Shantotto Preview

[center][size=5][color=#F0E092]"Oooooooooooohohohoho!

It seems Make Your Move is on roll...

But, personally, I find these movesets quite droll!

So I shall make better this opening day...

And get first place, I dare say!
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt9szK34wt8][img]http://i.imgur.com/sYipPXP.png[/img][/url]
And if my set does not inspire...

Then I suggest that you retire!"
Shantotto[/color][/size][/center]

[color=#4E80B5]Final Fantasy XI's representative in Dissidia: Final Fantasy, Shantotto is a Black Mage from Final Fantasy XI and one of the largest breakout characters from the game. How much of a breakout are we talking? In the original release, Shantotto was merely a character involved in a few Black Mage related quests and backstory. Her popularity exploded so much that she got [b]her own expansion pack named after her[/b], albeit not a full-on expansion, and has gone on to represent FFXI in Dissidia, World of Final Fantasy, and essentially taken over as the "default" rep of the game (although Prishe also commonly reps the game).

A Tarutaru, which is a dimunitive race which was the first to discover and master Magic in the FFXI universe, Shantotto was born into a distingushed family of Black Mages and mentored from early childhood in the dark arts, with the idea of "healing the world and spreading love". That, uh. That part didn't quite work out, but she DID become a master of Black Mage magic, being swiftly bestowed the honorary title of Mage, although soon after her parents would divorce, her house catch on fire and her dog drink a shrinking potion to become tiny, which frankly probably included some of her at points. Nonetheless she would press on to become Minister of the Orastery, Windurst's Department of Magic and became revered to many as Professor Shantotto.

During the Crystal War, she was stripped of her position and exiled from the Federation of Windurst for unspecified reasons, but likely related to her recklessness and the fact she basically just wanted to rush in and blast them all with magic. She then proceeded to gather up a bunch of other mages, including bullying Master Caster Doron-Fulun into abandoning his post and leading a small compliment of black mages against their enemies. Shantotto then proceeded to basically work with them to blast their enemies to bits and nearly single-handedly win the war and enjoying herself all the while, what with the thrill of combat and trying out new spells and what have you. Needless to say, afterwards she was reinstated back into her position and praised as a war hero, although by the point that FFXI starts she has retired.

After that follows plenty of MMORPG plot, which I will not be trying to explain in an intro post for the series, so let me discuss Shantotto in Dissidia for a moment. She is largely a secret character and side character with little bearing on the plot, but she does has some, being one of the longest tentured warriors in the Dissidia series and respected by almost all (even The Emperor compliments her in pre-battle quotes!), she is TECHNICALLY working for the Warriors of Cosmos (AKA the good guys), but is rather amoral and only really working with them because she tninks it will help her research her goal of "The Ultimate Spell". When she determines that being in the Cycle is becoming detrimental to it, she essentially decides to blast the hell out of the unstable dimensional gateways in the world instead of going through them, enraging Garland but eventually opening a portal to the Interdimensional Rift that allows her to escape...and opening up the possibility she could be in a Gilgamesh situation now.

Shantotto is most notable for two traits: Extreme power and extreme arrogance. Shantotto talks down to almost everybody she meets, although she did show some level of respect to Cosmos, and is essentially an Awesome Ego character in the same vein as League of Legend's Draven. She is extremely powerful, she's got what it takes to destroy the world after all, and is a Black Mage who shows mastery of basically every form of elemental magic, including the dangerous and taxing Ancient Magic. To honor her lineage as one of the best Black Mage families in Vana'diel, she is on a neverending journey to further the study of the magical arts, discover new spells, investigate ancient mysteries and more, desiring her best to learn it before opponents. Her thirst for knowledge can bring out her worst and most amoral traits, but it can also bring out her more compassionate ones as well. Her goal is to research "The Ultimate Spell", a nebulous spell that would be, well, the ultimate spell in all terms. She also greatly enjoys the thrill of battle and crushing her enemies, how do we say, flatter than flat. In the english versions, she tries to rhyme to the best of her ability, which can make some...painful ones.[/color]

