Design wise, with the long blond hair and very muscular look, yes, I can see the resembles indeed. ^^
Dunno how Tusk’s story will be like, but he will indeed be the hero of the game in my heart. <3
Well… along with Orchid. :3
Which of his special moves will Tusk have?
He had 5 in KI2 so it wouldn’t surprise me if they toned it down to four. Let’s take a look.
Specials
- Web of Death
- Boot Kick
- Conqueror
- Skull Splitter (Overhead)
- Back Stab (Exchange Opener)
4 of those were openers, Conqueror was his DP which allowed for a knockdown followup.
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Why? What’s going to make him scary enough up close to warrant making it harder for him to put a safe hitbox on his opponent from midscreen? Great normals with lots of reach and/or frame advantage? A command grab? An unreactable overhead? That backstab move? Damage?
Keep in mind that Sabrewulf has had most of that stuff throughout season 2, and still could get in easily against all but the principal zoners of the game (Glacius, Kan-Ra) with his fast forward dash, run into uppercut or projectile-evading mixup, etc. Even with his changes in the season 3 rebalance, he’s still going to be in this kind of ballpark, and it’s some sort of indication that Tusk is going to need to have more going for him to hang with the rest of the cast. Thunder is also in this kind of range as a grappler.
My thinking is that he’s not going to be anywhere near as fast as Saberwulf, certainly not a dash as fast.
I do think he’ll be like Thunder and hit hard, but the price (I believe) will be that he’s useless beyond mid-range. I doubt he’ll be a grappler, Hisako feels like the one to fit the description for long-reaching weapon-wielding grappler.
With Saberwulf getting nerfed up to 35% in some moves, Tusk will have the damage, while Saberwulf will have the speed.
After looking over it all, what unique trait or feature will Tusk have?
Armour? That’s Aganos’s thing and Thunder, amongst others, has armour on some moves.
Reach? Hisako has that, but he has a big sword, so he’ll have some reach at least.
Speed? Not when he’s carting that great sword about.
Zoning? Not even in question. No way he’s going to zone. Unless his meteor shower no mercy becomes some random air-to-ground fireball that he summons.
Teleports? Unlikely.
Stealing meter? Hmmm…
Okay, I have a more refined question: what benefit would you get from playing Tusk over Thunder?
Keep in mind that Thunder has big damage, great buttons for both range and frame advantage, mobility off of his DP, a pseudo-frame trap and nearly mid-screen low off of ankle slicer (which seems like a kind of move Tusk could get), and he’s a grappler. So far it seems like Tusk would be Thunder without the command grab.
(ftr, whilst I’d almost be okay with giving him the wind kick so he’s Jago with better pokes in exchange for the projectile, I have to imagine the combat design team at IG have some juicy plans, and I’m pretty clueless as to what they may be.)
He definitely should have better reach and pokes than Thunder, but other than that, I don’t know what benefit there’ll be.
Don’t forget Thunder’s not getting the same set ups from ankle slicer in S3 and his mobility after Sammamish relies on his instinct or the Yoga fever move. Call of the sky is it called?
My guess is the tweaks and nerfs for S1&2 characters will be to allow for the new characters to get some toys of their own.
I’m pretty sure he’ll have his stabs and most moves however, I think they’ll replace his boot kick with a “jumping spinning hook kick” so he won’t play as similar to Jago.
I don’t know dude, have you selected Thunder and pressed a button recently? I could see Tusk reaching further, but not by all that much.
Thunder is still going to be pretty mobile for a grappler.
I really don’t think the point of the rebalance was to bring down the power level of the cast across the board, if that’s what you’re getting at. Season 2 was extremely well-balanced, and many characters aren’t getting substantial nerfs to their gameplans, whilst characters like Thunder and Wulf are getting refocused by a collection of buffs and nerfs that are still going to leave them in a very scary place. KI is still going to be that game where every character looks dirty and OP to a SF player.
The main thing I’m trying to say is, a character whose description is “big slow dude with good buttons and high damage but has to get in and doesn’t have unreactable mixups or throws” is not enough for KI. That’s more like a Street Fighter character description, although that character might also get a command grab or two and be called Zangief. Throwing in the wind kick gets you closer to a KI character. Or maybe a chunk system and a bunch of stuff with creatable walls, a la Aganos.
Ah, I see what you’re saying. I’m picturing him too stunted in his play style, where he should have more variety? I see you point.
No, I wasn’t meaning that with the rebalance, and looking over some of the stuff some people got the extra variety you speak of does in fact make sense.
As for my theory over Tusk’s reach compared to Thunders, Tusk’s got a massive sword. Surely that could out reach those axes of Thunders. I know Thunder is deceptive with his reach, but Tusk could take a step forward too with his pokes and swings.
Speak on the chunk system, Tusk’s thing could be Runes. He could gather runes during the fight for some kind of buff.
