Reminder: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's 5th DLC Fighter, Byleth, Arrives Today

Im sorry but Nintendo dropped the ball with this fighter. This is the worst fighter they've added to the game. And this is what they had planned on ending the dlc with before deciding to make more. Unbelievable.

I’m glad (and almost envious) for all the Three Houses fans out there that will love this character but I’m underwhelmed. I mean, it seems to have interesting gameplay but theme wise, it’s another Fire Emblem fighter. The DLC pack has been so out of left field so far, I expected something that would top all previous ... out-of-leftness.

Edit: I can’t stand the laugh track on this reveal...

Edit 2: Altair as a Mii costume feels like a slap in the face. Wonder if that diminishes the chances of Altair or Etzio being a fighter in the second dlc pack. Same for Mega Man X.... it should be a shadow fighter for Mega Man!

Cuphead actually looks perfect as a Mii Fighter, though...

Can they just make a Fire Emblem spin-off of Smash and stop adding them to Smash proper now?

Wow another run of the mill sword fighter from a game that already has a ton of representation...

Reveal could not have been lamer

Yawn 🥱. They could have at least added another stock Mario or DK character just to keep things interesting.

The comments don't surprise me... I am content though. Will look forward to trying out later.

sigh Fire Emblem character. Oh well. A boring character to end on but whatever. I get less hype with each new character as gaming's biggest icons are already in Smash. I mean Megaman, Sonic, Simon, etc. Hard to impress the further you go.

This character also visually looks a lot like Marth or Lucina. Could have fooled the non fire emblem fans and announced them again and I'd know no better lol

Corrin ver 2.0

People getting mad about a character that no one has to buy

That's kinda harsh for people who like them (not me).

Chin up players, there's still time to get the fighter you want later, maybe.

At least this one is pretty unique.

Pretty anticlimactic, another Fire Emblem character. Already bought the pass so it is what it is but definitely don't feel it was worth it overall

I usually like Fire Emblem fighters (a couple of my mains are from FE), but even I think this is excessive.

I predicted a random third party character. I was wrong. But somehow we got the next worst thing, yet another flipping Fire Emblem character.

I was just thinking that the Ultimate roster doesn't have enough Fire Emblem characters. Oh, and also, not enough swordfighters in general.

That makes 8 FE characters, right? Nice number.

Oh for God's sake.

Was sitting there hoping that the Fire Emblem opening would be an ironic intro only to be flipped with something clever... up until it was official. Who could possibly be thinking the series needed more representation?? 😑😑😑

I am beyond amused by this, I mean I like the character, but it’s more about the ripple effect across the Internet. I love Fire Emblem, and I’m not surprised Nintendo does too. Tho this isn’t exciting enough to want to watch the whole Sakurai Presents.

@immensechicken Robin ver 3.

But yeah, I'm excited. I mostly play Fire Emblem characters in Smash.

i'm just here coz the chat died on me.

I thought they were going to go all out and get a far out 3rd party character. The other characters in the pass were interesting, but this is lame in my opinion.

As someone who actually likes Byleth in smash...

Expected this for dlc pack 2 . Still what an disappointing way to end dlc pack one

@Dustopolis ya I turned it off once the trailer was over. Rather eat breakfast and wait for Nintendo direct of upcoming games.

Yep. An incredibly basic, generic and almost the most boring possible choice possible for a last reveal for the fighter pass. Gotta say I'm disappointed after the wild ride thus far.

@tamantayoshi I think it's a little ridiculous to claim they've 'dropped the ball.' The game itself has been one of the most successful, if not the most successful, on a console that has outpaced expectations. Further, between Joker and Banjo-Kazooie, Nintendo managed to make the release of DLC into pretty big events.

Not every fighter can please every person, but I'd gladly take Byleth, Claude, Dimitri, and Edelgard - and I'd still have a list of characters from past entries who I'd love to see in Smash. Everyone has different tastes, but with how popular Three Houses was, it's not shocking they'd add Byleth.

The character looks interesting, and it makes sense: Nintendo property, recent release, and slots into Smash nicely.

But I know it will be best to stay off gaming sites for the next week as there will be largely be nothing but moaning.

Note to Sakurai - just b/c you make a joke in the Direct about the meme "Super Sword Bros." doesn't mean people actually want another sword fighter from Fire Emblem in the game. I was prepared to deal w/ Dante and hid Virgil echo, but come'on man.

I think this should have been the 1st DLC character, get it out of the way, don't have all these cool 3rd party characters like Banjo then save the most "already in the game sword fighter" for the last character. Just really bad planning.

Pretty disappointed overall. If it was to be a Nintendo character he could have done sooooooooo much better. This one is just meh

Hard pass on this one

Another Fire Emblem character? That’s disappointing.

Not happy with this! To anyone that is, then that's awesome, but Fire Emblem characters dont do it for me. I even left work 10 minutes early to see it. Wish I hadn't

✔ Fire Emblem character
✔ Complicated move set
✔ Tries to justify adding a character that won't appeal to non-Japanese audiences

Fire Emblem character added? Hell yes!

The most boring possible option? Why... Why not Bernadetta, Edelgard, Leonie, Claude, Hilda, Ignatz, Lysithea, Hubert, Dorothea, Linhardt, Petra, Dimitri, Annette, Ashe, Felix, Cassandra... OR ANY OF THE OTHER LEGIT DOZENS OF INTERESTING FIRE EMBLEM CHARACTERS? SOTHIS? ANYBODY ELSE.

JUST. NOT. BYLETH. NOT THE PROTAGONIST.

Sigh.

That’s a pretty stange choice. They are just standard silent avatars for the player to guide around. There were certainly more exciting choices from Three Houses.

Sothis would have been cool. But I guess you'll somehow transform during play?

I genuinely don't think there could have been a more disappointing choice. I haven't played Crash Bandicoot, Kingdom Hearts, Devil May Cry, Doom or Xenosaga, but I would have been onboard with the heroes from literally any one of those games, or any other characters that were commonly mentioned as likely additions.

And the Fire Emblem character count is at 8. Not the third party character we wanted or...that I'm available...again. But as always Sakurai makes him/her interesting. For those who are salty for yet another Fire Emblem character, you got season two to look forward to, so don't worry.

🙄 another one. Kinda disappointed

The company that thinks Waluigi is only worth a trophy adds yet another FE character, urghh.

People need to stop complaining. Three Houses sold a ton of copies.

@Kalmaro I think it's more along the lines of, "I already bought the Fighters Pass, I expected something better." Not to mention you typically save the best for last.

Well. I'll be an optimist and just be glad that the first four were so great. We finally got Banjo in Smash! Never forget!

@Kalmaro No one has to buy, but a lot of people have bought this in advance (it's a season pass after all). So there are people who will get Byleth but were hoping for something more interesting.

I have held off of purchasing the DLC until I knew all 5 fighters... And I am still not convinced. No, not even Banjo won me over because I never played a Banjo Kazooie game.

@NinjaWaddleDee People who bought Smash are not necessarily the same that bought Three Houses.

This should have either been Alucard from symphony of the night or a proper left field character like the Tetronimo from Tetris. That would have been really creative.

Gotta love Sakurai explaining Fire Emblem as if they were a new franchise to Smash xD

Also, while disappointing (would've preferred him in a later dlc pack and someone from a new franchise added instead), at least it isn't Steve from Minecraft or something similar.

@Blizzia - Side characters were never going to be added to the game. And given they wanted all three houses represented in one character, that really only leaves the protagonist as the only viable candidate (unless there are other non-house specific characters who are also major characters).

The entitled, whiny fallout from this is going to be hilarious. Honestly, I think he looks great and definitely plays very differently from every other Fire Emblem fighter. And deep down, I’m just glad to have a first party character. I feel like the game was losing its original Nintendo focus with so many third-party DLC characters. Plus, the music from Three Houses is phenomenal.

I love 3 houses, but this doesn't seem like a great choice for the next Smash character, Personally I'm picking up on DLC characters I'm interested in and there is plenty of FE representation already. If they were going to do 3 houses would have been way more interesting to choose to do the 3 house leaders. It's a good thing there is going to be more characters or else this would have been a bit of a thud to finish off the roster.
@thesilverbrick I agree the music for the game is great to be added though!

Now THAT is just f-ing pathetic. FE over-representation... 😫

@jameswarrensaid Im just saying compared to the other dlc characters its really disappointing.

There's a lot of people very angry about this. I'll reserve judgement until I've actually used Byleth.

I like byleth but after the previous characters, this is a disappointment. Especially since fire emblem has so many interesting characters, ehy does it always have to be the lord?

@BenAV 😂 I was holding on to the hope it was a flip up until he pinned up the poster... Then I checked out of the livestream. Not even Sakurai’s humor can make me interested in watching the rest of the video.

Oh, since I was looking into it anyway - a brief history of the "3rd party DLC characters in Smash" year in review, for those w/ selective memories like me.

Fire Emblem is 1st party FYI.

