Smash 4's game design stuff

I'm going to talk first about each involved character's own innate design:

-Robin
I have to remark that Robin's innate character design has some SERIOUS issues. For starters, in his origin game, he's already a create your own Gary Stu, aggravating that said origin game already reeked of being sell-out beeswax even from the start. As far as story goes, he gets the lion's share of the story's "depth", and by "depth" I mean he's the Obviously Evil Big Bad's son and was set up to be the Bigger Bad's vessel. His personality gets bland as well, the irony since he's a tactician; there's certainly an overemphasis toward saying things like "checkmate." Gameplay meanwhile sets him up to be a guy using both swords and magic, which is more Gary Stupidity. Yeah, I said enough about Fire Emblem Awakening being an ugly case of Pandering To The Audience.

Smash 4 gives Robin the ability to make up for that idiocy with surprisingly creative gameplay, although Robin isn't the guy innately warranting the Pastebin for description length coverage to begin with--of course, the character who does is going to speak for himself, believe me.

First is Robin having an Aerial Smash system of sorts. Now Aerial Smashes is an idea I had come up with before Kid Icarus Uprising was even around so it's not entirely original, but having them around is welcome to see. How Robin's handling of the concept works a little differently than I would have wanted to see, but this works out. Basically, you may have noticed that whenever Robin throws out a Smash attack, he whips out his Thunder Sword for that. Well, here's what happens with the Thunder Sword: if Robin's input registers control stick movement required for a smash, the attack will bring out the Thunder Sword, whether it be for a smash or an aerial. If Robin just "tilts" in the air, he will instead use his current equipped sword. He uses a Bronze Sword by default and can force that out by using either a non-smash ground A move or a Neutral Air.

Now you can tell that the magical flambard is an obvious bit of anti-armor, especially if you're familiar with Fire Emblem, where defense power is split into two stats and anything "almost impervious to damage" (I'm actually referencing a given enemy type in another franchise that also does this same stat split) is guaranteed to have at most modest Magic Defense. It does have a key issue: added hitlag and hitstun. The hitlag ends up preventing combo ability, and the hitstun would seem to fix that, but it allows the opponent to DI the attack. If you compare to the Bronze Sword, anybody can tell you why aerial combat got nerfed in the transition to Smash 4: speed is king there, simple as that.

Now, the Thunder Sword still has better reach as well as definitely better attack power, so something else would be required to make the player want to use the Bronze Sword for directional aerials and thus exercise their ability to juggle between "smashing" and "tilting" in the air.

Luckily, Fire Emblem itself provides a solution: magical item durability.

See, any and all weapons in Fire Emblem would gradually erode as they were used more. Weapons like the Bronze Sword get something that could help by being economical, hence why in Smash 4, Robin's won't break no matter how much it gets used. You would, of course, go to shops to replace used up weapons, but don't expect to find the more custom stuff on sale; losing that would be your punishment for spamming it.

Here, each tome as well as the Thunder Sword has a number of times it can be used before it's dropped. When that happens, the given item is unavailable for some time and you have to make do without it during the wait period. This proves to be a happy medium of making use of the durability system without getting out of hand about it. It even helps curb projectile spam, which means that Robin actually wants to take risks, but then, he's a tactician, so if he can't come up with Xanatos Gambits, he should go home.

Also, I need point out that his final Jab hit uses a charge of the respective tome involved. This makes his jab skill-based because his Wind Tome, which he uses for the flurry jab, is needed for his Up B to work at all. He can afford to expend the Fire Tome on the timing jab.

Of course, Sakurai has a track record of having good concepts marred by bad execution, as what happened with Kid Icarus Uprising's power system. The durability system is a case of it. Although only the respawn times are any real problem, they are heavily imbalanced. If you're wondering what they are, here's the list:
*Thunder Sword - 8s
*Fire Tome - 10s
*Thunder Tome - 10s
*Wind Tome - 6s
*Nosferatu Tome - 38s

Thunder Sword goes first, because it actually makes the least sense. The big reason being that it invites aerial spam with the Thunder Sword to cause a lot of problems. This isn't a question of whether or not it can be overcome, so much as the lack of incentive to bother with Bronze Sword directional aerials when, even assuming a ground slant, 80% of aerial attacks can just use the Thunder Sword regardless. Robin shouldn't even overuse the Thunder Sword, that goes against his very character of being a tactician who regards logistics.

