Welcome to Smashboards, the world's largest Super Smash Brothers community! Over 250,000 Smash Bros. fans from around the world have come to discuss these great games in over 19 million posts!
You are currently viewing our boards as a visitor. Click here to sign up right now and start on your path in the Smash community!
It appears that you are using ad block :'(
Hey, we get it. However this website is run by and for the community... and it needs ads in order to keep running.
Please disable your adblock on Smashboards, or go premium to hide all advertisements and this notice. Alternatively, this ad may have just failed to load. Woops!
Well I'm already the new thread owner thanks to you guys. I would gladly change the OP around a bit, but I'll be pretty pretty busy this week starting tomorrow. I do however plan on giving him a brand new moveset/playstyle after replaying Nazo no Murasame-Jo this weekend.
Like everyone had suggested, I'll give him a zoning playstyle where most of his attacks will be all sorts of projectiles while few moves will be physical (giving them slight advantages against other projectiles).
..or you could just steal borrow my moveset on the last page.
I feel like I could still go further with that move set too. Something about Taka's upB just being another "uppercut but with a SWORD" isn't sitting right with me when he has so much at his disposal. I also didn't want to make his upB a "vanish and reappear" thing since uninformed people might think it was taken from Sheik and he's already being called a "potential" Sheik/Greninja clone enough.
It will be cool if his normals where projectiles while his specials where physical attacks focused on spacing, but maybe that works better for a guy like saki :L
It will be cool if his normals where projectiles while his specials where physical attacks focused on spacing, but maybe that works better for a guy like saki :L
This is actually how I always thought Saki or a character from Sin & Punishment would work. Takamaru on the other hand canonically uses projectiles until he's locked into close quarters where he uses his sword (drawn almost immediately/frame 1 in Mysterious Murasame Castle). It's pretty much the big reason why I see him as a character with a high octane swordplay style for normals/close range and really wild projectiles with big area of effect attributes after a button hold for long range fighting more than anything else.
I think @Marakatu
deserves to be the thread owner, I'm not a big fan of Muramase Castle (at least not yet since I have yet to play it), He knows alot more about retro games (than me) would probably get this thread.
Oh wait am I too late for voting?
Oh, thank you!
I'd love to be the thread owner. But, even if I'm not, I will still contribute with stuff. The one thing I like about Takamaru supporters is that they are very friendly, so I'm proud to be part of this group.
..or you could just steal borrow my moveset on the last page.
I feel like I could still go further with that move set too. Something about Taka's upB just being another "uppercut but with a SWORD" isn't sitting right with me when he has so much at his disposal. I also didn't want to make his upB a "vanish and reappear" thing since uninformed people might think it was taken from Sheik and he's already being called a "potential" Sheik/Greninja clone enough.
Instead of it being a generic uppercut, it could have something special added like a dealing a deadly aerial combo to anyone that's hit by it (It's based on a combo he had done in SW3). Another idea I had was that he would levitate himself by doing what could be best described as a Fire Spin with a sword (like Samus's Screw Attack).
Instead of it being a generic uppercut, it could have something special added like a dealing a deadly aerial combo to anyone that's hit by it (It's based on a combo he had done in SW3). Another idea I had was that he would levitate himself by doing what could be best described as a Fire Spin with a sword (like Samus's Screw Attack).
Alright here it is the full, 95-person, support list that took me a good few hours to compile.
If you would like to be added to the list either tag @Yomi's Biggest Fan
or myself.
I added people from the very beginning who posted multiple times back then.
Also those who straight out said they support.
P.S. I decided to add Xenoblaze to the end of the list as a tribute to the original thread owner.
Edit: Whoops make that 93 supporters accidentally added 2 people twice.
Alright here it is the full, 95-person, support list that took me a good few hours to compile.
If you would like to be added to the list either tag @Yomi's Biggest Fan
or myself.
I added people from the very beginning who posted multiple times back then.
Also those who straight out said they support.
P.S. I decided to add Xenoblaze to the end of the list as a tribute to the original thread owner.
Edit: Whoops make that 93 supporters accidentally added 2 people twice.
Instead of it being a generic uppercut, it could have something special added like a dealing a deadly aerial combo to anyone that's hit by it (It's based on a combo he had done in SW3). Another idea I had was that he would levitate himself by doing what could be best described as a Fire Spin with a sword (like Samus's Screw Attack).
