That's a little more in the realm of complexity I wanted, but it still... doesn't quite feel
necessary, in my opinion. For the record, I honestly feel the same way about a lot of the unique character mechanics in Smash. I think a lot of them aren't necessary, and in a lot of cases are just sort of made up or only
vaguely based on the source material.
Actually, okay. Let me give a counterproposal. But before I do, let me just say that
I'm not retracting my earlier statement that Isaac should be a relatively gimmickless character. But I do see the logic behind giving him a Djinn system. However,
if we are going to give him a gimmick, it needs to accurately reflect the way battles work in the source material. So, with that in mind, here's a different take on a Djinn system for Isaac.
Just like I did with
gimmickless Isaac, I'll begin by outlining the traits I would want to highlight about the
Djinn system. Keep in mind I am unfamiliar with Golden Sun, and am basing this off of reading the wiki.
- Djinn are equippables that come in all four elements. When you go into a battle, your characters already have Djinn equipped. They don't change which Djinn are equipped mid-fight, so I really don't think this should be a mechanic based around switching between Djinn.
- Players will typically start a fight with a majority of their Djinn - if not all of them - set. Set Djinn can be unleashed to perform a move unique to that particular Djinni.
- Once unleashed, a Djinn enters standby mode. Djinn on standby can't be unleashed anymore. You can re-set one Djinni on standby at the cost of your turn.
- If you have enough standby Djinn of the correct elements, you can use them to perform a summon, an extremely powerful attack. After being used for a summon, Djinn enter recovery mode, effectively being on cooldown. After a short amount of time, one Djinni in recovery mode will automatically re-set itself, and can then be unleashed once more.
So with that in mind, if we're giving Isaac a unique mechanic focused around Djinn - which I will reiterate
we don't necessarily have to do - here's a general outline of the concept I think would be best:
Each of Isaac's specials is tied to Djinn of a certain element. His neutral special uses
Venus (earth) Djinn, his side special uses
Mars (fire) Djinn, his up special use
Jupiter (wind) Djinn, and his down special uses
Mercury (water) Djinn.
When you use a special, you
unleash a Djinn of that element. Once you do, that Djinn goes into
standby, and is pictured above Isaac's damage meter. Then, you'll
unleash a different Djinn of the same element the next time you use the special. The effect will be fairly similar, though there may be slight differences.
Alternatively, you could have a setup like Dancing Blade or Octaslash, where there are
multiple variants of each special that use
different Djinn. You would
lose access to those options as you unleash them.
In any case, if you try to perform a special
while all Djinn of that element are on standby, you'll perform a
summon. I'll admit that I'm unsure how this would be done in the
option-loss variant of this mechanic. In any case, summons are powerful attacks that are nonetheless quite risky, as they leave you
significantly open to attack at the beginning and/or end of the summon as a representation of recovery mode.
Alternatively, there could be a more traditional
cooldown after performing a summon, during which time
that special button does nothing at all.
However, if you've used all your Jupiter Djinn, you aren't locked into performing a risky summon just to get back onstage. At least, not if you play your cards right. Your
shield special is a less risky option that will
re-set all the Djinn currently on standby. This, of course, means that you
lose out on the Summon, but on the flipside,
you don't have to take the risk.
Let's walk through a couple examples of using Isaac's neutral special, for a couple of possible variants. Keep in mind we could mix and match the traits of these.
- Hitting the neutral special once unleashes Flint with a sort of earthy sword attack. Hit it again, and it unleashes Echo, with another earthy sword attack. Hit it again, and it unleashes Sap, which is another earthy sword attack but this time having a kind of draining effect. One more time unleashes Steel, which is basically the same as Sap. Then, finally, pressing B again uses Judgement, an attack with a couple seconds of endlag where a knight dude shoots a beam out of a lion shield.
- The neutral special is chargeable similarly to Gigaflare. Depending on the level of charge, you'll use Flint, Echo, or Geode; who are all different flavors of earthy sword attack. One you use one, you lose access to it. After you use all three, the only thing you can do with neutral-B is summon Cybele, after which all your Venus Djinn will be on cooldown and unusable for a while.