How to make Falco tourney viable (mini-article)

[Legend Vermillion]

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Lets talk about his problems point by point.


1. Weight problems.

Falco´s weight has been being a problem in every Smash game but this time the lack of other tools, that made the bad weight being worth in previous games, arent here. Now our approaching and our tools for reseting situation or spacing are awful so the weight is a BIG problem.

The worst part of this: Falco´s weight leaves him open for a wide variety of followups and true combos (which doesnt work on other characters). This makes a lot of matchups so hard and unbalanced. Fighting against characters like Captain Falcon, Yoshi, Diddy Kong and a whole lot of em its a nightmare for Falco players.

We could handle having an awful weight in previous game just because we had a lot of tools to not get hit and stuff but this time we are not that lucky.

Take as an example of his awful weight this video. Watch first match where Keitaro´s Falco fights against Nakat´s Captain Falcon:

Related information:
Weight on SSBWiki [Link]
Weight list of SSB4 on SmashBoards [Link]

2. Range problems and the lack of laser due to his endlag.

Falco´s range is also a problem (again because our lack of tools overall). Perfect examples of this are Down Smash or Grab. Down Smash is ridiculous considering you cant even punish a roll with it and it has a lot of endlag. Also, his grab range is very short and this doesn´t make sense since this grab doesn´t give you a lot of followup/true combos comparing with other characters possibilities.

Also, Falco can´t deal with characters using a zoning strategy due to his USELESS laser. Having decent zoning possibilites would fix his range problems a lot but, to be fair, our laser is terrible. Last patch buffed laser speed but this doesn´t make any sense since laser´s problem is the endlag it has. Being able to laser zoning without lag would make him a much better character. Give him Short Hop Double Laser or, at least, Short Hop Laser and he will have tools to zone.

Examples of the new laser and the old lasers:

Spoiler

Laser endlag (Smash Bros. For WiiU) (0:12):

Short Hop Double Laser (Smash Bros. Brawl) (0:15):

Short Hop Laser (Smash Bros. Melee) (0:55):

Related information:
Short Hop Laser and Short Hop Double Laser on SSBWiki [Link]
Falco information on SSBWiki [Link]

3. Fix Jab, Usmash and Dair.

I will talk about this moves separately:

- Jab: The fact that characters can interrupt your jab is absurd. You land your hit and enemy can escape by doing DI and punish you for landing a hit.

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- Usmash: Characters can go away of the second hit due to the multihit property of this move. Hitbox wiffs a lot. Short range also. Lot of lag at the end. No DACUS.

​

- Dair: This move is awful. Falco is an aggresive character here, give him back his Brawl Dair. Using his new Dair leaves you open at the beginning of the move and also in the end, also its so hard to land, not worth the risk at all. Also, being this laggy makes it useless on stage (and this is bad when we are talking about an aggresive character).

4. Landing lag, spacing and poor character design.

Overall, Falco is outzoned by a lot of characters. His laggy laser can´t be used anymore for dealing with this and our short range doesn´t help. He doesn´t really have a safe way of approaching and he is easily punished. The character needs less lag on his moves to space better and an usable laser. Bair is nice but you can´t rely all your spacing options on this move because it wont work. Your main tool for reseting situations is sideB and this move also has now a lot of endlag and the lag can´t be cancelled like in Brawl. This sideB problem also makes the job of getting back into the stage horrible. And finally, our followups are not very good in comparison with almost everyone in the roster, ours are mostly situational.

If we want this character to be tournament viable, he needs some changes. If not, say goodbye to the bird. I hope Nintendo fix this with patches and we can continue playing with our main character. Sorry if something is poorly written, English isn´t my main language.

 

[BltzZ]

I agree with everything you've mentioned. I really liked our fast fall fair before the patch and how it spiked recoveries like Marth lucina shulk Cpt falcon smh sucks that they changed that. Is there a place we can go where is legit to make character change suggestions. That Nintendo watches and stuff

 

[Meek Moths]

well i guess falco players now know how the rest of the players who used low tiered charaters felt since meelee. get used to it and adapt.

