Patchouli Knowledge
The core idea here of allowing her to cross combine her elements into 30 different projectiles, each unique and with their own applications for her set, is a pretty wildly ambitious concept to throw out for a set. And for what its worth, Patchy has a system that makes it all work quite well, by cycling through her elements to give her access to only 5 different projectiles at any given time, a basic one that can be upgraded or combined with any of the other 4 elements. This means she can't spam any individual projectile too heavily, so "there's a huge number but there's an obvious best 2 or 3" never becomes an issue. Nor do opponents have to look at Patchouli and fear literally any projectile in her massive arsenal, even though the amount they will have to keep in mind is still a lot. Its a very strong system that makes the sheer density of options this set has work practically for all parties involved, and conveys Patchouli's raw versatility as a mage without making her flawless.
What's nice, too, is that the projectiles are individually well made. There's attention paid to how they'd flow off each other into the next projectile selection in sequence, how they'll cover various ranges and approaching options to Patchouli with each other, and in the midst of such a wide range of selections you do make sure to throw in some wacky, unconventional ones that are fun to play around with. And considering its a lot to handle off just one move, more than an entire set's worth of inputs condensed down into one, the set makes the fairly smart move to not go too crazy in the later sections. This set has a pretty impressive core and even if the latter parts aren't as exciting, they're at least filling the roles they need to in her zoning playstyle, usually with necessary weaknesses and with Up Special/Down Special still sticking out as pretty fun things to mix into all the projectile chaos.
So, I say all that, but I came away from this set not really all that thrilled with it. Like. I want to clarify, I think the set is good, I'd be very surprised if it wasn't at least a Weak Vote. But why didn't I enjoy it that much? Honestly, I think it comes down to the fact that I feel the approach ends up feeling a bit too quantity over quality. The set has a very large number of inputs to play around with that mostly flow off each other well/have a few interesting applications, but the set never really pulled out one particular tool that really grabbed my attention, more focused on breadth of tools than depth. I've expressed distaste for weapon switch in the past a lot, and this set avoids a lot of what I dislike about that genre, but unfortunately not all of it, where it hinges her playstyle moreso on how many options she has than the individual options feeling all that deep or entertaining to use. After a certain point in the projectiles it just becomes variations on the same theme of "how to cover foe's approaches to Patchouli to keep her zoning up", and after 30 sub-inputs it ends up feeling redundant even if in the nitty gritty details it isn't.
I'm not sure if this is actually something that plays bad, honestly, which is why I've struggled a bit on commenting this set, but it isn't very fun to read or think about compared to a smaller amount of options you can click together in more interesting, in-depth, or unique ways. This kind of style has certainly had its success stories(DoTA2's Invoker is a very popular character in that game, though an immediate fighting game example doesn't come to mind), but for me, it doesn't measure up to a more focused toolkit, and I'd rather read about and play with a character that's got 5 really distinct ways to zone than 30 ways that all kinda overlap but not enough that they have no reason to co-exist. I feel the latter parts of the set suffer for it to, I've failed to retain them but I kept feeling while I was reading that a number of the later inputs were just running out of things to do or wound up kind of weirdly balanced. I suspect there are ways to handle this kind of set in a way that would appeal more to me, but the end approach just feels like swamping the opponent in a sea of a billion different projectiles to cover ever angle they could come at you and not really much beyond that. Which, for the amount of effort that seems to have gone in, feels a bit disappointing to me.
I don't want to totally dismiss this set when I say this stuff. I mentioned the stuff about the systems you built being impressive for a reason, you at least make the whole thing work about as well as I could ask you to. I'm just not that fond of the core system this set works on in the first place, so it can only perform so well for me.
Dizzy
I'll admit I think this set ran into some of the same problems Patchouli did for me, where its a zoner with a truly ridiculous number of projectiles to zone with. Not as many, however, and each option feels a bit more individually fleshed out and integrated into the later inputs, so the I wouldn't say the set runs into as drastic of a quantity over quality problem. Its still there, and I don't find the set as wildly conceptually enjoyable as I did Verre, Remilia, or Crewmate, which is probably the reason I didn't come out of this set as excited as I could be over what's definitely an impressive project.
