Make Your Move 27: Jamcon 3 reading period! Seras Victoria, Arum, Charon, The President, Yggdroid

[Katapultar]

Spoiler: Gato

What a Kat Day choice! I know you’ve been big on making Gato for a while, which I really love as a parallel to my Hotaru set from MYM23. Gato’s mechanics naturally derive from Terry and Hotaru herself - the latter makes perfect sense as a parallel set, and because Garou’s mechanics are way too cool to pass up. I actually opened my Hotaru set as a refresher to see what you did differently here - you have a much better grasp on the T.O.P sound effects and visuals from Garou than I did, and the idea of making the highest-damage T.O.P last indefinitely past 150% instead of 200% was a smart choice (especially when Gato is heavier than Hotaru). I also forgot that Hotaru took chip damage from shielding in exchange for having a more durable shield, which is also present in this set. A good way to be reminded of it! It’s also funny that Gato’s Just Defend mechanic has double the wordcount of Hotaru’s despite being almost identical. Few sets have given me déjà vu quite like this one.

Of course, Hotaru and Gato have vastly different FG movesets, so of course their MYM sets are going to be different! For one, Gato eschews the Shoto fireball for a melee-based combo/pressure tool that would be outright bad without his FG cancel mechanics. I’m a fan of EX Piercing Fang’s crumple dealing progressively higher hitstun the higher stage of T.O.P Gato is in, where risking the 150%+ mark practically gets Gato a kill confirm if he lands it. Was always interested in seeing other sets do the T.O.P mechanic after Hotaru, and this is a good example of a set taking an identical concept and executing it in ways the original didn’t.

Meanwhile, Side Special is a relatively customizable rekka with some mindgame aspects built in, Gato’s sheer options between the two reminding me of Black Polnareff’s Neutral Special. Very happy to see the Swift Fang option reference the Back Air input and give Gato an easier way to input one in 1v1 matches. The Swift Fang options in general were more appealing, with a burst movement, command grab, counter and fake-out option that can all juke out various enemy reactions and better contributes to the move’s mindgame potential. Oh, and I’m fond of EX Counterattack Fang’s invisible wall-bouncing effect, not dissimilar to one of Hotaru’s throws (or MYM22 Hugo, from whom I took the effect from).

Definitely like the dynamic of Gato’s EX Up Special being a brutal OoS option (especially in the corner) in exchange for being punishable on whiff and needing a command input to be done, which would technically make it “slower” to perform than its frame 3-ness would suggest. I imagine that attempting a →↓ while you’re shielding would cause the player to roll, unless you hold B so you move your shield around and don’t roll or spot dodge. Anyway, I like that Gato’s Down Special is a defensive parallel to Hotaru’s Down Special, and that it’s a counter that only works if the upper-half of your body is attacked! It reminds me of Kasumi Todoh from the Art of Fighting and KOF games. Also happy to see an FG charge-style input for the first time in a while. A simple Special compared to Side Special, but it synergizes well with Gato’s conditioning and making opponents more predictable so you can parry their attacks and go for more Just Defends.

The contrast between Hotaru and Gato’s supers - the former works better when you’re cornered, the latter when you have your opponent cornered - absolutely rocks, and fits their respective personalities perfectly. I also like that Gato’s T.O.P attacks/Supers are all short-ranged attacks that can be hard to land even when he can cancel into them, so it’s like they’re these big super overwhelming neutral options - he has to actually earn them. Oh, and the non-Specials splitting up cancel options between bullet points like Hotaru is convenient and a nice throwback, helping to tie together the implications of canceling. The Smashes are relatively simple and have a degree of application overlap with the Specials, but this is to be expected from an FGC martial artist like this. U-tilt might be my favourite among Gato’s standards, as its short-range/low knockback combo synergizes well with special-cancels and even being able to mix in your Down Special counter to catch out opponents.

Gato’s Aerials are more on the simple side, but refreshingly so and have their uses. N-air is quick and designed to segue into Gato’s ground game, F-air is an anti-shield option to go with Swift Fang, and B-air is interestingly a multi-hitting move much like Hotaru’s B-air was (and used to great effect with special canceling here). Wasn’t expecting Gato’s Forward Throw to pull an A.B.A and get all MYM’y with a status effect.

All and all, Gato did not disappoint, and I was happy to read a set that revisited old concepts - it was a bit like taking a trip back to MYM22/23. I’d say Gato is similar to A.B.A where his potential is constrained by having to play close to his source material, making him somewhat lower than your top entries this contest that have stronger concepts. I feel a bit bad for saying such when you were fond of Hotaru and I can’t fully return the same reception for Gato, but execution-wise I couldn’t ask for a better take on the character.

 

[SaltySuicune]

Oh hey, it's my MyMversary. Anyway; Obscure self-indulgent character from my childhood, GO!
Edit: I'm stupid and got the wrong date for my MyMversary, whoops lmao.

(Click on the picture to see the moveset)

Some people can't see the picture so follow this link if that's your case.
You ever hear animal names like "goblin shark" or "wolf spider" and take them literally? I think that's what happened here.​

 

[Katapultar]

Spoiler: Tigershark

• I’ve never heard of this franchise, but it does sound interesting from the way you describe it.
• Funny that we’ve had two movesets that involve interacting with Smash water, the other being Chapayev. I imagine that you obviously can’t dive beneath water surfaces for balance reasons, but all and all I don’t have an issue with the mechanic. It’s fun to see this kind of thing get mentioned when it’s easy to forget about swimming mechanics in Smash.
• I like the Dorsal Spikes mechanic of giving Tiger Shark a passive hitbox while he’s crouching. It’s funny, because it’s balanced out by Tiger Shark having such a wide hurtbox and the spikes not running down his entire back and tail. There is a lot of room for clarification though: the passive hitbox’s damage and knockback aren’t stated, thus we’re not given a grasp of its playstyle applications. I know Piranha Plant’s comparable passive hitbox deals some set upwards knockback, so you could just mention that if so and make it serve as a way to consistently start air combos.
• Tigershark’s Specials are decent, but they feel a bit basic and lacking in a solid hook like the Dorsal Spikes or a few of your previous sets. I think it comes down to them not having a lot of noted synergy.

• It’s a bit odd for a Jab to have i-frames in the service of being an out-of-shield combo breaker. It’s also a bit confusing when it’s stated to have “mid priority” in clashing with hitboxes, and I’m not sure whether the i-frames apply to Tigershark’s entire body or its hitboxes. If you’re wanting Jab to be a quick panic button for escaping pressure, I’d say to just make it a fast and reliable attack. As far as out-of-shield combo breakers go, you’d have to assign that to an Up Smash, Up Special or Aerial input. Up Smashes, Up Specials and Grabs are the only options that can be done out of shield without any delay - attempting to do anything else requires the user to drop their shield first, which takes 11 frames. It does mean that Jabs aren’t really the most efficient moves to use out-of-shield. I”m kind of rambling here, but it's a nice piece of Smash knowledge to know for setmaking.
• I like the dynamic of Tiger Shark’s dorsal fins having a powerful sweetspot for his Dash Attack. It sounds like something that would only hit an airborne opponent at the right time, which would thus make the hitbox well-earned. Tigershark has a bit of an anti-jump thing going with this and his Dorsal Spikes, and I think the set would be stronger if it acknowledged and made use of this.
• F-tilt has some funny cat trivia.
• Coming into N-air, I think this moveset can get a bit liberal with its intangibility frames. Moves like Terry’s Forward Tilt having i-frames is all good so the fighter doesn’t lose out against disjoints easily, but I think that N-air should have super armour rather than invincibility if it’s going to cover his entire body. I get that N-air i-frames are meant to serve as a combo breaker for such a big and wide character, but putting them on a Piranha Plant style N-air might be too effective. Maybe the super armour should just apply to early parts of the move?

A decent little set overall, but not as conceptually high as other sets you’ve done this contest, and I’d say there’s room for improvement in incorporating the Dorsal Spikes aspect into the set.

 

[Arctic Tern]

TIGERSHARK (Salty)

Tigershark is a speedy big-body heavyweight, which already appeals to me as a Bowser main and feels in line with the character from what is described of him. The shark aspect gets played with in the form of a unique water mechanic (funny how there are three sets where the character can’t drown) and its dorsal fins acting as a passive anti-footstool hitbox if it crouches. Specials are fairly basic, but I do like how SSpec serves as a mixup between a standard attack and a command grab that leads into Tigershark’s throws. The other moves are fairly simple, but they still fit with the hit and run style it’s meant to have, none of them have any “bad” aspects, and there are some standouts, such as DSmash moving him forward as an approaching option and DThrow being a pitfall throw. While I sadly have little to say compared to your last sets due to Tigershark being significantly simpler than them at its core, there’s just enough detail to it that I feel that it does match said sets in terms of quality - a nice improvement!

BYLETH (Tortoise)

This is easily one of the strangest remixes of a canon Smash character I’ve seen, not just remixing the set but the entire background lore behind them. Byleth here takes heavy inspiration from West African culture, which shows in their weapons being based on traditional weapons from said culture and the “weapon triangle” being reorganized so that the bow is the “main” weapon. The playstyle is much different as well, being a full on rushdown character instead of the mid-ranged powerhouse playstyle of canon Byleth. The Specials are the most interesting part, with DSpec altering Byleth’s moves that revolve around their club and turning it into a wall and NSpec being poisoned arrows that extend the foe’s grab hitbox if they get hit by them. USpec is also an interesting move, being a command grab where the direction the opponent is sent afterwards can be controlled, though it does irk me that the distance it takes Byleth isn’t stated.

While conceptually interesting, I do feel that the set gets a bit bland past the Specials. There are some highlights, like USmash creating a windbox and UTilt dealing downwards knockback to aerial foes, but several of them have barely any uses listed in the tips section. Byleth’s DSpec changing their down moves to hand-to-hand is neat as an idea, but all of them except DSpec itself and DThrow don’t specify how they’re changed; it’d be neat if they became faster combo starters to take advantage of the closed off space the club creates. I also have to note that several attacks have wind effects, but there’s no justification for wind powers in the background lore - it may be present in the original game or actual African folklore, but if there is it isn’t stated. Ultimately, this interpretation of Byleth leaves plenty to be desired as an actual set, but still isn’t outright bad, and in any case does provide an interesting idea of remixes of Smash characters that are more reinterpretations than true “remixes”.

Link to full comment repository here!

 

[GolisoPower]

Eat Your Heart Out, Carmilla
Seras Victoria by Arctic Tern

Starting the Treasure JamCon is Seras Victoria, a fun little set that not only gives a pretty good first entry for this mini-contest but also sort of compliments Alucard pretty well. In a way, she's like a simpler, more casual-friendly take on her master, taking what Alucard knows and adding her own twist to it. As opposed to the twin hand-cannons he has, Seras packs what pretty much amounts to a tank cannon only a vampire like her could handle. As opposed to the rapid fire, she has an aimable super-burst of damage per trigger pull. Her kit can be super-buffed using a Blood Rage status effect that's triggered on counter, buffing her damage output and movement to levels that she could kill easily. One move it gets benefit from DSpec is Side Special, a Ridley-esque ground-drag that easily builds up damage on use and setting them up for a snipe with the Harkonnen. You just know I'm going to use this a lot. And lastly is her flight with Up Special, sacrificing the multihit capability of Alucard's for an easier-to-use and harder-to-punish recovery move. Those come together in...I suppose you could say an Alucard who's been respec'd to a different role. Her normals are a unique blend of her arsenal and her vampire abilities, with shadow-arm stabs and Vladimir shots galore that play into her general character throughout the Hellsing story and allude to the treasured bond she has with her master by emulating some of his abilities to certain degrees. Overall, I enjoyed your Police Girl set, was a joy to read overall. Nice work, Tern!

 

[TortoiseNotTurtle]

Hey, Tort here from a long hiatus. This may be the last traditional moveset I ever do, but I've been working on something rather interesting for a while that takes a much less traditional approach.

This time I rework Byleth's smash moveset with a new context where I ask the question...

What if Fire Emblem Three Houses' setting was based on Sub-Saharan Africa?

 

[Katapultar]

Spoiler: Byleth

The top of the doc states the moveset is incomplete at the moment, but I’m treating it like a completed submission because it’s been posted to Smashboards.

This is a bizarre rendition, much like your Bowser set this contest but not quite the same - more of a serious Byleth remix that reimagines the character in a different culture. It’s an odd experience for sure, a character that’s both familiar and not familiar. The set kind of feels like an OC, and I do like the characterization the set establishes on the taunts right from the start. I wonder if it would be worth showing pictures of the African weapons that replace the axe and the spear?

• Down Special is… quite the move! The aerial version is very similar to Falcon Kick, with some hefty downwards knockback that may be overtuned, but the grounded version gets into some crazy MYM’ian territory. It feels weird for a Fire Emblem character to punch and kick people as a primary means of attacking (it reminds me of a… strange Chrom moveset we got in MYM16), but it feels more acceptable here since this is technically a different Byleth. The idea of a Byleth style set (different weapons for different directional inputs) where you can set one of your weapons down as a trap is great, but it feels like there should be some counterplay for opponents. The trap as-is is pretty strong, able to hit opponents multiple times throughout its life, and opponents have no way to get rid of it except to wait out its very long (30 second) timer or if Byleth chooses to take it back. It could be something as simple as letting the foe break the weapon, where its destruction leaves it on a cooldown.
• There isn’t as much meat to Side Special as there could be for a movement-based attack, but I am fond of its simple but effective interaction with Down Special - setting down your sword and moving into it with Side Special to enhance your attack and gain armour. With such a powerful option, I believe that the lag of grounded Down Special should be mentioned, so readers actually know how much time Byleth has to commit when they set down their sword.
• Neutral Special packs another interaction with Down Special, while also having an interesting grab interaction that helps to cement Byleth’s brutal efficiency as a fighter.
• I like some of the more melee-based applications of Up Special.
• That’s some very cool artwork (below Up Special)

• I can see how a number of the non-Specials are incomplete, as they’re missing their damage percents, though that surprisingly doesn’t hold it back for me much.
• A number of the non-Specials are pretty basic, like Dash Attack, but I like how U-tilt deals upwards knockback from the front and downwards knockback at the back. Also feels like F-tilt has a potentially interesting dynamic, since the initial palm thrust would technically have shorter range than the spear that follows. Palm thrust is mentioned to come out on frame 6, but the move doesn’t specify when the spear hits.
• D-tilt doesn't mention how the move changes when Byleth’s sword is in the ground, along with D-Smash. I assume this is a work in progress.
• I like U-Smash’s suction effect, even if it’s presumably minor.
• This might seem petty, but I’m not too big on throw animations that make your opponent attack for flavour-based purposes. It’s something that some really old MYM sets did. I’d prefer it if Byleth just did the animation as-is and opponents didn’t try to attack. Probably the kind of counter-based characterization you could implement through Byleth’s rolls.

A fun little set with a cool idea, overall, but one that has to yet reach its full potential.

 

[n88]

Yggdroid by U UserShadow7989
I really ought to play these games - been curious and I have the remasters of 1-3 just collecting virtual dust in my steam backlog. Shameful.

Anywho, Yggdroid here is a pretty fun little puppet fighter type thing, has some amped-up sillier Rosaluma vibes. Kinda heady angle for a jamcon, and I do think there are some slight hitches in how the ideas are presented - the way information is broken out between DSpec and the Smashes can feel a little awkward and I found myself jumping back and forth a few times. Arguably there's a certain thematic logic to spreading the information out! But there were certain things that I found tough to follow. And I'm still a little murky on say... where your legs go when you use DSpec in the air and if there are ways to increase the distance between you and your legs.

The gist of the mechanics isn't too bad at all though - like I said, sillier Rosaluma and DSpec is pretty understandable as a sillier Luma Shot. It's a very UScore affair - directly recalls Jodie in the way it spreads hitboxes around and makes pretty smart choices about how to keep things functional. The Specials are doing a lot of heavy lifting, complexity-wise, to squeeze in some big ideas while letting the normals be pretty simple. The set's verging on having doubled-up Specials, really, since the tapped versions and held versions of those moves often aren't really related beyond some superficial animation details. I kinda wonder if the set should just be billed that way and the inputs should be broken up. Then again, SSpec is both the most complex one and the one where it's making the best case that it's really all one input.

There are also very good universal limits on all the big crazy disjoint stuff - you always have a good eye on the system limiters so that's no surprise. I do think the set doesn't always take as much advantage of the limiters as it could? Like in practice every body part when detached has... two-three attacks depending on whether Yggdroid is grounded or in the air? The options for actually exploiting all this feel pretty limited and I'm not sure the set fully unpacks what a whopping inconvenience it is for your arms to fly away and deny you melee options every time you decide to go for an FSmash. (But, y'know, jamcon, yadda yadda)

Of course, the set is deliberately cultivating a silly janky vibe and trying to weave it into something functional. What I'm criticizing is intentional and thematic and the set is aware of a lot of the downside even if there are areas where I think it's a little glossed over. So I guess I'm mostly in a.... "hmmmmm" place on whether the set enables something cool enough and functional enough to be worth the slight weirdness of it all.

It's a cool, funny, and well-animated set (another strength of yours) so that always helps. That might sound superficial, but I really do think that just giving players something visually compelling to hook into is key... well always, but especially for this type of character. Like maybe it's a little hard to wrap your head around but there's definitely a Type of player who sees the hands stay detached after tossing out an FSmash and then they just never play another character again. They're gonna be out here developing the tech.

