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

[Rychu]

And now, folks. The weirdest thing I've ever written.













------------------












“I’m sorry, my sons. But I have to do this. For everyone.”​

The imposing figure of Edward Newgate, Whitebeard, stands on a cliff at the top of the world. His inner monologue rings out as he stands, a giant framed against the ocean, coat reacting against the harsh winds of the altitude.

“I can sense it. Something is coming. It may already be here.”​

Whitebeard buries the tip of his blade in the dirt and removes the jacket. In the same swoop that takes his coat, the sea fog and mist are swept away revealing a world made of many islands. The islands seem to have no basis in reality - snow-covered tundras exist next to deserts, forests, swamps, cities, or any landscape imaginable.

“Stay together. Everyone will need each other in the coming times. Stay strong. Love, Pops.”​

With shocking quickness, Whitebeard reaches out his hands and seems to take hold of the very air itself. Tensing his muscles and grunting with effort, Whitebeard begins to pull at it. With a shout, the air creaks, cracks, and finally shatters into a seemingly infinite number of pieces. Past the cliff, the Islands that make up this world begin to move. At first a small rumble, and then, emphasized by the breaking of the air, a titanic shift. Islands crash into each other, flip, spin around each other, break apart and merge together. It all happens so fast, and then it ends. Whitebeard clutches his chest, breathing heavily. He sits down to catch himself, looking out upon his handiwork.

He looks solemnly at a world fundamentally changed from the one it was just a few moments ago. What were then segmented islands now merge randomly - a gigantic city in the tundra, a haunted mansion in a desert, a graveyard on a beach. Much of it was destroyed, but most of it was placed with care.

“PS. Don’t worry about the map. It won’t matter soon. What’s hidden will stay hidden.”​

Standing up, Whitebeard gathers his belongings and looks off the cliff, revealing a massive, empty ship: his flagship. Taking one last look over, Whitebeard gives a shout:

”Everyone! Good Luck!”

Whitebeard takes a leap off of the cliff. A few moments later, a massive sail passes and turns, sailing away from the cliff. Text, a title, appears onscreen as it approaches the horizon:

MYM Story Mode 25
ver.Rychu



Chapter 1​

Cut to a small opening in a dense, twisted forest. Trees have been uprooted everywhere - the environment twists and turns and juts at all manner of angles and curves as the plants lie smashed into the ground. We come to rest on a little pile of fungi and small plants. After a second, a nail stabs out, and the Broken Vessel cuts its way through. Wordlessly, the zombie-like insect begins to wander through the dense thicket, eventually coming upon a cave. Entering, it sees a horrifying sight: the corpses of creatures just like it, though with a peculiar purple infection in stark contrast to its orange. The Broken Vessel gives no reaction, other than to draw its weapon as the corpses begin to rise.

-----
(click on the images for stage music)

[Action Stage: Fungal Cave]
​

This opening stage of the game is quite tame, if on the spookier side. Not much in the way of complex platforming, but rather a straightforward hallway that has the Vessel continually progressing further downward. The purple glowing Broken Vessel clones are the most common enemies at the top and can attack using Vessel’s tilts, but they’re not as proficient with their various twigs as the Vessel is with nails. As the level progresses, more varied mushroom-type enemies begin to appear - eventually, they’re almost entirely tiny purple mushroom creatures, which go down quite easily - Broken Vessel can take many of them out with its Neutral Special!. The stage ends with the Broken Vessel cutting open a soft substance at the bottom of a large hole…

-----​

The Vessel falls through the hole it just created, landing face-first in a wide chasm filled with mushrooms - specifically, a huge pile of them in the center with what appears to be a spaceship crashed into it. Taking note of its surroundings, it notices a person-shaped protrusion jutting out of a nearby wall, covered in a stringy fungal substance. As it approaches the protrusion, the mushroom pile in the center of the room begins to shake…. from within the large pile, out bursts Elder Princess Shroob!

“YOU PATHETIC THING. WHY HAVE YOU NOT ACCEPTED MY LOVE?”

“...”

“OH. THAT’S RIGHT. YOUR KIND CAN’T ANSWER. SHAME. PREPARE TO BE SHROOBED.”

As the Shroob Princess rushes, the Broken Vessel leaps out of the way, unleashing an attack from its nail on the person-shaped thing in the wall. Two cuts and the stringy fungus falls away like threads. Enter Jodie Reynolds, who lands in what can only be described as a superhero pose! Dusting herself off, she quickly glances around and accesses the situation, turning to her savior with a giant grin.

“Well, I guess introductions can wait. [FASHION ZOMBIE!]”

As her [STAND] appears, the Elder Princess lets out an alien bellow and lunges. The Broken Vessel and Jodie square up, ready to fight.

-----

[Battle - Shroob Crash Site: Broken Vessel and Jodie Reynolds vs Elder Princess Shroob]
​

This is a fairly standard match in a mostly empty walk-off arena, which looks similar to the one above - just with a big Shroob UFO crashed in the background! The Elder Princess is notably smaller and lighter than usual - though she has a fairly hefty 200% HP! Generally, this should be an easy first match of the story mode.

-----​

As Jodie and Vessel win the match, Elder Princess Shroob slowly begins to back away.

“PATHETIC THINGS… YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS… YOU WILL BE HARVESTED. AND YOU, BUG. I WILL HAVE YOU!”

The Princess points forward as many small UFOs launch themselves at the newly formed duo before jumping into the ship lodged in the mushroom pile. While Jodie and the Vessel defend themselves, she flies out of the cave. The Vessel watches intently, almost getting rammed by a UFO. Jodie’s [STAND] saves the little bug, and she approaches him with a big grin, extending a hand.

“I bet you got all discombobulated by those weird earthquakes. Me too. Let’s get out of here together, OK? I have a feeling more bizarre stuff is happening.”

The Vessel stares blankly at Jodie. While it’s not clear if the Bug even understands her, it takes the hand. Without hesitation, Jodie launches a thread upwards and pulls them up and out of the cave.

—--------------------​

The sound of the thread pulling the two new partners out of the cave suddenly shifts to a rain of bullets as we see a first-person shot of a minigun mowing down a sea of purple gooey creatures. A loud, boisterous laugh can be heard as the minigun continues to rip and tear.

“Do not worry, my tiny duckling friend! Sasha eats through these creatures like sandviches!”

The Heavy Weapons Guy stands in the middle of a city street surrounded by encroaching goo monsters, a tiny Quaxly perched on his shoulder, covering his eyes. The Heavy’s laughter slowly stops as he realizes he’s run out of ammunition. Two blinks and the two look at each other, then back to the purple goo balls. After a beat, both of them scream.

“Oh, for the love of… Do we have to do everything around here?”

Mrs. Quackfaster and Saki Amamiya pose on a rooftop before jumping down into the fray. Quackfaster takes out a slew of the creatures with her magical books, while Saki weaves through and cuts down a huge chunk.

“I mean really, we leave for 5 minutes to find out something about those earthquakes and you draw out a million of these things!”

“It is not my fault these goo balls are attracted to the sweet sounds of Sasha!”

“Oh, can it! I think we scouted out a library on the other side of town - well, where the other side of town used to be. If my hunch is right, there should be a book there that could explain what happened.”


The mismatched foursome gathers together, each putting on a brave face as they look out upon the city - which, now looking out to see the full picture, seems to be smashed into some kind of medieval countryside.

“Well, no time like the present!”

-----

[Action Stage: City of Goo]
​

Another relatively straightforward stage(hey, it's the beginning of the game!) that takes the player (this time able to choose between Heavy, Quaxly, Quackfaster, and Saki) from the city streets to the rooftops, fighting mutated purple balls of goo all along the way. About halfway through, the modern city suddenly shifts to architecture resembling medieval castles - from concrete to stone, filled with enemies that resemble the Shroob Vessels - only instead of the small bug creatures, they appear to be animated suits of armor infected with the purple goo. The platforming shifts from jumping forward atop city buildings to platforming vertically up ever-higher towers. As they platform their way up the largest spiraling tower, the stage ends as they reach what appears to be the top window, looking into a room with many vast bookcases.

-----​

Quaxly is the first in as the tiny duckling begins furiously picking up books that have been scattered across the floor. Quackfaster is the next one in, and begins doing the same.

“While you two clean up, me and the big guy are gonna keep watch.”

Saki and The Heavy nod at each other as they exit the room through a door, standing guard.

“Hey, you wouldn’t happen to have another one of those sandwiches handy would you?”

(already stuffing his face) “Mumph, nuh moghr somvuhchus”

Quaxly and Quackfaster furiously search through the strewn about books. After practically swimming through piles, Quaxly emerges from one, presenting his find with a huge ducky grin. Quackfaster adjusts her glasses and eyes the tome - The Devil Fruit Encyclopedia.

“Excellent work, my little duckling! Now, we should get out of here before something happens.”

As if on queue, something happens. A gargled moan from one of the larger piles of books as, just, so much purple goo begins to leak out between from the spaces between. Quaxly jumps into Quackfaster’s arms, causing her to drop the book, which gets enveloped by the quickly forming goop. As the rest of it bursts out, the shockwave causes several of the large bookcases to slam into the door. On the other side, we see Heavy and Saki furiously bashing against them to get through. No luck, it seems, as Quackfaster and Quaxly cautiously eye the now giant Cube of purple ooze. Inside, the outline of the book can be seen, along with another figure obscured by the ooze…

-----

[Boss Battle - Library: Quaxly and Mrs. Quackfaster vs the Gelatinous Cube]
​

This is another straightforward battle between the two characters and the boss, which has 300% HP. This is using an old MYM9 Gelatinous Cube set that is really 4 moves, but I think it works well in this context! There are no raised platforms here, so get to destroying the thing before it devours you! The Cube will play fairly aggressively here - every once in a while, one of the shroob knight enemies from the level before will squeeze out of it and try to protect the big goo, so watch out!

-----​

Striking a final blow, Quackfaster and Quaxly both land behind the cube, which melts away into an oozing purple liquid. Laying on the ground next to the Encyclopedia is a rather small person, The Customer, who appears to be passed out. After all the fighting is done, Heavy and Saki burst into the room, Heavy revving up Sasha.

“Have no fear missus Duck! I am here to -”

“SHHHHH! This is a library, you idiot! Besides, we’re already finished. We got what we were coming for.”

“But I just -”

Quackfaster shushes the Heavy again, who pouts. Quaxly waddles over and jumps onto his shoulder, giving the large man a wink and a thumbs up. Suddenly, the room shakes again, as even more of the purple goo balls rush inside. The four take stances, ready to fight their way out. The goo balls stop, and begin writhing as they begin to separate into purple and black goo balls! The four heroes look over at the previously unconscious Customer, who has their hands up, seeming to pull the black goo right out! As the goo separates, the purple shrivels away, and The Customer smiles as they store the black goo balls somewhere in hammerspace.

“Well. I don’t know who you are, but you may just come in handy!”

The Customer scratches their chin and gives a thumbs up.

—----------------------​

Cut to somewhere on the open sea, Whitebeard continues to sail towards his newly created jumbled continent on the deck of Moby ****. Arms crossed and eyes closed, he’s suddenly alerted by something.

“Don’t you know it’s against code to board a ship without hailing first?”

Whitebeard turns around, naginata drawn. Before him stands a tall, muscular wolf woman, dressed head to toe in detective gear. Wolf Witch Veronica snarls.

“You don’t get to dictate the rules here, pirate. We knew you were planning something, but this? This is too far. Why don’t you stop interfering where you’re not needed?”

“Gurararara… pirate? That’s Emperor to you, girl.”

Whitebeard clenches his fist. In response, Veronica flexes her hands, claws popped and ready. A toothy smirk flashes across her lips.

“And that’s Minder to you, old man.”

The two lunge at each other.

-----

[Battle - Flagship: Whitebeard vs Wolf Witch Veronica]
​

This battle takes place atop the deck of Moby ****, a massive sailing vessel. As such, the stage has a multitude of fall-through platforms making up the masts of the ship. The player can choose either combatant in this bout - it's a knockdown, drag-out brawl between powerhouses!

-----​

The two clash with a cloud-splitting match, neither one giving the other any leverage. Both have a wild look in their eyes: they're clearly enjoying the fight.

“Gurarara…! You’re pretty good for a greenhorn! I can see why they sent you to come and find me.”

“Heh, I was about to say the same about you, geezer! I can see why the others weren't able to stop you, but you've been abusing your freedom for too long!”

A large shadow overtakes them, which makes each take pause. Floating above them, blocking out the sun, is an armada of Shroob UFOs. More and more begin to jump into orbit, filling the sky until there's almost no sky left.

“I… I didn’t think there would be so many.”

“You can never be too prepared, kid. Besides, there are things in this world that need to stay hidden.”

“So you jumbled up the whole world to throw them off? I knew I had to stop you from doing something rash, but you ARE as crazy as they say, old man!”

“Gurara… I told you before, youngster. That’s Emperor! But if that’s too hard for you…”

Whitebeard steps out to the bow of the ship, fist clenched. With a yell, he throws a punch, which shatters the air in front of him. In the distance, cracks begin to form around one of the smaller Shroob ships, and it plummets to the ocean below.

“I guess you can call me Pops. For now. Why don't you come with me and be a real champion of the people for once?”

END OF CHAPTER 1​

 

[ZeldaFan01]

And now, folks. The weirdest thing I've ever written.













------------------












“I’m sorry, my sons. But I have to do this. For everyone.”​

The imposing figure of Edward Newgate, Whitebeard, stands on a cliff at the top of the world. His inner monologue rings out as he stands, a giant framed against the ocean, coat reacting against the harsh winds of the altitude.

“I can sense it. Something is coming. It may already be here.”​

Whitebeard buries the tip of his blade in the dirt and removes the jacket. In the same swoop that takes his coat, the sea fog and mist are swept away revealing a world made of many islands. The islands seem to have no basis in reality - snow-covered tundras exist next to deserts, forests, swamps, cities, or any landscape imaginable.

“Stay together. Everyone will need each other in the coming times. Stay strong. Love, Pops.”​

With shocking quickness, Whitebeard reaches out his hands and seems to take hold of the very air itself. Tensing his muscles and grunting with effort, Whitebeard begins to pull at it. With a shout, the air creaks, cracks, and finally shatters into a seemingly infinite number of pieces. Past the cliff, the Islands that make up this world begin to move. At first a small rumble, and then, emphasized by the breaking of the air, a titanic shift. Islands crash into each other, flip, spin around each other, break apart and merge together. It all happens so fast, and then it ends. Whitebeard clutches his chest, breathing heavily. He sits down to catch himself, looking out upon his handiwork.

He looks solemnly at a world fundamentally changed from the one it was just a few moments ago. What were then segmented islands now merge randomly - a gigantic city in the tundra, a haunted mansion in a desert, a graveyard on a beach. Much of it was destroyed, but most of it was placed with care.

“PS. Don’t worry about the map. It won’t matter soon. What’s hidden will stay hidden.”​

Standing up, Whitebeard gathers his belongings and looks off the cliff, revealing a massive, empty ship: his flagship. Taking one last look over, Whitebeard gives a shout:

”Everyone! Good Luck!”

Whitebeard takes a leap off of the cliff. A few moments later, a massive sail passes and turns, sailing away from the cliff. Text, a title, appears onscreen as it approaches the horizon:

MYM Story Mode 25
ver.Rychu



Chapter 1​

Cut to a small opening in a dense, twisted forest. Trees have been uprooted everywhere - the environment twists and turns and juts at all manner of angles and curves as the plants lie smashed into the ground. We come to rest on a little pile of fungi and small plants. After a second, a nail stabs out, and the Broken Vessel cuts its way through. Wordlessly, the zombie-like insect begins to wander through the dense thicket, eventually coming upon a cave. Entering, it sees a horrifying sight: the corpses of creatures just like it, though with a peculiar purple infection in stark contrast to its orange. The Broken Vessel gives no reaction, other than to draw its weapon as the corpses begin to rise.

