Design: Vaati appears in his human form from
The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. He wields a short sword, which is nothing special.
Series Symbol: The Legend of Zelda
Stats:
Speed: 4/5 (In terms of speed (and the rest of his attributes, for that matter), Vaati is a character of extremes. Vaati’s ground speed is kind of iffy, with a very slow walk speed and a very fast dash speed (not as fast as the likes of Charizard, Palutena, or Meta Knight, but up in the top 15). His air speed, however, is fantastic, second only to Yoshi and Jigglypuff. On the other hand, his falling speed is painfully slow, so once he gets into the air, he’s going to be there for a while.)
Strength: 1.6/5 (Vaati’s raw attack power is sorely lacking. His moves are simply pathetic in terms of damage, though their knockback is okay. However, virtually all of Vaati’s moves generate
wind effects, pushing foes away even if the attack doesn’t directly hit. His smash attacks, in particular, are essentially unavoidable due to the wind they generate. This means that the primary way he’s going to score KOs is to manipulate the wind to blow enemies off-screen. His aerials in general are also fairly strong, though not to the same extent as Jigglypuff, and he only has one midair jump, so he’s not exactly suited for
Wall of Pain antics; he may have a great recovery, but he can’t go dancing about offstage like Jigglypuff, Meta Knight, or Kirby.)
Defense: 5/5 (Between his high movement speed and his penchant for wind techniques pushing enemies away from him, it can be frustratingly difficult to land a hit on Vaati. His very low falling speed does make him easy to juggle, and combined with his high, slow jumps, he can actually find it difficult to stay on the ground, but he can use his solid aerials to work around that.)
Weight: 2/5 (Vaati has the physique of a young child, so if he does get hit, he’s going to be sent reeling.)
Jump: 4.8/5 (Vaati has only one midair jump, like the majority of characters, but his jump height is second only to Falco. However, he doesn’t jump so much as lift himself upwards on the wind, so he ascends pretty slowly. This can work in his favor when trying to recover, but makes it hard for him to chase foes into the air or leap out of harm’s way. He also has a very low falling speed.)
Recovery: 5/5 (Vaati has the second-best jump height, the second-best air speed, a very slow falling speed, the ability to float like Peach, and a great up special. He can come back from pretty much anything short of being swatted directly into the
blast line or
meteor smashed out of his second jump. …Actually, his up special’s good enough that he can probably come back from a meteor smash, assuming that the hitstun wears off before he crosses the bottom blast line.)
Special Movements:
Float
Attributes (Detailed Summary):
Walking Speed: 0.905
Dashing Speed: 1.85
Air Speed: 1.25
Falling Speed (Maximum): 0.8
Falling Speed (Acceleration): 0.040
Falling Speed (Fast-Fall): 1.6 (100% increase)
Weight: 87
Jump Force (Ground):
Jump Force (Short Hop):
Jump Force (Double Jump):
Jump Delay (in frames): 3
Roll Length (in frames):
Roll Intangibility Frames:
Roll Distance:
Roll Speed:
Sidestep Length (in frames):
Sidestep Intangibility Frames:
Air Dodge Length (in frames):
Air Dodge Intangibility Frames:
Traction: 0.028
VAATI STIRS UP TROUBLE!
Vaati, the infamous wind mage, makes his glorious
Smash debut! He moves fast on the ground and in the air, jumps high and falls slowly, and is even able to
float like Princess Peach! What doesn’t he have? Well, his ability to take hits is kinda sub-par, and his attack power is just
bad – he has very few moves capable of dealing double-digit damage. It’ll take him a horribly long time to rack up damage on his foes. But he has an ace up his sleeve that no other character possesses – the ability to manipulate the very wind itself. Almost every move in his arsenal generates a
windbox of some sort, letting Vaati toss his foes around like ragdolls without even having to
touch them. This gives him both an aggravatingly hard-to-penetrate defensive game and some horrifically frightening KO moves. But he does have to fight carefully, as it’s far from impossible to fight the wind, and a foe who can manage to get to Vaati himself won’t have much trouble mopping the floor with him.
