This guest article was written by Source Gaming fan Zebei. If you wish to contact Zebei for more information about his work then contact him over on Smashboards.
Bravely Default is a series created by Silicon Studios and a property of Square Enix. It is a turn-based RPG series that takes a very large amount of inspiration from another Square Enix (and Smash Bros represented) series, Final Fantasy. The two mainline games it has are on the 3DS, with a few spinoffs on mobile and desktop. It has plenty of great music and great characters. In its small history, it has already received a lot of love from many different fans and is nearly guaranteed to have a long lasting future on Nintendo platforms. Bravely Default’s representation of the past, along with its bright future paired with Nintendo, and quality content, in my opinion, makes Bravely Default a respectable choice for representation in Smash. And no one from Bravely Default could represent the series better than Tiz Arrior.
Who is Tiz Arrior?
Splash card created by The Real Hero of Winds
Tiz is the character the player first controls in Bravely Default. The game follows his travels after the destruction of his peaceful hometown by the sudden appearance of a chasm, meeting friends and enemies along the way. In Bravely Second, he is once again a playable character, and even manages to be the only character on the front of the box! While he isn’t the main character this time, he is still extremely important to the plot. As one of the playable characters, he has access to a multitude of weapons, like firearms, axes, swords, staves, rods, and knuckles, as well as multiple classes (called jobs) like pirate, monk, ninja, mage, fencer, performer, and pretty much everything under the sun. This level of diversity allows many possible moves to fit in Smash, so I couldn’t fit them all in!
Importance to Nintendo/Series:
Bravely Default is pretty much a continuation of the classic Final Fantasy that people have frequently clamoured for in what was a world of action RPGs. One could argue Bravely Default signifies a lot in the history of gaming, from the link between Square Enix and Nintendo, to the importance to RPGs to Square in its history. This link seems to be continuing, as Silicon Studios was represented in the Nintendo Switch presentation to show off the debut of the Switch exclusive Project: Octopath Traveler. Once again, it’s only natural a series where representation is so important should be represented by the best and most important character in the series.
Alternate Palettes:
Original sprites by The Anvil
Most likely, he would have his Bravely Default and Bravely Second looks as two different costumes. The Bravely Default look would have alts based on, from left to right, Ringabel, Edea, and Agnes. The Bravely Second look, would most likely have palettes based on Yew and Magnolia, and Edea. Alternatively, The second Edea palette could be traded for a green palette since her colors are very similar to Ringabel’s.
How will they play?:
Tiz would most likely be a balanced fighter, since in Bravely Default he happens to be one of the more balanced characters stat wise. His design would most likely be some level of mixture of his in-game “chibi” model and his official art.
- Can they crawl: no
- Can they wall jump: no
- How many jumps do they have: 2 (1 mid-air)
- Is there any exclusive abilities they have: brave and default
- Weight Class: B+
- Height Class: C+
- Speed Class: B
- Are they mirrored when they face left: no
Gimmick: Brave Points
Tiz would be somewhat of a resource fighter, and use “BP,” like in the games. Tiz could interact with BP in two ways, Brave and Default. In Brave, Tiz would be spending BP in order to attack multiple times. In Default, he would reduce damage taken and given, but be able to stock up on BP. He would change modes in order to spend or gain BP, by changing to the titular Brave and Default modes that appear in the series. While in Brave, attacking would spend BP, down to -4, but Tiz would attack twice with an afterimage. Think Zero”s Sougenmu from Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3 (approximately 0:19). In Default mode, Tiz deals and takes reduced damage, and moves slower. When being attacked or when attacking, his BP increases by one, unless he is shielding or hits a shield. The maximum is 3 BP. In using too much BP he would become vulnerable, while not using any BP would likely make you fall behind since you aren’t using the character to his fullest potential. Balance is key!
| Action | Description |
| Entrance Animation | http://imgur.com/o56FfDQ
Tiz stretches before wielding his sword and shield |
| Neutral Animation | Tiz stands there almost oblivious |
| Idle Animation #1 | http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/vsbattles/images/b/b9/Tiz.png/revision/latest?cb=20160121193018
Tiz scratches at his nose |
| Idle Animation #2 | https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/8f/2c/ae/8f2caee8cee58580c0799a3fe36499bc.jpg
Tiz looks around at the battlefield |
| Walking Animation | Tiz casually walks |
| Running Animation | http://imgur.com/DhhaVtt.gif
Tiz runs with a purpose |
| Crouching Animation | Kneels down |
| Jumping Animation | Tiz jumps shield first. |
| Shield Animation | The same as his animation when defaulting |
| Ground Action | Description |
| Jab (“Gentlemen”) | http://imgur.com/DxG5UPD.gif
Stabs twice followed by a final reverse slash |
| Multi-jab | http://imgur.com/Z7jEuPL.gif
Before the final slash, Tiz takes out a spear and begins an assault. Finishes with one last strong jab |
| Forward Tilt | Takes a lunge with a spear. Great for spacing and pressure |
| Up Tilt | Tiz swipes above him with a dagger. Similar to Bowser’s up tilt |
| Down Tilt | Swings a rod across the ground in front of him. |
| Dash Attack | http://imgur.com/OOAMvhg.gif
Tiz thrusts forward with a 2-handed greatsword while sliding a bit |
| Attack From the edge | Tiz strikes the ground in front of the ledge with an axe and uses it to pull himself up. |
| Attack From the Floor | http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/5/5c/Bravely_Default_-_Quake.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20151102143654