-----
(click on the images for stage music)

[Action Stage: Fungal Cave]
​

This opening stage of the game is quite tame, if on the spookier side. Not much in the way of complex platforming, but rather a straightforward hallway that has the Vessel continually progressing further downward. The purple glowing Broken Vessel clones are the most common enemies at the top and can attack using Vessel’s tilts, but they’re not as proficient with their various twigs as the Vessel is with nails. As the level progresses, more varied mushroom-type enemies begin to appear - eventually, they’re almost entirely tiny purple mushroom creatures, which go down quite easily - Broken Vessel can take many of them out with its Neutral Special!. The stage ends with the Broken Vessel cutting open a soft substance at the bottom of a large hole…

-----​

The Vessel falls through the hole it just created, landing face-first in a wide chasm filled with mushrooms - specifically, a huge pile of them in the center with what appears to be a spaceship crashed into it. Taking note of its surroundings, it notices a person-shaped protrusion jutting out of a nearby wall, covered in a stringy fungal substance. As it approaches the protrusion, the mushroom pile in the center of the room begins to shake…. from within the large pile, out bursts Elder Princess Shroob!

“YOU PATHETIC THING. WHY HAVE YOU NOT ACCEPTED MY LOVE?”

“...”

“OH. THAT’S RIGHT. YOUR KIND CAN’T ANSWER. SHAME. PREPARE TO BE SHROOBED.”

As the Shroob Princess rushes, the Broken Vessel leaps out of the way, unleashing an attack from its nail on the person-shaped thing in the wall. Two cuts and the stringy fungus falls away like threads. Enter Jodie Reynolds, who lands in what can only be described as a superhero pose! Dusting herself off, she quickly glances around and accesses the situation, turning to her savior with a giant grin.

“Well, I guess introductions can wait. [FASHION ZOMBIE!]”

As her [STAND] appears, the Elder Princess lets out an alien bellow and lunges. The Broken Vessel and Jodie square up, ready to fight.

-----

[Battle - Shroob Crash Site: Broken Vessel and Jodie Reynolds vs Elder Princess Shroob]
​

This is a fairly standard match in a mostly empty walk-off arena, which looks similar to the one above - just with a big Shroob UFO crashed in the background! The Elder Princess is notably smaller and lighter than usual - though she has a fairly hefty 200% HP! Generally, this should be an easy first match of the story mode.

-----​

As Jodie and Vessel win the match, Elder Princess Shroob slowly begins to back away.

“PATHETIC THINGS… YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS… YOU WILL BE HARVESTED. AND YOU, BUG. I WILL HAVE YOU!”

The Princess points forward as many small UFOs launch themselves at the newly formed duo before jumping into the ship lodged in the mushroom pile. While Jodie and the Vessel defend themselves, she flies out of the cave. The Vessel watches intently, almost getting rammed by a UFO. Jodie’s [STAND] saves the little bug, and she approaches him with a big grin, extending a hand.

“I bet you got all discombobulated by those weird earthquakes. Me too. Let’s get out of here together, OK? I have a feeling more bizarre stuff is happening.”

The Vessel stares blankly at Jodie. While it’s not clear if the Bug even understands her, it takes the hand. Without hesitation, Jodie launches a thread upwards and pulls them up and out of the cave.

—--------------------​

The sound of the thread pulling the two new partners out of the cave suddenly shifts to a rain of bullets as we see a first-person shot of a minigun mowing down a sea of purple gooey creatures. A loud, boisterous laugh can be heard as the minigun continues to rip and tear.

“Do not worry, my tiny duckling friend! Sasha eats through these creatures like sandviches!”

The Heavy Weapons Guy stands in the middle of a city street surrounded by encroaching goo monsters, a tiny Quaxly perched on his shoulder, covering his eyes. The Heavy’s laughter slowly stops as he realizes he’s run out of ammunition. Two blinks and the two look at each other, then back to the purple goo balls. After a beat, both of them scream.

“Oh, for the love of… Do we have to do everything around here?”

Mrs. Quackfaster and Saki Amamiya pose on a rooftop before jumping down into the fray. Quackfaster takes out a slew of the creatures with her magical books, while Saki weaves through and cuts down a huge chunk.

“I mean really, we leave for 5 minutes to find out something about those earthquakes and you draw out a million of these things!”

“It is not my fault these goo balls are attracted to the sweet sounds of Sasha!”

“Oh, can it! I think we scouted out a library on the other side of town - well, where the other side of town used to be. If my hunch is right, there should be a book there that could explain what happened.”


The mismatched foursome gathers together, each putting on a brave face as they look out upon the city - which, now looking out to see the full picture, seems to be smashed into some kind of medieval countryside.

View attachment 347438“Well, no time like the present!”

-----

[Action Stage: City of Goo]
​

Another relatively straightforward stage(hey, it's the beginning of the game!) that takes the player (this time able to choose between Heavy, Quaxly, Quackfaster, and Saki) from the city streets to the rooftops, fighting mutated purple balls of goo all along the way. About halfway through, the modern city suddenly shifts to architecture resembling medieval castles - from concrete to stone, filled with enemies that resemble the Shroob Vessels - only instead of the small bug creatures, they appear to be animated suits of armor infected with the purple goo. The platforming shifts from jumping forward atop city buildings to platforming vertically up ever-higher towers. As they platform their way up the largest spiraling tower, the stage ends as they reach what appears to be the top window, looking into a room with many vast bookcases.

-----​

Quaxly is the first in as the tiny duckling begins furiously picking up books that have been scattered across the floor. Quackfaster is the next one in, and begins doing the same.

“While you two clean up, me and the big guy are gonna keep watch.”

Saki and The Heavy nod at each other as they exit the room through a door, standing guard.

“Hey, you wouldn’t happen to have another one of those sandwiches handy would you?”

(already stuffing his face) “Mumph, nuh moghr somvuhchus”

Quaxly and Quackfaster furiously search through the strewn about books. After practically swimming through piles, Quaxly emerges from one, presenting his find with a huge ducky grin. Quackfaster adjusts her glasses and eyes the tome - The Devil Fruit Encyclopedia.

“Excellent work, my little duckling! Now, we should get out of here before something happens.”

As if on queue, something happens. A gargled moan from one of the larger piles of books as, just, so much purple goo begins to leak out between from the spaces between. Quaxly jumps into Quackfaster’s arms, causing her to drop the book, which gets enveloped by the quickly forming goop. As the rest of it bursts out, the shockwave causes several of the large bookcases to slam into the door. On the other side, we see Heavy and Saki furiously bashing against them to get through. No luck, it seems, as Quackfaster and Quaxly cautiously eye the now giant Cube of purple ooze. Inside, the outline of the book can be seen, along with another figure obscured by the ooze…

-----

[Boss Battle - Library: Quaxly and Mrs. Quackfaster vs the Gelatinous Cube]
View attachment 347439​

This is another straightforward battle between the two characters and the boss, which has 300% HP. This is using an old MYM9 Gelatinous Cube set that is really 4 moves, but I think it works well in this context! There are no raised platforms here, so get to destroying the thing before it devours you! The Cube will play fairly aggressively here - every once in a while, one of the shroob knight enemies from the level before will squeeze out of it and try to protect the big goo, so watch out!

-----​

Striking a final blow, Quackfaster and Quaxly both land behind the cube, which melts away into an oozing purple liquid. Laying on the ground next to the Encyclopedia is a rather small person, The Customer, who appears to be passed out. After all the fighting is done, Heavy and Saki burst into the room, Heavy revving up Sasha.

“Have no fear missus Duck! I am here to -”

“SHHHHH! This is a library, you idiot! Besides, we’re already finished. We got what we were coming for.”

“But I just -”

Quackfaster shushes the Heavy again, who pouts. Quaxly waddles over and jumps onto his shoulder, giving the large man a wink and a thumbs up. Suddenly, the room shakes again, as even more of the purple goo balls rush inside. The four take stances, ready to fight their way out. The goo balls stop, and begin writhing as they begin to separate into purple and black goo balls! The four heroes look over at the previously unconscious Customer, who has their hands up, seeming to pull the black goo right out! As the goo separates, the purple shrivels away, and The Customer smiles as they store the black goo balls somewhere in hammerspace.

“Well. I don’t know who you are, but you may just come in handy!”

The Customer scratches their chin and gives a thumbs up.

—----------------------​

Cut to somewhere on the open sea, Whitebeard continues to sail towards his newly created jumbled continent on the deck of Moby ****. Arms crossed and eyes closed, he’s suddenly alerted by something.

“Don’t you know it’s against code to board a ship without hailing first?”

Whitebeard turns around, naginata drawn. Before him stands a tall, muscular wolf woman, dressed head to toe in detective gear. Wolf Witch Veronica snarls.

View attachment 347441“You don’t get to dictate the rules here, pirate. We knew you were planning something, but this? This is too far. Why don’t you stop interfering where you’re not needed?”

“Gurararara… pirate? That’s Emperor to you, girl.”

Whitebeard clenches his fist. In response, Veronica flexes her hands, claws popped and ready. A toothy smirk flashes across her lips.

“And that’s Minder to you, old man.”

The two lunge at each other.

-----

[Battle - Flagship: Whitebeard vs Wolf Witch Veronica]
​

This battle takes place atop the deck of Moby ****, a massive sailing vessel. As such, the stage has a multitude of fall-through platforms making up the masts of the ship. The player can choose either combatant in this bout - it's a knockdown, drag-out brawl between powerhouses!

-----​

The two clash with a cloud-splitting match, neither one giving the other any leverage. Both have a wild look in their eyes: they're clearly enjoying the fight.

“Gurarara…! You’re pretty good for a greenhorn! I can see why they sent you to come and find me.”

“Heh, I was about to say the same about you, geezer! I can see why the others weren't able to stop you, but you've been abusing your freedom for too long!”

A large shadow overtakes them, which makes each take pause. Floating above them, blocking out the sun, is an armada of Shroob UFOs. More and more begin to jump into orbit, filling the sky until there's almost no sky left.

“I… I didn’t think there would be so many.”

“You can never be too prepared, kid. Besides, there are things in this world that need to stay hidden.”

“So you jumbled up the whole world to throw them off? I knew I had to stop you from doing something rash, but you ARE as crazy as they say, old man!”

“Gurara… I told you before, youngster. That’s Emperor! But if that’s too hard for you…”

Whitebeard steps out to the bow of the ship, fist clenched. With a yell, he throws a punch, which shatters the air in front of him. In the distance, cracks begin to form around one of the smaller Shroob ships, and it plummets to the ocean below.

“I guess you can call me Pops. For now. Why don't you come with me and be a real champion of the people for once?”

END OF CHAPTER 1​

...There is a Chapter 2 planned right?

 

[Rychu]

...There is a Chapter 2 planned right?

Planning on making a new chapter every 10 or so sets we get!

 

[UserShadow7989]

The Customer Torgo the Bear ***

The Customer's been a long time in the making, and it was worth the wait. It's a very sandbox style set, where you're encouraged to build up constructs you then use as your primary offense, with a wide variety of small interactions and potential building blocks, while still being sure to give you a functional set of fundamentals underneath. This does leave me at a bit of a loss for what to recommend, as I very much enjoy the implementation of the Goo types and how you can utilize them.

First, two quick minor complaints: the start location of the construct should probably be stated to be next to the Customer for consistency, and the core three goo making it can be repositioned via Shield Special ala Steve's crafting table would be a help for usability. Also FAir/BAir make the NSpec comment that flicking the Goo around with the Cursor is the set's 'only' projectile a lie. (I did say these were minor.)

Standard inputs do nicely cover the basic needs- Jab to get some breathing room and quickly tip towers, UTilt is a quick aerial juggle option that benefits from forming a ceiling with a construct (and possibly DSmash blocks?), DSmash can spike at ledge spaced right, Dash Attack is a nice approaching tool, NAir both clears constructs and can get foes off of you, etc). For as complicated a subject matter as the Goo constructs are, it is very clear in how it works and very straightforward in its tools, letting the complexity come from using your imagination and improvising in the heat of a fight.

FSmash being an emergency KO option on top of setting off red goo/bomb goo (making it a better KO option) and coming out quickly hits the right notes for me. Keeps a consistent use for the tool in concept while in practice covering a number of needs, making it so red goo chains aren't free once placed but are highly rewarding and a constant threat opponents need to mind, and makes the customer some level of threatening themselves to help actually fight without overshadowing the intended focus on the Goos.

The Grab Game fits in this same niche of 'decent at basic things a grab game should do while being infinitely more rewarding with set-up'; FThrow putting immediate pressure on opponents in the presence of flammable or exploding constructs while still working as a damage throw without, BThrow a spacer that becomes a KO throw later to let you work on your set up more, UThrow something of a mix of the two with an aerial focus that benefits from a ceiling, and DThrow is a bury throw made more deadly with something nasty nearby. It feels a bit close to having some overlap, but never really hits the point of redundancy.

The moves could still stand to have a little more meat to them beyond what's there, though it's not super glaring. The playstyle section mentions that The Customer can perform easy combos as a typical lightweight, so outlining some of the moves that combo into each other would be a good tact. It doesn't have to be especially complex strings, and in fact simple but slightly underwhelming ones would be ideal to keep Customer focused on their constructs, but a bread and butter combo or two would be nice for the moments between powerplays.

I think the only other thing I can suggest is going into more creative constructs from the Goo, possibly in its own section like the playstyle section to avoid clutter as a pseudo-extra; just some crazier tricks you might see set up between stocks while the opponent is recovering. We do have some good bread and butter options like a ceiling, the split construct shown at the start to demonstrate how they fall apart, the ultimate ledge guard as something crazier, and just having red goo in the right spot to cause a delayed drop or set off a bomb, so this isn't a huge must-have addition.

The set manages to take a very complicated mechanic and make it both simple to understand and very flexible, while being practical in play. This is a very, very good set, and that it's done with a small word count only makes me happier for it existing. Amazing work Torgo; this is some really cool stuff!

 

[Katapultar]

Spoiler: Wolf Witch Veronica ***

This set’s length is a HUGE step-up from your previous works! The character and its concept strangely remind me of another OC in Fox Butler Aki from MYM22, though I’m not sure if you’ve checked them out.

Tackling a full-on 3-in-1 set is certainly ambitious, and Veronica puts a fun take on the concept with the wolves she can summon as Nana-style partners. Specifically, gain access to your quicker wolf attacks for your Human and Lycanthrope form. Particularly fun is the Volcano Kick-esque Lycanthrope Up Tilt that you can use the wolves to potentially lock foes into. The Wolf Side Special tracking is another fun tool to desynch your wolf allies from you. I wouldn’t say the moveset always utilizes the wolfpack to their fullest for every Veronica move, but that would be a tall, tall order and difficult for even the most veteran setmakers. If the Wolf Down Air deal upwards knockback, I could see that having fun combo potential into the slower Lycanthrope Down Air, for example.

Even outside of multi-man context, there are some genuinely interesting inputs and ideas in this set, like the Up Special’s suction and Jab’s second hit being a cross-up, which has rarely been done in MYM. And Down Air’s regular fall vs fastfall variations is a sensible and fun way to customize the move’s knockback without restoring to the use of sweetspots. The Gealach Moon is a neat concept - while not necessary, I wonder if listing some potential kill percents would help to sell how powerful it can be?

The Gealach Smashes are a very welcome gimmick to add some much-needed craziness to this set for its length. I especially appreciate that Veronica can use them from all 3 forms! Part of me wonders if these attacks could vary based on the gealach’s phase or how close Veronica is to it, but just using up the moon and needing to resummon a new one and build up its phases again is simple enough balance.

All of these attacks are cool, and get better with each input. Gealach Down Smash is funny because Elder Princess Shroob also used a Leaf Shield-style attack. I like its synergy with Jab 2’s cross-up! If anything, it could do with a little fine-tuning balance-wise, maybe make it so the foe can’t be hit by the moon again after a second or two, even longer if they shield as Veronica can attack while the moon is out. And then there’s the Up Smash needles, which are well-balanced imo. The ability to prime needles to fire out multiple and score an earlier kill is especially cool!