I'm a big fan of sword draw moves with big arcs/crescents and if I didn't already have a Lyn move set prototype with a circling uppercut you would certainly see one for our boy in that move set. I didn't want a lot of overlap between the two move sets since I had to make a strong case about sword draw characters having lots of visual potential as well as general potential.
Edit: I'm curious @Yomi's Biggest Fan
would you like for the flavor text/bits in the OP to be re-written for a more modern thread? The banner image still works (though it'd be nice if we could get Captain Rainbow Taka and the NintendoLand TakaMiiru images shopped into it to cover the spectrum of his appearances), but I think I could redo some of my "essays" into a better OP post.
I'm a big fan of sword draw moves with big arcs/crescents and if I didn't already have a Lyn move set prototype with a circling uppercut you would certainly see one for our boy in that move set. I didn't want a lot of overlap between the two move sets since I had to make a strong case about sword draw characters having lots of visual potential as well as general potential.
Edit: I'm curious @Yomi's Biggest Fan
would you like for the flavor text/bits in the OP to be re-written for a more modern thread? The banner image still works (though it'd be nice if we could get Captain Rainbow Taka and the NintendoLand TakaMiiru images shopped into it to cover the spectrum of his appearances), but I think I could redo some of my "essays" into a better OP post.
I'm glad you liked it, I'll be looking forward to making this brand new moveset by next week and replaying Murasame Castle this Friday to help out. I have to keep as as true to his projectile crazy, star deflecting, ninja killing, badass self as possible with this new moveset. Stay tuned and I promise I won't disappoint. I'll feel free to take suggestions like in the last few pages about how it should go.
Oh, I have a suggestion. Takamaru's neutral special should be chargeable, just like Robin's Thunder/Elthunder/Arcthunder/Thoron.
It should be as the following:
1) Single kunai
\/
2) Kunais in four directions, like the root shogi piece.
\/
3) Kunais in three directions, like the bishop shogi piece.
\/
4) Three kunais in the same direction, like the king shogi piece.
His side special should involve fire and/or windmill swords, and his down special would obviously involve invisibility/intangibility.
Oh, I have a suggestion. Takamaru's neutral special should be chargeable, just like Robin's Thunder/Elthunder/Arcthunder/Thoron.
It should be as the following:
1) Single kunai
\/
2) Kunais in four directions, like the root shogi piece.
\/
3) Kunais in three directions, like the bishop shogi piece.
\/
4) Three kunais in the same direction, like the king shogi piece.
His side special should involve fire and/or windmill swords, and his down special would obviously involve invisibility/intangibility.
Thanks, incorporating the shogi piece upgrades in his arsenal would be a great tribute to the first game. A perfect way to set up his Neutral Special and make him more complex.
As for the Side Special, I've thought of something where both could be used. At the start of each round, Takamaru can use up to 6-8 Windmill Swords (which are large boomerang-like projectiles that could attack straight forward and deal decent damage). Once he runs out of them, he can use corrosive fireballs instead in which they could burst in flames upon contact with a surface or target.
Would you be willing to let me put the Nazo no Murasame jo Archive that I've gotten into the second post? A mod would have to help, but it would be a good place to put it for all people interested in Takamaru to see. It's currently the largest collection of Nazo no Murasame jo stuff online that I know of.
Would you be willing to let me put the Nazo no Murasame jo Archive that I've gotten into the second post? A mod would have to help, but it would be a good place to put it for all people interested in Takamaru to see. It's currently the largest collection of Nazo no Murasame jo stuff online that I know of.
Just in time before I leave. Sure you can do it since it would be a great way of educating people on Takamaru and his universe before new people would support him. Great thinking Pacack.
Oh, I have a suggestion. Takamaru's neutral special should be chargeable, just like Robin's Thunder/Elthunder/Arcthunder/Thoron.
It should be as the following:
1) Single kunai
\/
2) Kunais in four directions, like the root shogi piece.
\/
3) Kunais in three directions, like the bishop shogi piece.
\/
4) Three kunais in the same direction, like the king shogi piece.
His side special should involve fire and/or windmill swords, and his down special would obviously involve invisibility/intangibility.
