Smashboards Creates: Battle of AGES, a SEGA platform fighter

[YoshiandToad]

I've just realised my two submissions share a colourscheme of green and gold...curious.

Job #292a: Lan Di (Shenmue)

This is the last hoorah...and with that in mind, I'm thinking of match ups I'd still like to have seen.

There's few match ups I think Sega fans as a whole have wanted to see more than Ryo Hazuki vs. Lan Di. Unfortunately Shenmue 3's final boss fight against him was frankly extremely disappointing with Lan Di just blocking every single move Ryo attempts against him before switching to a cutscene where Lan Di completely and apathetically attempts to dispatch Ryo. Not really the showdown many fans wanted to see with Ryo still having made no progress in his quest to defeat Lan Di.

With Lan Di's mastery of lethal usage of the Tiger Swallow Style martial arts and status as Shenmue's main antagonist(at least at current), he fits as a dangerous boss well in my opinion, and would be a character Sega fans would love to finally face off against in a real battle.

The only real downside is we haven't seen a lot of Lan Di's skills through the course of Shenmue.

However, that can be solved surprisingly easily as Lau Chan from Virtua Fighter is also a practioner of Tiger Swallow Style (as well as being the basis for Lan Di) allowing some moves to be lifted from Lau's skillset.

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Job #292b: HORATIO (Endless)

Of course.

I wasn't originally going to submit Horatio for this round, but I was a little convinced by both Fly and Tony over on Discord suggesting him, his evil plan to take over the universe and turn everyone into loyal clones of himself probably warrants him a boss status... and there's not really a more perfect ending for my personal final Sega based submission given the various times I've waxed lyrical about him.

I'll fight for Endless until the End...which is now admittedly as this really is the very last Sega first party submission for Battle of Ages.


The boss battle:

It'd take place inside Horatio's gorgeous golden palace and set up like an ancient roman colosseum(but in space) and be a mob battle.
Horatio himself would be sat on his throne in the background, overlooking the battle before him, most likely with a smug condescending smile on his face as he looks down on the arena below. Surrounding him are Horatio clones in the stands furiously cheering, pumping their fists and throughly enjoying the carnage of the boss battle as the playable fighters stand in the arena below.

The boss battle is a mob battle and consists of five rounds, with each round becoming progressively more difficult until the final confrontation with Horatio Prime himself.

• ROUND 1: HORATIO CLONES
  The battle starts against a group of five Horatio soldiers.
  They are armed with light guns giving them good reach, but are physically weak, fragile and slow and are not much of a threat. Once defeated, Horatio claps his hands elegantly which has a pair of Horatio appear with a Sherydyn knight from the United Empire. She is thrown to the ground and with an elegant snap of his fingers, Horatio summons a gene splicing tank which envelopes the knight. The liquids inside violently shake as they are spliced.
  
  
• ROUND 2: SHERYDEN HORATIO
  From the gene splice tank, five new Horatio soldiers appear.
  They are faster and stronger, now armed with spears giving them a long reach, but less range than round one. Once dispatched, Horatio once again claps his hands, and the Horatio soldiers bring a Hissho, a samurai avian species forth, throwing him to the ground. The Hissho strikes back, stabbing one of the guards with his blade. The other soldiers runs off scared, but Horatio once again clicks his fingers and summons another gene splice tank which violently shakes as he is spliced.
  
  
• ROUND 3: HISSHO HORATIO
  This time round three sword wielding Horatio appear. They are nimble and strike hard and fast, leaping around like ninjas and striking with speedy precision. They are still relatively fragile despite their increased strength and speed so take them out quickly!
  Upon doing so, once again Horatio will clap his hands, and this time a Craver, a monsterous insectoid with a ravenous appetitite will appear, brought in with chains by five very worried looking Horatio soldiers. The Craver yanks the chain loose with it's four arms, sending two of the Horatio flying across the screen. Now loose it grabs one of the Horatio and devours him whole. The other two Horatio run in terror as the crowd goes wild. The Craver makes a loud guttaral roar and launches itself towards Horatio on the throne, only for him to click his fingers again and the Craver is caught in the gene splice tank which once again violently shakes as the creature is spliced.
  
  
• ROUND 4: CRAVER HORATIO
  Two bulky and stronger looking Horatio emerge from the tank. They are more muscular, but Horatio is displeased as they are too individual now. The brutish Horatio will try to charge down the fighters, attacking with their bare fists, which now pack a wallop and can deal serious damage to the fighters.
  If the fighters manage to overcome these two, the crowd begins to grow silent, except for one Horatio who will hold up a sign of support for the fighter character. Horatio will shoot him a look, and clap once more as the crowd throws him from the stands into the area.
  Horatio will descend into the arena himself, floating on a sphere that mimics the solar system(fitting as he thinks himself the center of the universe). He snaps his fingers once more, and the previous gene tanks are put into an EVEN LARGER gene splicing tank, shaking violently.
  