Throws with brutal animations are always fun. And that Human Down Throw Stamina KO animation.

It’s hard to put my finger on areas you could improve setmaking-wise, but some of the inputs felt a little repetitive, even as a 3-in-1 set. Mostly how many of the Aerials can be used for juggling and bring up the partiaul gealach for that reason. I wonder if Veronica’s Down Air would be more fun as a spike, with the aforementioned suggestion of using wolves to pop foes up into the hitbox? Don’t want to be too hard here, as I know you worked really hard on this set and it deserves to be rewarded like any other 20k+ set.

While Creature was a fun set with some great design, I’d like to think there’s little argument for Veronica being your best set at the moment. Looking forward to seeing how you apply your improvements with other sets - especially Kronni, as the ideas you had for her were really fun!

 

[Torgo the Bear]

Spoiler: Elder Princess Shroob ***

Elder Princess Shroob
(By BKupa666)

I’m always a fan of movesets designed for bosses, especially ones who don’t appear in too many games. And being a very big Mario fan who mains a heavyweight, this set immediately speaks to me on multiple levels! Of course, now you’ve made me wanna go back and play Partners in Time again…

Anyways, this starts off pretty strong with the saucers! I like all the ways you could use them. Giving her the ability to float around on them feels really fun to use, especially since it reminds me of a character I like to play in a different fighting game: Pomme from Rivals of Aether. She also has a float (like Peach) and under certain circumstances she can use the float to move in any direction. So, you know, as if I wasn’t already a major fan of the character choice, I’m already vibing with aspects of the playstyle!

The Time Hole shenanigans are wild, and definitely sound really fun to use even if they’re definitely tough to put into effect properly. Still, just imagining Shroob coming flying in on a trio of saucers, ramming into someone to flip them up in front of her, stopping them with a tilt or something, and then suddenly a Time Ghost with a fully charged side smash shows up…

Now, I’m not too sure why, but I wasn’t really too into the Chomp at first. It certainly has its uses, and I did like how it kinda worked like Isabelle’s fishing rod mixed with a hammer throw, but for whatever reason I just didn’t feel that section like I did the last two…until I saw it’s further interactions with other moves. It grew on me…and speaking of growing, the spores were fun as well. I knew turning people into mushrooms had to show up at some point!

Moving through the standards took me some time, but I definitely enjoyed it. Seeing all the crazy ways the saucers kept coming into play was really impressive, especially once you got to a nair that pretty much just doubled everything we could already do.

Overall, Elder Princess Shroob is currently the set from MYM25 I feel I’d be most likely to main if they were real characters. Good job!

 

[WeirdChillFever]

Losing my Infection (Broken Vessel by n88 )
That’s me in the corner (to cheese the balloon spawn spots)

This comment was written within a week of set posting ​

As someone who played Hollow Knight to at least one of its myriad of completion rates, I loved reading Broken Vessel. The set is mostly concise in that it doesn’t layer too many MYM-y aspects in order to create a hard-interaction-y playstyle, but the little things it does in movement are both great callbacks to its fights and the game of origin and really do help the set define a playstyle. Neat!

I do feel the set could’ve done a bit more to maybe differentiate the different weapons more: Make the nail have that Jab bounce-back across the board, make Infection the biggest hitbox but perhaps with Pichu self-damage and make the head a more traditional move. Doesn’t have to be too MYM-y but would play more into the tool-based aspect of Hollow Knight, as well as giving Vessel more movement options with regards to the bounce-back. That said, that’s just a favorite movesetting trick of mine, as would be furthering the parallel between the Knight by making the Smashes Infection-y parallels to the Spells. It’s like Slavic reading a set and saying he would add a teleport and a stall-and-fall, in that it‘s something I like to do rather than it being missing per se.

Overall, a commendable and very faithful set that could‘ve tapped more into the feel of Hallownest, but is really good when it does and does it in the most unexpected ways to great avail.

 

[bubbyboytoo]

"Fashionably late" doesn't really fly in a race, but Wheelie's rolling up either way.
I am now officially out of racing and car-related jokes. There will be no more.

 

[GolisoPower]

We back with it, bois! Just like before, I'm opening...

GOLISOPOWER'S COMMENT LIBRARY!

Comments:
I Felt The Sky Tumbling Down (Whitebeard by FrozenRoy + Rychu )
Infected Takoyaki (Broken Vessel by n88 )
Two-Eyed, One-Crowned, Flying Purple Mushroom Eater (Elder Princess Shroob by BKupa666 )

 

[Katapultar]

Spoiler: Wheelie

I shared FA’s curiosity about how you would handle Wheelie, perceived to be a combination between Wario’s Bike and Jigglypuff. What I didn’t perceive was the riding mechanic! Wheelie might not have the tools in his set to make use of this outside of team battles, and it’s not your style to do crazy MYM’ian stuff, but it’s extremely fun to visualize and even made me think who of my MYM24 sets would be most suited to riding a motorcycle (that would be Ferrijit, has goggles and the biggest “punk” vibes). I’m sure all of us have thought it would be cool if Mario or other fighters could mount a Yoshi in Smash, just like in the Super Mario Bros games. I also appreciate the mechanic being brought up again in the Up Air.

I also like your usage of n88’s trademark alt text to list your personal thoughts, keeping the moveset nice and short.

Wheelie’s Neutral Special is cool! A mix of Wario’s bike, Jigglypuff’s Rollout and Sonic’s Side and Down Specials with built-in options and mix-ups, neat among them being Wheelie’s grounded super armour that he can lose when going into his other options. The other Specials are refreshingly simple by comparison, but no less welcome. Oh, but using Wheelie’s fumes for obscurity on his Up Special was unexpected fun and a great use of his character design! Up Smash and Down Smash get some fun mileage out of Neutral Special, the latter really spreading that fiery stage control to make enemies panic if they don’t stop your movement. And Neutral Air’s lingering smoke when cancelled is unexpectedly fun and plays into Wheelie’s game quite well! The cargo throw is unique too, I quite like the Aerial Throw’s being influenced by the direction you’re moving in.

There’s not a huge amount to say about Wheelie after his Specials, which is understandable given his lack of potential as a character. When most of the non-Specials are more simplistic, my enjoyment of your sets varies on how crazy and fun the Specials are. That’s why Cookie Scouts and Tainted Forgotten were my favourites of your sets last contest. And Wheelie is very close to them, thanks to those moves I mentioned in the previous paragraph! Even if you don’t consider him among your best, you still got a great deal of mileage out of his character. Curious to see what your best looks like this contest!

Also, I personally don’t have an issue with Wheelie’s numbers, but I can see why you might think that about his Rocket Start. I also enjoyed the subtle but new format, happy enough for you to keep that!

 

[n88]

Since I needed a lil break from reading Jodie, I present a brief comment, followed by a comment-on-a-comment-on-a-comment, followed by several comments-on-comments.

Story Mode by Rychu
Already expressed some appreciation in the Discord, but just so it's on the record here: really nice work here! It's a blast to see someone doing this, and you do a good job having fun with the various unhinged pairings that MYM lends itself to. Love the MYM9 throwback in there.

......

First of all, thanks again for the comment! Your stray thoughts really hit some of the points that I hoped to convey and eerily reflect the thoughts I had when writing some moves, such as the plumeau comment.

And yeah, the Personality Trait of being tidy getting worked into a mechanic where he is kinda filthy is both a nod to him not being too amazing at his job and to incorporate some Donald Duck-like frustration at some small singular goal somehow growing out of control. I originally wanted to use the move Muddy Water, but I felt it would weaponize dirt too much so that it would go against The Tidyness.

As for writing style, I definitely went for the comedy aspect here to 1. worldbuild 2. let loose after having to sort of holding back on Quackfaster for a Professional outlook. Glad to see the personality shone through, even if it is in the hammy way I played it up in the end.

Stray Thoughts:

• “Perverse that Defog creates Fog” Yeah, but I feel it’s also one of the more effective defogging moves with the second part of the move.
• Quaxly‘s riverboat being a river boat is the reason it sinks in water, despite being water. Usually, a material sinks if it has a higher density than the material it buoys on iirc, so the reason a boat of water sinks in water is because the idea itself is so figuratively dense that the laws of nature somehow pick up on it. Explaining The Joke for a gag you probably got, but I don’t want there be a chance for you to miss it, so there you go.
• Surf does end when Quaxly hops out of it, like Bowser Jr.’s Clown Cart. A victim of writing a set in a good day is that you just miss to explain basic stuff.
• I am so mad that I didn’t make a “fowl language” joke. First thing to edit in.

Oh, the Donald Duck reference is a good tidbit! I would not have picked up on that, not a big Duckhead. (Or whatever the right word is)

I actually did miss the "this idea is so dense" piece of that riverboat joke! I think my brain shut down to get me to move on after I took my second or third pass at that sentence, so I didn't stand much chance of figuring it out from there.

......

And now a few responses to Broken Vessel comments - one thing right out front so that I don't repeat myself too much: it's nice to be back! I appreciate the warm welcome. Also glad people generally seem to be digging Broken Vessel.

Spoiler: Broken Vessel

Welcome back to MYM, n88! This set gives me Forgotten and Tainted Forgotten vibes to good effect, with some stylish presentation that feels quite fitting for Hollow Knight, for my limited understanding of the series. As with Kupa, Rychu, Junahu and KholdStare, it’s astonishing that you can jump right back into MYM and throw out something that meets modern movesetting standards and practically surpasses your older sets. Alt text I am just going to straight-up associate with you, I really enjoy it as a weak to sneak in developer’s notes that you wouldn’t see in other sets outside of an Author’s Notes section at the end.

While Neutral Special has a degree of RNG, it’s actually very cool as a simple but effective way to produce bullet hell, without resorting to the more elaborate set-ups that bigger and lengthier sets use. It feels like a very “chaos-y” move, and the fact that it gets laggier to use the more balloons you have out means the absence of a limit cap doesn’t feel overpowered. Not being able to understand the lag formula isn’t even a put-off. Side Special and Up Special are simple enough Specials, but put together they’re actually cool - using the latter’s recovery trajectory to influence the flight angle of the former slash! Focus feels like a simple buffing move to not dissimilar to old MYM, but the token blast hitboxes are appreciated, and giving Vessel a giant attack boost in exchange for 24% and 3 seconds of charge time certainly makes it interesting.

Oh, but Shield Special is neat! Basically gives you a big cut to your starting lag, but the hop back makes it difficult to actually hit with the attack unless you had your back to the foe. Not seen anything like this in MYM, especially such a unique anti cross-up tool beyond moves like Down Smashes and Back Airs and so. A Shield Break mechanic isn’t something we’ve seen in a while either. I do wonder if it could tie into Vessel’s game more: use a weakened shield to scare foes into not attacking you directly, going for grabs to bypass your shield and punishing them with quick movement or a spot dodge. Maybe even shrinking your shield on purpose to scare foes with the blast hitbox, in spite of you losing a stock for it.

Points that I brought up in the chat, but will bring up again for posterity’s sake: Vessel’s kill percents feel very low, even with a well-earned 3 stacks of Focus, which does feel unrewarding when I’d be perfectly fine with those stacks making Vessel hit like a heavyweight with more speed. Dash Attack could kill at 90-110% with 3 stacks, Forward Air could be something of a Ganondorf Down Air and Forward Smash KO at… 80-50% with 3 stacks? If I recall, Ganondorf’s Forward Smash KOs between 60-30%. Could play off the balloons beyond extending combos too: exploit a foe attacking your balloon, or even have a shield damage multiplier if they shield so you can go 3 Focus stacks on them for a big kill.

Vessel is a simple enough returning set, but nonetheless charming and clean, similar to a Bubby set in a good way. I particularly appreciate seeing the new tastes you’ve acquired since you’ve been away, as I still associate you with Marvel and the occasional Star Wars, Pokemon and Mario minions.

Thanks for the early read, Kat! Really appreciated getting feedback from you back when I first posted him up, pre-contest. I did end up making some small numbers tweaks based on your thoughts. Nothing that dramatic, though, so he's probably still a bit soft. I thought about taking some of your other notes and doing more edits, but I decided to keep Vessel mostly as-is and try to go forward with the advice instead. I'm not huge on editing after posting in any case - nothing wrong with it, I just need to be able to call a project done at a certain point for my sanity, and I like to make a clean break after posting.

I've also been futzing around with Akechi a lot as I've been working on him and throwing out or reworking big chunks of the set. The reason I picked up Broken Vessel as a project in the first place was to set Akechi aside for a bit and run with something a bit cleaner/simpler that I felt like I could bang out in a couple weeks. Sort of a confidence-builder to start with, and an exercise in letting myself be okay with making mistakes. In that context it felt kinda silly to then turn around and get perfectionist about it and start making bigger mechanical edits to tighten him up.

I think a lot of sets I'm planning are things I wouldn't have made back in the day, heh. I'm sure Star Wars/Marvel/Pokemon/Mario will find their way back into the rotation though.

Broken Vessel by n88 ***

Welcome back to the game, nate! Broken Vessel is a solid first submission after a long hiatus, focusing on the nitty gritty details of fighting over more flashy options while still having some neat tricks up its sleeve. Down Special is a major element in the set, as is Side Special, but I'm a big fan of Up and Shield Specials too, and even Neutral Special grew on me for being a random element that's pretty enjoyable for creating delayed pressure.

There's a hiccup or two in the writing, like Forward Tilt describing the uses of its angles as "Generally, angling this attack downward makes it much easier to follow up on, but angling upward or forward will make for easier follow-ups and catch enemies more often", but nothing that makes it harder to understand. It's a fairly solid melee kit that focuses on movement and nimbly ducking in and out of melee to build up damage and keep your featherweight self safe, creating an effect fairly faithful to the boss fight that has Broken Vessel shooting about the screen and giving foes only small windows to react if the player is at the top of their game.

Characterization in this set is great, with a few tricks that mirror the knight from Hollow Knight, the infection-filled head being the only place that takes normal damage in the set (and going a step further and making it resistant to shield pokes besides!) since it's technically the thing piloting Broken Vessel, and the Jigglypuff-style shield break self-destruct with a twist of actually being a self-destruct- blowing up to try and take an overzealous foe with himself! It's an interesting take on that quirk, and it an Down Special's self-damage fit given Broken Vessel is just that- a disposable, broken vessel for the Infection.

Shield Special in general, despite being more of a 'bonus option' as you described it, might be one of my favorite tricks in a set with a good few of them. It's a high reward trick that's also high risk to abuse given what happens if your shield pops, and the combination faint back with the lag reduction makes it very nice for bait and punish plays via FTilt or even FSmash if you're feeling lucky thanks to their forward movement and reach. Jumping back to safety to use Up Special where it's normally a poor OoS choice, or turning your back to the opponent to use the movement in and fire off Up Tilt or a short-hopped BAir (or cross up as an especially spicy treat), there's a lot of fun to be had with it in exchange for the looming threat of a broken shield, and you can even use it as a threat when you have a stock lead and the foe's at high damage to make them much more gunshy about sealing the deal (though grabs are still something you have to look out for).

I do also appreciate the care you took with Down Special's buff over the course of the set, specifically with which attacks don't benefit from it. Powerhouse moves like the shield break effect aren't buffed any further since they don't exactly need it/it'd be a lot of power for the intended balance of the set, while other don't get the buff because they're meant to be combo starters, and then Forward Throw is meant to be a pure damage throw with some useful but not immediately rewarding spacing that resets to neutral.

The set does weaken a bit at the throws, which you mentioned you struggle with, but they're for the most part serviceable. They and Up Aerial are short but simple moves and don't really need a ton of depth, but one thought that comes to mind for Down Throw immediately is to consider Broken Vessel's options for how the foe will roll or stand, etc- Side Special for example would be good if they're spaced right for the nail, possibly an option against rolls back, while Down Special might defend against rolls in while giving you a stack, and the option to run in and throw up shield is a possibility if you wanna deter get-up attacks late in their stock, just as a few possible thoughts that might not work depending on distance/lag.

Broken Vessel is a fantastic returning set, and hopefully a sign of things to come given you've got more ambitious ideas in the pipeline. Nicely done, Nate!

