Jet Burn Character Design Dive

Please join the UVS Games Design Team as they give you a quick look into the thoughts and design of their favorite characters from the new UniVersus set: Jet Burn!

Shane Duckworth - Game Designer

Katsuki Bakugo .IV:

One of the design directives for Jet Burn was to have Bakugo be competitively slanted.  He was assigned Void during the resource symbol distribution process, which has traditionally been the hand discard symbol dating all the way back to 2006.  Discarding your rival’s hand and leaving them defenseless without blocks is an extremely powerful way to win the game.  Historically this style of offense has proven incredibly strong, sometimes too strong!  With this in mind, we have been playing it moderately safe with the My Hero Academia world of UniVersus.  With Bakugo’s aggressive nature and hot temper, we felt like it was time to create what might be the best hand disruption character yet in the My Hero Academia sets!

Dabi .II:

Dabi assumes the “mastermind” role for Jet Burn, so you may see some parallels to Tomura Shigaraki from League of Villains, who played the mastermind role for that story arc.  Dabi puts his own spin on the theme of forcing his opponent to make checks. Instead of drawing 1 card like Shigaraki did, he gets rewarded with seeing the top card of his deck.  This is extremely valuable information in UniVersus as it helps plan out the next move!  Dabi has another ability which gets stronger for every check your rival makes in a turn.  It can get really wild if you combine his support with Shigaraki’s support from League of Villains!

Ryukyu:

Ryukyu’s Dragon quirk has an emphasis on strength and durability. Originally we had started with a “Big 6 Difficulty Attacks'' theme, but ultimately switched to “Vanilla Attacks with Overtuned Stats'' to help with a design directive of making limited play fun for Jet Burn. I attended two pre-releases for Jet Burn and Ryukyu’s attacks sure put in work!  Her vanilla cards all have great block mods as well, representing her immense durability.  Ryukyu is my favorite character to play from Jet Burn, and she is a rather simple deck to help a new player with!

Clint Badger - Game Designer

Endeavor .III:

Endeavor is the new #1 hero, and he is here to claim the spot as the premiere self-mill character! Endeavor has spent his entire adult life trying to overcome his issue of overheating while fighting, and you can help him burn through his deck by utilizing older Endeavor cards such as Flashfire Fist and Revel At His Masterpiece. Endeavor might want to check out a couple of fire-wielding characters from set 3 that he may know. Dabi’s Blue Flame Palm Strike and Shoto’s Freezer Burn both help Endeavor push his heat even further, maybe even beyond Plus Ultra!

Gentle Criminal:

Gentle Criminal is the pure embodiment of the Chaos symbol, with his gameplay designed to feel exciting and unpredictable. While he needs a bit of momentum to get going, if Gentle Criminal is given an inch, he can turn it into a mile! Cards such as Training With Gunhead, All Worked Up, and Spiral Wave Surge can gain new life by helping propel Gentle Criminal to glorious triumph! Gentle is also adept at getting out of tight situations. If his rival blocks with a Breaker, he can bounce off of it to make his next technique even faster!

Shoto Todoroki .IV:

At this point in the story, Shoto is learning to be more precise with his power. Using the two sides of his Quirk in unison, while not simmering over, allows Shoto to be calm with the kids and helps guide them. The new Shoto is focused around shutting down key pieces of his rival’s board and pressing the advantage while you have this opening. Shoto proves that he is still an Irrefutable Force Of Nature, and he can even block with Always Cool to cool off his opponent’s board a bit on defense.

Jeremy Ray - Game Designer

Hawks:

Hawks is the #2 Pro Hero, but is he a hero or a villain? Our design for Hawks was focusing on Hawks acting as a double agent giving him both the Pro Hero and Villain traits, working between the heroes and the villains in order to achieve his goals. Mechanically we wanted to capture the versatility of Hawk’s quirk, Fierce Wings.

Hawks was built from day 1 with how he would leverage his signature attack Hawks’ Feather. We wanted the feathers to be played on basically every turn to accurately reflect the swarm of feathers you face when taking on Hawks. Hawks can manipulate his feathers to form weapons or as the weapons themselves. This gives his support good synergy with cards like Blood Moon Rending or Twin Sword Slicer and other cards that combo well off other weapon cards in your deck. A big tool to create the diverse lines of play we wanted from Hawks’ Feather is Feather Storm, removing his feathers from progressive difficulty and allowing him to use them at any time and in any way he needs. We know Hawks is a fan favorite and can’t wait to see what kind of brews pop up in play groups across the world.

