Senior Member
So First off Aramusha is in a great place in low tier, a really bad place in high tier play where people know how to counter him. He's viable, I'm not saying he isn't, but some changes would give his kit vitality and allow him to play at the same capacity as recently reworked/wulin/ever-viable heroes do. What follows is a more stylistic view of what makes the aramusha who he is and a few options that may allow his identity to manifest more fully. I DO NOT want all these implemented. if he magically got all these he would be WAY overpowered. But I do think some of them could be interesting in implementation, and adding one or two of these options could make him more enjoyable to play. I star the ones I really think would be fun to have (whether they are balanced or not) and I would love to see discussion on them.
TWO big things need to change with aramusha. We need a dodge attack, and we need an opener.
I recently read Eiji's fictionalized biography of Musashi Miyamoto and Miyamoto's own writings in their original japanese in his book of 5 rings (五輪書)
Aramusha is definately supposed to be based on Musashi Miyamoto's fighting style 二天一流 (ni ten ichi ryu or as I translate it 2 heavens one dragon)
this book describes many different combat strategies and moves and many of them could be used as a reference for our new opener, or should have been used as reference for some of his current moves. Musashi slowly built this style, first employing it actually out of desperation when he fought 1 vs 30 at the cutting pines
(yeah, seriously. he won {seriously injured} in a duel against 30 other trained swordsmen, all from a swordfighting school. and this part is verified. he actually accomplished this. guy was freaking crazy good) thus he first employed it and first named it a style used for facing multiple opponents. Only many years later after spending time watching taiko drummers and etc. did he decide to actually begin to regularily employ the style and named it as above)
ANYWAYS here's some examples of his writings and some moves that could be based on them if he ever gets a full rework ( do not want all these implemented as this would easily make him OP but here are some ideas):
I do kinda understand why he has no dodge attack if based on the below, but it still provides a way he could do a dodge attack.
-*FOR HIS DODGE ATTACK. in the book of water musashi discusses footwork He says in close translated english: "You should use a normal walking movement. I do not approve of jumping, floating the feet, or inflexible steps. The Yin-Yang foot is very important in the way. The Yin Yang Foot means never moving only one foot.
His dodge attack could literally be called the Yin Yang foot, and would be a quick paced multi step sideways movement with an attack of some straight forward type. For uniqueness it'd be fun to have his side dodge attack always hit top guard, but any manner of things could work. it could also be a 2 hit (very low damage if so) side attack utilizing both swords in a staggered sweep.
-For an ALTERNATIVE TURTLE OPENER:
The book of water also has a section on Approaches. I quote "The third approach: assume the lower stance. Be ready to attack your opponent from below. When the enemy advances strike upward at his hands. Your opponent may then try to dash your sword down. If so let his strike pass by, and then cut his upper arm.
He could have an opener that went up and specifically only works against opponent full blocks (this is a weird idea but bear with me, similar to nuxia trap, but more limited to turtles in application or other aramushas utilizing BB) that opened them as the opponent blocks one sword but the other slips by to strike with low damage the upper arm. This might be too difficult to implement, but It would be unique.
-OPENER "Red-Leaf cut" in short musashi describes an enemy very good at defending (parrying or turtling eh?) and that he switches his target ti their weapon beating upon the sword which such force as to exhaust his opponent until the opponent has to drop his sword because of the pain in his hands. Perhaps this move could only be available if an opponent blocks two attacks in a row (winning out on full blocks if full block stance is taken after the first block) and pushes thru as an unblockable light again with weak damage since its intended as an opener.
-ALTERNATIVE PARRY
Musashi has a section dedicated to Parries. One parry specifically instructs "Thrust the enemy's own sword toward his right eye, as if snapping the neck" this leaves lots of interpretation but could certainly be applied in an interesting way.
There is a section called the "Slapping Parry" combined with his discussion of slapping earlier in a parry I secretly hope is where the "Ring the Bell after a BB came from.
-*COUNTER "Stamping on the Sword" Yes musashi has a section where he discusses pinning the enemies sword to the ground using his feet. He describes this as occuring after the opponent attacks and includes literally as the strike goes down following the blade with ones feet to trap the sword to the ground, enabling a vicious counter attack. Logically this would only be available against enemies using longer weapons and attacking from top stance.