On the one hand you've got easier follow-ups, but on the other hand you've got easier follow-ups. Can't go wrong. Thanks for the super robust comment! Always cool to get a really thorough breakdown like this, impressive that you've managed to leave these kinds of notes on as many sets as you have already.

I'm glad it all works as well as it does! I was worried about being able to catch up when MYM's evolved so much in the time I'd been away. I was pushing myself to catch up a bit and figure out how the game actually works (this not being a huge consideration for me back in the day). I wasn't confident Shield Special was worth having an extra input for at time of writing; happy the little extra shield tidbits (the shield break mechanic and the Shield Special) are going over well.

BROKEN VESSEL:
Reading through Broken Vessel, I'm brought back to why I enjoyed your sets as much as I did back in the day, and I'll echo those who already have said your apparent ease in leaping right back into setwriting as though no time had passed is majorly admirable. Broken Vessel fuses together a number of elements I both enjoy and find underutilized across MYM at large — chiefly its multiple Bowser Jr. esque hurtboxes with distinct damage vulnerability (put to even greater effect here, given its featherweight status) and reasonable RNG use. Broken Vessel could have fit right in and perhaps even won our "chance time" Jamcon last contest, on account of its Neutral Special balloons. Their random spawn points are an elegant workaround that frees Broken Vessel's player up from having to either manually guide balloon spawn points around or be directly underneath where it wants them to appear, and upon appearing, they create a chaotic form of pressure, as though the air space is slowly closing in on opponents.

Past the balloons, Broken Vessel's most intriguing attack to me is Down Special, putting itself through a self-damaging explosion in exchange for potent buffs to its non-infection attacks and upping the ante that much more on its glass cannon status. The logistics of setting this up feel reasonable — Broken Vessel can go through the relatively lengthy second necessary to trigger the explosion while foes are busy navigating balloons or in between stocks, or take a risk and try multiple explosions in a row if he's managed to blast an opponent far enough back with a first. From there, burst options like Side Special and F-Smash pose greater threats, but the buffs aren't necessarily a full-on benefit in all circumstances — for instance, U-Smash's hits being harder to chain together while focused.

In terms of miscellaneous notes, I'm a big fan of the sheer number of movement options sprinkled across Broken Vessel's attacks, from Up Special's massive cancel-able leap and Shield Special's short-yet-helpful micro-spacing hop, to B-Air's optional follow-up and B-Throw's Ken-esque backward dash. They lend themselves to a charmingly slippery playstyle feel, not too dissimilar from last contest's Kactuar. There's neat parallelism between D-Smash and D-Air as far as means for producing obstructive globs both on the ground and landing from midair. Not mentioned in the Shield Break attack, but potentially pertinent, Broken Vessel could take a stock lead and then purposefully hold out shield so as to eventually get a weaker Hero Kamikaze on command — a devilish possibility that thankfully doesn't dominate its match focus, given that it dies, too. And though it doesn't work on mobile to my knowledge, I quite enjoy the alt-text as a means for adding further color to moves (inspiration for them, meta aspects that could break up flow in writing, etc.).

Needless to say, I'm high on Broken Vessel and excited to see what surprise sets your return might yield next! n88

Well, I'm glad to at least give the impression of ease! Besides playing catch-up on a lot of the technical stuff, I also haven't done any long-form writing since my last stint in MYM, so I've had a lot of nerves about jumping back in.

I'm really happy with where I landed on the balloons, glad that's resonating - I considered a lot of different approaches there. Had some less random takes where they showed up closer to the Vessel and also played with the idea of their spawning being automatic/periodic at one point.

Broken Vessel

I relate to this dude so much​

For a character whose entire thing is told in insinuation from environmental storytelling, the set is pretty remarkable in its characterization right down to how the little guy takes damage. I've definitely settled on the "characterization trumps all" spectrum of moveset design philosophy so this one is appealing to me right off the bat. The specials add a wonderful flavor to this - I think both up and side specials really do a good job of transcribing Hollow Knight's movement into a set. Despite its lightweight status, I think Vessel ends up being surprisingly hard to kill, and with its down special damage boost and that really, really cool shield special (which is simply chef's kiss) hits like a very fast bug-shaped truck. The little guy be duckin' and weavin' all over the place in a kind of kinetic melee that I love which works so well with the centerpiece Neutral Special. Really, the melee is here is top-notch. I agree with some of the above sentiments that the grab game is overall the weakest part of the set but it's all functional and at times still very good- while I don't think most add too terribly much to the set, I don't think they detract anything either. I do want to point out that I think that Back Throw is rad and works into its semi-bullet hell stage traps in a way that only that kind of input can. Excellent set, it's fantastic to have you back my guy.

Also, uh, sorry for stealing first set. Too hype for the contest to quit.

Glad you're digging the character work! It's something I'm trying to be better about - I think during my OG MYM run I developed an unfortunate tendency to go about stuff in a deliberately detached/indifferent way that really didn't do the work any favors. At the end of the day what I like about fighting games is that they're a crazy in-depth way to realize a character, so I'm trying to embrace that. And dang, that Shield Special really is turning into a dark horse crowd favorite.

I understand, sometimes the hype simply cannot be contained.

Losing my Infection (Broken Vessel by n88 )
That’s me in the corner (to cheese the balloon spawn spots)

This comment was written within a week of set posting ​

As someone who played Hollow Knight to at least one of its myriad of completion rates, I loved reading Broken Vessel. The set is mostly concise in that it doesn’t layer too many MYM-y aspects in order to create a hard-interaction-y playstyle, but the little things it does in movement are both great callbacks to its fights and the game of origin and really do help the set define a playstyle. Neat!

I do feel the set could’ve done a bit more to maybe differentiate the different weapons more: Make the nail have that Jab bounce-back across the board, make Infection the biggest hitbox but perhaps with Pichu self-damage and make the head a more traditional move. Doesn’t have to be too MYM-y but would play more into the tool-based aspect of Hollow Knight, as well as giving Vessel more movement options with regards to the bounce-back. That said, that’s just a favorite movesetting trick of mine, as would be furthering the parallel between the Knight by making the Smashes Infection-y parallels to the Spells. It’s like Slavic reading a set and saying he would add a teleport and a stall-and-fall, in that it‘s something I like to do rather than it being missing per se.

Overall, a commendable and very faithful set that could‘ve tapped more into the feel of Hallownest, but is really good when it does and does it in the most unexpected ways to great avail.

Good to get a positive review from another big Hollow Knight fan! Doing more nail bounce-back stuff would have been cool. I actually did consider stealing from the Knight's spells - I shied away from it mainly because I wanted to keep the projectiles from the Vessel's boss fight in the set, and was worried about ending up too projectile-heavy if I was also doing Infected versions of the Knight spells.

Spoiler: Broken Vessel Comment (within 3 days)

Broken Vessel
(By n88 )
View attachment 347300
Certainly an interesting character choice, course as someone who hasn't played Hollow Knight I'm not too much aware of this thing's implications. I do like the idea of it only taking knockback from headshots. It makes a lot of sense considering that's the only living(?) part is.

The balloons are a little weird, and I'm...really not interested in learning what that equation actually means. But I can still see the move's usefulness. We could be looking at a bullet hell character at higher levels of play...
I like the idea of a power buff requiring self-damage to activate, especially on such a small lightweight. Kinda gives off a Pichu feel, and helps make the character feel a bit scarier to fight against.

All the grounded normals were pretty simple, so there's not too much to say. But I appreciate the character feeling like an honest Smash inclusion. It's all just enough that I could easily see this set in motion, unlike most sets that really make you have to focus hard...and as for that shield break bonus, I like that a lot, too. I've never seen or considered anything similar to that little mechanic, and I can see a lot of crazy match scenarios coming out because of it...

Down Smash is really neat! I like how unpredictable it can be, while still having a fair amount of logical uses. Being able to make projectiles that travel upwards is a cool thing you don't really see much of in Smash unless it's something annoying and spammable, so these are kinda refreshing...and when the balloons exist, the air can be somewhat of a minefield...

So, overall...this set was pretty short and sweet but I liked it! It really felt like something you'd legitimately get to see in a platform fighter like Smash or Fraymakers, and I found that really easy to appreciate this early in the contest when you wanna read a bunch of stuff right off the bat.

Heh. You know, I somehow didn't connect this thing back to those creepy ant fungus doodads, but great connection.

I probably will cave and edit in an actual English language explanation of the math at some point.

Anywho, glad you enjoyed it! Definitely was trying to stay relatively grounded while still keeping things interesting, so I'm glad that all tracked for you. Pichu was definitely a source of inspiration, he's a lot of fun.

 

[bubbyboytoo]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T-Tpqo_Rl6rhARihCgAxl0hrPzWQ6pQc_LlkV80XSY0/edit?usp=sharing
Made some comments. I'll update this over time as move sets come out and I get around to reading them, so check back every so often.

 

[UserShadow7989]

Wolf Witch Veronica GolisoPower

Another oc for the Veronica Files, and this time it's the titular protagonist! I loved the Specials and how they interact, specifically how they reward form swaps in some ways like wolf form producing Nana-like wolf minions that stick around for human form or human form producing the Gealach for certain effects in wolf form/the Gealach buff working to enhance wolf inputs in interesting ways (Wolf FTilt setting up a nice 50/50 due to the added knockback, for example). The set has enough synergies between what one form produces and the qualities of other forms to justify the mode switch, and it's nice to see. Hybrid form being a late game super mode that gets the best of both worlds (with a catch or two including being locked out of the other forms) was a nice touch thematically.

Each individual set still plays nicely into itself, having neat combo lines or benefits from their own specials and enough to each move to give them purpose as more than the sum of their parts, too. The wolf pack is a concept that'd be the basis of a solid set all its own, and gets some nice use here for shield breaking and added coverage (such as Wolf Up Tilt covering the area behind Veronica against nimble airborne foes trying to cross-up or land safely). The moves have proper flaws as well, enough to ensure that the swap mechanic is still highly desirable for its benefits rather than something ignored (not that it's a hard requirement, I could see people specializing in one form and using the other to set up before switching back again like how people specialized in Mythra or Pyra individually, but it's nice and the transformation is slow enough that you'll likely want to make use of the form some before switching back).

The Gealach Smashes are a nice touch as well, giving you a more evergreen tool available regardless of current form so long as you have the buff active. Honestly, the Gealach itself is another example of 'solid tool that could be the basis of a set on its own', being a trap hitbox that slowly grows in power over time that can be traded for an appropriately strong buff depending on how far along it is.

There are a few small grammatical errors and wording hiccups here and there, which is natural given how you pushed to finish the set and all its near-70 inputs total, but it's worth noting given it caused my brain to skip once or twice and forced me to stop and reread some bits in a decently long set. Might be a good idea to reread when you have the time and clean up the typos for a smoother experience. Mechanically I have few suggestions to add, though I will bring up that Wolf Down Throw mentions "Oh, but there’s a unique function to it: if Veronica has any wolves out in play, she can howl to have them pin her foe down, leaving them in a state where they can do nothing but try to mash out.", but does not specify how she does so (Special button during the throw?). Likely a result of my poor memory making me forget an earlier detail.

Flavor-wise, I'm a fan, of course. The set makes some nice allusions to Veronica's hypothetical game, including how she'd pick up some tricks from dealing with the boss battles while keeping them in-theme. It does go a bit hard in on the blood and violence at points, but it's in service to the character and tone meant for them.

It's definitely a lot to soak in (again, like with me saying this for Shroob, a bit of a hypocritical statement from me) but I feel this is much more digestible than Shroob or Jodie, and not just for being somewhat shorter- being broken into three sets of inputs that are short enough to be easily understood on their own while still having enough to them to be interesting helps a great deal.

I'm a big fan of this set, obviously; everything comes together quite nicely both within and across sets while being interesting in their own merits; that's some excellent work!

 

[BKupa666]

WHEELIE:
I had been excited to see your take on Wheelie since you announced him, given nostalgia for his MYM4 appearance and a general affinity for Kirby despite not having played series games in well over a decade, and I'm pleased to say he delivered on my expectations! Wheelie's statistical approach is perhaps contrary to what one might expect, being reasonably slow and above-average in weight, but with the meat of his characteristic fast movement implemented through his attacks, most notably with Neutral and Down Specials. The manageable variety of movement tricks Wheelie can pull off across NSpec in particular (charging a Rocket Start as bait for a regular Dash hit, Turn Jump and Sky Wheel for mix-ups, Skyfall and D-Air for alternative landings) was a highlight.

It's then complemented nicely by Down Special's lingering hit — by comparison, simpler to land but potentially more predictable if the Wheelie player just spins in the most direct path at the closest foe. Rounding out Specials, the nuts and bolts are a straightforward projectile Wheelie can play off of (the directional inputs to determine the specific version reminds me of Peach's F-Smash), and exhaust cloud is a big benefit to obscure his movement. With the cloud and D-Smash fire, I do take minor pause as to how fitting it is for a generic (heh) mook to be playing in the sort of calculated/trap-focused fashion one might ascribe to a more scheme-y villain, but then again, I don't know that there's any real alternative to characterization liberties of this nature when you're dealing with minions that, in canon, have maybe one-eighth of the inputs needed for a Smash moveset. Not an actual gripe, but food for late night thought.

The rest of Wheelie's kit keeps up its figurative momentum, even when its user is skidding to an abrupt halt! F-Smash and B-Air as burst tools were standouts, as were the occasional options that allow for cancels into Dash (dash attack and landing F-Air). Though throws themselves were simple enough, I thought grab-game also worked well, having the neutral and aerial throws a player reasonably should be able to use based on the given control scheme. I was a little hazy on functionality for N-Air's lingering smoke — it's cool conceptually, but felt a touch underdeveloped in terms of how long it lasts and what in melee it could set up. The special mechanic, on the other hand, occupied probably just about the right amount of set real estate, with a few move and animation references (i.e. U-Air) as an optional fun Teams twist without overshadowing the rest of what Wheelie can do.

Put together, Wheelie has all the trappings of a great minion set and a distinct hit-and-run type character — sort of like what Sonic ought to be. And unrelated, but as I ponder ways I could make my own writing more friendly/approachable, per your comments, sets that read as smooth as Wheelie (and your previous works for that matter) are likely to serve as references. Certainly expecting to be revving my engines for this one come voting time! bubbyboytoo

commented within three days

 

[n88]

Jodie Reynolds by U UserShadow7989
Alright, finally a comment on this behemoth - I’m not sure if this is the first of yours I’ve read or not. I think if I’d read anything else it would have been on the order of 12 years ago (christ) so I’m counting this as first. I read the mechanic/NSpec a while back when you were previewing this in very early stages and was really struck by how cool the central conceit is - I’m a sucker for stuff that plays with items in a fun way, and chucking around a bunch of items that turn into doppelganger Rube Goldberg traps is objectively buck wild and great.

The Specials do a great job following through on that premise and mixing together these solid grounded sorts of moves on the default Specials and then over-the-top stuff on the Stance Specials. Stance Down Special is such a simple but bombastic idea, I absolutely love it. I think it’s probably also one of the easier use-cases for figuring out how to manage garment keyed inputs? Less to track for a new Jodie player than some other applications of building up a carefully-managed keyed reserve.

Like Shroob but more-so, the nuttiness of the Specials does make for some real long standards, which have to address myriad contexts where the moves can be used. You do a good job keeping each move description flowing, but the wall-of-text factor is intimidating, and there’s a lot to parse through. Each move having to revisit half of her Specials to clarify different possible usages ends up feeling like a lot of context switching on top of the sheer amount of content. I wonder if the information couldn’t have been broken out a little differently to make it easier to parse, though I admittedly don’t have immediate suggestions.

I adore the character work here and still really like the core of the set - you’re absolutely selling Jodie through the mechanics and the animations, as someone who didn’t catch the original flavor version and has no familiarity/fondness for JJBA. There’s just so much going on here that I found myself muscling through a lot of the set, which was a shame when I was really high on it coming out of the Specials. I did mount a rally toward the end, buoyed along by how much I liked the Smashes, so my read ended on a positive note; I'm gonna have to circle back for the extras another time.