Hood:

Hood is a dangerous High End Nomu. Unleashed by Dabi to challenge the new #1 Pro Hero Endeavor. A combination of deadly quirks and a ruthless motivation to push himself and his opponent to their absolute limit, we wanted Hood to encompass his desire to see More POWER, challenging his opponents to hit him as hard as they can and bouncing back from those hits, demoralizing his opposition as he appears unstoppable. All while capturing his unorthodox but devastating offense, hitting Endeavor with a variety of dangerous attacks.

We really wanted to show off one of Hood’s coolest traits in his design, his mocking and challenging nature. We wanted him to take his opponent's best shot and then swing back even harder. We captured this by making him punish his opponent for playing his game, Hood wants your best shot and he is gonna make you pay. The unorthodox nature of Hood's stretching, living weapon style attacks we wanted to capture with an unconventional damage pump, devastating at times but also coming in a variety shapes and sizes. Hood smashes, stabs and even bites Endeavor during their battle, and we wanted that all captured. Stretching Slam and Summon Nomus really captures the heart of Hood’s offense, propelling massive attacks and massive follow ups that can land massive damage pumps. Cards like Hulking Grimace and Looming can go a long way to create high end threats that cannot be ignored just like Hood himself. Hood is a monstrous enemy and an opponent to be feared in any format.

Tsuyu Asui .IV:

Tsuyu Asui is here to represent Class 1-A! Asui is excellent at adapting to the needs of the situation and her teammates. We wanted to show off her flexibility when it comes to dangerous situations. Rescue, combat, stealth, and strategy Asui can do it all!

Mechanically, we wanted to capture her adaptability, always finding and having the right tool for the job. When a new problem comes along, like your opponent blocking your attack, she springs back up and is ready to find a new solution. Making the most of being committed or ready, she squeezes every ounce of value out of cards like Frog Strike and Frog Stomp. The cards that do the heavy lifting when she is committed Frog Hop and Rescue specialist let her put together dangerous strings that force your opponent into lose-lose situations. She can even reach back and grab more options to leverage her ready/commit gameplay like Exhausted Exclamation and 20 Meter Tongue Strike. She can convert her card advantage into fuel for Prone To Dry Eyes and create hard hitting attack strings. Asui opens up tons of possibilities in deck construction and can support lots of different ideas and engines. We hope you have as much fun brewing and playing decks with her as we did.

Tim Friedlieb - Rules Manager

Best Jeanist:

Best Jeanist approaches everything in life with a cool head and a measured response. This is not a man prone to knee-jerk reactions. He allows them enough slack to get into the middle of a tangle, and at the right time, he pulls the string and tightens the knot. Best Jeanist  rewards himself for playing ranged cards, including non-attacks, of which there are a few new cards in Jet Burn. Being able to always prepare for a second attack, be that his own on offense or his rival’s when defending, Jeanist can replenish his resources by drawing an additional card, as well as stifle the rival’s ability to continue to play cards by clogging up their card pool. Best Jeanist is a character for anyone that likes to let the rival know the trap they are walking into and invite them to try and overcome it.

Izuku Midoriya V:

One of my main goals when designing a character is to make sure to get the flow of movement correct. It’s important to make sure that the play experience translates the impression of movement that the character exhibits in their source material. This version of Midoriya is centered around his run-in with Gentle Criminal, while he is in the middle of mastering the Air Force skills taught to him by All Might. By releasing small bursts of air created by displacing the air pressure from charged up One For All movements, Midoriya is able to attack enemies without physically engaging them. This is expressed by the constant quick bursts of action as Midoriya trades off readying a rival foundation for speed to push his attacks through. Midoriya has a history of having to pay the cost of discarding 1 or more cards to gain the benefit of increased speed and/or damage and this time is no different. By discarding 1 card he is able to dig deep into his will to continue his fight for justice as long as he’s planned out his angle of attack and playing lots of Charge attacks.

Kyoka Jiro II:

This version of Jiro is focused solely on the School Festival and the concert that Class 1-A decides to perform for the rest of the students. With a desire to put the other students of U.A. High at ease after all the turmoil going on around them, she is supported by her fellow classmates to deliver a wonderful experience. We knew from the early days of development that we wanted to express the concert in a way that wasn’t simply more combat. That said, UniVersus is still a game that has a basic gameplay function. So we worked to develop her alternate win condition to compliment her fighting capability. We didn’t want to force players to engage with her in one specific way over another. Balancing combat ability with a clear defined end goal like an alternate win con is no easy task, but we’re fairly happy with where Kyoka ended up. With Jiro II and her band, your heart can be set without backing down, and you can be a Hero, too!