- Joined
- Jun 18, 2011
- Messages
- 8,991
- Location
- Marvel Land ~ Eternally Slumbering
- NNID
- IndyGo98
- 3DS FC
- 2793-0906-0731
- Switch FC
- SW-7670-7999-3483
Holy Maiden Knight of Marvel Land, Valkyrie for SSB4!
And no-no. This is not a self-promotion thread.
Valkyrie is from her titular franchise by Namco, consisting of an action game trilogy: it stars an angelic warrior from the heavens of Marvel Land, serving under the command of Goddess of Light, and providing liberation from anything wicked that arises in her world. Usually she's joined by her peaceful but tenaciousamphibian friend, Krino Sandra (Commonly known as Whirlo)
For most part, her personality comes of as very pure-hearted and mature, preferring to not settle things with violence if a choice. Yet, being a heavenly warrior with duties, her super-human strength and agility are quite a sight to behold, capable of combating and slay monsters many times bigger as her.
Combined with her swordsfighting prowess, she's very formidable opponent to take on, easily explaining her numerous quest/fighting cameos in other Namco-games. Within these, Valkyrie comes also gentle, sweet and responsible swordswoman from the heavens - though Fuji Hiroshi gives her bit of a no-nonsense and reserved streak now and then in manga adaptations.
Valkyrie's first major quest, "Adventure of Valkyrie" for Famicom, had her free Marvel Land from the dark wizard named Zouna, who had stolen the Key of Time from Marvel Land's giant clock tower, restoring back the flow of time. The game was practically trying to be a fusion of Legend of Zelda and Dragon Warrior (Dragon Quest I), though it was deemed too brutal and needlessly clunky during combat be released overseas by Namco, along with facing competition with the aforementioned games. The game however, possessed some interesting RPG-features, like a day/night cycle, life bars for the enemies, and providing a certain growth rate on Valkyrie's stats via blood type and horoscope inputted.
Her breakthrough came from her second and most well-known game, "Legend of Valkyrie"- released in 1989 for the arcades which was an overhead platforming shooter hybrid. In that game the maiden travels with Sandra to retrieve an ancient wish-granting artifact called the Golden Seed, and eventually prevent it from falling to underlord Kamuz's hands.
The game ditched away trying to follow the more popular action game series in favour of more accessible, linear action platforming with shooter mechanics. Along with these were the adventure game elements, with you meeting many colorful characters to exchange in fun magic abilities and upgrades to your arsenal of weapons and items that are quite essential for good trip through Marvel Land.
The arcade game never made it out of Japan either, but got exposed to oversea releases through Namco Museum Vol.5 for Playstation.
Since then, Valkyrie has had quite a following for being one of the oldest and strongest females in videogaming - who still keeps her personality very feminine through her gentle and pure-hearted personality. She received a visual novel game, lieu of manga adaptations of the games by courtesy of her long-time character designer Fuji Hiroshi, who also provided rest of the characters to Valkyrie's world across all of her titles and adaptations alike since the first installment. There was also a revival webcomic by now defunct ShiftyLook-site, which gave more Kid Icarus Uprising-like humoristic depiction of Valkyrie's world along with quite distinct art style in the later half of the series.
Valkyrie is arguably most well-known second-quota mascot for Namco after Pac-Man - proven by her sheer number of quest appearances across many of their other franchises beyond, including Tales Of, Super Robot Wars, major Namco-crossovers like Namco x Capcom (along with Sandra and Sabine), Soul Calibur, Super Smash Bros 4, Project X Zone and like. She's even set to appear in Project x Zone 2 with a remake of her first game from PSX intact with additional characters and features.
- Tales of Phantasia
- Tales of Eternia
- Soul Calibur II (Cassandra + Valkyrie Armor)
- Namco x Capcom
- Project x Zone:
- Project x Zone 2:
It quite shows long way that Valkyrie enjoys some particularly beloved attention from Namco.
- With Lloyd and Heihachi possibly deconfirmed due being Mii Outfits and Pac-Man already in, Valkyrie could be a favorable choice for the second Namco-rep due her cult classic status in both Namco and Japanese fanbase.
