Reclusa

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Reclusa
Reclusa's in-game model
First appearance	Mario & Luigi: Brothership (2024)

“You may call me Reclusa! The one and lonely ruler of Concordia! Well done, Zokket! Or was it Cozette? You certainly got your brain washed to an entertaining degree! And now that I'm free, let's just dispose of yooouuu! Let's start building, shall we?! My world of perfect solitude! Connecting the islands? Connecting the PEOPLE? No, no, no! I shun communication—detest togetherness! We'll create a world without friends, where only the lonely will play! Let's get this party finished!”

—Reclusa, Mario & Luigi: Brothership

Reclusa is the overarching antagonist and final boss of Mario & Luigi: Brothership. He is an ancient entity who was responsible for brainwashing Cozette to become Zokket, and has manipulated the Extension Corps to resurrect him via separating the islands of Concordia and rendering its Bonds impossible, enforcing solitude for his own pleasures. His name is a portmanteau of "recluse", a synonym for the term "shut-in", or a person who functions alone and avoids socializing, and "Medusa", due to his appearance including animated silver cables with red claws on his silver, screen-like head.

Reclusa is the first final boss in the Mario & Luigi series to not be any form of Bowser.

History

Little is known about Reclusa's background, though Shun mentions that he is older than any of the cast, and Reclusa claims he had already destroyed the bonds of various worlds, and by extension the worlds themselves prior to arriving at Concordia. By the time of the game's events, he has retreated into an egg to recharge himself and eventually rise again. Under his influence, Zokket and the Extension Corps keep him dormant in their fortress, intent on fueling the egg with enough Glohm to reawaken him.

Reclusa is first shown in his egg form when Mario, Luigi, and Snoutlet encounter Zokket in his fortress, lamenting that he does not have enough Glohm to repower Reclusa. After his defeat, Zokket gives the last of his energy to the egg, freeing Cozette but also reawakening Reclusa. Immediately, he surrounds Fortress Zokket with invasive flora, converting it into his own lair, creating yet another barrier requiring the Mario Bros. to obtain energy from 7 significant Bonds within Concordia to penetrate through. Later on he captures multiple Concordians in flowers which trap them in their own fantasies and would christen his lair as the Soli-Tree while they are pondering over the last Bond. He later gloats to Snoutlet and the Mario Bros. about his means of ending Concordia, and also implied that he intended to do his work with the Mushroom Kingdom next while telling them not to bother attacking the Soli-Tree as it has an impregnable barrier.

At the Soli-Tree's Middle Floor, he ambushes the Bros with flowers, sending them into a simulation of the Mushroom Kingdom with Princess Peach bonding with Bowser in a seemingly peaceful time, but they manage to escape much to Reclusa's chagrin. Deploying a horde of minions to defeat the heroes at the Top Floor, the Mario Bros. are narrowly rescued by Bowser, who is intent on defeating Zokket unaware that Reclusa is the real threat and Zokket was already beaten.

Reclusa eventually engages in a battle with Mario and Luigi after a further chase, ending with him feigning defeat long enough to activate the Soli-Tree and become Weeping Reclusa. Easily defeating Bowser and his troops, Weeping Reclusa summons a dark fog that causes Mario and Luigi to fall unconscious, them being saved by Connie watering them with the energy of their Bonds and allowing them to enter the Soli-Tree.

Within the Weeping Core and eventually by himself, Reclusa engages in a long and grueling final battle with Mario and Luigi, eventually defeated by their hands. To the bitter end he does not regret his misdeeds, feigning remorse before destroying the battlefield floor in a final desperate act to defeat Mario and Luigi. However, this last effort is unsuccessful, resulting in Mario and Luigi defeating Reclusa, smashing his screen.

Reclusa is last seen complaining about his failure to enforce eternal solitude upon Concordia, failing to understand the meaning of the world's Bonds. Connie confronts him, telling the entity that while one can do certain things alone, there are also many things that can be done with the power of teamwork. Further incensed, Reclusa continues to lament his failures, and is ultimately told by Connie to disappear as he has no place in Concordia. Reclusa ceases to be soon after, the Soli-Tree crumbling without him.

Personality

At his core, Reclusa despises the very concept of bonds to such an extent that he was willing to trap people in artificial dream worlds just to prevent them from interacting with anyone else. He also shows a sadistic personality, as evidenced by him not only fully acknowledging to Snoutlet that anyone caught in the dream worlds is likely to starve to death, but even indicating that is precisely the point behind trapping them. Reclusa was also shown to have an extremely childish demeanor by being dramatic in his words and posturing, sometimes breaking out into a sing-song dialogue, comparing everything to toys that he breaks for fun, and also being prone to tantrums if he does not get his way. His childish nature is further reinforced in the Japanese version where he often addresses himself with the pronoun boku-chin, which is generally reserved for young boys.

Battle

First Phase

Reclusa is fought in four phases. During the first phase of the fight, he continuously flees the Bros. as they ride a plug hot on his heels. Mario and Luigi have to avoid Doom Bloom shots, which they can neutralise by blasting those shots with the opposite element (Mario uses fire while Luigi attacks with ice.). If the Bros. collide with a Doom Bloom, they have to fight it and a Glohm-infected enemy or one of Reclusa's minions. After defeating the enemies, the chase will resume at the point it stopped. If one of the Bros. is KO'd when the enemies are defeated, they will get up with 1 HP.

Eventually, the Bros. will catch up to Reclusa, who will charge up a fire or ice attack; with the brother of the opposite element having to continuously attack him. If the Bros. succeed, Reclusa will be stunned and they can charge up a Bro Bomb to blast him and make him dizzy for one turn before he flees again, resuming the chase. If the Bros. fail to stun him, Reclusa will attack, either shortly freezing the Bros if ice or stunning the plug if fire. This likely will result in them running into a Doom Bloom. If the Bros. attempt to Bro Bomb Reclusa before stunning him, he will dodge it.

