Nintendo’s E3 Direct didn’t reveal just one upcoming Smash Ultimate DLC Fighter, it
unveiled two.
And while Banjo-Kazooie is receiving the bulk of the attention in the west, the inclusion
of the Hero from Dragon Quest is absolutely huge in Japan.
The series is legendary and rightly deserves its place in Smash Bros.
But there’s always more to see thanks to the old Analysis Machine and this time it
got a little extra help from our Dragon Quest expert, Ted ‘ExandShadow’ Wiesen.
So let’s see what secrets and hidden details will draw near in the Hero’s reveal trailer!
We begin with the new stage, Yggdrasil’s Altar, as it’s shown the least in the trailer.
It takes place in the sky around the mythical tree, Yggdrasil, which is based on the version
from Dragon Quest XI.
But it isn’t just the tree that can be seen on this stage as there are plenty of other
references to that game as well.
The flying whale, Cetacea, is the most prominent as it served as the party’s method of traveling
the world.
In the distance, we can see the Hotto Volcano which means this view is facing the southern
end of XI’s map.
That means Arboria is the town near the mountain range just below Yggdrasil.
On the right side, we can see the lighthouse near Puerto Valor along with the gate leading
to Mount Pang Lai.
And at the bottom left are the ruins of Dundrasil.
The next scene featuring the stage shows the floating city, Haven’s Above, in the background
while we see that the platform itself contains the orbs needed to create the rainbow bridge
and reach Yggdrasil.
We actually see the bridge in the first scene and this is further signified by the colors
of the rainbow cycling in the center of the platform.
Our last look at the stage in the trailer shows the iconic Slime while the platform
is closer to Haven’s Above.
We can even see Erdwin’s statue near the Dundrasil Ruins.
This does make us wonder though.
How much will the stage move throughout the world of Dragon Quest XI?
At the very least a screenshot from the Smash website reveals a full look at the platform
where we can see the six orbs, the slime from before, and the spirits from XI walking around.
But that’s all we’re really shown of Yggdrasil’s Altar.
Fortunately, there’s a lot more to say about the Hero himself, or Eleven as we’ll be
calling him from now on.
He wields the legendary equipment from his game which includes the Sword of Light and
the Shield of Heroes.
Interestingly, the Shield of Heroes never appears in Dragon Quest XI, but is chosen
here because of its connection to the sword as both belonged to the legendary hero Erdrick.
It’s mainly chosen for aesthetic value.
Now of course other Heroes from Dragon Quest games appear as well, but before we get to
them, let’s take a look at some of the references to the series that we found in the trailer.
Eleven crouching on Gogoat as it runs around is relatively obvious as he prominently has
a horse in the game, which is even seen in this trailer.
We then see him lift up a barrel to find a Franklin Badge underneath.
This is a sly nod to how items could be found in the barrels located around towns and homes,
which Eleven happens to be in one for this scene, while the Franklin Badge represents
the mini medal from Dragon Quest.
These can be found in the games and exchanged for special items.
The next scene is a makeshift recreation of the campfires that the party would often sit
around in Dragon Quest XI.
Zelda in her green costume is a stand-in for Serena while Zero Suit Samus is supposed to
be Jade.
Finally, we see Eleven facing off against Ganondorf, Snake, and Robin.
These three likely represent key adversaries from his game, King Carnelian for Ganondorf,
Hendrik for Snake, and Robin for Jasper.
What we’re unsure of is why Ridley, Mewtwo and Zero Suit Samus can be spotted behind
Ganondorf here.
Do they just represent monsters?
After all, Ridley is kind of a dragon.
But these Smash Bros. characters likely also serve as a clue for who will be representing
the eventual Spirits from Dragon Quest in the new Spirit Board, just like we got for
the Joker DLC.
It’s then that we see the other Heroes from Dragon Quest that will serve as alternate
costumes.
First up is the Hero from Dragon Quest VIII, who we’ll simply refer to as Eight.
Like Eleven, he wields his legendary equipment, the Dragovian Sword and Shield.
But we also see that he’s joined by his mouse companion, Munchie, who always hangs
out in his pocket.
Next is the Hero from Dragon Quest IV, who we’ll refer to as Four, and he’s equipped
with the legendary Zenithian Sword and Shield.
Notably, he also wearing an accessory from the game, the Slime Earring, which we’ll
mention again soon.
The final Hero is the legendary Erdrick from Dragon Quest III who’s equipped with the
Sword of Kings, which eventually becomes Erdrick’s Sword, and the Shield of Heroes, otherwise
known as Erdrick’s Shield.
This Hero is a major deal when it comes to the lore of many of the Dragon Quest games
as he’s referenced quite a lot.
In fact it’s his emblem that serves as the symbol for the Heroes in Smash Ultimate.
We can even see it on the Shield of Heroes, which is pretty appropriate.
The Smash Bros. website also revealed the four other alternate colors for each Hero.
Eleven serves as reference to Angelo from Dragon Quest VIII.
Eight serves as a nod to Terry from Dragon Quest VI.
Four has him wearing the colors of the Dragon Quest I Hero and his slime earring has even
become a Metal Slime earring now, which is a neat small touch.
Finally, Erdrick’s alternate costume is a reference to the Hero from Dragon Quest
V thanks to his coloring and his cape standing in for a scarf.
Before we move on, there’s two more references to the series that appear after the other
Heroes’ introductions.
The first has Erdrick facing down Rathalos, which is pretty appropriate since dragons
are naturally fought in these games.
The other is a bit more obscure as it shows Eight walking through poison before picking
up the beam sword.
This is a callback to the early Dragon Quest games where purple mud could be walked through
in order to occasionally discover items.
So these are our characters, but how do they fight in Smash Ultimate?
Well for the basic attacks, he seems to take a fair amount of inspiration from Link though
they’re not exactly the same.
First up is his Up Tilt which we see a few times during the trailer.
This swings his sword in an upward arc, catching nearby opponents.
He then follows this up with a basic combo where he performs an upward strike then shifts
his hand to bring that slash back down and finishing with a forward slash.
Next, we see the end of a dodge roll before using the fire spell, Frizz.
Now keep this attack in mind as its rather important to how the Hero plays.
So for now, we’ll be skipping over the other magic that he uses.
The Hero’s next physical move is a dash attack where he performs a jumping sword slash
like Link.
This even allows him to jump over lower attacks like the ice here.
Speaking of Link, the Hero’s shield can be used to block projectiles just like him
as we see him unfazed by Bowser’s fire.
And we do know he has a bubble shield as it appears later in the trailer.
Now one of the moves that has us curious is this one where Erdrick bashes an opponent
with his shield before slicing with his sword.
At first glance, this would appear to be the side smash, working similarly to Link’s.
However, we see the side smash in action against Incineroar in this scene so it’s impossible
for it to be a smash.
Instead, we believe this is his side tilt except it still works as a two stage attack
like Link’s smash.
We even see Four using the 2nd half of this tilt soon after as it’s the same motion
as Erdrick before.
Then there’s his back air against Piranha Plant while a screenshot from the Smash website
shows off his likely up air attack, which is actually a kick.
Finally, one of the last sequences that shows off the Hero’s physical moves has Eleven
and Erdrick fighting side by side.
Eleven appears to use his down tilt which is a far-reaching low kick while Erdrick performs
magic in the air.
Once again, keep note of this for later.
Next Eleven uses a perfect guard with his bubble shield while Erdrick dodges around
allowing him use an up smash while Eleven performs his neutral air.
Of course there’s also the taunts of which we see two.
One has the Hero raising his sword into the air while another features a Slime bouncing
between his legs.
That just leaves us with the Hero’s magic and this is what makes him so unique compared
to every other character.
We see him using spells through the trailer, but there’s one moment with Erdrick that’s
truly important.
This features him entering a thinking pose while a menu appears over his portrait.
This menu is perfect recreation of the ones in the Dragon Quest series and we even see
an MP bar above with a max of 100.
Then there are the four spells below: Sizzle, Psyche Up, Oomph, and Snooze.
Each one costs a different amount of MP, which is why the bar fluctuates as the menu is cycled
through.
Sizzle costs 20, Psyche Up 17, Oomph 18, and Snooze 16.
So players will have to mind how much MP they have left when using these spells and unfortunately,
we don’t know how it’s refilled.
It could happen naturally over time or is built up through normal attacks.
It’s just not shown yet.
But these are only the basic aspects of the Spells as there’s plenty of mystery surrounding
them.
Let’s break down all the Spells we see throughout the trailer, 14 in total.
We mentioned Frizz before which is a basic fire attack, but we also see the stronger
Kafrizz that has a bigger blast radius.
We also mentioned Sizzle from the menu which is also a fire attack, but in Dragon Quest,
it can hit a group of enemies, while Frizz only hits one.
So will Sizzle have a larger attack radius in Smash to reflect this?
Unfortunately, we don’t see it in action.
Next up is the wind spell, Kaswoosh, which appears to be both a recovery and an attack.
There’s also the electric elemental attack Zap and its stronger version, Kazap, which
is signified by a slash of the Hero’s Sword rather than a thrust.
Like Sizzle, we see Psyche Up and Oomph in the menu but not in action.
Psyche Up is a move that increased a character’s tension which increased the power of the next
attack they performed.
