He starts the story as a nerdy scientist who's studying the Monado, because it's the only thing that can damage the Mechon forces that suddenly showed up a few years ago attempting to kill everyone, in spite of its inability to injure Homs (human stand-ins, basically, and the race of the majority of the playable cast). The Monado generally can't be used by just anyone, though; the hero that thwarted that invasion, Dunban, has been rendered bedridden because of what it did to his body, and Shulk's friend Reyn (rhymes with "sign") tries grabbing it only for it to cause him to stumble around the room containing it like he was riding a rabid bull. However, Shulk is different, somehow - touching the Monado causes him to see weird visions, which neither of those two got.
Anyway, surprise: the Mechon attack again. Dunban forces himself to grab the Monado and fight the Mechon, but his body just isn't up to it; Shulk randomly decides to grab the Monado and fight in Dunban's stead, only to find those weird visions of places and people he'd never seen before are now visions of the Mechon right in front of him shooting directly at him a few seconds in the future, which he uses to successfully bob and weave the shots and basically wreck their shit.
Unfortunately, he now finds that there are Mechon that even the Monado can't injure - ones with faces - and one of them ends up
killing Shulk's love interest/Dunban's sister, Fiora
, in spite of the Monado giving him visions of it happening - he tried to use them to avert this fate, to no avail. While the Mechon invasion is ultimately thwarted, that particular loss causes Shulk to leave Colony 9 and find that faced Mechon, and try to get revenge for what they did.
For the record, that all happens within the first five hours of the game, so it's really something of a prologue than huge spoilers (although I really wasn't expecting the part I spoiler-tagged, so I'd advise you not to highlight it if you intend to play the game at any point).
So basically, he's a really dorky guy with a lightsaber that lets him see the future and potentially undo the horrible events that they foretell, driven by a strong sense of justice and revenge. (Admittedly the revenge one gets mitigated somewhat by the mid-game, but the justice one's pretty constant.)
He's still kind of generic, personality-wise, but the sword itself, with its abilities to buff various aspects of characters and warn of future catastrophes, could be interesting in the context of Smash Bros..
I think it's only $60 now at Gamestop. I was one of the ones who actually paid $90, so you're better off than I am. (It was still cheaper than eBay prices, so I'm not really fussed.)
The E3 leak was only talking about newcomers specifically for E3 too, even though Mii,little Mac and Pacman weren't shown, it is assumed that since the trailers are made seperately, that Nintendo had a change of plans last minute, maybe because they caught wind of leak?
The 3DS probably won't get the scrolling stages (Halberd, Delfino Plaza) because it would be a waste of resources to downgrade the stages for it when we have Pilotwings stage on Wii U as well as Halberd. We have Lumiose City on 3DS but that was already in Pokemon XY so the models were partially there already.
Has anyone done a comparison between the scale of jungle japes in brawl versus the scale on 3DS? IIRC the melee stages in brawl were smaller than they were in melee because of brawl's larger character models. I'd be interested in finding out if this same scale has carried over.
The E3 leak was only talking about newcomers specifically for E3 too, even though Mii,little Mac and Pacman weren't shown, it is assumed that since the trailers are made seperately, that Nintendo had a change of plans last minute, maybe because they caught wind of leak?
The 3DS probably won't get the scrolling stages (Halberd, Delfino Plaza) because it would be a waste of resources to downgrade the stages for it when we have Pilotwings stage on Wii U as well as Halberd. We have Lumiose City on 3DS but that was already in Pokemon XY so the models were partially there already.
Well we know from the direct that the 3ds won't get Halberd but Delfino plaza is a possibility, unless 3ds gets no brawl stages and only melee stages.
I assume the stages would be picked partially on whether there is too much overlap or not, like it would be redundant for the 3ds version to get mushrooms kingdom because of the SM3Dland stage or something like that. Or why add Mario kart from brawl when it has rainbow road. I'm sure there are better examples of what I mean.
Um, Luigi's mansion would be stupid for 3ds when there is a dark moon stage yet to be revealed, for instance.