Stray thoughts:

• This is perhaps the first time I’ve ever thought “dang I wish I had the context of the taunts to appreciate these specials”. Love the thought put into including taunts for a pose-happy character throughout the Specials, do kinda wish we had at least the non-comprehensive list of ‘normal’ taunts up front as animation reference.
• Roses are red / Whitebeard is strong / Jodie Reynolds’ Jab is nineteen hundred words long.
• Solid animation choices throughout! Really dig the attention to detail and subtle uses of her powers in the Tilts.
• Up Tilt animation reads a little confusingly, had to re-read it a couple times to pick up the details.
• The landed-Nair thing sounds a little tricksy to control in a set that already comes with a high cognitive load - wish it were more like the other aerials, which feel like they work a little more organically with their ‘landing’ functionality.
• “Jodie looking not unlike a certain Spider-Man villain in posture for a moment” - is it the Gibbon?
• Really like the choice to give her a pushed grabgame, in the context of the regrab timer giving her hard choices about her set-ups.
• There’s an incomplete thought at the end of a paragraph in Down Throw, saying that fall-through platforms “will act as solid ground for the swings without”.
• Love the Smashes and their extra hits; FSmash in particular is a highlight - it’s a great pay-off on some of the subtler uses of her powers in the Tilts to go wild here.
• “and even then only at low percentages as the base knockback is close to strong enough to free foes seized by her Garments by itself” - from Up Smash. I believe getting hit out of a grab is just a matter of taking 10% damage (total, not single hit) from an outside source, so the attack should be powerful enough to pop someone out of a Garment grab at full reserve/freshness - second hit might be required as her power diminishes.

 

[UserShadow7989]

Wheelie bubbyboytoo ***

Gotta start off with the nod to both how hard it must've been to get a full set out of this minor Kirby game enemy and how utterly fun the special mechanic sounds in team matches. The mechanic is very well thought out, trading some limitations for both Wheelie and his comrade in exchange for being able to move and attack together or perform two attacks at once. I imagine King Dedede himself would have a fun time using the added ground mobility in combination with his meatier attacks. I'll also pay a quick complement to how nicely organized this all is (something I probably should've mentioned when commenting Broken Vessel given that's the noted inspiration).

The Specials are a great core, though of course the Neutral Special, "Dash", takes center stage. Fast movement effects are some of my favorites to see and I have a bit of a tendency to spam command dashes when playing out of impatience, so it goes without saying that I might've been a Wheelie main if he was in the game proper. On top of ensuring it has all the usability of the power from the games so Kirby mains get the full experience translated to smash, it's just a neat concept that the whole set plays off of well. That's not to say the other specials aren't of note; Side Special works nicely due to its synergy with Dash and later Side Smash, and the two options you can choose from by angling the input. Up Special creates some potential mix-up options thanks to how flexible Wheelie's movement and attacks are, and Down Special is a cool emergency button and a way to switch up your speed on short notice in a pinch.

Standards for example sets up Wheelie's movement and combo-centric lightweight playstyle nicely, and give him a few neat tricks before, during, and after a Dash. They have some nice meat on them and good variance in fluff considering Wheelie's lack of extremities, and I had fun picturing how they might see some use even beyond what was listed (Up Tilt's late hit for example sounds good against opponents attempting to cross-up, or larger opponents trying to roll past it, though it'd likely be reactable if Wheelie throws it out too fast. Forward Tilt sounds like a potential way to cross-up on shield, or shield poke from above on taller opponents, Down Tilt iis a sort of self-contained 50/50 depending on when you use it on approach (going for the sweetspot might be predictable as a KO option, but use it early to hit them with the spray when they're expecting the direct route opens up other possibilities)).

Got a bit off track there; what IS brought up is good, and there's plenty enough of it to go around. They make a cohesive set of fundamentals even outside of their usefulness from Dash, and I like that several inputs are noted as useful for a hypothetical rider, keeping what would otherwise be a fun easter egg or extra a relevant detail in the set. Using NAir right before landing mid-Dash can even make some of these techniques semi-relevant in 1v1, getting a short-lived passive hitbox. Up Smash is an easy one to point to as being a neat trick on its own and an excellent tool with Dash (while admittedly being one move that's not the best to use with a rider), and I have to agree with your summary and hypothetical scenario that yes, it is indeed cool. Down Smash has an interesting effect I wasn't sure about at first, but warmed up to as it encourages Wheelie to go rushing across the stage and is another layer to choosing how much you go for broke and spread it around and how often you choose to bait an attack by stopping short to perform a punish instead.

Even aside from Dash itself, there's some movement effects sprinkled around, landing Forward Aerial being called out as an important combo tool that would transition from air to land, and the Grab Game simply being a Cargo Throw by default as a really cool touch. The Grab section is a tiny bit short compared to the rest, but it does its job and does it with style- and the 'Pummel' being replaced with passive damage via movement and the Aerial Throw's knockback angle and strength being based in your movement at the time are a nice way to tie it together.

Wrapping up by addressing your concern in the end notes: damage numbers and knockback seem fine to my untrained eye, and the formatting as stated is great stuff. Sometimes a set made on a whim turns out better than others.

 

[Torgo the Bear]

Spoiler: Jodie Comment (**)

Jodie Reynolds
(By UserShadow)

This set took me a while to get through, in part due to real life distractions, but also because of just how dang long it was. While the length wasn't necessarily a bad thing, it did turn me off from a few segments just because of how much there was to see. It was fair though, Considering how much you can do with [Fashion Zombies] in the first place.

You did a good job at explaining who the character was and getting me to like her. Even as someone with a limited knowledge of JJBA, I felt like I understood the concept and mechanics behind Jodie and her canon powerset. So that was appreciated. The specials kept me invested the whole time. Throughout the normals I was a little less attentive, but even just grasping the basic concept behind each move generally let me understand how the Garments, Stands, and Webs could be mixed in to some extent.

Everything definitely got fun again at the smashes, of course. Down Smash in particular was really cool with the added effects of the needles, making it really tricky for opponents to approach all the mayhem Jodie leaves lying around. And Up Smash could use a pretty similar effect, but I still liked it.

Overall, I did enjoy this set, but there were many parts that just dragged on in length for me, even though they all made sense to be included. It definitely had a fun and unique feel to it (at least from everything I've read so far) and I'm glad it's here!

 

[WeirdChillFever]

Wheel of Misfortune (Wheelie by bubbyboytoo )
Y’all figure out how timezoney within three day-y it is.

So, Wheelie!

Obligatory congrats for making a set for a wheel, harness and chassis and making it work! Adding the entirety of the Kirby moveset in one move was very ballsy and makes for a very intuitive ”one button” playstyle for those who want to. The rest is then somehow all unique too, so Wheelie has a more unique set than Sonic does. The addition of momentum killers intersper throughout the set is a good piece of designing and makes Wheelie stick to the status quo of what a Wheelie does, which is having momentum and killing opponents with it. Sadly, this premise is hard to make a full full set out of, but you’ve revved up your engines and done an admirable job regardless.

 

[Arctic Tern]

Hello. My name is Arctic Tern.

I've been lurking here for a long while. Started in MYM 10, stopped, then came back for MYM22. I tried my hand at moveset making before, but they were scattered, random; probably wouldn't place even in the tacky wastelands of early MYM. But I've been reading, I've been analyzing, and I've been learning. Now, I have vastly improved my setmaking skills, and I hope to provide movesets for characters far and wide, known and obscure. I hope you will enjoy my first offering to your contest - one that harkens back to one of the time-honored traditions of Make Your Move, and a character you should all know.

random pokeset go!!!

 

[GolisoPower]

Hello. My name is Arctic Tern.

I've been lurking here for a long while. Started in MYM 10, stopped, then came back for MYM22. I tried my hand at moveset making before, but they were scattered, random; probably wouldn't place even in the tacky wastelands of early MYM. But I've been reading, I've been analyzing, and I've been learning. Now, I have vastly improved my setmaking skills, and I hope to provide movesets for characters far and wide, known and obscure. I hope you will enjoy my first offering to your contest - one that harkens back to one of the time-honored traditions of Make Your Move, and a character you should all know.

random pokeset go!!!

Glad you could join! I do like your enthusiasm, but...uh, heads up, you may need to update permissions on your Google Doc, my guy.

 

[UserShadow7989]

Nice to meet you Arctic! Glad to see another long time lurker throwing their hat into the ring. Goliso ninja'd me on the googledoc detail, you'll have to hit the button in the upper right. Don't be afraid to join the discord and hang out!

 

[Arctic Tern]

How do I do that?

 

[GolisoPower]

How do I do that?

Like US said: there's a blue button on the top right corner of the screen that says, "Share". Then you find and click on the blue text that says, "Change to anyone with the link", and boom! You got it!

 

[UserShadow7989]

Works now! We'll get to reading it in a jiffy. Excellent taste in Pokemon, by the by- this is one of my long-standing favorites.

 

[Katapultar]

Spoiler: Blastoise

Welcome to Make Your Move, Arctic Tern! Man, Blastoise is impressively detailed and dedicated for your first outing, setmakers don’t typically reach the 10k mark until several sets in and with some trial-and-error. MYM likes their heavyweights, so you’ve got a good character choice right off the bat.

I definitely like the application of Blastoise’s puddles, giving extra mobility, movement during regular attacks and Dash Attack mix-ups while still having fair drawbacks. It has particularly neat mileage with Forward Smash. And Hydro Cannon is a cool finisher with its super amour, shielding-breaking and potential as a recovery. Also funny that Shell Smash is interpreted as smashing enemies with your shell, rather than smashing your own shell as that would be weird on most Pokemon. Getting de-buffed for missing this attack is cool, but in that case maybe it should have additional perks over Bowser Bomb? Maybe some super armour, or ideally a lot less starting lag or end lag so it can be tempting to spam. Also love the reference to Whirling Fortress being one of the best out-of-shield options in the game. A recovery that reflects projectiles is actually a neat boon for a heavyweight.

(You might be referring to Pokemon X and Y and not Red and Blue in regards to Blastoise learning Flash Cannon. Flash Cannon wasn’t an attack until Diamond and Pearl!)

Up Smash is another “MYM’ian” style lingering construct. I do wonder if lowering the enemy’s attack speed by 0.6x is a bit strong, maybe just add a few frames to their starting or end lag, but it’s not as severe of an issue as it sounds because the bubbles are tied to Up Smash and are placed above Blastoise. The slow effects do tie in well to Blastoise’s heavyweight nature, though!

The melee here is well-constructed, every move having a purpose in the set right to the very end. The moves play off Blastoise’s puddles and Specials well. Mix-ups and 50/50s on Down Smash and its relation to the other Smashes application-wise. And potential kill confirm into Hydro Cannon with Down Smash against a flashed opponent is cool. Dash Attack is also fun, with a seemingly impractical back hitbox that’s feasible to land on a puddle! Down Special and Up Special do strike a bit close to Bowser’s even with their interesting gimmicks, but it’s inevitable there would be some overlap with their similar body types, and not much else you could do for Blastoise recovery-wise other than the situational Hydro Cannon.

But anyway, Blastoise is an excellent starting set! Very interesting to hear you’ve been lurking since as far back as MYM10; your reading and analyzing definitely show in the output of this set. We’d absolutely love to have you on board, Arctic Tern, really looking forward to seeing how your tastes pan out, future sets and what you’d bring to the table interactions-wise.

 

[Slavic]

Jodie Reynolds
164 Points

144 Points

Wheelie
123 Points

Broken Vessel
114 Points

Quaxly, Mrs. Quackfaster
96 Points

The Customer
78 Points

Elder Princess Shroob
66 Points

The Heavy
54 Points

Wolf Witch Veronica
53 Points

Whitebeard
53 Points

Whitebeard
33 Points

Saki Amamiya
33 Points

Blastoise
31 Points

7 Points

---​

The first week of User Rankings has come to a finish, and what a start to a contest this has been! 65 posts in one week?? It took two months to get to the second page in 24, we love to see this burst of activity. Top position is actually shockingly tight right now. UserShadow takes it between both Jodie Reynolds on opening day and a slew of fast turnaround comments. Meanwhile, Kat has secured a strong second place showing without so much as a single set out, an absolute comment monster. Finally, bubby's here in third after a slightly delayed start with Wheelie and a burst of reading and commenting. We also add not one but two new MYMers into the rankings with ZeldaFan and Arctic Tern's Saki and Blastoise, so welcome! Expect updates to the URv.Neo every two weeks from here on out. I may be in the last spot for now,

​

...Anyways, see you March 31st for the next update! Until then, keep making those moves!

 

[dilliam]

WHITEBEARD

I feel like this set can best be described as extreme in all the right ways. Everything about Whitebeard is big, from his stature to his central terraforming mechanic. Everything very much fits together here while still keeping it light and relatively simplistic. The set gets a lot of mileage out of a basic concept and there's a lot to respect about that! Highlights from the set for me include the up special; I enjoyed how over the top it was in concept but how refined it was in practice. On that same note, the Haki mechanic feels like Incineroar's down special taken to its natural extreme.


ELDER PRINCESS SHROOB

On the flipside of Whitebeard, Elder Princess Shroob has a ton of different concepts. Of course, she does them incredibly well, but it is an interesting bit of duality between the two opening day sets. The first mechanic that immediately jumped out to me was the Time Ghosts, which reminded me of Mysterio's illusory copies, certainly a welcome concept to see return. The saucers were a joy as well; I was very fond of the plays you could pull off by bouncing them off of each other like an expensive, life-threatening game of billiards. The Shenanigans you could pull off with nair were also very well thought out and entertaining. Up special's spores got some good mileage as well; it really lends to her playstyle as an oppressive powerhouse. Chain Chomps were fun too with all the disjoint shenanigans and interactions with the saucers. Mix all of that in with some truly entertaining smashes and normals that feel perfectly at home with Ultimate's HMAs and you have a positively solid opening day set. Worth every word.

 

[WeirdChillFever]

Whiteboard
Whitebeard comes out of the gates swinging with an unrivalled grandiosity: Terraforming, naginata the size of Sepiroth’s sword, a grand personality that’s conveyed well. That’s it that’s the comment.

 

[UserShadow7989]

Blastoise Arctic Tern ***

Welcome to MYM, Arctic! Setting aside personal biases for my favorite starter, Blastoise is a very strong set. I don't mean that as "for a newcomer", either- this is a legitimately solid entry. Mixing some interesting interactions and set-ups like the puddles used to adjust his mobility and allow attacking mid-movement without stopping to enhance or modify the usage of his moves with a strong grasp of fundamentals and the mechanics of the Smash engine and the match-ups between its characters to create a defensive playstyle with some heavy hitting tricks for when the opponent slips up.

The set endeavors to cover the usual heavyweight weaknesses by giving a unique spin on some of the tricks the Smash roster brings to the table, gaining armor on much of his body for some attacks like K. Rool and sharing similarities in his Up and Down Specials, though with the added context of his puddles and some key trade-offs (DSpecial being faster but costing you your shell armor and weakening shell attacks for a period on whiff, USpecial gaining a reflector quality in exchange for its lowered recovery distance to deal with projectiles on approach to the stage (when recovering) or the opponent (with a puddle to enhance its movement). It works well, highlighting the issues and the fixes using in-smash examples without ballooning the word count, and making it easier to picture how he plays in my head- it's absolutely a character I'd love to try!

The set lays out the assorted uses for Blastoise's moves and how hey interact with his overall playstyle nicely, giving him a powerful set of tools for a tech chase that he needs to be careful, resulting in a defensive playstyle that can hit hard and fast when an opportunity presents itself. The smashes, as well as Hydro Cannon/Skull Bash/Shell Smash, form two pairs of situational read punishes that cover each other's bases in addition to their stand alone usefulness and secondary effects. Jab even helps the former to boot. Puddles give him an edge in using many of his attacks, but also up the commitment of his slower moves in the case he fails to stick them as a needed drawback to balance the fairly potent tool.

