Make a Musou – Batman Musou

Hello, and welcome to a new series on The Story Arc. I love Dynasty Warriors, the number of times I bring it up and the multiple Musou related articles I’ve written should be proof enough of that. However, I am currently in a Dynasty Warriors drought as I have no interest in Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires so I thought it was time to flex some creative writing.

But what could I do? When it comes to Dynasty Warriors content you can find whatever you want online ready. For the past twenty years the internet has been filled with character analyses, essays on the storytelling, and gameplay deconstructions. I don’t have much to add when talking about Dynasty Warriors itself. However there is one question that everyone has had at one point in time; “What if ___ was a Musou game?”

That’s right, it’s time to pretend we’ve gone back to the Tumblr days when imagining your ideal game and talking to people about it wasn’t cringe! I have asked my friends to give me a list of franchises and I will make a Musou roster out of each and every one of them.

So what’s the first franchise on the list? It’s one of the most well known comic series of all time. A franchise with as much heart and fun as murder and clowns. That’s right, for the first installment of this series I will be thinking up a Batman Musou roster

Now we must discuss how Musou Movesets typically work if we are going to create fifteen of them. First let’s go over the basics of each character’s normal attacks. You all likely know how Musou movesets work on a basic level, you string together combos consisting of light attacks and heavy attacks. However there is a pattern that movesets typically follow that I feel needs some explaining.

Pressing light attack once and then heavy will knock enemies directly in front of you in the air allowing for a juggle or for you yourself to transition into an attempted combo.

Pressing light attack two times and then a heavy will perform an attack that while not super powerful will hit enemies close to you, generally on your left and right.

Pressing light attack three times and then heavy will perform an attack that while not your strongest will hit a wide range of enemies.

Pressing light attack four times and then a heavy will perform an attack that is either straight forward or will move you slightly forward

Finally, pressing light attack five times and then triangle will perform an attack that does plenty of damage in a short range, the perfect attack for enemy officers.

These are the foundations of a basic Musou moveset however there is more to explain and think of for our roster.

The bar you have been seeing below or next to the health bars in this footage is the Musou gauge. Once it is full you are able to unleash your most powerful attack: a Musou attack. So we’ll need to think of a Musou for everyone.

Next we have the trickiest part of our roster, the R1/RB button. The R1/RB button is used as a weapon switch in mainline Dynasty Warriors but various spin offs have used it as a button that activates a unique skill or attack for a character. These attacks can span from being very average to something atypical so thinking about each character’s unique will be hard.

Finally we’re going to incorporate something that main modern Musous and Musou clones have, skill attacks. Holding down a button will give you an option of activating a skill. Most of these are just buffs like increased attack or speed, however many Musous give characters extra moves via skills. As we want to make this hypothetical game seem as appealing as possible we shall come up with 3 skill attacks for each character.

And that’s everything! 5 Normal combos, a musou attack, a unique skill, and 3 skill attacks for each character. As we go into this I won’t describe what each and every character’s individual combos will be but rather just how we imagine them playing with a few combo examples. I will mostly focus on describing every Musou, unique, and skill attack we come up with. A fair warning as well that I won’t talk about some characters as much as others, thinking of 15 movesets is difficult especially when you aren’t the most knowledgeable about every member of the Bat Family.

With everything about how we will go about this explained let’s move on.

Before we get into anything we first need to figure out how big the roster could be. While a true dream would be everyone playable we’re going to have to be realistic with this. Other licensed Musous started with rosters of these sizes

Berserk Musou – 8 characters
Arslan Musou – 16 characters
Dragon Quest Musou – 13 characters + 1 DLC
Touken Ranbu Musou – 15 characters
One Piece Pirate Warriors – 15 characters

As we are currently dealing with Batman, one of the largest Superhero IPs in existence we’re going for the higher end of the spectrum. I can pick 15 characters, no more than that. These 15 characters will be a mix of heroes and villains, but with a larger emphasis on heroes.

