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Make Your Move 22: Moveset Design Contest - Top 50 released! New sets go in MYM23!

Smady

Smash Master
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3,306
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K Rool Avenue
I did enjoy Imaginary Numbers! I’m semi-famous perhaps for being a big fan of RPGs like the one this obscure characters comes from and I know that this game was a huge passion project for the person who made it, it’s always great to see such a gem represented in MYM. The set is unabashedly, unapologetically weird and I can see the appeal of this approach, though its balance is very iffy. My main issue is that these effects like changing the foe’s weight, swapping around certain damage percentages, RNG on certain moves, they don’t feel particularly cohesive and a little unintuitive. It’s the exact kind of set where you’d have to experience it first hand and probably read it up online to realistically understand how it works. That’s also The Point, of course. I can at least say in its defence it gets entertainingly abstract and imaginative. It’s a hard one to judge frankly but I would say it’s good on level despite the fact it would have many asterisks if it was ever in a playable form.

Reigen was a really fun set full of comedy and some interesting mechanics, a delightful introduction to Mob Psycho 100! Most of all, I enjoyed the set’s emphasis on the underutilized. For example the frame disadvantage of moves to have a purposefully wonky balance that emphasizes a joke set-like dichotomy of style over substance, that’s rarely seen in sets and pretty intelligent use of frame data. The other one was sex kicks and I’m not sure if this was intentional or not, but I do think the sex kick itself when used so much like this, does give a fun impression of a sort of try hard character when their attacks meekly linger out on stage for an extended time. Somehow, it just works well for me in terms of a comedic but still not intentionally low tier character.

The set’s other great attribute for me is the writing style which independent of the set, does still make it a very entertaining read. This is one of the funniest sets this Make Your Move, perhaps the best set for pure comedy? The “late Yamazaki” and scary bad old MYM sets in particular were really good jokes. There’s not a ton of competition this MYM as far as this direct level of comedy, though sets do manage to be pretty funny in general like Kimblee and Hol Horse. Reigen stands out tremendously as a serious set that’s comedic and the playstyle is also largely comedic. It’s a nice change of pace without going full joke set.

I will say that as a moveset, the set is unashamedly simple and the concepts aren’t anything to write home about. It’s not like Reigen can do all that much as a character so you smartly do stretch out the Sucker Punch and salt traps, the playstyle is best on a move-by-move basis as I stated at the start of my comment. It avoids the G Man trap of saying moves are bad as bait or anything, but largely, the set is all about these kind of awkward moves and baiting out for Sucker Punch. It’s one of those sets where it’s impressive it even exists, rather than being technically excellent.
 

Bionichute

Smash Champion
Joined
Jun 30, 2012
Messages
2,151
Elekid: A Meter Story
I think Elekid represents a lot of your shortcomings as a set maker, Froy. The set mostly consists of pretty generic melee attacks that are technically bolstered by the charging mechanic, ostensibly there to add unique effects to the moves. But this results in a fairly obvious internal contradiction, not helped by a lot of the later moves being incredibly weak even in comparison. The contradiction is that Elekid is practically useless without his charge, his moves do barely any damage or knockback, and his charged effects are all just objectively better than when he doesn't have it. But charging is also a pain in the butt, and Elekid is too weak to defend himself so he actually CAN charge when he needs to.

This has been a general issue with your sets Froy, you tend to include a gimmick that really only comes across half-baked and not particularly well thought out. The gimmicks not carrying a set would be fine if the rest of the moves were good, but they tend to be pretty generic melee moves that aren't exactly interesting to read, and the differences between the base and charged versions for Elekid make this even more apparent than they have been before. There's really not any reason to have the charging mechanic act like this, when Elekid could just HAVE some of these bonuses by default, maybe tweaked a bit if you want to go more balanced. The worst additional effects are the suctions on USmash and UAir, things that really have no reason not to be default on simple moves like those.

There is a very clear binary choice between the two versions of Elekid's set, it's not even like Joker where Arsene is objectively better in most areas, but can limit combo potential, everything for Elekid is just better. Some later moves don't even add anything, and the "effect" on DThrow is basically just a joke. Even though most of the effects help Elekid, they also just aren't very cohesive as an actual playstyle, most of them being generic buffs. The base versions are focused around aerial combos in a slightly flowchart-y manner, which feels very generic.

There's also a massive lack of focus on other moves, with the only one that gets focused on being the thunderbolt clone, even thunder punch barely gets mentioned and its the cornerstone of the entire set. There's SOME potential here, though, mainly in the form of the aforementioned thunderbolt clone. The one move in this I enjoyed was UThrow, as it actually had some fun connectivity and complexities that added extra layers to using it. But that was the ONLY move that did that. I get wanting to make a charge mechanic the main thing for Elekid, since all of the flavor for him is about that, but the set would have been way better if the focus had been put onto the thunderbolt, with its upwards-to-downwards hitbox being a part of the base move that could be used to do... I dunno, more interesting and situational things with moves. Supercharge moves when they hit Elekid while he's performing them, play with positioning, anything really.

While not a lot of your output has bothered me as much as this set has, Froy, you have been stuck in a pretty bad streak of average sets with very little improvement. You've definitely pulled off a few great and complex sets, but a lot of the time its been generic melee sets with poorly-thought out gimmicks that don't tend to add anything. I haven't read any of your other output this contest, so I can't say if that holds up for some more sets this contest, but when you want to try a set like this again, try to aim for above average than just... below average.
 
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Katapultar

Smash Lord
Joined
Nov 24, 2008
Messages
1,251
Location
Australia
Kritter is like jumping back into a MYM11 set! His Specials are all set-up orientated, something you don't see in many MYM sets these days, and more self-conscious of in-smash stuff than before. No doubt your long absence creating a unique movesetting style you won't find in any other MYM'er (but still pretty close to it), retaining your creativity and sophisticated writing style like you never left! One carry-over from the old days that is particularly refreshing is the shorter set length, while still relaying vital information. I can see why your two big sets are so popular this contest. Kritter, in particular, reminds me a bit of a certain Candy Man (not the horror movie villain, though he does sound like someone you would make a set for if you were still into that ala Chucky and Pennywise) from the era of tackiness whose rival reeeally needs a moveset. Those were the days.

Kritter has a serviceable concept in his banana piles - those must be some GIGANTIC bananas if he's making a Kirby-sized pile with just 5 of them! It is a tad strange to use certain character's attacks against a certain other character at X% (Reminds me of Von Karma from MYM12...) as a unit of measurement, but it does show that you're targeting Smash Ultimate players. You also have the wind-up Kritters, which do strike me as being more potent than Bowser Jr's toys and remind me a bit of Nox's Side Special in their potentially lingering for a long time and dealing stun on contact.

I do feel Kritter brings some of the playground-orientated character's weaknesses: that being he is very set-up heavy, and that his moveset is largely focused on what happens when you have X construct around in regards to a certain melee attack. This reminds me a bit of Warlord's criticism of Wonka wanting to interact with himself (heh) rather than the foe, but that is deeeefinitely not the case here with Kritter! (he does go after the Kongs, after all) At the very least, I wonder if the set's ideas are not quite as focused and as potent as they could be, like exploring the implications and potential mindgames of hiding inside your banana horde to mindgame foes with a certain attack. You could have some real fun with this kind of concept if you wanted to revisit it in the future: like making two moves with similar SFXs (like two smash attacks), a bit like the SFX-muting Smash mindgames of your famous MYMX Pennywise set! (yes, it was inevitable that I would bring up Pennywise!) Hiding and ambushing people seems pretty in-character for an underhanded underling like Kritter.

The grab game was the big highlight of the set for me - dropping a barrel on a foe to grab them is a super fun and comical animation! It was pretty hilarious (and tacky in a funny way) where Kritter paints the TNT or arrow on the barrel to apply those effects, like the paintbrush he's holding has magical powers or something. I wonder if he stole Putata's paintbrush from him when he was visiting MYM13 for set ideas? U-throw sounds like it has fun potential in a banana horde; when reading the move, I thought that the foe took upwards knockback and then descended a little bit at the peak of their stun in a way that doesn't happen with regular smash knockback, in a way where you could pop the foe down in prone if you threw them up to a high Battlefield platform. That actually sounds like it would be a fun U-throw.

B-throw was my favourite throw and move in the entire set, highlighting that you haven't lose your creative touch: a mobile "burying" throw that can put the foe in prone or launch them at the edge! That is such a great idea. It's enough to make me wonder whether the barrel could have had more potential or use in the set, especially if you borrowed Smash mechanics since both the barrel AND DK are in the game we're making sets for! It's enough to make me think that the barrel concept borrowing Smash mechanics would be awesome to revisit, maybe by you if you felt inspired enough to do a future DKC set...? (though that is kind of your main franchise)

Overall, Kritter was a fun and MYM'ingly inspiring set, something that only you could have made! He was also funny and a love letter to K. Rool - mainly the intro and Neutral Special - despite me not getting some of the references compared to a massive Rool fan like Smady. With the two big boys enjoying popularity, I am quite looking forward to seeing how you applied your talents to make them loved, especially since Vulture has received edits.

Also, King Kutout demands a set from ForwardArrow, as that was one of the sets he was going to do before he left MYM alongside Dio Brando. But hey, this contest has shown us that while sometimes we expect hype characters to be done by certain setmakers (Xehanort : Froy, Kira : Smady), they can end being made by other setmakers instead (Xehanort :FA, Kira: Khold). Maybe YOU will do Kutout? As someone who played DK64 as a kid, I would really love to see that!
 

BKupa666

Barnacled Boss
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KIMBLEE:
If real-life constraints always were going to keep you from putting out more than one set this contest, I'm content Kimblee was the result of your efforts. Even though his Time Bomb is superficially the set's centerpiece, Kimblee stands out to me as far as the focus his various explosions serve, in knockback control. The true threat Kimblee presents, in my reading, is less his immediate strength in launching foes and moreso his ability to shape how, when and where that happens. Time Bomb itself is relatively predictable, but when you couple it with more blast-on-command moves like F-Smash or jab, further countdown explosions like U-Smash or F-Throw, or wild cards like launch-halting B-Throw, Kimblee can ensure his victim is in as disadvantageous a position as possible before they take the hit. Then, as one of the more prominent manifestations of "glass" in his glass cannon, he gets to influence where his self-damaging attacks send him, based on what attack hitbox he's touching, rather than the knockback being incidental and punitive, as in less nuanced glass cannons of the past. I don't know that the specific ways he pursues foes after being launched in their direction with a frame advantage is that compelling (sex knee N-Air and F-Air both seem his standout options in that regard) but the concept itself is certainly accolade-worthy.

As far as other mobility-oriented moves, I like Kimblee's ability to navigate the stage both with Down Special ground chunks of varying durations and, in what I guess is a hot take, U-Tilt's descending pillars (which, the "drop out of end lag into aerial state" perk is a favorite, and one I've used before too). D-Tilt, too, I like as far as deterring foes' ground movement, especially in tandem with D-Smash. As far as criticisms, Kimblee's counter works as a simple special, useful in the context of all his self-damaging moves, though I find myself wishing it had more standout properties of its own. There's no hitbox, unlike Incineroar and Joker, and when you've got more interesting counter properties on F-Tilt and F-Air, this sticks out as a little underdeveloped. If I'm understanding correctly, Kimblee's ability to turn himself into a bomb also becomes needlessly telegraphed when he must first leap into the air to do so. Sure, this is Ultimate, and characters are going to be airborne most times they're not stupidly darting back and forth like they're in a TAS video, but with different input handling, it could've led to more mix-up potential. Kimblee currently could go either way between a high RV or lower SV for me, depending on how much other apparent big sets resonate with me, but I definitely got a kick out of most design choices here. And, as a certain killer klown once said, "Come back (to MYM) any time!"
 

FrozenRoy

Smash Lord
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Apr 26, 2007
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Elekid Changelog:

- Fixed a few small typos I missed before, particularly a bad name typo on Forward Smash.

- Elekid's rapid Jab no longer just holds charge, but also allows Elekid to concentrate electrical charge into his fists by using it for half a second, causing his next melee attack to deal 1.3x hitstun and +2% damage, in addition to dealing an additional +2% damage on the jab finisher. Elekid can even use this repeatedly to prepare multiple attacks for it!

- Added a few mentions of how this jab empowerment affects Elekid's combos through the set.

- Elekid's Up Smash and Up Aerial suction effects are now in the base version of the attack, but get boosted when in Elekid's Charged State. In addition, Elekid's suction now affects his projectiles from Up Special and Down Special.

- Elekid's Up Smash now has has multiple interactions with Elekid's Down Special, including a special hitbox if Elekid is hit by the Down Special during the attack and Elekid shooting out a bolt of electricity from the electrical pulse towards the thunder-cloud if in his Charged State.

- Up Aerial now has multiple new Charged State effects: A bolt of electricity fires from nearby Thunder clouds if it is used, it has reduced ending lag and now has no additional ending lag if landed during the attack during Charged State.

- Elekid's Back Throw now electrifies opponents past the initial throw while in Charged State, causing the opponent to draw Thunderbolts towards them akin to Up Smash/Up Aerial and Thunders to be aimed directly at them!

- Elekid's Charged State damage nerfed to 17% (from 20%) to compensate for the substantial buff in other areas.

- Down Throw now deals 9% while in Charged State (up from 7%)

- Down Throw now leaves a "static cling" effect on the opponent that causes them to be drawn slightly closer to Elekid when Elekid uses an electrical attack, increasing effective attack range for the stubby limbed Elekid.

- Elekid's Down Aerial has been entirely replaced, now being a drill kick style attack that has an additional arm hitbox along with a landing hitbox while in Charged State.
 
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UserShadow7989

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Aug 13, 2007
Messages
305
Hugo by Smady Smady :
Another long-overdue comment. I wasn't familiar with Hugo before reading this set, but I've gotten attached to the character just by reading through it. It feels like the best set he can get, with careful thought about the applications of each move turning even a basic stomp and knifehand into something deeper and more interesting. I was a bit iffy on the rate the meter charged at first, but Down Special greatly alleviates the difficulty in charging if you make proper use of it to no-sell your opponent's attacks and land a blow in return, which works amazingly well with his wrestler background.

The set also does very well with an archetype that's easy to mess up; the base and EX versions of most of his set have their own applications and special twists, not just being 'he hits them for a bit of damage' in the base form with the EX being a strict upgrade. In many cases, the EX variants provide a mix-up with the base move and a differing pay-off for landing it, and some even have their own fair drawbacks that makes the player have to weigh their options. The end result is Hugo plays a bit like a 'monster heel' wrestler once he gets going, intimidating his opponents just with his presence.

I do feel the gauge could still stand to charge a tiny bit faster given the need to also do complex inputs on the Specials for their corresponding EX and Super versions (less for the difficulty of the input and more for the time it takes, the set's Jab even acknowledging it makes the moves effectively slower to come out), but it's hard to say that for certain given we don't have an easy way to test it, so I'd say it's probably fine to leave as-is.

My only other complaint is more personal than concrete, but I did have a bit of difficulty reading through the set at first; the set goes into meticulous detail about each application of each move, and with the existence of EX and Super inputs, Hugo effectively has 10 Specials and a monster of a Forward Smash (the latter in particular being where I had to put the set down on my first attempt at reading through it, though I read the entirety of the set start to finish for my second time through). It might be a good idea to even trim some of the more situational applications, or find a way to rephrase certain details more briefly.

It's not entirely a writing issue and is simply a matter of how the set functions that it needs to be as long as it is (the Forward Smash in particular can't really avoid it), and it does nicely integrate everything the character has into it thanks to the mechanic's existence. It's not the longest set this contest, of course, but it is at the point where that can start being an issue on some of the inputs. Overall I find Hugo a very impressive set, and one I liked a lot; I think as I wrote this comment and had time to let it soak in that it's overtaken Ennard, even.
 

FrozenRoy

Smash Lord
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Apr 26, 2007
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Switch FC
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Editing Period Extension and Voting Period Announcement!

Reading has actually been pretty good from y'all, lots of people sitting in the 20s-30s range, but we want to give you all more time to be able to read...and also to finish Dodongos! So, editing period has been extended two weeks AND a week of voting period has been taken from it and added to Editing Period.

