Invincible VS Shares a Deep Dive Overview of Ella Mental

Skybound Games and Quarter Up continue their series of diving into the character backgrounds and explaining the design process that led to their creation. Their latest video is about the new character that got announced recently at The Game Awards.

Starting with the concept, the whole thing started with developers at Quarter Up approaching the show creators about making an entirely new character for the game. The two jumped at the opportunity to make someone that wasn't already seen in the comics. 

They eventually arrived at the Ella Mental's name and from there Cory Walker came up with a design that had a big focus on having cool and asymmetric elements.

Not forgoing the story, Robert Kirkman went for a somewhat subversive approach. A bit part of Invincible has always been that everyone sort of has bad parents and/or terrible childhood. Ella Mental comes in as a complete opposite. Loving parents, supportive family, bubbly personality. This will likely lead to some amusing interactions with Invincible's fairly messed up cast.

In terms of gameplay, as we expected, they tried to make each element feel like it has a distinct use. There are obvious overlaps, but generally you see wind being used for sharp movement, chucks of rock can serve as cover or become part of the offense, fireballs and flames can help with zoning, and water also can produce fast projectiles that shoot across the screen. Nothing really serves only one purpose because her gameplay naturally mixes a bit of all elements.

It seems like she's a fairly versatile character with a lot of utility, but generally goes between close and long range, so there is a bit of nuance to how her kit actually comes together.