Young Link (SSBU): Difference between revisions

|tier = A-

|ranking = 29

Young Link is ranked 29th out of 82 on the tier list in the A- tier. This is an overall improvement from his mid-tier placement in ''Melee'', where he was ranked 17th out of 26. Young Link possesses great frame data and combo ability. The low knockback on his attacks allows him to rack up damage quickly and his disjointed range provides him safety from getting too close to his opponent. His projectiles also benefit his combo game, most notably his [[Fire Arrow]], which has low startup lag and sends his opponents upwards. Young Link also possesses kill confirms at high percentages thanks to the first hit of his [[forward aerial]].

Overall, Young Link is often seen as the best of the three Links, and fares very well in a competitive environment thanks to strong results from players such as {{Sm|Toast}}, {{Sm|skittles|p=Iowa}}, and {{Sm|Supahsemmie}}.

In summary, Young Link, despite featuring a very similar moveset to his alternate timeline counterparts, has a unique design and playstyle unlike anybody else in the game. He possesses one of the best zoning and combo games in the cast, giving him the ability to play both hyper defensively and hyper aggressively and switch between the two playstyles on the fly to throw opponents off. Despite rather low representation at top level, most likely due to his high learning curve and inconsistencies, Young Link is regarded as a high tier character, especially with the buffs to his KO power in update 7.0.0, and the few top level players who have chosen to main him have proven his capability to preform well in tournaments.

*{{buff|Young Link's base [[air acceleration]] is higher than Link's (0.01 → 0.02).}}

**{{change|The third hit uses Link's previous animation that thrusting a sword, instead of swiping vertically.}}

**{{nerf|It deals less damage (13% → 12% (base)/11% (tip)) and knockback (55 base/82 scaling → 30/85 (blade), 25/85 (body)), make it considerably weaker than Link's.}}

**{{nerf|It deals less damage (11% → 8%) with knockback not fully compensated (30 base/103/111/105/104 scaling → 20 base/130/128/126 scaling), make it weaker than Link's.}}

**{{buff|Although it does not reach as far as Link's, it uses 3 spherical hitboxes rather than 1 extended hitbox, and all 3 hitboxes are wider, improving the move's vertical range.}}

**{{nerf|It deals less damage (14% (tip)/13% (blade)/12% (body) → 11% (base)/10% (tip)) and knockback (70 base/85 scaling (tip), 85/85 (blade), 85/77 (body) → 70/70), make it considerably weaker than Link's.}}

**{{buff|The first hit has less startup (frame 17 → 15) and ending lag (FAF 51 → 48).}}

**{{change|The first hit always deals lower damage (7% (base)/14% (tip) → 6%) and knockback (45 base/12 scaling (base), 30/100 (tip) → 35/40 base/15 scaling).}}

**{{buff|Down smash has less startup (frame 12 → 9 (hit 1), frame 24 → 21 (hit 2)) and ending lag (FAF 55 → 50).}}

**{{buff|The late hit deals less damage (6% → 5%) and base knockback (15 → 10), further improving its combo potential.}}

**{{buff|It has much less ending lag (FAF 52 → 41).}}

**{{change|The second hit launches at a slightly lower angle (44° → 48°).}}  

**{{nerf|Back aerial's first hit's aerial hitboxes deal less set knockback (36 → 20). Combined with Young Link's higher gravity, and the greater delay between the hits, this makes the move connect less consistently.}}

**{{change|Up aerial uses its animation from ''Melee'', making it more closely its appearance in ''{{iw|zeldawiki|Zelda II: The Adventure of Link}}''.}}

**{{buff|Down aerial has less startup lag with a longer active duration (frames 15-64 → 13-64).}}

***{{nerf|However, the clean hit has a shorter active duration (frames 16-19 → 13-15).}}

*[[Grab|Grabs]]:

Young Link has been heavily buffed in the transition from ''Melee'' to ''Ultimate''. His attributes, moveset and general gameplan have all been significantly improved in the transition, and he has gained a better combo game, whereas the changes to the general pace of ''Ultimate'' have contributed to his benefits.

Young Link's speed has been improved from ''Melee'', not just in terms of his mobility, but also his attacks, as many of them have decreased startup and ending lag (such as [[neutral attack]], [[forward tilt|forward]] and [[down tilt]]s, and [[dash attack]]), and his aerials have heavily decreased landing lag (even compared to their [[L-cancel]]ed counterparts in ''Melee''), improving his ability to land. Some of his moves have also been reworked to make them more reliable and effective, such as his [[up smash]] and his [[forward aerial|forward]] and [[back aerial]]s, and the weakening of [[SDI]] heavily benefits his multi-hit attacks. His grab game has also been improved thanks to the universal changes to tether grabs, as they now have less ending lag and a longer duration. His [[forward throw]] also has increased knockback, giving him a new KOing option.

His special moveset has also seen heavy improvements. [[Fire Arrow]] has less ending lag and increased knockback, [[Boomerang]] deals less knockback as a result of its lower damage, grounded [[Spin Attack]] has less ending lag after its final hit, and aerial Spin Attack's hits link into the other much more consistently. Bombs were also significantly buffed, as their multi-hits accumulate their damage faster, they travel farther when thrown, no longer deal damage to Young Link if they hit an enemy head-on, and can be "soft-tossed" or slowly Z-dropped without exploding. All of these changes combined together not only grant Young Link a deceptively improved zoning game, but have also further improved his combo ability from mid-distance.

The changes to ''Ultimate''{{'}}s engine have also generally benefitted Young Link. The universal increase in mobility, the ability to [[Run cancel|use any attack out of a run]] and the increased [[shieldstun]] have vastly improved Young Link's close quarters combat, as he can now close in on the distance with less issue and his attacks' above average damage output renders them harder to punish (most infamously his tilt attacks). The universal reduction to landing lag is an especially notable benefit, as not only this improves his ability to land, but has improved his aerials' safety on shield -despite the reduced shieldstun on aerial attacks-, but has also dramatically improved his combo game up-close outside of his [[down throw]] and {{b|Bomb|Link}}s, with him now having set-up options by virtue of his [[neutral aerial]]'s late hit and the first hits of his forward and back aerials. The removal of [[edgehogging]], the introduction of [[Edgeguarding#Ledge trumping|ledge trumping]] and the changes to invincibility when grabbing an [[edge]] have also notably improved Young Link's recovery, making him much less vulnerable to getting edgeguarded or getting hit if he doesn't grab the stage's edge.

Although he has mostly received buffs, Young Link is not without some nerfs. In exchange for his now excellent combo ability, some of Young Link's attacks deal less damage (most notably his projectiles), now requiring him to string more hits in order to rack up more damage. A few of his attacks also have slightly increased startup and ending lag, while others have shorter durations, bringing them more in line with the rest of the cast. His aerial mobility is also slightly worse (especially when relative to the cast). Additionally, his down tilt and down aerial no longer have [[meteor smash]] hitboxes, meaning that Young Link gains no benefits from the removal of [[Meteor smash#Meteor canceling|meteor canceling]]. In terms of gameplay changes, the changes to [[air dodging]] also hinder Young Link's mobility, as [[wavedashing]] and wavelanding are significantly less effective due to their increased landing lag. Some of Young Link's weaknesses from ''Melee'' also remain, most notably his below average range for a swordfighter (despite it improving in the transition) and his still limited KOing ability.

Overall, Young Link's gameplan has radically changed between both games, which has also resulted in a slight increase to his already high learning curve. Young Link now has reliable damage racking capabilities at all ranges, courtesy of an improved zoning game and a deceptively improved combo game that doesn't require use of his bombs, which now makes it easier for him to close in on the distance against other characters and harder for other characters to keep up with him, and he has less trouble at landing due to his aerials' lower landing lag. However, even with the higher knockback on some of his moves and his new hit confirms, his KOing ability remains below average, which combined with his short range means Young Link still has to take risks in order to KO the opponent. Regardless, Young Link is a significantly better character than he was in ''Melee'', with a larger playerbase in competitive play consisting of players such as {{Sm|colinies}}, {{Sm|SKITTLES!!}}, {{Sm|Supahsemmie}}, {{Sm|T}}, {{Sm|Toast}} and {{Sm|Tweek}}, who have demonstrated Young Link's strong potential when mastered. As a result, Young Link is commonly considered to be a high tier character, though due to other characters receiving similar improvements such as {{SSBU|Greninja}}, {{SSBU|Mario}}, {{SSBU|Pikachu}}, {{SSBU|Palutena}}, {{SSBU|Roy}}, {{SSBU|R.O.B.}}, and {{SSBU|Wolf}}, his true tier placement remains debatable.