Reggie said it Dec 2018, but not exactly.

https://www.eventhubs.com/news/2018/dec/07/will-all-super-smash-bros-ultimates-dlc-characters-be-3rd-parties-based-reggies-words-it-sounds-pretty-likely/

What he said was "new to the series", which people mistook to mean 3rd party.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/234547-super-smash-bros-ultimate/77276104

But Reggie did say this, and a Fire Emblem character does not fit that bill at all, sorry Reggie.

"Characters that you would not anticipate to be in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.""

So many people seem to have been saying Bylthe for like 6 months now. He's first party. He's Fire Emblem. He's a sword fighter. Who would not anticipate that?

Oh well, maybe their plan all along has been to make this DLC fighter super lame so people sign up for the next "Fighter pass" in hopes of newer out there 3rd party characters. Could be.

I have nothing against FE characters, but Three Houses has more interesting ones than Byleth, like Edelgard, Claude and Dimitri. But this is fine.

honestly people being angry and complaining are just pathetic, why aren't you complaining about there being too many Pokemon characters or too many Mario characters? nope got to pick on Fire Emblem just because its not the most popular franchise being represented plus there are more characters coming to quit you moaning

I'm in the minority I suppose. I'm not excited about it being yet again ANOTHER Fire Emblem character but I do love the idea of someome using multiple weapons with different advantages. Might be my favorite addition just because of the kit.

Sakurai is such a troll.

Absolute let down!!! Another 1st party character and ANOTHER fire emblem character!!!

Yikes. What a let down.

So we couldn't get Rex from Xenoblade 2 because it came out 2 years ago and that wasn't enough time but a game that just came out 5 months ago is fine??

I now feel better I didn’t buy the fighters pass in advance.

@SmaggTheSmug I understand. I bought the fighters pass up front as well. And honestly the only characters I've cared about are Joker and Byleth. I couldn't care less for anyone else. But I'm happy for people that have gotten characters they like.

Eh, byleth only has a tether recovery and mostly situational moves? Hope they nerf joker. Honestly, all the dlc characters have been a sort of mash up of mechanics they already had, by byleth seems like she's be, you know, not great. She's got a lot of really obvious weaknesses, so I dunno

Hey, at least we got Banjo Kazooie

@KBuckley27 Pokemon and Mario as franchises are 10x bigger that Fire Emblem. Also Mario is Nintendo's flagship franchise. You think Nintendo and game consoles, you think Mario. I'm sorry but Fire Emblem, world wide, will NEVER be on Mario's icon level. Nintendo can add all the Mario they freaking want.

@FullMetalWesker I guess that would mean Byleth (barf) or... Momma priestess. Yes... Now that'd have been good.

But no, we get Byleth.

Also, screw representing all three houses. Just pop in Edelgard or Dimitri, they are the most interesting Fire Emblem MCs in like... Forever. I call them MCs because Byleth doesn't feel like one. Never did.

Whats going on with Nintendo? They have been trashed alot lately by people. Mario Kart tour got trashed, people are very disappointed with pkmn Sword and shield and now Smash bros is becoming a * meme. The thumbs down went from 1k to 20k really fast.

What a coincidence. I was just running out of blue-haired Fire Emblem characters who carry swords.

Just what we need: ANOTHER Fire Emblem character!

I don't know anything about the character and never played an FE game so this doesn't excite me. But more options are a good thing. Is anyone interested in this?

Should have made Cuphead the new fighter.

New FIGHTER PASS confirmed, for those who said they wouldn't make one.

@thesilverbrick people are allowed to be disappointed. Hate to break it to you that not everyone is obsessed with FE. All the whining about all the disappointment is just as annoying. I don't like FE personally and don't care about the character. I have a right to express that and can/will. Just move on. If you yourself are hype. You shouldn't care than. Instead you are here trying to pretend you're above it all in the gamer world.

I bought the full pass so I'm allowed some disappointment as a consumer. Just won't buy the pass next time as I don't want MORE FE rep. Ill puck and choose next time. Thought I was getting all 3rd party icons. Oh well

@travisrusko No. literally no one.

Its a no from me. Was hoping for an outside of Nintendo character and especially not another from FE.

Where's my Shantae?

@Tharsman dude, Megaman x should not be an echo fighter. Have you played those games? He'd have to be a totally different character. Hell just being a couple feet taller would be a reason

@AstralSoul13 yeah, now there's as many as Pokemon. The thing is, it's an extremely popular series, more than big enough to justify the same roster size as Pokemon. As long as it doesn't pass Mario, I think it's fine

OH BOY! ANOTHER FIRE EMBLEM CHARACTER! WE REALLY NEEDED ANOTHER ONE! Yeah. -_-;

Smh.

@Samsamsam A vocal minority are disappointed with the new Pokémon, it's selling incredibly well and many love it. Smash Bros having too many FE/sword characters has been a meme for ages. Other games have come out and done incredibly well like Luigi's Mansion and Astral Chain. Switch is selling like crazy. Animal Crossing is on the horizon (pun semi-intended). Nothing is happening to Nintendo, this is standard.

Look, Im not a fan of fire emblem either, but all of you are ignoring the completely unique moveset. This isnt just a swordfighter. The fighter reveal is supposed to be fun, not recognizable. Cry me a river

@Ragdoll72 Did you not watch the gameplay footage? lol you guys can complain about it being another FE rep, but at least he plays way differently than say Marth, Roy, and Chrom. A lot of effort was put into the character and you can clearly see that. Calling it another "run of the mill" is just wrong.

As much of a dissapointment this is, I can at least say that the other DLC fighters were great(aside from joker).
Banjo being in makes it all worth it in the end.

Wasn't the first thing he said when the fighter pass was revealed that no first party characters only non Nintendo characters?

Byleth is a nice add on but he's clearly 1st party.

@Kirby_Girl well, not in Japan. It's always been huge. That's why theres like 20 games.

Disappointing. That's 5 misses for me personally on this first fighter's pass. Hope fighter pass 2 will include someone I actually like! Of course I'm happy for the people who do enjoy these characters though.

At the same time that I love the thought of playing as Byleth, I'm getting so fed up by FE characters...

Off-topic:

The live video page is about 90% broken. Live chat and live blog isn't working for me. The only thing's working is the video. Is there a fix for this?

Wow, entitlement runs deep. Six more characters are coming. It's okay that one of the 11 additional characters isn't your favorite. I think the character looks interesting.

@PBandSmelly you are the one crying. Boo boo but they use 3 weapons!

sToP rEpReSeNtiNg tHIs SpeCifIC niNteNDO FRacnhISe toO muCh

"Representing worlds not already in Smash," huh?
I'm not prepurchasing for a @#$!ing Cancer of the Wild Mii Costume, and FP2-1 better sell me.

Meh. Could’ve done worse. Fire Emblem is overrepresented but least it’s a first party character this time, rather than another PlayStation All Stars guy. And they’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel with first party fighters when Waluigi is the #1 requested choice.

@Xansies that's why I said world wide. Which it is not on Mario's level there. On that case alone it makes sense why Mario can have a lot more rep.

Sorry Geralt, not this time, we still have some FE characters ahead of you....

Looks like a decent fighter. Not my first choice, but oh well. At least there's 6 more coming!

@drewber2635 They all play differently execpt for the clones. That's why I don't get the hate. Ike, Corrin, Robin, Marth, Roy, they all after completely different styles. That's why i don't get the hate at all. Corrin isn't good in the game, but it's really hard to say she's even a sword user and Robin is a gimmick character of anything. The most you can say is that the series gets two echos where most get zero

The extra weapons convinced me. That spear/halberd is awesome.

COuld've done worse, but Sothis would've been more interesting.

Disappointed at the reveal. It's not like there's a fire emblem shortage in smash. It just feels so unnecessary.

Prayers Unheeded
Depression Greeted
Smash Deleted
Switch Yeeted

The same people saying Samurai dropped the ball are the same people who called anybody who called out Game Freak for cutting corners, "entitled." I wonder who the entitled ones truly are.....

This is actually the funniest possible endgame for this fighter pack. Maybe if Smash players played other games we wouldn't be drowning in their tears.

@MrDisappointed I kinda expected byleth in the next pack. What I feel happened is they had a weird third party character in the oven, but it wasn't done so they went with Byleth. Or they didn't want to open their next pack with Byleth and instead wanted to show something really weird to set the tone.

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!!

@Xansies Have I played these games? Have you? Because... Link... you know? Shadow fighters are not always clones and can have differences. They just don’t have to be completely unique. Multiple Mega Mans could still share their Final Smash, for example.

Wow, not interested at all

@GameOtaku what about link? There's three links, but they all are considered different characters because they all have different models and mechanics. X would be more like toon or young link than chrom

Lol really? Well, glad I never bought the fighter pack DLC!

