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When Will the Hero Drop and What to Expect

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With E3 officially over, (and slayed by Nintendo), we have tons of games and content to look forward to. None are more exciting for Smash fans than the inclusion of both Square-Enix’s Dragon Quest Hero and Microsoft’s/Rare’s Banjo and Kazooie. The Dragon Quest Hero is incredibly popular with strong support in Japan, while Banjo and Kazooie saw intense support in the West. We know the Bird and Bear are set to enter Smash in fall, but what about The Hero?


The Hero is set to join the Smash cast sometime this summer, which technically speaking, has already begun. There is little doubt in anyone’s mind that we will see the Hero but when exactly should we expect him?. Several theories are being thrown around that point to sometime in July or August, with some hopefuls even banking on before the end of June.

Personally I think we will see the Hero and Dragon Quest content appear in mid-July. Unlike summer vacation in America, summer vacation in Japan starts near the end of July (looking at my schedule, the first day of summer vacation starts on July 22nd). Why is the Japanese summer vacation relevant? The Hero and Dragon Quest are obviously extremely popular in Japan, but it’s also important to look at the previous DLC character, Joker.

Joker was released on April 17th as the first DLC character in the Fighter Pass, but he was first revealed in the Game Show Awards in December after the launch of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Joker gameplay was shown and released a little over a week before the Golden Week holidays. For those unaware, Golden Week is a string of Japanese holidays that form an elongated holiday of three to four days. This year’s Golden Week was particularly special, as it celebrated the abdication of the former Emperor, Emperor Akihito and the succession of the new emperor, his son, Naruhito. This royal transition was combined with Golden Week which led to a 10-day-long holiday in Japan.

The fact Joker was revealed and released prior to the long holiday leads me to think we will see something similar with The Hero releasing before summer vacation starts. The spacing between Joker’s release in April and Banjo & Kazooie’s release in fall supports this July release theory.

What does The Hero's appearance mean for Dragon Quest representation? Using the Persona 5 universe as a template, it’s easy to guess what’s to come. Dragon Quest XI’s Hero, aptly named Eleven, will appear as the default skin with alts of Dragon Quest VII’s Eight, Dragon Quest IV’s Solo, and Erdrick, the hero from Dragon Quest III and one of the more important heroes in Dragon Quest history.

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The Dragon Quest Heroes

Dragon Quest's popular and recurring enemy, Slime, will appear in some capacity. Judging from its appearance, it will have a function similar to Morgana, serving as both a stage and taunt element. We also saw from the E3 Direct that Yggdrasil's Altar from Dragon Quest XI will be the representative stage and will feature it’s namesake, Yggdrasil, as well as the flying whale, Cetacea. This flying whale served as a way to transport the player’s team across the wide world in Dragon Quest. It is assumed that Cetacea will be apart of the stage background.

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Yggdrasil’s Altar with Cetacia

We can also expect to see new spirits from Dragon Quest with obvious inclusions being The Heroes, Slime, Cetacea, and possibly Yggdrasil. I expect we will also see various party characters from Dragon Quest XI, III, IV, and VIII. In addition, various monsters and enemies found in Dragon Quest are bound to appear such as Werewolf, Dragonlord, Chimaera, Golem, Mummy, and Archdemon.

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Some examples of Dragon Quest monsters

In terms of music, we are confirmed to have several musical tracks from Dragon Quest. We already have two confirmed songs: “Adventure” from Dragon Quest III and “Dragon Quest Overture,” which is probably based on the one found in Dragon Quest XI. It’s likely we will also see music from Dragon Quest IV and Dragon Quest VIII.

There will be a Classic Mode like with Joker and Piranha Plant as well. There has been much speculation regarding what Hero’s Classic Mode will be. Some popular ideas are based off characters from fantasy settings, villains that represent Dragon Quest enemies, and characters like Cloud and Joker who come from JRPGs. Dragon Quest is seen as the catalyst that started the whole JRPG genre.

Finally, much like how Persona had several Mii Costumes, we are sure to see a few Mii Costumes from the Dragon Quest series. I’m willing to bet we get a Slime hat as well.

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Isn’t it adorable?

To wrap it up, I feel that we will see The Hero make his grand appearance in mid July, before the Japanese summer vacation officially starts. In addition, we will obviously seetons of new Dragon Quest content in the form of spirits, music, and Mii Costumes. Unless it gets shafted, much like Final Fantasy. Hopefully not. Keep your eyes peeled for any content between now and August!

Author’s Note: When do you personally think we will see the Hero be released? What music do you want to see included from Dragon Quest? How about spirits? Let us know!
 
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Venus of the Desert Bloom

Comments

D
Im all in for slime costume.

I feel that either late July or early August are good dates for the Hero as there's also the Switch port of XI coming late September, so it could be a nice idea to have him released closer to the release date of XI S.
 
The wait is unbearable. It might sound excessive but whenever I wake up in the morning, and Hero is not available, it kinda ruins the rest of the day.

Of course, I’ve been waiting for a DQ hero to be playable since last game, and I had blind faith that we’d have one playable this time.

I’m really hoping we get him mid July at the very latest. I feel that I’m the living embodiment of that Toy Story meme where I don’t want to play as anybody else now.

Er-hem, now that I’ve shown how embarrassingly needy I am of this DLC, this is what I’m expecting of the whole pack.