 

[Legend Vermillion]

I agree with everything you've mentioned. I really liked our fast fall fair before the patch and how it spiked recoveries like Marth lucina shulk Cpt falcon smh sucks that they changed that. Is there a place we can go where is legit to make character change suggestions. That Nintendo watches and stuff

Maybe we can send this post to Nintendo via mail or something similar. If someone knows how to submit this propositions to them, tell us! We will appreciate it.

well i guess falco players now know how the rest of the players who used low tiered charaters felt since meelee. get used to it and adapt.

Now Nintendo pretends the game to be balanced with patches and stuff. We can adapt but we don´t have the tools to do that so its legit to make this proposal. And trust me, if the bird doesn´t get buff, you won´t see player adaptating ... sadly, prepare to see people changing his main character for a top tier.

 

[Meek Moths]

Now Nintendo pretends the game to be balanced with patches and stuff. We can adapt but we don´t have the tools to do that so its legit to make this proposal. And trust me, if the bird doesn´t get buff, you won´t see player adaptating ... sadly, prepare to see people changing his main character for a top tier.

that's how it has been for the past 10 years. nothings gonna change so why complain? -.-

 

[2ndComing]

that's how it has been for the past 10 years. nothings gonna change so why complain? -.-

The main problem is my eyes is that each character pretty much started as bad, from 64 to melee, it wasn't much a of change so they couldn't be seen as nerfs because 64 was so bare bones compared to melee. However Falco has always been at least good like in Brawl. Sakurai struck the perfect Balance with him in Brawl and he was nerfed even more which honestly makes little sense to me.

Instead of Falco always being bad like low teir in Melee and Brawl, he was good but given un-necessary nerfs after each appearance he has had.

 

[Legend Vermillion]

that's how it has been for the past 10 years. nothings gonna change so why complain? -.-

In previous games, we didn´t have patches so the game couldn´t be rebalanced. This time Nintendo is balancing Smash4 so they can change non-viable character to make them viable, what´s the problem there? Do you prefer having an unbalanced game? I dont get why you are complaining about this, honestly. If we have the opportunity of buff characters who have problems and make them viable, we will have more character variety at tourneys. Also, that will translate in a better and more complex meta.

The main problem is my eyes is that each character pretty much started as bad, from 64 to melee, it wasn't much a of change so they couldn't be seen as nerfs because 64 was so bare bones compared to melee. However Falco has always been at least good like in Brawl. Sakurai struck the perfect Balance with him in Brawl and he was nerfed even more which honestly makes little sense to me.

Instead of Falco always being bad like low teir in Melee and Brawl, he was good but given un-necessary nerfs after each appearance he has had.

Agree.

 

[Meek Moths]

Sakurai struck the perfect Balance with him in Brawl

Sakurai struck the perfect Balance with him in Brawl

Sakurai struck the perfect Balance with him in Brawl

Sakurai struck the perfect Balance with him in Brawl

Sakurai struck the perfect Balance with him in Brawl

 

[Meek Moths]

In previous games, we didn´t have patches so the game couldn´t be rebalanced. This time Nintendo is balancing Smash4 so they can change non-viable character to make them viable, what´s the problem there? Do you prefer having an unbalanced game? I dont get why you are complaining about this, honestly. If we have the opportunity of buff characters who have problems and make them viable, we will have more character variety at tourneys. Also, that will translate in a better and more complex meta.

i dont think im the one here whos complaining c;

 

[Legend Vermillion]

i dont think im the one here whos complaining c;

This article has the purpose of making SSB4 more balanced, this time, balancing Falco. I answered you in my last post with reasons of why we are doing this, feel free to read my post again before replying with something what makes no sense at all and what doesn´t contribute.

By the way, If someone knows ways of spread this post, let me know. I will really appreciate it : )

 

[Meek Moths]

 

[2ndComing]

So Brawl Falco was not a good balance then?

 

[Legend Vermillion]

So Brawl Falco was not a good balance then?

He was, his tools were great but he also had weak points. Falco wasn´t the problem in Brawl, the problem was that SSBB didn´t have patches and, like in Melee, low tier characters were so bad and they couldn´t change them. Luckily, this time Nintendo can fix that

 

[Mahgnittoc]

Falco was ok in Brawl, but he wasn't balanced. He could 0-50% the majority of the cast. That's not balanced.

