Riki

Riki (, Riki) is a character from the universe. He is a and the supposed "Heropon" from his culture's prophecies and one of Shulk's party members.

Origin
In , is one of Shulk's party members, being the second-to-last playable character to permanently join the team (being the last to be introduced, as Fiora leaves the party for an extended period before becoming its final member). He is a resident of, the Nopon village, and has been assigned the yearly position of "Heropon" by the village elder. As the Heropon, he is told to join Shulk and his party to help defeat the rampaging through the forest. Riki quickly reveals that he was selected as Heropon not because he is skilled or special, but as a way to work off the massive debts accrued by his many children's appetites. Once the Telethia is defeated, Riki is told to continue travelling with Shulk and assist him as needed, which while again framed by the elder as prophecy, is easily seen by everyone as a way to get rid of him. Afterward, Riki has almost no effect on the plot at large, and only serves as occasional comic relief.

Much like his appearance, Riki is a very childish character. He is very enthusiastic, gets hungry easily, speaks in a largely childish matter, refers to the party as "Heropon and sidekicks", and often thanks himself for contributing more than he actually did in any given situation. However, as a 40-year old married father of eleven (to the surprise of non-Nopon), with two of them named and  in , he is surprisingly knowledgable with interpersonal relationships; he relates to Dunban's difficulties of taking care of younger family members, and tries to support  by reading her hidden emotions and weaknesses.

While Riki is presented as goofy and ineffective in plot, he has a variety of useful skills in battle. He wields several arts that have unusual effects that can be stacked together, many of which hit multiple foes. He has an even spread of physical and ether attacks, an effective healing move, and the most health of any playable character. His talent art is, which allows him to steal items, stat boosts, and experience points from enemies. But while Riki can do a lot of things, he is not the best at any of them - he can't effectively use his high health to tank when several of his arts are best used without aggro, his other stats are very middling, and everything he can do can be done more consistently by someone else. As a result, he can fill a variety of roles in many party compositions.

Riki's six arts as an Assist Trophy all originate from his available arts in Xenoblade Chronicles, with similar effects. He also participates in Shulk's Final Smash, Chain Attack, in a similar way to the mechanic in the original game. During the Final Smash, Riki can be seen attacking with his, a weapon specific to him, and also using a seventh art,.

Riki's fate is unknown after the events of Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected, as he does not appear in  besides as a cameo in a flashback from, which happens in her last Hero Quest, and a replica of his , named , left at Low Maktha Wildwood. However, in the DLC , explains that his father has travelled with Melia in the past, which indicates he is either Kino's son as the latter was a party member in Future Connected, or one of the other nine Nopon Riki has adopted. Non canonically, he also cameos in "" in , as the single foe of wave 12.

In Super Smash Bros. 4
Riki appears both as an Assist Trophy and part of Shulk's Final Smash. All of his voice clips are directly ripped from Xenoblade Chronicles. Upon being summoned, Riki will announce "Leave it to Heropon!", and once his time is up, he disappears while saying "All go to plan!"

While he is mostly based on his default appearance, his hairdo is instead based on.

As an Assist Trophy
Riki stands in place and randomly uses three of the following Arts:
 *  raises the launch and attack power of all fighters. Riki announces "Happy, happy time!" when using it.
 *  can freeze nearby opponents. Riki will announce "F-f-f-Freezinate!" while using it.
 *  pulls items close to Riki. Riki giggles before saying the name of the Art.
 *  puts opponents to sleep. Riki says "Sleepy, sleepy... bedtime!" while using it.
 *  heals all fighters in a certain range. Riki announces the Art's name while doing so.
 *  trips opponents if they're on the ground. Riki says the line "Roly, poly, keep on rolling!" while doing so.

Assist role
Riki appears in 's Final Smash. He is summoned alongside Dunban to use a Chain Attack on the trapped opponent, before Shulk sends the foe flying. In this Chain Attack, Riki appears to use his Art.

In Smash Tour
Riki appears as a blue item: when selected, it draws all nearby items to the user as they walk.

As a costume
's yellow costume is based on Riki's color scheme.

As an Assist Trophy
Riki reprises his role as an Assist Trophy. His hairstyle is closer to his default outfit and artwork from his home game compared to the previous game. Rather than raising attack and launch distance, Happy Happy raises speed and launch distance. He also uses 4 arts instead of 3 before disappearing.

Training Mode describes his Assist Trophy with the following: ''Applies various effects to fighters. Can't be KO'd.''

Riki cannot appear on Arena Ferox, Brinstar, Corneria, Magicant, Peach's Castle, Spiral Mountain, Spirit Train, Tortimer Island, and Wrecking Crew.

Assist role
Riki also returns as part of Chain Attack, 's Final Smash, this time with Fiora joining in.

Spirit
Riki appears as a master spirit. The following is a list of quotes that Riki can say when a player visits his dojo.
 * "Friends keep Riki waiting!"
 * "Learn style of Riki and get these best effects!"
 * "What friends want do?"
 * "Heropon give special sidekick training!"
 * "How Riki can help you?"
 * "Leave training?"
 * "Left training!"
 * "You give [number]00SP and Riki teach Strategist Style right away!"
 * "Sidekick learned new style! Grow big-strong!"
 * "Visit Riki anytime!"

Trivia

 * Riki is one of seven Assist Trophies to appear in a second capacity within a single game, appearing in 's Chain Attack. The others are the Hammer Bro., the Starman, Lakitu & Spinies, the Chain Chomp, Rathalos, Spring Man and the.
 * Riki is also the first Assist Trophy to not appear as an enemy, being followed by Spring Man.
 * Excluding Mario and Dr. Mario, who are considered separate in-game characters, Riki and are the only characters to appear in multiple Sound Test folders in Ultimate. In Riki's case, his Chain Attack voice clips are listed in Shulk's folder, while his Assist Trophy voice clips are listed under the Assist Trophy folder.
 * Riki is the only Assist Trophy to run a facility in Ultimate.
 * Kat & Ana were an Assist Trophy prior to Ultimate, but they only appear as a Master Spirit in the game.

Riki