Heroes of Light

> *It started like any other day, with Kris and Susie hopping into a supply closet of their school, eagerly entering the Dark World. However, where they ended up was not the castle's town. They were still gifted their weapons, and Ralsei soon met them, but they all knew something about where they were at was off. Unbeknownst to them, they happened to be victims of The Cross. After crossing, they ended up in the Underworld, or at least, remnants of it, which was also captured by The Cross. Thankfully, after trekking the fiery depths, they managed to come across the prince of the location they were in, who was also attempting to find a way out. With this new ally, the trio set off across the land they found themselves in, attempting to find their way out of the new world with the power of friendship and/or violence.*
>
> Spamton's description

***The Heroes of Light,*** commonly abbreviated as HoL, are playable characters in *IndieVisible*, being the first representatives of DELTARUNE and the third representatives of the UNDERTALE series as a whole. In *IndieVisible,* the Heroes of Light are made up of three different characters, Kris, Susie, and Ralsei, who the player can switch between at any time via the use of their down special, which allows for a hard character to master, but powerful if utilized well.

## Playstyle

The Heroes of Light are unique in that they are three fighters in one, Kris, Susie, and Ralsei, who are swapped between via their down special, Hero Switch. Each of the different fighters that can be swapped between each have different specialties, movesets, and stats, which can ease in mix-ups. Of course, one could focus on ‘maining’ one or two specific characters without touching the other, but this could lead into a disadvantage in the case of them being forced to switch to a character they aren’t particularly skilled at. Overall, it can be best to try and practice with all three characters in order to not give yourself too much of a blindspot.

Kris is the fastest out of the three heroes, and generally focuses on a more combo-heavy rushdown playstyle. Many of their attacks come out quite quick and have decent range to boost, and with their good run and air speed, this can ease in combos quite easily. In conjunction with the other heroes, Kris is good for quickly racking up an opponent’s damage with quick attacks and applying pressure to foes, which allow them to easily be punished by Susie.

Kris’ neutral special, Courage, is a simple counter attack, allowing them to damage a foe who damages them. It is quite strong for a counter, and has long reach, meaning that even if Kris was hit by a disjoint, they still have a good chance of damaging the foe who hit them. It cannot be affected by projectiles, however, but it doesn’t damage Kris. It does stun them, though, which could be punished by a smart opponent. During the attack, Kris moves towards the foe at high speeds, which means if done properly, it could be used for recovery and to punish an opponent attempting to edgeguard them.

Kris’ side special, X-Slash, sees them slash forward, propelling them forwards quickly. With fast speed and good horizontal distance, it is quite useful for recovery purposes, and if it connects with a foe, Kris will slash again, launching them even further forwards while damaging an opponent. This attack also makes Kris slightly invulnerable for a short period of time, meaning if done properly, Kris can pass through projectiles, allowing them to easy approach zoners. Because of this, X-Slash is very useful for recovering, even ignoring it’s mediocre vertical distance, as although it can be slightly angled, it’s commonly not enough to carry Kris’ recovery.

That is where Kris’ up special, SOUL, comes into play. With this, Kris goes into a semi-invulnerable state, now being able to fly in the air with good speed and control. Additionally, with their SOUL at the center of them, their hitbox is significantly reduced, further adding to their great survivability. Although it doesn’t have a hitbox, meaning it is somewhat easy to gimp, the good speed, smaller hitbox, and flight allows Kris to avoid edgeguarding somewhat easily, using mindgames to their advantage. In comparison to Kris’ other abilities, however, SOUL is commonly seen as not as useful as their other recovery moves such as X-Slash, and is only really used when extremely far from the stage.

In comparison to Kris, Susie is far more bulkier and stronger, trading combo potential and speed for KO potential and raw strength. Like her role as a sort of tank class in the original ‘’Deltarune’’, Susie is the hardest to launch out of the three heroes, though is the slowest. Susie mainly attacks using her ax, drawing ‘rude energy’ to power-up various attacks. She also has various attacks using her physical body, referencing her tendency to physically threaten multiple characters from ‘’Deltarune’’, seriously or not.

Susie’s neutral special, Rude Buster, is a deceptively fast projectile with slight homing capabilities, capable of dealing good damage and knockback. It has a bit of start-up lag, but it’s only for the launching of the projectile, as the animation of Susie swinging her ax can also damage opponents, launching them upwards. Notably, this is the only move out of all of the heroes’ attacks to be a projectile, which can add to mix-up and mindgame options. The Rude Buster is fairly weak on shields, but it can still be useful to bait an opponent into shielding, allowing the player to punish, most easily done by using Hero Switch to swap to Ralsei and use his tether grab or up special.

