design doc

Yukiusagi Woman

Level Layout:
Opens in a an abandoned, snow covered, rural village. The first few screens are sparse with enemies as the village is left and moves into a mountain trail with snow covered trees. More enemies begin to show up as the level starts moving at an upwards slant and snow blocks that collapse under the player's feet begin to appear more often. The first section of the level ends when the player hits a wall they can't get past, the actual mountain.

The second section is the mountain climb, a long and perilous section where slipping up can lead to progress being lost. Most platforms to help climb up the mountain are unsteady and only respawn on a screen refresh, though some safe zones made from the mountain itself are there to help. Enemies become more frequent in an attempt to knock the player off the cliff, but the last section returns to normal platforming for a moment, before a mini-boss encounter. The higher the player climbs the mountain, the stronger the snow storm in the background gets, and half-way through wind will begin blowing in from different sides in sudden bursts.

The final section of the level is inside of the mountain, where more actively dangerous obstacles are found, such as spike pits and larger groups of enemies. A new obstacle of strong wind that blows the player forward is added during the final section of the cave, as the snowstorm reaches its strongest point and turns the cave into a wind tunnel. When the player enters the boss room, they find themselves in an opening in the mountain that shows the sky, with the storm having subsided. In the background of the boss arena is a snow covered shrine.


Obstacles:
Ice Blocks - Used at points to give certain parts of the ground ice physics, to disorient platforming. They appear in the first section a few times, but become more common during the mountain climb, where they can act as uneasy footholds.

Snow Blocks - Blocks made entirely out of snow, which only remain solid for a moment when stood on. They collapse very fast, meaning you need to keep moving in order to avoid being dropped into danger below them. Snow blocks do not break if a weapon or enemy is placed onto them.

Wind - Wind that blows in from either side of the screen, pushing the player to the opposite direction. This appears first during the climbing section, where periodically wind will blow in from certain directions depending on the screen. It shows up at the end of the level during a set piece, blowing the player forward without pause.

Spikes - Spikes show up first during the climbing section, but become more of a presence when the cave is entered. They're all instant kill so be careful.


Enemies:
Snow Rabbits - Enemies that are shaped like Up'n'Downs but with large angular rabbit ears and other rabbit features. They stick out of the ground, ears clearly visible, and pop out of the ground when approached, attempting to surprise the player. They are very fast, so avoiding them is difficult. They hang in the air for a short moment, but will immediately jump back up from the ground if the player is still in their range, and they take a few shots to destroy. However, they are entirely vulnerable while still in the ground, their hitbox is just too short for a buster shot to reach, so they can be take out without issue if a weapon that hits close to the ground is used on them. They appear throughout the level, always buried in sections with snow, and can also be buried in snow blocks. They do not respawn like Up'N'Downs.

Jizo Mets - Jizo Mets first appear as what seems a background element at the start of the stage. They resemble Jizo statues, but with Met-like faces and closed eyes, usually with bamboo hats covering them, and often in groups of five. However, if a Jizo Met is without a hat and you walk past it, the statue will open its eyes and fire a very fast bullet at you for your callous disregard of its condition. These appear throughout the level, with the player needing to figure out how to dodge past different configurations. If a Jizo Met with a hat is on the screen while wind is blowing, the hat will be blown off and make them behave like hatless ones. Shooting a hatless Jizo Met a few times will stun it.

Yuki-Onna - Small flying robots with a dress like shape, and heads shaped like ghost cloth headbands. They fly in from a side of the screen, moving up and down in a wave-like pattern that covers most of the screen. If the player is in their direct eyeline, they will pause and shoot three ice crystal projectiles which move in a much less extreme wave-shape. They have low health, and mainly exist to be nuisances during dangerous sections. Both them and their projectile's movements are slow, making them lingering nuisances. They will not fire if the player is behind them.

