Zelda (SSBM)

Zelda (, Zelda) is one of the more unique characters in the lineup for Super Smash Bros. Melee. Zelda's most notable traits are her array of powerful magical attacks and her unique ability to transform herself into her alter ego,. This alternate form is very different from Zelda, and each was intended to help balance the other's weaknesses, so that ideally one would change between the two based on the flow of battle.

Jun Mizusawa reprises her role as Zelda from Ocarina of Time in the game.

Currently, Zelda is 24th on the tier list, the lowest-ranked character in D-tier. Zelda's positive attributes include several powerful attacks, with the most notable being her Lightning Kick. Zelda's primary weakness, however, is her poor mobility; she possesses (along with Jigglypuff) the slowest dash speed in the game, and is a slow-faller. These attributes, combined with her very high traction, result in her possessing the shortest wavedash in the game (alongside Peach). Additionally, despite Zelda's long range on her recovery, it is fairly predictable and easily edgeguarded and/or edgehogged due to its awkward endlag. All of these factors contribute to Zelda having terrible matchups against most of the cast.

Attributes
Zelda does not fall under any specific archetype of characters, due to her unusual properties as a fighter; she has a slew of powerful finishers, such as her Lightning Kick, but possesses average weight. Additionally, Zelda has a slow falling speed and high traction, leading to a very short, albeit fast, wavedash.

One of Zelda's strengths is her great overall KO power. Within the air, her forward and back aerials of the Lightning Kick can KO at as low as 50%, and her up air has a large hitbox that can also KO opponents. On the ground, Zelda's up tilt is surprisingly powerful, with its long duration and large radius allowing it to be a versatile move under most circumstances. Zelda's up and forward smash attacks are also powerful and they have high damage output thanks to their multiple hits.

In addition, Zelda has some fast attacks, such as her down smash (which is the fastest in the game) and her forward and back aerials, which requires opponents to tread more carefully when used. Nayru's Love has invincibility at frame 4, which makes it a good move to counterattack fast approaches. Up smash possesses quick startup and can be used as a great out of shield option, as it can lead to a grab if the opponent SDIs out of it. Forward smash has very low ending lag, a good disjointed hitbox, and a quick animation. The very last hitbox is significantly larger than the previous, being able to sometimes reach someone who SDI's in the front of the move. It can be also be thrown out in neutral to read fast approaches without putting herself in a bad spot. As an added bonus, many of Zelda's attacks have transcendent priority; combined with average reach for most of her attacks, Zelda has potential to stop others' attacks with her own.

Despite most of her moves dealing high knockback, she has an acceptable combo game. Her dash attack is her primary combo starter on the ground, all of her tilts are great comboing moves, her forward tilt can send her opponents backwards, allowing for potential combo starters, her up tilt can juggle at low percentages and follow up with an up aerial when it stops comboing and her down tilt can combo into itself until around 95% and can also combo into her down smash. Up smash can also be used a few times in a row at low percentages if the opponent gets caught right above her. In addition to this, Zelda possesses a good grab game. Her up throw can be a kill confirm around 80% as it leads to a guaranteed bair/fair on certain matchups. It also has the potential to chain throw at low percentages, and her down throw has several potential follow-ups, such as a dash attack, Lightning Kick, or even a forward tilt and can set up stage spikes and early edge-guards. Her forward and back throws are quite powerful and can set up edge-guards or even K.O. at high percentages. Neutral air can also be used to guarantee these aerials (on certain matchups) if landed without the last hitbox, which will make the opponent pop up with a set knockback.

However, Zelda is strongly held back by having one of the worst approach games in the game. On the ground, Zelda possesses the slowest dashing speed, a short wavedash, and a slow dash dance; combined with decidedly average range in her attacks, Zelda cannot effectively attack on the ground. Zelda doesn't fare much better in the air; despite her above average air speed, Zelda suffers from a low falling speed and a high short hop, leading to a very poor SHFFL. Zelda's lack of an effective projectile also prevents her from attacking from afar; Din's Fire is far too laggy, weak, and predictable to be an effective projectile, being too situational under most circumstances, even with the help of platforms and wavelanding.

