Susanoo

Susanoo (スサノオ) is the true vessel of Yūki Terumi, and also his third playable form. He is a playable character in BlazBlue: Centralfiction.

Appearance
His body being the Susanoo Unit itself, he shares many similar features with its previous wielder, Hakumen, but bigger, bulkier, has a different color scheme, and overall fox design motif. His armor and hair are black with glowing green highlights, and eyes on his armor are green as well. The horns now give the impression of fox ears. His hair is untied, but the sideburns are held by metallic hair clips. The biggest contrast with Hakumen, is that he has a face with blazing green eyes and a mouth full of sharp fangs. The pauldrons also have teeth and horns like those on his head, and he has green glowing crystals on his hips. A tail completes his beastly features.

Personality
Susanoo is more collected than Terumi, but beneath the seemingly stoic demeanor is a boiling, explosive rage. He hates being bound to the Susanoo Unit, and uses that hatred to fuel his destructive tendencies. He still looks down on others, but instead of displaying a playful and mocking attitude, he treats them with utter disgust, referring to them as either trash or waste. He constantly reminds those who dare to defy him the fact that he is a true god.

Although prideful, Susanoo despises his meaning of existence. As Amaterasu creates, and he destroys her creations, they are essentially linked to one another. Whether he destroys for her sake or for himself, his actions ultimately adhere to what she desires from him, and he hates her for that. To prove this point, Susanoo expresses that her suffering is his salvation. His attitude towards those beneath him in general is deemed as justified in his own eyes as a form of judgment towards the humans who have birthed the three units in the first place (as well as causing several other catastrophic events) due to them wanting to obtain the power of god; thus Susanoo claims he must pass judgment upon them for such sins.

History
One of the Original Units, the main cause of letting humanity know about the Master Unit’s existence. In a time as long as eternity he protected Amaterasu together with Tsukuyomi, but through some cause he began to have a “will”. After that he began to hate being bound by the Master Unit and rebelled.

BlazBlue: Centralfiction
“The Replacement Blue”=

Susanoo appears at the closed Gate, the Kiln of Kagutsuchi, which is suggested to be an illusion made by Amaterasu to test him. She casts Valkenhayn R. Hellsing, which is defeated by Susanoo. He mocks her weak illusion, and calls her to realize her own powerlessness.

The last projection of Amaterasu is Nine the Phantom at the Old Gate. Susanoo finds it predictable that she would rely on the ancient witch. He confesses having a quite a bit of entertainment, and how it’s oddly satisfying to feel he’s contributing to her suffering. As he defeats Nine, he calls for more of the pawns, which he will happily destroy.

Then, he realizes where his soul lies. When Amaterasu’s existence is for the sole purpose of creation, Susanoo’s is for destruction of her and her creations. He says how her suffering is his pleasure and salvation, telling that “the game is far from over”, addressing her as his “sister”. “Centralfiction”=

Susanoo was reborn into the world after Terumi ripped Hakumen’s soul out of the Susanoo Unit with Hihiirokane, and once more merged with the now vacant Susanoo Unit. Having regained the full power which he detested so much, he planned on exterminating everyone present. Ragna, Jūbei, Tsubaki, Jin, and Noel tried to resist, but that had almost resulted in their demise if it had not been for the fact that Terumi holds back. Telling himself that it was enough for the moment, Susanoo took Noel with him and fled, challenging Ragna to follow him to the “other side” if the latter wanted to die.

Terumi later approached the Forbidden Gate and battled Es, who was shocked to see that he had reclaimed his old body. Es resorted to unleashing her weapon, the Murakumo, but was unable to. Susanoo explained that it was because Amaterasu acknowledged his superiority, and proceeded to defeat her without much effort; however, Es escaped before he could land a killing blow. Although unsatisfied, the result of the battle confirmed Susanoo’s doubt: the Guardian of the Blue was actually Ragna the Bloodedge. Terumi was then ejected from the Susanoo Unit due to incomplete merging, much to his displeasure. However, reminding himself that after dealing with Ragna, he would obtain the True Blue, he waited for his last prey to confront him.

As Ragna, Jin, and Trinity arrived at the Gate, Terumi revealed the true purpose for his actions, which was to obtain true freedom, and for that he needed to obtain the True Blue. Trinity said that they only needed to protect the Gate to stop him, but Terumi, upon equipping the Susanoo Unit, revealed that he had already absorbed Noel, thus would no longer be affected by the Doomsday, leaving them no choice but to clash. They were unable to damage Susanoo, but as Jin reached his limit, he was able to observe his opponent. Ragna then utilized Soul Eater and managed to grab and rip Terumi out of the Unit, therefore allowing Jin to take control of it before opening the gate and sending Terumi and Ragna to the Boundary. After one final battle, Ragna fatally impales Terumi with his sword. Wishing eternal suffering upon Ragna, Terumi laughed manically as Ragna kills him once and for all.

Powers and abilities
A literal god, Susanoo is considered to be one of the most powerful characters in the BlazBlue universe, so much that he even claimed it was difficult to hold back. Possessing the Susanoo Unit, he can use its power effortlessly and with great skill. Instead of moving it through force of will, Susanoo channeled his hatred into the Unit to lethal effects.

Susanoo’s fighting style is a mixture of savage and animalistic strikes and grabs with noble martial arts or samurai-esque techniques. He also uses his power to form energy-based blades for him to attack with and in his Distortion Drives he fires powerful laser beams from his mouth.

Susanoo’s Drive, God of Military Arts (武神), allows him to release the locks on his special attacks and level them up. That game mechanic leaves him weak at the start of the round, but the more hits he lands, the more powerful he gets. Some attacks can be upgraded more than once to increase their potency.

His Overdrive, Time of Entombment (絶葬ノ刻), allows him to use all of his special attacks for a short period of time without having to release their locks manually, however, he cannot use the Distortion Drives that require said special attacks to be unlocked first, as he will still need to release those locks in order to use them. He can however, immediately unlock all seals by using Distortion Drive Weeping Drill: Collapsing Resentment (哭キ穿ツ・崩落ノ怨嗟), which can only be used while in Overdrive.

Trivia

 * Susanoo has his own version of Hakumen’s speech: “I am strength, I am power, I am everything! My very being is the sword of the god that will destroy all! I am Takehaya Susanoo! …the end has come.” (我は剛、我は力、我は全！我は身は全てを裁ち斬る神の剣！我は建速須佐之男！！……推して参る.)
 * As of the 2.0 update patch, Susanoo’s Astral Heat deals the highest damage of any Astral Heat in the game at 99999.
 * His moveset motif-naming is mostly about annihilation, mixed with archaic usages of katakana for conjugations and particles (rather than the modern hiragana usage).
 * Along with Jin Kisaragi, Noel Vermillion, Hazama and Tsubaki Yayoi, Susanoo also has a playable alternate form, which is Yūki Terumi, his human body.
 * When Susanoo is electrocuted, Terumi’s ghost form is seen inside the Unit.
 * There is a victory pose where Susanoo will show off his sword, similar to his Astral Heat victory pose. However, if the player hasn’t unlocked the eighth move slot, the blade will not appear.
 * When he is hit by Amane Nishiki’s Astral Heat, the result is “Terumen”, a Black Susanoo version of Pakumen.
 * He is the only playable character to feature two other playable characters in his pre-fight sequence.