UPDATE! Nintendo Smash Bros. Ultimate: Dragon Quest’s Hero Out Now!

SEPTEMBER 27 UPDATE:

Well here it is, the start of the Hero’s downfall. A little dramatic? Probably. Released at the end of July, the Hero from the Dragon Quest series made a huge splash onto the Smash Brothers scene, and it’s not because he is a sweet character, unfortunately. It is because Hero’s special move set is literally random, allowing the character to possess all sorts of abilities that could even allow the Hero to knock his opponent out at full health. 

Naturally, the Smash fanbase entered the debate regarding if the character should be included in the tournament scene, and Nintendo France officially made the move to not only ban the character from being used, but to not allow any new DLC characters released after September 23rd to be used in future tournaments.   

The unofficial translation reads:

“The playable characters during the Championship are the base 74 characters, and three of the DLC characters: Piranha Plant, Joker and Banjo-Kazooie. Also, without this list being limitative, the Hero, and all future DLC characters that comes after September. 23rd are banned.”

While the ban from the European Team Cup by Nintendo France may be one of the first, I doubt it will be the last ban to happen, and Hero’s future in the tournament scene will be over before it even began.

All previous DLC characters are still eligible for the tournament, which include: Piranha Plant, Joker and Banjo-Kazooie. The exclusion of future DLC characters makes me wonder, will they be OP also, or simply a preemptive strike in case of another Hero?  

HERE’S THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE FROM JULY 31:

Yesterday morning, I had the privilege of joining my friend Snake the Jake (I’m still campaigning to change his name to Jake the Baked)  on his Twitch Show “Press X to Get High,” representing my show “The Mass Nerder Podcast”.

Cole and Jake

Together we witnessed Nintendo’s very own “Mick Jagger” game developer, Masahiro Sakurai, as he presented the newest fighter to the Smash Brothers ultimate roster, Dragon Quest’s Hero. 

And, oh boy, is it a doozy!  

I must say, the “unscripted” streamer feel of the presentation felt like a breath of fresh air for the Nintendo presentations, and really fit in with Sakurai’s more down to earth “rockstar” brand over the usual, very corporate feeling, Nintendo Directs.

SSBU: Character Screen Capture

The show began by showing the Hero and all of his character variations; the names of each, the difference in animations between them, and even gave us a full rundown of the individual voice actors who will be voicing the character variations. I am not a follower of the Dragon Quest series, but this character would be a fans wet dream come true. The character also does something that Nintendo has been wanting for many years, and that is to make western audiences want to check out this classic franchise.

SSBU: Attack Screen Capture

Now, this may be where the problem lays: The video quickly went into showcasing the many…Many…MANY moves of the Dragon Quest Hero from all of his charged smash abilities; several ways to save himself from danger, and the copious amounts of magic abilities that are luck-based. Even as a casual fan like myself, you can see that he is clearly overpowered. I believe the joke was made that he is already the best fighter in the game, even without being formally released! But why make him so clearly overpowered to the point where he literally has a chance to K.O. his opponent at full health? It’s possible that in trying to sell the character – and the franchise –  to us westerners, they may have gone a bit overboard with trying to make him one of the best fighters in the game, and one which everyone will want to use. I do believe that a patch, tweaking his abilities slightly, will be coming in the not too distant future.

What can I say? If this was a way to advertise the Hero and his franchise then it certainly worked. Everyone is talking about him, good or bad, and I know I cannot wait to use the character. So, while we have him in this state, enjoy the OG character and kick your friend‘s ass while you can.

Dragon Quest’s Hero is out right now! Go…Go play!!

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If you liked what you read, check Cole out on the Mass Nerder Podcast weekly! On the latest episode they discuss the Amazon Prime Series, The Boys.