I don't like people seeing things how they were in Brawl and saying that it's a straight up nerf to the character in Smash4. New game with different physics that's hardly 2 months old. Give it some time and some patches.

 

[Legend Vermillion]

Falco was ok in Brawl, but he wasn't balanced. He could 0-50% the majority of the cast. That's not balanced.

I don't like people seeing things how they were in Brawl and saying that it's a straight up nerf to the character in Smash4. New game with different physics that's hardly 2 months old. Give it some time and some patches.

Due to the lack of balance patches in Brawl, if we talk about a competitive enviroment he was balanced. Of course, I am talking about an enviroment where he is balanced against the top tiers of the game and where the low tiers weren´t tourney viable so we can´t take em into account. Same situation in Brawl. In those games we can´t decide if a character is balance due to the tier list affecting the meta. Anyway, this post is about SSB4 poor design of the bird, not about previous games

 

[BltzZ]

I wish characters were as equal as in street fighter. Like 15 of the cast are in A tier lol only one person is low tier I think it's hugo. But the devs claim to balance the game but for falco those matchup against the higher tiers are annoying you literally have to make the hardest reads and because of his extended lag your open for punishment. They will change stuff up. I really want to find maybe a Nintendo forum where I can keep posting and annoy them till they do it

 

[DunnoBro]

Due to the lack of balance patches in Brawl, if we talk about a competitive enviroment he was balanced. Of course, I am talking about an enviroment where he is balanced against the top tiers of the game and where the low tiers weren´t tourney viable so we can´t take em into account. Same situation in Brawl. In those games we can´t decide if a character is balance due to the tier list affecting the meta. Anyway, this post is about SSB4 poor design of the bird, not about previous games

"He was balanced in the areas he was balanced"

Lolwut. You can't cherrypick the matchups he was balanced in to claim he was balanced overall.
He wasn't overpowered but he wasn't balanced. He was clearly centralized around grabbing, lasers, and dacus. (Even without chain grabs on chars, he had guaranteed follow-ups and damage with grabs with dacus)

And for the record, the balance of characters defines the competitive environment. Not the other way around. Tier placings were effected by falcos mere existence alone.

 

[Legend Vermillion]

I wish characters were as equal as in street fighter. Like 15 of the cast are in A tier lol only one person is low tier I think it's hugo. But the devs claim to balance the game but for falco those matchup against the higher tiers are annoying you literally have to make the hardest reads and because of his extended lag your open for punishment. They will change stuff up. I really want to find maybe a Nintendo forum where I can keep posting and annoy them till they do it

Feel free to post this everywhere you want! If we spread this post, maybe Nintendo does the right thing in the next patch I have posted this on reddit, here is the link. Hope it helps!

"He was balanced in the areas he was balanced"

Lolwut. You can't cherrypick the matchups he was balanced in to claim he was balanced overall.
He wasn't overpowered but he wasn't balanced. He was clearly centralized around grabbing, lasers, and dacus. (Even without chain grabs on chars, he had guaranteed follow-ups and damage with grabs with dacus)

And for the record, the balance of characters defines the competitive environment. Not the other way around. Tier placings were effected by falcos mere existence alone.

We have different points of view of that but I can agree in some points you mentioned. Anyway, I think Brawl or Melee balance has nothing to say here since we are talking about Falco design in the new Smash game, not in the older ones.

 

[•Col•]

ITT: 'Let's whine about my main's weaknesses as a character'

FYI Falco is already tourney viable

 

[Legend Vermillion]

ITT: 'Let's whine about my main's weaknesses as a character'

FYI Falco is already tourney viable

Not if you want to win and if you want to have possibility against all characters without having a pocket top tier.

 

[•Col•]

Not if you want to win and if you want to have possibility against all characters without having a pocket top tier.

With that logic, 95% of the cast isn't tourney viable.

