Neku Sakuraba (The World Ends with You) Discussion

Why Neku for Crusade?
Because I like this DS game.

Silliness aside, I think Neku is a nice fit because of the lack of FULL magic users in the roster. The closest is probably Geno/Ashley/Ness/Lucas who still use their fists and other objects. Even if Robin were to make an appearance in Crusade, Robin still uses his/her sword for a lot of attacks. Neku uses magic for EVERYTHING that isn't just moving.

Stylistically, Neku's attacks resemble graffiti. So while it may look out of place, it's very neat to look at.

Despite all this, his game is nearly 10 years old now. It was initially released in 2007 (2008 for America), and has only received two re-releases for iOS and Android in 2012 and 2014. Neku has also appeared in the Kingdom Hearts franchise in the latest release, Dream Drop Distance.

Despite TWEWY not having a sequel, it's had very favorable reviews. Even Nintendo Power ranked it as tenth best game on a Nintendo console of the 2000's and fourth best DS title of all time.



Series Icon:


This image appears on the player pins, it's a very important symbol to the series and thus belongs as the series icon.



Height comparison
Huge shout-outs to Athorment for making this for me.



Moves:

And here we go, the all-important moveset. I highly recommend opening the spoilers to view the gif so you know how the attacks work, I'll be referring to them a lot. Every single attack here is based on an actual attack from the game.

Everyone loves specials, so I'll go over those first.

Neutral Special: Sweeper

Spoiler:

Looks a little too powerful to just be a neutral special, right? Well, fear not! With the power of imagination, we can alter the rules of the attack to more fit the style of Smash, and hopefully make it more balanced. As long as you hold the special button, Neku will charge his neutral up to it's maximum limit. Once released, he'll create a small black hole a set distance away from him. The black hole will deal NO damage, but any opponent who touches it will be sucked in and have hitstun applied for the duration of the blackhole. The length of time the black hole is there and the size depends on the charge level. At max charge, you should only have enough time to run up to it and do a quick up smash (covered later). The size it affects should never be much larger than a Kirby.



Up Special: Teleport/Grave Marker

Spoiler:

Up special would be a teleport, kind of like Mewtwo. Original, right? Well, if you press the special again before you finish disappearing, you'll perform Grave Marker instead. You'll teleport directly above a nearby opponent and slam down on them. Grave Marker will be a kill move, though you can see from the gif that shouldn't work on anyone moving a whole lot.

A real danger of using Grave Marker is that if no one is within range to teleport to, you'll go where Teleport should have brought you instead. You'll still perform Grave Marker, so you can totally Ike yourself if you're not careful. Another danger is that if an opponent thinks you'll try to Grave Marker them, they could jump off the side of the stage and quickly dodge back before you hit them, falling to your doom.



Side special: Pyrokinesis

Spoiler:

You'll be locked in place for the entire duration of this attack, but you'll be able to move these pillars of flame along the ground. If an opponent gets hit, they'll get carried away by the multihit fires. This move shouldn't do too much damage even if you manage to get someone from the very beginning, but it can used to create space between you and your opponent. Also don't worry about the size of the fire in the gif, I think they should only be about Neku's waist high. You'll be vulnerable as long as the attack is going, but you can cancel it by letting go of the special button.

If used in the air Neku will stop his momentum, start floating downward, and speed up as he falls. His fire will appear on the closest applicable ground within a radius of him. You could try to mix up your opponent by pushing them back with the fire as you approach the ledge, but you can't hold it too long or you die.



Down special: Splash Core

Spoiler:

Pretty much as shown. Neku creates a water orb. It's stationary until an opponent runs into it, where it does some damage and bounces away. I want to say it'd stay for 10-15 seconds, but it's hard to make a call like that right now. It should go without saying Neku can't create another one while his is out.

Nix Proposal: Allow hurtboxes the ability to bounce the water orb around.




Still here? I highly suggest you stick around, I think there's some pretty unique stuff. But if you don't care about tilts, smashes, grabs, and aerials you can scroll down until you see this again:

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*


Jab: Force Rounds

Spoiler:

As long as you continually press your attack button, Neku will continue to fire force rounds. They should go no farther than about half of Final Destination. They can be angled up or down slightly.



Up tilt: Entanglement

Spoiler:

Neku creates barbed wire vertically in front of him. It has multiple hits while active, but only the initial hitbox applies hitstun/knockback. It should stretch just a little higher than Neku stands in Crusade and last about 1-2 seconds. You can't use up tilt again while it's out.




Side tilt: Shockwave

Spoiler:

Neku slashes at an enemy. First a horizontal slash. He can't continue his jab combo unless he lands that hit first, where you can proceed with a downward slash and then an upward slash. The final hit will launch people into the air a little bit.




Down tilt: Time Bomb

Spoiler:

Neku will place a Time Bomb, which will detonate after a few seconds. While not terribly unique, I think it being on a tilt is. You can't move the bomb, it doesn't detonate if your opponent touches it, you can't detonate it early. You HAVE to wait out the timer. But after it's placed, you're free to move around and place more. This should be a kill move.