Yep, it was my mistake. I could swear I saw Jungle Japes on the Wii U as well, I even remember being excited because I like the stage. I just rewatched that part and Sakurai says the selection of retro stages will be different.
Has anyone done a comparison between the scale of jungle japes in brawl versus the scale on 3DS? IIRC the melee stages in brawl were smaller than they were in melee because of brawl's larger character models. I'd be interested in finding out if this same scale has carried over.
Welp... that explained why Corneria sucked so much ASS in brawl. The blast zones were ridiculously too close in that fucking stage and was such a disappointment compared to sector z heartbreaking, really.
(I also loved Jungle Japes, btw; though those currents and that klap trap could get annoying, but hilarious.)
I still contest that the hardest part about Ridley is simply his inhuman-ness. (Almost) all of the other characters are human, humanoid, or controlled by/avatars of a human (like the Pokemon Trainer). Jigglypuff never seemed weird because she's such a good fit with the Kirby style of characters, and the Kirby characters never felt weird because... I don't know, reasons. Even if their proportions are inhuman, their actions aren't. They have conversations and act with emotion and intelligence.
Yoshi's stance change (which just seems unnecessary to me) is just one example of the team wanting characters to be as close to human/humanoid in appearance as possible.
Ridley, however, in all the Metroid games has been portrayed as decidedly animalistic in his appearance and actions.
I know he and all the space pirates are supposed to be an intelligent space-faring species, but he's always seemed just driven by instinct, like an animal, and I think that would make him feel disjointed next to the rest of the Smash Cast.
Ridley has never spoken in the games, but neither did Mother Brain or any of the other pirates (at least not in English). Ridley is the leader of the space pirates, and they made Mother Brain their leader after taking over Zebes. Mother Brain turns into a giant dinosaur in Super but you don't doubt her intelligence, do you?
In Metroid Zero Mission Ridley is sitting in his command room on board the Space Pirate Mothership watching monitors when they start flashing red because Samus is infiltrating Zebes. He turns the ship around and flies back to Zebes:
Ridley personally breaks into Ceres station in Super and steals the infant metroid. He brings it back to his room. He has TV monitors outside his room and has his most elite pirates guarding him:
In Other M he is cloned, but he apparently retains his memories as he actively seeks Samus out throughout the game. He sends monsters after Samus and tracks her down to a control room.
The Prime games screwed up in handling Ridley because the logs treat him like he's just some animal the pirates keep around like a bioweapon and refer to a militaristic chain of command rather than Ridley being their leader.
Yep. No one knew who Marth and Roy were (at least outside of Japan) when Melee came out. Sakurai could have easily swapped those characters out for a more popular franchise in the NA/EU release of the game, but he didn't.
He's still kind of generic, personality-wise, but the sword itself, with its abilities to buff various aspects of characters and warn of future catastrophes, could be interesting in the context of Smash Bros..
The Prime games screwed up in handling Ridley because the logs treat him like he's just some animal the pirates keep around like a bioweapon and refer to a militaristic chain of command rather than Ridley being their leader.
To be fair, tho, in the Prime games, Ridley is a cyborg zombie.
That said, it's obvious the pirates love and respect Ridley as leader, because if they didn't, they wouldn't go through the efforts of reviving/cloning him a bunch of times.
Also, in an interview, one of the directors of Zero Mission (I forgot whom exactly) mentions that the robot Ridley that is the true final boss of the game, was built by Ridley to show his superiority over the pirates. That means Ridley is smart enough to actually build a fully functional robot version of himself that can make decisions and fight Samus. It's also likely that they took parts of that robot body and Ridley's remains to make Meta Ridley out of.
To be fair, tho, in the Prime games, Ridley is a cyborg zombie.
That said, it's obvious the pirates love and respect Ridley as leader, because if they didn't, they wouldn't go through the efforts of reviving/cloning him a bunch of times.
Also, in an interview, one of the directors of Zero Mission (I forgot whom exactly) mentions that the robot Ridley that is the true final boss of the game, was built by Ridley to show his superiority over the pirates.