The new Editing Period deadline is March 14th

The new voting period deadline is March 21st

Enjoy yourselves!
 

UserShadow7989

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Aug 13, 2007
Messages
305
Alex by FrozenRoy FrozenRoy
Right on the heels of reading Hugo, I tucked into this set and found it a nice palette cleaner after struggling to read for a while now. The set's not lacking for depth, having a aggressive and mobile playstyle that benefits strongly from getting behind your opponent, and a focus on grappling and the technical side, but it's very well written and hands out exactly the right amount of information on applications and combos for each move; not so much you're bogged down or having your hand held, but enough that it gets the juices flowing and makes the overall playstyle and each input's place in it clear.

Every input has enough to be interesting both visually and mechanically; it was easy to keep in mind all at once as I read through, and never felt like an input was filler. I think Alex serves as a fine example of how to make these sorts of sets interesting, something I'll have to bear in mind when I make my next set of this sort. Alex and Hugo are a wonderful pair of sets that I rate highly, and I thank you and Smady for making them!
 
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FrozenRoy

Smash Lord
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Messages
1,260
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Las Vegas, Nevada
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Magic Steampunk (Bolt Witch Victoria U UserShadow7989 )

Can I just say I've noticed the "witch/magical girl + steampunk" aesthetic is one I've noticed picking up steam and I am SO THERE for it? Gimme more girls with magic and tech that isn't just sleek magitech but also some of that and I am there.

Victoria's Bolt Boy minion seems very simple at first, but reading the set makes you realize Bolt Boy is a pretty deep and fascinating invention for our bolt witch! Having to play with Bolt Boy's very simple pattern is actually kind of a boon to the set, as Victoria mixes in how to make this little toy that unless ordered just goes left and right into a threat. Giving Victoria the ability to rather free-form transfer her hitboxes (with the main caveat being a small damage amount and being electrical) gives Victoria an actually extremely customizable minion that she can play off in a ton of ways. Not only that but since Bolt Boy is taking on the hitbox's properties, how VICTORIA plays off of the hits changes as well, with how she spaces and what moves she is going to use and so on changing based on Bolt Boy's hitbox, positioning, and of course charge level. Victoria can also do stuff like give Bolt Boy some special commands with Side Special or make Bolt Boy's barrier a reflector which with the edit to make it affect her own projectiles offers interesting options.

Added onto that, Victoria can throw out her Forward Smash projectile as an additional lingering option to pressure alongside Bolt Boy, and has a fairly solid direct-fighting game behind it, particularly between her three tilts and her aerials. I thought Neutral Aerial was pretty fun, making the spikes a 4% damage hitbox so they won't overwrite Bolt Boy felt clever and gave it multiple uses, and Up Aerial as her primary finisher was an interesting strategy, I also thought Forward Aerial was fun. The way the tilts all both work into each other, but they also really want Bolt Boy to cover up for her weaknesses, which felt like it shows her both capable on her own yet wanting to use her construct a good deal. I do wonder if Jab is really useful (or if it would actually be able to set-up combos as-is), but I did enjoy the way that it let Victoria give micro-charges to Bolt Boy, which is important given how the hitbox overlapping worked. The grab game felt competent, but I do wonder if some more could have been done with it, although I do like how Forward Throw works into how a lot of her set-up thanks to the knockback angle.

I liked the flavor of Victoria in various respects, not just OC creation obviously, but I thought her summoning Bolt Boy with pride as her own invention despite not being her newest or presumably best one thanks to the emotional connection, and the Extras you added help show some good personality (particularly Win Pose 2)!

But I did feel there was also a serious flavor disconnect here, particularly in how Victoria is presented and what her set does. Her character seems to emphasize how much of an inventor she is: Born to a toy maker and a blacksmith, spent her childhood taking things apart and putting them back together to learn things, started making things out of odds and ends BEFORE she found her electrical power, the fact she explicitly uses her electric magic for making things, the fact her game role is getting lost in tinkering and inventing, her personality is "endlessly curious" and so on...

So, that all being said, I think Victoria feels too much like a general "lightning mage" than her character, especially if you take her in the context of the other Witches (which given they all feel consistently designed to be in the same game if you want to go that way and at minimum are in the same OC-verse, discounting any other people's witches since they weren't necessarily in your vision) where they bizarrely seem to all have more constructs/inventions than the inventor one, even Ribbon Witch Velvet technically has more despite being the main bare knuckle fighter, although that doesn't need to be held against it. Her name being "Bolt Witch" even gives the impression she isn't just about lightning BOLTS but also nuts and BOLTS given her inventive streak.

Given that, Victoria has a single construct she can make and it is essentially the only "inventor" thing in the set, except arguably the staff, although originally that still felt very minor as it didn't really do anything a magic staff couldn't normally do despite being her own custom staff with a lightning elemental in it, but you've already spruced up animations some before I could comment so progress. I think it would be fun to instead add in some more inventions of hers! This could be minions, I imagine simple ones akin to Bolt Boy, which could also use her "powered" mechanic which would in turn add some more fun to Bolt Boy, as him traveling the stage will allow him to power up the other minions! The others ones don't have the electric-barrier effect, so this is unique to Bolt Boy. Personally, given the toy mentions through various parts of the set, stuff like a "steampunk toy tank/soldier/plane" or something could be fun, kind of like Bad Company from JoJo? But you could do anything with this. Horror movie monsters to fit with the Bolt Boy frankenstein bit, stuff more obviously mechanical or unnatiral, or even basing it on in-universe monsters?

Alternately if minions are too much (tho I feel you'd enjoy that), maybe she could summon some to help her on attacks or use other inventions on attacks, to help show off the inventor bits. I will say this or the minions might help with one thing in the set, which is I felt some of the flash was a bit low, and while F-Smash was fun and Up Smash was solid Down Smash felt oddly...lacking. I do like the idea of keeping a "zone" where passive electricity helps power your stuff, but it felt built up to be more than it was and also like the set craves just that bit extra, maybe it could provide overcharge to everything inside or, say, a damage buff equal to the smash charge (IE up to 1.4x) to Victoria's Bolt Boy/constructs? Just spitballing ideas, but I felt the smashes were one of the weaker parts of the set in general, which is a surprise.

Some other thoughts...maybe Up Smash's clouds could shoot a bolt at Bolt Boy (and/or all other Victoria constructs?) if it is within a certain range, with the bolt knockback comboing into the minion, which with Bolt Boy can even override the base hitbox and so make it a "double hit"! Or a throw applying an electrical status effect that shocks to life when a foe is hit by an electrical attack, multiplying the damage by some amount or dealing a flat damage hitbox, and Bolt Boy running into the foe triggers it and can thus make a Bolt Boy -> Bolt Boy combo deal more damage as it takes on that electric hitbox's properties! And if you added the minions, a chain lightning style attack that gets stronger with each bounce (or just goes to all of them at once, stronger with each link in the chain) which not only allows Victoria to snag a flashy hitbox with good setup, but also recharge a bunch of stuff at once?

Enough with my suggestions, anyway. The point is Victoria is a GOOD set that could be a GREAT set. I think Bolt Boy is a minion with surprising depth, that Victoria has a solid melee game, that she can play around well and seem very fun to play, but that the set has somewhat of a flavor misfire, that it feels like it could use some flash and maybe a few sections are a bit weak despite not being bad. A nice addition to your impressive MYM22, UserShadow! I look forward to finally reading Tillroo and Hauskee, too.
 

BKupa666

Barnacled Boss
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HOL HORSE:
Hol Horse is somewhat of a study in contrasts, where he retains an in-Smash vibe even in spite of all the far-out stuff he can do. Like, his possible set-ups with Hanged Man darting between multiple lingering surfaces or myriad jab bullet trajectories can be as limitlessly complex as the player can handle. Even so, it's juxtaposed with this playstyle where something as straightforward (yet fun) as a varyingly-fast dash-dance can aid him in his onslaughts, while a non-recovery Up Special gives him a tasty layer of vulnerability, almost like Yoshi, with shades of K. Rool in his D-Air mini-boost. I've never touched any JoJo source material, but it's readily apparent reading through Boingo's involvement (who had a neat mini-mechanic, like an infinitely more refined of those earlier MYM background characters) and Thoth's far-reaching influence that Hol Horse is an unabashed love letter to the series. Indeed, Hol Horse's highlight is not just the mix of move variants he gets through offensive predictions, but their versatility as far as the ideal contexts for using them. It's brilliant that not all of the predictive changes are outright buffs, which could conceivably create a situation where Hol Horse has no reason to ever prefer a normal move variant. Rather, the built-in trade-offs - Boingo being locked into pursuing a foe with D-Smash, F-Smash becoming slower when locking onto a foe - and even new vulnerabilities, like Hol Horse being vulnerable to a rebounded Neutral Special bullet or experiencing more lag in firing off a stronger U-Air, require more strategic use of predictions. Which, given the existing subterfuge already involved in disguising which specific move Hol Horse has offensively predicted, amounts to some of the most nuance I've seen in a set in quite some time.

As far as the nitty-gritty of engaging the foe in combat, I for the most part also really liked what I saw. The idea of Hol Horse being somewhat more of a dirty fighter really shines through in his prone focus, and your unpacking of his options for covering get-up (with the various ways he can place puddles and glass, for example) helps illustrate the actual threat he can pose in advantage, given how frail he can come off elsewhere. If anything, his ability to guarantee his foe's placement in prone or a tripped state through F-Throw and dash attack, respectively, gives me some pause, on account of the possibility that, with the right reads or construct placement, he could rack significant damage doing little else but continually using those options, despite the creative alternatives he boasts. And, though you do acknowledge the self-explanatory nature of defensive prediction benefits, plus some inherent strategy there in Down Special, I wonder whether Hol Horse could've had more explicit areas for baiting foes into using such predicted moves. As one spitballed example, maybe a combo tool like N-Air could have a blind spot underneath Hol Horse, thus incentivizing foes to punish with U-Tilt or U-Smash...and, in turn, letting him defensively predict one of those moves to increase his odds of punishing. These aren't concerns that dramatically affect my opinion of Hol Horse on the whole, mind, they're just pretty much the only areas of note I found to begin to nitpick, given how tightly-designed the rest of the set is, down to nice housekeeping items like a slightly longer re-grab timer on D-Throw. I'm happy to say Hol Horse will be a fixture atop my list of SVs, and certainly deserves the hype others already have thrown his way as a clear contest contender.

GUN SOLDIER AND BLACK WARRIOR:
I want to give you kudos for (as far as I know) pioneering echo sets as a concept here. From where I'm sitting, it's an inherently tough one to get right, as you have to balance keeping the characters similar enough to qualify as (semi-)echoes and yet meaningfully distinguished enough in key areas to pique readers' interest as separate sets. In that regard, I can see the effort you put in as far as distinguishing Soldier and Warrior, though I found myself wishing that those distinctions were woven in more consciously with the identical or identical-save-for-a-tweaked-animation moves. For instance, you clearly spent a good amount of time fleshing out the different gun uses on Neutral Special (and different control options as far as firing immediately vs. toting the guns around), and yet I only spied sporadic mentions as to where these could come in handy later in the set. Spraying the Gatling Gun at foes stuck with the Hunter's gummy shot gets highlighted, for instance, when as example, I also could see perks from using the vacuum firearms to succ up and return bullets from guns enemies have grabbed, or arranging combos into missiles or explosive worms based on their capacity to rotate after foes.

As I didn't see any substantive difference in properties between the two characters' aerials, perhaps that could be a good spot for the fleshing out? Beyond that, I did like a handful of concepts here and there - having essentially mobile ledge constructs in Up Special and the different movement options the Troopers can access via Side Special gliders, specifically the spin attack used to fake out the upward rush. There were, however, other areas where I did find myself having balance questions, such as the screen KO the Troopers face from gliding too high (falling in helpless or suffering some sort of stun likely still would serve as deterrents to them going too high) and Soldier randomly not enhancing his F-Smash sign's damage with charge. My various takes ended up sort of balancing out to leave me feeling ambivalent on the sets on the whole, and I'm not sure precisely where they'll fall on my vote list. Nevertheless, I did find Soldier and Warrior welcome additions to this contest's Piranha Plant challenge, and myself eager to see more of your work in the future.

MINA AQUILA:
On a general level, Mina is an excellent blend of in-Smash and MYM-level creativity, with a relatively limited number of moving parts (Ginny, the petal varieties, the tree and its apples) but a lot of depth baked into each one. Ginny gets precisely the right amount of focus as a natural sort of progression from a Luma without overstaying his welcome or dominating the set. I particularly like the whole play-counterplay dynamic where Mina can harness them cheeks to keep her petals refreshed over whatever period of time, essentially saving her from having to undergo as much setup, but at the risk of her losing whatever number she's sent out if Ginny's paltry HP is whittled down to zero. Meanwhile Ginny's ability to release a large number of petals all at once gives Mina incentives a) to send out a large number of pink petals to cluster around in one or more areas to trigger her various standard buffs and b) to mix up the specific types of petals she releases, so as to try subjecting a foe to all of them at once. On the opponent's part, they then have to decide the degree they're comfortable rushing in to fight back, seeing as how they could turn the tide against Mina quickly if she's careless but they also might be rushing into a flowery war zone entirely beyond their control. There's a healthy amount of organic interaction with the simpler apples, too, with Ginny's interactions with both one and two apples, plus casual Z-dropping of an apple to set up moves like D-Air being highlights.

Other areas where Mina stood out to me. . .Smashes all were refreshingly distinct in their own way, with F-Smash exchanging real KO utility for its unique inward hitbox, D-Smash being transferable to Ginny with an ensuing windstorm combo and U-Smash sweetening the pot as far as using Ginny to grab and hold petals with its facsimiles. And then, with general melee, I like the mini-trend of Mina using pink energy across moves like dash attack and N-Air to signify her ability to power them up with petals. Getting into some nitpicks, I found it curious that purple petals were your choice as far as the default variety to send out with Neutral Special when the pink ones get by far the most mileage in the set, while purples and reds are generally left to the imagination as far as value in practice (besides tie-ins with moves like Up Special or D-Tilt respectively). Not a major deal when all varieties are just a modified input away, but yeah. I also found it curious that some apparently found Mina underpowered when she has as many options for refreshing her petals as she does (beyond Ginny, with D-Smash and F-Throw also in the picture). She'll be exhausting the pinks up over the course of grab-game and reds in having them detonate on foes, but in properly controlling them, I could see her teetering on the edge of balanced, with how damaging some of her more challenging petal setups can be. And, speaking of which, I was somewhat lukewarm on Up Special, as while I like the interactions with the petals and Ginny, the specific launching-around controls come off as Bayonetta-esque, or a far less interesting form of damage-racking than the rest of her kit. All that said, though, it was interesting for me to learn that Mina was the set you were least confident in this contest, as I came away seeing her as a high-quality and memorable effort, certainly above Kyoko at least in my estimation. *tips cap in congratulations for a job very well done*
 
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Katapultar

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Bakugo has a very fun and potent mechanic! You did a very good at capturing his aggression through his air speed and punishing him with his landing lag. Nitro is pretty unique in the way that meter is gained. You have nice throws and some awareness, talking up a pretty sweet air game from the simple stuff. And yet I could see Bakugo improving himself as a hero! (and a person I guess...)

Bakugo is very underpowered! Seriously dude, with that 5% recoil per blast it's like he's trying to imitate Deku hurting himself when he uses One For All, which is pretty ironic haha. Guy's not exactly a freight train or super benefitting from damage aside from rage (which could get a mention in this set on a kill move, very fitting for Bakugo's character!). I would probably drop the damage down to 1.5-2%, as much as I can understand you wanting to make the self-damage punishment more tangible. I am not sure whether the other readers of this set like Khold, plague and Froy would agree, would be interesting to know.

If Bakugo's taking damage, then I do believe he deserves a good recovery or else he's going to be losing stocks early, getting 3 to 1'd by Deku when he gets his set. I do believe you could make Up Special go 2-2.5 grids higher per use. This does bring me to my next inquiry: wondering whether you could have gone farther with a number of Bakugo's Specials, especially his Up Special. As far as I can tell, Up Special is basically a substitute jump that's vaguely meant to take you into the air faster than your regular jump. You can bring opponents up with you using the blast, but this doesn't seem useful on the ground if the blast is aimed below you - something you could potentially use as an out-of-shield option! I recall you enjoying Himiko's very long and involved Up Special from last contest, so I believe you would be willing to write up Up Special with more meat to it.

