Trailer Analysis: 'Super Smash Bros. 4'
Ryan Smythe ‘15 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer
Following up on the massive success of Fire Emblem: Awakening, Nintendo swept aside all rumors of which character(s) will make their way into the new Super Smash Bros. game. Lucina, one of the main rumors, received a spot, along with Ike returning from Brawl, and Robin, the player avatar from Awakening. Unfortunately, Chrom will not be a playable character. Given his appearance in the trailer, however, he looks to make his way into the game as a trophy, or possibly even a boss character.
While the playstyles of these characters have not been revealed yet, it shouldn’t be too hard to piece that together by using Marth, Ike, and Roy as a baseline. Lucina, being smaller than both Ike and Marth, will likely take the lightest and swiftest position of the three, relying on that agility to avoid enemy onslaughts while counterattacking with a flurry of blows.
The most interesting mechanic introduced, the spell tomes used by Robin, looks to bring into play one of the most frustrating Fire Emblem mechanics, the breaking of items after a certain number of uses. In those games, each battle item has a counter next to its inventory slot that ticks down with each use. Upon reaching zero, it disappears from the inventory and must be reobtained from a store or chest. The stronger the item, the less uses it has, so it is likely that the basic spells will have a significant number of uses while the most powerful ones have a very limited number. This could tie into his or her Final Smash, which could refresh the spell tomes upon activation.
Along with these three characters, Captain Falcon will be coming back to Smash. While his return was almost guaranteed after being in every other game, fans can breathe easier having confirmation that their favorite fighter will return.