The Super Smash Bros. reveal that took place on Monday revealed the long awaited Captain Falcon, as well as Robin and Lucina from the Fire Emblem franchise. This move surprised many fans who expected Chrom to be announced for the game. For those hoping Chrom is yet to come, it looks like Sakurai has ruled him out because he has no interesting characteristics that set him apart from fighters already in the game. This was discussed in detail in Sakurai’s latest column in Famitsu.
At the end of the day, Chrom would just end up being another plain-old sword-wielder like Marth and Ike. Compared with other characters, he lacks any unique characteristics.
For a bit more detailed explanation, Sakurai delves into why he chose Robin and Lucina and what roles they’ll end up playing on the battlefield.
Robin appears in the game as a Tactician and functions much like a Mystic Knight (note: FF terminology, but equivalent to magic swordsman). I thought to utilize his all-around nature by assigning swordplay to his Smash attacks and magic tomes to his special attacks–that is, allow him to use magic.
His neutral special is thunder magic that grows stronger the larger you charge it. He uses fire magic for his side special, and wind magic for recovery as his up special. Although Robin doesn’t use dark magic in FE:A, I decided to assign it as his down special. It isn’t the first time I’ve given moves to a character that they don’t use in their respective game in order to capture certain aspects of the original title.
And of course, Sakurai mentions that Lucina does use the same techniques as Marth, but she’s designed to be much easier to play than Marth, so novice players can get used to the playstyle.
Lucina uses the same techniques as Marth, a fighter with whom I’m sure most of you are already familiar. I even went so far as to make their strength, speed, and special attacks almost identical.
However, what sets Lucina apart is the fact that the strength of her attacks is uniform along the blade. Marth’s playstyle emulates the elegant swordplay of a fencer by dealing more damage when he strikes with the tip of his blade, but the damage Lucina deals is evened out. Thus, I think that Lucina will be much easier than Marth for novice players to play with.
I played all the way through FE:A and really wanted to include a character from that rich cast in Smash Bros. Naturally, I considered adding Chrom to the roster, but the decision wasn’t easy by any means.
So there you have it, folks. It looks like Chrom is sitting on the sidelines for this game, unless Nintendo decides to add DLC fighters in a future patch. What do you think of this news?
