Super Smash Bros.: Masahiro Sakurai talks about balancing
If you’re a fan of Super Smash Bros., you’ve probably heard about the infamous “Sakurai Bias”: fans who (wrongly) accuse Masahiro Sakurai (creator of the Super Smash Bros. series) of favouring characters of series he’s worked on (such as Kirby, Pit or Palutena).
It’s the very topic that Masahiro Sakurai tackled in Famitsu magazine this week. He starts by saying that no matter what series he had worked on (such as Mario, Pokémon, Fire Emblem or StarFox), people would still accuse him of favouritism. Of course, this is nothing but baseless conjecture, and he explains that he puts lots of work into each character.
He asks: “What could I possibly get out of only buffing the characters I’ve worked on? A sense of self-satisfaction?”. In fact, he’s worked on so many franchises via the Super Smash Bros. series: so who is he supposed to favour exactly? The truth is: he can’t seem to get the hang of two characters… Pit and Palutena, actually. He find them below average in terms of strength, and if he really favoured them, he would have made them stronger (which he didn’t).
He then goes on to explain exactly what “balancing” entails. The most important thing is the feedback from the playtesters (who would be able to hold their ground during a tournament, according to Masahiro Sakurai). They also pay attention to the results of online matches and the opinion of players on the internet.
Then, the playtesters propose various balance fixes, and Mashiro Sakurai look them up (of course, he doesn’t immediately approve all of them). For him, the most important aspect of balancing is to keep the game fun. He could, in fact, make all characters similar to Mario and call it a day… but that wouldn’t be really fun now, would it?
They key lies in making small adjustements while keeping the individuality of each character, and then testing everything out. Then, Masahiro Sakurai considers the data collected by the playtesting team and finalises the changes. Even though it’s him who makes the final decisions, he always tries to remain neutral and objective. If he disagrees with the playtesters’ opinion, the changes aren’t made in the end.
One thing to keep in mind is that the playtesting team is composed of several people, each with their own playstyle, and this sometimes comes out during the balancing process.
Another important aspect for the team to keep in mind is the fact that battles can take many formats in Super Smash Bros. 1 vs, 2 vs 2, etc.. Some techniques might be great against one opponent, but not much against several of them (and vice-versa).
Also, what is considered “fair” by advanced players might totally crush beginners. For example, Kirby’s Stone attack usually won’t work against a player above intermediate level, but if they had made it stronger, beginner wouldn’t be able to keep up against someone using it.
Masahiro Sakurai explains that he always aim for an “intermediate level” when balancing the game: not favouring the pro players, but not making the game too easy. His goal with the Super Smash Bros. series has always been to make a fun party game, and if players are looking for something technical, there’s several more suited 2D fighting games available on the market.
Source: Famitsu
Via SourceGaming
