Tbh, I think the "100 times more fun" bit is more interesting to talk about concerning
than the viability of the character.
I remember someone mentioning how
went a very... "vanilla route" - A top tier with
very clear and prominent strengths, but one that is often tossed aside by players in favor of top tiers with more interesting and fulfilling designs and kits like Peach or Joker. And whoo boy, do I think there isn't a single character more worth of that route than everyone's favorite Buster Sword wielding swordsman, because once you get just the
mere basics down with the character... what exactly is left? There's the neat instances where you can follow up an NAir into UAir when you have Limit on deck, there's the one or two times you can trip someone up with an unfinished Cross Slash offstage, but I'm not kidding when I say
that's all she wrote about the character.
Neutral is
exceedingly straightforward almost to a mundane degree, especially against the 80% of the cast Cloud can easily wall out. Things are a little more involved against the occasional distance demon like Min Min who can penetrate his bubble from a few feet away, but for the most part, against your typical Wolf, Palu, Mario, G&W, Peach, Pac-Man, etc. you ain't doing much besides the standard BAir/Cross Slash walling along with the occasional OoS Climhazzard and waiting game with Limit Charge. Even advantage state doesn't have much varied to offer outside of the BAir into Cross Slash conversion or UAir juggles. Things only start becoming interesting in the disadvantage state, more specifically offstage, because Cloud is very easily capable of dying at 40~50% against most of the cast there and he's not exactly jacked with strong recovery options like most characters are. That said, once you reach that point, you're basically playing just not to lose, and that doesn't really sound fun when said aloud, does it?
Don't misunderstand me: This isn't me talking about Cloud's viability in any way whatsoever. The character's got very clear cut and admirable strengths: Massive safe hitboxes, absurd movement to compliment it, good set of defensive neutral tools (burst options, OoS options, camping tools), and a great way to force characters to approach. This makes for a very good straightforward gameplan against a good chunk of the cast, and it can feel so cool to feel so... "powerful" without much effort in the first couple or so matches. I did when I used him for the first time. But like I said earlier, you aren't doing much with the character you haven't been already doing when you started picking him up, and it can get pretty dull to a point where I really only use him to deal with the occasional ZSS or Ike when I don't feel like chasing them as G&W.
In that regard, that makes him a strong secondary because he isn't a very mentally demanding character (barring offstage) all things considered, and he's got very relevant MUs against the likes of characters like Mario, Pac-Man, Fox, or G&W. That said, I feel like characters like Chrom, Roy, Sephiroth, Shulk - or in the case of Sparg0's situation - Pythra, all have the higher ceiling that makes them more fulfilling characters to do well with. He kinda parallels someone like Lucina in that regard: He's a swordie that's great to start off with and can very easily get the job done, but if you want someone you can really sink your teeth into in the lab for a good while... I don't think you'll find that with him (from what I gathered, Niko also found Cloud too boring and switched to Sephiroth).
Not to say he needs it or anything, but part of me kinda wants to see the nerfs on his aerials reverted, because while some may argue that pushed him over the edge, I think it gives him a far more interesting neutral and advantage game.
Of course, there is something I could be missing about Cloud, so take it for what it's worth.
