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The rewrite

I have re-written most of this page from scratch. The goal was to solve a few problems:

1. The article didn't distinguish whether a difference mattered to whether a character is a clone, which left some confusion over the definition.
2. The developer term "echo" doesn't match the fan term "clone", and the article didn't really lay that out right.
3. Some characters (e.g. Wolf) needed a new category created for them.

I'm leaving the page fully-protected for now to give the new format time to sink in. After that, it'll be dropped to autoconfirmed so it can be more widely improved. Toomai Glittershine The Frivolous 16:00, 2 February 2019 (EST)

I think the rewrite was a really good way to distinguish full clones, semi-clones, psuedo clones, etc. However, I’m curious as to why physical attributes were not considered as “distinguishing characteristics”. Considering how they affect how a character plays far more than individual moves, shouldin’t things like the Marth clones’ sweetspots, the Links being progressively faster but weaker, and Pichu hurting itself be considered distinguishing characteristics? Lou Cena (talk) 16:07, 2 February 2019 (EST)

Changing attributes is a lot less effort than inventing new attacks and creating their animations, and the idea of clones is to be less effort. Toomai Glittershine The Inconceivable 17:20, 2 February 2019 (EST)

Regardless of how easy changing attributes are (and I do believe you that changing attributes is easy, mind you), I still think that they qualify as distinguishing differences. When I think of how Roy is different, I don’t think of his neutral attack. I think of his hilter sweetspots replacing Marth’s tipper sweetspots. When I think of how Pichu is different, the first thing that comes to mind is its masochaoism, not its up smash. The “other notes” thing should be for things such as Lucina’s up tilt having a timing-based sweetspot with more damage but less knockback that is completely absent on Marth, or Dark Samus’s Up smash catching smaller opponents that Samus normally can not. Lou Cena (talk) 19:34, 2 February 2019 (EST)

Then perhaps we need a better title than "distinguishing differences", because the point of the column is to list the ways in which the character is not a clone - and it's demonstrated by Melee that changing attributes, hitboxes, and other non-animation properties does not make a character less of a clone. Toomai Glittershine The Undirigible 20:08, 2 February 2019 (EST)

Maybe change the “distinguishing differences” column to “different moves”, and then split the “other/notes” column into “attributes” and “other minor differences”? Lou Cena (talk) 20:14, 2 February 2019 (EST)

Not a bad idea. I'll call the first column "unique moves", but keep the second as "other notes", to keep the two as "differences that make them less of a clone" and "all other differences". (It'll probably look a bit messy if we try to have three columns of substantial text.) Toomai Glittershine The Boss 20:22, 2 February 2019 (EST)

The last sentence in the echo fighter description may be a bit too "absolute", I would rather go with something like :

• Whereas the spectrum of clone terms are used by the community to discuss the degree of similarity in the final result, the term echo fighter is used by the developers to denote a character as being low-budget. Echo fighters end up having a lot of similarities to their parents, but such similarities aren't as much as the reason they are classified as echo fighters as they are a natural consequence of being developped from another character to save on development costs.

I hope this won't lead to too much arguing as I feel responsible for that initiative, and as I feel that there will still be some people who won't trust me about it. YoshiRyu (talk) 16:26, 2 February 2019 (EST)

Yeah I had trouble with that sentence, trying to figure out how to say "the devs's opinion does not match the fans' opinion" in a factual way. I'll try another one. Toomai Glittershine The Inconceivable 17:20, 2 February 2019 (EST)

A shorter version could be :

• Whereas the spectrum of clone terms are used by the community to discuss the degree of similarity in the final result, the term echo fighter is used by the developers to denote a character as being low-budget. As a consequence of that initial intend, echo fighters naturally end up having a lot of similarities with their parents, for they share a significant amount of assets with them.