  From the tank a singular smoothie appears, which Horatio snaps his fingers and the Sega fighter supporting fan panics and brings it to him. Horatio takes a sip of the gene smoothie, glowing as he becomes more powerful from the combined genetic enhancements, before promptly throwing the traitorous fan off screen with his new found strength, and firing several shots from his laser gun at him off screen.
  
  He turns to the player with that same smug superior smile. You are hideous to him and he is perfection. He will have your DNA spliced to improve his people's abilities. The crowd goes wild.
  
  
• ROUND 5: HORATIO PRIME
  Horatio is now stronger, faster and can take far more of a beating than his previous clones. He is armed with his personal laser firearm allowing for him to shoot from a distance, but he is also able to utilise the weaponry and strength of the previous Horatio clones you fought. Horatio acts like a fighter, and has access to his own psuedo 'All-Star Move' which summons a horde of stampeding Horatio to cross the stage. They aren't really a huge threat and can be either leapt over or punched and kicked away, but during this time Horatio will still be attacking.

Upon defeating Horatio Prime the crowd will roar with applause for the fighter, and many more personalised signs will pop up. Sometime during the ending cutscene, an audience member sneakily takes Horatio Prime's place on the throne, seeking a chance to become the planet's new emperor.

Some notes:

• I decided to go with a bit of fun personality on this one after playing Love Thyself: A Horatio Story and Endless Dungeon recently.
• The Horatio's replacing one another as ruler is actually canon to the story. The Horatio faction in Endless Space 2 explores this as the main storyline of their playthrough.
• Technically we never see how the gene splicers power up ready established Horatios rather than just new clones, so I felt the smoothie was an idea Amplitude Studios would probably be on board with given some of the silliness they injected into the Endless franchise of recent.

 

[Speed Weed]

Resubmitting Yatsurao, I've got something else in mind for my second pick

Job #230: Yatsurao from Shinobi (2002)
View attachment 363307
So, Shinobi is a big series with a lot of games to pull from. But you know something I've noticed? Our major Shinobi representation basically completely ignores a big part of the series' history. We basically made it all about the old-school stuff, Joe is our rep, our stage is from Revenge, our assist is from Shadow Dancer....and of course these games are great and deserving of representation in their own right, but there's another really cool sect of the series' history that's so far gone untouched: the PS2 reboot duology.

You probably know this, but SEGA made a couple Shinobi games on the PS2, that are rather revered in their own right and also notable for their difficulty. Those games also introduce a whole new vast world and cast to pull from, including a lot of really cool bosses. So after thinking over my options, I decided on Yatsurao, one of the major antagonists from the first of the two games, mainly because I think he'd make for a better platform fighter boss than a lot of the other options while still being a major villain.

Yatsurao is a giant demonic statue who's one of the last bosses you face in the original game. Here, you'll be fighting him in sort of a plane-based layout, where he stands in the background behind you and you attack him from the foreground. He'll attempt to swipe at or crush you with his hands, but he can also cast some spells, such as making pillars of energy appear below you. He can also summon out small Hellspawns for you to deal with. I just think the PS2 Shinobi games are really really cool and I'd like to get them repped somewhere

 

[TORNADO BUS DRIVER]

Trouble Bruin
From Dynamite Heddy. The recurring main side villain of the game. This fight will have multiple phases based on the fights from his home game. He starts out in his first form, a cat which dashes around the stage throwing balls of energy, before turning into his later forms including with a long arm that fires out smaller versions of himself. His next form is a body that fires energy balls and missiles. It is a giant tank-like body with wheels for transportation; His head is in the middle, moving up and down. After defeat he will run away.

Prototype Dragon
A main boss from Panzar Dragoon. An artificial Dragon created as a weapon. Players stand on a flying platform kinda like the Brawl Ridley fights and must battle the Dragon who will fly ahead of them and attack by swooping down, flying forward, flying from the background and shooting projectiles onto the stage. I think this series makes a lot of sense for a boss.

 

[Captain Shwampy]

Resubmitting Elize and Galm

Job 230: Elize and Galm (Shining the Holy Ark)

Two powerful beings that cannot be killed or age the Shining Force III saga. They are part of the Vandal race, a powerful god like ancient race that were masters of the world, known as the "Thousand years kingdom". The main villains in both Holy Ark and SFIII try to bring back that era but are ultimately stopped. Its argued that Vandals/Innovator aren't really race but more of a thing you can become like a "class" in way, in the beginning of Holy Ark our Main characters die and inherit the spirit that the spirit evolves in accordance with the bearer's actions, one can assume if they are good, they become an Innovator. If not, they become a Vandal. It can be genetically passed down but also be taken away. Honestly its very convoluted, along with some hacky translations, and we will never get a SFIV or a re-release of any of the saturn era SF to further explain this, and this brings us to these two. Elize and Galm are complete mysteries, We never saw them fully fight, we don't know there backstories, Their motives are a mystery too. Unlike the other vandals Galm and Elize do not want to bring back the kingdom. From what we understand Galm was the one behind the entire events of SFIII and killed Juliens father as way to get him to kill Bulzome to retain his title as strongest Vandal. One wonders what Camelot was plotting if Sega relations with them didn't go down the drain.