  • You could make a blast from the ground wider so you can catch opponents on either side of you.
  • You could do a hold B variant to make Bakugo go twice as high without entering helpless, propelling him really high. This sounds like it would be really fitting for Bakugo!
  • One potential addition for Up Special could be a follow-up where a blast is aimed above you that propels you down half as far as you ascended, the blast dealing say radial knockback so you could potentially bring a foe down to combo. This could be useful if you were going for an aerial that hit on a low angle.

B-air was a unique input to put your mobility burst on to free up the Specials. I am not sure whether it was the best design choice though, and sort of question whether it works. You see, B-air's main point is to propel yourself forwards to extend your combo game, but it's also an attack at the same time. If it does propel you and link into combos smoothly, then it would technically have to be a VERY FAST aerial so you would actually get time to do your follow-up from the foe's hitstun, but even then you could just catch the foe's landing or frame trap them or something. There is not much focus on B-air as an attack, which doesn't link into the whole combo thing but would be a good spacing tool. If you wanted to keep B-air the way it is, how about a suggestion? Make it so the attack knocks foes in the direction you're facing if you hit with it really close, so that you can use it to get combos!

I do think the attack thing a bigger deal on D-air however. This partially serves as a way to turn yourself around in midair, but is also a serviceable move that deals downwards knockback. If it did turn you around really quickly, then the attack portion would be quite overpowered. I am not convinced that Bakugo's air game works as you intended it to in this regard and the B-air, but the rest of his aerials are perfectly fine. I believe that B-air would have been better as Bakugo's Side Special, which would have given it much more utility (even replacing the D-air's turning around, as you can Side Special to either side!), perhaps popping yourself up on an angle if you used it from the ground. This would free up B-air as a more proper attack, with you giving Side Special as little of a hitbox as you like to justify it being super duper fast. Giving Bakugo a different B-air could make his air game even cooler as he has another tool to mix up his combo game - for instance, a big blast behind him that's a bit of a hard read and can catch out opponents as you pass them via Side Special movement. You coooould potentially move Stun Grenade to one of the Smashes, and have F-Smash be D-Smash or something, but it's up to you really.

Minor nitpick: I think you should increase the grenade's explosion timer to around 1.5 seconds when Bakugo drops it from damage. Having it at half a second pretty much gets you a free hit if the foe knocks you away. It's not a game-breaker since the blast isn't massively strong and does inhibit Bakugo from using his aerials, plus some foes might recover in time or drift out of the way in the air, but I am not a fan of automatically getting punished for hitting the foe.

Overall, I'd say that Bakugo has yet to realise his potential as a pro hero. He's a nice like though, enough that he's got a good chance at RV given I have a few high priorities at WV. I would say that his Specials not quite being meaty or satisfying enough keeps him from being top tier, something that seemed to be an issue with pre-patch PaniK when I took a glance. You seem pretty hyped for the next contest though - if you could make those Specials really Special, then you'd be well on your way to reclaiming the throne of Gamagori - possibly in a more fulfilling and competitive setting!


Andrea is the big Muno set of this contest, and I must say: I really like this set! The set's biggest appeal to me was its surprising and refreshing originality. There's the great presentation and writing style, but much of this came from the Specials and the mechanics.

Up Special was my favourite move in the set. This is probably not very well-known, but I really enjoy original Up Special recoveries that offers or utilise interesting in-smash applications and that are not strongly based on existing Smash recoveries, like being a mix between different recovery styles (projectile x tether here). In this move's case, it's the ability to do a delayed tether to cancel out of your moves. I do wonder whether this could have some mean applications with the B-air. It's the kind of move I don't see too often, something I attempted in Himiko last contest, though I can understand why that is the case in MYM - referencing existing moves is straight-up practical, after all.

Like her foot aquarium, Andrea's set was full of surprises. One of these was Eye of the Sea (cool name!), a future-sight reenacting Down Special somewhat comparable to Rool's MYM6 Espeon set (the most famous example and the first one that comes to mind, despite the fact that Kibble did it first back in MYM3), but executed in a more balanced way. It is certainly very odd for Andrea to have this as a canon power, and I do like how you introduced it in the attack rather than the intro, adding for a surprise factor.

EotS's balance is questionable, however: Froy pointed out to me how he was worried about its balance against offstage opponents. When you think about it, this does let you read the foe's recovery option for free and intercept them if you were close by, which is pretty insane if you think about it. This reminds me of Nox's time stop also potentially being super powerful against recovering opponents, but I do think Andrea's Eye of the Sea is more balanced when she has a set "charging" time, consumes more meter and the foe can still defend themselves. The balance might keep some readers from liking Andrea as much as they'd like to.

A suggestion for Eye of the Sea: how about making it so the boundary between onstage and offstage will block off Eye of the Sea? So that Andrea needs to be offstage if she wants to replay opponents and vice-versa, but only for the very end of the move - if Andrea was onstage and the foe was also onstage and in range for the first 50 frames, then suddenly decided to run offstage for the last 10 frames, they don't get affected. This could have an application in possibly making the foe run away to get out of Eye of the Sea's range, influencing what they do if they fail to get out in time? You might not like this suggestion as you could easily waste a lot of water for nothing. Perhaps Andrea could cancel out of Eye of the Sea's starting lag, at the cost of some water relative to when she canceled? (more water later on as she had already expended it) This could have some fun applications in baiting a foe in their attempt to stop you, or capitalizing on their attempts to get out of range.

I’m a sucker for items like the Side Special piranha. I wonder whether you could have gone a bit more in-depth about the knockback and possible combos (I have somewhat high expectations for item applications), but that would take a long time to explain. And Neutral Special is a pretty out-there and original way to refresh your meter, though I am not sure how well it flows to and from your base moveset. There is definitely some potential in just that idea for future sets, like playing as a debuffed set like as punishment for using an obscenely powerful move. The wackiness doesn’t stop there either, between the Smashes and U-air/D-air and very odd invincible U-throw (Doomfist reference FTW). There are tons of ideas here, all of which could make for a very fun set base if focused on.

Andrea might not be perfect or super focused, but I am still a very big fan of her set! Having other people do sets for the Witchverse is downright hype, and I would love to see others do it as Andrea is blatantly very unique compared to the usual witch variety, from her foot aquarium to actual reliance on martial arts. I would also love to see more sets from you if you weren’t too busy with Rivals of Aether or what not, as Doomfist was a very, VERY big influence on my MYM20 setmaking.

Also, Andrea strikes me as a bit cruel or heartless in her abuse of swordfish and her treating piranhas like disposable circus attractions - does she put on performances on the road to make money? I guess the people of Driton or the Witchverse don’t have much of a conscience when it comes to regular animals. You would think that their relationship with animals would be better when they have a master/familiar thing going.

Also, you have re-awakened my swordfish OC ideas that I threw out back in the MYM18 weapons mini challenge. I actually have the rules written down in one of my notebooks...

I'm not sure if you're still here, but I must say... Godzilla is a pretty interesting set! It's clear that you made him based on how you wanted to see him in Smash. As for whether he is balanced for Smash, well...

Godzilla is known for many things, but I don't think he is known for being a kaiju version of Sonic the Hedgehog. Seriously: a ground speed of 9.78 makes him more than twice as fast as Sonic! He just might break the record for the fastest runner of any character who has ever gotten a set in the history of MYM (that's like, nearly 2,000 sets). It is very, very rare for a fighter to ever run faster than Sonic, partly on the count that we haven't gotten a set for The Flash. I"m not sure if you intended for him to be that fast, but I think it would pose more problems than benefits in practical gameplay, like Godzilla accidentally running off the stage or even to his death on walk-off stages. Unless you're deliberately using this as a weakness, which reminds me of a very meme Bubbles set from MYM6 where she moves forwards uncontrollably unless you make a post to turn around, killing herself very easily.

His air speed is also absurdly high, making Jigglypuff look like Little Mac. Isn't Godzilla meant to not be that good in the air? This is kind of inconsistent.

As fun (and possibly boring) as it sounds to have a character who just cheese through everything with super armour, especially in the context of 1v1s like Classic Mode or World of Light (who needs Shaggy?), it would be incredibly unfun in a 1v1 match. Sure, you can grab Godzilla, but locking your opponent into grabs all the time is not good game design at all. Godzilla can also stick to the air to not get grabbed, making him practically invincible. I can understand wanting to stay true to Godzilla's abilities, but fighting games are all about balancing the characters so anyone can beat anyone, even Dan Hibiki beating Akuma or Jigglypuff beating Ganondorf or something ridiculous that would (probably) never happen in canon. Attempting to make a canonically broken fighter who is both super fast and durable stay true to these generally results in unfair balance; you have to sacrifice one trait in favour of emphasizing another in fighting games, like Ganondorf being all power but not having his magic projectiles, or Akuma being a glass cannon in some Street Fighter games. Besides, you do have that massive weight to emphasise Godzilla's immense durability, no? With his super armour, that won't even get to come into play at lower percents!

Neutral Special is very vague how long it takes to fill your meter. Or how far the beam goes (relative to charge, it is implied to have near infinite range at full charge), or how long it lasts for, or how much knockback it deals. I do think the concept of being able to move and jump while firing a long-winded beam or projectile is interesting however, so long as it’s balanced - like the beam being fired on a slight upwards slant so you don’t automatically deny opponents the ledge unless you go offstage yourself, having limited range and not being able to turn around for instance. Also, 80% is freaking nuts for a Smash Attack - any one would assume that it instantly kills the opponent! (given Roy’s Flare Blade deals 50% and is an instant kill)

Block seems ummmm, uhhh… very redundant. Aside from the fact that you have shield anyway, why would you want to block when you have super armour? That would be like if Dr. Mario’s Down Special was his Side Special, but it didn’t reflect projectiles.

There is some self-awareness on the smash mechanics in the regular moves, which is odd as his stats and mechanics don’t seem to have much regard for balance (plus about thinking that Sakurai needs to make people happy…). He could function like a regular character otherwise, but then things get really weird and memetic on the aerials. That is to say, his N-air deals 32% and his F-air deals 62% - that’s even MORE damage than his Smashes! In fact, it’s even stronger than his D-air which is slow. Not even Incineroar deals that much damage, unless Spirits were in play. I am not sure whether this was a typo; it’s pretty hard to get a read of whether you wanted Godzilla to be a serious set or just a fun overpowered set, not being too consistent at it.

The memes don’t end there, as Godzilla’s get-up attack deals a whopping 61%! Guess get-up attacks aren’t so useless after all. And then you have the grabs, with the pummel dealing 31%... per hit? But that’s nothing to the D-throw, which deals an astonishing NINETY ONE percent! That’s like, 10x as much damage as a regular throw. If one were to take this set at face value, then Godzilla’s neutral would just be spamming F-airs to kill the foe in like 3 hits, then fishing for grabs and using D-throw into tech chase into whichever quick move of Godzilla’s kills the earliest, which isn’t stated in the set though because there are no KO percents.

Oh wait, you wouldn’t need to fish for that grab, because F-air would instantly break the foe’s shield! (shields have 50HP in Ultimate and take 1.19x damage from attacks, so only Shield Shulk would survive a hit) I hope the foe has perfect parry timing, otherwise they are just going to die right away. Godzilla has no trouble approaching the foe either with having the best air speed in the game and making Sonic look like Incineroar, his super armor only serving to make him even more ludicrously overpowered.

I don’t know if you wanted to come back or how serious you were about this set, but it was definitely a delicious meme, something that Make Your Move loves.
 
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Slavic

Ask not the sparrow how the eagle soars
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AKA Bakugo has some changes, thanks to all for the input!

[2-21-20]​
- Changed Bakugo’s picture to be clearer and not a massive banner
- Halved full Nitro self-damage to 2.5%
- Mentioned rage being good for kills in stats
Reworked Up Special
- When used in the air allows Bakugo to catapult at high speed between 4-7 grids depending on his Nitro charge
- Initial explosion deals damage
- Bakugo can throw out an aerial to cancel the move partway with an aerial but enters helpless after traveling the last grid of distance with the move
- Fully angleable 360 degrees allowing for precise aerial chases
- Double-tapping the move has Bakugo blast himself with both hands up twice as far, making for an excellent recovery
- Loses ability to cancel move with aerials
- Used dry on the ground Bakugo will perform the basic attack with only 180 degree control but no helpless
- Explosion on the ground is larger and billows like a rocket’s exhaust, launching nearby opponents into the air
- Able to cancel the double-tapped version of the move when used from the ground, allowing great ground-to-air combos
Reworked Neutral Special
- Added a random element to the angle of the attack
- Removed extra shield damage to encourage shielding the move
- Mentioned extra uses like draining Nitro safely
- Removed references to aerial lag
- Added downward angle to aerial version to make for safe landings
- Charged AP Shot can still have charge stored but can’t continue charging
- Projectile version can be used by tapping while a charge is stored while holding the move has Bakugo fire it off at current charge
- This allows for serious shield pressure with proper prep
- Lowered the time the move lasts
- Clarified how much charge it takes to break a shield
- Removed charge determining range
Stun Grenade moved to FSmash, FSmash moved to DSmash, Blast Rush Turbo moved to SSpec
Reworked Blast Rush Turbo as a Special
- Extremely fast movement option that propels forward with tiny explosion
- Explosive hitbox is weak
- Allows Bakugo to weave around opponents allowing for easy cross-ups
- Allows Bakugo to change direction midair
- Short distance means it’s not an effective recovery move, still loses height on the move
- Fantastic lead into a BAir
- Double-tap the move has Bakugo end the move with a command grab, punishable on miss
- Lets Bakugo blast the foe in four directions or deal a single controlled hit, amazing for kills near blast zone or leading into combos with USpec
Upped timer on Bakugo dropping DSpec grenade
FSmash reworked to work as a Smash instead of a Special
- Counter hitbox comes out after charge but before attack
- Deals increased damage and knockback
- Can be thrown out raw for a quick counter but rarely sees the charged counter
DSmash damage buffed
BAir replaced
- Bakugo produces a small, powerful explosion behind himself
- One of Bakugo’s best killing moves
- Comes out fast but has bad ending lag, making this a combo-ender
- Excellent shield damage
Removed language in aerials about extended landing lag
 

UserShadow7989

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rat.jpg rat.jpg The submission period for MYM22 has passed, but MYM23 won't be too long away; feel free to jump in chat or work on sets in preparation, or even just to shoot the breeze!



Armie Buff: Katapultar Katapultar
An Ace Attorney set is always a pleasant surprise, and Armie has a lot of unique quirks going for her to make an interesting set with her drone and its many gadgets. I feel the drone's variation on each input was well-used as a gimmick, combining its ability to move separately from Armie with her other tricks such as her mines and chair to be a fun bit of constructive chaos fitting the series she's from. The sheer level of firepower the little thing brings to bear sounds like an absolute hoot to play with, too!

That said, I worry the set's numbers might be overtuned in some aspects. Armie's jab having Belmont-grade range and being as fast as it is seems a tad too much in the way of being hard to approach. Forward Smash sending her or her drone rocketing back as far as it does would likely send her hurtling over the ledge of the stage with any appreciable charge (Final Destination is a large stage, and larger stages tend to have pits or other drops breaking up their length; this could be fixed by letting her stop at a ledge, or giving her a little coyote time combined with lowering the remaining distance she goes if she gets recoil'd past one).

I also wonder if some of the extra effects might be a bit much, but the set does do its best to incorporate different tricks in multiple ways, so I can't pick any that would benefit the set to cut off hand. Overall I find Armie a solid enough set. Good job, Kat!
 

FrozenRoy

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Room Service With a Smile (Dragonmaid Hauskee U UserShadow7989 )

Continuing to chew through the Dragonmaid Movement, we come to Hauskee, who takes a rather different approach from the rest in her meter due to how her dragon form works. Rather than shifting back and forth, Hauskee pretty much shifts to her dragon form on counter only, but in return given she is the head maid she can summon the other Dragonmaids for assists! Assist characters can definitely grab my attention and while I am sure some might find it logically odd, I think it is fine for Hauskee to summon the other Dragonmaids, as it fits all of their flavor, and hey you can have multiple copies in the Deck right? So no worry about multiple Parlas! (Plus, I don't entirely buy that line of discussion to begin with...)

