Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director Masahiro Sakurai dropped some major news today, announcing that Fire Emblem’s Byleth would be the fifth and final DLC character coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate through the popular Fighters Pass.
Sakurai announced this live on Nintendo’s official YouTube channel in a nearly 40 minute presentation, which you can view below.
There were thousands of viewers watching along and their reactions to the news were mixed at the very best.
The comment thread for Sakurai’s live broadcast was flooded with negative responses to yet another Fire Emblem character joining the ranks of Super Smash Bros. Byleth will be the eighth Fire Emblem character to join the roster and fans had a lot of expectations surrounding this announcement.
The rumor mill was working overtime in anticipation of this news, assuming that Nintendo was saving its best for last. Some believed Waluigi from Super Mario would become the 15th Mario character to join the game. Others thought it would be a major third party star like Ninja Gaiden’s Ryu Hayabusa or Devil May Cry’s Dante. There were even some really wild rumors of Sora from Kingdom Hearts or Son Goku from Dragon Ball.
Clearly, fans of the game were expecting a much larger and more mainstream character to be the grand finale of this epic DLC pack.
Byleth is from the Fire Emblem series and is the main character of the Three Houses story. There is both a male and female version of Byleth. They wield a legendary whip sword, which means not only is it another Fire Emblem character, but it’s another Fire Emblem sword fighter.
Depending on directional inputs, players will be able to fight as Byleth using a sword, lance, axe, or bow. Their default weapon is called Sword of the Creator.
The lance comes into play when the side specials are used. It is mostly meant for back and forward air attacks and helps you keep distance with some impressive reach.
The axe makes its appearance with all downward inputs. It’s a meteor effect move similar to the Falcon Punch.
The bow is used during neutral air attacks and can be twirled. The neutral special fires an arrow that has some special properties. It can be charged to fire and deals more damage than Link’s special bow attack.
Most people believed that the final Fighters Pass roster member would be the last DLC fighter made available. However, Sakurai noted that this was not the case. He went on to say that additional DLC fighters are coming.
Byleth will be available on January 28 for download.
