Miracle Of Light - Palutena in SSB4 (Featuring Cereza from Bayonetta-series)

[Admiral Pit]

Well said... I just wished she'd get more spotlight than that anime fight though. Beats the last trailer shown for sure, though. You have me for support. Just remind me just in case. But September 5th is today. I think you mean the 7th?
And I hate to lose, too. Palutena does need more love after all, and I hope to be of use.

 

[Burigu]

Well said... I just wished she'd get more spotlight than that anime fight though. Beats the last trailer shown for sure, though. You have me for support. Just remind me just in case. But September 5th is today. I think you mean the 7th?
And I hate to lose, too. Palutena does need more love after all, and I hope to be of use.

Thank you! yeah sunday! I am ok with people not liking her like I don't like other characters, it's just sometimes reasons are plain wrong. "I don't like Palutena because the trailer is boring", "I hate Palutena because she gave Gematsu believers more reasons to bash non gematsu characters", "Another character must have been revealed at E3".

If somepeople just says: I don't like Palutena becuase I have no conection to the series or design etc. I can live with that so place people show up next SUNDAY the thread is sticked

 

[Maraphy]

At least Pit's power improved.

*eyetwitch* Diddy's stupid bananas are back...

But yes, Jump Glide is cooler. Maybe we'll get to see her in action during this Japanese final build event thing I've been hearing about. It's supposed to come later today in my time, tomorrow for Japan. Hoping for Palutena so we can get more data on her. Did I mention her Final Smash is my favorite, second only to Pit's?

I wouldn't get your hopes up for that tbh, there's an embargo on any pictures or footage..

 

[SegaNintendoUbisoft]

I like Palutena because she is, in my eyes, the archetypal "Big Good" done well. I'll keep this in spoiler tags because it's a wee bit of a wall of text! ;3

Spoiler: My views on Palutena

Let me explain. In just about every story, there's the "Big Bad". There's always some evil presence that acts as the antagonistic foil to the heroes: the dark lord in the midnight castle, the scheming supervillain planning world domination, and so on and so forth. In this case, we have Medusa, the Goddess of Darkness. She turns people to stone, poisons rivers, sends hordes of infernal monsters to terrorise the land and generally causes chaos and madness. She's pretty self-evidently the bad guy.

Then we have Palutena, the Goddess of Light. Palutena is the polar opposite of Medusa in every conceivable way: Medusa is a grotesque demon, Palutena is a beautiful woman; Medusa is a calm, sinister evildoer, Palutena is a lively, vivacious force of good; Medusa is dark in her colour scheme, Palutena favous bright tones; Medusa commands death and ruin, Palutena orders life and honour. They're both exceedingly different.

That being said, look at them a little closer and you'll notice that they're actually a lot more similar than their initial appearances may suggest. Both are goddesses that oversee the world before them, each one maintaining dominion over a certain key element of existence: light and dark, good and evil, life and death, white and black. The two are not mutually exclusive, as they are, rather, two sides of the same coin, so to speak; mirror images of one-another. They even wield similar staves, and both are wielded in the other hand!

What's really cool, though, is that neither of them are presented as being obliquely "good" or "evil". Both are equally grey in certain areas.

Medusa is a cruel, merciless bringer of terror and destructive power, but she is only reacting in a human way - she has been mocked and scorned too often, to the extent that she has become a force for evil. All she desires is cold, calculated vengeance on those that made her the way she is. She appears in the climax to knock off Hades's final blow, so tired is she of being his mindless servant that she displays that most human of traits: free will. Regardless of whether she willingly chose the paths of evil and darkness to begin with, she has elected to become the symbol of all that she has been depicted as. She is the embodiment of evil not because she wants to be, but because that's just how the world sees her.

