Rarely ever I've been so happy to be wrong. In my previous post I was convinced that the final Fighters Pass character will be another 3rd party entry, mainly because the rest of the DLC was exactly the same and DLC characters only came with new stages when they were from a new IP. Corrin for example didn't come with a stage either, even though there would have been possibilities for one...
But after all, all of the Challenger Packs were crossovers with a specific game, like Persona 5, and not necessarily new franchises. And there he/she is: Byleth from Fire Emblem: Three Houses with a massive new stage based on the Garreg Mach Monastery. And both look very promising!
I haven't played Three Houses yet myself, but I do own the European Limited Edition and I'm very curious about the game. From what I've gathered it's one of the most epic tales for Nintendo Switch and it's nice to see that the DLC also offers something on the more recent Nintendo territories. It's well deserved to be featured in Smash and the music alone makes me want to have the DLC.
Of course there is a certain bias with Sakurai, who seems to be a big Fire Emblem fan and keeps adding more and more Fire Emblem characters to Smash. By now it's on the same level as Pokémon and Super Mario, while being a relatively niche franchise in comparison. But it's a series where every new game offers new protagonists, where it's easy to come up with new fighters, and in the least Byleth finally does something with all four main weapon types...
So far four of the Fire Emblem characters are the same type of sword fighter and it's nice to see more variety here, even though they now have cramped it all in one. But at least it fits the character well enough.
It reminds me somewhat of Link using the different Champion weapons in Breath of the Wild, which has a very similar array of main weapon types, just with two handed, heavy weapons for the axes. And it would have been awesome, if the Breath of the Wild Link worked like that as well, while there could have been the Twilight Princess Link from the previous games in addition for a total of four. If Fire Emblem can have four Marths, then Zelda can have four Links, right?
But no hard feeling, because I personally enjoy playing as Corrin (and I'm not even too hot about Fates) and I'm sure I will enjoy playing as Byleth as well. And this also gives me hope for the 2nd Fighters Pass, which was also announced. Six more Challenger Packs! There are lots of possibilities here, both for 3rd parties and new entries from the ever increasing Nintendoverse. This will keep being exciting.
Heh, someone who's not salty? :P Didn't think I'd see that, haha. I hear the Smash boards on GameFAQs are anarchy right now.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, any chase you'll do a playlog of Three Houses when you get to it like you usually do for Zelda games? I'd be dying to read that.
Byleth was actually on my wanted list, so I'm certainly happy about today's reveal. And the reactions on SmashFAQs are also part of the joy.
ReplyDeleteWell, to be fair, when Corrin got revealed I wasn't all too happy either, but the moveset looked cool and I grew to like the fighter, where it's my secondary by now. And in the last two years I've gotten a little bit into Fire Emblem. Not as much as Zelda and Metroid, but enough to appreciate Byleth's inclusion in Smash.
As for a play log of Three Houses... I may consider it. It really depends on how the game goes for me. For example I've been playing Fire Emblem: Awakening for over a year now, where I just rarely can find the motivation to go on. I like the story, but the gameplay itself doesn't captivate me as much. Maybe Three Houses does a better job there, we'll see.
At least they're not all Marth Clones.
ReplyDeleteRobin, Corrin, & Byleth all feel very different from the other FE characters, and that's what makes them so fun.