Sonic The Hedgedawg
Smash Hero
Sheik today was one of the biggest announcemets on Dojo as it confirmed a character with much publicity for and against... I shall refer to sheik only as sheik because using gender specific pronouns to refer to sheik only leads to confusion. 
Brief Overview:
Anyway, OoT (Ocarina of Time) is widely regarded as one of the best games ever, in any category for any system. It is from this game that sheik hails as Zelda's alter ego (used to hide from Ganondorf, the game's primary antagonist). The fact that sheik is a male persona with a male body and garb, but female thoughts and emotions that it is ambiguous to refer to sheik as he or she... But I digress.
Recently, TP (Twighlight Princess) has begun to climb the ranks hoping to overtake OoT's title as best zelda game, and possibly best game. Due to sheik's absence in this game, and zelda's prominance as one-tough-broad, many were hoping that sheik would be removed or separated from zelda to help the more important character steal brawl's limelight... Regardless of the reasoning given, the heart of this issue seems to be that sheik was just too good in melee, and zelda was not. The character design was meant to be optimized when zelda and sheik were used, strategically, in tandem by transforming at opportune times. Zelda was supposed to be the heavy hitter, and sheik the fragile attack artist. Sheik was supposed to rack up opponent's damage, and zelda was supposed t move in for the KO. Unfortunately, it turned out that Zelda's bes move was "transform", which was, at the same time, sheik's worst. There were very few reasons to ever be zelda instead of sheik... ideally this would change and the two would need to be used as one once more.
My opinons on the way sheik is now:
Okay, here's the break down:
Sheik is pretty much what everyone wishes smash characters were. By this I mean that sheik has very few to no obselete moves in sheik's entire moveset. Almost everything is a deadly weapon and almost every move has specific instances where it is the most applicaple, making deep knowledge of the character essential and also VERY bennificial. This is MUCH better than a character with 2 or 3 "go to" moves, as the variety adds some balance and stops matches from becoming stale and predicatable... plus it allows for some customization in attack style.. you can make the character your own with your own combos....
.....there is one problem, however.... sheik, one of the few "complete" characters is only supposed to be half a character. Sheik is supposed to rely on the zelda form to KO an enemy... not the other way around. Zelda is slow, not just in relation to sheik, but to most characters. Her moves are slow for the most part. for KOs zelda is fairly predictable... and while sheik is fragile, zelda is hardly sturdier.
How to make this better
It is my honest opinion that with very minute changes to sheik and some more drastic changes to zelda, th team could become quite balanced and still just as deadly... the only difference would be that it was their combined force, not sheik's alone that makes it so.
Changes to sheik
1) Don't change a single attack - Sheik is gracefull and lithe... while the properties of some attacks should change, their wonderful animations should not.
2) Nerf her aerials - yeah, you heard me "nerf." If sheik is not supposed to be able to end enemies lives so easily, then perhaps not every aerial shpuld have awesome potential for a KO. Sheik's "hatchet" forward air sends enemies off at a scary enough angle and it's fast.. it doesn't need to be so strong. The other aerials all seem fine alone... but to have so many great aerials on one character is a bit too much... nerfing some or all of the remaining aerials would bring some more balence to this character.
3) No chain throw- a chain throw is a cheap way to get lots of damage on a character, they already unchained sheik's Down throw on the PAL version, so it's likely that it won't re-apear
4) give sheik a reason to turn into zelda- once sheik has taken some damage, it would be nice if zelda were noticeably sturdier and therefore was a better survival option... whether that means increasing Zelda's durability, decreasing sheik's or both.
5) Fast falling - what kind of ninja wouldn't fast fall? it makes her a bit more deadly to make up for all the negged aerials, but gives her much more trouble recovering compared to zelda... a good tradeoff.
Changes to Zelda
1) lots of killing moves- if zelda is going to be relied on to kill sheik's scraps, it would be wonderful if that consisted of many options. I mean, think about how predictable it would be if someone turned into zelda otherwise... if she had only one good killing attack, then it would be easy to avoid her only attacking option... make her versitile, but keep her fair.
