Sakurai Addresses High Volume Of Sword Fighters In Smash (Again), Reminds Fans It's Not His Call

I never blamed you. also who is ready for there dream fighter to be crushed with the mii skins, Please no eggman, I'm calling FNAF right now for a mii skin.

Is it really that big of a deal?

Yeah, I know this is Nintendo's doing and their very weird and stupid decisions.

I mean, there's not as many as people make it seem like there are, and most of them play fairly uniquely. I remember when Shulk was announced I thought his playstyle was very unique and interesting, with the different monado arts.

There's only so much you can do with a sword alone, but I feel like they've done a good job keeping it varied. Some characters like Link, Steve, and Byleth don't even use their sword for all of their moves.

Master hand was.never the true enemy, only a puppet

its must be tough being in sakurais shoes, taking the heat for whatever nintendo throws into smash bros. and its a shame too cause he seems so genuine and passionate in his creations. in a previous showcase he had to hold back talking about "frame data" cause he was probably told not get too technical

It’s not even that bad. There are 20 sword fighters in a cast of 85+. That’s less than one in five, and that 20 even includes Ganondorf and Steve, who can barely even be considered sword fighters. There are tons of video games with sword fighters in them, hence the representation. It’s not disproportionate or inaccurate, plus the sword wielding characters all play dramatically differently. People just love to overreact and whine.

Who's nintendo, I mean, I would like to really know who in particular is the one calling the shots, Miyamoto? Furukawa? Someone else? 🤔🤔🤔

The problem mostly stem from Fire Emblem cast with a series that has more than just Sword Fighters but the majority of the series roster ends up using sword in Smash.

I realize there are only so many different fighting styles available for a game like this (basically coming down to Brawler, Sword fighter, and Ranged specialist, with some occasional overlap). I get why some folks are frustrated by the prevalence of Sword-wielding characters, but I think this particular reveal was especially disappointing not just due to that but also the fact that yet another remaining slot in the (possibly final) Season Pass was taken up by in-house Nintendo characters that frankly aren't household names and which I daresay no one really wanted (I'll bet that if a poll were taken Waluigi would have had a far better reception among fans).

There are still some truly iconic videogame characters out there which would bring not only exciting stages and a wealth of signature mechanics to the table, but incredible fan service as well. Here are just a couple:

1) Crash Bandicoot (Brawler): Remember the old commercials with the guy in the Crash suit "calling out" Mario at Nintendo headquarters? At long last the score could be "settled".

2) Master Chief (Brawler/Ranged/Sword): Chief's broad mix of attacks (all those different ranged weapons plus the Energy Sword), combined with Halo's iconic environments and musical score, make perfect sense if only Nintendo could hammer out a deal here. And what better Final Smash than the MAC Cannon? It would also be another welcome Western IP represented in a largely Japanese-centric roster.

Everyone in Street Fighter V fights bare-handed, I'm appalled at the lack of variety.

NINJA APPROVED

Swords are great, everyone should have one, give Mario a sword, give Peach a Sword! Make Samus’ beam shoot swords!! Super Sword Brothers Ultimate!!!

I really need sleep

I've got no problems with these picks or with sword fighters. In fact, a lot of my personal picks are sword fighters. Plus, sword fighters are actually in the minority. There are 18 sword fighters, 46 brawlers, and 20 fighters who use weapons other than swords. This is counting echoes, PKMN Trainer as one fighter, Pyra and Mythra as one fighter, and Miis. So, I don't believe the argument that 'there are too many sword fighters".

@thesilverbrick I think you're 100% right in that assessment. Gamers are a strange bunch, sometimes. 20/85 = too many, which is strange to me. People levy the same complaint at Dark Souls 2's bosses, saying they are all "dudes in armor." But then you look at the roster of 40+ bosses and you see that actually 10-12 of them are dudes in armor, the rest are strange monstrosities.

Kind of a societal thing, seeing everything as black and white, without acknowledging the grey area.