Equipment Used:
Offense: Sword, Magic Stone
Defense: Cape
Speed: Sandals
On-Screen Appearance: An altar on the stage with a sword embedded in it
[MB1] cracks, then explodes into rubble as Vaati breaks loose from his seal. He very briefly stretches as though he had awoken from a long nap, then picks up the sword.
Special Attributes:
Dash: Vaati dashes by carrying himself along on the wind. This causes him to pull enemies behind him towards him, and push enemies in front of him away from him, while he dashes, similarly to
Sonic’s Gravitational Spin Charge. The push effect helps space foes to be directly hit by Vaati's dash attack.
Roll: While rolling, Vaati generates push and pull effects that suck enemies towards the direction he’ll be facing after the roll.
Basic Attacks:
Jab Combo:
Attack #1: Vaati swipes his sword for 2% damage. Foes a short distance away from Vaati will be pushed backwards a short distance. The startup lag is 3 frames, the active duration is 3 frames, and the ending lag is 3 frames, but can be canceled into Attack #2 after just 1 frame of ending lag.
Attack #2: Vaati executes a backhand slice, doing 3% damage. This generates a stronger push effect, but its range is still rather short. The startup lag is 3 frames, the active duration is 2 frames, and the ending lag is 3 frames, but can be canceled into Attack #3 after 2 frames of ending lag.
Attack #3: Vaati thrusts his sword forward for 2% damage, generating a strong, but narrow push effect. The blade attack itself is a semi-spike, working in conjunction with the wind effect to make this attack a bit more dangerous than it would seem at first glance. The startup lag is 4 frames, the active duration is 2 frames, and the ending lag is 3 frames, but the attack can be canceled into the jab infinite as soon as the active duration has ceased.
Jab infinite: Vaati holds his sword in front of him with the blade extended, and a strong wind billows forth from its hilt. The wind is equivalent in force and area of effect to
Gust Bellows, though Vaati cannot move while executing this attack. Enemies who somehow make contact with the blade itself take 1% damage and are knocked directly into the wind vortex.
Jab finisher: Vaati executes an overhead chop, doing 3% damage. This generates a push effect with decent range that pushes foes downwards and away from Vaati, but only affects foes in front of him.
Jab Combo Commentary: Vaati’s penchant for push effects actually works against him here, as it makes it difficult for him to score consecutive hits. However, it does make his jab combo able to force foes away from Vaati, so it’s an effective spacing tool. Then again, so is nearly every other move he has.
Tilt Attacks:
Forward Tilt: Vaati forcefully swipes his sword, dealing 4% damage and knocking enemies away. He also generates a wind shockwave that has good range, does 1% damage, and has high knockback. The sword swipe is likely to knock enemies into the shockwave.
Up Tilt: Vaati pokes the air with his sword, dealing 4% damage and launching anyone he hits straight up. Foes directly above Vaati will be pushed upwards a good distance, enough so to push them past the upper blast line if they’re already near the top of the screen. However, the attack's horizontal range is lacking,
Down Tilt: Vaati slowly floats up into the air, then suddenly slams himself down onto the ground, generating blasts of wind that practically
fling characters to his left or right far, far away. Those unlucky (or, more likely, idiotic) enough to be caught directly underneath Vaati as he crashes down takes 18% damage – the single strongest hit in Vaati’s arsenal. However, this move’s start-up lag is very, very bad, even worse than Ganondorf’s Volcano Kick, which means that Vaati is wide open as he rises up into the air. Even if Vaati isn't interrupted, however, he takes 2% damage as
recoil from the force of his impact with the ground. Also, while the push effect’s horizontal range is immense, its vertical range is less so, reaching about 3/4ths as high as Palutena’s up-smash. This means that foes high above Vaati will be unaffected. It also doesn't reach very far below Vaati, to the point where if Vaati uses this attack on the top platform of Battlefield, enemies on the left or right platforms can avoid being hurled away by the wind simply by crouching (unless they’re someone whose crouch doesn't decrease the size of their hitbox very much; for example, Samus).
