Touching up Clairen's visual clarity (and possibly hitboxes?)#919

Clairen’s moves have wonderful VFX. they look amazing, and really sell the swipes and motions she perform

however, the visuals both 1.) last too long, & 2.) have misleading visuals due to her sweet and sour tipper mechanic

Clairen is a character that is very common, both in topic of complaints and in numbers of players. this change could help make fighting Clairen more fun

1.) Clairens VFX are very stunning (lol), that being said, sometimes they linger a little longer than other characters VFX, and because theyre so bright and colorful, they look active, which is misleading.

 (attachment 1 & 2)

my mockups are quite frankly terrible, but perhaps this would spark ideas on how to tackle it

im not a melee head (love watching it) but a character like Marths VFX are very quick and do not linger. if they linger at all, maybe 1 frame after the hitbox is gone. A lot of Clairens VFX however, last for multiple frames after the move is over. i think this muddies the visuals personally

2.) coloring the sword to have a clear “sweet-tip” and “sour-base” indicator is pretty genius for a tipper char, but looking at the hitboxes sorta shows that it doesn’t accurately indicate how the moves work. theres tippers where the sword is red, sours where the sword is blue, etc.

 (attachment 3 & 4)

my mockups look a little better here, but the idea for all my mockups are that:

• the colors accurately display what hitbox is currently overridden for that swipe (if it’s a tipper, its always blue)
• the swipe after the move is out and gone is a combination of fading colors, dithering, and shorter lifespan

originally the tipper leads the trail, which makes sense in motion. however for visual clarity it wouldnt change much if the leading tipper color faded quickly as it already traveled, and is now the sour “red” color

i have issues with how some of Clairen’s hitboxes were translated from roa1 to roa2, and i dont even play her. i think this would be a step in the right direction however. would love to hear what others have to think

related, i think all of the VFX in roa2 (while amazing looking) are pretty distracting and linger a little bit too long. this is for sure something tackle later down the line, if at all 🐙👍