Not what I was expecting. Truly thought we weren't getting more FE characters especially the sword wielders. When the video first Started I felt a disappointment. But Then when Soiths said "What? To many Sword Fighters" My opens up and Paid attention, Byleth Move set is pretty spectacular. I'm impressed. This is a good fighter. I understand why this was saved till last. They wouldn't want to complete this fighter before they game released. I'm also excited for Byleth to get an amiibo. Hope the do both Male and Female, as I have all the other FE amiibo's lol

I was hoping for something more absure/unique. Like some virtually unknown character from an NES Game or something.

Smash used to do that. Smash needs to have more older characters brought back into the spot light once again.

Well I’m happy! Fem Byleth gonna school some fools! Plus that means amiibo! Wonder how that will work with the FE pass. (Sakurai always knows how to pull me back in...)

Wow, just what I wanted. Not.

Constructive feedback here: it seems that a lot of Xenoblade characters are just perfect for Smash, you would get a double pack of the fighter and their sword as a spirit, please include Rex and both his swords?

Alright, I've given myself time to cool off from the disappointment. I'm sure this fighter like all of the previous ones will have some neat tricks, and I'll be buying them either way so anyone who smashes against me doesn't have a new main left in the dust

He looks fun to play,but...another Fire Emblem character? Why not end it with another 3rd party

Why was the Altaïr costume's reveal marked as "Super Smash Bros. x Altaïr" instead of "Super Smash Bros. x Assassin's Creed"?

@Kirby_Girl if your going to complain about too many Fire Emblem characters and not about too many Pokemon and Mario characters than that is being a hypocrite

Hm... I am definitely not satisfied. But previous characters are really fun to play. For the next DLCs I'll wait every announcement instead of buying the Pass.

@Kirby_Girl I never said people couldn’t be disappointed. And frankly, Byleth wasn’t at all on my list of characters I wanted. Everybody just jumps on the bandwagon of condemning the character before they’ve even played him. I just think it’s funny. Sure, he’s from Fire Emblem, and there are definitely a disproportionate amount of characters from that series in Smash, but It’s obvious from the presentation that his moveset is very fresh and unique. I’m approaching him with an open mind.
Go ahead, be disappointed. Nobody is stopping you. What I was referring to is entitled people who go off on a rant that this is a dumb choice because it’s not the character they wanted and act as if Sakurai has to cater to them and their individual choices and tastes at all times. The way I see it, the five characters we got in this pass are all remarkably different. There’s really something in there for everybody. Not every character released is going to be the one you wanted. The sooner you accept that, the happier you’ll be.

Hahah... Swords...

To be fair, Byleth looks like a very interesting and unique character. I can understand why many are upset, but you shouldn't count out a character because they're from a particular series

Well, Sakurai’s hand signal did mean something after all.

As a person that hasn’t played Three Houses, nor any of the Fire Emblem games, i’m not really that pissed off. But in my opinion, they should of saved Byleth as the first fight for champion pack 2. That would of been a lot better imo. Anyways, Byleth looks pretty cool. His move set is pretty unique. And that Three Houses stage looks amazing. I love travel stages, so i’m excited to try it out. Personally i’m not mad, just a little disappointed about the reveal. But Byleth looks interesting. I’ll try him out in the future.

Byleth makes sense, and isn't really a standard sword fighter as many seem to think.

This certainly isn't the most exciting announcement ever, but it also isn't the last one. I think it makes sense to have someone else start off pack 2.

Pretty dumb choice. Enough with Fire Emblem.

@Jeremazing I thought they looked not great, bit that's because theu have too many situational options and a tether only recovery. They kinda look like a melee version of the Belmonts. I mean, somebody will be good with them unless they sick, but they look like a very precise character

This was just an advertisement for the Fire Emblem game. Like others have said, this wasn't exactly the best way to end the first fighter pass. But I guess that's why theyre adding 6 more. Looking forward to the next fighter reveal, just please dont be another sword

Another swordfighter from a series with tons of representation already, yawn...at least the stage is nice. The stage graphics looks better than the graphics of three houses. It is disappointing that the fighter pass ended with a thud though and is not encouraging to buy the next fighter pass. Cup head or rabbids would have been at least a unique third party to end the fighter pass on, but Sakurai’s bias for fire emblem was too much. I guess I will just buy the next fighter pass characters separately to avoid the future sword fighters

@KBuckley27 nope but nice try

@Ashunera84 that's my thought. It kinda feels like byleth was pushed up. Literally the whole pass has been third parties. I'm thinking there was either a delay or they didn't want to start a pack with Byleth since that sets the tone of the whole thing.

Bad. It’s just so bad. They really really messed up with this it’s shameful.

@Zeldawakening I don't get this sword thing. They aren't clones. None of the play the same. Hell, byleth doesn't even use the sword except for I think TWO moves. They are sword users as much as Ganon is

Man, with that opening, acting like this was about to be the biggest surprise ever that nobody would have ever seen coming from 100 miles away, and after 4 really big third party surprises, this was almost a slap in the face. To those attacking the complainers, don't pretend you've never been hyped for something before. We weren't getting our hopes up for no reason, this was supposed to be the grand finale.

@SpaceboyScreams how is this the grand finale? There's 6 more? We knew there was at least one more going into the reveal

Another Fire Emblem character, another generic avatar...

Cuphead costume was the highlight for me!

Plus i feel pretty silly. I was sure it was Dante. Now I can go pound sand 😢

Hahha this is the funniest thing ever. I don't know i'm normally all for voicing your opinions and critizising things but in this case, after all that we got from this game and all the amazing characters they added, i cannot take the people whining over this as anything other than being very entitled.

Not disappointed by Byleth
On the contrary: I’m very happy
Sue me

Well, I've been holding off and now I know that I could have bought the 3 characters I was interested in (Terry, B&K and Hero). So does anybody know in which eShop are they cheapest?

Well, I’m glad I didn’t watch this earlier.

I am disappoint with the reveal. Out of the 5 characters 3 were great for me while 2 were disappointing for me. Hero is a different disappointment for me as I have not really touched the Dragon Quest series. I love the Fire emblem series I feel that there is too much fire emblem characters in the roster.

Based on the pattern that the dlc fighters were I was expecting it to be another 3rd party character. I disagree with people saying that they dropped the ball with this reveal. I see this more of a stumble then anything.

There is defo one thing to out of this for me. I wouldn't be buying season 2. I will wait and see what all fighters are first. If there are going to be 5 in and are the same price, if the first 4 are all interesting to me then I would pay the extra euro to get the character even if it is revealed to be disappointinh. If it is less then that then I will buy them on their own to save money.

@Edelgard The only thing better would be you, Edel-sama

@AstralSoul13 they really don't play similarly at all. Maybe you can make an argument for Marth and Ike and obviously the clones. The rest just don't. Roy's designed around rushing and theres literally no argument whatsoever that Corrin and Robin are similar to Marth and Roy. Robin uses magic and owns a sword and Corrin is a dragon who has a sword like object. I just don't get the hate here. Same with Byleth, yeah she's from Fe, but three moves use the sword. The rest she's basically a combo of Ganon, the balmont, Corrin, and joker. It's just a fallacious thing to say they are similar when the only thing that's similar is their designs, not mechanics.

@rjejr agreed... cuphead at least deserved to be a assist trophy.. they should add some other assists.. hollow knight, celeste, cuphead.. the indie base now is amazing! perhaps put some of their music!

Nice! I like the character and found the reveal hillarious. Just wish it was saved for a direct so I would not have known it was Smash, then it would been even funnier

@Xansies
Fire Emblem has never really been huge in Japan. It was historically bigger in Japan than in the West because for a long time it didn't exist in the West. Since then, Fire Emblem games actually tend to sell more in America than they do in Japan. In any case, the franchise was almost cancelled before Awakening, so it's certainly never been huge anywhere.

I love Fire Emblem but bwhahahahaha WHAT?!

I love FE, but my goodness. This reveal is too much for me, would've instead had anyone else. But at least Sakurai looked happy, and the man looked like a kid in a candy store.

@thesilverbrick I'm legit gonna ignore anyone who says "entitled" any more because its over used and ridiculous. I'm allowed to be disappointed if it rains outside instead of a sunny day. Doesn't mean I'm "entitled" to the weather. So ridiculous. Ppl are human and allowed feelings. Its not demanding of anything. I don't demand anything of Sakurai just think its a wack choice and I and others can say that without ppl making it about Nintendo or Sakurai. Didn't even mention either

now, the big question... where da hell is our REGULAR direct??? we need!

Wish I'd not bothered with the fighter pass. The only one to interest me was Banjo. I won't be buying a second pass, but perhaps will but individual fighters if they are of interest.

0/10: no God Shattering Star.

@Haywired I guess sakurai just likes it then. O dunno, I'm a fan of the series but with smash I tend to like the mechanics mroe than where the characters come from. I do wish that the directional weapons thing was used for monster Hunter instead though. I guess it still could be. At least one is eventually going to get a full stance change mechanic. Maybe Dante or the MH

Wait, that doesn't look like Crash Bandicoot?

Pokemon DLC and Smash DLC .... two strikes in the same month Nintendo .... TWO STRIKES!

One more and you’re out 😒

@Kirby_Girl Again, never said I begrudge anyone being disappointed, so if that’s all you are, then clearly you weren’t among the people I referred to as acting entitled.

@Xansies The grand finale of fighter pack one. Just because they up and decided to make another pack doesn't mean the first pack should have ended on a low note.

I love FE, at least the older ones, so it's insane to see so much support now, it's just too bad it's for characters I have never heard about. I would've much preferred Eirika, L'Arachel, Micaiah, Marisa, Mia, Joshua, Ephraim, or Hector over any of the last four FE characters they've done. Of course they needed to over-advertise their game but hey.

The stage? Imagine a regular castle looking environment and the demon king from Sacred Stones suddenly appears in the background doing all sorts of attacks, the stage randomly shifts to the purple dragon from FE6, or the red dragon from FE7 and so on.

Th.. that's.. cool.. zzzz

Everyones sooooo salty lol. Im excited, and we are getting 6 more people. Everyone is so entitled when it comes to smash.

Well at least Chasing Daybreak is a good music track, going to enjoy playing Smash to that. I didn't care much for 3 Houses so I'm not exactly thrilled to see Byleth in Smash but whatever, it's not as if many of the "contenders" were of much interest to me either.

@SmaggTheSmug That's a good point. To that I'd have to say that they base took a gable and lost. There was no guarantee that they would get something they liked. I would suggest just buying the DLC individually next time.

@Dr_Corndog I think it's great for FE fans who like the character. Personally, I don't care for yet another blue haired swordsman but the game gave me Mewtwo, so my fav Nintendo character is already in. Everything else is icing on the cake!

@Starburst "Entitled", they build our suspense on purpose, it's natural to feel deflated after months of hype when the grand reveal is clearly just Nintendo trying to make an advertisement instead of Sakurai giving his fans something they'd be excited for.

@AstralSoul13 wait, Roy and Marth got split into some different moves and a completely different playstyle in 4. They are similar though, but You can't play them the same so I don't know if that really counts. They are only similar on the surface. Again, the clones don't count. That's like saying Daisy and peach are similar. Of course they are, they're the same character. I mean luci and chrom have more differences than the usual clone, but they're clones. They can share the same character portrait, they don't count. Basically you're arguing against the echoes who aren't their own characters to begin with

@AstralSoul13 You can not play Marth and Lucina the same and get the same results. Their moves may be similar but they have different properties.

@rex_rex Should have been Rex. The whole "game is only 2 years old so we didn't have time" argument kind of goes flying out the window when you add a character from a 5 month old game.

If anybody said that about Rex, I've read comments like that, but I don't have a link to it's origin. But hey, that new FE DLC releases next month so...

Cuphead would have been cool though. May have been hard to do, but they added in a potted plant so "hard" doesn't mean no can do.

The most disappointing part? No, not Byleth. People's reactions - is this news truly the end of the world? Opinions are opinions and that's ok, but there's so much irrational and one-sided hate, which the world would be so much better without. Oh well, people are also quick to forget (both in good and in bad)... Even if not the most exciting announcement, it looks nice and different enough so it will be nice to try it!

Can't say I'm thrilled with this but with Fighter Pack 2 having six characters, I feel like the original plan was not this, but introducing Byleth as a Piranha Plant-esque single release between fighter packs except Fighter #5 development went awry in some fashion, so here we are.

I can't imagine using this character all that much but I've gotten pretty good value out of the fighter pack. We all know Roy's our Boy anyway.

I sure hope the NintendoLife writers back this decision as wholeheartedly as they did the Dex cut. I like Fire Emblem enough that I'm pretty happy with this, and even happier to see the regular complainers further enraged.

@SpaceboyScreams Absolutely entitled, I'm very excited. I'm sorry you aren't a fan of Byleth but for some people its super hype. Sometimes you just don't get the character you want. Its not the end of the world, although people like to act like it is.

Not my first choice, but Byleth looks like an interesting enough character.

It's a shame Sakurai's creative choices have made a great series like Fire Emblem so despised among Smash Bros players. If only Melee had introduced, say, Tiki or Celica instead of Roy for a more unique moveset, if 4 had shown some restraint and only introduced Robin, and if Ultimate had shown some restraint and not introduced Chrom. We'd have a more manageable number of Fire Emblem characters who are more unarguably unique. But this Direct shows that Sakurai can definitely let his enthusiasm for the series get out of control. The history lesson was just time filler and gushing.

That said, Three Houses is absolutely one of my favorite Switch games and I'm happy to see it. I'd be happier to see Sothis, Edelgard, or Dimitri instead. Imagine floating around on Sothis's throne and ramming it into your opponent! Imagine Dimitri lance-fighting and having Ephraim and/or Sharena as alts. That'd be unique for Smash and fanservice for Fire Emblem!

My condolences for those disappointed, since I get it.

@Starburst I can be disappointed and glad that you're excited simultaneously, not sure why you have to act like I'm some sort of demon for expecting the last character to follow the trend of exciting and unexpected third party characters.

Yet another Fire Emblem character? That's disappointing.

Oh nooooooo, I'm disappointed with 1 of the eventual 12 DLC fighters. Guess it's the end of the world now, doopa doop.

Byleth wasn't my first choice as far as Three Houses goes, but his multiple weapons move set is a dream come true so I'm good.

I'm glad the leakers was wrong.i like to be surprised.they spend so much time trying to dig deep looking for codes just to be wrong I love it

"OK" I guess. But what's with all the gender swapping with certain characters? Is this fan-service or does it connect back to a feature in the original games?!

@SpaceboyScreams Def never said you, or anyone was a demon. You can absolutely be disappointed. Nothing wrong with that. There are going to be 11 total DLC fighters. You are bound to not like at least one. Some people like to act like this is unforgivable. Not saying you are like that, but some of the people here are.

im disappointed in this reveal sure but lets not forget theres more characters coming to smash and hopefully one of them is doomslayer.

I'm so glad it happened on the morning, cause the food I'm making needs a lot of salt.

I think it is awesome. I bet after the 4, 3rd party characters, this one was just get him in smash and go. No negotiating, or anything. So easy addin, especially now that 6 more are being added in. (Not to mention the new characters (Ken, Simon and Richter, snake coming back)
And besides the last 5 were like crazy and even long time requests. Blythe actually looks way fun to play. Excited to see what he/ she brings to the table

Oh how time has change:

In 2001: Wow, Fire Emblem characters in Super Smash Bros. Melee this is great. Can't wait to see more in the future.

In 2020: Boo, please no more Fire Emblem characters. At this point give us any one even Waluigi or Waddle Dee over any FE characters.

@Scollurio Well, in FE Three Houses you can choose to control a male avatar or a female avatar, that's it. Just like Pokemon Trainer.

@Starburst im pretty sure wen it all said and done the total roster is going to be at least 100.

@Scollurio
Blythe is like Corrine / Robin, they are characters in Fire Emblem that can be either a girl or a boy (they are you essentially)

Not surprised actually. Deep down, I knew Byleth was somehow going to make it in Smash.

@RiasGremory That would be amazing

@YonVonBlett Yeah if they plan on releasing more Fire Emblem characters like this I am definitely not buying the second DLC pass. They better release some more original characters because this was a massive letdown.

What a disappointment. I was looking forward to Geralt.

@LArachelDisciple I really wanted to put someone through the table where all the tea time takes place

Nintendo really does a disservice to their fanbase. They have no clue what we as consumers want. I felt with was a missed opportunity to bring in another 3rd party character. If they really wanted to bring in Byleth, make him the first DLC on wave 2.

Why get Fighters Pass Volume 2? Are they just going to crank out more Fire Emblem characters?

Ok ok another sword fighter. How about some more hammer fighters? COUGH COUGH PAPER MARIO. Oh man I’d love paper Mario, ala Paper Jam style.

In all honesty though, I’m content with this as an additional fighter. Sure I don’t think it should’ve ENDED with this one for fighter collection 1, it’s definitely one I’ll use in the future. I’m one of those who uses the fighter emblems people, not as a main but as a secondary.
Honestly though, yeah I’m thinking that’s enough for the fire emblem characters. No hate against it at all because I absolutely love the series, but I think that just about does it. We’re gonna need some paper mario (come on, link has what, 3 forms now? Mario can have another I think), or maybe something from blaster master (final smash can have Sophia 3rd pop in and blast the screen like Samus’), or ....

@Tharsman We COULD still get Ezio. Assassin’s Creed representation is still really cool in my opinion. More exciting than Byleth.

Honestly? I'm disappointed

@TDRsuperstar2 I'd say they know what some consumers want, just not what everyone wants.

@Kalmaro sure. Obviously you can't please everyone, but like voice chat for gaming, a better online structure, virtual console. I feel like Nintendo could have us eating out of the palm of their hand ya know?

Ugh

Nice, looks fun. Unlike a lot of other people, I actually like every fire emblem character in Smash despite never playing a Fire Emblem game. Byleth looks like a blast to play as well! Honestly, my least hyped character in the line up is Terry.

