Zephyr

Heralding from the Clock Tower in Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Zephyr is here to avenge his friend, the Chronomage! Zephyr is a flamboyant, time-stopping baddie who loves to throw knives– now where have I heard that before? He’s also a combo heavy glass cannon who lacks raw speed but has many movement options and projectiles to cover his approach. His F-special is a dash that briefly stops time if used while the opponent is in hitstun, making it an essential tool in extending combos into flashy strings. All three of his other specials throw knives that, while not particularly menacing (ゴゴゴ) as projectiles, can quickly rack up damage or be used to put the opponent in hitstun for follow ups.

This mod was made for the Extended Workshop 2024 Horror Jam!

(+) Oppressive combo game
(+) Many mobility options
(+) Excellent recovery
(-) Lacks raw kill power
(-) Mediocre base speed
(-) Lightweight

Zephyr’s rolls and parry function differently than other characters. His roll and directional airdodge is an instantaneous teleport with no i-frames, but it carries him further than most characters and he can attack out of it sooner. His parry, meanwhile, freezes time on a success instead of putting his opponent in hitstun, allowing you to stack hits when punishing!

Zephyr also has a timestop meter that fills up very quickly over time or while dealing damage, and instantly fills on a successful parry. While full, Zephyr can use altered versions of his F-special and D-special.

Neutral: Knife Throw – This attack throws a single knife, or three knives if you hold special during startup. In the air, you throw three knives at different downwards angles while also propelling you backwards slightly. While each knife only deals 2% damage, they have decent hitstun. This attack has a brief cooldown as indicated by the knife on Zephyr’s HUD.

Forward: Timestop Dash – Zephyr’s most essential tool. Normally, this attack sends Zephyr horizontally forward, and can be cancelled into almost any other attack while preserving momentum. However, if your timestop meter is full and you’re using this move towards an opponent in hitstun, you can hold special to briefly freeze time during this move’s startup, making it a lot easier to follow up with an attack. Try hitting an opponent with a knife, then using a charged Timestop Dash to immediately close the distance and follow up with a melee attack!

Down: Knife Arc – Sharing a cooldown with Knife Throw, this attack has Zephyr leap in an arc, while raining four knives from above. If spaced properly, and at the right damage levels, you can potentially hit with all four knives and be able to follow up into a normal attack immediately! This attack can also be charged by holding special if your timestop meter is full, causing Zephyr to freeze time during the arc– though this makes it less likely all four knives will hit, so the timestop version of this attack can be situational. By the way, if time is already stopped, this move will prolong the timestop window slightly, without consuming your meter or needing to be charged!

Up: Acrobatic Ascent – Zephyr leaps straight up, stopping upon reaching a conveniently placed clock. Then, he’ll leap diagonally downwards while throwing a pair of knives towards the nearest opponent, to help cover his recovery.

– Starting a strong attack while time is stopped decreases the duration of your timestop slightly, and landing a strong attack ends it instantly. It’s still not a bad idea to use timestop to kill confirm strong attacks, but this penalty does make it slightly harder.

– Dtilt is a projectile immune Belmont Kickslide with a low hitbox. Not only that, but you can press attack again during the endlag to follow up into a leaping kick, which cancels immediately on hit. Dtilt 2’s late hitbox is also a rewarding off-stage spike to land!

– Bair has Zephyr’s other off-stage spike, but only on the sweetspot at the lower end of the attack’s hurtbox. It’s tricky to land though! At least, against a moving opponent…

– Dair is a Belmont divekick. Like Dtilt, it cancels immediately on hit, allowing for easy aerial follow ups, but it has bad landing lag and can also kill you if used off stage, so be careful!

– You continously accelerate forward while charging Fstrong. Dstrong lets you move left and right slowly while charging. Ustrong has much better horizontal control than dstrong, but during the startup rather than the charge window.

– UStrong seems like it might suck at first due to its long startup and small hitbox, but it works well as a dacus with fspecial. Wait, would that be a fspecus?

– He has a final smash! 1,000 Blades, the dual crash from Portrait of Ruin, is his to use!

All sounds and voices are ripped from Castlevania – Dawn of Sorrow
Victory background also ripped, but with paintovers and copious use of content aware fill.
Everything else is by Yours Truly :3 (me)

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Toki Yo Tomare!