Zelda (SSBB): Difference between revisions

{{disambig2|Zelda's appearance in ''Super Smash Bros. Brawl''|the character in other contexts|Princess Zelda}}

|shareslot = {{SSBB|Sheik}}

Jun Mizusawa reprises her role as Zelda's voice actor from ''Ocarina of Time'', ''Melee'' and ''Twilight Princess'', with some voice clips recycled from ''Melee'', along with ones newly recorded.

Having previously appeared in ''[[Super Smash Bros. Melee]]'', Zelda reappears in ''Brawl'' as a character utilizing strong magical attacks, but despite her overall KO power being strongly [[buff]]ed, her [[tier list|tier position]] is a drop from ''[[Melee]]'' at 37 out of 38 compared to 24 out of 26 in the earlier game. While Zelda possesses fast, powerful attacks, some of the most powerful aerials in ''Brawl'', and a great defensive game thanks to strong out of shield options, Zelda suffers from a combination of severe character build flaws. These flaws include a very inconvenient combination of attributes similar to {{SSBM|Mewtwo}} (slow, light, tall, and floaty), her almost non-existent approach options, possessing a moveset that consists nearly entirely of unreliable finishers with poorly-placed hitboxes (which makes it difficult for her to KO consistently despite her abundance of powerful attacks, and leaves her with an almost non-existent combo game), a terrible projectile that cannot force approaches, one of the worst grab games, with a very slow grab and terrible throws, and her predictable and unreliable recovery (her primary recovery move suffers from major angular issues, and she does not have access to an alternate recovery move nor the [[air speed]] and [[jump]]ing abilities to make it back without using a recovery move). This has left her with terrible tournament results and having terrible matchups against many higher tiered characters, ultimately clocking her in F Tier right above the worst spot (with {{SSBB|Ganondorf}} being the only fighter ranked lower than her) - although the combination of her and her transformation, {{SSBB|Sheik}} is higher at 24/38, placed in the D tier (though this is based on theory rather than actual practice). While Zelda is ranked as one of the worst characters in the game in the American and European tier list, in [[Japanese tier list|Japan]] she is ranked significantly higher, 16th in the high tier along with Sheik, as they are considered as a single character.

Zelda is a floaty, lightweight character with poor [[momentum canceling]] (making her very easy to KO but difficult to chain throw) with strong, graceful attacks, usually augmented with magic. She has abysmal grounded mobility overall, with her having the 4th slowest walking and dashing speeds. However, she has above-average air speed.  

Zelda is also gifted with a solid defensive game. Her [[roll]]s and [[spot dodge]] are perfectly solid defensive options, although she does possess one of the slower [[air dodge]]s. She has some powerful out of shield options. Up smash is a frame 6 option which has solid KO power and it hits on both sides. Her back aerial is a frame 11 Out of Shield option and while it is difficult to land, it has incredible KO power when sweetspotted. This also applies to forward aerial although it is slower, being frame 14 OoS. She also has down smash as a frame 11 option which while much weaker than back aerial, it does hit in front and it is still a viable KO move. Down tilt is a frame 12 option which can lead into followups, especially if the opponent trips, or fails to [[SDI]] the move. Zelda also has other useful defensive tools. Her Nayru's Love is a reflector with high damage output, decent knockback and reasonable startup lag, while also having a projectile in Din's Fire to defend herself to some degree (even though it is extremely situational). Her strong defense is counterbalanced by her very low traction and her very poor mobility on the ground (very slow dash speed and slow falling speed). Her grab is disjointed, but it is very slow (at frame 12), while also having less range then numerous grabs which come out twice as fast, making it hard to land without set ups, and it is very difficult to land Out of Shield.  

Zelda's crippling combination of her slow mobility, atrocious endurance, and her tall frame, however, is arguably what makes her one of the worst characters in ''Brawl''. Zelda's tall frame and floatiness makes her very easy to juggle, despite her above-average air speed, while the latter and her lightweight both give her one of the worst endurances in the game, especially from the upper blast line. Despite her potent defensive game, it is very easy to force her to play offensively because of her very poor approach options, her very slow mobility and her slow grab. Characters with great camping abilities (most notably {{SSBB|Falco}}) can simply outcamp her with a flurry of projectiles or by simply evading her wiith their superior mobility, while she cannot rely on her Din's Fire to camp, as it is easily avoidable and Zelda will not win any projectile wars with it. This means that she gets very few chances to use her strong out of shield options to her advantage and is instead forced to play with her horrible offensive game due to her abysmal approach.  