Dash Attack: Vaati suddenly blinks out of existence and reappears a short distance away, in the direction he was headed. Anyone caught in between the point where Vaati vanished and the point where he reappeared are flung in front of him by a magical sonic boom. If Vaati reappears on top of a foe, they take 6% damage and get launched up into the air; the knockback is technically strictly vertical, but they also get pushed a fair distance forward by the aforementioned sonic boom. Also, because this attack involves Vaati teleporting, he is completely intangible for a few frames during the warp.
Ledge Attack: Vaati gently pushes himself back onto the stage with a gust of wind. As he does so, a wave of purple spikes ripples along the ground
[MB2] for a short distance, popping foes up into the air for 5% damage.
Rising Attack: Vaati launches himself into an upright position with a blast of wind, tackling foes directly in front of him for 4% damage and blowing foes behind him away with the force of the wind. The wind technically pushes enemies at a downward angle, but considering that this is exclusively a grounded attack, that’s unlikely to come into play.
Smash Attacks:
Forward Smash: Vaati performs a roundhouse sword slice, putting all the effort he can muster into the swing. The sword slice itself does 8%-11.2% damage, but also generates a brief, but intense wind effect across the entire screen, pushing foes in the direction Vaati performed the Smash attack (think
Latias and Latios flying across the screen, but with a slightly stronger wind, and you have the general idea). Thus, if foes are close to that blast line… well, they’re doomed. It’s also good for messing up recoveries. The attack has 23 frames of start-up lag and 22 frames of ending lag. Active frames are 24-29.
Up Smash: Vaati’s hat glows
[MB3], then unleashes a pillar of baleful red light that does 7%-9.8% damage to anyone caught in the blast. Victims are launched straight up. The attack also generates a brief, but intense wind effect from the bottom of the screen all the way to the top, pushing foes up into the air. Anyone who’s near the upper blast line when Vaati performs this move
will be KO’d as the wind pushes them up and off the screen. Characters caught in the pillar of baleful light will be caught in the wind blast afterwards. The attack has 31 frames of start-up lag and 19 frames of ending lag. Active frames are 32-44.
Down Smash: Vaati generates orbs of electricity in each of his hands and violently slams them into the ground, generating explosions to each side of him that do 10-14% damage at point-blank range and 7-9.8% damage a bit further away, and launch foes directly to the side. At the same time, he generates a violent downwards blast of wind from the top of the screen, pushing all airborne enemies directly down to the ground (or the bottom blast line) and
tripping all enemies on the ground (unlike
Inkay, this doesn't cause any damage). The attack has 26 frames of start-up lag and 35 frames of ending lag. Active frames are 27-34.
Smash Attack Summary: Vaati’s Smash Attacks, with their secondary wind effects covering the entire screen, seem overpowered at first glance in spite of their horribly low damage output. However, they all have pretty bad start-up and ending lag; the lag isn’t
horrible, but it does provide just enough of a window between wind blasts for even the slowest of characters to have a chance to regain their footing and close the distance on Vaati. Furthermore, Vaati's Smash attacks have a decay mechanic akin to
Vision and
Witch Time (and dodges in
Ultimate); the more you spam the Smash Attacks, the smaller and weaker their windboxes get. It takes 7 seconds without using Smash Attacks for the windbox potency to fully recharge. So, while they can be very effective at spacing or scoring KO’s when used to catch foes off-guard, trying to spam them isn’t a good idea.
Aerial Attacks:
Neutral Aerial: Vaati wraps himself in a hurricane that blows everything around him away. Those caught in the hurricane itself, taking the shape of a giant buzzsaw made of wind which rotates counterclockwise, are hit repeatedly, taking a total of 5% damage, and launched on the final hit. Those a bit farther away are blown directly away from Vaati, as if affected by the scream of the Master Giant.
