Invincible VS has a character by no means earlier than seen in Robert Kirkman’s superhero universe: Ella Psychological.
Revealed at The Game Awards 2025 with gameplay footage, Ella Psychological — voiced by Tierra Whack — joins established characters equivalent to Omni-Man and Invincible to flesh out the roster of playable characters in the 3v3 tag fighter.
Forward of her reveal, we bought a probability to chat with not solely Invincible collection creator Robert Kirkman, but additionally a number of members of the improvement group at Quarter Up to discover out some further particulars about Ella Psychological’s design, her playstyle, and a few of the classes that Quarter Up took away from their latest closed beta.
And make sure to take a look at every little thing introduced at The Game Awards 2025 for extra, in addition to the winners listing in full.
IGN: So to begin, Robert, what are you able to inform us about this new character?
Robert Kirkman: Ella Psychological is a utterly authentic character to the sport. We’re coming in with a new nook of the Invincible Universe. The group reached out to Cory Walker and myself, wanting to see if it might be okay to add anyone new to the sport to shake issues up. And Cory and I took it as a possibility to put the previous creation hat again on and provide you with one thing new for the Universe. And it has been fairly nice. This group is de facto devoted to Invincible and is de facto dedicated to ensuring that this sport is an genuine expertise on par with the tv present and the comedian guide and another variety of Invincible you’d expertise. And so to have a new character working round and being added to and fleshed out by them is de facto superior and gratifying. And I believe it simply makes this sport that a lot cooler.
IGN: So clearly that is going to be a character that is a half of this new story mode that you just’re making for Invincible VS. Are you able to inform us a little bit about what their position goes to be in that story mode?
Mike Rogers, narrative director: Yeah, we’re not speaking particular particulars in story mode simply but, however she shall be showing in the mode for positive. And you have seen a clip of how some of these characters work together with the principal Robotic and Ella. And you will have to wait and see precisely what the context, the wider context of all that’s. However she’s going to be a fairly pivotal half of the story and a pivotal half of the relaxation of the sport too, as a result of we have put a lot of love and energy into designing her equipment and the way she fights and what her character’s like and every little thing in between.
IGN: We will see in the trailer that she is voiced by Tierra Whack. Are you able to inform us a little bit about what it was like working together with her? What was the casting course of like?
Rogers: Working with Tierra was superior. Once we had been attempting to work out how we had been going to deliver Ella to life and who could be the proper particular person for her, Tierra was somebody we thought of fairly early on. And we knew that Tierra was a large fan of the Invincible franchise. And I really feel actually fortunate that she got here aboard. She responded to the materials actually strongly. I believe she recognized with some of the stuff that we have written there and actually, actually introduced a ardour and a drive to the character. And I believe that basically helped heighten what we wrote and actually deliver this character that was so nascent to life.
And I am actually enthusiastic about all of her VO and the way effectively it suits with what we envision for the character from the assaults to similar to the conversations that they’ve. She’s constructive, she’s energetic, however she’s bought this slight sardonic edge to her. And I believe Tierra actually brings that aspect of it to the character. So I could not be happier, and I believe the complete group feels that approach.
IGN: Talking of these assaults, I do know you may’t actually go into story particulars, however are you able to inform us a little bit about how she is going to play, what her play model is in the precise sport?
Mike Willette, govt producer: Oh, a lot of mid-range, some long-range zoning, a lot of chargeable assaults, each component. There’s stuff that she simply does to manipulate area even in entrance of her so she will be able to deliver up earth to block assaults… it acts as a deterrent to attempting to get in on her, and she will be able to shatter it, and you’ll see half of that in the little glimpse of the video. However she makes use of water, hearth, air, and earth to get round. We actually wished one thing completely different. So after we requested politely — begged Robert — like, “Hey, this may be a nice thought to add a new character, and we would love for one thing that is simply completely different that we have not actually explored earlier than that we predict we might have some artistic gameplay,” Robert and Cory are like, “Oh, we’ll get again to you,” as a result of it sounded actually thrilling.
And in order quickly as we noticed the ideas, we’re like, ****, we all know what we’re going to do. So then we had to get artistic and say like, “Oh, how can we resolve this?” We’re like, “What variety of assaults? What do we predict we are able to pull off?” And that is after we go to Dan [Eder]. We’re like, “Dan, what do you assume for the artwork? What can we pull off?”
IGN: Robert, you talked about one thing about placing the artistic hat again on. What was that like coming again to the world of Invincible to create this new story for this sport?
Kirkman: I really feel like I’ve by no means left the world of Invincible simply because I went proper from the comedian to the TV present. So it is simply good to do extra. One enjoyable facet of Ella Psychological is that she was backwards engineered to be in a online game. So when Cory [Walker] and I sat down, it was like, effectively, what are the deficiencies of the Invincible characters in the context of a online game? And we do not have a lot of projectile throwing characters, and we do not actually have anyone that throws fireballs or hits individuals with rocks. And we have now names that we kick round once in a while as a result of a lot of Invincible names are like a regular identify that matches inside a completely different phrase.
And so we would simply be sitting round hanging out and we would be like, “Ella Psychological, that is one thing we are able to do one thing with in some unspecified time in the future in the future as a result of it is like Elemental.” After which the identify Ella is in there. Take a look at that. That is how artistic we’re simply to utterly nail it down. And so we had that in our again pocket. And so it was like, “Oh, we are able to do one thing with this Ella Psychological identify and do some cool stuff with it.”
IGN: Coming round to Dan, what was the course of like of bringing this character to life in phrases of from idea artwork to placing her in the sport?
