Hey there, bugs and bugettes!
I've recently been trying my hand at creating concepts for Smash Bros. fighters, and I always knew one of them would have to be the Knight! There's been a few ideas on here before, but I've tried something different here. To embody the themes of Hollow Knight's gameplay, I've given it very simple and easy-to-use attacks, but then used the specials to introduce more complicated mechanics.
The Knight
Origin: Hollow Knight
Size: Small. A little bit taller than most small characters, though.
Weight: On the lighter side.
Playstyle: A fighter with very simple normals, allowing easy play, but with some complicated special mechanics that tie into his special moves, giving it more advanced options. Good midair ability and quick attacks allow it to strike deftly, although the short reach of its nail means that most of the time it’ll have to fight close up.
Unique Traits
SOUL: The Knight has a circular SOUL gauge next to his damage. Striking opponents with normal attacks causes it to fill up. Once SOUL has been collected, it can be expended by using the neutral special to cast spells. Additionally, some charm effects use up or grant SOUL. When a third of the gauge is filled, the Knight will begin to emit tiny balls of white light, indicating that spells can be used.
Charms: The Knight can switch between and equip several different charms, granting new abilities while worn.
Movement and Defense
Movement: An average walk speed -- however, its dash is only slightly faster than its walk, making it slower overall on the ground. However, it turns on a dime, with practically no skid, allowing for precise maneuvering and good dash-dancing.
Jumps: The Knight jumps incredibly high, almost as high as Falco. Its midair jump uses the Monarch Wings, and while not quite as high as a base jump, it does allow for rising aerials, similar to Mewtwo and Yoshi. The Knight has a high fall speed and incredibly high air speed, allowing it to move carefully in the air as well. The Knight can also walljump.
Crouch: The Knight merely looks down at the ground, barely shortening its hurtbox.
Rolls: Standard rolls.
Shield: Takes the appearance of the barrier created by the Baldur Shell charm, and does not shrink, preventing shield pokes.
Spotdodge/Airdodge: Quick to come out.
Ground Attacks
Jab: Two forward swipes with its nail, followed by an upwards swing.
F-tilt: Swings the nail forward and down.
U-tilt: Looks up and swings the nail over its head.
D-tilt: Sweeps the nail across the ground, tripping opponents.
F-smash: The Knight uses the Great Slash Nail Art, with one massive swing in front of it. This attack has good reach and a very large hitbox, and is one of the Knight’s most powerful moves.
U-smash: The Knight swings its nail above its head three times, with the first swing hitting enemies right in front and dragging them in.
D-smash: The Knight uses the Cyclone Slash Nail Art, spinning its blade on both sides. This attack has a bit more reach than other down smashes.
Dash attack: The Knight uses the Dash Slash Nail Art, dashing forward and swiping in front of it. The attack has good reach, similar to the Great Slash.
Throws
Grab: Becomes covered in shadow, its cloak transforming into void tentacles that reach forwards and grapple an opponent. It’s a bit longer than the average grab, but not very fast.
Pummel: The tentacles tighten momentarily around the opponent.
F-throw: The Knight flings the opponent forwards.
B-throw: The enemy is pulled through the Knight’s body and spit out behind it.
U-throw: The Knight tosses the enemy into the air, reverts to normal, and hits them into the air with a nail swing over its head.
D-throw: The tentacles smash the opponent against the ground.
Aerial Attacks
N-air: The Knight quickly swings its nail on either side, similar to Samus’s neutral air.
F-air: The Knight swings twice in front of it.
B-air: The Knight turns around and chops behind it with a horizontal swing. It’s a little bit slower than its other nail attacks, but has good power.
U-air: The Knight swings above its head, similarly to its up tilt. A good juggling tool.
D-air: Swings the nail below it. Hitting something with this attack will cause the Knight to bounce into the air. If the Knight had previously used its double jump, it will regain it upon hitting something with this attack.
Specials
Neutral Special -- Spells: The Knight will use up some of its stored SOUL in order to cast one of several different spells:
- Focus: Holding down the button will cause the Knight to stand immobile, focusing for a couple of seconds. Upon completing the focus, the Knight will heal some damage. If the Knight is hit out of the focus, or cancels the focus early, the SOUL drained during the focus will be wasted.
- Vengeful Spirit: Tapping the button will cause the Knight to fire out a spirit as a projectile. Unlike similar projectiles, it can’t be charged, but it’s fast and deals decent damage. Using it in the air will also cause the Knight to stop falling for a moment.
- Howling Wraiths: Pressing the button, then inputting up will cause the Knight to release a blast of energy above them, hitting multiple times and dealing a large amount of damage. It similarly causes the Knight to stall out in midair.
- Desolate Dive: Pressing the button, then inputting down will cause the Knight to rise into the air, then slam the ground below it, creating a damaging shockwave. It also deals damage to opponents in midair if it dives into them. It can spike opponents by hitting them as it plummets!
All spells use up one-third of the SOUL gauge. If the Knight has less SOUL than that, it cannot cast any spells.
Side Special -- Shade Cloak: The Knight becomes cloaked in shadow and dashes to the side. While in shadow, the Knight is invincible and passes through opponents, damaging them a bit. This move has a slight cooldown, as indicated by small black particles that appear around the Knight and are absorbed into it when the cooldown ends after about one second. Trying to use the Shade Cloak again before the cooldown ends will perform an ordinary dash, slightly shorter than the shadow dash and without the invincibility or hitboxes. The Knight can also only dash once in midair -- but bouncing on something with a down air will allow it to be used again.
Up Special -- Dream Gate: When used on the ground, the Knight will hold up the Dream Nail, focusing energy for a moment, and then create a Dream Gate on that spot. Using it in midair will cause the Knight to hold up the Dream Nail and concentrate energy, before teleporting to the placed Dream Gate, causing it to disappear. Using up special when no Dream Gate is placed will merely cause the Knight to bounce upward slightly as it concentrates with the Dream Nail before going into special fall. While concentrating energy, the Knight is vulnerable to attack and can be knocked out of the move. Teleporting onto the Dream Gate produces a powerful blast of dream energy that can launch opponents far, but also has a lot of endlag, allowing a prepared opponent to punish the teleport.
Down Special -- Charms: A bench appears, and the Knight sits down on it. The Knight can select one of several charms, whose benefits will activate similarly to Shulk’s Monado Arts. Each charm has a charm notch total. Charms will only last for a certain duration, after which they have a cooldown period before they can be used again -- the greater the charm notches required, the longer the cooldown. The Knight can be attacked while selecting charms.
Charm List:
Grubsong -- one notch. Every time the Knight is hit by an attack, they will gain a small amount of Soul.
Heavy Blow -- two notches. Increases the knockback of the Knight’s nail strikes.
Mark of Pride -- three notches. Increases the range of the Knight’s nail strikes.
Sprintmaster -- one notch. Increases the Knight’s walk and run speed on the ground.
Shape of Unn -- two notches. While the Knight is focusing SOUL, they transform into a small worm, allowing for slow movement.
Soul Twister -- two notches. Spells (other than Focus) use only one-sixth of the SOUL gauge.
Glowing Womb -- two notches. The Knight’s SOUL is continually drained to produce small hatchlings that will divebomb into enemies, damaging them and killing the hatchling.
Flukenest -- three notches. The Knight’s Vengeful Spirit is replaced by a blast of miniature flukes that scatter outwards, dealing very high damage to enemies hit by most of the flukes. The Flukenest version of the spell has slightly higher startup.
Dreamshield -- three notches. The Knight gains a floating shield that circles them slowly, blocking attacks. Getting hit by an attack will cause it to break, and it will reform after a moment. Focusing will cause the shield to circle around the Knight faster.
Kingsoul -- five notches. The Knight will passively gain SOUL at a slow rate.
Voidheart -- no notches (this charm never expires, and has no cooldown -- however, it must be swapped out to gain the benefits of other charms). The Knight will become cloaked in shadow when casting spells (other than Focus), and its spells become the void-powered variants Shade Soul, Abyss Shriek and Descending Dark, increasing their size and damage.
Final Smash -- Dream No More: The Knight swings the Dream Nail ahead of it, allowing it to enter the dreams of those hit. There, surrounded by Shades, the opponents are restrained by the Shade of the Hollow Knight, and the Shade Lord arises, striking them repeatedly before dragging them into darkness.
Taunts, Emotes and Victory Screens
Entrance: A Dream Gate appears, and the Knight teleports in.
Idle: The Knight, notably, has no idle animations. It merely stands there, staring blankly.
U-taunt: Pulls out the map and looks at it.
S-taunt: Charges the Dream Nail and swings it ahead of it. Swinging it at an opponent will cause their thoughts to be displayed in a dialogue bar that floats near the top of the screen. Each character has a few unique lines that can appear. The Knight will also gain SOUL, filling up one third of its SOUL gauge.
D-taunt: Crystals form around its feet as it charges a Crystal Dash, then releases it.
Victory Screens:
The Knight jumps onto the Old Stag and begins to ride away.
The Knight’s shell cracks open, and its Shade emerges, floating above its broken mask.
The Knight rests at a bench, head down, as hatchlings and the Grimmchild float down and rest at its feet.
Victory Theme: A shortened version of the melody that plays on the title screen.
If you've gotten this far, thanks for checking this out! I'd appreciate any feedback you have!
Submitted January 25, 2019 at 05:20PM by The_Puffening http://bit.ly/2WjfNfR
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