of buff, which means at maximum she can replace every jump of hers with an omnidirectional jump if she wants. The Walkure cannot omnidirectional jump out of their grounded jump.

- By holding down the jump button while hitting an opponent or during the attack's ending lag, the Walkure will take 9 frames after the ending lag of their attack to begin a special following jump at the opponent! They rocket towards the foe at high speeds, 1.5x normal air speed that decelerates fast after the distance of the following jump, with said distance being pretty far. The Walkure can use attacks during the leap's movement just like any other jump, but note that the longer time to start the jump means that it is harder to link together true combos and is more predictable.

Using the control stick allows the Valkyrie Walkure to determine where they want to try to fly to in relation to the launched opponent. No direction will launch the Valkyrie directly at them, while holding a direction will have the Walkure try to place themselves about half a Valkyrie Walkure length in that area relative to the foe. So holding down means about half a Walkure below them, up-left means about half a Walkure up and to the left of them, you get the idea. Any of the four cardinal directions and the four diagonals can be selected, but it doesn't have full control like Fire Fox.

The Walkure can use this special following jump once per air trip per buff level and it does NOT take away from her normal midair jump. This also means it can be used as a recovery tool when hitting opponents while recovering. The Walkure can use this from the ground if they hit a grounded attack, which can add value to aerial launchers.

- Finally, some moves have specific enhancements that will be gotten to when they are relevant.

Overall, the biggest value of the Mobility Amplification is as expected from the name: mobility. The Valkyrie Walkure's new jump options not only offer a lot more when it comes to their aerial combo and chasing game, but make them able to weave in and out of the opponent's range easier when performing more air-to-ground footsies Jigglypuff-style or the like. The laggier nature of these options can make them tricky to utilize, but the more baseline damage buffs help provide something regardless.

I really contemplated leaving out the GIF in this move and others in the set, on the basis that Valkyrie didn't have any of them in it and that some of them would have to be from the Valkyrie trio rather than the Walkure despite them using the same animations (I couldn't easily find some on youtube and I am NOT scouring 3+ hour Longplays for that many GIFs). Ultimately though, I decided the clarity of a GIF plus some of the added flair was worth it, and that going GIFless simply because that set didn't was hewing myself too close to them. Do you all think that's the right call?

Neutral Special - Nova

The Walkure's Neutral Special depends on if it is tapped or held, although the tapped variant is the far more commonly used one. A tap of the B button will have a brilliant rainbow shine appear around the white-robed valkyrie for a brief moment, coming out on Frame 3 and lasting only until Frame 4 as a two frame long hitbox. This makes landing the hitbox rather precise! The hitbox itself deals 2% damage and light, low scaling upwards knockback that allows Walkure to combo into most aerials of hers and is overall an excellent combo starter. A normal jump out can combo into another Nova at lower percents, although only with her 2nd and 3rd jumps. Intangibility on Frames 2 and 3 of this attack allow it to be used as a combo breaker and reversal, but do beware of the pretty low range that only covers a little beyond their body. It can't be used as that against well played sword-using characters, for example. With a FAF of 33 frames, baseline Nova isn't too laggy overall BUT has some inherent risk attached to it simply due to the brief nature of the lower range hitbox. When used in the air, this attack will stall the Walkure the first time it is used, which can be used as a landing mixup. Combined with their omnidirectional jumps it can be folly to try and trap their landing too hard despite the floaty fall speed,

This move has a reflector on the two active frames that can be compared to Fox's reflector, sending back enemy projectiles with 1.4x force. Given that the Walkure have good midrange but no real projectile, the anti-projectile nature is greatly appreciated for evasion and it makes opponents give pause when using major projectiles against her. Note that the reflector is only active for 2 frames, so it's pretty risky to try and go for it against said major projectiles and only takes a little mis-timing for a hype Charge Shot reflection play to crash down to the heavens and be a sick "Charge Shot to the face" play. Also, just like Fox she can jump (including an omnidirectional jump if in the air), air dodge, spot dodge or roll out if this successfully reflects a projectile! This allows her to cut the ending lag, either following the projectile (good for more approach-oriented projectiles from the foe, like a Mii Brawler shotput or PK Fire) or retreating for safety.


As mentioned, the Valkyrie Walkure can hold down the Special button to get a different attack. The button must be held down for 15 frames, releasing it earlier getting the tapped version of Nova. This means that the Walkure can delay the quick Nova attack for up to 14 frames should they choose, with the attack coming out 2 frames after like normal (and the first intangible frame being one frame before the attack comes out as normal). This delay can be helpful for timing certain projectile reflections, but needless to say adding starting lag to your attack makes it more punishable and risky, especially given the general composition of it here.

Now then, about the held Nova attack, the Heavy Nova if you will. The Walkure rises a short distance into the air as a glorious rainbow light radiates off their body, growing rapidly in intensity until it shines so brightly it burns the opponent for four hits of 2% damage and then a final hit of 16% damage as the light reaches the apex of its glory for a total of 24% damage and knockback that kills at 75% as a very flashy kill move! This attack, as you might imagine, has hefty lag attached to it. Including the mandatory 15 frames of holding, the total starting lag of this attack is 57 frames and thus slightly laggier than a Falcon Punch, giving it a similar usage case as an extra-flashy kill and high damage move. This move's ending lag is honestly pretty short at least, not that this is especially useful given all the problems are with how interruptable it is. This move's first four hits have a range of 1.2x Bowser's size, but the final hit increases to 1.5x Bowser for a marvelous strike!

The divine light bathing them does provide limited protection from outside forces, at least: The last 6 frames of the attack have invincibility frames on them, keeping the Valkyrie from being hit out of it right before the end, and the first two frames after the button-holding period ends where the shine begins to intensify have intangibility frames on them just like the start of the normal Nova attack. Neither of these are particularly impressive defensive tools in the grand scheme of things given this attack's very high starting lag, but they can come into play in a pitch.

This attack has some potential use with the Walkure's following jump, as panic air dodges are common in these aerial scrambles not to mention trying to air dodge out of quicker, non-true combo moves. The held Nova can be an excellent if very risky call out to this: The fastest normal air dodge in the game has FAF 38 and the laggiest FAF 63, so some characters will be flatout hit by a Nova if they air dodged on reaction to her following them with her following jump, while some characters will have limited time to attempt to hit the Walkure back. This is still very risky because, well, if they don't air dodge then the foe can punish with baaaasically anything they want as you get hand-delivered into their waiting maw. Note also that the Walkure will pause her descent and aerial DI during the attack itself, but not during the starting lad and charging period. You could time this right to have the long, multihit glow covering a ledge option if the opponent was knocked especially far away for an edgeguard, but this option does have to compete with her multi-jump and potent offstage edgeguard game. It tends to be a niche option, especially potent for characters who struggle not to recovery low or mid.

This attack was particularly tricky as I knew I wanted it in, given it is something the Walkure enemies can do + Echo Fighter, but the original Valkyrie attack was very enmeshed with the swap mechanic and so a bit hard to translate. My first thought was to only have the weak Nova version, but that felt like it was somewhat losing the intent of the original Extra Attack, although at the same time I found the idea of it fun and very fitting to her playstyle. So, I decided to make it a tap/hold move, with the hold's flashy kill potential coming together when I considered how it could be an anti-air dodge attack in combination with her aerial buffs.

Side Special - Divine Execution

A light shines down upon the Valkyrie, a slight rainbow effect glinting off their spear. They then swoop forward almost instantly with their spear out, floating slightly off the ground with their wings, before stabbing it at an upwards angle at the end. The swoop forward goes forward exactly one Battlefield Platform with a 20 degree bent when used in the air, with the actual rush taking 13 frames of start-up and dealing 5% damage with some light knockback the direction that the Walkure is traveling. At percents under 35% or so, this will combo into the stabbing thrust, past that the Valkyrie Walkure does have another option when buffed in that if the jump button is held, they will follow the opponent with a following jump and then thrust for the stabbing hit! If this true combos past 35% can be rather dependent, usually on DI and where the Walkure chooses to jump specifically along with damage percent (they need to be above 55% or so, otherwise the hitstun will run out too early given the longer start-up of the following jump!), but it is reasonably reliable.

The spear itself is the "sweetspot" of the attack and the main reason to land it, being an important attack in the Walkure's arsenal, dealing 10% damage with diagonal-away knockback that KOs at 180% with a burst of pure white light blasting into the foe. During her Mobility Amplification buffs, the tip becomes a sweetspot of a sweetspot that deals double the damage at 20% with a flashier and more prominent white light explosion, although the knockback increases at a much lower rate and thus still only kills at 140%. This is a pretty powerful damage tool with Mobility Amplification up, but the main use of the attack comes from the white light which remains drenching the foe, giving the same effects as their Divine Execution attack in Fate/Grand Order. That is to say, it debuffs the opponent!

This debuff lasts 12 seconds, with subsequent Divine Executions adding a flat 12 seconds to it (so if the opponent had 8 seconds left on their debuff, they now have 20 seconds to go!) and debuffs three key areas, representing the Buster, Quick and Arts debuffs that are applied in the game.

The first of the debuffs, based on the Buster debuff, causes attacks that deal 15% or more damage to deal 4% less damage, with a subsequent decrease to their knockback power because of it. Given that the Walkure is on the lighter end of the cast, this is wildly appreciated for help in her durability especially, with it being more potent against more strength-based characters. By comparison, the Quick debuff is very strong against the quick combo characters of the world, adding 2 frames of starting lag and 2 frames of ending lag to any attack that begins on Frame 10 or earlier, especially deadly for combo characters with tight links that might become escapable! It also generally makes neutral more difficult for the foe with the Valkyrie's ranged pokes. Finally, the Arts debuff has more of a "skill" based debuff. In Smash Ultimate, grabbing out of shield has +4 frames of start-up if shieldstun was entered beforehand. The Arts debuff applies that to ALL attacks used out of shield in those scenarios! Given that the Walkure is a midrange, weapon-based character this makes punishing her against shields even trickier than normal, and with the aerial mobility on display she can attack from all angles and become difficult to strike with out of shield options. This trio of buffs serve as some all-purpose additions to her playstyle, but some of her attacks get more benefit from this than otherwise.

One example of this is their held Nova attack! The rainbow aura emanating from the Walkure will be for more than show, and will cause debuffed enemies' white light from the debuff to match the rainbow hues. This has a radius of half a Smart Bomb blast around the Valkyrie Walkure. This doubles the Buster and Quick debuffs on the foe (-8% damage, +4 frames) and makes it so the +4 post-hitstun frame addition applies to sidesteps and rolls in addition to attacks! This debuff booster lasts 2.5 seconds, but do remember that it is attached to finishing a move with nearly a full second of starting lag. This makes it more of a fun addition to bust out unexpectedly than something you'll have up with any regularity, although the much lower damage and increase on frames means that this is a great sign for the Walkure to go all-in on approaching if she DOES get it off!

What about how to actually land the attack in the first place? In general, the most common way to hit with this is to think of it as a Dash Attack, designed to punish whiffed neutral gameplay and landings with a swift, well placed dash inside to strike with the spear part. The Walkure do also have multiple ways to combo into this attack at various, largely early and mid, percentages. This usually comes down to if the Walkure want marginally more damage in a combo, or to get the debuffs on the opponent for more sustained advantages. The spear strike is safe on shield and the upwards slant on the attack makes it okay at catching out shorthops, so it can also be used as an aggressive approaching tool! This is a bit risky, since the modest ending lag is unsafe if spaced too close and the modestly long starting lag + travel time makes it somewhat predictable, but the debuff is pretty rewarding and it gives some different threat ranges for the opponent to work with. It can work nicely with Forward Smash at that neutral range with the energy hitbox of said move. It is also worth noting that at modest percents, a following jump after the sweetspot hit of this attack leads to a good aggressive position for the Walkure.

Normally, using Side Special places the Walkure into helpless in the air and forces them to choose between this attack and Up Special for recovery. But under Mobility Amplification, this instead works as a once-per-air trip movement Special that does not put them into helpless, instead following the usual rules for refreshing its per-air use (like being hit or landing on stage). This grants the Walkure even more mixups when recovering along with the omnidirectional jumps and Up Special, but one nice thing about this is that it allows the Walkure to go pretty deep when edgeguarding opponents! A sweetspot Side Special then a following jump can let the Walkure get very far offstage and aggressively try to push foes into the blast zone, then recover with their many tools for the job. The lag is high enough this is modestly risky, but the reward is solid.

Some moves in this set wholesale use the animation descriptions from ForwardArrow's Valkyrie set, although edited to account for different names if it makes sense. In this case, the copy paste was "A light shines down upon the Valkyrie, a slight rainbow effect glinting off their spear. They then swoop forward almost instantly with their spear out, floating slightly off the ground with their wings, before stabbing it at an upwards angle at the end. "

I went back and forth on if to do this. On one hand, is it overly plagiarist? Taking it directly wholesale is a lot, but the reason I wanted to do it is to emphasize this is an Echo Fighter, and in Smash itself Echo Fighters often share a lot of animations with their base fighter, although not all and not always (See: Ken and Dark Samus). Because of that, I felt like directly copying the Valkyries' animations for some attacks would let people know it is the exact same animation rigging. By comparison, attacks which I wrote the animations of entirely by myself might have minor variance like Dark Samus or in rare cases be decloned like Ken. Still, I can see potential issue with this, and if FA requests I will write them from scratch.

This does also bring up the question of if this should be a joint set, as FA technically wrote parts of it, but I will say no or that it would be optional for a few reasons. The first is that the part I am directly porting over is just animations, which feels a bit more fair game. The second and more important one is that if these automatically counted as joint sets, you could grief people by forcing them to have "jointed" a set with you by taking bits from their sets without permission, such as putting it in something they intentionally hate or stealing a desired moveset # from someone. Imagine if, say, I made a Kosaku Kira set and took animations from Khold's Kira Yoshikage set to intentionally snipe his 50th set when he has been working so hard to do specific things with it! It's very abusable. Still, all of this is something I felt I had to consider when Echo Fightering someone else's set.

Boy, I sure spent a lot of time thinking up the morality of even making this set, huh?