The way the set interprets Pokemon moves into something for Smash proper is a lot of fun, reminding me of the nicer examples of older Pokemon sets and bringing a lot of the fun creativity of them to the table, with nary a hint of the more bizarre or mechanically clueless design choices they had, thanks to your firm understanding of the engine and existing design.


There's a nitpick here or there I have that don't actually affect set quality, just a few odd wording choices or conflicting details that tripped me up a moment while reading (which was otherwise a smooth process- the writing style is easy to understand and flows well). Up Smash for example had two wording issues: "Set radial knockback that won't kill until 235%" (Set, unless my understanding is wrong, means it doesn't scale?) and "Bubble Beam allows him to somewhat negate the starting lag weakness; by decreasing the start lag of his opponent’s attack and the speed of their approach, Blastoise has a higher likelihood of beating out their attack with his." (Should be 'increasing the start lag and decreasing the speed of their approach' if I got the intention right.)

Down Smash/Aqua Tail has an incomplete thought at the start of its last paragraph: "Flashed opponents react in a unique way when hit by the splash - they are stunned for a good while, 17 frames at , then launched upwards at a set distance of 3 grids above Blastoise." From Back Throw: "This increases the damage + 0.4% (and by proxy knockback), so the max ranged puddle will make the throw deal 15% - the strongest BThrow in the game, even if only by 1%." (I assume that damage increase is per Unit, given the following sentence?)

I bring up these nitpicks because I... honestly don't have much else I can suggest from my read-through. Down Tilt could maybe use a tiny damage boost, but it is said to be spammable and damage isn't the point, so that's not needed. Up Tilt mentions it doesn't benefit much from puddles, but I could see the lowered knockback angle from staling nudging foes along with you and possibly leading to another hit at high percents (though that depends on how fast you're going vs the knockback scaling so that might not work/would be a niche detail, so also not really worth bringing up).

Kinda shows how solid the set is already; the only thing I'd have considered more of a sticking point was Bubblebeam's original speed debuff and you already fixed that at Kat's recommendation. I didn't even get the chance to bring up how all the quirks of moves and debuffs weave together so nicely, like the uses of the Flashed status or noting how everything can come together to push foes into position for kill confirms/condition their approaching and defensive responses. It has that older MYM sensibility of giving each input a fun quirk but without being intrusive, feeling like something that would be very intuitive to learn and play in practice.

I'm rambling, but I want to get across the point that this is a really, really good set. I'm excited to see more from you this contest; hope you enjoy your stay!

 

[Arctic Tern]

So now that I'm an established moveset maker, I guess I have to make some comments. Here's some comments.

Also, here's a link-up space for all future movesets!

 

[Torgo the Bear]

Spoiler: Heavy Weapons Guy (**)

Heavy Weapons Guy
wizfoot

Well, this was a short but pleasant read! While I'm sure there's probably a lot more you could've done here, I understand you aren't as experienced with making crazy complex characters like most of everyone else here...either way, I could still definitely tell you care about this character, and I'm pretty happy this set exists!

There wasn't really too much for me to say on this one, but I have a few things. First of all, I'm not too sure how I feel about the ammunition mechanic, honestly. I get where you're coming from, but it doesn't entirely feel necessary. Secondly, I feel like there should be some way to manually cancel out of eating the Sandvich. I would've made it so he could cancel the animation with a shield, and this would still draw from his food meter, but it would limit the amount of time he could eat later on (and subsequently mean he can't heal as much in one fell swoop).

But hey, overall, I liked this one, and I'm pretty excited to see what else you can bring to the table in the future!

Spoiler: Quaxly (**)

Quaxly
WeirdChillFever

First of all, I'm impressed you were able to put together something this cohesive about a character that we hardly know a single thing about. I really enjoyed the characterization you gave it, especially with how well the moves fit into those themes.

The down was an interesting mechanic that fits pretty well into the little guy's playstyle. It does sound a little annoying to deal with sometimes, regardless of whether you're playing as Quaxly or the poor guy who has to beat him up...but it never feels horrible. And the writing on Whirlpool was honestly a little confusing in some places, but I still feel like I got the idea.

I really like Down Smash, if only for the fact that its totally not based on Donald. Still, it gives Quaxly an incentive to actually get covered in down, aside from combo potential or something. And all the aerials being based on swimming (and diving) techniques was just adorable.

One other thing...while reading through this, I grew curious to see what you could do with some other characters that have very few personality traits. Dash attack in particular with its references to cleaning the stage made me wonder how you'd tackle Woshua from Undertale, although I have no idea if that would possibly interest you.

Well, overall, this was a cute, short romp that was definitely fun. It may not have been too complicated, but it was still enjoyable, and now that I'm done with it I can move onto your next set...which I'm very much more excited to look at.

Spoiler: Quackfaster (**)

Quackfaster
WeirdChillFever

Holy alliteration, Batman! You'd think Scrooge himself wrote this when he was pissed out of his tailfeathers! I actually felt like the constant alliteration was pretty entertaining and it did actually pull a laugh out of me a few times. Although I can understand why others may have been a bit annoyed by it. Anyways, this was the set I was extremely excited for as soon as I learned you were working on it, and I wasn't disappointed with it!

This starts off pretty strong with the various books. Down special is almost exactly what I expected from this set (I only didn't see the platforms coming) but it was still very fun, especially when mixed with the runes. I was really happy with the runes too. Gravity switching is a really neat mechanic and I'd love to see it used in a real platform fighter sometime (If I ever get good at making custom characters in Fraymakers I think this is one set I'd love to borrow for that).

The ray guns are an incredible callback, and I especially loved the upgrade of making them Bulb Tech. You could've just kept it as a mere cameo, but you even made the Bulb Tech actually play into the move in a very faithful way...I appreciated that a lot. But yeah as for the move itself, I do think it was really fun, although I feel like it would take me a while to grasp its applications in gameplay. Sure, you described some, but I feel like this one in particular is one of those concepts I don't really feel the usefulness of without playing it.

The library cart was definitely the weakest special, but considering the insanity of the other three, you can't really blame it. That doesn't mean it wasn't fun though. On this one, I can easily see everything you'd be able to do with it, and I really like what it can do, especially with the runes. My only problem was that I wasn't quite sure how she'd use the rays on the cart. Does she have to stop and shoot the cart, or does she just get the automatic effects on the cart if she's already shot herself? That's kind of important but I don't think it was mentioned here...unless I'm missing something.

Down Smash implies that Azurda can have trapdoors and a timeloop room inserted into his skull and that is hilarious
But yeah Down Smash is awesome. I love the ways you can play with this. I'm already imagining Quackfaster opening a portal beneath some other character's powerful traps and having them get launched into the air...like Villager's tree, or in MYM, one of the Customer's Gooball towers. It can do that, right? I wasn't just pulling that out of nowhere? I mean, I know she can absolutely throw her books and carts through the portals.

yeah okay i absolutely adore the cornelius coot portal easter egg
the others are cool too but i just really love this one in particular

Ah, yes. There had to be a pogo in here somewhere. This is pretty much exactly how it should work no matter who's using it, whether it be Quackfaster, Scrooge, or some other character like Cranky Kong. Of course, Quackfaster gets a lot more mileage out of the technique since she can make platforms.

The only thing I wanna ask about up air is what game is that move taken from

I...genuinely didn't expect to see Quackfaster using the Papyrus of Binding. Neat!
And using it to summon stuff from This Duckburg Life? Extra Neat!

So yeah, overall, I absolutely enjoyed this one! I think it lived up to my excitement, even if I can't say it's been my favorite set of MYM25 so far (although it definitely is my favorite so far based on character choice alone). I'd absolutely want to play Quackfaster in a real game, although I don't feel like I'd be competent enough for her.

Spoiler: Saki Amamiya (**)

Saki Amamiya
ZeldaFan01

I can't really judge this one the same way as the other sets around here considering that this one has been designed specifically for a Brawl mod. Still, though, I do wanna say that a little further description on the moves would be nice instead of just showing character faces and saying it's the same move as something they do. If only I knew how to mod my Wii, I would try this out for myself and probably be able to give you a better review.

 

[BKupa666]

BLASTOISE:
In a manner similar to Wheelie, I think Neutral Special and its mix of complementary options are my favorite part of Blastoise. Water Gun is a serviceable enough ranged tool, with an intriguing incentive for Blastoise to not just camp, given the reduction in range as he charges the projectile. Hydro Cannon takes this a set further while also creating the set's highlight in its puddles. It's a means for burst movement, effectively a conveyor belt Blastoise can directionally trigger at will for better-than-normal mobility, and to threaten significantly more space with his strong attacks, keeping opponents jumpy as long as he's standing there (menacingly).

That said, the puddles aren't a free, unambiguous benefit, as a careless dash within one will put Blastoise in position to pay the heavy tax. And then, the standing water — created via a middling Special charge — flows organically into its full-charge conclusion, with Hydro Cannon. On which note, I have maybe my only recurring nitpick in Blastoise was KO percents that felt higher than they ought to be. It's a tough line to walk with heavy design and moves with the range, duration and angleability of Hydro Cannon, especially when Side Special is there to potentially enhance them further. That said, given the charge time needed to unlock Hydro Cannon in the first place, I wouldn't lose sleep over a lower KO threshold, and definitely not on moves like B-Air and F-Smash (on the latter, there's only a handful of characters whose fully charged F-Smashes won't KO until 80%, with many quite a bit lower).

That's all small, adjustable potatoes, though. Blastoise then goes on to establish nice threads through the rest of his set in Down and Side Specials, what with how the bulk of his melee involves either his shell, water abilities or some combination thereof. I would quite enjoy chancing a Hookbill the Koopa-esque slam that's faster than Bowser Bomb and stronger on hit, with the wager being a short period of lost damage potential and heavy armor. The risk in this risk-reward design feels closer to what I'd have liked to see out of K. Rool's belly armor, especially when Blastoise makes such great use out of tanking attacks, like whirling through enemy blows to recover with Up Special. Other standout moves to me were dash attack, with its unorthodox sweetspot to catch crossups; Up and Down Smashes, with their diversification in range and use; D-Tilt as -the- tool Blastoise can use in setting up prone abuse; and B-Throw, given the forward thinking needed to micro-space with it in tandem with the puddles.

Minor item, but I do enjoy the small areas where Blastoise incorporates nods to his Melee incarnation, with the projectile size reference in Hydro Pump and handful of moves where he pushes himself backward. I can't be the only one who, as a young lad, found it amusing when an opponent would grab a Pokeball and spawn Blastoise, only for him to push himself backward off the stage and deprive them of his full benefit as a summons.

That someone could check out MYM as far back as 2011 (MYMX), quietly observe in more recent years and then roll up with an introductory set as strong as Blastoise is a truly pleasant surprise. We're pleased to welcome newcomers of all stripes, but it's almost always been a case of someone getting their feet wet and steadily improving; I don't know that I've ever seen a new writer come in having learned from us stalwarts' own improvements. Your setwriting ceiling looks nowhere in sight, from where I'm standing. In any case, it's been great for everyone to start to get to know you in chat, and I'm excited to see your link-up space fill up over time. Arctic Tern

commented within three days

 

[ForwardArrow]

Whitebeard
This is the third joint Froy's branched out to do now, and this is another one that feels like an interesting style mesh. Whitebeard is the first real terraformer we've had in a while, mostly in just creating extensions of the stage but also by shattering platforms to rebuild the battlefield how he wants to. From there, the extensions are used to wall off exits, extend the reach of attacks, and cancel lag by destroying them. This ability to redefine the entire playing field with the earth warping to his advantage are used to compensate for the fact that, if you look closely, this is a very extreme heavyweight. I don't think I saw a move in his set come out before Frame 7 and he has few pre-Frame 10 moves than Ganondorf, so he needs all the help he can get to not just end up totally unviable. I like the Haki counter for that reason, it gives Whitebeard a useful boon against faster characters by making his attacks both harder to weave around and harder to power through, moreso when you pull it off against a light, weak attack. But big heavies have to watch out too, because he can double down even harder on power if he counters a heavy hit even if the boon is much shorter lived.

What surprised me about this set was honestly, it didn't leave me with a lot to criticize. I kinda figured Dash Attack would be the highlight of the melee and that'd be it, and while its probably the best move in the set its not like the set doesn't follow it up with more cool moves. The Down Smash is another really cool input to take full advantage of the terraforming, Down Tilt is a very nuanced pressure move that flows into some of the most exciting melee attack to make his melee not nearly as "unga bunga" as you'd expect, and the Grab Game has a really cool pummel and specialized grab hitbox to give extra nuance to Whitebeard's high impact throws(which have some cool stuff of their own on top of that). Jab and Forward Tilt are pretty basic, but they fill important rolls in his gameplan. For a guy who is supposed to have bad air game, I was impressed by how consistently the aerials ended up having relevant uses by virtue of all the stage devastation they have to play off. And circling back to Dash Attack, that is a fantastic move and I'm totally going to have to steal concepts from it for my own sets sometime.

All in all, just a really well-rounded moveset that shows Rychu's continued skill at making cool concepts out of One Piece characters after Law, with Froy adding some extra punch and depth to the melee on top of that. A worthy set for the world's strongest man and current star of the story mode.

Broken Vessel
Welcome back Nate, its good to see you back in the game. And not only that, it feels like you've adjusted to making modern sets just fine. Gone are the days where I'm forced to use scientific notation to describe how many clones are in your set. Broken Vessel instead plays like a bit of a mirror of the "viable extreme heavy" concept MYM is so fond of nowadays, an extreme lightweight who KOs late, dies early, but is highly fast and consistent. In Broken Vessel's case, its a bit more than that as his KO percentages are worse than even Sheik's, and he suffers from the shield-based self-destruct Jigglypuff has. To make up for that, Broken Vessel's hurtbox is effectively smaller than it looks with only the head being a viable target to get real damage and knockback in, and the shield explosion is at least liable to take the opponent down with him if he's racked up enough damage.

Its genuinely interesting to see how his flaws/strengths are weighted against the usual of a character like this in Smash, lingering balloons to potentially extend his combos to greater heights are counterbalanced by aerials that are definitely on the slower side being some further extensions of this dynamic Broken Vessel has, as well as the ability to deal self-damage to power himself up to actually kill at respectable percents. It IS interesting stuff, but I will say I did come out of this set less high on it than most seem to have.

There's a couple reasons for that, the first of which being the fact that I found the set's melee options notably unambitious and lacking in particularly interesting synergies with each other and the balloons. I get why, its your first set back and all, but I ultimately came out of his post-Specials moves feeling like they tended not to add real depth to the unusual lightweight we have here, mostly just giving a new ground combo move or a new KO move that works under highly specific circumstances. I'll admit, I'm not the best at expressing "why X set has melee depth and another doesn't", but I feel like at the end of the day a lot of the moves feel like "attack in X direction, combos into X, if its a kill move kills late but kills earlier with Focus" and there's more to melee than that, like sweetspots, shield pressure, risk-reward scenarios, mixups, etc, which this set doesn't feel like it has a lot of. I'm also convinced the Vessel is very underpowered. He takes a long time to actually kill compared to the featherweights of Smash who actually have some surprisingly decent KO moves in there, relies on balloon setups to get good combos where most of these types of characters just kind of have them automatically, and the amount of self-damage he has to take to actually kill is kind of absurd. 16%-24% to fish for a shot at a kill is just so much on a character who can't afford to take much damage in the first place, leaving him either a REAL frail glass cannon with not as much cannon as you'd hope, or a character with no power and not enough positives to make up for that compared to someone like Pichu or Jigglypuff.

I'm nitpicking the set because I see it get a lot of praise, and while I'm glad its found some popularity I think its not nearly the best you'll be capable of with another couple tries. The thing is, I still like it. Nothing I listed in the previous paragraph is a huge deal breaker or anything, as I think doubling down on frailty to get kills on a fast character is a cool concept and I actually like the reliance on balloons to make combos more interesting even if it makes him weak. Its a decent set, it just suffers from shaky balance and not playing into its concepts as well as it could, and I think as time goes on you'll surpass it. At the end of the day, a respectable first outing back and a sign of good things to come.