And now, finally, we can start discussing the roster

Character 1: Batman (Bruce Wayne)

Easily the hardest part of thinking movesets for these characters becomes apparent immediately. The Batman mythos is full of people who primarily use their fists for fighting. So we need to both think of ways to differentiate how they’ll be punching as well as thinking of gadgets for some of them to throw into their movesets. Now, how do I imagine Bruce playing?

There are so many ways you can go with Batman. Batman has been portrayed by so many different artists and writers over the years and how he fights has also varied greatly. Do I make him an agile ninja, knocking out thugs in the blink of an eye? Do I make him a mostly ranged character who makes use of gadgets like Batarangs?

For the sake of variety in the roster, I have it so that he will be slow and his combos won’t have the widest range. The Batman for our roster is going to be a brawler. We’ll be looking at stories like Dark Knight Returns where Batman often got into fist fights that involved grabbing people and sometimes just jumping at them for inspiration. Imagine Ding Feng from Dynasty Warriors 7 for a similar character.

Batman’s basic light attacks will mostly be fist jabs. They’ll each hit a few enemies but not as many as most other characters’ light attacks. For his first combo I want him to uppercut an enemy into the air and then grapple hook up to them. If the player then hits the heavy attack again Bruce will slam on the ground with bats surrounding him.

All of his combos will be heavy hitters like this and mostly focus on Batman as a fighter. However there are two combos which I think should use gadgets. For his third combo that should hit a range of enemies he will throw out batarangs directly in front of him. These tools are such an iconic part of Batman that not including them is impossible.

For his fifth combo that should be devastating to enemy commanders we’ll take inspiration from Injustice. Batman will grab whoever is directly in front of him, cover them in explosive gel, and detonate it. Hurting whoever was covered most and inflicting damage on surrounding enemies.

That’s the basic moveset down. A slow brawler who does devastating damage. Now we get into the one off attacks. His special skill, his Musou, and his skill attacks.

Deciding a Musou for him was very hard. Musou attacks are supposed to be a character’s most devastating action but also a display of their personality. I went through many ideas for this ranging from snapping someone’s arm as he did in Dark Knight Returns to summoning the Bat Plane. However the one I did pick, although not really suiting a brawler character, is one that would show an iconic part of Batman mythos.

For his Musou I want Bruce to call Alfred and then the Bat-Mobile drives past you, devastating enemies before disappearing off screen. Deciding a Musou for Batman was hard but I hope this one is satisfying.

Next let’s go for a special skill. We’ll take influence from the Arkham games. If you press R1, if an enemy attacks you within the next few seconds Batman will do a little counter animation that deals heavy damage. It’s very situational as you should never be planning on enemies hitting you in these games but we have had counters in Musous before.

Now let’s discuss skill attacks. None of these need to be particularly special, they’re mostly used as a way of giving characters some extra attacks in the games they appear in.

For Batman’s first skill attack I want him to lunge forward at a group of enemies, arms forward like he’s an animal attacking. Other than the batarangs this will be his one move that attacks many enemies, thus why it will be limited to a skill attack recharge time.

For one of his other skill attacks, I want to reuse an idea I didn’t use for a Musou attack. The iconic moment from the Dark Knight Returns where Batman holds down the leader of the Mutants and breaks one of his limbs. This attack will be devastating, almost as much as his Musou, and targeted at whoever is in front of him

And that’s it! We have our first character written, only 1,500 words into the piece! How many characters do we have left? 14?!

Character 2 Nightwing (Dick Grayson)

Another pick who you can’t exclude from any Batman roster with multiple playable characters. Dick Grayson was the first Robin and one of the most iconic comic book characters of all time. Plus, Nightwing is just cool.

Making a moveset for him is also quite easy as instead of being a fist fighter like a lot of our hero cast he actually has a weapon which video games have consistently given him. His, uh, – *googles* – …his Escrima Sticks (He also uses them in relatively the same way in all his video game appearances so forgive me if this isn’t as interesting as others on the list.).

Dick is going to be one of the fastest characters in our roster, the man is an acrobat after all. His light attacks will all involve bashing enemies with these sticks, he won’t have a lot of range but he won’t need it as each light attack will also move him slightly.

