StephChars v4 - Echoes Of The Abyss Update v4.2

So uhh, yeah, time to review this beauty.

Skip: He's fast, he's cute, his abilities are awesome.
Can't say anything else, i have played with him since he released and i had a lot of fun skipping the entire level just literally "run > jump > dive > double jump > dive", also, i love so much the spritework, awesome job steph.

Jana: Ooooohhhh boy, i just played with her and loved it instantly, i am a fan of megaman zero games, and looking at how she has gameplay of that game, made me know exactly how to control her without practice, also just like skip, her spritework is beautiful, again, awesome job steph.

(Skip portion originally written June 17, 2021)
One of the original GOAT (greatest of all time) character mods in my opinion, Skip is one of my favorite characters ever made for 2.2

Right off the bat, Skip's ENTIRE playstyle and kit are unique and fresh among a good bit of the characters here on the message board. His movement is ludicrously fun, and very simple to understand if you give it enough of a shot. Monitor crafting/the scrap mechanic is very interesting and makes Skip all the more unique. Being able to harvest scrap from enemies to be able to precisely plan for future situations by making yourself the according shield/power up is very satisfying, and is a good way to incentivize badnik hunting for Skip.

Some of the other small details/easter eggs are also pretty cool.

Vanilla game beaten, 7 emeralds in tow. Go play him. :)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Originally not expecting much, I was pleasantly surprised at how well Jana plays.

For starters, as a GIANT fan of the Megaman X series, this ticked all the boxes of why I like how those games play (for Zero, anyway.) At first glance I thought the double-tap method for dashing would feel odd and unnatural in a 3D space like SRB2's, but it feels ridiculously fun and makes Jana a lot more mechanically interesting. Her saber feels implemented in a pretty solid way, not even being required to beat the game if you wish not to use it. Cutting things in half feels fun, and the action itself is quick and satisfying (it's also not a hard commitment.) While her double jump feels pretty standard, having Rekkouha attached to it made it much more interesting to use in certain situations (especially high up ledges/platforming.) The wall jump feels pretty good, and allows the player to stay away from the ground for essentially however long they want. It's also a very nice way to hold on to your dash from a dash jump.

The easter eggs and several small details also help the experience stand out just a little more than it already does.

Vanilla game beaten, 7 emeralds collected while dashing all over the place. Go play her. :)

Best Update Ever, i liked the part where Skip said "It's Skipping Time" and he ended up Skipping all over the place, ten out of ten best addon update.

Skip and Jana are simple to learn, but hard to master characters who can really blast through stages!! Both of them look absolutely adorable and cool respectively, and each bring a lot to the table. They also have really amazing sprites and animation, and their easter eggs are small but get a smile out of me every time.

Skip is really fun to control given his collect-a-thon style and you'll be skipping across levels really easily with his dives and monitor abilities! He's more hard to master than Jana but easier to learn IMO, as his dives will *smack* into walls- but if you get his dives down perfect, you can gain really high speeds and heights that can easily speed through even Aerial Garden. I really adore his monitor crafting, and how mechanical parts spill out of busted badniks and monitors in the zone already. The shields you get from crafting and each zone buff Skip really well, making combat easier as well as platforming. That's my only issue with Skip really... I haven't gotten used to dealing with enemies as him as you can only beat enemies while falling or by diving, and I often miss my dives in Simple controls, which I'm more used to (and also makes him play closely to his inspirations). Bosses aren't as hard thankfully, given their large hitboxes!
Also, the flashlight is a really nice tool even though you don't see it used often. Hopefully levels with dark, secret-filled areas get made so he can take advantage!