 

[M@v]

Just going to leave this post by me here...


http://smashboards.com/threads/nerfed-into-the-trash-can.381071/#post-18120126

 

[Legend Vermillion]

Just going to leave this post by me here...


http://smashboards.com/threads/nerfed-into-the-trash-can.381071/#post-18120126

Thank you for giving us some help with that post! Anyway, I have read it and it doesnt convince me Falco´s poor ground speed and horizontal aerial mobility makes everything harder, with the tools you mentioned in your post or without them. Approaching is very hard, Nair has no priority, sideB has a lot of lag and your nice tools like tilts and stuff have short range. Damn, even Bowser has similar ground speed than us! This problems will be harder in the future when the meta develops more.

 

[InfinityCollision]

M@v knows what's up. Falco's good, it's just taking a while for people to catch on.

 

[Legend Vermillion]

I want to add here the argumentation of a reddit user called QGuy_Brian about laser stuff:

This is true, but you talk like Falco had no weaknesses in previous games. If you actually think that's the case, you don't understand Falco. He has 2 crippling weaknesses in his poor movement and the fact that he always dies when he's offstage.

The second flaw of your logic is that having weaknesses also implies you need strengths. Falco's main tournament strength is his oppressive neutral game. He needs lasers to control space and pressure. Without lasers, he only has bad movement, whiff punishable moves that don't have disjoint, and a high likelihood of dying if he misses.

...

If Falco fires them too close, you can hit him out of the jump. If Falco fires from too far away, they don't give enough frame advantage to truly hinder you.

I think this explains really well why Falco needs less lag on his lasers.

 

[KoeBigS8]

Not if you want to win and if you want to have possibility against all characters without having a pocket top tier.

So, this is my first smash game but I believe that any character has a possibility of winning if you know what you're doing. This is one of the best sandbox fighting games out there if not the best, just keep playing and you'll find a good counterplay to these "top tier" characters.

 

[Zionaze]

i know falco needs some buffs and all, but if you want a tournament viable character then play a tournament viable character. If you can't win with falco and dont like it, then dont use him. I like falco as a character and ill continue to use him, even if his options arent as great as the others. however if Im aiming for the win, ill definitely switch to my 2nd.

tbh theres only like 3 characters in the roster that i cant put up a fight against with falco. he doesnt need a major buff only minor fixes.

 

[KenMeister]

The main problem is my eyes is that each character pretty much started as bad, from 64 to melee, it wasn't much a of change so they couldn't be seen as nerfs because 64 was so bare bones compared to melee. However Falco has always been at least good like in Brawl. Sakurai struck the perfect Balance with him in Brawl and he was nerfed even more which honestly makes little sense to me.

Instead of Falco always being bad like low teir in Melee and Brawl, he was good but given un-necessary nerfs after each appearance he has had.

Struck the perfect balance with him in Brawl, are you kidding? Not only was laser game harder to deal with than Melee's due to firing more lasers per hop, he also a chaingrab on a good chunk of the cast that can pretty much finish a stock immediately if that character had a poor vertical recovery. Falco was toxic in Brawl, the only reason he got held back is because of Pikachu's CG and IC's becoming more cancerous. Brawl by far had the worst balance in the series, and that's not even counting MK either. The game is a gigantic mess riddled with CG's, camping and grab releases, which Falco made 10 times worse for everyone.
That being said, though, I agree that Falco does need some buffs, most notably with approaching, but I think a better dair, more autocanceled aerials, and better air speed should fix that.

 

[Illuvial]

I feel like you're all approaching this from the wrong angle.

Vermillion, let me ask you something. Lets say that Falco gets his Dtilt and Dsmash range increases, and that he gets his Dair speed buff and his jab is unmashable. Lets say his laser becomes Short Hop cancellable and lets say his grab range was increased, and lets also say his Up Smash becomes a single hit move with slightly less lag. Lets say Falco gets every buff you've asked for. Then what's his flaw? What makes Falco balanced then? It seems like all you want to do is fix Falco's flaws until he has none and becomes a nigh perfect character with almost no issues or drawbacks whatsoever, like Smash 64 Pikachu, Brawl Meta Knight or Melee Fox and Falco.