I don’t really know, dude.
I mean, I could imagine boot kick and web of death coming back and functioning a lot like Jago’s wind kick (safe unreactable low crush that covers half the screen) and laser sword (up-close special that generates plus frames) respectively – but also that’s basically the core of Fulgore (blade dash/eye laser), ARIA (shotgun blitz/explosive arc), and also kind-of Kim Wu (heavy dragon dance/medium dragon dance). Even Arbiter could have a similar core. It’s hard to tell right now whether they want to restrict this “core” loadout to four characters for the sake of variety.
I guess then I’d give him the long-ranged normals because he has that gigantic sword, I’d probably give him a ranged sweeping slash special similar to Thunder’s ankle slicer because he has something like it in KI2 and it’d look cool, and I’d probably also give him a mean (but reactable, probably negative but safe) overhead. Not sure I’d add in the backstab. I’d probably give him a kinda slow DP.
That kinda gives you a Jago/Thunder hybrid, mainly missing the projectiles of Jago and the command grabs of Thunder. It could be pretty strong depending on what you do with the hitboxes and frame data.
It also sounds a little bit boring and samey, so I bet IG have more exotic plans. But that partly depends on the implementation, I guess.
If it were me in charge, I’d at least have his throw be a massive slap with the sword. Using the wide side of the sword across the face, almost baseball swing-like. I dunno, the idea appeals to me. Think the opposite of an Aria throw, kick to position in the right range and then WHAM! Thoughts?
My prediction is that his heavy sword swings and once it is in motion, then from the second swing onwards it will cut through all the nonsense like fireballs, shadow moves, armor, combo breakers cloaks, little girls with nunchuks, B.S., …but you cannot combo off of it. It’s meant to put fear in the hearts of those running away and make them really want to run away. His style is an ode to when characters were simple.
His stage ultra on Sadira’s stage is to take seat on her throne. The manliness, hooohoooo
…and only against Maya, all Tusk’s damage is reduced by 70%. Maya is his natural counterpick.
Take me back to the glory days, oh Tusk!
Very true on all accounts there man.
I think it’s safe to say you’ve convinced me that there’s space for his wind kick.
Yeah, the runes thing was just off the top of my head.
So what about his air game, juggles and flip outs? Any thoughts?
My guess is that he’ll have a few air normals that send the opponent to the ground, some with recapture and others with the ground bounce. Certainly his shadow DP.
I’m picturing most of these recaps and bounces will be kick air normals, just to justify him having 3 kick buttons without the sword getting swung too much.
Down with MK in the air would perform an axe kick for a bounce, down and HK for the recapture. The punch normals can be for the jumping cross up (like Jago’s HP) or multi-hitting helicopter blade swing.
Flip outs seem to be bound to light inputs, so that’s pretty much down to what his moves are I suppose.
Hmm, it could work I suppose. Could act like a stun move then he likes up the swing and baseball organ tune hit a homerun.
As a Thunder main who is really interested in playing Tusk, the closer his playstyle and Thunder’s are, the better!
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I’m thinking that we could make him an amalgam of a bunch of these characters with some current KI members.
For example, his flash kick will probably have a downward chop ground bounce follow-up like Thunder, and he could have a Jago/Fulgore style double roundhouse style move like his classic self, but with a Wallbounce and a huge range to match Siegfried
Deep down in my heart: I kinda want him to have even more armor then Aganos… @CStyles45 would probably be mad at me for saying that.
So yeah kinda like a tank.
At-least 1-2 shadow moves with armor. Same spinning sword linker in Ki2 as well.
I…also want them to re-work his boot kick. Because jago stole it 
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I definitely want the spinning sword (at least 5 of them in the Ultra hopefully.) Hopefully a like Shadow Triplax but with even more weight and impact (armor+advancement+damage= <3 )
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what if they give tusk some kind of stance change? one for more defensive options and another for more offense based momentum. maybe something that can be changed between the 2 as an ender of some kind. you go in as offense, smash face, stance change ender to defense to catch the opponent’s wake up, or stay offense and use his oki (if he has any) to press the attack?
edit his instinct could also be very interesting. vikings were known to be berzerkers…what if his instinct allows him to absorb lighter strikes (due to armor change with fierce attacks) still take damage but he can dole out the beatings? or what if its like TJ’s that gives him haste and all of a sudden hes wielding that sword one handed doin fancy sh!!t like conan the barbarian with a chain of swings and slashes
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I could see Tusk having some sort of counter, maybe in a particular stance, if that’s the route they take. Like Hisako’s, but in some way different - maybe a counter into a heavy damage throw with potential juggles instead of a combo?
I’m going to make a bold (and probably wrong) prediction and say Tusk doesn’t do combos. Just relies on massive damage normals.
OR he does small, high damage combos.
That sword of his tells me he finishes business quickly.