Namahage - The mini-boss of the level. Its a large robot with a blue Namahage mask, a stump shaped body underneath that, and two large hands carrying large knives. It has a simple attack pattern, with it first jumping towards the player a few times, then throwing out its knives to both sides as large spinning projectiles that travel in a circular pattern before returning to its hands. The Namahage's weak spot is its large grimace and angry eyes, but these are guarded by its knives, which block attacks while being held. The mini-boss becomes vulnerable once the knives are thrown, as they lose their blocking properties. The thrown knives don't travel far from the Namahage, making the window fairly brief. The Namahage's jumps also shake the ground when it lands, stunning the player. When it reaches half health, its movements become faster.


Boss
Yukiusagi Woman has a similar body type to Honey Woman, with her color scheme mostly being white and black. However, being based on the yukiusagi style of snow sculpture, she also has a few deatails on her body resembling red berries and long green leaves. This is most notable on her head, where it directly resembles a yukiusagi, with two red dots acting as fake eyes above her real ones, and two green strips that resemble both leaves and rabbit ears. There is another set on her buster, with the leaves being much smaller than the ones on her head, and more of the dots are located on her chest and non-buster arm. She is fought in a standard boss arena, though notably the ground is covered in snow. She begins the fight with a fairly basic pattern of three attacks.

1. Snow Bouncer - Standing at the edge of the room, Yukiusagi Woman will fire off a projectil that also resembles a yukiusagi, though more stylized. The projectile bounces across the ground in short arcs until it hits the wall, where it will explode into a moderately sized icy explosion that lingers for a few moments. This explosion also happens if the player is hit by them, but the explosion only lasts a little bit shorter than their invincibility frames.

2. Double Snow Bouncer - Yukiusagi Woman will pause for a moment after firing one Snow Bouncer, then jump high into the air, much higher than the player can, and pause at the top of her jump. She then fires out two more Snow Bouncers at different angles, which also begin to bounce to the opposite side. These behave the same as the grounded Snow Bouncer. The projectiles are fired in a way that they land in front and behind the first fired projectile, and so that they hit the ground as the first projectile reaches the height of its second bounce, making them an alternating obstacle. There is just enough space for the player to squeeze themselves between the projectiles, but requires some tricky movement.

3. Bunny Burrow - Yukiusagi Woman then starts falling back to the ground, but enters a dive animation as she does so. When she hits the ground she will bury into it, with her ears still visible, and then travel to the opposite side of the screen. If she moves underneath where the player is standing, she will jump out and fire two bursts of snow to either side, which are damaging projectiles. She jumps to her original destination after she lands, and start the pattern over again. This attack only activates if the player is on the ground while she is burrowing, so the attack can be avoided by simply jumping over her. She will pause for a moment after she pops out of the ground if avoided, before the pattern starts over. While Yukiusagi Woman doesn't have her standard boss hitbox when buried, she can still take damage from an attack that hits close to the ground. This will make her immediately pop out from the ground without performing her snow burst attack, before jumping to her destination and restarting the pattern.

Once she reaches half health, the pattern changes up a little bit. She becomes slightly faster during the first two attacks, and fires out two Snow Bounces during the first attack, making them cover even more of the arena once the two in the air are fired. Her third attack also changes drastically. Instead of burrowing across the arena floor, she will disappear underground for a moment, before three different sets of green ears pop up from the ground. After a few moments, all three will pop up from the ground, revealing that two of them are large yukiusagi sculptures. The two sculptures explode into snow that covers two thirds of the arena, while Yukiusagi Woman simply jumps out of the ground, damaging the player if they're near.

The player can hit one of the sets of ears with a weapon that hits close to the ground. If they hit Yukiusagi Woman, she will pop from the ground with no attack and become vulnerable for a few moments, before leaping to the side of the arena opposite where she previously was. If one of the yukiusagis is hit, it will pop out of the ground and explode, damaging the player, with Yukiusagi Woman popping her head out to laugh at them, before leaping to her destination. The player is able to tell which one is Yukiusagi Woman if they pay attention, because her ears are a darker shade of green. A player can also avoid this attack by simply standing near where YukiUsagi Woman is, as there are some safe zones, and they can take some shots at her.