NINJA APPROVED (I like swords)

@MarinoKadame
Well the problem with that is that all the FE protagonists make use of swords. None of the axe or lance mains are iconic except for maybe Hector, Edelgard, or Dimitri.

Everyone remembers the main lords, that's why Smash has the main lords.

"Hardcore?" Smash Fans: We're so tired of anime sword fighters in Smash!!!!!!1

Me: OK, who would you like?

"Hardcore?" Smash Fans: I'm SOOOOO disappointed Dante didn't make it in...I might sell my Switch and buy a second PS4. Nintendo is so out of touch!

Me: Wait, Dante? Dante...the anime swordsman? I just...I don't even...I mean...sigh.

@Diogmites
Exactly. Which is why I'm glad we're getting more representation from Xenoblade Chronicles. Such an amazing RPG franchise.

@Diogmites If they put Mitsurugi from Soul Calibur, or Hanzo Hatori from Samurai Shodown, that might actually convince me to buy Smash LOL

You have excellent taste.

NINJA APPROVED

I don’t really mind the number of sword fighters, it speaks more to the lack of diversity in the gaming industry when it comes to unique fighting styles than being Sakurai’s problem. If the most popular series are all starring anime characters wielding swords then that’s not his fault.

Nintendo needs to give the man and his team some space.

Adding more sword characters has reduced creativity in character design. It always disappoints me to see another character introduced whose primary move set is almost identical to a quarter of the roster. Even if I like the character, the experience feels like an overpriced Mii costume than something fun to look forward to.

I don't really count Shulk and this fighter as a sword fighter like the old style knight because the weapons are more high technology and its used a little differently. Like how Shulk's blade gives you buffs and speed.

@GrandScribe I agree... give the man and his creative team some room to do what they want

Sakurai still holds enough sway over Smash picks to have final say on who gets added to the roster, as he has stated in the past, and characters like Joker and Terry smack of his personal preferences (for better, not for worse). So I dunno about this, but I will say the problem people tend to have isn't an abundance of sword characters - it's that there are 8 Fire Emblem characters all using swords.

@Obito_Sigma
To be fair, you could argue the same for pure-brawlers like Terry. He's derivative since he has combos and fighting inputs like Ryu and Ken do.

@PikaPhantom
Chrom and Lucina are echo fighters who are counted as the same character as their originals so technically there are only 6.

Robin uses magic, not just a sword.
Corrin transforms their body, not just a sword.
Byleth uses a lance, axe, and bow, not just a sword.

They don't play remotely the same.

Swords just so happen to be the most common weapon in video games. There's nothing anyone can do about it.

Pretty boring addition I’d say.In a game that’s supposed to represent a great battle of video game champs these two just seem out of place amongst greats like Mario, sonic, and megaman.

@JR150 There are still basically 4 different variants of Marth, Ike also revolves around his sword, and Byleth kind of fails in their core design of using multiple weapons to make them different from other swordfighters when the spear has a tipper mechanic akin to Marth and the axe moves hit harder like Ike or Ganondorf's smash attacks.

And Aymr is just Hatchet Man.

Robin and Corrin, sure, but overall, I think my point still stands

since I'm in a soul calibur mood I have no problem with another sword fighter.

When you realise sword is most commonly used weapon in games yet still complain

@JR150 And guns, but they seem to be opposed to guns for the most part. I would like to see them get more creative, though.

My outlandish Smash pick would be Alex Roivas from Eternal Darkness. Imagine if the B attacks were runes to assemble your own spells and the ultimate was some insanity related attack like "crashing" your Switch or glitching out the game in some way.

I normally joke about the over-abundance of Fire Emblem characters and such, but generally these Xenoblade characters are fine. They are definitely the "Nintendo request" character, but their designs are unique and they seem to play as more than basic "swordfighters." I think the bigger complaint is the simple over-saturation of certain franchises, such as Fire Emblem, over others. The "swordfighter" problem would be solved in my opinion if Fire Emblem simply had fewer fighters.

