Project V/Spyro



Spyro (Spyro the Dragon)

Spyro is one of the twenty-two selectable fighters in Project V, representing the Spyro the Dragon franchise. He had been selected due to him fascinating Project V's director as a child and for his underlooked titles, each of which were met with critical acclaim prior to Enter the Dragonfly. Spyro is a unique character, standing below most in size and utilizing a bunch of skills from the PlayStation trilogy, able to breathe fire to get foes to back off and shatter defenses with his powerful ram. Spyro possesses the ability to fly and glide around without falling helpless, giving him an amazing recovery that allows him to dominate the air flawlessly. With his quick speed, he can also set up combos very well and in some circumstances he can even bait his opponent with good timing.

Spyro ranks at 9th on the tier list, owing to his excellent stage comeback ability and his terrific, versatile moveset. Using his flame breath, he can keep enemies off of him in a short burst and charge around the stage for one of the best approaches in the game. During his charge, he cannot flinch, making it very easy for him to reach his opponent and land an attack, with Bonkers and Ganondorf having difficulty escaping him. His lightweight status and his small size also make him rather hard to hit for precise opponents like Ridley and MeeMee. There are some issues with Spyro, however. He is very prone to being launched, and a lot of his moves can easily be read and countered by skilled opponents such as Ike or InuYasha. He also suffers a fast falling speed, which means he can get juggled or punished in the air if not gliding.

Attributes
Spyro is a lightweight, and among the lighter characters in the game. Atop this, he is also one of the shortest characters in the game, his height being shorter than Silver's crouch as well as Ganondorf's. Spyro has some fantastic mobility, having a good walking speed, a great dashing speed, high falling speed and air speed, and moderate jumps. When it comes to his moveset, Spyro generally uses his physical talents gained throughout the initial trilogy as well as the projectiles he spat out of his mouth in the latter two titles Ripto's Rage and Year of the Dragon. Spyro is home to among the best recoveries of all, with his third jump being used for gliding and his up special giving him plenty of air gain. He is rather notable for his safe attacks, able to deal good damage on shields as well as dish out respectable power overall. By far, Spyro's best skill is his aerial talent -- all of his aerials are safe to land and have enough frames to outlast air dodges.

There are some things weighing Spyro down from ascending the tier list any further barring his aforementioned lightweight problem and ability to get juggled. Spyro's smash attacks all have good launching power, but they're difficult to land because of their start-up frames and require absolute precision to be landed. He also has low priority in his projectiles; they can be reflected or destroyed with higher priority moves, although these types of moves are far and in-between, making most of them safe to use on Spyro's opponents. These don't make Spyro not viable, however. In fact, by using his laggy smash attacks to surprise edgeguarders or his low priority projectiles to slow foes down, Spyro can actually go in for the kill with them.

Moveset
In battle, Spyro makes use of his own body, his fiery breath, and varying projectiles to attack, making for a character that can both get up close or otherwise camp out. Both of these strategies can eliminate most characters in the roster, with exceptions being players that can rush through camping storms and beat the crap out of him before he has a chance to react. Spyro excels in his aerial attacks, with all of them coming out fast and lasting a long time without being interrupted easily. His ground attacks have more power, but have more lag and aren't quite as easy to land. The way Spyro is built, he's to make the most use of his aerial attacks and to not overabuse his smash attacks.
 * Neutral Special: Flame.  Spyro will breath forward a wave of fire, which has hardly any start up lag and ends quickly.  This doesn't deal much damage, but can push opponents away from Spyro.  The move has a fiery effect and can keep opponents in place at higher percentages, which can make it more of an appropriate finisher attack.  If charged, the attack becomes a fireball with good launching power.  Opponents that haven't taken enough damage to be launched far will be kept in place by the ball, which can help Spyro lead into more attacks.
 * Forward Special: Dragon's Charge.  Spyro will rear his head and charge forward at an incredible velocity, which can break through any defense and wear shields by 75% if Spyro had just started the move.  If Spyro goes off a ledge, he will go into an emergency glide, which can save his life.  During his charge, he can jump around in the air, and if he appears to be above certain death, he won't auto-glide, forcing the player to activate it themselves. If charged, the attack will go much faster and leave behind white smoke where he runs.  During the move's effect, he can turn around with the charge and attack opponents that might have hit him.
 * Recovery Special: Spyro's Flight.  Spyro will do a loop in the air and glide up high in the sky.  There is nothing more to it; it can help Spyro get out of a nasty situation or just play with opponents a little more.  Shall the move be charged, Spyro will temporarily be granted unlimited flight, able to move up or down and breathe out balls of fire as he moves.
 * Crouch Special: Headsmash. On the ground, Headsmash will force Spyro's head forward and knock away opponents.  While having a lot of start-lag, it can deal a bunch of damage and bury foes and let Spyro follow up with more reliable moves.  In the air, Spyro will go straight down with his head, dealing a lot of damage and -- again -- bury foes.  If the move is charged, the attack will hurt much more and not bury his opponents, turning it into a reliable finisher.  Its start-up lag is also not as bad.

In competitive play
Due to time constraints, this is incomplete.