I actually thought the fireball would be cool for the neutral b. It'd move in a manner similar to Luigi's and work like Bishamon's will-o-wisps in Darkstalkers. Charging it (with a hold input, not like Samus) then releasing the button would fire a shorter range big fireball that'd explode into several coiling wisps that fizzle out shortly after ward. Forward B is an offensive version of Brawl Link's Gale Boomerang that pushes people out and doesn't return. Agreed on down special though.
I actually thought the fireball would be cool for the neutral b. It'd move in a manner similar to Luigi's and work like Bishamon's will-o-wisps in Darkstalkers. Charging it (with a hold input, not like Samus) then releasing the button would fire a shorter range big fireball that'd explode into several coiling wisps that fizzle out shortly after ward. Forward B is an offensive version of Brawl Link's Gale Boomerang that pushes people out and doesn't return. Agreed on down special though.
Now that you've mentioned it, I do like that fireball execution method since it's very effective while keeping up with the Japanese concept of the move.
I am once again thinking that we are not getting a retro newcomer that is owned by Nintendo. Balloon Fighter is implicitly deconfirmed because of Villager's Up+B recovery. We got Little Mac but he isn't retro anymore. We got Pac-Man and Mega Man based on their NES designs but they are not owned by Nintendo. And the only new retro stuff we got is Color TV Game 15, Balloon Fight stage, the SNES part of Pilotwings stage and of course Namco Museum sprites.
After the Robin trailer, I've pretty much followed only one rule. If Sakurai hasn't outright come out and said "not happening" anything goes. Therefore, I will believe in Takamaru until the day of the full roster's leak as per someone with the game in hand.
Believing in "patterns" when this guy time and time again has rused the collective Smashverse's best guesses? Yeah no. lol
I am once again thinking that we are not getting a retro newcomer that is owned by Nintendo. Balloon Fighter is implicitly deconfirmed because of Villager's Up+B recovery. We got Little Mac but he isn't retro anymore. We got Pac-Man and Mega Man based on their NES designs but they are not owned by Nintendo. And the only new retro stuff we got is Color TV Game 15, Balloon Fight stage, the SNES part of Pilotwings stage and of course Namco Museum sprites.
I tend to think contrary: we have ballon fighter implicity disconfirmed, mac is not a retro, pacman and megaman arent nintendo characters and there are tones of retro elements already in, so, what's left is a retro nintendo character's revival
Sorry Tobacco, I had to change the title under requests. I could translate the first part back to Japanese if anyone wants.
I'll definitely look forward to making this new moveset soon. Just have to get myself the ROM and the Nazo no Murasame-JO download to take a trip down memory lance. I have to play the character to get a good feel of how the character should be played in Smash.
Just in time before I leave. Sure you can do it since it would be a great way of educating people on Takamaru and his universe before new people would support him. Great thinking Pacack.
Just to let you all know, I have the GBA version of the game in ROM format since it's the only one compatible with Visual Boy Advance. Though it turns out that I needed to download a certain .int file in order for any non-English ROM to work on Visual Boy. I should be playing it tonight soon and wish my luck on my second round.
Chiming in to say that the first run through of the new write up is pretty much almost done, I've just come up with a massive bit of writer's block while doing the transition from common counter arguments to the rest of the OP post. I'm also doing some last second QA on the aesthetic that Murasame Castle content could bring while watching this:
Chiming in to say that the first run through of the new write up is pretty much almost done, I've just come up with a massive bit of writer's block while doing the transition from common counter arguments to the rest of the OP post. I'm also doing some last second QA on the aesthetic that Murasame Castle content could bring while watching this:
Thanks a ton Pacack. I'm about to put up the first draft for everyone to read and chime in on. Hope everyone will give it a look through before I pass it on to R.O.B.
Thanks a ton Pacack. I'm about to put up the first draft for everyone to read and chime in on. Hope everyone will give it a look through before I pass it on to R.O.B.
Also, I've just updated my archive with new stuff, including figures and the GBA stuff, which I forgot to do earlier. Besides that, I also got some better quality images for some stuff off of Yahoo Auctions JP.
Welcome to the support thread for Nintendo’s oldest samurai and one of its oldest protagonists! We hope that your curiosity leads to you learning something fun about one of Nintendo’s “Most Known Unknowns”. You’ve caught us at a pretty cool time where we’re anticipating his inclusion in Smash 4 and as such have begun doing some renovations for the thread. We’re about to begin taking questions, starting with yours:
“Who is Takamaru?”