Dan Eder, artwork director: I believe it was utterly completely different from another character as a result of we did not have any reference. Primarily, we bought a sketch from Cory, which was superb, by the approach. After which we’re like, “How can we make this work in our sport? Just if we put her subsequent to the relaxation of the roster, does she seem like she belongs in the similar universe?” And I believe immediately the reply was sure, however there was nonetheless a lot of room to flesh her out in phrases of common stage of element and facial options and sure readability associated considerations when it comes to some of her components and simply general shade palette, that sort of stuff.
So the very first thing we did was simply strive to extrapolate. We checked out the idea, after which we did our personal model primarily based on Cory’s idea, which was a lot extra in step with simply the general artwork model of the sport, but it surely nonetheless saved it very, very genuine to the authentic design from Cory. I believe over time she actually advanced, each in phrases of her options in addition to as soon as we bought in these strikes on the gameplay aspect, that basically knowledgeable us on the visuals like, effectively, how a lot do we wish to lean into the shade palette for the components and have that be represented in her eyes, for instance, which glow primarily based on the component that she’s presently casting?
And I believe in a short time we landed on one thing that all of us felt surprisingly, shockingly pleased with very, very early on. As a result of I believe if you design a new character, you do not count on it to be this clean, not for me anyway, as a result of once more, there’s a lot room for error, which I really feel like we dodged a lot of these traps that we might have fallen into with an authentic character that you just’d count on. And I believe gamers, once they get to expertise this character for the first time, they are going to be shocked by how built-in she feels into the universe and the way her interactions with different characters, as you noticed with Robotic and Rex and Mark in the trailer, these sorts of interactions are going to really feel pure. And I believe if you happen to’re not an Invincible fan, I would not blame you for considering she was half of the comics or the present as a result of it feels that actual.
IGN: Coming again to Robert, you additionally oversaw Telltale’s The Strolling Lifeless. And I do know that that is a very completely different model of sport in contrast to The Strolling Lifeless, however I’m wondering, has the expertise engaged on Invincible VS been related in any respect?
Kirkman: I believe it has been related in that the group at Telltale was so plugged in and so devoted that my overseeing was a few informal conversations. “That is what makes Strolling Lifeless cool.” After which going, “Hey, that appears actually nice. Hey, that appears actually nice. That is actually working effectively.” And the expertise working with the Quarter Up group has been the similar. We have talked early on about issues, and I’ve labored with Mike and Helen Leigh on giving a few story factors and issues like that, however actually it is simply been a wealth of simply sitting again and being like, “Oh my gosh, that is superior. That is working nice. That is wanting nice.” The whole lot I’ve seen from Dan, the approach the sport is structured, it is all simply terrific.
So myself, Cory Walker, Ryan Ottley, we actually take it critically that we’re the stewards of this model and we’d like to be sure that all issues are genuine and that it is offering an additive expertise for an Invincible fan. However with this one, we had to do little or no as a result of the group was simply as devoted to that as we had been. And the expertise behind this sport actually reveals by means of and every little thing that you just see from it. And it has been a actually outstanding expertise.
IGN: Have been you a combating sport fan coming in, or has the course of of engaged on this sport gotten you extra into the style in any respect?
Kirkman: Yeah, I am a big combating sport fan. Road fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, I really like all these video games. I nonetheless strive to sustain, however I’ll say that generally I get a little misplaced in how difficult they will get and the way a lot better everyone seems to be than me. And I believe that that is one of the issues that this sport tackles very well. You may sit down with this sport and simply have enjoyable button mashing and be like, “Oh, I did some actually cool combos. That seemed very nice. I want I knew how I did that.” However at the similar time, there’s a lot of components to the sport that when you get into it and also you’re having a lot of enjoyable, you may actually dive deep and be taught some actually difficult issues which might be actually spectacular. And it is nice that you could have each ranges of play in the similar sport.
So it is actually nice. And truthfully, an Invincible combating sport is nearly the factor that I’ve at all times wished out of Invincible greater than a present or a film or no matter. And so to lastly have it and to have it’s pretty much as good as this sport is, is de facto a excessive watermark of my life, to be utterly clear.
IGN: After which the last query for the Quarter Up crew, you latterly had a closed alpha take a look at interval. Are you able to give some general ideas on the way it went and what some of the details of suggestions you obtained from it had been?
Willette: Oh, completely. It was a improbable time. We bought to play with so many individuals throughout completely different ecosystems, like whether or not they’re enjoying on Xbox or PlayStation. Bought to see individuals get actually sweaty that rapidly over three days. That was actually spectacular. So for us, it was actually a community take a look at, but it surely was additionally a possibility to see how individuals interacted with the system, how a lot time it was taking them to acclimate to sure issues that basically separate our sport from different video games, which is de facto our Omni-Tag system. It is like the fluidity of tagging out and in. And the sport is de facto about group and team-centric techniques.
So by day three, actually seeing individuals capitalize on not simply the lively tag and help system, however counter tags, help breakers, when to use snaps, when not to, taking benefit of area shifts, the folks that discovered them and had been utilizing them a lot, after which simply completely different nasty setups. So whether or not I used to be watching A FOxy Grampa or Mustard or Maximilian Dood or Diaphone or simply all the different streams that we had happening after which simply getting heaps of suggestions. So issues that folks wished with trijumps or sure issues that looped or issues they wished improved with movement inputs or simply all these items that we have been taking in that suggestions and we have been actively updating the sport making ready for launch with this suggestions in thoughts. So every little thing was improbable from our perspective of simply getting that many individuals into play and getting that high quality suggestions and simply the good, the unhealthy, the ugly, every little thing. It was a nice, nice expertise.
The Game Awards 2025 trailer confirmed an Invincible VS launch date of April 30, 2026 throughout Xbox Collection X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC.
Mitchell Saltzman is an editorial producer at IGN. You could find him on twitter @JurassicRabbit