Hauskee's mechanic is fairly neutral-based with how her cleaning mechanic works, which combined with stuff like her smash attacks gives her a kind of interesting neutral playstyle that sets up stuff like her assist-breath attacks. Hauskee is pretty slow, so she really needs the assists to work out, which seems like fine enough balance, and she ends up with enough "quick" moves to feel viable if perhaps a bit low on that end, but given her potential power that is fine too, probably. You do a good job giving her some solid neutral tools, Forward Tilt for example sticks out as rather nice, I liked how there's a better use with the sourspot in a way, Jab felt very natural for her more spacing and small hit focused game. At first I wasn't sold on her little "ending lag movement" for just the jab, but I think it ended up fine in the end, and it kind of ends up fitting with her graceful maidness. Down Tilt was neat, I wonder if it can 2-frame while it is "stuck in the ground" near the ledge given thinner ground?, Neutral Aerial is very important to the set actually functioning and Forward Aerial is good for a more aggressive approach from Hauskee. I feel like this move could be buffed, though: Maybe if she hits a shield or whatnot, she can instead bounce off of it for a more frame neutral situation, with her above the opponent and thus able to go for some tricks? Should avoid any wall infinites if she isn't plus on shield.

The smashes I felt were a highlight, Forward Smash feels nicely characterized and I like it as the big, strong finisher you would get off of your assists or as a predictive tool. On that note, I liked how all of the Assists have their own niche that feels character fitting, giving them some characterization despite little usage in the set they get to actually show it off, and Hauskee in general has some very slick characterization despite not doing all that much "maid-y" nor going full "dragon". Somewhat stern, a touch playful when she feels like it, and much more powerful than the other maids even in her base form! Anyway, Forward Smash is pretty nice in being a flashy kill move that also offers direct setup for Hauskee's "cleaning" mechanic, I also liked Up Smash's usage with the "cleaning" mechanic and I thought Down Smash was a swanky way to do a specific-sweetspot-kill kind of move that also has meter utility in "cleaning" large space, and on top of that it can add to stuff like ledge trapping.

There's some rather noticeable issues abound, though: Down Special's "super armor on any attack" isn't inherently busted but I do somewhat worry about it given some of her powerful options, but at the cost of meter per use I would say it is proooooobably fine. At the time of me writing this comment/reading it also didn't really give any idea of how much ending lag was added, which is really critical to assessing the balance of this move. I would also say that the Down Special counter really doesn't seem as versatile as you would say, mostly I don't see why you would use most of these options instead of your powerful Forward Smash that deals 39% damage and killing knockback if you are on the ground. On that note, this is a set I REALLY wish went a bit more into knockback killing numbers a bit more like KO percents, particularly with Forward Smash vs Up Tilt as a killing option, and Forward Smash in general. It says it deals "solid" knockback, same wording as Up Smash, yet it also seems to be a much more potent killing move? It makes it unclear how much of Forward Smash is a pure damage move and how much it is a damage + killing move. It is particularly important to these two moves because Up Tilt suggests using it for killing rather than Forward Smash, but given how much damage Forward Smash deals and the suggested knockback this feels somewhat bizarre.

Oh, also, Down Smash's Cleaning direction feels potentially really strong. Won't Fluss or Flamme just keep them in place the entire direction for massive damage since it is inward and all around? Breath is already pretty powerful if you get it off (large damage, range, and as an assist), but Down Smash seems super good. Also, given how laggy Forward Smash is said to be I feel like Jab -> Forward Smash is just plain reactable and so not a good mixup. I also question if Side Special could truly 50/50 with Down Aerial given the Warlock Punch level lag.

The other major issue I have with the set, and one I could see myself docking the set more for, is the grab game seems pretty broken to me. Can't you just grab a foe, call in an Assist at any percent high enough that you can then throw them (like mid and higher probably) and just Down Throw for massive damage? The breath will hit them in prone, after all, and even if not it would be hard with any prone options to escape. Or you can just F-Throw into Flamme or away + Luft (who will then pull them in) for damage AND a follow-up on top of that. It seems like Hauskee gets incredible damage just for landing a grab at all, and she doesn't even need to set up the assist beforehand since she can call it during the grab. I would definitely take a serious look at the bAlance here. I almost wonder if maybe Hauskee, rather than her normal Assists, should be able to call on the Dragonmaids for throw-specific assists or something? I don't know if this is a good idea or an awful idea, but it might allow you to show off each of the Dragonmaids more, while avoiding the extremely powerful breath plays. There's even four throws, once for each Dragonmaid, if you wanted to go that route. But it could come off as intrusive, so who knows. The grab game as it is right now feels busted, anyway.

All of this is also with the thought that Hauskee could have some UP concerns given they are a pretty laggy set, although she prooobably has enough fast moves and tricks that works out okay? But I do wonder if she could use one more fast move somewhere. Maybe just lower Jab's starting lag by a tiny bit?

Basically, Hauskee is a set with a pretty fun playstyle, solid moves, and quite the many balance concerns. I could definitely see it move up some more fixing these balance issues, but they put a pretty hard cap on the set until they are fixed, and are a pretty big worry for me. Good work nonetheless as I enjoyed reading it quite a bit and the neutral felt like a building step for you.
 

UserShadow7989

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Joined
Aug 13, 2007
Messages
305
Pidgey: WeirdChillFever WeirdChillFever
Hey there! Been a while since Pidgey here went up, but I have to say he shows how much you've been improving very nicely. Pidgey is a shining example of how to make a simple, short, and very very sweet. Sand Attack, Tailwind, and to a lesser extent Feather Dance form a solid core that plays into the rest of the set, with Sand Attack granting Pidgey some needed reach on his attacks and a stage hazard to dance around with his high mobility and the burst movement attached to many of his moves, the latter of which is given added variation by the effects of Tailwind pushing Pidgey around.

Feather Dance doesn't come up as much in the set in the same way, but is highly functional as a projectile move and plays into Forward Smash alongside Sand Attack for a big potential payoff. The set builds off of this core effectively, making for a set that does a lot more than one could expect from the character choice. I do just love how mobile the little guy is with the constant swooping around in each move, which combines with Pidgey's small size to be a hard to hit target.

I think Feather Dance could've been utilized a little better, like Pidgey's wind hitboxes aside from Gust pulling them along in his wake as he darts forward mid-attack if he passes through them. Twister is also a bit of a no-show as a mention later on, though its mentioned as being useful as a set-up move; I could also see Pidgey using his movement to swoop through it and hit opponents, then fly back into place behind it for safety. Might be worth mentioning that as a means to tie it into the set further. Perhaps an interaction with the feathers where it spits them straight up into the air on contact or pulls them towards itself once they begin their descent? It feels like it could be played up a little.

To offer some nitpicks: I'm a bit concerned Jab might be too strong at low percents since it is explicitly fast enough to be safe into itself and does low enough knockback that medium-weight characters won't be popped free at 50%, even recommending that Pidgey players just march opponents across the stage with it. I assume move staling nips it in the bud if players get too spammy with it, but it might be worth mentioning something that prevents it from going all the way across a stage guaranteed.

Pidgey's Back Throw mentions he will plummet into the stage to slam foes against it, bouncing them off of it, but also mentions he moves back from where he starts and can have his positioning affected by Tailwind. Is there a maximum distance he can fall? If not, then he could technically Pidgey-cide with this move VERY easily just by grabbing with his back to the ledge. You could put in extra damage if Pidgey falls from extra high at the cost of whiffing or releasing the foe if he drops X distance below where he started to spice it up in the process, but even just a maximum plummet distance would be a good idea.

Forward Tilt does a surprising amount of damage, but that's not really an issue. The throws are a bit basic, but they work just fine. Overall, I came out of Pidgey refreshed and ready to read more, and with an increased appreciation for the original 'early bird' Pokemon. Thanks for the great set, WeirdChillFever!
 

Katapultar

Smash Lord
Joined
Nov 24, 2008
Messages
1,251
Location
Australia
Coming into this set only after it was finished, I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of thought put into Aki’s character and backstory, on par with one of US’s Witchverse OCs. Perhaps you could make a set for that universe, though doing a set for a generic old human might be too “normal” for you! It could work if they were a fox or half-fox witch however, would be fun to have some “sub-humans” in the Witchverse. Seriously dude, between SCRATCH, Fenn and Aki, I can see that you really love your foxes, even more so than MYM6 loved Spadefox.

Between the servant character and two-man set, I can definitely believe that Aki was inspired by our Dragonmaid movement! Aki has a pretty amazing spin on the transformation mechanic, possibly one of the coolest mechanics in MYM22! You throw up a screen to transition between forms, opening unique opportunities when attacking between transitions. There’s plenty of strategy involved with the screen placement too, like it not necessarily being a good idea to just cover the entire ground with screens as human form has most of the kill moves, ironically enough. Like the human moves that gain a buff if they carry a foe into a screen, which is truly very awesome. The human attack names have a very cool naming theme, and the Fox Forward Smash's turning effect is pretty genius. There's plenty of self-awareness of the screen placement and relation with the move inputs, like U-Smash.

I do feel that Aki's general damage output is a bit too high, even if we were under the assumption that 1v1 damage multipliers were in play. Aki is a combo character, after all, and you do get 35% on a laggy and committal move in Pounce verses some of your throws and aerials which deal around 15-17% on hit. It's a pretty easy fix though, and I'm sure FA has already pointed it out in the chat as I write and finalise this comment.

I wonder if you could apply a teleport distance to Up Special? That could be useful in the context of teleporting into your screens. Even if the teleport distance wasn’t amazing, teleport recoveries in Smash typically give the fighter a burst of momentum when they enter helpless that aids their recovery. Food for thought. Speaking of distances, super nitpick but how far does Human F-throw move you? Likewise, how far can you move horizontally with Human U-throw? That throw has pretty nice synergy with being able to direct yourself into a screen, by the way.

Shield Special’s animation seems a bit extreme for something that has no hitbox, and characterisation wise like he has a hard time getting rid of shoji screens or something… I wonder if he has a history with them? Being such a laggy move is very interesting in the context of having to commit to your screen set-up, but I do wonder if the lag could be a bit more generous? Setting up the screens isn’t a super duper fast process, after all, especially if you’re making multiple screens and splitting them up across the stage.

Aki is a really good set, definitely your best! It's pretty amazing that you got out something so beloved in a contest that's already packed to the brim with competitive sets. If I had to name some vague areas for improvement, I would probably say that the two D-Smashes could probably do more, as Aki is already packed with comboing moves. You could even apply high base knockback on both versions, as I think there are times where Aki would appreciate some room for his screen set-ups or to throw out his fireballs/set up a skull. I also wonder whether his throws could offer up a bit more variety beyond most of them being combo-based, or perhaps going into more details about their specific combo applications, perhaps even a potential kill confirm. Outlining some combo situations Froy style could add some clarification if you were up to it. Finally, I think the Fox Down Special is cool for the buff aspect but is kind of underutilized and under-elaborated upon in the set, both in ways to land it with your regulars (even some 50/50 mix-ups, which could enhance the overall melee of the set?) and how it could make some of your human kill moves deadlier.

Nonetheless, excellent job Lex! You've really stepped up your game with Aki.
 

UserShadow7989

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Aug 13, 2007
Messages
305
Kritter: BKupa666 BKupa666
Well this set's a pleasant surprise! It's impressive how much you got out of a generic minion, even accounting for kontributions from the rest of its klose kousins in the kremling krew. This takes me back to some of the more creative interaction-heavy sets of yesteryear, with some terraforming and a few hard interactions like the barrel with your mecha-kritters and bananas, but with far more discerning eyes for balance, how the set can play off each piece, and how the pieces interact with each other. Rather than putting a new bizarre tool on every input like those sets, it knows where to stop and just use what it has.

While the set doesn't snag anything from a specific set that I can think of (though the minecart's interaction with sloped terrain is something I've seen even in recent Warlord sets and is a fun aspect of terraforming), this does remind me a bit of recent conversation regarding the merit of looking into old sets for concepts you can dust off and breathe life into with the more grounded and mechanically-knowledgable mindset we have nowadays, and I feel this is the kind of set you can get out of that.

I do have a question about some ambiguous or missing details; specifically, is there an upper limit on mecha-kritters or carts? I don't recall seeing one for either like there is for the bananas, but it's possible I just missed it.

I'm admittedly having a hard time picking out a complaint or criticism that might be useful. I do feel the peg leg buff to specific moves might be a little unnecessary compared to just implementing some of the added functions without the buff, with balance adjusted accordingly, but I feel like it works fine as-is and revamping would just lessen Up Special's neat role.

Overall, I have to say Kritter was some of the most fun I've had reading a set in some time! Something about the set's writing style made it very easy to read through even with the usual interruptions and hustle in my life, or maybe it was just how fun the set is and the colorful bits of character in the animations.
 

Kholdstare

Nightmare Weaver
Joined
Oct 10, 2008
Messages
1,439
11 years ago I posted my first moveset. It somehow seems like both a lifetime and like it was yesterday. One video game community being a big part of my life and the friends I made along the way is quite a big deal, so I'd like to get a little sentimental and thank all the people that have laughed with me and put up with my antics. Anyway, here is a moveset I've been working (and re-working) for quite a while that some of you have been looking forward to. It was really fun to write and I learned a lot along the way, and I have complete confidence that it's my best work yet. Enjoy.

Major spoilers for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 4, Diamond is Unbreakable ahead. Like, super major. Go read and watch it if you haven't yet, then come back.

Kira Update: The moveset has an alternative version with the narrative sections removed and the moves rearranged in my traditional move order (use the table of contents on the lefthand side to navigate easily!) Note that I didn't change any of the text of the moves, so references to moves that haven't shown up yet may occur. Enjoy!
 

ZLBProductions

Smash Rookie
Joined
Oct 13, 2019
Messages
8
Switch FC
SW 4436-6404-5319
Hmng... Springtrap edits are here yet again

Added some more meat to move descriptions, changed some stuff around (still not calling it Springtrap 3.0 though), and, according to some suggestions and my own ideas, did a lot of new stuff. Gets a bit weird, and probably still not great, but I'm happy with this. (Can't wait for that feeling to once again be spoiled, hahaha.)

 

UserShadow7989

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Aug 13, 2007
Messages
305
Probopass: Mickal-El Mickal-El
Welcome to MYM! Sorry for the late greeting, things got a bit hectic this contest. Probopass is a very strong first entry that any newcomer could be proud to have; it has a nice core gimmick in magentizing foes to pull them in and provide additional effects on its attacks, and its Specials and Smashes each have a nice niche or trick to how they work, fitting in with Probopass' general playstyle without much redundancy or wasted space. The set is cleanly organized and presented, and usage of each move is outlined.

That said, I do feel several inputs could use a little more, both in terms of buffing them and in terms of having more to toy with. Forward Tilt and the grab game are very simple and feel a little bit filler-ish even if they get the job done. Up Tilt could stand to do a bit of damage on hit even if the foe isn't Magnetized, even if the effect is really nice.

Forward Aerial's landing lag makes it borderline unusable, especially with Probopass' low jumps and its fall speed; dropping the damage to "still very strong, but not super huge for an aerial" and making the landing lag unpleasant but not a free fully charged smash would help. I like what you were going for with it, mind; it just could stand to be dialed down a bit on both sides. Harden is similarly a bit rough; I'd at least give it Ultimate's standard mercy for Stall-then-Fall inputs with Probopass exiting the move after fall 6 Training Stage Units or so (in which case a miss off-stage still probably means doom, but there's any chance at all of recovery in select situations, and over the stage it has some mercy).

On the flipside, some inputs are overtuned, or have an effect that feels slightly tacked on. Down Tilt immediately jumped out at me as a possible infinite; if you land the paralyzer effect, the foe is only just slightly nudged back, and with Probobass' passive pull on Magnetized foes, they'll be back in reach long before the stun wears off- 1.5 seconds is an eternity in close quarters, longer than a Warlock Punch for reference's sake. The easy solution is to give it stronger, high-angle knockback so opponents will be able to act again before landing if unobstructed and pushed back if there's a solid roof preventing escape, preventing infinites, while the least subtle but most effective approach is just to say a foe can't be stunned by it again within a short window of time, and it is not applied when the foe is already stunned.