I've seen a lot of complainers, many of them never having played a Xenoblade game before.

We can make Shantae a reality Sakurai

@blodermoder Man, whatta bunch of jokers!

I'm not too bothered as long as the fighter doesn't feel like a clone of another fighter and thankfully that's never really the case, personally i'm more interested in the fighter itself then what style they have hence why i really want Dante even though he would be sword fighter. As Sakurai god bless him, he really does seem like a person who just wants to please and i'm so thankful we have him making these games.

@JR150 I always thought with FE characters add different units like Hector or Ephraim. Spear and Axe units.

People only whine about sword fighters when it's not the sword fighters THEY want (Dante, Sora, Lloyd Irving, etc.).

Two of my most wanted's would be swordies (Alex Roivas [assuming she wasn't given her guns] and Adol Christin), so I can't in good conscience join them in their hypocrisy.

Well, maybe people like to play characters that hold stuff in their hands. (Hmm, that might be too vague of an answer.) Hehe

People only whine because they didn't get the character they wanted.
Xenoblade is one of Nintendo's most sucessful IPs (of not many lol), they deserve the recognition just Like arms and Splatoon had. Rex was suposed to get in the game if it wasn't for the late timing of Xenoblade 2.
Nintendo's IPs will get priority over third parties for obvious reasons.
You don't have to like every Nintendo first party game, and so, you don't have to like every new fighter. It's commom sense. I don't like Minecraft, yet I'm not complaining Steve is in. People need to calm down and let others apreciate they favorite new fighters. Bunch of spoiled brats.

Some of the most wanted characters are even swordfighters. Dante, Sora, Isaac, Yoshimitsu, Ryu Hayabusa I believe weilds a katana, Monster Hunter though same as Byleth can be considered a sword weilder depending on the moveset. The issue is not about the swords, it's about some fans not getting what they want. As for me, I'd love to have Isaac, Crash, Jin, Scorpion, and I'd even understand it if a Monster Hunter rep gets in coz that makes sense.

I just think they could have found some better characters and/or franchises. But hey, it’s more content for a game that has a ton of content already. May or may not pick up extra fighters.

Nintendo has made multiple, questionable decisions for Smash. I'm still upset with the way the Zelda franchise is represented in comparison to Fire Emblem.

@ModdedInkling
To be fair, Zelda has loads of items and stages while Fire Emblem has only ONE item (Killing Edge) and only four stages. Two of which that aren't direct references to any particular game. (Castle Siege and Coliseum are a generic mashup of various places from the series). Meanwhile, every Zelda stage represents an exact point in its history. Hyrule Castle, Spirit Train, Gerudo Valley, Temple, Bridge of Eldin, Skyloft, Great Plateau Tower, and so on.

Representation is more than just playable characters. In terms of of items and various nods to its series, Zelda has far more than Fire Emblem does.

@Wavey84 What is amazing is there are so many great characters in Smash that we're kind of running out of picks so we're at a spot that Mike Jones can be on there from a series no one has heard about in 25+ years

A lot of your picks are great, but I don't know how relevant they are today. On your list Bonk is my favorite, and with some kind of Air Zonk transformation that would be incredible!

@JR150
It's moreso quality over quantity that I'm talking about. More items and stages don't have as big of an impact to me as Fighters.

There were several missed opportunities when it comes to Zelda fighters, most famously being that Young Link's final smash is not the Fierce Deity.

Toon Link incorrectly represents Spirit Tracks when he should only apply to The Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass.

Unlike other Fighters with alternative skins and voices (ie: Ike having younger and older incarnations), neither Zelda nor Ganondorf retain their counterparts from older Smash games. Similar can be said with Link, but in the sense of Echo Fighters.

Where Charizard returned to Pokémon Trainer, Zelda and Sheik remain separate Fighters.