Forward Aerial: Vaati, firmly clutching the hilt of his sword, swoops through the air directly in front of him, similarly to
Tabuu’s Diving Slash attack in Brawl, impaling enemies in his way for 7% damage and
semi-spiking them. Vaati’s flight generates a wind current around him, which carries foes above and below him along for the ride. This may not be a good thing, as it can put them in a prime position to punish Vaati during the attack’s horrendous ending lag and even
more horrendous landing lag (if Vaati lands in the middle of this move’s animation, he basically faceplants and skids some distance across the ground). However, the sheer distance this move covers makes it an excellent horizontal recovery tool, and towards the end of the attack, the wind’s angle changes slightly to pull foes towards Vaati’s sword, which means that if they’re too reckless in trying to punish Vaati, they may find themselves getting stabbed.
Back Aerial: Vaati does a backflip in midair, holding his sword out to perform a vicious downward slash for 9% damage. This is one of Vaati’s few moves without any sort of push or pull effect associated with it. However, it is a very fast and potent meteor smash, with very quick startup lag and a relatively long active window – while there
is a sweetspot that must connect for the move to meteor smash, the sweetspot is the entire length of time that Vaati is bringing his sword downward, hanging inverted in the air, before flipping back over to have his feet pointing towards the ground (so, all but the first few and last few active frames of the attack). Thus, it’s a very easy meteor smash to use, and the knockback is quite high, making it a solid edgeguarding KO move. In fact, the knockback is good enough that it’s even capable of KOing onstage at relatively low percentages, like Ganondorf’s down aerial (though it’s not
quite as strong as
that move). This move does have its issues, though; namely, relatively short range, fairly bad ending lag, and absolutely horrible landing lag. (Hey,
you try to do anything in a hurry after landing on your head.)
Up Aerial: Vaati’s hat rears back, generating a vortex that sucks in enemies within a large hemicircular area around Vaati (it can’t affect anything below him, nor can it pull a character through a platform). After a second of pulling, or once the attack button is pressed again, the hat flails about wildly, slapping enemies that were pulled in close enough for 4% damage and launching them upwards. The hat’s flailing also reverses the direction of the vortex, so that enemies are blown away instead.
Down Aerial: Vaati generates a red laser beneath his feet
[MB4] and fires it straight down. The laser does 7% damage to those it hits, assuming that they get hit near Vaati’s feet, and weakly meteor smashes them; its range is long, but not overbearingly so, and it is very narrow. The laser actually has multiple hitboxes, with hitboxes farther away from Vaati doing less damage but having slightly greater knockback. Foes who have little damage and get hit near Vaati are likely to be knocked into the rest of the laser, causing a natural combo. Foes with high damage are more likely to be slammed into the ground before the rest of the laser can make contact with them. While firing the laser, Vaati releases a gust of wind beneath him, gently pushing foes towards the ground in a wide area beneath him. This move has very little landing lag, and its ending lag isn’t that bad either (though the landing lag is better). However, it does have moderate startup lag, and its active duration is very long, meaning that it has to be used with caution when below the stage, to say nothing of the fact that Vaati is left wide open to attacks not coming from below him. However, it is both one of Vaati’s most damaging attacks and a good way to mess with foes who are trying to recover.
Throws:
Grab: Vaati generates a tornado and sends it forward. If the tornado seizes a foe, it traps them and returns to Vaati. This is a very long-ranged grab with very little end lag; however, characters can begin trying to escape as soon as they’re caught in the tornado, which means that by the time the tornado gets to Vaati and he’s able to pummel or throw his victim, they’re already part of the way to escaping his grasp (or, if their damage is low, they may have been able to escape outright before Vaati has any window of opportunity to do anything with them whatsoever).
Pummel: Vaati cuts the trapped enemy with his sword for 2% damage.
Forward Throw: Vaati commands the tornado to fly forward, potentially carrying the victim off the screen. The victim can still escape before the tornado actually leaves the screen. If the tornado flies into a wall, it ejects the victim straight up, dealing 5% damage. The tornado can travel up a slope that a character could walk up, but is not affected by gravity. Characters that the tornado collides with get knocked up into the air, taking 3% damage. It’s entirely possible to attack the character stuck in the tornado, and if the knockback is strong enough, launch them out, similarly to launching a buried character.
