In a recent post on January 21st I stated that Byleth from Fire Emblem Three Houses was going to be in Smash and I was genuinely hype for them. Byleth hasn’t even been out for 24 hours yet, but I have played enough to have a first impression on the character. I’ll start off with the question most important.

Do I enjoy playing as Byleth

Frankly, I do enjoy playing as Byleth. The character is not a rush down type by any means, but they are not slow like Robin. On this note I feel like the character moves exactly like you would expect them to. It seems like the animations from Fire Emblem Three Houses have jumped out and joined Smash Brothers themselves. Byleth’s forward and backward aerials have good range, are fast, and the backward aerial has decent killing power. The other lance attack the Side B is very responsive and fun to use while being punishable by the other player. In fact, most of Byleth’s moves other than a few are quite punishable.

This might seem like a hindrance but the plus side of Byleth’s punishable moves is that you will get a reward from hitting them. Charging the neutral B (the bow) just once does around 11 damage, but letting it charge fully lets it do over 33 damage along with having great kill and shield break power.

The Side B comes out fast and rewards Byleth when its hit due to it sending the opponent in a favorable position allowing Byleth to mix up the opponent with Up Airs. The Down B Axe Charge is certainly the most risky of Byleth’s arsenal, but it has the plus side of killing below 50 percent. Of course mindlessly spamming these moves will get you an easy loss, but by using Byleth’s attacks efficiently and re-actively you can take advantage of their insane power without sacrificing your own percentage.

There is a ridiculous amount of power with Byleth’s moveset. The attacks using Aymr (Axe) are slow but deal so much damage and knockback it’s insane. Down Smash in particular comes out pretty fast and deals over 30 percent with a lot of killing power. However, to compensate the moves using Aymr also have a Sonic 06 loading time worth of lag when they are whiffed. Byleth’s other attacks such as dash attack and up air contain a decent amount of KO power as well.

Something I noticed

While I do enjoy playing as Byleth in Smash Ultimate, there is one problem I have with them. This problem is the fact that Byleth’s moveset is completely non-canonical and not what I expected. Don’t get me wrong, I love Byleth’s moveset, but when I imagined Byleth in Smash I imagined them utilizing the sword of the creator more in their moveset, along with them having magic.

In the source game Byleth’s unique class the Enlightened One specializes in Swords, Brawling, and Faith Magic (healing). I Would have expected Byleth’s move set to be modeled around this class due to it being only accessible to them. I really did want to see Byleth’s Nosferatu and other Magic abilities, but I would not say that I would prefer this Byleth over the one we got today.

The Conclusion

At the end of the day, Byleth’s inclusion in Smash Bros has made me quite happy tonight. I labbed for 3 hours straight. It’s still day one, so my opinions will change with time, but for now I can imagine Byleth being one of my new favorite playable characters. You can click this link to purchase the Smash Bros Ultimate Fighter Pass today!

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