2)please stop getting caught on lips maybe the new super edge-sweet-spotting physics will improve this, but zelda's supposedly awesome teleportation move often ends up embarasing... for heaven' sake stop geting caught under the stage.
3) Lets make you faster true, sheik is supposed to be the faster of the two, that's a given... but zelda is tied with bowser for having the slowest jump, and she is one of the slowest runners... summoning magic takes time and focus, but running and jumping do not... she might not be an acrobat, but she's not a 3000 ppound lizard either... so don't make her as slow as one.
4) no flinching please. one thing that made sheik so much better than zelda in melee was that speed characters could hit heavy characters out of moves before they could hit. And so characters with slow attacks were likely much lower down in terms of playability on a professional level. So, to even it out, brawl gave the big guys flinch-proof frames during big hits. Don't forget that, just because zelda doesn't look like a big guy, she can hit like one (or should be able to at least... she jumps like one anyway)... so wouldn't it be fair for her to get some flinch-proof moves? at least some flinch-proof smashes.
5) Better Aerials please-I suppose this kind of ties in with the first one about more killing moves needing to be present... but, honestly, zelda's up-air and down air suck. I have no idea where zelda was when she was supposed to be picking out her aerial attacks, but apparently she let sheik take all the good ones. When an explosionmlooks as big as it is in her up-air... it should have a hit box befitting of a large explosion... not a fingertip... and when a meteor is as hard to hit with as her down-air... it shouldn't be so abysmally useless... it should be amped up or replaced with a better move... seriously.
6) show us your magic- we know that you are a powerful mage zelda... so why don't you wow us more with your special attacks or your magic imbued standards? Honestly, before melee, you were a sure-win in any cat-fight that had you pitted against peach, but somehow that girly pink one came out MUCH stronger in melee. With a versitile repetior of flashy, powerful and magical moves (I mean, come on, she's a mage... her moves should have more effects to them than they do) I want you to prove that you don't need to turn into a "sheikah boy" to kick animated tail. Anbd make me believe it.
Okay, I'm ready for any coments good or bad about my little littany. You can even suggest what you think should be changed that I didn't mention... just be nice and civil.
P.S. It would be GREAT if somehow this thread could simultaneously exist in both the sheik and the zelda bords... maybe sticky it as a moved thread?
Brief Overview:
Anyway, OoT (Ocarina of Time) is widely regarded as one of the best games ever, in any category for any system. It is from this game that sheik hails as Zelda's alter ego (used to hide from Ganondorf, the game's primary antagonist). The fact that sheik is a male persona with a male body and garb, but female thoughts and emotions that it is ambiguous to refer to sheik as he or she... But I digress.
Recently, TP (Twighlight Princess) has begun to climb the ranks hoping to overtake OoT's title as best zelda game, and possibly best game. Due to sheik's absence in this game, and zelda's prominance as one-tough-broad, many were hoping that sheik would be removed or separated from zelda to help the more important character steal brawl's limelight... Regardless of the reasoning given, the heart of this issue seems to be that sheik was just too good in melee, and zelda was not. The character design was meant to be optimized when zelda and sheik were used, strategically, in tandem by transforming at opportune times. Zelda was supposed to be the heavy hitter, and sheik the fragile attack artist. Sheik was supposed to rack up opponent's damage, and zelda was supposed t move in for the KO. Unfortunately, it turned out that Zelda's bes move was "transform", which was, at the same time, sheik's worst. There were very few reasons to ever be zelda instead of sheik... ideally this would change and the two would need to be used as one once more.
My opinons on the way sheik is now:
Okay, here's the break down:
Sheik is pretty much what everyone wishes smash characters were. By this I mean that sheik has very few to no obselete moves in sheik's entire moveset. Almost everything is a deadly weapon and almost every move has specific instances where it is the most applicaple, making deep knowledge of the character essential and also VERY bennificial. This is MUCH better than a character with 2 or 3 "go to" moves, as the variety adds some balance and stops matches from becoming stale and predicatable... plus it allows for some customization in attack style.. you can make the character your own with your own combos....
