- For fighter info, see Lucas (SSBB), Lucas (SSB4), and Lucas (SSBU).
Lucas (リュカ, Lucas) is a character in the EarthBound/Mother universe, debuting in the Japan-only Mother 3 for Game Boy Advance.
Character description[edit]
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 four of 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. Where previous Mother protagonists wielded baseball bats, Lucas generally wields sticks.
When Masahiro Sakurai updated the original Smabura-Ken with Ness's profile on July 17th, 2001, he said that Lucas was meant to replace Ness as a playable character, but Ness was included due to time constraints, and likely due to the cancellation in 1999 of EarthBound 64, the first version of Mother 3 that had been worked on.
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Actually, at first, I planned to change him [Ness] into the protagonist of Mother 3 [Lucas], but for various reasons during the delay, I settled back on the original idea. (実は当初、MOTHER3の主人公に変更する予定でしたが、いろいろあって遠回りしながら、元のさやに収まりました。)
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| —Masahiro Sakurai, Smabura-Ken Ness page (Japanese)
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Both Ness and Lucas would ultimately appear as playable characters in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
As a playable character[edit]
 Lucas, as he appears in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Lucas makes his Super Smash Bros. series debut, and by extension his international debut, in Brawl. His special moves are similar to Ness', but with some key differences. For example, Lucas' PK Thunder goes through opponents and can deal multiple hits, whereas Ness' version disappears on contact. Lucas' Final Smash is PK Starstorm, which he shares with Ness. Lucas also has near-identical physics to Ness'. The majority of Lucas's moves completely differ from Ness', leaving him as a semi-clone of Ness.
Lucas is currently ranked 30th out of 38 on the tier list, placing him in the E tier. His lower mid-tier placing 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 description[edit]
 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[edit]
Lucas
(Mother 3)
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As a playable character[edit]
 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.[1]
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 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[edit]
- 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.
As a playable character[edit]
 Lucas, as he appears in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Lucas returns as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Unlike his previous appearances, he is now an unlockable character.
Sprites[edit]
- As of Ultimate, Lucas, Captain Olimar and Joker are the only characters who have non-playable characters assist them with both normal and special moves. In Lucas' case, Rope Snake participates in his grabs and grab aerial, and Boney and Kumatora both participate in PK Starstorm.
- 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).
- 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.
- 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.
- Ultimate is the only video game to feature Mother 3 characters other than Lucas being rendered in 3D.
- Lucas, Pokémon Trainer and the Ice Climbers' non-fighter trophies in SSB4 reuse their models from Brawl.
- Lucas, Roy, Greninja, Dark Pit, and Incineroar are the only characters to have never appeared on a home console outside of the Super Smash Bros. series.
- Lucas is the only DLC character in SSB4 to have ever been a starter, as all DLC characters are unlockable in Ultimate, and Mewtwo and Roy are unlockable in Melee.
- Lucas is the only DLC character in SSB4 that debuted in Brawl. As a result, he is the only character to have ever been cut from a game, but not be definitively absent from an installment.
References[edit]
External links[edit]
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