Smash Bros.: Sakurai Presents Hero: Information and Reactions

Masahiro Sakurai just released a video on what’s coming into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate early today. While the bulk of the time was spent on the Hero, the newest downloadable fighter for the game, along with the four warriors of Dragon Quest comes the latest update to Smash: 4.0. Both will be coming out on the 30th – i.e. a few hours after the publication of this article – and we’ve got the skinny on ’em.

Release Date for Version 4.0 and Hero: July 30 (North America; July 31 at the same time for Europe and Japan due to timezone differences)).

4.0 Update:

Final Smash Meters now have a time limit to discourage hoarding it throughout the match.
Very Easy Mode added to World of Light.
Spectate now has an option for betting on the fights you watch, with the points you accumulate able to be spent on prizes.
Online Tourney mode added, with rules changing periodically and “special event tourneys” coming up in the future.
Video editing has more additions, including adding screenshots.

Challenger Pack #2: the Hero

Fighter 72 Hero: Four Heroes in one, each known as Eleven (Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Illusive Age – Definitive Edition), Arusu (Dragon Quest III: the Seeds of Salvation), Solo (Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen), and Eight (Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King). All four have unique swords and shields, though they of course function in the same way. They are more animated than the other swordsmen, in order to reference the style of series artist Akira Toriyama.
- Hero has an MP meter that he uses for special attacks; it refills over time and when you land an attack. If you don’t have enough magic, the move won’t activate. In addition, his attacks have a potential for critical hits that do drastically more damage.
- Neutral Special is Frizz-type spells: Frizz, Frizzle, and Kafrizz. These are the only specials whose charges can be stored.
- Side Special is Zap-type spells: Zap, Zapple, and Kazap.
- Up Special is Woosh-type spells: Woosh, Swoosh, and Kaswoosh. These comparably use little MP.
- Down Special: Command Selection. A command window pops up with four randomly chosen Down Specials players can select to use. If players don’t care for any of the four, they can cancel it by shielding and try again.
  - Oomph: raises your attack power extensively for a short time.
  - Psyche Up: increases the power of Hero’s next (connected) move.
  - Bounce: passive reflector that lasts for a short time.
  - Heal: restores health.
  - Flame Slash: single attack with long horizontal range.
  - Kacrackle Slash: freezes opponents.
  - Acceleratle: buffs speed greatly.
  - Kaboom: giant explosive spell, a bit like a larger Explosive Flame.
  - Snooze: puts opponents to sleep.
  - Hatchet Man: always lands a critical hit.
  - Thwack: has a change to instantly K.O. an opponent, with probability based on the opponent’s damage percentage.
  - Zoom: a single, massive jump.
  - Kaclang: Hero stops in place, turns metal, and becomes invincible for a short time.
  - Metal Slash: one-hit K.O.s a metal opponent.
  - Hocus Pocus: causes an entirely random effect that can be good or bad.
  - Magic Burst: giant area of effect attack that uses all of Hero’s MP.
  - Kamikazee: an extremely strong explosion that instantly K.O.s the user, a first for the series.
- Final Smash: Gigaslash, in which the non-playable heroes of the other Dragon Quest Heroes aid in one giant slash.
- Hero has voice acting, something previously unique to the original Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Illusive Age: Mitsuki Saiga (Eleven), Nobuyuki Hiyama (Arusu), Takeshi Kusao (Solo), Yuki Kaji (Eight). Saiga and Hiyama have previously played Link in various Zelda games, amongst them the first two Super Smash Bros. games.
- Also a first is these four heroes all interacting in one game, something Square Enix typically does not allow.
Stage: Yggdrasil’s Altar, from Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Illusive Age – Definitive Edition. The floating platform flies through the continent of Erdrea, and additional platforms will appear when a Spirit of Lost Time shows up on the stage. Slimes and (far more rarely) Liquid Metal Slimes show up in the background, as does the flying whale Cetacea. Platforms with treasure chests also appear, but sometimes the chests will secretly be Mimics.
Music tracks. None are listed as new arrangements:
- “Adventure – DRAGON QUEST III” (Dragon Quest III: the Seeds of Salvation)
- “Fighting Spirits – DRAGON QUEST III” (Dragon Quest III: the Seeds of Salvation)
- “Battle for the Glory – DRAGON QUEST IV” (Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen)
- “Wagon Wheel’s March” (Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen)
- “War Cry” (Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King)
- “Marching through the Fields” (Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King)
- “The Hero Goes Forth with a Determination” (Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Illusive Age – Definitive Edition)
- “Unflinchable Courage” (Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Illusive Age – Definitive Edition)
- The series’ famous overture is notably not included amongst the music tracks, though a section is used for Hero’s victory theme. Including both battle and overworld music from each game was prioritized.
Dragon Quest spirit battles include Slime, Golem, Baby Panther, and the party from Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Illusive Age – Definitive Edition. They appear to be fewer than the fourteen Persona had.
Separately purchased Mii Fighter costumes include Veronica (Swordfighter), Martial Artist (Brawler), Erdrick (Swordfighter), and Slime hat

Video:

Reactions:

Spazzy: Hero looks neat, but the RNG combo of his menu special and crit attacks might be a bit too much. I think I would have preferred if they just chose 4 spells, lets say Kaclang, Kamikaze, Bounce, and Snooze, and had that as his set down special. Awesome to see DQ with more than two songs, and the DQ Mii costumes were great. The lack of other Mii costumes, though …not so great. Not much else to say… I’m really excited to try his stage out. It might be a little too close in function to Umbra Clock Tower, but I’m hoping the overall layouts are more fun.

Wolfman: Hero is like a parody of overcomplicated fighting game character designs (despite the fact that he’s almost painfully normal outside of his down special), and I am so here for it. Command Selection is absolutely hilarious, and I’m looking forward to screwing it up multiple times. As for the rest of the material, it’s nice to see Square being not nearly as stingy with content as they were last time, even though not including the series’ main theme is kinda baffling. And of course, we get another version of my favorite video game enemy archetype, the Mimic.