Character Traits: What Matters?

[One Tilt]

I've been trying to get into analyzing characters to figure what each are good and bad at, in short, and I'm curious to know what factors affect a character's abilities. Some are obvious, like their weight, reliable KO moves, recovery, combos, frame lag... but then there are more nuanced aspects, like a character's juggling or zoning, or how well they play at advantage/disadvantage/neutral games, their shield pressure, or what ATs are at their disposal. It's mostly the latter that are of interest to me as 'unclear', though comparing them in importance to other factors is certainly still interesting.

No, I'm not interested in ranking characters or tier lists or whatnot, I'm just interested in being able to compare characters' traits, ideally in a relatively objective manner, and want to know what's worth keeping tabs on. The advantage/disadvantage game is certainly important, as are KO power and combos... and I don't feel like they need to be compared against each other and ranked, necessarily... but some relative sense of what is or isn't relevant would certainly be helpful.

Excuse if the topic is a bit abstract and nonsensical-- it's just a bit difficult for me to wrap my head around what makes and breaks a character's kit when viability, unlike Melee, doesn't just revolve around speed and combos and, unlike Brawl, doesn't revolve around chain grabs and being Metaknight. It needn't be any lasting points, of course, and just opinions on what's key to the current metagame is still wonderfully fun information to mull over.

 

[Firedemon0]

I've been trying to get into analyzing characters to figure what each are good and bad at, in short, and I'm curious to know what factors affect a character's abilities. Some are obvious, like their weight, reliable KO moves, recovery, combos, frame lag... but then there are more nuanced aspects, like a character's juggling or zoning, or how well they play at advantage/disadvantage/neutral games, their shield pressure, or what ATs are at their disposal. It's mostly the latter that are of interest to me as 'unclear', though comparing them in importance to other factors is certainly still interesting.

No, I'm not interested in ranking characters or tier lists or whatnot, I'm just interested in being able to compare characters' traits, ideally in a relatively objective manner, and want to know what's worth keeping tabs on. The advantage/disadvantage game is certainly important, as are KO power and combos... and I don't feel like they need to be compared against each other and ranked, necessarily... but some relative sense of what is or isn't relevant would certainly be helpful.

Excuse if the topic is a bit abstract and nonsensical-- it's just a bit difficult for me to wrap my head around what makes and breaks a character's kit when viability, unlike Melee, doesn't just revolve around speed and combos and, unlike Brawl, doesn't revolve around chain grabs and being Metaknight. It needn't be any lasting points, of course, and just opinions on what's key to the current metagame is still wonderfully fun information to mull over.

Well when it comes to rating a character's traits, it comes down to limitations. I play Pac-man, he has a very effective toolbox of options, he has good air and ground speed, not the greatest compared to Diddy Yoshi or Shiek. However he has a poor grab, some easily punished moves when whiffed, and slow smash attacks compared to other characters. He has a very good projectile game with his bonus fruit and hydrant play. He is also able to rack damage, but his kill moves are much slower compared to those moves. Unlike when compared to Diddy, whose up-air is a kill move, it also is easy to combo off his down throw. This all leads to noticing which moves allow you to safely attack your opponent. Pac-man's traits lead to him being able to poke and prod at his opponent, but he has to work for his kills because of his slow killing options requiring reads, or he has to resort to offstage gimping.

Ganondorf's entire game is about punishing. This phrase needs explained though, why is it only punishing? Because of his speed, and end lag of his moves that you cannot safely "poke" someone in shield. He is unable to chase down players. While his power does help, if he does not make an effective read on his opponent, his attacks can whiff and he will be punished himself heavily because of his slow speed and large size.

So what trait leads to being the most important? General thoughts would lean towards safe fast options, that allow for quick recovery and follow ups on an opponent. The ability to kill within a reasonable percentage with several moves is another one. This is why characters like Fox in melee and Metaknight in Brawl gravitate to the top of tiers. The ability of a character to effectively kill fast and safely leads to them raising higher in tiers.

 

[Raijinken]

From my observation, stronger characters seem to have a good combo game, decent zoning and spacing options, moderate to strong recoveries, decent grabs, attacks that are safe-on-(opponent action, often shield), and some level of approach speed. Defensive playstyles are pretty valid (Robin, Peach, Duck Hunt, and Ness are all solid), but aggro is winning out over-all.

Of course, the meta is in development. This can all change as players learn more characters.