@TDRsuperstar2 I think the problem is that we already are. For every person that raises a complaint, there's about 20 more people who are oblivious and just give them money.

I love Fire Emblem but I feel like this was the lazy creative choice. The Fire Emblem series is already way over-represented in Smash & again I love Fire Emblem but I could go for a few years of Intelligent Systems focusing on something like Advance Wars over putting out another one. Anyway back to Smash, I would have preferred either another 3rd party character or something so obscure from Nintendo's own vault. They have a vast legacy of characters and it could have been something really fun. I'm sure I'll grow to love Byleth in Smash just like I have in Three Houses but these DLC characters are a chance for Sakurai and the Smash team to experiment and get funky, kind of wish they had gone a bit more out of the box than this.

Love Three Houses, but I'm not sure we needed ANOTHER FE character.

Ha! I knew it was going to be another Fire Emblem character!

@Xansies That would explain why they ended pass 1 with Byleth. Don't get me wrong; he/she looks like a cool addition, but I was honestly expecting another third party fighter (I was hoping for Master Chief). I'm definitely looking forward to seeing who the next 6 are, and after Byleth, it's reassuring to know that a few of them might be Nintendo characters, as there are still plenty more of them I'd like to see.

Boy... have you guys seen the dislikes on the official video? This has to be really the most hated newcomer of all time.

I love Fire Emblem but the game already has way too many FE characters, i would have had a new PM then this considering most of the PM are starters.

Sakurai hoped the public would welcome Byleth with open arms.
Between brokenness and the whole "wasted slot" thing, I'm afraid the next pass is going to need some true heavy hitters if it wants to get people hyped.

The Salt is strong with this one. This is probably why they've not revealed it on next Nintendo Direct AND added 1 more fighter slot to the second pass.

Byleth though, eh... I'm not mad about it, unlike others...

At least now I get to save some money and only have to buy 2 of the 5 dlc characters (DQ Hero and Banjo-Kazooie)

Missed the Direct as I'm at work. This was...unexpected, to say the least. I can't really comment past that as I haven't played Smash Ultimate or Three Houses yet.

I have not played Three Houses yet, so I don't really know how to feel about this reveal.

But I am a bit sad because that means that Celica now has no chance of getting into Smash, and I really wanted her to get in, even over Chrom.

I loved her in Fire Emblem Echoes, and she grew to become one of my favorite lords in the whole series.

But she had the misfortune of having her game come out between Smash 4 and Smash Ultimate, and Three Houses got the nod since its the newer game.

Which is a shame, because I think she really could have stood out from the other Fire Emblem characters who are already in Smash.

She uses both magic and a sword, and while that sounds like she's a copy of Robin, due to way magic worked in Echoes, she would not have copied his tome magic system. In fact, they could have even played up her ability to use healing magic by allowing her to heal teammates and herself in battle.

But alas, Celcia will never get her shot in Smash. Which is really a shame, since she's grown very popular with the fanbase since Echoes came out. She got second place in the second choose your hero poll on the female side and she keeps getting new variants in FEH.

Oh well, I guess Byleth will get the nod then.

@Xansies
Link also wasn't a paid DLC character either. So far on the dlc pack we had persona, dragon quest, Banjo and King of Fighters/Fatal Fury. So adding a Fire Emblem character of which we have what.......at least 6 already?

Welp, this garbage just ensured that I'm not going to pre-buy a Fighter Pass ever again.

At first i was like what the F? But seeing the character in action i think he/she is kinda cool.
And that level/stage design just wow!

Will buy it for sure. And cant wait to see the other 6. At the end i will buy them all hahah i even bought piranha plant. Collecting the characters like Pokémon. Gonna catch them all.

Just curious, did they censor the female version? Cause I can't tell at a glance.

Why does he feel the need to include a Fire Emblem character every time there's a new game out? Tons of characters from much older games and it's always one from the game literally just out, sometimes even before it's out. Is it to promote the new games? What's great about Smash is that it lets people discover new games and franchises. That's why Fire Emblem even become popular in the west after Marth and Roy were included. I didn't know Terry, but I know about Fatal Fury because he's included in Smash. This inclusion and constant inclusion of FE characters is overkill now and completely unoriginal thinking.

Hmm..... Disappointing.

As someone who doesn't care about Persona, Dragon Quest, Banjo-Kazooie, King of Fighters or Fire Emblem, this whole Fighter Pass has been a complete bust. They should have stuck to Nintendo IPs.

@TDRsuperstar2 To be fair, Fire Emblem is very popular right now, with Fire Emblem Heroes being one of the top-grossing mobile games, and Nintendo's most successful mobile game to date.

Plus, every Fire Emblem game since Awakening has been successful, selling over a million copies or more each.

So, while I can understand how people might be upset Fire Emblem is getting another rep(that puts them ahead of Mario and Pokemon), Fire Emblem is one of their cash cows right now, and Fire Emblem characters have always been popular fighters in Smash.

Lol, I knew it! Yet another Fire emblem character, yet another sword-fighter, yet another purple haired one. That's what we all wanted right, RIGHT?!

Well, if you have the season pass, that's one slot spoiled I guess. Personally I don't have any dlc, and I probably never will. Or they decide to ad a new map with hundred new Spirit-fights, then I might be interested.

Love Fire Emblem bet even I'll admit this is very disappointing. Got my FE fix with Three Houses, the still very wonderful FE warriors, which both have their own game passes. And then there's the FE fighters already in Smash. Very strange way to make people more guarded about buying Season 2 in one go. And I'm a fan!

@MrDisappointed,

If there will be a new Fire emblem this year (who knows, it might), then hurrah we might get YET another Fire emblem character in Smash. They are crazy enough to do that. As much as I hate it, I can't blame Nintendo and Sakurai. For Nintendo Fire emblem is massive (especially in Japan) and Sakurai loves Fire emblem.

there is no good reason to be excited over another fire emblem character, none. the enthusiasm for it is silly and dramatic at best.

should of been something unusual, didnt have to be a third party character like some people i noticed are complaining about but at least some first party character that barely got the spotlight, shame that this was originally going to be the last dlc before expanding.

@DarkLloyd Well, unless you really liked that character or just wanted another fighter.

So glad that I didn’t wake up early for that.

Not surprised really, I think it makes complete sense for them to represent the latest fire emblem game. I do think awakening got a little over represented though which bulked up the FE roster a bit too much.

@DarkLloyd I'm excited because Byleth looks like they have an interesting moveset.

So glad I didnt buy fighter pass.
Shocking final character
Happy theres more characters coming

@Kalmaro well i was just hoping for something unusual like a franchise not yet represented instead of something everyone already knows about on the nintendo platform.

@DarkLloyd I was hoping for some resident evil representation myself. Chris Redfield in Smash would have been amazing.

Honestly, the character looks fun, but I do wish they had this as the first character of the new run of DLC. The previous four characters felt so out of left field that I think everyone was expecting another long shot character.

Plus there are now EIGHT Fire Emblem characters with the introduction of Byleth. That's tied with Pokemon but with much less character/playstyle variety.

For all the babies out there: yeah, Joker was cool; but Hero looked bland and plays like a blue turtle shell in Mario Kart; Banjo is about the most "I was a generic character in a 90's child's vhs tape about safety around the home" as you can possibly get and Terry is a boring choice all around, moveset and look (fun to play against though). SO don't act like Byleth is EVEN the blandest option here. The Fighter's Pass gave every single part of the community AT LEAST one character. AND if you think that doesn't "cut it" because you bought the pass...well, why the hell didn't you just buy them individually for $1 more? You barely saved anything getting the pass. I'm thrilled to be able to Smash thru the monastery...I didn't complain about everyone else's favorite choices before (except Hero's RNG).

This is hilarious.

Personally I got Joker, Banjo & Kazooie and freaking Terry Bogard. So anything else on top of that would have just been icing on the cake.

Well there's still 6 more characters to come, so we'll see who they end up being.

@Henmii Yeah... that's true. Byleth probably should be the last FE character for a while, but it wouldn't be too surprising if he/she isn't. Considering that FE has equal representation with Pokemon and is only 2nd to Mario overall, I'd like to see another Nintendo IP get some new fighters.

@GameOtaku again, I think for me I care more about the mechanics than the characters. It doesn't really matter to me that it's byleth, just what the character can do. I mean, personally, the directional weapons thing makes more sense for monster Hunter, but there's Siix more characters. Whatever.

The main issue with the character is that they don't look, you know, that good. They have a tether only recovery and all of their moves look extremely situational and easy as hell to wiff. The good thing is that byleth isn't another sword user. Hell, she uses her sword about as much as Ganon uses his. The problem is that gives her a very steep learning curve off the back because all of her weapons have significant disadvantages in terms of hotbox, speed, and commitment. Shell either suck or be about where Terry is in terms of a high skill ceiling. Plus, new character means new patch. Great. Anyway, she's about as much like Marth as Robin or Corrin is so I don't think it matters if they're from FE or not. I hope they add more non-human characters next wave, but really, doesn't matter at all

@PerishSong Mario Series has 14. Third party has 13 There are even 3 Link's and 2 Zelda's in this game. Pokemon has 9 distinct characters. FE has 8 characters and 2 of them are Echo fighters...so 6 unique characters. Hardly overwhelming.

