Roberk
Smash Champion
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2018
- Messages
- 2,588
For the most part, it's been accepted that alts in Smash Bros are just palette swaps as completely different models would take up significant development resources. However, this changed in Smash 4 when multiple newcomers had alternate costumes
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that were different models compared to their base forms. Robin, Corrin, and Wii Fit Trainer all have notable male/female voice lines.
This got me thinking, can we rep more FE characters, mostly lords, by making them alternate costumes of existing Smash FE characters? Fire Emblem is said to have similar characters in the Smash community, especially lords, and that's pretty true on the surface level design-wise. However, what if this can be used to FE's advantage? What if the lords are so similar they can be carbon copies of each other gameplay-wise, using minimal effort but a payoff that would represent almost every lord in the 28-year-old franchise? The ones already in Smash's costumes already represent other characters like Marth's white alt representing Leif, Ike's white alt representing Chrom, Robin's alts representing multiple mages, and Lucina's alts representing many Awakening females.
My idea is to relegate most of the lords to Marth alts. People hate clones, they take extra time to balance, but alts should be welcomed as a fair compromise. While Leif and Chrom might be different from Marth and Ike respectively, Sakurai could take a few creative liberties and put them into Smash as alts among other characters.
Marth having (most) sword lords as costumes can go a long way when it comes to fully representing FE as a series as Marth, Alm, Seliph, Leif, Roy, Eliwood, Eirika, and Lucina can all fit into the rapier moveset that Marth is known for. They are similar when it comes to outfits as they all are infantry units who wear capes, minimal armor, and they wield/use swords in similar ways.
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Considering how there were completely different hair/body styles between the koopalings and the male and female alts in Smash 4 I don't see why all of these guys (and gals) can't fit into one character slot. Roy's more likely to keep his own slot since he just got brought back as DLC and was decloned, but who knows.
People speculated that Chrom would replace Ike in Smash 4 since they are both heavy/hard-hitting fighting wise. It would be perfect to just have Chrom be an Ike alt (or extremely low-effort clone if needed) since Chrom can fit quite well into Ike's moveset. One problem is Ike's up-special, Aether, where he throws his sword into the air before coming down with it is unique to Ike. Either Chrom as an alt can just do it as a creative liberty, or as a clone just do something akin to his own jumping attack. This move is actually pretty similar to Aether and could be justified on a clone, but it's probably better to avoid clones to reduce the impact on development. Another problem is that Ike's neutral special Eruption would not fit on Chrom. My suggestion is to have Chrom's version of the neutral special charge his sword and surround it with lightning instead of flames akin to his combos and specials in Warriors. These specials might push the boundary of alts being reskins of character models and not attacks, so Chrom as an alt is less likely than the Marth costumes. The point is that Ike and Chrom mostly fit well together aesthetically and (potential) moveset wise, letting Chrom "have his chance" through another character whilst not eating up significant development resources. This would be hard pull off, but it's possible. If it's not an Ike alt or clone, Chrom isn't getting in at all.
All I have to say about Robin is that Celica could work nicely as an alt since she also uses swords and tomes, but Shadows of Valentia magic is much different than regular FE magic. Plus, Robin already has a lot going on when it comes to development resources since they have two base models and voice actors. Celica could be a Marth alt since she was a Marth clone in Warriors. She'd fit right into the base form that I talked about earlier.
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3d model in Warriors could be a good reference for what she'd look like in Smash.
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While Corrin could fit into a Marth alt being a similar size and not anything hugely outstanding in their human form,
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the unique moveset in Smash 4 that utilized dragon powers, lances, and using the Yato differently than the Marth/rapier style is too unique to just throw away. Corrin having their own slot can be justified as Fates is still recent/the best selling mainline FE game, and Female Corrin is very popular. (Not Male Corrin though lul.)
Nothing can be said about the more unique lords like Hector wielding axes, Ephraim wielding lances, Micaiah using light magic, Lyn playing like a myrmidon/notably using katanas, and Sigurd only ever riding a horse. All of these lords would require their own slots, and that's something we are trying to cut down on here.