Another one of Zelda's major flaws is her inconsistency in KOing opponents. As mentioned before, most of Zelda's moveset has high KO potential, but landing them is extremely difficult due to the poorly-placed hitboxes on most of her strongest finishers. Her Lightning Kicks and down aerial are extremely powerful when sweetspotted, but the sweetspot hitboxes are notoriously small and the sourspots have incredibly low knockback, damage output and low hitstun, making the moves dangerously unsafe and difficult to land. Down aerial's sweetspot additionally only works against aerial oppoennts, which only makes it a viable KO option off stage. Her up aerial is impossible to land on a opponent at the same ground level as her and is rather laggy. Her forward smash can be SDI'd out of, her up smash does not have the best horizontal range, and her down smash is rather weak for a smash attack despite its semi-spike properties, while her up tilt is rather slow for a tilt attack and is less effective againt heavier characters. Conversely, Zelda's poor frame data and high knockback attacks give her one of the worst comboing abilities in the game. Zelda is virtually unable to followup her aerials into each other, despite her above-average air speed, due to the terrible hitbox placements and properties of most of her aerials, while her only few combo starters, such as her down tilt, jab or neutral neutral aerial or dash attack, eventually become predictable for repetitive use. Neutral attack has slow startup, unfavorable hitbox places and is susceptible to SDI, neutral aerial's loop hits give it inconsistent followup potential against grounded opponents and while down tilt can rack up a lot of damage by chaining into itself, it is susceptible to SDI, preventing Zelda from getting more than three down tilts at the most against a skilled player. most of Zelda's combos only last for merely two or three hits at low percentages, which do not rack up a lot of damage under most circumstances. This is aggravated by her poor grab game; her grabs are very slow and while her back throw can KO at higher percents, her others throws have are quite limited, with forward throw only really be using for setting up edgeguards, down throw can be used to rack up damage and set up unreliable followups and up throw does not reliably lead to followups or KOes.

*{{nerf|Zelda's [[traction]] is significantly lower (0.1 → 0.054), especially when comparing with the returning veterans, now going from being tied out with other three characters for the highest traction to one of the lowest. This makes it harder for her to punish out of shield and provides almost no benefits due to the removal of [[wavedashing]].}}  

**{{change|Forward smash's final hit has altered knockback (50 (base), 98 (scaling) → 30/105).}}

**{{buff|Up smash has larger hitboxes and connects significantly more reliably. It also deals more damage due to changes to stale move negation (14% → 15%), has more KO potential due to universally decreased falling speeds and the multi-hits now have set knockback and can now trip opponents.}}  

**{{change|It hits one less time, hitting eleven times instead of twelve.}}

**{{nerf|It has more ending lag (FAF 33 → 36)}}

**{{buff|The sourspotted hit can now trip opponents and has a longer duration (frames 14-17 → 14-24) and less landing lag (24 frames → 21).}}

**{{nerf|Its late hits deal less damage (8%/7% → 5%/4%).}}

**{{buff|Nayru's Love can now be used to perform a "[https://youtu.be/8djTa_wHqtE Love jump]" increasing its utility. It also has a higher maximum damage output due to changes to stale move negation (13% → 15%) and the final hit can now semi-spike improving its edgeguarding potential.}}  

**{{nerf|The move has more startup lag on its hitboxes (frame 6 → 7) and invincibility and reflect periods (frame 4 → 5).}}

|neutralname= 

|ftiltname= 

|utiltname= 

|dtiltname= 

|dashname= 

|fsmashname= 

|fsmashdesc=Zelda charges magic energy in her right hand and flashes it in front of herself, hitting opponents multiple times before knocking them away. Can pressure shields and deals great knockback. However, it can be SDI'd out of (though it requires good timing).  

|usmashname= 

|dsmashname= 

|nairname= 

|fairname=[[Lightning Kick]]

|bairname=[[Lightning Kick]]

|uairname= 

|dairname= 

|grabname= 

|pummelname= 

|fthrowname= 

|bthrowname= 

|uthrowname= 

|uthrowdesc=Zelda forces her opponent above her and throws them upward.  

|dthrowname= 

|dthrowdesc=Zelda forces her opponent under her and shoots magic from her hands at them, before knocking them behind herself.  

===Matchups===

 

===Notable players===

:''See also: [[:Category:Zelda professionals (SSBB)]]''

*{{Sm|JuJux|France}} - Considered to be the best Zelda player in Europe. Placed 33rd at {{Trn|Bushido Brawl Impact}}.

*{{Sm|Riot|USA}} - Was considered the best Zelda player in the world prior to Ven.

*{{Sm|ScaryLB59|USA}} - Co-mained Zelda and Sheik, and was considered among the best Zelda players in the United States.

Zelda was initially seen as a solid mid-tier character, being ranked 20th on the first tier list; her significant power buffs in ''Brawl'' made her a very powerful character that was able to compete decently with the then inexperienced playerbase, who did not utilise much camping and couldn't play the [[neutral game]] well. As the metagame progressed however, it became realized Zelda's buffs did little to address the very significant problems of her character design; Din's Fire was still a terrible projectile that could not force approaches while Zelda herself was still very slow and incapable of initiating approaches, and her moveset still consisted near-entirely of unreliable finishers that made it very difficult for her to rack up damage, as well as gave her difficulty in reliably finishing stocks when the opponent was in KO range, while players started to notice that the changes to ''Brawl'' mechanics were unfavorable for her, alongside other direct nerfs. Namely, she lost the [[chain throw]]s and other combos she had out of her throws, while her Lightning Kicks that she relied so heavily on were made significantly harder to sweetspot and laggier, in addition to their sourspots being drastically weaken and Brawl's severe [[stale-move negation]] crippling the KO potential of such heavily used moves with such severe sourspots. As ''Brawl'' became more defensive based, the playerbase's neutral improved, and camping became more prevalent, Zelda's problems were significantly exacerbated, and it gradually became clear that Zelda was a poorly-designed character that could not remotely viably compete.  

In the Subspace Emissary single-player mode, Zelda and {{SSBB|Peach}} have two different storylines, depending on which one is saved from [[Petey Piranha]].

When Fox attacks the Halberd against and nearly hits Peach by accident, Sheik uses [[Vanish]] to appear on top of Fox's Arwing. She then breaks the cockpit and Fox ejects, and they both fall to the Halberd. Just as they begin to fight, Peach holds up a hand and yells, "Hi!" Both Fox and Sheik look over, and find Peach has just offered them both tea. Fox, looking confused, looks to Sheik, to find she has already begun to drink. Fox accepts the tea and they do not fight again.  

*[[The Great Maze]] - If she's rescued in [[Subspace (Part II)]].  

==In [[Event Matches]]==

===Solo Events===

*'''[[Event 34: All-Star Battle Melee]]''': Zelda is one of the opponents fought in this event. All opponents are newcomers from ''[[Super Smash Bros Melee]]''.

===Co-op Events===

:'''Zelda'''

::''The princess of Hyrule. In other games, her role changes between titles. In Ocarina of Time, she was hunted by the would-be conqueror, Ganondorf. She deceived him, however, by adopting the persona of Sheik. In Twilight Princess, she surrendered to Zant and was held as his prisoner.''

{{Trophy games|console1=NES|game1=[[The Legend of Zelda]]|console2=Wii|game2=[[zeldawiki:The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess]]}}

 

:'''Light Arrow (Zelda)'''

::''Princess Zelda's Final Smash. She wields a mighty bow of light with which she can attack from afar. Her arrow travels in a straight line and flies through all characters unlucky enough to be in the way. This attack cannot be blocked. The more enemies there are, the higher the chances to get them all with one shot. More is always better!''

 

{{Trophy games|console1=Wii|game1=Super Smash Bros. Brawl}}

 

Zelda - Brawl Trophy.png|Classic Mode trophy

Light Arrow (Zelda) - Brawl Trophy.png|[[Light Arrow]] trophy

*Zelda and Sheik are the only two characters in this game to share a character select icon. ''Melee'' only shows Zelda on its character selection screen and players hold A while selecting a stage to start a match as Sheik, while ''Smash 4'' onwards splits the two into their own characters. {{SSBU|Pyra}} and {{SSBU|Mythra}} would later on share a character selection icon in ''Ultimate''.

*For some reason, Zelda's red alternate costume, unlike her other colors including her default, doesn't seem to be wearing gloves. ''SSB4'', however, does give her her gloves.