As we approach the 25th anniversary of the Fire Emblem franchise, let us look at how the now-iconic series has been represented among the heavy-hitters of Nintendo history, and how this round hit the nail on the head.

Fire Emblem first came to America eleven years ago. At the time, most Americans knew nothing of the series, except for the existence of two mysterious swordsmen – Marth and Roy – based on their presence in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Despite their unknown statuses, both Marth and Roy achieved surprising popularity in the States, which factored into Nintendo’s decision to localize the most recent installation of the series. Many long-time fans of the Fire Emblem franchise have Super Smash Bros. Melee and its successors to thank for sparking their interest.

As such, Fire Emblem‘s continued representation in the Super Smash Bros. series is pretty significant. Unfortunately, the representatives have suffered from a pattern of clones throughout. In Melee, Marth and Roy shared near-identical move sets. In Brawl, Roy was replaced with the better-known Ike, a more brute-force fighter to balance out the graceful Marth (so graceful in fact that many of us first assumed he was a girl… The tiara didn’t help). Still, Ike shared most of the same moves as Marth. By all appearances, any Smash Bros. player would be within reason to assume Fire Emblem was some hack-and-slash RPG. Then, in a squee-worthy announcement trailer for the Wii U and 3DS editions of Smash Bros., Nintendo not only gave us Lucina as another traditional lord, but also the tactician himself, Robin.

Fire Emblem is a line of strategy RPGs, but the tactician’s direct role in the series has varied from none at all to that of a mysterious background character – until recently, his or her in-game presence has been minimal. In the first American release (locally titled Fire Emblem), the tactician was a speechless and virtually unseen avatar for the player whom the three main characters would sometimes address directly. It was a nice little way to immerse the player by breaking the fourth wall, but we always wanted something a bit more involved. The next few installments took us in the opposite direction, removing the player’s in-game identity altogether. It wasn’t until the second DS remake (available only in Japan) that the tactician reappeared, but this time as a customizable character with an active role and a class of the player’s choosing. This new custom avatar system was imported and tweaked in Awakening to give us Robin, a fully-developed character with plot significance and a class unique to him (or her).

For most Smash players, Robin seemed like a welcome addition simply because he was something a little different. There has been a stigma against clone characters since their inception in Melee, and so any character with a fresh new move set is held somewhat above the rest. Some looked forward to the addition of a new magic-wielding character, or the fact that players could choose Robin’s gender. But for fans of Fire Emblem, Robin means so much more, because Robin symbolizes the series in numerous ways that all the sword-wielding lords in the multiverse never could.

First, let’s acknowledge the state of the series prior to Awakening. The tenth original game in the series, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, had a somewhat mixed reception from fans due to certain changes in gameplay. The next game to emerge was Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, a remake of the first game in the series starring Marth. Many fans had been looking forward to this release, only to be largely disappointed that nothing but the game’s visuals were updated. The gameplay remained virtually unaltered, leaving it a stale experience in comparison to the game mechanics of newer titles. It sold poorly, and as a result, the second remake was never localized for North America. The development team at Intelligent Systems was then informed that if their next game did not sell at least 250,000 copies, it would mark the end of the series. Their impassioned response became Fire Emblem: Awakening, Robin’s home title, which obliterated sales expectations and breathed new life into the series. Today, not only is Fire Emblem alive and well, but it is on the global gaming radar in a way that it never has been before.

Robin essentially represents both the player and the continued success of the series. This would seem a worthy enough representation on its own, but the designers of Super Smash Bros. took time and care to make Robin’s move set faithful to the gameplay mechanics of the Fire Emblem series. Let’s look at how he measures up.