Smash Ultimate Director Agrees With Critics On Fire Emblem Controversy

If you've been following Super Smash Bros. fandom, then you know that the community tends to have some strong opinions about the prevalence of Fire Emblem characters. Specifically, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate players think there are too many Fire Emblem characters in the game, an opinion that was shared far and wide when the most recent DLC character for the game – Byleth, the protagonist of Fire Emblem: Three Houses – was announced.

What does Super Smash Bros. creator and director Masahiro Sakurai think of that opinion? It turns out he agrees. In a recent interview with Famitsu (as reported by the folks over at Siliconera), Sakurai admitted that there are too many Fire Emblem characters in Ultimate, and indeed, too many characters that use swords – otherwise known as "swordies" within some Super Smash Bros. circles.

"There are too many Fire Emblem characters," Sakurai said. "And there are too many sword characters. I, too, understand. However, these things are already decided, so we move forward. The things I should be thinking about are elsewhere."

Sakurai also reminded players that he doesn't choose who gets to be a DLC character and who doesn't. "I don't choose the fighters based on my own preference, that's for Nintendo to bring in," he added. With that in mind, it's a lot easier to understand why there are so many Fire Emblem characters in Smash Bros. Ultimate. After all, Fire Emblem owes much of its popularity in the west to Super Smash Bros. Melee, which included Marth and Roy from the series.

In the interview, Sakurai also said that because there are so many sword fighters, his team at Sora Ltd. often tries to make each one feel unique – such as in the case of Byleth, who uses a number of different ancient, heroic weapons that are found in Three Houses. There are six more DLC fighters planned for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, so we'll see if any of them manage to elicit the lukewarm reaction that Byleth did.