Back Aerial/Tri-Beam probably could've done without the added effects given the low activation chance (fun reference to the move's in-game qualities they may be), or had a less potent quality reliably applied (like the three Mini-Noses spin around as they come out, so the effect you get depends on the frame you hit, and could be something as simple as differing knockback arcs (electricity up with more stun, ice down as a semi-spike, fire straight out but with stronger knockback damage? Just an example).

I really look forward to seeing more from you, and I hope the mostly dead air hasn't discouraged you from continuing; you show a clear grasp of what to look for in a set and obviously put plenty of love and care into making Probopass, all that's needed is some practice and time. Thanks for submitting this set!
 
Last edited:

ThiagoCavalcanteCarvalho

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Apr 30, 2018
Messages
79
Revamp Mario

Extra movement: Jumping over an enemy would do you little damage. It would be the benchmark for defeating enemies by jumping on them in games in the series. Other characters who do the same in their games could have the same attack. Something like stomp attack, or head stomp attack / jump. The ideal would be not to have much launching capacity to be able to use with combo. But nothing prevents you from having a good spike.

Neutral Special: Increase the speed of Mario's fireball. Both the speed of the horizontal trajectory and the decrease in the delay to launch more than one. Getting closer to what it was like to use fireball in Mario's 2D games, like the first Super Mario Bros. The damage caused should be readjusted. Gears would bounce on the engineer Mario version. And in the case of Mario in wedding clothes, it could be bouquets of flowers, perhaps.

Side Special: Mario simply spins with his cover just like it was in Super Mario World. A visual variation would be the Tanooki Mario. This way the cape strikes opponents on both sides of Mario. In addition to causing damage, and more damage than is currently being done, the cape is also able to turn the enemy around and repel projectiles. All of this on both sides of Mario. If you use this movement in the air you can turn it into a spin with a spin that causes damage to enemies, perhaps with a Meteor Effetc on a spike, and with the visual effect of the yellow blocks of Super Mario World being broken. Using this new side special in the air as a smash attack would result in Mario's version of gliding. Or simply add the ability to glide to Mario using his cape for that.

Down Special: It would be the same. But now, using it with a smash attack would allow you to jump and levitate for a while in the air. Making the survivor of Mario even easier.

Although Mario was made to be a balanced character. He is also Jump Man and should and could bring that concept with him.

Possibilities:
Up Spacial with Smash attack could result in Mario Galaxy's star cannon.
Side Special with smash attack could result in the hat launch for an extra jump.

Final Smash: The engineer Mario could drop a set of Mario Maker phase elements in place of the fireballs. Mario in wedding clothes could throw bouquets of flowers, white pigeons, rice, whatever.

Dr. Mario

Final Smash: The enemies would be inside the bottle of the original game. You must now play Dr. Mario to defeat them.

Neutral Special. The pills would fly straight at you without bouncing. At most with a typical zig-zag effect from the Dr. Mario game itself with the pills falling in the right place. When it hits the enemy the pills stick to it. Achieving a correct sequence would have an effect. How to deal more damage, launch the enemy, or heal you. Preferably one of these effects and not a random option that would hinder the strategy. We can also see the representation of the pills colliding at the enemy's percentage points as well as the next pills used in Dr. Mario's HUD and also, who knows, above his head.
Up Special would have used pills in place of coins. They could also accumulate in the enemy's HUD and in the enemy's body.
 

ThiagoCavalcanteCarvalho

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Apr 30, 2018
Messages
79
Revamp Donkey Kong

Only 3 changes:
Up Special: Use as a smash attack to fire Donkey Kong from a barrel. Determine a little of the angle.
Side Special: The current side special becomes a smash side special. And the tilt side special becomes the act of throwing barrels. Some on fire. References to the games in the series, of course.
Add a jump stomp attack, just like my Mario revamp. Jump on an enemy's head to do him some damage. Use this in combos. Maybe include a spike for meteor effect.

Revamp Yoshi

Maybe use consecultive jumps instead of that big extra jump up.
Jump stomp attack too, just like Mario and Donkey Kong.
Lick Jump: Press Z, or the grab button, to grab the edge of the stage with your tongue, pull yourself up and swirl in the air, just like in the exclamation balls in Yoshi's Story.
When his life is full or the percentage is zero, Yoshi throws explosive eggs capable of causing tremors.
Throw an egg through an Up Smash Special to be able to aim and throw the egg farther and harder.
Somehow facilitate the act of throwing the egg, in which an enemy is trapped, out of the stage.
Increased tongue distance for grabbing and for eating and laying eggs.

Revamp Pikachu
Neutral Special: Increase the speed and distance of the electric projectile.
Pikachu's electrical attacks have a chance to cause electrical paralysis to enemies. This can be like the Zero Suit Samus ray gun, or something like decreasing the jump height and vertical running speed of the affected enemy for a short period of time. Attacking Pikachu directly or with swords and metal weapons can have the same effect.

Jigglypuff Revamp
Several possibilities. I think there should be normal and fairy type attacks for the character.
The Neutral Special should be Sing, for sure. Even for Kirby to copy the most characteristic thing about jigglypuff. Rolout, the current Neutral Special, would be removed.
The Down Special could be kept as Rest, exactly as it is already. Other possibilities would be:
A real Rest, where you recover your life little by little until zero or until the Jigglypuff wakes up or is woken up.
Perhaps a Metronome with varied actions.
Or even an Explosion, a very powerful normal attack that would do you pretty damage, but it would also do enemies. It would have a great launching effect.
Final Smash: A variation for the final smash would be the Jigglypuff singing, then seeing that everyone slept, immediately afterwards it would inflate, almost as in the current final smash, only to then empty quickly like a party balloon. You would control the direction of the flight as it vanished, and launch enemies hit this way.
Another option is that her Up Special is more or less this: A party balloon deflating quickly and flying erratically.
In this case, the final smash could be Fairy Z Move. Or some strong fairy-like movement, such as the powerful Moon Blast. This could even make some reference to the Moon of Majora's Mask.
Side Special, even though the slap could allow multiple slaps, trapping the enemy in a small combo hit.
Fairy-like movements or at least typical or similar to the type, such as Love Kiss, and Attract (Normal) could also be used. An opponent attracted to Jigglypuff has hearts on his head and cannot attack it for a short time. The only allowed movement could be the grab, but it would not be possible to attack or throw Jigglypuff after grabbing it.

Revamp Captain Falcon
You probably won't see many revamps as controversial as this one.
Neutral Special: Remove the Falcon Punch! A pause ... the reason is that Falcon Punch could become Captain Falcon's Final Smash. This is a somewhat difficult move to use in the competitive.
The 4 Specials would actually be replaced by the use of the Captain's ship.
Neutral: It comes towards the screen just like in the current Final Smash. It takes a while to be able to hit the enemy again.
Side: You fly in the car laterally get out of it before it reaches the stage or the vehicle explodes and only recovers after losing a stock, or dying and being reborn.
Up: You fly upwards and get carried away by the car. Even after the Up Special you could use the Side Special and then jump out of the long car next.
Down: In the air the car falls down. Get out of it before it hits the ground. On the ground, the vehicle can make a looping motion, like on a roller coaster.
The Final Smash could have an effect of a fire eagle coming horizontally and catching enemies on the way and in a good radius before the punch is finished. For an understandable and good collision box and also remove the delay from the standard stroke.

Now breathe again.
 

Perkilator

Smash Legend
Joined
Apr 8, 2018
Messages
10,441
Location
The perpetual trash fire known as Planet Earth(tm)
Revamp Mario

Extra movement: Jumping over an enemy would do you little damage. It would be the benchmark for defeating enemies by jumping on them in games in the series. Other characters who do the same in their games could have the same attack. Something like stomp attack, or head stomp attack / jump. The ideal would be not to have much launching capacity to be able to use with combo. But nothing prevents you from having a good spike.

Neutral Special: Increase the speed of Mario's fireball. Both the speed of the horizontal trajectory and the decrease in the delay to launch more than one. Getting closer to what it was like to use fireball in Mario's 2D games, like the first Super Mario Bros. The damage caused should be readjusted. Gears would bounce on the engineer Mario version. And in the case of Mario in wedding clothes, it could be bouquets of flowers, perhaps.

Side Special: Mario simply spins with his cover just like it was in Super Mario World. A visual variation would be the Tanooki Mario. This way the cape strikes opponents on both sides of Mario. In addition to causing damage, and more damage than is currently being done, the cape is also able to turn the enemy around and repel projectiles. All of this on both sides of Mario. If you use this movement in the air you can turn it into a spin with a spin that causes damage to enemies, perhaps with a Meteor Effetc on a spike, and with the visual effect of the yellow blocks of Super Mario World being broken. Using this new side special in the air as a smash attack would result in Mario's version of gliding. Or simply add the ability to glide to Mario using his cape for that.

Down Special: It would be the same. But now, using it with a smash attack would allow you to jump and levitate for a while in the air. Making the survivor of Mario even easier.

Although Mario was made to be a balanced character. He is also Jump Man and should and could bring that concept with him.

Possibilities:
Up Spacial with Smash attack could result in Mario Galaxy's star cannon.
Side Special with smash attack could result in the hat launch for an extra jump.

Final Smash: The engineer Mario could drop a set of Mario Maker phase elements in place of the fireballs. Mario in wedding clothes could throw bouquets of flowers, white pigeons, rice, whatever.

Dr. Mario

Final Smash: The enemies would be inside the bottle of the original game. You must now play Dr. Mario to defeat them.

Neutral Special. The pills would fly straight at you without bouncing. At most with a typical zig-zag effect from the Dr. Mario game itself with the pills falling in the right place. When it hits the enemy the pills stick to it. Achieving a correct sequence would have an effect. How to deal more damage, launch the enemy, or heal you. Preferably one of these effects and not a random option that would hinder the strategy. We can also see the representation of the pills colliding at the enemy's percentage points as well as the next pills used in Dr. Mario's HUD and also, who knows, above his head.
Up Special would have used pills in place of coins. They could also accumulate in the enemy's HUD and in the enemy's body.
Revamp Donkey Kong

Only 3 changes:
Up Special: Use as a smash attack to fire Donkey Kong from a barrel. Determine a little of the angle.
Side Special: The current side special becomes a smash side special. And the tilt side special becomes the act of throwing barrels. Some on fire. References to the games in the series, of course.
Add a jump stomp attack, just like my Mario revamp. Jump on an enemy's head to do him some damage. Use this in combos. Maybe include a spike for meteor effect.

Revamp Yoshi

Maybe use consecultive jumps instead of that big extra jump up.
Jump stomp attack too, just like Mario and Donkey Kong.
Lick Jump: Press Z, or the grab button, to grab the edge of the stage with your tongue, pull yourself up and swirl in the air, just like in the exclamation balls in Yoshi's Story.
When his life is full or the percentage is zero, Yoshi throws explosive eggs capable of causing tremors.
Throw an egg through an Up Smash Special to be able to aim and throw the egg farther and harder.
Somehow facilitate the act of throwing the egg, in which an enemy is trapped, out of the stage.
Increased tongue distance for grabbing and for eating and laying eggs.

Revamp Pikachu
Neutral Special: Increase the speed and distance of the electric projectile.
Pikachu's electrical attacks have a chance to cause electrical paralysis to enemies. This can be like the Zero Suit Samus ray gun, or something like decreasing the jump height and vertical running speed of the affected enemy for a short period of time. Attacking Pikachu directly or with swords and metal weapons can have the same effect.

Jigglypuff Revamp
Several possibilities. I think there should be normal and fairy type attacks for the character.
The Neutral Special should be Sing, for sure. Even for Kirby to copy the most characteristic thing about jigglypuff. Rolout, the current Neutral Special, would be removed.
The Down Special could be kept as Rest, exactly as it is already. Other possibilities would be:
A real Rest, where you recover your life little by little until zero or until the Jigglypuff wakes up or is woken up.
Perhaps a Metronome with varied actions.
Or even an Explosion, a very powerful normal attack that would do you pretty damage, but it would also do enemies. It would have a great launching effect.
Final Smash: A variation for the final smash would be the Jigglypuff singing, then seeing that everyone slept, immediately afterwards it would inflate, almost as in the current final smash, only to then empty quickly like a party balloon. You would control the direction of the flight as it vanished, and launch enemies hit this way.
Another option is that her Up Special is more or less this: A party balloon deflating quickly and flying erratically.
In this case, the final smash could be Fairy Z Move. Or some strong fairy-like movement, such as the powerful Moon Blast. This could even make some reference to the Moon of Majora's Mask.
Side Special, even though the slap could allow multiple slaps, trapping the enemy in a small combo hit.
Fairy-like movements or at least typical or similar to the type, such as Love Kiss, and Attract (Normal) could also be used. An opponent attracted to Jigglypuff has hearts on his head and cannot attack it for a short time. The only allowed movement could be the grab, but it would not be possible to attack or throw Jigglypuff after grabbing it.

Revamp Captain Falcon
You probably won't see many revamps as controversial as this one.
Neutral Special: Remove the Falcon Punch! A pause ... the reason is that Falcon Punch could become Captain Falcon's Final Smash. This is a somewhat difficult move to use in the competitive.
The 4 Specials would actually be replaced by the use of the Captain's ship.
Neutral: It comes towards the screen just like in the current Final Smash. It takes a while to be able to hit the enemy again.
Side: You fly in the car laterally get out of it before it reaches the stage or the vehicle explodes and only recovers after losing a stock, or dying and being reborn.
Up: You fly upwards and get carried away by the car. Even after the Up Special you could use the Side Special and then jump out of the long car next.
Down: In the air the car falls down. Get out of it before it hits the ground. On the ground, the vehicle can make a looping motion, like on a roller coaster.
The Final Smash could have an effect of a fire eagle coming horizontally and catching enemies on the way and in a good radius before the punch is finished. For an understandable and good collision box and also remove the delay from the standard stroke.

Now breathe again.
I’m sorry, but submission period is over. You can’t submit anything for now.
 

FrozenRoy

Smash Lord
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Messages
1,260
Location
Las Vegas, Nevada
Switch FC
SW-1325-2408-7513
Make Your Move's editing period has been extended to March 24th, with voting period ending on March 31st.

Most people doing good with 20~ sets left, but some people have had a bit of issue with real life (or finishing up editing), so we made this extension to give people some help. This will likely be the final extension, so make sure not to get left in the dust!
 

Professor Lexicovermis

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Oct 27, 2015
Messages
273
Location
Pop Star
Y'all Already Knew This Was Gonna Be The Ranking Image
9/10
Rudy the Clown was a set that I was personally very excited to read from you, Smady! The character choice is one that is, of course, immediately enticing to me, considering Rudy comes from one of my two favorite Wario games. I was very interested to see how you adapted such a bombastic and memorable character who suffered from having little obvious set material, and I was stunned to see that Rudy is a masterclass example of wringing every single bit of flavor and potential out of a character! Your love for the character oozes out of every move and mechanic here, making it clear you sunk a lot of thought into Rudy. And, I'm pleased to say, it paid off big time. Rudy's set manages to combine a handful of seemingly disparate, eclectic concepts together into a chaotic, but surprisingly cohesive whole, one that even befits what little characterization the big clown gets in the source material!

The biggest talking points are, naturally, the Specials, which do a wonderful job of adapting and distilling Rudy's WL3 appearance. The hands are a very well done mechanic with a shocking amount of nuance; I stated this in the chat, but it almost smacks of a Blazblue kit in the way that the hands have so many properties and effects, but don't hamper the rest of the kit in any way. I especially appreciate the left/right hand mindgame potential, that's a really fun idea. Moving onto the "minions", I ADORE the flavor here, with Rudy abusing parties who actually OPPOSE him rather than taking advantage of allies. That flavor leads to one of the more creative minion specials I've seen lately, and one that plays nicely with Rudy's hands. U-Special is an interesting twist on the classic teleport recovery; I'm intrigued by the notion of essentially tacking a time bomb onto part of your OWN hurtbox. That's a concept that could potentially carry a full set if it were expanded into a central gimmick... but I digress. The Music Box mechanics are a really cool idea, especially with the customizable payoff for filling a meter! I feel like they add a lot of tactical avenues for Rudy to head down, which are always fun to have!