His heavy combos will all involve him showing off his athletic skills. Doing flips into crowds, doing sweeping kicks that move him as well as knocking enemies into the air, all the things you would expect from someone who fights while moving. If I were to make a comparison to Dynasty Warriors I would imagine him being a combination of Zhuge Dan from DW8 and Ling Tong.

I don’t have any specific combos to lay out for him like I did with Bruce so let’s just go into his special skill and his skill attacks.

For his special skill we’ll go with something simple. If you press R1 Nightwing will bash his two sticks together and they’ll have an electricity effect. This effect will work like lightning in most Musou where your attacks will have a shockwave effect when they hit enemies, massively increasing your combo count and range.

Speaking of Nightwing and electricity, let’s talk about his Musou attack. It’ll be a lot less fanservice-y than Bruce’s but still devastating. He’ll hit his two sticks against each other and this will send multiple lines of electricity to shock and knock out the enemies in front of him.

Now we just need to think of three skill attacks for him. These were actually a bit hard for me to come up with so hopefully the result is good.

The first is fairly simple, he’ll use a gadget to grapple himself toward a crowd of enemies. This won’t really do much damage but it will allow you to transition into combos.

For his second skill attack we’ll be doing something that most games just make part of normal movesets for him. Putting together his two sticks into a staff and performing a combo like that. As I wanted his heavy attacks to mostly focus on stuff like flips and kicks, a heavy hitting move like this felt more suited to this.

Finally for his third skill we’ll have the Wingcycle appear out of nowhere under you and Nightwing will spin in place on it a few times dealing damage.

And there we go, video games have universally decided how Nightwing will fight already so he wasn’t the most interesting moveset to come up with. So let’s go into a character who has a lot less mainstream appearances

Character 3 Robin (Damian Wayne)

Batman has had so many Robin’s over the years. The amount of kids or teens under Bruce’s wing is immense. However of all those Robin’s perhaps none has appeared less in the mainstream than Damian Wayne. Dick, Jason, and Tim have all appeared in mainstream media either as Robin or as a different identity, but Damian? Damian has had a few animated movies but any other appearance of his on TV is usually as part of an ensemble and his only video game appearances are the Injustice games.

While sad for Damian, this makes things more fun for us. With fewer appearances, we’ll have to be more creative coming up with his moveset than with Dick, for whom we mostly copied other video games for inspiration. Our Robin will be a sort of middle ground between our Batman and Nightwing. He won’t be as powerful as his father but he won’t be as fast as Nightwing. However he’ll have one trait over both of them: range. Damian’s heavy attacks will all hit a decent amount of enemies.

The one trait I would want to come across in Damian’s moveset above all others is his cocky nature. He’ll be holding a sword at all times because we need characters with unique weapons and Damian is a master of using one, but I only want him to use it in only a few attacks. I don’t want him to use it a lot because he is still a Robin and I don’t want it to look like he’s killing every mook. Instead his light attacks will be various martial arts similar to his father whereas his heavy combos will involve him using various weapons.

For his first combo to knock an enemy into the air he’ll pull out a staff, this attack is inspired by his appearance in Injustice and pretty much the only time I’ll be taking inspiration from that version of Damian

Like Batman his third combo for hitting a range of enemies will be throwing sharp projectiles. It’s a cloned move but it makes sense for him

His fifth combo is the only time I want him to actually use the sword in his normal moveset. As the fifth combo is meant to be devastating to enemy commanders this seems like the perfect move to let him actually use it.

For his Musou attack we’re going to pull another bit of fanservice. After pressing the Musou button, Damian will give a smug smirk and suddenly Goliath will drop down and attack enemies around him.

I don’t really have anything planned for his skill attacks. As I wanted him to use the sword as little as possible in his normal moveset I would want it to be used in various ways during these attacks. It being skills as opposed to his normal moveset would allow the sword to feel alien, as if using these skills is against Batman’s allowed code.

With Damian properly explain let’s move on to our next character, one who surely pops into most people’s minds when they think of Batman

Character 4: Red Robin (Tim Drake)

Of course we’re having Tim Drake on the roster! He was Robin for a longer period of time than any of the others, he was Robin for half of Batman the Animated series!

