So, after I week off, I was back to Smash this week. Pretty much completely done with Smash 3DS now, unless I play it during trips or to waste time waiting at the DMV or something. Just not a full-featured Smash game. I’ve been pondering going back and finishing the unlocks in Melee, especially with the recent Genesis 7 matches and since I’ve also been following Smash Summit 9 a bit.
My N64 finally bit the dust as well. Well, not totally but the AV connection is so loose it will no longer show up on any screen. So I have a “new” beat up N64 coming from eBay.
I’ve also been researching things like Open Source Scan Converter and other ways to get the lowest lag while playing Smash 64 and Melee. But I don’t know why, I never play those games with anyone and if I really want no lag, I have a perfectly fine JVC CRT Monitor. And I don’t think I’m ever going to compete in 64 again or even try to complete in Melee. So, there’s no reason to look into modded N64 or GameCubes to get the lowest latency on a HDTV. It would look like crap anyway.
But on to the actual week in Smash. So, this week, it was all about Byleth. I tried maining Byleth for a week; to see if she could potentially be my new main or a secondary (I’m going to refer to Byleth as a female since that’s the Costume that I play as). Short answer is no. Longer answer is oh good heavens certainly not.
So, let me start by laying down the groundwork for how I tested the character out. I’m not going to break this week down into nights, because that would get repetitive. First, I went into Training Mode and verified her kill moves, worked on her recovery, and just got a general feel for her. Then I labbed out what her bread and butter combos and her kill confirms were. Later in the week I looked these up as well, but there were a few combos and kill confirms that I “discovered” since I didn’t see them on the internet (at least not yet, I’m sure everyone else knows though).
Then I played against some scrub Level 5 CPUs for a while. Just beating up on them and getting the feel of her in battle. Then I moved on to fighting Random Level 6 CPUs, and then taking on that same CPU character at Level 7, and 8. Honestly, I think I may have lost two or three matches out of over 50 against the CPU. I wasn’t finding it hard to beat the CPU. But CPUs are also predictable, so then I went online.
Throughout the week, I did enter two online tournaments and didn’t make it past the first round with Byleth. In overall Quickplay it was peaks and valleys. The first couple of nights I didn’t do so bad, I was winning more than losing and playing in a lot of Byleth dittos. But then the middle of the week I went on an epic losing streak. There was one night I don’t think I won at all, and most have played 20 matches in a row. I was on full tilt. But then the last three nights, I was pretty resolute about only playing three sets each night. Mostly on Battlefield settings, but on Saturday Night I put it on Omega Forms. And the last of three nights I won a bit more than I lost, I think mostly because my Byleth’s GSP was so low.
So what do I think about Byleth after a week of only playing Byleth? She just isn’t viable in any way competitively. She is one of the slowest characters (possibly the slowest) in almost every way. Her air speed is slow. Her ground speed is like slow motion. Almost all of her moves have very long cool-down. The strength and reach of her moves, is supposed to balance out her move-set, but I don’t think the trade-off is worth it.
When I was playing as Byleth, I never felt like I had a match-up advantage, but the majority of the time I felt like I had a match-up disadvantage. I never felt like the character had a match-up positive that allowed me to beat someone more skilled than me. When I was playing opponent’s near my skill level I had to really lock in just for it to be 50/50. And there were times when I was playing bad match-ups for Byleth against someone whose skill ceiling was much lower than mine, and I still had to lock in to make up for the characters faults. For Joker, and even for Ness sometimes, it feels like the character carries me despite bad play. Byleth NEVER feels like that. It feels like your opponents are beating themselves through terrible choices, or you’re playing out of your mind to win.
So, let’s actually discuss her match-ups and gameplay more in depth. She has multiple kill moves -0 her Down-B, her Neutral-B charged, every Smash attack, and her Up-Air or Down-Air. She has a number of kill confirms; the most obvious being Down-B to any Smash. But Down-tilt to Up Smash is reliable, Down throw to Fair to Fair offstage can be spicy, and Forward Throw to Neutral B offstage is quick kill as well.
Her edge-guarding and offstage pressure is so great, partly because of the range or her moves, and partly because of her amazing recovery. Her Neutral B arrow is the most obvious ledge-guarding tool, but timing her Down-B to either two frame the opponents ledge grab or to hit right after their recovery leads to some gifable kills. Hit a Fighter with a bad recovery with a Side-B offstage and you’ve got an early kill. Her Down Air also spikes offstage, but is very hard to hit. If you’re opponent recovers high, you can actually spike them with her Up-B.
Her Side-B has ridiculous range and ended up being my main tool for pretty much everything – get-off attacks, counterattacks to ledge-guards, and punishes to aerials. Using her neutral B for spacing is also key. You have to throw out Forward Airs and Back Airs for spacing and for safe approaches. Her tilts can lead to combos, but are a little slow and don’t have great priority. Up Tilt to opponents on platforms above you is a quick way to get damage. But that’s the same for almost every character. Time an Up Smash right and you might get an early kill on someone trying to jump over you or attack with a Down Aerial.
However, The good things about her character can’t cover up her flaws. I got a decent amount of kill with her Down-B and her Neutral B, but you can just jump over her Neutral B and just avoid the Down B and then hard punish her. Any sufficiently fast character has the upper hand. Decent Pikachu, Pichu, and Sonic players should body even good Byleth players. Projectile characters such as Ness, the Links, and Game & Watch should be able to harass with projectiles enough that Byleth’s reach is irrelevant. I fought a Lucina online who just kept the pressure up with constant aerials and Down-B countered my every long range attack. I was quickly 3-0’d. Pretty much all Fire Emblem swordies should be able to do the same thing Characters with both projectiles, decent speed, and combo games like the Marios and Joker should eat Byleth for breakfast. The only characters I think she may have an advantage against are Kirby, Jigglypuff, Little Mac, and Corrin. I think the reach of her weapons punishes those characters, and nullifies most of what’s good about them. Still, I lost to a Jigglypuff, Kirby, and a Corrin as Byleth, and none of my opponents felt like character experts.
So, Byleth isn’t a good character in Smash, I would put her low Mid Tier or upper Bottom Tier. I’m never going to play her in tournament. But in friendlies against my friends and family? I’m going to play her a lot. She is so much fun to play. Every time someone loses a stock to her Neutral B it seems like a freebie. Every time I hit someone at the edge with the Down-B hammer and get a instant KO it feels epic. And I’m not as comfortable applying pressure offstage with any other character in Ultimate. I feel fearless, instead of worrying about making any kind of mistake and losing a stock I shouldn’t.
So that was Byleth. This week I also worked on ledge trumping (way easier in 64), jab lock followups, tomahawk grabs, and “2 framing”. I’m getting there, but I’ll probably have to keep working on most of these techniques for at least another week or two.
What I have planned next is mostly prep for the next tournament. Or maybe tournaments. There’s a local at the end of the month I’m going to try to go to and I’ve also signed up for the next Nintendo North American Online Open. Though I may not be able to do either honestly. But I’m going to prep for them, so I guess a lot of practice as Joker against Byleth.