Those are only some examples of why I believe the Zelda franchise has poor representation in Smash.

@ModdedInkling
It may not have an impact to YOU personally, but to the average person that plays the game and to Nintendo, that's all that really matters. Smash is about more than just the fighters. It's about where they fight and the items they smash each other around with. That is Super Smash Bros at its core. FE may have more fighters but it has almost no items and no really memorable stages. It's six in one hand and half a dozen in the other.

Granted, yes, I agree they could bring in more stuff from Zelda like new characters or Echoes, but let's stop acting as if Fire Emblem is the bad guy for having some things that another IP does not. FE isn't forcing Zelda to have less representation. That's not how it works.

If you want Zelda to have more representation, then speak your mind about more Zelda representation. FE has nothing to do with it.

The sword fighters problem is just people hating on FE.

Sephiroth got so much hype when he was announced. So did Steve.

Also if people don't want another sword user in smash, WHY do they keep asking for them?

Sora, Dante, etc

Best game
Best director
Worst fanbase

@kuri4
You could say that about any "good" game with a fanbase.

Look at Undertale, Sonic, and FNAF's bad sides...

Fighters with history: Terry, Hero, Banjo and Kazooie

And then there's Steve...

The Smash community strikes me as almost as hard to please as the Pokemon community. Almost.

I still like Xenoblade way more than Smash anyway. I was pretty pleased to see Xenoblade getting some love with this release. But now I'm just annoyed at all the Smash fanboys bashing on one of my favorite games just because Pyra uses a sword.

Some fandoms are never happy.

Reactions to Smash picks are kinda like reactions to Nintendo Direct: a lot of people get super salty if the one hyper-specific thing they care about isn't shown. But, here's the thing: every character is going to have its own cheering section and make some section of the fanbase happy, which is what I try to remember when a character I don't care about is picked.

And the complaint about "anime sword fighters" is stupid, since so many of them play different. Characters like Cloud, Shulk, and Pyra are all radically different in terms of how they control.

@AtlanteanMan If "nobody really wanted" Pyra, she wouldn't have been highly requested in polls asking people who they want in the game. Personally, she's my favorite pick since Joker.

@AtlanteanMan I really wanted Pyra. Extremely happy she is in. Easily one of my favorite female Nintendo characters, so yes there are people very excited about her.

@Zach777 i agree. I mean look it like this. What's the most common weapon for a hero? Like it or not. It's blades.

@blodermoder THANK YOU

Esp the ppl claiming ''she doesn't deserve it.'' Yet know nothing on Xenoblade. The game xb2 was a massive hit despite flaws. So yes. It is part of gaming history. More than stuff like geno.

Marketing seems to hold sway than the game designers at Nintendo these days... Sad.

@thesilverbrick The argument is more so swords are used more as opposed to ‘these specific other weapons.’ Plenty of weapon-wielding characters use something other than a sword, including lances, axes and other weaponry primarily.

The number really isn't that high when you consider how many characters use their fists.

Piranha plant was a weird curious pick, that nobody asked for.
More of that kind of thinking, please

It's like complaining over Street Fighter or Tekken cos they punch and kick.

Crash Bandicoot is 25 years old this year and would be a great addition.

But yeah, kinda sad he‘s not able to be part of the final decision. He basically created the series and didn‘t take care of his own health a few to get these games done.

Don't see the big issue the whole cast is broken up into brawler, sword and ranged.
Like any built in charcter weapon be it sword or hammer more or less functions same as reach in game.
You don't think another brawler or fists character.
Plenty of video game characters use swords or close to swords.
Feel the general Internet just gets obsessed with certain things and won't stop going on about it.
Plenty of highly requested potential picks use swords .