Takamaru is the protagonist of the Japanese Family Computer or “Famicom” (NES equivalent) title “The Mysterious Murasame Castle” (lit. Nazo no Murasame Jō). As an apprentice samurai, Takamaru is given the duty of preventing a strange otherworldly deity from conquering Edo Japan after its initial descent and consequent possession of the lords of four neighboring castle towns. Armed with little more than a reliable katana and his own wit initially, he sets off on the journey that would have him visit these four castles freeing the inhabitants of the castle from this being’s influence before reaching his final destination, the titular Murasame Castle, wherein he would confront the strange deity for the sake of all involved.
For all that can be said of this story however, the character is a bit of a blank slate in terms of what can be done with his personality. While defined by the noble and honor first way of the samurai, Takamaru has also seen interesting characterization from his appearance in another game. Captain Rainbow’s interpretation of the character retains the same duty bound, humble and personable attitude while also introducing the “quirk” that the young samurai has a hard time around women.
“What is this “Mysterious Murasame Castle” game like? Is it a Puzzle game? Action-Adventure? Platformer?“
In some senses, The Mysterious Murasame Castle is both an action-adventure title and one of the earliest progenitors of the modern day “stylish action” or “twitch action” game genres. Even in its now basic gameplay design, Takamaru is a character that is nimble, responsive and, through the acquisition of varied offensive and support power ups, given a number of ways to deal with the challenges that arose in the game’s “screen by screen” design. Players encounter nimble enemies ranging from ninja foot soldiers to possessed lords with large AoE weaponry to various supernatural phenomena darting all about and generating mass pandemonium. The game demanded the absolute best of your ability to navigate its grid based design while making your way from one zone to the next avoiding or engaging the obstacles it would put in your way. As combat is a big component to the game, Takamaru (as the player character) was given a mixed move set consisting of long ranged projectile items such as enchanted “will-o-wisp” flames, throwing knives and stars, support items such as a magic cloak that would turn the character completely invisible and thus impossible to damage, and a short range katana drawn from the sheath should you find an opponent stumbling into your strike zone.
“So you roam about a map beating foes while collecting crazy items? Oh, but that just sounds like a Zelda game!”
Not quite. Zelda is focused more on exploration, puzzles and discovery while The Mysterious Murasame Castle is skewed more towards combat, navigation and survival. You have brought up a pretty interesting observation however…
“When was this game created? What significance do Takamaru and Mysterious Murasame Castle have to Nintendo’s history?”
The Mysterious Murasame Castle was created and released in 1986. Avid video game historians and enthusiasts will be quick to tell you that this was also the “birth year” of three other notable Nintendo franchises that currently enjoy a strong popularity in the Nintendo-verse. These franchises are The Legend of Zelda, Metroid and Kid Icarus. People in the know will also be quick to inform you that Metroid and Kid Icarus share a bond by being created by the same team. Instead of opting to design a wholly new franchise with new technologies or approaches after Metroid, the team decided to play with the engine and initial design of the game, eschewing the labyrinthine side scrolling nature for a faster paced experimental platformer/shooter hybrid. With the creation of a few new assets, a new story and a new protagonist in the form of Pit, the birth of the first Kid Icarus title was complete. But you knew that already, right?
Now what if I told you that The Legend of Zelda and The Mysterious Murasame Castle share a similar relationship with one another? After the breakout success of the first Zelda title, developers within Nintendo opted to play with the basic design and attributes of the first Zelda in the desire of making a faster paced action oriented title. The result was The Mysterious Murasame Castle. Sadly, due to the timing of the game’s release versus Zelda and Metroid, the game didn’t reach the same stratosphere of sales as those two franchises and due to the intrinsically Japanese flavor of the game, it was also passed over for a chance to find an audience in the West as at the time, Nintendo of America believed the game to be too niche and region centric versus the universal entities of the other big Nintendo games. This left the game caught between a rock and a hard place. The game and Takamaru have continued to persist through the ages however both by being remembered fondly by Japanese gamers who enjoyed its gameplay and being frequently referenced, especially in more modern Nintendo made or published titles. (See next question)
Takamaru's inclusion in the roster creates a very interesting “family (Famicom?) reunion” of franchises and characters that were all born in the same early era of Nintendo each of which has a strong history of circumstance and relation to one another. It also gives a character that was once bottlenecked by circumstance a second chance to find a real audience among the Nintendo All-Stars.
“Where does his support come from? More specifically, how has he managed to remain visible for such a long time?”
The character and game have always seen a stable and somewhat loud bit of support from Japanese players enamored with the game. At times it has been described as the East’s “Punch-Out!!” referencing how the series is revered in one hemisphere but registers a complete blank in another due to either never seeing a release there or coming out to a (sadly) muted response from the opposite hemisphere’s gaming audience. Contrary to a large majority of Nintendo franchises that have come and gone into the back of the Nintendo Vault™ over the years, Takamaru and The Mysterious Murasame Castle have continued to receive small nods of recognition in a few Nintendo games released since. Pikmin 2 is the earliest modern reference with one of its objectives involving retrieving a copy of the Famicom game disk. Other homages and references include the inclusion of Douchuumen or the Castle Town theme and main musical theme of the journey heard from the start of the game in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the inclusion of an entire mode retelling the events of Mysterious Murasame Castle with a more realistic slant within the release of Samurai Warriors 3 for the Wii, his inclusion alongside other notable but “lost in time” Nintendo characters aiming for the spotlight again in Captain Rainbow, and a particularly surprising game mode themed after his franchise in 2012’s NintendoLand release.
While it is hard to pinpoint when exactly Takamaru became a figure in Western want lists and well wishes, the combination of allure for another character to break out while bringing a fresh side of Nintendo to the mainstream in a manner similar to the inclusion of the Fire Emblem duo Marth and Roy in Super Smash Bros. Melee, the heightened awareness of him and his game thanks to cameos made in the previously mentioned titles, and the desire for a wildly different take on swordsmanship is enough to get anyone moderately intrigued.
There is also the issue of one Hideki Kamiya of Twitter Devil May Cry, Resident Evil 2, Okami and The Wonderful 101 fame stepping in and mentioning that of the Nintendo franchises he'd love to have a hand in reviving or developing for, The Mysterious Murasame Castle sits at the top of the batch next to a Star Fox revival...
“Why is he such a great candidate for the roster? What does he bring in terms of aesthetic versus the other all-stars already present?”
Takamaru and the Mysterious Murasame Castle bring Japanese visual design and culture to the forefront through the combination of character and setting potential. Takamaru is not only one of those Japan only characters akin to Marth or Lucas before Smash propelled them to superstar level, but he is also literally a character from a stylized version of Japan’s Edo era. This means that a bit of Japanese culture will take influence on the character and the setting.
Now you might be saying "Why would Japanese culture be a big deal?" Well aesthetically, Japanese related content tends to have a notable style that expresses emotion by mixing environments and movements to make almost a poetic expression. For example:
Murasame Castle could be a beautiful place with sakura blowing in the wind, some chimes gently ringing, and a small river flowing underneath a bridge. A very soothing feeling at first, but then the sky could turn a blood red with all of the sakura wilting away and the river drying up, with mysterious figures stalking in the background and the mysterious alien deity that took over Murasame Castle watching anonymously around the castle itself. It would cycle between the peace and the chaos, like a never ending battle of good vs. evil.
The use of sumi-e styled background elements and filters (a la Okami) is yet another way to diversify from the cast and highlight the strengths of Japanese visual design.
How would Takamaru play optimally? Do you have move set examples?
(Shoutouts to Rurouni Kenshin)
“Pause. I just realized he uses a sword. We don’t need any more sword people.”
“Won’t he just be another blue haired swordsman?”
“Sakurai said X wouldn’t be a good inclusion for being ‘just another swordsman‘… What exempts Takamaru from this criticism?”
First things first, Taka’s black haired. First art is canon.
Now then, walk with me for a little bit. Just as there are a limitless number of ways to fight with fists and feet, use magic, generate energy, etc, while also being visually distinct, so too are there ways of using a sword. Before we talk about Takamaru any further though, let’s take a brief look at the current reality of swordsmen in Smash:
Knights (Sword & Shield style): Link, Young Link & Toon Link
Right off the bat, you should notice something strange with this. The series has gone through three entries with the fourth one rapidly approaching and this archetype is only made up of variants of the same character. Sure this is mitigated in play style by giving different properties to similar looking attacks, but with so little else being done in how this style is implemented, it comes across as being excessively same-y.
