Did Bandit play with her like this or just read the list? Some things suggest he just read and thought while others suggest he actually played so I'm unclear (maybe he only played a little?).
Anyway...
For one, I'd like to remind you that Zelda is supposed to be somewhat usable alone, but the real gem here is how she compliments Sheik (the inverse is true; Sheik is somewhat usable alone but really is meant to shine when paired with Zelda). Things like bthrow really fit into this. Yeah, Zelda has an atrocious grab; it's hard to decide whether Zelda or Zero Suit Samus has the worst grab in the game (both really, really suck but have different minor things about them that are good). However, bthrow is a nice killer so if Zelda just popped out, you might get a surprise grab to kill and then switch right back to Sheik in some matchups. It's definitely really nice to have since before landing a grab in those situations wasn't even really that helpful (if you are wanting to rack damage in most matchups as Z&S, Sheik just does it so much better that you are getting fairly little out of things like Zelda's risky grab to rack damage). There are no illusions about grabbing suddenly being that huge for her, but it being another, if less traveled, path to her getting early kills should be welcome.
Okay, jab and ftilt kinda need discussion together. Jab actually kinda leads into ftilt. I don't know if it's a true combo and don't think it's that important; it's something you can land in real matches. Likewise, ftilt -> usmash is in that boat. Actually, I'm pretty sure that one is not a true combo, but it kinda sets up for it well enough that the opponent is in a tough situation to avoid usmash so the advantage is pretty nice. I mean, we don't have any illusions about Brawl and combos; they aren't what moves do (most of the time; there are notable exceptions to which we have no philosophical objection). They give you a position from which you are in the advantage of the prediction game and likely to land something good, and now Zelda's jab and ftilt are like that whereas before they weren't and just weren't really that good to hit with. Ftilt has another boon to it, and that's that it's a pretty safe poke, and with the way it can be angled, Zelda can use ftilt to control a lot of space in front of her. Zelda's poking and spatial control game in standard Brawl is just beyond awful, and our playtesting suggests that her having ftilt as an option for it dramatically helps her. Overall, her poking and spatial control game is still mediocre at best no doubt, but having at least something seems like a big deal.
It's also far harder for opponents to SDI out of Zelda's forward smash now. There were players who were doing that consistently, and it was a killjoy for Zelda to say the least (when one of your kill moves is not a kill move). Removing that should really help her accomplish her purpose as well. With the dsmash buff, as noted and appreciated, you notice that Zelda is set to be able to count on all three of her smashes to kill low.
Farore's Wind was designed as a parlor trick really. Zelda can be kinda bland so we decided to add something flashy to her game. Personally, I don't expect Farore's Wind's new mechanics to be used every once in a blue moon, but when it does come into play, it's really flashy and generally awesome. Some people seem to think it's legitimately good, and if they're right, that's interesting. However, our original design did not presume this was particularly helpful so much as a nice little bonus.
Nair isn't that big of a deal, but it's nice. Zelda's nair is her only aerial that controls any significant space at all, and she now gets a little better reward for opponents violating that space inappropriately (somehow interpret this as non-sexual please). Again, it's moving her spatial game from "beyond horrible to the point of being nearly non-existent" to "still mediocre but good enough so she can work with it".
Here goes me posting again, hopefully not to be ignored this time.
I use Zelda/Sheik so I thought id give some feed back.
I personally use Farore's wind a lot with wind canceling(which can now spike and thats awesome)
And I often use it from above, It's hard for most of people to predict exactly where she lands
and if they do get ht by it its a sure set up for a combo
I also think her jab is fine with the flower effect and it doesn't need to be an amazing move it doesn't "suck" I never really used it unless it was an accident but it knocks the enemy away so that's one thing about it.
The F tilt is better for the Peach match up as it gives her something to cut through Peach's approach when shes floating near the ground and it helps her as you put it "poke" through defenses somewhat, though having it combo into Usmash will take some getting used to.
As for her grab game it seems the back throw always has a diagonally upward angle behind Zelda.
In vBrawl it would sometimes send characters straight back which was a little more useful for killing IMO and with her Dsmash I know the angle was changed so it couldn't be teched but that RARELY ever happened, It was really useful when it semi spiked for match ups like Olimar and Falco.
I like the change to F Smash, its frustrating knowing that a move should kill and it randomly doesn't and U tilt seems more reliable and there are more opportunities to use it.
I think when that Bandit guy meant we never use Farore's wind meant because it didn't really have many uses in vBrawl I think he needs to learn to adjust Bbrawl and see that some attacks can now be used in different ways, If hes got a problem with that he can stick to vBrawl :/.
Then again I supposed I don't play like most Zelda users so I wouldn't fit into that "We" category.
One of her main problems in my opinion is how incredible easy it is to edge hog, though now that Farore's wind spikes people will likely think twice before jumping on the edge.
The biggest issue with it is how long she is unable to move after finishing in the air.
Wolf also shares this problem, when recovering from if she doesn't sweet spot the edge(which is already difficult to do) she just falls to her death due to her inability to move.
As for Sheik I didn't really think she needed many changes but I think she may be a little worse off with out her tilt lock.
It can hardly even combo 3 times and it used to be a major help on match ups against heavy weights.
Oh and about Zelda's grab, I never really thought it was "horrible" maybe because I don't use any other characters than Zelda/Sheik but it works for me.
It is sorta slow but it has decent range and her throws do nice damage.
I appreciate the non helplessness after using Din's aerial.
I use it when returning to the stage from above to attack and sometimes KO characters such as MK or ZSS when they jump up to attack with an aerial.
It gets really predictable and most opponents just start to shield and wait to edge hog or punish her as she falls back down.
Thanks to the new mechanic she has more options after using it.
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