@Baker1000 Exactly, I would've never known about Xenoblade if Shulk was never in Smash 4. Xenoblade become a top 5 game ALL TIME for me. Thats saying alot. Fire Emblem became popular in the West because of Marth and Roy. Please give other franchises a chance at revival or a new fan base

@Sgt-Jack-V That was uncalled for.

Not that fussed....

....because it means these DLC characters are not 3rd party exclusive and that Rex and Pyra are still very possible. ;P

Yeah yeah, Mii costume and "too late to make the cut" talk, but I'm sure Nintendo extended the DLC with the Second Pass when Smash sold like crazy, so I still think its very possible.

Exciting literally no one.

Wish we could have gotten a new stage and some tracks. This has been a very disappointing reveal.

Hyped about this DLC? Not really but im happy about any new DLC, and that level/stage design man beautifull
I will collect all the DLC characters.

@Tharsman there is no laugh track

@Xansies
I'm pretty sure the main complaint is "oh great another FE character woo yay ". With Nintendos own swath of IPs he couldn't pick anyone else? Mike Jones from Star Tropics? Black Bull or Zoda from F-Zero?

But nope let's make it 8 FE characters. It's fair to say though no one expected it at least it has that going for it.

@Kalmaro "a character that no one has to buy"...except most of us bought the fighter pack and are stuck with this waste-of-money garbage. I'm 1000% not buying the next DLC pack until at least the fourth or fifth one and I'm satisfied with all of them. Thanks for the letdown and trust issues, Nintendo. You guys just lost a ton of money with this one because people are going to be so wary of getting the second Fighter Pass. Rightfully so, as we now have the fear of being totally screwed over again.

@reductosmash That's a shame that you do not feel like you got your monies worth

The fighter pass is just there for people who were going to to get all the fighters anyway but wanted to save money. It's not necessarily a guarantee that the fighters unlocked will be what he want.

You're basically taking a gamble.

@reductosmash Sounds like you should have waited before buying eh? You know, like what Sakurai told you to do back when the Fighter's pass launched? It's all on you and your impulse buying man.

@GameOtaku
Black Bull is a car in F-Zero. Would be rad to have that as a playable character. Joking aside, they really should add Black Shadow since a lot of heroes already have their nemesis in Smash.

@GameOtaku I totally expected byleth because three houses sold an ass of copies and was a pretty big hit for them. I expected it as one of the next wave of dlc, though. Mostly because it only came out in July. Same goes with a gen 8 Pokemon. My bet is on the bear thing from the dlc. It's weird there isn't a stance change character yet and that would do it. Byleth does kinda line up with the dlc, a little. Not really, but it totally always made sense for them to come out before the dlc was done as a promotion. That's like 60% of the point of smash from a business standpoint. Same reason Sora won't be in unless there is a game coming out in the near future for the switch. It could be a spin-off, but it has to be something

@Dang69 Honestly, that's part of the problem; the Fire Emblem characters tend to not have enough variety. Four of those eight have essentially identical movesets (Marth, Roy, Chrom, Lucina), with Ike also having a fairly similar set. It does look like Byleth will have at least a somewhat different moveset, but it's hard not to look at Byleth and think, "Oh no, yet another sword-wielding Fire Emblem protagonist."

Every other DLC character has felt fairly unique - and been from a completely unrepresented series with the exception of Piranha Plant - and Byleth...doesn't have either of those going for him.

Eh, I'm definitely a little disappointed and I probably won't pick it up, but Byleth does look like quite a lot of fun and seems fairly unique. The stage looks pretty good too.

The real problem here was the planning. A lot of people thought the pass would end in a big way but it was strange to finish it with Byleth, another Fire Emblem character. I think more people would have accepted it if it was Fighter 1 or 2.

@PerishSong Withe the exception of Robin and Corin, he's probably the most unique FE person yet. They should have made Lucina and Chrom just be alternate outfits.

Best character added so far imo.

But I like Fire Emblem a lot more than Smash.

@Kalmaro That's what I'm saying! Byleth is honestly the most original Fire Emblem character so far (Excluding Roy (he's awesome), Ike since he's awesome, and Robin cause he's a mage). Also Tiki the first Dragon Lady was awesome. I don't count Corrin... Does anyone?

@Heavyarms55 I figured you'd enjoy this one! Byleth represents everything I wanted from an FE character in Smash. I'd imagined using multiple weapons since they break right? But all the FE main characters kinda have signature weapons so it didn't work out. But then we got Robin, the first accurate FE fighter in Smash (I guess Chrom and Lucina count as they both wield the infinite weapon Falchion).

@Luffymcduck I think that'd be the perfect theme for a second wave
but 2 problems:
1). They've already confirmed the next set of fighters (We don't know who they are but we can assume that they won't be villains)
2). Most of the Heroes in Smash already have the main antagonist represented as a Fighter or an Assist. (even Falcon has Samurai Goroh as an Assist, Dr. Wily's an assist, Dr. Eggman's a Spirit, Bowser's a Fighter, Bass and Treble are Spirits, Ganondorf's a Fighter, and that pretty much covers everyone).
They could go the Pirahna Plant route and just do normal bad guys instead of an antagonist. If you asked me that'd be cooler!

We need Waluigi! Not another fire emblem character!

@Reigestugatensho Tiki is legit, they need more recognition. I can't think of too many other FE players I like that aren't just blue haired swordsman. Owain at least doesn't have blue hair.

No one likes Corrin. Corrin is lame and needs to cut their nails.

Everyone else is crazy, I'm really glad byleth was added.

@Reigestugatensho I think part of it is because you can literally make Byleth any class in FE3H. And thus she can wield any weapon if you train her to do so.

And I know there's male Byleth - but for me the canon route is female, it just feels more natural to me. Storywise. Robin felt male, Corrin and Byleth female.

@Kirby_Girl Yeah been thinking that, this really has everything you want in a Smash Bros game, you got all the main crossover characters Snake, Sonic, MegaMan, Pac-man, Ryu, Simon most of the stages from all the games
Really only dlc I would want now is just a proper adventure mode like the one melee, where it's like a side scrolling platformer but get to see a bunch of Nintendo worlds other then that the only dlc I'll get for this is just Banjo, don't really need any of the other fighters

Literally any game character in the history of gaming, and they chose another generic sword fighter Fire Emblem character. A bloody cardboard one at that.

Inspiring stuff.

Cool! I really like Byleth and love Three Houses and the Fire Emblem series. Can't waIt to see who's next.

@Heavyarms55 Most of the protagonist from the older games could also use other weapons. Ike could use an Axe too...

Jesus Christ, the hate is strong with this one. Let Fire Emblem fans enjoy this one, for god's sake, you already got your Banjo. Have some respect.

@RaphaBoss no offense but we let Fire Emblems "Enjoy this one" time and time again. While other franchise reps get left in the dust. Ppl are allowed some irritation.

@ClassSonicSatAm yea I'm tired of the character additions as I know they are gonna get more and more desperate. I'd love another SSE type mode instead. I'm one of those folks that enjoyed SSE. I liked that other mode that is like City Trial in the 3DS game also. I just like new modes in general instead Tbh.

@Kirby_Girl When you say that the additions are getting desperate, what do you mean by that exactly?

@Kalmaro don't interact

@Kirby_Girl I'm not sure I follow. It sounds like earlier, you were hoping they'd add more than characters, which would be fantastic.

I just wasn't sure what you meant when they said they were desperate, I may just be misunderstanding something though.

@RadioHedgeFund Alucard is already an assist

@Kirby_Girl Fire Emblem is one of Sakurai's favorite series. Tree Houses is a home console game, the last we had in the series was Radiant Dawn, 10 years ago. Fire Emblem fans were DESPARATE for something new in HD, the hype was huge, Byleth needs some recognition, he just deserves it. The franchise is also huge in the eastern, this is japanese game, this is bound to happen, this was always expected.

@RaphaBoss its big there but its no where on the iconic level of the Mario franchise so it needs to slow it down and be content with what's there. I get Sakurai is a big fan but he's put in MORE than enough. There's been more than enough FE stuff in recent years and its hard to feel pity that FE fans had to wait when other franchises have so much less. What you guys had already was plenty enough and many of the characters barely come off as distinct either yet shoved in. Ill save my tears for the fans if DK, F-Zero, some other third party, etc instead

@tamantayoshi have you even played him/her? Nah the worst character they've added is Pac-Man, Mr. Game and Watch, and I can name a few that I think suck in the game but accept because there's other characters I enjoy.

@Kirby_Girl why should Nintendo give 3rd parties support and more sales of their games instead of giving Nintendo's own franchise support in the DLC pack as well? There may be a lot of FE characters in Smash but they are super fun to play with if you like the series or not.

