Smash Fighter Pitch - Frisk

Last Tuesday, Nintendo gave their E3 presentation; the reveals included two new DLC fighters for Smash Ultimate, namely a grab-bag of Dragon Quest protagonists and Banjo and Kazooie. As exciting as this is, what's next? While people will often ask for Crash Bandicoot or Sora, there are many picks that are less talked about, but just as likely, like Frisk from Undertale. Sure, you hear Sans, another Undertale character, get mentioned all of the time, sometimes seriously, sometimes as a joke, but Frisk would be a much better fit, since aside from Frisk being the protagonist of the game, and as such the best way to showcase what it's about, Sans is sometimes viewed as a joke pick, and as such would garner backlash should he get added. Besides, Sans isn't even the boss of his own area, only has one fight to pull from, and in universe is just plain too lazy to care about Smash. As for why Frisk could be in the roster in general, it's because, quite frankly, Undertale is a shining example of an indie game. Between its amazing characters, stellar soundtrack, charming style, innovative combat, and ability to play with its medium, it stands as a great example of what an indie game can be, and who better to represent that uniqueness than the protagonist?

Before getting into the nitty-gritty of a move set, it is always good to first discuss the core concept for a character. The main draw of Undertale is that it is an RPG where no one has to die. In other words, the thing that sets the game apart is that you can play through the entire game as a pacifist, and naturally, this should be reflected in Frisk's move set. However, though we have seen characters that don't normally fight join the roster, an explicit pacifist would be tough to design as a fighting game character. Tough, but not impossible. Refusing to fight anyone might make Frisk a very agile punching bag, but it also leads to Frisk making a good deal of friends, and that's where a unique fighting style could come from: each of Frisk's attacks would call in at least one of the main cast members of the game. They would appear in a similar fashion to other assists in the game, like how Morgana appears in Joker's taunts or how Pac-Man uses the ghosts for his smash attacks. (Note: this appearance is implied whenever I mention a character's actions in an attack.)

Starting with the jab, that would feature Sans simply holding out a bone. Functionally, it would go straight into a flurry jab, but with a twist based off of Sans's fight. All of Sans's attacks would deal 0.1% damage, but they would hit every frame. In addition, these attacks would have a non-stacking poison effect (akin to Joker's side special) when Frisk is above 100%. If this sounds overpowered, let's use the jab as an example; if it lasts 2-3 seconds, it would deal 12-18% damage, which is in line with other jab combos. As for the dash attack, Toriel would hold hands with Frisk and take the lead as the two dash forward. Toriel has a hitbox, but the attack itself is negligible compared to the fact that Toriel can absorb incoming hits (to balance it out, the attack has a lot of end lag). The down tilt would feature Papyrus kicking a short bone that slides along the ground in both directions. The forward tilt would have Undyne simply jab her spear forward. Finally, the up tilt would be Asgore waving his hand overhead to create a few fireballs that travel upwards a short distance before dissipating.

Frisk's up smash would have Sans raising bones out of the ground. It would function as mentioned with Sans's attacks, dealing almost no damage, but to compensate, it would come out surprisingly quickly. Down smash would call on both Toriel and Asgore to unleash fire magic on either side of Frisk. Finally, the forward smash would involve Alphys calling in Mettaton EX to thrust an arm forward and strike a dramatic pose (yes, I know we're at two degrees of calling in help, but I want to relate it to one of the main six).

As for the aerials, neutral air would enlist Sans to spin a bone around, knocking foes back a respectable distance. Papyrus handles down air by swinging a blue bone below him. It has a large sweet spot for spiking opponents, but if said opponent is not giving a directional input, the attack doesn't hit at all. The forward aerial has Undyne stab forward with her spear. Similarly, the back air gets Asgore to stab downwards with his weapon; this deals massive damage and can spike, but it has a small hitbox, and an even smaller sweet spot to get that spike. Lastly, the up air gets Frisk to wield the yellow soul, courtesy of Alphys, to launch a small projectile upwards.

Frisk's grab would be relegated to Undyne, and she would raise a magical spear from the ground for the up throw, though the rest would unsurprisingly be distributed among the rest of the cast. The pummel enlists Papyrus to practice his weapon (namely, a bone held like a sword) usage. The down throw has Alphys dropping a bomb on the grabbed fighter. For the forward throw, Asgore gives grabbed opponents a fiery shove. For the back throw, Sans moves his arm in the opposite direction Frisk is facing, sending foes in that direction.

Now, the specials. Neutral special, referred to as "Sans Blaster, would unsurprisingly have Sans pull out one of the blasters (or whatever they are) from his fight; this functions like an amplified Fox's blaster, only dealing the Sans standard 0.1% damage with each shot and not flinching opponents, but firing blasts at a rate so quick, they can appear as a solid beam. Meanwhile, Frisk's recovery relies on Alphys providing the phone jetpack (also the move's name), which would function similarly to Diddy's recovery, just with no hitbox and greater distance covered. Down special puts Toriel and Frisk in a hug which will heal Frisk over time. It would simply be called "hug." Papyrus unleashes his special attack for the side special, or at least, that's what he tries to do, but instead, the Annoying Dog runs off with a bone, and Papyrus chases it. The dog moves quickly and has higher knock back, where Papyrus moves more slowly but has higher damage. This attack, called either "Special Attack?" or "Annoying Dog," cannot be used in the air.

Moving on to some miscellaneous attacks, Toriel would cover both variants of the get up attack, in which she throws a fireball a short distance before helping Frisk up. These attacks deal low damage, but high knock back, and the difference between the two is that when Frisk is on the ledge, Toriel's fireball is thrown towards the stage, but when Frisk is knocked down, the fireballs are thrown in either direction. Frisk's ladder attack would consist of Undyne dropping spear-first onto opponents. The crouch attack would get Papyrus to poke forward holding a bone.

That's all for the standard moves, but what about the final smash? It would go in a different direction from the rest of the move set; it would reference the genocide run of the game. As such, it would be called "Show no Mercy!" In it, Frisk vanishes into a puff of smoke, and while nothing appears to change aside from Frisk gaining a knife, Frisk would be implied to be replaced by the player character of the genocide run. "Frisk" would then charge forward and attack anyone in the way, dealing a massive blow complete with an Undertale-styled health bar, very much akin to Critical Hit from some of the Fire Emblem characters. However, there are a couple of key differences: if the attack's victim manages to survive, they gain massive stat buffs for about 20-30 seconds, and if the attack misses, Frisk is heavily slowed for the same amount of time. Of course, when the attack ends, another puff of smoke returns Frisk to normal.

Finally, there are the various cosmetics associated with the character. The taunts would be as follows: up taunt causes Frisk to face the camera in a pose reminiscent of the in-game sprite, side taunt has Frisk reach out to a save point, and down taunt has Frisk receive a call from Toriel, Papyrus, Undyne, or Alyphys, selected at random and represented through a speech bubble containing their sprite from the dialog box. Frisk's stock icon would be rather untraditional; instead of being a simplification of the character's face, as is the norm, Frisk would have a soul for a stock icon. Perhaps when Frisk loses a stock, it would even break like it does upon defeat in Undertale, and when dodging, the stock icon would appear on Frisk as an allusion to Undertale's evasion mechanics. As such, the alternate costumes would use the different variants of the soul, and would be based off of the core cast, with one notable exception. The first alternate costume would have the white monster soul as a stock icon and be based off of Chara, who happens to share Flowey's palette, so both would be represented. As for the rest, the purple soul would put Frisk in a deep purple shirt with dark blue stripes (and maybe white hair) to correspond to Toriel, the cyan soul would give Sans's palette, so Frisk would have a blue shirt with black stripes, the blue soul would represent Papyrus with a white shirt with red stripes, the green soul would go to Undyne by having Frisk wear a black shirt with cyan stripes and giving Frisk red hair, Alphys's palette would be yellow with white stripes and be represented by the yellow soul, and by process of elimination, Asgore and the orange soul would be paired together, giving Frisk a purple shirt (though a more muted shade than that of the purple soul) with goodish-yellow stripes and the same color of hair.

Moving on, Frisk's render would be guarding the human soul with one hand (as shown by a glow the same color as the stock icon) while reaching out with the other. When entering battle, Frisk falls onto the battlefield back-first, and then brushes the dust off while getting up. Frisk's victory animations could be pulled from almost anywhere in Undertale, from waking up surrounded by the main cast to grab the ancient artifact only for it to be taken by the Annoying Dog. Finally, Frisk's mural appearance would have all of them together bunched up as if they were taking a group picture (perhaps complete with a camera manned by either the Annoying Dog, who is sleeping on top of the camera, or Sans, who is also in the picture).

That wraps up the character overview, but any DLC character would come with a stage. Undertale has many noteworthy locations, but very few stand out as a fitting battleground. Instead, why not fight in the middle of one of the game's fights? The stage would be called "Underground Battle" and take place on top of the dialog box from Undertale's battles, and would be a 2d stage to match. In terms of layout, it would be similar to Final Destination, just with edges that extend closer to the blast zone. However, since it would be a battle, hazards would come from various minibosses from throughout the game: Napstablook would make fighters avoid tears that first fall from him and rise again closer to the stage's edges, the Greater Dog could siege combatants with barks, the mad dummy would chance players getting caught in its crossfire, and Muffet would throw spiders at the characters from either side of the screen. When hazards are off, however, either the battle would be purely a background element, or the dialog box would simply display the message "but nobody came."

What kind of stage would lack music, though? Just for the sake of keeping with the precedent set by the first DLC, I will only be allotting for eleven songs; in reality, there could be even more. There are a couple of songs that I would guarantee would be a part of this list. One of these is Determination, the game over music, will almost certainly be getting a new arrangement, since Undertale's creator has gone on record saying that determination (the concept) could be considered a theme (narrative term) of the game, so Determination (the song) is something of a theme (song) of the game. The other is Megalovania, simply due to the song's massive notoriety. Other likely songs include most of the other boss themes: Heartache, Bonetrousle, Spear of Justice, Battle Against a True Hero, Death by Glamour, ASGORE, and Hopes and Dreams. One more song would be Dating Fight! or a new arrangement of Dating Start! While these songs are most prominent during the Papyrus date, the latter (of which the former is a variant) is just as often used as a general "making friends" theme, and such a crucial idea should be represented in the music. Finally, I want to leave one slot open as a sort of wild card slot, which could be almost anything, including Finale, Spider Dance, Dummy!, or Dogsong, and the last song would likely be a nod to Deltarune, the follow-up to Undertale that's currently in development and has a lengthy demo available now, likely Rude Buster, the main battle theme, but it could also be any number of songs from that game.

At the end of the day, Smash Ultimate is an incredible game, regardless of the two fighters we don't know about yet. This is just one possible move set for one potential fighter. There are many other ways this fighter could be brought to life that I did not talk about. Whatever happens, I eagerly await the reveal and release!