Why Do You Main Palutena?

[HarajukuNinja]

Back when Palutena's reveal trailer was first released, nearly everyone thought she was going to be an overpowered character and were eager to main her. However, when the game finally came out, many of those people were disappointed with her toolkit and dismissed her as a "bottom tier character" with her default moveset. So I want to know, why did you chose to play her and what made you stick with her despite all of the criticism she's been given gameplay-wise? Since I'm the one asking, I'll start. Though my reasoning will be different from most since I didn't play a single Kid Icarus game prior to Smash 4.

It all started in Brawl. Pit was observing the stadium as it was being absorbed and sent to subspace when suddenly, a woman shrouded in light appeared behind him and gave him a bow to fight with. At the time I didn't know who she was, but I thought she was a very interesting character and that it be nice for her to be playable in the next Smash game. Little did I know, she was going to be confirmed a few years later. Despite this, I wasn't interested in maining her.

When I got my hands on Smash 4, I had already had a list of characters I wanted to try out. Palutena wasn't one of them at first, but whenever I look at the select screen, she just sticks out. In comparison to the rest of the cast, she's very detailed, much like her Brawl incarnation. I couldn't help but try her out at least. So I did.... And I wanted to throw my 3DS out the window out of frustration. I had no idea how to play her nor was I interested in learning how, so I dropped her immediately. It wasn't until I saw videos of AeroLink that I decided to pick her up again. Looking at the way he played her, I thought, "Maybe I can do that too," and decided to give her a second chance and actually commit to learning how to use her. After learning her bread-n-butters and techniques, I realized how fun she is to play and how much she fits my playstyle. Then she just stuck with me as one of my mains as she brought along two other characters () and introduced me to a wonderful franchise.

I'm curious to hear other's experiences.

 

[Wintropy]

Played Uprising, fell in love with it, wished hard for Palutena in Smash 4, screamed like a schoolgirl in a teddy bear factory when she was revealed.

And here we are~ :3

 

[SomewhatMystia]

Exactly what Wintropy said, except with the addition of 'I just like how she plays.' Yeah her basic specials aren't particularly, well, special, but her tilts and aerials seem pretty solid.

Also I just can't get enough of blocking stuff with her dash attack.

 

[Nexin]

When the trailer was first revealed, I actually wasn't interested in her at all. I had never played any of the Kid Icarus games before I got Smash 4, plus when I found out how far her up smash reached, I thought that she was going to be a zoner, which is a playstyle that I generally don't enjoy using.

I wasn't that interested in her until late October when I heard that everybody thought she was the worst character in the game. I wanted to know why people thought she was horrible and I wanted to see if I could figure out away to win with her, so I decided to play her whenever I wasn't interested in using either Little Mac or Lucina, who were my mains at the time. After playing her for about a week, I decided I liked her enough to make her a secondary. Around mid November, I enjoyed playing her so much that I decided to make her my main, and to this day that hasn't changed.

 

[Kurri ★]

Well I never played a Kid icarus game (or Metroid, or Mother, or Fire Emblem, or LoZ outside of Windwaker, or StarFox, I haven't played a lot of games) so like every one of my mains over Samsh History, I just like the way she played. And because I don't have a 3DS I searched gameplay of Uprising and lo and behold, she's actually a cool character. Wish I could say the same for Roy, but from what I'm told he's actually nothing special, like in Melee

 

[Yoshi Kirishima]

The trailer was p cool, but I wasn't very hyped at it. I didn't really care about Palutena being in Smash, at the time I even thought it was a little weird / not warranted. I wasn't into the greek design and the idea of a goddess.

Smash 4 came out, I got my hands on it. I was going to main Robin, and she was very fun like I thought. The first character I wanted to check out as an off character was Palutena. She was very interesting. She felt very bad and weird, but strangely she felt VERY FUN unlike other characters. She had that depth, high skill ceiling, and although she has a less well-rounded kit she has a very unique one. I loved doing dthrow into upsmash, back in the days of vectoring and people not knowing how to escape it. Then I found there many many combos out of dthrow, and all these interesting properties such as her Shield attacks.

