What does everyone think Isaac's necessary moves should be, at least as far as category or broad type is concerned? Here are my thoughts:
- Earth Psynergy, including rock-, plant-, and sword-based
- At least one Djinni attack and at least a 1-Djinni summon
- Judgment as Final Smash
- Use of a physical weapon for some of his moves
- Weapon unleash for whatever weapon Isaac uses
- Hand Psynergy-based grabs and throws
- Move Psynergy as a special
To me, that seems to be all that he would absolutely need to properly represent himself and the GS series. Source-consistent animations and Djinn system would be icing on the cake, but could be absent or compromised for the sake of making him a good Smash fighter. I think that if any of the above items were missing from his moveset, it would be doing him a disservice. That said, we have to remember that moveset complexity is probably inversely related to his ultimate "realizability" as a Smash fighter.
Now for some notes and justifications for the above list.
- Earth Psynergy, use of a physical weapon: Both of these are integral to Isaac as a fighter in the source material, and thus must be present.
- Djinni attack and 1-Djinni summon: Use of Djinn is not part of Isaac's essence as a fighter, but as the Djinn system is Golden Sun's unique mechanic, and as they are used almost from the get-go in the games and are also required to toughen up Isaac's party, the system itself needs to be represented. Since minimally a level-1 summon could demonstrate the system, and since Judgment is the strongest Venus summon and perhaps the most memorable summon in GS1, Ramses and Cybele could be omitted without issue for the sake of simplicity.
- Weapon unleash: We can't pretend that the usefulness of attack Psynergy didn't dwindle the further we got in the source material. Weapon unleashes, especially after their probabilities were increased with certain items and armor, feature heavily in many people's playthroughs of every GS game -- if not throughout, then definitely as the games progressed. If every character in the party wielded a weapon capable of unleashing, it was very likely that at least one weapon's unleash would occur in any given fight.
- Move Psynergy: The genie was let out of the bottle with Brawl. Now that Smashers unfamiliar with GS have an ability to pin to Isaac, Isaac as a playable fighter needs to have it, whether or not the ability would otherwise make it into fan movesets.
- Non-move hand Psynergy for grabs and throws: Not using it for grabs and throws would demonstrate a severe lack of imagination. Those Psynergy hands are practically made for this.
The identities of Isaac's unspecified moves are up for discussion in my mind, but the above is what I think should not wind up on the cutting room floor. The same goes for any echo fighter.
Honestly as I said before there are dozens of possible interpretations for the character. I have my own (I've posted it here before and it's in my signature) but I'll give some notes as to what I feel the character needs:
1) A weapon. Obviously, whether it be an axe or a blade, Isaac needs some kind of physical weapon, if only for his jab and tilts. He's not a pure caster like Mia or even Jenna.
2) Earth Psynergy. In particular, two moves that are integral to the character: Ragnarok and Quake Sphere, the latter I have as his neutral special and the former as his down special. This is what he's known for. Gaia is a close third however and should also be considered.
3) Weapon unleash(es). This is also mandatory. The weapon he holds should have its unleash as a smash move, probably F-Smash (though I can see Odyssey filling that role too) and this is why Id rather the character not use the Sol Blade, as such a weapon unleash would need to be reserved for the Final Smash. Other weapon unleashes can be in his set as well; I personally have Titan Blade as his Dair.
4) The Psynergy hand. You can't
not have this in his kit, but I don't think it should be the core of what he can do. I personally use it for one air attacks and for his grab and throws. It's more a utility function in the base game than a combat feature, after all. I don't even use Move as a special because it's not something you will ever see in combat.
Here are things that I think could work in Isaac's set, but are not essential:
5) Djinn attacks. These could be great but I'd lean against using them. If kept faithful to the base game they could be way too gimmicky, and it's also a matter of which djinn you pull from. But I may also be biased because I rarely use these because my playstyle in the Golden Sun games is to experiment with classes and use Elemental Physical Attacks rather than Djinns and summons.
6) Elemental Physical Attacks. This is the core of my personal interpretation for the character. In my moveset, 9 of his attacks are EPAs. This is in part because I always loved Mystic Knight type characters (it's in part what keeps me loving Golden Sun) but also because they can involve both usage of Isaac's weapon and magic attacks. I see these as Isaac doing something with his weapon and the weapon using the spell. (for instance, my take on Thunder Mine and Astral Blast) I also feel like these are moves that the player will use a LOT of the time in combat, in all stages of the game before the very end when it becomes all about unleashes. Which brings us to...
7) Psynergy from other elements. This isn't NECCESARY, but it would do a lot to flesh out his moveset and fill in spots like side/up special and up smash that would be difficult to only pull from Venus psynergy for. If you look at my moveset, I pull heavily from other elements, including Gale, Quick Strike, and Planet Driver, but I always stick with classes that Isaac himself can obtain. This can also showcase the Djinn mechanic by showing what isaac can do in non-mono-elemental classes.
Finally, here are things that should not come anywhere near Isaac's moveset:
8) attacks which use neither Psynergy or a weapon.
9) actually, just.... anything SSF2 related. Im not a fan of that set for the character
10) A counter. Please.... please don't do it
11) Moves pulled from other swordsmen. I don't want Cloud's nair or smashes, or Ike's smashes, or anything like that please and thank you.
The final Smash should be either Judgement or Megiddo, with Feiix getting the other one. As for voices, I feel like Isaac should have a baritone register and Felix should be a bass. Pls no tenors, aka nothing like the voice they used for SSF2. Even borrow from Fates; one of the younger royal brothers (Leo/Takumi) could do Isaac's voice, and one of the older ones (Ryoma/Xander) could do Felix's