Back Throw: Vaati conjures up 3 energy orbs a moderately large distance in front of him and commands them to fly towards him, slamming into the foe and launching them behind him. Each energy orb does 5% damage, so if all 3 hit, that’s 15% damage – rather high by Vaati’s standards. However, the foe can escape the tornado before the energy orbs hit them, in which case
the orbs are likely to hit Vaati instead. The energy orbs generate a weak push effect that pushes characters ahead of them (though their speed is greater than their push force, so they will eventually slam into a character that gets in their way). Vaati is unaffected by the push force of his own orbs, and the throw victim is unaffected while stuck in the tornado.
Up Throw: Vaati simply has the tornado spit the victim out, launching them up into the air for 6% damage, and conjures a wind blast to blow them higher into the air. This is Vaati’s most straightforward throw, and the only one that can’t be escaped mid-execution.
Down Throw: Vaati conjures a mystic orb while holding his foe in the tornado and engulfs the enemy in it,
turning them to stone,
then shatters them. This is an instant KO, but takes a long time to execute, and like all of Vaati's throws (except for his up throw), the foe can continue trying to break free during the entire animation; thus, Vaati is unlikely to actually successfully engulf the enemy with the orb until they’ve reached 120% or so damage (at which point it’s very unlikely that they’ll break free before the animation is completed). No push or pull effects are generated during the throw, and if the foe is not hit by the orb, the throw does nothing.
Throw Summary: Vaati has some very unconventional throws, and they are quite powerful; his forward and down throws in particular are capable of instantly KOing victims. However, Vaati is the only character other than Kirby whose throws can be escaped while they are in progress, and the only character whose grasp can be escaped before he has any opening whatsoever to execute a pummel or throw. As for the down throw, it is a direct reference to
The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, in which Vaati turns Princess Zelda to stone at the beginning of the game... only,
it has a more pragmatic twist to it, befitting its inclusion in a fighting game.
Special Moves:
Neutral Special (Default): Wind Blast: This is an auto-charge special in which Vaati builds up power within his body, then violently releases it to blow opponents within a fair distance of him a long, long way away. It functions very similarly to
Master Giant’s shout, with the push force and range being determined by how long it was charged; at full charge, it reaches out slightly farther than halfway across Final Destination (assuming Vaati is standing on the edge) and pushes foes strongly enough to launch them right off the screen at damage higher than 60%. Charging it fully takes 4 seconds. The attack does not do any damage; it simply pushes foes away from Vaati. Compared to the alternate versions, this is a low-risk, low-reward move.
Neutral Special (Custom 1): Intense Wind Blast: This version is not an auto-charge special, instead functioning more like
Ike’s Eruption; that is, the charge cannot be stored for later, but it can be released at any point. At low charge, it’s barely stronger than the default version; at higher levels, the difference is much more noticeable, with the fully-charged blast being between the default version and Hyper Wind Blast in terms of range and push force. This is a medium-risk, medium-reward move.
Neutral Special (Custom 2): Hyper Wind Blast: This version is not an auto-charge special, nor can it be manually canceled; once initiated, Vaati is committed to performing it at full power, which means that he’s very, very vulnerable. However, if he pulls it off, the wind blast covers the entire stage and is very,
very strong; so strong, in fact, that anyone who isn’t positioned directly between Vaati and a floor, wall, or ceiling is practically guaranteed to be pushed beyond a blast line. But with the 4-second start-up time, it’s very hard to pull off. This is a high-risk, high-reward move.
Side Special (Default): Repulsor Gale: Vaati generates a barrier of wind directly in front of him, which repels opponents (and also stops their attacks cold) and
reflects projectiles. Vaati cannot move while he has the barrier active, but he can rotate it around himself with the Control Stick.
Side Special (Custom 1): Rejection Gale: Instead of a barrier, Vaati generates a stream of wind, similar to the stream generated by
Gust Bellows, that he can freely aim around himself. It cannot reflect projectiles, though, and Vaati is still immobile while he maintains the gust.