Soon enough, even though my Palutena was still much weaker than Robin, I grinded out 3k games with her in just 2-3 months. DAMN was she fun. Robin was great, but Palutena was unimagineably awesome. I started loving her design, I looked into Uprising and realized how awesome Pit and Palutena and all the other characters in there are (as expected as Sakurai), and I started realizing how Palutena is this deep zoner who has both rush down and turtle elements, and how she has fun "keep away" tools that are in other FGs but absent in smash until Smash 4 (such as the wind effects, push effect from barrier, auto reticle just being very interesting, and although only to a very small extent, her ftilt and buffed upsmash serve as "pillar" attacks).

She was fast, she had a grab game, an interesting projectile, enormous kill power favoring reads, unique zoning and kit, great lore and personality, fun spacing moves, rush down elements, anime-esque announcing of moves, a recovery I could live with, and overall good tools with a good amount of risk/tradeoff so that it feels like you're really working hard to win. I started to see her as a waifu, instead of some visually unpleasant greek godess.

 

[NovemberMan]

I'm somewhat in the same boat as you are. I also found Palutena to be an interesting character when I first saw her in Brawl's Subspace Emissary; I also didn't know who she was, since I never played a Kid Icarus game at the time. However, I was actually hoping to see more of her throughout the Subspace Emissary, but to my dismay, that kind of didn't happen.

Personally, I never thought she'd be a playable character. In fact, it never even crossed my mind that she would be - until people started speculating about her. With that, I thought to myself, not only was she sidelined for the rest of the Subspace Emissary in Brawl, making her irrelevant, but she was also a stagnant character in the first two games that she was in. I just didn't think she'd be fighting material.

When I saw the trailer for her reveal in Smash 4, I was like "What!? How? When? What game?". I looked up the Kid Icarus franchise again and remembered that there was a third game; Kid Icarus: Uprising. I wondered if that game was the basis for her moveset - turned out to be the basis for most of Smash 4. Either way, I got kind of hyped and was looking forward to trying her out. Ironically, she was the first character I used in Smash 4 (that's how hyped I was), considering the fact that I always started every new Smash Bros. game with Mario, and honestly, I don't really regret it. Plus I like her design; it's pretty elaborate in a good way.

Also, seeing how unorthodox this character is in the competitive field, it motivated me to make her my definitive main.

 

[lostleader]

I played Uprising and fell in love with the characters! (I was one of the few people that really wanted Pitoo because he is a great character). Palutena was a surprise, but I certainly like her character a lot. She's like the big sister that messes with you all the time. Course when I first picked up Smash 4, and played her I found that she was really bad, but with a few patches and matches I learned to play her and like playing with her.

...
Smash 4 came out, I got my hands on it. I was going to main Robin, and she was very fun like I thought. The first character I wanted to check out as an off character was Palutena. She was very interesting. She felt very bad and weird, but strangely she felt VERY FUN unlike other characters. She had that depth, high skill ceiling, and although she has a less well-rounded kit she has a very unique one. I loved doing dthrow into upsmash, back in the days of vectoring and people not knowing how to escape it. Then I found there many many combos out of dthrow, and all these interesting properties such as her Shield attacks.
...
.

Oddly enough I kinda went that way too, I really liked Robin's B move (personally think its the best in game), but I just wasn't liking how Robin played overall. It was pretty much tactical thinking and defensive play. Which honestly I don't mind so much, but when it comes down to it I like the option to rushdown. With Pretty Lady Palutena I had this option, and unlike Shiek (another character I would regularly use) I could kill regularly with her. Shiek maybe top, but I just can't kill the kills or combos to work for me. Palutena just has everything I like to pressure opponents, Best Jab in game, one of the best dash attacks and Bairs in game, and a lot of surprise when matching against attacks because I love the risk! Course I always have to worry about end lag with her attacks, but I find it forces me to be better at not being dumb.

 

[TastyCarcass]

I think she's the most interesting new character. Really fun to play, has unique properties and she matches my playstyle (speed and aerials)
I also like options and pointless tech for yolo swag reasons.
I don't like to play underdog characters, but I like being able to prove the worth of the ignored ones.