Tiz casts Quake/Quara/Quaga on both sides of him at once while rising. |
| Forward Smash | https://gfycat.com/TartSmartAlaskajingle
Tiz makes a wide, reversed horizontal slash |
| Up Smash | Slashes twice above him with a katana back and forth |
| Down Smash | Tiz swings behind him with an axe, then slashes with a greatsword in front of him. Think Marth’s down smash but in reverse |
| Neutral Air
|
While holding a dagger in each hand, Tiz , hitting once all around him, similar to Ness’s neutral air. Great for the neutral game |
| Forward Air
|
http://imgur.com/a/CaO3c
Slashes upwards in front of him with a dagger. Does relatively low damage, but is great for spacing and neutral game. |
| Back Air | Fires a shot behind him from a rifle. Counts as a projectile and slightly pushes Tiz away. |
| Down Air | Tiz takes a large axe and begins spinning downward, creating a hitbox around him before slamming into the ground. This can catch opponents and bring them down with him. |
| Throws | Description |
| Grab | A simple grab |
| Pummel | Punches opponent in the face using knuckle weapons. |
| Forward Throw | Tiz throws the opponent forward a fixed distance before shooting an arrow at them. |
| Back Throw | Tiz dashes behind the opponent before striking them with a katana |
| Up Throw | Tiz casts Quaga, causing a pillar of earth to send the opponent upward |
| Down Throw | Knocks the opponent down before pounding the opponent into the ground with knuckle weapons |
| Specials | Description |
| Neutral Special 1
Tempest Fang |
Tiz charges up and begins to summon shuriken made from wind before launching them as projectiles. The longer he charges, the more projectiles he creates. Charge cannot be held by rolling or shielding. |
| Neutral Special 2
Overcharged Fangs |
Charge time is slowed down, but the projectiles are much larger and do more damage |
| Neutral Special 3
Gale Fang |
Charging is very short, but the range is reduced and less projectiles are formed |
| Side Special 1
Cross Divide |
Tiz dashes forward a set distance with a dagger,damaging enemies briefly putting them into hitstun, but does not have any knockback. Tiz can activate the ability again to dash towards his original location, doing more damage and with actual knockback. Puts Tiz into a helpless state if used in the air. |
| Side Special 2
Strong Divide |
Tiz’s dash does more damage and launches the opponent, but he cannot do the return dash. |
| Side Special 3
Agile Divide |
The dash does no damage, but you can dash for a third time. |
| Up Special 1
Moonbeam |
Tiz kicks above him while rising in a large sweep. Only decent diagonal recovery at best, but very safe from the wide hitbox |
| Up Special 2
Twin Moonbeam |
Tiz kicks twice, getting much more height, however the hitbox of each kick is smaller |
| Up Special 3
Brutal Moonbeam |
Tiz loses all horizontal movement while kicking, but the attack has a wider range and does much more damage. |
| Down Special 1(Brave and Default) | Tiz changes modes once per press, starting at standard, then changing to Brave, and then Default, and then returns back to standard mode. While Brave is active, Tiz is surrounded by a red aura and his attacks hit twice. Think Zero”s Sougenmu from Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3 (approximately 0:19). Each attack counts reduces Tiz’s BP by one. If Tiz’s BP falls below zero and he turns off Brave, or his BP reaches –4 (which automatically turns off Brave) he will become weakened. While weakened, Tiz deals less damage, is slower, and has a lower jump height. Tiz also cannot activate Brave or Default. Each attack he lands while weakened increases BP by one, and when he hits 0, he stops being weakened.
In Default mode, Tiz has a blue aura, deals reduced damage, and moves slower, but also takes less damage. When being attacked or when attacking, his BP increases by one, up to a maximum of 3. This does not count when shielding, or when hitting a shield. |
| Down Special 2 (Extreme Bravery) | Brave mode now costs 2 BP but the afterimage does double damage. Default no longer gives a defense buffs, but gives awards 2 BP |
| Down Special 3 (Guarded Default) | Tiz can not go into negative BP.
Brave does reduced damage. Default is slightly better at reducing damage taken and given. |
| Final Smash
Bravely Second |
Tiz activates Bravely Second, freezing all enemies in place and increasing his damage dealt. Tiz can attack enemies for a short period of time without any worry of being retaliated against. When Bravely Second ends, opponents take all the damage at once, and the highest knockback move sends them flying. In travelling stages, they will move with the camera and cannot be KO’d by the camera moving them off screen. |
| Taunt 1 | Tiz performs lux, and says some kind of insult |
| Taunt 2 | Tiz strikes the same pose he does when using the Performer Job |
| Taunt 3 | Tiz takes out Yew Geneolgia’s journal and writes a quick passage. On rare occasions, he will use a purple pen. |
| Victory Animation 1 | Regular victory animation |
| Victory Animation 2 | Tiz performs the same animation as after using any Special Attack and says “Coup de Gravy” |
| Victory Animation 3 | Swords Dance |
Victory Fanfare:
Victory’s Delight, the song that plays after winning a battle
Music for Tiz to smash to:
While a stage choice is another matter, I can at least show some possible songs to go with that stage if Tiz joins the battle
- Bravely Default’s normal battle theme
- Bravely Second’s normal battle theme
- Bravely Default’s/Second’s Asterisk Boss theme
- Bravely Default’s Final Boss theme
I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed making it. It’s taken me quite a long time to get this finished since I am so bad at movesets, but Bravely Second is in my top 5 games of all time, so I know I needed to get this done sooner or later. I hope this has at least changed one mind towards the idea of getting Tiz Arrior, or at the very least Bravely Default content in smash.
- EGX 2024 Previews #2 – Both Big and Small - October 29, 2024
- EGX 2024 Previews #1 – Playtonic & Friends (+ Nikoderiko) - October 29, 2024
- Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble | Review - September 18, 2024