- Her shooter-styled magic would lend for an interesting take on swords-fighters. More below.
- She would also be easily introduced to the outer sea audiences by being another recognizable strong (and quite retro) female, possibly even tying into Project x Zone-franchise through her remake being re-released along with it as a bonus for the upcoming sequel.
- The only character she faces competition from would be Klonoa, though not much has been made to keep him relevant to his fans, unlike that of Valkyrie's.- There's also some possible talk about Pac-Man's Namco Roulette Taunt ruling her out, but again, it being just a sprite-based cameo (Exclusive to Wii-U even), it shouldn't necessarily spur much disadvantage on Valkyrie's inclusion if her strengths outweigh her being a mere cameo today in Sm4sh.
Valkyrie carries primarily a shortsword, aptly named Sword of Light. Like it's name suggests, it's imbued with light magic to shoot beams of various effects, depending on what she's carrying around. She also carries a shield for defense against attacks and weak projectiles, both physical and magical.
This would easily make her sound like a female Link (basically how she started back in the 80s!), but there would be one core gimmick to spice her up: Sword Beam Magic and Option Magic.
Depending on the talismans or weapons she finds in her adventure, Valkyrie's Sword Beam Magic can change to those of 3-way bullets, homing beams, 4-way cross beams, miniature bombs or drills and so on. Sword Beam Magic could be her Side B lets her shoot a semi-random projectile in some fashion. This lets her possibly use projectiles as secondary ways to deal damage when not close. However, this idea can be made more unique and integral to a more unique playstyle for her through Option Magic.
Option Magic lets Valkyrie create a miniature familiar of herself. This familiar then mimics the moves she'll do relative to it's size, firing off smaller bullets while also capable of movement. It's very much comparable to standard "Option" upgrade in classic SHMUP-games like Gradius.
Valkyrie can summon 3 familiars at a time, but they share half her health and can easily fall down on hazards.
SSB4 could basically take this concept along and turn her into a hybrid of an unit-managing swordsfighter with long-range projectiles: By using Neutral B, she can deploy up to 3 Options on top, front, back and bottom of her, extending her hitboxes and dealing additional chip damage, along with mimicking her magic when performed for extra power. If conceptualized further, she could even move the Options to different types of formations for interesting places of attacking - like two on the bottom, all stacked up, making them spin around here, a huge shield of options on the back, and so on.
These would provide interesting setups and formations of kind, similar to Option Formations from Gradius-games:
Within this, she would be quite a peculiar resource-based character. Using Option to extend her hitboxes to place she wishes for . However, these options won't provide necessarily as good of a meatshield like that of Rosalina's Luma, but would be more easier to use and add in interesting depth of shooter-based play.
Misc. Magic
- Big Magic: Valkyrie will grow to about five times her original size, upping her damage and radius of her attacks. She can also crush people under her if need be. Option Magic can be overlapped to create options of normal size she formerly was. (Possibly part of a Final Smash)
- Cyclone Magic: Valkyrie sends out a spiraling cyclone of fire from themselves, damaging all surrounding enemies. Flying enemies are seemingly unaffected. (Down B, could be time-based in power)
- Tornado Magic: Valkyrie will be enshrouded by a miniature tornado around her, making her whirl non-stop while damaging any enemies she comes in physical contact with. She has limited control over spinning though. (Up B)
- Time Stop Magic (Adventure of Valkyrie): All enemies will freeze, locked in time and unable to move at all - allowing Valkyrie to come and do as she pleases. Consumes most of her magic. (Final Smash)
Her other skills also include techniques like "Valkyrie Strike", "Valkyrie Saber" and even borrowing some artes from Tales Of-series now and then, such as Demon Fang or Lightning (which is a reference on using a lighting bolt magic in her first game).
Like again, Valkyrie could provide an interesting twist to the usual swordsfighter mold, while also bringing in a highly beloved strong female from Namco's best eras through all the times.
Hope this interests you! If you feel like supporting her, do call me in and also vote her on the Smash Ballot in the official site! Let's see where the heavens guide us!
~ Valkyrie ~
(Young Horsetail)
(Young Horsetail)
Last edited:
