Ridley (SSBU): Difference between revisions

Ridley (SSBU) (edit)

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Tantei

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 Another critical flaw to Ridley is how drastically his moves vary in quality, which can lead to Ridley becoming quite predictable. While he has plenty of moves offering varying amounts of utility, some of them still have significant flaws; these can range from slow startup (Plasma Breath and down smash), absurd blindspots (up tilt and sometimes up smash), overly situational and/or strict (Skewer), to being downright unreliable (down aerial). On the other side of the spectrum, some of Ridley's moves like neutral aerial, up smash, down tilt, and depending on the match-up, the aforementioned Plasma Breath is so favorable that it becomes easy to over-centralize on their use. Ridley is a character that finds the most success in being unpredictable, which can be difficult when a player subconsciously checks off using so many moves. This, combined with his aforementioned trouble at dealing with fast and/or zoning characters, and with recovering under pressure, makes Ridley one of the most susceptible characters to pressure, as Ridley's disadvantage state makes him easy to overwhelm, and failure to overwhelm or control aggression could force him to take heavy damage or even be KOed outright.
-A notable downside of Ridley's kit is his mediocre grab game. His grab range is somewhat short for his size, to begin with, alongside very mediocre to poor frame data for all variants of the grab input, and a character like him can greatly suffer from whiffing it, its only saving grace being Ridley's fast dash speed. While down throw functions as a strong and reliable combo tool from low to mid percentages, and at very high percentages (around 150%) are capable of KOing middleweights, none of Ridley's other throws provide much usage beyond repositioning the opponent. Forward and back throws don't KO at reasonable percentages, even with ideal positioning, and up throw, while being his most damaging throw and a passable kill throw with low ceiling stages, is best as a mediocre set up for juggling the opponent. Though it has a visually brutal depiction, the fact that it is Ridley's most "powerful" throw, truly demonstrates his lack of viable kill options or combo throws. Even Ridley's down throw doesn't combo into entirely unique strings, and his down tilt can sometimes service some of the same use while being much safer to execute, despite down throw into forward tilt being a noteworthy frame trap set up. Though it does combo into forward air from low to high percentages and has surprising power, KOing Mii Brawler around 180%. Unlike other normally reliable down throws, however, Ridley's is noticeably easy to simply DI away from to severely limit Ridley's follow-ups. While the existence of Space Pirate Rush somewhat mitigates his lack of a strong throw due to its ability to KO at the ledge at high percentages, overall, Ridley's grab game is almost entirely centralized by his down throw's utility, with his other throws being situational at best and a complete waste of risks at worst.
+A notable downside of Ridley's kit is his mediocre grab game. All variations of his grab possess mediocre to poor frame data and small range for his stature, making him easily punishable should Ridley whiff a grab. While down throw functions as a strong and reliable combo tool from low to mid percentages, and is even capable of KOing at very high percentages (around 150% on middleweights), none of Ridley's other throws provide much usage beyond repositioning the opponent. Forward and back throw lack reasonable kill power, even with ideal positioning, and up throw, while being his most damaging throw and a passable kill throw with low ceiling stages, sends opponents too high for any true conversions, instead setting them up for juggles. DI can also influence Ridley’s follow-up options off down throw, limiting his options should the opponent choose to DI away. While the existence of Space Pirate Rush somewhat mitigates his lack of a strong throw due to its ability to KO at the ledge at high percentages, overall, Ridley's grab game is almost entirely centralized by his down throw's utility, with his other throws being situational at best.
 Lastly, while Ridley's advantage state is unarguably very oppressive, one key attribute holding this back is his middling airspeed. For his additional mid-air jump and impressive aerials, their full potential is greatly held back by Ridley's surprising difficulty in staying airborne. He generally needs to gain some distance while grounded to approach with his aerials, and while his dash speed is very impressive, it's restrictive regardless, and Ridley lacks the number of jumps that characters like {{SSBU|King Dedede}} and {{SSBU|Pit}} have to help circumvent their airspeed issues. Various combos usually are unable to extend in the air for long thanks to this, as his aerials may deal too much knockback to follow up after one or two attacks. This is further shown in his recovery, as Wing Blitz and Space Pirate Rush are usually options he must use to recover, even if Ridley isn't that far from the stage. While Ridley's airspeed is definitely better than most other fellow characters with multiple jumps, it's still merely average compared to the whole cast, which tones down his overall effectiveness in the air, and this is further exacerbated by him being a fast-faller.