Dash attack: Velocity Attack

Spoiler:

Neku charges forward and deals damage. Yeah.




Neutral air: Street Jam

I'm sorry, the graphic corrupted the GIF and there wasn't a whole lot I could do. This is the only one like this, I promise.:

It's ginormous in the gif. However, using the power of imagination again, we can change it. A small speaker appears in front of Neku and unleashes a sound wave that creates a circle around Neku.




Up air: Patrol Rounds

Spoiler:

Neku fires a boomerang directly upward. It doesn't return to Neku, though. It goes a set distance upwards, and then goes as far down as possible. You can also aim it up to 45 degrees to the left or right. This move should be a single hit and send enemies flying the direction it's travelling.



Forward air: Shockwave

Spoiler:

Yes, the same thing as his side tilt. The only two attacks to share a move with each other. Neku does the downward slash for little damage, however it should be super quick.




Back air: Lightning Arrester

Spoiler:

Okay, so lets ignore how big it looks in the GIF. You know the drill, imagination! So first off, we downsize the giant explosion and extreme downscale the two lightning bolts. Neku would put his palm behind him and fire a V of lightning from his hand. It could travel a distance, but not terribly far. It would have massive knockback at the base of the V and little knockback on the projectile part.



Down air: Flame Core

Spoiler:

Neku sends an orb of fire underneath him. He'll fall faster than it can travel. The orb would stay around 3-5 seconds. It should bounce back up if it touches the ground but disappear with contact on enemy. You can also aim it up to 45 degrees to the left or right.




Grab: Rock Bind

Spoiler:

Neku will spawn rocks a set distance away from him as his grab. This means that anyone directly in front of Neku can NOT be grabbed.




Pummel: Ignition

Spoiler:

Neku will create a flame for a split second for his pummel.




Up throw: Twister

Spoiler:

Neku does this little number on his grabbed victim. Might kill at really high percents, but I don't want to intend this to be a kill throw.




Forward throw: Spear Strike

Spoiler:

Neku darts forward with a light spear, carrying his victim a small distance before launching them horizontally. This would kill earlier than the up throw, especially if you can get it on the side of the stage, but I also don't intend this to be a huge kill throw either.




Back throw: Summon Rhyme

Spoiler:

Neku tosses his opponent at an angle behind him. Rhyme appears and does her thing. THIS I want to be a kill throw. While it may not look like it, this is the third highest powerful attack in the original game. I imagine Rhyme would send enemies flying with a more horizontal but downward diagonal force.




Down throw: Thunderbolt

Spoiler:

Not to be confused with Pikachu's down special. A bolt of lightning strikes your opponent twice. Has high percent building, but you shouldn't be able to get KOs with this.




Up smash: Piercing Pillar

Spoiler:

This will be Neku's fastest and deadliest smash attack. It shouldn't be quite as fast for Crusade. I imagine it pokes out out of the ground for a split second as a warning to get away/smash charge. And THEN it goes out of the ground.




Side smash: Massive Hit

Spoiler:

In game the gimmick of this move was that as you charged it, it got way more powerful. Smashes already do that, but I feel like it should be more exaggerated with this smash.

At no charge it should do very little damage and knock back, even losing range. At full charge, it should do very HIGH damage and very HIGH knock back. Even with this big damage, the attack should be tremendously slow.




Down smash: Explosion

Spoiler:

Not a lot to say. Neku uses the letter as his smash, it should do more as you charge it more. It should also take some time to come out.



*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*


Taunt: Cure Drink

Spoiler:

Warning: Side effects of cure drink in Crusade include not actually healing and just being for show.



Final Smash: Fusion Attack

Spoiler:

Neku performs a level 1 fusion attack with either Shiki, Beat, or Joshua. They basically involve teleporting around rapidly and random projectiles. It's the first 3 attacks shown in the video.



Victory Theme

Spoiler:

This is the game's theme song. The victory theme would be the guitar solo at the very end.



Palettes

Spoiler:

Very rough approximation of what I think should be Neku's default palette swaps. Colored box represents the team color it belongs to. Also included is every character the colors are based on. Yellow just flips the normally purple jacket with the yellow highlights. These are honestly pretty lazy. Neku's sprite reuses a lot of colors so it becomes harder than "Just replace every instance of the color"



Playstyle/stats

Neku with this kit is a zoner. He'll use his assortment of traps and projectiles to keep enemies at bay.  He has very few fast/reliable kill options (back air, up smash, back throw). Other options MAY include up special, down tilt, side smash, and down smash but they require a lot of time to get going.

Even as a zoner, I tried not to give him TOO much in terms of range, his longest range move (horizontally) being jab.


Neku should have a sort of below average walk/run speed. People who get on Neku past his traps and ranged grab should have an easy time staying on him if he wants to run.