Side Special (Custom 2): Petrify: Instead of a barrier or wind stream, Vaati charges up, then fires a beam from his hand. It can be aimed before firing in the same fashion as redirecting his other side specials; it takes 1 second (60 frames) to fire the beam. This beam petrifies anyone it hits, similarly to Vaati’s down throw, but does not immediately shatter its victim. To shatter a character and score a KO, one has to hit them with attacks worth a total of 40% damage, with the final hit being granted the KO. The petrified character cannot move, but can shake off the effect with vigorous button mashing. The higher a character’s damage, the more difficult it is to break free from petrification. Petrified characters do not take damage (with all damage that they would take instead being used to shatter them), nor can they sustain knockback or be grabbed. The petrification beam travels marginally faster than
Samus’s Charge Shot, and its maximum travel distance is roughly three-quarters of the length of Final Destination. It cannot penetrate characters, nor does it travel through terrain; it stops at the first entity it hits. This attack generates no push or pull effects, nor can it reflect projectiles or stop attacks.
Amusingly enough, Kirby cannot be petrified (by this move, anyways; the down throw still works normally); getting hit with this attack simply forces him to immediately perform
his down special. (Trying to petrify a guy who can already turn himself to stone isn’t exactly the most effective attack strategy.)
Up Special (Default): Wind Walk: Vaati halts in midair, and a cursor appears beneath his feet. By moving the Control Stick (or whatever’s used for your control scheme), a path of solid wind is drawn using the cursor. The cursor remains on-screen for 2.5 seconds, after which Vaati automatically glides along the path at a moderately quick pace (equivalent to Mario’s running speed), plowing through anyone in his way for 2% damage on contact; the path collapses behind Vaati, blowing characters in the opposite direction. When Vaati reaches the end of the path, he simply falls off and can use any of his aerial attacks or moves except for another Wind Walk; he can even use his second jump if he hasn’t already done so. The path is semi-solid, and other characters can walk on it as though it was a platform or have their movement blocked by it as though it was a wall. It can also be attacked. If the path takes 40% or more total damage, or a character is launched into a segment of the path vertical enough to serve as a wall upon taking knockback above a certain threshold, the path shatters, causing Vaati to unceremoniously tumble off, and he becomes helpless; the same thing happens if Vaati tries to walk through something that he can’t actually pass through, like a solid platform or wall. (The cursor can’t actually go through terrain that a character can’t pass through themselves, but it can hug it closely enough that Vaati could potentially draw a path that gets him stuck.) If a character is launched into the path with enough force to shatter it, they will pass right through as though it wasn’t there (because, well, it no longer is). Still, the fact that the path is capable of being attacked means that it can intercept some attacks, particularly projectiles, allowing it to serve as an impromptu shield. Vaati has mild flinch and launch resistance during the move, but a strong enough attack can still knock him off the path. The path’s endpoint can be set prematurely, allowing Vaati to begin his wind walk early at the cost of less distance, by releasing the special button before the cursor expires on its own.
Up Special (Custom 1): Quick Wind Walk: The cursor lasts for 1.5 seconds, but moves much more quickly, allowing Vaati to draw his path more swiftly. The increased speed counterbalances the reduced duration to make the maximum distance slightly greater than the default version, at the cost of precision. Vaati also moves more quickly along the wind path once he’s drawn it, and the wind path can only sustain a maximum of 30% damage before shattering.
Up Special (Custom 2): Blackjack Wind Walk: The cursor lasts for 5 seconds, allowing Vaati to create a longer path, and the path can sustain a maximum of 45% damage before shattering. This extends his recovery. However, the longer duration makes the path more vulnerable to being shattered (despite its slightly increased health), and unlike the other two versions, Vaati still falls, albeit at a reduced rate, while drawing the path, making it a little risky to use. The real risk, however, comes from the fact that if Vaati maintains the cursor for the full 5 seconds, he misses his wind path entirely, failing to go anywhere at all, and adding insult to injury, he becomes helpless as though the path had been shattered, which may result in him falling to his doom. Thus, this is a highly efficient recovery that is prone to utterly failing if overstretched. Note that if Vaati misses the path, it promptly disintegrates.
