- "Hey, stop undressing me in your mind!"
- ―Natalie, Epic Battle Fantasy 4
Natalie (Natz for short) is one of the player characters throughout the Epic Battle Fantasy series, appearing in every game to date. Along with her friend Matt (and later Lance, Anna, and NoLegs), she often saves the world from disaster.
Appearance[]
Natalie is depicted as a teenage girl with blue eyes, fair skin and fiery ginger hair. She is quite voluptuous, and her large breasts are constantly discussed and joked about by her teammates. She wears a variety of equip-able attire, but her signature outfits include a standard White Mage Dress with a flower or star in her hair, or the Red Dress and its matching Red Ribbon. She wields staves as weapons and conduits for her magic, with the Crystal Staff and the Dark Tooth being some of her favorites.
Based on her general appearances in the series, it appears that Natalie's "official" outfit may be the Red Dress/Red Ribbon/Dark Tooth combination; it is the outfit worn in Epic Battle Fantasy 2, Adventure Story, and the cutscenes of Epic Battle Fantasy 4 onward.
Personality[]
Natalie is initially portrayed as a cutesy, tree-hugging girl, but most of these traits would be given to Anna in later games, leaving her firmly established as being the "brains" of the party. While easily flustered, she is wise and cautious, and she often actually knows about the areas the party visits (or can at least make vague commentary about her surroundings). As such, it usually falls to her to keep the party on-track. In later games, Matt outright defers to Natalie when puzzles are afoot, to her mild amusement and exasperation.
Natalie is often at odds with the men of the group over moral issues, though she rarely gets much of an effect, considering their indifference. As she explains to Anna in EBF4, she has learned to tolerate Matt's less-than-moral quirks over the years. While she frequently bickers with the other party members in EBF4, this gets smoothed out a lot in EBF5, with her having much better justified issues with Lance. She has something of a sweet tooth, and is very fond of cats, especially NoLegs.
In EBF5, Natalie reveals that she is a straight-A student at a prestigious university, making her the only party member with a confirmed formal college education (Lance may also have done so, but this is unconfirmed). When challenged by Lance as to why she's traveling with them instead of staying there, she admits that she was caught writing smutty fanfiction involving one of her lecturers and she couldn't bear to face her class afterwards (though she hopes that she can move on from that "incident" and resume studying after the events of EBF5). She shows signs of being sheltered, especially from the wilderness, which further contrasts her with Anna. At one point, they get into a fight about Natalie being underexposed to the wild; when they try to resolve the argument later, with Anna suggesting that they go camping sometime, Natalie says they'll be fine if they have running water and WiFi. (Anna's only response to this is a mental groan of "She's hopeless!")
Role[]
In combat, Natalie is a master mage, with a variety of spells to attack enemies and heal/protect allies. While she has disastrous physical stats (HP, Attack, and Defence), her Magic Attack, MP, and Magic Defence are second to none. She uses a wide range of offensive and supportive magic, but she can sometimes be outclassed by Lance as a magic attacker and by Anna as a supporter.
Natalie's role in the first two EBF games is simply to act as Matt's partner in battle, but she takes the "voice of reason" position in EBF3. She warned her allies against recklessly poking Akron; when their rashness awoke him, drained their powers, and sent them to The Town, she endeavored to keep them focused on their new quest to stop the evil being while doing what she could to protect the local wildlife (although she quickly made exceptions for the especially hostile/ugly ones). Notably, when Matt and Lance expressed reservations about battling Akron in The Rift, Natalie's encouragement and reassurance that she'd heal them if they needed it gave them the resolve to press on to the final battle.
In EBF4, Natalie is separated from Matt when Anna catches up to the latter in Ashwood Forest, leaving her watching from the bushes as her friend is shot with multiple arrows. Fearing the worst, she fled the area, only to reunite with Matt and Anna later in the forest. After expressing her relief that Matt is still alive, she joins the group on the hunt for the thieves of the Sacred Jewels.
