I don't know if its gonna be soon... I saw that the expect all the 6 new fighters to be released by December 2021.... releasing the next soon would be very very strange if they expect 6 fighters to take 2 years.
The thing that bothers me with this announcement is why would it take 2 years to develop 6 fighters? What could cause the development time for these character to be so long? How are they going to deal with a General Direct where they won't have Smash news and they don't warn people beforehand?
I think this is going to be the issue people have with this addition: the exceptions that Fire Emblem gets.
'If Robin missed it even by a day with Awakenings development cycle being along with Smash 4's development, he wouldn't be added. But he was able to make the deadline.'
'Yea, but DK Tropical Freeze was being done at the same time too. So is Dixie being added?'
'Well, that's different.'
'Three Houses is very popular and a success, so we should give them a character.'
'Yea, but Breath of the Wild and Sword/Shield were massive successes as well, one that was highly praised and the other record breaking. Are Zelda and Pokemon getting new characters?'
'Well, that's different.'
'Sorry Rex fans, but Xenoblade came out too late in cycle for him to be DLC, plus the DLC list is complete so he can't be added.'
'Yea, but Three Houses is coming out even later, so does that mean a FE character can't be added either?'
'Well, that's different.'
That, plus the Ultimate effect: Byleth shouldn't be a problem to be included. FE:3H was one of the most critically acclaimed games of last year and another breakthrough for the franchise. The problem with Fire Emblem in Smash is that it needs a complete restructuring on how it's representation is handled:
- 4 characters are based on one base with very small tweaks, when it could be all put together. One thing I liked with Byleth is putting all references in the alt colors, instead of all new characters.
- FE is a very character driven game, making people really attached for these characters, even if some lost their relevancy a long time ago. As such, one of the bast ways to represent the franchise is with Characters. However, so is Xenoblade and Zelda and they just put the main recurring characters for these franchises. If one-off characters from these franchises can't come in, what makes Fire Emblem different. It can also creates a problem where, if you were to put all one-offs, the roster would be gigantic and that won't happen.
- The main staples and constants of Fire Emblem are side content instead of the main representation. Characters like Anna and Tiki, which are much more predominant in the games, keep being sidelined for one-offs. The "weapon triangle" (a staple of the series) took this long to be included.
- It will be really difficult to replace / remove characters like Corrin, that while from a one-off game that can lose relevancy over time, no character can replace their play style (and removing will cause backlash again)
