So these are my opinions thus far. I'm a little worried, because quite frankly, link, to me, looks like he's gotten nerfed. So please, discredit my opinions, so that a long time link main can feel more at ease with the upcoming iteration of link.
1. No tether- this is both good and bad to me. No tether is nice for grabs of course. Not so much for range, but not having that long end lag will be nice. I have only seen back throw, which was the same, but I'm assuming the other throws are similar if not the same as smash 4. However, not having tether recovery is a big nerf. I'll discuss bomb recovery here I guess. I've seen that you can probably use the bomb to recover. But having to do damage to yourself just to get back to stage? Potentially multiple times? Don't get me wrong, I used bombs for recovery plenty of times in smash 4, brawl, etc, but HAVING to use them to get more distance is a bit worrying. Tether recovery was quick and helped prevent a lot of edgeguards. I'm sad to see it go for recovery, but it is nice for actually grabbing people.
2. Fair- Fair's first hit (as far as I've seen) sends opponents nowhere. This, to me, is another big nerf. The first hit of fair was a great tool for killing, spacing, etc. It might be still good for spacing, but having to rely on the second hit of fair for killing now makes it a much worse kill move overall, in my opinion. Especially because the first hit is so strong in smash 4. Moreover, the first hit not producing any knockback now makes fair solely a multi-hit type move. I don't know about you, but multi-hit moves have been extremely unreliable for me in the past two games. Just when you think you're going to get that kill (up smash, forward smash, etc.) the opposing character falls out of the multi-hit. I'm worried the same case will be for fair, because I've already seen it happen for forward smash in the gameplay I've seen.
3. Bombs- Here's my take on the bombs. Being able to detonate them when I like is nice, especially for recovering. However, the combination of not exploding on impact and the animation plays when you detonate it is a huge nerf to me. I guess my thought process is this. If one can't act IMMEDIATELY during/after the detonation animation, it's a nerf. In smash 4, I could place bombs where I like, knowing when they would explode. I wouldn't have to do anything else to them, no extra animations causing lag or anything like that. However, now to explode the bomb, we have that extra animation, and it worries me. Oh, and you can only have one bomb, which means less control of space, which at least in past iterations, is crucial for link.
4. Dair- I hope it doesn't come out later than smash 4, although it looks like it does. It might not, I'm just going on sight. However, it does look like it has MUCH less end lag, which is very nice. I'm assuming it still spikes.
5. Up Special- It looks like it somewhat goes farther to me, and has more range as an attacking move, but I can't really tell very well. However, with the lack of tether recovery, if Link doesn't have any invincibility during recovery, recovering is going to be much harder than previous iterations.
6. Forward Smash- Once again, it looks like the multi hit doesn't link up perfectly. This makes me angry given the past two iterations of smash now have this problem. Probably has affected all smash iterations now. During day one, I saw a link go for a forward smash. First hit landed, second hit looks like it pretty much went through ganondorf. So yay.
7. Boomerang- The change back to a regular boomerang with a hit on the way back is nice, as the wind from the gale boomerang was relatively situational.
8. Arrows- the double arrows is a fine change. I haven't played, so I don't know what situations that may help in.
9. Dash speed- link looks a little faster, which is nice.
10. Design- I love the look of link. Both the champion's tunic and the wild outfit look great. Very pleased with the character design.
The rest of the stuff looks the same, like tilts and nair and such. But overall, it seems like a lot of link's main tools have not been changed for the better. It seems like link has been nerfed, I dare to say, substantially. Of course, this is all subject to change between now and release date in December. I'm sure the team will do tons of balancing things in the next six months, but these are my first impressions. As I said before, please everyone prove me wrong. I have been a link main through every game, and I would love to feel more at ease with the version of link we are getting.