That said, Dizzy's Roman Cancels and tension are quite a fun mechanic to juggle. The process of actually getting it via tension isn't the most interesting, but at least forces Dizzy not to camp too hard, and it really is more about the payouts here. She's got some truly exceptional defensive tools that can shore up her weaknesses as a glass cannon, a death laser with enormous power and some decently potent scenarios for it to follow up out of an individual move, and Roman Cancels, which work particularly well with those core projectiles due to having a somewhat unique interaction between them and Yellow Roman Cancels(the cheaper kind). You get a choice between saving up to go all in on the death laser, shoring up your weaknesses, or having access to very powerful mixups and combo extensions that make Dizzy's projectile combination attacks and projectile supplemented approaches so potent. And its a very interesting one because even if the death laser is probably the least viable one, its still valid, and the other two are extremely important options Dizzy needs to commit to one of to actually play all that effectively.
Once the set is done with the huge number of projectiles it opens with(which, by the way, do have some pretty cool options among them, I'm a big fan of the bubbles that Dizzy can pop to extend her reach and the fish have some varied, in-depth uses both offensively and defensively that I appreciate), the melee here is quite strong. Smashes that each feel distinct in purpose, from the less powerful FSmash that none-the-less flows well into a lot of her ranged and edgeguarding tools, to Up Smash which is a great combo starter, to the vicious killing DSmash, all of them are moves that feel like they supplement the projectile game Dizzy has quite well. The air game flows quite well off the air dash, never doing anything particularly drastic with that mechanic but none-the-less integrating another Guilty Gear mechanic to some interesting extra pressure alongside her projectiles and roman cancels. While most of your sets spend a good bit of time talking about prone and tech-chasing, Dizzy goes quite a bit more in-depth on it than most, giving a detailed list similar to Hol Horse's equivalent one at one point that I quite appreciated. Its certainly not necessary in every set, but it made that part of Dizzy's game feel more like it wasn't just checking a box to make a move flow.
All in all, I did think Dizzy was quite a good set, it just didn't hit the conceptual highs of your best works last contest. And that's fine, because for what it is this is a very well done transition of a particularly MYM-y fighting game character, feeling quite true to her source material and integrating nicely into Smash at the same time.
Kagetsumugi
Pretty cool to see some of the FFC people pitching in to JamCons, its part of why this ended up the biggest JamCon we've ever had. Kagetsumugi comes out juggling quite a bold list of mechanics too. An attacking supplementing minion in Tengu is one thing, but the set also creates a whole three pronged resource economy to create minions, talismans, and dolls, with some extra ways to spend string such as your grab and Side Special. One of the potions even gives Kagetsumugi a transformation that boosts her incredibly mediocre melee game into a surprisingly potent one for a bit if she's willing to spend the resources and reduce her potion/talisman options. And I do find myself enjoying the potions and talismans, between modifying the minions to be more effective, having Tengu carry around dangerous potions on her flight trips to make her flight much scarier, or just blowing weak minions up in a devastating blast. I kind of enjoy the cost you put on the broken doll monstrosity of requiring a bunch of the previous dolls to be destroyed to make it, I think that's neat especially when her set does abuse and destroy her minions quite a bit.