Or something like that. YoshiRyu (talk) 18:06, 2 February 2019 (EST)

I don't think the similarities should be denied. I just think it should be stated that they do have a lot of similarities (obviously), while being careful not to imply that those similarities define what an echo fighter is.
In the end, they are similar because they are echoes, not the other way around. YoshiRyu (talk) 18:09, 2 February 2019 (EST)

I feel like Ultimate Ganondorf is more of a psudeo-clone

According to Toomai’s cloneosity chart, Ganondorf only shares 50% of his moves. However, I noticed that the neutral aerial was labeled as a cloned move, despite Ganondorf doing a back kick then a front kick while Falcon does 2 front kicks. If hat’s a cloned move, then so is Roy’s Forward smash. Lou Cena (talk) 02:23, 9 February 2019 (EST)

Uhhh I have no idea where you're getting that claim from. Ganondorf makes the exact same neutral aerial kicking motions as Falcon, with the only difference being speed and graphic effects. I suggest using training mode's frame-by-frame to see for yourself. Toomai Glittershine The Sharp 09:35, 9 February 2019 (EST)

My bad. I was looking at the moveset table. I was wrong about his neutral aerial. Even then, while i was looking at your chart, I noticed that what you counted as a semi-clone stretched out to 35% while Pseudo-clones only stretched out to 15%. That’s a ridiculously small margin for what a psudeo-clone is. Was thee any source specifically stating that semi-clones have to share more than 45% of their moveset? Because Ganondorf is literally teetering on the edge of semi-clone. I’m not entirely sure if Ganondorf really can be called a semi-clone anymore if he shared only 50% of his moves and all of his shared moves have completely different functions. Lou Cena (talk) 11:12, 9 February 2019 (EST)

Ganondorf is indeed approaching pseudo-clone status, but I don't think he'll quite get there if he keeps 4/5 same aerials, 3/4 same throws, and 3/4 same specials (remember, function does not matter). All the other pseudo-clones have much more variation in two of those three areas. Toomai Glittershine The Inconceivable 16:15, 9 February 2019 (EST)

Let’s leave this up to a consensus on whether Ganondorf is a semi-clone or a psudeo-clone

Psudeo-clone: Lou Cena: The margin of what a psudeo-clone is is oddly specific. Lou Cena (talk) 12:40, 10 February 2019 (EST)

Semi-clone: Toomai: Ganondorf shares many of his throws and aerial with Captain Falcon.

What the developers consider clones.

I think the developers actually have a definition on what makes a clone or not. And it differs per game.

Melee: Clones share largely all the basic attack motions with the original character - with large changes to character attributes and move properties. Some moves can even function completely differently like Ganondorf Up Tilt or Falco's lasers. Balanced as completely new characters against the rest of the cast. Future "declonings" are mainly just animation changes and tweaks to emphasise their Melee traits.

Brawl: Clones weren't really a thing in Brawl, but the concept of reusing skeletons and non attack animations were a thing with Lucas and Wolf. Falco and Ganondorf and Luigi got their differing traits fleshed out more since Brawl really wanted every roster thing to be unique.

Smash 4: Return of the Clones. The "semi-clones" weren't really developed as clones - notice how they didn't share custom moves? But Dr Mario returned, and Dark Pit and Lucina were added. The latter two basically had all the same move properties, sans a few flourishes. as they were created to be more like model swaps with bonus traits than fully fledged additions. Balanced ONLY against parent character and shared patch changes.

Ultimate: Clones Deluxe. They literally made the definition of a full clone super apparent. Like Melee clones, their motions are based on another character in the game. But unlike Melee clones, they were made to have minor changes but no big gameplay changes. Same attributes, same overall attack/mobility/weight/size etc. They even made Lucina and Dark Pit even more similar to make maintaining them easier. They are basically like glorified model swaps - notice how they emphasised Daisy's personality and flower effects and Dark Samus' different missile appearance? Echoes are mainly visual changes, and I feel like this page doesn't reflect this.

Just before anyone else comments here, the person above is a sockpuppet of a vandal. SugarCookie 420 15:08, 9 February 2019 (EST)

Excuse me? He's actually making a good point here. Clones: Pretty much the exact same gameplay and properties. Semi-clones: Based on another character, with differing properties and animations. Differences can wildly vary but they are different enough. Example of clone: Daisy, Lucina, Dark Pit, Ken. Example of semi-clone: Dr Mario, Pichu, Wolf, Young Link --86.163.147.208 16:08, 10 February 2019 (EST)