Up Special - Ride of the Valkyries


The Walkure's head-wings twitch slightly as the symbol on their back glows, the Valkyrie Walkure jetting off is a control stick chosen direction, followed by a second one ala Pikachu's Quick Attack. Each movement goes 2/3rds the distance of Quick Attack, which given all the jumps that are at her disposal is more than fair, and has 17 frames of start-up to be marginally laggier than Quick Attack but faster than her Valkyrie Trio sisters. Each hit of this attack deals a mere 3% damage when it strikes the opponent, with weak knockback that scales slowly in the direction the Walkure is traveling as well. The Valkyrie's spear and body are a hitbox while traveling, but unlike Pikachu they are vulnerable to outside attacks during their dash. This is obviously a pretty good recovery if MUCH more edgeguardable than traditional ones of its type, further showcasing the difficulty in ending these angels!

While the Walkure will enter helpless when this move ends in the air, on the ground it has low landing lag instead. This allows the Walkure to strike at an opponent, land from the attack and go into a combo move off of it. Most commonly this will be Up Tilt, depending on the position a Forward Tilt is possible as well or a Jab, aerials can be a bit unreliable due to taking a moment to jump. When Mobility Amplification is active, the Walkure can cancel the ending lag of this attack into a following jump! This allows the Walkure to combo aerials into the foe in the air, although it can be a bit of an iffy link lag-wise, and is also great for recovery. But note that this can only happen if the Walkure hits a foe, so whiffing will send them tumbling into helpless. This leaves them with a bit of a choice, to either go for a risky Up Special that will let them combo and then recover (they don't enter helpless after canceling, but it has to be refreshed by normal Up Special means) which usually means saving at least one jump, or use their jumps beforehand for safety in recovering with less reward. It's also a risky option to chase foes out with, but there's simply better options in the moveset for that...sure looks cool to finish a stock in such an all or nothing way, though!

Standards Walkure​

Jab - One Two Three


Valkyrie Walkure performs a quick and short shield thrust in front of her, following it with a top-to-bottom swing and then finishing it off with a more forceful bottom-to-top swing. This is an area where the Walkure defer from their Valkyrie counterparts with the first hit, with a shorter range shield bash instead of a slash to start it off. It is more true to the Quick animation by doing this, showing how the Valkyrie trio are a bit more unique than the Walkure! The first hit comes out on Frame 4, but the range is on the small side. The next two hits both come out quickly, and the damage is a simple 2% -> 3% -> 4% for a total of 9%, with the ending lag being moderate. The shield bash at the start is similar to Hero and Palutena's shield bashes in providing momentary invincibility, although the Walkure's is VERY specific by comparison: Frame 4 gives her frontal body invincibility, while Frame 5 reduces it to just where the shield covers. This does allow the Walkure a chance to counter strike opponents with a fast hitbox, but the high amount of precision required means that it isn't realiable at all. And since it only lasts one frame, anything that lasts more than one frame (IE most attacks) can get around it. The three hits of this attack link together very well.

The knockback on the final hit is at a slightly shallow and horizontal angle, but not too much of one. This prevents it from forcing opponents to tech, but it means that at around 20%-50% on most characters the Valkyrie Walkure can combo into Side Special! This is probably one of the most common ways to start off the Walkure's debuffs aside from a Dash Attack-esque punish, with Up Special during Mobility Amplification being another interesting option to combo out of it at around those percents. Aside from that, Jab largely sees use as a fast, close range check compared to the Walkure's more mid speed grounded options and to get people out of her fast and into more favored midrange spots. This attack does not have a sweetspot from Mobility Amplification.

Forward Tilt - Guarded Assault


The Walkure performs a quick swing of their shield in front of them, followed by a forward stab with their lance, the lance glowing slightly on the stab. The shield slam itself comes out at a modestly fast Frame 7 and has much more range than the disjointed strike due to the wide swing arc on it, making it a bit more than just a close range option. This attack itself deals 5% damage and extremely low knockback that serves almost entirely to either go into an optional second hit or for the Walkure to try and perform a sudden mixup on, with the lance stab actually being an optional second hit in the same vein as Link's Forward Smash rather than an automatic 1-2 attack. The second attack also takes 7 frames to come out, although the hitstun from the first hit ensures that it will always reasonably combo out of it (at extremely high percents, an opponent might be able to DI away from far away hits from the shield to get out of range), and deals 7.6% damage. Knockback is modest, failing to kill until 190% or so. While the shield bash has modest range, the thrust itself has pretty good range as expected from a spear that is pretty strong for neutral. Ending lag on the spear thrust is modest, a touch longer, while stopping at the shield bash is light ending lag.

The shield bash itself causes the Valkyrie Walkure to neutralize any attack that deals 11.3% or less damage that hits the shield starting from 1 frame before the attack comes out to halfway through the ending lag or until canceled into the second hit. This gives the attack some great neutral appeal, able to out prioritize most opposition in neutral and strike with the bash instead. The main worry with this is against aerials, as jumping over the shield's swing and striking the Valkyrie Walkure's head to avoid the shield is perfectly viable. Opponents who are debuffed by Divine Execution instead have their attacks neutralized if they deal 15% or less damage, which combines excellently with the Buster debuff to bring down even heftier Smashes into potential range! This is probably the Valkyrie Walkure's most bullying and standard neutral tool.

One awkward thing, however, is that the big spacer part of this hitbox is locked back behind the first hit, meaning that compared to characters like Marth or even Ike the Walkure can't easily toss it out for neutral play and generally has to rely on the shorter range first hit. Mobility Amplification causes the light glowing upon the stab to shoot out when it stabs forward, which has two effects. The first is to grant the standard 4% sweetspot to Forward Tilt's tipper which also causes it to kill at 165% and make it a more worthy auxiliary kill move. The second is that the light blast itself deals 6% and some light spacing knockback while increasing the range to a notable degree, allowing the Walkure to outspace most (but not all, given Sephiroth at minimum exists) sword-wielding characters with it! This is hard-coded to not hit people struck by the main stab, but it will hit twice against shields for some extra damage, and serves as a range-y neutral enhancer. The shield bash is safe on shield if not used point blank and the same is true for the stab.

While under Mobility Amplification, the Walkure has a most interesting buff to this move as it becomes able to vary up its follow-up attacks! By diagonally attacking up or down, the more agile Walkure is able to use their Up Tilt or Down Tilt out of this attack's first hit rather than just the forward stab. We'll get into the specifics on those attacks, but for a general overview the Down Tilt's shield poking is very useful if the opponent's shield has been chipped down enough with poke-y spear tools + the first Shield Bash, while Up Tilt catches out people who try to get around the shield bash with jumps and anti-airs in general.

Up Tilt - Shield Bash

Valkyrie Walkure shoves her shield above her head in an arc, kind of think Sephiroth's Up Smash but with an upward shield bash instead of a sword slash with the Walkure spreading their arms for a kind of "floaty" feeling ending lag despite it being fairly average overall. This attack comes out at Frame 7, with it having similar trampling, out-prioritizing armor on it. This armor is on her head, torso and arm / shield on Frames 5-7, then continue to be on the shield through the attack frames and 4 frames after. This armor only applies to attacks that deal 12.6% damage or less, which IS pretty good but has a surprising number of powerful aerials that beat it (Mewtwo's FAir, BAir and DAir ALL beat it for example) and multihits can potentially outlast the early armor and strike when the shield is no longer covering the Walkure.

There's three hitboxes on this attack: Early, when the shield is swinging in front of the Walkure, deals 6% damage. The strongest hitbox is also the longest and comprises everything past the initial frontal hit, dealing 8% damage. Finally, there is a weaker hitbox on the backswing of 5% damage befitting the kind of floaty, ethereal ending lag post that the Walkure take. All of these serve very similar goals, which is light upwards knockback that leads into a combo. The main difference comes from horizontal direction and hitstun. The strong middle hitbox is straight-up vertical knockback and it deals the most hitstun, which allows the Walkure to perform a following jump with frame advantage for the most part. The early hit has a light forwards tint to it, and the late hit has a slight backwards tint to it: These both allow the Walkure to more easily combo the opponent in that horizontal direction, at the cost of less easy or less large combos in the process. Generally the strongest hit is the most advisable to land (who woulda thunk it, huh?), but the other two can provide nice coverage and uses anyway.

Mobility Amplification adds to this with the unique ability to charge the tilt! This has the Valkyrie Walkure hold the shield directly above her head as she does so, with the shield retaining its armor on it but not any other part of Valkyrie Walkure in the process, while releasing the button itself causes the divine warrior to leap 0.5-1.5 of her full hop distance into the air as she swings the shield above her head into the air! The charge hold is on Frame 5, but the charge does delay the attack into coming out on Frame 9 (with the armor etc frames being moved to 7-9 and so on), so doing this does make the attack laggier. This adds 2%-4% damage to the attack (no matter which hitbox) depending on where in its half second charge it is stopped which also means more hitstun for combos, but the actual important part of the attack is the leap: This allows Valkyrie Walkure to challenge aerials more aggressively, combo harder such as Up Tilting into foes falling from other hitstun, 50/50ing with itself on if the Valkyrie will charge it to catch someone or wait for them to fall, and is great at mixing in with Up Smash against falling foes. Up Smash itself is a powerful if very laggy anti-air kill move that has excellent synergy with tuis, so it's a great 1-2 punch once the foe gets airborne with any number of Walkure tools.

When using this attack out of Forward Tilt, a big purpose of it is an anti-air to opponents who always jump in, with the chargability of the tilt allowing the Walkure to vary the timing based on if the opponent is full hopping or short hopping. However, it can also be used as a combo hitbox due to the fact that until later percents the Forward Tilt shield bash will combo into the frontal hit of Up Tilt. Up and away DI can make this combo stop earlier than usual. Unlike Forward Tilt, though, this is basically only good if the opponent jumped in or got hit by the bash, as Up Tilting against...say...a shielding foe gets you punished, or if they stood outside of range and you should have Forward Tilted to space them out, or what have you. The return is that as a combo hitbox, it offers more rewarding damage. So keep that in mind.

Given Valkyrie Walkure's Mobility Amplification is flavor-wise about mobility, I wanted to include something like Hildr's hop from Valkyries. I thought that turning it into a tilt charge was a fun way to keep that with very different feels, as while Valkyrie are locked into one or the other the Walkure can modally choose it at the cost of lag. It gives it a lot of different uses, such as 50/50s, in the process. This is one of the attacks I made that I particularly like because it feels like a true Echo Fighter move, as the core idea and animation are very similar to Valkyrie but between three hitbox variations, the difference in ability to armor and the way the charge works means its applications are totally different.

Down Tilt - Low Sweep

The Valkyrie sweeps their spear low to the ground, with good reach and shield poke potential that comes out on Frame 8. At 4% damage, this attack is pretty weak for the lag that Walkure has to go through, although the rewards is an up-and-in pop to it that allows Valkyrie Walkure to combo into Up Tilt, Neutral Aerial, Forward Aerial, and sourspot Up Aerial as well. Since the knockback on the attack is pretty low, this means that the combos are pretty consistent among most damage percents and characters. Up Tilt offers more frame advantage, Down Tilt is more consistent and thanks to low ending lag also less risky to miss. The shield poking nature of this attack is appreciated as Valkyrie Walkure's pokes like Forward Tilt, Forward Aerial, sometimes Up Smash and whatnot can get shields low enough to poke fairly easily in neutral. Combined with the good range and this is a solid neutral tool. Beware of jump-ins, which can go right over the low-striking hitbox, and try mixing in Up Tilts or shorthop Forward Aerials/Neutral Aerials to catch them!

The sweetspot from Mobility Amplification has a trail of light following the spear's tip as it sweeps. It does not deal any additional damage, but the tipper instead has a 100% trip rate on hit! Valkyrie Walkure's mobility options mean that she has pretty good ways to read getup options from foes. Up Special is a prominent one because because the Quick Attack-esque nature of it allows it to, in theory, cover every getup option at once (but you have to predict where the foe is going, not react), plus the sometimes-combo with a following jump. Side Special similarly has great coverage due to the rush and is of particular note to go for because of being a clean way to debuff the opponent with said divine execution. Forward Smash's tipper is a powerful if more risky kill option to try and strike with, Down Tilt can try to go for predictive prone loops similar to Ganondorf's Side Special (although at 4% damage a pop vs. Ganondorf's 12%, it isn't exactly the same level of value), Down Smash as a coverage strike that is anti-getup attack, and perhaps most particularly a timed following jump!

If the Valkyrie Walkure's opponent doesn't delay their getup option and instead immediately goes for it, the following jump will essentially "track" the opponent since it follows the opponent's position when the jump goes off and they will begin their prone option during the 9 frames of start-up. This allows the Walkure's follow-up to be a matter of timing rather than prediction! The downside to this is, of course, when the opponent DOES delay their getup: It doesn't track once the jump actually occurs, so the opponent can pretty casually just roll inwards to go past them, or time a getup attack to intangible through the attacking option the Walkure produces. A foe who delays their getup option constantly though allows Valkyrie Walkure to get more time to read their inevitable option or even instead buffer an attack like Forward Tilt or Dash Attack in order to "true combo" the opponent akin to Flame Choke -> Down Tilt (it isn't an actual true combo because they could escape it by getting up instantly, but that leaves them vulnerable to the following jump!).

The primary use of this after a Forward Tilt shield bash is to shield poke opponents, since the shield stun is enough that going into it out of the bash will probably work or catch out options. The foe needs light shield damage before the bash but that is easily obtainable from normal play. This has a decent chance of being in range of the tripping hitbox, the further away from the Walkure the foe is the more in place they will be to get tripped when Mobility Amplification is active, while closer hits go into the straight combo hitbox. This only actually combos out of the shield bash at pretty low percents though, so it more serves as a precise anti-defense option. One exception might be if the foe is DIing down in hopes of landing and shielding before the normal Forward Tilt comes out, in which case Down Tilt can catch it out until more medium percents.

Dash Attack - Stand Aside

Valkyrie Walkure stops their dash to perform a rather dramatic forward swing of their lance, coming out on Frame 14 and dealing 15% damage in the process from the powerful strike! The knockback isn't quite as high as one might expect of this, not KOing until 150%, but it has a fairly horizontal bent (a bit higher than Jab) that makes it killer near ledges with Valkyrie Walkure's ledge game! There's a nice dash forward on the swing, half a Battlefield Platform, that means this competes with Side Special as a burst punishment tool, and that it can be used with the Walkure's pretty crisp dash dancing. This attack is unsafe on shield for the most part, even at maximum range (although more range = less powerful punishment), and because of that it is not commonly used in neutral. The exception to that comes under Mobility Amplification!

