Entertainment

Too Much "Fire Emblem"?

Behind The Unrest Of The Latest "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" Challenger

By Editor Ethan Miller

Super Smash Bros Ultimate has proven to be an evergreen title in Nintendo’s Switch line-up, getting support with DLC throughout 2019 and into 2020. Releasing Challenger Packs as part of an overall Fighter’s Pass, the release of a character is looked at with excited eyes everywhere in the gaming industry. Every character has been a big third party character that’s either unexpected or someone fans, including me, have been begging for. That is, until the final challenger for the first Fighter’s Pass. Byleth from Fire Emblem: Three Houses is Ultimate’s latest challenger, which has left some fans unsatisfied.

To set the stage for the unrest, Fire Emblem in Smash has been made into a bit of a joke in the Smash Community. Byleth is Smash’s eighth Fire Emblem Character, the seventh of which to wield a sword. While at first, it’s easy to understand the displeasure around this character, but upon further inspection, the arguments seem flawed at best, and straight-up untrue at worst.

If this was the final DLC Character of Ultimate, even I, a massive Fire Emblem fan and someone who has completed all routes of Three Houses, would’ve been disappointed. That’s just the thing though. Byleth isn’t the final challenger. There are six more coming throughout the next two years.

This isn’t the first time there has been unrest with a character announcement. This isn’t even the Ultimate’s first rodeo. When Hero from the Dragon Quest series was announced there was a portion of the fanbase who was annoyed with the character’s inclusion, even stating that Dragon Quest isn’t important in the west so his inclusion was Japanese favouritism (Despite Banjo & Kazooie being announced in the same Nintendo Direct, who isn’t as popular in Japan as he is in the west). After the Director, Masahiro Sakurai, gave a video presentation showing Hero off leading up to his release, also discussing the importance of Dragon Quest, these voices were hushed. Terry from Fatal Fury was also criticised by some for being a character who isn’t as popular in North America while being huge in Latin America.

The key factor in Byleth’s announcement having backlash is more than being another Fire Emblem Character. It all boils down to timing. Like stated previously, the Fighter’s Pass has all third party fighters, so the final fighter of Vol. One had a lot of excitement behind it. There was a pattern going so fans felt safe in assuming the Challenger Pack 5 would follow suit, so the fact that the fifth fighter is a first party character AND a Fire Emblem character didn’t help matters.

Eventually, as the Fighter’s Pass Vol. 2 begins to open the door to new challengers, Byleth will inevitably be accepted. The hype cycle for a new Smash Character always has naysayers, with Byleth only being a bit bigger thanks to timing, being the ending of the first wave of DLC. Fans eventually accepted Corrin (who had similar Fire Emblem backlash) in Super Smash Bros. For Wii U/ Nintendo 3DS and will happen again.