Real name: Edmond Dantès. Shrouded with wrathful, blue-black flames, the Count of Monte Cristo himself is the most renowned "Avenger" in the world. His wrath and vengeance are directed toward "irrationality and malice," and never toward innocent people. He was recorded in the Throne of Heroes as combined with the character in his eponymous novel and materialized as the Extra Class Avenger. He acknowledged Chaldea's Master, saying "while commonplace, you crush the machinations of evil," and forged a contract. Subsequently, he took root in the depths of his Master's spirit as a co-conspirator in deceiving and scorning the irrationality of this world, and plays an important role in shielding that spirit from malice. With the spiritual strength and quickness of thought honed at Château d'If where he was once sealed, he is skilled in incredibly quick unarmed combat using superhuman physical abilities, as well as his all-consuming black flames.
Gameplay
The Count of Monte Cristo (often referred to as Dantes) is a new character to Melty Blood, released as free DLC alongside Ushiwakamaru on December 15, 2022. He is a jack of all trades that focuses on using his powerful midrange pokes to corner the opponent into explosive damage
With a very versatile and well rounded toolkit, The Count is equipped with all the things you'd want in a traditional fighting game kit, with zoning tools in both the air and ground with projectiles Flames of Love and Hate, solid defensive options like his reversal series Vengeful Conflagration to get you out of sticky situations, and a powerful strike throw game up close to compliment his seamless transitions from midrange to rushdown with his plethora of strong pokes with his rekkas and C normals
His versatility comes at a cost however, lacking the more focused and potent options his opponents have access to. His buttons are all slower than average across the board, lacking a 5 frame normal for defense, having some of the weakest rebeat framedata in the game, and overall sluggish movement. Both of his backdashes on the ground and air cover little to no ground, giving him an underwhelming retreat game as the opponent advances. He also lacks strong mixups outside of strike throw with no standing overheads or shield crush options. Despite these flaws he boasts high health and even higher damage, with great metered options for enders to keep up his potentially relentless offense once he has the opponent cornered
Players looking for a character who has a tiny bit of everything Melty Blood has to offer to its characters will enjoy the Count's widely applicable toolkit, overcoming his weaknesses with high damage and solid okizeme
Strengths
Weaknesses
Jack of All Trades: Dantes is capable of playing effectively at nearly every range, boasting a DP, beams, and solid midrange tools. This allows him to switch seamlessly between keepaway, playing an effective midrange with his 214B lariat, tk.214X clone, and C-normals, or going in for frametrap/IAD pressure once he gets close. Combined with his above-average HP, he's one of the most versatile characters in the game.
Excellent C-Buttons: With the exception of j.C, every C-button gives him fantastic ground control. 2C is a large and fairly active sweep, 5C is large and excellent at catching jump-outs with its second hit, 4C is, again, large and a fantastic option to cover his retreat + enforce his frametrap pressure, and 3C is one of the most effective anti-air buttons in the game.
High Damage Potential: He is capable of 3-touching some of the highest health characters in the game, and this potential is only exacerbated once he reaches the corner due to his variety of combo tools
Conversion Flexibility: With a large arsenal of metered conversion tools combined with his high meter gain, Dantes has many ways to consistently convert all his hits into some form of knockdown to initiate his strike throw game or maintain his strong midrange keepaway
Master of None: Many of his tools are often outclassed in startup or recovery. His effectiveness will be dictated by how well he cycles playstyles and applies creative use of these tools.
Weak Retreat: While his ground speed and airdash are strong, his backdash/air backdash don't go very far which leads to a rather slow retreat. Couple this with his slow jump startup, and the result is a character who is better at maintaining space than moving about it.
High Commitment: He lacks a 5F normal for defense, boasts high startup and recovery even on his strongest pokes, and his overall rebeat framedata is generally more minus on average. Dantes has to rely on ambiguity and strong meter management to maintain his offense, and has to commit to risky options to get himself out of difficult situations up close
Weak Air to Air Presence: Thanks to a combination of his slow jump startup and mediocre A and B normals, he's only left with j.C in most scenarios which is prone to being counterpoked due to its long startup. This leads to a character who is better suited to staying grounded and anti-airing, which just isn't a viable strategy against certain characters.
