Synn

''Note: Because Psi and Synn are technically one in the same, most of these details will overlap with each other. This page exists mostly for the sake of reference and pointing out differing characteristics.''

Gender: Male

Species: Wolf

Height: 2'3"

Weight: 50lbs

Age: 20

Faction Ties: Formerly a member of the Intimidators - now freelances.

Role in Game: 

Main character. Shortly before the events of the game start, Synn is sent by Artemis to fetch him the Gems of Chaos in order to help him with a mission he aims to take on soon. Before long he manages to claim the purple gem, but in doing so accidentally gets Psi to bind with him as an Avatar's host. After the Intimidators disband later into the game, Synn becomes more or less indifferent to life and allows Psi to lead him wherever he needs to go, but still hopes to personally gain something out of their strange relationship, even though he's unlikely to admit it.

Abilities

Synn is a practitioner of Telekinesis of a very skilled and powerful nature, to much contradiction of his small and weak-looking physique. Rather than use it for its traditional purpose, though, Synn prefers to use it to enhance his own mobility, levitating to eliminate friction in movement and to compliment his unique close-combat style with physics-defying moves, but he's not beyond picking up and throwing stuff telekinetically if the need arises. He also possesses a specialized Mind Control discipline that, although incapable of inducing involuntary movement or thought, can induce lucid hallucinations in the minds of his targets, generally identifiable only by a subtle flickering effect in the affected areas. In battle, Synn tends to juggle control of the fight between himself and Psi, based on whose interpretation of his abilities is more suitable to the immediate context.

Personality

As an individual, Synn is typically very blunt and to the point. He won't waste time asking questions nicely if he can viciously grill people for it, and he won't waste time asking questions at all if a well-placed punch to the face gets an answer faster. His strictly-business approach to problems tends to make people see him as a bit of an asshole and leads to frequent arguing between his peers (even Psi), but his heart is generally in the right place for it and he seeks only to undertake the most efficient solution for every issue, moral consequences be damned.

Summarization of Fighting Style

Synn is very much a combo-based fighter who needs to juggle opponents back and forth between Psi's ideal attack contexts and his own to make the most out of their attacks. This is usually by way of initiating the combo with one persona, then manipulating the circumstances to shift where the other persona is best at to extend combos and keep the hurt up. Suffice to say, neither of them have many particularly damaging single attacks. Their telekinetic powers make use of the environment first and foremost to deal damage, but also make for good defensive ablities in lieu of that to compensate for their lackluster health rating, and their hallucinogenic ablities are perfect for starting mind games and fake outs to keep the enemy off guard and help score the free hits needed to start a combo.

Primary Attack

Deception swings. Psi attacks with his signature weapon, a fist-sized steel ball, by ferociously hurling it towards his victm with his telekinetic powers and retrieving it afterwards. The obvious advantage of this is having a melee attack that can impact from outside arm's reach, but one of its star traits is its ability to hit enemies from behind if they're reeling from previous attacks, effectively knocking them towards Psi for a follow-up attack. Deception is very slow and unwieldly at standard melee attacking distance though, making it effective only at set distances from the opponent.

Secondary Attack

Synn Intervention. Psi allows Synn to take control, allowing him to perform some melee strikes before retaking control again. Whereas Psi is best at attacking more distant opponents, Synn uses fists, feet and tail to attack at close range, typically whilst levitating loosely fowards in the process. Synn's fighting style is relatively solid and balanced, especially compared to Psi's, but his individual attacks still lack strength, requiring him to perform elaborate combos to deal significant hurt.

Special 1

Telekinesis. If the player holds down the Special button whilst the cursor is highlighting a physics-enabled object, it will levitate and continue to follow the cursor as long as the Special button is held down. The player can turn this into an attack by releasing the Special button whilst the object is moving with significant velocity, maintaining it and damaging whatever is impacted by the speeding object. Psi doesn't specifically need a movable object to use Telekinesis though - he can form a telekinetic barrier around himself by holding the Special button whilst the cursor is neutral, deflecting incoming projectiles and mildly knocking back anyone nearby Psi when the shield is casted. He can also throw a TK Pulse projectile by gesturing towards a damagable object or person, charging it up for higher damage by holding the button down. Finally, if Telekinesis is used in midair, Psi will temporarily levitate himself towards the cursor, with speed depending on how far away the cursor is from him. Irregardless of the usage, Psi cannot move whilst using Telekinesis (with the exception of flying and standing on top of an object he is levitating - and even then, only if the player holds it steady enough for Psi not to slip off in the process).

Special 2

Mind control. When the Special button is tapped, Psi turns invisible and flies straight towards the cursor, leaving behind a hallucinogenic decoy that continues receiving input from the player until it disappears, either by an enemy attack or by Psi re-emerging at his target destination. This does not make Psi immune to attack even if he is invisible, and an observant enemy can intercept Psi if they predict when he uses the move and where he is going. Psi can also be revealed by attacking the decoy, removing Psi's invisibility but not changing his flight path until attacked himself. Mind control can also be used in conversations outside of fighting, which can sometimes reveal interesting information and conversation subjects if they can coax the target into bringing the thought into mind.

Climax Mode

Nostalgia Mode. The general area is coated over with a purplish tint, and various objects transform into other objects reminiscent of important aspects of the game's story. Small fragments of game events will flicker in the background, and random voice samples and text dialogue will appear as gameplay continues. Psi's body is silouhetted in a purple aura, Melee attacks will be coated with a bright purple aura once executed, and existing telekinetic auras will become more noticable and purple too. Whilst in Nostaliga Mode, the window of success for attacks, blocks and counters is drastically increased, whilst enemies in the general area suffer the opposite effect, making it far easier for Psi to deal damage unopposed and harder for the enemy to fight back. Psi's attackes will also automatically compensate for distance and move into appropriate range to even further increase chances of success (as well as leading to spectacular, easy aircombos), and projectiles are auto-aimed when the cursor is vaugely near an enemy, even compensating for enemy movement to intercept dodging enemies. Finally, Psi's movement during Mind Control techniques will actually deal damage and stun if he intercepts an enemy while flying, even if he is still invisible in the process.

