Okay, now that my paranoid "I'm not good at being or seeing something I like mocked" bout is over, let's look at this guy.

The "gets his jumps back after successful command grab" thing seems interesting. From the sounds of it, he might feel more like a DBZ character than even the DBZ character does if he can keep it up for a while!

An old friend of mine did object to him being a grappler, though. When I told him Luffy got in as the first grappler in the Smash series, he said he saw him as more of an aggressive, direct-attack kind of guy.
I've only seen, like, four episodes of One Piece, two of which were the 4Kids dub over a decade ago, so I can't say for myself which interpretation is more accurate to the character. I'm just glad to see some creativity in playstyle. Which, come to think of it, does remind me of a tidbit I read once about the series, about how devil fruit powers never get stronger, it just looks like they do because their users get more creative with them.

In the early episodes luffy used more grappler type attacks like Sickle and Windmill, but that didn't last long and I agree that luffy is a more hands on fighter. I'm behind in the series but from where I am, Luffy prominently uses:
Gatling(which is present in his moveset),
Pistol(also present),
Shotgun(absent),
Whip(absent, I think),
Bazooka(Surprisingly absent, this is his #1 KO move),
Spear(present),
Fireworks(would have maid for a great Nair and interesting recovery option, but absent),
Rain(absent),
And Stamp(absent, his up smash is Volcano)
The ONLY time luffy has used Sickle in the resent episodes(that I've seen) is to quickly launch himself from one place to the next. Luffy is definitely more of a physical fighter. I don't think the devs went to deep into his movepool, they're using post-timeskip Buffy's design and pre-grand line Luffy's moveset(I.e. Fingernet).

I believe this moveset is more accurate to his in Anime appearance:
viewtopic.php?f=96&t=39656&start=165#p1376143

Yeah Luffy is much more of an aggressive fighter, especially with his new moves that increase his physical capabilities.

This is an interesting mindset to have. "Love to hate ____"

But the thing is that most people hate some characters because they're a pain to fight. I bet they won't even feel satisfaction when they beat a character, unless it's someone who thinks they can win by spamming or something like that. They'll just get off the game for the day or do something else.
It's one thing to dislike a character generally, but for me, some characters I like in their respective media can make me take aspirin whenever I see them being played in the game.
*ahem*naruto*ahem*
But then again if someone hates both renditions of the character, then that's different, I guess.

But yeah, i'm just saying that there's probably a reason why people don't think like the suggestion you put up.

Re: the moveset

In the series (i only read the manga tho) Luffy is a very situational no-holds barred wild fighter, so you have a lot of freedom when it comes to the character. You are all correct that many of his moves borrow more from hos original movepool, but it's like that in J-Stars and Pirate Warriors too. The reason for this is balance; gear second moves would have the same range but would be super difficult to punish since the limbs arent out and the attacks are much faster, not too mentiom that non-One Piece fans may not understsnd what is going on.

The reason for grappling-centred moveset is because we felt it would be a unique way to make the character. We try to design characters to be as unique as possible mechanically and visually. It's very easy to make Luffy just a character who punches and kicks but we wanted to make sure to include attacks in which he contorts his body in unique ways to make use of his abilities (see up throw for example). Furthermore, Luffy does quite a bit of grappling throughout the entirety of the series.

When designing a moveset, central are the concept and unity. A moveset needs to flow together and make sense. If you can't force references in places where they don't belong and you have to make sure moves are also practical in tandem. Still, there are many references to his movepool throughout the moveset, but I'm not going into detail about that right now.

Seeing this discussion unfold is pretty interesting, so thanks for the input.

I'm not dissing his moveset Steven and I like how you made him unique, my only issue is that he lacks his most commonly used attack, outside of Pistol, Bazzoka. I mean Pistol and Bazooka are his 1 and 2 moves, for him to not have one of them is kinda wrong(in my opinion).

https://clips.twitch.tv/mcleodgaming/St ... otLikeThis

awesome luffy string from the SSC stream..

Imagine a TAS'd Luffy, that'd be crazy.

Luffy vs Ness : If you don't recover quickly when you're offstage as Ness, Luffy's DownB will murder you


Edit : Just an idea.. Luffy's Usmash = Gomu Gomu No Volcano right? If you press A again, you get Gomu Gomu No Axe, which is a downward hit which meteor smashes/buries the opponent depending on how high the person's percentage is.

Ok guys i know u like luffy and all but i feel u guys dont really know much about luffy let alone watch his anime. In his anime luffy may be a grappler but in combat he's is actually a highspeed fighter. Luffy has a variation of modes called gear second, gear third, and gear four. In gear second he pumps his blood at a high speed rate which allows him to accelerate at insane speeds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVsT9TPMPlE. In gear third he inflates one part of his body to the MAX and pretty much bashes them with it.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtUAOzcL3nw. And in gear fourth he pretty much combines all three of those and eminent rhape begins.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtUAOzcL3nw. What im saying is they pretty much lamed luffy out and made him a grappler instead of the high speed fighter hes meant to be. Let me show u some high speed footage of luffy.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1kYdtVvfLQ. Even though they probably put luffies moves into his smash ball transformation i would rather they put some of it in his actual moveset. Look at goku, supersaiyan is basically something he uses 24/7 yet they limited that to his smash ball transformation. Same with naruto and the rest of the cast. Im fine with ssf2 but i hope u guys look into this.

tl;dr: He may be capable of more in the original series, but they have to tone him down here so he doesn't completely annihilate the rest of the cast. That happens in several of the other games he appears in, too.

I mean, yeah, lashing out at enemies like lighting like that might be fun in single-player, but Smash is primarily a multiplayer game. In a multiplayer context, if a single character is that much stronger than the rest, yeah, you might have a ton of power if you choose Luffy, but so will the opponent because not choosing Luffy as well would effectively be suicide. That builds and spirals until Luffy is all anyone ever chooses (see: in Melee and in Brawl). And that makes for a not-very-fun multiplayer experience.

If we're going by canon strengths, what is Peach doing in the same game as Pikachu, a Pokemon that can summon lightning?

Well it isn't only Luffy. There's a bunch of other characters that suffer from this, like all the anime characters, Kirby, and Sonic.

But then again some characters are actually buffed in this game, like Bomberman and Chibi-Robo.

Umm... If we use canon then Chibi is only like, 2 inches tall. Kirby can punch planets in half and is also only like, 8 inches tall. Naruto can catch moon-slicing attacks. And Goku can easily destroy planets. No dip some of the characters were toned down.

Goku was able to put a rabbit on the moon.
When he was a child.