Palutena, conversely, is a hero with a lot of grey smeared into her pure whiteness. She is the ruler of Skyworld and the protector of mortal beings; the very embodiment of justice and honesty. That being said, let's consider some the things she does throughout the course of the story: she turns Medusa into a wicked abomination to reflect the evil in her heart, thus creating the very antagonist that becomes her arch-nemesis in years to come; she purposely sends Pit into dangerous situations, confident in his ability to succeed against all odds, but seldom intervening herself; she willingly and happily teases and tricks Pit whenever the situation calls for it and never apologises for her bizzare, juvenile behaviour; she rejects Magnus's cricitisms of her handling the Underworld invasion, citing him as "a jerk" for not conforming to her bleak, cynical standards of humanity; she causes a lot of mischief and has a tendency to disregard the true danger of what she is doing to Pit and others as well; she is arrogant, petty, spiteful and lethargic - hardly qualities we'd consider to be "good"!

And that's why I love her so much. She isn't the all-encompassing, incorruptable effigy of truth and light that so many "Big Good" characters are: she's fallible, she's corruptible, she's weird, she's messed up in all sorts of strange, humanistic ways. She makes mistakes, she breaks down, she has flaws, she isn't as strong as she's made out to be. She's the embodiment of light and the paragon of virtue to mortal beings; but to other deities, she's just another goddess with a lot of responsibilities and her own personal agendas to accrue and maintain. Pit regards her as the saviour of creation and the greatest person in existence, not out of coercion or irrational judgement, but because he genuinely loves and cares for her. Palutena's job is a hell of a task and it's clear that, for all of her divine powers and cosmic levels of egotism, she suffers and cries just like everybody else does. Pit sees her for what she truly is and he doesn't mind: he sees past the good and into the darkness of the abyss and sees it staring back at him, the true, essentially human aspects of her; and then beyond even that to see the real good within her, not just the projected, reflected good.

Palutena, in my eyes, represents true good. She is the sort of good that doesn't care if it's weak and ill-equipped, if it's foolish and naive - it's good for the sake of being good and because it's the right thing to do. To err is human, to forgive is divine: and no godly paragon of good and saviour of justice is truly divine without being just a little human.

I like your interpretation, of course. She's kind of a lackadaisical, borderline sociopath nutjob, but she does care for Pit unconditionally and doesn't tease and trick him for her own benefit: she does it because she's human. Call me crazy and unusual if you will, but I'd rather have a crazy, unpredictable mentor and friend who'll cast me into a volcano to find an immortal phoenix one moment and hold my battered, charred body with tears in her eyes and songs on her tongue the next than an absolute authority of good and light that doesn't really understand what good really and truly is.

Bravo good sir, bravo!
You pretty much stated why I like Palutena as a character, she's not perfect, she can be mean-spirited and reckless at times, but her heart's still in the right place. They could of easily, and I mean easily, make her a generic character who can do no wrong, heck, they could of made Pit a generic character as well. But Uprising gave personality to them, and made them lovable.

 

[Wintropy]

Bravo good sir, bravo!
You pretty much stated why I like Palutena as a character, she's not perfect, she can be mean-spirited and reckless at times, but her heart's still in the right place. They could of easily, and I mean easily, make her a generic character who can do no wrong, heck, they could of made Pit a generic character as well. But Uprising gave personality to them, and made them lovable.

My goodness, this is such a deep and well-done analysis!

This is basically what I want more people to know about her, and what draws me to her in many ways- even to inspire me to explore her deeper in stories I'd write. You hitted it right to the core.

People generalizing her as troll or basing her to being slapped with forced anime tropes in the trailer were the whole point of my nitpick, really. But again, it's been also a while I played Uprising, so I think it was also while I got behind her characterization. I only remember that how she's portrayed by most people online just didn't line up with how I knew her.

Might put this to the OP sometime, but just amazing analysis!

Aww, thanks, guys! That means a lot to me. <3

@ Wintropy really nice analisis but I have to dissagree in the segment about "Medusa being driven to evil". Medusa was evil since the begining, she and Palutena both co ruled Skyworld (angel land but that name is not used at all in Uprising so not sure if it became non canon) Palutena watched and helped mankind but Medusa hated humanity and started attacking them. (As seen in the Anime).

Palutena got so upset and annoyed with her for messing with humanity than in a rage turned her into her monstrous appearance.

