Fire Emblem's Lucina PSA - WELCOMING AID!

[BraveDragonWolf]

You probably should have said that I did "animation fixes" instead of putting "animations". I can't do good animations, just saying. XD

[PallaPal]

You probably should have said that I did "animation fixes" instead of putting "animations". I can't do good animations, just saying. XD

Haha, I suppose so. I meant it in general terms of course, but you know ^^

[Nao-chan]

I was able to get some help from DSX8 for the Sword Glow glitch on Lucina's Down B. This is what he said.

For the sword glow.. Open FitMarth.pac file, go to modeldata[0] and expand the mdl0 and go into the material folder. Click on the only material there and on the right side, look for a CullNone, and change that to CullAll.

That should be one little glitch out of the way for ya. he said it shouldn't affect any other move that uses the Sword Glow graphic. Hope it helps.

[DSX8]

yeah i pretty much showed Naoto when he was chilling at my place.. he showed me the error and i decided to look up on it.. now im not sure if it was needed for any attack animations or not... but its gone from the down special

[Nao-chan]

I tested it out. Basically the sword trail is still there but the glow model isn't. I don't think it's that big a deal really. It looks fine to me.

[JamietheAuraUser]

Just recently tried out Lucina and have a bit of feedback. All comments are about normal (vBrawl) Lucina.

— Jab combo should actually combo, since it doesn't loop the way Marth's does.
— Her midair jump is really weak, especially compared to her first jump, which makes playing as her kind of finicky.
— Side B has a really short and kind of finicky window for its various follow-ups. Kind of annoying to accidentally just stand there posing repeatedly when I'm trying to use Pavise/Aegis.
— Pavise/Aegis doesn't deal anywhere near enough knockback on the attack. I personally think that on a grounded opponent, it should be a hard spike so it flinches them in place for a follow-up, possibly even another Side B variant (but obviously not another Pavise/Aegis, because infinite combos aren't cool). Versus aerial opponents, it should have enough knockback to get them off of you, but not enough to KO.
— Down B is an amazingly good move.
— It's fun to press Up B instead of using the C-stick to perform Up Aerial, because it still uses the GFX and SFX from Up B. Plus, it lets her spam Up Aerials at ground level as long as you just input Up B repeatedly.
— Neutral B in the air has a little too much startup before the drop, even uncharged. Also, sometimes the sword trail decides not to show up. I'm wondering if maybe frame speed multipliers are the issue.
— Neutral B on the ground doesn't have the sword trail that it has in the air, for some reason. Also, it doesn't seem to have as tall a hitbox as it looks like it should. As in, there's a spot where the sword should've had to have passed through during the slash, but there's no hitbox there. Again, I'm guessing frame speed multipliers.
— I can't figure out if her attacks still have tippers or not. Up Smash seems to always be tippered based on the SFX, while Forward Smash seems to never be a tipper hit.
— Initial hit of her grounded Final Smash should come out sooner. Like, she dashes straight up to the foe, and then there's what feels like a half-second delay before the initial stab.
— Initial hit of her grounded Final Smash should only heal her on hit.
— Final Smash should have timeslow for the entire duration of the startup pose, so they can't just jump over you during startup so easily.
— Aerial Final Smash might benefit from being slowed down just a little bit if possible (so the hits can be seen more cleanly), as well as having brighter and bigger GFX and an enforced black background. (I think there's a way to make the lighting black, like in Meta Knight's Final Smash?)
— Aerial Final Smash should probably only go into the full combo if the first hit connects. That way, you can't just press B to go into a full dramatic combo where you're not hitting anyone that eventually leads to the foe (who's presently way above you and out of range of the rest of the attack) being KO'd on the final jump.
— Some of her voice clips have noticeable audio quality issues.

[Nao-chan]

For the N B stuff. It really a timer thing, not a FSM thing. For both the GFX and Main section, all you need to do is change the asynchronous timer to 11 and make another one to like 20 frames for the hitboxes and GFXs to end. That's what I did. It fixes the graphics for the move and makes the attack strike air or ground enemies.

I agree with you on the FS stuff though. I just never got around to coding that stuff in. The Air FS should have an If Hitbox Connects code for the first strike. That actually makes sense. I did try adding a screen tint to make it really dark, but I messed it up and never tried to get it to work. I'll see if I can work on that again to get the correct result. Thanks for the input.

[JamietheAuraUser]

For my comments on Pavise/Aegis, change "hard spike" to "weak spike". You don't want to knock them down, you just want them to flinch in place for a really long time. Although, forcing knockdown with a knockback angle around 290° would be pretty cool and give the move quite a bit more "oomph", especially with the voice clips she uses for the attack.

[DSX8]

well u do know that there isnt that much sfx files for lucina right? :p

so its all pretty bad clips.. idk if SJS is still trying to rip them

[JamietheAuraUser]

I have all of Lucina's Attack and Critical voice clips recorded directly from the game using a two-way audio cable and Audacity, as well as a compilation file with all of her dual support/dual guard/dual strike/skill activation/victory quotes. All we're missing is her three flinch voice clips, her two death quotes, and that crazy scream she does in that one flashback cutscene with Grima (I think we actually have that, but the audio quality is terrible.) Grabbing that "Help!" she does in the Chapter 1 cutscene might be nice, too.

Edit: Correction, it appears I currently only have one of her Critical voice clips, but I can get the other two easily enough.

[Nao-chan]

Cool, if you can get all those clips we may be able to get a full voice of her over Marths without any empty spaces. As for the Aegis/Pavise thing, I'll look into it.

[JamietheAuraUser]

I'll have to start a new file (again) and go back to chapter 4 (again) for Masked Marth's death quote. Oh well. And I'll have to hopefully find a streetpass team with Lucina on it so I can beat the crap out of her repeatedly for flinch voice clips and her death quote.

