Toroko Warriors/Melissa

Melissa is a playable character in Toroko Warriors, being one of the six playable third-party characters that can be downloaded for use in the game. A sensitive, yet calm woman with the ability to control particles of dust referred to as Cyrilians, Melissa Dust is an adventurer whom is part of the Misfits, a group of unlikely heroes who go out to battle threats, authorized or not.

Melissa is a defense-based character, but has plenty of offensive capabilities that separate her from others like Iron Mask or Meldi. She is unique in that she's able to divide her body into various particles and fight in various ways to evade damage, something that is important thanks to her unusually low defense. With her fairly high speed and tough exterior, Melissa can be hard to beat -- even when her goal is to infiltrate and beat up as many foes as she can.

Playstyle
Melissa is one of the tallest fighters in the game, yet has the lowest weight, making her jumps very powerful and giving her the ability to go far distances in a single bound. When in her full form, her attack power is fairly high and she can move around at incredible speeds, which makes her a good sweeper. But this is hampered by her low defense, unusual for her class -- so to compensate, Melissa can split her body into various Cyrilians! This separated form can be entered to quickly dodge attacks, phase through gaps in walls, surround and pummel enemies, and roll up into a ball to get around dangerous situations. Melissa can wall jump and grab ledges.

Melissa has an all-out objective on the battlefield, her strong point being her taking over enemy bases and making them her own, able to make new bases for her allies to use. If enemies don't have a base they can use, then they're left defenseless and have to fend for themselves, which can grant Melissa's team an advantage. The more areas she takes over, the better. As she goes, Melissa must knock down enemies or make a run for it, both strategies can work as she can knock down foes and help secure bases for her allies. Her morphing powers grant her an advantage of sneaking into buildings, but she must watch out for Ethereal, a true rival for her.

When directly facing an enemy, Melissa can dodge attacks left and right with the shoulder buttons. Her attack buttons are immediately mapped to aim for the enemy. Pressing the bottom triggers initiates her particle form, allowing her to dodge attacks that would go straight through her. The inner triggers will launch her arms forward as Cyrilian bullets, able to hit far-off foes before she even approaches them. This makes her difficult to approach for her enemies, but any good hit landed on Melissa can severely cripple her, thanks to a weakness that she has to carefully manage.

This weakness is directly related to her ability to split. If she spends over two seconds separated into pieces, she takes little bits of damage at a time until she assumes her full form again. As she cannot take damage in her split form from enemies, this is to ensure that she's balanced. The player should only split if they need an escape route, or go through a battlefield without taking too much damage. Splits such as when she's dodging attcks or firing off parts of her body will not damage her; for the former she doesn't stay split for long enough, and for the latter she wouldn't be firing off vital parts of her body such as her head or heart.

If the weakness from splitting is carefully managed, Melissa can easily squeeze into various unique places, able to make her way through vents and through any sewage ddrains. This gives Melissa multiple unique strategies that she can use to get around the arenas, it is very unlikely that she will encounter dangerous from other fighters in such narrow places, but can be chased down with attacks like lightning and fire magic. It is easy for Melissa to pop out of entrances suddenly and snipe at the opposition if they're caught off guard. Opponents who are aware of Melissa's presence need to watch to make sure there's no holes that Melissa can suddenly squeeze out of.

Melissa has a powerful defense tactic, able to use the inner triggers to form shields with her hands in order to counter attacks. The left will form a red shield which reflects physical attacks that hit it, while the right will form a blue shield which counters special attacks and projectiles. Neither shield lasts long at all, so the player must press the buttons at the correct timings to deal with the different attacks. These shields use up a lot of power, so health will slowly drain when the moves are in effect. Shielding against small, weak attacks shouldn't be necessary; reflecting the powerful attacks give Melissa a big advantage. Neither will function well against Hyperdrives.

By hitting the special attack button when her hyperdrive is inactive, she will dissolve into Cyrilian particles and start taking damage after two seconds. While in this form, she can drift through the air and across the ground in any direction. If keeping health is cruical, holding down the special attack button will turn her into a dust ball and allow her to roll across the terrain, but she will become vulnerable again to attacks. While in her multiple-particle form, she can float her way up to ledges or through battlefields without taking severe damage, and as said before, make her way through tight spaces. Using attack buttons when dissolved allows her to launch her own particles as bullets.

Melissa's weaknesses are numerous, but most can be avoided just by being careful when using her. She's quite easy to push away; if attacked, she'll be sent back a far distance and rather slowly, giving opponents a good chance to attack her. Being attacked also really hinders how far she can go she can go in battle, as her defenses are weak and don't stop her from taking powerful hits with ease. This isn't even counting her health-taking form as a bunch of Cyrilian particles. Her biggest turn-off though is her rather lonely nature; she doesn't work well with others as she can't really support them, and for health support she has to rely entirely on generosity.

Unlike a lot of fighters, Melissa has good air skills, able to hold down the jump button when descending to slowly make her way back down, and jump up higher than most characters. Her long-range attacks can help dispose of high-flying foes like Alcyone and Bombyx, and her speed can overwhelm slower foes like Iron Mask and Quartz. She struggles against tricky characters though, especially those that can inflict status conditions onto her. Her biggest worries are Eris and the Mistake, who can cripple her with burns and sever her role on the battlefield, but they're both no problem if she can attack them before they hurt her.

Melissa's FINALE is Dustruction, causing her to lay down several explosive dust particles across the battlefield, before switching them all on with the wave of her arm. The explosions won't do too much damage, but will burn every opponent, which can lead down to a unique downfall for her foes as they can potentially all burn to death. Opponents closer to the center of explosions will take the most damage and suffer a unique burn that only this attack can activate; this will quarter their attack power and cause them to take more damage than usual. It can be cured as easily as normal burns however.

Her strategy to slide through tight spaces and punch holes through opponents without them even realizing it is an excellent strategy for Melissa, but she must put up with risks such as going around with her body split up and using split-second reactions to battle the onslaughts of foes in order to capture territory.

​Forme Switch
With the press of the special attack button, Melissa will dissolve into Cyrilian particles, which will harm her if the duration of the switch lasts over two seconds. The player must ideally use this to avoid attacks or get to new locations in a hurry without worrying about harsh damage.

Dust Dodge
The shoulder buttons will allow Melissa to move from left to right in a flash, turning temporarily into dust particles to evade enemy attacks. If the attack hits the body just as it transforms, Melissa will become a huge fist made from particles to knock the enemy away for absurd damage.

Dust Shields
By using the inner triggers, Melissa will send out her arms to form dust shields. The left will cause her to create a red shield that reflects physical attacks, while the right forms a blue shield that reflects projectiles and special attacks. Their durations are very, very limited however.

Standard

 * "A witty, yet anxious woman who happens to be part of the Misfits.  With her ability to manipulate particles known as Cyrilians, she can form several functioning objects, from motorcycles to microwaves.  Sensitive, yet strong minded woman with just as powerful as a mouth...you can bet she knows every single profanity in the English dictionary!"

Alt

 * "Her defensive game is very unusual; her defenses are weak but her offense is actually pretty strong!  With her quick jabs and long bounds, Melissa's objective is to knock foes out to secure forts for her team, which is why she's labelled under defense to begin with.  Be sure to take advantage of her reflecting shields -- they'll really come in handy against some strong foes!"

FINALE

 * "Dustruction, Melissa's FINALE, causes dust bombs all over the arena to explode!  These don't cause much damage, but each causes a burn, which can lead to a unique apocalypse where every foe dies from burns.  Being closer to the explosion cores makes it worse for opponents: they get severe burns which quarters their attacks and drains them steadily of their health."