Isn't "Hero" a generic name considering all the heroes in Smash?

[Sean Wheeler]

So they announced the protagonist of Dragon Quest as the next character in the Fighter Pass. And what do they call him? It's not the expected names of Luminary or Erdrick. He's just "The Hero." While characters in Smash would get titles instead of given names, like how a character was named "Pokémon Trainer" instead of "Red," at least there were no other Pokémon Trainers on the roster. But there have already been so many heroes in Smash. Link has been called "The Hero of Time." Mario has always been saving Princess Peach and thwarting Bowser's plans. Kirby has saved not only Dream Land countless times but the other Fighters in the Subspace Emissary and World of Light. The Pokémon Trainer has made the terrorist organization Team Rocket disband. Sonic has superspeed comparable to The Flash and he saved Earth countless times. And the next DLC fighter is a bear who fought against an obvious parody of the Wicked Witch of the West. And don't get me started on the heroes from Fire Emblem. So why should we have a character called "Hero" if the Super Smash Bros. roster is practically Nintendo's Avengers?

 

[Jade_Rock]

Agreed I wish they went with Erdrick and Luminary. Eight doesn't really have a name and I think 4 is "solo"? Anyway, maybe they didn't want to put "Eight" but did want the DQ8 hero since that is the most popular in the west, so the general name was used.

Personally DQ8 is my favorite and this is better than actual names since I doubt we would have gotten him without this generic idea.

I think it was we don't have anything else to call him, so let's use this generic name.

 

[shinhed-echi]

Well.. the whole leak situation might have normalized it, but... Erdrick being named Erdrick instead of Hero is a huge spoiler. For the sake of those who haven’t tried DQ3 yet, and weren’t exposed to the name Erdrick, I’m glad they’ll get to experience an amazing way to finish an amazing trilogy if they plan on playing all 3.

 

[Deleted member]

Problem is that both Erdrick and Luminary are titles rather than names and the protagonists of IV and VIII are not really linked to any of them.

Hero is a class that is shared across all main characters that are in Smash so while a bit dry it makes a lot of sense.

 

[Sean²]

Couldn't their names show up differently depending on which skin you pick? Like Olimar/Alph and all the Koopalings? Did anything explicitly say he would solely be called "hero" ingame?

 

[Deleted member]

Couldn't their names show up differently depending on which skin you pick? Like Olimar/Alph and all the Koopalings? Did anything explicitly say he would solely be called "hero" ingame?

They could but Eight and Solo don't really have official names or titles. Eight is a nickname and Solo is the default name in the game but has other names depending on the adaptation (just like Joker)

 

[Blackwolf666]

Honestly I used to name all my DQ portags Hero. So I think it’s perfect.

 

[ryuu seika]

Honestly I used to name all my DQ portags Hero. So I think it’s perfect.

Yusha is a common name in lazy anime. Hiro is a common name in anime parodys. Hero is arguably a name, by extention. But "The Hero" is a descriptor.

 

[Namasura]

It is kinda driven from the Japanese language, where they have many words that in English would translated to Hero, but since there is such variety, each has a certain context.

Yuusha (勇者), one of these words, and The Hero's Japanese name, is so tied to Dragon Quest that the Japanese wikipedia page for it has a whole section about Dragon Quest.

 

[Ben Holt]

I agree that it should be Luminary, Erdrick, Eight, and Solo.
"Hero" is fine to describe all of them collectively, but it'll be weird to hear "Hero wins!" instead of their semi-canonical names.

 

[Captain Fun]

I agree that it should be Luminary, Erdrick, Eight, and Solo.
"Hero" is fine to describe all of them collectively, but it'll be weird to hear "Hero wins!" instead of their semi-canonical names.

Thing is, calling them semi-canon is being generous.

What they’re called, or which DQ protagonist is used doesn’t really matter too much. They’re non-characters in a way.

 

[Lamperouge]

I think that it works rather well.

 

[Strong Badam]

Considering the original Japanese for most of these characters, it's pretty reasonable to just name the character Hero. I follow a number of fluent JP speakers on Twitter and the localization is really all over the place for them. Japanese folks colloquially refer to them based on the # of the game in the series, if you watch reaction videos they go "Eight?? Three? Four??" etc in surprise for each one.

 

[Arcadenik]

The Dragon Quest protagonists usually don’t have canonical names. They are simply called “Hero” because that’s exactly what their roles are in their games.

Animal Crossing protagonists don’t have canonical names either. They are simply called “Villager” because that’s exactly what they are in their games.

 

[Sean Wheeler]

Dragon Quest character defeats Link in Smash.

Announcer: "The Hero wins!"

Link: "What am I? A villain?"

 

[Ben Holt]

Thing is, calling them semi-canon is being generous.

What they’re called, or which DQ protagonist is used doesn’t really matter too much. They’re non-characters in a way.

Erdrick is pretty damn canonical.
I haven't played 11, but considering everyone calls him "Luminary", even the trailer, I'll go with that.
Eight and Solo really are the tricky ******** here.
I just cringe at the idea of "Hero wins!" when we damn well know Erdrick's name.

 

[Captain Fun]

Erdrick is pretty damn canonical.
I haven't played 11, but considering everyone calls him "Luminary", even the trailer, I'll go with that.
Eight and Solo really are the tricky ******** here.
I just cringe at the idea of "Hero wins!" when we damn well know Erdrick's name.

Erdrick is a title, not a real name though.

In DQ 11 the Hero is referred to as “The Luminary” but it’s not his name. It’s just what the Hero of prophecy is referred to as. On top of that I’m pretty sure it’s a localization thing.

I think Hero works pretty well as an all encompassing name for them. It’s silly, but then again, so is Duck Hunt.

 

[Koopaul]

Dragon Quest character defeats Link in Smash.

Announcer: "The Hero wins!"

Link: "What am I? A villain?"

Yeah that's the thing. This game has tons of heroes already. So "Hero" holds nothing special for the DQ protagonists in a game that's bursting with them. "Villager" is fine since no other fighter could be described as one.

Perhaps if the English name was "Dragon Quest Hero" or something. It would be a better title to give to distinguish them from the other heroes. But "Dragon Quest Hero" is a mouthful. I guess there was little you could do.

 

[KingBroly]

Apparently "Hero" is something lost in translation. I feel like Erdrick would fit better, but I haven't played 4 or 8 to know if that's something those Heroes are called or not.

 

[Blackwolf666]

I just remembered the only times that Eight/the guv was addressed as anything but "you" was to call him "Our Hero" or in the old booklets that used to come encased with games "The Hero" that's what made me start calling all of the DQ heroes... "Hero"

 

[Nonno Umby]

It is kinda driven from the Japanese language, where they have many words that in English would translated to Hero, but since there is such variety, each has a certain context.

Yuusha (勇者), one of these words, and The Hero's Japanese name, is so tied to Dragon Quest that the Japanese wikipedia page for it has a whole section about Dragon Quest.

This.

While Hero might sound less impactful, Yuusha in Japan is iconic to Dragon Quest. Also Luminary and Erdrik aren't real names of those characters, just their title. It would be like calling Link "The Hero of Time", and when we have characters such as Villager and the Pokémon Trainer it really isn't new that characters without canonical names are addressed in Smash as their role in the original game.

 

[Deleted member]

Hero shoul've had a different name outside of Japan. It works in japanese, but it would have been better in my opinion to call them "Dragon Warrior" in localized versions, as a nod to Dragon Quest's original's English name, plus it just sounds more appealing.

 

[ShaunoftheRed]

We'll definitely get used to it. But at first it's gonna be a bit jarring hearing that announcer clip, I must say. I'd have just called them Luminary, Erdrick, Solo and Eight.

 

[Koopaul]

I gotta admit that "Dragon Quest Hero" is warming up to me in my mind. You still get the word Hero in there, it doesn't sound as generic to an English speaker, and it would be an accurate description of the character.

 

[PSIGuy]

Seconding Dragon Warrior. Clever and less generic, while also basically saying "guy from Dragon Quest" at the same time.

 

[TheYungLink]

While I'm okay with "Hero", I would put them more in line with characters like Pokémon Trainer, Wii Fit Trainer, and Mr. Game & Watch by putting their series name in there.

"Dragon Warrior" only works for people who know the trivia of what the series was originally called in the US, and "Warrior" is a class in the Dragon Quest games that only a few Heroes (like 6, 7, and I think 9) can join. So I'd call them "Dragon Quest Hero" if I had my way.

 

[TheLightningYu]

Animal Crossing protagonists don’t have canonical names either. They are simply called “Villager” because that’s exactly what they are in their games.

That's actually a good point. I find it rather curious that this topic exists for Hero, but not for the village

 

[Ben Holt]

At least Sakurai acknowledged their names.

 

[Oracle Link]

Yeah and im deeply offended
ya know because im Link

 

[Technomage]

I think it was we don't have anything else to call him, so let's use this generic name.

I've already thought of one: Dragon Quester

 

[t!MmY]

Protagonists as found in most games are not generic, they are known popularly as "Mario", "Link", etc. Mario is not known as "Hero of the Mushroom Kingdom" and Link is still called Link regardless of whatever heroic title he has for a given game. The reason is because those are titles they've given/earned are they're recognized by those titles, but titles are not names.

The same goes for "Erdrick" and "Luminary"; these are titles within their respective worlds, and the heroes of those games are known by those titles but it is not their name. Hero is a special case because the protagonists do not always have an official "name". From what I've heard, the protagonists of Dragon Quest are generally referred to as 勇者 (yuusha) in their country of origin, which is translated as Brave/Hero in English.

I think it works just fine to refer to them by their common name, translated. Individual nicknames could have worked too -- even as silly as "Eight" might have been -- but having a single name for all of them is perhaps for the best.

 

[Linkmain-maybe]

Erdrick is a title, not a real name though.

In DQ 11 the Hero is referred to as “The Luminary” but it’s not his name. It’s just what the Hero of prophecy is referred to as. On top of that I’m pretty sure it’s a localization thing.

I think Hero works pretty well as an all encompassing name for them. It’s silly, but then again, so is Duck Hunt.

DQ11 Spoilers!!!

Spoiler: Dont click if you have not finished DQ11

The Luminary is also technically an Erdrick, due to him getting the title from the Yggdragon in the true ending.