Moving beyond the specials, I'm fond of your interpretation of how Rudy might fight hand-to-hand; there's a very nice mix of brutish fisticuffs, clownery, and Wario parodies, which all culminate in a kit that definitely feels like a monstrous clown toying with his enemies. I really like the idea of him intentionally aping Wario moves to mock his old rival, that's really fun flavor.

All in all, Rudy is a really solid set for a character that I have a lot of enthusiasm for, and I'm definitely pleased to see how much care you poured into it; good work, Smady!


ZeraMUDA
8/10
For starters, I just want to commend you, Bubby; your clear enthusiasm for Zeraora was very contagious, and your set gave me a newfound appreciation for a design I previously didn't really care for. Good job!

As for the actual set, Zeraora is once again a perfect example of your very clean, concise writing style, elegantly explaining each move's properties and uses without superfluous fluff to detract from the clarity. The Static gimmick is, as you say, very reminiscent of Plasma/Spark Kirby, and I'm glad to see that you take what's already a pretty fun mechanic in the Kirby games and recontextualize it to MYM in a simple, yet engaging way.

Zeraora's specials are very in-Smash, with the 4 of them all being elegantly handled in such a manner that I can very clearly envision them in Ultimate. I rather enjoy the notion of essentially electing to use your recovery's effectiveness as a resource; it's an interesting twist that adds a lot of strategic depth to an otherwise simple meter mechanic.

Moving into the standards and aerials, you show a good knowledge of when and where each move will be useful, and offer up good rewards for spending Static on them. With a mechanic like this, it's vital to make sure that spending such a resource gives you a reasonably powerful reward without it being SO powerful that it completely and utterly renders the vanilla move useless by comparison. Given that, for example, you're careful to point out that Static!U-Tilt doesn't have the same combo routes as vanilla!U-Tilt, that Static!Jab is a huge drain of resources that is impractical before late-game, and that Static!D-Tilt is ONLY useful as combo glue, I believe you have a very good awareness of this! This is an area that's very easy to slip up in, so I'm proud to see that you avoided the pitfall handily. Beyond that, each normal just has a clear purpose and is explained very well. The only move I found somewhat difficult to follow is DTilt; the physical animation is a little lost on me, but I believe I get the gist of it.

Finally, moving into the Smashes, I really like the charge mechanism you have, it kinda reminds me of Kirby Air Ride's boost mechanic, in a way. Using Static in this manner is a very intuitive idea, and I'm glad you gave Zeraora the ability to cancel these Smashes juuuust in case.

All told, Zeraora is another solid Bubby set, showing your improving skills off well. Keep it up, you've got a bright future ahead!


I Made This Ranking Image At Like 11 PM While Listening To Redesign Your Logo
9/10
While I'm admittedly unfamiliar with the source material, I must admit that the Chamberlain has definitely piqued my interest in the Dark Crystal series; I'll have to look into that some time... but, I digress.

Off the bat, Chamberlain comes with an interesting quirk in the form of his vitality meter and Essence Vial, giving him an interesting gameplay loop that I don't believe I've seen before. (It took me a little while to fully grasp the Essence Vial's cap, but that's not really the fault of your writing so much as my own misunderstanding, heh.) Anyway, the Essence mechanic adds a lot of strategy to Chamberlain's play, definitely befitting a whimpering schemer like him; I admire the organic way it nudges the player into making a fairly significant tactical choice, between either maintaining a potent buff now or accepting a little weakness in the present for the promise of power later. I especially appreciate the wrinkle that it's sometimes beneficial to intentionally let yourself wither a bit for the sake of making your moves combo better; that adds even more strategic considerations to an already enjoyably tactical mechanic.

I could talk all day about how fun Essence is, but let's move along to the other specials, hmmmm? The Dark Crystal's beam is a really interesting piece of setup, being an infinitely tall, intangible object. You don't really tend to see infinitely tall objects in MYM much, but I think it's justified here, considering how it works. Making it affect the Chamberlain himself is a pretty brilliant twist, adding in a very palpable incentive not to place the beam down recklessly... unless, of course, you're intending to INTENTIONALLY drain yourself for the sake of combos. Something that occurs to me that isn't mentioned in the text: does Chamberlain's vial fill as he drains himself? That'd be an unorthodox bit of strategy.

Onto the minions, I have to again commend you on the insane tactical variety this single move brings into the fray; you wring every last drop of strategic value out of all 3 of these minions and their interactions, and it's downright inspiring to see! For the sake of keeping this comment brief, I won't detail them all separately, but I adore how much detail and thought you've put into even such seemingly inconsequential behaviors as minions turning around when they bump into each other. This is a LUXURIOUS minion special, and one that pushes Chamberlain's already highly tactical gameplay even further beyond.

And, as if that weren't already an incredible amount of depth, in comes the custom platform, brimming with possibilities, especially when combined with the minions and beam. Onto the grab game, the handcuffs and various throws continue to add a lot of strategy to our dear Chamberlain.

From there, the rest of the kit continues this theme, bringing in fresh and fun ideas that all culminate in an INCREDIBLY deep, rich set that's teeming with tactical goodness. I could go on all day, but I'll just leave off here with a hearty "excellent work", Kupa!
 
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IvanQuote

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Time for some obligatory comments:

Yoshikage Kira:



What I consider to be the single best set of the contest, no exception. This set just goes above and beyond any other set I've seen in both writing and visuals. With a large amount of comprehensive images and gifs, it is easy to visualize each move. The entire set is also written in a chronological order with respect to the Diamonds Are Unbreakable Arc of JoJo, which is no easy feat to pull off. The gimmicks by themselves would be enough to give this a high rating, but the set is actually good too. A set that focuses on Kira trapping the opponent with various explosives in order to avoid being knocked off with his light frame, done so well. Not much more to say. Kudos!

Ennard:



Ennard is a fantastic set, and not a series I expected you would do. Makes sense for the Bizarro Movement though. Regardless, it is a lumbering heavy character that makes use of minions in several different ways to harass the opponent as it gains momentum. The bizarre moves that it can manage to pull off just add to the creep factor that makes this clown a perfect representation of its home series.

Mina:



I'll admit, when I saw this character was from the same universe as Hee-Mo, I died a little inside. Putting that all aside, I thought this was put together very well. The versatility of the different petals affecting her moves coupled with all the other sorts of combinations you can pull off by manipulating Ginny made for a fun-to-read set with a whole bunch of complexities.

Andrea:



While I love seeing you make actual characters in Rivals of Aether to great success now, I am happy that you still contribute to this contest. Andrea has your tell-tale signature mark of peppering your sets with amazing visuals. The water mechanics extending into both marine life and plant life with different interactions through her set made this an amazing read at the beginning of the contest to the point where it even holds up with later entries.

Black Polnareff:



Apparently JoJo makes good set potential. Who knew? Anyway, this set is a great puppet fighter set where you choose between speed and armor. Coupled with the unique methods of countering moves thanks to Anubis and this is a good set. The fact that he isn't totally useless without Silver Chariot makes the combos more interesting too.

PaniK:



This guy was always memorable in the show for some reason despite his bit role. Maybe it was his snazzy theme song. Regardless, this set takes every little thing that he could have possibly done and run through it cohesively. Using his Castle (the cornerstone of his deck) as a means of concealing his movements with similar actions makes him live up to his fearful reputation the show presents.

Kritter:



One of the best P-Plant Movement sets of the contest, Kritter was definitely not what I was expecting he would be. His use of the bananas in his set is comedic bordering on absurdity, but the hills allow for many interactions through his moveset with his other attacks. Definitely great mileage of a simple enemy.

Pidgey:



Speaking of great sets in this challenge, we have Pidgey. This is a set that fits a modest character like Pidgey. Everything Pidgey does in this set is realistic to what the mere Route 1 Bird can do in the games, but it is so cohesive and tightly wound that it makes for a great set.

Morlagren:



Morlagren showcases the sheer creativity one can make when working with original characters. The concept behind the character is poignant and makes for a interesting if not disturbing concept for a set. The goo status and copy moves based on not only Morlagren himself but also other characters with the Down Special make this set a joy.

Ibaraki-Douji:



To end on a more somber note, I admit there were several issues that caught my eye with this set. The concept alone is intriguing: being a small-frame, superheavy character with a swift double jump and cool tools such as the Neutral B Hand alongside Rule Breaker. My issue comes with choice parts of the set: first is the Down Special Insta-kill. It might just be a "me" thing since it is well stated that I have an aversion to non-standard KO's like this outside of Final Smash, but this feels a bit easy to pull off even by OHKO standards. Particularly is how the insta-death depends on weight, which makes it hideously early to snuff out lightweight such character. What I find almost more egregious is her healing pummel. Now having a move that heals bits and chunks like Wario's chomp isn't too bad maybe. My issue here is the amount she heals. Being a superheavy that can survive up to high death percentages, having a pummel that is "pretty fast" and can heal 5-10% per smack at critical percentages feels a bit too overkill for me. Otherwise a well organized set, factors such as these drop this set a lot for me.
 
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FrozenRoy

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Important Information Regarding Make Your Move 23 and Editing Period!

Due to extenuating circumstances, including quite a few current real life issues with both people on edge and with lots of free time, we have decided to move up Make Your Move 23 to launch it faster and help people get an outlet. Because of that, Make Your Move 23 will be posted on April 1st, with the OP of the contest being UserShadow7898. And that's no April Fool's joke!

On top of that, editing has been kept open an extra day, to March 25th, and voting will now extend to April 1st. This will give everyone an extra day of reading, as the finished Dodongos near the end have added some extra reading for people, and allows the contest to end as Make Your Move 23 begins. And it gives some more time for a...special thing.
 

FrozenRoy

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Make Your Move 22's editing period is now offically over, voting period begins!

Minor edits WILL remain allowed, but major editing is out. Minor edits include things like typos (IE saying 70% instead of 7%, or spelling a word wrong), fluff like introductions and non-gameplay extras and the like, If you're unsure if something counts, just ask leadership!

With voting open, it will again be noted your vote gurus are FrozenRoy and Smash Daddy. Please send your votelists to both of them to vote, preferrably over Smashboards PM.

The vote amounts are:

8 Super Votes, which are worth 9 points. One of those 8 Super Votes can be a Super Vote Plus, which is worth 11 points.

12 Regular Votes, which are worth 5 points. Three of those 12 Regular Votes can be a Regular Vote Plus, which are worth 6 points.

15 Weak Votes, which are worth 2 points. Three of those 15 Weak Votes can be a Weak Vote Plus, which are worth 3 points.

You must make at least 10 comments to vote. If you have any questions, ask me or another leader. Happy days!
 

Professor Lexicovermis

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Pop Star
Do Dragons Have To Take The Hippocratic Oath
4/10
I have been absolutely dreading writing this comment. Kat, I greatly respect you as a setmaker, and I applaud the incredible amount of work that went into Nasary, but I simply could not get into this set, I'm sorry. I can't in good conscience say it's OBJECTIVELY bad, because it absolutely isn't! You put a ton of thought into it, and I can definitely see where it has appeal for those who enjoy it, but subjectively speaking I just couldn't appreciate it properly.

I really hate to be a downer on a set you clearly poured a lot into, but Nasary, to me, is a set that is choked out by far too much complexity that leads to a muddled and confusing experience, one that leaves me feeling befuddled. The syringes alone are INSANELY complex, and I'm still not entirely sure I even fully understand them. The set seems to contradict itself and your own clarifications in chat by occasionally suggesting that the sleep agent can be injected into a shield to cause sleep the next the foe shields after 2 seconds. Beyond that, the bed construct is ALSO very complicated, and I'm not entirely sure I think works how the set says it does? You recommend batting it around with S-Special, but that move deals two hits that equal 30%, and the bed dies after taking 30% spread over at least two hits, and I am completely unclear on if the bed would still be launched, then die, or if it would simply clatter apart on the spot, useless. I also think the bed leads to too many cheesy kill opportunities, like just putting someone under a decently strong sleep, letting the bed multiply it, and then chucking the bed and foe offstage. Besides that, it can also incapacitate the foe for long enough that Nasary might do any number of extremely nasty things. Because, a big part of me worries she may be overpowered, given the sheer number of gimping tools and explicit instant kills/near instant kills available, but I genuinely can't tell if this is the case or not, because I can't discern if it's even difficult for her to get these situations set up or not. The bed exacerbates this by potentially making her kill setups a lot easier... maybe, because I'm still unclear on how easy it even is to get a decently strong sleep onto the foe, especially since the sleep agent effectively ignores shields to some degree. Ultimately, I'm sorry, but I just don't have a ton of positivity towards Nasary as a set.

If it's any consolation, I do have ANY good things to say. I greatly admire that you expanded such a vague character into a very lovable and charismatic person; her animations are very endearing and creative throughout the set, and my favorite part of it. I also like that you were bold enough to attempt the "white mage" genre of set in modern day; I feel we don't get it very often, and I commend you for taking a risk, even if the result didn't appeal to me personally. Your use of some very obscure Smash mechanics like dodge staling and knockback storage is also eye-catching, showing that you have a familiarity with some of the inner workings of Smash that the average writer may not be privy to.

All in all, while Nasary wasn't for me, I can definitely see the appeal in having an incredibly mechanically dense set with a novel playstyle in a genre we don't get to see very often. Your hard work is appreciated; a 35k word set is an INCREDIBLE undertaking that I absolutely respect. I apologize for a mostly negative comment, and I hope to see you continue to put out more sets in the future!
 
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FrozenRoy

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Frozen J. Roy

(Comment taken from me writing it in Discord as it ended up long enough to be here)

Read and ranked Kimblee. I'm pretty on board for the core concepts, as the time bomb is fun enough and you could do stuff with overwriting knockback, and I think the Side Special is a pretty cool move. I like him being able to go down platforms for movement with Side Special and wonder if movement could have been more of a thing, not a Bakugo-level thing but Kimblee is mobile in a decent amount of his fights and doing stuff like tracking down opponents, and more importantly it'd play well off of how his Side Special works and his ground chunk. The ground chunk is arguably kinda weird but exploding it up is fine and it got some solid play although the set kind of fogets later. Revenge + self-damage is fine for NSpec but it didn't feel like it added a lot overall in the end and the logic is really weird, his edgy monologue gives him a buff for...blowing himself up? I thought the F-Smash fedora was fun and Up Smash had solid implications with knockback overwriting. Up Throw has some fun kill potential and the way the spike worked there was the one time the spike felt like it was doing more than a normal grab could.

I hate the Down Throw. Human transmutation with rocks is already very weird on Kimblee, but on top of that the effect of slightly increasing the foe's hurtbox doesn't feel like it works into the set much at all as most of his attacks have generous range. Kupa, Smady and others all complained about Down Tilt and I agree with that sentiment, it feels largely out of place in Kimblee and doesn't add much. Something like a slide kick Down Tilt he could use as combo food and boost along with explosions would have fit better.

In general Kimblee felt rather underpowered, he has poor close range options, not many spacers and takes self damage on a chunk of attacks. I wonder if he could have used the Philosopher's Stone as a power boost?

The Standards and aerials had the set fall apart for me a fair amount. I kinda like the F-Tilt counter idea and the Jab is a solid enough move (although I think it remembering its previous position might be VERY annoying in practice given how Kimblee really wants a closer range move), but for the most part the attacks are uninspired and don't particularly fit well together. Kimblee has a few moves that "combo" but most of his set says he is bad at comboing, including at least one attack that says it is both bad at comboing and a casual combo starter in the same move. Few of them seem to play into the specific idea of the time bomb's vertical knockback angle and he has few spacers despite being a character designed to not get in close.

Finally, I do dislike the characterization a good deal. The mockery parts of Kimblee are uninspired and could be applied to a great deal of characters with the same effect, making it feel rather boring and not getting much of a chuckle out of me. It's kind of just a low level loathing without much humor behind it, which usually is the appeal of character "mockery" sets. And of course as a serious characterization it does nothing for the most part, although I did enjoy the fedora Forward Smash and feel it is fitting enough. I also think the spike is kinda odd in context, the human transmutation obviously doesn't fit and the sand Down Tilt as mentioned by everyone is out of place in the set and just plain bizarre for Kimblee without much playstyle reward for it.