Tim has wings on his costume. He may have many costumes without it and the wings aren’t in most mainstream media with him, but we are going to give him wings in his moveset and he is going to use them!

Tim is going to be a rare Musou archetype: an air fighter. Similar to characters like Xiaoqiao in DW8E he will have several moves to send enemies or himself into the air. Once in the air he will have attacks that either keep him in place in the air or propel him forward to continue hitting enemies.

For Tim’s Musou attack we’ll give Young Justice fans some love. Tim will call in Superboy, Impulse, and Wonder Girl to give any nearby enemies the smack down.

For his first skill attack we’ll have him use a gadget that will be a bit of fanservice for a character who didn’t make my roster. Tim will throw down a freeze bomb and jump into the air, freezing enemies around him in place so he can hit them.

I didn’t have much to say about Tim Drake, I’d say he was one of the hardest characters on the roster to decide how they will play. So let’s just move on to another character with Red in their name

Character 5: Red Hood (Jason Todd)

Jason Todd is iconic and I’m tired of seeing him. Maybe it’s just because I am not a deep reader of comics and mostly absorb knowledge of characters from other media but it feels like there’s only two stories that get told with him. Anyway, onto how he plays.

Jason is going to primarily be using something that no other member of our hero roster uses: guns! His light attacks and heavy combos will all involve using handguns in different ways to send enemies flying. However while these wouldn’t be the only weapon we have him use

For his third heavy combo that hits a range of enemies I want him to throw out bombs. He could use batarangs too but I already have multiple people on this roster throwing batarangs

When activating his Musou attack Jason will pull out a grenade launcher and decimate enemies in front of him.

For his first two skill attacks I want him to pull out other guns, like a shotgun and a machine gun. Yes I’m going all in with him using guns.

However, for his third skill I want him to pull out a crowbar and beat down whatever enemy is in front of him.

With Jason done, let’s move on to our first female character on the roster, one who was hurt by the Joker even more than him.

Character 6 Batgirl (Barbara Gordon)

You all know Barbara Gordon, whether you know her as Batgirl or as Oracle you’ve at least heard the name. She’ll be the Batgirl in our roster because of this iconic status and because she has a movie coming out (sorry Stephanie).

Is it cruel to make Barbara’s moveset focused around kicking? I’m just going to not think about it as we move forward with this idea.

Yes, our Batgirl is going to be an extremely agile fighter. Her moveset will involve a lot of kicking and jumping around. However unlike our Nightwing her jumping won’t include flipping or other things you expect from an acrobat, instead she’ll be going directly at enemies to lay down the hurt.

For her fifth combo she’ll jump directly at an enemy commander like Batman’s first skill attack, but instead of knocking them down and punching them she’ll do some rapid kicks.

For Barbara’s Musou I want her to have a fanservicey attack similar to Tim’s. She’ll call in the Black Canary and Huntress so the Birds of Prey can do a combination attack with each other.

For one of her skill attacks I want Barbara to call in the Batplane to shoot rubber bullets at mooks. We have a lot of vehicles represented across various movesets and I thought it only fair to let the plane shine in someone’s.

Remember how I had a difficult time thinking of how Tim would play? Barbara was even harder. Thankfully she was the last major roadblock I had when thinking up movesets. It’s all smooth sailing from here

Character 7: Catwoman (Selina Kyle)

Selina Kyle is an iconic character who has appeared in more video games, movies, and cartoons than nearly any other Batman character. She’s right up there with the Joker in terms of the amount of times she’s used.

Selina will have one of the highest ranges in our roster. She has a whip, those aren’t exactly short ranged weapons. Whip characters have been a norm in Musou games, just imagine her playing like characters like Diaochan or Zhenji from DW. Her light attacks will all involve using this whip in various directions whereas her heavy combos will involve snapping it aggressively on her opponents. There are a few combos though where I want Catwoman to take advantage of her other aspect though: her claws.

For her first heavy combo to send an enemy into the air I want her to move forward and scratch the enemy upward.