Up Special Commentary: This move is one that I came up while thinking of a way to integrate the touch screen of the 3DS and GamePad into the gameplay; thus, playing the 3DS version or with the GamePad allows you to draw the path with the stylus, but this may be less practical than using the cursor. The move’s function is largely inspired by
Kirby: Canvas Curse and
Kirby and the Rainbow Curse. I decided to use Vaati for it because he could justify it with his wind-manipulation abilities. As for the third variant, I initially called it “All-or-Nothing Wind Walk”, until I realized that its failure condition was letting the cursor expire on its own, so going all-out makes you crash and (possibly) burn. I switched it to “Blackjack Wind Walk” in reference to
the card game, where having a hand worth more than 21 points causes you to go “bust” and score nothing.
Down Special (Default): Cyclone: Vaati strikes a casting pose, causing him to be surrounded in a tempest of high-intensity wind. This wind is so intense that it actually damages foes, trapping them inside and dealing roughly 2% damage per second. There is also a vacuum effect that tries to pull foes into the damage zone, which affects the entire stage and is rather strong. Vaati can only maintain the cyclone for up to 8 seconds at a time, after which he’s left vulnerable as he takes a breather. Foes trapped in the cyclone will be launched away as it ends. It doesn’t have a recharge time per se, but the longer Vaati maintains the cyclone, the longer he’ll have to rest afterwards. More specifically, its ending lag equals 1/8 of its active frames; if kept active for the full 8 seconds, it has a whopping 60 frames of ending lag. Its startup lag is always 15 frames.
Down Special (Custom 1): Lightning Cyclone: The high-intensity tempest is laced with lightning, increasing its damage output to 4% damage per second. However, the vacuum effect pulling foes into the cyclone is weaker, and it can only be maintained for a maximum of 6 seconds (but with slightly increased ending lag per second, so a maximum-length Lightning Cyclone has the same ending lag as a maximum-length Cyclone). More specifically, its ending lag equals 1/6 of its active frames; if kept active for the full 6 seconds, it has a whopping 60 frames of ending lag. Its startup lag is always 15 frames.
Down Special (Custom 2): Flaming Cyclone: The high-intensity tempest is cloaked in flame, increasing its damage output to a whopping 6% per second. The vacuum effect pulling foes into the cyclone is marginally weaker than the default version (much greater than Lightning Cyclone), and the maximum length and cooldown time per frame are the same as the default version. However, Vaati is practically roasting himself alive in the eye of the storm, and takes 2% damage per second while maintaining the cyclone as a consequence.
Final Smash: Vaati’s Wrath
[MB5]: Vaati transforms into his final form from
The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords and flies up to the top of the screen, generating a tornado beneath himself (like he does in his first form from said game). For the duration of the Final Smash, there is a strong pull effect from both sides of the screen that carries characters upwards and towards the tornado. The tornado covers the entire center of the screen, making this Final Smash utter hell to avoid on small stages. Characters caught in the tornado are carried up to Vaati, taking damage steadily, and ultimately launched off the top of the screen. While all this is going on, balls of electricity rain down on the stage. They do 9% damage each and do little knockback, but getting hit by them causes significant hitstun that can greatly hinder efforts to stay out of the tornado. The Final Smash lasts for 15 seconds, with Vaati transforming back into his human form and dropping back onto the stage afterwards.
Taunts:
Up Taunt: Vaati raises his sword above his head and faces the screen, in the classic Zelda “Item Get” pose.
Side Taunt: Vaati faces the screen, takes his signature pose from The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, and chuckles.
Down Taunt: Vaati conjures a small cyclone in his hand, then releases it. This taunt pushes characters away from Vaati as it ends.
Victory Theme:
The Legend of Zelda victory theme
Victory Taunt A: Vaati turns to face away from the screen and chants ominously
[MB6], with his hair billowing in the wind. The victory theme is supplemented with the chime of a bell at the very end.
