Invictus Maneo/Satan

**“**You dare to fight with me?**”**
— Invictus Maneo selection quip
**Satan**, or **Dark Prince** outside Japan, isn't anywhere as threatening nor malicious as his name implies. Instead, he's a hopeless romantic who's tried many times in vain to marry Arle Nadja, only for her to reject him and dismiss his attempts as annoying, leaving him defeated every time. He only desires to marry her so he can have her pet Carbuncle, who was originally his, and in fact his obsession with it runs so deep that he houses much merchandise of it. He is often depicted as sarcastic and boastful, but can actually be really childish at times.

Satan originates from the 1990 dungeon crawling game Madō Monogatari 1-2-3, though he's better recognized for his role in the Puyo Puyo side series, and his home stage is fittingly named Puyo Puyo.

## Basics

Satan is a lightweight gimmick character who mainly attacks by making chains of Puyo attacks and throwing garbage Puyos. The stages are designed so that Puyos may be laid down perfectly evenly across any stage, albeit they can be phased through since they don't have collision. Mirror matches with Satan can be very tricky.

Satan can lay down 4 different colors of Puyo, with the player always able to see what the next 5 Puyo combinations will be. He can have up to 20 Puyos on the battlefield at one time and every Puyo drop deals minimal damage and knockback on impact. Much of Satan's moves have him laying down two horizontal Puyos or two vertical Puyos, and if four Puyos are to ever be grouped together, they will explode and send anyone caught up in them flying. Satan can send four exploding Puyos together in his heavy tilt attacks, have a Carbuncle clone dazzle and throw his foes in his grab attacks, and exploit his Special moves to gain full reign over the stage. He can only use up to six columns at a time, i.e. a Puyo cannot be placed more than five spaces away from the first one he set down, albeit six columns is still half the size of Mt. Evermore.

Though Satan's moveset is certainly unique, Satan's lack of kill moves outside his unique Puyo Puyo playing field makes him extremely difficult and precise to play, and though his Specials considerably help, he's still a pain to learn for any novice.

## Specials

* **Special A: Great Inferno**
Satan will generate a massive inferno that burns all of the Puyos currently on screen. This move cannot make his foes even flinch, but they'll take a lot of damage from the resulting explosion. It can be telegraphed pretty easily though, as there's a delay where Satan snaps his fingers to do it, but it can allow Satan to set up elsewhere.
* **Special B: Satan Cross**
Satan generates an upside-down magical cross that he spins around, hurling garbage Puyos against his foes which deal light damage and make them flinch, although they have no launching power whatsoever. He gets these projectiles from clearing Puyos naturally, i.e. not through Great Inferno. The Puyos disappear if they hit the floor.
* **Special C: Ascent / Control**
Satan ascends straight up in the air with a pair of devilish wings he conjures for himself, if he's in the air that is. He can free-glide once he reaches the apex of his ascent. On the ground, instead he can control the Puyo field from a distance, with the player taking control of a cursor to control Puyos descending from the sky until the player jumps or parries.
* **Special D: Hex Barrier**
Satan will summon his hand forward, creating a Hex Barrier around his playing field that will trap foes right in. Though he cannot pass through his barrier, he can use this in combination with Control to finish off a Puyo combo that is sure to deal tons and tons of damage. The barrier doesn't last long however, and it can be broken.
* **Showstopper: Judgement Day**
Satan laughs mockingly as he swipes his hand forward, creating a dark aura that tries to capture his opponents. If he's successful, he will grab all of them and drop them to the bottom of a Puyo Puyo playing field, setting off a massive combo that will cause many garbage Puyos to rain down on them, dealing much damage as he cackles away.

*Interesting note: All of Satan's Puyos will be labelled with a number so they can be distinguished for colorblind players. There'll be a 1 placed on Red Puyos, a 2 placed on Blue Puyos, a 3 placed on Yellow Puyos, and a 4 placed on Green Puyos.*