[center][size=5][color=#F0E092]Statistics[/color][/size][/center]

[color=#4E80B5]As expected, Shantotto enters Smash 4 with a dimunitive size, which is about equal to Olimar overall and quite small. Being a squishy and small mage, Shantotto is also fittingly low weight, which is her major weakness: Her weight is a tiny 72, beating only Jigglypuff's 68 and below Mewtwo's 74, although she can compensate with this in her own ways. One of those ways is not ground speed, where she is barely faster than the pair of Olimar and Falco, for below average speed. She does, however, have a noticably brist Walk Speed roughly equal to Pikachu's, which is useful. She has higher than average traction.

Aerially, her air speed is equal to Samus for the exact middle of the game, her fall speed is a touch floatier than normal and close to Marth and Lucina for juuuust floatier than average, although she interestingly has high gravity like Meta Knight. Both her jumps are above average, but not amazingly so. Her aerials stats do not significantly help or hinder her survivability, although her gravity more than counteracts her fall speed in that regard. No other special qualities.[/color]

[center][size=5][color=#F0E092]Mechanic: Ancient Magic[/color][/size][/center]

[color=#4E80B5]In addition to non-elemental magic, Shantotto can utilize magic from the 6 specific schools of magic from Final Fantasy XI: Fire, Water, Thunder, Earth, Wind and Ice. Shantotto has multiple moves which utilize these elements and has specific ways to make opponents "weak" to these elements, which can cause special effects based on the attacks.

When Shantotto hits an opponent with an elemental spell, she gains experience in that element, gaining one experience for hitting an opponent (including shielding) and she gains an extra point of experience if she hits an opponent with an element they are weak too. When this happens, she will have a little number flash over her head which says "X/5" for the second (she starts first level) level and "X/10" for the third. When Shantotto hits 5 Experience in an element, she levels up, upgrading the spells and gaining more power and new effects, with the same happening again when she hits 10 Experience (Does not reset, so she will be at 5/10 after hitting second level). At that point, she is at her 3rd and max level, and cannot level up any more.

Shantotto loses all levels and experience upon death. Non-elemental spells do not benefit from Ancient Magic. If an opponent is made weak to an element, other characters who hit with that weakness will also exploit it, adding 3% damage and light hitstun (but no added knockback) to the move they use.[/color]

[center][size=5][color=#F0E092]Specials[/color][/size][/center]

[center][size=4][color=#F0E092]Neutral Special: The Ultimate Spell![/color][/size][/center]

[color=#4E80B5]Shantotto dips her head to the side and puts her hand to her chin in her standard thinking pose, exclaiming "Hmm, I see, what shall it be?" as she does so. A series of possibilities will appear above Shantotto like a thought bubble in a manner very similiar to Pac-Man's Bonus Fruit Special, along with arrows that go up, down, left and right to signal Shantotto's ability to flip through them. By default, what will appear in the thought bubble is in the order described: Speed -> Shape -> Damage -> Knockback -> Element. That probably sounds weird, so allow me to explain. What Shantotto is choosing is the ingredients for what will go into her "Ultimate Spell", the finished Neutral Special she will be able to use! That means that Shantotto has an entirely customizable special right here where she can choose how fast or slow it goes, the shape it is from a number of preset shapes, how much damage it deals, the default type of knockback it deals, and the elemental affinity it has (if any). Shantotto cannot modify the lag or range of the move, which is determined instead by the ingredients used in creating the spell. Each ingredient has different pull on the move's lag or range, changing it more or less.

Shantotto will go through her options while holding down B and can switch which part of the spell she is modifying by using the control stick. By default, she modifies speed. Back lets her modify Shape, Up is Damage, Forward is Knockback and Down is Element, and when she swaps to one of those Speed/the one she is modifying takes the place of the one she switched to in the control scheme. Shantotto locks in the move by pressing B and can cancel out of the move by pressing Shield, although she will lose her place in the thought/charge if she has to cancel out of it (but will not lose locked in thoughts). Locking in a move has a small delay as Shantotto lets out a tiny "Ohohoho", but it is not very long, entering this stance has a moment of lag but not a ton. Once Shantotto locks in part of the move, she will have made up her mind, and cannot modify that part of the spell any more, with the arrow becoming unavailable and it defaulting to the next in line as described in the first paragraph. Shantotto cycles through the options with a decent speed and if she reaches the end will cycle in reverse, starting with the last in the cycle and returning to the first at the end.

