How to make Falco tourney viable (mini-article)

[Illuvial]

"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.

Do you know what Neutral Game is? Neutral game is defined as, "The process of turning an equal situation into an advantageous one." What does Falco have to do that with? Well he has his excellent and safe Dtilt for punishing, his Ftilt for ground spacing, his Nair for approaching and dodge punishing, his Bair for spacing since its hellishly strong and safe, his jab for pressure (you can just reset out of the second hit with a tilt since its pretty damn safe). Whoever you quoted from Reddit is actually objectively wrong on Falco entirely. I don't mean to sound like a ****, but this guy is making Falco out to be some low tier trash with no safe options and no way to space out during Neutral Game, which isn't true. He has safe options, he has great punishing options, good spacing options and his grab range isn't even an issue and it also yields great rewards.

Falco has Neutral Game, Falco has spacing tools, Falco has killing tools, Falco has gimping tools, Falco is also punishable

 

[Ffamran]

Wait... Falco always dies off-stage? Are we talking about people who follow up off-stage and killing Falco or Falco not being able to recover? I've been knocked off stage a ton and found recovery fairly easy. Yes, For Glory tends to be a scrub landmine, but it's not that difficult to get back on stage compared to Link, Dr. Mario, Ganondorf, or even Captain Falcon.

 

[NotAnAdmin]

I agree with Ffamran, Falco's recovery is the best it's ever been in any previous Smash title.
While the Up b is still very easy to intercept, the side b can help you pocket the midair jump and he has his wall jump giving him another option.

 

[Leg]

It's pretty obvious that Falco needs a buff or two in this game, but I agree that he doesn't need everything in the original post. In all honesty, I think this Falco moves like a dream; he's rather swift with great jumps and fall speed. However, his moveset, is lacking.

The only thing he has in this game are his jumps, and they're at fault as his aerials can't contest with anyone else also in the air (with the exception of fair, but coming from Brawl, I wouldn't know anything about that.)

For me it's simple. As long as Falco has short hop laser, a fast reliable spike, and great jumps, he will be good. So I say:

Give him SHL: One laser should be enough for openings and the laser's range and damage should make this contestable.
Give him his Brawl Dair: It can even lag after it comes out so there's room to punish if one misses, just take away that awful startup.
And maybe Fix his jab: Make it link because that's just sloppy on Nintendo's part.

Everything else like his aerials not connecting/dsmash or grab having no range/lacking overall KO power, can stay, as I think these are reasonable changes that would balance out these faults. Again, not make Falco top tier, but balance him.

 

[2ndComing]

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QA72-MVUSg

 

[Comorant]

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.

I'm sorry but this phrase is becoming a bit of a plague lately. "If you know what you're doing" doesn't really contribute much to any discussion unless you're letting us know what this "doing" is that apparently makes any character in any game amazing.

With that all said, I'm finding Falco in a bit of a tricky place. Yes he isn't as viable as he was in Brawl, or even Melee for that matter. However he isn't in the worst of places either right now. Between Ledge Hogging being dead and his massively improved recovery, falling off the stage isn't an instant death sentence anymore, and while he lost his chaingrab, so did everyone else which is as much a benefit to him. Does this change his DI or Blaster problems? Certainly not, but its always crucial to look at characters not just in a Vacuum, but as a whole.

 

[genesis_SOC]

Brawl Falco was OP, one of the top tier, much like Diddy/Rosa/Sheik/Yoshi/ect. currently are in this game. He might need slight buffs but definitely does not need chain grabs or SHDL back. I think by nerfing the current top tiers, it would be an indirect buff to him to make him more viable. I do not want Falco to be as good as he was in Brawl. I want him to be fair and balanced. Not underpowered, not overpowered. He was overpowered.

 

[Leg]

Brawl Falco was OP, one of the top tier, much like Diddy/Rosa/Sheik/Yoshi/ect. currently are in this game. He might need slight buffs but definitely does not need chain grabs or SHDL back. I think by nerfing the current top tiers, it would be an indirect buff to him to make him more viable. I do not want Falco to be as good as he was in Brawl. I want him to be fair and balanced. Not underpowered, not overpowered. He was overpowered.

What would make him "balanced" in your opinion?

 

[genesis_SOC]

What would make him "balanced" in your opinion?

I don't know yet. It's way too early to tell seriously. The first step is to nerf the top characters currently like Diddy, then let the meta game settle in and go from there. It might even be too early to nerf those.

 

[FullMoon]

Speaking as someone who has Falco as a third main, the only thing that I think he really needs is a faster firing rate for the blaster and maybe a faster d-air. Add that and he's golden. Everything else strikes me less as "I want my character to be tournament viable" and more like "I want my character to be broken".

All characters are viable anyway, the game is pretty balanced in that aspect, so it's not like Falco is completely helpless in a competitive scene. You can win with anyone if you put the time and effort into learning how to play with them. If you're really just playing to win and don't want to take any risks using a non-top tier character, just go main Diddy already.

 

[H-O-G]

Look how much this great bird had has fallen

 

[HandzOffMyPrey11]

Ive been in the lab finding little things here and there, but man do i miss his chaingrab it so fun.

 

[Foster J.]

Illuvial Look at it from Vermillion's POV, It's not brawl. Falco's punishing game was hit a tad, Side Smash is just to slow to punish rolls unless you read it like a book, and it's as you said dTilt has taken taken over that area. Vermillion obviously wants the Brawler back, and that's slightly understandable, no one likes too many nerfs.

In general, must of Falco's tilts are required to play him, but the nerfs to his smash were a bit harsh as it does hit the KO potentially, as you can't just hit bAir on a safe basis.

I love how dAir hasn't gotten much talk, as I think that one is a pointless nerf, if you take into account of all other meteor spikes in the game, then Falco's just got nerfed while others remain as effective. I mean, Sakurai went and buffed Falcon's dAir, but nerfed Falco's? That decision makes no sense.

In general, I'd love Side Smash to have it's old speed so it can be used to punish reliably, or dTilt to have less frames so 2 jabs dTilt becomes less of a risk.

But, having lost his safe zoning tools, you have to rely a lot on the jab, and that being DI'able to interrupt / mash sucks.

 

[Zionaze]

Ive been in the lab finding little things here and there, but man do i miss his chaingrab it so fun.

he does still have a *chain*grab tho

 

[Beach]

Well I think that it's clear now that we won't be getting all of the wanted buffs, I honestly just want lasers back in some form. Even in For Glory with the roll spamming and what not they just don't go far enough and aren't safe enough to use at all. As of now Falco is a very defensive character and without a way to force approaches it becomes hard to play our favorite bird. Obviously he has some things, but we don't have any way to really harass people safely. Dair is less of a problem simply because we can safely use Phantasm off stage and we have a buffed Fair, and with our slow run speed and with how ledges are in this game a Brawl Dair still wouldn't be a go to move.