Climax Attack 1

Psi executes a persistent telekinetic shield as described in the Special 1 section. After a short period of time, or if an enemy is stumbled by the shield's effects, BL takes control and bursts out from within it, charging at the nearest enemy and ferociously hammering them with a flurry of fists before knocking them back with a finishing kick. This move lacks the sheer power of other Climax Attacks, but the initial shield and its stumbling effect makes it useful in that it can be used to punish/counter a very wide variety of enemy attacks effortlessly - including other Climax Attacks.

Climax Attack 2

A large number of hallucinogenic decoys spawn from Synn and start circling the area just ahead of him. Synn himself takes part in the crowd and joins them as they all take turns making quick dash attacks at enemies in the centre (the real Synn, of course, is the only one that does actual damage) before the entire crowd stops to simultaneously deliver a skyward uppercut, dragging the victim into the air with them. The copies disappear afterwards, leaving just Synn and the victim to continue gameplay as normal. Like the first Climax Attack, it alone doesn't specialize in damage potential - however, not only is it disorienting and difficult to punish, it places the player in the ideal position for a follow-up aircombo from Synn.

Climax Finisher

Omega TK Pulse. Psi winds up Deception for a massive uppercut attack. If it connects, the victim is sent soaring into the sky, leading to a brief anime cutscene of Synn, with fiercely glowing eyes and even fiercer grin, dropping a line of dialogue before taking to the sky and persuing the victim, leading back to ingame shots of Synn repeatedly executing offscreen swooping attacks on the victim as he continues to fly upwards, occasionally stopping for a brief combo when the victim's ascent starts to slow down. At the apex of the victim's flight, Synn enters the screen from below in a rapid spinning move, levels his height with the victim and delivers a massive axe kick out of the spin, sending the victim hurtling back to the ground again. While still hovering in the air, Psi slowly performs the gestures for a charged TK Pulse in another ingame cinematic, with much larger amounts of telekinetic force manifesting themselves in his hands, before launching it downwards with Psi calling out “Omega TK Pulse!” as he throws it. The victim is hammered with the attack shortly after hitting the ground, filling the screen with a telekinetic explosion with the victim silouhetted inside it, fading to white and ending the attack.

Sketches

[Once confronted with the relations between the Intimidators and the Trinity, as brought up early in Putting on a Show]

Psi: So what exactly did happen between you guys and the Trinity, anyway?

Synn: Well, the simple version would be that we had a clash of ideals. Before they came into the picture, we just killed every single one of our marks no matter how petty the crime.

Psi: Don't they still do that?

Synn: Well, yes. But only as a last resort. We frown apon it, but sometimes when a mark has repeatedly proven unwilling to show any kind of redemption, it's generally better just to remove them from the picture entirely.

Psi: So how'd it all change?

Synn: The Trinity started to take notice of our handiwork. To say they didn't approve of death as a punishment for every crime imaginable is a massive understatement. While it's not what they specialize in, they do a bit of the "justice" thing themselves, so at first they tried to undercut us by stealing our bounties - and by proxy, our income. Naturally, we didn't approve of that and we started taking it out on them. One thing escalated to another, and before anyone knew it, it was an all-out clan war.

Psi: Who won?

Synn: Technically, nobody did. It only even ended because both sides decided their casualties were unnaceptable and decided to strike a truce - that we give our targets a chance to redeem themselves, on the condition that the Trinity stays out of our business. That said, Akumaryu being here is a pretty big deal because his presence in our affairs signals a breach of that truce.

Psi: Is this really the same thing, though? I don't think Aku even knew we were Intimidators when he first approached us, much less actively wants to make life hard for the rest of them.

Synn: Which is the only reason he's still alive. Make no mistake about it - if it weren't for me, he would've been shot right then and there.

Psi: Sheesh. You'd think two organisations after a fairly common goal would be able to just forget about the past entirely and worry about the issues of the present.

Synn: Says Mr. "trying to relearn his forgotten past", personified.

[Once talked to after finishing the Intimidator saga.]

Psi: Synn? You've been quiet ever since we confronted Artemis... are you alright?

[He doesn't answer.]

Psi: Synn? Are you there?

Synn: Yeah yeah. I'm here. It's just... he was one of the only people I respected and deferred to like a family member. Truth be told, all the earliest memories I can remember were spent with him, as bad as that probably sounds in hindsight. It seemed like his heart was in the right place in spite of his methods, y'know? Can you imagine how it would come off as a kick in the teeth to learn even that was a facade?

Psi: I've had my fare share of teeth-kicking revelations myself lately, so it's not terribly difficult to imagine. Clearly the service to him is basically all you've ever known... incidentally, do you even know what you're going to do now that he's gone?

Synn: To tell the truth, I haven't really been thinking about it. It's not like I can just beat up random bad guys considering it was the Intimidators that gave me a paycheck for it, and finding another vigilante firm without attracting the wrong attention wouldn't be easy. For now I think I'd rather do what you're doing and get to the bottom of what your deal is exactly.

Psi: You'd do that just to make me happy?

Synn: Well, that too. I was more referring to the fact that I'll never get a moment of silence to myself as long as you still have questions to ask.

Psi. Wow, Synn. Good to know you, too.