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Rika - The unlikely character from an unlikely series. (Phantasy Star 4)

Flowen231

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Apr 20, 2015
Messages
193
This is the character that I want the most in the game. I've seen other Phantasy Star characters mentioned in other threads but didn't find any support threads for any of them, so here we go!

WHAT IS PHANTASY STAR?

Phantasy Star is an old sega RPG franchise that premiered on the master system back in the 80s when JRPGs were starting to get popular and sega wanted to get a piece of that pie. As far as what it brought to the table compared to its competition; Rather than the traditional fantasy environment of its competition, it went for a mix of mideval and scifi that had the player wielding futuristic weapons and guns, floating cities, and even space travel. After Phantasy Star 1, however, the series went moreso towards the scifi and all but abandoned the mideval theme. It also had the best presentation of any JRPG of its time by far. It was way ahead of its time in terms of looks, the game's music was also a cut above the rest thanks to sega's FM chip (which we did not get in the west until the recent re-release on switch sadly) and it offered story and world building unlike anything we'd seen to that point. The Phantasy Star series also has the first instance where a main female protagonist perma dies (TAKE THAT FINAL FANTASY!!! jkstillloveyou).

By today's standards it's really bare bones and it hasn't aged too well outside of the recent re-release which is packed with qol changes, but this this game set a new gold standard in what we know to be the JRPG genre as a whole and inspired a generation of JRPGs that are still praised to this day. Phantasy Star is still around, making many appearances since its debut in the form of 3 sequels to the first game, an action RPG spin off that was the first ever console game to utilize online functionality, a spin off of that action RPG for the nintendo DS, and 2 sequels of that spin off that each have their own spin offs as well XD. And ports! Lots of ports. I actually can't think of any console off hand after the n64 and ps1 that hasn't had a Phantasy Star game on it.


Who Is Rika?

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Rika is a newman (depending on the game can also be numan). They were introduced in phantasy star 2, one of the main characters is one. Newmen were created by scientists altering the human genome with bio monster dna in order to create an obedient superhuman. At least they succeeded at the superhuman part, not so much the obedient bit. In the later games they become more so magically attuned and are physically weaker and frailer than the average human, but in the main series they were faster and stronger than the average person lore wise in most ways, the only downside being their super rapid aging that had them go through an entire human life cycle in 4 years. This was reflected in Phantasy Star 2 where the newman character in your party would level up twice as fast as the rest of the cast, but only gain half of the stat boosts per level.

Rika was created by a powerful AI 1000 years after Phantasy Star 2 using traces of the PS2 main character's dna, so she is a clone of sorts, but she was perfected genetically to prevent rapid aging after reaching adulthood.
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. She joins your party early on after rescuing one of your party member's friend from bio monsters and becomes one of the 4 main characters in the game.



Why Rika?
You may wonder why her instead of the series' first and main heroine Alisa. I don't think Alisa would be bad honestly. People may take issue with Alisa being a swordy, but I don't mind since there are way more fist fighters than swordys. Gotta stop adding fist fighters Sakurai (joking lol). The game she's from, Phantasy Star 4, is also considered by many to be the best in the classic series if not the whole series depending on who you ask, and it's also the best aged game in the series, still being really accessible even now despite its age. But the weapon is the main reason. Rika (along with most newmans throughout the series that follow her archetype) uses claw weapons.

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The best comparison for how this type of weapon would play out would be Wolf, he uses his own but in the Phantasy Star series claws behave very similar to how wolf attacks with long and speedy slashes. In PSO2 claws were re-purposed into long range whipping and grappling weapons where the blades fire out while attached to retractable wires. That, along with newmans being more magically adept in the series is the reason why I chose a newman instead of Alisa. The reason I chose Rika specifically was because Phantasy Star 4 is considered by many to be the best in the original series, kind of like the ff7 of Phantasy Star and therefore would be more appealing to people who know the series.


Alternate Costumes/Colors.
There are lots of newmen that follow the Nei/Rika archetype throughout the series and there are quite a few that it could be. Mid post creation note, it's hard to find pictures of all these characters that match sizes, sorry for that lol. I'll do them all separately as a result.

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STAGE
Honestly this series is giant and theres way too many places where it could be lol. But if we go specifically for a place in Phantasy Star 4 it could be the Kuran satellite where you first face off against Dark Force.

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MUSIC
Phantasy Star in general has lots of great sounding action themes fit for smash.

And many, many MANY holy crap MANY more.


Possible Moveset

 

Attachments

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Flowen231

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Apr 20, 2015
Messages
193
Also quick note, I have no idea why those 4 attachments are down there X.x
 

Oddball

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Oct 1, 2016
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Not anywhere near my top 10 and probabaly wouldn't even make my top 100, but I wouldn't mind seeing her. The series is a classic and she's got a nice simple but stylish design.
 

Flowen231

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Apr 20, 2015
Messages
193
XD theres a reason why she, or any phantasy star character would be unlikely. It really is a pipe dream. But it's my pipe dream :).

Almost done with the move set video btw.
 

Flowen231

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Apr 20, 2015
Messages
193
IT HAS BEEN DONE. Just uploaded and linked the video for Rika's potential moveset.
 

