Matt's profile in EBF3
Matt is a recurring character in the Epic Battle Fantasy series. Along with Natalie, Matt may be considered the series main protagonist, as he appeared in every single game of the series, including spin-offs. He also appeared in few Kupo Games' works pre-dating the series.
Appearance
Matt is depicted as a teenage boy with long blonde hair, with a few shorter pigtails on the sides and blue eyes. He usually wears black, sometimes tattered clothes, styled as a pirate outfit (most prominently represented by his pirate hat). He also always carries a large number of swords around (although not graphically visible). In Epic Battle Fantasy, he wears what can be assumed to be a deerskin jacket and moccasins. In Epic Battle Fantasy 2, he switches to pirate attire, with a black jacket, scarf and sheath strapped onto his belt. In Epic Battle Fantasy 3 and 4 his look depends on the currently worn equipment, although his default outfit remains the pirate-themed one, namely Captain's Shirt and Captain's Hat.
Personality
He is definitely the brawn of the group, and not the brains. He displays a happy-go-lucky personality, is impatient and prone to taking reckless actions (such as poking sealed Lovecraftian horrors and eating obviously poisonous things), and has a disregard for long-winded procedures and intellectual activities (such as solving block puzzles in Epic Battle Fantasy 4). He will also eat almost anything (numerous comments on foes regards how well he thinks they will taste once cooked, even including the toxic-blooded Sand Worm). Also, Matt is the second most morally ambiguous character in the group, right after Lance, as he holds absolutely no qualms towards looting innocents' houses and killing any foes that stand in his way. This puts him at odds with Natalie and Anna, as depicted well when it came to the taming of the Wooly Mammoth.
Role
Matt is one of the main characters, taking up one of the most important positions in the game. He is vital in winning a lot of boss fights, especially since Matt and Natalie were designed to collaborate in battle. In EBF3, due to the additional RPG element, the player controls his movement on the map directly with the arrow keys and the other two characters will follow him (in EBF4, whoever is the current party leader fulfills this role). In battle, he spouts some funny one-liners and fights using his massive array of swords and skills. He focuses primarily on single-target heavy damage, but can also fulfill a variety of other roles in EBF4 and EBF5.
Abilities
Matt is primarily a warrior, he excels well with physical stats, having the highest attack and defence of all characters, a large amount of physical skills, as well as the highest amount of base HP, while at the same time his magical potential is the poorest, as he has the lowest base magic attack, magic defence, and MP.
His signature "Bushido" skillset focuses on hitting single enemies with powerful, single-hit elemental attacks, but he has a few special effects (like hitting all enemies, draining life energy or poisoning them) at his disposal, as well. A common aesthetic motif found in his skills is impaling the ground with his sword and summoning something to hit his opponent, like a giant sword or pillar of flame.
His Bushido skills include attacks such as Revenge, Drain, Windslash, Quake, Iceberg, Eruption, Unleash, Seiken and Legend. His Special attacks include Temper (an attack buff), Protect (a party-wide defence buff), Screamer (a dark element move that reduces opponents' Magic Defence) and Power Metal (damages all enemies and heals the party). He can Unleash the power of his weapon to deal heavy damage and inflict augmented, special effects.
One of his signature Limit Breaks is Cleaver, wherein he assaults the enemy in a vicious frenzy of five strikes, dealing heavy damage with an increased chance of critical hits, and effects based on his current equipped weapon. His other, Ragnarok, drops dozens of giant weapons from the sky, finishing with a massive "Heavens Gate" sword. He can use Annihilate which has a high chance of inflicting instant death on enemies. (which Anna can also learn in the fourth game).
Trivia
- Matt is the first playable character in the Epic Battle Fantasy series to use the equipment switching mechanic that would become commonplace in EBF3 and EBF4, along with the upcoming EBF5.
- The term Bushido refers to the honor code for Japanese Samurai warriors, which are notorious as masterful swordsmen and carried what is probably the finest type of sword in the world, the katana. Bushido was very much like the Codes of Chivalry for European knights, both of which primarily stressed loyalty to one's lord, or daimyo, as well as the emperor and/or shogun (warlord), inner peace, and victory in battle. One of the most remarkable aspects of Bushido was the way that it placed an honorable death above victory in battle, to the extent that disgraced samurai would kill themselves through sepuku, the Japanese art of Ritual Suicide, where the samurai first commits hari-kiri (the act of stabbing the wakizashi [short sword] into the belly), mere seconds before an assistant removes the samurai's head using a katana.
- Matt's usage of Bushido becomes rather ironic in the later games, where his many less-than-honorable quirks are developed.
- Matt seems to be a sort of self-insert for kupo707, considering that the two share the same name (kupo707's real name is Matt Roszak, and his Newgrounds username is matt-likes-swords). Additionally, in Attack of the Black Mages, he is known as kupo707 instead of Matt (he also had orange spiky hair instead of long blonde hair). His new moniker is KupoGames.
- Matt's character and personality are inspired by Fighter from 8-Bit Theatre, as they are both optimistic, obsessed with legendary swords, shiny, valuable gems, and armor of invincibility.
- Although swords are Matt's signature weapon, he has been known to wield spears, mauls, hammers, and even more exotic weapons (such as a severed dragon's claw). Despite that, his arsenal is typically labeled as "Swords". Whether intentional or not, it is unconfirmed if this was meant to be humorous, since it seems to imply Matt does not know or care about the difference between different types of melee weapons, considering them all as swords. (which is something that is perfectly in-character for him)
- When Lance dies in battle in EBF3, it is mentioned that Matt had a brother who died the same way.
- In a cutscene in EBF5, Matt tells the party that he spent most of his childhood travelling the world with his parents on a raft, but when things got too tough, they abandoned him on an island to fend for himself. He attributes his slowness to being forced to raise himself and teach himself how to live at such a young age.
- Additionally, Matt implies that his parents are most likely dead, because "sailors don't last very long".
| Playable Characters |
|---|
| Matt - Natalie - Lance - Anna - NoLegs |