The Problem With Ultimate's Top Tiers | Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

all video games of the competitive scene face a never-ending challenge of Bounce it's a Perpetual dilemma where you have to somehow achieve two mutually Divergent outcomes at the same time that being maintaining some sement of a stable meta in order for players to feel adequately rewarded for the time and effort invested into it while also keeping the game ever changing so as not to incur stagnation and eventually exhaustion it's a fine line between too much change and too little sadly attempting to find a perfect balance may be close to unfeasible in light of the nature of competitive games fostering animosity towards metas more than smash ultimate is on the precipice of such an outcome having been documented and discussed time and time again in recent months the game is beginning to enter the final stages of its exploration on one hand the amount of time spent learning and optimizing has led to Major breakthroughs in Fighters previously written off as unviable but on the other hand players are understandably beginning to grow frustrated with the handful of cast members that were cemented in the upper echelon of tier lists now it's more likely for players to not be happy with top tiers in a video game than the inverse and this definitely isn't the first time in this Smash Bros franchise where people have been dissatisfied with how things turned out given the Twilight of Smash 4 and the majority of brawl why does this keep happening though why is it almost as if smash is destined to always have an unpleasant lineup of top tiers today we'll be discussing the problem with smash ultimate's best characters and why this outcome happens so consistently a good starting point for this video would be to First understand what makes a character top tier in the first place like how is Roy better than Mark or how is Fox better than Falco fundamentally it comes down to two primary factors one options and two interactions those are the two Hallmark elements that govern the relative performance of a character beginning with the first aspect of options obviously the more favorable assortment of stats and tools you have the better you perform against other characters for most people stats can be broken down into rudimentary things ground speed air speed attack range Frame data damage kill power so on and so forth but options go far beyond just that there are so many more things that comprise options for instance neutral tools having ways to exert meaningful pressure on your opponents without exposing yourself in return for some characters even if they have range or speed they may not have as good of a neutral pressure as those attributes would imply another aspect would be recovery options there's a measurable number of characters who possess great recoveries if we look at it purely from distance traveled Joker's wings of rebellion boasts incredible distance coverage but is famously considered a downgrade compared to a standard tether as they can easily be punished via any half decent two framing option conversely there may be characters support distance coverage but have many ways in which they can return to Stage giving them deceptively better recovery than one would expect last example would be Escape options characters may be fast but not have the means to shake off enemy pressure thus rendering their otherwise fantastic speed irrelevant on account of them being trapped in the corner or forced behind Shield a good case study being Greninja who's out of Shield options or lack thereof can make it difficult for him to fight back when being pressured as you can see there's a lot more beneath the surface than just being fast or being strong several MERS are known for having frankly overpowered moves but the absence of other forms of options is makes them less practical than others who might not do as much damage or be as fast but have more options the second aspect though is what determines a relative healthiness of options interactions those of you who follow vars one may have heard me say this before but seldom is it ever the mechanic or property itself that determines whether or not it's a problem rather what the opponent can do in response to it if they can do anything at all you can have an attack that literally One-Shots you but if it has 50 years a startup or requires that you stand basically right next to your opponent it can be played around it's why Little Mac despite having a move that can erase you off the map as early as 20% is one of the worst characters in the game because the majority of the roster has the means to play around it whether avoiding him all game or throwing something safe at him that gets rid of it in contrast what makes move like spin dash a major headache is that few characters if any have an answer to it allowing Sonic to get away with spamming it without a second thought the first five frames of the attack are unchallengeable he can Dash right through even the strongest projectiles and attacks in the game if timed correctly on top of that even if you successfully block it it's positive on Shield meaning Sonic is able to act 6 to 11 frames faster than you can or in other words you can't punish spin dash when also factoring in the however many ways he can mix up the movement or cancel it and that's when you have something that breaks the fine balance between options and interactions in that Sonic has so many options at this move both from the move itself and what you can do after while the opponent has very few or potentially no answers to stop you from or punish you for doing it the more options a character has and the less ways you're able to respond to it the better a character performs overall the interaction aspect is what separates a top tier with a good design from Top tier with a bad one it is possible for someone to have strong options in one area while being countered in others which is how a character should be designed no matter how strong they are there should be weaknesses or deficiencies that most if not all characters can easily exploit if the opportunity presents itself there's no better example of that than Fox when played optimally Fox is some of the highest DPS and offensive pressure known to man more than Kasia more than Sonic more than Steve but the burden of execution falls on the fox player to make it happen since any misstep can result in him exploding just as quickly as he can explode them burden of execution is one of the universal forms of balance in any game the more the onus is put on the player to make stuff happen the higher the skill floor and ceiling is in light of having to put yourself at risk to achieve the desired outcome sure Fox Roy or Cloud may get away with perhaps more than players are comfortable with but the need for them to exercise proper judgment and actually think before they go in is Will makes them feel less suppressive to play against than the likes of Kya Steve gamer watch and Sonic which brings me to the central point of this video the smash BRS franchise notoriously fails at finding a healthy Middle Ground between the Privileges afforded to a character and the potential weaknesses they may have even while the game is being actively updated during 2019 and 2020 Sakai and his team aren't exactly known for the knowledge and competitive balance mostly because they don't keep all fighters on the same power scaling especially with the new additions in an ideal world every character would have the same things for the sake of argument five strengths and five weaknesses what would then determine if one character is stronger than the other is what combination of strengths and weaknesses they have such is not the case though some Fighters have nine strengths and one weakness While others have one strength and nine weaknesses mind you it can be difficult to comprehend how valuable a strength or weakness is given their values change from situation to situation in one matchup having bad recovery can be a lot more crippling while in another it's not as consequential but that is what makes ultimate top tiers all the more aggravating if I could summarize all like so Steve gamer watch and Sonic in a single sentence it would be this they can do so much and get away with so much without having to do that much the issue with these characters is that conceptually the amount of time and effort invested into them produces a net reward far higher than is Justified in relation to the same effort being put into other characters I'm not saying any random to tour can pick a Steve and start winning locals you still have to put in the work but what I am saying though is that a player who achieves 95% of Steve or Sonic's capacity will get more than someone who achieves 95% of coins capacity or a bayoneta capacity top players will effortlessly trash a 2 two Steve or sonic player but when there's someone who is just as good as them the character difference can and does matter substantially I'm actually going to leave Steven sonicone for a moment and talk about the new kid on the Block Mr gaming watch with the rise of Mia players are beginning to realize just how much they underestimated him when they ranked him bottom tier at the very start of ultimate gaming watch epitomizes the option and interaction Dynamic I talked about earlier honestly more than Steven Sonic I dare say so many of his attacks can do a lot of things for minimal effort while having very few ways in which the opponent can stop him from doing it opening with the smash attacks up smash is frequently spam in neutral because the invincibility ridiculous kill power and safety on Shield makes it so the risk of interacting with him while he does it B out waste of reward his down smash effectively has no weakness when fully spaced even at minus5 most characters can't punish it if you get hit by The Sweet Spot you basically die at 50 if you get hit by the sour spot it sends at quite possibly the worst angle possible especially with bad di oh and also if you get hit by it while you're in the air it sends you straight up and kills you at like 100 anyway so no matter what you do if you get hit by this you're gaming watch down smash covers both sides and himself and is fully destroyed and making it one of the safest down smashes on Shield it does so much while simultaneously giving you few of any ways to stop him from doing it or punish him for doing it these privileges extend to many and I emphasized many of his other moves up that question the best uper in the game you can't punish it due to it being like plus 20 on Shield it's one of the farthest reaching upirs in the game it's a dis join a multi hitter which means even if you down air or try to attack one of the hits the other ones will still connect even though it's a projectile there's no point in reflecting it since the attack wears off before it recoils back to gam watch anyway this move is juggling incarnate and once again there's very little the opponent can do in response to it all they can do is not be directly above him or at least try not to be having so many moves of the same nature that give him far greater of an advantage over for you makes it so the safest course of action you have against him is to not interact which is the worst form of counterplay so on my league Channel I have a series called badly designed abilities which now that I think of it maybe I should do a revarse 3 also I digress though most of the time you can infer if an ability is badly designed if the best way to handle it is to not handle it PVP games are all about interactions why is it so fun watching Lo play Joker because it's full of interaction full of exchanges explosive punish games reads and crazy call outs there's a lot of thought mental awareness presence of mind and execution behind playing Joker because of how fast Leo plays someone who can easily get punished I know Joker has some pretty lame ass moves like down gun and whatnot but generally he's regarded as one of those quote unquote top tiers that actually have to work for their wins ultimate's best characters all suffer from the same issue the best way to play against them is ironically to not play against them at all smash for beo can one shot you off a single interaction so why in your right Minds would you ever go in against her having a touch of death alone doesn't make her break a character you have tons of them in Al like Ice Climbers and Luigi but unlike Kia or Steve who can also screw you over a single interaction you can play the Walling game against those other characters and punish your stubby range and to predictable disadvantage trying to do that against someone like Steve is just flat and impossible not only does the have Frame data on par with some of the fastest characters in the game and not only does he have damage output and kill power that makes even Heavies look pathetic but he has options lots of options for just about any situation he might be the slowest character in the game but he is burst movement options that on top of being very fast and effective a positioning two of them are literally projectile smash attacks so not only can he recover or ski juggles but he can straight up kill you for trying to juggle or Edgard him in the first place alternatively he could just place blocks down and chill in midair for as long as he has materials which is basically forever because he can mine on top of the block he places down at the very least for characters like Peach she has to come down eventually Steve doesn't even have to no San person will try to chase after him from that far above when there's anvil in Minecraft they have to worry about even on stage there's not much you can do against him if he builds a wall much less a house it seals off virtually all avenues of approach you can take against zonas like Samus and the Belmont it's a 50-50 guess on whether you'll approach from the ground or the air whether diagonally or from above but Steve turns a 50/50 into a 99 to1 where all he has to do is cover the only option you have to approach him effectively ensuring he wins if you do and if he places a wall behind himself even if he's at kill per if you hit him he can tack the wall and strike right back therefore the safest way to play against him is to just not interact with them people were dispatching tweak for standing still and watching off AA mine and place a three high wall for 5 minutes straight but if he tries to go in Ula mathematically is guaranteed to emerge the Victor from any neutral interaction because Steve has dozens of options while at the same time eliminating most if not all of his opponent's options Sonic Steve CIA gaming watch and to lesser extend minman EES and sneak aren't frustrating because they're strong they're frustrating because they can forcibly stack the deck and Checkmate you devolving an otherwise interactive engaging display skill into a game of Mind sweeper only 90% of the board is SW of Minds The opponent has put in so much effort and continuously put in that effort without stopping to overcome those obstacles begging the question is it even worth trying evidently it's not that's why these characters are so damaging to the game not only is it unenjoyable to play against them but it's unenjoyable to watch whether playing or spectating people love interactions that's the whole reason we play video games there is no greater satisfaction than being faced with a challenge end through hard work practice and creativity overcoming it and despite what some may think they love it when the challenge in this case being their opponent also pushes back that's why PV PVP games are some of the most popular things get boring when once you beat them the first time you can beat them every subsequent time people want to be challenged and continuously challenged but there's a difference between something being challenging and something being suffocating Ultimus top tiers make the game suffocating not challenging to reiterate I'm not saying these characters are infalible and that skill doesn't play a part to this day players are slowly but surely learning the matchups and doing all they can to push through in spite of their overwhelming disadvantage but just as they're getting better and better so too are the gam of watch Steve and Sonic players only for everyone step forward you take they take three steps forward it's like gambling at a casino The House Always Wins meaning in the long run you're guaranteed to lose so why even bother playing the more I think about it the more I wish we had one patch one last patch one final round of numbers adjustments could make this game so much better if the meta's best characters were Joker Roy wolf fox and so on even though I'm sure players will inevitably find things to complain about them based on how we feel about them now you would make for a much more enjoyable experience because at the very least it's an interactive one what do you guys think do you agree with my stance on it or do you think there's a different problem with them entirely feel free to share in the comments down below that's going to be it for today so if you enjoyed the video it would be great if you could leave a like And subscribe don't forget to follow me on Twitter at bars join my Discord server and check out my other discussion videos if you haven't yet but until next time thanks so much for watching and I look forward to seeing you again soon take [Music] care [Music] [Music]

Channel: Vars III

Views: 54,168

Keywords: smash, super smash bros, smash ultimate, super smash bros ultimate, vars smash bros, vars smash, smash bros ultimate, ssbu, ssbu game and watch, ssbu steve, ssbu sonic, ssbu kazuya, smash bros top tiers, smash ultimate dying, smash ultimate top tiers, the problem with super smash bros ultimate, smash ultimate best characters, smash ultimate strongest characters

Id: 6ZXH8vhlMKE

Length: 13min 48sec (828 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 03 2024