StephChars v4 - Echoes Of The Abyss Update v4.2

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!

[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!

I like the funny ZERO-like wolf lady

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.

Amazing mod i played it on encore mode and when I got skip and Mario i was golden Mario every level at least once
But when I got Jana for the first time i was like: why is Zero from MegaMan X a furry and a female?
Anyway good mod but please I woul love if you took Jana movement and made a full MegaMan X mod

Technically...perfect. Really fits to the mechanic of old Rockman Zero controls. Really awesome in most case possible.

However There's just one seriously annoying factor with this particular character. The double tap dash, which is totally unnecessary, makes me dash down to pits to my death if I dare to tap the same directional key too often. It's terrible and disturbing.

The reason it's just 3 stars and not 5 is that this one little double tap dash problem. I know, I know Zero has it in his own games, but for the love of god creator pls remove it cause using C1 for dash is wholesomely enough and a way more predictable button to use to do the job properly without rendering myself dashing into the pit every single time just because the controls to it is too sensitive.

Just remove the double tap dash function and it's 5 stars, thank you.

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

I'M NOT GONNA SUGARCOAT IT: "Press Spin just before taking damage"

Just like with most new character mods in SRB2 I did a full playthrough with Jana and I have a few things to say about the character.

I'll start with the good about this character, As a Megaman and Megaman Zero fan this character really interested me the moment i saw it and i must say this character does bring me vibes from Megaman Zero with the saber and the mobility of the character the idea of playing a game that's just like Megaman Zero but in a 3D environment really excited me and from the showcase in this thread i was really hyped to play with the character.

Now while I enjoyed playing with this character I do have a few issues where I think the character could be improved further on.

For starters the saber feels like a complete afterthought, if it wasn’t for the fact that it's the only way for Jana to break objects/hit enemies i would never use the saber, this isn’t because of the fact that the character doesn’t spin but if this character had a spin i don’t see much reason for the saber to be used at all.

There’s not much reason to use the saber other than it looking cool for the 3 slashes but the charged up slash feels pretty pointless, i've noticed that the charged slash projectile can go through multiple badniks but because of how fast the 3 slash combo is i see no point in this other than to have a projectile alongside the slash in mid air.

Shield abilities are practically nullified if it wasn’t for the fact that there are a few shield functions like the dash leaving elemental fire trails. Which saddens me seeing how the shields interact in comparison to Skip, This isn’t a problem i just hoped shields would have affected something like the slashes.

Moving around with Jana is fun the double jump and the wall jump are really fun to move around with, the dash also gives me that same type of joy with movement however after the double jump accidentally doing a Rekkouha while trying to wall jump over a bottomless pit is a fair bit annoying whether this is a personal problem or not i'm not sure but in my opinion having another way to use Rekkouha over triple tapping the jump button would of been a better option.

I really like the design of the character but the color scheme is a bit weird.

Other than these slight issues I think overall this character is really great and fun to play with. I just think there are some things that could be improved over.

Had I known an update was coming, let alone a new character, I would have marked my calendar. Everyone plays perfectly. StephChars remains one of the best SRB2 addons available. Kudos!

This has to be one of my favorite mods, the good ol' Skip with his crafting system and A Hat In Time gameplay, Jana channeling the Megaman Zero fanboy part of me and of course, the brand new funky mode, also know as Kou being extremely fun to play as, the parry mechanic has to make him one of the best characters for bossfights in the entire mod catalogue, the only issue is how buggy he is in general, like, sometimes you hit the parry, but somehow still get damaged, other times you hit an enemy with the dash punch and you end up launching yourself into the stratosphere, sometimes if you hit a parry you can just start spaming the spin button and become invincible until the first glitch I mentioned happens and just die for no reason, I'm pretty sure this and more issues I haven't run into yet will be fixed eventually, but for now it's still a really really fun mod, Jana will never not be my favorite, but Kou is still an excelent adition one of the coolest things I've seen in this game

It's honestly a good thing that i came back to review this, and i must say, is that i really liked Echoes, even though during the Metal Sonic Fight, i could barely see in First Person, but hey at least she's a pretty nice addition, and i can't honestly believe it's been almost 5 years since this addon started with just Skip, like time really flies.

I love Skip!!
As an addon he was one of my biggest inspirations to get into the SRB2 scene as a whole; I love how he controls, his gimmick, his animations. He's super cute and I love playing as him!

I love these characters! Use them every single time if I host a server!

This is peak i love this, the characters, the abilities, the Goofy dances, the gameplay, i could go on and on but i won't 1000000/10

skip is a fluffy boi :O

i just have something is there a way you can use slade to reactivate kou spinning from a strike and to reactivate the wallroll because i saw some code in slade and i didnt know how to edit it all im just asking is the location of the code that reactivate his wallroll and rolling from a punch

Bien gracias a Dios y tú cómo estás

It's all fun and games until SMS uses haymaker/any damage move and you click spin as kou

best mod ever me and my brother love this mod!