Suwako Moriya
Otherwise, who knows? You might even get cursed. Heh heh.
Suwako Moriya arrives to gain faith in Rivals of Aether! A tricky and flexible jack of all trades, Suwako sports a wide variety of attacks to control the battle from almost any range effectively. This versatility is coupled with multiple solid burst movement options, strong walling projectiles, and access to a unique crouching stance that enables her to avoid low hitting attacks and over tricky movement properties to make her slippery to catch. That being said, while she is undoubtedly versatile, she sports consistently stubby range on her attacks, is locked out of using certain tools depending on which stance she is in, and is slower than average, forcing her to take advantage of her large bag of tricks to make her way in and trip up opponents or play around her long ranged tools to wall them out. If you want a character with a wide toolkit that can cover for any situation, then take a trip up to Moriya shrine and pay your respects to Suwako!
When Suwako crouches, she summons a Lilypad beneath her which elevates her into the air by a decent amount. While she is on the lilypad, she can perform all of her grounded attacks from there to attack from a higher height and even gets access to a brand new set of tilts that sport more powerful offensive properties. Pressing jump while on the lilypad also effectively gives her a higher jump height, enabling her to chase opponents to even greater heights! Do keep in mind that she has to be crouching for at least 6 frames before she gains access to any of the benefits of being on the Lilypad, so try to find the space to use it.
With a swift upwards gesture, Suwako summons a large stone palm onto the battlefield in front of her. Holding the special button afterwards causes Suwako to take a step forward while unleashing a powerful palm thrust forward, sending the palm flying forward. When performed in the air, Suwako will stall herself while summoning the stone palm on the ground below her, allowing her to catch people on ground level while safely in the air, though she loses the ability to perform the palm thrust afterwards.
This move serves as her main form of stage control, summoning a fragile wall that blocks movement and projectiles while it’s up. If Suwako hits the palm with attacks, it will send the wall flying away from her with an active hitbox, allowing her to bully people from longer ranges as long as the wall is up. If Suwako hits the wall with a water-based attack will cause the wall to get charged with energy before exploding in a blast of water that sports high kill power to boot! Be wary though, as the opponent can hit it back at Suwako if the palm is moving or instantly destroy it with any physical strike as long as it’s sitting idle, preventing her from summoning another wall for a few seconds.
If a stone palm is already on the field, Dspecial will have her perform the followup palm thrust on its own. This variant is an enhanced version of the prior palm thrust attack, gaining a step forward during the startup and an additional second charge level that sports high knockback. Charging this attack also increases the distance Suwako gets propelled forward, making it useful as a risky forward advancing option when charged.
Suwako lifts her head back before spewing a stream of bubbles from her mouth which travel a moderate distance before slowing down to a stop. A mid ranged oriented projectile that fires a stream of fireballs to wall off the space in front of her, though these bubbles are fragile and will lose to other projectiles outright. Holding the special button will cause her to fire out even more bubbles, covering even more ground, dealing more damage to anyone caught in it, and dealing additional hitstun on a couple bubbles, enabling stronger followups on hit. Firing the bubbles at a stone palm will cause the palm to immediately detonate in place, making it useful as a quick way to threaten the explosion hit or to clear a badly placed stone palm from the field.
Suwako crouches down before leaping forward to grab the opponent. If successful, she quickly builds up water in her palms before unleashing a powerful blast of water in front of her, sending opponents flying. A far traveling yet risky lunging command grab that sports solid damage and kill power but puts Suwako into pratfall if it misses. If she hits a stone palm with the leap, then she’ll perform the attack on the palm, sending it forward before exploding once it settles to a stop. Opponents hit by the palm as it travels will get carried along with it before it explodes, though be wary of the opponent sending it back to Suwako.
Suwako quickly spins before propelling herself upwards foot first with a geyser of water. A strong 2 hit Uspecial which is effective at killing off the top. When performed in the air, the initial hit is changed into a fairly strong spiking hit which can pull opponents into the strong 2nd hit or lead into a weaker lower spike hit below her. Hitting a stone palm with this attack has a similar effect to Fspecial, sending the palm forward before detonating it.
Suwako’s Dattack, Amphibian Idol, has her spawn in a large stone effigy of a frog while traveling forward. Holding down during this attack allows Suwako to end this attack on the lilypad, letting her combo straight into her crouching normals off of this attack or to make the endlag trickier to punish.
Suwako’s Fstrong, Rushing Tide Kick, has Suwako leap into the air, dive down with a water charged kick, and then finish off by summoning a geyser in front of her where she lands. A strong forward advancing kill move that covers a ton of range and can be used just like Fspecial and Uspecial to move the stone palm before detonating it, notably sending it further forward than either of them. This attack also acts as a continuously active, albeit weak, spike if she goes off stage with it, hitting multiple times as she dives down before allowing her to cancel out with an air dodge, jump, or Uspecial after falling for a bit.
Animator, Attack implementation, playtesting – ArtistOfSeer
Gimmick Programmer – VVizard
Coding Assistance – Bar-Kun
Victory Theme and Trailer Theme – Delta Parallax