This could be done four times in a row for the most powerful attack, but it never cost
MP.
So it’s likely that Psyche Up in Smash is only used once to boost the power of the next
attack.
But then why is Oomph here?
Its function in Dragon Quest is very similar, albeit the attack boost from Oomph lasts much
longer than the boost from Psyching Up.
Perhaps it lasts longer than Psyche Up but isn’t quite as powerful?
Or maybe it could be like Shulk’s Monado where one increasing the percent damage down
while the other increases the launching power of your attacks?
We don’t know for sure, but we do see Snooze in action which puts opponents to sleep.
It’s then that the trailer shows a montage spells.
Bounce is reflecting spell that lasts for quite a while as it sends back three different
projectiles without ever having to be recast, nearly 3 seconds in the clip we see.
Then there’s Kacrackle Slash which encases opponents in ice if hit.
Kaclang is another unique spell.
This makes the Hero completely invulnerable to every type of attack, including status
effects, at the cost of being able to move at all.
So this makes us wonder, could Kaclang also defend against Final Smashes?
It’s definitely worth testing.
Next up is Zoom which looks to be another kind of recovery except it doesn’t have
any use as an attack.
So perhaps it allows the Hero to cover more distance.
After all, Zoom is used in Dragon Quest to quickly revisit old towns.
It would also be a cool touch if it had the weakness from the games as well as using it
indoors would cause the player to hit their head.
Maybe if the Hero hits anything above in Smash Ultimate, they’ll come crashing down.
Another thing worth trying out when he releases.
Finally there’s Kamikazee, a spell that causes an explosion around you, dealing massive
damage, but you also lose a stock immediately.
Still, it could be extremely useful when at high percentages.
That’s all of the spells in the trailer, but there’s one more in a screenshot from
the website.
It makes it appear that Cloud is healing the Hero, but that aura around him is the same
from Dragon Quest signifying that he’s using Heal, meaning he’ll be able to recover some
of his percentage all on his own.
So here’s the thing, that’s a lot of spells and we think there are still a few left to
be seen.
But the key here is that every one of these spells is available to the Hero at any time.
These are his Special attacks.
Each Special has its own menu listing four different spells.
And we think that holding down on the Special is how the player chooses from the menu.
But this doesn’t have to be done every time.
There are multiple instances in the trailer where the Hero doesn’t enter his thinking
pose signifying the menu.
So we believe that the last spell chosen can be quickly used with a tap of that Special.
This creates plenty of options and tactics, but also leaves the Hero vulnerable if he
wants to change his spell, at least presumably.
And as we said before, MP management will be key.
Now which spells go with which Special?
Well, we’ve already seen one with Sizzle, Psyche Up, Oomph, and Snooze and we believe
they fit the character’s side specials as they’re a bit more utilitarian.
Two of up specials are easy to decipher as well thanks to Kaswoosh and Zoom.
But the other two, we’re unsure of.
We also think we know all of the down specials as they fit in with characteristics of other
Smash fighters.
These would be Bounce, Kaclang, Kamikazee, and Heal.
That leaves the standard specials which could include Frizz, Zap, their stronger versions,
and Kacrackle Slash.
But that also brings up another point.
We don’t know if Frizz and Kafrizz are separate spells to be chosen or if they can be charged
into their stronger version like with Robin.
However, we believe the different versions won’t be charged as this ties into MP management.
Yes, you’ll do a weaker attack using Frizz, but you’ll more MP if you need to recover.
This means that there’s likely one more spell left to be seen.
But for now, there’s still the Hero’s Final Smash.
This performs a slash ahead of him, which doesn’t seem to include a dash so players
will have to get in close.
The Final Smash itself has the other Heroes from Dragon Quest appear, V, X, VII, I, V,
IX, and II.
They pose before putting their weapons together and creating a blast.
Then the Hero appears and performs a lightning-charged slash.
These are actually two separate attacks.
The Heroes charging is reminiscent of Kazapple, a powerful attack that can only be performed
if the entire party sacrifices their turn.
The slash by the hero is likely Gigaslash, a powerful end-game ability that only the
Heroes can learn.
Either way, it’s a great bit of final fanservice.
And that’s everything we could find in the Dragon Quest Hero reveal trailer for Super
Smash Bros.
Ultimate.
We can’t wait to try him out for ourselves and see exactly how his specials work.
He seems incredibly powerful, but players can’t just use his spells endlessly.
There’s a balance here that makes his playstyle a little more thoughtful.
Thankfully, it won’t be long until he comes to Smash Ultimate as he releases sometime
this summer.
Of course let us know if we missed anything in the comments.
Thanks for watching and be sure to subscribe to GameXplain for more on Dragon Quest, Smash
Bros., and other things gaming.