 

[JosePollo]

Huh. This is a good question. I didn't actually choose to main Palutena at first. I just kind of "arrived" at Palutena after a few months of trying out characters. I used to main Wolf in Brawl and PM, so I had to find a new main going into Smash 4. I started with Robin, then tried Mario, Fox, Ness, Duck Hunt briefly, Puff, Greninja, Rosalina, and Charizard before touching Palutena. What made me eventually decide to stick with Palutena is the amount of technique she requires to play. She has a pretty terrible ground game (with her only reliable ground moves being a frame 8 jab, her dash attack, and her grab), which is made up for by her amazing aerials. Like most characters, if she's going to approach it'll be through the air, but her lack of tlits means she can't mix up ground approaches with pivots or spacing, so she has to rely even more on well-spaced, safe aerial approaches, meaning a lot of retreating nairs, bairs if the opponent commits to an attack, or grabs if the opponent tries to shield an aerial.

Her standard specials are all fairly situational (which makes her a little boring to use in FG), so there's not a lot of tech involved in using those (aside from ledge-cancelling her Warp to get things like surprise bairs or ledge trumps (which takes a lot of practice if you want to actually apply it in a match without killing yourself)), but with customs on her technical ceiling rises considerably. Super Speed gives her the amazing ground approach she lacks by giving her the option to quickly close the gap between her and her opponent while being able to 1. dash attack if the opponent commits to an attack, 2. dash grab if the opponent shields, 3. roll if the opponent throws out a projectile, 4. jump to mix up the opponent, 5. recover easily after being launched (seriously, thanks to Super Speed she's almost un-edgeguardable), 6. simply tackle into the opponent to set up for other things like bair (most commonly), nair, up air, up smash (her best option for punishing laggy moves, kills most characters around the early 100's), and even dair if you manage to get the 0% tackle close to the ledge.

Jump Glide allows her to travel from blast zone to blast zone horizontally while still having good vertical reach, meaning that, with her high jumping ability, she can recover from the bottom corners of almost any stage with little difficulty, especially if Lightweight is active. With Jump Glide she can even completely ignore an opponent's edgeguarding attempt by just going under the stage to the opposite ledge (it can also be accomplished with Warp, but it's more easily done with Jump Glide due to the horizontal mobility it gives you). Recovery aside, Jump Glide also gives her another offensive tool on-stage by allowing her to throw out an aerial before the move expires. This, coupled with the fact that she retains her horizontal momentum when landing, allows her to get things like double, or even triple fairs, fair into down throw into aerial, fair into up smash, etc., all of which are fairly difficult to punish even on shield since she'll slide past her opponent as she does it.

Lightweight doesn't necessarily give her more technical options, but it does make them considerably stronger by allowing her to follow up on things she normally wouldn't be able to. A down throw to full jump up air combo with Lightweight active (completely guaranteed if you do the inputs correctly) will kill most characters around 90% on Smashville as she will continue to carry them upwards with her up air before launching them. With Lightweight active she can down throw nair to carry the opponent off-stage, then up air or fair (depending on DI) to finish the combo. If you can land the final hit, most characters will die to that particular string starting around 50% (I've KO'd Jigglypuff at 30% off of that) if you get them close to the ledges. Lightweight also allows her to keep up the fast pace of a match by constantly getting in your opponents' faces, thereby forcing them into the defensive, where you can more easily read what they are going to do.

TL;DR because this is getting to be quite long: Picked her up out of randomness, stayed for her technical ceiling and capabilities. That, and I enjoyed Kid Icarus: Uprising.

 

[Genoblob]

I love Kid Icarus, simple as that. Same reason I main Pit and Dark Pit.

 

[LyonelNoale]

Nothing is more glorious and menacing than her side taunt.

Just saying.

 

[PlTe]

She was my most-wanted character, and I was so excited for her release. Before I even played her I was convinced to main her. That being said, I think her moveset is very diverse and flexible thanks to customs. I play a semi-spaced Palutena (Explosive Flame, Super Speed, Warp, Celestial Firework), but some people could play a 100% defensive Palutena (Heavenly Light, Reflect, Jump Glide, Lightweight). So she can really be whatever kind of character you want her to be.