• Finally a moveset that answers the question "what if Buggy the Clown was a Murakomo unit?"
  • It even has the feet running around on the ground underneath them?
• FSmash mentions a reflector multiplier that I think Reflector didn't have.
• Big fan of the big silly fly-off-the-screen DSmash.
• I imagine Jab 2 could get pretty nasty in the right circumstances, since you could potentially use a detached Part to trap the opponent between a couple hitboxes. Can't go on infinitely and sounds hard so probably not a big deal.
• I don't usually sweat this kind of thing but since it comes up a few times - "greaves" is the right spelling for the leg armor.
• "semi-spike knockback that'll more often than not bounce foes off of the ground" - semi-spike means a horizontal (or near-horizontal) hit and not an almost-directly-downward angle. I think I used to use it the other way too.
• The quick radial KB NAir plus USpec probably allows for some easy bake gimping strategies. Not a big deal to gloss over though. I've deviated away from using radial knockback on this kind of attack too much mostly to avoid that kind of thing - it's a great word-saver technique but I'm not convinced it's actually a great design pattern.
• DAir a really neat attack - took me a second pass to grok the animation fully, but one of those things that'd definitely look fluid in game. Not sure it totally makes sense as a wall of pain with the lack of frontal coverage but has a lot going for it in terms of fun properties.

Alucard by Arctic Tern
Man, that World Without Logos track is great, love that. Al isn't a jamcon set of course, but I figured I'd check it out since Seras was meant to be something of a companion piece.

I'm doing this set a disservice by taking so long to comment it (I mean since I read it, not since the start of the contest but I suppose that too), apologies for that - I didn't take great notes because I read it on a train thinking I was gonna knock out a bunch of jamcon reads and also get to this one in short order (whoops), so I'm not quite as fresh on the set as I prefer to be when commenting, had to flip back through a few things as I write this.

SSpec did stick out to me a bit balance wise - having a high-damage fast command grab is a playstyle-defining thing for Bowser and making this one even scarier than Bowser's is a lot. Armoring something like that on top of giving it the Ganondorf-esque charge forward makes it a pretty big screw-you to almost any option an opponent has. The frame data/distance on it feel a little odd - it sounds slower than what you want animation-wise - Ganondorf's SSpec is more like... 4ish grids in 15 frames, as a point of reference for how slow 3 grids in 44 frames would look. Having the high commitment slow movement on top of all the endlag could maybe be something of a balancer but I'm not sure it's intentional since it doesn't really come up much? The move tries to play up the reduced kill power as the thing holding it back from Bowser's but that seems like kinda peanuts. The lack of ability to maneuver in the air (or bounce up to a high platform) feels like a bigger nerf if anything.

I do think "horrifying command grab" is a fun thing to have in the set, and I like the vampire bite being a big deal. I wouldn't recommend a flat debuff so much as just putting some of its better qualities behind a gate in some fashion (charge, cooldown, only works on Tuesdays, whatever). Could maybe even get sillier with some of it depending on what you did, so long as he couldn't get the nutty stuff on a whim.

Overall this was pretty solid - kinda on par with your jamcon stuff I think, I like it more than Seras but less than Drifblim. I didn't ever feel a strong hook into the set, but it's well put-together and it has some individual fun inputs like DSmash. The basic recipe of "oops everything scary" is a pretty fun direction and the set does well by this guy as a spooky character that can light you up fast - lots of Bowser DNA here even once you look past SSpec.

Looking back on it I do feel like I maybe like a lot of the individual attacks more than I like the full set - this is always one of those things that's tough to quantify but I do wonder if some of that is just in the presentation. Always kind of a sticky wicket because I'm trying to evaluate the actual content and not the way it's being sold to me but on the flipside I do think like... you've got your fundamentals down really solidly and always have from the jump. Where you could really elevate your stuff is by improving digestibility and how you pitch it. I do think you've made strides forward this contest on that front and I'm finding a lot more intrigue in the average Tern set than I did in MYM26, but you do still trend a little dry in presentation at times.

Just some food for thought though. I'm still a positive on Alucard at the end of the day even if it's not a favorite.

Seras Victoria by Arctic Tern
This one I had a slightly harder time getting into. Nothing too rough, just didn't strongly vibe with it. I can appreciate a lot of the little similarities and differences from Alucard, even some of the understated ones like the similar imagery between Seras USmash and Alucard DSmash. Revenge is also an interesting move to riff on. Kinda surprised I can't think of more examples of MYM playing with that concept off the top of my head, it's kinda ripe for shenanigans (but maybe we do that a lot and I'm just blanking).

