Just a question, how do people imagine a tag team concept working? Is it like Pokemon Trainer or something like Ice Climbers? I've just been thinking it works quite well but wondering how the parameters would differentiate from the other duo characters depending on which angle they look at.
I've been playing around with such an idea, actually.
The core idea is a tag team concept with only one in battle at a time (so like
instead of
), but with a twist. Instead of being able to swap out at any time, you'd need to
land certain attacks, which would then have the option to switch between them. For example, maybe their forward throws would have the active one lob the enemy forward as the other tags in with a followup attack while the one who performed the throw tags out. The moves could be scattered across their movesets strategially--a throw or two, a couple specials,
maybe a smash attack, etc.
So if you have to rely on landing certain attacks to switch between them, what's the upside?
Well, if you've gone enough time since the previous swap, the one who comes in would gain a temporary buff! Based on their abilities
Intrepid Sword and
Dauntless Shield (which buff Atk or Def upon switching in, respectively), Zacian would gain a boost to damage dealt while Zamazenta would have his damage taken reduced! I'm not sure exactly how long the buffs would last--maybe 10 seconds at most?
This would create a unique take on the concept of a tag team fighter that'd stand out from any we've seen prior. While the ability to switch between them would be more limited than other examples, they'd have extra incentive to keep tagging out for each other every now and then.
Of course, it'd still require two movesets for one DLC fighter, which is
probably asking a bit much of the smaller development team.
Personally, I think it'd work best as a Zelda/Sheik type deal where you can switch between an aggressive Pokemon with high attack power and speed and a Pokemon who can shrug off just about any attack when its guard is up.
That's one way to look at it...though Zelda and Sheik never really worked in practice. They were originally
supposed to be split between power (Zelda) and speed (Sheik), but Zelda's strongest moves were so difficult to hit with and Sheik still had good enough kill options (that means
you, Frame 5 semispike forward air) that there was basically no reason to ever use Zelda.
Then Brawl happened, and they
both sucked! And they've been separate fighters ever since--which makes sense in Ultimate, since now they're two different Zeldas from two different eras.
I see Zacian and Zamazenta being split more between
Offense and
Defense. Zacian would be a full on zone breaker who excels at approaching and pressuring with her sword, while Zamazenta would be more about baiting and punishing enemy aggression (with an extra focus on punishing stuff out-of-shield). However, their stats wouldn't be
as extreme of opposites as past tag team concepts--Zacian would still be pretty heavy even though her brother is heavier, Zamazenta would still have above average mobility as a whole even though his sister is faster, and both would be roughly the same size and among the biggest characters in the game. Their attacks, and the properties
of said attacks, would be what diverges their fighting styles.
