Ike: Sakurai viewed the
Fire Emblem series as a big franchise when making
Smash 64 and
Melee, and in a way, he proved himself correct; Marth and Roy’s popularity in
Melee gave Nintendo of Amerca justification to finally bring the series to the west with
Fire Emblem on the GBA. Just like
Kirby and
Metroid, there had been a new
Fire Emblem game every year since 2002 so the franchise was very relevant at this time. Sakurai did not know who to include, so he initially wrote down
“New Fire Emblem rep.” Intelligent Systems were the ones who told Sakurai to use Ike, just like how they advised him to use Roy in
Melee. Ike made sense as
Path of Radiance was the newest
Fire Emblem protagonist at the time of the project plan, and with its later Wii sequel,
Radiant Dawn, he would be the most prominent of the series’ characters for some time.
Looks like you are probably right as far as Sak. not having the same connection with Ike that he may have had with Marth... But that said I feel like Ike's moveset is pretty close to character.
Dash attack = attack animation from game.
Aether = up b / smash ball, translates the "ultimate" attack (no healing, but eh ;P)
Ike was a high HP medium-high defense high attack and medium speed hero within the universe, and he translated initially as a pure heavy, but in the later 2 games found his sweetspot as a heavy (not super heavyweight) to match his FE status. I think his Nair and Fair are very Ike-like in nature.
Only miss I see is maybe giving something around how ragnell was a ranged attack (side b could've been like a slow ranged falcon punch projectile or something). But Quickdraw seems thematic to me anyhow.
As far as the move itself, I think in 1v1 neutral it isn't very good unless you can cancel it by grabbing a ledge (thus basically isn't neutral at this point), get a hit on the low hit box on someone's body standing on a platform (so if they shield you fall to main stage) , or catch a fox trot in a laggy online match.
It's mostly unsafe on shield and even the foxtrot can trot shield it most likely if they aren't lagging
I do think you can kinda use it to stop short of someone since frame's are quicker exiting it without hitting anything vs. Hitting a shield and getting punished. (I. E. Use it to condition your opponent... Into thinking you are a noob :D, then start destroying with ikes aerials)