While Mobility Amplification is ready, this attack gets a lot of options! During the starting lag, jamming the control stick in another direction allows the Valkyrie Walkure to make a sudden and agile swerve! It can either go forward, backwards, up, up-forwards or up-backwards. Backwards causes the Valkyrie Walkure to back step half a Battlefield Platform before dashing forward a full Battlefield Platform instead of the half BFP dash forward, delaying the attack by 2 frames but being great at dodging away from opponents trying to catch the Walkure out and instead counter-striking against them! Note that the distance remains the same overall given the step back. Forward causes the Walkure's dash forward to go forward an extra half Battlefield Platform, essentially extending the range of the attack and allowing longer punish ranges than normal.

The up options are very interesting, as they cause the Valkyrie to shoot up to her shorthop length very quickly! This can be used to dodge like the back strike, but not quite as effectively. The Walkure then flaps its wings and launches itself diagonally downwards to where it would normally strike! This has the same damage and knockback technically, but causes a ground bounce that reduces the knockback the foe takes, and additionally has slightly less ending lag in exchange for +3 frames of starting lag. This basically turns the knockback of the attack into more of a combo starter, a very high damage one in exchange for the fact that the ending lag is still long enough that there isn't much frame advantage and the knockback high enough that it scales into 50/50s or more general juggle scenarios quickly. This adds some additional flexibility to the attack, in addition to the use of turning it into an impromptu anti-air or dodge. Up-Forward has the Walkure go forward 0.25 Battlefield Platforms while flying up before launching an additional 0.25 Battlefield Platforms, so just like the forward option has more range and additionally it has more air time as the Walkure travels a bit higher up. Back causes them to pull back 0.25 Battlefield Platforms with the flapping motion, then plunge 0.75 Battlefield Platforms for a similar effect to the normal back hit.

The upwards options can, in fact, fling the Walkure off of the stage ala Melee Kirby's Dash Attack if used near a ledge or platform's edge! With four jumps, Mobility Amplification buffs AND an Up Special there is no reason this should cause SDs unless you're trying really, really trying. This turns it into more of a move to bully off of stages by tossing out an attack AND dropping off the stage, with the flipside being that the high lag options here leave Valkyrie Walkure more potentially vulnerable than just going offstage and using an aerial normally. Note that the knockback does not have any downwards component against foes in the air and is more of a natural diagonal, so it won't spike.

Smashes Walkure​

Forward Smash - Impale


Valkyrie Walkure's spear crackles with holy light as she pulls back with a slightly dramatic wind-up before stabbing forward, light flaring off the speartip as an extension of the hitbox! While not horribly laggy, at Frame 18 this is a modestly laggy attack at the same speed as Ridley, Palutena or Bowser Jr.'s which makes it definitely defendable. This attack has two hitboxes on it: The spear's body itself, the spear's tip, and the blast of light that follows. We'll start with the spear's body, which deals 13%-18.2% damage and some rather mediocre knockback. It won't kill until 143.3%-108.3%, which isn't exactly the worst but for a Frame 18 attack isn't ideal. The blast of light grants this impressive range, but the damage is weak at 9.3%-13.02% that won't kill until 177%-141%. The main purpose of that hitbox is not the damage or knockback, but the simple fact that it it allows the hitbox as a whole to cover about 2.2x the distance of a Marth Forward Smash (with the thrust itself being slightly rangier than the Marth strike). This means that the Walkure can poke from some rather intense ranges with this and offer safety even with the higher starting lag, a worthwhile note.

Finally, there is the tipper sweetspot on the spear itself, which visually is like riiight where the light blasts out of the spear. It isn't ultra-specific, but it's not a huge sweetspot either. The reward is a meaty 19%-26.6% that kills at a nice, clean 110%-88% kill range that isn't exactly super powerful but can absolutely get the job done. This makes it a great callout to opponents at range, a particularly strong option for the Walkure is simply to dash back and then turnaround Forward Smash, as their pretty fast dash speed makes them good for weaving in and out and the light blast hitbox means that even if the opponent doesn't take the bait it can be fairly safe. It also can serve as a similar punishment move as Side Special and Dash Attack, with it obviously being intended for use there at kill percents rather than the more setup/long game oriented Side Special. This attack can be angled up or down, with the down hitbox being able to two frame + the light blast extending pretty far for edgeguards while the up becomes an anti-shorthop, but in both cases the damage is reduced by 2% and the knockback goes down some as a result. The knockback angle is a fairly standard diagonal no matter the angle. Ending lag is modest, equal to the same ending lag as Mario's Forward Smash. The tipper and the light blast are safe on shield, but not the base hitbox of the spear.

These attack gets two very different bonuses depending on if Mobility Amplification is up, and if the foe is debuffed by Divine Execution. The first is Mobility Amplification, which not only adds a cool visual spin before the spear thrusts forward, but greatly empowers the attack's sweetspots! The blast of light itself gains a tipper sweetspot with similar range to the spear itself which deals the same damage and knockback as the base tipper sweetspot of the spear. This basically gives Valkyrie Walkure dual-tipper options, and the far-away light option can be difficult to deal with due to the range. It also is a pretty strong option when guarding the ledge due to the ability to angle it! The Walkure's off-stage edgeguarding is pretty strong and this is pretty reactable so it isn't best pulled off all the time, but it's a good one to pop out here and there.

Of course, it is the spear tipper itself that is the big reward here. The damage gets amped to a massive 25%-35% damage and kills at a nice and low 84%-48% that serves as the second strongest kill move in Valkyrie Walkure's arsenal! Even when it doesn't kill, the very high damage means using it as a (potentially risky / non-true) finisher to combos is a very viable option, especially if it has staled from poking opponents with the light hitbox or what have you and thus the KO power is weakened. There isn't much else to say about this, as it is pretty straightforward as a souped-up power option.

Now, how about if the tipper lands against a foe suffering from Divine Execution? First off, it works regardless of if the tipper is buffed by Mobility Amplification or not but it will not work on the light blast tipper. Secondly, the spear itself impales into the foe as the tip glows, some of the energy looking like it latches onto the foe! This puts both the Walkure and the foe into a state similar to Corrin's Dragon Pin, lasting for a maximum of 40 frames. If the Walkure does not take any action during that time, it simply pulls the spear out of the foe and sends them flying for the attack as completely normal. However, during those 40 frames the Valkyrie Walkure can input any attack of theirs, which causes the Walkure to blast to twist the spear as they remove it from the foe! This overwrites the knockback angle of the Forward Smash into that of the chosen attack!

This is a bit complex, so there's some rules to follow:

- Grab and pummel cannot be chosen, given they do not have knockback angles, nor can hitboxless attacks such as Down Special. Inputting most attacks is as normal, with selecting an aerial being done by pressing jump + the attack input and throws via grab or shield + the attack input.

- For multihit attacks, it always uses the knockback angle of the last hit. For attacks with multiple hitboxes, like Up Tilt, it uses the knockback angle of the strongest hit unless otherwise mentioned. For attacks with tippers, it always uses the attack's tipper hitbox unless there is an exemption. An example of an exemption is Down Tilt: The tipper hitbox being a 100% trip means it has no knockback angle, so it instead uses the up-and-in angle of the Down Tilt. For Jab, the Walkure will wait 5 frames after each input and thus Jab 1, 2 or 3 can all be chosen.

Needless to say, there are a LOT of uses to this move! The knockback angle of every attack in the Walkure's set can be recontextualized based on Forward Smash use, an excellent example being Down Tilt. The up and in knockback allows Forward Smash to become an off-the-top kill move, very useful on platforms, and on top of that it becomes a DI mixup since DIing inwards to lessen the normal KO power will somewhat enhance this one. Up Special's hitbox is normally the Walkure's moving position, but given the Walkure is not moving that is not possible, so it instead will use the foe's position relative to Valkyrie Walkure. Generally speaking, this means a diagonal-down hitbox when angled down in a way that makes it a killer tool close to the ledge (especially when combined with the light tipper on a Mobility Amplification enhanced F-Smash to cover more!), the default forward sends at a slightly-lower-than-standard diagonal and up on a slightly-higher-than-standard diagonal. Jab 3's shallow angle gives it a Ganondorf F-Tilt-esque angle, albeit not as low to the ground, making it excellent for edgeguards and forcing techs at low percents. We'll get to some more specific uses throughout the rest of the set, but feel free to use your imagination on any of these attacks for how the knockback might help out!

One of my favorite if not my favorite moves in the set? To be honest, I'm a bit of a sucker for moves like this that let you mess with the attack's knockback angles or choose them as they seem to have fun potential both in obvious, casual ways and maximized, competitive ways. I conceptualized this attack fairly early into the set and because of that it allowed me to build more melee thoughts around it to give them some added spice, and on top of that it is a pretty fun and solid melee move that flows into the set. The way the light works has some vibes akin to Morgan's Forward Tilt visually, but much different application.

I went back and forth on how to handle Up Special here. One I toyed with and even wrote down was radically different, and I've saved it here for people to see:

"Up Special's hitbox is normally the Walkure's moving position, but given the Walkure is not moving that is not possible, so it instead will use the foe's moving position ("it is the year 2032, people still debate if this aspect of the Valkyrie Walkure is a glitch or working as intended")...which in this case means the foe's DI. This isn't reliable to Valkyrie Walkure herself, but if the opponent is going to DI down every time...well, you can see how that's useful."

It's a potentially fun idea, but very hard for this set to utilize right, and more importantly to me felt incredibly forced in a way I did not like. I ended up going with a simple, position-based knockback scheme that I was a bit hesitant on due to balance (I don't necessarily think it is OP, but it can sure read that way and maybe I'm underestimating it!) but otherwise felt good and Right. Angling itself was something I was a bit worried about, primarily due to the light tipper hitbox when edgeguarding, but I think there's enough counterplay and comparable options in Smash itself that it is fine.

Up Smash - Odin's Light

Calling upon the power of the Allfather, the Valkyrie Walkure closes their eyes and tilts their head to the heavens. As they do so, a wave of light rushes upwards and out of them, with a glowing point like a star at the center of it. This is a bit like Lucas' Up Smash visually, with a faster start-up time (Frame 24 vs. Lucas' Frame 28) and lesser damage at 18%-25.2% and killing at 88%-59% off the top in the process. This is just for the initial and most powerful hitbox, as it degrades over the subsequent 25 frames of activation to half damage by the last hitbox in 1.5% damage decrease steps (with the expected decreases in KO strength). While the Walkure recovers pretty quickly after the attack ends, it is the long duration that makes this attack highly punishable if whiffed, especially since only the earlier hits can really hit grounded opponents. The height of the hitbox extends to about 1.2x the height of Lucas' Up Smash, with a good portion of that simple being because the Walkure being taller than Lucas means it starts higher.

The Walkure has head intangibility on this attack starting at Frame 13 and continuing to Frame 25, which similar to Lucas gives this attack a lot of use as an anti-air due to being much more difficult to attack out of the attack, although the pose the Walkure takes is a bit less conductive to the use of this. During Mobility Ampilification, this instead becomes full upper body intangibility and makes it even harder to challenge with aerials! The Valkyrie Walkure's head wings will flap adorably during the intangibility period. This is also appreciated given at Frame 24 this is a preeeetty laggy attack to toss out there. In terms of base use, Up Smash is an anti-air and also one of the Valkyrie Walkure's strongest kill moves in the entire set. Throwing the opponent up and then trying to catch their landing with Up Smash is one of the Walkure's viable options to send opponents straight to Valhalla. The range on this attack makes it a viable option against opponents on platforms, making it great for chasing missed techs on them.

Remember that star that rises along with the blast itself? It does more than just look good! It'll remain at the apex height of the Up Smash for 2 seconds, after which it slowly falls to the ground over another 2 seconds. This is a really minor hitbox on the way down that deals a meager 2% damage and a small flinch on contact. There isn't too much of a point to this hitbox on its lonesome, dealing little more than a flinch to interrupt attacks, with too little hitstun to realistically be a move to start much of anything. There isn't much to it.

So, what's the point of this Odin's Light? That is shown when a Valkyrie strikes it! Hitting the pointed star with any attack causes a cone of light to surge out of it! The cone travels in the same direction as the knockback of the attack that struck it, allowing it to be highly variable, with the damage going from 7% for the weakest cone to 19% for the strongest cone! A hit of 5% or less produces the 7% hitbox, while a hit of 20% or more produces the 19% damage hitbox. The knockback of the attack itself is always upward-angled, but it also has a horizontal tilt to it that depends on the horizontal knockback of the hit that activated it. So if you hit it with Up Smash itself, which has purely vertical knockback, the knockback will be purely vertical. By comparison, a Jab would have a fairly notable horizontal slant to it. Attacks with multiple hits to them will have all of their multihits finish before the star explodes (it will also explode immediately if the multihit is interrupted), although attacks with optional follow-up like Forward Tilt will go off immediately. The cone itself is half a Bowser width at lowest power and a full Bowser width at full power, with one Battlefield Platform of length at lowest power and two Battlefield Platforms at maximum power.

This has a myriad of uses, particularly when it comes when the Walkure's aerial combos. It is completely possible to strike an opponent with an attack like, say, Neutral Aerial or Forward Aerial and lead them into the star, with the multihit then bursting out a cone that catches the opponent and in turn allows the Walkure to follow the foe as a combo extension, or to strike with a more general attack and then utilize a Mobility Amplification follow-up to chase them far and away! Another option is to use this with Forward Smash, which has particular appeal if the Walkure lands the tipper! This will apply the knockback choosing effect the same as debuffed opponents, allowing the Walkure to combine basically any knockback angle in the set with a fairly powerful cone and in fact a full powered one if Mobility Amplification is up! This is the closest thing the Walkure have to a normal projectile and it is on a laggy Up Smash, so while powerful do be rather careful with it.

