Forget Byleth! These 8 Fire Emblem characters deserve to be in Smash Bros.

We want these Fire Emblem characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

By Gabe Gurwin January 16, 2020

On January 16, Nintendo and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director Masahiro Sakurai surprised everyone when they revealed that Fire Emblem: Three Houses protagonist Byleth would be the next DLC character in the fighting game.

Contents

Raphael
Mordecai
Hector
Ephraim
Seth
Zelgius
Azura
Athos

It wasn’t what fans had expected. Twitter had spun rumors that Devil May Cry’s Dante would be the next fighter. Many fans were upset to see another Fire Emblem character in Smash. To make matters worse, Byleth is a blue-haired, sword-wielding fighter, hardly different from the Fire Emblem characters already included.

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It’s not that Fire Emblem lacks choices, either. Here’s 8 Fire Emblem characters that deserve to be in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in boring Byleth’s place.

Raphael

Image used with permission by copyright holder

What isn’t to love about Raphael, Fire Emblem: Three Houses‘s hungry behemoth? The enormous and powerful Raphael is a master of fisticuffs, and even better at eating. His slower style of play would separate him from the sword-flashing, countering, and flipping we see from most Fire Emblem characters on the Smash roster. If armored up, he could make a formidable opponent in free-for-all battles, too. Extra healing rewarded for eating food would give him a unique edge that vibes with his personality in Three Houses.

Mordecai

Mordecai — Mordecai Image used with permission by copyright holder

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance is one of the best games in the entire series, and one of the reasons for that is the Laguz race. These shape-shifting people can turn from humanoid into animal at the drop of a hat. In the case of Mordecai, he turns from a muscular man into a tiger, capable of delivering punishing blows in a short period of time. This would make him a unique fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, as he would need to bide his time before being able to transform again and deal extra damage.

Hector

Fire Emblem Heroes - Legendary Hero (Hector: Marquess of Ostia)

The first Fire Emblem game to release in North America, simply titled Fire Emblem, featured three main protagonists: Lyn, Eliwood, and Hector. Of these three, only Hector used something other than a sword. His powerful axe made him an essential part of any combat squad, and a perfect mid-level fighter in Smash. Rather than counter attacks, he would go on the offensive with short bursts of raw power. Yes, Hector does have blue hair, but he doesn’t have a sword, so I’ll cut him some slack.

Ephraim

Ephraim — Ephraim Image used with permission by copyright holder

One of the only protagonists in the Fire Emblem series — at least among North American games — to not use a sword, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones hero Ephraim instead uses a powerful lance to defeat his enemies. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, this lance could give him the advantage against enemies attempting to close in on his position from the front or the air.

Seth

Seth solos FE8 so hard he defies stats

Another character from The Sacred Stones, Seth played an important role in the game’s early chapters. His class, Paladin, could easily take on the tougher enemies and bosses. He also rides a horse into battle, which we haven’t seen from any Fire Emblem characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Why have him only use a lance or a sword when he could use the horse itself as a powerful weapon, trampling on enemies below?

Zelgius

Zelgius — Zelgius Image used with permission by copyright holder

Revealed to be the Black Knight — the archenemy of Ike — late in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Zelgius is a powerful and stoic knight with political savvy. As The Black Knight, he could play the role of a heavy damage-dealer and space-controller in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, capable of reaching targets from a distance with his enormous sword and knocking enemies off the stage with only a few hits. His armor is undeniably cool, which is a bonus.

Azura

Fire Emblem Warriors - Azura Trailer (Nintendo Switch)

A songstress who plays a key role in Fire Emblem: Fates, Azura is among the most mysterious characters in the whole series. Azura can transform into a flying class using a Pegasus, which would give her a great advantage over her opponents when playing on stages with a lot of obstacles. However, as anyone who has played a Fire Emblem game knows, it would also leave her very vulnerable to arrows, and there are certainly enough archers in Smash to make this an effective counter.

Athos

Fire Emblem: Athos' Journey

The Game Boy Advance game Fire Emblem can be difficult, with permanent death always enabled, and an extremely challenging final boss fight against a dragon. For players who are unprepared, the powerful magic-wielder Athos is available to battle the dragon as a late-game addition. Fire Emblem heroes tend to use physical weapons in Smash, but a purely magical character would be a refreshing change. Athos could deliver devastating damage from afar, but would need to be careful if enemies closed in.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

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Alear and Marth open a door in Fire Emblem Engage.

Nintendo’s mobile games don’t get enough credit. While Nintendo had some undeniable hits like Pokémon Go and Fire Emblem Heroes, many consider the rest of its mobile efforts fairly underwhelming and even somewhat disappointing for a video game company of Nintendo’s stature. While nothing ever quite reached the high bar Pokémon Go set in 2016, Nintendo’s mobile games are a bit more influential than they get credit for.
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Nintendo’s mobile gaming efforts kicked off in the mid-2010s. Niantic created the AR game Pokemon Go, which quickly became a smashing success in 2016. In the six years since, the game has generated around 678 million installs and $6 billion in player spending, according to data from Sensor Tower.
While working with Niantic proved fruitful for The Pokemon Company, Nintendo partnered with DeNA for most of its initial mobile games. Unfortunately, none of these quite reached the heights analysts and Nintendo expected. Super Mario Run was a smash hit at launch but failed to sustain much interest and consistent revenue, so it’s considered a disappointment by Nintendo.
Meanwhile, other games like Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, Mario Kart Tour, Dr. Mario World, and Dragalia Lost launched, and while they’ve still made lots of money for Nintendo, most haven't matched the success of the most popular mobile titles. The biggest exception to this is Fire Emblem Heroes, a gacha game where players can summon classic Fire Emblem characters. It’s had over $1 billion in player spending alone as of June 2022 and is Nintendo’s “flagship title on the [mobile} platform,” according to Sensor Tower.
More recently, Nintendo tried to recapture the success of Pokemon Go with Niantic’s Pikmin Bloom, although that game has reportedly disappointed as well. Overall, it’s understandable why some people are surprised to see only a couple of surefire mobile hits from a company with the pedigree of Nintendo and consider it a side venture that never realized its full potential. If you look closely at the console games in these series that Nintendo put out since, though, it isn’t ignoring everything learned while making mobile games.
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Nintendo has the masterful ability to find the strongest elements of an idea, draw those out, and then expand upon them to create something uniquely memorable. We’ve seen it do this time and time again with subsequent entries of its flagship series, but it’s a mindset it has applied to its mobile games upon closer inspection.
As far back as 2018, Pokemon: Let’s Go! Pikachu and Eevee recognized the charm of not needing to battle a Pokemon to capture it, and incorporated that into a traditional RPG experience. More recently, items and mechanics like gardening and cooking from Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp made their way into Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was able to revive its live service offerings by repurposing the best tracks and assets from Mario Kart Tour.
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