@thaimbomb I don't like playing as any of them as I prefer brawlers. Also it doesn't hurt to strengthen ties with other companies, get more of the third party support that ppl have been complaining about for years, and I dunno actually have more distinct and interesting fighters in your party fighter game that will bring on more new players who are fans of other franchises. Whether it was FE or not, no choice Nintendo made would honestly hurt them. The choice to include someone else though would have been a lot more exciting and less drama than this but hey... At least they made sure to reiterate more fighters are coming.

@thaimbomb Pac-man and Game and Watch are so awesome and distinct lol. Also historically significant to gaming history or Nintendo history. A am very into them. You'd have to be under the age of 25 to complain about Pac-man being deserving of a spot cause holy. Pac-man fever was a very real big thing. Ask your parents.

@Kalmaro I paid for the DLC pack before all of the characters were revealed. With Piranah Plant and Banjo revealed, I had expected the fighter pack to be a diverse set of characters. If the pack had led with a FE character, then I just wouldnt have bought that character. So, yeah I was forced, in a way, to buy this Fire Emblem character that is just like all of the other FE characters I got for free. I have no issues with the FE sword characters being in the game; I just dont want to have to pay extra for characters I dont want/care about.

@Kirby_Girl Fire emblem is a historical achievement for Nintendo in the famicom. Sakurai already explained. You can complain all you want , but it is a NINTENDO franchise like any other. You don't have to buy the fighter pass before all announcements anyway, vote with your wallet.

@Cmsmith1000 I have to disagree, no one made you buy the pack. I'm not saying it's not a shame you didn't get what you hoped for. At the end of the day you took a gamble and lost. You could have just waited and bought who you liked separately.

The fighter pass is mostly for people who know they would get all the fighters no matter what and wanted to save a buck.

@RaphaBoss doesn't put it anywhere near Mario or Pokemon's level still just cause you both say its been around. I'm just expressing its unimpressive a reveal and over represented. Most ppl other than hardcore fans of the franchise know that and are expressing the same. Hell there are plenty of comments here from fans of a FE agreeing!! Quit your own complaining that others know and feel FE is overrepresented. Its just the plain truth. Don't worry about it if you're satisfied yourself. Rest of us have the equal right of being unsatisfied with the reveal itself. I still got a Cuphead mii so I'm perfectly fine. Just think the new fighter is wack. Period.

@thaimbomb I just meant so far in this game. Just irritated its another fe fighter when nintendo said to expect the whole fighters pass to be like joker.

I just laughed. I seriously started to think Nintendo forgot their own blood should take priority. Terry was the blandest character in this pass by far and I am so glad they made amends for it.

@Kalmaro the rest of the fighters were diverse. They set an expectation for the pack. I was not gambling because everything pointed towards the entire pack being from a wide variety of games. It is like buying several nice cars from a company over several decades and having a contract with them to buy at least 5 cars from them, and when you go to buy your 5th car from this company it ends up being low quality. I cant trade in the worse quality car that is Byleth. The only reason I signed this "contract" was because an expectation was set. Therefore, I was forced to buy Byleth.

@Cmsmith1000 They never said they every character would be unique from the characters in the game. The pass had one purpose, the buy all the characters and save a few dollars, that's it.

It was not a promise to get an incredibly diverse cast. You took a gamble and you unfortunately didn't get the outcome you wanted. It's a shame but that's just how it is. I don't care for this person at all (I didn't even know they existed) but I don't feel cheated since I got the pass only because I wanted all the fighters and the stages.

Now if they had said that all the fighters would be super diverse and ones not already represented by current characters, you'd have a point.

@MrDisappointed,

Agreed! For example, I think E Gadd is more worthy then yet another Fire emblem fighter.

@tamantayoshi it’s fine that you dislike the character personally, and you’d prefer to see another - I just don’t think that Nintendo ‘dropped the ball.’ And it’s especially annoying to see so many people, not specifically you, whine and complain when months ago after Banjo/Joker/Ridley everyone was all ‘Sakurai can do whatever he wants I’m happy now.’

Personally I like Byleth, and I could list a ton of Fire Emblem characters I’d love to see in Smash, but I also understand the argument that the series is well represented. Personally, I’d like to see Rex/Pyra or Sora added in the future.

@Ttimer5 Thanks for clarification!

I'm not seeing Byleth in the Eshop

FEED ME YOUR HATE, NERDS!

Update on this article says Byleth is now available. But literally just checked, and they are not. I know Nintendolife is Europe based, so maybe they're available over there, but not so yet in America.

I think the character is still different from other fire emblem characters I still think people just hate the character Just because its from Fire Emblem If the character wasn't from Fire Emblem I think it would be getting more praise But just because its from Fire emblem its hated on. For me I like the character I don't care if its from fire emblem or not.

Not the most inspired pick but my fav DLC addition along with Joker. Hopefully they play well! Would love to beat up people with the character given all the hate.

Uhh, ya jumped the gun on this one a few hours early. Like, 7 whole hours early.

@duffmmann they love casually doing that. Small trollings to see if they can rile people up and then go "oh...insert something casually patronizing." Prob were in need of some page hits today.

@duffmmann
The update isn't out here either, and the announcement did say tomorrow. Not sure where Nintendolife got that from.

I don't see the update yet...

@Audiogore0733 Byleth definitely looks to play much more distinct for a FE fighter (as are Robin and Corrin). And in that sense, I have no issue with them. As a new fighter addition though, they are disappointing simply because, we have enough Fire Emblem fighters, and aesthetically Byleth doesn't look too different from the likes of Marth, Roy, Lucina, Ike, or Chrom. It'd be nice to expand the reach of Smash to other franchises without fighter representation yet. Or if we're going to go to a well we've visited numerous times already, then visit one where the aesthetics can vary hugely from character to character, like Pokemon.

Having said all of that, while I was disappointed with the reveal of Byleth, I do think he'll be a fighter I excel with and use a lot. My main has been Dedede, but Byleth looks like the way they fight scratches a lot of the same itches that Dedede does as a fighter for me. Still, hopefully this is the last of any new Fire Emblem fighters for Smash as we head into the second fighter pass.

Looking forward to this!

Man i was clicking the Software update button many times hahah. Bring thw DLC already 🤪🥴🤣

Gotta bump that topic up and refresh that sodium intake.

I'm glad that I'm working late — that way I won't feel so taxed waiting for this update. Gonna continue my Ring Fit Adventure journey when I get home (and hoo boy, it's gonna be Leg Day...YAY).

@TheawesomeMCB Go Play Super Smash Flash 2, until Flash becones unsupported, and discontinued! And if anyone even says "Fire Emblem is Anime," They're just using that stupid meme to their demand of GOKU of Dragon Ball Z in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. HE'S in Super Smash Flash 2, as well as Naruto, Luffy, Ichigo, and SORA, especially!

@YoshiAngemon I went to school for Flash animation. I will be mourning the death of flash pretty strongly. I still find Flash to be a superior 2D design application to illustrator or photoshop. Probably just because it's what I started with. I still use it for tracing and text placement

This Bayleef character is starting to feel at home in Smash to me, but it's partly because the female design is really nice and both remind me of a certain brother and sister from a certain FE game. If only they had made her hair slightly brighter.

Hopefully Smash fans will have calmed down by now. This reveal is still the funniest thing to happen all month, though.

"Update: A very recent update stated that Byleth is available right now, although as you may have found out for yourselves we’re still waiting for the fighter to drop. In our excitement we pushed a button early - our apologies!"

Thanks for making me look like an idiot to my son. When he got home from school today I told him the update was live, I saw it on an NL tweet. Then we couldn't find the tweet, so I said - maybe it's on NL? Couldn't find it here either. My son finally said - they probably just deleted the tweet. So I think he believes me, maybe.

Anyway thanks for the clarification. At least now I can show him I haven't' completely lost my mind, just mostly.

This whole thing is stupid. People are mad because byleth is from Fire Emblem, but not because they look like a bad character. Shows that most people who complain about Smash don't actually play the game

@Blizzia I mean, Byleth is the protagonist almost the same way as Mark from Blazing blade is a protagonist. That is to say, not at all. Edelgard, Claude, and Naked Snake are the protagonist of the game. Byleth is just the mute chick you play as that has little to no role in the plot except for everyone to brag about how awesome you the player are at doing the game

@duffmmann He's a range fighter in a rush down type meta. So he's has a lot in common with DDD. Because of that, he also looks not great. Unless there were other nerds and buffs I haven't looked at yet that make byleth make sense.

@RaphaBoss it's also just a good game. I've play every game in the series and really, honestly, Three Houses is close to the best. I mean, I really have a spot in my heart for Thracia, the Radiant Duo (they count as one to me), and Stones, but it's really close tie between Three Houses and the Radiant games as at the top of the list for the best character based turn based strategy games. Not that it's a huge genre.