Up Smash is interesting, as I felt it was an important move to adapt the spirit of. In the original it is very clearly the "MYM-y" payoff move out of the Valkyrie set, along with Nova, and I seem to recall FA thinking it was a very cool core part of the set because of how well it worked with the Valkyrie's swap mechanic. Of course, Valkyrie Walkure DOESN'T have a swap mechanic, so how to do that? The ideas I had were twofold. First, I took more inspiration from Lucas' Up Smash (the animation inspiration in Valkyrie) to turn it into an even stronger anti-air technique than the very vulnerable original. This fits into the Valkyrue Walkure's more aerial nature and plays into Up Tilt, another move I enjoyed making, and so gives some more focus on the attack.

As for the star, the key in my brain came up with thinking of how it could be used as a true extender into the jump mechanics into the set, not to mention the killer Forward Smash idea, and thus weave it into core mechanics in the same set the same way it wove into the swap mechanic in Valkyrie. I'm not sure the result is as fun as Valkyrie's, but I do think it is very different and pretty cool.

The damage the star deals when made into a hitbox is intentionally 1% weaker than the Valkyrie's Up Smash in order to show that they are weaker, mass-produced models. There's a pretty good amount of numbers playing around like this, but I'm not going to point them all out.

Down Smash - Perimeter Sweep

Defensively holding her shield in front of her, Valkyrie Walkure sweeps their spear in front of them while bashing their shield behind them, before following it up with the opposite in a shield bash back in front of them and a sweep behind them. The spear glows brightly on the backswing, indicating a stronger hitbox. The shield bash and the spear itself are hitboxes with different attributes all across the attack, with the shield providing 12.5% super armor on the side of Valkyrie Walkure's body that the shield is on a the moment. This means it begins in front of her (since it begins in front -> bashes behind), goes behind her during and after the bash, and then finishes back in front of her for a few frames as the spear sweep goes through. The first slash and shield bash come out at the same time, Frame 7, while the second hitboxes with the shield in front and behind sweep come out on Frame 18. Ending lag is on the longer side, so it is punishable on whiff despite the armor on display here. Charge hold is on Frame 5 and the shield super armor applies during her charge time, making this a potentially prodigious way to counter strike some real hits!

Okay, onto the hitboxes. The first shield bash, which deals a mere 5%-7% damage, does little more than the damage and keeps opponents in place for the second hit of the attack. The front hit deals 12%-16.8% damage and is modestly powerful when considering that it comes out at pretty good speed. It'll kill at 150%-125%, which is not ideal but allows for some moderate kills on, say, top platforms if it isn't staled. The sweep is low enough to shield poke, the shield bash naturally is not. As for the second hits on this attack, the frontal shield bash deals 10%-14% damage with spacing knockback (KOs at 180%-160%) with a lightly shallow bent to it. The back slash of the attack is the strongest of the hitboxes, dealing 16%-22.4% damage and killing at 120%-95% as a more hittable but less powerful kill move when your Novas or Forward Smashes just aren't breaking through. The spear hitbox can once again shield poke, while the shield cannot. The back shield bash true combos into the spear strike, but of course it has a lot less range. The back hit will not be safe on shield if it fails to shield poke, but the shield bash has enough shield push to be reasonably safe on the front end.

Down Smash has a few primary purposes, the first of which is to punish misplaced aggression from the foe: Most of the Valkyrie Walkure's attacks have more modest lag rather than that of a very fast character, with most of her standards coming out Frame 7+ for example akin to a Marth type, so having something to power through opponents who have quicker draws is itself very valuable. The armor is also rather comprehensive compared to some of the more specific other ones. Another reason is because of the very strong horizontal coverage of this attack. It's really good out of Down Tilt's proning tipper if you aren't going for following jump shenanigans for example. Finally, the Frame 7 start-up on the front hit with reasonable damage makes it a solid combo ender outside of the air that can launch opponents pretty far in the process and riskily be charged to catch out opponents who are mashing combo breaker attacks against other expected options thanks to the attack's super armor!

Mobility Amplification doesn't do much of anything for this move, aside from the standard 4% tipper. This does move the back spear's sweetspot into a much better kill move (105%-78%) and makes the front hit more reasonable (130%-100%) while being a higher damage combo ender if spaced well, but the real meat is using this move against foes under Divine Execution's debuff. Enemies who have been brought to divine judgement with the debuff have to deal with a much harsher armor on the Valkyrie, as it becomes complete invincibility against them instead! Guess that Buster Down effect did a number on 'em. While a lot of the attacks that Down Smash deal with are already covered by the super armor, it nonetheless allows a lot of extra options such as against Smash Attacks, the fact it can no longer be grabbed through, and more prevention against heavyweight aerials if they don't time it right.

Another big bonus to this is that if an opponent does strick the Walkure's invincibility, their body and spear glow with light until the attack ends, ready to dish out some Divine Retribution to the opponent! This adds damage equal to 0.5x of the attack that the foe hit with to the spear hitboxes (but not the shield hitboxes) of the attack, with knockback increasing accordingly. This can be a grand kill move when something like a strong smash attack is countered, go over the edge from "combo ender" to "stock ender" if countering a suitable combo breaker attack, and generally forces an opponent to be more wary about tossing attacks around in neutral after a Walkure's Side Special lands. It also adds to the power it has against proned foes, since a getup attack can be nicely countered for extra damage.

As for weaknesses, do remember that this attack has fairly long ending lag, so just tossing this out for the invincibility constantly is asking to be baited and punished. This attack also has quite lacking vertical coverage and since the armor/invincibility only covers one half of Valkyrie Walkure at a time, it can be timed to strike the unarmored side first with an aerial that goes over the attack in order to stop it. The back coverage does also take longer to come out, so if you're behind her you can hit her with a fast attack before the armor gets there.

Aerials Walkure​

Neutral Aerial - Spear Spin

The Valkyrie Walkure spins her spear in a circle around herself, an attack that comes out on Frame 6 as one of the quicker attacks in the angelic herald's arsenal. A long lasting multihit strike, this deals 5 hits of 1.2% followed by a final strike of 4% for a total of 10% damage! In addition to the fairly fast starting lag, the ending lag on this is reasonably fast (although maybe a bit slower than anticipated) and the landing lag is quite low! This makes Neutral Aerial very ideal for drag down combos, with Jab being a true combo basically at any time. Down Tilt's true combo potential depends on the foe's position relative to the Walkure, being higher in the air relative to the Walkure making it harder or impossible to combo into Down Tilt unless they DI down. Up Tilt can combo into the forward or middle hit depending on the Walkure and foe's position, while Forward Tilt also reasonable combos, Down Smash conditionally does so the same way as Down Tilt. This only gets more complex with Mobility Amplification sweetspots, as for example Down Tilt's lovely tipper relies on the opponent also being on the far end of the hitbox OR to DI away, and what have you. It's basically a freestyle into your non-slow ground game when drag downs occur.

The last hit deals moderate-low up and away knockback, so an Up Aerial (fairly often a sweetspot) or another Neutral Aerial can potentially follow but it has much less combo prowess than Forward Aerial itself. Something like Forward Aerial -> Neutral Aerial -> Up Aerial can be a solid chain until some higher percentages, for example. It never really scales into killing knockback despite not being ideal combo strength, though. The high duration of the attack makes it pretty excellent for catching out air dodges, stronger than Forward Aerial in that regard, and of course in turn can be used at the ledge to ledgeguard foes (great vs. tether recoveries like Byleth!) although unlike someone such as Palutena (a goddess, compared to our angels here) the non-killing level of knockback makes it less powerful. This move is great in neutral given the combo options, but the safety on shield is questionable, which is to say it isn't safe on shield by frames but it tends to be pretty close and so it relies a lot on enemy predictions / out of shield options. How much you can freely throw it out in neutral definitely depends on the matchup.

The 4% standard tipper hitbox is spread across all the hits of the attack, which both reduces the knockback bonus on the final hit by quite a lot and means it might not land the full 4% given how the multihit works. It's still a nice little boost to a powerful attack, but yeah.

Forward Aerial - Rapid Stab


Pulling their spear backwards, the Valkyrie Walkure thrusts it forward as a sudden flurry of stabs for this Frame 7 Forward Aerial! This deals three hits of 3% each for a total of 9% damage, with weak forward knockback that sets up potential further chases with Forward Aerial or combos with it / Neutral Aerial / Up Aerial depending on how close the foe is to the Walkure and their damage percent. In general the closer the Walkure is, the more it is able to combo rather than be escaped. Ending lag is modest, slightly longer than Ridley's Forward Aerial by comparison but coming out faster. This is one of Valkyrie Walkure's best aerials with a variety of uses. Compared to Neutral Aerial it is the stronger aerial combo tool and weaker grounded combo tool due to some modest landing lag. On top of that, it has good range if a somewhat thin hitbox due to the nature of the stabs (they go in down-middle-up order, so an opponent above can avoid it more easily) that combined with the light carrying knockback allow it to box out opponents or wall of pain them, it can carry people off stage and serves as combo fodder in a lot of combos in the Walkure's kit. While the landing lag isn't the best as mentioned, it is still unlikely to be punished if spaced well and thus is also a neutral tool. The rapidfire hits are also good for covering the ledge against recovering foes, although Neutral Aerial lasts longer.

Mobility Amplification adds a 2% tipper sweetspot to each hit of the Forward Aerial, which while tricky to hit (you usually need to be above the foe in some capacity) allows it to be bumped up to a strong 15% and if the next tipper does not connect enhanced knockback that makes it a stronger wall of pain move / finisher and what you want to hit with when finishing an off-stage carry. The slight increase in shieldstun lets Valkyrie Walkure be more aggressive after using it when shorthopped, the one downside is that it makes it harder to combo if you land the tipper and so you need to hug the opponent a bit closer to keep the aerial chains going. A following jump can help mitigate this, but it doesn't have as true of combos as normal. Speaking of the following jump, a good reason to try and do an upper diagonal when following the foe is that it can in theory perfectly set up a 3-tipper FAir! Exact positioning will vary based on DI and knockback strength with how following jumps work, but it is a generally workable strategy.

Back Aerial - Odin's Wrath

Gripping her spear in both hands, the Valkyrie Walkure thrusts it behind herself with great force, the entire spear glowing brightly. This is the Walkure's power aerial, coming out at a very late Frame 17 while dealing 14% damage and low diagonal knockback that kills at 135% center stage. Ending lag is also pretty bad. Considering how far out the Walkure can chase opponents, this makes it a downright powerful offstage killing tool albeit one that isn't all too easy to hit with. Combining this with following jumps are interesting when one considers that the Walkure can attempt to do said jump with the intent to be behind the foe, which can allow for a cross-up against their defensive options. Omnidirectional jumping in general also allows a lot of options for avoiding enemy attacks and get into position to strike them down with this powerful blow.

The Mobility Amplification sweetspot on this attack is particularly interesting, with the tip glowing a rainbow hue while the buff is active during this move. The damage is amplified by only 2%, but it is the knockback that becomes interesting as it kills at 102.5% but has inwards knockback that means it sends opponents flying the opposite way as the Walkure! The vertical component now also has a slight downwards slant rather than upwards like the main hit, although it isn't enough to even be considered a semi-spike. This sweetspot makes gives Back Aerial some unique functionality since simply hitting the sweetspot against a far recovering foe can be actively detrimental, sending them CLOSER to the stage, but it is much more useful when doing things like reversing an edgeguard (hitting a foe jumping offstage towards you to the blast zone or sniping them from ledge can be powerful kill options!), or in fact be MORE powerful to kill against recovering opponents CLOSER to the stage, since it can become a sick stage spike! The sweetspot this is tricky to use, but powerful to master with great killing potential.

Another neat use for this attack is applying that knockback angle to Forward Smash with its own effect! The sweetspot will be the knockback angle applied with Mobility Amplification up when Forward Smash's knockback choosing is in effect, which gives the pretty great ability to do backwards-downwards knockback on the powerful Forward Smash! This is, of course, very powerful with the Walkure's back to the ledge, not to mention in other scenarios such as on platforms. It allows Forward Smash to prone opponents if it doesn't launch them offstage at low percents and stage bounce at higher ones. This does leave it potentially techable, but the fact that the knockback happens so soon after choosing and the sheer number of options from Forward Smash on display here means that is VERY difficult to do! As an aside, while both Back Aerial and Down Tilt can DI mix a foe trying to DI backwards to deal with the usually forward knockback they both have different uses. Down Tilt is going to be able to potentially kill off the top, which at times means it can take advantage of back + up DI more. But the horizontal-downwards direction of Back Aerial means it gets more juice purely off of backwards DI, and DIing back + down can lead to some funky stuff as well. There's a bit of a different usage case here, anyway.

This is another attack I wanted to nail, because I remember FA talking to me about enjoying Back Aerial due to being a very simple move that nonetheless played very well with all the outlying mechanics of Valkyrie to become more. Anyone who has known me in MYM will know that's totally my jam, attacks which don't need a lot of complexity on themselves to have a ton of depth but instead have a ton of depth in the context of the whole. Gareth's Jab was one of my favorite moves to write in that set for a similar reason, as was Fairy Knight Gawain's Forward Tilt.

While just being a kill move with the Valkyrie Walkure's strong off-stage game was solid enough, this felt like an ideal move to add a meaningful tipper with the Mobility Ampilifcation effect. Giving it a different knockback angle felt like it both opened up a completely new dimension to how Valkyrie Walkure plays off stage, needing to get closer to avoid the sweetspot when chasing them offstage while creating stage spike opportunities in reversal of normal or things like intense ledgeplay, and on top of that added a unique angle for Forward Smash that opens up new possibilities on that move as well. I repeatedly debated if it should be back-and-up or back-and-down knockback due to Forward Smash, since it opens up the ability to tech a kill move, but ultimately Forward Smash can always just pick a different knockback angle and it works better for Back Aerial itself. Plus it opens up stage bounce options for some unique play.

Up Aerial - Sky Sweep

The Valkyrie swings their spear above them in a glowing arc emphasized by a slight rainbow of light behind their spear. Coming out on Frame 12, the Up Aerial has two hitboxes on it. The non-tipper of the spear deals 7% and light, popping upwards knockback while the tip does 11% and decent, though not amazing, upwards knockback that kills at 160%. Considering the upwards jump options and other launching tools that Valkyrie Walkure possesses, that 160% can nonetheless be deadly as you get opponents high up on the stage. The ending lag for this attack is also surprisingly low despite the somewhat laggy start, so with the sourspots and aerial mobility on display a Walkure juggle combo can be quite nice and damaging, or transition into Neutral Aerial at low percents. Up Special is a viable option. You don't want the sourspot for a following jump under Mobility Amplification, as the hitstun is a bit low for the lag addition on the jump, so instead the sweetspot becomes the premiere tool for that! Trying to swap who is above and who is below with the following jump can be a bit risky, but rather rewarding into a Down Aerial (especially if you predict an air dodge for the charged version) for a clean kill.