For her fifth heavy combo I want her to jump forward at an enemy and start scratching rapidly.

For her Musou I want her to whistle and a swarm of cats appears and begins attacking all enemies. We could even have a cute moment where after the attack is over the cats have stolen wallets in their mouths


For Catwoman’s special skill we’ll lean into the femme Fatale aspect of her. She’ll lean forward and any enemies around will have pink heart over their heads, preventing them from attacking for a while.

With Catwoman done, let’s finally move on to some characters who aren’t guaranteed to be in every Batman themed video game.

Character 8 Azrael (Jean-Paul Valley)

Here’s a character who has been getting a bit more popular among the mainstream because of appearances in video games (and I guess that Gotham show). Honestly he’s just on my roster because I think he’s cool from the little I’ve seen of him.

Unlike Damian who while holding a sword wouldn’t primarily use one in his moveset, keeping it saved for his fifth combo and skill attacks, Azrael will be using his sword in all his combos. He will be one of the slower characters in our roster and out of the three sword users we have he’s the only one who will only be using the sword. Both in his light attacks and his heavy combos

For Azrael’s musou we’ll have him grab an enemy and lower them down into an execution pose. The camera will pan up and we here a sword noise and the damage will be done when it pans back down.

For his special skill he will engulf his sword in flames. This will cause his attacks to have a secondary fire effect which like in mainline DW will drain at enemy health, but not be able to kill them

For his first skill attack two blades will appear from his arm gauntlets, he will then proceed to do rapid punch-like attacks at anything nearby

Not a lot to talk about with Azrael, you’ve all mained a sword users in a Musou game before, you all have at least some idea of how I want him to play, so let’s move on to someone more interesting.

Character 9 Orphan (Cassandra Cain)

For the final hero in our roster we’re going to use someone who has appeared in significantly less mainstream media than the other heroes and villains we’ve been picking, and by less I mean none.

Orphan will be the speediest fighter in our roster, even faster than Nightwing. She’ll be the only fighter in our roster to not have any sort of gadgets or weapons at all as well, every combo and skill from her will just be martial arts. Cassandra’s fighting style is all about knowing how her opponents fights, so her attacks will look a lot more planned and deliberate unlike our Batman who will be a big bruiser.

I don’t have any specific combos to lay out for her as they would all be speedy martial arts, so let’s just go into her Musou and her skills

For her Musou attack Cassandra will throw a smoke bomb to the ground, any enemy in the smoke with low enough health will disappear and other shall receive massive damage

Cassandra will be sharing a special skill with Bruce. As knowing exactly how her opponents fight would allow her to counter anything I believe her having a counter is important.

I truly wish I could say more about Orphan, as she’s a very cool concept for a character. It’s just in a roster full of fist fighters another ninja doesn’t give me a lot of room to be unique. So her section here is short, but not out of disinterest on my part.

With Cassandra over with we are done talking about heroes. With 9 heroes in our roster we have 6 slots remaining to use on villains. There are a few villains who would be guaranteed to be in so let’s dive right into them.

Character 10 The Joker (He shouldn’t have a name you buffoons, you idiots, you CLOWNS)

Alright, time to start heading into the villains part of the roster. I’ll be completely honest, picking the villains wasn’t fun. Our roster has six villains but five of them were already decided before I even got to thinking about this. Because every piece of Batman media uses these five and if I want to think about this roster realistically they would be in it.

So anyway, the Clown Prince of Crime himself: The Joker, baby! Joker’s moveset is going to be very manic. His light attacks will all involve a knife but don’t let that fool you, we’re going to lean heavily on the clown aspect of him for his heavy combos.

For his first heavy to launch enemies in the air he’ll pull out a present that springs out a boxing glove to allow you to juggle enemies with his light attacks.

For his third heavy combo that will hit a large range of enemies he will throw out jack in the boxes that although don’t do immediate damage after a second or two will explode like bombs.

For his fourth heavy combo he’ll move forward and extend his hand with a joy buzzer in it, shocking nearby enemies to death.