Jana on the other hand, is a dream of mine realized. She brings the fast pace and insane mobility of Zero to SRB2 almost flawlessly!! Jana has not only a really fun dash which can be jumped out of for mobility, but the wall jump shenanigans she can pull off make hard levels quiver in fear, and with her saber, put them out of that miserable fear! Her slashes are quick and rarely dampen the pace unlike Amy and her hammer, and the charge slash can get tricky airborne enemies!
Jana's wall detection for wall jumps is also nigh perfect, though at times I can wall jump only to cling to it a second time without height, but given a second jump I hop off perfectly. (Also, a part of me deep down wants her jacket to flap more in the wind when she moves, blame Zero's successor Gunvolt for that. Jana doesn't *really* need it though as she already looks so cool, haha!)

TL;DR, both Skip and Jana bring fun abilities that you'll be figuring out cool tricks with every time you play, while looking awesome doing so.

[This review is mostly aimed towards Jana. Might make a new or updated review for Skip later.]

Jana plays incredibly well and has quite the unique play style that both breaks, and compliments the game.

Utilizing her sword attacks to clear enemies and obstacles, the dash and wall jump mechanic from Megaman Zero. This character truly feels like a well made passion project, as both an outlier, and perfect fit for the vanilla stages.

However, as of this review, theres a few bugs with Jana at the moment. here's some I found.

You can cancel ANY animation state with her wall jump state. this includes damage frames, which allow for instant damage boost wall jumps, and last second saves from getting hit into a pit.

You can't double jump after springs like Skip. (could be intentional design, but I don't know for sure)

[glitches involving easter eggs/netgames]

using both the rock guitar and drip easter eggs in netgames can cancel the music of each respective easter egg, in some cases reverting back to the stages normal music.

using the drip easter egg as your rings run out from super causes an instant crash. No violation sign, no stalls for the user, just an instant quit to desktop when that happens. (could relate to other mods that allow players to remove the super music)

Besides these small problems that mostly affect netgames, the new character is incredibly fun to play. My only personal nitpick besides certain glitches is that its much harder to aim her charge beam when using angle attacks. Aside from that, near perfection!

Great mod! Skip's platforming prowess is really fun and charming, and Jana's intense speed is a lot of style, but there's also a lot of substance to be found. Only one question though,

are you ever going to update any of your mods?

Jana is easily one of the best mods I've ever played. She's fun, requires a good amount of skill + stage knowledge, and is very rewarding to get good at. Only minor gripe is no real way to spin things such as the wheel things in Deep Sea, but it's not the worst thing ever. Sprites are fantastic, everything is just top notch. Fantastic stuff!

STPEHCHARS BESTCHARS STEPHCHARS BESTCHARS!!!!!!!!

Seriously bro I ADORE Skip and Jana, The way they play is just so smooth and I feel invincible, Keep up the great work!

Great mod but, when i try to use they’re controls it doesnt work is there a way to fix that?

its perfect
its just perfect

Bien gracias a Dios y tú cómo estás

Very nice! Both of these characters translate the mechanics of their source games beautifully and integrate flawlessly into the levels of base SRB2.

Skip's moveset works a lot better in a Sonic game than I thought it would when I first downloaded this addon! Having a fairly basic midair dive is really useful in a lot of situations, and the various shields make it even better. I'm sure I would've especially appreciated it back when I first started playing SRB2, where I constantly tried to use Sonic's Speed Thok to course-correct my jumps onto small platforms, with predictable results. :p

I also enjoyed using his crafting system to overprepare myself for certain levels. DSZ is surprisingly fun for a Sonic water level in the base game, but it's even better when you can come into it with a bubble shield and not have to stop for air! Walking across the ball sections in RVZ is also fairly gratifying.

I also found myself whiffing against bosses quite a bit using his dive, which I actually kind of like? It feels like I'm missing because I just didn't aim right, rather than doing the same thing while trying to use Sonic's speed thok and sending yourself flying into the abyss, which is far more frustrating.