Using a falling Up Aerial close to the ground is a viable neutral and combo starting tool due to the low landing lag on the attack, making it safe on shield if spaced properly. Sourspot leads into a quick aerial at a good chunk of percents, although at very low percents the hitstun will not be enough for true follow-ups, while the sweetspot is a solid starter at low percents before it sends foes too far away to reasonable combo. This attack gets the standard +4% tipper bonus from Mobility Amplification, which generally makes it a stronger tool to finish aerial combos off the top (potentially for kills) and a more powerful single hit shorthop neutral tool (especially outside of combo percents, low or high).

Down Aerial - Skewer

The Valkyrie Walkure grips her spear and performs a simple, routine thrust downwards with it. This has a sweetspot and sourspot to it, with the sweetspot dealing 9.5% damage and modest upwards knockback in the process. It'll even bounce the Valkyrie off the opponent the first time it hits an opponent, Link Down Aerial style! This means Down Aerial can be a pretty cool way to start aerial combos at low to low-mid combos, whereas after that it sends opponents high enough for the Walkure to chase down while ALSO putting them higher for effective chasing! The sourspot on the handle / base / etc of the spear does 6% damage and some light, largely horizontal and slightly down hitbox. This isn't especially useful in the air, but close to the ground it is possible for the Valkyrie to get a combo into a Jab or maybe one of the Frame 7-8 options like Forward Tilt or Down Tilt if they land correctly. Starting lag comes out on Frame 9, same as a Marth Down Aerial, and has a slightly fast ending lag to go with it. The landing lag is also solid.

Similar to Up TIlt, Down Aerial gains the ability to charge it while Mobility Amplification is active! The first time this is used in the air will stall Valkyrie in the air, while later times merely lightly slow their fall. Charge hold is Frame 7, and it will release if held on Frame 21, with earlier release just giving the normal Down Aerial with a delay much like their Up Tilt. During this time Valkyrie Walkure can aim it left/right to almost any degree still below them (so maximium of diagonals). Once full charge is reached, the Valkyrie Walkure takes tight hold of their spear and flings it in the chosen direction! This counts as a projectile, but it is hardly a truly useful projectile for her given the limitations in placement and ability to use it, and so in that regard is more akin to Bayonetta disjointed hitboxes that can be reflected back at the Walkure. She doesn't call the spear back to her and instead forms a new one in her hands after launching it during the ending lag or when hit.

As for the spear itself, when launched it is a pretty powerful hitbox that deals 14% damage and high upwards knockback that will kill at 128%. The upwards knockback makes it unreliable for edgeguards, but if tossed from high in the air (it travels a maximum of four Ganondorfs of height) it could bounce opponents high enough for the Walkure to follow up on! It's largely a weird kill move, a way to rain down death from above with the Valkyrie's great air time, or not even finish the charge and delay the Down Aerial against expected reactions with the delay in falling!

Throws Walkure​

Grab

The Valkyrie Walkure reaches forward with both hands in a quick grab, pulling the opponent in close to them with their hands under their arms like they're about to carry them off to Valhalla. The Valkyrie will actually float slightly off the ground with the opponent while holding them, which is just an animation and not anything that actually matters for gameplay.

Despite the attack's quick speed, it has a pretty decent reach to it. This makes it overall a fairly high end grab, perhaps it is fitting given that taking people to Valhalla is the entire point of a Valkyrie, which makes it one of their main aggressive tools when opponents block out their more neutral or range-y toolkit. Their dash grab is notable in having surprisingly low ending lag for a dash grab as well, so just rushing in and slamming that grab button is totally viable.

If the Walkure grab Sigurd or Siegfried, be it their Fate incarnation or any other mythology-based ones, their expression will be uncharacteristically angry while grabbing them and during throws. As much as they say they're a non-emotional collective, they still can't get over how Sigurd and Brynhildr's lives went.

Pummel

The Valkyrie Walkure's hands press into the opponent, producing a rainbow light against their body that singes them for 2% in a pretty slow pummel. There's nothing really of note here, this is a very standard pummel. The animation changes slightly against Sigurd or Siegfried, as instead of the gentle or even almost sensual feel they instead dig their fingers into him as if they want to rip him apart.

Up Throw - To Valhalla!

Holding the opponent in a close embrace, Valkyrie Walkure's head wings twitch one as her symbol glows brilliantly, taking them to the skies! This functions like Kirby and Meta Knight's Up Throws, this takes the Walkure close to the blast zone before crashing down with a divine rainbow explosion that deals 10% damage and kills at 155% from the top platform of Battlefield. Fittingly for a move where the Valkyrie is trying to take the foe to valhalla, it is her primary kill throw, with solid damage too! The knockback isn't too great aside from killing, but do recall that Valkyrie Walkure loooove foes high in the air, so just crashing down for large damage numbers and an advantageous position to follow the foe is perfectly fine, the ending lag is even on the low end to go with it. Outside opponents in FFAs/2v2s take 12% damage and are killed at 140% from the explosion, which makes this a useful space clearing or killing move in those formats.

Mobility Amplification has some buffs attached to this, along with an animation change. The first buff is allowing the Walkure to move left/right during the ascend and descent! This will not allow you to go off ledges or platforms you started the attack on, but it does allow an easier repositioning to land on high platforms for earlier kills, or to get the drop on other opponents in FFAs and 2v2s for multi-character kills. The control feels similar to using a Warp Star item. The second buff is simply that it deals 2% more damage and KOs 20% earlier on each buff, with the animation of the Walkure adding a spin down with the opponent from the top blast zone to show off the added power! This isn't much, but it does generally expand the kill range on this which is always nice and means it transitions into high knockback for aerial chases earlier.

Up Throw is one of the moves I agonized over the most in the set, but I found it trickier than Up Smash. You'll notice that Up Throw is one of the only non-Echo Fighter moves outside of the Specials. This doesn't break that, given multiple Echo Fighters in Smash have the same thing, but it might make one question "Why?". See, I debated hard on if to include the cargo throw from Valkyrie for a few reasons. The first is that it is one of the more unique throws in the entire set and one FA seemed to think on a fair deal making, thus in that way it feels "important" to translate. The other is the flavor of the move: Up Throw is the attack where the Valkyrie try to literally do what valkyrie are meant to do, which is taking strong warriors to Valhalla. On the other hand, a cargo throw honestly just is not as interesting in the context of Valkyrie Walkure unless more attention is given to it, and I had serious concerns that with the jump mechanics from Mobility Amplification (particularly the following jump) and general strong offstage game that it might be broken on Valkyrie Walkure to begin with.

In the end, I decided to cut the cargo throw once I got the idea of using Kirby/MK's Up Throw as an animation basis. This allows it to keep the critical valkyrie fluff of taking them to Valhalla, in this case amplified by it more literally being a kill move that sends them to the heavens, and in a way feels good because it makes the Valkyrie trio even more unique by giving them this big cargo throw while the Valkyrie Walkure can merely grab them long enough to psuedo-suplex them. I also obliquely asked FA about the cargo throw thought without mentioning the set or which throw it was by name, I was trying to keep what I was working on or at least its Echo Fighter nature hidden so it would be a fun surprise to him, and he felt like cutting the cargo throw was the right idea in a vaccuum. I also did this with him and Forward Smash when I was deciding between how Up Special's knockback change should work. I hope that everyone is able to enjoy this replacement, even if it is largely a basic KO move.

The FFA/2v2 part of it, by the way, came because looking up Kirby's Up Throw for some mechanical specifics made me remember it does damage to outside opponents when crashing down.

Forward Throw - Skewer Combo

Valkyrie Walkure slams the foe into the ground and proceeds to quickly perform three spear-tip stabs into the foe that deal 3% damage each, going bottom-top-middle with the stabs, with the final stab tossing opponents away with mediocre knockback that kills at 230%. This throw has the output of a damage throw, but it isn't actually their highest damaging throw, and with the ending lag being kinda high there doesn't seem like a ton of uses to it. The main purpose, it seems, is simply to throw the foe forward. That's...fine, if the ledge is in front of you go ahead, but at a base your other throws are almost always superior aside from potential positioning.

This move gets the tipper bonus from Mobility Amplification, she is striking with the spear tips after all, which in this case adds 3% damage to each stab! This doubles the mediocre 9% damage to a sterling 18% total! Valkyrie Walkure is actually pretty lacking in traditional combo throws, so having this high intensity, pure damage throw is pretty good within her moveset. Whenever Mobility Amplification is up, this is going to be the Walkure's primary clean damage source unless they want to go for Back Throw -> following jump shenanigans. It is essentially always a good damage option while Mobility Amplification is up.

This attack also has interactions with the debuff from Divine Execution, which will cause wounds to be left on the opponent afterwards, with a coat of light showing their body from the areas that the Walkure stabbed them. This light aura envelopes the foe not unlike Joker's Side Special, damaging them for 1% every second for 5 seconds. Naturally this is without hitstun. This pushes the damage to a pretty respectable 14% if attached to the base, but a very strong 23% with both buff and debuff ready to go! A great throw when the stars align with different levels of usage.

Down Throw - Burning Light

Taking out an energy spear made of light, the Valkyrie thrusts it through the opponent's midsection, dealing them 4% and releasing the opponent in frame neutral, the spear still jutting out of them. The Walkyrie Walkure's animation is noticeably more brutal against Sigurd or Siegfried, with an even stronger impact and the Walkure digging it inside once they have pierced them a little. Frame neutral has positives and negatives for the Walkure, which will be fairly dependent on the matchup. The negatives largely come to the opponent still being relatively close to Valkyrie Walkure and the fact that they don't have many quick moves, being forced to rely on Jab or something with armor like Forward Tilt, Up Tilt or Down Smash which are all Frame 7 moves. If your opponent is, say, Mario then he will always outspeed by Jabbing and therefor the Valkyrie cannot aggress. By comparison, someone like Bowser has a fastest frame startup of 6 (SSpec/USpec), so the Walkure's jab will instead always win out and Bowser cannot get aggressive. Knowledge of who you can jab out and who you can't is vital, but note that given this is being measured in frames it also depends on execution on both sides, and that people don't always just go for a jab out of frame neutral. Perhaps Mario tries to grab for a much better reward than Jab, then the Walkure loses if she shields and should jab instead. Not to mention jumps, dodges and so on. It's all pretty complex, as one would expect. A real scramble.

Down Smash is a particularly interesting option, as with the armor at Frame 5 it can go through a lot of attacks for a reasonable counter attack with the forward slash, and if the opponent is debuffed with Divine Execution trying to trample over a move with it could boost the power something nice! It's also fairly fast in general (Frame 7) in a way that lets it be viable against other fast options from the foe and the back hit will stop opponents who cleverly try to roll in to both avoid a fast attack and get close to counter attack. The hitbox doesn't lead to much when it lands but it can be a late term kill choice.

Of course, all of this is ignoring the spear jutting out of the foe's gut. It thrums with a light glow periodically over the 10 seconds it exists, the glow getting brighter with time, before exploding for 7% damage and some light-moderate knockback! The knockback is largely upwards, but it does have a light forwards slant to it (which for Forward Smash means you can go straight up with Up Tilt/Up Smash, up + slightly back with Down Tilt, and up + slightly forward Down Throw) as well. The knockback isn't killer, but it does mean that Valkyrie Walkure needs to be close to the foe if she wants to combo start or extend off of it. This can also be used to enhance her shield pressure, poking away at it while the time bomb spear explodes to make it a longer block string or going for a Down Tilt / Down Smash to shield poke a foe while the spear's explosion lowers it to poking range or keeps them from taking pre-emptive measures. 10 seconds is a bit long which means both players have ample time to plan around the result. Given the upward knockback, trying to ladder a foe upwards is of course a fun way to get an earlier kill, and a good way to convert the Walkure's aerial prowess into More in general.

This is one of the key moves boosted via use on a foe debuffed by Divine Execution, if your own execution is good! The stab into the foe becomes more violent, dealing 6% damage and now granting a 2-frame advantage to the Walkure on release, with the spear glowing more brightly and cracks of light appearing in the foe's midsection (it's magic over the top of their body, not an actual wound!). This still works as a time bomb through, but it is a bit...different.

See, this spear has the same baseline damage and knockback as the original variant, but there are ways for it to get stronger or weaker! Every 2 seconds that the Walkure fails to damage the opponent, the damage on the spear's hitbox goes down by 2% with an according drop in knockback. If it reaches 0% damage, then the spear will fade away when the time comes for it to go off instead of having any explosive impact. Conversely, the Walkure attacking the opponent will increase the damage of the spear's explosion! A hit that deals 1%-10% will add 0.5%, every strike of a multi-hit attack adds 0.25% and any attack that deals 11% or higher will increase it by 1.5% instead. Attacks on shield do not count in any way. These numbers are doubled to 1%, 0.5% and 3% if Mobility Amplification is active as the Walkure is able to strike at the spear's impact point more effectively like a weak point! While it might not sound like much overall, this adds up over time and at 10 seconds there's a pretty good time to add onto the power. Note that attacks which do under 1% will keep the hitbox from losing the potency with the two second checks. This means that the damage over time from Forward Throw won't add any damage to this attack, but it WILL keep the hitbox from decreasing in damage, a potent 1-2 combo!

The maximum damage that the spear can reach is 19%, which will kill at 90%: Considering this can totally be combined with other knockback in the set, that's some potentially REALLY early finishers! Carrying opponents close to the blast zone with Forward Aerial or going for ladders with Up Aerial are some of the cleaner ways to go for the kill, especially since they can build it up nicely, but note that the Walkure generally needs to either go quite aggressively in on the opponent or have multiple buff + debuffs up on the foe AND land Forward Throw in order for the spear to not useless peter out and be worse than the base throw.

Back Throw - Dismiss

The Valkyrie brings the foe close to them, almost like a waltz, and spins them around once before releasing them with a powerful, launching toss. This deals 8% damage normally, amplified to 10% during Mobility Amplification, dealing high but poorly scaling knockback that won't KO until 195%. This could, in a pinch, serve as a KO throw alternative if Up Throw is unusable for some reason, but for the most part Up Throw is going to be preferred for that. Valkyrie Walkure actually has extremely low ending lag on this attack, but it is not able to naturally combo into much of anything.

