Hm. Not sure how you'd fix that without making Byleth just another sword character or breaking Robin.
I'm not entirely sure either, really. But if we're making an attempt:
Byleth's already been buffed recently, that makes it more difficult - it feels like (s)he's just a teeny bit closer to having a decent answer against pressure. The Up B buff certainly helps since now Byleth has a frame 9 option. That said, I'm kinda thinking Byleth would appriciate some additional weight to help survivability some, and slightly longer grab perhaps. If neccessary they could slightly tone down some of Byleth's power for the greater versatility (I'm not sure why Sakurai buffed Down Air and Down Smash recently - did they not kill early enough?).
Robin I think is also decently close to having a good defensive option, and that makes it difficult too. (S)he has a decently fast OoS option (Up B's Frame 8), so I'm thinking something like slightly increased blockstun on the tilts (very slightly though) would help their defensive game a bit.
I don't think that their weaknesses vs. pressure should be eliminated entirely, but allieviating that a slight bit would help the strategy focus. Because they wouldn't have to worry so much about getting beat up on on a defensive mistake. I'm assuming that they're meant to be slow, that's why I'm not touching that.
Yeah, yeah... I actually stopped competing because tournaments became online-only. It was a big bummer for me.
389, huh? That's roughly 2.5 times the amount of players in the biggest major I attended in Brazil, back when Ultimate had just launched... which sounds like a lot, but then you realize this is supposed to account for all of SA. I definitely should try online more, I guess, but it kinda shows how much this thing has affected the community outside of NA.
Yeah, I get that. Again, I don't wanna force you (especially not since the connection over where you are is way worse), but if you decide to go online I recommend going mainly Arenas. Online Tourneys are also surprisingly decent if you just wanna screw around with a character you haven't played much, even if you wind up playing against bots.
Also, heads up: Nintendo seems to have bungled things up with the last patch.
That being said, I would prefer other franchises get a bit more...robust representation before we go deeper with Fire Emblem. If I had to point to the franchises that could use some new representation the most, Zelda is imo the most deserving and needs it the most. Zelda has not gotten anything since Brawl if you do not count Young Link being back. I seriously think there is a ton of missed potential with Zelda and representation. People are talking about BOTW2 Zelda maybe being a shill choice if they choose to do one (I personally doubt it), but I would take it. My ideal Zelda reps would be Midna and Skull Kid added as newcomers personally since I think they would be the most fun choices, but honestly so long as the newcomer is unique and fun I will be satisfied.
Lets take the Zelda series as an example:
One of the issues with Zelda series representation is that said representation lacks clear character archetypes for the amount of characters present.
- I won't go into
much since his legacy as a Falcon (semi-)close status has been debated already to hell and back. Suffice to say, he could benefit from changes to that department.
- The three Links are in that wonky spot where they could be reduced to one or two Links: and as a borderline case and have most of the bases covered. Akin to the Marth examples, the three Links play differently, but that's mostly due to stat differences and where the moves send. Otherwise they share most of the same design space. Which is a bit of a missed opportunity with Toon Link especially - he could benefit from the items originating from his games at this point.
- is not only here to stay - she actually has the archetype and design space, and from that standpoint she's in a good spot. Ultimate helped her out a lot by giving her some much-needed consistency buffs and other improvements to her attacks. IMHO she only needs some additional tweaks so she doesn't get killed as early.
- might not be "needed" from a casual standpoint or looking at Zelda's history, but it's a wonky area since Sheik has gotten a lasting legacy within Smash Bros. Of course, some of that legacy is within the competitive area - whether we're talking Melee's potent tech-chaser or 4's versatile damage racker. It's also worth noting that Sheik served as a template for future "Ninja"-esque characters. Which makes it a tough judgement call - I could see Sheik excluded because she's not strictly neccessary, but the character has become something of a staple.
While it's 6 characters... not only are they all the Triforce trio, they also have 3 unique character archetypes between them.
That's where I'd do the deeper cuts to help improve that. Regardless of whether we're talking Skull Kid, Midna, Ghirahim or whoever. The non-Triforce wielders have been stuck in this AT / NPC role for quite a while now, and I'd personally like to see that barrier broken. Ganon actually has some design space to work on here - while K. Rool is a similar super-heavy, Rool's excecution doesn't cover all bases that Ganon could do. A super-heavy that can teleport alone would be an interesting avenue to explore.
sorry not sorry
