So I feel like Arena Mode should probably have a pretty wide variety of items, and I feel pretty strongly that at least some of them should just be silly and kind of pointless for the folks who would otherwise be playing Casual Match instead of just focusing entirely on us play2win tryhards. Here are a few ideas that came to mind over the course of a couple of minutes of brainstorming. Maybe some of you folks out there might have some other good and/or awesomely bad ideas?
Useful Item Ideas
Faster super charge. I mean, obviously.
Alternate versions of some moves? Things like the now-defunct Divekick Grave
+1 HP
Neutral/Silly Item Ideas
Googly eyes as a 2D overlay where the eyes would be (i.e. on the same layer as the HUD), with physics-based animations for the black circles inside
Big Head Mode
Double-edged Item Ideas
An item that significantly reduces the timer (like, maybe down to 30 or even 20 OR EVEN 15‽) and reduces the life of the player that used it by enough that they have to get in and land at least a couple of hits, but can pretty easily win by time-out if they manage this (“Panic Time”)
An item that doubles damage for both players maybe?
An item that significantly increases the player’s life gauge, but the opponent only has to win a single round and also it doesn’t fill back up?
An item that doubles both players’ life gauges’ lengths, but sets the game to first-to-2 instead of first-to-4?
An item that makes each player use the character the other player chose?
+2 HP, but you start out at “just blocked one special move” status and can only recover to that point instead of recovering to solid yellow on that last hit
Character specific “class cards” would be good too.
An idea for Jaina I had a while back when I thought she was weak:
j.C - Fireballs that miss their target leave behind a flaming puddle that will do 1 chip damage per second/2 seconds or some such.
Character-specific ideas are a great idea! Everything from “move X is buffed somewhat” to very specific Monkey’s Paw sorts of things maybe, like “Rook doesn’t take damage when hit during armored specials, but he only has 5 HP now”
That Jaina thing with the burning on the ground could actually be an interesting option. Maybe, like, air C arrows burn on the ground for a few seconds (causing chip damage just from standing in it) but she can’t fire another air arrow until the fire is gone? Basically a combination of F.A.N.G’s Ryobenda and Nishikyu, really. Admittedly, my goal in life is apparently to turn Jaina into F.A.N.G so take this idea with a grain of salt.
Alternate costume idea: giant floppy hat and perfectly circular sunglasses.
I’m also kind of jazzed about the idea of arced projectiles given how many SF5 characters have them, and how they could mix things up a bit in FSFG.
Other character modification ideas…
Geiger’s air B gradually moves him back along his jump arc while you hold the button, and then when you let go to return to this timeline he continues along his original jump arc instead of always falling straight down
Grave’s air C lasts for only about half as long, but the cooldown is also half as long
Midori’s super gauge doesn’t fill on its own, instead being filled by his C parry (and maybe no auto-throw Pink Mode?)
Midori’s super cooldown is a little shorter, but he always automatically transforms into dragon as soon as the gauge fills up instead of the player getting to decide when to use it
Rook’s super has 0f startup but very short range instead of the creeping vines
Grave’s sword does 2 damage but has wildly increased recovery that makes it +0 on hit
Setsuki can cancel out of her swoop (and just fall at whatever angle) by pressing C again or maybe by holding and letting go of C
I think there should be items themed on other Sirlin games too. So Yomi, Puzzle Strike, Pandante, Codex etc - with icons showing those games off a bit. Cross-promotion
(tbh Yomi steam state needs a bit of an update though now the browser stuff is gone)
Item for Jefferson: Makes all enders of Dandy Step throw invulnerable.
Garrus: Ground Pound does not knock down; instead dealing 2 damage.
Ms. Rose (this is where you realize I’m messing with you): Can cancel Rainbow Stroke into Flying Rainbow Stroke before making contact with an opponent.
Max: Walking forwards depletes the Gear meter as fast as it would otherwise charge instead of emptying it all out at once. fA still empties it, as does grounded Super by its nature.
Characters with a parry: Alters the parry’s properties. More startup, but active during endlag.