Once Shantotto has completed her spell, she will flash briefly as if a character finished a Charge Shot and then go back to normal. Shantotto may cast the finished spell at any time by using Neutral Special and may no longer modify the spell. She will retain this version of The Ultimate Spell until she either dies or uses a taunt ala Kirby's Neutral Special, both of which require her to start over from scratch. Choose your spells wisely!

Shantotto can choose from the following options for each of the categories. The top of the list is the first option and it goes down the list ending with the last option.

[indent]Speed[/indent]

[i]Speed is simply how fast The Ultimate Spell goes. It has roughly equal pull on lag and range and roughly average pull on both.[/i]

Average: Causes Shantotto's Ultimate Spell to go at roughly the speed of an average projectile, meaning it is not especially fast or slow or more or less useful for gaining space or just hitting the foe quickly. It also causes the spell to trend towards average starting and ending lag and towards having one and a half Battlefield Platforms of range. Represented by a straight, green line.

Fast: Causes Shantotto's Ultimate Spell to go at roughly the speed of a fast projectile, making it better for just throwing it at the foe's face but not as good at controlling space. It causes the spell to trend towards having longer ending lag, but less starting lag, and towards having range of about one and 3/4ths of a Battlefield Platform's range. Represented by a red arrow going to the right.

Slow: Causes Shantotto's Ultimate Spell to go at roughly the speed of a slow projectile, making it better for controlling space, but not as good at just throwing it at the foes face. It causes the spell to trend towards having longer starting lag, but less ending lag, and towards having range of about one and 1/4th of a Battlefield Platforms range. Represented by a blue arrow going to the left.

Very Fast: Causes Shantotto's Ultimate Spell to go at a very fast speed, reaching the upper echelon's of projectile speed, making it very good for catching out foes with a quick strike, but it does not stage control very well at all. It causes the spell to trend towards having significantly longer ending lag and towards having above average starting lag, and towards having the range of about two Battlefield Platforms. Represented by two overlapping red arrows going to the right.

Very Slow: Causes Shantotto's Ultimate Spell to go at an exxtremely slow speed, reaching the speeds of the lowest projectiles in the game, making it extremelt good for cntrolling space, but quite bad to just throw out and hit foes far away. It causes the spell to trend towards having sigifnicantly longer starting lag and towards having above average ending lag, and towards having the range of about one Battlefield Platform. Represented by two overlapping blue arrows going to the left.

Trap: Causes Shantotto's Ultimate Spell to not move at all, becoming a trap placed directly in front of Shantotto. Causes the spell to have a hard, set duration of 5 seconds, and towards having longer starting and ending lag. Represented by a yellow arrow pointing down.

Laser: Causes Shantotto's Ultimate Spell to instead turn into a disjointed hitbox, no longer counting or becoming a projectile. This means it cannot be reflected, absorbs ro what have you and lasts for significantly less time. Trends towards having below average starting and ending lag, and towards having a range of half of a Battlefield Platform. Hard caps The Ultimate Spell to have no longer than one and 1/4ths of a Battlefield Platform in maximum range. Represented by a constantly moving laser.

[indent]Shape[/indent]

[i]Shape determines the ultimate shape of your Ultimate Spell. In addition, Shape decides if the Ultimate Spell will be energy or physical if it is a projectile. This move has more pull on lag than on range. The pull it has on the lag is significant, but the pull it has on range is minor.[/i]

Blaster: Fires the Ultimate Spell in a classic blaster-laser shape, defaulting to the somewhat chunkier Wolf Blaster laser size (resized to fit Sm4sh scale of course). The most basic shape and easy to utilize, but does not necessarily do anything especially well. It noticably pulls on lag to be lower both on the start and the end, making it good for reducing lag you add in elsewhere. Pulls range towards the longer end, specifically towards two Battlefield Platforms of range. This will cause The Ultimate Spell to become an energy projectile. If used with Speed - Laser, it will turn the hitbox into a hitbox straight in front of it with no frills attached, basically a straight ahead energy blast. Represented by a blaster.

Wall: Causes The Ultimate Spell to take a "wall" shape, turning into a very thin, but quite tall (about 3/4ths a Ganondorf tall) projectile. This makes it easily dodged with things like spot dodges and rolls, but it is great at controlling vertical space and can be used as an edge guard. This pulls the lag to be slower than average to start, but faster than average to end, and to trend towards having one Battlefield Platform of range. If this is selected, the projectile will be an energy projectile. If used with Speed - Laser, then it will cause it to become a forward thrusting hitbox that is automatically set to having melee range, but which lowers the lag on both ends. You can utilize it with Speed - Trap to create long running "wall" traps that can even be placed in the air! Represented by a wall of energy.

Ball: Fires The Ultimate Spell in a ball shape, similiar to Samus' Charge Shot, it specifically causes the projectile to be created at half Charge Shot size. The projectile will become an energy projectile if used. It is larger than the Blaster, but it causes the starting and ending lag to trend towards being longer instead of shorter. It trends towards one and a half Battlefield Platforms of range. If used with Speed - Laser, it essentially created a Kamehameha-style hitbox in front of Shantotto. Represented by a glowing ball of energy.

Fireball: Causes The Ultimate Spell to be fired in the shape of a fireball roughly 1.25x the size of Mario's. This will cause The Ultimate Spell to bounce as it hits the stage, like a Mario fire ball, allowing Shantotto to skip it forward, with the exact amount it bounces being related to its base range: Half the base range for first bounce, 1/4th the base range for 2nd bounce and then it will not bounce any more.

Boomerang: Fires The Ultimate Spell in the shape of a boomerang, taking directly from Toon Link's Boomerang. If this is used to create The Ultimate Spell, then the projectile will boomerang backwards after reaching the end of its path, dealing the same damage and knockback and dissipating once it gets to its chosen path (or hits something). It will cause The Ultimate Spell to be considered physical if used in creating it. It trends starting lag towards being significantly higher and ending lag towards being slightly higher and pulls range towards being roughly 1 and 1/4th Battlefield Platforms. If used with Speed - Laser, then it will cut the duration of the disjointed hitbox severely, but cause the disjointed hitbox to strike a second time 2 seconds after use, making it an excellent stage control tool. If used with Speed - Trap, it will cause the trap to patrol a set half of a Battlefield Platform back and forth (0.25 BFPs to both side) as the set range. Represented by a boomerang.

Bomb: Turns The Ultimate spell into a bomb, roughly 1.25x the size of Toon Link's Bomb. The Ultimate Spell will be treated as a holdable item (which Shantotto will automatically put in her hands, like Link's Down Special) if this is used, no longer having a range component to it, and will instead explode for its force with the same mechanic as Link and Toon Link's bombs. Explosion radius is equal to Link's bomb. Speed will determine how fast the bomb explodes naturally instead of its projectile speed (faster = faster exploding). The explosion can damage Shantotto as well as the foe, but Shantotto can use small bombs to add in recovery. Bombs are treated as physical, even when exploding. This trends the starting lag to be lower than average, but significantly trends the ending lag higher. If used with Speed - Trap, Shantotto will instead plant the bomb in the ground as a trigger trap which works like Snake's Down Smash mine in Brawl, exploding if anyone (including Shantotto) steps over it. Range is very lightly increased/decreased by ingredients when used this way, but pretty much always stays roughly equal to Snake's Mine. If used in Speed - Laser, will cause the hitbox to have a sourspot to start which deals half damage and knockback, before exploding afterwards to deal 1.25x damage and knockback. Represented by a bomb.