For his fifth heavy combo he’ll pull out a gun and shoot out a flag at the enemies in front of him.

For his Musou attack Joker will do the most cliche clown trick in the book, he’ll throw a pie at an enemy in front of him. Then when no one laughs he’ll pull out a crowbar and do one hit that does devastating damage.

For his first skill attack Joker will pull out a fish that has a Joker smile on it and wack enemies with it. Those who are hit will have a poison effect and begin to drain their health.

For his second skill attack he’ll spray Joker gas from a flower on his chest which kills enemies in a short range in front of him

Coming up with the Joker’s moveset was some of the most fun I had writing this thing. Having such a chaotic force that I could do anything with let my creative muscles flow very well. Now let’s move on to someone who almost always accompanies the Joker.

Character 11 Harley Quinn (Harley Quinzel)

Harley Quinn is so popular. You can make a genuine argument that she is more important to include in this game than any of the Robins. Of course she’s here.

Harley’s moveset will involve fighting with her hammer. However she won’t be slow like most hammer users in Musou games. She’s going to be extremely fast. Her light attacks would mostly involve her swinging her hammer left and right whereas she’s do more interesting things with it in her heavy combos

For her third heavy combo she’ll spin in circles and keep moving as she hits enemies

For her fifth heavy combo she’ll slam the hammer down on the head of the enemy commander

When activating Harley’s Musou she will whistle and her two pet hyenas will appear and begin to run amuck, killing all in their path

For one of Harley’s skill attacks I want her to pull out a revolver that while it is shooting bullets, is also shooting multi-colored smoke. A very colorful attack that fits Harley.

I don’t have too much to say about Harley. She’s a fast hammer user with a few quirks to let her personality come through. However if we’re including Harley in this game there’s another character who needs to come with her.

Character 12 Poison Ivy

Ivy is another character who is both extremely iconic and extremely popular. She’s also a mainstay when it comes to Batman video games. Not having her in the roster would be ridiculous!

Thankfully, creating her moveset is actually quite easy. Ivy’s entire thing is that she controls plants so we won’t have her attack anything herself, rather she’ll summon plants at various ranges. For her light combos she’ll attack with two vines sprouting from the ground wherever you go and for her heavy combos we’ll have her summon more types of plants. To give some combo examples:

For her first heavy combo she’ll have a vine launch enemies into the air and then another vine put her into the air like a swing

For his third heavy combo she’ll have a plant sprout from the ground the spits poison gas balls in various directions

Her musou won’t be particularly fanservicey but it will be cool, a giant venus fly trap will sprout from the ground and chomp down on anything that happens to be in front of her

Ivy’s special skill will be similar to Catwoman’s. Instead of posing like Catwoman she’ll spread a pink mist to enemies around her, causing them to get pink hearts over them preventing them from attacking.

Ivy was a fun character to think about, she has a unique gimmick which would lead to plenty of fun ways for her to fight. The next character we’re about to talk about is nine of those things.

Character 13 Deathstroke

The least interesting thing you can do with Deathstroke is make him fight Batman, but video games and other media keep making the two fight, so he’s here I guess.

His moveset itself won’t be anything too special compared to the other movesets in our roster. He’ll be wielding a sword for his light attacks, he’ll swing it around faster than Azrael but it won’t be as heavy hitting. His heavy attacks will be using a various amount of gun based weaponry similar to Red Hood.

We’re going to take a slightly different direction from the other characters and describe his skill attacks before we get into his Musou.

Deathstroke has two children who can fight, for a bit of fanservice we’ll have him call the two of them for two different skill attacks. One skill attack will call in Rose Wilson and the other will call in Jericho.

For his third skill attack we’ll call back to the time Deathstroke had the power of the speed force for a bit. He’ll run fast as a group of enemies and do one hit for massive damage.

For his Musou attack he’ll call both of his kids at once and they’ll do a team attack together on whatever enemies are unfortunate enough to be around this deadly trio.