Neku should have an above average roll distance and speed. This should be his only escape option outside of his up special. While an argument for side special could be made, it's a tool for keeping distance rather than getting someone off of you as Neku is left vulnerable during the special. If you want to, you could also make his roll a teleport.

Neku should be on the lighter side in terms of weight. He looks scrawny for starters. But it also makes sure that as he's building up damage on his opponent that if they get in on him, Neku will almost surely be KO'd.

Neku's fall speed should be slowish and his air speed should be above average. Neku doesn't have many tools to get back to the stage once he's knocked off, and his light weight should make sure he dies faster than the average character anyway.




Everything, of course, is subject to change. Thank you for reading this mess. If there's something I forgot, leave a reply. If you support the character being in Crusade, leave a reply. If you absolutely loathe this character, leave a reply. If you think you have a better idea for certain moves, leave a reply.

Supporters:

...support

wow that reasoning is amazing
You could at least point out his first game was a Nintendo Console.

Also support because I said I would

OmegaSteve777 wrote:

wow that reasoning is amazing
You could at least point out his first game was a Nintendo Console.

Also support because I said I would

I really hope you're not JUST supporting it based on the character pick. You should make sure the moves make sense.

I suppose I should add that to the reasoning on Neku's inclusion, though. Thanks.
EDIT: Just realized that little section got deleted somehow before posting. I saw it in the preview. It's been updated for actual reasons.

Eh, I'll support
Didn't he also cameo in KH at somepoint?

Braystar wrote:

Eh, I'll support
Didn't he also cameo in KH at somepoint?

He made a cameo in Dream Drop Distance. Pretty much just showed up for the story of Traverse Town.

I'll support, moves look and sound amazing, and I love Neku as well

locodude0001 wrote:

OmegaSteve777 wrote:

wow that reasoning is amazing
You could at least point out his first game was a Nintendo Console.

Also support because I said I would

I really hope you're not JUST supporting it based on the character pick. You should make sure the moves make sense.

I suppose I should add that to the reasoning on Neku's inclusion, though. Thanks.
EDIT: Just realized that little section got deleted somehow before posting. I saw it in the preview. It's been updated for actual reasons.

I have never played this game, I just like his design.

I think Jab and Ftilt should switch.

That being said, I'd really enjoy playing this character. However, I'm concerned that he's going to have a seriously hard time in neutral. You can't really charge your attacks, and the bombs will be useless because you can just run past them. His best quick neutral moves would then be Jab, Fair, and Ftilt (Only if there is no considerable endlag after the projectiles). Considering how I feel like you want Fair to be basically like a SSB4 Sheik Fair, it could work, but he's going to have trouble with rushdown nonetheless. I guess you could throw out a bunch of Dairs as a wall. That would be cool.

I absolutely love the grab gimmick.

He seems really fun. I'll Support.

Nix~ wrote:

I think Jab and Ftilt should switch.

That being said, I'd really enjoy playing this character. However, I'm concerned that he's going to have a seriously hard time in neutral. You can't really charge your attacks, and the bombs will be useless because you can just run past them. His best quick neutral moves would then be Jab, Fair, and Ftilt (Only if there is no considerable endlag after the projectiles). Considering how I feel like you want Fair to be basically like a SSB4 Sheik Fair, it could work, but he's going to have trouble with rushdown nonetheless. I guess you could throw out a bunch of Dairs as a wall. That would be cool.

I absolutely love the grab gimmick.

He seems really fun. I'll Support.

You may be on to something with the jab/f-tilt swap. I'll consider it heavily.

So would you want the time bombs to detonate if an opponent touches them, then? I think that's one of the few things to change, but I'm not sure I'm comfortable calling it a kill move at that point. Maybe around higher percents like 140-150? It's hard to make balance calls like this without seeing it in action first.

Or maybe the time bombs need a priming time? Like half a second, but it would prevent you from placing them DIRECTLY on top of people for free. So a half second where it can't detonate even if an opponent walks on it.

One second thought, I don't think anything needs to be changed besides the ftilt/jab swap. Especially don't change the bombs or it'll look too much like Bomberman.

But for this to work, Dspec needs to have small lag, Dair needs to autocancel, and Fair needs to be like SSB4 Sheik's Fair. With those three, he'll work.

I'd also consider letting hurtboxes cause Dspec to bounce as well so it's not too OP. i.e. Let Marth hit it with his sword to get rid of it.

Nix~ wrote:

I'd also consider letting hurtboxes cause Dspec to bounce as well so it's not too OP. i.e. Let Marth hit it with his sword to get rid of it.

I'll be sure to add that to the description. I absolutely think the same thing, just failed to say it.

Also, thanks for the discussion! I never actually thought about spamming down airs to create a wall. Very interesting stuff to think about.

This is just great, I love it. You got my support

you have my support bro

Support

bump

I think I recall making a thread for Neku in the past. Yours is far better, great job, this character has my support.

Why haven't I supported this before? Support.
Even if he doesn't make it I can see a chance of him getting as a custom character, now that it is a thing, I mean he has sprites from the DS game and all.