There's also aesthetic problems. Namely that Thunder Swords aren't easy to come by in the Fire Emblem games. And when they're available in shops, they're not cost-effective. I compared Values Per Use between the Thunder Sword and the regular, Large/Long/El, and Giga/Arc level tomes in Fire Emblem Awakening. Thunder Sword manages the highest at 64, even beating out Giga/Arc Thunder's 54. Yep, Awakening has to have SOME brand of standard, namely that the Thunder Sword is still one of those more custom weapons that I had mentioned. It's not a superpowered one, but it's enough of a standout to warrant that regard.

The only reason I can think of for the joke respawn time is Robin's Down Smash, which needs the Thunder Sword's discharge to cover the back side. The situation that arises otherwise to cause him to want to use the Down Smash for back coverage still assumes both that Robin overused his Thunder Sword and doesn't have available, and that Robin even allowed the opponent to flank him when he shouldn't even be rushing to begin with. I am not convinced that Down Smash coverage shouldn't be reason to instead increase the Thunder Sword's respawn time. Although I could by an argument that Thunder Sword should have its usage count increased from 8 to 10 as a trade-off.

The general tomes' respawn times being lower than they should be is more nitpicking than anything, but honestly, even though the respective B moves will do nothing when they're unavailable, that's only a problem if you decide to be an idiot about them, which doesn't befit Robin's concept of being a tactician. I can't see the respawn times hindering Robin from mindless gameplay, with the Fire and Thunder Tomes managing the same general problem you typically see ROB abuse: projectiles covering each other's respawn times when they're supposed to have respawn time problems. Fire has 6 charges and Thunder has 20 (although the leveled Thunder spells each use multiple charges with Torron requiring 8) so that doesn't help.

At least the relative respawn times make sense since Large Wind can't be abused to beeswax levels and Nosferatu is a freaking command grab that heals, but the game got too extreme about this happening. Wind having that low a respawn time implies that Robin can live long enough to need to recover with it more than 9 times. Nosferatu has only 4 charges, so 38 seconds is actually overkill.

Robin's gamelay is still a pleasant surprise, though.

-Mega Man
A character who by his very design would need careful review during testing. Fortunately, this is a case where Smash 4 is able to deliver, at least to an extent. While Mega Man is capable of stupidity, he's still better handled than some of the other characters.

At his core, Mega Man is a Frail Sniper character so it's natural he'd end up having 8 or 9 of his attacks being projectiles, and this includes his JAB. This is the big reason for his need for review and, though not impossible to balance, his capability for stupidity. This is because range is a polarizing trait. Too strong and the opponent can't approach, but too weak and the opponent becomes able to imitate Mr. Hollywood from 2 Stupid Dogs. On top of that, the guy with the range advantage doesn't have to take risks, so there's that problem too. The game must make sure that the range guy wants to take risks without having to fall too far out of their natural playstyle.

This is where variety comes in. It did wonders for Link the guy with incredible melee damage bases for valid reason after all. Let's look at the Counter Play of each of Mega Man's projectiles:
*Metal Blade - modest shot speed, can be grabbed by the opponent
*Crash Bomber - modest shot speed, only one useless hit on shield, needs Metal Blade for spam ability
*Leaf Shield - Mega Man loses other attack options except the Super Arm
*Buster (Jab, Neutral Air, and Forward Tilt) - only modest reach
*Charged Buster (Forward Smash) - telegraphed and commital
*Air Shooter (Up Air) - only hits above
*Hard Knuckle (Down Air) - only hits below, accuracy issues

The most important is the modest shot speed of the Metal Blade and Crash Bomber, because those two tend to be spammed in tandem. By keeping the two projectiles slow enough to dodge, Mega Man's opponent can play keepaway until Mega Man tries to bid for the center and thus does something risky. To further make sure of this, the Metal Blade can be grabbed, gimping the spam and allowing the opponent to storm the center.

Now Mega Man can actually be fought at close range where he's worse off, but that just brings up more reason why range focus is very easy to make polarizing. Luckily, the developers realized this and gave Mega Man competent melee attacks, such as his Super Arm actually coming out faster than any other grab in the game. At the same time, they also made sure that Mega Man has to be crafty to get away with a melee slant. This is a good design decision: Melee Tornado characters simply being able to afford sloppiness at close range against anybody who isn't one as long as they don't do amateur plays (although the Fragile Speedster hybrids should be more possible to actually wall to prevent dominance by simple harassment), while the Frail Snipers still function well but any misplays can turn disastrous VERY quickly. Here, I display a melee slant and suffer 100% from error that would be minor for most other characters. This is in fact good game design, because I should be noting my own melee slant when I play a range character to begin with. Luckily I do so it's all good.

