How do you feel about passives?

[LilHero6]

Hello, smash community! I've always been interested in characters with passive abilities, and am curious how the rest of you feel about passives. When I say passives, I mean abilities that are constantly happening with no input from the player and are unique to that character.

This includes such abilities as as Lucario's Aura (where his % raises his damage and knockback output), Marth's Tippers (where the tip of his sword deals increased knockback and damage, in return for dealing decreased damage and knockback along the blade), Little Mac's KO punch (the unique bar that fills when Mac deals/takes damage, changing his neutral special when fully charged), and Link/Toon Link's shield (making a portion of their hitbox immune to some projectiles as long as they are standing still/walking/crouching).

I feel passives add a lot of uniqueness to these characters, and alter their playstyles greatly as a result. Mac and his opponent play completely differently when his KO punch is ready, with Mac searching for a punish or hard read and the opponent trying to get Mac into tumble to make the bar reset (and they both need to factor it in a lot depending on the situation). Marth's tippers completely dictate his playstyle as a spacing swordsman, in order to get the most damage and knockback possible after each attack. Lucario's Aura ability makes him a menace once he hits 85% and up, making him deal huge damage and vastly increasing the range of his side special and recovery. A good Link will take his shield into account depending on the matchup, and will take advantage of it to punish or get in without getting hit by weak projectiles.

I feel like this adds a whole new level of depth to these characters, and I wish every character had a passive.

Do you feel other characters should have passives? And how do you feel about the characters who DO have passives? Do you think they give the characters an edge they wouldn't have otherwise?

EDIT: Feel free to suggest passives for characters already in the game! I'm interested to see what you guys could come up with.

 

[Deleted member 269706]

Certainly an intriguing topic to say the least. I personally feel if EVERY character had something like that, the game would be far more unbalanced and match-ups would be way more extreme. It would take infinitely longer to develop an actual meta for this game. The passive abilities are unique but also clearly advantageous. The characters that do have them (Lucario, Link, Marth, etc.) are what make them special characters and more unique in a sense. Honestly, those characters might feel a little more bland without the abilities. I'm not the biggest fan of passive abilities, but I think they do have their place in this game. Though they needn't be applied to every character, that would simply be too much.

 

[Cress!]

More, yes. But maybe like 5 more, not the entire roster.

 

[Defex]

I think it would be sweet if every character had a passive. Bowser also has a passive right along with other heavy weights where they cant flinch or something like that. I think that adds a lot of personality to the characters.

 

[LunarWingCloud]

Only a few characters need it but that would be it really. Still a cool concept.

 

[darktrickster101]

Personally I don't think that every character should have a passive. Passive abilities is what makes a certain character stand out or be unique. while everyone having passives would be cool in theory it would make characters such as lucario or little mac lose their uniqueness from the rest of the cast.

 

[edde]

i would love them, as long as theyre not op

 

[YoPoYo9100]

I really like passive abilities, it makes Smash that much deeper of a game.

I also don't think every character should have one, I mean if it actually fits with that character and it works in the game, then fine give it to them.

But I feel like they should be totally unique to one character, so multiple characters don't have the same passive ability.

 

[Fancykong]

Well, some passives are pretty out there, like the fact that the Koopa Clown Car and Bowser Jr. take two different sets of damage/knockback, or Wario's fart mechanic. Annoyingly enough, they actually removed Ike's passive ability to shoot sword beams anytime he swings his Ragnell from his FE games.

 

[Raijinken]

Maybe I just missed it, but there's also Bowser's flinch resistance at low percents.