Elder Princess Shroob
I'm not even gonna lie, this set kinda blew me away. Here I thought you'd spent all the gas you had in the tank on Walt and you were going to go easy on us this contest, but instead you hit us with another set I'd argue is in the running for your best ever. I recognize when you just won last contest, that's a lot of hype to live up to, and I suspect not everyone will agree with me Shroob is that good. Its concepts are a little more conventional and the characterization doesn't have the pool of references a more complex character like Mysterio, Syndrome or Walter White has access to.

What Shroob has is just straight up incredible execution to make up for it. The mechanics of the saucers are complex for sure, with them functioning as both minions and pinball projectiles both players can knock around. But they're also really smooth, self-explanatory in gameplay to both players as the goal becomes to hit the saucers around, hit them into each other to ricochet projectiles all over the stage, and not get them thrown back in your face in a fit of royal arrogance. The time duplicate allows Shroob to, at least for brief periods and with limited attack barrages, overcome her heavyweight slowness as we've all come to love by layering additional attacks on top of it... which you can also use to just swat around the saucers in ways that never would be possible with just Shroob herself. Not to mention how many attacks play into the temporal duplicate in exciting ways, like FSmash starting it after the charge frames so it comes out on Frame 6 instead of 40 to make up for the decreased power. Or all the mixups and cool combinations you can create with it and Dash Attack. Jab dribbling players across the stage into dangerous Mushroom patches, FTilt's variety of ranges and applications with saucers, Bair being able to swing a saucer all around Shroob for some potentially truly chaotic projectile patterns at the end, the little Smash charge mixups... I'm just scratching the surface of the cool ideas this moveset gets out of its core concepts, I feel like I can't fully do justice to how many times even the simplest moves dropped an application with the saucers and clones(and later Nair) to me that made me go "oh wow that's sick."

I also kind of like that the set is aware of how open ended the clone and saucer stuff gets, especially considering the latter feels like 5 specials in one with their role as Pikmin-like minions on top of the pinball shenanigans. So Side Special and Up Special end up getting support roles, with Side Special standing out as a very fancy special attack that can get weaved into the rest of her game in some really fascinating ways, but not taking the spotlight away from the core. Its a payoff, not another branch in a sprawling game. The Up Special and Nair are closer to additional centerpieces, but they're clearly designed more for supporting roles than to be the focus themselves, and while sure, Nair does a LOT of things, the way its handled is pretty consistently smart in that its a functional melee move if Shroob doesn't want to commit to all the insanity the projectile brings. And like... every hard interaction it adds is genuinely cool and I don't know if there's a single one I'd want cut, which is saying something when the move has so many of them. Possibly a controversial take and if you have to remove one of the less important ones I'm not gonna be mad or dock the set points, I can see how the move's leaning a bit towards overloaded. But its just so cool with how far it can extend the stage presence and projectile madness that your saucers can provide!

Shroob is just a mix of melee that's extremely specialized and well designed to take advantage of her core mechanics, awesome core mechanics with tons of depth and even counterplay. a smart design direction that lets the set be complex but never truly trip over itself, and even impressive characterization for a character who gets such a tiny amount of dialogue and depth in her home game. If you're struggling with how dense and sprawling the set is early on, I'd even say that's eventually alievated by the end, as once you get past the Nair the set doesn't have any super massive inputs left to drop on you, but you can really see how all the depth and payoffs of earlier can be used with these simpler moves. There's little things I can nitpick, I don't personally feel the healing provided by the mushroom patch to saucers adds much in the way of relevant or practical depth to the set, but I think the sheer threat of Shroob healing herself and how dangerous it is to foes to get mushroom'd by it gives it plenty of value in the set. A+ effort Kupa, you really are building an absolute dynasty with how many awesome sets you've been putting out lately.

 

[WeirdChillFever]

Spoiler: Quaxly (**)

Quaxly
WeirdChillFever
View attachment 347931
First of all, I'm impressed you were able to put together something this cohesive about a character that we hardly know a single thing about. I really enjoyed the characterization you gave it, especially with how well the moves fit into those themes.

The down was an interesting mechanic that fits pretty well into the little guy's playstyle. It does sound a little annoying to deal with sometimes, regardless of whether you're playing as Quaxly or the poor guy who has to beat him up...but it never feels horrible. And the writing on Whirlpool was honestly a little confusing in some places, but I still feel like I got the idea.

I really like Down Smash, if only for the fact that its totally not based on Donald. Still, it gives Quaxly an incentive to actually get covered in down, aside from combo potential or something. And all the aerials being based on swimming (and diving) techniques was just adorable.

One other thing...while reading through this, I grew curious to see what you could do with some other characters that have very few personality traits. Dash attack in particular with its references to cleaning the stage made me wonder how you'd tackle Woshua from Undertale, although I have no idea if that would possibly interest you.

Well, overall, this was a cute, short romp that was definitely fun. It may not have been too complicated, but it was still enjoyable, and now that I'm done with it I can move onto your next set...which I'm very much more excited to look at.

Well, it helps that Pokémon is an easy serie to work with: Even if you just get a typing and a general shape, you don’t need to invent the mechanics of the game or guess how it’d be implemented in Smash, there’s a movelist and multiple water starter sets to work with. The fact we had a duck Pokémon before also helps establish a possible movepool, so all-in-all it wasn’t too hard to make a set for Quaxly, even though it’s a good raison-d’être for this set to be for a Pokémon without an official movepool or Pokédex entry.

The Down X moves definitely helped work out the Down mechanic into a few specialized options. It helped that I wanted it to be a consistent thread throughout the set for comedy purposes, but it also helped me to add the basic “stronger if Down” options in there. The Donald inspiration I tried to keep to a minimum, but the characterization of a low-level cleaner in an epic battle with his own clumsiness and feathers kinda naturally culminated in a classic Donald fit of rage.

I did really like the challenge of going for a character with the bare minimum, since finding sources for moves is one of the best parts of setmaking for me. I’m not sure if I’m particularly interested in Woshua since I never played or have a good grasp on Undertale, so it’d be a step-up from Quaxly, but Cataquack will be similar in that one canonical attack and general setting actually does a set make, although that veers more into the direction of Kilton in that he’s more of a torch bearer for the source game as a whole rather than really hone into The One Thing it Does to go for a more self-contained set. Would have to think about more Quaxly-like sets maybe. (Ideally to make a set for its evolution the minute that’s revealed)

Spoiler: Quackfaster (**)

Quackfaster
WeirdChillFever

Holy alliteration, Batman! You'd think Scrooge himself wrote this when he was pissed out of his tailfeathers! I actually felt like the constant alliteration was pretty entertaining and it did actually pull a laugh out of me a few times. Although I can understand why others may have been a bit annoyed by it. Anyways, this was the set I was extremely excited for as soon as I learned you were working on it, and I wasn't disappointed with it!

This starts off pretty strong with the various books. Down special is almost exactly what I expected from this set (I only didn't see the platforms coming) but it was still very fun, especially when mixed with the runes. I was really happy with the runes too. Gravity switching is a really neat mechanic and I'd love to see it used in a real platform fighter sometime (If I ever get good at making custom characters in Fraymakers I think this is one set I'd love to borrow for that).

The ray guns are an incredible callback, and I especially loved the upgrade of making them Bulb Tech. You could've just kept it as a mere cameo, but you even made the Bulb Tech actually play into the move in a very faithful way...I appreciated that a lot. But yeah as for the move itself, I do think it was really fun, although I feel like it would take me a while to grasp its applications in gameplay. Sure, you described some, but I feel like this one in particular is one of those concepts I don't really feel the usefulness of without playing it.

The library cart was definitely the weakest special, but considering the insanity of the other three, you can't really blame it. That doesn't mean it wasn't fun though. On this one, I can easily see everything you'd be able to do with it, and I really like what it can do, especially with the runes. My only problem was that I wasn't quite sure how she'd use the rays on the cart. Does she have to stop and shoot the cart, or does she just get the automatic effects on the cart if she's already shot herself? That's kind of important but I don't think it was mentioned here...unless I'm missing something.

Down Smash implies that Azurda can have trapdoors and a timeloop room inserted into his skull and that is hilarious
But yeah Down Smash is awesome. I love the ways you can play with this. I'm already imagining Quackfaster opening a portal beneath some other character's powerful traps and having them get launched into the air...like Villager's tree, or in MYM, one of the Customer's Gooball towers. It can do that, right? I wasn't just pulling that out of nowhere? I mean, I know she can absolutely throw her books and carts through the portals.

yeah okay i absolutely adore the cornelius coot portal easter egg
the others are cool too but i just really love this one in particular

Ah, yes. There had to be a pogo in here somewhere. This is pretty much exactly how it should work no matter who's using it, whether it be Quackfaster, Scrooge, or some other character like Cranky Kong. Of course, Quackfaster gets a lot more mileage out of the technique since she can make platforms.

The only thing I wanna ask about up air is what game is that move taken from

I...genuinely didn't expect to see Quackfaster using the Papyrus of Binding. Neat!
And using it to summon stuff from This Duckburg Life? Extra Neat!

So yeah, overall, I absolutely enjoyed this one! I think it lived up to my excitement, even if I can't say it's been my favorite set of MYM25 so far (although it definitely is my favorite so far based on character choice alone). I'd absolutely want to play Quackfaster in a real game, although I don't feel like I'd be competent enough for her.

First of all, that image is exactly how I felt trying to connect my actions in-set with the consequence of having to understand some theoretical physics while also having to keep it a funny Duck set. I think that directly ties into some consequences of the ray guns being underexplained since, well, you tell me what the consequences would be of removing inertia in a platform fighter.

The alliteration, as I said in chat, was obviously a deliberate choice on my part to keep some levity in the set. Since the concepts required a bit more of an academic writing style (which also ties into the character choice, obviously), I had to include a style option in writing that wouldn’t take away clarity or flow, but also would insert some of that classic DuckTales flair, settling on Scrooge’s tendency to alliterate and having a blast with it. I feel like including any more would make people mad and would actually affect flow, so I didn’t always insert my text into a thesaurus to find some ways to describe phrases with the same beginning letter, but any less and I’d feel it’d love to DuckTales spark and veer more into the general writing style Kupa has (obviously a great style to have, but I’d like my sets to have that sort of WCF signature)

Ray Guns were, as the set admits, a bit shoehorned in considering Quackfaster is not in the original story, but they do tie into the physics of the set and, more importantly, I love the original story. Quackfaster having A Gun didn’t feel as out of place and gives her a li’l crackpot gunslinging vibe beyond the sword. But yes, they were A ***** to concept around.

The Library Cart being the weakest special might just be a result of being the last special to be written, actually not coming out of the bullet point state until the final day, which limited creativity a bit. I will return to the set soon for an edited version and actually make the Cart more of a thing in the set, although obviously there’s the point of it by design being less of a centerpiece than Swapping Gravity and Stats-Change Guns. Your point about the interaction with the two is a good point that I didn’t mention, but I’d say a Ray shot on Quackfaster doesn’t affect items not on stage yet and she’d have to shoot the Cart seperately after summoning it, either by standing on it and using the circular self-blast or by using it as a projectile and shooting it with the regular ray. (Huh, the alliteration came out there twice. It’s taking over…)

Quackfaster’s trapdoor affecting other traps was something I did mention iirc, but it could’ve just been my imagination. Either way, yes, Hydrants, Trees and regular items are all fair game to trap-and-shoot. The Coot statue indeed is a miracle coming together for a mere Easter Egg, what with his statue being so iconic in Duckburg, the fact Quackfaster played a role in The Golden Armory of Cornelius Coot! and the fact that episode also involved a hidden chute beneath the statue.

The Pogo is there. Of course the Pogo is there. It had to be there since Quackfaster benefits so greatly from ecclectic aerials with mobility options. In a similar vein, Up Air and Neutral Air are both from the obscure video game Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow that featured Donald Duck as the main character. Up Air and Neutral Air were planned to be a K. Rool-y mobility move as well as a general coverage sword swing before those specific animations were implemented, so the reference was only a neat visual touch rather than this being me deciding that this obscure game would decide the general gameplan of Quackfaster’s aerials.

I didn’t expect the Papyrus of Binding to be used either at first, but it all came together rather neatly for being mysterious-paper-related enough for it to work. The Ghost Library was planned in advance though, or at least the general idea. The exact mechanics for it were doctored out in the last day and will be revised. But yeah, my grab games are either pretty ****ty or Have A Theme, so after Constance I’ve never looked back on giving those Grab Games a little something extra, even though a podcast leads itself less for a well-defined grab game than a game mechanic as Constance’s Batallions.

Either way, thanks for reading! Super glad to have another DuckTales afficionado in our midst, since I really love the comics and the show alike (Brought out my own copy of Cash Flow for the occasion, which is probably why singular panels are referenced) and that extra heart for the show would go unnoticed if it weren’t for you, so your opinion on this set means a lot and I’m glad to hear you liked it!

 

[n88]

Quackfaster by WeirdChillFever

Messing with physics (and particularly with gravity) like this set does is really cool and ambitious - the limitations around gravity manipulation feel sensible here, and the set maintains a good awareness of the ways Quackfaster's physics tweaks can be an advantage and a disadvantage for all parties involved. I still find it a bit hard to wrap my brain around and visualize, personally; it’d certainly be cool to play around with, though.

The set finds cool ways to play with that even in her melee kit (on top of the obligatory and appreciated projectile shenanigans) - the premise of highly specialized aerial attacks that you can effectively customize the direction of by altering gravity is clever (tho I would be trash at it). I did feel as I was reading like the standards lost a little momentum and the set was petering out, but then the grabgame was a wild note to end on. Looking forward to seeing the edited version of the set particularly to see if you integrate some of the ideas from the grab/throws a bit more into the rest of what she's doing.

There are a few places where some of her workings got a little fuzzy for me, but not enough to weigh things down. Fun read overall.

Stray thoughts:

• “she places the tome on the floor by sliding it off the blade of her sword” - really burying the lede here, had no idea this was an anime swordsduck set until this line.
• I like the sub-headers breaking down moves.
• I think I missed in Neutral Special that the gravity books could whammy someone while they were already open due to having just whammied something else - Down Special acts like that’s a thing though. I got the impression from NSpec that they were one-use and then Quackfaster would have to reactivate them again or they wouldn’t do anything.
• “Luckily, the Copycat Cover doesn’t have as much mass as the real Rosa Rune bookwork, so its fall speed is slower than the usual object” - do the gravity books have a fall speed? She just plops em down on the stage. I suppose they might if she uses her Neutral Special to try and place one in the air, but I didn’t catch that if it was specified.
• The alliterative character references do get a little old, after a while. The only place it was really an issue for me was in Forward Smash, where the Mega Man/Samus stuff gets dense.
• Down Special and Neutral Special feel to me like they’re on the wrong inputs - Copycat Cover is a passable DSpec but it’d work either place. Rosa Runes are stage-only traps, on top of being this complex multi-input thing. Big Down Special energy.
• A little confused by the description of anti-inertia’s effect on projectiles.
• The Copycat Cover describes the mindgame potential of mixing up which kind of book you’re carrying and just sticking to her Specials to keep the foe guessing, but that doesn’t feel too feasible with her non-book Specials being things you want to use pretty carefully (and one of them also doing no knockback).
• Down Smash is cool as Hell (which is where I’m headcanoning the Timeloop Room really is).
• The Down Aerial description had me a little confused on what divides the two separate hitboxes. Is this a sex kick thing?
• Despite complaining about the character references, the Young Link one in DAir was absurdly long enough to win me over on it.
• “the pogo jump can prevent her from falling too high” - yes! Incredible phrase and application of batcrap physics.
• Tulpas! Finally, the Twin Peaks connection I’ve been looking for in this set.

 

[Almand]

He's finally here! He took forever, but here he is!
I've included a "Barebones Version" of him as well, which omits all the usual fluff, specific frame data, the like, and just generally condenses him to about half the length. Still, though, Sleaze is a hefty boy, sporting roughly 60-70 inputs... So he's still not exactly short, with many diagrams and complexities to chew on.