To put it bluntly, this is your spacing throw. The high base knockback gets opponents out of your pretty little face even at low damage percents, and the Walkure appreciates it because it will almost always allow them to get off a Mobility Amplification in the process. This is one of the most free ways in the set for her to get her buff started or continue it and so opponents should be wary about unsafe aggression, while it is a nice reward to the Walkure's own aggression into landing grabs. If a star from Odin's Light is nearby, striking it could be aggressive towards an opponent if desired.

While under Mobility Amplification, the low ending lag of this attack turns it into an option for the Valkyrie Walkure to get aggressive, although not true combo all the time. Contrasting using the spacing for Mobility Amplification itself, at mid percents using a following jump and then immediately tossing out a Side Special will true combo them! In addition to nice damage, this is a lovely way to impart your Divine Execution upon the sinful foe. Forward Aerial can combo out of percents here and there, and aside from that Valkyrie Walkure is going to rely on aerial pressure and chasedowns due to the foe's distance just being too far for the following jump to reach. She has some good frame advantage in all of these scenarios, so that's a plus for her no matter what!

Final Phantasm - Mass Produced Girls' Advent​

For their Final Smash, the Valkyrie Walkure rises into the sky 3 Ganondorfs in height as the Allfather's light shines down above them and rainbow, Aurora Borealis style lights waver in from the side. After just a moment of activating the Final Smash, her fellow Valkyrie Walkure start to flood in from the side, dashing back and forth at super high speeds with their spears all held out! Each Valkyrie Walkure is the same color costume as the selected Walkure for the most part, making them utterly indistingushable from the base Valkyrie Walkure, but each one has a 1/7th chance to instead use a different outfit for one of the Valkyrie being used. I'll use this chance to reference that Valkyrie Walkure's alt costumes consist entirely of hairswaps with different hair colors and styles and otherwise are also completely identical in further de-emphasis of their individuality. Four of them have their hood down and including the default four of them have their hood up.

A dozen Valkyrie are summoned in total, two at a time, criss-crossing across the stage at random elevations (weighted to appear where enemies are when the Valkyrie are spawned), until at the very end all twelve are crossing across the stage for a big finisher. Getting hit by these Valkyrie Walkure causes 6% damage and light knockback that can easily combo into more Walkure hits. The final hit of the Valkyrie deal 20% and kills at 70%. Think of it as a cross between Super Sonic and a horizontal PK Starstorm, basically.
 
ProfPeanut

ProfPeanut

Smash Ace
Joined
Oct 1, 2008
Messages
727
Timekeeper Cookie
time rift.png
A rip in the spacetime continuum appears in the air before your very eyes...Is someone coming at this final minute? Disbelief leads to shock as a small shadow appears from the torn fabric of reality, prompting nearby clocks to go haywire...​
 
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FrozenRoy

FrozenRoy

Smash Lord
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Location
Las Vegas, Nevada
Switch FC
SW-1325-2408-7513
Make Your Move 25's Submission Period is OVER! Thank you to all members, new and old, who made this the biggest MYM final day in modern history!​

Wow, what an ending. MYM25 was already shaping up to be Make Your Move's most active contest in a while, but Saul Goodman's contacts in fellow community FFC joining in and bringing up a bunch of sets really pushed us over the edge! This is MYM's largest contest since Make Your Move 11. Make Your Move 11, for those unaware, started on October 10th, 2011. About 11 years ago! That's quite the achievement, everyone.

That means that with submission period over, we now begin reading period! With how many sets and how big they are, we have a period of reading to catch everyone up on, and given the high length of the contest we've decided to go with a long two month reading period (meaning, through the end of November 11th) along with a two week voting period that will thusly end at the end of November 25th.

Now, given the high influx of newcomers, I'm going to explain the voting process some, and I will ALSO be unveiling new vote counts this contest!

1. In order to vote, a voter needs to have posted 10 comments first. Comments are exactly what they sound like, commentary on a set that was posted during the contest discussing it. Some examples of commentary can be seen here:

smashboards.com

Make Your Move 25: Moveset Design Contest — Contest is Donezo! MYM 26 Starts March 17th!

smashboards.com smashboards.com

smashboards.com

Make Your Move 25: Moveset Design Contest — Contest is Donezo! MYM 26 Starts March 17th!

smashboards.com smashboards.com

smashboards.com

Make Your Move 25: Moveset Design Contest — Contest is Donezo! MYM 26 Starts March 17th!

Jamcon 5 nomination goes to Alcohol Witch Daniella. It was close this time around, but I was long overdue to give Tern a Jamcon nomination. Great work!
smashboards.com smashboards.com

smashboards.com

Make Your Move 25: Moveset Design Contest — Contest is Donezo! MYM 26 Starts March 17th!

smashboards.com smashboards.com

2. Obviously, reading 10 sets is not enough. While it is not expected that one reads every single set (tho if you're able to, feel free!), it is generally expected that most sets are read, especially particularly important ones. Because of this, I hand out "reading lists" to each MYMer who wants one / wants to vote so that they can see what to read and leadership can keep track of it! If not enough sets are read, your votelist may be rejected. I highly recommend getting one if you intend to vote!

3. Character bias and creator bias is not allowed. To explain, character bias is voting for or against a set on the basis of the character and not the set itself (IE "I really like John Cena!"), NOT liking a set's characterization of the character (IE "I think this set did a great job at showing the babyface side of John Cena, and that makes me want to vote it!"). Similarly, creator / MYMer bias is voting for or against a set based on the person who made it (IE "Oh, I should give Johnny a Super Vote since he's my friend." or "I thought Jenny was mean in chat, I'm going to not vote her sets!").

If your votelist is credibly suspected of these things by leadership, your votelist may be rejected!

4. You might be wondering how, exactly, voting works. First off, we are going with a different vote count this contest: 8 Super Votes (1 Super Vote Plus), 16 Regular Votes (3 Regular Vote Plus), 20 Weak Votes (5 Weak Vote Plus)

To explain:

- Super Votes give 9 points to a set, you have 8 of them. One of those Super Votes can be upgraded to a "Super Vote Plus", which instead gives 11 points. The Super Vote Plus is usually given to what the user feels is the best set in the contest.

- Regular Votes give 5 points to a set, you have 16 of them. 3 of them can be upgraded to a "Regular Vote Plus", which gives 6 points.

- Weak Votes give 2 points to a set, you have 20 of them. 5 of them can be upgraded to a "Weak Vote Plus", which gives 3 points.

You do NOT have to use all your votes on a list, but it is usually considered preferrable if you think it is possible. And really with this contest's quality, I am sure it is! Votelists are submitted during voting period.

5. Leadership then tallies up all the points movesets received and tiebreaks sets if need be. The top sets are placed onto a "Top 50", which tops out at 50 sets but does not HAVe to have 50, which is posted at the end of voting as finalized results in vote total order. A minimum of 2 RV/WV or 1 SV is needed to get on, but even sets that meet these requirements might miss the Top 50 if 50 other sets have more points!

6. Editing is allowed during reading period. Editing is NOT allowed during voting period!

7. And while it's not a rule, do try to be a good sport about things. It's a contest for fun, after all!

So, yeah. I think that just about covers everything. Such a strong and long contest might mean a lot of reading, but it also means a lot of fun. Good luck, everyone!
 
Katapultar

Katapultar

Smash Lord
Joined
Nov 24, 2008
Messages
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Prior to MYM20, readers were required to post 3 advertisements to vote. In old MYM, not everyone would read every set that was posted, so advertising sets that you liked to draw people's attention to them was necessary. And this was back when movesets were much shorter! Changing the voting requirement to 10 votes was absolutely for the better, as nowadays people read most sets.

But receiving an advertisement and fancy compliments for one of your sets was always a delight. So here I present 3 advertisements, for 3 setmakers who weren't around for the advertising days so they can experience the joy of receiving an advertisement. These ads also serve the secondary purpose of advertising what I feel are notable sets, to the majority of MYM'ers who haven't read the brunt of MYM25's entries.






REMILIA SCARLET

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by Arctic Tern​

Tern has been an absolute godsend since their debut this MYM, posting waves of quality sets and comments at mindblowing and enviable speeds. It would be no exaggeration to call them the modern ForwardArrow of MYM - a setmaker who lurked for a long time before finally joining MYM and quickly made a name for themselves. That they are intimately familiar with many older sets and MYM trends makes them feel like someone who has been around in MYM for a long time.

Tern's MYM25 sets were all rock-solid in execution - I would have RV'd or SV'd all of them in a regular contest - but Remilia stands heads and shoulders above the rest as a potential frontrunner. That Tern tackled a set for the highest-placing Touhou character (Froy's Remilia set placed 8th in MYM14) is especially fascinating. Tern demonstrated a lot of MYM'ian tastes in game franchises this MYM, like F/GO, SNK fighters, Shin Megami Tensei, LiveALive, and even dipping into the Witchverse and introducing MYM to the Sam and Max franchise with a great set for their titular protagonists.

Set-wise, Remilia is an air-based fighter with a unique gimmick: her jumpsquat is frame 12 instead of the universal frame 3 (or frame 7 if you're Kazuya). If Remilia enters the air with her first jump, she gains access to 4 teleporting midair jumps that give her an extreme mix-up approach and laddering/gimping potential. And if she hits an opponent with her Aerials, she can teleport to their location to wall-of-pain them! Remilia's Aerials are all balanced around this mechanic so they're not ridiculous. I love it when setmakers tweak or add to existing Smash mechanics in a way that gives their fighters a unique melee game - combine that with strong execution, and you have a set that's very high in my books.

Remilia is not just air-based melee: she has some fun MYM'ian (projectiles, traps, delayed hitboxes, etc) tricks to her. Her Down Special projectile spreads out blood puddles across the stage as it flies, which can be used to boost Remilia's other Specials or her Smashes with A + B. Side Special is a very cool take on Pac-Man's Side Special, where Remilia can attack while she moves towards a stunned foe and gets more attack time depending on how far she flew in. Her Up Smash is a very fun suspended knife that can be set in any direction to fly out as a delayed projectile after 5 seconds, and her Down Smash is a hitbox that can be moved left or right, and has the option to turn blood puddles into weaker versions of D-Smash's hitbox. As much as I love a strong melee set, there's just something about marrying melee with MYM'ian aspects that just really resonates with me. I suspect that this is why Walter White had so much appeal last contest. Astute readers of Remilia will notice that the vampire has some similar concepts to Alcohol Witch Daniella, who also married melee with MYM.

The real highlight behind Remilia, in my opinion, is of course her air game. Her Aerials all compliment her air mechanics well, but her Neutral Air is my definite favourite among the bunch after Forward Air and Down Air. Neutral Air is a quick and simple kick that can be followed into an ax kick that deals light downwards knockback, which can set up for Remilia's powerful tech chasing game, but it stops chaining from the first hit at higher percents and eventually needs to be read into itself. Forward Air is a rush that is primarily meant to be used with Remilia's teleports, and Down Air fires a spread of bullets that deal more damage when they hit together at close range, and do a great job at capturing the bullet nature of Touhou games: in those games, the boss is positioned above your playable character!

Remilia doesn't just have the regular 5 Aerials that most fighters have, no. She has Air Smashes! This makes sense given Touhou characters seem to have a wide variety of attacks, and it could even be seen as a reference to some of Froy's Touhou sets as Utsuho has an extra set of attack inputs. These Air Smashes all add something to Remilia's gameplan: Air F-Smash a projectile that gets a lot out of teleporting backwards, Air U-Smash for catching out air dodges, and Air D-Smash as a flashy stall-then-fall that produces a devastating hitbox when Remilia lands, adding a fear factor against grounded opponents during her teleport shenanigans. Tern did not have to write these extra inputs, but they did and I feel that it absolutely paid off. Remilia's air mechanic meant that Tern had to sell her air game to give the set max appeal: while writing extra attack inputs is a commendable act, you generally want those inputs to be justified within the set, but here the Air Smashes gave Remilia more ways to play off of her air mechanic.

I also want to talk about Tern reflected Remilia's characterization in her playstyle, because I think it's excellent. Remilia is a powerful vampire who consumes humans and is easily capable of causing incidents in Gensokyo and being a high threat... but she's portrayed very comically as she is characterized as an immature brat, a huge contrast to her dark nature as a vampire. Tern represented this duality by making Remilia a feast-or-famine character: her teleport mechanic makes her a terrifying predator when she has it up, but she's comically easy to get around in disadvantage, where she loses her teleport, has a relatively exploitable recovery and difficulty in landing. A number of setmakers have gotten very good at doing this in modern times, but I felt that it was worth mentioning in Remilia.

A set that I absolutely recommend everyone reads, and one to keep an eye out on this contest.



ELDLICH THE GOLDEN LORD

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by GolisoPower​

Making their proper debut in MYM23, Goliso has been a strong, friendly presence in the community, picking up a lot of MYM franchises and keeping the collaborative story mode thread alive and well. Goliso had humble beginnings, but has improved steadily with each contest in spite of receiving only a small amount of comments mid-contest. This improvement feels especially prominent from the transition between MYM24 and 25 - that I have 2 Goliso sets as RVs this contest, compared to 1 WV from the less competitive last contest, certainly says something in my books.

Goliso opened with Wolf Witch Veronica, a memorable set for being a hugely long 25k 3-in-1 set. In my opinion, Meltryllis is Goliso's best set, and arguably their most memorable for the sheer undertaking, but Melt was a joint set with Arctic Tern. Instead, I'll talk about Goliso's strongest solo set in Eldlich.

Eldlich is a Heavyweight Male Antagonist who spreads eldlixirs across the stage to summon minions and create bombs that can go off on-demand. He can spread gold and cursed gold across the stage, which each apply different bonuses to most of his attacks. The fun begins on the Standard attacks, where Goliso shows creative chops and manages to make the majority of Eldlich's attacks relevant. For instance, Up Tilt is a stance move where golden statues lift a throned Eldlich, who is put into a stance where he can detonate a time bomb. Forward Tilt features minion warping on a beam attack that makes sense for the input, Down Tilt as a simple attack that features more classic MYM minion shenanigans where you can bury a minion in the ground, U-Smash as a poseudo-conter not dissimilar to Wesker and Prime Minister Honest having Smash attacks that functioned as counters. The Aerials can also utilize Eldlich's golden lands if he uses that Aerial after performing a first jump from that golden land.

