I agree with you on a lot of stuff here, but how was I hostile? I used a few swears, jeez.
Anyway, I mentioned the part about being slow for balancing issues. In the actual Zelda games, Ganondorf just moves slowly and nonchalantly towards his foes. He's to wheezing and croaking while he moves towards link, he's just confident and displays this by moving slowly. Sakurai has said outright that Ganondorf moves like an old man who "gasps as he moves". This is also reflected in his running animation, where he looks like he's having a stroke or something. This is a creative liberty by Sakurai to make a misrepresented character even MORE misrepresented. Characters like Bowser, Ike, and Palutena move slowly, but still have agility and capability reflected in their animations and movesets. It's not like Ike is gasping and wheezing as he runs in the same way Ganondorf does. Ganondorf was deliberately made less like he is in the games, and I have no idea why. Seriously, couldn't the work put into making his animations look like he's some businessman running a 5k have been used for like 1 other move? It's kind of weird, and I have no idea why Sakurai made this decision. It's like changing Gandalf from the capable and skilled fighter in the Lord of the Rings series to some gasping old man.
Anyway, I agree that Melee's Ganondorf cloning was not a result of laziness. The other two, however, were just a result of phoning it in. Especially in Smash 4.
Well, beginning with "there are multiple things wrong here" and that "the Sparta kick doesn't mean ****" are aggressive in tone. Also, I never justified why Ganondorf is the way he is, instead I was pointing out how Ganondorf slowly is gaining moves from Zelda and has moves that are characteristic to him like Flame Choke.
Ganondorf's dashing animation was just weird since it was the Capt.'s but slower. In Brawl and SSB4, it's more like a regular person jogging compared to everyone else, especially Mega Man's and Fox's ninja run, Shiek's "I have idea what she's doing", and Marth's "lean in and die". Seriously, if I saw someone like Marth run up to me like that I would either boot his head or grab something pointy and let him run into it.
Ganondorf's jog doesn't translate well. If he ran faster, but with this form or a form closer to running than jogging. I think it'd be okay, but he moves slow and it just seem out of place. Hyrule Warriors had him do sort of a mad, berserker, blood-rush, "you gon' die" sprint.
I think Sakurai wanted Ganondorf to reflect the mighty glacier archetype of a slow moving, but incredibly powerful character. If his dash speed was slow, but sinister, I don't think it would have been that bad like if it was just a faster version of his run animation - there's like walk, run, and dash, right?
I think Sakurai prioritized Bowser because one, he's completely misrepresented since Melee and still is to this day - his voice is still from Mario Kart 64. So, Bowser looks more kid-friendly like in his actual games instead of whatever Godzilla reject. At least Ganondorf looks like Ganondorf and has moves that are what Ganondorf would do rather than the violent, "I'mma keel" you thing Bowser had for 2 games.
Ganondorf began in concept as something I would say might have caused Ike to become a semi-clone, but things happened and he became a Captain Falcon clone, then became a failed representation of a mighty glacier, and is now a fixed mighty glacier.
Link is more like Link with his backflips and Jump Attack. That's Link. Sheik definitely fits the sneaky ninja theme, but Ganondorf and Zelda are just hanging there. Sure, Ganondorf's powerful, but he's lacking Dead Man's Volley, still is based on the Capt., and for some, lacking his sword. As for Zelda, sure, she's a mage, but really? She never used Din's Fire, Farore's Wind, and Nayru's Love. The only move that she actually uses is Light Arrow while the others had to be made up.
Hear me out on this one: Sakurai technically isn't a first-party developer, but he works for Nintendo like how Insomniac Games don't belong to Sony, but work on Ratchet & Clank a first-party game Insomniac began. He knows what's going on like how he knew about Greninja and picked him for SSB4. In theory, he probably knows about future plans and knows about Zelda Wii U's early concept. Now, let's assume Ganondorf and Zelda are in Zelda Wii U. Knowing that, what if Ganondorf and Zelda are much more different and much more bad*** in Zelda Wii U?
Nintendo would be against having any evidence of them in SSB4, but had SSB4 been released after Zelda Wii U, then I wouldn't doubt that Ganondorf and Zelda would be based on that along with Link. So, Sakurai would be in a dilemma: fix Link, Ganondorf, and Zelda from Brawl or make them more like the current lore, Twilight Princess, and have most if not all of that effort never come back again.
Let's say Zelda Wii U is the last, big Zelda game on Wii U before another console comes out or before like 5 years later when another Zelda game comes out. Link would be more like an archer so, SSB5 would probably make Link an even better ranger. Lets say Zelda uses a staff and for no reason at all, only water magic in Zelda Wii U. Great, all that work giving her a rapier and making her specials all based on light magic is never coming back until way, way later. As for Ganondorf, let's say he's like a technological revolutionary who uses a magical - gotta stay kid-friendly here - hand cannon and saber. Great! All that work giving him a massive sword and now Ganondorf's a freaking pirate or musketeer.
So, Sakurai could have done something, but let's say doing so makes the game delayed or consumes time for two other characters meaning two less on the roster. Oh, but quality over quantity. Let's say those two are Ike and Shulk. Knowing people, they would be ****ed. Oh, and let's not mention the asinine issue where for whatever stupid reason, despite Nintendo knowing that SSB is a beloved franchise, Sakurai always, ALWAYS has to start from scratch because there aren't any data centers housing past game data. REALLY, NINTENDO?! I can understand deleting SSB64 or really old games, but Brawl which is still somewhat recent and where Sakurai could have easily referenced if there was a data center and maybe just copied and pasted animations, stages, etc. and update them?
I'm not a developer, but having the ability to reference like that would have been tremendously helpful. Nope, gotta let Sakurai waste himself re-creating characters, stages, and such and anger fans because character were caught since they would take to long to recreate. SHOULD I mention that there are "perfect" characters? Characters who's move set and play style just click like I don't know... Marth, Fox, Ike, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Captain Falcon, Triple D, Meta Knight - it'd just be unbreaking him -, Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Dr. Mario, and more. Maybe it's misquoted or misunderstood, but still.
The other thing is work ethic. Japan's work ethic is simply put, bad. Sick? Work harder. Stressed out? Work harder. Funeral? Work harder. Onset of insanity? Work harder. Look up hikikomori. They're NEETs who live in their homes and don't do stuff because Japan's societal pressure is extreme.
Sure, this means that Japan's games tend to be less glitchy and more polished, but that also means the death of them and if you haven't noticed, but stress does things to you like makes you irritable which might explain why Hideki Kamiya will snap at people or why Sakurai's health is deteriorating and why he might never return for SSB. It also explains why tons of people leave Capcom to form their own development studios that are a mix of western and eastern work ethic.
For me, since Zelda is ever changing compared to Mario, Animal Crossing, Donkey Kong, and even Metroid - it's mostly weapons and suit designs -, that's one issue which I will suspect Zelda Wii U will involve major or noticeable changes to the trio. Two, data which might be misquoted or Sakurai's work code of starting from scratch which isn't bad, but it's incredibly taxing because three, work ethic. Add time mismanagement, budgets, and conflicts and we know why Ganondorf is the way he is.
Next time SSB is developed, they better have more than just Sakurai if he even comes back, Sora Ltd. and some other company. It'd be better if they just had Sakurai, Sora Ltd., 5-10 members of each franchise's development team even if they're just concept designers, writers, etc., the third-party devs like Sega, Namco, and hell, why not have Nintendo work it out? You'd have the main team, people who know the franchises and can offer advice on representation, and the workforce.
It's just really weird for a massive game like this to only have such a small team. I know there are small teams that make giant games, but fighting games tend to be another beast.