Despite her array of powerful moves and decent platform movement, she suffers numerous other flaws. In addition to a poor approach on the ground, most of Zelda's moveset consists of unreliable finishers. Her forward and up smash suffer from SDI problems, as opponents can easily SDI out of it before the last hit. Zelda's up aerial, while powerful, is impossible to land on a grounded opponent, as it has some start-up lag and the hitbox is above her. Her Lightning Kicks need to be sweetspotted to KO effectively. Her forward and back throws can only KO at very high percentages when used near the edge, limiting their utility. As such, Zelda's up tilt and down smash are possibly her only reliable KO moves and even those have their flaws; the former is rather slow for a tilt attack and the latter is rather weak for a smash attack. Lastly, some of her toolkit suffers from a lack of applicable uses, which includes her down aerial, her aforementioned Din's Fire and jab.

Zelda also suffers from having generally situational specials (save Transform). Nayru's Love can only harm attackers in short ranges, and it has high ending lag and it doesn't protect her from attacks above her. Din's Fire, as mentioned earlier, doesn't aid her approach at all and suffers from too much ending lag. Farore's Wind, generally considered her best special move, requires precise timing and angles to reach the ledge, else Zelda might land onstage and could potentially get punished, or worse, self-destruct. Farore's Wind's hitbox is also not generally viable for offensive use barring ledge stalls, and even then it lacks follow-ups on many characters.

Overall, Zelda emphasizes a defensive gameplan by trying to find openings for grabs, dash attacks, or lightning kicks. Players must be precise on landing her finishing moves, as their fast startup and strong power can be offset by a difficulty and landing them. She must also try and use wavedashing as well as platforms as much as possible, as her low mobility can prove to be a burden when trying to fight in neutral or against disadvantageous situations. To find success, she has to bait out options and wait for an opponent to make a mistake, else she be overwhelmed by other foes.

Moveset
For a gallery of Zelda's hitboxes, see here.

Stats
NTSC

PAL

Most historically significant players

 * See also: Category:Zelda players (SSBM)''


 * - Co-mains Zelda and Sheik. Has multiple top 8 at Japanese locals such as MasterHand, and a win over . Ranked 37th on the Japan SSBM Rank 2019.
 * - Peaked at 2nd on the Chicago Power Rankings, won SGDQ 2013 and placed high at many Show Me Your Moves locals, later switched to Roy and became inactive.
 * - Created The Profane Tome, which is considered a "bible" for Zelda players. Is generally considered to be the best Zelda in the world at the moment. Has wins over, , and.
 * - The best Zelda player in the world prior to his death. Placed 9th at and 25th at . Ranked 8th on Pittsburgh Power Rankings in 2017, peaked at 4th; 4-stocked  in a tournament match.
 * - Considered the best Zelda in the early meta. Currently inactive.

Tier placement and history
Zelda was ranked extremely high on the first tier list, tying for 6th place with and ; however, discussion in the MBR average tiers topic suggests this is an artifact of some tier list contributors grouping her with her top-tier counterpart, and her placement was not fully based on her prowess as an independent character. The second tier list rectified this and had Zelda tie with Link and Ness for 14th to 16th place. Following this, Zelda fell again to 20th on the third tier list, and has since frequently appeared on the 19th and 20th spots on the tier list. Zelda's position is attributed to a combination of undesirable traits, being floaty, a middleweight yet tall (making her easy to juggle and KO from the upper blast line), having sluggish mobility, a poor wavedash, and poor hitbox placements on most of her moves. However, the most important factor of Zelda’s lack of viability is Sheik’s existence as a top tier, which has deterred many smashers from using her in serious play.

Zelda is currently ranked 24th on the thirteenth tier list, in what is her lowest standing on the list thus far. Prior to the ranking, she was ranked 22nd, with some smashers disputing whether this was an accurate assessment; notably believed that Zelda was one of the two worst characters in the game, citing her poor frame data and awful approach in his assessment.