*Young Link possesses a [[tether]] attack and grab.

|neutralname=Slash ({{ja|なぎ払い|Nagiharai}}) / Counter Slash ({{ja|返し|Kaeshi}}) / Stab ({{ja|突き|Tsuki}}) Illusion Slash ({{ja|幻影斬り|Genei Kiri}}) / Illusion Finish ({{ja|幻影フィニッシュ|Genei Finisshu}})

|neutraldesc=A downward slash, followed by an outward slash, followed by a thrust. If button mashed, Young Link instead performs a rapid flurry of slashes before concluding with an upward slash. The standard neutral attack is based on the final series of strikes that he inflicts to [[Ganon]] in ''The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time''.

|dashdesc=A lunging downward slash. It comes out quickly at frame 8 without a large amount of ending lag, and it has decent power, giving it some KO potential at the ledge. Just like other attacks, the tip of the Kokiri Sword deals less damage.

|dsmashdesc=A kneeling inward slash in front of himself, followed by a kneeling outward slash behind himself. Both hits are semi-spikes, making them good for edgeguarding, and is stronger from the front than from the back.

|nairdesc=A flying kick. It is a [[sex kick]] and one of the fastest aerials in the game at frame 4, making it a very good option to get opponents off of him. Additionally, it has extremely low landing lag, can autocancel in a short hop, and has just as strong of an offense use, as the late hit can function both as a combo starter or can be used in the middle of a combo to lead into a variety of moves. It also has decent power, as it can KO at high percents when edgeguarding. Overall, it is commonly regarded as one of the best aerials in the game, and is a vital part of Young Link's combo game.

|bairdesc=A hook kick followed by a mid-level roundhouse kick. It comes out on frame 6 and has the lowest ending lag of his aerials. Functions similarly to his forward aerial, including the ability to drag down foes with the first hit, but trades range and power for reduced start-up. Despite this, it possesses a somewhat disjointed hitbox, and its first hit can reliably KO into any of his smash attacks.

|dthrowname=Elbow Strike ({{ja|ヒジ打ち|Hiji Uchi}}, ''ヒジ打ち'')

|ssdesc=Throws his {{iw|zeldawiki|Boomerang}} forward. It flies forward and then returns to Young Link. On the way forward, it launches enemies vertically with low base knockback, and on the way back, it launches them towards Link with slightly weaker base knockback, allowing it to set up combos. It can be angled up or down, and inputting it like a smash attack increases its damage, as well as the distance it can travel.

|dsdesc=Pulls out a {{iw|zeldawiki|Bomb}}. Just like in ''Melee'', the explosion from the Bomb hits multiple times. The Bomb explodes after hitting a surface or enemy, or after enough time passes. The Bomb's weak knockback makes it a useful combo starter. It can be used to extend Young Link's recovery, as the damage from the explosion will take him out of helplessness.

SSBUYoungLinkIdle1.gif|Young Link's first idle pose

SSBUYoungLinkIdle2.gif|Young Link's second idle pose

Young Link was met with a considerable amount of hype when he returned to the series after 17 years, last appearing in ''Melee''. By the time ''Ultimate'' was released, there were high hopes for him due to his amazing combo game and damage racking potential from his projectiles. {{Sm|Tweek}} found success with the character in the early months of ''Ultimate'', using the characters to win tournaments such as {{Trn|Glitch 6}} and {{Trn|Frostbite 2019}}. Players believed that because of these strengths and strong results, Young Link was seen as a viable high-tier or top-tier character, and the best of the three Links.  

*Young Link and {{SSBU|Pichu}} share the longest gap between playable appearances in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series, with seventeen years between ''Melee'' and ''Ultimate''.

**This has been noted by both of their ''Super Smash Bros.'' blog's "Today's Fighter" descriptions.

**Similarly, Link's ''Twilight Princess'' and "Fierce Deity" costumes (being recolored from his Tunic of the Wild alternate costume, which exposes his knees), were colored in a way so that his trousers were indeed lengthened and not simply just recolored.