Lucas

Lucas
The in-game sprite of older Lucas from Mother 3.
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/Mother universe, debuting in the Japan-only Mother 3 for Game Boy Advance.

Character description

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's main party of allies includes Kumatora, Duster, and 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.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

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.

“	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。)	”
—Masahiro Sakurai, Smabura-Ken Ness page (Japanese)

Both Ness and Lucas would ultimately appear as playable characters in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl

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's, but with some key differences. For example, Lucas's PK Thunder goes through opponents and can deal multiple hits, while Ness's PK Thunder disappears on contact. Lucas's Final Smash is PK Starstorm, which he shares with Ness. Lucas also has near-identical physics to Ness's. The majority of Lucas's moves completely differ from Ness's, leaving him as a semi-clone of Ness.

Lucas is ranked 30th on the tier list in E tier. His low-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

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

Lucas as he appears in Super Smash Bros. 4.

Although he was not present in the final roster upon the initial worldwide release, Lucas was released as a DLC character on June 14th, 2015. His non-fighter trophy appeared in both versions of the game, in addition to his special moves which are available as custom special moves for Ness.

Lucas currently ranks at 32nd place out of 58 characters on the Smash 4 tier list in C tier. As with Ness, Lucas no longer possesses the extra grab release frames, a main contributor to his low tier position in Brawl. His Rope Snake tether recovery has also been made more reliable, thanks to Smash 4's new edge mechanics preventing edge-hogging. However, Lucas received various nerfs to his damage output, knockback and range. He also lost his useful Magnet Pull and Zap Jump techniques. However, update 1.1.3 presented a significant upgrade to Lucas's grab game, as now his tether grab has noticeably less cooldown, making it reasonably fast for a grab of its nature. Because of the buff, Lucas can more reliably set up combos with his throws, most noteworthy being down throw, which can easily link into at least two neutral aerials at low percentages. Lucas is overall 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)

Trivia

• Lucas' regular PSI-based attacks emit hexagonal blasts of PSI, whereas Ness' emit circular blasts.
• Lucas is the first clone/semi-clone to be a starter in a Smash Bros. game.
• 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.
• Lucas, Shulk, 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.
• None of Lucas' special moves in Brawl 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 the Rope Snake, Lucas' neutral attack and down tilt are references to Duster, whose primary form of attack is a series of spin kicks.
• Lucas' non-fighter trophy in SSB4 reuses his model from Brawl, like the trophies of Pokémon Trainer and the Ice Climbers, who were also cut from the game.
  • Lucas' pose in this trophy is similar to his artwork from Brawl.

External links

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