If every rider got an ultimate form....

[ClimaxHeroDen-O]

ARE YOU SAYING KNIGHT SURVIVE ISN'T COOL?!

first off, calm down and stop it with the all-caps, it's annoying. secondly, I do think Knight Survive is cool, but Meteor Storm has more is common with Rising IXA and Accel Trial than Knight Survive, as Ryuki was the only rider series where the main two riders had the same kind of power-up and their full powers were even (I'm specifying this since while both Blade and Garren got a Jack Form, only Blade got to use his King Form)

 

[FlameDragon]

first off, calm down and stop it with the all-caps, it's annoying. secondly, I do think Knight Survive is cool, but Meteor Storm has more is common with Rising IXA and Accel Trial than Knight Survive, as Ryuki was the only rider series where the main two riders had the same kind of power-up and their full powers were even (I'm specifying this since while both Blade and Garren got a Jack Form, only Blade got to use his King Form)

you know NateRiver is a :can't say without getting reported: right?

 

[NateRiver]

That's racist and offends me and my family personally.

 

[Burkion]

Honestly, I really, really doubt they'd give extra forms for Showa Riders.

Just such a silly concept.



To be serious, form changes has been part of Kamen Rider ever since the original.

He got his new costumes as an actual plot point. Past a certain point in his show, he got re-upgraded and gained his Shin Kamen Rider form and powers.

As did most of the other old school Riders, barring V3, Riderman, X, Amazon, and kinda sorta Super-1. Depends on if you consider his other hands alt forms.

The difference between the old school Riders who got these kind of final forms, and the ones we know today, was also laid out way back when.

Shin Ichigo was a permanent change. Stronger Charge Up, however, is a more traditional one.

So yeah.


I have to ask, has there ever been a real old school final form in the new era of Riders?

Where a Kamen Rider changed his costume permanently?

I don't think there has been.

 

[ClimaxHeroDen-O]

well, there's only been one example of that in the Heisei era: G3-X, since the G3 system had to be equipped manually, so free form changing wasn't an option, thus his upgrade had to replace the original suit

and it seems like in the heisei era, riders permanently changing costume was either just an aesthetic or for the sake of returning

 

[NateRiver]

Depends on if you consider his other hands alt forms.

That's like if you called Fourze equipping the Claw Module Kamen Rider Fourze Claw States.

 

[Khaiden]

I remember an interesting talk about this, there was someone that mentioned every little extent of form-changing, just for the sake of seeing which Riders stayed the same always.
In short, it was concluded that only V3, X, ZX and BLACK didn't.
Let me add more to that.
BLACK became RX, so let's count him out.
X, while he didn't get a form change, he got an upgrade, it changed his transformation and gave him more power to do new finishers. It's pretty much the same as Stronger's just without any visual change.

So, only V3 and ZX do not change at all.
Oh, right, and Shin, ZO & J. I almost forgot about them. But J grows giant, count him out, we are stretching things here (no pun intended).

Ok, so V3, ZX, Shin & ZO are the only Riders that since their birth they have not undergone any kind of change at all.

Just some random trivia.

 

[Burkion]

Even if you do discount RX, technically Black achieves a final state in much the same way OOOs does in his finale. You know, after spoilers.

Especially when he takes the Satan Saber in hand. I like to think of that as his unoffical final form, Century King Rider Black.

 

[NeonZ]

He got his new costumes as an actual plot point. Past a certain point in his show, he got re-upgraded and gained his Shin Kamen Rider form and powers.

Saying that the upgrades were "actual plot points" is kind debatable for the original series. They're acknowledged by official material and have official names and, in the show itself, Rider 1's abilities clearly change with the different looks. However, they don't bother actually explaining, in the series itself, how he gets them, only in external material.

In the show itself, episode 53 just starts with a new Shocker attack and then Hongo makes a transformation pose, something he never had before in the tv show, and then suddenly became the new Rider 1. He also gets another power up a few episodes later ("Rider Power!" by pressing a button on the side of his belt), although that doesn't change his look, aside from making the helmet lights blink, but that's just used twice.

Skyrider's upgrade and Stronger's form change were actual plot points though.

Ok, so V3, ZX, Shin & ZO are the only Riders that since their birth they have not undergone any kind of change at all.

V3's "changes" were just him learning more about his own abilities. IIRC, one of V3's secrets was some kind of temporary power up that let him just tank the attacks of one of Destron's monsters and easily finish it off, although it didn't change his appearance.

X, while he didn't get a form change, he got an upgrade, it changed his transformation and gave him more power to do new finishers. It's pretty much the same as Stronger's just without any visual change.

In his show itself, he also became more of a brawler after getting that upgrade, using the Ridol less than before and going more with punches and kicks. Although later appearances pretty much reverted him to "the guy with the stick", and usually even ignore the Ridol's other modes (like the fencing sword).

 

[Igadevil]

The Rider 1 upgrade is a little complex. If you were watching in 1972, it would have been already covered extensively in the magazines to the point where once episode 53 aired, everybody was primed and ready. You went in knowing Rider 1 would look different, and the recent movie had shown a glimpse at what his Henshin pose would look like. Watching now, in isolation, it just feels like a sudden new direction, though it's made clear that Rider 1 has new powers to go with his new look, and the narration and Tachibana's words suggest there's been some passage of time since 52. Episode 53 really feels to me like a jumping-on point for new viewers.

The reconstruction scene in the new opening credits has Hongo in his outfit from around that point in the show though, so the widespread belief is that would be from the upgrade surgery. If they filmed anything else, it's unknown. Personally I've always liked that they've left it kind of vague, because I've got my own idea about how it all went down, but I'm sure Kamen Rider Spirits will jump on that story idea sooner or later.

A couple other Tokusatsu series have done the "offscreen adventure" thing. Ultra Seven Evolution had a prequel novel that supposedly explains stuff about that series. I also remember from the time of Kabuto a Terebi-Kun article about how they actually created the Zecters.