Possible Remix for Absa, the Lucas to her Ness#264

I was thinking about another DJC character coming to the game, since we’re getting Pomme eventually and it would be our second character with a float (even though Fleet has a much different version of it.)

The simplest implementation of this would be to give Absa a Lucas. Keep the DJC and sweetspot aerials, but shift the power around to make them more unique.

When brainstorming for this character I was primarily considering the use of Torong and the earth element, but realistically it could work with fire or water too. Dan once pointed out the fact that Gouie is the first non-air character with a “weird jump” so I thought it would be interesting to do that again for another element. If Torong is too strange of a body to fit over Absa’s animation rig, then another goat or goat-adjacent type character could work just as well.

For stats, this character would be a bit heavier and less floaty, more of a fastfaller like Melee Yoshi (but without the armored double jump). Gravity jump should stay, but the DJC itself doesn’t need to be exactly the same as Absa’s.

Grounded normals I think could could stay more or less the same as Absa, just flavor them to fit the earth element better. Maybe Ftilt/2 can be a vine/whip, and to make it even more distinct from Absa, give Ftilt2 a hitgrab like Lucas’ rope snake

For aerials I had some more specific direction in mind; Keep the sweetspots but tone down the power level to make them more in line with a standard character instead of having them kill at the middle % range.

Forward Air would be like Lucas/Absa, just a simple forward kick with a sweetspot.

Neutral Air would be like Ness/Fleet, a faster burst option with less kill power than Fleet, used as a combo move like Jigglypuff nair.

Back Air would be like Lucas. The classic backflip with a spike. This is a selfish, self-indulgent pick because I just really like the move and it would be fun to have it in Rivals.

Down Air would be like Ness/Absa, mostly unchanged just like forward air. The angle would be different from back air, to give it a DI mixup when trying to spike near the wall of the stage.

For Up Air I had two different choices, either a weaker multihitting combo move with dragdown potential (similar to Ultimate Ness up air), or a wide sweeping anti-air (Mewtwo up air) with high base knockback and low knockback scaling. Both versions of this move are mean’t to be kill moves and should have lower kill power.

Specials

The most important part of Absa’s kit is obviously her cloud, without cloud you don’t have Absa. To keep this in the Remix version of her, I’ve replaced it with my own take on PK Flash.

Side special tosses a boulder that can be controlled like cloud, but instead of placing it onto the stage as a static object it instead explodes when the button is released. The boulder would be slightly slower than cloud with a wider explosion radius at the end of the move. If the boulder comes into contact with another character mid-flight it shatters into a weaker hit, similar in power to Kragg’s rock shards or Wrastor slipstream. This encourages you to space the projectile to hit with the explosion for the best reward.

I’m a bit lost on what to do with neutral special, since for Absa both her neutral and side specials are so integral to each other. My idea was to have neutral special charge up and empower the boulder, to make side special more volatile and give it a wider explosion radius. This comes from PM/P+ Lucas having the ability to empower his smash attacks. When charged, the boulder would float near/around the character as a visual to signal that the move is empowered. Pressing neutral special again would have the boulder explode out in front with a cone shape, a short ranged pocket sand style stun like Mewtwo’s confusion. The neutral special charge would only be a binary charged/uncharged state, rather than multiple stages like Ranno’s needles.

Having zips/quick attack doesn’t really make sense for an earth character, so I thought an earth version of Etalus’ up special might fit instead. Being heavier and less floaty than Absa means there needs to be another kind of weakness, and Etalus’ up special would add some exploitability to the recovery, but also keep some onstage utility with being jump cancellable. Aside from anything else, I think Etalus’ up special with a DJC sounds extremely funny.

With down special I don’t think any form of PSI Magnet really works, since we have a universal parry button. Instead I thought the character could leave a trap on stage, similar to Lily or Gouie’s mire puddle. This also ends up being closer to Absa’s down special as well.

Thank you for reading :)

Why not make the remix character for Absa a gazelle, and she could be named Gazelda and be of the fire element with light powers? the cloud could be a firefly that doesn’t have it’s own side b hitbox, but will fly around as a targeting zone for her version of thunderline, which would be a light arrow. if you press a short b when the firefly is placed, maybe it could cause a sparkle explosion that causes a little stun instead of KB