The plot on Uprising mostly revolves around Medusa waitting revenge on both Pit and Palutena because they defeated her, but neither Palutena's not Pit's actions send her to the evil site

That's just what I'm getting at, though. To say Medusa was "evil since the beginning" is a wholly subjective reading of it; I don't think anybody is truly and intrinsically evil. We don't know much about the history of Skyworld, so I can't say that Palutena and Medusa were granted their authority or they've just been that way since the beginning of time, but I'd like to think Palutena wouldn't allow somebody who's clearly blackhearted to rule alongside her. The fact that Medusa resents humanity shows signs of jealousy and wrath: two very human emotions. It's natural for a human being to want something it can't have and to become irate when others steal what is perceived to be "their" glory. Medusa, as I see her story, is merely attempting to hoist back her limelight - she despises humanity for taking all of her attention and, possibly, for distracting Palutena from herself as well.

There's no denying Palutena's actions were unwarranted and callous. You said it yourself: she became enraged and corrupted Medusa's appearance into a wicked gorgon. Whatever empathy and decency Medusa had beforehand was lost in that action - she became the evil that others saw her as, and her fate was sealed. She "became the mask", so to speak, and I can't help but feel Palutena is somehow responsible for what happened from then on. I don't think Medusa was ruining and cursing humanity for its own sake, I think she was just throwing a temper tantrum because the humans loved Palutena more than they loved her, and that it quickly spiraled out of control when Palutena abused her divine authority to cast judgement upon Medusa. You can't just say "well she was evil from the beginning, so she deserved it"; no rational creatures, not even gods, have the right to arbitrate on the intrinsic moral worth of other living beings.

This is all subjective morality, how and ever, and not really relevant to the thread at this point. I respect you for disagreeing with me and, if you'd like to continue this conversation further, feel free to PM me! ^_^

Oh, and since I'm getting back into drawing again, have some mediocre Palutenart as a thank you present for being so cool and great~! <3

EDIT: And, why, not, I ship them together anyway, here's some Lucinart as well. ;P

 

[Burigu]

Aww, thanks, guys! That means a lot to me. <3



That's just what I'm getting at, though. To say Medusa was "evil since the beginning" is a wholly subjective reading of it; I don't think anybody is truly and intrinsically evil. We don't know much about the history of Skyworld, so I can't say that Palutena and Medusa were granted their authority or they've just been that way since the beginning of time, but I'd like to think Palutena wouldn't allow somebody who's clearly blackhearted to rule alongside her. The fact that Medusa resents humanity shows signs of jealousy and wrath: two very human emotions. It's natural for a human being to want something it can't have and to become irate when others steal what is perceived to be "their" glory. Medusa, as I see her story, is merely attempting to hoist back her limelight - she despises humanity for taking all of her attention and, possibly, for distracting Palutena from herself as well.

There's no denying Palutena's actions were unwarranted and callous. You said it yourself: she became enraged and corrupted Medusa's appearance into a wicked gorgon. Whatever empathy and decency Medusa had beforehand was lost in that action - she became the evil that others saw her as, and her fate was sealed. She "became the mask", so to speak, and I can't help but feel Palutena is somehow responsible for what happened from then on. I don't think Medusa was ruining and cursing humanity for its own sake, I think she was just throwing a temper tantrum because the humans loved Palutena more than they loved her, and that it quickly spiraled out of control when Palutena abused her divine authority to cast judgement upon Medusa. You can't just say "well she was evil from the beginning, so she deserved it"; no rational creatures, not even gods, have the right to arbitrate on the intrinsic moral worth of other living beings.

This is all subjective morality, how and ever, and not really relevant to the thread at this point. I respect you for disagreeing with me and, if you'd like to continue this conversation further, feel free to PM me! ^_^

Oh, and since I'm getting back into drawing again, have some mediocre Palutenart as a thank you present for being so cool and great~! <3

Well I think trying to analise the morallity present in the first game is really hard, since it is such and undevelopted story, all we get is Palutena banning Medusa to the Underworld after Medusa's constant attack on humankind. Then Medusa making an alliance with "Underworld creatures" and taking over the Palace in the Sky (theoriset to be now Palutena's Temple since now Palutena is the only goddess that rule over it) and imprisoning Palutena and Palutena using her powers to release Pit from his prison in the underworld and sending him the Sacred Bow.

