Project V/James Hetfield



James Hetfield "Are you saying it's too loud? It's got to be loud. You're supposed to feel it all over."

James Hetfield is one of the fifteen selectable fighters in Project V, representing the Metallica heavy metal band. He had been selected to be one of the "oddball fighters" and because of the creator's absolute bias for him. Due to being a real, breathing human being, he offers average human qualities for a fighter, with okay stats all-around and being perhaps the most well-balanced fighter on the roster. He does, however, take qualities from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD, where he is a playable character, sporting a board on his moveset as well as his Snakebyte guitar. While offering a mostly realistic gameplay experience, he does offer projectiles that originate from Guitar Hero and his attack power is slightly above average, allowing decent representation of him in tournaments.

He currently ranks 9th on the pre-release tier list. This is owed to his above-decent attacks, well-balanced statistics, and his usage of projectiles gives him a somewhat effective camping game. With his great speed, he can out-pace his opponents and land a surprisingly quick assault on his opponents, with his aerials and general moveset all coming out pretty fast, which is coupled with his pretty fine reaction time. However, he does suffer some large flaws, such as his rather frail body being easy to knock off the screen and the fact that his projectiles can easily be reflected by foes with good timing. These do outweigh his strengths a little (as he can be affected hard by walls of pain) but he is a fairly viable character in the metagame and it shows in what is known of results.

Attributes
James Hetfield is a fairly lightweight character with above-average attack power and great mobility, being among the more agile characters in the game. When he dashes, he gets out on a skateboard, which gives him the fastest dashing speed in the game and therefore an excellent approach to his opponents. Using his guitar, he can distance himself from opponents and block attacks which can otherwise lay big bits of damage on his frail body. James has average walking speed, a brilliant dashing speed, fast falling speed, good air speed, and fairly high jumps. His statistics are altered ones of those he experiences in the game Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD. Using his Riff Shred attack, he can blast opponents away from him. Uniquely for a character like him, dashing with his board can lead into some very quick follow-up attacks in the air, which can rack up a surprising amount of damage fairly quickly.

James is definitely flawed, however. His fragile self is his biggest problem; getting attacked and launched is not an issue for even the Shadow Queen, who can overcome his speedy self with a quick attack. His attacks can easily be reflected as well and he has issues against some of the heavier characters like Ganondorf and Ike who can puninsh him and send him quickly off of the stage without much problem. His projectiles can easily be reflected, too -- his Guitar Beam shot is easy to knock back and his Riff Shred move can be flipped around and then punished in the blink of an eye by the likes of Poison and Big. With careful time and play using this character, however, James can be easy to master and stand his own in fights. This is accompanied with a very low learning curve, which makes him one of the easiest characters to use overall.

Moveset
James Hetfield has a rather unorthodox and unusual moveset, given his rather balanced traits and lack of any outstanding strengths outside of his dashing speed and quick moves. In his moveset, a very effective projectile game is showcased, based off of techniques showcased in video games and live footage of the man himself. His tilts and jab have him smashing his guitar at opponents and he uses his guitar to defend from attacks instead of a normal shield, which gives him bigger coverage at the front. In the air he has simple punches and kicks that can push opponents away. They generally have low end lag.
 * Neutral Special: Guitar Beam.  When this button is pressed, James will fire forward a long laser beam that damages opponents in front of him.  It doesn't have very long reach but has great knockback potential. The first beam is green, the next is red, then yellow, blue and orange.  These become fired with every use of the button.  The red beam deals flame damage, the yellow beam instead deals electric damage, the blue beam freezes foes and the orange beam deals great damage and knockback.  If the move is charged, the beam will be wider and cover a greater distance.
 * Forward Special: Riff Shred.  James will play a riff on his guitar, pushing opponents away from him at different velocities.  This attack plays similarly to Game & Watch's "Judge" from Super Smash Bros..  When charged, the chosen riff's effect is multiplied by 1.5x.
 * Sweet Amber: A rather weak attack all things considered.  It just pushes opponents away a little.  It can, however, allow James to quickly follow up with his forward aerial.
 * Mama Said: Another fairly weak attack, but it deals more damage and paralyzes them for a bit.  James can better follow up with his attacks, but the paralysis is short-lived.
 * Enter Sandman: A slow riff that lures opponents nearby to sleep although doesn't deal any damage and just lets James have a more clean opportunity to punish his opponent.
 * Devil's Dance: A luring riff that draws opponents closer to James without allowing them to move, forcing them to do a few dance moves and allowing James to score a hit.
 * Master of Puppets: A rather unorthodox riff that consists of four separate beats.  The first is well separated from the latter three, which can take an opponent by surprise.  The first beat is the strongest in terms of knockback.
 * Dyers Eve: The move strikes several times, while not dealing much damage it has a multihit hitbox and knocks opponents clean away from James.
 * All Nightmare Long: The longest lasting riff, continuously pushing foes from James.  It has the potential to gimp recoveries.  The last few beats have the greatest knockback power.
 * Spit Out the Bone: Has impressive aggression and knocks foes down towards the ground, making their movements more sluggish as they give room for Hetfield to lay his assault.
 * "Fight Fire With Fire": The most powerful of the riffs, knocking opponents away the furthest and having the most clean knockback. It deals plenty of damage and leaves surviving foes with a flaming effect.
 * Whiplash: Arguably the most useful of the different riffs.  It isn't too long, but it deals respectable damage and knockback and stops opponents from moving, which can gimp recoveries.
 * Recovery Special: Lars Footstool.  To recover, James Hetfield summons Lars Ulrich, whom he uses as a footstool to get back on the stage. The move, when charged, allows James to also bounce off of Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo, his other bandmates. While not a very impressive move, just kicking Lars into the abyss...just a funny image.
 * Crouch Special: St. Anger.  James will get quite angry, buffing up his attack power and yet making himself even more open to attacks. This is considered a "risk for reward" kind of thing.  He will calm after about ten seconds.  If the move is charged, the anger lasts longer and James' mobility is generally increased.

In competitive play
Due to time constraints, this is incomplete.