- For other uses, see Lucia (disambiguation).
| “ | A combat android developed by the formerly integrated government. After the special mission against Blood Falcon, she was supposed to be discarded because she was reconstructed some time later. But the reasons were supposed to be unknown from then on... | „ |
| ~ Neo Contra official description (translated) |
Lucia (ルシア Rushia?) (pronounced "Lusha"), later known under the pseudonym of "Pheromone Contra", is a recurring character in the Contra series. She is a female bionoid super soldier created by using alien DNA. She first appeared as Bill Rizer's partner in Contra: Shattered Soldier and is later fought as a boss in Neo Contra.
She was designed by Yohei Kiyohara.
History
A bionoid created to be the ultimate soldier. Demented genius, Dr. Geo Mandrake, originally planned to use alien DNA to create androids for his own nefarious plans. However, he inadvertently thwarted his own plans. The military then appropriated the concepts and completed Lucia. There were some parts of the research that could not be duplicated, thus mass productions of the model cannot be done currently. She has been assigned as Bill's partner as well as his watchdog.[1]
Appearances
Contra: Shattered Soldier
Lucia is a playable character right from the beginning in this game. She is an advanced bionoid super soldier built by the government based on Dr. Geo Mandrake's research, and is sent to accompany and assist Bill Rizer during his temporary release from cryogenic prison to deal with the new terrorist organization known as "Blood Falcon". Her playstyle is identical to Bill, she being the default Player 2 choice. Player 1 can play as Lucia by adjusting the settings in the options menu.
Neo Contra
| “ | You always were tough, Bill. But that will be your undoing... Listen to me, resist all you want, but you can't hope to win. Not against him! | „ |
| ~ Lucia |
Taking the alias of "Pheromone Contra", Lucia appears in this game as an antagonist and one of the main stage bosses. She is one of "The Four Hell Warriors of Neo Contra", a group comprised by four leaders that rule with abilities far beyond those of their subordinates.
When she is introduced, she's seen wearing what appears to be a portable life support system that connects several tubes along various parts of her body, and also fashions a helmet which covers her entire face. She starts by taunting Bill, hinting they have met in the past, and then removes her helmet –revealing her true identity to Bill's surprise– and proceeds to attack them.
Lucia is ultimately defeated by the two heroes and dies without telling Bill the true nature of Project C.
Strategy
- Ironman No. 48 and Pheromone Contra
| “ | A combat mecha that was created by combining both Kanimisso 92 and Icus 69 together. It cannot be destroyed by Kanimisso's energy barrier and Icus's infinity energy. It provides full support for Pheromone Contra with support missiles and dedicated powered-up bullets. | „ |
Pheromone Contra is arguably the hardest boss of the first four stages and will require you to dodge more than you have with any of the previous mission-end enemies, making her the most dangerous threat to your S rank yet. The giant Zone of the Enders-style mecha in the background is essentially indestructible and only has a standard missile attack. Its true purpose is to supercharge Lucia with one of two types of elements. When bestowed with fire, Lucia slams into the middle of the arena emitting a huge circle of flame outward. She will then either spin a large ring of fire along the ground at you like a yo-yo, or send three sparks after you, which chase you along the ground. If given lightning, she will initially charge at you, along with four decoys of her. All five of them look exactly alike and any of them could be the real Lucia. The good news is the images disappear right after she lands. Once the images are gone, she will either continue to charge at you or stand still and kick several energy balls at you.
You can tell when Lucia is about to be recharged by the mecha because she will return to the middle of the platform and super jump. If you see a red fireball come from the mecha move to the edge of the platform because a wave of fire is coming. Here two red attacks can be avoided by simply keeping your distance and continually moving. Should the mecha emit a blue energy ball stand still until you see the images dive at you. Chances are they will miss, but if one is about to collide with you, move a short distance to the side. Once she stops line up your shot with the real one, but keep your distance. Her blue attacks are much harder to avoid if you are close to her. The mortar fire from the mecha comes infrequently and you can see the crosshairs where it will hit, so just avoid it like you always do.
Lucia is the only one that can be hit, so just ignore the mecha. The best time to hit her is right after she gets re-energized by the mecha because she pauses for a second after she hits the ground again. Heavy weapons are your best bet as usual, though slow ones can be hard to use since she moves quickly. At the very beginning of the fight she walks slowly toward the center before attacking. Use this opportunity to hit her several times. The Katana can be useful, however it will still take numerous hits with it to defeat her. After she hits the ground run up to her and hit her once or twice, then get away from her. No matter what attack she uses, if you are next to her you will almost definitely get killed.
