Which kind of balance?

[SageOfTime]

Balance in a game is important. When some things are overpowered and others underpowered, it's a lot less fun. So, everyone complains when the SSB games are unbalanced. However, there are different things that need to be balanced. I am asking, which is more important to you?

Character balance: Each character has their own strengths and weaknesses that give them different strengths and weaknesses. Perfect character balance would mean no tiers.

Stage balance: Each stage would have different elements that shake up tactics without being too random or unfair. Perfect stage balance would mean all stages being tournament legal.

Answer in the poll, and comment your reasons for your choice!

 

[Zonderion]

I voted for character balance, but that's only because I don't want any Godly tiers like MetaKnight got. There should be tiers and those tiers will change as the metagame changes.

Stage balance isn't a big concern. Sure we need some neutral stages, but we also need counter pick stages. We need stages that character X doesn't do well at so we can counter their character X with that stage. I believe it adds depth to the game.

So IMHO, We need neither perfectly balanced characters, or perfectly balanced stages.

 

[Renji64]

Character is the only choice if there are some good stages people should be fine.

 

[Seraphim.]

Character balance should be a number 1 priority imo, can't tell you how many people I've seen give up their actual favorite character and pick up a good character. I would want Smash 4 to be a game where you can use your favorite character and still have a good chance to win.

 

[SageOfTime]

Character balance should be a number 1 priority imo, can't tell you how many people I've seen give up their actual favorite character and pick up a good character. I would want Smash 4 to be a game where you can use your favorite character and still have a good chance to win.

I feel the exact same way.

 

[Violenceman]

I like off-the-wall stages, so if all stages were designed to be tournament legal, I would actually be kinda disappointed.

 

[Tepig2000]

Character balance. If you have some really powerful characters and some really weak ones but you like the weak ones you feel forced to play as the ones you don't like because they are stronger. If there is only one neutral stages and the rest is banned in tournaments, then you can just always play on the neutral one.

 

[D-idara]

Neither, focus on character balance means less characters.
Focus on stage balance guarantees flat, boring stages like Smashville or Battlefield.

 

[pitthekit]

Neither, focus on character balance means less characters.
Focus on stage balance guarantees flat, boring stages like Smashville or Battlefield.

lol would you rather have 30 well balanced characters with little diffrence in tiers or 50 chars where there are only 8 are high tiers

 

[SKM_NeoN]

This is a much better question than most people here seem to think in my opinion. As amazing as it would be for every character to stand an equal chance at winning a tournament, if all the stages were like Brinstar Depths or New Pork City I wouldn't enjoy it at all. I actually couldn't decide. Although you really didn't specify how the stages would play out given the character balance choice, that was my interpretation of it.

 

[moneyfrenzy]

Character balance by far.

I LOVE crazy stages as long as the design is good. I HATED new pork city, despite it being crazy, because of its terrible design. But i loved pirate ship cuz of its awesome design.

Imo there only needs to be like 5 "balanced" stages. So far we have battlefield, new smashville, final destination, pyrosphere (subject to change), and maybe garden of hope and the lost world stage.

 

[pitthekit]

Character balance by far.

I LOVE crazy stages as long as the design is good. I HATED new pork city, despite it being crazy, because of its terrible design. But i loved pirate ship cuz of its awesome design.

Imo there only needs to be like 5 "balanced" stages. So far we have battlefield, new smashville, final destination, pyrosphere (subject to change), and maybe garden of hope and the lost world stage.

I agree with everything I hated pork city cuz of those purple dogs. Speaking of char balance I can tell samus will be low tier since they never buffed her only "improved her visual-wise"

 

[XTheElegantShadowX]

Honestly, I would pick character balance over stage balance. Whenever I hear "This Stage must be banned because:" I can't help but cringe a bit. Even in a Tournament scene this seems a bit ridiculous. I realize that it is for the sake of a "Fair Fight," but at the cost of not even using 1/2 the stages in the game? That ramble aside, yes, character balance would be a higher priority, only because the latter problem is more of a debate of "Hey, this stage is unfair!" and "No, it isn't. Now THIS stage is unfair!."

 

[pitthekit]

Honestly, I would pick character balance over stage balance. Whenever I hear "This Stage must be banned because:" I can't help but cringe a bit. Even in a Tournament scene this seems a bit ridiculous. I realize that it is for the sake of a "Fair Fight," but at the cost of not even using 1/2 the stages in the game? That ramble aside, yes, character balance would be a higher priority, only because the latter problem is more of a debate of "Hey, this stage is unfair!" and "No, it isn't. Now THIS stage is unfair!."

Which brawl stage do you think was wrongly banned?

 

[D-idara]

lol would you rather have 30 well balanced characters with little diffrence in tiers or 50 chars where there are only 8 are high tiers

50 with 25 on high tiers would cut it for me...BECAUSE SMASH IS ABOUT THE CHARS!

 

[XTheElegantShadowX]

Which brawl stage do you think was wrongly banned?

Luigi's Mansion, Temple (Melee), and Skyworld just to name a few; Yes, I did read the reasoning for why they're Banned, but honestly, it seems more like they want every stage to be Final Destination, rather than have any form of variation in battles. I will agree with the Banning of Stages like Warioware, Inc. and Port Town Aero Dive, but a good few of these Stage Bans seem to all amount to, "Oh, look, this tactic is more viable on this Stage than on others. Well, we can't have that."