It is hard to understand why Medusa hates humanity or al least I would say she has fun playing with humanity, the difference I see between Medusa and Viridi is that Medusa mess with humans because she likes to do that, while Vidiri is truly mad because of the unbalance they are doing with nature.

So if I have to compare both I would say Medusa wants revenge on Pit and Palutena but destroying the Overworld was just part of the fun, she even mentions both trying to crash her party when attacking that First town.
Viridi is not evil but her actions clash with Palutena's ideals, Viridi hate for humanity is justificated on the other hand Medusa's actions to humanity are hardly explained just attacking them because she wants to conquer them, chapters 1,2 and 3 are examples of this why is she attacking the humans if she wants revenge on Palutena alone, in chapter 2 a castle is built just to serve as base of operation to attack the humans and in chapter 3 Medusa sends Hewdraw to attack both Skyworld and That Burning Town she never mention hating humans any real reason she just seems to attack them because she likes to do so. You could say it is to provoke Palutena but as mentioned before she attacked them even before Palutena curse her and send her to the Underworld

I will put the anime Medusa's Revenge here since this is basically the background between Palutena and Medusa, Medusa even smiles while attacking them before her curse she is evil already for my perspective, I know you said to PM you I just wanted to compare Medusa to Viridi. I will drop this topic, if I have anything to add I will PM you.

 

[Shirma Akayaku]

Lots of details from NintendoEverything:
http://nintendoeverything.com/lots-of-super-smash-bros-for-3d...

• This is from a demo event in Japan
• Someone provided some impressions
• Peach's butt bomb is a lot stronger
• Link has a red costume with markings underneath his eyes
• Toon Link has the four swords colors and the old style Link color
• There is no Outset Island Toon Link
• Pac-Man is slow
• Zelda has a white costume
• Chrom appears in Robin's victory pose
• Nintendo was very strict about pictures and video at the event
• Olimar has an Alph alt
• Fox has a Wolf palette swap
• Glasses Pikachu confirmed
• Fierce Deity Link confirmed
• These other colors and costumes are rumored at the moment
• Fire Peach is a Peach alt
• Black and purple Yoshis confirmed
• Palutena has a Viridi color scheme
• Dark Meta Knight and Galacta Knight are Meta Knight alts
• Shiny Charizard is an Charziard alt
• Pac-Man can wear accessories

http://nintendoeverything.com/lots-of-super-smash-bros-for-3d...

I'll be posting this information on threads that contain the characters mentioned and on the social thread. You can read in better detail by clicking on the link.

 

[Reila]

Palutena's smash reach is incredible. Her up smash is the giant pillar laser beam thing. Her side smash moves a bit forward and her wings slap in front of her.

When Palutena rolls she turns invisible
Like she's teleporting

Cool!

 

[Zwzchow]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr5ifxtQfMM
You guys can barely see the bits of Palutena gameplay here
@ Admiral Pit

 

[Admiral Pit]

http://www.reddit.com/r/smashbros/comments/2fluu0/smashboardszipzos_feedback_on_the_latest_demo/
I was over here looking for some of the data, but thanks!

And I saw a bit of Palutena. Her gasp when she got hit in the air. D:
And that Viridi costume that I read, not bad. I crave more data on her and Pit.

 

[Zwzchow]

I need to know how does his new Up B works
I don't want to keep crashing under the ledge if it flies straight only :|

 

[Tailisu10]

She calls out her powers too in game too! Woo

 

[Admiral Pit]

I'm okay with Palutena calling out some attacks. We needed a few more characters like that, and shows off the cool talkative part of Kid Icarus. <3

 

[Pegasus Knight]

This may be a long shot, but is anyone in a position to figure out what Palutena's other colors are? The Viridi one was mentioned, but what else is there?

 

[Burigu]

Auto Reticle has a pretty decent range and can be aimed ala Yoshi egg?

 

[Reila]

According to Zipzo:

Palutena "She honestly is kind of like a baton twirler"

Aerials:
Back - Shield smack
Forward - kick similar to Zeldas
Up - similar to pit's in brawl in how it hits but not animation

Dash attack is a shield slam thing
Ftilt wheel spinning thing
up tilt spins the staff above her head
her down tilt spins the staff under your opponent
down smash slames her wings down on both sides
Fsmash slaps her wings on your opponent in front of you

 

[~ Valkyrie ~]

According to Zipzo:

Palutena "She honestly is kind of like a baton twirler"

Aerials:
Back - Shield smack
Forward - kick similar to Zeldas
Up - similar to pit's in brawl in how it hits but not animation

Dash attack is a shield slam thing
Ftilt wheel spinning thing
up tilt spins the staff above her head
her down tilt spins the staff under your opponent
down smash slames her wings down on both sides
Fsmash slaps her wings on your opponent in front of you

Spoiler

This is exactly that kind of moveset I wanted her to have! I just love how her staff is her main weapon, and the shield is used as well! (Kinda reminds me of Captain America in Mahvel)
They aren't just for show anymore...

 

[Reila]

This is exactly that kind of moveset I wanted her to have! The staff and the shield aren't for show anymore!

I agree. The fact her smashes and aerials are based around her staff and shield make me far more excited to play Palutena. That + two defensive specials and a projectile sounds very good. Now if only Warp wasn't one of her default moves and Jump Glide was instead... Well, I guess we can't have everything.

 

[Maraphy]

I've been trying... to use my very limited japanese to look at japanese tweets in hopes of info:

• a lot of them like to refer to her as Palutena-sama and it's really cute
• someone said that Warp looks faster than Zelda's Up B but goes less distance
• There's "various tricks" you can do with her d-air supposedly? I don't know what that means
• "Palutena certainly seems to have various combos, and top of that she's very strong, so she looks fun to play"
• Her strong attacks all have long swings

 

[Glaciacott]

*salty about Japan playing with her already*

 

[~ Valkyrie ~]

I've been trying... to use my very limited japanese to look at japanese tweets in hopes of info:

• a lot of them like to refer to her as Palutena-sama and it's really cute
• someone said that Warp looks faster than Zelda's Up B but goes less distance
• There's "various tricks" you can do with her d-air supposedly? I don't know what that means
• "Palutena certainly seems to have various combos, and top of that she's very strong, so she looks fun to play"

Ooohh! We don't know what's her Down-Air tho. But hopefully we see more soon.

 

[Admiral Pit]

Palutena using her staff a lot is amazing! Her also having more than 1 shield attack just makes me happier, not to mention a kick to make use of those powerful thighs

I've been trying... to use my very limited japanese to look at japanese tweets in hopes of info:

• a lot of them like to refer to her as Palutena-sama and it's really cute
• someone said that Warp looks faster than Zelda's Up B but goes less distance
• There's "various tricks" you can do with her d-air supposedly? I don't know what that means
• "Palutena certainly seems to have various combos, and top of that she's very strong, so she looks fun to play"
• Her strong attacks all have long swings

Do tell if you find more, especially about her costumes. <3

@ Glaciacott I know the feeling. *pouts* Especially when knowing a bit more about her moves. D:

So her D-air has some tricks huh? It only makes me happier to know she's turning out the way I wanted her for the most part. I must have more data!
On a side note, though it's not Palutena, I've been reading tweets about a cute Pink Pit costume.

 

[Oniric Spriter]

Palutena: Viridi color

 

[Admiral Pit]

This Palutena data is sweet. All we need is more data, and footage to top it all off. So far, so good. <3

 

[Fluttershy]

Hmm i wonder if warp is similar to Farore's minimum distance as it was in brawl or if it's still farther.. (Farore's can be shortened in brawl)
Also how much of a lightning kick is her Fair? Was honestly hoping her to use her staff for Fair (somewhat similar to Marth's..)