Unique Traits
Black Grudge
All of the Count's specials involving the use of his devastating Black Flame applies a damage over time debuff that corrodes recoverable health
These specials include 236X, 214X, j.236X, and 22C
Character Summary
Move list
Moon Skills
6B+C (Air OK) - Flames of Love and Hate
3B+C - Vengeful Conflagration
4B+C - Furious Hellfire
j.4B+C - Afterglow
Special Attacks
236A/B/C (EX OK) - Flames of Love and Hate (Air OK): Flame beams
623A/B/C (EX OK) - Vengeful Conflagration: Anti air DPs.
214A/B/C (EX OK) -Furious Hellfire: Rekkas, advancing alashes
22C (EX exclusive) - Revenge is Mine: Beam burst
J.214A/B/C (EX OK) - Afterglow: Clone lariat strike
Arc Drive
236B+C - My Vengeance Never Dies: Highly damaging advancing grab.
It has a good combination of reach and speed, as it lets him step forward during the animation.
The hitbox on the front covers a bit of area above Dantes' head.
While not being big enough to serve as an anti air, it can make for a good normal to hit opponents during their Instant Airdash or even slightly higher.
Slower than average recovery leads to this being a really bad poke.
5C
5C
1st Hit
2nd Hit
1st Hit
Lua error in Module:MoveDataParser at line 99: attempt to concatenate local 'targetImage' (a nil value). 2nd Hit
A unique 5C involving two advancing punches with Dantes' cape.
Staple tool for stabilizing combos, establishing pressure, hitconfirming, and catching jump-outs.
The big gap between the two hits combined with long recovery make this a poke you should use very sparingly.
Both hits have fantastic reach, with the second hit taking a large step forward before going off, which is used in pressure to reverse beat to 5A for better frame advantage.
Seen the most as combo filler, as the second hit pulls the opponent down from altitudes where continuing the combo would otherwise be difficult.
It is the most common air-to-air due to its speed, but it's very stubby.
His 5F jump startup makes using this as a rising air-to-air not fantastic due to its effective startup of 11F when compared to the average of 9F, be absolutely certain it'll hit.
Can cancel into itself for three total jA's by inputting j4A.
Couple slashes with the cape. A cornerstone to his frametrap pressure when combined with 236A and enables gimmicky pressure resets with j.214X.
Long range and large disjoint combined with a large backstep motion makes this a fairly good retreating option.
Both strikes vacuum on hit.
First hit is special cancellable into air specials, while the second hit lands and can be special cancelled into ground specials.
Is airborne for frames 7-21 meaning he can get fatal countered out of it, careful.
First hit vacuums on hit, and is cancellable into air specials like j.236B or j.214B, making it a staple combo filler
Fatal counters scored with the first hit won't be interrupted by the 2nd hit. This, combined with its 9F startup, makes it a high risk high reward option to fuzzy with on IADs.
Universal Mechanics
Rapid Beat 2
Rapid Beat 2
Lua error in Module:MoveDataParser at line 88: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
Lua error in Module:MoveDataParser at line 86: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
Hitboxes Off
Hitboxes On
No results
Abysmal for stabilizing combos when compared to 5C, often whiffing on opponents who are only slightly above you. It also requires some practice to ensure you get all the hits, but this is optimal in routes such as MD cashouts where you're going to be at max damage scaling anyways.
Dantes' beam special, serving as horizontal projectiles of various utility. The B and C version are mainly used in neutral while the A version is a staple combo tool.
Dragon-Punch style specials. Dantes slices upwards into the air, offerring great vertical reach but variable horizontal reach. A is used in combos, while B is a reversal and C is a reversal/combo ender.
Various forward slashed using the flames. A is a rekka-style special that can cancel on whiff, and offer mixups on the third hit. B is an advancing slash to use for neutral, C is a combo filler.
Dantes smacks the ground, causing it to burst beams in a large area around him.
EX only special
Reaches the top of the screen and covers a large horizontal distance both on the front and behind of Dantes.
Active for a very large period of time as well, making it a huge, threatening wall of projectiles.
Deceptively short recovery, making this move advantagous on block and extremely easy to follow after on hit.
Untech duration scales very harshly if used in combos, though, making it very tricky to follow up midscreen.
Flames of Love and Hate
The airborne parallel to the beam series. Due to their steep diagonal incline, the beams have little use for long range. Instead, they serve as tools to halt Dantes air momentum and hit opponents in midrange, as well as combo tools.