What if final smashes where a gauge?

Before I start I just wanted to say I'm sorry for not posting much lately, now that mid are done I shall return!

YES I MISSPELLED "WERE" BUT IT WAS 2AM CUT ME SOME SLACK!!!

Ya know those special things fighting games have when if you take damage you charge a special gauge for an attack? Well today I'm going to discuss what would happen if those where in smash, so without further ado lets get started!

《Table of contents》

Possibilities

Balance changes

Partial charges?

Effects on the meta

Closure

《Possibilities》

Now for starters we need to establish the way the gauge would work and we got three options

The first option is a chargeable ablity, like limit break, what this would do is allow players to have a new type of attack or just replace everyone's special or somthing. I personally am not a fan of this idea as camping would be very overpowered for basicly everyone now.

However this idea does have one pro and that is that it does not act as an instant comeback mechanic or give the winning player an even bigger advantage.

The second option is an aggressive benefiting ablity, also like limit break. By that I mean we make it an ablity that charges by dealing damage, we could make it a standard multiplier or maybe make some fighters need to deal more/less damage than others to get the charge the full attack.

If we have a flat multiplier it is likely that the attacks would heavily unbalanced as some fighters have huge advantages when it comes to racking up damage.

Our other option here is make a multiplier that is different for each fighter and then pray that it's balanced. The goal here is to make fighters who have low damage outputs and few combos to have a faster filling gauge. The issue with this is that it is a very subjective way to balance and while it may be very effective it also could break the game.

Our third option is a defensive charge, like limit break...again...im sensing a pattern here... What this would do is basicly allow the gauge to charge up as the fighter takes damage.

If we have a flat multiplier it would, compared to attacking, be much easier to balance. Most fighters can survive long enough to take advantage of this if we made the multiplier low (like 50 or 60 maybe) however if we made it higher changes would have to be made as many fighters die far too early for it to work.

And that's where a balancing option comes in that actually could work in a far better and less subjective way than the other, and that way is balancing the gauge by the fighters weight. Basicly the lighter a fighter is the less damage they have to take in order to fill their smash gauge. This mainly is good as it makes the defensive option equally avalible to all fighters in a balanced way. Dispite finding exact numbers and all that to find a formula to make everyone equal in this it is more than a strong possibility to balance the functionality of this gauge.

《Balance changes》

Now assuming we got that out of the way we have to balance final smashes, mainly because for this type of play they are WAYYYYYY to powerful. I think what we need is to make these attacks high damage attacks that probably could function in a way like ike's final smash. The attack would be activated with a single hit wave or slash that began a combo attack that is unique to the fighter. Some fighters would ony have their final smash damage nerfed while others would be given full, new attacks.

These full combos would in total probably do about 30 to 35 damage and kill relitivly early. However they would be unlockable by sheild and only avoided through spot dodging or rolling. This was give the attack an advantage compared to smashes as it would be faster and harder to block, hence making these custom attacks more deadly to oppenents and along with that they would just look awsome.

《Partial charges?》

So now another idea for this is what if we also allowed a similar but weaker attack to be used at half charge? Well this could be very interesting if implemented well. The way i personally see it would be a single hit attack that basicly is a fast smash attack and then a super quick animation for a special combo. Probably like 15 maybe 20 damage or somthing. However the effects of this could be very interesting as it could allow players to have access to a powerful attack early in the game. What this would do is cause the neutral to progress very quickly making games faster paced and more exciting.

《Effects on the meta》

In the meta game many faster fighter probably would become better along with zoning fighters. This would be because they would have the ablity to space oppenents in ways that cause them to be trapped in this special attacks.

The neutral would become faster than normal as players would have access to the attack speeding up the need to approach. Playstyles revolving around spacing and pressuring probably would become more prominant.

In competitive play players using fighters who have larger benefits from this (like Leo or salem) would rise over those who use fighters that don't have a strong of an ablity to abuse this mechanic (like nairo or dabuz)

《Closure》

Hey guys thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed the blog, while this may not be my most in depth blog it's one of my more creative ones and fun to write(sorry for it being short). I shall make my comeback this spring break and I hope you look forward to everything I have planed. But until next time

~Goodbye and God bless