 

[Admiral Pit]

I'm actually satisfied. Palutena has tons of staff attacks, she has 2 shield attacks, and a kick, and that's not even any of her specials either. I gotta see that kick. D:

 

[Maraphy]

I think Zipzo either doesn't remember Palutena's D-air, or hasn't seen it; I'm curious as to what that move is as well.

Here's the moves we know so far:

Jab: thrusts her staff forward + does multiple hits with magic? (shown using on fox in the trailer)
F-tilt: twirls her staff out in front of her, has pretty long reach
U-tilt: staff twirl above her
D-tilt: twirls her staff under the opponent
Dash attack: rams with her shield

F-Smash: angel wings
U-Smash: Pillar of light
D-Smash: angel wings on either side of her

N-Air: spins her staff, covers her whole body
F-Air: Lightning kick
B-Air: Shield bashes behind her
U-Air: twirls her staff, similar to Pit's u-air
D-Air: ?

Neutral B: Auto Retticle; has pretty good range and fires 3 lasers in quick succession
Side B: Reflect; the barrier stays out wherever you summoned it for a couple of seconds
Up B: Warp; a more instantaneous version of Zelda's up-B
Down B: Counter

Grab pummel: ?
B-throw: lifts her leg up into the air and leans like 90° backwards as she throws the opponent behind her
Throws except B-throw: ?

from what I hear, she sounds like a heavier combination of Zelda and Pit's movesets.

 

[Admiral Pit]

That's beautiful data. I must have more, including her taunts and more. I really gotta see that kick since that's been one thing I always wanted her to do, besides the shield bashes.

 

[Don Patch]

Hey guys according to D1's friend custom moves can be chosen from the character select screen. I don't know how true this is but if its real

God bless Palutena mains

(Go to the super smash bros. Reddit and look for the post "guy d1 just tweeted this" its on the front page - cant post links yet :/. )

 

[Admiral Pit]

So much Palutena data, it's almost as beautiful as Palutena herself. I don't navigate well over there, so someone else will have to get that for me.

 

[kmpyj]

6 more days my friends. 6 more days.

 

[Admiral Pit]

After today, someone make that "5days" Palutena thing that would seem appropriate. Why not have the trailer scene with her ^_^; smile when she brings up the "Divine Intervention"? We could use that. Hype her up just like the countdown to e3 of her arrival.

 

[ihskeyp]

It's about time we learned more about Palutena. Didn't think we'd have to wait until a week before Japanese release that we'd learn more :I

 

[CatRaccoonBL]

I am worried about this Viridi color swap. I would love it, but I'm skeptical on how much these people really know about Viridi. It could just be a red version of the dress Palutena wears for all I know. Viridi's dress and Palutena's dress are quite different.

Not to mention apparently Palutena doesn't even become blonde. It's a little disheartening.

It's good to see Palutena's move set involve her staff and shield though. Really makes her even more fresh then she already was. <3

 

[andimidna]

I wonder how much range her tilts will have!
Looks like most of her moves are high-ranged. Hopefully a Palutena pro could use this to her advantage by keeping away offensive characters with lower range. I bet she'll be great against Little Mac and Marth.
Little Mac especially depending on her up throw.

 

[Admiral Pit]

@ CatRaccoonBL I know how much you love that Viridi, even though Palutena's still gonna be with green hair.

At least she's putting the staff and shield to good use, even a kick. And I must know and see her other moves. I can tell she's gonna be fun and amazing.

 

[KuroganeHammer]

My first order of business will be making a weight list when the game comes out. I speculate that Palutena is a heavy weight (Ganon weight?).

But after that I was going to do a data topic here. But apparently someone is on that already. I would suggest they make a topic in the next few days where they can dump the data they find.

 

[Admiral Pit]

Sounds like a plan. I want to make sure that Palutena is definitely the "Tank" Zipzo says she is, and that includes the weight and defensive capabilities.
Do keep me updated with all the Palutena data (and pics if someone somehow takes one without getting caught).

 

[YggdrasiI]

Apparently somebody on Twitter posted that Custom Movesets are choosable from the Character Select, so we may not have to use the default specials, even competitively.

 

[Reila]

Unless you are playing online, like a lot of people plan to play. You have to use default specials in matches against random people online.