Armie Love

(Comment taken from me writing it in Discord as it ended up long enough to be here)

I finished and ranked Armie Buff, also swapped Kingpin and Reapress' places on the rankings. I was rather invested in the base of Armie, as the landmine seems solid, the machine gun is interesting enough, and I actually thought the idea of the Side Special crosshairs was interesting. Some attacks are also rather nice here, I thought Up Smash was particularly fun for example, Up Special has surprisingly good depth with the drone mechanics, and while I do have a major complaint in this area the characterization for the most part is quite fun with Armie being super interested in new toys like her grab arms or seeing the results of her missile explosions while being reclusive.

This set kinda lost me as it went on. I think the landmine is mostly fine, the justification for why it works is fine, so in that area I do somewhat disagree with FA. I do definitely agree that, IMO anyway, the fire feels rather out of character, although this is one I am sure there will be disagreement on. While it could be taken as a fun reference to the games, to me it feels like this 12 year old girl who lost her mother and was apparently crippled in an incident of arson from all the set says would probably NOT use a close range flamethrower that leaves behind lingering flames. The fearful animation helps blunt this but it still felt out of place, I feel like such an attack would need to be handled differently for me. But I don't think that'll be a universal opinion.

Aside from that I feel like the set's gameplan lost cohesion with time, I was disappointed it felt like the missiles did not have more relevancy outside of some interactions in how the rest of her game was designed, Down Smash's terraforming is utterly bizarre and barely a footnote, the NAir felt particularly odd to me as well with how the bombs work.

The melee for the most part is competent but it is somewhat disjointed as well, given all the props her wheelchair is given throughout the set I wonder if they could have been used to more effect on, say, Down Tilt rather than what we got. And the grab game was a fun attempt to do the dual grab and the idea of the drone grabbing Armie has potential but nothing stood out for me here. The jab feels overly complex for what is ultimately a simple spacing jab for the most part but doesn't kill the set or anything. Also while I quite liked Up Smash, catching the missile as an item is a totally tacked on throwaway that pops up nowhere else in the set. Between this, Nasary and Ibaraki (who also had a grabbable fireball) it feels like there was a bit of a trend on bizarrely throwable items, often on Up Smash, that didn't fit the set a ton.

I did kind of like how the Forward Tilt played with ranges, though, and the drone gameplay can be fun when the set is going for a bit more of a pincer attack.

One final note, as this came up in another comment and I had thoughts, I want to say I did not enjoy the Final Smash. Usually I wouldn't comment on it, but yeah. I'm not opposed to in-joking MYM reference Final Smashes or super joke-y ones, but I tend to prefer more serious ones as the joke-y ones can break my immersion and Final Smashes are often a place to add additional character (you'll remember I mentioned this with Hidan to a degree as well). Given the running characterization theme of Armie overcoming fears in the set, I think cumulating that in a Final Smash would have been a good capper. You could even keep the Strangelove reference by, say, having a dropping bomb say Doomsday Device on it. Alternately, THIS could be a good place to put the fire move on Armie, akin to Nakoruru's hesitant stab: Armie hesitating for a few moments in a cutscene, closing her eyes, and then burning the possibly far off opponent to a crisp. I'll also just say the Final Smash didn't feel that funny and the blood felt out of place.

Clown Power Hour (Rudy the Clown Smady Smady )

Rudy's core conepts are fairly solid, ESPECIALLY the music boxes which to me felt like by far the highlight of the set. The mutitude of ways Smady plays with the "duplicate follows you" / "duplicate duplicates your attack" is one of the best parts of the set with lots of inventive ways to change up your duplicates or to use them. I also thought that sending out the hand was for the most part a pretty neat mechanic, the minions are for the most part inventive and exciting (although they get somewhat forgotten in parts). And I quite liked all of the smashes, Forward Smash felt particularly fun with the way Rudy's duplicates work, and Up Smash/Down Smash were both overall solid, the way that Up Smash parodied Wario was fun.



I really want to commend this set's characterization which felt very strong. Rudy does NOT seem like he has a huge amount of potential but Smady squeezes out everything he can get in a very satisfying away in terms of potential and adds a lot of satisfying description that gives the set a ton of fitting personality. I've never really cared a ton about the Wario games, for a long time I thought Rudy was a Dr. Mario 64 exclusive because I only ever saw him in Dr. Mario 64, and I felt very excited by the characterization and came away with some big appreciation.

I do have some issues with this set.

First off, Rudy just seems way too overwhelming in any kind of edge guard situation. The clap does not feel as hard to land as you present it IMO, particularly at a ledge with the opponent's ledgeguard options being more predictable, but if it was just the clap that'd be well within heavyweight power levels.

Mr. Sun, however, feels flatout overwhelming. First off, yes, Mr. Sun is laggy but in a situation where you hit the opponent off stage it is not THAT laggy. It is less laggy than Pac-Man getting an Apple from 0 charge (Apple is 52 frames) and it is hardly unreasonable for Pac-Man to charge to Apple when he hits a foe off stage, and Pac-Man does not feel like he has the ability to get people off-stage that Rudy does. If Mr. Sun comes out with a smash throw (43 frames) then it feels over for the foe at the ledge. The pillar is MASSIVE and lingers for long enough to destroy most options, the Hothead-projectile wave will hit any ledge hangs or trying to stall down (except on stages Hothead doesn't work) and on top of that since it is disjointed from Rudy, Rudy could then also edgeguard the opponent with himself, which could potentially have a music box out or could throw out a hand. The 2-frame Down Tilt also gives Rudy a super quick option that Rudy can 2-frame the opponent with along with the ability to mix up a Mr. Sun with an also-edgeguarding-great Para-Boom and then use his own attacks. This isn't so absolutely busted that it destroys the set but it does feel rather overpowered to me.

The grab game is Fine but it felt like a distinct drop in quality from most of the set, the Forward Throw cargo throw has some obvious applications with hitting the foe into your constructs but not too much else, Back Throw has some neat applications and whatnot but it feels a bit out of place oddly (and the interaction with the Music Box feels somewhat odd, especially since nothing else interacts with it in the set like this) and I actually like Up Throw a good deal it was definitely the throw highlights. Down Throw's pitfall strength modifiers feel so minor that in practical situations they'd be pretty useless or hard to utilize so precisely.

For a few other thoughts, the hand mechanic was fairly fine but at times it was a bit unclear on hands being called back and I'm not sure how many moves took advantage of it, but I did enjoy Forward Aerial so that's probably enough. Down Tilt being frame 2 feels really important and perhaps like a bit too much of his game might just be Down Tilt, Up Tilt and faster aerials, but at the same time I appreciate making sure Rudy has fast moves so this wasn't too big of a deal. Also, at least IMO, Clowning Around felt somewhat subdued for a specific time bomb attached to Rudy that even carries hurtbox implications, I wonder if it'd be better to either have changed it out for something else or to have done a bit more with it.

But those other thoughts are not huge deal breakers at all and I did enjoy stuff the set did outside of just the Specials/Smashes like the aforementioned Up Throw, Forward Tilt and Up Tilt, and the way some of the moves interact with the Music Boxes in general like putting a Down Smash off stage with a blue box. It was a great experience and if it fails to get a SV that is largely due to great competition above it rather than a slight against the set, I hope to see you make more sets like this in the future!

The Master of Darkness (Master Xehanort ForwardArrow ForwardArrow )

You know how they say to save the best for last? Well, Master Xehanort is not LITERALLY my last read, but it definitely applies here.

This set is, essentially, everything anyone could want from a Master Xehanort set. Putting his light/darkness clash as a mechanic was a clever idea that allows you to restrict access to his meter for all intents and purposes while adding in the flavor of exactly how Xehanort's plan works and the general thought behind the x-blade to begin with. The fact that Xehanort has an Organization assist mechanic is naturally fitting, as his entire plan in the games is about summoning copies of himself, and the nature of True Organization XIII pulling them from time and space means no conflict with any other characters for those who care. I also find the ways in which he can do them good. With just one Nobody he is basically just unlocking a follow-up attack that helps fill gaps in his melee, but in return it is fast. Three Nobodies allows him to get out more "setup" without a full meter, but he needs to find time to actually use it because it is a good deal laggier. And if he goes all out with his clashing mechanic he gets the amazing full ORGANIZATION THIRTEEN!, which gives him insane potential but requires difficult play from him that has natural counterplay from the foe. Plus it isn't an instant win button, it simply allows Xehanort to perform fittingly galaxy brain setups that can lead to great payoff, if the foe plays well it is perfectly possible to outplay. The fact they all have unique follow-ups not only means Xehanort's copies do more than just doubling, but also allow you to weave them into his natural melee to fill in gaps or instead provide alternatives.

The Anti-Form mechanic as well was an interesting twist, giving both Master Xehanort and the foe reason to play aggressively. This fits well into something I love about Master Xehanort, he is a setplay character who feels like he basically doesn't go through murky setup time but rather organically has setup options when he normally fights. This helps give Master Xehanort a wonderful melee game that ALSO allows him to perform sick options with his setup and rewards him for actively fighting the foe as the setup is largely based around interactions. The flavor is also great, Master Xehanort has always wanted light and darkness to clash and so the mechanic encourages both him and the opponent to clash with each other. Stopza is an awesome counter attack (reminds me of my old Onion Knight concepts, which I even brought up when you asked if this kinda thing could work) that is quite unique, with Master Xehanort wanting to counter WEAK attacks to get more stun time, which makes sense because weaker attacks are harder to counter than strong attacks usually due to speed. On top of that his ability to "store" Organization members in stopped time and call upon them later is quite nice, with some multifaceted attacks to it, some of my favorites being Forward Smash's time manipulation with the Young Xehanort copies (a rare stun style effect I enjoy, it's quite the investment!), Up Smash's anti-air trap abilities with the Ansem member, the Neutral Aerial's ability to affect the opponent's spacing greatly for his melee game along with affecting his lighter melee game and the ability to save different angled Forward Tilt nobodies in Forward Tilt, but they're basically all good.

Finally, Up Special is great, the ability to fight the foe while charging up a giant (magical girl) laser is on point for flavor and leads to good gameplay as the weakness of the Organization member he makes is contrasted with the power Xehanort wields to help it out, with Xehanort very vulnerable if he misplays as the attack is ultra punishable. It also allows Xehanort to scale it up with his Organization XIII ability without just pushing the power MORE up: Instead, the power up is in the disposable fodder he throws out to reach his TRUE plan and his ability to hold them off with more and more Nobodies.

All of the Smashes were great, giving Xehanort just a really big heavy hitting Forward Smash at a base feels nice to play off his natural follow-ups, but then you bring in a Young Xehanort time manipulation that allows him to "cut" his starting lag basically via a brief stun, which he can even delay to affect the exact release, and the ability to use things like the Recusant's Sigil or a placed Neutral Aerial follow-up to draw them in. Up Smash's hitbox contrasts range with power, giving him a long range attack he wants to hit closer with UNLESS he has an Organization follow-up ready, because access to a follow-up attack with Ansem that strikes at opponents in the more sourspots is in his arsenal, OR he can instead use it as an aerial catch for opponents outside of his grasp, which I think is very neat as an anti-air option he can use when placing it, and Down Smash gives him a solid roll catch but the real meat on the bones is the Xemnas laser dome, which allows Xehanort to create a zone where you don't wanna stay too much as he pelts you with lasers that start to get very damaging and deal hitstun if you stay in them, which can work in quite well with his tools like Down Tilt that are good neutral options without much reward. I also think the idea of using the three "main" Xehanort forms for Smash specific follow-ups feels genius, especially as they are the three Xehanorts who got to be main bosses of an entire game in subservience to him.

The melee game is on point and I would say the best you've ever made. Everything feels greatly crafted, I really enjoyed the way Down Tilt and Forward Tilt provided Xehanort with strong neutral tools that have obvious "gaps" in their reward that Xehanort can fill with more Organization members, the way that Jab and Grab use what Smady and Kat have talked about when it comes to how important they are for defensive options to give him some weaker defense that he needs to play around with, again giving him more bits that both help keep him from being overpowered and allow the player to fill them in, it does NOT feel casual for Xehanort to get any of his large attacks despite their potential power. Dash Attack felt like a fun twist on a multi-hit Dash Attack with how he can send Organization members out to cover different options and I thought making one of his prime combo tools reactable/not casual was a good choice and fit in with his melee's general themes. Forward Aerial's follow-up options were very fun as well, Down Throw plays into a LOT of his melee well with the kind of "detonation" effect I've long thought about utilizing in my own sets, Neutral Aerial takes advantage of its hitbox size and is acutely aware of its combo potential. From top to bottom the set is rock solid in melee.

The characterization is so on point that it oozes out of it unmistakeably. Master Xehanort is played VERY seriously in this set (with the intro providing some light riffing), which feels very accurate to Kingdom Hearts. Kingdom Hearts when it tries to be serious plays it serious even though it is absurd, we're talking about a game where Woody dunks on one of our major antagonists while he tries to turn Buzz Lightyear to darkness and it is played straight. Little touches flourish all over this set, like the way the Down Smash dome splits attacks as more people get into it and make it easier to fight ala KH2's final fight, the Dash Attack's keyblade wave was needed but the follow-up also reminds me of how he creates it for Vanitas and others, moves like Forward Aerial with its follow-ups FEEL like Kingdom Hearts 2 combat! Putting Ansem, Xemnas and Young Xehanort, the 3 major Xehanorts, on the smashes was a brilliant idea for flavor. You could even see their personalities in how they're used: Young Xehanort doesn't care much about any of this and just helps the others out, Ansem uses direct and raw power and darkness, while Xemnas is overwhelming from all sides with smaller blows and a bit of tricky. Back Throw not only references a critical story moment of Kingdom Hearts 3 in a way that gives Xehanort some niche but fun gameplay options in it, but Master Xehanort potentially passing up a more "free" kill to go for a more galaxy brained yet lucrative option is naturally just very in character. Master Xehanort in general feels designed to have comeback options from the brink and come back when you think he's out, which is naturally great flavor with how Master Xehanort recurs as a villain.

I struggle to find any meaningful criticism that would go beyond minor nitpick. Down Smash's activation hitbox could be a bit better, I guess? But it still has good gameplay value. Down Throw and Up Throw are maaaaybe kinda close in what they do, but they seem like they have a distinct enough application. His balance is on point, despite comeback potential the way his abilities are designed feel like they limit how swingy his attacks can be and his more overwhelming attacks feel like they have lots of checks and counters to them to keep them in place. One could say, IDK, Up Aerial is short but I liked that as it fulfilled its purpose well and doing too much more might have even made it a bit broken + it is good to not have EVERY move ooze something huge. It had purpose in a well woven melee game and that was what it needed to be.

Quite bluntly, I would be shocked if I Super Vote Plussed any other set this contest. Despite the set's large size I never felt bogged down and absolutely enjoed every moment, the mechanics are both novel and well thought out, the melee is rich and deep, the characterization is basically as good as it could be, the balance seems lovingly fine. This is a great effort and if it does take you a while to make Yawgmoth I can hardly think of something better to leave us with.
 
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Kholdstare

Nightmare Weaver
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Oct 10, 2008
Messages
1,439


MYM22 Commentary: Community Member Favorites




:: Naomi Faren by US / UserShadow7989 ::

US has had an even better contest than the last, and is constantly improving in all areas. Naomi may be his first set posted in 22 but the constant diligence through editing and being receptive to critique means that his sets are ever-improving throughout the whole contest and any kinks get ironed out. The same could be said about others but US in particular sticks out to me through his constant presence in the Discord and letting us know whenever he has an update on an existing or upcoming set.

Naomi's background and described powerset feed into her very unique playstyle of water manipulation and travelling along water paths she makes. It's a very kinetic gameplay that focuses on stage control and hitbox interaction. In some ways it feels like a Rivals of Aether set with how much you can envision the movement of her attacks and body flowing like rushing water. The use of water clones to extend combos and set up specific pincer attacks and ambushes along with the evasive playstyle really ties into her ninjutsu-style as well.

