Gouie's playstyle is...#210

I’m going to be up front, this is mostly a personal “having fun” issue. I do appreciate the idea of adding characters with unique attributes and varied playstyles. However, I don’t believe it’s just me who feels like this, and I think Gouie is extremely polarizing in a way that isn’t conducive to the game’s experience as a whole.

Put bluntly, the way he operates allows and encourages players to angle for stalling and timeouts. This leads to 5-minute minimum matches of extremely repetitive neutral interactions that basically boil down to “I can’t approach him because if I mess up once, he can take my stock at 0 with a back throw at the ledge if my recovery isn’t perfect” and “he can’t approach me because his approach tools aren’t amazing.” One of the biggest criticisms of Gouie’s chief inspiration, Melee Puff, is the lack of required engagement with the opponent, and Gouie inherits all of that and more because it’s how the archetype is wired. At least he doesn’t have a rest equivalent, but that’s not saying much when he has semi-kirbycide that lets him take stocks at 0%.

Is there a way to kind of coax him into not playing for timeouts? I don’t think this is fun for either player in the equation, and the way he’s currently designed seems intentionally slanted to encourage that playstyle, which feels like a really baffling decision. I want to be clear I’m not advocating for the character to be made worse. I think we’re too early in the game for that to make sense. However, I do think he could be made less polarizing. Six jumps is a lot, maybe 4 with some extra height? Wall of pain is okay, I guess, but maybe remove back throw as a setup option? Dair is ok for spinning on someone’s shield, but could it be made a better approach tool by giving it a landing hitbox so he can fast fall it onto someone?

Oh, and can his fstrong animation please be adjusted to match the power of the attack? That keeps catching me off guard because it doesn’t make physical sense. I know it’s hard to give a puffball a powerful-feeling attack, but Kirby manages it fine with some squash and stretch and a faster kick. At the very least consider tweaking the chamber pose/time to make it more obvious. A longer chamber pose and a faster first kick would do wonders for the attack’s feel.