Susie’s side special, Red Buster, unlike its portrayal in ‘’Deltarune’’, is not a projectile like Rude Buster, rather being an incredibly powerful slash of Susie’s ax with a lot of start-up and end-lag. If it manages to connect with a foe, it will deal a massive amount of damage, capable of KOing opponents even at low percentages, depending on how close they are to the blast zone. It’s especially deadly on shield, as it can instantly break through them, leaving the foe vulnerable to being punished. The main drawback of the move is that it is incredibly slow, meaning that Susie is more than likely going to be punished for attempting to use it without any real set-up, especially against faster opponents. Additionally, the high end-lag also means it can still be punished even if the opponent was far away from Susie after using the move.

Susie’s up special, Rude Awakening, is a unique attack made for ‘’IndieVisible,’’ unlike Susie’s other specials, in which she slashes upwards, gaining vertical height. It’s mainly used for recovery purposes, but due to the low horizontal distance, it can be quite risky. As such, it’s more useful for an out-of-shield option or anti-air as opposed to strictly a recovery. By mashing the special button before letting go, the move can be charged up to deal more damage and launch Susie up higher. This can be used to improve Susie’s recovery or to deal more damage to foes when they least expect it.

Finally, Ralsei, true to his role in ‘’Deltarune’’, plays more of a support role compared to the other heroes, with many of his specials assisting the others. In terms of offense, his most notable trait is his long-ranged scarf attacks, which allow him to attack from a distance longer than the other heroes (aside from Susie’s Rude Buster), and because many of them are disjointed, they are hard to reliably counter. This, combined with Ralsei’s air speed, makes him a decent zoner, good for attacking from a mid-to-long range distance and assisting the other heroes when they aren’t needed or good for the current situation.

Ralsei’s neutral special, Heal Prayer, heals the player for 10% after 2 seconds. Although the start-up is quite long, it is quite useful after taking a beating or after KOing a foe and waiting for them to respawn. Because all 3 heroes share the same percentages, this can be useful for quickly healing up Kris or Susie after they take damage. It is important to note that there is a 2 second cooldown after using Heal Prayer, meaning that in total, it’d take at least 4 seconds for Ralsei to heal. Although not as long as some other support abilities, it can still be punished if the opponent knows what they’re doing or if the player uses Heal Prayer at the wrong place or the wrong time.

Ralsei’s side special, Fluffy Guard, pushes back opponents directly in front of Ralsei while dealing no damage. Although it does have a bit of start-up lag, it is very useful for spacing purposes or edgeguarding, as it can easily gimp an opponent’s recovery off-stage. In conjunction with Heal Prayer, it is also useful for giving Ralsei enough time to heal, good in the case of needing a breather.

Ralsei’s up special, Scarf Slide, is notable for being the only one of Ralsei’s special attacks to directly damage opponents, though the damage itself isn’t exactly something to write home about. It’s main use, outside of being a tether recovery, is to allow Ralsei to pull opponents towards him and follow up with an option of the player’s choice. It can be thrown in any direction when inputted, including down if done in the air, and can grab onto ledges to work as a tether recovery. Notably, the attack is able to be canceled into Hero Switch, allowing another hero, mainly Kris, to ease in approaching even more. Ralsei can also stick his scarf onto a platform or the ground to quickly zip towards it, increasing the heroes’ movement options and giving Ralsei good mobility.

The only shared attack by all three heroes, aside from their Cross Attack, is their down special, Hero Switch. As stated above, this allows the player to swap between the different heroes, in the order of Kris, to Susie, to Ralsei, then back to Kris, in which the cycle repeats. The only real practical use of this move is to switch between the heroes, however, while switching, the hero gains a bit of invincibility before landing on the ground, which can be useful for breaking combos.

As a stance fighter, each of the heroes serve a different attribute. Kris is the fast, combo-heavy rushdown character, Susie is the strong but sluggish grappler-like fighter, and Ralsei is the support-heavy zoner. Many of the heroes’ moves can be canceled into Hero Swap, which can lead into various mindgames and mix-up options, such as the aforementioned Scarf Slide.

In tournament play, however, both Kris and Susie are the most commonly utilized compared to Ralsei, due to their better offensive and defensive capabilities. In a competitive environment, Ralsei’s sluggish and weak nature really doesn’t fit well with both Kris and Susie’s playstyles, and due to how different he is from them, players who are good with the other two are more than likely going to struggle with Ralsei, even with his longer range. In tournament play, Ralsei’s most useful attribute is his neutral special, Heal Prayer, commonly used after taking a stock from an opponent, and even then, due to how long it takes to heal, it can be fairly risky. As such, many competitive Heroes of Light players tend to ignore Ralsei compared to Kris and Susie, favoring their more aggressive playstyles. However, his up special can be very useful for momentum. Ralsei can use his normally laggy aerials while sliding with Scarf Slide in order to hit in a bigger area and pressure opponents, and by using Hero Switch, Kris can use his neutral special while moving to potentially deal big damage to opponents while moving.

Between Kris and Susie, it is usually a matter of preference, as although they do both fill two separate archetypes, they aren’t too far off playstyle-wise. Generally, though, Kris is agreed to be slightly better than Susie thanks to their faster movement speed and quick attacks, without compensating for strength all too much. Susie is also fairly high tier, thanks to her powerful, if slow, attacks and bulky nature. Her neutral special in particular, Rude Buster, is a highly useful spacing option and even slight anti-air, with many players favoring it over Ralsei’s normally slow scarf attacks.

Despite the Heroes of Light’s great versatility, however, they still have noticeable flaws, with a big one of which being the high learning curve utilizing them. Many beginner players tend to stick to one of the heroes, trying to ignore the others. While in theory this doesn’t seem like too big of an issue, there can be a multitude of situations where the player may be forced to play as a character they aren’t experienced or good with. For example, if a player who ‘mains’ Susie were to be KOed, they will respawn as Ralsei. Due to the short cooldown in between uses of Hero Switch, the player will be at a disadvantage until they are able to switch back to Susie, which their opponent could exploit to get an advantage on them.

Additionally, each of the individual heroes have their own issues as well. Kris is fairly lightweight, though not quite as light as Ralsei, while using their up special, SOUL, they are even lighter and more vulnerable. Though their high speed somewhat mitigates this issue, they can still find themselves struggling if their opponent manages to get an advantage. Additionally, Kris doesn’t have too many KO options, and even the ones they do have are quite punishable. Because of this, Kris mainly relies on carrying the opponent offstage via combos, which they are quite good at, but a beginner Kris player may find themselves struggling when attempting to KO their opponent without any setup.

Susie is best described as a sort of tank, and as such, is quite slow, the slowest out of the other heroes, in fact. This means that she can be quite easily outpaced by faster opponents, something that she is even more vulnerable to thanks to her poor frame data, especially with her strong attacks. Because of the high start and end lag, especially on her side special, Red Buster, many of her attacks are easy to punish, resulting in some fairly quick KOs if she whiffs on any of her attacks. What also doesn’t help her is her poor air-game. Though many of her aerials are strong, like many of her other attacks, her jump height is the slowest out of all the heroes, and also has the slowest air speed out of all the heroes. She also has quite a laggy and poor recovery, especially horizontally, meaning that she can have a tough time saving herself from offstage if she can’t use Hero Switch.

Finally, Ralsei’s main issue is his slow attacks, each having quite a bit of start lag. Though this is somewhat mitigated by many of his attacks having large reach, a smart, quick opponent can exploit his slow speed. Ralsei is also the lightest out of the heroes (not counting Kris using their up special), meaning that he is the easiest to launch out of all the heroes. This makes Ralsei a bit of a glass cannon, requiring him to keep a good distance from opponents for his attacks to work best. Ralsei does have a good amount of options for spacing, such as his side special, Fluffy Guard, but if his opponent manages to close in, then Ralsei really doesn’t have a lot of good options.

Overall, the Heroes of Light are some of the most adaptable, versatile, and hardest characters to learn in the entirety of ‘’IndieVisible.’’ As the only fighter that allows the player to use up to three different characters in a normal match, they allow a multitude of different playstyles for different attacks, strategies, and abilities.

## Moveset

In order to differentiate between each hero’s different attacks, each attack will be color coded:

Kris’ attacks will be blue
Susie’s attacks will be pink
Ralsei’s attacks will be green

### On-screen Appearance

* The three heroes walk onto the stage before getting into a battle stance, with the character chosen first going on the stage as the other two enter the background, similar to the beginning of fights in *Deltarune*.

### Taunts

* **Up Taunt** - Kris performs a pirouette in place.
Susie lifts her hand in the air as some hearts fly out of it.
Ralsei spins in place, emitting some stars around him.
* **Side Taunt** - Kris shoves their hand through their chest as they tear out their SOUL before it flies back into them.
Susie cartoonishly looks side to side in a similar manner to the computer lab cutscene at the end of Chapter 2.
Ralsei claps while smiling.
* **Down Taunt** - Kris jiggles their arms and body.
Susie laughs loudly with her hand on her face.
Ralsei charges up some magic before emitting it in the air.

### Block Animation

* Kris' sword quickly turns into a shield.
Susie crosses her arms to block.
Ralsei wraps himself in his scarf.

### Idle Poses

* Kris looks left and right.
Susie shuffles through her pockets.
Ralsei stretches upward.
* Kris inspects their sword.
Susie stretches her arms.
Ralsei thinks to himself before looking forward.

### Victory Pose

* The trio all perform their respective win animations from Deltarune as they strike a pose for the camera.

## Arcade Mode Route

 Spamton | -

## Trivia

* The Heroes of Light's codename is **Prophet**, referencing the prophecy that Ralsei tells Susie and Kris at the beginning of *DELTARUNE*, which they are allegedly apart of.
* The Heroes of Light use a unique text box during their pre-fight and post-fight dialog, which is remisicent of the text boxes found in UNDERTALE. These unique textboxes are shared with Sans, Papyrus, and Spamton.
	+ Across the entire roster, they are one of few characters to have this trait, the others being The Batter, Madeline, Curly Brace, Monika, and Sara Chidouin