Her mobility is what endears the set the most to me. Having unique and changing ways to maneuver and subsequently control the stage is important and Naomi does it in a well-crafted and fun way. Simple but novel use of Smash's design space is what really sells a good set like this. Gameplay-driven OCs are your specialty and MYM is the perfect environment for them.




:: Reapress by Muno / Munomario777 ::

Welcome to MYM, the thread with hot movesets and even hotter OCs. Reapress is part of Muno's last dab before he moved on to Rivals of Aether but I don't hold that against him. He absolutely thrives in Rivals and has been creating great content. So how hot is Reapress? Pretty saucy. Reapress is one of the only characters to ever take advantage of the existing mechanic of the Super Spicy Curry effect in Smash and she pulls it off really well. There's a lot of interaction with the lil' baby peppers and stage control as one would expect but the set is not afraid to turn up the heat at times with the Flame Body and cut through swathes of space.

Like a fire, Reapress requires some careful tending and attention or else she'll burn out. Her moves feed into each other but also the effect they have on the opponent, so Reapress must play up close and personal to play properly. This balancing act make have you sweating but Muno is very conscious of what Reapress has available to her and is very playstyle-conscious. Nothing feels out of place although I do wonder what Reapress's Pokemon moves would be.

What I like the most about Reapress is the smart use of flame and the interaction with the spicy curry effect. It's a very evocative set and more natural-feeling set than an actual Pokemon set which tend to have a couple awkward moves. Everything feeds into each other maintaining a cycle. Thanks for sticking around Muno, and good luck with your Rivals characters; you're truly doing what all of us are playing pretend at.




:: Katsuki Bakugo by Slavic ::

Oh Kacchan... you ******* boy. My favorite set of Slavic's this contest is Bakugo. I'm probably the one who likes Bakugo the most for reasons I can't quite articulate. It's a mixture of the set showing off Slavic's personal growth, a frenetic and faithful representation of a popular character, a love of explosion-based playstyles, and one of the most interesting uses of meter this contest.

There is plenty of material for Slavic to work with to shape the set and he utilized most of it while adding in his own ideas, bringing some fun implementations (Up Special) and new interpretations (Up Throw). It feels very kinetic and over the top, very emblematic of Bakugo himself. Not a glass cannon but a berserker. Bakugo's one of those cult favorite sets I'll probably be referencing in the future.




:: Whisper the Wolf by bubby / bubbyboytoo ::

Whisper is a humble set that shows bubby's enthusiasm for the character. Something about it endears me to this random character I'd never heard of before. Bubby's short but to-the-point style makes the set a breeze to read and Whisper has fun tools at her disposal. The crystals obviously are a marquee move but I'm also quite fond of how the grab interacts with the wisps. In some ways this lupine zoner reminds me of Mega Man who is a fan favorite character. Bubby I'm sure is knowledgable of this too given how playstyle conscious he is of Whisper's tools and if you look at the rest of his sets I'm confident that you shouldn't sleep on his potential as a designer. Is it too soon to call him the next Muno?



:: Vulture by Kupa / BKupa666 ::

Kupa's return to MYM was the most pleasant surprise of 2019. He was an incredibly important part of MYM's history going back to 2008 and if you look at his sets in the MYMer Encyclopedia you'll see why. Kupa never gave up on Smash and has done great work for the community. He'll do great work for ours as well. Instead of going for toilet humor, Kupa displays considerable knowledge of how Smash actually plays and merges that with fantastic MYM concepts. Vulture is the most indicative of this.

The flight pathing is nothing short of one of the coolest and one of my favorite ideas put forth this MYM. The way the entire set interacts with it and how it binds the set together like a thread makes Vulture a set with an incredibly high skill ceiling if also being something of a high skill floor due to the technical behavior of many moves. Platforms here are also used in the smartest way possible and do not have the awkwardness or tackiness that other sets have.

The set also pulls off other aspects incredibly well, such as writing style. Kupa is poised to shake up the competitiveness that MYM veterans may have figured out how to navigate. I have no doubt that he's aiming for the throne. Keep an eye on him in MYM23. And welcome back.




:: Black Polnareff by Froy / FrozenRoy ::

Hol Horse is plainly the best Froy set this contest, so I won't hammer that further into your skull, but what about the other JoJo villain he posted just before it? Black Polnareff is just as good in my mind, my personal favorite. Many factors contribute to it. Froy is an artisan of taking fighting game characters, implementing their relevant moves to Smash, and then absolutely blasting them with detail and additional creative moves extrapolated from what's already there. Froy sets are dense and loaded down with interactions, gameplay applications, total consciousness of playstyle, and squeezing even more uses out of existing inputs. Froy designs a set like someone packing a suitcase for a trip by minmaxing the amount of belongings they can fit into the suitcase before it bursts.

Oh you wanted a Neutral Special? You actually get 8 playstyle relevant Neutral Specials. Each move is different based on if you did a shield special which is permanent for the stock so you better use that wisely. Black Polnareff not only has a great melee game but I'd say it's the absolute best in MYM22 due to how fluid and connected everything is. It uses the most of all possible design space, and stage space.

Black Polnareff has all of that and more. There's a point, and I don't quite know where that is, where I give up on mapping out the web of playstyle that B. Pol has at his disposal and just accept that what Froy is saying works as intended. It's a good version of mindflooding, and it's confidence in the setmaker that they know what they're doing. Froy has all but mastered his craft, and barring him running out of anime characters I don't think he's going to stop until he's achieved total dominance over MYM.




:: Pidgey by WCF / WeirdChillFever ::

I originally wasn't big on Pidgey but after a reread, color me impressed. WCF squeezes the most out of our little bird here and makes Pidgey cast a Pidgeot-sized shadow. The set is kinetic and energetic and Pidgey is always moving around and manipulating one thing or another whether it be spacing or wind. Anakin would definitely be Pidgey's rival with how much his one weakness is utilized: sand. I was originally opposed to the idea of Sand Attack being a core concept but WCF pulls it off so well, it feels right at home with Pidgey. That's really the whole experience of Pidgey: subverting expectations by underestimating your opposition. Keep in mind that WCF has had a surprisingly quiet contest after the legendary Kilton set of 21 so I'd like to see a full return to form in 23 if he becomes interested in designing more. I really hope he does.



:: Rudy the Clown by Smady / Smash Daddy ::

Rudy is very much an iteration on an active design philosophy, and that's to explore what makes a superheavy. Smady has long been an Apostle of the Heavyweight Male Antagonist genre but his MYM22 works feel sort of like him scientifically approaching what defines that genre and how it could be made even greater. Enter Rudy, which I feel is the most successful of the many experiments he conducted. He took the idea of minions and boiled them down to essentials and made them serve the playstyle of an aggressive rather than controlling superheavy without getting in the way of Rudy's schemes. Meter, too, is expressed in this set in a pragmatic way through the music boxes and it's like Rudy has multiple meters he can access but they are all filled through natural gameplay flow like Arsene. They aren't bulky at all and are perfectly balanced, as all things should be.

Smady's not opposed to clowning around either as the set has its fair share of funny moments and is quite fun and easy to read compared to Hugo or Ennard which sometimes felt overbearing. It's whimsical and you could tell Smady enjoyed writing it. The set doesn't pull its punches either and Smady's not afraid to reel in ideas for the sake of safety, obviously aiming for each set he posts to be better than the prior one. After all these years he's still growing personally and skillfully which is a pretty impressive feat. It's not hard to see that in Rudy, and compared to MYM veterans like Froy or Kat who have pretty much mastered gamesense and reached the MYM skill plateau, it's not controversial to say that Smady's worst this contest is better than Smady's best last contest, and Rudy is better than those.




:: V by Altais ::

Altais is the control group of MYM. He provides updates on what he's working on, then he posts them, only doing a few posts per contest. I never get a chance to really talk to him or pick his brains, and I feel bad that he doesn't really get any reception. I feel like there's a communication wall due to us being in our own worlds here so I'm going to shine a little spotlight on him.

V is a set to me that had a solid idea in mind and built towards that idea. The set was already designed in Altais's mind probably before he even wrote the first move. The playstyle matches what V's core in DMCV is (I assume from the description - never played it. Such is why descriptions are important!) It's the most Pokemon Trainer-y set that's not from Pokemon, although it doesn't have the Smash Pokemon Trainer's gimmick. V is a zookeeper, and although he doesn't allow the exhibits to kill the guests, he's more than happy to commit an OSHA violation. I don't know if the OSHA safety rules specifically mention murder on company property. I assume they do.

Beyond that, V is a down-to-earth and easy to read set whose gimmick is easy to grok and feels right at home in Smash. Altais has a good head on his shoulders and has plenty of good ideas he's ready to write about, and he's confident in his ideas. Good qualities in a designer. Altais, I'm sorry you don't get much feedback but don't let it fetter you. Any plans for MYM23?




:: Rose Quartz by PeridotGX ::

I don't know what Steven Universe is about. I assume it's a good show. It has a lot of enthusiastic fans. I'm not one though, so you get my probably ignorant perspective. The set's readability is perhaps the best in the contest after Muno's Steve set because of how brief it is and you can absorb each move at a glance. Magic Moss is perhaps the move I like the most other than her melons because of the stage control possibilities for it (you might guess correctly that stage control is my favorite genre). It would help if you could dive deeper into expanding upon moves and being more conscious of playstyle because, well, there's much to be desired. I want you to succeed PeridotGX so I'd start there. Maybe have Rose lend a helping hand and help your detail grow? I look forward to possible future sets from you to see your personal growth.



:: Arina by Bianca / Bionichute ::

Bianca's personal journey through MYM is one that seems to have the odds stacked against her but I can definitely say that Lord Zedd and Arina in particular are proof of her improvement as a designer. Bianca has unrivaled enthusiasm for her hobbies and fixations and comparing Arina to say, Sarcophacurse of this very own contest shows how she can apply herself if she has enthusiasm and confidence. Arina is without a doubt the best set she's ever made, period. Conscious knowledge of playstyle, intricate melee, detailed interactions, great visual aids and a understandable writing style compounded for a character that fits Bianca makes Arina an excellent addition to 22. Bianca is perhaps one of the regulars I want to see succeed from a personal growth standpoint the most so she'll know that people believe in her. Well done, keep up the good work with Mr. Compress and your other MYM23 ventures!



:: Master Xehanort by FA / ForwardArrow ::

Master Xehanort is in many ways a set that drips with MYM's ideals. You have a myriad of absolutely creative and fun moves throwing these ridiculous effects at you and it's all very over-the-top. It feels like a boss set while not being a boss set and I absolutely think that this set is fine without one as it would mess up the delicate mood that FA has infected us with while reading. Manipulation of the Nobodies and the exaggerated anime-ass moves make me feel like I'm watching a boss fight while reading it. It's all very evocative and just a home run of a set for a daunting character to make. Very few people could have done this right, and I think you were one of them, FA.

One of my favorite bits in the set is the cameos on the Smashes. Truly inspiring and feeding into the unrelenting Discord memes. I had really high praise for Mina but you weren't afraid to take risks with exaggerated and flashy moves here and you topped her.




:: Reigen Arataka by Kat / Katapultar ::

Kat's true art is wordcraft. His sets while very creative, playstyle-conscious, and detailed can sometimes get overbearing. If you thought Nasary was too hard to understand, please give Reigen a read. This is a super fun set that is as hilarious as Mob Psycho itself, and Kat is one of the most character-driven writers out here. He's always dropping in references to a character's series, Smash memes, or MYM and he pulls it off an an incredibly entertaining manner. His sets are truly entertainment. They're not lax on the detail and gameplay applications to the technical level but are very easy to understand. It all makes sense.

Reigen, a character I am extremely fond of, is done justice here. This set bleeds Reigen, and I wouldn't have trusted him with anyone else. He's far more efficient here at dealing with evil spirits on his own without Mob around, true, but have you peeped that Story Mode? Story Modes in particular are an extra that Kat absolutely nails every time. Always enjoyable to read. There's not as much depth here as the other Kat sets this contest but this is what I consider my top fan favorite set next to Bakugo. I think it's important for a MYMer's less popular sets to have endearing fans, it's what makes the job worth it. To make someone smile and enjoy what you write. Thank you, Kat.




:: Robin by Ivan / IvanQuote ::

Robin displays Ivan's own growth just like many sets I've talked about, and Robin is by far the most surprising. It's a banger of a set and from the very start grabs your attention. The set's clever ideas that sound extremely fun to play are well done and I'd love to just spend some time tinkering around and finding out cool paths to exploit Galvanized and the many tools Robin has to make use of it. You don't shy away from laying it onto the reader (although you could use some line breaks now and then) but it's all in service of a fleshed out set. Again I'm drawn to these cool stage control and zoning ideas but Robin carves out her own spot in the genre with some really interesting effects. Also, how did you make those embedded Youtube GIFs? Genuinely interested in that. Great job Ivan.



:: Fox Butler Aki by Lex / Professor Lexicovermis ::

Fox Butler Aki is a passionate project made by someone who clearly has a love for expressing not only them self but creative and endearing ideas. Lex has shown time and time again how much he can do with just a simple idea, a premise, a sales pitch. Lex's strength lies in creating these interesting and unique characters and then laying on fascinating gameplay. Aki's sales pitch is "instant transformation mid-combo" although that's obviously boiling it down to simplest terms. Lex is the Furry Willy Wonka of MYM, enticing us and capturing our imagination as they share this new character they're enthusiastic about with us for the first time.

Aki's design philosophy, and Lex himself is best at this with OCs, is "a place for everything and everything in its place". With an OC you don't have canon move obligations you have to include - and those canon moves will invariably control where the playstyle goes and what ideas you'll have. OCs are completely open to possibilities and while for US's witches the playstyle often dictates the character, Lex demonstrates that character and playstyle serve each other. Aki is a transforming demon fox butler because the folding screen facilitates this kind of transformation and his moves eviscerate his target, but the playstyle of dropping facades and pretenses while keeping schemes in your mind while you set up a screen and combo serve the character who is an evil, plotting kitsune who intends on turning on their acquaintances the moment they get a chance to move into the shadows.

There is a massive amount of work put into this set. Lex included as much as he needed to get his vision of Aki across. Every move oozes flavor, this character is endeared to us by the time we finish the set. Demon, Fox, and Butler are more than just titles - they actively guide the direction behind the set. Somewhat ironically despite Aki's length I am left wanting more, to see what further employers Aki might take roost under. In many ways, Aki feels like an anime villain protagonist. Lex I can say without a doubt that this is better than SCRATCH or Percy, and the best set you've ever made. Although given what I've seen, that title won't be held for long. I love this set.




:: Springtrap by Zoey / ZLBProductions ::

Two FNAF sets in one contest? Pleasant surprise. Springtrap is a pretty good indicator of what Zoey is capable of and how much they've learned this contest. There's a solid playstyle, a fun status in the form of [Error], and serviceable gameplay that makes use of the tools Springtrap has at his disposal. There's a lot of ideas that feel right at home for Afton's fursona like Up Throw and you have an obvious affinity for character. You don't make any egregious mistakes and you actually fleshed out moves that at one point had minimal detail. [Error] is the most obvious draw to the set and I really liked how you utilized it but didn't do things too zany with it. A great indicator of what you could create next contest, so I'm confident you can make something like Xion a contender, Zoey.



:: Ethan Nestor by plague / plague126 ::

Plague you've been one of the best new members of the community (and good friend) so it's great to have you on board. Ethan, while not a competitive moveset, is a fun one. I really enjoyed all the references and it's supremely character-driven. This is far better than Wobbler and a solid entry into MYM. Ethan reminds me of how early MYM sets were designed from a creative standpoint but what they didn't have that you have is actual knowledge of what the moves did rather than making watercolor paintings with diarrhea and calling a collection of references a moveset. Ethan functions as intended, is pretty entertaining, and is a nice break from the denser sets of MYM22. Here's to a good path ahead for you.



:: Daisy by Almand ::

This is more of an honorable mention or shoutout, but Daisy by Almand was the most pleasant surprise of the contest. Typically Daisy sets are somewhat overlooked but I think Almand here has presented the best one yet. The set has fantastic frame data like I'm reading Kurogane Hammer, interesting and fantastic hitboxes, and all in all feels like it has more personality and flavor than Smash Daisy, even Smash Peach. One of the few remakes I'd say is better than the Smash counterpart.
 
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