This was easily the least fun villain to think of the moveset for and I was tempted to scrap him, but I needed to be realistic so he would be here. Let’s move on to someone more interesting

Character 14 Scarecrow (Johnathan Crane)

Scarecrow is the last of our villains that I’m including based only on how other media constantly use him. However, unlike Deathstroke there’s actually interesting things we’ll be able to do with him here.

The first thing I did when coming up with Scarecrow’s moveset was look at him in Injustice 2. We shall be doing the complete opposite of that as I really do not like that Scarecrow, him being a big zombie man just doesn’t work for me.

No, our Scarecrow is going to be a lanky man with a gas mask and a straw hat. We’ll take influence from Arkham Scarecrow for how he’ll fight though. He’s going to have syringes of fear gas on his hands and play like a claw fighter. His light attacks will all be scratching people in a way that if you suspend your disbelief makes it seem like he’s injecting people with fear toxin.

While his light attacks will be scratching with syringes his heavy attacks will be completely different from anyone else in the roster. He’ll summon monsters made of mist to attack his enemies, this was the best way I could think of to represent fear based illusions. Overall our Scarecrow would be a mix of Zhang He and Cheng Gong from mainline DW.

For his Musou attack won’t as I am to admit it I’ll take some influence from Injustice. When activating his Musou attack Scarecrow will grow big and smash his hand down on nearby enemies.

Next we’ll go over his special skill. We’ll be taking influence from Arkham Knight here. If you press R1 Batman will be surrounded with a light orange aura for a few seconds. This will represent fear, while in this state enemies around him will cower while you attack.

For Scarecrow’s skill attacks we’ll reference a non-Batman related DC property that has involved Scarecrow in a cool way: we’re going to give Scarecrow a yellow lantern ring of fear. He’ll use the yellow ring to perform ranged attacks such as cresting walls to push enemies away from him.

With Scarecrow finished we’re finally done with villains who had a guaranteed place on our roster! However with five of these villains being guaranteed that left me only one final villain slot to pick someone via personal bias? So, who did I pick for our last character?

Character 15 Clayface

While those previous five were all guaranteed to be in, I could actually debate with myself over this final slot. In the end I came up with three possibilities: Mr. Freeze, Clayface, and Manbat. In the end bias led me to picking Clayface.

Clayface is a big man made of mud, that’s just cool and gives for unique moveset opportunities. He’ll be the largest person in our roster, a big monster like how Berserk Musou handles characters like Wyald. This will make him slow but he’ll have a lot of range as his limbs will reach really far.

Clayface’s light attacks will involve flailing his arms around wildly, just smacking enemies around him. These will transition into his heavy combos which will involve transforming his arms into the shape of various things. To give a few examples:

For his third heavy combo to hit a range of enemies he’ll melt on the floor and transform into spikes before turning back to normal.

For his fifth heavy combo he’ll transform his arm into a huge hammer and slam it down on an enemy commander.

For his musou attack we’ll homage the Clay Room. Clayface drips into the ground and suddenly a bunch of Joker’s made of clay will ride from the ground and attack everything rapidly.

Clayface’s skill attacks will take advantage of the character’s main gimmick: shapeshifting. All three of his skill attacks will involve transforming into other characters and doing a weaker version of their Musou. I don’t feel the need to highlight them here as I would just be explaining the character’s musous’ again.

Wrap Up

And there’s our Batman Musou roster! This was a very fun thing to write! While some characters were harder to plan out than others overall this was a very chill time!

Our final roster includes 9 heroes and 6 villains. We have plenty of fist fighters but via the Batman mythos often having characters use various gadgets and weapons we were able to think of unique ways each of them could play. We had a few shorter pieces like Orphan and Red Robin but I tried my best with them.

The villains isn’t the most interesting selection in my personal opinion but that’s mostly because I didn’t really pick most of them, pop culture did. I am proud of the movesets I did think up for them though.

This is only the beginning however. My friends gave me 24 franchises to make Musou movesets out of and I will do them all. When will those others come out? No clue, I’m not going to abide by a schedule for this series as I still have other things to focus on like articles for the Story Arc, however whenever I finish a roster for this fan project I will post it immediately here and link it on Twitter so be sure to follow Here For updates on this project!