Where I think it falls short for me is that the minion component, arguably the big payoff of the whole set, feels a bit poorly executed. Both of the weaker types of minion just feel like they're here to disable the foe, the broken doll monstrosity is more or less just a big wall(although its a fun bomb to use with the Chaos Talisman, for what its worth), and while Alipheese is a pretty grand reward, it mostly feels like her functions come down to "kill you really early" or "make Side Special combos into pretty much a straight up infinite until you run out of Doll Potion". I don't mind the minions being simple, necessarily, but a lot of the time it feels like it plays up the more obnoxious elements of minions, like them walling off projectiles or trapping the opponent in softlocks of stun, without really doing much that actually feels like it supplements Kagetsumugi's fighting style directly. And this set has too much stun in general, I feel, there's quite a few ways to lock your opponent down for multiple seconds at a time, self-link in a ludicrously long combo with the only setup requirement being drinking a potion, or just throw out tons of instances of little stuns between Tengu and minions that stun on contact that add up. It overall feels like it wouldn't be a very fun set to play against if she ever gets going, and that's really my biggest issue here.
Its not like there aren't interesting moves for what its worth, I like that talismans come back later for a throw, I think Up Smash is a pretty cool idea for a customizable, delaying hitbox, and I feel Forward Tilt is neat as a core melee tool that can do some double duty at recouperating or even amplifying resource generation when used on minions. But I think the set has some big issues with how it plays in that like. I like my snowball-y setup characters when it feels like they do something a bit more interesting than just trapping you in stun between their constructs forever, which is what it feels like Kagetsumugi would play like. With all that said, this set absolutely feels like you're picking up on what MYM wants out of a set at an impressive rate and having some fun with it, and I do think for what its worth, Tengu is a very fun mechanic to play around with when I just look at her in isolation. I just think it comes across as more similar to a bit of a flunked veteran effort than a big breakthrough for a newcomer, which is a fine place to be when you're still pretty new to MYM's environment and made the set in 4 days. I just think you're capable of going well beyond this.
(Also if you are going and editting up the set later, I'd recommend throwing out FSmash entirely. It basically doesn't work in its current form, nobody's going to fall for a counter with that much start lag.)
The Grimace
I'm glad you found time to put out another JamCon set after some struggles getting into a new project, and The Grimace definitely feels better than Nostalgia Critic last contest. The core projectile of him chucking around McDonalds menu items is impressively versatile, with buffs, debuffs, weight increases, and healing all serving as potential alternate functions you can get out of his big ol' menu of options. It kinda operates on the same principle as Patchouli up there did, but Grimace only really has one projectile at a time, and switches between two different menus of 4 every minute, which is an... interesting system. Its not something I think the set explores in a ton of depth necessarily, but I do like the ability to store a single breakfast/lunch menu item for later when the menu changes, or just hold onto an extra piece of food for when it'd be most convenient. I feel the set honestly stays reasonably strong through the Specials/Smashes in general, the Smash buffs via Big Mac Sauce or just being fat are fun and the Nugs even serve as an extra way to make yourself really, really fat to body slam enemies with. The fries as a way to beef up attacks even more and the goofy but enjoyable way the Up Special can be turned into a potent kill move and decent recovery is also solid.
I do think the set runs out of steam after that. I don't mind the set taking a bunch of animations from K. Rool/Patrick but its not doing much with those moves that their original users didn't already do. The big thing is that Grimace gets some armor/power from all the food he eats, which does all him to become pretty potent when he's done flinging food and binge eating to actually come out swinging, with the extra armor making his bad heavyweight neutral a little more viable and the extra power letting him score some seriously early kills. And that's neat, but I think the attacks don't end up having much more to them than that, and its particularly noticeable on the attacks that don't use Grimace's fat that they wind up with very little to talk about. I do feel like this set was more meant to be funny(which it was) and like a testing ground for some basic but fun heavyweight concepts than it was a particularly serious competitive effort, and I think it at least succeeded at that.
Though I will say, for some quick notes, I think Grimace isn't getting enough weight out of his food items, given he loses 4 units of weight per second. I think the set asks you to spam NSpecial a bit too much to get max mileage out of the melee, and it could probably afford to either have Grimace lose less weight over time or gain more from what he eats. By contrast I wonder if he heals a bit too much or his KO potential is too potent, but he's a big body heavyweight with an absolutely awful baseline recovery and worse movement than Incineroar. Its probably fine for him to have some stuff that'd be dumb on a more normal character.