Nagamasa Azai is a well-rounded character with quick attacks and fast movement. He’s themed like a tokusatsu super hero (a combination of Super Sentai and Kamen Rider) and poses after everything he does. His moves use his sword and his shield, the swords for the bulk of his moves (such as drawing a laser cross into the air and shooting it outwards) and the shield for ranged attacks that draw enemies together (throwing it like a boomerang). His gimmick is that he can charge himself up to three levels albeit in a different way from Shibata Katsuie. Nagamasa has an invisible meter that builds as you attack people and you go up one level when it’s full. One of his special arts is used just for charging and you can see your progress while charging with it. The first level enhances his sword, the second level his shield, and the third his body. Level three makes his incredible strong, leaving laser slashes in the air with every strike and doing heavy damage will of his attacks. All of his special arts are powered up and enhanced and he can do special versions that cause him to pose while the screen freezes and Japanese text appears on the screen. Those will revert you back to level one however, which will eventually happen anyway after a certain amount of time.
Furthermore, as I mentioned earlier Nagamasa will pose after every move he does and will have some part of him glimmer or shine. If you do his charging special art right after that shine you will instantly charge one level. This lets you quickly build your levels while attacking. Even more interesting is that his charging special itself has two glimmer points on startup and if you time it right for both you will instantly charge up to level three. The problem is that the transformation takes so long that your combo will end. If you’re starting a combo putting yourself instantly into level three is great but mid-combo you’ll want to be get the one-level charges after every move since those allow you to keep your combo afterwards.
That’s a direction I think anyone can appreciate.
