SSBM/Zelda

Introduction

Zelda is best described as a defensive wall who carefully spaces their forward and back aerials to wall out the opponent, being more of a call and respond character and not a zoner. These kicks, known as Lightning Kick, are her X-Factor, and are vital to playing her in almost every capacity of her gameplay. By keeping the opponent out at bay with her hitboxes, she wins by punishing mistakes and bad approaches to continually wall the enemy out. Though intended to be played alongside Sheik in battle by design, Zelda does not see much use in competitive play in tandem, or even just with her alone.

However, Zelda is heavily held back by numerous flaws, as she lands 24th on the Tier List, being the last character in the D Tier. One of Zelda's problems lies in her speed. While platforms do help boost her options very significantly, Zelda boasts the dubious distinction of having the slowest dash in the game, as well as having the shortest wavedash. This, combined with her slow jumpsquat, slow air speed, and lack of a good projectile, make her approach awful, which additionally makes her very vulnerable to camping. Zelda also is plagued by one of the slowest grabs in the game, making it very committal should the player decide to go in for one. When the opponent does get past her defense, she's also prone to dying early due to not only her light weight, but her tall hitbox as well, offsetting her shield to leave her vulnerable to pokes. Her combos are perhaps one of her worst problems, as they usually only lead to a neutral reset and consist of usually only 2 hits. This results in Zelda having to win neutral numerous times in a match in order to take a stock, and can't capitalize well on her combos.

Zelda does actually have a surprising amount of advantages, however. For one, the aforementioned Lightning Kicks are perhaps some of the best aerials in the game, thanks to a good disjoint and very strong knockback and damage, being good for both defensive play and a combo finisher. She also has a pretty decent amount of get-off-me moves, with her Down Smash being the most notable one due to being the fastest Down Smash in the game. In the event she does get a grab successfully, she also has some good throws to boot, being able to chain throw fast fallers into a kick to finish them off or utilize a kill throw.

These attributes combined make Zelda a rather lacking and weak character. However, the lack of matchup knowledge can be your biggest asset and can catch people by surprise, and can test your opponents patience as you wall them out from you. Learning Zelda may also benefit Sheik players, and can throw the opponent off or even get access to a new tool in some matchups, most notably being against the Ice Climbers. At the end of the day though, Zelda is very poor on her own, individual level, but when mastered, could be a threatening, responsive wall that trumps unprepared players.

Introduction

"A" Moves Analysis

"B" Moves List

Move Analysis

Combos

Frame Data

Strategies

Overview

Zoning

Character Specific

Additional Note

Match-ups

Serious Advantage Match-ups

Advantage Match-ups

Fair Match-ups

Disadvantage Match-ups

Serious Disadvantage Match-ups

Game Navigation