[Friesnchip]

I don't ever post on this site as I'm usually on Smash Boards instead, but I wanted to give some feedback and I figured this would be the best place to do so. Anyway, here's what I observed:

Animation:
- The cape moves far too much during the idle in comparison to other characters and it clips.
- There is little transition between the end of the 'wait' animation back to the idle.
- A second wait animation might help delay the constant sighing heard from her current wait animation.
- Leg movement is awkward on the combo, and the sword trails are not smooth.
- Down attack (the kick) has unnecessary foot movement (or at least unnatural looking) at the very end of the animation when transitioning back to the crouch.
- The down smash sword trail is not smooth upon start-up, and the sword moves erratically in her hand for a split second during the transition back to idle.
- Her up air looks fine in slow motion, but odd at normal speed as there is so much body movement in such a short amount of time.
- The transition from up air back to the fall animation is jerky.
- Neutral special could benefit from a sword trail while grounded, especially due to how odd the move looks when performing it just as you hit the ground as most of the animation is skipped, and there is no sword blur.
- Extra keyframes on the neutral special would make it look smoother, although it is by no means bad as it is now.
- The side special (is it still called dancing blade?) could be made a bit visually smoother with more animation frames to transition between each hit. It isn't outright bad or anything, but I personally feel it could be improved a bit more.
- The sword trail on the aerial side special flashes in and out when facing right.
- Animation on consecutive up specials is jarring, and the sudden/large sword trails looks especially odd.
- There is no transition from the idle animation to side taunt at start-up.
- The intro animation/up taunt circle effect has a square boarder surrounding it.
- The win animation where Lucina flips before landing has a sudden transition to her final pose.

Gameplay:
- As JamietheAuraUser mentioned, the combo does not link together properly.
- The down attack (the kick) has a bit too much end-lag to use effectively, as you can't combo out of it and it leaves you defenseless for too long.
- The absurd amount of recovery Lucina gets with her up special is, well... absurd. Not only that, but on stages with sloped sides, she doesn't even need to be positioned correctly as she just slides up the side of them right up to the ledge. Plus, she can attack out of it with no drawbacks. In Project: M for example, when Sonic uses his up special, he can use aerial attacks during his decent, but not specials. Considering the crazy horizontal recovering potential she has with her side and down specials already, combining that with an overpowered up special post usage seems a bit unfair.
- To further discuss the up special, I think it should be retooled entirely. It needs to be shorter for balancing, and effective as an attack. Something like a simplified version of Metaknight's side special (but up vertically oriented), with directional influence comes to mind. This is an on the spot recommendation, so it might not fit your vision of the character, but it is just an example as I don't quite agree with how the up special is being utilized currently.
- To again concur with JamietheAuraUser, Lucina's side special is rather difficult to use, especially when you're being pressured by an opponent.
- The side special move performed at 0:52 of the new trailer video I wasn't able to replicate (I'm not sure as to the correct sequence of inputs), but the amount of movement during that animation looks to be a bit much.
- You can't grab the ledge using the aerial side special or down special (not that they both need to grab ledge), limiting their potential off-stage.

Technical:
- The sounds are low quality, yes, but the real problem is the mixing. Sound levels are all over the place, often too loud more than anything.
- Have you considered combing announcer sound clips to create a Lucina announcer call, similar to what  WarioMANX did awhile back?


Well, that does it for my initial impressions. Sorry if this was overly negative, but I just wanted to state what I felt could be improved, instead of focusing on what I liked in an attempt to be more helpful. Hopefully what I mentioned can be of use. Keep up the good work, everyone!

[Nebulon]

Not being able to grab with the Up special feels out of place when compared to the default Brawl characters.

I also don't understand what the side special does. I've tried using it like Marth's, charging it, using it as a space counter, hitbox counter, basic offensive attack, and the notepad doesn't outline how to execute it so... I'm a bit lost.

The Down special confuses me too. It advances without fear of being struck, but it's nothing a well placed roll can't suffice to do, especially since there's a cool down time after it that makes it difficult to use offensively, which feels weird since this is an overall more offensive version of Marth. Also, it being mapped to Down Special just feels strange... unless I'm not doing something right...

Everything else is perfect, but these two specials are head scratchers... :/ could someone explain them perhaps?

[JamietheAuraUser]

@Friesnchip: Up Special on consecutive uses is actually just Up Aerial. Up Special does have one drawback in that it forces landing lag. But yes, she does get very good horizontal recovery between Up Special, Pass (Down Special) and Ignis (Side Special).

Aether (Side Special Up) is designed to replicate its behaviour in Fire Emblem Awakening. The character performs an initial approaching attack, then backsteps and slices through the target. The move had to be sped up to make it combo properly in Brawl.

@Nebulon: Side Special works a little like Marth's, but the timing is different. When you press Side B, Lucina strikes her Skill Activation pose from Fire Emblem Awakening. From there, different combinations of the Control Stick and B activate different moves:
-- Neutral B after the activation grants a single hit dealing 10% damage with minimal knockback, during which Lucina has Super Armour. This move is designed to imitate the Pavise and Aegis skills from Awakening.
-- Down B after the activation deals five rapid strikes that each deal low-ish damage. This move is based on the skill Astra.
-- Up B after activation deals two hits: an initial stab, followed by a slice through. The second hit has great kill power and covers quite a bit of distance. This move is based on the skill Aether.

Down Special is neat because of its increased range compared to a dodge. It's also great if your opponent tries to use a projectile, or goes for a powerful attack with a lot of endlag. I like using it to dash past a foe, then hit them with Forward Smash from behind. It's based on the skill Pass, which allows a character to move through an opponent's space.