Captain Shwampy

Smash Master
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Jul 20, 2014
Messages
3,063
Should of just made this a Phantasy Star support thread for any rep

Alis/Rolf/Rhys/Chaz, Nei/Rika, Wren/RAcast/Demi/RAcaseal

either way id love any PS character in smash
 
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Flowen231

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Apr 20, 2015
Messages
193
Should of just made this a Phantasy Star support thread for any rep

Alis/Rolf/Rhys/Chaz, Nei/Rika, Wren/RAcast/Demi/RAcaseal

either way id love any PS character in smash
I did consider it, I could have mentioned much more characters like those, and others like Kireek that play a role in the later games' stories. But ultimately I settled on just Rika because she'd likely be the most unique outside of a mage or gunner. Most people dislike zoner types and there would be those that complain about swordy characters, but Rika and her continued archetype in the series doesn't really fall into those categories.

They could also do a pso2 character but in a lot of ways pso2 is a pretty big departure from the series, even more so than the originals to pso, or pso to psu. I don't think it would do a good job of representing the series as a whole because of how different it is the way Terry did with Fatal Fury/KoF, Alis would probably be the best for that tbh but in the end the combat style made me chose Rika (Or any HUney really) over her.
 

Captain Shwampy

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Messages
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I did consider it, I could have mentioned much more characters like those, and others like Kireek that play a role in the later games' stories. But ultimately I settled on just Rika because she'd likely be the most unique outside of a mage or gunner. Most people dislike zoner types and there would be those that complain about swordy characters, but Rika and her continued archetype in the series doesn't really fall into those categories.

They could also do a pso2 character but in a lot of ways pso2 is a pretty big departure from the series, even more so than the originals to pso, or pso to psu. I don't think it would do a good job of representing the series as a whole because of how different it is the way Terry did with Fatal Fury/KoF, Alis would probably be the best for that tbh but in the end the combat style made me chose Rika (Or any HUney really) over her.
Alis does feel very basic in comparison but on the other hand I like your idea of mixing up classic PS characters with PSO content.
It makes enough sense that it works

All of the PSO classes are based off classic characters too
Alis and all other PS protags - HUmar
Nei and Rika - HUnewearl
Wren, Mieu, and Demi - all Cast races (there was even early concept art of Wren appearing in PSO as a cast)
Rudolph and Anna - RAmar/marl
Lutz, Raja, Kyra, Rune - all FO's

Give Alis a ton HUmar stuff and shes good to go
 

Flowen231

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Messages
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Alis does feel very basic in comparison but on the other hand I like your idea of mixing up classic PS characters with PSO content.
It makes enough sense that it works

All of the PSO classes are based off classic characters too
Alis and all other PS protags - HUmar
Nei and Rika - HUnewearl
Wren, Mieu, and Demi - all Cast races (there was even early concept art of Wren appearing in PSO as a cast)
Rudolph and Anna - RAmar/marl
Lutz, Raja, Kyra, Rune - all FO's

Give Alis a ton HUmar stuff and shes good to go

Thats not a bad idea. I could probably come up with a moveset using that. Kinda lazy so nah but un theory; You could use the saber jab, and saber/sword/katana arts from psu and pso2 to round out the moveset. If you want to make her more humar than pure swordy though, Alis and humar have techs, and humar specifically has debuffs that his playstyle centers around so she could have a way of inflicting defense down/knockback up or damage/hitstun down.
 

Captain Shwampy

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Btw the Drama CD has a artbook which contain PSIV styled designs for Nei and NM-2011 (basically Neifirst) that I prefer alot more over the AGES remake designs.

PSfanbook_04.jpg
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PSfanbook_11.jpg
 

Flowen231

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I don't remember 2011 being a clone of neifirst, but they are good designs. Tbh It's been so long since I went through the CD that I forgot about the artwork.
 

Captain Shwampy

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I don't remember 2011 being a clone of neifirst, but they are good designs. Tbh It's been so long since I went through the CD that I forgot about the artwork.
I mean in a "Evil Nei" sense.

BTW Found out SEGA Sound Team rebranded themselves as band called Blind Spot
They've done some wonderful recent remixes of PSI-IV songs in some of there albums

https://open.spotify.com/track/3Xjl8Ykh5spJ85LpMCCiWN

https://open.spotify.com/track/5XDUPsejrf60cGsmwcN4SP

https://open.spotify.com/track/2jre4Mi68knOW8eLax4ufE
 

Flowen231

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Those sound good. Makes me wonder if they would have done something like that for the ps4 remake that got cancelled.
 

Speed Weed

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you know what

sure

the more classic sega representation, the better, and even tho i'd rather have my DUDE wren, rika's got a rad design too

count me in
 

MAtgSy

Smash Ace
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May 12, 2006
Messages
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As first I thought this was gonna be Rika from Digimon Tamers, which I would be in favor of.
 

Flowen231

Smash Apprentice
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Apr 20, 2015
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193
I started playing on ship 2. I quit playing the JP version in 2013 but my mates dragged me back to try the game after all the updates lol.
 

Cadillac

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So
I saw this leak thing that has Matoi from PSO2 for smash
Can anyone tell me what can she do?
 

Captain Shwampy

Smash Master
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Jul 20, 2014
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So
I saw this leak thing that has Matoi from PSO2 for smash
Can anyone tell me what can she do?

Matoi is a ARKS Guardian alongside you the player character. She is the first successor to Klariskrays, one of the original heroes of Oracle,.
She's a Force class meaning her attacks focus on using techniques (Magic, buffs/debuffs, Healing). Force classes use Rods and Talises however Matoi never uses talises in the story mode. She has a rod called Clarissa which is her main weapon.

Here's an example of a Force class combat. Notice that casting magic animation gives you invincibility frames which is important for classes that use techniques since they all have low HP and Def but high attack damage.
 
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