 

[MisterDom]

I remeber when my friends would keep asking me, "Who do you want to be revealed in a smash trailer?"

Almost every time I said Palutena! I was really excited when she was announced, and I love Kid Icarus and Kid Icarus Uprising (which I used to play competitively)!

Like many, I didn't like her move set, and I wasn't in competitive Smash bros when 4 came out, and so I didn't realize the potential of Palutena's customs, but after awhile in the competitive scene, I picked her up to play, and have thought many times about using her as a secondary, but right now that's a no. I like her customs, and a few times I've done decent things with her, and it's very satisfying with Palutena!

 

[Pale Tuna]

Because of her sex appeal and shota pictures.. We all know these are the two main reasons..

I joke.

She's a superb character in Uprising like everyone else has said.

 

[C3CC]

Her personality and beauty made me gravitate towards her like a fat kid to a candy store; her strange but really fun and different moveset made me stay with her.

 

[Scrub God]

At first I played Palutena as a joke after hearing about how bad she was in smash without customs. I thought that she was one of the worst in the game. Then I played her and at first she felt like there wasn't much that she could do. After a while I started to really like her most likely because of how much dedication I put on her and how well I play against my friends with her. Although I can play other characters better, Palutena is the character that I want to play the most as there is more she could do with practice, especially with customs.

 

[Masque]

I adored her character in KI:U, so I was over the moon when I found out she would be joining the fray. My love remains strong to this day! <3

 

[SethTheMage]

Why do I main Palutena? Well, I loved her trollish personality in Uprising, and her overall design. Plus, I tend to draw towards strong, independent female characters who can look beautiful and kick ass at the same time. Not to mention, it's kind of a power trip to be able to run around and destroy people with the power of a goddess. It feels SO satisfying to get a good read and send people soaring into the stratosphere with a well-placed Up Smash. Despite its ridiculous startup and ending lag, that's probably my favorite move in her entire kit.

Additionally, her customs make her ridiculously fun to play. Super Speed, Jump Glide, and Lightweight make her extremely mobile, giving her better approaches and more follow up options. Plus, it's so much fun to zip around the stage, feeling like a badass. It's such a shame that most TOs are starting to shy away from having the option, because I firmly believe that it will stunt the metagame for certain characters. I feel that Palutena takes the hardest hit from this, because her defining trait as a fighter IS her customs, and the defensive, turtle style gameplay of her default set, combined with her laggy Smashes and Tilts really hold her back against most of the top-tier lineup. Most of these characters can outmaneuver her easily and punish hard.

Sometimes it gets really hard to justify maining her with how consistently low she places on tier lists (mainly because these are decided with customs off), and how we are forced to use her defaults on FG (UGH, the Sonic MU on FG is infuriating, especially with lag). However, at the same time, I feel a genuine sense of accomplishment from winning matches with what many consider to be a "low-tier" character. To me, default Palutena feels much better to win with than Rosalina (my first Smash 4 main).

 

[AeonEsperKyo]

Well, I was one of the people that got really hyped from her trailer. As a player, I greatly prefer and have much more fun playing as technical characters that require a lot of patience and thought as opposed to pure rush-down. As soon as I saw Palutena had both a counter AND a reflect, I immediately felt like this character was for me.

The release date on 3DS rolls around and she easily ends up being the first character I use (didn't bother with the demo), and although not quite what I was expecting, I was completely determined to make this character work for me. Ate a ton of losses from friends, but nonetheless, continued my pursuit of bringing out the potential of this character--fueled even moreso by how dozens of players were writing her off as useless and or unusable.

End up labbing with CPUs by myself and actually learn the basic tricks and KO set-ups and actually improved to the point where I entirely reversed the scripts on my friends, and now beat them on a regular basis as Palutena. I also apparently caused a bit of an uproar when I played Palutena at Otakon a couple of weeks ago.

Lastly, I should mention that as a character herself, her being a Goddess was also what fueled my initial interest. A lot of my favorite characters prior to my discovery of Palutena were actually Goddesses themselves (Madoka, Neptune, Chou-Chou, etc). So yeah, that about entirely sums up why I decided to main her and why I've been so adamant about sticking with her as opposed to switching off to some higher-tier character.

