Terry (SSBU): Difference between revisions

Terry Bogard is a tall, heavyweight fighter that uses special inputs for his special moves much like that of Ryu and Ken, and also shares their unique trait of always facing their opponent in 1v1 matches. He has slow air speed and decent running speed, but is characterized most by his great ground game. This includes a powerful initial dash which allows Terry to play footsies very effectively, a strong set of normals and special moves, as well as his unique special ability to spot dodge into an upper-body intangible counter-attack, and finally his comeback mechanic which allows incredibly powerful special moves that require a specific input combination to use.  

Terry's playstyle capitalizes on his strong bait-and-punish options. Terry has good tools and hitboxes that can threaten lighter characters because of how early they kill. Terry sports many finishing moves in his forward tilt, dash attack, smash attacks, back and down aerials, and a majority of his specials. Forward tilt sports good range and above-average damage, while granting Terry's leg [[intangibility]]; dash attack possesses good knockback, damage, and traveling distance while being able to [[cross up]] shields; forward smash deals very high damage and knockback with impressive horizontal range to boot; up smash has good vertical range and also deals high damage and knockback; down smash has good range and high speed, but is still decently strong; back aerial deals high damage and knockback and sports excellent range; and down aerial is Terry's most damaging aerial, and can [[meteor smash]] opponents.

Similar to his fighting game-originating counterparts, Terry's special moves have special inputs which allow for more power and capabilities. These are generally dictated by how long the player holds the special button and normally determine distance and strength. His neutral special, [[Power Wave]], is a projectile that travels on ground and serves as a good long-range poke that has both a weak and strong version, with the latter having a faster travel distance. In mid-air, it instead turns into a mid-range poke that also temporarily suspends Terry in the air. All of Terry's other moves come in four different variations when accounting for their weak/strong regular input variations and their weak/strong command input variations. [[Burning Knuckle]] (↓ ↘ → + attack/special) is one of Terry's go-to KO options, as even the weak regular input can KO opponents at fairly early kill percents, and it's Terry's best [[tech chasing]] tool. Terry is the first character to sport a backward special in the form of [[Crack Shoot]] (↓ ↙ ← + attack/special), while it's not a KO move it high-profiles through certain low attacks and also has a wide enough hitbox that it serves as both a reliable anti-air and Terry's most reliable cross up option at point blank range. [[Rising Tackle]] (c.↓ ↑ + attack/special) sports intangibility on the legs, and it's command input version sports full body invincibility, making it an effective anti-air. Finally, [[Power Dunk]] (→ ↓ ↘ + attack/special) serves as a strong combo ender, with invincibility on startup, and is another one of Terry's most reliable KO moves. The command version has a meteor hitbox, though connecting this hitbox is difficult as it's only active during the descending portion.

One of Terry's biggest strengths is his punish game. Due to his special cancelling after moves such as Jab, Neutral Air, and Down Air, Terry can successfully deal a large amount of damage from any opening. The aforementioned Power Dunk is among the most notable, as Terry can cancel into it from even his jab, and KO opponents with relative ease. Terry's comeback mechanic allows him access to two super special moves, [[Power Geyser]] (↓ ↙ ← ↙ → + attack/special or ↓ ← ↓ → + attack/special), and [[Buster Wolf]] (↓ ↘ → ↓ ↘ → + attack/special or ↓ → ↓ → + attack/special). Power Geyser releases from the ground directly in front of Terry in a massive explosion with incredible height and damage, acting as an extremely effective anti-air move as well as dealing a considerable amount of shield damage very quickly. Buster Wolf acts as a hit [[command grab]] similarly to Isabelle's [[Fishing Rod]], and causes Terry to dash forward a fair distance (roughly half the length of [[Final Destination]]) into a two hits attack which causes incredible damage and knockback. While Terry is able to use these attacks any amount of times when passed the percentage threshold, they are very punishable if blocked or whiffed.

Although he is known for being a punishing character with a plethora of KO moves, set-ups, and confirms, Terry still has a good combo game. Neutral attack can easily chain into itself or Special Cancel to deal high amounts of damage; up tilt boasts both high speed and damage, has good range, Special Cancels, and [[juggle]]s aerial opponents; and down tilt deals extremely low damage and knockback while having very low all-around lag, allowing it to be spammed. Neutral and up aerials both provide plentiful combo opportunities due to their mixture of low all-around lag, good range, and decent damage and knockback. Despite his poor air speed, his neutral air can combo into itself with ease, giving Terry a form of Wall of Pain, which can then be easily followed up with his Down Air meteor smash.  

In spite of his strengths, Terry still has notable drawbacks. Terry's two extra specials via his comeback mechanic serves as a double-edged sword; because these special moves are only accessible by reaching 100% damage or 0.3× max HP, and they are extremely risky to use, as each move has considerable ending lag, especially Buster Wolf. This makes Terry's comeback mechanic the epitome of risk vs reward, forcing his playstyle to drastically change when it comes into play.  

Terry's overall disadvantage is another glaring weakness of his. His fall speed is among the lower half of the cast, which combined with his hurtbox makes him susceptible to juggles. Rising Tackle, while having intangibility throughout the first half of the move, is unable to [[Edge#Edge sweet spot|sweetspot the ledge]], meaning that Terry is forced to utilize it from very low under the stage, as he is otherwise left vulnerable for a hard punish at the move's apex. His aerial speed is also among the worst in the game, making his off-stage survivability lacking; while he's able to mix up his recovery to a certain extent with his specials, he's unlikely to survive if he's exhausted his double jump. Despite having a strong grounded neutral game, it is largely based on baiting the opponent to approach and reading their habits to lead into combo extensions. As such, Terry doesn't possess many good pokes outside of Down Tilt. Given his average ground speed and poor air speed, his air approaches are fairly weak unless he starts close to his target.  

Overall, Terry is melee focused heavyweight character with immense combo, damage, and KO options in all areas. His access to super special moves at high percents gives Terry the mental edge over opponents as any ill-managed approach on the opponent's can be called out by extremely hard punishes, and due to being a heavyweight he is tough to outright kill without a proper edgeguard, making him more dangerous the longer he holds onto his stock. However, his poor disadvantage state and mediocre off-stage survivability means players need to be mindful of every off-stage option as Terry can easily die to an off-stage gimp, and despite his powerful neutral, many of his most effective moves leave him vulnerable, meaning the player must make calculated decisions with which attacks to throw out in pressure situations. While his strengths currently seem to outweigh his weaknesses, his viability in competitive games is yet to be determined, due to his recency of release.