BOOK

Barebones​

 

[happychallahdays]

There's nothing I wouldn't do to save this world...
No depth I won't explore
No secret I won't unlock
No barrier I won't cross

Whatever comes... I will be ready.


Aloy, of Horizon: Zero Dawn and Horizon: Forbidden West is finally finished! Creating a character where most of their moves were based off of a game that I hadn't actually played was, as expected, annoying, but from the playthroughs that I've watched, I think I did her justice. (Forbidden West is a PS exclusive, and I am but a poor college student). She is my first set ever, clocking in at nearly 15k words. I hope you all enjoy her as much as I do!

 

[WeirdChillFever]

Quackfaster by WeirdChillFever

Messing with physics (and particularly with gravity) like this set does is really cool and ambitious - the limitations around gravity manipulation feel sensible here, and the set maintains a good awareness of the ways Quackfaster's physics tweaks can be an advantage and a disadvantage for all parties involved. I still find it a bit hard to wrap my brain around and visualize, personally; it’d certainly be cool to play around with, though.

The set finds cool ways to play with that even in her melee kit (on top of the obligatory and appreciated projectile shenanigans) - the premise of highly specialized aerial attacks that you can effectively customize the direction of by altering gravity is clever (tho I would be trash at it). I did feel as I was reading like the standards lost a little momentum and the set was petering out, but then the grabgame was a wild note to end on. Looking forward to seeing the edited version of the set particularly to see if you integrate some of the ideas from the grab/throws a bit more into the rest of what she's doing.

There are a few places where some of her workings got a little fuzzy for me, but not enough to weigh things down. Fun read overall.

Stray thoughts:

• “she places the tome on the floor by sliding it off the blade of her sword” - really burying the lede here, had no idea this was an anime swordsduck set until this line.
• I like the sub-headers breaking down moves.
• I think I missed in Neutral Special that the gravity books could whammy someone while they were already open due to having just whammied something else - Down Special acts like that’s a thing though. I got the impression from NSpec that they were one-use and then Quackfaster would have to reactivate them again or they wouldn’t do anything.
• “Luckily, the Copycat Cover doesn’t have as much mass as the real Rosa Rune bookwork, so its fall speed is slower than the usual object” - do the gravity books have a fall speed? She just plops em down on the stage. I suppose they might if she uses her Neutral Special to try and place one in the air, but I didn’t catch that if it was specified.
• The alliterative character references do get a little old, after a while. The only place it was really an issue for me was in Forward Smash, where the Mega Man/Samus stuff gets dense.
• Down Special and Neutral Special feel to me like they’re on the wrong inputs - Copycat Cover is a passable DSpec but it’d work either place. Rosa Runes are stage-only traps, on top of being this complex multi-input thing. Big Down Special energy.
• A little confused by the description of anti-inertia’s effect on projectiles.
• The Copycat Cover describes the mindgame potential of mixing up which kind of book you’re carrying and just sticking to her Specials to keep the foe guessing, but that doesn’t feel too feasible with her non-book Specials being things you want to use pretty carefully (and one of them also doing no knockback).
• Down Smash is cool as Hell (which is where I’m headcanoning the Timeloop Room really is).
• The Down Aerial description had me a little confused on what divides the two separate hitboxes. Is this a sex kick thing?
• Despite complaining about the character references, the Young Link one in DAir was absurdly long enough to win me over on it.
• “the pogo jump can prevent her from falling too high” - yes! Incredible phrase and application of batcrap physics.
• Tulpas! Finally, the Twin Peaks connection I’ve been looking for in this set.

Glad to hear the set was a fun read! Gravity and physics was a bit of a doozy to cover, so I’m glad the general reception of those is good. Quick comment on your points, which are overall valid. Having to rush a set for opening day is always a treat and one I hope to not have to repeat here. Quackfaster’s a relatively chonky (although chump change compared to other sets) set with a lot of threads pogoing around and a whole new world to discover. I do hope the grab game will find its place as a solid finish to the set in the edits, though obviously I hope to make sure to patch up the standards as well.

• Rosa Runes can always double-whammy, lest all the mix-ups I noted in the set would have to be six seconds apart.
• Gravity Books shouldn’t have a fall speed, might be from a version from where they could be placed, but that shouldn’t be a thing as I’m envisioning them to work.
• I see the point about Neutral Special fitting better on Down Special and I went back and forth on it, but eventually I figured that I’d rather have the direction on the Rosa Rune be decided by a Neutral Special being angled than some quarter-circle command-type input of the Down Special, and Rosa Runes were placed on Neutral Special.
• I too am confused about Anti-Inertia in general, so no worries, it’ll be addressed in the edits.
• The guess-work thing is mostly an extra based on the general mechanic, I suppose it spends a lot more time talking about it than warranted though, considering it is a very niche case
• I do imagine the Timeloop Room being something space-timey, so the Room itself wouldn’t be stuck in Azurda’s lower neck region.
• Tulpas are also a superfluous reference to the DuckTales show, which I supoose can be very Twin Peaks-y at times.
• Another opinion on the alliteration, it’s gonna be fun to address that in the edits. I’ll try to see if I can bring in my own style without cracking open the thesaurus so often.

Finally, I’d be remiss not to acknowledge the sets posted above. Great job to both and I hope to get to them soon, although the fact everyone here seems to think it’s funny to write 60+ page movesets makes the fact I haven’t kept up with my reading (for exactly that reason) especially punishing. Don’t make me actually bust out the Miror B set with six Ludicolos, but I swear if there’s one more multi-input set I will be forced to topple Stooges as the longest set and write six Ludicolo sets on spite and memes. The fact I’m halfway serious should be a health concern for everyone involved. Amazed/once again terrified to hear that a newcomer posted a 15k set.

 

[Katapultar]

Spoiler: Sleaze

This is one wild set, reminiscent to Ditto! Coming off Sleaze’s equally unique Pocket mechanic is a very flesh-out portal mechanic that I haven’t seen (or remember seeing) in this much detail since Quilby. I think it was a good choice to throw out Sleaze’s various projectile options before introducing the moves they’re stuck to for that reason. Making the portals take damage when you send projectiles and opponents through them is a nice touch to limit their insanity, as well as reducing the foe’s knockback but increasing their hitstun.

As well as being projectile-focused, Sleaze has a cool grab/counter hybrid in his Down Special, which makes him feel more like the fighting game characters he was inspired by and you’ve become associated with after Hugo. Giving him different/nerfed throws for armoring an attack is especially interesting. I also like the copious use of fighting game GIFs, not only because they’re cool but just having a reference image for the move’s animation is nice. Up Special letting the foe air dodge on frame 1 regardless of frame data or staling is pretty funky, I’m fine with that for how cool the mix-up options on the move are. I definitely get how this is an experimental set - it’s basically a hybrid between MYM’y stuff and more traditional fighting game options, and honestly feels very fitting for you. In fact, the melee as soon as Jab and Dash Attack work pretty well with the pathways and projectile options without getting too ridiculous.

Held Up Tilt is particularly delicious: a multi-part move with a unique hit from the get-go, one that combos into more stuff at earlier percents but falls off later. But you can use your sacrifice mechanic to go into those combos at higher percents for a kill confirm! And part 3 being used as a hard read or potential shield break. Forward Smash is cool with its stomp hitbox while charging, something that would be fun to see utilized a bit more in heavyweight sets, as if that character type wasn’t appealing enough, and losing damage with charge. Its usage with portals to cancel it just makes it more delicious. And Up Throw, for its simplicity, makes neat use of portals with Sleaze’s movement and the ability to pick where you throw your opponent.

The melee is great, but I do think the various projectiles and sacrifice mechanic get left in the background a little for the melee. It’s not too bad though, as the set is already very long! The wall pathways are a bit strong as auto-reflectors you can use to hide behind, and for all the detail you go into on the portals it’d be good to have some clarification on how pathways act as platforms and walls - do the former have a limit like Steve’s blocks? Can you use them for platform shenanigans, like use your grounded moves in midair? It’s not a huge deal, but it feels like something of an elephant in the room. Up Throw and Down Throw do feel same-y with their mirrored nature - maybe the former could let throw the foe backwards as well, and Down Throw could have a different effect if you thought of something?

That aside, this is easily my favourite set of yours so far! Some very fun melee moves, a neat portal move and original mechanic. High-up there for me right now in a contest filled with early greats. I’d say the experiment paid off!

As a side note, this set takes a unique approach to OC characterization. Briefly talk about who he is, leave the rest open to interpretation. In addition to the Faust inspiration, he has some creepy characterization with how his fingers are described as being grotesque, and how he inflicts sacrifice on foes (and himself with Down Taunt) by slashing them. I wonder if he is capable of speech? He is a salesperson, after all, but I guess you can leave that open to interpretation too.

Spoiler: Aloy

Welcome to MYM for real, Happychallahdays! It’s fantastic to see you go all-out with your first set, this contest is delivering that hard between you and Arctic Tern. Horizon Dawn is not a game I’ve heard of, but it looks appealing and right off the bat I like your use of quotes, images and trivia in the stat write-up to sell Aloy and her game. Also, I and others here can relate to making a set for a game you’ve not played - absolutely nothing wrong with that! (even if making a set for a character from a game will make people think you’ve played that game, lol)

I do think it’s a little easy to apply Focus’s precision damage bonus, which should probably have a time limit to it. Other than that, Aloy’s mechanics have some unique quirks to them, even among our various MYM sets! Focus allowing Aloy and only Aloy to see through concealing effects - you might think it would be weird with multiple human players sharing the same effect, but the Switch doesn’t need a TV screen, and it’s perfectly feasible if there’s one human player or if you’re playing online! Player-exclusive visuals feel like something that’d be fun to explore more in MYM, like applying it to invisibility so the player can see where their character is. I also like Skill Tree’s ability to be activated through Special + Taunt, and be used on the respawn platform without taking Aloy off of it! This set has a lot of mechanics too, 5 might be breaking the record for the most I’ve seen in a while. I’m unsure about the elemental mechanic though, and it doesn’t seem to be brought up in any of the moves.

(As a presentation note, it might be good to split up longer moves into multiple paragraphs, especially the Skill Tree mechanic. Might want to move up the status effect descriptions into the mechanics section too, though I do like the glossary style.)

I like the early melee attacks, which manage to say what they need to within 1 paragraph! Probably helps that these are before the Specials, heh. Forward Air’s platform electrification, Back Air’s cycling attack and Up Air’s delayed shots are also unexpectedly unorthodox, so I can definitely see you’re willing to do crazy stuff. The Up Air arrow should probably be restricted to 1 if it has the potential to fall back down. Your melee style almost makes me want to do a quick set with 1-2 paragraph Standards that are written before the Specials?

With 12 Specials and 9 Smashes, this moveset does a heck of a lot, and gets crazier the further you get in. Warrior Neutral Special, Hunter Side Special and Down Special and Tactician’s Up Smash tether and Neutral and Side Specials are some individual moves that I liked. Then you get to the Machine Master Neutral Special, which introduces the crazy and delicious concept of summoning a single minion that can turn against you over time! Oh, and some of them can drop items for players to use!

While Aloy has a ton of moves, they don’t have any noted synergy between them. Like if Aloy could use her Tactician Down Special to tech chase into her Dash Attack, or switch into Warrior and use its Down Special to intercept their get-up more easily with its range. Aloy being able to move around during her grab also feels like it has a lot of potential with her other moves. And much as I enjoyed the machine summons, their individual attacks were underdetailed by comparison and didn’t keep my attention. Talking about how moves work together is something a lot of sets do to enhance their quality and make them more exciting. And this moveset absolutely has ideas in the spade!

Aloy is excellent set for your first outing. Had she been a regular set with 23 inputs and no extensive mechanics, she probably would have been less than 5k, but you went above and beyond by giving her a slew of extra inputs, 9 minions and 5-6 mechanics that brought her up to nearly thrice that length. Really curious to see what you’ll do from here on out.

 

[ForwardArrow]

Jodie Reynolds
Making a remix/replacement to a set that previously placed 3rd(by 1 point, it was THE closest you came to ever winning a contest) in an older MYM is a lot to ask, so I see why this remix took as long as it did. The result is another months long megaproject on an unbelievably impressive scope, as Jodie takes the concept of manipulating your own inputs to its logical extreme. Setting them as traps like the old version did is just step one. Jodie can turn her entire Standards/Aerials/Grab Game into projectiles, a minion, a counter, and a rapid combination barrage that feels so at home in the series she's from. Its all done with a flare the previous version didn't have, Jodie's personality coming through very strongly in the animations and her potential for improvising insane and unpredictable plans feels very much like an encapsulation of what makes her basis source material so fascinating. That's not to mention the absolutely absurd amount of depth and skill expression the set has, basically limitless in scope when you can take so many moves and repurpose them into a thousand different combinations.

Wherein, admittedly, lies the problem I have with this set, and I'm going to make it sound like a bigger deal to me than it is. I think this set flies too close to the sun, by making every input customizable with every special in a list of 7, and every Smash offering even further combinations of stuff to do with them. Jodie juggling a custom minion and heavily complex trapping setups on their own would be enough to make her on the upper end of complexity for an MYM character, but factoring in that the minion and trapping setups are entirely custom made out of your own inputs, I think the scope of the set gets too much for its own good. I simply found myself losing track of everything she was capable of just reading the set, kinda just nodding along as I realized this throw or aerial with tons of versatility was a move she has 10 different outlets for and that I cannot begin to understand the implications. I know this could be said for a lot of MYM sets, but Jodie is dealing with an order of magnitude more combinations by making all this stuff out of her own inputs, and I think ultimately the set's potential feeling so weirdly complicated and unreachable causes its fair share of issues in both reading and implementation. The set's word count is absurd, nearly as big as the three in one Stooges from last contest before we count the extras, due to needing to account for dozens of applications on every move. I will say, I think the set at times takes longer talking about details of how her melee would play out as melee than it needs to too. When I came back to finish the last couple inputs after leaving the set to sit a while, it was pretty apparent to me the set spends too long talking about juggling in a way that doesn't add as much to the set as it could in the amount of words it takes.

I spent as much time talking about that stuff as I did moreso because I need to explain why I'm not quite as insanely high on this set as I potentially could be, because its still one of your best ever. Because while the set has those problems, it doesn't let them snowball nearly as badly as they could. The set turns Jodie's Smashes into payoffs, with Up and Forward Smashes standing out as incredibly cool and unique ways of paying things out, with neither option feeling particularly ridiculous in the amount of variables you have to worry about either. The set organizes its inputs incredibly well too. The standards are simpler tools to manipulate your garments with, the aerials are the more complex/fancy ones, and grab and throws have a high level of versatility but are the hardest ones to actually land both in Jodie's own set and out of a garment. Its genuinely impressive too how it didn't feel like the set's moves didn't ever really invalidate each other as garments, something you'd really think would come up but due to the smart input placement and strong input design, it never really does. And the set's got as many fascinating ideas for its payoffs as any set I've ever seen, lots of implications to using inputs to link together rube goldberg contraptions or create a truly terrifying support minion.

So to be clear, I love this set. I think the effort put into it was clearly worth it and the set's aware enough of its mind boggling complexity that it still feels playable. And even if it could never be fully explored due to its scope, that does help it get across the Jojo experience of just absolutely winging a ridiculous plan on the fly that the opponent has never seen before in their life. This is such impressive Jojo protagonist characterization and you could even argue that's the strongest part of the entire set. In a way, it reminds me of sets like Iguana or the far more ancient Videoman where I saw similar criticisms leveled against them, and like Jodie they involve manipulating one's own set or other character's sets into unholy combos that have never been seen before. I do think Jodie's a lot better than those sets because it has the decency to rely on just its own tools rather than the opponent's, and just for all the evolution in moveset design theory we've had over the years that it makes good use of. Your prediction this would be your best ended up wrong, but that's entirely because of the sheer ridiculous heights of quality you've already achieved with Lucky Louise and Hina, so I think this is still an effort you should be incredibly proud of.