StephChars v4 - Echoes Of The Abyss Update

StephChars v4 - Echoes Of The Abyss Update v4.2

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
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they became real, epic.
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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.
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Great mod but, when i try to use they’re controls it doesnt work is there a way to fix that?
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its perfect
its just perfect
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Bien gracias a Dios y tú cómo estás
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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!
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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
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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!
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peak mod on god
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4 words: Best. Character. Mod. Ever.
I love playing as Jana because you can cheese almost every platforming section.
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best mod ever me and my brother love this mod!
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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.
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when i first saw this mod i thought to my self this looks promising and i downloaded it when i started playing as jana i felt like this in the video https://youtube.com/shorts/3jLgpJM5SzI?feature=share its a amazing mod
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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?
DrStephen
DrStephen
I do intend to!
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A great pack of character! The review here is mostly aimed towards Jana as she's the new release, but having never given my thoughts about Skip I figured I should do it as well;

Skip overall is an amazing character, the sprites look stunning and quite adorable if you ask me, on the gameplay side, he's extremely responsive and the dive attack is incredibly versatile just like the one from Odyssey you inspired it from, if I'm not mistaken.
The scrap / monitor mechanic seemed a bit flow-breaking at first, but with experience, it's perfectly possible to collect scrap as you plow through levels by diving onto enemies in the way and then use em up on monitors you need to further better your time and flow on some levels. This mechanic overall is greatly helped by how the dive interacts with shields, and in the worst case scenario, this mechanic can be ignored and is completely harmless!
I'd call Skip essentially perfect for how simple and efficient his gameplay is, being easy to learn, having some intricacies and high skill ceiling thanks to the scrap mechanic which will give you the necessary edge when used correctly and also acts as a safety net for newer players.


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Jana is a character I had a bit more problems with; her sprites are amazing and super cute just like Skip, my gripes come more from the gameplay side.
You here have a character that has an emphasis on mobility, and her wall jump ability shows that. It's quite frankly a bit busted but who cares, it's SUPER FUN to use, it can cancel basically any state making it very lenient which means I was never scared about risking my life above death pits! Coupled with her dash ability to make it even stronger, and you got yourself a speed demon that's super fun to use!

...The thing is, this completely overshadows her other abilities being the cut and the slam. Generally speaking, abilities strictly designed for combat in SRB2 don't work, at least in my opinion. SRB2 enemies are too passive to bother wasting time on them, as a result, I found myself only ever using the cut against bosses and the slam only ever had use in DSZ2, and otherwise actually caused me to plummet to my death because I pressed jump too early when wanting to walljump. I understand the intent of these abilities and see that quite a lot of effort went into the visuals (props for the slashing animations, they look really good!), but unfortunately I feel like they only add clutter and don't often serve purpose.

If I was to suggest anything, I'd move her dash ability to spin on ground, and her slash on mid-air spin (while also adding the projectile to the air slash to make it more versatile), and maybe the slam to tapping spin again after slashing if you want to keep it, otherwise the dash could destroy floors by just skimming over them.
Reasoning behind all that being that I'm a bit on edge about using custom buttons on characters that have otherwise simple movesets that could easily fit on 2 buttons, and the doubletap caused so many accidental near-deaths in my playthrough I had to disable it and remap my custom button to somewhere more comfortable where it still felt awkward to use instead of spin given how often you use the dash in actual gameplay.
She doesn't really NEED ways to defend herself on the ground since she can pretty much avoid any enemy encounter, and I don't think jumping before tapping spin would be too much of a stretch in boss fights since the enemies are usually airborne there, especially if you'd have a projectile to act as leniency on the timing.


Overall, this is excellent work and are some of my favourites characters to use and I'd recommend just about everyone to give them a go for a fresh experience, so keep it up!
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