Well, it's not exactly likely to bring this thread back from the dead, but seems as I've finally come across it again (and by the way I am so sorry for vanishing, I think my notifications mustn't have been coming through), I may as well lay a flower.
So, Morbius. Given that the movesets suggested so far have had a few great concepts, I'd like to pull from them in certain aspects - and primarily focus on Morbius as he was portrayed in the film itself as opposed to using comic material. As much as aspects of his comic self (such as the winglets in his comic costume potentially leading to a great amount of potential with a gliding-based recovery move) would be fun to see, I think it'd make more sense for this moveset to be based entirely on the SPUMC material we've been given to work with. However, I suppose we could pull from both his and Milo's feats in the film itself, as well as exploring his abilities in ways that the film may not have done. With that in mind:
Morbius's main gameplay nature relies on an unusually heavy-hitting, fast-lightweight character. Whilst you'd think at first glance that he'd be a rushdown character skilled at building up combos, Morbius's toolkit is more focused on preparing for, and landing, heavy and powerful singular hits on opponents, meaning you have to have an element of planning to be able to effectively handle his general gameplan. In spite of his shockingly powerful hits, he's incredibly mobile - having a wall and even ceiling-crawling ability to allow traversal across almost all of the stage! Oh, and his "sprinting" animation has him lunge into a terrifyingly fast pouncing crawl of sorts.
Move Input | Move Name | Description |
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Neutral Special | Vampiric Bats | Acting as Morbius's primary projectile, this has a small swarm of bats manifest around him - similarly to those seen in both the cave and his research facility. Said bats will remain swarmed around Morbius for as long as the button's held - however, they're relatively weak, meaning they can be taken out quite easily with only a hit or two. This does act as a weak shield - the bats will do flinching damage to opponents caught in them, though it lacks combo potential given that Morbius can't move during it.
The secondary effect is that when you let go of the button and hold a direction, the bats will fly in that direction as a pretty slow, but massive, "projectile" that excels in stage control. If you just tap the button, only a single bat will fly forward at high speed, however. Whilst the bats can clasp onto opponents similarly to Olimar's Pikmin, they don't do extra damage, and tend to stay with the swarm. |
Side Special | Vampiric Lunge | Morbius's Side Special is an oppressive command grab with a shockingly quick startup that has him leap forward, ideally into an opponent. During the process of doing this, the wind-like effects seen whenever he manages to fly will take effect, boosting his forward momentum. When he actually hits an opponent, he grabs them and begins to slowly drain their health by biting into their necks - opponents can break free by mashing, but he can also tap the special/attack button again in order to toss opponents away. It's a threatening move that he can pull out really damn fast, but if you're able to keep your head, the high amounts of endlag will make it easy to counter. |
Up Special | Wind-Powered Pounce | Utilising Morbius's extreme levels of speed when "windrunning", this essentially acts as your primary method of recovery - but also acts as a surprisingly powerful defensive tool. It's basically a teleport, similar to characters like Mewtwo and Palutena over in Smash - but it's notable in how quick it is, especially when used on the ground. Whilst it comes with the tradeoff of Morbius leaving the smoky trails behind him as opposed to simply "warping" invisibly, the intangible frames this gives makes it a powerful tool for mixups - though it can only be used once when airborne, even though it doesn't leave you helpless. |
Down Special | Echolocation | This is basically your traditional counter move, though more similar to Corrin's than anyone else's. Morbius enters a semi-defensive stance as "radar waves" appear around him in a short radius. If an opponent attacks inside said radius, he suddenly lets out a sonic shockwave similar to that used by Milo - a powerful attack that hits all around him. However, there's quite a bit of end-lag - so you're relying on the high level of knockback that this creates, given the surprisingly low damage. |
Final Smash | Feeding Upon Flesh. | Morbius enters a similar stance to his Echolocation, but this time, it's much larger - bats surround him as he begins to levitate, and suddenly he dashes at extreme speed between every single opponent caught inside the resulting "field" of waves. Not only does this stun them, but it deals absolutely massive damage - despite low knockback. Ironically for a Final Smash, it's not likely to launch opponents away - but stunning them leaves them open for Morbius to finish the job if he wants, or control the stage a little more in his own way. |
I did briefly consider having a literal "Morb Meter" of sorts, where you'd grow more powerful the less you get to hit your opponent - sort of like a rage/comeback mechanic - but as a starting roster character, I felt it'd be better to keep him somewhat simple and approachable whilst still being a bit... weird. So yeah there's this I hope it's... of interest?