Definitely a kit from the same school of design as Alucard and has a lot of his positive qualities (cool animations, Smashes are all very fun), but just generally feels a bit less successful at them. No shame in that for a jamcon though, natch - still fun as a quick lil entry. Apologies but like Alucard, I am gonna pick on one move here; NSpec I think is pretty busted in a way that doesn't feel very interesting. I'm surprised the move isn't a little more Alucard-esque in terms of pushing her to cancel into it or similar. As a frame 16 option she can just toss out, it's got a pretty gonzo combo of range and power. Idk, I'd consider having to charge it normally and being able to bypass that with Blood Rage or something. Just giving her a Failnaught that works at the speed of Link's bow feels wild.

Arum by BrazilianGuy
Arum is a pretty fun lil gal - like Alucard I did read this one a while ago and take bad notes, so apologies for that. The core of the set is very solid, I think most of the design on elements like the Sin meter and her arrows other Specials comes together really well for what you're going for - the one thing that did kinda stick out to me here is just how central the buffs she gets from the fan feel.

Particularly the 5F startlag discount across the board feels pretty huge. I think that kind of thing is always really tough to balance - a lot of her moves are by default I think a bit too slow to really let her work as rushdown. Her tilts are like... putting up Ike-esque (or worse) speed numbers without the fan buff and she's really relying on the fan to have quick grounded options. Then, on the other hand, you've got stuff like the scythe FAir that's pretty fast already for a big disjoint aerial and is borderline a war crime with the fan buff.

I do think having the fan buff as a central thing is a cool space to play in. Ordinarily I'd say it pushes her to sort of retreat a bit and beef up, maybe zone a little, then rush back in. There's an interesting flow to that. I do think attaching the buff to this big crazy gimping move though kind of pushes even harder the idea that she should be tossing it out after sending the opponent off-stage and beefing up while setting up ledgetrap scenarios. Interesting confluence of effects.

• USpec shield break is a very fun little detail - one of those niche things that you forget until it happens.
• Without having played the game I do really like the way the weapons are used throughout the kit - feels very Byleth-y, and there's a consistency to each weapon. Has a very clean feel.
• I'm not sure if the Smash buffs fit in suuuuper well with the rushdowny stuff she wants to do and I'm not sure they stack up against the fan buffs but I do always like the option to make a big dumb attack even bigger and dumber.
• All the Ducroak animations are fun.

The President by Slavic
Weird that I'm reading multiple "spread your resources around and cost yourself options" movesets this jamcon, but here we are. This moveset makes smart choices about when to be similar to Olimar and when to depart, I think - there's a very clear basis in Olimar's kit and the President maintains the connection but builds something very different and wacky. Haven't played Pikmin but the set is very funny and evocative not just on the writing level but in the mechanics. It's very MYMy and goofy and tells you exactly who the President is. The long-term accumulation of Poko is also interesting to me - I've flirted with that sort of long-term resource thing before but don't typically go for it, it always feels a little tougher to balance a mechanic around the idea that it's a "one way" match-long thing that can grow far beyond what you need in a stock.

Granted, that possibility doesn't seem super likely here. His Poko-gathering feels very limited for how many inputs are entirely gated behind it, and the fact that he's starting from a position of needing to give up his Pikmin (and therefore Even More of his kit) in order to collect Poko feels... dang rough. I think even a little passive Poko generation would help him out a lot. His Smashes being tied to his ship is also something that feels a little dicey. There is merit to having the source of his Smash attacks be tied to his Pikmin while they're out. It's nice that he can't be boxed out of being able to defend them. But on the other hand it's outsourcing even more of his kit on a character who, by himself, only has access to Standards and one Aerial. I think some of his restrictions are a little on the harsh side considering his payouts typically aren't crazy. The set won me over a bit as it went on but idk, I think he'd benefit from a little easing of tension.

I do kinda wonder if all the Smashes could be bundled up in a Special somehow (the various hard interactions do feel very Special) and he could just have something a little more pragmatic to himself... though then again he probably misses his Aerials when Pikmin are deployed to dig up treasure more than he misses his Smashes, that's probably the closest the moveset flies to the weather-controlling satellite from Geostorm sun.

Always happy to see a Slavic set, very fun read.

I think nomination this round to Yggdroid, good stuff everyone.