Time to drop a list on all your candy asses
Post your lists GAF.
I'm really feeling it!
Greninja - Jesus Christ this character. Even with the "nerfs" he's fucking ridiculous and I honestly wonder what the fuck a lot of people are smoking when they say he's bad. Hydro Pump knock back reduction is sad in the sense that I don't get to do hilarious shit anymore, but honestly it needed to happen. When I'm setting up guaranteed one touches from a single uptilt or upthrow (1.0.3 combo - Uptilt x2 - Up Smash x2 - Up Air - *watch the air tech/dodge* - Hydro Pump up - 2nd Hydro Pump downforward/downback lining up spout with the direction the character in the air is drifting) things were only going to get worse as times went on.
I still got to keep Shadow Sneak canceled taunts, all the range on his smash attacks, and a good amount of push on Hydro Pump on top of getting faster Shadow Sneak activation and animation lag decreases on it when used in the air so life is good.
Zero Suit Samus - I honestly think she's going to get a hot nerf soon. She plays like she's nearly entirely unbound from a lot of the in game limitations to most characters. She's highly mobile, has a good set of tools in her paralyzer, command flip (which now has multiple mixups/offensive capabilities) and whip (nair, zair, forward special, up smash - really good for catching air dodgers/hasty people mashing out of being planted in the ground by her down special flip) for range, hits hard as fuck and surprisingly fast, and can actually set up multi-layer shenanigans off one or two reads. Rhapsody can vouch for this.
If I didn't have weird hangups like a desire to learn a series newcomer, a desire to stick with a squad of three mains to invest in, and a devotion to Marth and Pit, I would probably run Pit, Greninja and Zero Suit Samus for the duration of Smash 4's life.
Almost there!
Pit - Some parts better than ever, some parts the same as his Brawl incarnation, some parts worse. It feels as though in Smash 4, someone in the dev team wanted to emphasize Pit's grounded melee combat looking at the buffs he got to his reach and general attack animations. Just looking at things like his jab series, his glorious new f-tilt and the subtle changes to things like his dash attack, crouch tilt, and his smashes makes him look and feel a lot less janky than he did in Brawl. Moving on to his specials, Upperdash Arm is a wonderful move but only because of the type of game this is where everyone uses rolls and few things consistently punish them (or more specifically forces people to forego using them) not to mention the wonderful armor (that I still can't consistently abuse) that puts a stop to people playing Super Dash Attack Bros for Wii U. Miracle of Flight is so much more balanced in this game while also retaining a stupidly high amount of recovery potential despite its linearity. Guardian Orbitars are AMAZING. It's like a gigantic windbox that reflects, defends and has absurd range. I'm honestly surprised this move exists sometimes. :lol
The only negative in the specials is in Palutena's Bow. Gone are
my favorite emergent technique in fighting games ever in Arrow Loops and Arrow Raining so no more fancy edge guards with the bestest projectile ever. Not only that, but they added end lag to the attack!
With all of this said though, Pit still carries over a lack of quick KO moves (despite Upperdash Arm, noticeable buffs to his smash knock backs and a sweet spot on his f-tilt, he still manages to run into the issue of doing damage fast but not killing quickly). Even more confusing is the nerf to the knock back on his bair which was once his best KO move and another multi-hit staff twirl attack that replaces his old Brawl fair which was his second best method of getting KOs thanks to its ability to carry people. While the new fair has greater reach and can carry on top of set up those silly multi-hit attack - grab loops, it comes out somewhat slow and lasts a bit too long.
Rosalina - I think I just need more time playing her but she hasn't fully registered in my mind yet. It also doesn't help that my regular competition is someone who gets saltier than Lot's wife the moment I pick her and completely goes MVC3 Wolverine on Luma the moment the match starts so I can't even pick up specific Luma tech.
Palutena - One of the big three I wanted in the game and a character I see myself dabbling in more as time goes on. I feel like she has some pretty neat stuff (her dash attack and bair are whoa; down throw pretty much initiates create a combo mode; u-smash and f-smash are ridiculously satisfying to land; aerials are great especially with this funky multi-hit drag
Robin - If this character ran any faster, had a cooler looking dash attack (I'm fickle like that lol), or had a faster grab, there'd be no way she (red haired fem Robin for life) wouldn't be in the main squadron. There is simply too much in this character's kit but she's just missing one or two aesthetic or functional things to wrap the whole package up perfectly for me. Her customs are also fucking great. Fire Wall, Gliding Elwind, Speed Thunder, Distant Nosferatu = amazing.
Not good!
Marth - As someone who is a die hard character specialist... As someone who has spent the last 13 years playing this character... As someone with a love for all things blue and sword using... I
hate this incarnation. Plain and simple. It's not even about bellyaching because "wah my character doesn't completely roflstomp everyone anymore" so much as
there's nothing about the play styles I enjoyed in the Melee/Project M or Brawl builds here. Sure I can play the patient read game but that's only one aspect of what made the character so appealing in the first place. With the nerfs to movement persisting from Brawl, gone are Marth's aggressive footsies and impressive baits. With the amount of landing animation lag that cannot be player mitigated in any way, there is now an invisible wall or set of chains placed on what was once designed as the Smash series' defacto nimble swordsman. With the buffs to shields, everyone gets free counters on any swing he does. I didn't (and still don't) even care that his sword range got decreased, but losing out on those previous attributes is just a bit much.
I imagine I'll still be playing him though because as I expressed on twitter, Marth and Pit are my boys to the point of being who I regularly associate with playing Smash (fuck your Marios, Links, Nesses and the like), but every time I pick this character and play I just feel the color leave the world for a short period of time. I imagine this is what Falcon mains went through when going from Melee to Brawl. :lol