Victory Taunt B: Vaati flies in, swoops down, seizes a randomly selected female Mii saved to the system in a tornado, and flies away with them
[MB7] as they struggle in vain to escape. As Vaati flies away with his victim, he lets out a deep chuckle – his original laugh from
The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords. If he was up against a female fighter (including a female Mii Fighter), he may be seen capturing
them instead, and they will not be shown clapping at the results screen (though there’s always the chance that he’ll just kidnap a random female Mii instead). When winning against certain characters, he may very rarely be seen capturing their love interests instead of a random female Mii or female opponent (ex. victory against Fox results in Vaati kidnapping Krystal, victory against Sonic results in Vaati kidnapping Amy Rose, victory against Shulk results in Vaati kidnapping Fiora, etc.), though he’ll never be seen kidnapping a playable character who didn’t partake in the battle (so, for example, he won’t be depicted kidnapping Peach as a result of defeating Mario). Vaati only kidnaps one character per match.
Victory Taunt C: Vaati laughs wickedly and transforms one of his defeated foes into a hat
[MB8], then proceeds to laugh at their misfortune. The unfortunate victim is not shown clapping at the results screen.
Victory Taunts Summary: As cool as Vaati’s moves may be, we have to remember that he’s a
villain, and a pretty despicable one at that. Therefore, two out of his three victory taunts are directly designed to rub his victory in the losers’ faces, and the third is
just plain horrifying in context. For those who don’t get what I mean; Vaati’s Victory Taunt A is the same pose he’s in
during the bad ending of The Minish Cap, after he has just finished draining the Light Force from Princess Zelda – killing her in the process and obtaining godlike power, with the implication that he’s about to take over the world and murder several more people in the process. As for the other two… Victory Taunt B is arguably even more horrible than Victory Taunt A, as it depicts him
kidnapping a helpless woman, with the implication that he’s going to **** her later. Repeatedly. Yikes. (And no, I’m not pulling this out of my arse;
Vaati’s pervert credentials are established in
The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords –
the very first game he appears in – when he abducts Princess Zelda
with the intention to force her to marry him.) Victory Taunt C, while always rubbing Vaati’s victory in someone’s face and not being as subtle about it as the other two, is probably the tamest of the three – and considering that
it involves someone being transformed into a hat, that speaks volumes about how heinous the other two are. It is, however, a reference to one of Vaati’s canonical misdeeds, just like the other two; in this case, it’s a reference to what Vaati did to his mentor, Ezlo, after stealing the Mage’s Cap from him to become a sorcerer.
[MB1]The altar mentioned in Vaati’s on-screen appearance is meant to be a sort of cheap approximation of the Four Sword shrine, and the sword itself is not the Four Sword, but the Smith’s Sword from
The Minish Cap (it
was intended to be given to the winner of the tournament in The Minish Cap’s opening act, which just so happens to be Vaati). Apparently, someone didn’t get the memo that Vaati can
only be properly sealed within the Four Sword.
[MB2]This is a reference to one of Vaati’s attacks as Vaati Transfigured, the second phase of the final boss battle in
The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap.
[MB3]In
The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, Vaati’s power comes from the Mage’s Cap, a wish-granting hat which he stole from his master, Ezlo (who had intended to give it to some unidentified humans, presumably the royal family of Hyrule, as a gift). Thus, I wanted at least one attack in Vaati’s moveset to erupt from his hat, as a nod to the fact that it’s the source of his power.
[MB4]This move is a reference to the laser attack that Vaati Reborn can perform in
The Minish Cap.
[MB5]Though named Vaati’s Wrath, after the final form of Vaati from
The Minish Cap, this Final Smash actually represents Vaati as he appeared in
Four Swords, and should resemble that form more than the actual Vaati’s Wrath from
The Minish Cap.
[MB6]This is a reference to a
nonstandard game over scenario in
The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap; if Link took too long to defeat the Darknuts guarding Vaati at the castle’s roof,
Vaati would complete his ritual to drain the Light Force from Princess Zelda, obtaining godlike power and killing her in the process.
[MB7]Vaati is stated (
and demonstrated) to have a penchant for capturing pretty maidens to be his brides. The implications are obvious… seriously, the guy is all but confirmed to be a rapist.
[MB8]This is precisely what Vaati did to Ezlo in the backstory of
The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap.