Another thing to talk about is Mega Man's stat build. If Bowser is the game's mega armor who has the best durability in the game, and Link the game's smart armor who has durability and the tools to make creative usage of it, Mega Man is most certainly the jackhole armor who has durability, evasion, AND projectiles. Wario has the first two, but mercifully he's a Melee Tornado and that in combination with his air focus makes him feasible to actually KO fast enough to outpace the Wario Waft shenanigans. The mega armor is welcome to have as a Wake Up Call Character to prevent people from spamming whatever they want hoping it will net them wins. The smart armor is worth taking a look at when balancing to prevent excessive reward, but still should be rewarding players who can be awesome unto themselves.

The jackhole armor is the one who maximizes any potential abuses of defensive ability. They innately need review.

People find reason to be annoyed with defensive ability people because of them dragging things out. They can be properly balanced by simply giving their control tools plenty of influence to make sure they get an incredible advantage by taking the center with decent remaining durability, but also make them feasible enough to defeat in time with coordinated anti-armor strikes. Adding evasion into the mix can really mess with this by suffocating anti-armor, making the existence of a jackhole armor another reason why evasion needs to be genuinely methodical. Add in projectiles and there would be no end of aggravation if it isn't curbed. Say what you will about Glass Cannons, at least matches with them are quick, for better or worse.

Now in a Mega Man mirror match, the evasion cancels the projectiles, as evidenced here where I had a reliable time dodging shots. This ended up helping my melee slant, although it doesn't keep Mega Man from being easy to juggle the moment he messes up. This also brings up why it's not healthy to rely solely on mirror matches to balance a given character: they can still violate a baseline standard. Their weaknesses need to be sufficient for other characters to capitalize upon even in the most extreme of matchups. This ends up proving to be one of Little Mac's balance problems, actually: in a Little Mac mirror, ground attacks are the only things that have much chance of hitting and KOing is far more likely to happen from burst KB. It doesn't change that for example Little Mac VS Captain Falcon is in Mac's favor. With Mega Man, it would be important to make sure he can't projectile spam a character like Ganondorf into submission with sickening ease.

The good news for the guy in charge of a game's balance is, once matchups like Mega Man VS Ganondorf are checked and checked well, the rest of the matchups should fall like dominos.

-Pac-Man
Get some drinks. This could take its time.

Pac-Man is the big attraction of this video, because he is a gold mine of game design, to the point where I showcase FIVE matches where I play as him. Where to begin? How about that he's an evasion character at heart? I need to point out that after Kid Icarus Uprising's disaster, you'd expect me to be turned off from evasion characters. Yet I find that Pac-Man is a well-designed one by having significant melee issues for his modest mobility, allowing the opponent to rush the center far more easily as they can pressure him into trying to enter melee unprepared. Notably, he takes a while to get reliable kills, he has bad priority, and he has laggy enough attacks.

This makes sense when Pac-Man in his origin games would need to keep evading Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde while eating all of the pellets, only being able to attack upon getting a Power Pellet. Yep, in Smash 4, Power Pellet is an anti-armor move that can KO, and also has the fortune of having superarmor to plow through certain projectiles, which scored me one of the victories in this video. Interestingly, the 4 ghosts are allies providing Pac with his Smash ability, though Blinky is ironically the only one who comes out fast enough, and Inky just plain has bad coverage. At least Clyde has Pac's front and Pinky Pac's back. By the way, Pac's Down Taunt brings up Blinky....and Pinky. D'aww.

Actually, Pac is a heartwarming character in general when you think about it.

What I really want to talk about, however, is the Fire Hydrant. I need to point out that after my experiences with Kid Icarus Uprising, I can tell you that ANY range anti-armor badly needs checking. But if anything, I think the Fire Hydrant could stand to be buffed via dealing more shieldstun. Why? Well, let's start out: Pac-Man can use the Fire Hydrant as an anti-juggling tool by dropping it from right above, then after dealing enough damage to the hydrant, it goes flying with force about equal to the last hit's own power. Not only is it powerful, it's complicated to dodge as well because of how big and sturdy it is.

So what checks the Hydrant? Simply that the opponent can attack it too when it's just standing still. Not only that, but if they deal the blow to the hydrant that hits its damage capacity, they will become the proud owner of the hydrant upon its flying.