But my absolute favourite attack in the set is Eldlich's incredibly cool grab: the player can press B to set the Golden Homunculus as a platform, and allowing Eldlich to pull off his grab from the front of where the golem was set! This can lead to some fun stuff depending on where Eldlich was positioned, like exploiting Up Throw by standing on the golem platform, and the platform works well with Eldlich's slow, heavyweight nature, and the nature of his Side Special and golden lands. It is one of those ideas, like Herminia's awesome dance-cancel grab mechanic, that I would be happy to steal for myself.

One thing I admire about Goliso is their willingness to do research for their creative works, both in and out of setmaking. This leads to some fun trivia in Goliso's sets, like the Conquistador pursuing nature being a reference to how horseback units were used in wars historically. Or Eldlich speaking Spanish on his second taunt. This research is particularly prevalent on Goliso's Witchverse sets and their world's settings, where locations, spells and various bits of terminology are given names.

I should point out that Goliso was pretty new to the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game at the time of writing Eldlich (thank Master Duel for getting a newer setmaker into YGO), so that meant extra time and research learning about the game's mechanics and digging for gold-themed cards for Eldlich to use. Bubby recently wrote a fascinating article about adapting the "lore" and "feats" of VTubers into sets, which one could even apply to Yu-Gi-Oh! monsters. A card's "lore" could be interpreted as their appearances on card arts, reference art notes and the occasional official lore, as well as their card's type and attribute to some degree. While "feats" could be considered their card's stats and card effects if any. Eldlich borrows a lot of other monsters in his set, so one could say that he leans closer to being a feat-based monster card set rather than a lore-based one. And I've said this before, but it's great fun to see people's takes on a monster card's potential personality. That shines through nicely in the extras.

I might end up being one of Eldlich's bigger fans, but this is still a set you'd want to read, especially if you like old style MYM interactions. If Goliso's steady improvement over contests is anything to go by, I'm looking forward to seeing what they have to offer for MYM26.



SLEAZE

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by Almand​

MYM24 Hugo is a set that I didn't rank particularly high, so I was surprised to hear that everyone else was solid or high on him when he got reads and comments far later into the contest. I always thought that Almand's MYM23 sets had great ideas but needed work on the melee, so that mentality leaked into the more melee-centric Hugo. I might have overlooked something on Hugo, so it wasn't very fair on him. As such, I told myself that I would keep a more open mind when reading Almand's next set. That moveset was Sleaze, who has been very popular so far!

"Sometimes when I wake up from a nap/sleep, my alarm rips me out of my own mind, which essentially pukes out garbage onto my conscious thought. Usually it’s just random snippets of thought, but SOMETIMES it’s coherent.

Sleaze is one of those times; I imagined a man in a business suit, messy black hair, baggy eyes, a crooked smile, and dark gray gloves. He was holding a crocodile’s mouth open by jabbing two fingers of each hand at its snout. I dunno."

Sleaze is an OC, one that is presented in a very unique way! We don't get many OC sets that start the set out by describing the real life situation behind how their character was conceptualized. Almand then talks about Sleaze's appearance, character inspiration and a little lore behind the character: only a few sentences, but still enough to give readers an understanding of his character. There's also extras and the moveset itself for characterization, anyway.

Almand sets have a tendency for long, elaborate and creative mechanics that are normally accompanied by a cool visual meter, as seen on Ditto, Hugo and Alex. For Sleaze, they manifest in Pockets, which allow Sleaze to sacrifice aspects of himself to increase his damage or knockback. He can also Down Taunt to increase his base percentage for points, or apply multiplier effects on his opponent with Down Air or Down Smash, which are both hard to hit with. Another trend in Almand's sets, Sleaze also has tapped vs held inputs, the latter that use pockets, and they can be utilized as projectiles and various hitboxes that break the pocket, or use them as items. I'll admit that I didn't comprehend or understand everything that Sleaze could do and how his mechanics fully worked, but that didn't lessen my enjoyment of the set.

These mechanics pay off in the form of Sleaze's Neutral Special portals! Sleaze's portals are among the most elaborate you'll find in movesets, as they can be placed in a myriad of positions, and Almand takes the time to describe how they work for projectiles, movement-based attacks and hitboxes that pass through the portals. They also work with Sleaze's various pocket-based hitboxes, as mentioned in his mechanic!

Remember how I said in Reimu's ad that I love a good melee that's combined with MYM'ian concepts? Sleaze has that too! In fact, Sleaze is a very strong example of a moveset that marries melee with MYM. You see, Almand has a ton of fighting game knowledge, and between Alex and Hugo I strongly associate him with fighting games: Sleaze has many attacks that are inspired by fighting games, complete with inspiration GIFs.

In fact, Sleaze's Down and Up Specials are some of my favourite moves of his, and were memorable enough to me that I can recall what they do without reading back on his set as I write this advertisement. His Down Special is a laggy command grab with super armour, so it acts as a pseudo-counter: it gives Sleaze one of 2 throw options, tapped vs held, which change depending on whether Sleaze was hit during his start-up armour or not. I love that Almand starts out Down Special by saying that they love command grabs!

Up Special is a rising recovery that lets Sleaze end with one of 3 options that beat out one of opponent's reactions to getting hit. This is a very unique attack in that the foe's air dodge is improved to frame 1 during that reaction: you wouldn't generally think to implement attacks that alter the frame data of your opponent's universal options like their dodges, but I welcome it nonetheless. From Up Special, A is quick attack that can be avoided by dodging, B is strong and has armor that beats out attacks, and nothing is used in case they air dodge. Held Up Tilt is also worth mentioning as a very elaborate melee attack. In fact, once you get past the Neutral and Side Specials, it's meleetown for Sleaze from there. Really, Alcohol Witch Daniella reminded me a lot of Sleaze, as they both have MYM'ian concepts and a lot of fighting game inspiration.

Almand is, in my opinion, one of the most unique setmakers in modern MYM. Their more ambitious sets are incredibly long and detailed, usually because they have a lot of mechanics and extra attacks, but the writing is done from a fun, friendly casual perspective. Almand has a very friendly and happy presence when they're in the chat - I love their jovial response to set comments, and I loved their positive moveset commentary from MYM24. Would be a blast to seem them comment and vote again this contest, though I remember and understand that it was a rush to do so last contest due to having to go through so many sets so quickly. Almand is also commendable for compiling the frame data and FAF of every fighter's attack in Smash Ultimate, and really the sheer undertaking of finishing the colossal Alex set - I also recall that Almand was working on Sleaze for an incredibly long time, so I'm glad to see they're getting a big pay-off reception-wise.

Almand's Sleaze and Alex sets hold a particularly special place for me this contest. You see, while I have other sets that are ranked higher than them, Sleaze and Alex are the most influential sets that I read in MYM25. The sets' various mechanics, deep melee that marries Smash with fighting games and the way Almand describes some aspects of Smash were really insightful. To give a small example, Almand at one point says "a combo is better than a mix-up", which was influential because I would normally make a lot of follow-ups on movesets mix-up based to make them more interesting gameplay-wise. To give you an idea of how influential Almand's works were, aspects of Izuna and Tsukuyo were inspired and influenced by Sleaze and Alex. Izuna's Jab and mechanic of having her comboing attacks nefed was roughly inspired by Alex, while Tsukuyo's laggy Side Special command grab was largely taken from Sleaze's Down Special. Almand's movesets are truly unique experiences.

Almand's MYM23 and 24 works showed a lot of promise, which was ultimately met in the form of Sleaze. Sleaze already has some huge fans so far, particularly FA, and I can't see that positive reception being cut short with the oncoming slew of reading. No doubt that a high, well-deserved placing awaits Sleaze on the Top 50.
 
Katapultar

Katapultar

Smash Lord
Joined
Nov 24, 2008
Messages
1,283
Location
Australia
You know, I never thought that your last sets this contest would be a joint set together. Right from his intro post, the writing and presentation in Saul’s set bleeds personality, and I adore it. This may as well be an ambitious modern Ace Attorney moveset, so Saul appeals to me there right off the bat.

With the intangible nature of his monetary and lawsuit references, Saul’s concepts were admittedly tougher to digest than any other set I’ve read this contest. But the way I understand it:

  • Saul has various methods of applying lawsuits. He can apply up to 3 on a single opponent at once, but they only count if Saul records them using his Down Special.
  • Once Saul has lawsuits, he puts them in action by landing his Neutral Special, which gives him money. Each of the lawsuits apply 1 of 3 status effects, which can be spread out or concentrated to get one stronger status effect.
  • Some lawsuits give Saul more money than others, which can tempt players to go for his Neutral Special for max profits.
  • But if Saul gets too greedy and hoards his money, he’ll suffer speed penalties that he can inflict on his opponent. That’s cool stuff. Really, this mechanic is where the set starts to get cool for me. Having a literal target on your back that fires periodic delayed hitboxes at you is an awesome way to balance out a “super mode”. This also helps to balance out the status effects that Saul can apply on his opponents.

Hold Neutral Special contact summons not appearing until Saul lands is cool. There’s a huge amount to unpack in these summons, they add a lot to Saul’s set. Ira and Francesa are some of the cooler ones, alongside Kuby’s Saul-copying tricks and the funny mail attack (which works well with the move-copying summons). The ultimate pay-off for hoarding cash in Mike is a great reward for surviving the Cartel, too.

Lenny being able to copy an enemy’s movement and attacks - albeit to a weaker degree - is hilariously tacky and reminds me of MYM7 sets Spy and Lunge. The one second stagger reminds of Dixie Kong, and is good to have so it doesn’t mess up Saul’s combos. And then there’s the obvious “have Lenny pretend to be your opponent to lawsuit theme” scheme. Very happy that you two went super hard on the set in this area.

Side Special has the similar Walt thing, but a less murderous take as Saul just gives his enemy a lift. The tag team opportunities that his business contracts offer make the spin on Walt’s more enticing, particularly how they can drive Saul’s car themselves. The Lenny shenanigans you can get with reckless driving charges by having him impersonate an opponent while he drives are particularly hilarious. And of course Up Special is very similar to Walter White’s - but the tag team business people and Saul being able to get money for preserving his billboards help to make the move interesting in his own way. Being able to almost casually set up a tall drop-through platform does feel powerful for getting early star KOs, but it feels balanced enough when Saul’s upwards-hitting attacks aren’t amazing, and his U-air is quite weak.

The non-Specials section is filled with some neat stuff, like U-tilt’s super MYM’ian sign item, F-Smash’s bowling ball, U-Smash’s blow-up and N-air all having great synergy with your tag team people. I have said before I always wanted to see a tag-team set utilize items, where one character throws and the other uses their attack on that same input - even if the set doesn’t go super in-depth here, it’s still quite appreciated.

While Saul has an excellent base, the majority of his melee is not as compelling to me as other heavy-hitters this contest. This is largely to do with many attacks’ purposes coming down to producing an effect that gives your opponent a lawsuit, like D-Smash and D-air both giving opponents lawsuits for littering. To be fair, Saul isn’t a big melee fighter, and he’s trying to get all these lawsuits for big rewards to enhance his game in the first place. The battery pummel and B-throw do help with his melee, though.

Regardless, Saul was still a very strong set! Does a great job of standing out from Walt concept-wise, while also having some similar mechanics and Specials to tie the two movesets together. I could see my opinion on the set improving with the opinions of others, but either way Saul is an SV for me right now. Amusing to read all the way; not familiar with the series myself, but I’m sure the references will be a blast for those are. The crazy user combinations we’ve gotten from joint sets this contest never cease to surprise me. Great job, Kupa and Rychu.


Never said it formally, but welcome to MYM, Han! Not heard much of Monster Girl Quest, but based on the intro Illias seems like she’s the big final boss and main antagonist of the series. We don’t get many set intros done in first-person, which makes this set unique right off the bat. Portrays characterization that probably wouldn’t be present if the intro was written in third-person like most are.

Speaking of character, Ilias’s animations are cool too, they do a good job of portraying her as a holy and all-powerful being. I like the stage-dependent watery animation of her entrance animation. Her playstyle of hitting hard but having a hard time comboing and suffering in disadvantage meshes well with her all-powerful character too. That you have a grasp on this kind of thing is great. The moveset itself is sufficiently detailed for MYM’s standards, too.

Holy Energy is a simple but effective mechanic for a heavyweight. I love how over-the-top and risky Jab is compared to other fighters’ Jabs: basically a “gimmick” move in Ilias’s set, with a scary insta-kill and big healing properties that we don’t see a lot of in modern MYM. The tilts are all great (F-tilt’s armour and charging, D-tilt being a ranged threat), all short and sweet and having satisfying move animations. Though I do get the impression that Dash Attack is an actual grab, which it probably shouldn’t be (make it a dragging hitbox instead?) - especially when it has tech chase usage out of Down Throw, which wouldn’t work due to fighters having grab immunity for one second after being grabbed.

N-air is a cool move for being a big had read kill, but also extending Ilias’s hurtbox and making her suffer if she misses. U-air is a nice, strong and laggy tool that’s oppressive in spite of its lag, as Ilias has multiple jumps. And D-air is out first holy ground-setting move: I’m assuming that the descent doesn’t stop until you land? I could see the move being used for suicide KOs.

F-Smash is a big, satisfying move with a satisfying animation. That’s especially worth mentioning: you’ll find that people in MYM enjoy big, over-the-top Smashes like this. U-Smash is where it gets particularly fun with the holy light patches: the ridiculous top-of-the-screen bolt and exploding patch hitboxes both feel fair given the move’s start-up. And D-Smash is funky for ignoring staling and dealing chip damage to shields. For how happy you were to use frame data on the Standards, Aerials and Smashes, it was a bit surprising to see it absent from the grab itself. I’m okay with Ilias having a fast grab game to offset her slow moves, and the KO percents aren’t ridiculous in spite of that. I would normally be iffy on the high damage, like Forward Throw dealing 22.6%, but I think Ilias gets an exception for how slow and combo unfriendly her moveset is.