-Overall, Ridley is a character of extremes, with a relatively high learning curve and an even higher cerebral curve. Similarly to what {{SSBU|Mewtwo}} is among its fellow lightweight characters, Ridley fills in the position of being a glass cannon among his fellow heavyweights. He has excellent damage, pressure, and edge-guarding potential with a broad arsenal of powerful moves and tools to gain and sustain advantage, gradually poke and pressure from a fair distance away, and punish whiffs or what would normally be an inconsequential slip-up. This allows Ridley to easily make comebacks or greatly widen his lead with minimal set up should an opponent make a single error in considering Ridley's approach. However, his moveset is so heavily lopsided towards accumulating damage, netting kills, and sustaining advantage that he lacks any tools to break combos and is limited in combating opposing pressure, meaning that one mistake from Ridley himself can devastate him worse than most other characters. Due to his varied amount of tools, Ridley has many playstyles applicable, but players should be able to switch said playstyles in a whim; if played recklessly or predictably, Ridley can be easily punished with a slew of combos, walls of projectiles, and general pressure he isn't built to handle, so players should be constantly aware of when and how to use Ridley's tools to take full advantage of them, while playing unpredictably to prevent the opponent from capitalizing on Ridley’s own susceptibility. This is especially true against dominating characters like Palutena or Snake, who are either well equipped to handle all of Ridley's strengths, or their own skills are so powerful that even Ridley's combined toolkit can't make up the difference on its own. However, this also means the reverse can be true, as some characters who already struggle with one of Ridley's tools may find Ridley outright insurmountable if more than one of his playstyles favors the battle.
+Overall, Ridley is a character of extremes, with a relatively high learning curve and an even higher cerebral curve. Similarly to what {{SSBU|Mewtwo}} is among its fellow lightweight characters, Ridley fills in the position of being a glass cannon among his fellow heavyweights. He has excellent damage, pressure, and edge-guarding potential with a broad arsenal of powerful moves and tools to gain and sustain advantage, gradually poke and pressure from a fair distance away, and punish whiffs or what would normally be an inconsequential slip-up. This allows Ridley to easily make comebacks or greatly widen his lead with minimal set up should an opponent make a single error in considering Ridley's approach. However, despite possessing a powerful and highly versatile moveset, Ridley lacks strong options out of disadvantage and generally struggles to oppose pressure from opponents due to his size and the frame data on his aerials and grounded attacks. This makes top tier matchups like Snake and Palutena difficult for Ridley, as they are well-equipped to combat Ridley through oppressive walls of projectiles or strong aerial combos respectively. As such, mix-up heavy playstyles are heavily encouraged when playing Ridley to prevent opponents from capitalising on his own susceptibility as much as possible.
 Ridley's competitive potential is subject for debate, typically hovering in the nebulous gateway between low and mid tier while sometimes being much lower or much higher. Some professional players consider him a low-tier due to his poor disadvantage state and difficulty surviving for heavyweight standards, while others like {{Sm|MkLeo}} and {{Sm|ESAM}} argue that he is a higher mid-tier thanks to his strong advantage state and wide array of options for multiple playstyles. This can be further expressed by his tournament presence; Ridley is an unpopular pick, yet displays respectable to impressive placings relative to his usage, with smashers like {{Sm|Nair^}}, {{Sm|Vreyvus}}, and {{Sm|Locus}} demonstrating his potential. Because of this, Ridley is considered a viable character, though the difficulty in learning his strengths for high level play and how punishable Ridley can be from human error make Ridley one of the more rarely seen viable characters. In casual fields, Ridley is notorious for how exploitable his weaknesses can be and the many pitfalls that beginners can fall into, especially with poor routing of Wing Blitz leading to awkward and anti-climactic finishes, proving his high learning curve for his size class.