If Falco gets these buffs he becomes a meta centralizing monster that is simply overpowered, and not in the slightest bit balanced

Actually, you mentioned Brawl Falco as being "balanced", and lets explore that briefly. Out of the 38 characters in Brawl, Falco has a SIGNIFICANT advantage (as in +2 advantage) over 16 characters. That's 42% of the cast, almost half! If we include the characters he has a minor advantage over (as in +1 advantage), then he has an advantage and in-theory counters 63% of the cast. How is a character that manages to BEAT 63% of the cast and shut down 42% of the cast balanced in the slightest? He is without question a top tier character in Brawl, and is arguably Top 5 in the game itself. Why is that, you ask? Well his pros are far too many, and his cons can be summed up as "He has poor recovery". That's it, he has poor recovery, that's what stops him from being an almost perfect killing machine. What you want to do is basically make Brawl Falco 2.0, and since he already has great recovery in Smash 4, he'll just become an almost flawless character.

When balancing and making character viable, the goal should ALWAYS be to balance them around the top of mid tier or the bottom of high tier. That way they are interesting and have plenty of strengths, yet also have clear flaws that keep them honest

I appreciate and adore your devotion to our main bird Falco, but fixing every flaw and making him an overpowered top tier nightmare isn't fixing the problem, its just creating a much bigger and uglier issue that would result in the whole "Ban Meta Knight" argument all over again

 

[NotAnAdmin]

well i guess falco players now know how the rest of the players who used low tiered charaters felt since meelee. get used to it and adapt.

This isn't about adapting, it's about pinpointing his problem areas. He has many, and some are just plain unfair.
Falco's upsmash is almost on the same level as Melee Kirby's throws.

 

[BltzZ]

I feel like you're all approaching this from the wrong angle.

Vermillion, let me ask you something. Lets say that Falco gets his Dtilt and Dsmash range increases, and that he gets his Dair speed buff and his jab is unmashable. Lets say his laser becomes Short Hop cancellable and lets say his grab range was increased, and lets also say his Up Smash becomes a single hit move with slightly less lag. Lets say Falco gets every buff you've asked for. Then what's his flaw? What makes Falco balanced then? It seems like all you want to do is fix Falco's flaws until he has none and becomes a nigh perfect character with almost no issues or drawbacks whatsoever, like Smash 64 Pikachu, Brawl Meta Knight or Melee Fox and Falco.

If Falco gets these buffs he becomes a meta centralizing monster that is simply overpowered, and not in the slightest bit balanced

Actually, you mentioned Brawl Falco as being "balanced", and lets explore that briefly. Out of the 38 characters in Brawl, Falco has a SIGNIFICANT advantage (as in +2 advantage) over 16 characters. That's 42% of the cast, almost half! If we include the characters he has a minor advantage over (as in +1 advantage), then he has an advantage and in-theory counters 63% of the cast. How is a character that manages to BEAT 63% of the cast and shut down 42% of the cast balanced in the slightest? He is without question a top tier character in Brawl, and is arguably Top 5 in the game itself. Why is that, you ask? Well his pros are far too many, and his cons can be summed up as "He has poor recovery". That's it, he has poor recovery, that's what stops him from being an almost perfect killing machine. What you want to do is basically make Brawl Falco 2.0, and since he already has great recovery in Smash 4, he's actually become an almost flawless character.

When balancing and making character viable, the goal should ALWAYS be to balance them around the top of mid tier or the bottom of high tier. That way they are interesting and have plenty of strengths, yet also have clear flaws that keep them honest

I appreciate and adore your devotion to our main bird Falco, but fixing every flaw and making him an overpowered top tier nightmare isn't fixing the problem, its just creating a much bigger and uglier issue that would result in the whole "Ban Meta Knight" argument all over again

your data is amazing lol i wouldnt want falco to be OP just better options less lag etc. I personally want a better dair either stronger lasers or faster ending animation. and his fast fall fair from 1.03 =[ haha

 

[Illuvial]

your data is amazing lol i wouldnt want falco to be OP just better options less lag etc. I personally want a better dair either stronger lasers or faster ending animation. and his fast fall fair from 1.03 =[ haha

That's totally ok, I can hang with that. I would want his Jab and Lasers to be fixed, and maybe have slightly less ending lag on his Dair and his old Fair back, but that's it for me. I'm fine with it taking a while to start-up, but I'd definitely want it to be a bit safer on block or whiff since it wold be an interesting approach and spacing tool.