Zelda has made little impact in tournaments from the start of the metagame, with relatively few dedicated mains. Her only modern players are semi-active at best, and usually do not place high enough to earn money in large tournaments without also using a better character. Additionally, many of the historically best Zeldas, most notably stopped playing the game entirely, and  has since passed away. Usually, the only time when Zelda shows up in top level play is when Sheik players transform into her off-stage to take advantage of her longer recovery where they would otherwise not be able to recover; if the opponent is aggressive enough, they may be forced to fight as her until an opportunity to transform back is available.

In
In Classic Mode, Zelda can appear in ordinary one-on-one battles, on a team with either, , , or , or in the game's metal battle. In her appearances, Zelda usually appears on Temple, though she also appears on Great Bay when with Young Link, and on Battlefield when with Bowser and in the metal battle. Unusually, however, Zelda will never appear as an ally in team and giant fights.

In Adventure Mode
Zelda's sole appearance in the Adventure Mode is in the second portion of Stage 3, the Underground Maze. The player has to fight against her on the Temple stage to progress in the mode.

In All-Star Mode
In All-Star Mode, Zelda and her allies are fought on the Temple stage.

In Event Matches
Zelda is featured in the following event matches:
 * Event 9: Hide 'n' Sheik: The player is pitted against two Zeldas on Great Bay; to win, however, players have to wait for Zelda to transform into Sheik and then KO them. Upon getting KO'd as Sheik, the CPU will be removed from the game; KOs against Zelda, however, merely cause her to respawn as normal.
 * Event 15: Girl Power: The player, with two stocks, has to fight against, Peach and Zelda, all of whom also have two stocks; the player, however, is tiny, and must KO all three, who are on the same team. Friendly fire is turned on in the match, easing it slightly for the player.
 * Event 20: All-Star Match 2: Zelda is the third opponent the player must fight in this series of staged battles. Their character battles her on the Temple stage, and the player's character has 2 stock while Zelda has 1. With a timer of four minutes, the player must defeat her and the other four characters with the overall time and life they have:, , , and.
 * Event 29: Triforce Gathering: The player plays as Link with Zelda as their partner, both of whom have one stock. They face on the Temple stage, who has two stocks. Clearing the event allows the player to unlock Ganondorf.
 * Event 44: Mewtwo Strikes!: In this event, the player is initially placed on Battlefield, against Zelda. After fifteen seconds, however, appears on stage and will fight the player. The player's goal is to KO Mewtwo; while Zelda can be attacked, KOing her will result in failure.

Ending images
Zelda and Sheik share ending images for the one-player modes, as well as the same cinematic; clearing the mode with one also gives the player both of their trophies.

Trophies
In addition to the normal trophy about Zelda as a character, there are two trophies about her as a fighter, unlocked by completing the Adventure and All-Star modes respectively with Zelda or Sheik on any difficulty:

Trivia

 * Zelda is the only starter character in Melee who was not revealed at E3 2001. Instead, she was revealed when her page was added to Smabura-Ken on November 6.
 * In [[Media:Betameleescreen.jpg|a screenshot]] of the character select screen in Melee, from Smabura-Ken, Zelda's portrait is missing from the character select screen. This seems to have been done to hide the surprise of Zelda being playable, as Sheik was revealed first.
 * Zelda and Sheik are the only characters with the ability to transform into another character (each other) in Melee, and the first to do so in the Smash Bros. series.
 * Zelda is the only character in Melee, along with, to have 3 idle poses. The majority of the cast only have either one or two.
 * Additionally, her official artwork and character select portrait is based on one of her idle poses.
 * Zelda has the largest amount of moves with transcendent priority in Melee, with 13.
 * Despite her design being based on her Ocarina of Time incarnation, if one looks closely, Zelda wears high-heels instead of brown boots as seen in her Smash trophies (which are retained in her later designs/appearances).
 * Oddly, a CPU Zelda in Training mode set to the "Stand" CPU mode will still occasionally transform into Sheik.
 * Although not considered a clone, several of Zelda's non-attack animations are taken directly from Peach, such as her idle, crouching, walking, shielding, rolling, and jumping animations.