However, the last part of Skip's moveset is by far the most powerful. If you bind the dance key to something easy to access (I already had it on E due to another mod I use), you can press it twice in quick succession for a maneuver I like to call the Microgroove. This Microgroove cures all frustration from the player in an instant. Waiting for an air bubble in DSZ? Microgroove. Getting mildly bored while cheesing ACZ's boss by hiding behind a crate? Hit 'em with a Microgroove. Finally reached the escape pod at the end after trying and failing upwards of 10 times to beat the final boss? I'd say you've earned a last-second Microgroove. Those first two notes of synth bass can immediately cure any ailment.

I know this is rapidly turning into an essay, but punctuality has never been my specialty. Time for another 3+ paragraphs explaining my thoughts on Jana!

I'll admit I've never played Mega Man Zero, and I've only played about half of Mega Man X1, but having the dash from those games put into a game I'm already fairly good at probably helps me experience the joy of dash-jumping around at breakneck speeds without having to actually get good at the Mega Man games, since I've heard MMZ is pretty tough! I managed to completely fumble my way through the first big room of BCZ1, and by the end not only catch back up with Metal Sonic but actually leave him in the dust. Broken? Probably. But fun? Absolutely.

Her sword is also plenty of fun to use against some bosses. Using her in BCZ2 unlocks levels of Metal Sonic bullying that would make Fang jealous. Did you know that he can be hit 4 times before getting out a single attack? I sure do now! BCZ3 is also significantly easier when you don't have to slam your entire body into him to do damage. The only boss I found harder with her was CEZ3, because her projectiles just barely can't reach him once he removes enough of the floor, and you have to start blindly dashing through him to do anything, which tends to get you skewered more often than not in my experience.

This might also not be super relevant, but I love both of their character designs, particularly Jana's. She's definitely cool, but she's also kind of adorable at the same time! A lot of the canon characters that are designed to be imposing or cool seem to forget that they're still cartoon animals with the proportions to match, particularly with the classic Sonic style, but Jana embraces it while still being badass in the process. And, of course, Skip is about one cute mannerism away from reducing my vocabulary to that of the average Twitter pet account, which probably makes the Microgroove all the more more effective.

TL;DR if I ever played netgames, these two would probably turn me into a toxic mess instantly in completely different ways, but by Chaos I'd have fun doing it. (/positive)

Again, sorry for the essay, I just had a lot to say! I tried to spoiler it a few times, but it doesn't look like BBCode works in reviews. Oh well!

This is probably my favorite character addon I've played so far. In fact, wanting to write this review was the deciding factor for me to make an SRB2MB account in the first place!

OC characters it's funny.

I especially like jana.

Just i'll like mega man X Series
Even though it says here
(inspired by Megaman Zero!)

Good addon for your favorite shooter game

Really great mod, when playing Jana I really thought when I saw MMZ wall jump it was similar to MMX, maybe add a command to replicate to same wall jump for those types of players :V. Really great mod tho.

peak mod on god

4 words: Best. Character. Mod. Ever.
I love playing as Jana because you can cheese almost every platforming section.

A really fun duo! Skip feels bouncy and Jana feels very smooth. Both of the characters are quite simple and aren't the hardest to master. Plus Skip's sprite revamp made him x10 more cute. I'll a comment with some cool things I did as them.

My two favorite characters of all time, I like Skip just a bit more than Jana though (cough cough hat in time bias)
Also, I love the new sprites for Skip. That freaking grounded slide animation is so gosh dang sick.

best mod ever me and my brother love this mod!

Extremely nice mod. This feels like one of the very few mods that are simple and easy enough for noobs like me to have fun with, and at the same time lots of fun for the more experienced players, i just wish it was possible to turn jana's wall jump on and off with a command like janawalljump (on/off) because on some map packs (like Roger's level packs) that dont have alot of open space in most levels, i either accidentally grab on a wall and have to wait a huge while to fall down (happens mostly in egg fleet 3.5 and its impossible to avoid it) or i can safely jump off but then go pretty far back, another solution to both of those situations would be able to do an air dash with c1 exclusively after you walljump. Idk if thats possible tho.
Other than those little nitpicks (is that how its spelt?), This mod is the best character mod i played in my entire life.