@HappyMaskedGuy Woah, the character doesn't even use a sword in smash except for two attacks. Okay, technically they use something called a sword in 5 (out of what, 30?) but it's funtionally the Belmonts whip in three of those. They use a sword less than Ganon

@Xansies I know that not everyone like DDD, but I excel with him, so for me Byleth excites me as a new fighter. But I totally get why for the same reason he doesn't excite others.

i live in Europe, and here it is already 1/28, i have to wait till 1/29
stupid timezones and always focus on America

It will be 11pm here in Brazil. I'm checking for updates since 1pm :/

So 9 eastern? That's absurd and barely the 28th

@Mando44646 eh, that's 6pm PST, which still leaves a quarter of the 28th before it's the 29th. Plus, that's about the time every other character has been released on their release day.

I don't get it why they can just release it all at the same time. Like Japan was stated to have it the 28 too. If they release the character at the same time, it wouldn't be a problem for everyone since we will get it at the same time, regardless of the day...

You want to see some extra salt? Maybe Pit can be salty about the inclusion of Byleth in one of those Palutena's Guidance Videos, so much that he expresses wanting to fight Waluigi, or Goku, or even Sora, and Palutena and Viridi will list why they'll never be playable!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0ZbvPoq7nk - Here's an example of the videos I'm talking about, only it's about Banjo & Kazooie, with a bonus BK speech version included.

@rjejr Moichindyzing!

@rjejr I thought parents were supposed to embarrass their kids, not embarrass themselves in front if their kids, haha! That was enjoyable to read.

@duffmmann The only really awful thing is the recovery, even if it does have a throw like joker's non-arsene up b, but also in the air. The rest, the main issue is that their moves are really slow for how light they are. They seem to have some really useless moves like the bow (because it's sooo slow and linear you should only be able to use it a full map away like a worse pit) and all they're hitboxes are extremely precise (sword and spear — worse belmont/roy) or impossibly Ganon slow (axe and bow). Maybe they'll have some utility, but they look not great on paper. Like they have all the options you need, but severe limitations. It's kinda a jack of all trades situation which is probably exactly what they were designed around. They crib moves from probably the most characters out of the new guys, who all crib a lot from existing moves, but they all seem worse because it's only one or two moves out of everyone's kit without any real gimmick of their own. Which is unbelievably I character for byleth. Sakurai is truly great at thematically designing characters

Honestly,this disappoints me more than Terry Bogard

Ha, I'm going to use Byleth almost exclusively online now just to rub in how happy I am with it!

@Xansies I am playing the game right now. Feels too slow peaced ( if you use the whole month and not skip dialogues)and easy on normal difficult. But I am still loving the game, feels more balanced than most FE games. Up there with Fates and the Radiant games. I prefer Genealogy of the holy war over thracia though. Thracia has lot of "puzzles " that challenges you, but it feels kinda cheap sometimes, especially on first playthrough.

Unfortunately I think Three Houses is lacking in classes. Would love to have a trueblade or marksman as master classes.

@RaphaBoss I felt the same with the classes. It kinda felt weird by the end game where everyone was basically narrowed into the same four or five classes ajdnall Linda cross trained into playing similarly. It's been a year so o don't really remember too well.

Storywise genealogy is absolutely the best because it takes the war thing the furthest and it is the only one that really feels like you're fighting an actually drawn out conflict (radiant has parts of it, though), but gameplaywise it's just not baked enough and there's only so many times you can play on claim these three castle giant maps. And that number is probably 3, not 12. Of not for that it would be my favorite, I just sort of had enough of it at the halfway point, which is sad considering what happens at the halfway point.

3H mostly lacks that sense of scale, mostly because the post-awakening focus on the feauteless protag. You see Ike develop over the course of the war, you see byleth stop in a Hot Topic for some Manic Panic. I was kinda waiting until the dlc to see if it adds the extra characters classes to everyone. Those extra (what, four?) Classes and characters might help the issues I had at the endgame. I also agree it got too easy in normal and hard, especially at the end, which os the same problem as all the games post-shadow dragon, but maddening gets hard without feeling cheap on basically any map without the death Knight and certain paralogues (so far, especially of you don't consider using the reset the same as "losing" which I definitely do. It just speeds up the process of resetting the whole damn game.. Again, I only kinda started a second playthrough and since o got so distracted that the dlc is right there, I'm just gonna wait it out now) sorry this got long. I got opinions on my fire emblem

@Xansies no idea what those 3 and 12 mean XD

@RaphaBoss there are 12 maps in genealogy, I think. It's been probably ten years since I played it. They are all really similar so I'd rather there be 3 really giant maps doing the same thing than 12. That's all

Such a complete waste of a slot; Fire Emblem games bore me to death and to see the franchise receive such an unnecessary priority in Smash just frustrates me to no end.

@MjekuMati very immature.

@Bizzyb "Moichindyzing!"

@Not_Soos 1st 10 years of life I embarrassed my kids, it's their turn now for 10 years, then we'll just call it even from there on out.

Feel like half the problem with this is just the fact Nintendo have had so many FE character iterations in the past and had to add everyone into Ultimate. If Ultimate's FE representation at launch was just Ike, Marth, Robin and Corrin, there'd probably be less uproar. Half the reason Mario and Pokemon haven't been problematic roster size wise is all their movesets are quite different to each other.

Meanwhile FE has Chrom, Roy and Lucina who all rip off the Marth formula, and every single FE character bar Robin plays the same style of keep-out, just at varying paces. For as flashy as Byleth looks, it's a near identical base game strategy to prior FE characters. You can't play Bowser, Peach, Luigi, or Bowser Jr. in the same way at all. Same goes for PT, Pikachu, Jigglypuff, etc.

Less a Byleth problem, more a legacy issue.

@Xansies Yup - which is why it is stupid to use Byleth when there are much better options.

@cryptologous I don't disagree, but yo ucant count chrom or Luci as separate characters the same way you can't count Daisy or dark Samus, they have unique properties, but they are effectively reskins. I also played a lot of the fe characters and because I'm crazy, byleth for like 7 hours straight.

She doesn't really play similarly to chrom and Roy at all, who are straight rush down characters, Or Luci who is a slightly calmer more honest brawler, but she does almost play like a worse Marth. By that I mean that everything has to be spaced perfectly all the time always. She's if Marth and Robin and corrin had a baby. She plays really, really weird. I guess I do disagree, they really don't play similarly at all. Especially byleth whose entire thing is playing midrange and baiting into smash and side bs. She's the pure opposite of Roy chrom and ike at least. Kinda the most like Corrin, but again nothing like Corrin because Corrins also a weirdy. She's basically the most like Ganon, honestly. Which makes no sense at all.

@Blizzia I'm thinking so too. I played a lot tonight, but byleth looks like a pure punish character. Like you have to wait and bait get anything done. But she's also ungodly strong and has four shield breakers so she has a built in come back thing. I mean, literally, she's so slow and her hitboxes are so weird that basically of you press a button first, you'll get wrecked. But, again, the reason everyone got a bigger shield is because that's literally her thing. If those moves were easier to land she'd be broken as hell. Hell, too many moves kill at like 40% for her to be straight bad, but she's entirely too hard to use because her speed and wonky hitboxes. She's like a more complicated Ganon I guess.

@Xansies Chrom and Roy aren't straight rushdown characters though. They are still steeply within the spacing swordie archetype, they just have better rushdown than Marth or Lucina. They still get messed up up close by traditional rushdowners like Fox, Mario, Pichu, etc, because they just don't have the frames to compete. The range at which they control space is still significantly larger than that of most non-swordies thanks to their disjointed hitboxes.

Robin is a zoner and ledge trapper. Byleth is a swordie who has maybe two useful ledge trapping tools (forward smash and back air), and what else? Byleth doesn't use her specials to compensate for her generic tools but Robin absolutely has to. Robin can't juggle like any of the FE characters due to relatively small hitboxes and slow aerial drift but the sheer size of Byleth's up air and up tilt almost make up for her movement speed entirely. Due to how slow and unnecessary her specials barring up special are, I'd argue she's more like a slightly faster Ike than Robin, if anything. Idk your barometer for weird, but weird to me is characters like Olimar, Bayonetta, or Peach/Daisy.

Speaking of, Peach/Daisy and Samus/Dark Samus,

Peach is the only Mario character who plays like she does, so a reskin feels less egregious. I'd prefer Daisy was a skin in the same way Olimar/Alf are, but that's just the way the cookie crumbles. Metroid only has two unique representatives, and the franchise on the whole doesn't have many familiar faces just by proxy of the games being quite the isolated experience. I similarly would prefer if Dark Samus were just a skin and not an actual character slot but that feels like nice fan service for a series that couldn't really be padded up with characters without it. FE already has too many Marth-based sword characters. It didn't need Chrom. it didn't need Lucina given the existence of Roy. Quite different circumstantially, I'd argue.

EDIT: Didn't realise you'd replied to another commenter, comparing her to Ganon is absolutely more fitting than Robin, though I realise you were keeping your comparisons to FE, as I've done in my response here.

@duffmmann Since the character Came out I think the character plays way different than any of the other FE characters, Its Unique moves (different) which makes a fun character and makes you feel like your not even playing as a FE character. I like the character.