This means that Pac-Man can't throw about the Fire Hydrant with wanton disregard. If he does, he risks the opponent getting a way to really make Pac's life miserable with a powerful projectile that is complicated to dodge. Sounds familiar, right? Like I had just mentioned it a moment ago? Well, it's the very thing Pac would be trying to throw at the opponent. He just has to make sure he is the hydrant's owner, but the opponent can do the same and Pac has to make equally sure that the opponent can't manage it. Pac-Man is playing a game!

And that basic logic applies for Pac-Man's general moveset as well. Power slanting toward ground moves and speed toward aerial attacks, the Bonus Fruit, the simplified move purposes, Power Pellet's potential for erratic movement. Heck, even the grab, while it requires reading between the lines to interpret it as such, still would be following this concept by having commital usage issues.

The creativity with the Hydrant doesn't end here either, because there's also the fact that the Hydrant is having to take damage before it goes anywhere. The damage it takes numbers in only the 10s and not the 100s, which makes burst damage more useful, and naturally, this bolsters heavy hitters such as Bowser and Ganondorf who can provide just that. If Pac-Man wanted to not be so careless about Hydrant usage before, he wants it even less against those guys, because heavies can actually 1HKO the Hydrant more casually than Pac can. Ayup, Pac indrectly buffs regard for raw power. Granted, using the Hydrant is the Pac-Man player's own choice, but it's one of his anti-armor options. If he doesn't think to use it against a Mighty Glacier, he runs the risk of the Mighty Glacier simply turtling him into submission. All Pac has for any other projectiles is Bonus Fruit, and while it's varied, the player behind the Mighty Glacier can still shake off Galaxian, the Bell, AND the Key, the 3 biggest threats of Bonus Fruit.

So here's the tactical factor facing Pac-Man players when up against a Mighty Glacier: they inevitably will really want to, or quite possibly have to, use the Hydrant to KO the Mighty Glacier sometime today, but they must be wary that the Mighty Glacier does not get the opportunity to attack it, because if that happens, they will 1HKO it without much fanfare.

In summary, Pac-Man's anti-armor is still strength-over-weakness but with significant enough weakness for an opposing armor to capitalize upon to make sure they can create an opening in Pac's evasion whether or not Pac is willing to take a risk.

In the opposite case, the Fragile Speedsters, the Hydrant is much more bland because while it is easier for Pac to score the Hydrant, Fragile Speedsters naturally have better evasion. It's still worth using for utility though, such as defilade for the Fragile Speedsters with projectiles, but otherwise, you'd only get results from a lucky or coordinated blow. Pac has some good flycatcher moves though.

As to how to use the Hydrant in general, it's basically a space reward tool as well as anti-juggling pressure. Don't be afraid to get creative with it, though; that is what Pac-Man is all about after all.

-

Now for the individual matches:
-Robin VS Pikachu (J-Boogie): thankfully not one of the more jackhole Pikachus. In fact, this guy was also courteous enough to change his tag to compliment my edgeguard at the end, which was infinitely less risky than the one he got off of me, the manner of which he got the edgeguard going made up for getting me in that position because of some auto-link stupidity. (Seriously, couldn't DI be stronger.)

-Mega Man mirror (Smug): this was round 2 against this guy so he caught me trying to melee slant him into submission. I took about 100% before I started fighting back with efficiency. Needless to say that Mega Man still wants to work with projectiles, but self-recognizing a slant fixes a lot of problems.

-Pac-Man VS Meta Knight (Erick): tons of roll spam by Erick. In hindsight, my own play as Pac-Man was inefficient, but at least you can tell that Bonus Fruit is a good flycatcher.

-Pac-Man VS Little Mac (William): oh how I wish I had won against this guy's main, although I did win majority. Still worth it for the ending though. I'll forgive the wonky physics that happened shortly before it just for that.

-Pac-Man VS Dr. Mario (JakeNasty): saved because this guy...okay, I hadn't remembered that I had used the Hydrant early into the match and he scored it, although to insignificant effect. However, he's still an example of what happens to anybody who isn't wary enough of the Hydrant.

-Pac-Man VS Bowser (chicles): Bowser is the game's de facto mega armor more or less, so this whole thing becomes a litmus test in general. Of course, chicles proved to have stamina problems. I get off on Bowser Bomb failing to break my shield despite a direct hit on it, and Bowser's Forward Tilt dealing barely too little damage to 1HKO the Hydrant (what the heck, game), but my lead was big enough to keep both of these from being drastic.

-Pac-Man VS Power Suit Samus (chicles): I finally get this guy under control when I start using Power Pellet to snipe this Spamus. While the results of Power Pellet against a Spamus are actually far from auto-win, the ending certainly shows why it ends up being handy.