-OPENER "Moving the Shade" is a Section that basically discusses Ferociously Feinting to discern an enemies movement and exploit their weakness. We aramushas do this all the time by feinting our dash top heavy. add some soft feint (or even hard feint) light unblockable only available after one of these "ferocious" attacks. Make this move timed so a dodge of the first attack would still succesfully dodge the unblockable, but a block or parry attempt of the Top dash heavy would fail and get hit by the light unblockable. This alone would de-efacto make rushing wind our Opener. it could be let fly for the hyper armor, it could be feinted into gb as it already could, and dodging would be the only viable option, making it a unique 50-50 as many other openers are.
-*UNIQUE OPENER
"the Three Shouts" Musashi describes shouting as extremely important It would be very interesting if the aramusha could literally yell making the opponent drop his guard momentarily, but not to get a free hit just to psych out the enemy. hear me out.
In a stale fight where both parties are just waiting to counterattack aramusha after say 5 seconds or so the aramusha could feint an attack with a yell. the opponents action would be cancelled with a no damage stagger and the aramusha would get a free low 3 damage light that combo starts. It can only be used once very 30 seconds. (now i know we dont have cooldowns in this game but it would be necessary to avoid spam and abuse with how strong a tool this would be.) Alternatively just let us use kiai as a perk haha.
To quote the source material on this: Musashi says " In one-on-one combat, we pretend to begin to cut, and shout 'Ei!" just as the fight begins. this encourages the enemy to start to move"
This would give us a unique tool against turtles of any class or type who just sit and wait for us to attack.
-"Way of the Carpenter" OPENER/DODGE ATTACK
In another thread Siegfried-Z discusses a bash dodge attack. I like this idea but worry about it being OP. Musashi writes about the way of the carpenters, describing how they know how a house is built, and therefore know its greatest weak-points. Our dodge attack could also be called way of the carpenter and give a bash similar to the gladiators side dodge. This could be very OP if not done correctly. obviously it can't be just stolen from the gladiator kit. Personally Id like it to be so light that it doesn't guarantee any attack, but would be a chain starter so we could move right into our faster heavies or lights from any direction after striking with it. (minimum stun time) Another alternative would be to make it guarantee a light bleed attack similar to the nobushi's dodge attack thus just adding a bit of pressure to the opponent, without letting anything else be chained into it. Its animation would have to be side steps similar to the nobushi's actually because you can tell from Musashi's writings he discourages footwork flourishes (such as spinning) that don't serve any purpose. FYI musashi's section on carpenters is very interesting and covers a lot more subjects such as building a stable foundation for swordfighting styles before embellishing them etc.
---below is conjecture on style and playing the game--
-Note from Musashi to aramusha mains: "You must not have a favored weapon" Basically musashi would be unhappy with any of us as a student if we didn't also master a few other hero classes so that we could understand the different strengths and weaknesses inherent in both. want to be a better? learn other heroes too. He discusses this idea in "the advantage of weapons in strategy in the book of earth i believe.
-GENERAL STYLE CHANGE. A lot of the Aramushas moves are sweeps with both hands, additionally musashi used a long and swort sword, not two long swords. (both previous statements are poor use of the two sword advantage). Musashi specifically says that only one sword should every sweep. "The long sword should be handled with a wide movement and the accompanying sword should be held at the side of the body. This is the first thing you should know" I realize changing something so pivotal as the size of his swords, or reducing the number of big sweeps and flourishes would take a staggering amount of rework time. I don't really want this implemented, but its food for thought.
Senior Member
Senior Member
Very, very lovely writeup. As one might be able to see, I personally would love more moves as well. I am just too pessimistic to see Ubi using those great Ideas and descriptions because it would require motion capture. But ... well I do know the book - and there should be quiet some fighters (even Hema-trained) that should be able to reenact this with enough proficiency as to make good looking moves out of this - so .. maybe. And though I personally think of dual wielding still being the style of choice when someone superior faces someone inferior, Aramusha already somehow has a little bit of an arrogant "swordmaster" feel around him. Aiding this with a more refined moveset would be lovely.
