What is up with Smash Bros. giving Fire Emblem weird representation?

[kyoskue]

Ike's a powerful character mostly due to his high all-around stats rather than being slow and hitting like a pickup truck like in Brawl. Ragnell also shoots beams at distant targets in FE, but in Smash it explodes with Phire. Aether heals Ike in FE, but not Smash.
Then Robin gets to use Nosferatu as a Tactician and the Levin Sword lacks its beams.

Its like they go out of their way to make sword users MORE similar when it comes to their ranged aspects, its weird.

 

[Wintropy]

Balance. Shooting laser beams and lightning bolts from a sword would break the characters and not translate well into a fighting game.

It's fine in Fire Emblem, where battles are scripted and the animations are just there for show and flavour, but in a fighting game with an actual physics engine and hitboxes, it needs to be taken into account and duly balanced.

 

[kyoskue]

Fair enough in theory, but considering that Shulk's Monado has huge range and the fact that the game already HAS projectiles in it its obviously a choice based on how they decided to build the character.
Ike really has no excuse for having Eruption at all, and considering Kirby's Final Cutter fires a beam without being even close to OP its pretty obvious that Ragnell or the Levin Sword could've had a beam firing move.

Don't get me wrong; I actually really enjoy playing as Ike and Robin, but I do find it to be a weird quirk of the Smash series. That, and why Mario keeps getting F.L.U.D.D. despite how it was only featured in one game but Luigi never got the Poltergust as a move despite having his fear of ghosts becoming a major part of his character (although at least its his Final Smash now) .

 

[Wintropy]

Well, yeah, but the question is, do they need those moves? Ike's Eruption is a shout-out to the fact that he's the Hero of Blue Flames, and possibly a remnant of Roy's moveset; Robin doesn't need to shoot lightning bolts because they've got four variations of the Thunder tome.

I get that it'd look cool and be relevant to the games, I've got your back on that note, but relevance isn't everything. Sometimes it just works better when Smash takes a few creative liberties.

 

[kyoskue]

No, they don't really need them.
Ike wasn't called the hero of Blue Flames until Radiant Dawn I believe, his his Brawl Eruption had red fire. Agree on the Thuder thing for Robin, but why not give him a different sword then if they weren't going to even reference its primary function?

Sort of agree, but Smash is basically a giant nostalgia trip of all things Nintendo, so being relevant to source material is kind of a big deal.

 

[Wintropy]

No, they don't really need them.
Ike wasn't called the hero of Blue Flames until Radiant Dawn I believe, his his Brawl Eruption had red fire. Agree on the Thuder thing for Robin, but why not give him a different sword then if they weren't going to even reference its primary function?

It's an iconic weapon in its own right and it has electrical properties. It's a small thing, but it still distinguishes it from every other sword, up to and including Robin's Bronze Sword.

Sort of agree, but Smash is basically a giant nostalgia trip of all things Nintendo, so being relevant to source material is kind of a big deal.

It is, but there's a point at which it's equally valid to try something new. We can thank creative liberties for Cap, Sheik, Fox, Ness...~ ;3

 

[Coolpool2]

The levin sword was pretty much made for the tactician class that Robin has. Even if they only use it to shoot lightning in awakening it fits Robin pretty well. If they made the sword shoot lightning then there isn't really another type of magic tome for Robin's neutral magic move.

 

[kyoskue]

The levin sword was pretty much made for the tactician class that Robin has. Even if they only use it to shoot lightning in awakening it fits Robin pretty well. If they made the sword shoot lightning then there isn't really another type of magic tome for Robin's neutral magic move.

Pikachu has multiple electric attacks, as long as they look and function differently then it doesn't matter WHAT element it is.

 

[Coolpool2]

Well there are 4 elements for tomes in FE Awakening, fire, wind, electric and dark tomes. That's kind of what I meant. That said I see your point.

 

[kyoskue]

Yeah, what was up with the lack of Light Magic in that game anyway?
That and Weight, yeesh.

 

[Coolpool2]

Well they removed the magic triangle, so I guess there wasn't really a place for light magic unless they had spells with special effects like nosferatu.

 

[kyoskue]

Well they removed the magic triangle, so I guess there wasn't really a place for light magic unless they had spells with special effects like nosferatu.

They could've easily used the GBA's simpler version of the magic triangle, not having a magic triangle at all was a pretty weird choice.

 

[AC NuBurs]

I feel like they did the best they could with robin, We got weapons that degraded over time, multiple tomes/swords and different effects and tricks with each move and tome. Its a hell of a lot bettre representation than the other fire emblem reps, which is just "they have a sword and they hit things with said sword I guess".

Also, if they DID stick to how the game works, then you should see how arcfire looks in awakening, seriously go boot up the game and look now. In smash, its a small ball of fire that explodes, in awakening its this gigantic wave of fiery death. I think that would make robin just a tad broken lol.

 

[Coolpool2]

Well they could have chosen to turn arcfire into bowser or charzard's flame breath.

 

[ActionShot]

Arcfire's animation comes from the GBA games, and not Awakening. It was a small detail that shows that Robin is trying to represent Fire Emblem as a whole with his kit, and not just Awakening.

 

[kyoskue]

I noticed that too, it was a pretty cool idea to do that.

 

[FieryRebirth]

While we're on that topic, Ike's moveset was compared as well. It's based on an inexperienced, but hardy and determined two-handed sword wielder(with one hand, of course - Ike's wrist must be made of steel). If you pay attention to his attacks in both PoR and RD, you'll see similarities.

 

[kyoskue]

While we're on that topic, Ike's moveset was compared as well. It's based on an inexperienced, but hardy and determined two-handed sword wielder(with one hand, of course - Ike's wrist must be made of steel). If you pay attention to his attacks in both PoR and RD, you'll see similarities.

Yeah, I think that Quick Draw is based on his seldom seen non-lethal Critical animation.
Still, I think that Fire Emblem is amongst the more strangely represented series in Smash.
I guess that Earthbound and Star Fox have kind of weird representation too though.

 

[SalsaSavant]

I think part of the reason they chose the Levin sword was because of how weird it looks.

In battle, you and your opponents will have a fraction of a second to tell what sword he's using. If he used a more standard sword in place of the Levin, it may at times be hard to quickly identify it when you're dealing with three other things. Non-Robin users may not even notice!

A crazy, notched sword though? Instantly noticeable, and it tells the opponent exactly what they got hit with, and why it did more damage.