Now that I’ve gotten a little better at Flonk‘s art, I wanted to introduce a bit of his moveset. Each of the Also-Rans play differently, even with the whole “you get two moves per turn, and some sort of charge up move” thing, I wanted them to vary wildly. Since Flonk is a monster, and from a species commonly seen as underlings at best, he intends to play up the sycophantic servant thing to the hilt, get in behind enemy lines, and do the most damage he can before returning to his allies.

Being a monster, and a trash tier variety of monster at that, Flonk has no concept of a fair fight or why he should participate in such. He fights dirty and for survival, looking for every advantage he can take against his foes, and crippling them certainly is within his means of escape. His basic attacks often inflict debuffs, such as bite leaving a bleed, and his other move sets are situational depending on which side of combat he appears to be on.

On the party’s side	Has attacks and specials No power meter or power move
On some mook’s side	Has phony attacks, no specials Builds meter to a power move
On the boss’ side	Has phony attacks and anti-boss specials Builds meter that leads to his punishment

Additional advantage: When Flonk is on the enemy side, their moves are revealed to the player. Otherwise, just intent to attack is displayed, which is what most deckbuilder RPGs show.  So there’s a tactical advantage for Flonk being hidden amongst the enemy.

The Paper Mario series has already done monsters as allies thing, with Goombario and Goombella, who, as you might be aware from their very good naming conventions, are the trashy Goomba monsters Mario has been stomping on since the 1980’s. By default, each of them get a move where they tattle about the stats of your enemies, which, honestly, doesn’t do very much to help you even on the first playthrough and is irrelevant in later plays. Don’t get me wrong, I love Goombella as a character, but when she only offers text boxes in combat, that’s not great reason to keep her around.

While flamoggats are kill on sight for adventurers, they are an underling species of monster and no stranger to other monster species. When entering combat against a monster, Flonk will spring to their side with a “thanks for saving me!” emote. This is not his moment to stab them in the back, however. As long as he appears to be on their side, he’ll build up Unwary on his “allies.” While he can strike at any time, once Unwary reaches 100%, he’ll be able to deliver a severe blow against them, then leap back to his side of the battle. Flonk’s two attacks when he’s faking being a turncoat are “Bite” and “Playbite” – bite inflicts damage and looks convincing to other monsters, Playbite looks pathetic and does not quickly build Unwary, but may be the safest option if an ally is weakened. Flonk can target any of his friends he chooses, but does have to suffer the consequences if he attacks a foe who has thorns, and will be hit by AOE attacks thrown at the enemy team.

So its a give and take with Flonk on an enemy team. You’re down a character and you have to be careful not to hurt Flonk too much with a careless AOE. On the plus side, you have tactical insight on who is targeting whom, and he’s building up to a whallop on your foes. I’m still working out the “what would he do,” but I’m thinking along the lines of:

• Backstab a target monster, ignoring their defense the higher the Unwary meter grows
• Hamstring a target monster, crippling them and giving a % chance (based on Unwary) that they cannot attack each round
• Set off a grenade that confuses and panics foes as he leaps out of danger

The advantage of Flonk changing sides to “join” a boss should be a higher one though. Instead of building up Unwary and wrecking the boss one time, Flonk will act as a fifth column in boss fights. Biting and Playbiting Alastrina and her allies is still an option, and it still had an affect on the meter, but this time, a downward one. Because now the meter is Ire, and you don’t want it filling up.

You know how cartoon villains always have comedic underlings, always ready to trip over something and botch the plans of their generally competent bosses? I mean, competent in so much as they can plan, not competent in their ability to see plans through or stop hiring incompetent boobs. The punishment for botching things for the big boss is usually a good smack. That’s going to be Flonk’s lot when he’s licking the boots of a boss monster, and as long as he isn’t killed, he’s a perfect foil for an irate boss monster.

Flonk’s special moves will interfere with the boss. Maybe they’re warming up a death ray and oops, clumsy me, Flonk unplugs it. Maybe they’re calling in reinforcements, but Flonk is on the phone ordering pizza delivery instead. Maybe they’re channeling a world ending spell, and Flonk starts dropping tambourines down the stairs, wrecking their concentration. Each time he does this, he draws more and more of the boss’ irritation, up to the point where finally Megatron can’t even, and clubs Starscream with his big gun a few times to relieve the stress. In this case, when Flonk’s Ire meter fills up, the boss will take a turn not attacking the humans, but beating up his own “loyal” minion.

Risky? Yes. Very useful to take pressure off of his allies? Also yes. Flonk isn’t about being selfless, he’s about surviving, so if it gets too hot, he’ll have to flee to safety. At any point if Alastrina heals him, the ruse is broken and Flonk will spring back to his allies side, grateful to be out of the range of a vengeful boss. But, there’s no going back after that; from then on, Flonk is just a battler with no particular power move to build up to. Which is ok, as he’s not useless in a fight, but his skillset is about playing up to his tricky self.

Now to, y’know.. game engine. Art. Lots of work.