Byleth on Smash

Sakurai has shared the last character to be added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on the fighter pack 1 and it is Byleth, the protagonist from Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

 

Many people reacted to this like "Oh, another Fire Emblem sword fighter, how very not great" and, they are kind of right, bot not completely, in my opinion. There are now eight characters from Fire Emblem in the roster. It is indeed a high number for a franchise that is not that big, and that I think is why I don't fully disagree with people that got mad.

Also, the four previous DLC characters were very out of the box, so in some way people might got trapped in the thinking that every character from every game is a possibility, thus another sword fighting anime guy may not be the hottest pick from the audience point of view.

But, defending the choice here, ever since Awakening, on the 3DS, Fire Emblem is getting more popular, to the point that Three Houses sold more than 2 million copies in two months. Not a big number for a Nintendo franchise, granted, but still a big number for a niche franchise.

Byleth has a lot of differences when comparinig to the other Fire Emblem characters in smash. Yes, Marth, Crom and Lucina are VERY simmilar, so are Ike and Roy, but Robin and Corrin have some nice and unique mechanics, and this is the path taken when making Byleth, from what I could see. He (or she) will have four weapon in the arsenal, diversifying his attacksa lot, and that alone is enough to make this character unique as well, along with other mechanical things that Sakurai pointed during the demonstration.

In the end, I agree, this choice is for sure kind of underwhelming, but only because of how big of a beast this game is. It is probably the greatest celebrationg of gaming history out there, so an eighth "similar" character from a franchise that is already represented is a boring choice. But this is also a Nintendo game, and they know how to make money. Puting Byleth in smash will for sure boost a little Fire Emblem: Three Houses's sales, which is very good! Play Fire Emblem: Three Houses.