What I would want on his laser is that it should stay how it is in terms of ending lag, but I want it to do more damage. I find it more interesting and balanced to have his lasers do like 5% damage (which is pretty massive all things considered) but still be hellishly punishable. It makes people who try to camp him take lots of damage if lasers are spaced well, and I feel like being able to short hop cancel lasers or just have very little lag on them by default would make him a bit too good in my opinion.

 

[BltzZ]

That's totally ok, I can hang with that. I would want his Jab and Lasers to be fixed, and maybe have slightly less ending lag on his Dair and his old Fair back, but that's it for me. I'm fine with it taking a while to start-up, but I'd definitely want it to be a bit safer on block or whiff since it wold be an interesting approach and spacing tool.

What I would want on his laser is that it should stay how it is in terms of ending lag, but I want it to do more damage. I find it more interesting and balanced to have his lasers do like 5% damage (which is pretty massive all things considered) but still be hellishly punishable. It makes people who try to camp him take lots of damage if lasers are spaced well, and I feel like being able to short hop cancel lasers or just have very little lag on them by default would make him a bit too good in my opinion.

Another thing I really want is for phantasm to have a full hitbox. Having only about 75% is annoying. I understand it can spike but still...

 

[Kil3r]

Pretty much all these points in OP I agree with. Jab and up smash are fairly broken(in the underpowered sense).

Tell me people who disagree, have you played Falco extensively? What are his reliable options? What should my playstyle with him be?(I am not kidding I need advice.)

For the record, i've never mained Falco in any of the previous games and barely played him at all in those games(maybe 5 matches through the whole series including PM). The way I play him is completely influenced by his design in Sm4sh. Now I main Falco with ~600 matches in for glory(~60% win ratio) and he feels at a severe disadvantage against a nice majority of the cast(option quality and quantity wise).

Also can someone give me some competitive footage of Falco(it's pretty rare). I found Jtails saying Falco wasn't that great(though the conclusion was incomplete I think).

 

[Legend Vermillion]

I feel like you're all approaching this from the wrong angle.

Vermillion, let me ask you something. Lets say that Falco gets his Dtilt and Dsmash range increases, and that he gets his Dair speed buff and his jab is unmashable. Lets say his laser becomes Short Hop cancellable and lets say his grab range was increased, and lets also say his Up Smash becomes a single hit move with slightly less lag. Lets say Falco gets every buff you've asked for. Then what's his flaw? What makes Falco balanced then? It seems like all you want to do is fix Falco's flaws until he has none and becomes a nigh perfect character with almost no issues or drawbacks whatsoever, like Smash 64 Pikachu, Brawl Meta Knight or Melee Fox and Falco.

If Falco gets these buffs he becomes a meta centralizing monster that is simply overpowered, and not in the slightest bit balanced

Actually, you mentioned Brawl Falco as being "balanced", and lets explore that briefly. Out of the 38 characters in Brawl, Falco has a SIGNIFICANT advantage (as in +2 advantage) over 16 characters. That's 42% of the cast, almost half! If we include the characters he has a minor advantage over (as in +1 advantage), then he has an advantage and in-theory counters 63% of the cast. How is a character that manages to BEAT 63% of the cast and shut down 42% of the cast balanced in the slightest? He is without question a top tier character in Brawl, and is arguably Top 5 in the game itself. Why is that, you ask? Well his pros are far too many, and his cons can be summed up as "He has poor recovery". That's it, he has poor recovery, that's what stops him from being an almost perfect killing machine. What you want to do is basically make Brawl Falco 2.0, and since he already has great recovery in Smash 4, he's actually become an almost flawless character.