Right, Zero Mission is fine. It's in line with Ridley as their leader.
But Prime...
"The reconstruction of geoform 187, code-named Ridley, was recently completed. After his defeat on Zebes, Command ordered a number of metagenetic improvements for him. Though aggressive, we were able to implement these changes in a cycle. The metamorphosis was painful, but quite successful in the end. Early tests indicate a drastic increase in strength, mobility, and offensive capability. Cybernetic modules and armor plating have been added as well. We believe our creation, now called Meta Ridley, will become the mainstay of our security force, a job he will certainly relish."
In Other M he is cloned, but he apparently retains his memories as he actively seeks Samus out throughout the game. He sends monsters after Samus and tracks her down to a control room.
The Prime games screwed up in handling Ridley because the logs treat him like he's just some animal the pirates keep around like a bioweapon and refer to a militaristic chain of command rather than Ridley being their leader.
They didn't screw up anything. Ridley wasn't the leader of the Space Pirates in Super Metroid or Metroid, Zero Mission was written after Prime, and nobody gives a shit about the manga.
The science log in Prime treats him like an animal, but that's how the pirates treat all of their experiments like the Omega Pirate (who we see give orders in battle).
He's still kind of generic, personality-wise, but the sword itself, with its abilities to buff various aspects of characters and warn of future catastrophes, could be interesting in the context of Smash Bros..
I think Shulk deserves more credit since he sets out in his journey for revenge, that's something you don't see a lot in "shounen"-eske heroes, more than the character itself Xenoblade is full of anime cliches and generic story, Shulk was a quite solid main character imo
In the fantasy world of my head the things that would make me die of happiness would be King K. Rool, Dixie Kong, Duster, Mewtwo, Isaac, Shulk and Wonder-Red.
This is fantastic! I think a lot of people said that they didn't want another Sword-Centric character, but focusing on his Djinn for specials is a great way to get around that. I especially love the summon concept based on how many djinn he has.
Man, this makes me want him even more. I do kind of want him to have a Ragnarok/Oddessey move, though.
Right, Zero Mission is fine. It's in line with Ridley as their leader.
But Prime...
"The reconstruction of geoform 187, code-named Ridley, was recently completed. After his defeat on Zebes, Command ordered a number of metagenetic improvements for him. Though aggressive, we were able to implement these changes in a cycle. The metamorphosis was painful, but quite successful in the end. Early tests indicate a drastic increase in strength, mobility, and offensive capability. Cybernetic modules and armor plating have been added as well. We believe our creation, now called Meta Ridley, will become the mainstay of our security force, a job he will certainly relish."
I don't see your problem with Ridley not being the leader when he's literally never been the highest ranking leader of the space pirates in a single Metroid game so far.
You also forgot how in Prime 3 he targets Samus multiple times in the middle of a larger aerial battle. Then he intercepts her when she tries to activate the last power source for Norion's defense system. But that clearly doesn't show intelligence because... Reasons.
Has anyone done a comparison between the scale of jungle japes in brawl versus the scale on 3DS? IIRC the melee stages in brawl were smaller than they were in melee because of brawl's larger character models. I'd be interested in finding out if this same scale has carried over.
I'd say (taking the small errors in camera position and zoom into account) the models are about the same size in SSB4 3DS and SSBB.
EDIT: Rehosted on abload.de
That could have probably been decided when he came up with the character list. I'm not saying it would have happened but if they were so keen on including characters based on popularity we wouldn't have the games we got.
The stages that I had picked for the 3DS were ones that seemed probable. (Great Bay = Majora's Mask 3D, Sector Z = Star Fox 64 3D, Saffron City = Lumiose City (Gen1 and Gen 6), Distant Planet to give Olimar a home stage for 3DS, etc etc.
The Wii U ones are stages that could benefit from the HD resolution (not counting the 64 stages).
I'd expect more, but this is my "bare minimum" of what I'd expect if possible.
