"I am Ogma, a mercenary from Talys. If you need strength put to a task... I'm your man."
Who is Ogma?Ogma is a character who debuted in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light as a playable unit. He also makes appearances in Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, the remakes of both aforementioned games (Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem), Fire Emblem Heroes, and the universally-acclaimed title Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE.
Ogma is notable for being the first Mercenary recruited in both Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and Mystery of the Emblem. Relative to the other units you are able to use early on in the game, Ogma is incredibly useful. His high speed allows him to reliably double a lot of enemies in the early to mid-game, something that is crucial in Fire Emblem titles. And although his usefulness in the late-game can falter due to his meager growth rates, many people still find themselves using him in their playthroughs.
Why Ogma?
As previously stated, Ogma is a very popular unit that people use in their playthroughs of the Archanean games. Because he is the first Mercenary recruited in the games as well as the one with the highest overall base stats, most people likely had Ogma in their party. And because most people had him in their party, a lot of people grew attached to his character. Maybe it's because they had a clutch moment with him where he barely survived an attack. Maybe he was their MVP when they played through the game. No matter what the reason is, everyone had their own story with Ogma; their own personal attachment to the character. Don't believe me? Let's take a look at some early Smash polls.
If there was a Smash 2 Poll
Okay, so this is really old but I haven’t been able to find a good comprehensive translation of the Sakurai’s column back when Smash 64 came out. It’s really interesting to see ho…
sourcegaming.info
Did you notice something? Yes, Ogma is the only non-lord character listed in requests from the Fire Emblem series. In fact, he as much votes as the lords of Genealogy of the Holy War and Thracia 776 combined. He even has more votes than characters who would actually end up as playable characters, such as Falco, Pit, the Ice Climbers, Mega Man, and Sonic.
Want more proof?
Characters on Sakurai's Poll
*McFox EDIT* I'm Sticking this topic, because tons of people are still looking for it, and it could provide some useful information. it could mean any number of things, but i think it's worth noting that these are the poll entries/suggestions from japanese fans that Sakurai has presented to the...
smashboards.com
Whuh-bam!
It is important to note that there are Fire Emblem characters that aren't lords included on this list- such as Caeda, Navarre, Soren, and Mia- but there's something special about Ogma. He doesn't just have one request, he had two. The only other Fire Emblem character to have more than one request is Ike, and we all know what happened to him.
Now I know what you're probably thinking, "These requests are outdated!" "No one still cares about Ogma!" Well, allow me to show you some more modern polls: the Fire Emblem Choose Your Legends polls.
For the first CYL poll in 2017, Ogma's Shadow Dragon incarnation placed 129th with a total of 2,229 votes. If you include both incarnations of him, the total amount of votes bumps up to 3189. That may not sound like much, but this placed him above notable lords such Seliph, Alm, Celica, and Leif as well as notable fan-favorite characters such as Lyon, Arvis, Rutger, Jill, and Wrys. His support has declined over time, with 1450 votes in 2018, 2044 in 2019, and 1141 in 2020, but that can mostly be attributed to the demographic of Heroes shifting. What's important is that in the first poll, the one in which most long-standing Fire Emblem fans probably voted in, he had a decent placement.
What Would His Moveset Be?
sword
What Are His Chances?
Very good! As a character from the Fire Emblem series, he has a very high chance of showing up as a DLC fighter. Unlike Corrin or Byleth, Ogma actually has fan demand and a legacy behind him. He also has his original game Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light releasing overseas for the first time. And since new games always correlate with new Smash fighters, I'd say Ogma is pretty much a lock at this point.
Supporters:
(I don't even know how to add people here, lol)