Second Phase

During the second phase of the fight, Mario and Luigi have to deal with four Doom Blooms, one of which captures Snoutlet. Weeping Reclusa has three attacks. In the first one, he will swing his arms low, followed by some flames creeping in from the same side as the swung arm. If a Bro. jumps onto the swinging arm, he will be carried high and then tossed at the other Bro. and must be caught to avoid damage. Weeping Reclusa's second attack involves a spiked green ball falling at the Bros., who must repel it with a hammer strike; doing so will cause the ball to fly at Weeping Reclusa, stunning him for a few turns. The last one involves Weeping Reclusa firing ice projectiles at the Bros., then he launches a giant fireball which must be countered by both Bros.; doing so will cause it to fly at Weeping Reclusa, also stunning him for a few turns. If he and Mario have freed Snoutlet, Luigi can use his Luigi Logic skill to have Snoutlet create another plug-like craft to fly into Weeping Reclusa's mouth. However, the Bros. have to avoid Weeping Reclusa's shots and wooden protrusions as they head towards the beast's maw as the fight will repeat from the beginning if the Bros. are hit. When they reach the end, Weeping Reclusa will launch dark energy, which the Bros. must repel with a Bro Bomb. If their Bro Bomb successfully repels the dark energy, the Bros. will enter Weeping Reclusa's maw.

Third Phase

The third phase involves him encasing himself within the spiked ball called Weeping Core. In this state, Reclusa can attack by rolling into the Bros., and must be repelled with hammer strikes. After enough repulsions, he must be repelled by both Bros. His second attack has him extend spikes and spin around, which can change direction and speed; these must be jumped over. He will also analyze moves used against him; two uses of the same move will cause the core to take significantly reduced damage from that attack permanently. After the Weeping Core breaks from enough damage, Reclusa emerges in his normal form from the wreckage to commence the fourth phase of the fight, turning the background red.

Fourth Phase

Reclusa has several attacks during this phase of the fight. In one, he splits into seven copies, three of which flash emblems of the Bros. Four random copies will fire bullets with only those that had the emblem firing directly at the corresponding Bros. who have to repel these bullets with hammer strikes; the finale involves all remaining copies (including those whose previous shots were not countered) simultaneously firing a stronger variant of the bullets all at once. Another one of his attacks (only done while not having any Bro. knocked out) has him disable one of the Bros (draining his color), so the other Bro. is forced to carry him. The still-active Bro. has to dodge Reclusa's hand blasts (which are launched in pairs) and claw swipes in this attack. The barrage is ended by a large fireball being thrown, and the colored Bro. has to use his hammer to repel it, otherwise the disabled Bro. will take massive damage in comparison to the colored. The grayed-out Bro. will regain his color after the large fireball attack or if the active Bro. gets knocked out midway.

Upon losing half of his health, Reclusa goes berserk and the background turns dark purple, openly declaring his fury towards the Bros. during his attacks. His bullet attack now spawns eight clones instead of seven and fires six times. His disabling attack now has him launch his final fireball from afar, which can turn invisible, shrink, or burn and grow just before it reaches the still-active Bro. for the counter. His final attack only used within enraged state has him firing either four or six energy blasts in the order he flashes the Bros' corresponding emblem, all except the last are instantaneous single target with the finale slowly generating a shockwave for both to jump.

Afterwards, Reclusa attempts to send Mario and Luigi to their doom by destroying the floor. In this final leg, both Bros. have to use their hammers to bash at Reclusa's head before they hit the ground since all three are descending rapidly; however, the Bros. must charge Bond power to add more strength. Ten charged hits to Reclusa's head will defeat him once and for all.

Quotes

Main article: List of Mario & Luigi: Brothership quotes § Reclusa

Gallery

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  Reclusa's appearance in-game

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  Artwork from Shun's explaination about Reclusa

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  Reclusa awakened after the battle against Zokket

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  The first phase in the final battle against Reclusa

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  Reclusa with a Concordian-like smiley face from a missed attack

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  Reclusa's angry face

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  Mario and Luigi using their hammers to defeat Reclusa as they fall

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Japanese	ボッチアーニ[?] Botchiāni	From「ぼっち」(botchi, slang for "loner") and the Italian surname "Ciani"
Chinese	独孤亚霓[?] Dúgū Yàní	From「独孤」(dúgū, Chinese male surname), possibly a reference to the fictional swordsman「独孤求败」(Dugu Qiubai), and a partial transliteration of the Japanese name;「独孤」is also「孤独」(gūdú, "solitary") backwards.
Dutch	Recluso[?]	Portuguese for "recluse"
French (NOE)	Solima[?]	From solitaire ("solitairy")
German	Amperfide[?]	From the unit of electric current "ampere" and perfide ("perfidious")
Italian	Ysoll[?]	From a clipping of isolare ("to isolate")
Korean	외토리크[?] Oetorikeu	From "외톨이" (oetori, "loner") and possibly "trick"
Portuguese	Rekluso	Pun on recluso ("isolated")
Spanish	Ysoleth	A corruption between aislar ("to isolate") and possibly "Gilgamesh"

Trivia

Reclusa on the title screen

• If the title screen is left idle while the Soli-Tree is shown, Reclusa pops up on both sides of the screen before popping up from the bottom to laugh at the player.
• If the player attempts to use a hammer, Green Shell, or Clockout Blow to attack Reclusa in the final battle, his screen face changes to a smiley face as he dodges it. The smiley face replicates the exact kind of face that the people of Concordia sport, which in turn resembles a Type B regional outlet.