Way of the Warrior: Konotori!


By David R. Liu <davidliu@case.ai.mit.edu>.

Konotori's style is formally classified as... "UNIQUE"

In fact, I believe that in creating Konotori (probably the first character created for Way), Naughty Dog tried to create a totally new style of fighting.

Konotori's style mimics that of a stork; a careful observer will see that all his moves are done standing on one foot only. This makes other moves work faster. For example, his strong kick is done with the free foot (obviously, otherwise he would fall flat on his butt) and is probably the fastest strong kick in the game. He has another move where he spins on the single grounded foot, using his fans as blades.

I'm not sure how realistic the stork mode of fighting is-- but one thing which I truly believe is that Konotori is the most fun of all the characters in Way to play. Why? Cuz he can FLY. That's right, tapping B repeatedly while he is in air allows him to fly with ease across the air; he can use this flight for a variety of offensive and defensive purposes. For example, if Ninja has cast a beam of lightning under Konotori, he can avoid landing on the beam by flapping his fans rapidly, which lets him hang in the air for a short while. On the offensive side, being master of the air has its advantages. Konotori has a very strong (but difficult to aim with precision) move called the Swan Dive in which he (surprise surprise) does a Swan Dive out of the air and onto an opponent. If it hits, the opponent loses a LOT of strength. If it misses, Konotori crumples head first into the ground and gets a headache...

Konotori also has a fabulous air torpedo which he can combine with his flying abilities to give him total control of the air.

Of course, his ground moves are correspondingly weaker to give him balance...