.....there is one problem, however.... sheik, one of the few "complete" characters is only supposed to be half a character. Sheik is supposed to rely on the zelda form to KO an enemy... not the other way around. Zelda is slow, not just in relation to sheik, but to most characters. Her moves are slow for the most part. for KOs zelda is fairly predictable... and while sheik is fragile, zelda is hardly sturdier.
How to make this better
It is my honest opinion that with very minute changes to sheik and some more drastic changes to zelda, th team could become quite balanced and still just as deadly... the only difference would be that it was their combined force, not sheik's alone that makes it so.
Changes to sheik
1) Don't change a single attack - Sheik is gracefull and lithe... while the properties of some attacks should change, their wonderful animations should not.
2) Nerf her aerials - yeah, you heard me "nerf." If sheik is not supposed to be able to end enemies lives so easily, then perhaps not every aerial shpuld have awesome potential for a KO. Sheik's "hatchet" forward air sends enemies off at a scary enough angle and it's fast.. it doesn't need to be so strong. The other aerials all seem fine alone... but to have so many great aerials on one character is a bit too much... nerfing some or all of the remaining aerials would bring some more balence to this character.
3) No chain throw- a chain throw is a cheap way to get lots of damage on a character, they already unchained sheik's Down throw on the PAL version, so it's likely that it won't re-apear
4) give sheik a reason to turn into zelda- once sheik has taken some damage, it would be nice if zelda were noticeably sturdier and therefore was a better survival option... whether that means increasing Zelda's durability, decreasing sheik's or both.
5) Fast falling - what kind of ninja wouldn't fast fall? it makes her a bit more deadly to make up for all the negged aerials, but gives her much more trouble recovering compared to zelda... a good tradeoff.
Changes to Zelda
1) lots of killing moves- if zelda is going to be relied on to kill sheik's scraps, it would be wonderful if that consisted of many options. I mean, think about how predictable it would be if someone turned into zelda otherwise... if she had only one good killing attack, then it would be easy to avoid her only attacking option... make her versitile, but keep her fair.
2)please stop getting caught on lips maybe the new super edge-sweet-spotting physics will improve this, but zelda's supposedly awesome teleportation move often ends up embarasing... for heaven' sake stop geting caught under the stage.
3) Lets make you faster true, sheik is supposed to be the faster of the two, that's a given... but zelda is tied with bowser for having the slowest jump, and she is one of the slowest runners... summoning magic takes time and focus, but running and jumping do not... she might not be an acrobat, but she's not a 3000 ppound lizard either... so don't make her as slow as one.
4) no flinching please. one thing that made sheik so much better than zelda in melee was that speed characters could hit heavy characters out of moves before they could hit. And so characters with slow attacks were likely much lower down in terms of playability on a professional level. So, to even it out, brawl gave the big guys flinch-proof frames during big hits. Don't forget that, just because zelda doesn't look like a big guy, she can hit like one (or should be able to at least... she jumps like one anyway)... so wouldn't it be fair for her to get some flinch-proof moves? at least some flinch-proof smashes.
5) Better Aerials please-I suppose this kind of ties in with the first one about more killing moves needing to be present... but, honestly, zelda's up-air and down air suck. I have no idea where zelda was when she was supposed to be picking out her aerial attacks, but apparently she let sheik take all the good ones. When an explosionmlooks as big as it is in her up-air... it should have a hit box befitting of a large explosion... not a fingertip... and when a meteor is as hard to hit with as her down-air... it shouldn't be so abysmally useless... it should be amped up or replaced with a better move... seriously.
6) show us your magic- we know that you are a powerful mage zelda... so why don't you wow us more with your special attacks or your magic imbued standards? Honestly, before melee, you were a sure-win in any cat-fight that had you pitted against peach, but somehow that girly pink one came out MUCH stronger in melee. With a versitile repetior of flashy, powerful and magical moves (I mean, come on, she's a mage... her moves should have more effects to them than they do) I want you to prove that you don't need to turn into a "sheikah boy" to kick animated tail. Anbd make me believe it.
Okay, I'm ready for any coments good or bad about my little littany. You can even suggest what you think should be changed that I didn't mention... just be nice and civil.
P.S. It would be GREAT if somehow this thread could simultaneously exist in both the sheik and the zelda bords... maybe sticky it as a moved thread?