Fencers (fighting style based off of the European style of Fencing): Marth, Roy, and the newcomer Lucina
Yet again, we see another situation where in three games (soon to be four), there is only one style being represented between multiple characters with little in the way of variance besides move property changes.
Heavy Swordsperson: Ike
Ike represents the first true divergence from either of the two styles mentioned above. By supplementing his raw power with the impressive reach of Ragnell, he was able to have a mixed style wherein scrappy physicality and powerful swings melded together to make something true to the character and truly divergent from the previously established swordsman mold. It took us until Brawl, the third game in the franchise 9 years after it started for one extra “swordsman” mold to be created. To put this in further context, it took the Smash franchise three games to officially have a third sword fighting style represented out of a cast of 39 characters as per Brawl. That’s not so good…
Hybrids (characters that use a bladed weapon but do not specialize or identify by this specifically): Pit and newcomer Robin
Pit’s redesigned weapon, Palutena’s Bow, was first displayed as a set of knives that joined together to create a pseudo bladed staff/bow hybrid. While I include him here for the sake of objectivity, I hesitate to consider him a “swordsperson” specifically because of his “jack of all trades” focus. Even so, if we count this, Pit makes for the fourth variance in swordsman/bladed combat styles over a three game and near decade long period of time in the franchise. Robin is another such character that falls into this mold. While the character possesses a sword, the sword runs completely secondary to the character’s mastery over magic. Even in the limited footage we have, there is a noticeable lack of finesse with the sword that the other swordsmen characters possess whereas his abilities with the tomes are varied and impressive. In that case, we can say that the sword is a supplement to Robin’s more magic oriented play style.
Hyper Offensive/High Octane/”Death by a million Cartoony Cuts”: Metaknight, potentially newcomer Mii Swordfighter
Metaknight was silly. While not adhering to any specific style of swordsmanship, his transcendental attacking speed and “whirling death” style is unique in its own right and deserves a mention. As such this is the fifth variance in swordsmen included as playable characters in every Smash roster from the first through Brawl. Mii Swordfighter ramps things up by bringing a broadsword to the battle but also bringing a distinctly chaotic nature to it as well.
Putting this all into perspective, this means that:
- In Smash 64, there was only one swordsman of one fighting style niche in Link
- In Melee, there were only four swordsmen out of a twenty six character roster. Out of those four, only two fighting styles were represented, fencers (Marth & Roy) and knights (Link & Young Link).
- In Brawl, there were six swordsmen and four styles represented (Marth, Ike, Pit, Metaknight, Link & Toon Link) out of a cast of 39.
- Speaking on characters confirmed as of this post, Smash 4 has fencers (Marth, Lucina), heavy swordsmen (Ike), Hybrids (Pit, Robin), and High Octane (Mii Swordfighters) covered.
So the issue isn’t that there are too many swords people. It’s that there are too many swords people riding the coattails of another established swordsman with not enough variety being shown in between to warrant a casual player’s interest.
Coming back to Takamaru now, we don’t have to look far to see how he can offer a satisfying and distinct new take on the surprisingly underserved swordsman flavor in the Smash rosters to date. The “draw and sheathe” style of sword fighting (via either Iaido or Battoujutsu) is a niche that has yet to be capitalized on within the playable Smash cast. With Lyn continuing to resume her role as an Assist Trophy character, Takamaru is the best, if not only, character in Nintendo's stable that is able to take this style and run with it by virtue of being Nintendo's oldest samurai protagonist and a character with some decent Nintendo history behind himself.
In this style of sword combat, the sword remains sheathed at all times until an attack is launched wherein the opponent draws their sword in a lightning fast manner simultaneously attacking them out of this draw before once again sheathing their blade. Even in the 1986 title, one could see that Takamaru was a character who only ever used his blade in close quarters lending more credibility to the idea that he could be a practitioner of iaido. The idea behind the style is in displaying a cool composition of the mind as well as swiftness of the body so as to be aware of openings and make quick lethal strikes once the practitioner was in a certain range.