In EBF5, Natalie makes her first appearance as an enemy, attacking Matt and NoLegs in Hope Harbor after witnessing their theft of The Shovel from the local marketplace. After being defeated, she alerts them to the monoliths wreaking havoc around the world and recruits them as her bodyguards as she journeys to the southern continent to investigate the source of them all. She also has a brief stint as a "damsel in distress" when Lance abducts her in No Man's Land, which understandably sours her opinion of him when he joins the party after being defeated in the Iron Fortress.
Abilities[]
- "Bonk!"
- ―Natalie upon using her Normal Attack, Epic Battle Fantasy 3 and 5
Befitting her "mage" archetype, Natalie has poor physical stats (HP, Attack, and Defence), but her Magic Attack, MP, and Magic Defence are the highest of any party member. Accordingly, she relies almost entirely on spells in battle; her only physical skill is her Normal Attack, which does pitifully low damage (although on-hit effects give it some utility). In earlier EBF games, her skills were separated into mostly offensive Black Magic and mostly defensive/supportive White Magic.
Natalie's offensive complement includes Lucky Star (and Star Shower in later games) to deliver very random non-elemental damage, but her main spells are Fire, Thunder, and Ice. These skills can be further developed into powerful single-target attacks or slightly less powerful multi-target attacks, giving her some versatility in those elements. She uses Pulse and Pulsar for Dark damage (single-target and multi-target, respectively), and often carries Toxic for Bio coverage and Poison infliction; she also uses powerful Holy spells like Holy Light and Judgement, but they lack the ability to hit multiple foes at once. Shared skills provided by later games also enable her to learn spells of other elements; in EBF5, she can potentially cover every element in the game.
Natalie is also an effective support, as well as the party's main healer in earlier EBF games. Between Heal, Heal More, Regen, Revive, Purify, and Barrier, she can easily weave a web of strong defensive abilities to keep the party strong no matter what. Most of her support skills became shared skills in later games, but she remains the strongest healer in the party due to most healing spells running off of the caster's Magic Attack.
Natalie's signature Limit Break is 7th Heaven, known as "Kyun" prior to EBF5. Striking an alluring pose (later explained to be a magical illusion), Natalie uses a very powerful party-wide heal that also places a variety of status buffs on the party. She can also unleash Genesis, a massive angelic beam of holy energy reaching all the way into the skies, that deals Holy damage to all enemies and revives members of the party (or places Auto-Revive status on those who are alive). On the darker side, she has access to Black Hole, a very powerful but dangerous Limit Break that damages everyone on the field and may kill both foes and players instantly. While Black Hole became a shared Limit Break in EBF4 and 5, Natalie's high Magic Attack ensures that it will really hurt if she casts it.
Epic Battle Fantasy 5[]
Natalie has exclusive access to the Syphon tree, Star Power, and Cleanse, although their effects can be more readily used than before. However, she is notable for having access to all of the shared magical attacks short of Power Metal, and all debuffs aside from Bind. Given her access to Heal More, Natalie is capable of pulling off a variety of debuffs while still being capable of healing the party with ease; her decent selection of buffs (including the 7th Heaven and Art Attack Limit Breaks) also enables her to take on a hybrid buff/debuff build. On the other hand, her ability to inflict Status Effects is the worst of any party member; while she can apply some powerful effects with the right staves, her weapon-elemental skills are either single-target (Spectrum and Normal Attack) or halve her normal infliction chance (Rainbow Blast).
In terms of raw magical power, Natalie remains overshadowed by Lance despite his plethora of cooldown skills, but she has a wider variety of elemental attacks and superior support capabilities outside of status effects. Overall, her main asset as a player is her ability to offer a unique blend of offensive and defensive options depending on the party's needs.
Gallery[]
Bullet Heaven 2 HP Emotes[]
Emotes in Epic Battle Fantasy 5[]
Trivia[]
- Natalie's nickname, "Natz", originated as a fan nickname. Matt Roszak officially adopted the nickname in EBF2.
