A Breath of fresh air - Link Smash Switch speculation thread

[meleebrawler]

I'm with BuzzSaw. From what I've seen, Link's ground game is almost identical to Smash4, which was slightly on the poor side. He's got good range on his sword swipes like hes always had, but his attack speed may still suffer badly against shields. His run speed seems to have increased and the new jump speed will surely help him vs rushdown characters but it may not be enough.

What IS interesting is his ledge defense. Those bombs are absolutely god tier against a high percent enemy who is offstage. I'm wondering if you can set a bomb near the ledge and explode it as someone recovers to the ledge since the blast range is quite large.

On another note, Young Link seems to play the most similarly to Pre-Ultimate Link as he seems to be exactly like he was in Melee. Idk if hes a heavy weight like Link though.

Take a look at Snake. Remove his grenades and C4, you're left with a fighter that, while he can hit hard with good frame data, can't really get in effectively enough to make use of that strength. But by littering the battlefield with explosives he severely limits his opponent's options, and that's what Link needs to do too. Keep a remote bomb between him and his opponent at all times, pester them with projectiles when they hesitate and punish what they do to get around it. Play your cards right and Link should seldom have to go head-to-head with the opponent's frame data.

 

[WarioJim]

So since I've played the demo myself, I don't get why guys think he looks bad. He felt pretty good to me. Longer reach, powerful bomb, good kill power overall and some good combo potential.
And since Buzzsaw thought his zoning looked bad.... Nooooooooo, it's not at all. If anything has improved, it's definitely Link's zoning.

 

[Aishin123]

Take a look at Snake. Remove his grenades and C4, you're left with a fighter that, while he can hit hard with good frame data, can't really get in effectively enough to make use of that strength. But by littering the battlefield with explosives he severely limits his opponent's options, and that's what Link needs to do too. Keep a remote bomb between him and his opponent at all times, pester them with projectiles when they hesitate and punish what they do to get around it. Play your cards right and Link should seldom have to go head-to-head with the opponent's frame data.

I'm thinking this will be the way to go with Link now for the most part. We're going to have to experiment and adapt to new play styles if we want results.

 

[zeldasmash]

I think Link is being underestimated here. Almost everything about him has been buffed from Smash 4, in particular his mobility. Link's range was somehow improved which coupled with his increased mobility makes Link able to rely on his sword normals more to space his opponents out and do it more effectively then he ever has.

Then there is his edge-guarding and ledge-trapping, two things he was already at least decent in during Smash 4, being improved significantly by 2 things: the new mechanics and his brand spankin' new Bombs. This thing gives Link scary coverage when it comes to both edge-guarding and ledge trapping and it forces the opponent to try and think of so many decisions on how to avoid the bomb and either Link already has them killed or has an option for everything the opponent tries to do:

Opponent uses the get up attack: Link shields the attack and throws the opponent back, starting the process anew.
Opponent lets go of ledge and double jumps to attack: Link detonates bomb and they die from it or get sent in a position where Link has the advantage.
Opponent dodges bomb mid-air: Link punishes the lag with a down air spike which almost means certain death, even if they catch the Bomb.
Opponent Up B's to recover: Link's sword normals beat most recoveries and the bomb covers a lot of space which increases stage spiking chances.

Link has access to so many options in terms of edge-guarding and ledge-trapping that it makes him one of the scariest characters in the game in the corner because one screw up against him and you're getting edge-guarded by one of the scariest edge-guarders and ledge-trappers in the game with the amount of options and amount of coverage he has from just his bomb. And because he can Z-drop the bombs to recover, he doesn't have to completely fear going deep for the kill. Heck with the bomb, he may not even need to.

However, that isn't to say that I don't acknowledge his faults either. From what it looks like, he is susceptible to pressure quite hard and unless he can pull of a parry or tech a grab to rest to neutral, Link ain't getting out of pressure easily. He also seems to continue being combo food due to his weight and attributes so his disadvantage state is bad.

 

[Tri Knight]

I definitely agree when it comes to his edge guarding. Hes got one of the best, it not THE best, edge guarding tools in the game - especially with his new bombs. The bombs literally kill! I can already picture setting up bombs to bait into air dodges to D-air spikes or F-air kills. Hes gonna be absolutely terrifying against an offstage opponent.

I am worried about his ground game though. He's still a little sluggish on hits it seems, which may lead to having a LOT of attacks unsafe on shield. But his spam game is likely gonna be better because of his movement speed buff - which for HIM specifically is a huge buff compared to other fighters.

I have a feeling more high level players are gonna hover toward Young Link since there seems to be a bit of hype surrounding his fighting abilities. Zero is even suggesting hes high-top tier material. And he's definitely the real take on "Classic" Smash Link. But I dont think our new Link is gonna be trash. His increased movement alone makes him miles better than Smash 4 Link. Just "how much better" is the question.

 

[JohnKnight416]

I definitely agree when it comes to his edge guarding. Hes got one of the best, it not THE best, edge guarding tools in the game - especially with his new bombs. The bombs literally kill! I can already picture setting up bombs to bait into air dodges to D-air spikes or F-air kills. Hes gonna be absolutely terrifying against an offstage opponent.

I am worried about his ground game though. He's still a little sluggish on hits it seems, which may lead to having a LOT of attacks unsafe on shield. But his spam game is likely gonna be better because of his movement speed buff - which for HIM specifically is a huge buff compared to other fighters.

I have a feeling more high level players are gonna hover toward Young Link since there seems to be a bit of hype surrounding his fighting abilities. Zero is even suggesting hes high-top tier material. And he's definitely the real take on "Classic" Smash Link. But I dont think our new Link is gonna be trash. His increased movement alone makes him miles better than Smash 4 Link. Just "how much better" is the question.

Indeed Link's new bombs in Ultimate will be helpful for catching airdodges, especially when the mechanics in Ultimate only allow you to perform a direction airdodge once.

His ground game may still seem a little sluggish. But I do think it's gonna be better compared to Smash 4 since he's faster in Ultimate.
The fact that he now has a normal grab instead of a tether grab means that he can now punish with shield grabs a whole lot better than he could in Smash 4. I didn't really like using his tether grab in neutral all that much in Smash 4 cuz it's not always consistent at punishing opponents after blocking on shield. There were some instances where I knew that my opponent threw out an unsafe move but was unable to punish it since Link doesn't have the right speed to punish them in time and by the time my grab comes out, my opponent would manage to avoid getting punish by rolling away and I leave myself open due to Link's grab being a tether grab in Smash 4. This was mostly the case whenever I was up against fast characters with good frame data such as Falcon or Mario. Even though he loses his tether recovery as a result, I think that it's worth the trade off for having a better grab for neutral.

 

[AustinDelSmasho]

Getting use to the lack of hookshot took a minute! Still getting my bearings on the slightly different style