Playability
Lucia is also an unlockable character within the game. After unlocking her, she must be selected for a player's use by adjusting the settings in the Options menu as she is not assigned to any Players by default. She mimics the playstyle of the default Bill and Jaguar and reuses her basic model properties from the previous PS2 title, but now wearing a pink armor outfit. Her death sound is also different in this game. Like Bill and Jaguar, an alternate costume known as Lucia II is unlockable for use, which is Lucia's bathing suit outfit. Unique to this outfit is one minor weapon appearance: The Ripple fires magenta heart shaped rings instead of the usual blue energy rings. Her death sound is also different from normal Lucia's.
Quotes and sounds
- Defeated (Shattered Soldier)
Contra 4
Lucia is one of several unlockable characters in Contra 4, although in this game she is just a bonus feature and has no actual involvement on the game's storyline. Her incarnation in this game appears to be physically different from her Shattered Soldier and Neo Contra incarnations. Sheena, another unlockable female, shares her model with Lucia's, although with minor aesthetic changes.
Lucia's default costume is blue with gray colored accessories (boots and gloves), but she also possesses three additional alternate palettes: A red outfit with purple accessories, a green outfit with purple-black accessories, and a gray outfit with purple accessories which also changes her skin tone to a more metallic appearance. Her hair color and parts of her gun will also match the accessory color due to shared palettes.
Quotes and sounds
- "Lock and load!"
- "Come get some!"
- Defeated
Notes
Nobuya Nakazato in an interview posted on "girls of gaming" magazine said this about Lucia:
- (Question:) What are you most proud of regarding Lucia?
(Nakazato:)"Even though Lucia is a female character, she is masculine and cool. Lucia's counterpart in Shattered Soldier, the famous Bill Rizer, is designed to be a big, strong, macho guy. We balanced Lucia to make her look very elegant so that she easily stood out when placed next to sturdy Bill. However, in a game like Contra, if the heights of the 1P or 2P characters are different, it affects the muzzle direction of the gun among other gameplay issues. The game difficulty would actually be different for both players. Our solution in the design was to set Lucia as big as Bill by equipping a big protector over her shoulder. In the end, both characters worked out well in game design."
Official Data
- Shin Contra/Contra: Hard Spirits - Konami Official Perfect Guide (translated)
- A female combat android programmed with all kinds of murder techniques. Once, the military secretly gathered and completed the development plan of the insane chemist Dr. Gio Mandrake, who had misused alien genetic research and self-destructed. Due to the core technology being unexamined, mass production is currently deemed impossible. Serving as both a partner and supervisor to Bill Riser, she is assigned to the task against Blood Falcon.
Gallery
Screenshots
.png "Neo Contra Lucia model (mask).png (7.48 MB)")
.png "Neo Contra Lucia II model (mask).png (8.27 MB)")
.png "Neo Contra Lucia II model (circle).png (7.31 MB)")
Sprites and models
.png "Shin Contra Lucia model (in-game).png (162 KB)")
.png "Neo Contra Lucia model (playable).png (160 KB)")
_Contra_4.png "Lucia Model (Default) Contra 4.png (14 KB)")
Artworks
Trivia
- The Contra: Shattered Soldier instruction booklet and the in-game Database state that Lucia is a cyborg (an organic being with cybernetic implants), although in the game, she is referred to as a "bionoid" (an android –robot resembling a human– with biological parts). Because of the way she was created, by using alien DNA in a laboratory, as well as no mention of a real human body being used in the process, it is more plausible that Lucia is a bionoid.
- In Lucia's intro cutscene from Neo Contra, Jaguar calls her a "legendary bioroid".
- Contra 4, which was released after Shattered Soldier, states that Lucia is an android.
- In Contra 4, Sheena Etranzi's blue costume resembles Lucia's default color.
- One of Lucia's alternate color schemes in Contra 4 resembles her having metallic skin. Likewise, Sheena Etranzi in the same game also used to feature a counterpart metallic skin-like color scheme, although it was scrapped on the final version of the game.
- Although Lucia in Neo Contra is shown with a navy-blue swimsuit in her artwork, she appears with a pink swimsuit in-game.
- In Neo Contra, if "Lucia II" is enabled in the Options menu, the swimsuit model will appear during her cutscenes of Stage 3. Under this model, the right-kidney circle that is attached to the mask will appear as well as the mask itself. The circle is colored pink, matching Lucia's swimsuit color. However, the swimsuit won't appear during the boss battle.
- Lucia's Pheromone Contra mecha strongly resembles an Orbital Frame from the Zone of the Enders series (also by Konami).
See also
- Doctor Geo Mandrake
- Lucia (Returns)
- Lucia Zero - An alternate incarnation of the character appearing in Contra Returns.
- Lucia (Operation Galuga) - An alternate incarnation of the character appearing in Contra: Operation Galuga.
References
- ↑ Lucia's profile from the Contra: Shattered Soldier instruction booklet, page 6.
External links
- Lucia (Contra) at the Heroes Wiki
- Lucia (Contra) at the Villains Wiki
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