Neutral Special is a simple but cool delayed spiking hitbox that works well with Ilias’s heavyweight nature to corral off stage or bring opponents down for a deadly follow-up. Side Special is a nice heavyweight assist tool with its speed reduction on opponents. For future reference, we normally detail how far our projectiles travel in our MYM sets - typically using training mode units or grids, those Kirby-sized blocks that serve as measuring units in Smash Ultimate’s Training Mode stage. Up Special plays off Ilias having a bad disadvantage but good advantage state - but you should probably give the move a time limit, as without one I get the impression that she could stall in the air indefinitely.

Down Special is where the set goes surprisingly hard: a cool Wario Waft-style attack that feels truly fitting for a world-destroying Final Boss, and plays off of her strong attacks well in that you need a lot space to pull it off. I’m not entirely sure about Rapture lasting for a full minute, even if it’s really hard to get off, but I’m fine with the holy ground buffs and F-Smash and U-Smash having their starting lag halved. Actually, a frame 17-18 start-up U-Smash that can hit off the top of the screen and potentially cover the entire ground while having low end lag might be a bit too strong when you do get it off.

More insane are the assist characters that Ilias can summon. I like that your charging time is nerfed if you do it when your opponent is respawning - we don’t get moves with those kinds of drawbacks in MYM, but it’s interesting to look into. The cupid’s sleep arrows feel decently fair when the assist has a long cooldown unless you knock foes into it. Valk is a simple pester and ping-pong - and the idea of getting a helper who does nothing unless you frame perfect the release of your Down Special, which will give you a super powerful summon, is hilarious and downright intriguing. We do not get many charging attacks in MYM that require the player to release the button within a few frames just before you fully charge to get the biggest reward. Gnosis’s ram attack towards Ilias is particularly fun. The angels’ moves do feel less detailed than Ilias’s, meaning they’re not sold as well to me, but the implications of your minions are fascinating.

I am curious if you could insert pictures for the first 4 angels - or whether lack of material or the actual pictures of the characters being NSFW are holding you back on that.

The stage extra has an admirable amount of detail put into it, especially in the cosmetic changes. Exceedingly unique is the “Boss mode” that Illias can enter if the player inputs a cheat code while they’re fighting on her stage, which is something that’s never been done in MYM. I like the extra where she mocks her opponent too, not just Smash but the other sets from your moveset-making community.

All and all, your first moveset (posted in MYM) was one that I liked nicely, even among our lofty standards! Was quite worth the effort on your part, looking at your author’s notes. I would honestly be happy to vote for this set and would have done so last contest, but this contest is absurdly competitive on an unprecedented scale. Nonetheless, you have a ton of promise if you intend to stay with us - not to mention a few more sets that I have to read!


And welcome to you too, ComicWaterz! Love me a maid set, and love MYM a Fire Emblem set - and what appears to be an insane set for “newcomer” standards, going off a quick glance and a look at the wordcount. Here is Felicia’s main gimmick in pair-up, which is fitting for a Fire Emblem character and hasn’t been focused on in modern FE sets that much (in MYM) despite there being a resurgence of FE sets in recent times. Putting Specials first was a good call - it’s a common thing here in MYM.

Onto the first move, I’m already enjoying your writing style! It’s very funny and casual. I will say that 20 seconds is a long time for Felicia to sit around and make tea - I had assumed that this was a passive timer and Felicia could act within those 20 seconds, but that wouldn’t make sense as tea doesn’t make itself. Not in this set. I’d suggest bringing down the time to 2-3 seconds - long enough that Felicia has to commit to tea-making. You don’t have to be that realistic in your movesets! She could also be able to cancel her tea-making by shielding for protection, just like how Sephiroth can cancel his Flare charge. Other than that, being able to stand on your cart and knock it around with attacks to damage your opponent is a nice and fun concept! Being able to ride on the cart you spawn by dashing is fun too, and actually unique control-scheme wise.

Jab animation is funny! Love the little easter egg on Felicia’s ice sculpture. Both Peri and Flora’s F-tilts are fun, especially the latter for making use of Felicia’s Neutral Special. The D-tilt carpet animations are fun, and I like N-air dragging stating that you can use to bring foes down for ground follow-ups or use it from out-of-shield. Peri U-air being super ranged and a spike that can kill really deep offstage is fun too. And Peri B-air being a grab that lets her do all her throws in midair is nutsy. F-Smash playing Felicia’s crit dialogue if it kills is a nice aesthetic touch. Peri’s F-Smash where she randomly throws her horse is completely stupid, in a funny way. I guess she got sick of stabbing her spear.

(PFFT! I love Shad0takU’s quip on Peri’s D-Smash variant. You just don’t see this kind of hilarity in MYM sets, because we never thought to allow people to make suggestions to our sets. You are making Peri a very memorable FE character for me.)

An F-throw that kills at 90% is awfully strong, but you do need to put some work in getting Peri out, and it fits well with her being a grabby person. I do feel like you forgot about Peri’s B-air with these throws - and that if that 90% kill is based on the opponent being grounded (or near the ledge), then it’s going to kill really early if she pulls off that B-air air grab. U-throw killing at the same percent as F-throw is redundant - throws that deal upwards knockback are better kill throws than side throws, as the latter require your opponents to be near the ledge for early kills, compared to U-throws working from any part of the stage (but being helped by platforms - remember that Felicia can use her cart as a platform!). D-throw chain grab is a unique idea, though. Good old Brawl days.

Also, a comment in Felicia’s D-throw says that nobody cares about reading throws. I’m guessing that throws don’t get much attention in FFE (no grab animation or pummel described here), but here in MYM grabs can play a surprisingly big role in characters’ movesets!

While Felicia has fun stuff to her set, there is not generally a grasp of how the moves and all their versions come together or play off each other in their descriptions. I say this because it’s a big thing in MYM, which a lot of the stronger sets have. A good example would be you mentioning that Peru F-tilt can go into her D-air, which is why I enjoyed that move.

To give you another example of how the moves could play off each other, Peru’s D-tilt and B-air are both grabs that can go through shields, so having Peru out would deter opponents from shielding, making it easier to condition them out of blocking and intercept them with her spear-based attacks! Talking about these kinds of things would actually elevate the set for me. But you’ve just come from a different community and into MYM, to be fair. To avoid redundacy, I won’t bring this up when I comment your next set of sets.

But anyway, good job! Interested to see the content of your next sets.
 
Kholdstare

Kholdstare

Nightmare Weaver
Joined
Oct 10, 2008
Messages
1,441
Greatest Con Man from Albuquerque I Ever Knew:
I knew an eventual Saul Goodman set from Kupa would come along, but seeing Rychu team up was a great treat. You're both very funny and creative writers, so I honestly couldn't tell who wrote what in the moveset. Sometimes you can pick apart who did what in a joint but not here. Saul is absolutely jam-packed with references, creative ideas, and entertaining writing that kept me engaged, laughing, and enjoying the read. Basically everything is a reference and you've managed to squeeze as much as you can into it, well-done. Obviously then your mileage may vary based on how much of a fan of the "Methverse" you are when reading the set but you provide enough links and pictures that it's hard not to follow along. I wonder if it's even funnier out of context? The writing often quotes famous lines from the show to the point where you can visualize Bob Odenkirk narrating the moveset.

Getting down to brass tacks, the moveset's playstyle core is a playground moveset where you're setting up things to incriminate the foe with, and I can't help but be reminded of multiple movesets in the past but done extremely right this time: VideoMan.EXE, Inspector Lunge, and Manfred Von Karma. There's also some of you two's own movesets creeping into here: Walter White of course, but also Vulture with the billboard platforms and Law with the camera's boundaries being the playroom of sorts. I'm also somewhat reminded of FA's Urabrask moveset, one of the quintessential "playground" movesets. I can't help but also feel like some UMvC3 Phoenix Wright was the base for inspiration for the set through the similarities in "Better Call Saul" and "Objection!" as well as finding three pieces of "evidence" against the opponent to transition into a powerful state, and of course the wacky move animations. Saul does find his own identity however through using a constantly fluctuating ammo mechanic to craft a powerful debuff and balance risk and reward through the dangers applied to Saul. It's a fine line to walk and Jimmy convinces the reader he can do it without slipping.

Saul's playstyle of calling in all these contacts and setting up these elaborate scams in Smash is nothing shy of genius and the absolutely perfect way to take the character. This is possibly the strongest characterization in a moveset I've read, competing this contest with Mao but winning I think just out of personal preference. While you said you're not trying to win another contest in a row, this moveset is dripping with such love and flavor that it's hard not to want to repeat last contest and give him the crown. He's up with some stiff competition, but Jimmy's the underdog through and through.

While you do need a really proppy playground-type moveset to pull off the playstyle you're going for, sometimes the move animations are a little too proppy - the sign move and the shredder move for instance - but the moveset is so entertaining and in-character I'll allow it. I absolutely adore the nuanced interactions between characters, like his secretary prepping moves to make them faster and how his summons interact with the car. I especially love Huell being the star of the grab game; it just fits and I was anxiously worried he wouldn't make an appearance since he wasn't in the Down Special and characters like Ira were. The Statue of Liberty making an appearance was also great because I was hoping it would but understood if it didn't.

One of the strongest selling points of the moveset I think is despite its length and complexity, you can show this to a fan of the show who's not an MYMer and they'll be like, "Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep," instantly recognizing it as the Saul moveset. What delightful chicanery through and through, y'all did an excellent job with the set.
 
Katapultar

Katapultar

Smash Lord
Joined
Nov 24, 2008
Messages
1,283
Location
Australia
Just letting everyone know that we got one last moveset submission - Cursola by AwfulBeast! Their post wasn't able to go through among all the new sets we got, but it was approved for submission. There is no link to the set in this post, am not sure if the link would link properly on Smashboards, but you can find the link to Cursola's set on our MYM25 Movesets list anyway.
 
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OldManHan

OldManHan

Smash Rookie
Joined
Jul 29, 2020
Messages
11
Location
Void between dimensions
Katapultar Katapultar

Thank you very much for your review of Ilias, and the warm welcome! I'm very glad you enjoyed reading her, especially since I'm so new to the scene here. Your comment was a wonderful read, and I'll try my best to clear up any misconceptions or errors on my part, and provide some trivia along the way.

First of all, yes, Ilias is the main antagonist of the first game in the series. While she appears as a helpful guide to your hero through the first two chapters.. She turns on you in the third, only spreading small hints of her betrayal prior. It's a very interesting and gripping twist given her benevolence throughout the first half of the game, made all the better through her sheer megalomania and bloodlust portrayed in the final chapter. And to top it all off, she's an almost tragic villain, as she reveals in her final admission to the main character. Coupled with her phenomenal 45 Minute+ boss fight at the end of the game, and you've got yourself a fantastic character worthy of the most glorious moveset I could muster.

Lore aside, time to address some of the flaws you mentioned upon reading. I might not have expressed it clearly enough, but dash attack is indeed a hitgrab, bringing the opponent along with her on hit, while not connecting on shield. I actually failed to consider the grab invulnerability period, so that would indeed make a tech chase quite difficult out of down throw.. Perhaps the move ignores the grab invulnerability, thanks to being a hitgrab? I'm not very sure, Smash rarely explores moves like this, most grabs in Smash are just that, grabs.

Nope, down air is a traditional stall-and-fall, there's no getting out of it until you reach the ground. That absolutely means it's a suicide move, especially with how consistent the dragdown hitbox is. Knowing Ilias the move would kill her opponent first.. But that would be a little silly, wouldn't it be? Maybe the slow startup balances this out? I'm not very sure, although I'm pretty certain the move would kill her opponent first.

I am very glad you enjoyed the animation for forward smash, a lot of people from FFC found it a little over the top.. And let's face it, it is over the top, abhorrently so. But when a character like this exists.. If every move is a smash attack, why not make a smash attack akin to a final smash? And yeah, up smash is without a doubt her most usable smash attack, even with that frame data. Especially when Rapture comes into play and slices the startup in two, up smash is a move to dread. I feel like it's almost justified though, seeing that Thunder of Judgment is her most iconic move from the original game.

As for grabs, I never really considered grab frame data, I suppose I'll have to include that in my future entries. As you mentioned later with Felicia, grabs have never really been a huge focus in FFC, at least for some. I've personally always adored grabs since they essentially represent the ultimate form of animation expression in my eyes (If you get grabbed by any of my characters, you better believe they'll beat the crap out of you. With other moves they're attempting to hit you, but with a throw? They've got you. Adramelech will demonstrate this perfectly, with her incredibly brutal throw animations.) And as for how powerful Ilias's throws are.. Yeah, I went overboard. I tend to do that with grabs, for the above reasons. I probably should have given her a slower grab, but like you said, it does balance out her poor combo game fairly well.

For side special, yeah, I should probably detail how far the projectiles go. I always tend to forget that variable, somehow? I don't remember whether or not I fixed that issue with Mima and Adramelech, they both have projectiles as well. (Mima's is a laser, so I suppose it would be infinite? As for Adramelech, it's probably similar to something like Flare.) And as for up special, I don't know why I didn't give the move a time limit. That was part of the appeal, but that opens the door to wayyy too many balancing issues.

Muahahaha, down special. Every moveset of mine has some sort of wild X-Factor to it, whether it's Adramelech's Timeline Erosion gimmick, Jo'on and Shion's Perfect Possession, or of course, Ilias's Rapture. As with the rest of Ilias, she turns even the X-Factor up to 11, with Rapture being one of the most ridiculously overtuned concepts I've released to date. I'm glad you liked it in the end!

As for the images for the assists, you basically got it spot-on. The only good artwork are sprites from the game, which is a shame since I prefer something more artsy, like what I got for Gnosis. And well, while the most of them aren't inherently NSFW.. They're very close.

I'm very, very glad you enjoyed the stages. It's very rare that I make stages for characters, but I felt that Ilias really deserved it. And she got not just one, but two! The first representing the first game, while the second represents the sequel, Monster Girl Quest! Paradox RPG. And fittingly so, I gave the second stage boss mechanics for Ilias and Adramelech, Adramelech essentially being her foil character, and the main representative for the sequel game.

Anyways, I'm very glad you enjoyed the read! I can't wait to see what you think about the others. Ilias is most likely the best of the bunch, although the others are equally competitive in that regard. I'm particularly excited for your review of Adramelech, she's likely my personal favorite.
 
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