 

[SonicNKnux]

I initially wanted to play a newcomer character, because everyone else would be square one like me. I'd heard of Kid Icarus and Pit, but forgot who Palutena was. When I first tried her in training and FG, I was shocked at how anti-smash bros she was (I hadn't played a smash game since 64 on emulator in 2011, and before that, never). I was constantly trying to rapidly attack and ended up f-tilting in place a LOT. It was SOOOO frustrating.

Instead of giving up, I went to training mode and messed around with her. After spending time watching her actions I said "Wow, she kind of plays like a defensive tank," as in I shouldn't be trying to get up close with her. After playing with her default specials, I said "She kinda wants an iron defense playstyle!" I discovered her grabs and fell in love. Her other specials are cool, but I still like her defensive set best. I think it's pretty nice that virtually no one plays as her online, because it feels like she's my own personal character, and her skill curve is so sharp others don't want to try her. She may not be the most technical, but she's definitely the most defensive.

I don't watch other videos of Palutena unless I stumble across them because I think seeing them may force my playstyle in an undesired direction. For example, I may be incorrect but I've never read about Dabuz using combos with R&L while they're untethered, whereas I make a habit to not keep the two together.

No offense to those who main them, but I sometimes feel a "high tier" character just means "easy to pick up." Palutena got me into Meta Knight who everyone said was useless after the transition from Brawl, and Charizard who people also said was bad. I was surprised when I first played Mewtwo because it feels and plays pretty similar to Palutena; Mewtwo is lighter and floatier but stronger and better on the ground while Palutena's better in the air. If you main Palutena, I think you'd make a decent Mewtwo as well.

 

[ShiningBind]

Prolly sounds stupid but I picked her simply on the fact that she calls her attacks. Before the game came out, I KNEW I'd be maining either Robin or Palutena.
just one of those TINY things that add to my enjoyment while playing a character. Puts me in my hype zone calling my attacks and making other battle sounds alongside my character, and plus it reminded my of the "Tales of" series of games.

 

[Zelduh!]

I like her because she's a fun sassy woman who don't need a man . jk

I wanted her ever since brawl and Kid icarus uprising, I was very ecstatic when they finally revealed her as a playable character. Her default moveset is fun as it is defensive so she plays differently to a lot of other characters,not to mention her other customs give her more variety than other characters and makes her more enjoyable to play as.

 

[RosaPeach]

Palutena is my best third main. She powerful and have fun roles.

 

[Number Three]

My Palutena story is a bit confusing and long, but it's good nonetheless (at least I think so).

For starters, I have never played a Kid Icarus game. I've wanted to play Uprising for awhile now, but I've run into a couple hurdles that prevented me from doing so. The first was that I was playing Xenoblade Chronicles and told myself that I wouldn't pick up any new games until I beat it. Ever since I did finish it, I've been trying to track down Uprising and have had poor luck doing so. I may just buy it off the eShop soon if I can't find a copy. I'm the type of person who really likes to own a physical copy of games, though. Anyways, just note that I haven't played any Kid Icarus game.

So, my Palutena story starts back around December 2013 or January 2014. I'm not sure on the exact month, but I know it was after Rosalina was announced to be in the game. Anyways, I went and made a list of all of the characters I thought were going to make it in the game just for fun. I remember some of my guesses were actually correct like that Charizard would become his own character, Pac-Man and Little Mac would get in the game, and Mewtwo would return. Some of them were wrong like that the Ice Climbers returned and Chrom would get in the game. Now, the reason I bring this up is because one of the characters I predicted to be in the game was Palutena. It realistically made sense considering Sakurai made Uprising and she would add more females to the game.