Honestly it's fine. Almost all of the dlc fighters so far have felt fairly unique compared to what's already in the game, and I'd argue that's more important than what type of weapon they use

People need to chill and realise not every pick is just for them.
Like fighter pass 1 based on games I like or play persona and yes even fire emblem were ones I would be in those fanbases.
I like minecraft enough but not super into it, never played dragon quest or was interested in Banjo back in my n64 days.
But even if I'm not personally thrilled I'm happy tp see them in as options and for their fans
Also each picks not going be like Snake, Megaman or Sonic tier A iconic video game characters levels of mass appeal.

Y'all lost the "too many sword characters" argument when you folks said nothing about Sephiroth.

I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone genuinely complain about the number of sword fighters - moreso people commenting about the complaints. But, as pointed out, one in five or so characters wielding a sword in a roster of 85+ is nothing to complain about...you might as well complain that too many characters in Street Fighter use their fists.

At the very least, I can understand the complaints of too many similar Fire Emblem characters (we already had Marth, Roy and Lucina filling essentially the same role...and then they added Chrom). But this is the same old issue of echo fighters not taking the place of entirely unique characters. You can hardly argue that Link, Sephiroth, and Shulk all play the same. And what happened to people wanting Ganondorf to use his sword?

The bottom line is, Smash Ultimate probably has the most diverse roster of any fighter ever. To complain about a character wielding a sword (or being a sword, which isn't exactly a mundane concept) is silly IMO.

I never had a problem with sword fighters in Smash. It’s a lot them, but there’s also a lot of characters who don’t use swords too.

I still never understand how people are upset about Nintendo adding a leading character from the latest game in their No.1 JRPG series to their Nintendo crossover game.
And just as surprised that they can't comprehend that a lot of video game characters, especially the main characters, wield swords, so you're going to get a lot of swordies in Smash. And it's not even a high percentage of the roster.
It seems rather childish to me, but hey, I've seen tons of new Pyra/Mythra art lately so at least most artists aren't salty about this.

The problem isn't really the amount of sword fighters. It's the amount of complaining about sword fighters is the problem.

lol

So like, if a bag has 100 colored socks in it, and 80 socks are red ... you're going to end up with a lot of red socks if you pull from that bag.

It's that freaking simple. You know why their are a bunch of sword fighters in Smash? Because there are a bunch of sword fighters in all of fantasy and gaming. It's been the go-to weapon from day one. You would really need to push the envelope and leave out a ton of fan favourites if you wanted to keep the sword fighters out of the game.

@BloodNinja The whole point of SSB is to be an unusual fighting game with variety. If i want to play play SF (no weapons) or Soul calibur (weapons) those games are great. I play smash because pac man and snake are in the same game. That makes every instance of similarity a slight missed opportunity for me. What's nice though is that this new sword character seems like a varied and innovative sword character.

@Yattaze simple, these characters you mentioned are all from classic Nintendo games.Ice climbers, piranha plant in Mario of course, an echo fighter of pit is simple to do so why not. R.O.B has been featured in the likes of fzero, warioware, mariokart, and was an nes accessory so yes he’s iconic. Wii fit trainer represents Wii fit that was in many a household. All of these you mentioned I get why they’re here, they fit. Another xenoblade character,, not so much, when there’s so many other heavy hitters out there from franchises not represented. Ninja gaiden, crash bandicoot, overwatch, halo, doom, etc. Back of the line xenoblade, you’ve already got a rep.

About 25% are sword fighters. You'd swear that it was the other way round (75%).

@TYRANACLES well yeah, i guess. It is still a unique character gameplaywise, just like every DLC Character so far. It was also one of the bigger releases on Switch and Xenoblade is becoming a bigger franchise, there is always something to complain on. If Terry Bogart gets in, some don't like it because they don't know the guy at all, if Byleth gets in it is just another fire emblem char, piranha plant is something nobody wanted and so on

@AtlanteanMan I love that the XC2 characters are in and certainly wanted them all along! (That alone proves that your claim that "nobody" wanted them is wrong.) In fact, they're my favorite fighters of Fighter Pass 2 so far!

