Yeah i doubt they'd make her top tier 1:1 zelda honestly. She'd probably play worse than zelda than an actual copy.
Just changing the effects just isn't enough hype imo, I bet the PMDV wants the mod to stand out and give the smash community a fresh look at competitive smash and they wont stop until they feel they've succeeded. Also given the competitors shes against, she doesn't really have much going for her. Metriod and earthbound don't have much really which is why simple effect changes could work for them. ex. ninten/MM, Or Dark samus.
But doing another FE CE char like that would be kinda a waste imo, I'd rather have the FE char whoever it is, have a bit of more work be put in there.
I know its easy to say that the PMDV will just do easy clones and call it a day. But honestly i think the PMDV will actually give it the extra effort and make some pretty hype characters. I believe that the PMDV arent just cutting corners like that, I know its hard to make a character. But i kinda doubt every character they choose will be an easy one.
Also given that Micaiah isn't really too popular, i honestly dont see her being made. Not trying to bag on micaiah I actually am ok with the character, i just dont see her going over lyn or honestly hector, who ike just got his "armor" from as a skin.
You can't say that she'd play worse than Zelda or anything. You just don't know. Or "just changing the effects" will not generate hype. Again, think of Captain Falcon and Ganondorf. Virtually all the same moves but with changes. Hey, including effect changes! Add shadow effects to Falcon's move (and replace fire with shadow when appropriate). It's more than that. There are many subtleties that make a completely different character.
And while we're on the subject, this is actually one thing I wanted to address. I keep seeing the same phrase, probably reiterated in different forms, but it's always the same:
"If the PMBR/DV is going to make a character. They're not going to make a clone. They're going to go all out because that's the kind of quality they do."
I feel like there's absolutely no substance to this statement and in fact incredibly simplified the process that they have to go through.
Mewtwo and Roy were one thing. They were existing characters. They had animations that we knew. They had moves with parameters we
knew. They had a
metagame we knew. Most of the work, which was still a LOT of work, was spent on recreating these things, and then applying that extra touch by doing what they did to a lot of other characters by further specializing them.
This won't be the case for any new character. Everything is unknown. Animations. There is NO moveset to build on. Don't forget EACH move is made up of a complex combination of animations (which are extensive on their own), and a dozen parameters including hitbox, damage, timing, and knockback, among other things. Then there are all the non-moves, including just movement and idling.
Now look at a simple clone character. Think about how much effort it would take to BALANCE a character even if all the animations are fairly easy. Each move has to be redone still. Then it has to spend a lot of time balancing because there is no metagame. The level of planning has not really existed before. With all the other characters, it was mainly changes based on a known metagame.. and these changes would be small and subtle, affecting a few moves, but potentially have huge impacts on the game. Building a moveset from scratch, even from a clone character just
dramatically amplified that difficult process because you do that for EVERY move, as well as changing the main physics of the character itself. And when you add this character, you create dozens of new, unknown matchups. And this is all for a character that's cloned off another.
Now for a clone engine character that is COMPLETELY unique... please just follow the path I've been outlining and realize how hard that is. If you're familiar with StarCraft, a game that's famous for its incredible balance... It's practically like creating another race.
That's why I keep saying... realistically, we should expect no more than TWO actual unique characters (that would probably include Isaac), one if we're lucky. Even the original PMBR post to comment on the clone engine SPECIFICALLY said it would be ideal if they were clones. And AGAIN, EVEN IF they are clones, you can still expect PMBR quality. Being a clone does not equate to lack of quality. It equates to having a product that can actually be done in a reasonable amount of time and energy.
It might be sobering for fans of having a special Lyn moveset, or voting for Ninten based on a proposed possible moveset, but that's the reality