I know this isn't the most popular franchise in the community due to many controversies, but only representing a few lords is to FE as is not having grass types or Pokemon from more gens is to Pokemon. Or Ganondorf being a clone to The Legend of Zelda. I feel like there is so much potential in character alts being used to better represent a franchise rather than spending the time to balance a clone that most everybody would hate. I don't think that these costumes would take more than the work needed for the koopalings, and Smash 5 is definitely going to have a much larger budget to work with. With FE's recent boom in popularity and critical/commercial success as a flagship Nintendo franchise, I'm excited to see it's development in Smash.
This got me thinking, can we rep more FE characters, mostly lords, by making them alternate costumes of existing Smash FE characters? Fire Emblem is said to have similar characters in the Smash community, especially lords, and that's pretty true on the surface level design-wise. However, what if this can be used to FE's advantage? What if the lords are so similar they can be carbon copies of each other gameplay-wise, using minimal effort but a payoff that would represent almost every lord in the 28-year-old franchise? The ones already in Smash's costumes already represent other characters like Marth's white alt representing Leif, Ike's white alt representing Chrom, Robin's alts representing multiple mages, and Lucina's alts representing many Awakening females.
My idea is to relegate most of the lords to Marth alts. People hate clones, they take extra time to balance, but alts should be welcomed as a fair compromise. While Leif and Chrom might be different from Marth and Ike respectively, Sakurai could take a few creative liberties and put them into Smash as alts among other characters.
Marth having (most) sword lords as costumes can go a long way when it comes to fully representing FE as a series as Marth, Alm, Seliph, Leif, Roy, Eliwood, Eirika, and Lucina can all fit into the rapier moveset that Marth is known for. They are similar when it comes to outfits as they all are infantry units who wear capes, minimal armor, and they wield/use swords in similar ways.
People speculated that Chrom would replace Ike in Smash 4 since they are both heavy/hard-hitting fighting wise. It would be perfect to just have Chrom be an Ike alt (or extremely low-effort clone if needed) since Chrom can fit quite well into Ike's moveset. One problem is Ike's up-special, Aether, where he throws his sword into the air before coming down with it is unique to Ike. Either Chrom as an alt can just do it as a creative liberty, or as a clone just do something akin to his own jumping attack. This move is actually pretty similar to Aether and could be justified on a clone, but it's probably better to avoid clones to reduce the impact on development. Another problem is that Ike's neutral special Eruption would not fit on Chrom. My suggestion is to have Chrom's version of the neutral special charge his sword and surround it with lightning instead of flames akin to his combos and specials in Warriors. These specials might push the boundary of alts being reskins of character models and not attacks, so Chrom as an alt is less likely than the Marth costumes. The point is that Ike and Chrom mostly fit well together aesthetically and (potential) moveset wise, letting Chrom "have his chance" through another character whilst not eating up significant development resources. This would be hard pull off, but it's possible. If it's not an Ike alt or clone, Chrom isn't getting in at all.
All I have to say about Robin is that Celica could work nicely as an alt since she also uses swords and tomes, but Shadows of Valentia magic is much different than regular FE magic. Plus, Robin already has a lot going on when it comes to development resources since they have two base models and voice actors. Celica could be a Marth alt since she was a Marth clone in Warriors. She'd fit right into the base form that I talked about earlier.
3d model in Warriors could be a good reference for what she'd look like in Smash.
While Corrin could fit into a Marth alt being a similar size and not anything hugely outstanding in their human form,
Nothing can be said about the more unique lords like Hector wielding axes, Ephraim wielding lances, Micaiah using light magic, Lyn playing like a myrmidon/notably using katanas, and Sigurd only ever riding a horse. All of these lords would require their own slots, and that's something we are trying to cut down on here.
I know this isn't the most popular franchise in the community due to many controversies, but only representing a few lords is to FE as is not having grass types or Pokemon from more gens is to Pokemon. Or Ganondorf being a clone to The Legend of Zelda. I feel like there is so much potential in character alts being used to better represent a franchise rather than spending the time to balance a clone that most everybody would hate. I don't think that these costumes would take more than the work needed for the koopalings, and Smash 5 is definitely going to have a much larger budget to work with. With FE's recent boom in popularity and critical/commercial success as a flagship Nintendo franchise, I'm excited to see it's development in Smash.