You can't just expect all the DLC characters to be 3rd party, anyway. People love Min-Min's inclusion, as well.

@Diogmites They did go with diversity by going with Xenoblade this time, which only has one other fighter, which is low for a 1st/2nd party series.

As for other RPG series, sorry but "Final Fantasy" and "Dragon Quest" are really the only 3rd party RPG series that are popular enough among the strict 3rd party standards to deserve Smash Bros. representation. Maybe the "Tales" series, but even that's a stretch. As for other Nintendo RPGs, Isaac from "Golden Sun" would be a decent pick if he weren't already an Assist Trophy...

As for fighting games with swords, I certainly wouldn't mind seeing a "Soulcalibur" character in the game...

@BloodNinja
Does Vegas claws and Roses scarf not count as weapons?

@HeadPirate Yeah it's like Cloud and Sephiroth use swords...but you're not going to find equally as iconic JRPG characters who are largely recognisable even by people who haven't played the game. Because typically these characters are side characters.

Across the entire FF series the only characters left who may be recognisable by non-players AND don't use swords are Aerith or Yuna from FFX-2 where she uses guns and maybe Kefka. But they don't come close to Cloud or Sephiroth.

I hope they make a Fighter's Pass Season 3 and this time choose fighters from the player's ballet. Fighter's Pass Seasons 1 & 2 were all Nintendo's selections but give fans the chance to run with Fighter's Pass Season 3. It should be fun with both the fans and Nintendo on that with the eligibility being that the characters had to originate from a videogame series and had a history on Nintendo's platforms.

I like all the sword fighters but proportionally, yeah, there is too many

@Wavey84 You have some good points!
Nintendo did a poll sometime between Smash 4 and when Ultimate came out and Simon Belmont was at the top of that (though I can't seem to dig it up now) oddly enough. So even if Castlevania is lacking from Konami, gamers still know and love it - and that's shown with the popularity of Bloodstained and it's kickstarter campaign.
I think the issue with most of the retro characters on your list is they're not even Nintendo first party. Game & Watch, ROB, Duckhunt, Pit.. all Nintendo. So for Nintendo to champion something like Bub & Bob, or Bonk... well Hudson Soft hasn't been around in ages... RIP Mr. Higgins.

As far as relevance, if you look at the views on YouTube alone for characters... Sephiroth has 1.5m views, where Steve from Minecraft has 4.3m.
Steve... compared to Sephiroth...

As someone who knows all the characters on your list... this figure of course makes me want to vomit, as I would rather anyone on your list show up 1,000x over the Fortnite guy haha

So as much as I love seeing something like those, I can't see Nintendo ever doing it, but who knows!
On a positive note, we're at least at a point where the odds of some of these actually showing up are greater than a lost dream!
Thanks for the discussion

the guy who made 80+ fighters of which most play very differently shouldn't be coming in a position where he should apologize.

Smash is a piece of gaming art. Most fighers feel so unique, whether they're wielding a sword or not. Such an incredible achievement!

@GameOtaku Dang it!

And of course they do, but I was being facetious because all these articles are framing smash players like they complain about stuff like that.

NINJA APPROVED

@Porky I see that rationale for the Fire Emblem characters, but canonically the other characters included use swords (and only swords) in their original games. It would be rather foolish to randomly and arbitrarily give Sephiroth a lance or Pyra an axe. Smash Bros is about honoring games via their source material, not creating a weapons wish list and characters to fit around it. The bottom line is, sword wielding characters are very, very common in video games, so you’re going to see a handful of them in Smash. It’s about accurate and proportionate representation of games, and anyone who thinks there are too many sword characters clearly isn’t looking at it objectively and just wants to complain.