Then came that Palutena leak around February of 2014 (which was eventually revealed to be fake). Now, I'm not the one to buy leaks unless there was some sort of reliability behind it. This leak and the ESRB leak were the only ones I legitimately believed. A couple days after the leak showed up, my friend and I had a discussion about it and the concept of Palutena being in the game. He was suspicious about the leak, mainly due to how little the screen actually showed of the characters. I, however, pointed out that Palutena's model hadn't been sourced, so it seemed legit. Once again, I do know that this leak ended up being fake, but we still got Palutena so I don't care. Anyways, another point of my friend was that he didn't think Palutena would make it into the game because he didn't know what she could do to fight. To be fair, neither of us have played Uprising, but we both knew that she didn't do much fighting in the game and instead guided Pit to fight. I was almost positive she would make it in the game so I ended the discussion with my friend by vowing that, if Palutena got in the game, I would main her.

Then came E3 2014 and I watched the Digital Event Live because I knew there was going to be a new Smash character announced. I was absolutely thrilled that the newcomer wound up being Palutena. I liked how she looked from the trailer and, since I never like to go back on my word, I knew I was going to main her. Skip ahead to the launch date of the 3DS version. I didn't know anything about how Palutena was. I'd only heard that characters like Rosalina and Greninja were top tier. I was very excited to try her out on launch day (along with Rosalina, what I thought was going to be Melee Samus 2.0, and Ness, who I was extremely anxious to see what they did to him) and I initially thought she was pretty good. Now, note that my friends and I play without customs (we only played with customs for about a month leading up to EVO), so I'm talking about default Palutena. However, as I played the game more and more, I started to see that she wasn't all that great. My friends started to ask why I still played her and suggested that I should use a better character instead. However, there's one important thing that kept me with Palutena: I have way too much fun playing as her. I'm not going to play another tired old top tier like Sheik that I don't have fun playing when I can play an enjoyable character like Palutena (The only two top tiers I play are Ness, because EarthBound is my all time favorite game, and Rosalina, because I love her character and Mario Galaxy. I would play both if they were bottom tiers and I simply got REALLY REALLY lucky they wound up being good.). My main policy for a main is that I have to have fun playing as them and Palutena fits the bill. Besides, it's fun helping to push the metagame for a character who doesn't get a lot of love like Palutena. That's my long story of why I main Palutena.

 

[Cap'nChreest]

Because I'm a masochist

 

[MysteriousSilver]

I've always been a big Kid Icarus fan. Mained Pit in Brawl.

Smash 4 comes out, I didn't like some of the changes to Pit so I looked to Palutena. Picked her up, realized she was terrible, more or less dropped her for DK. When the Wii U version came out, I decided to give her another shot. I figured customs were still up in the air, and I figured non-custom play would give me plenty of opportunities to master her standard moveset so I wouldn't just be relying on Lightweight jank to win. I failed to take into the account the possibility that customs would be pretty readily abandoned in my state and that my KI fanboyism and main loyalty would prevent me from moving on.

Eventually I got incredibly frustrated by her limitations and was leaning towards dropping her again. A friend of mine who moved out of state was in town and came to our weekly, and he convinced me that I was getting nowhere with Palutena, and he was right. I thought about it hard over the next couple of days and decided that I was done with her. I was going to play her in the tournament that weekend because I had practice with her, then I was switching mains.

That weekend I got 7th out of 72, which is the best results I've ever had at a tournament, ever.

I didn't come out with any illusions that Palu was suddenly a good character, but I realized that being held back by her limitations has been making me better at the game. She's unsafe as hell, so I learned to play safe. She has huge problems killing so I learned to bait airdodges and chase offstage more. She's got crap capitalization so I learned to make every opportunity count and never get complacent. Overall I learned how the game actually works instead of just swinging around and expecting whatever jank my character has to do the work for me.

I don't think I'll end my Smash 4 career as a Palutena main, but for now, she's my weighted training clothing. As long as I keep improving as a player, I'll stick with her.

 

[Re4gNarsil]

Back when Palutena's reveal trailer was first released, nearly everyone thought she was going to be an overpowered character and were eager to main her. However, when the game finally came out, many of those people were disappointed with her toolkit and dismissed her as a "bottom tier character" with her default moveset. So I want to know, why did you chose to play her and what made you stick with her despite all of the criticism she's been given gameplay-wise? Since I'm the one asking, I'll start. Though my reasoning will be different from most since I didn't play a single Kid Icarus game prior to Smash 4.

