Earlier this morning, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director Masahiro Sakurai took some time to show off the game’s latest character, the Hero from the popular Dragon Quest roleplaying series. The presentation detailed what Hero will bring to the table once he is added to the game, and so far, several top competitive Smash players seem wary of his apparent strength despite spending zero time actually playing as him.
Brian “Cosmos” Kalu pleaded his case by detailing the complete list of Hero’s known abilities, which include healing, putting opponents to sleep, and randomly dealing out increased damage with his special attacks.
Leonardo “MkLeo” Lopez Perez believes Hero is already the best character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate but also acknowledged the inherent silliness of the statement, seeing as the downloadable fighter has yet to be released.
Ramin “Mr. R” Delshad fears Hero’s influence on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate competition.
Eric “ESAM” Lew is convinced that Hero is going to counter his main character, Pikachu.
There are also competing petitions seeking to ban and subsequently unban Hero from play. (Both of these petitions seem to be tongue-in-cheek, although you never really know with the Smash community.) The latter, published by William “Leffen” Hjelte after this morning’s Super Smash Bros. Ultimate stream, is currently at 820 signatures, while Panda Global’s petition to unban Hero—who, again, isn’t even out yet—is at 215.
Reactions to the new fighter aren’t all doom and gloom. A handful of players are looking forward to Hero’s release, including former Evo champion Saleem “Salem” Young.
Samuel “Dabuz” Buzby believes his history with playing card games—not to mention Olimar’s random Pikmin pulls—will give him a leg up in utilizing Hero’s random abilities in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Ezra “Samsora” Morris feels the same way after dealing with Peach’s unreliable turnips for years.
There’s also a contingent of the Smash community, like Gavin “Tweek” Dempsey and Nairoby “Nairo” Quezada, who are simply looking upon Hero’s toolkit with disbelief.
As is often the case, Hero’s reveal has also provided quite a few meme opportunities. ChuChuMcGoo, for instance, sees a bright future for round-opening Thwacks.
Retired competitor Gonzalo “ZeRo” Barrios was definitely on one.
Commentary team Zak “Coney” Zeeks and Terrence “TKbreezy” Kershaw had similar thoughts about Hero’s ability to put opponents to sleep.
Some folks pointed out that Hero players may need to learn multiple languages to accurately take advantage of his spell menu.
Ace Watkins, who could very likely be the United States’ first gamer president, pledged to work with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director Masahiro Sakurai to ensure DLC characters will no longer be overpowered compared to the rest of the cast.
Anyway, kudos to Smash fans for getting ahead of the conversation about whether the game’s latest addition is overpowered. So ahead, in fact, that they’re doing it before he’s even playable.