Noroko

Noroko is an original character conceived, sprited and coded by Andres Borghi and part of the cast of The Black Heart fullgame, released in 2009. Her standalone character has continued to recieve updates ever since.

She takes inspiration from the Onryo ghosts of Japanese folklore. Often female, these spirits suffered violent deaths and now seek vengeance upon the living. She also takes inspiration from Japanese horror films as she shares characteristics from the ghost from Ju-on and the backdrop for her Super Moves and her Fatal move have a film grain effect exclusive to her.

Biography
She is a ghost who lies dormant within an ancient Japanese doll which is currently owned by an antique collector. When the king of the other world is murdered and his heart is ripped out, the power emanating from it was strong enough to awaken Noroko who escapes the doll and kills the collector. Noroko then travels through the worlds searching for the heart in hopes that its power can end her suffering and grudge, which are so powerful they drive her to attack and kill anyone she comes across.

Gameplay
Noroko is a fighter with great air combo potential, many tactical options and great mobility. Using her varied options of movement, Noroko can quickly close distance and perform a rushdown using a highly damaging string of combos and cancels into supers which more often than revolve around setting up for an air and corner advantage. Said mobility also helps her perform hit and run strategies. With an on-demand counter move and the ability to teleport when cornered, Noroko also has an edge against opponents who wish to pressure her against the corner, stopping their attempts dead on their tracks, forcing a change to the pace of the fight and even bait them into a disfavorable position. Her counter move also works along her projectile to predict and keep the opponent knocked over.

Noroko however suffers from not having a reliable poke and having poor range for her basic attacks; this forces her to be in close quarters if she wants to deal significant damage. This short range of effectiveness give her a hard time against fighters who specialize in zoning out with projectiles and long range basics (Dhalsim) or can punish her need to agressively close in on them (Kyosuke Kagami). In addition, this need to be up close and personal might get her in severe problems when fighting grappler like characters, but thanks to her Killer Mode and great mobility, she can deal with them better than previous matchups. Her lack of a command overhead move also limits her mixup capabilities by a great amount.

During Killer mode, she will turn gamestyle drastically into a slow but poweful projectile spammer. She will now rely on creating a gap rather than closing it in order to unleash her projectile attacks in safety, her now diminished size and tripping slide move helping her accomplish this. However, unlike Killer Modes from other Black Heart characters (Except maybe Shar-Makai) which only lose their ability to perform specials and supers, Doll Noroko will also lose those, her basic attacks, her jump and the ability to block. She cannot be grabbed or properly hit by a combo string while in this form, but the ease in which basic attacks can stun-lock her makes those advantages null, punishing Noroko harshly for being within hitting distance. Transforming while against characters with projectiles which travel across the ground (like Rock's Reppuken), would be a foolish move.

In general, Noroko has a versatile playstyle which rewards quick reflexes and good predictions. It can reward opportunities to punish and then go all in for a high-risk high-reward gamestyle or be highly unpredictable by making use of her Killer Mode

Movelist
Norkoko can press while airborne to jump again.

Her cancels work like this: Normals -> Specials -> Supers/Killer Mode

Bugs

 * Sometimes the cinematic attacks from Soul Punishment will fail to play, leaving the downed opponent and a now blue Noroko stunned for the duration of the Super move. In consequence, only the initial connecting hit will deal damage, wasting the super move completely.

Trivia

 * If Noroko uses Soul Punishment as a finishing move, she will destroy her victim's soul.
 * She is the only Black Heart character whose Killer mode completley changes her playstyle.
 * Her Fatal move is curiously enough gore free and not that violent compared to the finishing moves from the rest of the cast from her parent game.
 * She and Aiduzzi's Ella share the same character archetype (Stringy haired ghost girls) and are often seen as rivals amongst some circles despite being greatly different in terms of graphics, gameplay and approach to personality (Noroko being a "serious" take on the archetype)