It all started in Brawl. Pit was observing the stadium as it was being absorbed and sent to subspace when suddenly, a woman shrouded in light appeared behind him and gave him a bow to fight with. At the time I didn't know who she was, but I thought she was a very interesting character and that it be nice for her to be playable in the next Smash game. Little did I know, she was going to be confirmed a few years later. Despite this, I wasn't interested in maining her.

When I got my hands on Smash 4, I had already had a list of characters I wanted to try out. Palutena wasn't one of them at first, but whenever I look at the select screen, she just sticks out. In comparison to the rest of the cast, she's very detailed, much like her Brawl incarnation. I couldn't help but try her out at least. So I did.... And I wanted to throw my 3DS out the window out of frustration. I had no idea how to play her nor was I interested in learning how, so I dropped her immediately. It wasn't until I saw videos of AeroLink that I decided to pick her up again. Looking at the way he played her, I thought, "Maybe I can do that too," and decided to give her a second chance and actually commit to learning how to use her. After learning her bread-n-butters and techniques, I realized how fun she is to play and how much she fits my playstyle. Then she just stuck with me as one of my mains as she brought along two other characters () and introduced me to a wonderful franchise.

I'm curious to hear other's experiences.

Well, it's going to be hard to match that tear-wrenching story (jk lol), but since I consider myself a big Palutena and Smash 4 fan and have been pretty active here I feel it's only right to give an explanation as to why I chose to main the lovely and humorous goddess of light.

Okay, so I played Melee a little and Brawl a bit more, but never had a game system of my own of any sort until the Wii U so the only times I could play was when going to visit my cousins. In Melee I never seriously fished around for a main but ended up using Captain Falcon as much as anyone; in Brawl I went out on a bit more serious and lengthy quest to find someone I enjoyed playing and fit my rather aggressive playstyle pretty well. I found I liked to have decently quick characters if at all possible so I could apply lots of pressure but most of all I wanted someone who could kill quite easily (and remember I was barely average in terms of skill level). Fighters like Peach were fast, but had few KO options, while Ganadorf could kill early but was absurdly immobile. In the end, I settled on Zelda because her smashes and aerials were incredibly powerful and she could move around a bit better than many other strong characters.

Then I learned about Kid Icarus, and after seeing Uprising unfold came to see Palutena as one of my favorite characters ever. She's intelligent, funny, kind, but also isn't above having fun and being a bit of a rascal (kind of like me haha). When I saw her trailer last year I thought she looked incredible, and instantly decided she was going to be one of the handful of fighters I seriously consider maining, along with Peach, Zelda, Robin, Rosalina, and ZSS. **Yes, if you hadn't noticed while I enjoy other characters like Falco and Link I love using female characters) ** I have trained with all these characters and like them all, but Palutena sticks out to me as the most enjoyable. Perhaps it's her playful spirit (side taunt anyone?), or her unique attacks like her invincible b-air; in any case, she appeals more to me than the other great fighters I've already mentioned. Her KOing abilities might have been slightly lacking, but her u-air, u-tilt, b-air, and smashes all seemed to get the job done more often than not.

I've thoroughly enjoyed watching people like Aerolink making Palutena looking top-tier when playing well, and even though it makes me sad that customs in the competitive scene might become a thing of the past I am hopeful that mii fighters and Palutena might still be allowed to use them in the future, even if the others can't. However, let me be quick to add that assuming they (or at least she) cannot, I'll still continue to master her because she is still mid-tier in default form and above all very fun to use. I also eagerly await buffs whenever patches come out, until one day when maybe - just maybe - all fighters will be considered to be high or top tier. I know that's unlikely, but I can always dream! Until then, I'll continue crushing most people who consider this gorgeous goddess garbage with her glorious powers. Happy smashing!

 

[LyonelNoale]

SIDE TAUNT.

 

[Eisal]

Never played a Kid Icarus game and barely knew who Palutena was, only that she was 'something' in that game.

But I did like her move set, and I seem to fall in the pattern of liking slower characters just like Palutena, Ike and Robin. Those are the three I play.

She's got a bit of everything, like a projectile, reflect, good grab range and follow up.

But she's slow, and her tilts got ending lag and such.

Still I like her the most.