- A running gag/secret in the series is that clicking on Natalie's breasts makes them jiggle. In EBF3 and EBF4, you can earn the Pervert medal by clicking on them ten times.
- This would expand to foes that resemble her, like Dark Natalie in EBF4, and Natalia in EBF5. The latter game also introduced less perverted sources of jiggling, such as the Slime Hat.
- This gag originated from Matt's early flash project/e-card White Mage Christmas (White XMas on EBFC), where it was first introduced.
- In her appearance in Brawl Royale, Natalie has heterochromia, with one of her eyes being green instead of the usual blue. She also seems to lack her usual magic proficiency, instead styling herself as a ninja with shurikens and katanas.
- Natalie is the earliest EBF character created by Matt Roszak; she appeared in the fifth entry of his early animation series, Attack of the Black Mages, as the generically-named "White Mage". According to Matt Roszak, he re-purposed the White Mage's design for the EBF series because he didn't feel like making more unique characters.
- In theory, the Natalie/White Mage could be inspired by the "White Mage" character from the popular Final Fantasy parody web comic, 8-Bit Theater; both are admired for their beauty, their breasts, and their healing skills. However, Natalie soon differentiates herself and is an entirely different character in virtually all respects.
- Although many fans speculated about Natalie's relationship with Matt, Matt Roszak has repeatedly stated that they are "just friends". However, there are various instances where Natalie is suggested to have romantic feelings about Matt.
- Near the beginning of EBF4, she reacts in a flustered manner when Anna confronts her about her relationship with Matt, especially when Matt declares that they are "more than friends". When he clarifies that he and Natz are "a team", along with NoLegs and Lance, Natalie thinks "So that's all I am to you, after all this time?" to herself with a disappointed expression.
- In many of the cut-scenes, she appears to be close to Matt, such as being horrified when Anna "kills" him, hugging him when they are reunited, and clinging to him when they enter the dark part of the Crystal Caverns.
- In the ending, she states that she would have liked more romance in the game's story, going on to say that it would be left to the fans, and that she does not trust them.
- In Bullet Heaven 2, when Anna assumes that she has had any romantic implications with Matt, Natalie quickly tells her off, while thinking "She knows too much. I'd better be careful." to herself shortly afterwards.
- In EBF5, Matt and Natalie's relationship is expanded upon a bit, though it doesn't actually culminate in anything in-game. However, they eventually become a couple if their bonus Ending was achieved.
- Natalie is implied to be afraid of the dark, shown in the Crystal Caverns cutscene in EBF4. She also has a crippling fear of insects, spiders, and other invertebrates, as seen in EBF5 when Spider Swarm is cast.
- In EBF5, Natalie is the only human member of the party whose hometown and residence is unknown; in comparison, Matt settled in Hope Harbor and has a house, Anna lives in Greenwood Village with her parents, and Lance grew up in Redpine Town (with the Iron Fortress being the closest thing to a home). This could be rendered moot once the Full Medals Room is unlocked in the Grand Gallery.
- While Natalie can eat food such as bacon and ham, she displays a skull and crossbones emote in EBF3 when she eats such foods. EBF5 confirms that she is a former vegetarian (and surprised she even managed it for any length of time).
- Conversely, Natalie shows positive emotes in EBF3 when she eats Muffins, Ice Cream, Cupcakes and Ice Cream Sundaes, implying that she has a sweet tooth. This is further implied in EBF5, where her unique Steroids consist solely of sweets.
- Although she primarily uses Staves as her main weapon, Natalie also has her share of some strange and unlikely weapons, especially in EBF5. Examples includes a Fan, a Flower Pot, a Road Sign, and even bladed weapons such as Polearms (one formerly used by Matt), Scythes and a Lightsaber styled Hatchet.
- When using Screamer in EBF5, Natalie is the only party member that isn't startled by it. She implies she has seen horror films before, meaning she has grown used to jumpscares.
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Playable Characters |
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Matt - Natalie - Lance - Anna - NoLegs |