Link Really Needs A New Smash Moveset. [No Tears of the Kingdom Spoilers]

thank you [Music] The Legend of Zelda is one of the most enduring influential and iconic video game series in history a set of sweeping Adventures reaching back almost 40 years into the past and a series that's demonstrated an unusual Grace in its efforts to change and evolve with the era it finds itself in it's no surprise that link its primary protagonist and the embodiment of Courage would be one of the first few characters added to Nintendo's ambitious crossover fighting series but the malleability and Reincarnation of The Legend of Zelda's Universe didn't follow him over he's changed visually yes including becoming right-handed to matches breath of the wild appearance and has received a handful of tweaks over the years a wind Trail here a grab there but by and large his core has remained firmly planted a faith of The Legend of Zelda series doesn't even inflict on Plants the recent release of Tears of the Kingdom has made this disparity the most apparent it's ever been so I believe it's more than time for link smash Incarnation to receive a true overhaul this could be done in a more conservative realistic manner which take takes the realities of game development and director Masahiro sakurai's traditional approach to Legacy Smash characters into account but I figure that if we're doing this we're doing this today's video will be a comprehensive top to bottom remake of Link's entire moveset as if he was being introduced to the series for the first time as a DLC character in 2023 this video will obviously be covering the recently released tears of the Kingdom as soon as the theme song rolls I'm gonna stop using trailer footage but while there will be Showcases of various locations enemies and particularly mechanics I'll be avoiding anything that I consider to be a major spoiler so bosses story beats Etc even as far as mechanics go most of what I'll be showcasing is obtained reasonably early in the game as you'd expect given that these tend to be the most foundational abilities that link will receive plenty of other Zelda titles will be shown as well and I'm not going to be so stringent with them so fair warning with that out of the way let's make a new link [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign some of the combat footage in today's video was captured using today's sponsor the feature one XR glasses and these things are honestly really cool these are what are called extended reality glasses so what they're doing is they're projecting a very large bright and extremely clear like completely pixel-free screen right in front of my face I can see tears of the Kingdom perfectly in front of my face right now it's honestly just shocking how well these actually work the feature one uses color changing film to adjust the brightness and background of the display and is extremely customizable with features like interchangeable nose pads and myopia diopters to adapt them to your specific eyes they're really well suited for playing in handheld while you're traveling Outdoors lounging in bed or on the couch that sort of thing using the mobile dock to player switch on the go is a huge Improvement because it puts it into docked mode while using the vicer one's battery you can get up to six extra hours of play time this also means you get 1080p instead of the usual 720 in handheld and you also get 60 frames per second out of the feature one which hey if you're playing a game that doesn't push the switch to hell and back like smash ultimate it works amazing it works even better because multiplayer is supported if you've got a couple of pairs of glasses you can plug them both into the same dock also the biggest game changer for me personally you actually get to use a Pro Controller in a comfortable position I'm traveling across the country this summer and you can bet these are coming on the plane with me and it sounds great too it's done in collaboration with Harman for its speakers and they've got some kind of directional thing going on where I can hear the game crystal clear right now even though I'm not wearing earphones but if you're just a couple of feet away it's completely silent it's actually a little bit weird I've just been talking about playing tears at the Kingdom on switch but the feature one is also compatible with the steam deck PC you can do HDMI streaming with other consoles or something like the Chromecast that supports 3D movies it's a lot this is the kind of product where you might hear about it and go okay but is technology actually there yet and honestly yeah apparently technology is actually there yet if you're interested veacher is offering a 10 discount on either their XR glasses Standalone or in combination with the mobile dock for anyone who uses my code Mock Rock on their store you can check the description and pinned comment for that it's only going to be for the launch window though so Mega move the nature of Tears of the Kingdom means that it alone has more than enough potential to create a smash moveset from you could give link a different weapon for every single attack hell a different weapon in both hands for each attack and still not come close to running out that being said while the hero of the wild will get some additional time in the spotlight the concept here is a bit more Universal and aims to celebrate not only the most recent Zelda title but rather Link's entire Legacy stretching back to his very first appearance in 1986. it's a concept that the series has lightly toyed with particularly on the Wii U and 3DS but with an approach that I ultimately thought was a bit peppered because I'm treating link as a brand new DLC character he comes in with no baggage from his existing moveset and coming up with ideas under these conditions didn't turn out to be a problem in fact it was exactly the opposite I'm a big fan of the Zelda series and it has so much Source material to pull from that there was simply no way of giving link everything I'd love to see in Smash not without creating an incoherent mess I immediately discarded anything non-canon anything sourced from young Link or Toon Link presumably would still exist and be in need of their own comprehensive overhauls someday and I want to step Beyond this and got rid of any concepts that did appear on a viable Lynx toolkit but had variants which I thought were more appropriate or interesting on one of the youngsters beginning at a surface level I was originally playing to say that now is obviously the time to give link completely new models from across's appearances similar to what Hiro received however this actually ended up being a decision that took a bit of nuance there are seven total incarnations of link I'll be sourcing from the hero of Hyrule the hero of Legend the hero of time specifically as he appears as an adult in Ocarina of Time the hero of Twilight the hero of the sky the new hero of Hyrule and of course the hero of the wild this does technically fit into smash ultimate's Universal 8 skins per character limit but I certainly still want alternate color palettes available for each model so in practice there can only be a maximum of four different models given that link now pulls from all of these games excluding certain heroes from the mix feels off and it doesn't help that they're all much closer to each other visual than someone like Hiro gets to work with link will also be using some of his new tears of the Kingdom abilities that flow from his new arm which the other incarnations obviously don't have at the end of the day I decided this was still the path to go down and was worth navigating these hurdles Link's default appearance Remains the hero of the wild with a Champion's tunic in his tears of the Kingdom Incarnation but without the Hylian cloak that appears in his key art to avoid unique animation work for just one of his models and his alternate palette is a gray and Green Mix to allude to the archaic tunic from the start of the game an outfit that also appears in his key art model 2 is the hero of Hyrule from the original two Zelda games obviously modernized a bit and his alternate palette is red based on his appearance under the red ring in the original Zelda or the shields Bell in Zelda 2 The Adventure of Link this incarnation of Link doesn't actually use the master sword but rather the magical sword and his model does reflect that in game although I'm just gonna say master sword throughout the video model 3 is the inescapable Hero Of Time arguably still links most iconic recognizable and representative appearance and his alternate color is black taken from the Dark Link mini boss fight in Ocarina of time's water temple and finally model 4 is the hero of the sky from Skyward Sword albeit as he appears before donning his signature tunic and his white shirt can also become the same orange color as the Gratitude Crystals subbing in for the yellow costume that many characters receive while allowing for a bit more of a contrast than just between yellow and white this lineup was painful to decide on I had to ditch Twilight Princess representation for example which is one of my favorite games ever and could have an amazing red and gold alt but I think these choices create a solid compromise between hitting a lot of the strongest targets providing good visual variety which includes the red blue green yellow black and white costumes that many Smash characters incorporate and stretches back from Link's latest appearance to some of his earliest whether we're referring to the game's release orders or Zelda Cannon I'm aware that the hero of this guy is a bit of an outlier here even if he does show up really canonically and the hero of Legend in particular is kind of a jarring Omission but of the Three Links excluded I mean come on they wouldn't pass a police lineup an alternative that still used this multi-model approach could be to feature all seven links and have them only appear in an alternate costume to avoid a sea of green but having the hero of Twilight there just with his magic armor feels weird to I like my solution I also like it more than just having the hero of the wild dress up as them a few other fun cosmetic things to cover his up taunt is the elaborate sheathing animation he performs in Twilight Princess when learning a hidden skill or putting his sword away after finishing off an enemy this is basically what it is already but because smash ultimate has taunt canceling why not let the full thing Rock closer to how it appears in Smash 4. for his side taunt he pulls out a knock Arena and plays a few notes from a random Zelda song and down taunt is a sped up version of the hero of the Wild's cooking animation as link tosses an arm full of ingredients into a Zone iPod again hums a random Zelda song as it stirs and pumps his arms in Victory as a random recipe pops up out of the pot there's also a 10 chance for it to be dubious food instead in which case link looks disappointed and a failure sound plays for his entrance animation he now spawns inside of a warp portal which appear in a huge amount of Zelda dungeons I like the implication that this smash match is just one more challenge along his journey his sleeping animation is the sprawl from Skyward Sword his Parry is the Perry that the hero of the wild uses and his shield break animation has him stagger around which slowly spins him in place a very loose allusion to his deaths and many 2D Zelda titles Victory animation 1 has him raising his sword above his head Victory 2 opening a chest and looking pleased at its contents and three has him skydiving in and landing on the ground with his paraglider before slashing his sword towards the camera moving towards more concrete gameplay Direction The Legend of Zelda is an action adventure series while it typically comes from simple Origins and becomes more powerful over time by collecting a variety of hand weapons projectiles magical spells armor and utility items on top of combat he explores an Overworld and various dungeons within that Overworld while meeting characters solving puzzles and traversing obstacles as his Adventure progresses the powering up notion was interesting and we've seen this before in Smash with the likes of Steve's Mining and crafting as well as in other platform Fighters like shovel Knights money Gathering and shopping mechanics and Rivals of ether as inspired as those systems may be though I decided that an equivalent didn't seem like a great fit for a link bashing groupies out of opponents so that he could buy magic armor later in the fight as one of many many possible examples didn't really capture the spirit or scale of the kind of Adventure link would actually have gone through to obtain this kind of reward a game of Smash isn't an adventure it's a fight and I'd rather treat it as a fight Link coming in with Adventures already under his belt there were two major aspects of the Zelda series Beyond pure combat that I tried to capture here its diver's array of weapons and equipment and puzzle solving which incorporates the former there obviously aren't any actual dungeon puzzles for the items to interact with in Smash but I can impart a sense of problem solving by allowing the items to interact with each other in novel ways which also plays Into The Logical interactions of particularly the most recent Zelda games employing multiple items to complete a task is a common through line in many of Zelda's best sequences and in Smash I want players to first solve the puzzle of how Link's items can be put together and then after that to figure out which of potentially many available interactions will be ideal in a given scenario this approach needed to be handled with a bit of a light touch because link is being treated as a modern DLC character his design is allowed to be more complicated than the framework that was settled on back in 1999 even more so because young and especially Toon Link could stick around to hold down a more straightforward link Incarnation but I do still want him to fit comfortably into the world of Smash ultimate and feel like he belongs there's no point making a video like this if I'm not willing to take some risks and if a fan like me came in and pitched kazuya with his uniquely slow jump and movepool that nearly doubles the standard count they'd probably get Flack for being unrealistic the barriers for what constitutes a smash moves that have come down substantially in recent years at the same time we're talking about one of video game's most well-known characters who many people are going to want to just pick up and play and this should be facilitated I generally aimed to make most of his moves fun and intuitive at a base level with room for experimentation under the hood while pushing a few aspects of his kit to the point where I was worried they might be getting too busy or over the top and then usually paired them back a bit as to how this actually translates into a playstyle link has an interesting combination of great grounded attacks and great aerial movement options he's a mid-range fighter with a good projectile and anti-projectile game a versatile and rewarding grab and numerous kill confirms that can vary heavily with specific matchups the trade-offs he takes in exchange include fairly specific Aerials by sword fighter standards mediocre ground mobility and poor Auto Shield options he does have good melee attacks for keeping opponents off him but when he is forced to Turtle up he's relatively limited some of these are pretty drastic departures from how he currently appears and compared to his existing Incarnation he's also a bit less of a pure stray head killing machine and a bit more combo and setup Focus although his Rock Hill power still isn't bad and Remains the most potent among the Three Links I don't think there's too much point trying to speculate how good this incarnation of Link would turn out Aerials and note of Shield options are big business in Ultimate but he also has several really powerful tools that aren't directly comparable to anything that currently exists in Smash before anything else I think this direction would be fun interesting and feel like link and you can move a character from low tier to top tier by tweaking a couple numbers anyways prolink's inherent traits I think his basic stats with modest movement speed and a solid weight feel appropriate as they currently appear in Smash ultimate I don't think I'd have come up with his uniquely High fastball speed on my own but it fits the direction I'm heading in and is kind of a fun accidental nod to skydiving in tears of the Kingdom so he can keep it the only actual change in stats I've made is a very slight boost to AirSpeed once again in line with his overall direction as well as some compensation for a weaker set of Aerials this time around he's also gaining a few more Mobility tools namely a wall jump which will synergize with some of his moveset as well as a crawl to match his recent Stealth gameplay think more Belmont here and less snake link can perform a proper low profile crawl in a few appearances but I'd save that for toon link if it's going to appear anywhere by far the most substantial change of all though is the hero of the Wild's paraglider which the Zelda series had been building up to for a while and which link inherits here as a unique additional Mobility tool done by holding down the jump button in the same way as Peach and Daisy's float mechanic or more comparably brawl's gliding system but significantly weaker than either of those it's only available for a short amount of time maybe enough to travel half or a third of final destination's length indicated by a stamina wheel ticking down beside link and while it does have some small amount of acceleration and deceleration control its actual flight angle isn't adjustable back on Solid Ground Link's passive ability to block projectiles with his shield while standing and walking has been removed this passive blocking system is a cool nod to the 2D games and the way they handle defense so he can keep some aspect of it and use the shield while he's crouching and inherently defensive posture Link's existing idle and crouching stances make it a bit ambiguous as to when the new Shield is active so I'll tweak the idle stance to be a bit more relaxed and have him hold the shield up much more definitively when crouching down now there's a reason that link is only able to block passively half as often as he used to beginning with an attack that's on the weirder side of its smash moves slot but straightforward as far as it appears in The Legend of Zelda Link's jab is now the shield bash a single hit attack with moderate damage High base knock back and low knockback growth I'll be using those terms a few times in this video so if you're unfamiliar base knockback refers to how far an attack launches opponents when they haven't taken any damage while knockback growth determines how this knockback scales up with damage High base knockback with low growth is generally a bad combination because it means that opponents will be sent too far away early on to follow up with combos but the attack also doesn't scale up into being a good kill move timing based Shield techniques appear in a number of forms throughout the Zelda series sometimes being used for melee parries or reflecting projectiles or for breaking opponents guards in combination with other attacks in Smash It starts up relatively slow for a jab the same speed as Royer croms but without any of the amazing safety or combo potential that those offer it's also one of his shortest ranged attacks even though he pushes forward a bit in return how however it beats out other moves completely in the same manner as something like palatino's Dash attack and doing so is accompanied by the visual and sound effects that the hero of the wild gets on a successful Perry on top of this it also acts as a reflector an application that's never appeared on a jab in Smash before but does exist on a number of other normal moves across the roster it sends back the projectile at its original speed and 1.2 times its original damage which for a reflector is on the low end for comparison Mario's Cape deals 1.5 times the original damage whereas Zelda's nari's love deals 1.25 times damage and also sends it back at 1.4 times speed in Link's case though he doesn't have to expend a special move on it in tears of the Kingdom link gained the ability to fuse various items to his shield in order to get different effects but in Smash he now has what's already the most multifaceted jab in the game so I didn't want to pile anything else on top of it well not without some help anyway so let's get out of normals and jump the queue for a minute Link's new dance special is fuse an adaptation of an ability he gained in tears of the kingdom and it's a bit of a mouthful it's probably the most complicated move in links kit although I think you'll get the concept pretty quickly and informs a lot of decisions made about his more straightforward move so it's worth bringing up now nothing like this currently exists in Smash but the most notable comparisons would be to villager and Isabelle's pocket ability as well as incineroar with his revenge link stretches out his arm as the air around him glows and shimmers for a moment and if any projectile or item enters the area it gets fused to his master sword while he's fused with a physical item such as Sam's super missile this will be attached to the end of all of his melee attacks moving off the master sword when needed in a quick burst of light and this can potentially extend his range quite a bit connecting with a fused attack will then expend that projectile dealing the projectiles knockback instead of Link's own as well as doing damage equal to both links attack and half of the projectiles keep in mind that scaling damage up usually scales knock back with it but that's being bypassed here on top of that connecting with a fused move also as link act out of it four frames earlier than he'd normally be able to for multi-hits the fused projectile activates only on the final hit of the attack using samus's super missile as an example if link Jabs while fused with it then his shield bash becomes not such a stubby option that deals fire damage with light upwards knockback turning it into a very good combo tool especially because link gets to move faster afterwards with samus's homing missile on the other hand it has lower damage and therefore hits stun and barely sends opponents anywhere and these are traits that are inherited to flank fuses with it the combos it creates will certainly be different compared to the super missile if they work at all maybe they'll be universally incredible maybe they'll be valuable at some percents maybe they're useless I don't know meanwhile if link attempts to fuse with an energy-based projectile say samus's charge shot this will work but it's generally less effective there's no range extension because there's nothing to actually stick onto his weapons and his fused attack is the damage boost but no knockback changes additionally if the projectile had an elemental effect in the case of charge Electric City Links weapons will get an elemental Aura around them and deliver a matching Elemental attribute fire detonates explosives electricity creates a paralysis effect and Ice freezes opponents for a short amount of time if it's not Elemental Link's weapons just get a faint white glow instead it's worth noting that link is only able to generate fire himself which we'll cover later the stronger electric and Ice fusions are reserved as match-up bonuses or for more casual gameplay with items enabled in those casual games items can be fused with and if it's comparable to an item a character can pull themselves it probably works in the same way with a Pokeball for example Link's used attack deals the knockback of the Pokeball when thrown the damage of his attack plus half the Pokeballs and unleashes the Pokemon inside afterwards for items that aren't comparable these are handled a bit on a case-by-case basis but as a general rule of thumb they impart their expected effect but are destroyed regardless of whether the attack actually connects if the fused item can't normally deal damage link instead gets a straight 1.1 times damage multiplier on the attack an attack used with food heels link and and steals 1.1 times damage if the attack connects the raygun fires a single beam the screw attack lifts link into the air a single time which could be used to give himself a third jump because remember as a fused item is not activated by jumping like usual but rather when link throws out an attack the Home Run bat becomes extremely dangerous when fused to a forward smash although that one in particular has been nerfed so as not to be a one-hit KO back in a more competitive territory physical projectiles will usually have the best payoff and if Link's opponent has one that's great but many won't and this isn't actually too big of an issue because link is also able to fuse with his own stuff this is pretty important and creates some less generic interactions that will be explored later only one Fusion is possible at a time and while link has a fusion in place using the move again will still work but it destroys the existing Fusion even if he whiffs there is less end leg in this case though in part specifically because it facilitates voluntarily destroying the fusion opponents are also able to beat it out of Link in a similar vein as incineroar by damaging him excessively or Landing a grab and there may will need to be some kind of other restriction on it too maybe a link is only able to whiff a certain number of times maybe it's not a timer but this is the kind of detail that would take heavy play testing in a real development cycle so I'm gonna leave it open as a final note while I compare the fuse to villager and Isabelle's pocket earlier it doesn't block your opponent's single-use items in the same way if you catch Diddy's banana peel he's free to just pull another one if link has one of his own tools fused on the other hand he is locked out of it in a sense because pulling another one will destroy the fusion a lot to take in there and as mentioned most of his kit won't require anywhere near as much explanation but while it took a bit to hammer out specifics I think the core idea here is pretty easy to grasp that said as long as we're here in the territory of weird moves that impacted other design decisions there's one more that I'm going to skip to before we Circle back around to more basic stuff this would be Link's grab as well as the return of azair or aerial tether because link is being reverted to the tether grab he's employed throughout the majority of his smash life this time wielding the double claw shots that have appeared in several Zelda titles link now keeps them equipped while grabbing an opponent using one to lock them in place while he smacks them around with the other one for his Pummel this is purely a cosmetic change but the grab itself does work differently than other tether grabs if the claw shot connects with an opponent rather than pulling them towards him link pulls himself towards them as the stasis Rune from breath of the wild briefly flashes and freezes them in place providing a solid point for a link to reel the claw shot back into that's a little odd but It ultimately doesn't change that much it means that Link's forward throw become a bit better at putting opponents off stage and his back throw a bit worse but as we'll see later neither of these are kill throws though it's not some earth-shattering development things start getting more interesting however when link is allowed to angle his claw shot by holding the Zed button down he'll stand in place with his arm outstretched and the claw shots primed and can change the direction he AIMS in before releasing Zed to fire them off he is always required to fire them off there's no cancel action here so like with a traditional Telegraph it's always a commitment and this additional flexibility is paid for with quite bad Frame data if link snags an opponent who's in the air he'll still stases them in place and quickly reel himself into them but instead of getting a grab he'll simply knock them away with a double-footed kick this isn't a very powerful attack once again having high base knock back and low knockback growth if you want by list style plays then you're gonna have to keep playing bioweth as a result the angled claw shot is a fine albeit somewhat situational tool if it grabs an aerial opponent providing good coverage but not too much reward and asking for a fair amount of commitment very importantly though the claw shots can also be angled in the air and are able to latch onto projectiles and items including Link's own they'll still be frozen in stasis while he flies into them and if it's something he can catch like Diddy's banana peel or his own bomb it'll end up in his hand otherwise it just disappears either way there won't be a kick and instead he'll carry his momentum onwards for a moment allowing a projectile high up to Grant him a sizable boost into the air Zaire works in the same way and unlike a typical Zaire it won't automatically snap to Ledges instead sticking into the side of the stage much like it functions in melee there will always make Clank kick an opponent even if he connects it with someone on the ground he'll never get a grab off it it does work on items and projectiles in the same way though and to avoid any kind of stalling exploits he starts traveling smaller and smaller distances each time he reels himself in without touching the ground by the second time he might already stop being able to reel all the way to his Target if done from the edge of the clawshot's range I also had to decide whether link is able to latch onto floors which was never a question non-angleable tethers had to answer and I'm somewhat reluctantly saying no it'd make physical sense and probably be fun but it easily turns into a more exploitable burst movement duel than I want link to have of by all means use it for burst movement in tandem with an item though plot shutting off your Boomerang sounds like a good time between this and fuse item knowledge is going to become more integral for link than it's ever been hopefully in a fun way that can be understood quickly and built on for a long time moving into tilt attacks Link's new forward tilt is the hero's lunge a single hit stab with good range speed safety and if it's new tip or Sweet Spot connects reasonable kill power although it's still a step down from Link's current overhead slash this move is based on the simple thrust which link performs as his primary attack in the original Legend of Zelda as well as Zelda 2 The Adventure of link and which was later carried over into many other Zelda titles in some form albeit here has done in a pretty exaggerated way with a larger step forward like we see in the Zelda series in Smash it's intended to be one of his staple tools is often safe on Shield if spaced because link steps into the attack and then back afterwards and becomes very safe at the Tipper although up close it is punishable its vertical coverage also leaves something to be desired which can be partially compensated for because it's possible to angle this dab up and down a bit as seen on many sword attacks with a lower angle being able to hit opponents hanging on the ledge moving on to up tilt this is now the vertical Spin Attack a fast all-encompassing sword art with modest combo potential at early percents particularly if link connects with the sour spot back half of the move there have been a few instances whereling's been able to use vertical versions of his famous melee attack most notably in Skyward Sword which this variant is based on but it also appears inside scrolling scenarios such as those in links Awakening this is a very good up tilt upward sword arcs are often fantastic in Smash and this is one of the faster and broader ones on the roster this is because Link's gonna have to lean on it heavily though as is his only proper anti-air continuing on Link's down tilt is a low 2 hit strike as he cracks his whip forward and pulls it back the first hit dealing fixed downwards knock back to lock his opponents into the ground and the second hit dealing vertical knockback with modest scaling sending them nearly straight up at the tip and more outwards otherwise the whip is an item that link receives in skyward's sword and is used against most enemies to steal items off of them although some are brought down properly with it and link also uses it in a similar fashion to manipulate structures this is Link's primary grounded combo tool if he doesn't have a combo based Fusion active and if you're familiar with bilith you get the gist of how it works the multi-hit aspect makes it feel a bit different and creates a satisfying Rhythm on hit or block but doesn't really change much otherwise it's still a long-range poke with great coverage and combo potential but slow startup which requires good spacing to make the most of it now that we've seen a few of Link's moves both simple and complex you may have noticed that so far they've all been very direct references to the Legend of Zelda series the necessary ratio of Canon to original moves is one that comes up a lot in Smash design discussion and from my perspective the classic question template of who would win Mario or Kirby is a fun one that the series uniquely aims to provide at least the illusion of an answer for and the more a character feels like they've been pulled from their own world the stronger that illusion is now that still doesn't mean I think you should just shoot or in a reference in somewhere for the sake of it when an original move would serve the character's overall design better but in the case of Link in particular his Source material is so Broad and stretches back so far that I found no matter what kind of move I wanted for any given slot there was always a clear reference readily available I saw no reason to go with anything else and as a result almost accidentally essentially every single element of this moveset can be traced directly to his home series although I did of course take some liberties with them when necessary this heavily applies to his next move as well Link's Dash attack is now the dash attack where he equips the Pegasus boots very briefly runs in place to charge up momentum and dashes forward with sword point out to deliver a piercing stab this is a recurring attack in many 2D Zelda titles and it works similarly in Smash although the charge up time has been cut way down with link now only taking a couple steps in place and the total distance traveled has also dropped substantially it still travels far enough to be the longest ranged Dash attack in the entire game and link moves quite quickly but the fact that it's telegraphed with longer startup than most Dash attacks means that it needs to be committed to earlier when trying to say catch a landing it also does a high amount of Shield damage much like how it plows right through guards in Zelda although it's still not really a shield breaker move and won't generally be safe on block either while its end leg is fairly low it launches opponents at an outward angle with high bass knockback and moderate knockback growth so it won't normally combo very well but does set up good stage positioning and eventually starts killing it's not a great kill move but it has its uses and because Dash attacks don't go off stage in Smash ultimate you can try running against the ledge for a persistent hitbox heading into smash attacks now forward smash is a Flurry of Blows with the Knights halberd a very long-ranged and fairly long lasting attack that's nevertheless on the weaker end of its move slot and intensely unsafe if blocked this is based on the hero of the Wild's charge attack with a spear equipped although the hits have been sped up and it's anglerable up and down albeit with downwards multi-hits that are intentionally bad at pulling aerial opponents into the finisher this is so it's not unreasonably oppressive as a two framing tool you'll be able to connect with the multi hits at the ledge fairly reliably but likely won't get too much out of it Forward smash is another move that's most comparable to buy trading off sheer power and a bit of horizontal coverage for a lingering attack that covers much more vertical space this coverage can be pushed to pretty nutty levels with a big item fuse to it even if it is unlikely that link will be able to get any kind of follow-up bringing in another of the hero of the Wild's weapon classes up smash is a jumping overhead spin with the stone Smasher that ends with links slamming violently into the ground the entirety of the move being something you'll be very unhappy to get caught by this originates from the jumping attack link performs with two-handed weapons the slowest and strongest weapon class and this is carried over into smash as one of the slowest and strongest attacks in links Arsenal the initial overhead Arc already knocks opponents away with impressive speed and if they're caught in the Final Ground slam they'll be hit even harder and potentially have their Shield broken in the process as the stone Smasher will cleanly break a shield that's taken more than a sliver of damage especially when accompanied by a small shock wave that emanates from the ground on the other hand if their Shield doesn't break or they manage to dodge it link is completely unable to defend himself it's got great power and average neatly hitting most of a battlefield or Pokemon Stadium platform so it's strong if you've burned your opponent's resources and if you want to make a hard call out with an anti-air it's the move to use but overall as slow moves tend to be it's definitely on the niche end of his kit links down smash is the new home for his classic horizontal Spin Attack and while it doesn't hit especially low to the ground it has great horizontal coverage and respectable kill power all augmented by very solid speed rather than the whirly gig that was invented for Link's existing smash outings the Spin Attack here is a more faithful single spin like we typically see from everyone besides Toon Link in the Zelda titles this one specifically being inspired by Ocarina of Time while its particle effects are still based on the hero of the wild like with all of Link's moves they transition from Blue to Orange halfway through the charge and the hitbox also gets a bit bigger on top of these knockback growth it also sends at a pretty low angle not as low as link gets to pull off and melee mind you but still low enough that it reliably sets up for good Edge guarding scenarios long before it starts killing while its base form isn't amazingly safe is spaced well many characters May struggle to punish it effectively and the orange level provides enough range and shields done to be truly safe if spaced overall this will likely be the smash attack that will link players pull out most often which given how effective relentlessly spamming it tends to be in the Zelda series is pretty fitting circling back around to special moves remember when I said that link is able to fuse with his own items this is where that starts pressing the special button has link reach into his curiously spacious pouch and he then pulls an item out of the pouch when a direction is inputted assuming he's facing to the right any direction from the range shown on screen will pull out the Hero's Bow which can now be angled up and down hence the leniency in the input so it can be pulled out already aimed this is obviously a powerful trait that it didn't previously have but as a trade-off the total time required to pull the bow out is now slightly longer the uncharged Arrow travels slower and the charged arrow is a bit weaker and takes longer to draw while link is no longer able to pick up the arrow like he can in his breath of the wild Incarnation it will still stick into surfaces and the ability to fire it into the air also allows it to linger around for longer these because link is able to fuse with the arrow as well as latch onto it with his claw shots whether in midair or buried in a wall or the ground attacks fused with the arrow aren't insanely strong but all have impressive range as well as a unique sweet spot on the arrowhead this is a trait which wouldn't generically exist because the arrow doesn't actually have a Tipper mechanic when it's just a projectile but frolink's own moves as well as moves like it meaning all Arrow attacks in this case they get some special properties with fuse this includes the pits arrows even though they're technically also energy attacks there will be other cases like this where decisions have to be made individually about how to handle them I can think of others but I'm not going to bother trying to give a full list the fuse lockout I mentioned earlier also applies to the same category of projectile meaning that if link is holding someone else's Arrow he can't pull out his own alongside it I mean he can but it destroys the fusion this is less intuitive than I generally want fusions to be but is important for balance purposes especially for the next item we're about to pull inverting the adventure pouches input behind link pulls out the boomerang now the magic Boomerang based on its classic appearances compared to the current ultimate iteration it's more anglible travels further and is more rewarding on the reverse hit with increased knockback and damage leading to better combos when returning to link on the other hand its initial strong hit also launches opponents further and it's also a bit laggier this lowers its close range combo potential even if it doesn't eliminate it as well as makes it slightly less safe on shield and what this results in is a move that can be manipulated better and used in more creative applications but isn't as much of a Close Quarters brawling stable which almost inarguably makes it worse overall it's still good and giving it up refusion is harsh but the payoff is well worth it because Landing an attack fused with a boomerang reverses all horizontal knockback this is one of the strongest Fusion effects that link is able to get as it means that any attack which launches an opponent away from him now pulls them in instead opening up many new combo routes again though he is sacrificing a very good tool to have it and if an unexpected horizontal kill scenario comes up it's actually a detriment next up pulling downwards on the adventure pouch will spawn a bomb which has a mixture of traits that have appeared in various smash titles over the years as well as some new ones while timer-based bombs are a very classic item that have been around since the very first Legend of Zelda game breath of the wild changed things up significantly by turning them into remotely detonated explosive spawned with the sheikah Slate smash ultimate adopted this form and it turned out to be one of the most substantial playstyle changes that link has ever received but it's being somewhat reverted here to its more classic black time-based and calm-oriented appearance neither the chicest light Rune of breath of the wild nor the bomb flower of Tears of the kingdom it does maintain some aspects of the remote bomb though namely its larger size and more resilient physics link is able to knock it around like he can currently because his own standard attacks won't blow it up which allows for some cool ball manipulation while making it less of a potent ledge strapping tool removing its more extreme recovery potential and preventing long attack chains as it can no longer hit opponents multiple times in a row on top of detonating on contact with an opponent Elemental attacks also blow it up and these impart some additional effects icing much as they create the expected freezing and paralyzing bombs and fire makes the bomb which already does fire damage detonate with a lot more force and a larger blast radius this turns it from a Close Quarters combo tool into kind of a kill move more likely to be off stage this makes bomb recovery is like link is currently able to do an ultimate still possible with Firebase attacks which link can utilize although far less effective overall fused bombs meanwhile don't have any special properties beyond the timer continuing to tick down so you'd better make a move quick but if you do pull off a successful fused attack with Lynx bomb it was essentially his entire moveset start combos I've discussed how Link's items so far interact when fused to other things but not about other things being fused to them he is able to fuse things to his bow Boomerang and bomb although if he does that Fusion will be spent even if the projectile in question doesn't connect with anyone other than that fusions work pretty much how you'd expect just stuck onto a separate hitbox this separate hitbox does open up a few new fun possibilities though for example a bomb fused to Pit's Arrow or snakes Nikita can be steered manually that could be interesting if link tries to fuse with an already fused item though like an Akita bomb or a banana Boomerang banana ring he'll just get his own projectile back this applies to Elemental effects as well and helping with this as its final trick pulling up out of the adventure pouch gives link his fire Rod which he uses to spawn a pillar of flames in front of him that travels forward slowly this is based on the way the nice fire rod works in A Link Between Worlds and much like in that game it traps opponents in the vortex and then launches them out the top enabling combos in Smash this is very comparable to me sword fighters Gale strike kind of fitting considering they clearly take inspiration from link although the Gale strike is a much better Standalone move because it comes out faster travels farther and combos for longer than the fire Rod which has more knockback scaling being a Firebase attack does offer some benefits to link though because he can shoot an arrow or throw a boomerang through it to light them on fire and he can detonate a bomb with it directly the flame pillar is slow moving slow enough that link is able to spawn it then immediately catch it with a fuse to set up flaming weapon which is one way that he's able to bomb recover pulling the rod out also grants a bit of an air stall so double jumping and throwing a bomb right into the pillar could be another method speaking of jumping side special is now the jump strike where link pulls his sword back and charges up energy before flying forward in a burst of speed and slamming his sword into the ground releasing a shock wave when he lands the jump attack was a very good recurring move in 3D Zelda even before the hero of the wild game the ability to jump freely and the hero of Twilight was able to upgrade it to the jump strike through learning a hidden skill while I'm not generally the biggest fan of assigning these kinds of moves that could be normals to a precious special move slot after the intricacies of fusing dozens of items to your weapons and pulling out multiple projectiles at different angles I wanted something more simple and dumb and this seemed like a fun one the rangelink jumps increases along with the charge and so does the shockwave's size and power at full charge being one of his very best kill moves although the practicality of this will be up for debate it's still decently strong even if uncharged although not enough to kill until fairly high percent and also acts as a hit grab if the sword catches opponent at any point in the attack they'll be dragged down with link into the final shock wave unlike in Twilight Princess link is able to perform the jump strike in the air as well although there won't be any actual changes in his momentum in this case he'll just hold the sword in front of him as he falls which actually lines up pretty closely with what the hero of the wild can do in midair this still means that he'll be able to get some combos into at least the uncharged aerial version and it does drag opponents with him and activate the final shock wave if he hits the ground link isn't able to drag opponents with him forever though if he performs the jump strike off stage or high above the stage he'll drag them a fixed duration and then automatically slash them away with moderate knockback it's a decent honorary aerial if slow and committal and the only real persistent hitbox that link is capable of putting in front of himself in the air but to get the most out of it you're definitely going to want to aim for the ground afterwards up special is Ascend an ability from tears of the Kingdom which allows link to swim through solid surfaces provided he begins underneath a ceiling if he initiates this move very close to the bottom of a stage it works pretty much exactly how it appears in his home series link gets a very small boost in the air to help him connect with the stage he'll swim through it which can be tracked with a particle effect that's overlaid on top and then pop out automatically it really is only a very small boost though much less lenient than in tears of the kingdom and a lot of the time he won't be close enough to the stage to make contact if that's the case he'll first use the cane of Samaria from a link to the past which creates blocks out of thin air and works the same here he spawns a block slightly above his head which he then boosts into and swims through if that block is close to the bottom of the stage he'll pop out of it then right back into the stage and keep on swimming emerging as before otherwise he just pops out on top of the block the block only persists for a short amount of time before crumbling and can also be destroyed with a powerful attack now the phrase link spawns a block is probably bringing up some unresolved trauma in some of you but this move isn't actually meant to be that good there's a lot more setup time involved than Steve has to worry about link is vulnerable for a moment when he pops out of his upward swim and while standing on a block does reset most of his resources he has to land on Solid Ground before he's able to use the cane of Samaria again if he's able to get from the Block to the bottom of the stage he is able to ascend through it but that's not actually recommended most of the time the emergence animation does deal some minor damage and knock back but this is pretty easy to avoid in 1v1s and leaves him as a bit of a Sitting Duck although if you're playing on casual stages it is a fun way to move around Hyrule Temple the more ideal approach is to use the cane of Samaria to regain your other resources as far off stage as possible and then use a combination of Link's paraglider claw shots bomb wall jump and air Dodge to make it back from there the king of Samaria sequence doesn't take too long to complete so there are some opportunities for link to plant himself on the Block for juggling and Edge guarding applications but again a lot worse than Steves seriously I'm not making another Minecraft character I could have but I'm not heading over into Aerials now neutral air is The Shield spin as link puts a shield on his feet hunkers down and Spins horizontally creating a multi-hit attack with modest knockback growth that gives it solid combo potential wildling sporting abilities have been established for a while in the Zelo series the hero of the wild game the ability to Shield surf as well as perform an attack while Shield surfing although its translation into smash is relatively loose because it's a multi-hit aerial it has the potential to set up drag down combos eventually leading into Dan's match as a kill confirm at high enough percents and his combo potential when used as intended is also quite good it's got a quirk where link keeps the shield on his feet for a bit even after he stopped spinning and the hits have ended and if he lands with the shield on his feet he'll maintain his aerial momentum for a brief moment potentially allowing for even better follow-ups it offers him a fair amount but what it doesn't offer is range even though Link's body is part of the hitbox he bends over during the attack so its vertical coverage still leaves something to be desired squared and its horizontal range is terrible in fact its linked single stubbiest attack he can't really augment this with fuse either because he puts the shield on his feet facing downwards meaning that any fusions will also be facing down it's usable as kind of a secondary down air in this scenario but given that it's linked fast instead of Shield option that's not incredible compensation as mentioned earlier fusions only get expended on the final blow of a multi-hit attack but because neutral air can be ended prematurely this creates a landing hitbox which expends the fusion as usual unfused it doesn't have a landing hitbox moving ahead links Forward Air is the hero's thrust another simple stab with a master sword that comes with a Tipper Sweet Spot it's once again derived from the standard attack link uses on the NES more specifically the aerial version from Zelda 2 The Adventure of Link it's a decently long-ranged aerial with some kill power on The Sweet Spot and combo potential on the sour spot which lingers for a few frames but it's still narrow enough for link to have to aim it fairly precisely its Landing leg is quite good though and it's extremely safe of spaced back aragus to provide broader coverage as link grips the master sword with both hands and turns around slashing diagonally downwards in an attack that covers a lot more space and Deals considerably more damage and knockback than Forward Air at the expense of speed and a bit of safety while some parallels can be made to the Mortal draw from Twilight Princess where link also holds his sword in both hands and Spins or even part of his default attack in that game back air isn't explicitly based on any one particular attack from The Legend of Zelda it's simply filling in a gap that doesn't otherwise exist on his moveset a big satisfying straightforward Sword Art he also welcomes the vertical coverage in the air although its slow startup and back-facing Status don't make it the most versatile move in this style while back air is an original move down air in the meantime is the rare attack on Link's moveset that I left essentially completely intact the downward thrust this still has an initial spiking hitbox which transitions into an extended sour spot that bounces link off an opponent like he's riding a pogo stick while variants have appeared in a few other games this attack originally comes from Zelda 2 and works in essentially the exact same way here there are plenty of other good canonical candidates for a Danner in the Zelda series but none nearly as fun or distinctive as this one and I think that even if I was truly designing link from the ground up with no ability to reference the existing smash character at all this is still the attack I'd end up going with I created a slightly different pose with a sideways profile just because hey it's something new to look at but in reality I don't think I'd even change the front-facing one that ultimate currently uses it better matches the original Sprite and probably works a bit more smoothly when links drifting back and forth through the air the upward thrust isn't following its brother though as Link's new Opera sees him swinging the ball and chain above his head in a circle now being one of the stronger up airs in the entire game with fantastic horizontal coverage but somewhat slow startup the ball and chain is an item from Twilight Princess which acted as a stand-in for the hammer from previous games and while its primary purpose was to be thrown into enemies and obstacles its aiming animation also worked as an attack even if it was limited to the ground converting combo fusions into up-air kill confirms is going to be an important part of Link's game plan and it's also great for juggling opponents in the air but high end lag and Landing lag makes it risky to whiff or try and land with I've already gone over Link's grab but moving on to throws forward throw has link equipped the power gloves which have appeared in numerous Zelda games then perform his classic overhead toss as far as forward throws go it's quite solid setting up Tech chases on faster falling characters at Mid percents and good Edge cards later but not killing until unreasonably High percentages also it's worth noting that for all throws fusions don't work on them and will disappear while the throw animation is active this shows up everywhere in Zelda causing pots causing rocks tossing bits of enemies at them lots of overhead tossing going on going on to back throw this is now the helm splitter whaling flips over an opponent's head brings the master sword down on them from above and slams them off the floor to send them on their way the helm splitter has appeared in a fuse out of games but this one is based on its appearance in Twilight Princess where it's one of the Hidden skills that link is able to learn in conjunction with the shield bash in Smash It deals fantastic damage and has good base knock back but terrible knockback scaling which means it will essentially never kill down throw is the iron boot stomp whirling leaps into the air equips the long-running iron boots mid-jump and Falls onto his opponent with a metallic clang that hits twice in Rapid succession before sending them flying upwards this is Link's combo throw and it's okay at his job although moderate knockback scaling means that Dan throw into up air isn't a reliable kill confirm but it may work on high platforms or catch a few opponents in a 50-50 situation the iron boots traditionally aren't really that much of an offensive weapon in Zelda unless combine with other tools but I think it's a fun concept here and then for up throw we have the skyward Strike warlink tosses an opponent upwards and stabs the master sword into them from below as lightning cracks on the blade sending them up with much higher knockback than he's able to generate from his boots the skyward Strike is a kill throw to look for when everything else has failed and is decently effective although slightly worse than Link's current up throw for the job the standard skyward Strike as seen in Skyward Sword doesn't quite work this way being more of a projectile attack but he does Infuse the blade with lightning during his battle with demise and the raised sword pose is a common one throughout the entire Zelda series obviously Skyward Sword is the game that gives it a bit more of a limelight though moving on to a few fun rapid fire things before we wrap up links get up attack and ledge attack now use the cane of Berna from a link to the past this incorporates a few different animations but they all share the same theme of holding the cane while a beam of light rotates around him the cane of Brenner makes link fully Invincible while it's active and has about the right range so it makes sense to slot it into his Invincible attacks his forward and back crawls are the same as they currently appear in Smash ultimate a summerslautern backflip are great but I am changing his spot Dodge to the magic Cape also from A Link to the Past it phases link out of existence there and it works similarly in Smash spawning around blink as he begins to Pivot in place and briefly vanish in the same manner as Greninja then reappearing as he completes a rotation with a cape flared up behind him I thought about doing this for his air Dodges as well but it's a bit fancy and I'm not sure it's Justified alongside all his other good aerial traits and fittingly we end on Link's Final Smash Triforce converge a Triforce closed behind the link as he performs a double-handed overhead slash and if any opponent is caught in it they're pulled into a void and land hard on the floor the camera zooms out to reveal that this is the sacred realm and they're in the middle of a giant glowing Triforce on the ground and around its perimeter stand every single incarnation of Link who immediately leap into action they attack their opponent in a blistering sequence as the camera moves around dynamically the hero of Hyrule using his Silver Arrow the hero of Time bigoron's sword the hero of Legend The bombos Medallion the hero of Twilight lunges as a wolf with midna on his back the hero of the four sword and the hero of light split an attack with a flurry of boomerangs and giant bombs one of which is written by a miniature hero of the Minish who leaps off it and slashes as he grows at the perimeter the hero of winds rides his ship alongside the new hero of Hyrule who uses his water Rod to keep them sailing as the cannon is fired the hero of spirits does the same in his train and above the hero of the sky soars on his Loft wing and fires off a Skyward strike while the hero of the wild banks on a zonai glider equipped with beam emitters and if you don't know what some of that means don't even worry about it because it all flies by with a rotating camera in a time frame that's barely longer than Captain Falcon running someone over with his car so you'll have to watch it back a few times to get all the details the only hero missing from The Fray is the one currently being played who leaps up high at the end to deliver one final jump attack as the opponent is flung out of the Sacred realm and hopefully their stock it's bombastic it's over the top it's pure fan service and I think it's awesome given that link is Wishing Upon the Triforce it actually makes more sense than a lot of his other abilities being mashed together here but we're talking about literal toys fighting each other so there's not really a point sweating those kinds of details to begin with my bet is that a link DLC reveal trailer which ends in this Final Smash absolutely brings the house down and with that we've got the last piece of our brand new link move set I've tried my hand at making full movesets for original characters before back when I was rapping University up and thought I'd be heading into the games industry instead of YouTube but this is my first attempt at a full adaptation and I think it's harder especially for our first project and especially for a character like link looking back there are a number of elements from Zelda that I headed into this project fully expecting to add and that I'm surprised didn't end up making the Final Cut But ultimately I wanted to prioritize what I thought would be the most fun and bring something new to the table without going completely off the rails well except for fuse and the claw shots but that's kind of the point every move can't be crazy at least not on a character like link or it no longer feels like you're playing smash ultimate you have to choose your favorites even just looking at tears of the Kingdom some core abilities like flurry Rush didn't make it in but foundationally that's just a counter and we have every variant of that imaginable available in Smash already for a different concept that totally focuses on tears of the kingdom sure and I certainly considered slotting it in as a foresight-like ability but on top of its redundancy within the Smash roster it'd also be somewhat redundant alongside the shield bash which I like more and think does a similar job in a healthier way similar considerations apply to Rick call or Ultra hand it may seem funny that link only pulls from half of his corazoni arm abilities and I thought about letting him drag items around reverse their momentum after he's thrown them Etc but making him too focused on Walling with items risks being overly busy and not fun to fight against and I think fuse in particular alongside tools like the paraglider is enough to capture plenty of the hero of the Wild's Essence if you notice other discrepancies like having the fire Rod but not the ice rod even though they're usually paired together and Link has Elemental Synergy I might have overlooked it but there are plenty that I'm aware of and decided to go with anyway for the sake of gameplay I think this new iteration feeling more like link from The Legend of Zelda is pretty inarguable but whether he'd be more fun interesting balanced Etc is up in the air like I said it's my first crack at the format so let me know your thoughts I'm sure there's room for improvement but looking at the end result a link who's able to fight hard on the ground move around in the air effectively with a variety of creative tools that create a high skill ceiling without being overly obtuse to understand and can dynamically change his playstyle for different matchups and scenarios in a way that few characters can stack up to I think he seems like fun not that I'm biased or anything thanks for watching everyone this video took a lot of work to make so if you think it's worth liking and commenting to help into the algorithm much appreciated you can check out another Mock Rock video Here video for my second Channel Mock Rock talk below and patrons YouTube members and twitch Subs get perks like early videos and Discord access later people

Channel: MockRock

Views: 149,307

Keywords: Smash Ultimate, alpharad, Nintendo, little z, super smash bros ultimate, smash bros ultimate, tier list, alpharad deluxe, Nintendo Switch, nintendo memes, nintendo, smash ultimate tier list, zeltik, pjiggles, tcnick3, tierzoo, the legend of zelda, tears of the kingdom, zelda, link, ganondorf, link new moveset, link tears of the kingdom smash, link tears of the kingdom smash moveset, the legend of zelda tears of the kingdom, tears of the kingdom builds, tears of the kingdom funny moments

Id: CRzflRd6Ia4

Length: 52min 53sec (3173 seconds)

Published: Wed May 31 2023