 

[Nona]

Haven't played KI games, but I have a lot of fun playing her with and without customs on. Her smashes are satisfying to land, animations are stylish... and she just feels natural and flows well with my playstyle.

 

[GerbilCrab475]

Explosive Flame, Super Speed, Light Weight and Jump Glide make her super deadly and fun to play as. Even though Kid Icarus: Uprising had awful controls, the characters were colorful which made it tolerable.

 

[puffypalutena]

I found her easy to use and it just came naturally.

 

[MysteriousSilver]

Kid Icarus: Uprising had awful controls

ill fite u m8

 

[FoxwolfJackson]

Honestly, I like playing characters that can set the pace of a match, be semi-trolling (for my friends), and be a character no one else seemed to use. When Palutena was first revealed to have a counter AND a reflect, my first reaction was "finally, someone who speaks to me!"

Then I tried her and was absolutely disappointed and frustrated with how hard she was to use, how much ending lag all her moves were, and how much I constantly got creamed as her, so I dropped her in favor of my tried and true main of the past three games (Jigglypuff).

The only problem with Jiggs is that one of my close friends that I play against a lot is a Little Mac player (and a darn good one) and, well, those two characters in the way we play them are like fire and water. Another one of my friends plays Toon Link and was an absolute beast with his zoning game, making it virtually impossible to approach without either being predictable or getting hit a few too many times (jiggs doesn't like damage).

So, I picked back up the goddess who caught my interest, saw a few videos of other Smash players explaining her, and dedicated myself to learning her grab combos (dthrow to fair, etc.), trying to up my read game so I can punish with up-smash, etc. Although she's still not as good as my Jigglypuff or Lucina, Palutena still sits in my heart as a character I desperately wish would be more tournament worthy for me to invest any more time into her.

I also just like her sense of humor in the conversations with Pit about the characters.

EDIT: I also mained Zelda in Brawl and, honestly, for some reason, I feel partially like I'm using my old trusty secondary Brawl main when I use Palutena in Smash 4 more than Zelda herself.

 

[RorioPizazzle]

A little late to the party, but I like many others played Kid Icarus: Uprising first and fell in love with her there. In the beginnings of Smash 4 I thought she was a little useless, unnecessary even other than a callback to her franchise. But then like OP said she started to stand out to me. She ended up as one of my mains as I've learned how to play her, because the way she moves, it just seems so smooth, visually appealing... It took me a while to get used to the endlag of her moves, however. But once I learned how to counter that with certain combos, spacers, and just in general getting used to the timing of her attacks, I just loved playing as her.

Respect the Palutena Up-Air. It destroys all

 

[Spitfire16]

Haven't shown any love to my goddess, saw this and I figured I'd throw in my 2 cents. I don't main Palutena, that position will forever belong to the blur, but she's one of my secondaries, behind Mario I think. I'm kinda in between the two but as a second behind Sonic I sort of lean toward Mario but that's beside the point. I got interested in Palutena because I saw her outrun Sonic in her trailer. My eyes widened and my jaw was dropped when I saw. "Faster than Sonic??" and from that day I knew I had to pick her up. Added I really loved her in Uprising, she's just such a joy to have around, even in the darkest of times in the game she always seemed to bring LIGHT to the situation. Eh? Eeeeeh? No? ...Ok.

Oh yeah, I really love her aerial's and while her default moveset is lacking she's still a fun character for me to use. She's one of my go to choices for when someone tries to counterpick my Sonic with Sonic lol. Lightweight is really sexy too and I truly do love that custom, it's by far my favorite custom in the game. Too bad they patched infinite weight :'(

 

[Bluekirby2]

As much as I'd love to main her, I don't. I might learn her, but that's a big MIGHT.

But if I did, it would be for obvious reasons. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 

[Lunacywastaken]

I second her because she is so fun to play, as well as understandable as a character. The thing I love most about her is her ledge-cancelled warps, so much fun and are so good for mindgames. :D

 

[Kathuzada]

My roommate and I entered a doubles tournament, since we didn't get a chance to practice that much we decided to play low tiers that we were kind of new to. I chose Palutena, I had fun playing her, we got third.