'Smash Bros' Director Sakurai Says Game Has Too Many 'Fire Emblem' Characters, Sword-Wielders

Many “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” fans were disappointed to know that the Nintendo brawler's last downloadable character in the Fighter's Pass would be Byleth, the main protagonist for “Fire Emblem: Three Houses.” Despite the character's unique features, not everyone was happy about their inclusion.

Some fans were frustrated at the fact that there would be a total of eight “Fire Emblem” characters in the roster, Nintendo Life reported. These fans believed that the popular role-playing game franchise is already over-represented in the brawler's lineup, and that other titles deserved to be represented in the game as well. What's more, Byleth is a sword-wielder just like many others in the roster.

“Smash Bros.” director Masahiro Sakurai, in an interview with Famitsu magazine, expressed that he knows that, and that he agrees to those frustrations. According to an early translation of his interview that was leaked via Twitter users named BlackKite and PushDustin, Sakurai believes that “Fire Emblem” has too many characters in “Smash Bros.” but he can't do anything about it.

“There are too many FE characters. And there are also too many sword users,” Sakurai said. “But it has been decided like that so I just proceed as-is,” he added.

Fans previously thought that Sakurai was the one determining who joins the “Smash Bros.” fray. Some of them think that his “favorites” are the ones who get to smash one another in the family-friendly fighter. That interview, however, implies that that is not the case – Nintendo decides who joins, regardless of Sakurai's preferences.

“The new fighters were not decided by my own favorites; they're brought by Nintendo,” Sakurai said.

Does this mean Sakurai, as the game series' director, cannot do anything about it? The interview doesn't explicitly say that. The interview, however, reveals that while the game company chooses who gets to be included in the game and the DLCs, Sakurai is able to make each character unique despite their similarities.

In the case of sword-wielders, for example, Sakurai said that “since there are so many sword users, I bring in tactics exclusive to each fighter.” Byleth's ability to swap the Creator Sword to three other weapon types, in addition to being playable in a male or female version, is but one of these “tactics.”

Of course, it's worth noting that the information reported here came from an early translation of the interview, leaked from a Japanese magazine that hasn't been published yet as of the moment.