What are your thoughts on Spirit Mode?

[Arthur97]

Don't really see the issue with who owns the rights to the bosses, as long as they are good. So far Rathalos is the only odd one out in representing a series without a playable rep and third party, but you could do a lot worse than him since Monster Hunter was big on Nintendo, at least for a while.

For one, the Nintendo characters make up the bulk of the roster and should have the bulk of the bosses. They should at least have top billing.

 

[RouffWestie]

I've now seen everything I need to form my conclusive thoughts on this mode.
Actual Spoilers ahead.

Spoiler

I'm definitely going to get bored of spirit battles quickly. It is the most repetitive mode ever, I don't need to play it to say that. I saw a lot more similar fights than I expected; lots of, "basic 1 vs 2," battles and definitely waaaaaay too many in the category of, "Battlefield/Omega form stage with 1 different thing going on." I recall past Event Modes having a bit more variety to their challenges.
Most of the special rules were really insignificant. Like, what's the point of a spirit battle that's just... a character alongside an assist trophy, or holding an item, or using a move .01% more often than the rest of his/her moves, or spamming a move that makes them vulnerable and easier to kill, or literally just having slightly more power/speed? You can instantly negate any of the basic hazards like floor and wind with a single support spirit, so what's even the point of having challenges like that? I plan to stick to Special Smash if I want a spiced up battle.
I don't think feeding and leveling is going to be fun or rewarding enough for me to bother with it. Eh, just feels like if I was struggling to beat a spirit battle, the multiple characters at my disposal with their own sets of strengths and weaknesses seems superior to some lame grind-for-a-minor-stat-boost option.
The skill tree however is definitely something I'll use. It's much more simple and to the point; get the skill spheres, get the boost. If you're going to include any sort of customization, that's as much as you'd need in a game like Smash.

Overall I don't think it's going to be a very fun mode, it's a 3/10 if I were rating it.
But like

THE DONKEY KONG COUNTRY MAP!

THE LITTLE ZELDA PUZZLES!

YO, A PLAYABLE MASTER HAND SEGMENT!

OH JEEESUS THAT FINAL BATTLE WITH GALEEM AND DARKHON!

There's so many little things here and there that are so amazing, that just knock it out of the park! They should have done more of that and less of that other crap. I wish I didn't have to trudge through the garbage main mode to get to the really cool stuff.

 

[meleebrawler]

I've now seen everything I need to form my conclusive thoughts on this mode.
Actual Spoilers ahead.

Spoiler

I'm definitely going to get bored of spirit battles quickly. It is the most repetitive mode ever, I don't need to play it to say that. I saw a lot more similar fights than I expected; lots of, "basic 1 vs 2," battles and definitely waaaaaay too many in the category of, "Battlefield/Omega form stage with 1 different thing going on." I recall past Event Modes having a bit more variety to their challenges.
Most of the special rules were really insignificant. Like, what's the point of a spirit battle that's just... a character alongside an assist trophy, or holding an item, or using a move .01% more often than the rest of his/her moves, or spamming a move that makes them vulnerable and easier to kill, or literally just having slightly more power/speed? You can instantly negate any of the basic hazards like floor and wind with a single support spirit, so what's even the point of having challenges like that? I plan to stick to Special Smash if I want a spiced up battle.
I don't think feeding and leveling is going to be fun or rewarding enough for me to bother with it. Eh, just feels like if I was struggling to beat a spirit battle, the multiple characters at my disposal with their own sets of strengths and weaknesses seems superior to some lame grind-for-a-minor-stat-boost option.
The skill tree however is definitely something I'll use. It's much more simple and to the point; get the skill spheres, get the boost. If you're going to include any sort of customization, that's as much as you'd need in a game like Smash.

Overall I don't think it's going to be a very fun mode, it's a 3/10 if I were rating it.
But like

THE DONKEY KONG COUNTRY MAP!

THE LITTLE ZELDA PUZZLES!

YO, A PLAYABLE MASTER HAND SEGMENT!

OH JEEESUS THAT FINAL BATTLE WITH GALEEM AND DARKHON!

There's so many little things here and there that are so amazing, that just knock it out of the park! They should have done more of that and less of that other crap. I wish I didn't have to trudge through the garbage main mode to get to the really cool stuff.

I play Monster Hunter, and have two very simple tips to alleviate your potential frustrations: breaks and variety.

Don't force yourself to play through if you're feeling burnout. Just do a couple of levels at a time in between normal gameplay or other games entirely. The bite-sized battles make it easy to fit in a schedule, and it's far from the fastest or best way to unlocking characters so it's not like you have to force yourself for that.

 

[lady_sky skipper]

I like Spirit mode a lot myself, the only nitpick I have is that inanimate objects are considered spirits when they're really more like ghostly relics. (Now that's a neat idea for a subcategory for items/vehicles you can get in Spirits mode.) I do have fun leveling up my spirits and my sister is just now having them level up in Doc Louis's gym. It's also a neat idea to showcase characters that haven't made it into Smash Ultimate.

 

[Koopaul]

I think there was just too many Spirits. As a result, very few of the battles stuck with me. I ended up powering through most of them. A lot of the battles were very similar too. The novelty of fighting a video game character in spirit was lost on a lot of them. And when you aquire them, there are just so many that do the same thing.

I think in the case of Spirits, less is more. Have less Spirits but make them all very distinct and interesting. This is pretty much what happened with trophies over the years too. There was so many in the Wii U game that they didn't seem special anymore.

 

[Idon]

Neat references.
Terrible gamemode.

Overall, would not mind this getting axed in the future.

 

[TheTrueBrawler]

I really enjoyed World of Light which I will not spoil, but I enjoyed the battle so much that I'm fighting on the spirit board often now.

 

[Goddamn_Angela]

I really, really dislike the Spirit board and found WoL tedious.

Setting up and doing spirit battles gets boring real quick, especially on the spirit board because losing means the Spirit disappears so you have to wait for it to show up again so you can attempt the battle again. No thanks.

 

[meleebrawler]

I really, really dislike the Spirit board and found WoL tedious.

Setting up and doing spirit battles gets boring real quick, especially on the spirit board because losing means the Spirit disappears so you have to wait for it to show up again so you can attempt the battle again. No thanks.

There's an item you can use to get a rematch, which you can buy in bulk at the gold shop or just accumulate naturally.

 

[Goddamn_Angela]

There's an item you can use to get a rematch, which you can buy in bulk at the gold shop or just accumulate naturally.

Really?!

wtf have I been doing with my life? Thank you!

 

[meleebrawler]

Really?!

wtf have I been doing with my life? Thank you!

You push Y on the board and you get a list of items that can reshuffle or refill the spirits on the board instead of waiting.