So... what is her downside?

[WwwWario]

I REALLY don't want R & L to become the new Metaknight. But after playing against her alot online, and watching the official 3DS tournament, I have to ask - what are her downsides? The fact that she has Luma should weaken her in many places, because having 2 controllable players is such a massive advantage. But as far as I can see, Rosalina herself is quick, fast attacks with low ending lag on her attacks, good range on her attacks, powerful, and a great recovery. And in addition to this, she has Luma, who also looks to be very powerful actually. I mean, she has to have a downside, right? With Ice Climbers, if Nana died, you would be alot weaker, she wouldn't come back before you died yourself, and your recovery would become useless. With Rosalina, she doesn't need Luma to fight - she is strong enough and has more than good enough recovery on her own. Luma feels like an additiona character just added to her moveset, without any cons, and also, Luma comes back very shortly after dying.... :\

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

Rosalina is a very tall fighter for someone who's very lightweight; she's the 4th lightest fighter in the game. Additionally, Rosalina relies on her Luma partner to get some quick KOs in, since without it, Rosalina's attacks pack less punch, with a few exceptions.

Of course, Rosalina's primary weakness mostly comes from the fighters who can quickly get at her face. Some of those very mobile fighters include Little Mac, Zero Suit Samus, Sheik, and even Greninja. In Little Mac's case, however, it's entirely stage dependent, as he's terrible in the air; he relies a lot on Omega Form stages to be lethal. Of course, not all highly mobile fighters can effectively handle Rosalina's combat options.

Anyway, Rosalina does have her weaknesses, so it's not like she'll ever be as overpowering as Brawl Meta Knight.

 

[Augi Jr.]

Rosalina is the 4th lightest character in the game.

Her recovery is predictable.

 

[Puppyfaic]

-Sub-par damage without Luma
-Predictable recovery
-Incredibly light
-Big hurtbox
-Doesn't have the greatest aerial coverage.

That's about it.

 

[Conda]

Luma respawns super quick, so I don't see it as much of a weakness, and she still has disjointed capabilities without luma. Definitely not a requirement to do well - Rosalina on her own is NOT like 1 ice climber on their own.

 

[ParanoidDrone]

Rosalina is the 4th lightest character in the game.

Her recovery is predictable.

Linear, yes. Predictable, I'll have to question. Once she launches she's on a set trajectory, but you can angle the launch basically anywhere from straight up to 45 degrees, which gives her a lot of freedom to bait an edgeguard attempt and launch herself somewhere they don't cover, or even right past them after they whiff. She's floaty enough that it's feasible.

 

[Ganreizu]

Luma respawns super quick, so I don't see it as much of a weakness

On the flip side, luma is STUPID easy to get rid of super quick. Luma is easier to get rid of than nana (for good reason; you're not limited to 1 luma per stock).

Is not having luma a downgrade? Yes. Is being weaker without luma in both spacing and kill power, and luma being easy to get rid of weaknesses? Yup. Whether those weaknesses matter or not comes down to capitalization in any situation where a character's weakness shows even if it's a weakness as glaring as aerial little mac.

 

[SwoodGrommet]

I find that once I get her in the air, she's easy pickings for aerial attacks. Pretty easy to KO in my opinion.

 

[Percentful]

I find she struggles with being juggled. She's super floaty, very light, and without luma doesn't have many quick aerial options. Besides being predictable, her recovery is also easy to screw up.
She's definitely not as overpowered as Meta Knight was in brawl. And note that Meta Knight was not unbeatable.

 

[Clemente]

I find it hard to juggle her because all of her aerials have such a large hitbox, and they go on for a long time. She seems to have an advantage on the air and ground.

I find she struggles with being juggled. She's super floaty, very light, and without luma doesn't have many quick aerial options. Besides being predictable, her recovery is also easy to screw up.
She's definitely not as overpowered as Meta Knight was in brawl. And note that Meta Knight was not unbeatable.

Nothing is unbeatable and you have to factor in player skill (just stating the obvious), but she probably will be around MK tier and the top pick for tournaments

The first official tournament would have ended up with Rosalina&Luma vs Rosalina&Luma if the brackets were different, but the Rosalina&Lumas all knocked eachother out.

 

[ZombieBran]

She has weaknesses, as was mentioned.
Whether they're significant enough to keep her from dominating remains to be seen.

It seems like she has the most potential in the oft referenced top tier (Rosalina, Zamus, Sheik) to become broken. But she also seems to have the most exploitable weakness of the three.

 

[popsofctown]

Big thing to note as a difference between Rosa and MK: MK was slightly lighter than average, but had one of the fastest fall speeds in the game. So kills off the top behaved like he was Wario.

Rosalina has one of the slowest fall speeds in the game. She dies off the top suuuper early. Vertical KOers will likely emerge as counters

 

[ParanoidDrone]

Big thing to note as a difference between Rosa and MK: MK was slightly lighter than average, but had one of the fastest fall speeds in the game. So kills off the top behaved like he was Wario.

...I never noticed that, really. Huh.

 

[popsofctown]

Amongst players that did notice, many don't realize that your fall speed applies while you are being launched upwards.

Killing off the top is a softcounter strategy to non-MK characters with godlike recoveries. I once counterpicked a G&W to Halberd as Snake with minimal Snake experience just so I could uptilt him. G&W's fall speed is feather.

 

[ChikoLad]

Big thing to note as a difference between Rosa and MK: MK was slightly lighter than average, but had one of the fastest fall speeds in the game. So kills off the top behaved like he was Wario.

Rosalina has one of the slowest fall speeds in the game. She dies off the top suuuper early. Vertical KOers will likely emerge as counters

Brawl didn't have vectoring though, which has made this less of an issue for Rosalina.

 

[ParanoidDrone]

Amongst players that did notice, many don't realize that your fall speed applies while you are being launched upwards.

Killing off the top is a softcounter strategy to non-MK characters with godlike recoveries. I once counterpicked a G&W to Halberd as Snake with minimal Snake experience just so I could uptilt him. G&W's fall speed is feather.

I knew fallspeed correlated to vertical KO percent, I just didn't know MK was a fastfaller like that.

 

[Jesse Martinez]

People still putting Rosalina in MK tier this early, jeez. People need to realize top tier =/= broken. As a character overall, Rosie has a ton of strengths and options, but that's because of how much utility she has because of Luma. She's extremely light and has issues with pressure game, especially with characters within the same tier as her (broken characters vastly eclipse every other character, even those in the same tier). Sure the longer the game is out the more tech people will find with her, but also more ways people will find to deal with it. TI've only played Melee/Pm/Sm4sh with friends who take it semi-seriously until the release of the 3DS and trying to attend locals, but I have experience when it comes to other fighting games, and I feel as if this general rule of thumb carries over regardless of what kind of fighter it is.