Super Smash Bros Salt-imate: Byleth joins the battle!

The reveal of DLC characters for Super Smash Bros Ultimate has continued to prove a source of delight for the players – at least, until last week, when we learned that Byleth from Fire Emblem: Three Houses would be joining the battle. Fan reaction has been almost universally negative, but is that fair?

Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of Smash Bros, announced that he would be revealing the new fighter in a Nintendo Direct video, and teased who the character would be with a single visual cue – holding up three of his fingers. Fans went into overdrive, trying to piece together who the fighter could be – perhaps it could be Devil May Cry’s Dante, given that the creators promised a big announcement on the same day? Or maybe the three hinted at a major new third-party character, with Crash Bandicoot, Rayman and Master Chief being some of the hypothetical options. There was so much excitement, it would be nearly impossible for Nintendo to torpedo it.

And yet, they managed, by further adding to a series representation that no-one wanted.

Nintendo has really misjudged what the fans want

Byleth joining Smash Ultimate brings the number of Fire Emblem characters up to eight – only the Mario and Pokémon series have as many characters. And the backlash was immediate, with #AnotherFE trending on Twitter within minutes of the reveal and lots of negative comments on the live reveal chat. The like-dislike ratio on the Youtube video is significantly skewed in favour of dislike, and it seems that Nintendo has really misjudged what the fans want. Or perhaps they simply did not care – to quote a tweet by Mike Drucker: “Hahahaha they added another Fire Emblem character to Smash Bros. All of you had hoped. All of you had dreamed. But it’s another Fire Emblem character. You fools. You insignificant fool.”

A lot of this stems from the fact that many of the existing Fire Emblem characters are, essentially, the same – swordfighters with near-identical fight mechanics. The Direct highlighted this, asking if Byleth was another swordfighter, before revealing that he has a wide array of weaponry and attacks, but it has done little to quell the bad taste in gamers’ mouths. Many people thought that the final character in this fighter pack should have been something special, in order to get the hype building for the next pack – if anything, people are now worried that DLC pack number two will just be even more Fire Emblem stuff.

Fans should not be so entitled to assume they can have anything they want

Though, what can we say in defence of Byleth? Although Fire Emblem is not as big a phenomenon for Western gamers, it is hugely popular in Japan, meaning that his addition could be a very shrewd move for Nintendo. Three Houses is a huge title for the Nintendo Switch and it’s receiving a load of brand-new DLC this year, so the move obviously makes sense from a promotional standpoint, keeping it in mind with many players. And, of course, there is the attitude that fans should not be so entitled to assume they can have anything they want – the only reason their expectations fell so short is that they built them up so high in the first place.

I, like so many other fans, was incredibly underwhelmed by the Byleth reveal. I completely understand why Nintendo would make the call to include him – however, it seems a shame that a series based around showcasing a wide range of characters and franchises would go down such a conventional route. That said, who knew that going for a safe and boring option would prove so dangerous?