[Char] Frena

[YinYin]

All right, this is a rare case:
I have a full character design, but not enough time to spare and waste all my hours on creating it. Currently at least.
Still as usual I tried to quickly get it all out of my head by doing quick animations and sketches. And as long as I'm not actually making it happen I'd like to hear what you think about it.

The character is Frena, based on Johos desgin:

I've cut the "i" out of the name to pull her further away from just being Femme-Firen.
As you can see I've changed the design quite a lot, so you may as well consider it to be a different character even though the inspiration remains clear.

I will probably slightly edit the sprite at some point to make the high boots more recognizable. Their main purpose is to protect her legs and sides as soon has she raises the staff.
Her body suit is single part and without arms to give her maximum flexibility and minimum points where her own weapon could get caught on. Also as you can see she is not your average sexy female video game fighter and the body suit is also supposed to include a binder for practical reasons.

To get an idea of how she's supposed to handle try to imagine combining these: Rudolf, Henry, Firen, LouisEX.
Here are her basic attacks:

The first three normal hits are many things at once:
They always combo in the same sequence like Rudolfs shuriken throws.
Due to her initial stance she needs to build up reach over the three hits - also on close range she requires all three of them to inflict dance of pain.
If there is no opponent to hit in close range these three staff swings will instead fire weak projectiles similar to shurikens (range decreasing from first to third).
The first one will inflict dance of pain. The second one will knock out. The third one will burn already falling opponents.
If these projectiles touch the ground they create a short ground fire (won't remain as long as Firens burn run fire).

The up swing is her super punch. The spear jab is her run attack. They can be connected.
Her jump and dash attack would be the same as the up swing except downwards.
Her grab attack would probably be a headbutt, just like Knight.

These would be her special moves:

D^A Red Rain
This would fire a single fire blast up (Firzens fire chase), which would explode into many smaller ones (her basic attack projectiles) at the top of its arc or a little later.
The ground fire these will create will remain for a longer time than the one from her basic shots.
This is not only useful to attack a distant crowd from above but also to hit a closer airborne opponent (combo or leap attack counter).
D>A+A Heat Streak
The first vertical swing will create an invisible projectile that will travel about the same distance as Freeze' icicle spawner.
It will create short lived ground fire as a tail and upon contact with an opponent terminate by blasting him up and away.
Due to travelling low it cannot stop (or be stopped by) other projectiles.
The second horizontal swing will create a fire inferno like streak in front of her. This one doesn't travel far, but therefore it has a large z-range and can block incoming projectiles.
(directly accessible via D>A+<)
DvA unnamed dance combo
This is very similar to LouisEX' phoenix dance. She starts with an over-shoulder swing of the end of her staff, uses the tension build up behind her back to continue with a swing of the tip and ends it with the super and run attack. This thing can be cancelled at various points into all of her other moves.
D>J unnamed long shot
She mounts the staff a little like a rocket launcher over her shoulder to fire a single straight line. This is the only move that gives her infinite reach a little like Henrys super arrow.
It will be able to hit up to 5 not burning opponents in line (not standing on the same spot). The first hit will also be able to hit burning opponents for combos.
A hit will be visually underlined by showing a little fire whirl around the line of fire.

...

[Nyamaiku]

i like most of the idea, except the combo... the sprite visual give me a feel of a sorceress or something but not a fighter.
she should stick to firing projectiles, instead of rushing in, staff swinging and breaking hell. she just doesnt seem like the strong type.
about the D^A, im thinking if it is possible to make it more...random? like it may create 2-5 balls instead of same number of shots all the time.

[Ariel]

if i got u right the idea of her is a combination of a ranged casting sorceress and a melee spear fighting
so about this i dont have much to say i realy liked the idea and the skills but i think if u will make a switching option to her spear/wand it can become more interesting
and if u do accept that i will say that it also opens the door for a lot of ideas

about the skills,
just the long shot
i dont realy find that fit and i think some kinda of a ball that explode when getting to enemies will fit more

the main thing that i think u need to change is her look
somehow it dosent fit to her
her close range combo give the look of an aggressive/armored char (like luis/ex)
but somehow the way her outfit is now it gives the feeling of a sorceress like Nyamaiku said
i think the thing could be fixed if u will make her spear more triangler and add to her shoulders an armor

i made some edit to ur sketches to show what i wrote about in my post:

[YinYin]

Thanks for the feedback guys :D

the combo... the sprite visual give me a feel of a sorceress or something but not a fighter.
she should stick to firing projectiles, instead of rushing in, staff swinging and breaking hell. she just doesnt seem like the strong type.

I think this is only true for Johos original design: long restricting cape, no defensive measures and lots of weak/uncovered spots.
That sure is just a supporting ranged character that better stays on safe ground.
If you don't like the combo how do you put up with all her basic attacks? Those are already 6 different melee attacks and the combo only adds 2 new ones to the mix.
Also br(e)aking hell is exactly her thing if you look at the definitions of words close to her name: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/freno
She may not defeat but will certainly stop anyone.

about the D^A, im thinking if it is possible to make it more...random? like it may create 2-5 balls instead of same number of shots all the time.

I'd like it to stay a single projectile initially but it could certainly split up into different amounts depending on the opposing force. That might be more hassle than it's worth though.

if i got u right the idea of her is a combination of a ranged casting sorceress and a melee spear fighting
so about this i dont have much to say i realy liked the idea and the skills but i think if u will make a switching option to her spear/wand it can become more interesting
and if u do accept that i will say that it also opens the door for a lot of ideas

I've dabbled too much with switching style characters in the past. It never really worked out to add quite as much fun as I expected because either the switch wasn't a very fluent thing to do in a heated fight or you just had a hard time following mentally, thus often preferring just one mode and sticking with it - which makes the other half a lot of wasted effort. So while it's a cool idea and not unlikely to happen I'd rather pour more effort into a seamless single style.
Natively combining ranged and melee usually isn't an easy task, but this design should allow it as described. So there is no switch action required from the player - he can simply choose to attack up close or from afar.

about the skills,
just the long shot
i dont realy find that fit and i think some kinda of a ball that explode when getting to enemies will fit more

I agree - this is the most controversial in her move set. However the bomb you describe wouldn't differ too much from the heat streak (mechanically) and not cover the same range as the long shot. (several enemies in line) Also this is a pretty quick move and thus the only combo finisher when the opponent is already flying too far away.

the main thing that i think u need to change is her look
somehow it dosent fit to her
her close range combo give the look of an aggressive/armoredswift char (like luis/ex)
but somehow the way her outfit is now it gives the feeling of a sorceress like Nyamaiku said
i think the thing could be fixed if u will make her spear more triangler and add to her shoulders an armor

I'm not aiming for aggressive/strong/armorred/powerful here.
I'm aiming for aggressive/swift. Both above waist armor and bomb blast kind of defy the swift element. She is supposed to be a sorceress and not a heavy fighter - except she does like getting her hands dirty.

I've already had a long talk with Siegvar about changing her outfit on IRC. I'm still open about changing her upper body design, but so far every change just made her look too unflexible or bulky to me.

[Nyamaiku]

i like both the explode shot and the long shot, maybe D>J as a long shot and D>J +< (with some charge time) to make it a more powerful exploding shot?
what i said about D^A being random, is maybe try out my arest+ik8 theory, not use the bat chase or firzen chase. i always like gambling/random moves as the result is always different or unexpected, thus increase the excitement in battle.

about looks, its not just about the attire that make her look like a sorceress, look at her face.
she doesnt look like the kind of warrior-ish character, but maybe someone who focus on strategy/skills, thus making her a mage/archer or something.
even though Yinyin said she likes to get her hands dirty, i still cant imagine a girl with that look/build/attire rushing into a whole bunch of enemies, she seem more like one that calmly launches attack from a distance.

br(e)aking hell is exactly her thing if you look at the definitions of words close to her name: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/freno

being fire elemental is enough to deal chaos to a crowd, just think of fire spreading all around. that is hell.

oh, i have to say i love her face, especially the look of her eyes...i thought the eye part was pretty "moe", which means kind of cute in japanese.

[Dragon5]

The unitard idea is pretty great to transition to LF2, but it seems a little flat. The shoulder pads are a good idea though metal wouldn't be the way to go for her. It could simply be part of her unitard that sticks out like a sleeve or something.

I have a feeling Heat Streak is going to be one of her most versatile moves.

[YinYin]

i like both the explode shot and the long shot, maybe D>J as a long shot and D>J +< (with some charge time) to make it a more powerful exploding shot?

That's an option - it would have the lowest priority during development though.

what i said about D^A being random, is maybe try out my arest+ik8 theory, not use the bat chase or firzen chase. i always like gambling/random moves as the result is always different or unexpected, thus increase the excitement in battle.

Sounds cool - go for it.

about looks, its not just about the attire that make her look like a sorceress, look at her face.
she doesnt look like the kind of warrior-ish character, but maybe someone who focus on strategy/skills, thus making her a mage/archer or something.
even though Yinyin said she likes to get her hands dirty, i still cant imagine a girl with that look/build/attire rushing into a whole bunch of enemies, she seem more like one that calmly launches attack from a distance.

Good thing you are picking up on her expression/attire. It's what got me hooked to revamp her in the first place.
I don't know whether I read the expression Joho gave her correctly, but this is what I see and tried to do:
She is generally extremely bored/unimpressed and thus also very calm. You may wonder why.
I thought this is because she can never expect any opponent to overpower her. She may not be very physically strong, but her knowledge and skills allow her to intuitively apply swift fighting strategies at both close and long range that will easily deal with any foe. And this basically makes normal fighting (especially pure long range) a boring endeavor for her. So why not spice it up with some close combat at least.

To me strategy and skills aren't hard wired to archer and mage. Not every melee fighter is a stupid beast that needs to be a brute to survive.

being fire elemental is enough to deal chaos to a crowd, just think of fire spreading all around. that is hell.

The thing is she needs the staff to conjure fire magic. She cannot do this with her bare hands or full body like Firen. So there won't be anything as powerful as exploding or setting herself aflame. If you are that dependent on an item to bring said devastation you should be good at basic material arts too as a backup. So using the staff as a weapon seems natural to me.

The unitard idea is pretty great to transition to LF2, but it seems a little flat. The shoulder pads are a good idea though metal wouldn't be the way to go for her. It could simply be part of her unitard that sticks out like a sleeve or something.

Shoulder parts don't really change a lot about the suit being flat or do they? I think DesignHeaven was proposing the same material as her boots. Smaller shoulder sized shells might work. Free shoulders still seem better for certain arm bending though?

[Nyamaiku]

hmm...but what i say about arest+ik8 is still just a theory, i havent tried it before...anyway,

The thing is she needs the staff to conjure fire magic. She cannot do this with her bare hands or full body like Firen. So there won't be anything as powerful as exploding or setting herself aflame

i mean using fire from afar, not running in ablazed...

lol...i took another look back at the original sprite and then at your sketch, i thought that the bored look on her face is not "sigh...no one seems to be challenging enough" kind of look. it is more like "oh...how i wish i could just get done with this. then i can get back to my room, snuggle into my bed and watch some yaoi"

[Rhino.Freak]

AWWW YISS.. YinYin's character!
I really like it man, nice drawings skills too you got there.. (though the drawings makes her look fat? or am I the only one?)

It looks similar to louis EX in some ways though, anyways.. I hope to play it soon.. looking cool so far and nice attack ideas! +thank for the most interesting man in the world too lol :P

[YinYin]

The thing is she needs the staff to conjure fire magic. She cannot do this with her bare hands or full body like Firen. So there won't be anything as powerful as exploding or setting herself aflame

i mean using fire from afar, not running in ablazed...

Yes I understood your point of view. This was just to underline why I think she needs to use the staff as a normal weapon too to keep up. Her fire isn't as powerful. Because she is not Firen obviously.

lol...i took another look back at the original sprite and then at your sketch, i thought that the bored look on her face is not "sigh...no one seems to be challenging enough" kind of look. it is more like "oh...how i wish i could just get done with this. then i can get back to my room, snuggle into my bed and watch some yaoi"

Different interpretations result in different expectations. ;p
Otaku girl for you,
independent woman for me.
Argument settled.

AWWW YISS.. YinYin's character!
I really like it man, nice drawings skills too you got there.. (though the drawings makes her look fat? or am I the only one?)

Thanks a lot!

Also as you can see she is not your average sexy female video game fighter

I haven't consciously decided on the exact shape of her tummy yet. But I guess the shading of the Marti mimicking sketch just exaggerates the shape as she actually needs to be rather fit.

It looks similar to louis EX in some ways though, anyways.. I hope to play it soon.. looking cool so far and nice attack ideas!

Looks similar, plays with a big twist: apart from the things that make her moveset differ she also has nothing that compares to the phoenix punches and the default running damage. In fact she won't be a very quick runner at all. Those boots are made for walking. Literally. But that's a small detail.

+thank for the most interesting man in the world too lol :P

what? who?