What's more, Takamaru also brings with him numerous other toys in the form of Will-O-Wisp fireballs that explode on contact, the ability to call down screen clearing lightning, the ability to turn intangible/invisible, varied throwing knives/stars, projectile deflection with his sword, and of course his agility and twitch based gameplay. All of these aren't even stretches of what he was capable of doing, each of these abilities and subtleties were born with the character in the 1986 Famicom game. In developing a style that highlights both his close and long range attributes, it is possible to make a swordsman character unlike any other present in the roster and one who would be satisfying to use. Below are some examples from regulars in the thread:
Takamaru's style of samurai is more about evasion, space control, and awareness. In his game, The Mysterious Murasame Castle, players are challenged by hoards of nimble enemies ranging from ninja foot soldiers to possessed lords with large AoE weaponry to various supernatural phenomena darting all about and generating mass pandemonium. The game demanded the absolute best of your ability to navigate its grid based design while making your way from one zone to the next avoiding or engaging the obstacles it would put in your way. You were given a mixed move set consisting of long ranged projectile items, support items and a short range katana drawn from the sheath should you find an opponent stumbling into your strike zone. As such, my design for Takamaru embodies the "zoning speedster" archetype. He has balanced power and utilizes excellent movement with long range offense before finishing with decently powerful sword draws. His sword's range is somewhat shorter than the range on other swordsmen in the roster currently, but his moves set up juggles and he isn't without decent KO moves.
Baiken, from the Guilty Gear fighting game series, and Kenshin Himura of the Rurouni Kenshin anime series served as the greatest inspirations for my ideas for Takamaru.
Running speed: Between Marth and PM Pit
Wall Jump: Yes
Wall Cling: Yes
Tether: No
Fall Speed: Fast
Weight Class: Lightweight (Between Marth and Pit)
Jump heights: Average (think Fox)
Neutral B: Fireballs: Takamaru can launch will-o-wisp style fireballs that travel straight forward with this move. Holding B generates a larger wisp made of multiple fireballs that moves forward in a coil motion before exploding or scattering in different directions. You cannot store this charge however.
Forward B: Windmill Shuriken: Throws a shuriken projectile forward that generates a wall of wind before dissipating completely. Holding the B charges this move allowing it to go farther and generate even greater winds. These winds push people out while dealing damage. (Think of Link's vBrawl Gale Boomerang except it does damage as it pushes and doesn't come back to Takamaru)
Down B: Empty Dash: Takamaru turns invisible as sakura petals "poof" about his previous location. He then moves forward a set distance before reappearing with this command dash. Holding the B button allows you to choose where you wish to end up horizontally (think of Zelda's Din's Fire). There is a moderate cool down animation on this maneuver so be careful when using it!
Upward B: Whirling Draw: Takamaru rises in a somersault while drawing his blade. The initial draw on the ground launches opponent upward into a series of smaller slashes as he spins and slashes a set height above the ground in a manner similar to Samus' screw attack.
Final Smash: Inazuma Lightning: Takamaru stabs his katana into the air where it is struck by lightning. After this, he then directs the lightning bolts to strike near him on screen before the storm passes.
I only have one more question… How do I support this character? I’m very intrigued now.
This part is easy. Simply ask to be added to our growing list of supporters and we’ll handle the rest. If you would like, you can also add one of the following icons to your signature:
They will link back to the thread’s first post so others might get a look at what Takamaru’s all about. Once that’s done, just kick back and have a blast with us as we get our samurai on. :D
I wish if there was more art with transparencies added that I could have used. If anyone's good at that, it'd be nice to get that NintendoLand throwing star banner fixed up. I tried to keep the images thematic with the part of the OP that it'd correlate to but it's hard to find good fan art or art in general that doesn't use the Captain Rainbow look. lol
The Rurouni Kenshin gif should show up over time. Gfycat is weird about how it does gif images. There's a link there to a webm to a topical image for that part of the post so that should help a little. With that said, what say you all?
I wish if there was more art with transparencies added that I could have used. If anyone's good at that, it'd be nice to get that NintendoLand throwing star banner fixed up. I tried to keep the images thematic with the part of the OP that it'd correlate to but it's hard to find good fan art or art in general that doesn't use the Captain Rainbow look. lol
The Rurouni Kenshin gif should show up over time. Gfycat is weird about how it does gif images. There's a link there to a webm to a topical image for that part of the post so that should help a little. With that said, what say you all?
I love it! You've really outdone yourself with the entire post by telling about his history, posting some arguments that people would have against him, and informing people about how he could be a unique fighter. The only thing wrong is that one of the images are broken (unless it's just my computer).
With that being said, I'll give the OP the makeover it deserves to guarantee us more support. Good job @bksbestbwoy
Yomi's Biggest Fan