@Zach777 Depends on your personal taste. Having more sword fighters means having less variety. Variety is the spice of life after all. I would prefer to have a spear fighter instead of another sword fighter personally

Hope for Mortal Kombat characters in smash
(probably won't happen but not impossible)

Scorpion or Sub-Zero would be nice

You know I was so mystified by how stupid it is that people think there is anything here other then the fact that a lot of cool people use swords I didn't see the added stupid of people who can't understand why then went with Xenoblades instead of ... I guess literally anything else.

What a mystery indeed. Why would Nintendo, a publicly traded company obligated to turn profit for it's shareholders, add a first party property that although having a dedicated fan base and critical acclaim hasn't reached the mainstream into the video game they make that sold 20 million copies?

Let's ask the Inklings, maybe they have an idea!

@thesilverbrick You got it all wrong. I'm saying there are character choices with other weaponry that could had got in over more Sword users. There is a certain lack of Hammer users for instance thay could add in the variety it lacks.

I don’t necessarily mind sword fighters, although I would love to see the next fighters be from another genre (other than rpg) and visually more unique.

@Porky What hammer wielding characters are good candidates in terms of importance to Nintendo/gaming and feasibility of inclusion? Genuinely curious. What I’m trying to say is that characters aren’t chosen because of what weapons they wield, but rather their legacy and relevance to Nintendo and gaming. There just happen to be a ton of sword wielding characters in games, so they wind up being represented quite a bit in Smash.

I'm still holding out for the Doom Slayer, I really hope he gets in! 🤞🏻

I still have high hopes for Arle Nadja to make it into Smash as a DLC fighter

(She is from the Puyo Puyo / Madou Monogatari games, go google how old that series is)

I'm more surprised at the lack of darker skinned human'ish characters; Twintelle, Marina, Elma, Urbosa would have been great additions to Smash.

I am not disappointed one bit in Pyra/Mythra. I am probably one of the few but I would love to see Earthworm Jim in Smash. Especially since they are making a new game for him with the new Intellivision console.

Can anyone honestly blame him for being done with the franchise and not wanting to make another game.

All that stress, reducing your life expectancy with another 10 years making such a game, dealing with critique, facing backlash because of endless stupid decisions by Nintendo.

The ratio of fighters for smash. Divided up into catagories so Brawler/Gunner/Swordfighter.

So
Brawlers: 57
Gunners: 11
Swordfighter: 16, 17 if you count Pyra/Mythra who hasn't been released at the time of posting this comment

Takeaway? Smash players need to stop complaining about Swordfighters. While not the minority they are severely outnumbered.

@Zach777 Unfortunately there are ALOT of people who get mad whenever a new fighter makes it to Smash and it's not a character that THEY want. They'll even go as far as to hate any character that's either
1. A sword fighter or Fire Emblem character (they say that Sakurai shows favoritism towards FE despite the fact that Mario characters far outnumber them)

or

2. A character from a JRPG (they'll yell "who's that?!" and complain that the character is from a "trash franchise" or is "not popular).

Long story short: Western Smash "Fans" are very, VERY entitled...

@JuiceMan_V Actually they did. ALOT were pissed about him.

@Devilsblight86

No, a majority of y'all wasn't.

He was well received because he was Sephiroth, but y'all started crying and moaning over Pyra/Mythra because it wasn't who you guys wanted or thought was cool enough.

Basically, you folks only hate sword characters when it's the ones you guys don't want.

He's lying per usual. It was 1000% his call and it it were really a problem he would have changed the weapon or fighting style.

@JuiceMan_V Why are you adding me into this? I never complained about Sephiroth. I was actually excited when he got announced for Smash. I'm also very happy that we got Pyra and Mythra. And of you look two comments above yours, you'll see that I literally called Samsh "fans" entitled. Plus if you looked through Twitter, there's literally angry tweets about Sephiroth and how he's, as those idiots called him, "another anime swordsman." Spinbab literally has a video on these idiots.

https://youtu.be/mLk7d2aKE8o

There’s enough variety in that game, I’m not sure why people are always moaning. Surely if you don’t like the new characters, don’t use them 🤷🏼‍♂️