Music:
Overture ✔
Battle Theme 3, 4, 8, 11
Overworld: 3✔, 4, 8, 11
Boss theme: 11
(Total = 10)

Mii:
Slime Hat
Alena Hat
Golem Hat
Yangus Hat
Geno Hat
Chocobo hat
Builder suit
Alena suit
Golem suit
Yangus suit
Geno suit

Spirits:
Slime
Torneko
Alena
Zoma
Carver
Terry
Jessica
Eric
Psaro
Ruff
 
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I assume he'll just be a semi-clone of Robin in terms of his specials and keep away game, except, ofc, he'll actually be viable.
 
This just amplifies my hopes for a Smash Direct in late July that gives us Hero, maybe a Banjo date, and announces Doom Slayer at the same time Quakecon is happening
 
I'm on the boat of "Mid-July" as well, but I get a gut feeling he'll be even more shadowdropped than Joker.

Either way, I will not stop trying to download him the moment the update hits, no matter how bad the servers get.
 
I lowkey hope Geno doesn’t get his costume back so I can have hope. That’s unlikely though. Hero could be fun, but I want more details on their mp and magic kit first before I decided if they could be a good fit for me to play as. I like robin but and pretty bad at managing his magic so I wonder how Hero’s will compare
 
D
Excited to have some matches betwen Guv and Samus!!!

Some hopes regarding the extra content include...

-...A Yangus Mii costume
-... Slime Mii hat
-... DQ1 Hero Mii costume
-... Dragonlord Mii costume
-...War Cry from DQ8 as part of the music
-...Home Run Contest
-...DQ Monsters Spirits
-...Spirits from the two DQ Heroes games
 
I read that Square Enix has some kind of agreement with the Japanese government regarding the release dates of its games (from too many people missing work to play DQ), and if that's true, I wonder if that had any influence on the specific day Nintendo plans to release the character. I'm definitely maining Eight or Erdrick.
 
D
Excited to have some matches betwen Guv and Samus!!!

Some hopes regarding the extra content include...

-...A Yangus Mii costume
-... Slime Mii hat
-... DQ1 Hero Mii costume
-... Dragonlord Mii costume
-...War Cry from DQ8 as part of the music
-...Home Run Contest
-...DQ Monsters Spirits
-...Spirits from the two DQ Heroes games
I could see Yangus' Spikey Hat thing being in, but I doubt much else would be for him, sadly. You did give me a good idea though; 40 years from now when the 'Hero' amiibo is finally released (it feels like the news ones take forever to drop), I can give it the 8 alt color and call it 'Guv'.

EDIT: Man, I really wish I had my PS2 so I could play through DQ VIII again. Or at least bring it back to PSN like all the Final Fantasies...
 
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I read that Square Enix has some kind of agreement with the Japanese government regarding the release dates of its games (from too many people missing work to play DQ), and if that's true, I wonder if that had any influence on the specific day Nintendo plans to release the character. I'm definitely maining Eight or Erdrick.
I used to teach English at a company that made carbon paneling for spaceships. Well, one of the branches of said company but they still manufactured them. The classes consisted of one on one two hour lessons so two total. The students would alternate weekly with four regulars and four other irregulars. One of my regular students was around in his late 40’s and was a professed DQ fan. Like...he showed me his collection of merchandise, figurines, and games. When DQ came out on the Wii U, he didn’t come to the class. I wondered why so when I asked him the next week, he said he took three days off to play the new game. He loved to talk about DQ.

I wouldn’t consider this typical though and it probably is an extreme case.
 
I could see Yangus' Spikey Hat thing being in, but I doubt much else would be for him, sadly. You did give me a good idea though; 40 years from now when the 'Hero' amiibo is finally released (it feels like the news ones take forever to drop), I can give it the 8 alt color and call it 'Guv'.

EDIT: Man, I really wish I had my PS2 so I could play through DQ VIII again. Or at least bring it back to PSN like all the Final Fantasies...
It’s on 3DS now with bonus content. May pick up a copy sometime, never got to play the vanilla PS2 game
 
D
It’s on 3DS now with bonus content. May pick up a copy sometime, never got to play the vanilla PS2 game
Yeah I know, but the PS2 one had the orchestral music. If you played it the first time without ever hearing it, you won't think it's too big a deal to miss out on it, but having already played through the game with it, it's a big loss for me.

Plus, I've never really been comfortable with RPGs on handhelds (Pokemon being the exception), so I wouldn't really like it as much. Having a nice TV with good sound; being able to play without craning my neck down or arching my back in awkward positions has always been one of the reasons I prefer consoles over handheld lol.

If it were't for Pokemon and a select few other games, I probably wouldn't care for handhelds at all.

EDIT: Is it just my comp right now or do the avatars seem smaller than before?
 
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I'd like to make a small correction:

What does The Hero's appearance mean for Dragon Quest representation? Using the Persona 5 universe as a template, it’s easy to guess what’s to come. Dragon Quest XI’s Hero, aptly named Eleven, will appear as the default skin with alts of Dragon Quest VII’s Eight, Dragon Quest VI’s Solo, and Erdrick, the hero from Dragon Quest III and one of the more important heroes in Dragon Quest history.
Solo is from Dragon Quest IV, not VI. Edit: thanks for making the correction!

Either way I buy the Japanese summer vacation timeframe you proposed. I'll have more than enough time to finish Dragon Quest VIII by then.
 
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