Lucas

For fighter info, see Lucas (SSBB), Lucas (SSB4), and Lucas (SSBU).

Lucas
The in-game sprite of Lucas from Mother 3 from Chapter 4 onwards.
Universe	EarthBound
Debut	Mother 3 (2006)
Smash Bros. appearances	Brawl SSB4 Ultimate
Most recent non-Smash appearance	Mother 3 (2006)
Console/platform of origin	Game Boy Advance
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Place of origin	Tazmily Village, Nowhere Islands
Created by	Shigesato Itoi
Voice actor	Lani Minella
Article on WikiBound	Lucas

Lucas (リュカ, Lucas) is a character in the EarthBound series, and the main protagonist of the Japan-only Mother 3.

Origin

Lucas is the main protagonist of Mother 3. The son of Flint and Hinawa, he is characterized as more timid than his twin brother, Claus. While playable briefly during the prologue of Mother 3, he is an NPC for the first three chapters of the game, with Flint, Duster, and Salsa being the main characters of those chapters. After reappearing in the climax of Chapter 3 against the Pork Tank, he becomes the main playable character after the three-year time skip to Chapter 4, and retains this role for the remainder of the game.

While he initially leaves his hometown of Tazmily Village to locate Duster, he quickly becomes involved in a greater struggle against the Pigmask Army. He learns PSI, and his ability to use PK Love sets him into a chase against the Masked Man to pull the Seven Needles to awaken the Dark Dragon living under the Nowhere Islands. Lucas' main party of allies includes Kumatora, Duster, and his beloved pet dog Boney.

In battle, Lucas fills the same archetype as his predecessor Ness did in EarthBound, being somewhat slow, but having a strong basic attack and access to a variety of PSI techniques, such as stat boosts, Lifeup, PK Flash, and the aforementioned PK Love. Whereas the previous Mother protagonists wielded baseball bats, Lucas generally wields sticks.

Although Lucas' public image is not on par with Ness', his appearances in the Super Smash Bros. series have nevertheless boosted his recognition from that of a cult favorite to a character that is generally well known within mainstream video game culture.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

According to Super Smash bros. series creator Masahiro Sakurai, Lucas was meant to replace Ness as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Melee. However, Ness was ultimately retained because of time constraints and the cancellation of EarthBound 64, the game that was supposed to mark Lucas' debut.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl

As a playable character

Lucas, as he appears in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Lucas appears as a newcomer in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which also marks his international debut. According to Masahiro Sakurai, he and the development team used Ness as the basis for Lucas' development into a playable character. Although Lucas uses PSI in his moveset, he does so in noticeably different ways compared to Ness, such as with his up tilt, down smash, and back aerial. Unlike Ness, Lucas is also accompanied by the Rope Snake, who functions as his grab and tether recovery.

In regard to special moves, Lucas uses PK Freeze instead of PK Flash, which fittingly freezes an opponent instead of powerfully launching them. Lucas' PK Thunder pierces opponents and consists of multiple hits, instead of disappearing on contact. His PK Fire flies straight ahead even when used in midair, and explodes on contact instead of becoming a pillar of flames like Ness' version. Although Lucas' PSI Magnet can heal him like Ness', he generates it around his hand instead of his body and, unlike Ness' version, it deals damage.

Lastly, Lucas' Final Smash is PK Starstorm, though it differs from Ness' version in a few ways: it consists of more meteors that are yellow, slightly smaller and slightly less damaging, yet have different trajectories and launching angles that make them better for damage racking and targeting multiple opponents. Due to these and several other different aesthetics and mechanics, Lucas is a pseudo-clone of Ness.

Lucas is currently ranked 30th out of 38 on the tier list, placing him in the E tier and at the bottom of the mid tier. His tier placement is primarily due to the additional 10 frames he gets when grab released (a trait he shares with Ness), which makes him vulnerable to grab release follow-ups from every character, including zero-death chain grabs from Marth and Donkey Kong.

Trophy

The Lucas trophy from Brawl.

Lucas

The younger of twin brothers living in Tazmily Village in the Nowhere Islands. He's a kind boy who can communicate with animals, but he's shy and never really got over the tragedy that struck his mother. He fights a warped dictatorship, hunts the Seven Needles, and crosses swords with his missing brother, Claus. In the end, the young boy with psychic PSI powers grows up.

: Mother 3 (Japan Only)

Sticker

Name	Game	Effect	Character(s)
Lucas	Mother 3	Attack +13

Lucas (Mother 3)

In Super Smash Bros. 4

As a playable character

Lucas, as he appears in Super Smash Bros. 4.

Although Lucas was not present in the final roster upon Super Smash Bros. 4's initial worldwide release, he was later released as a DLC character on June 14th, 2015. Prior to this, his non-fighter trophy appeared in both versions of the game, while his special moves became available as custom variations for Ness' respective specials.

According to Masahiro Sakurai, he and the development team once again used Ness as the basis for Lucas' redevelopment as a playable character for SSB4. Sakurai also listed Lucas alongside Mewtwo and Roy as characters whose considerable popularity enabled them to return as playable characters via DLC.

Lucas is currently ranked 28th out of 55 on the tier list, placing him in the C tier. In addition to tying him with Ness, this placing renders him as a high tier character. Like Ness, Lucas no longer possesses the 10 extra grab release frames, a main contributor to his lower mid-tier position in Brawl.

Rope Snake has also become significantly more useful in two ways: the changes to hitstun canceling grant his modified down throw excellent combo potential, while his tether recovery is more reliable thanks to SSB4's new edge mechanics preventing edge-hogging. On a related note, update 1.1.3 presented a significant upgrade to Lucas' grab game, as now his tether grab has noticeably less ending lag, making it reasonably fast for a grab of its nature.

However, Lucas received various nerfs to his damage output, knockback and range, while his useful Magnet Pull and Zap Jump techniques were removed. Overall, Lucas is considerably more viable than he was in Brawl, and he has gained a dedicated playerbase and decent results in competitive play.

Trophies

Lucas

Before adventuring, Lucas was a timid, cautious boy. His journey has made him a stronger person. Maybe he met someone to spend his life with... Hang on—we're moving way too fast! For now, remember that Lucas and Ness are favorites in the hearts of EarthBound fans.

Once upon a time, Lucas was a bit of a cry-baby. You might even say he was a wimp. But then, well...he had more than his fair share of rough times and toughened up a bit. Who knows what he's up to now? Whatever he's doing, his story - much like Ness's - lives on in the hearts of all Mother series fans.

: Mother 3 (Japan Only)

Lucas (Classic)

The younger of the twin brothers from Nowhere makes his triumphant return to the game of Smash. Hailing from the Japan-only game Mother 3, Lucas's specialty is psychic projectile attacks. He can use these PSI attacks to do things like absorb enemy projectiles and deal supernatural damage!

Lucas, the younger of the twin brothers from Tazmily, comes originally from the Japan-only game, Mother 3, and now makes his triumphant return to Super Smash Bros.! Here he makes great use of his PSI powers with lots of projectile attacks, and can use his faster attacks on anybody who gets too close.

Lucas (Alt.)

Lucas’s up special PK Thunder can hit enemies multiple times, but if you hit yourself with it, you can then tackle and launch opponents! Lucas’s up smash has the strongest launch power of any fighter's up smash. The range for this attack is wide, and it’s strongest right after Lucas unleashes the attack.

Lucas's up special, PK Thunder, can either hit enemies multiple times, or hit Lucas himself to push him into a powerful charge attack. Meanwhile, his up smash attack is the most powerful launching move in the entire game, so make good use of it! It's a wide-range attack that is most effective right after Lucas unleashes it.

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  Lucas (3DS)

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  Lucas (Wii U)

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  Classic (3DS)

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  Classic (Wii U)

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  Alt. (3DS)

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  Alt. (Wii U)

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

As a playable character

Lucas, as he appears in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Lucas returns as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He was formally announced alongside the rest of the cast via Ultimate's E3 2018 trailer on June 12th, 2018. Unlike his previous appearances, Lucas is an unlockable character.

In his transition from SSB4, Lucas received a mix of buffs and nerfs. His combo game was significantly toned down due to his down throw having more end lag and footstools being techable. He has received a number of notable buffs, however, such as PK Freeze launching opponents horizontally making it a lethal edge-guarding technique. Furthermore, Ultimate's game engine indirectly buffed him, as the return of directional air dodges allow Lucas to have a reliable recovery mix-up in place of PK Thunder and Rope Snake.

Initially, Lucas' results and representation were scarce, especially compared to his fellow EarthBound representative Ness. However, his playerbase has slowly expanded as the metagame has progressed, with the likes of Mekos, ChocoTaco, Remi and WhYYZ achieving respectable results at regional and even national tournaments.

Spirits

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  564. Lucas

Trivia

• None of Lucas' special moves are used by him in Mother 3. Rather, they are all learned by Kumatora instead. This is similar to Ness, who uses three special moves that he could not learn in EarthBound, but were instead learned by Paula and Poo.
  • Alongside Rope Snake, Lucas' neutral attack and down tilt are references to Duster, whose primary form of attack consists of kicks.
• Lucas' normal PSI-based attacks emit hexagonal blasts of PSI, whereas Ness' emit circular blasts.
• Lucas is the only character to have been a starter character (Brawl), a DLC character (SSB4), and an unlockable character (Ultimate).
  • As a result, he therefore the only character to be cut from an installment, but later on regain playability status in said installment.
  • Due to being a pseudo-clone, he is also the first clone of any kind to be available by default, announced as DLC, and to not be added late in development prior to debuting in the Super Smash Bros. series.
• Lucas' home village is transcribed as Tazumili in the NTSC Brawl, but Mother 3 creator Shigesato Itoi stated that the village is Tazmily when written in the Latin alphabet. This was corrected in the PAL release of Brawl and its subsequent installments.
• Not counting the Mystery Mushroom costumes from Super Mario Maker, Lucas and Dark Pit are the only playable characters that have only appeared in their debut games outside of their Super Smash Bros. appearances.
• Although Lucas has only appeared in a Japanese-exclusive game, he is voiced by Lani Minella, an American actress.
• Lucas is the only playable character in the Super Smash Bros. series that has never appeared outside Japan otherwise.
  • Marth and Roy's debut games were never released outside of Japan, although they both appeared in later games. Namely, Marth first appeared outside of Japan in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon in 2008, and Roy first appeared outside of Japan in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade in 2003.
  • Lucas is the second playable character whose game of origin was never released outside of Japan (including remakes). The first was Roy.
• Lucas, Pokémon Trainer and the Ice Climbers' non-fighter trophies in SSB4 reuse their models from Brawl.
  • Lucas' pose in this trophy is also similar to his character artwork from Brawl.
• Lucas, Roy, Greninja, and Dark Pit are the only characters to have never appeared on a home console outside of the Super Smash Bros. series or the Virtual Console.

External links

• Ness's Smabura-Ken page, including comment about his intended exclusion from Melee - Translated by Google
• Lucas' Smash Bros. DOJO!! (US) page