When balancing and making character viable, the goal should ALWAYS be to balance them around the top of mid tier or the bottom of high tier. That way they are interesting and have plenty of strengths, yet also have clear flaws that keep them honest

I appreciate and adore your devotion to our main bird Falco, but fixing every flaw and making him an overpowered top tier nightmare isn't fixing the problem, its just creating a much bigger and uglier issue that would result in the whole "Ban Meta Knight" argument all over again

Im sorry about not answering this with my own points but, again, the user QGuy_Brian did a really nice explanation of this in reddit. I will quote him, with your permission:

Can't be a solid character without a neutral game. Falco's got nothing safe in neutral without lasers, buddy.

This is true, but you talk like Falco had no weaknesses in previous games. If you actually think that's the case, you don't understand Falco. He has 2 crippling weaknesses in his poor movement and the fact that he always dies when he's offstage.

The second flaw of your logic is that having weaknesses also implies you need strengths. Falco's main tournament strength is his oppressive neutral game. He needs lasers to control space and pressure. Without lasers, he only has bad movement, whiff punishable moves that don't have disjoint, and a high likelihood of dying if he misses.

This explanation resumes all my thoughts about that.

 

[Soshii]

It might be because I've never mained Falco in the past iterations, but I find Falco pretty useable and tournament viable. The only drastic issue I think would be a gamechanger for Falco would be the ending lag to his lasers. Everything else in the OP I can deal with.

 

[2ndComing]

Struck the perfect balance with him in Brawl, are you kidding? Not only was laser game harder to deal with than Melee's due to firing more lasers per hop, he also a chaingrab on a good chunk of the cast that can pretty much finish a stock immediately if that character had a poor vertical recovery. Falco was toxic in Brawl, the only reason he got held back is because of Pikachu's CG and IC's becoming more cancerous. Brawl by far had the worst balance in the series, and that's not even counting MK either. The game is a gigantic mess riddled with CG's, camping and grab releases, which Falco made 10 times worse for everyone.
That being said, though, I agree that Falco does need some buffs, most notably with approaching, but I think a better dair, more autocanceled aerials, and better air speed should fix that.

That is not a fault of Falco, that is a fault of the game. Bowser off all characters has a chain grab on the entire cast so you can't just say he was toxic just because of that. While I don't agree that brawl is one "gigantic mess' (which it very much isn't) I at least accept that he does need changes. The only "annoying" thing to get past was his lasers and those can just be perfect shielded since they are very telegraphed and slower than Fox's

 

[KenMeister]

That is not a fault of Falco, that is a fault of the game. Bowser off all characters has a chain grab on the entire cast so you can't just say he was toxic just because of that. While I don't agree that brawl is one "gigantic mess' (which it very much isn't) I at least accept that he does need changes. The only "annoying" thing to get past was his lasers and those can just be perfect shielded since they are very telegraphed and slower than Fox's

Bowser had grab release follow-ups, not chain grabs.

 

[2ndComing]

Falco was ok in Brawl, but he wasn't balanced. He could 0-50% the majority of the cast. That's not balanced.

I don't like people seeing things how they were in Brawl and saying that it's a straight up nerf to the character in Smash4. New game with different physics that's hardly 2 months old. Give it some time and some patches.

That is not a fault of Falco, it is a fault of Brawl's grab release mechanics. Its not Falco's fault that his grab was designed to be ended so closely to him. TBH, Sakurai probably wanted people to get a follow up out the move instead of re-grabbing people by simply walking up since he designed it more casual

 

[Jtails]

Pretty much all these points in OP I agree with. Jab and up smash are fairly broken(in the underpowered sense).

Tell me people who disagree, have you played Falco extensively? What are his reliable options? What should my playstyle with him be?(I am not kidding I need advice.)

For the record, i've never mained Falco in any of the previous games and barely played him at all in those games(maybe 5 matches through the whole series including PM). The way I play him is completely influenced by his design in Sm4sh. Now I main Falco with ~600 matches in for glory(~60% win ratio) and he feels at a severe disadvantage against a nice majority of the cast(option quality and quantity wise).

Also can someone give me some competitive footage of Falco(it's pretty rare). I found Jtails saying Falco wasn't that great(though the conclusion was incomplete I think).

It was an incomplete conclusion, but that is my initial opinion. I've been putting more work into Falco actually! expect good things soon.