No they indeed made up the Giant Sword fighting style in Hyrule Warriors. And I think that personally, it's a great style fitting for Smash. Imagine a agile, light weighted character with long range, heavy blows and great jumps? Not exactly a rushdown character, because she'd probably have too much endlag for that, but still it's an archetype that's not yet into Smash. The only thing I imagine comes close is
on Speed / Jump Monado Arts.
Still, Hyrule Warriors now is getting a 3DS release- so that makes it far more possible to get any sort of notice in Smash Bros. And Impa is Link's first actual ally in that game, and the two handed blade style was first used by Link, in Ocarina of Time. So it's certainly a quite iconic fighting style, even if Impa totally does something else with it than Link. Look at how many weapon styles Link has in Hyrule Warriors, but none for the Biggorron Sword. Young Link comes closest with the Fierce Deity Mask, but it's Impa who has the actual Biggorron Sword.
I'm actually down for Impa in all sort of ways. I'd accept her inspired by Hyrule Warriors, with either the Biggorron Sword, or Naginata -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q9x4yjxKis ,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwWTYcFgHZo - or even better, a combination of both styles, where she summons both weapons through magic (like she does in the videos, with the elemental spears as projectiles and the weapons actually being summoned out of nothing, like
does it).
Or, if we're getting Skyward Sword Impa, I'd want her to use the Timeshift Orbs to manipulate time, and use her barrier to be a more defensive character, being a sort of mix between
and
. Zoning with magical powerful attacks, and casting barriers like
. But agile and combo-based as
. Maybe make her more defensive than both to.
And yet another possibility is her being a semi-clone of
, but with statistical changes added to her. Imagine
and
or
. Yet, I feel that
and Impa could easily be as unique compared to each other as the likes of
in relation to
. Or
in relation to
. Definiate similarities, but still hugely different and can only be compared on a shallow level.
Remember how everyone said that
could never get in due to being too similar to
?
Same was said about
in relation to
.
Am really looking out for when they release
, cause if they could create
in such a short time, the time they might've spend what we think is development time for Wolf and a Ballot Character, could actually be spend on more semi-clones like
... And I easily think that Impa and Dixie Kong are the best contenders for these extra DLC character. Both are from relatively big series with no newcomer yet, so they are saver additions than most others. And they've recently showed up their face again in their respective franchises- and both are actually famous enough for most DKC and Zelda fans to recognise.
I really hope am right with this all. Because whatever will happen with the choice of a Ballot Character, I'd be more than satisfied with the roster if it has both Impa and Dixie Kong.
EDIT: Moveset I made just now:
