Rivals of Aether

Rivals of Aether

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Soma Cruz (AoS)
   
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2.503 MB
6 Aug, 2020 @ 10:07am
29 Oct, 2024 @ 1:02pm
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Soma Cruz (AoS)

Description
The protagonist from Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow joins the fight! Wielding the Power of Dominance, Soma Cruz is able to channel the essence of his foes in order to even the playing field.

Tactical Soul System

Soma's primary strength is his versatility, being able to cycle through multiple special moves at will. At the start of a match, he can use the Soul Set Menu to equip the right moves for the job. He can also bring up the menu at any point by using his Down Special, cancelling it by pressing attack, shield, jump, or special.

When in the menu, pressing up and down chooses which soul you want to change. The red 'Bullet' soul changes his forward special, the blue 'Guardian' soul changes his up special, and the yellow 'Enchantment' soul modifies his stats. You can cycle through the different options for the highlighted soul by pressing left and right.

Bullet Souls(Forward Special)
  • Balore
    A deadly punch that sends Soma flying forwards, and his foes flying further.
  • Skull Archer
    Summons a spectral bow behind Soma that hangs in place. Using the attack again looses the arrow.
  • Fish Head
    Shoots a powerful fireball that burns Soma's opponents on impact.
Guardian Souls (Up Special)
  • Giant Bat
    Soma transforms himself into a bat, granting him free flight for a short amount of time.
  • Flying Armour
    This staple armour gives Soma a burst of upwards momentum, before gliding back down safely. While it can be used in the air, it becomes more effective from the ground.
  • Medusa Head
    Soma becomes frozen in place for a short time, indicated by the clock floating above his head. When frozen, he can still attack, and can toggle this ability at will as long as the timer is not depleted.
Enchantment Souls
After Soma kills an opponent, he will absorb their "Enchantment Soul". Select them in the soul menu, and Soma will gain all of their base stats; including movement speed, jump count, and weight. Up to 3 other souls can be absorbed at any time, and Soma can always switch back to his default handling. Be sure to use this to your advantage when tackling a particularly mobile or tanky foe!

Base Moves
  • Forward Strong (Hrunting)
    Wielding a powerful blade laced with poison, Soma can land a devastating blow that sends opponents flying and deals extra damage over time.
  • Up Strong (Curly)
    Soma reaches into the darkest depths of his heart, and unleashes a terrifying beast from within; Curly. The demon cuts all who come near to shreds, launching them skywards. Soma can only channel the demon for a short while, and the demon is slow to come out and recover, making this an extremely risky move to pull off.
  • Down Strong (Spinning Disc)
    Soma summons a razor-sharp disc from thin air, thrusting it forwards and then snapping it back. Skilled users can send the blade flying off a ledge, catching anyone below it off guard.
  • Up Tilt (Guts Upper)
    Soma packs an extremely powerful uppercut, launching his opponent sky high. This formidable combo starter also gives Soma a short upwards burst, where he can cancel into an aerial attack.
  • Down Tilt (Skeleton Blaze)
    A strong slide kick launches Soma forward, blazing through anyone and anything in his way. Soma can jump cancel midway through the slide, allowing him to carry over momentum and get some firey combos going.
  • Forward Air / Forward Tilt (Short Sword)
    Quick, quiet, and deadly, Soma's signature swordplay is a force to be reckoned with. On the ground, the fast slashes make a strong and consistent way to rack up damage. In the air, Soma's powerful swings send enemies flying away. These moves may be basic, but they are still extremely useful in the right hands.
  • Up Air (Magic Shield)
    Soma summons a magic shield above him, blocking incoming attacks and damaging enemies. This is Soma's go-to combo tool in the air, although it isn't the best in terms of kill power.
  • Neutral Air (Ripple Laser)
    Soma projects a ripple laser around him, catching foes off guard and knocking them to a safe distance. While being a weaker combo tool than the Magic Shield, this power can still rack up damage early on, and is a great way to repel an oncoming enemy.
  • Back Air (Cagnazzo)
    A demon named Cagnazzo latches itself onto Soma's back, with one goal: to pummel anyone and everyone in sight! These powerful punches can knock foes downwards, and even give Soma a small burst of upwards momentum!
  • Down Air (Comet Kick)
    Soma lunches downwards foot first, stopping only when he connects with land or person. When he hits his target, he kicks himself upwards, sending them crashing down at a colossal speed.
  • Neutral Special (Silver Gun)
    A great tool for building up damage, Soma's trusty firearm can penetrate even the toughest demon armor. This semi-auto pistol is enchanted to have an endless supply of silver bullets, and deals additional damage at close range.

If you have any clips or combos using this character, make sure to link them below in the comments! I'd love to see what people can pull off with the Tactical Soul System!

CREDITS:

Sprites used are from Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, by Konami
Spritesheets from The Spriters Resource[www.spriters-resource.com]
Sounds come from Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow
Most sounds ripped by The Sounds Resource[www.sounds-resource.com]
The backdash trail was adapted from 'Gunvolt', by Mythos.
Hrunting's Poison effect was adapted from 'Joker', by Turpix
11 Comments
Dragonface 30 Nov, 2021 @ 10:44pm 
So has anyone noticed that sora can just fly infinitely with back air if he absorbs a slow falling soul? that seems like an oversight
Genesis 19 Mar, 2021 @ 4:50pm 
I understand the deforming issue, but there are plenty of similar human characters with larger sprites that work fine against normal sized characters as well. Great mod nonetheless, hope you keep updating it <3
OT Archmage  [author] 19 Mar, 2021 @ 3:50pm 
Hi, thanks your your comment! Since the sprites were ripped from his original game, I was limited in how I could scale them without deforming the sprite. The sprites are also this size for gameplay purposes, since making them larger would mean most of his attacks would go over the main Rivals cast.
Genesis 19 Mar, 2021 @ 1:43pm 
Very cool, I think the sprite could be a little larger though
Five 25 Feb, 2021 @ 6:28pm 
Love this character, but his fireball and jab def need a slight nerf since they can prove to kill and combo way too easily
OT Archmage  [author] 22 Feb, 2021 @ 11:30am 
Just a quick update - After a little testing I discovered that the issue you're describing only happens when Soma is loaded as a workshop mod. I didn't have any issues when copying the workshop files to the local folder used for testing. I can't say I know how to fix it, since this seems more like a bug with how characters are loaded, but in the meantime I'd suggest copying him to appdata/Local/RivalsofAether/workshop if you want to try him out in the extras menu.

It's a pretty weird bug, I'll look around the modding discord and see if anyone knows anything about it.
Zwataketa 22 Feb, 2021 @ 10:25am 
I can try redownloading him, maybe it was just a corrupted download. But my computer is powerful enough that performance isn't an issue if something is optimized. So I don't believe hardware is the issue in my case.
OT Archmage  [author] 22 Feb, 2021 @ 1:41am 
Zwataketa, I can't say I've ran into this issue. I'm not sure if it's a hardware thing or what, but he runs just fine in the extras menu.
Zwataketa 21 Feb, 2021 @ 11:07am 
Warning: Don't test this character in the Extras>Steam Workshop menu. It slows the game to a crawl and practically forces you to restart.
gsgoat 28 Sep, 2020 @ 2:18pm 
As someone who made my own version of Soma in Rivals a while back, I kinda like this better than my version. Definitely a more fitting gimmick and a lot less jank than mine.