Despite the mystery with these characters we do know Galm can use Bolt, the most powerful elemental magic in the Camelot era Shining games. We also know Panzer (main villain and final boss of Holy Ark) is Galm son, so one can assume there's similar abilities involved so Chaotic Blizzard (launches a blizzard of demonic beings that does heavy damage) and Scorching Air (shoots out acid out of his body), One can also assume both can use Desoul (instant kill attack used by all power antagonist) and Demon Blaze (powerful attack that summons demonic beings like missiles used by majority of antagonist). The first time you meet Elize she kills a dog by summoning a Dark Bat , can teleport, and she seems to have rose visual present in her attacks.

So how do we do this fight? Well this mostly a tough endurance fight, There are no innovators in the rosters and we dont have the staff of Besem to remove their spirits so we cant fully defeat them. You first start off fighting Elize, she can summon enemies like Dark Bats to annoy, use Blast to blow you away, uses powerful bolt and Freeze magic, most importantly she can use Desoul to kill you instantly so you want to avoid this at all cost. After Elize is Down its Galm turn, he can use equipment of final bosses in SF can offer. Watch out for Desoul as much as possible and you need to be precise dodging chaotic blizzard. Its a tough battle but rewarding finally getting able to flesh out and fight two guys who are complete mysteries outside how powerful they are. Battle will be on Castle of the Ancients (Shining), id prefer it to literally be on the Holy Ark but thats not on here.

While were at it lets get some Holy Ark music on here

 

[darkvortex]

Maximilian
The main antagonist of Valkyria Chronicles. The Imperial General and Prince behind the invasion of Gallia. He wants to get his revenge on the Empire for the death of his mother. He appears in his tank, which players must damage as it drives through the stage and shoots at them. When fully damaged he will step out and activate his Valkyria form and attack physicaly.

Shadow
The secondary antagonist of the second Space Channel 5 game. The mysterious field captain for the gang known as the Rhythm Rogues. This boss battle takes place as a rhythm battle. He will appear in the background and use rhythm game styled arrows to attack which players must time their attacks to avoid and attack Shadow. He will summon Shadow Imposters onto the stage to battle for him.

 

[Flyboy]

Job 292a: Mr. X (Streets of Rage)

One thing I think our bosses need in order to stand out from each other is variety. It's why I love the Batomys fight pitched up there! I've always been really enamored with this fight idea ever since it was initially submitted - a classic beat-em-up survival test, where Mr. X lurks in the background sending goons after you and you have to survive while he takes aim at you with his tommy gun from the background. Eventually, after you've defeated enough henchmen and mooks, Mr. X will jump onto the field himself, using his fists and firepower to take you out unless you can get close enough to break through his defenses and, well, beat him up!

Job 292b: Guardian Dragon (Panzer Dragoon II Zwei)

A recurring and final boss of Panzer Dragoon II Zwei who also appears in Panzer Dragoon Saga. The way I envision this boss as a concept is a battle against a massive enemy, either one that you must scale and reach the central body of, or one with large, screen-filling attacks that are difficult to dodge and guard against, who has a lot of mobility due to, y'know, being a huge dragon. You must dodge and attack it in order to trick it into unfurling its many wings and exposing the tail, which is its weak point, but be careful - it's known to go Berserk.

 

[Captain Shwampy]

Sestren (Panzer Dragoon Saga)
The Final boss of Panzer Dragoon Saga

A hyper advanced AI created by the ancients that exist within time and space said to have the ability to hurl objects from the past and present from an infinite abyss. It rules over the towers that regulate the planet and rejuvenate the dying world. The Towers were programmed to reduce the human populations and oppress humankind, because if humankind itself was kept repressed then it would never be able to grow and become a threat to the planet again. In the case that someone will rebel against this, bio-engineered dragons were created to protect the towers, however this effort will eventually be the downfall of Sestren and the will of the ancients as a rebellious Solo-Wing Dragon has decided to rebel against the shadow the ancients cast upon the world. The towers ultimately did not save the planet and is now overrun with bio-engineered creatures that are a threat to humanity and thus Sestren must be destroyed. Setsren is able to summon enemies or events from the opponents memories and use it against them, it is also able to take on many different forms. perhaps depending on the character you pick you will have unique fights regarding that characters past.