Mr. Sakurai presented the stream entirely himself, eschewing the usual editors and script. Additionally, gameplay was done by Mr. Sakurai himself.
The heroes are from Dragon Quest 1, 3, 4 and 8. They have different swords and shields representative of thier titles; additionally, the 8th hero has Munchie, a hamster, in his pocket. And whilst we can refer to them as their official Japanese names (as seen below), in game they were simply be ‘Hero’.
Each Hero has colour variations, referencing other characters in the series. Each character has their own voice actor, speaking in Japanese.
The sword styles are energetic, to reflect Akira Toriama’s style better. Sometimes an attack will land a critical hit, reminiscent of the series – these happen at random.
The Hero’s shield can block projectiles. The hero uses spells from the series, and can charge these spells up using thier MP gauge. MP is restored via landing hits. They say the names of their spells, for the player’s benefit.
The hero’s side specials can zap, and be charged to release a different type of lightning attack.
Up special performs wind magic, which likewise can be charged, and will proppel Hero far into the air, similar to Robin’s air magic.
Down special opens a tactical menu reminiscent of the RPGs, allowing Hero to access temporary boosts that affect his attack, defence, speed, or provide a limited reflection barrier, like Shulk, but to an even more extreme degree.
A limited Heal spell is also available to Hero in this menu, as is a Sleep spell. Infact, there’s a few interesting spells on offer that do a variety of things, like add a random affect to one of the players. In fact, Hero has the highest number of specials in the Smash Bros. series!
Gigaslash is his final smash, calling forth the series’ protagonists from across the series to strike at the enemy. The hit box of this attack is quite large, and has a high chance to connect as a result.
The Hero’s stage, Yggdrasil’s Altar, comes from the 11th title in the series. The background slowly passes by, showing off various locations of importance to the series.
The stage eventually climbs the tree, Yggdrasil itself, before looping to the start once more. The stage itself contains treasure chests, which may have items – or traps – in them. The trap in this case being a Mimic enemy which, upon defeating, still drops an item.
The music accompanying the stage come from across the franchise, with a focus on the titles that the Heroes appear from.
Hero will launch July 30th as part of the Fighter’s Pass, or $5.99 seperately.
Some Mii costumes, like Erdrick’s armour, and the Martial Artist outfits, will also become available.
The launch of Hero coincides with the Version 4.0 update.With this update, Final Smash Meters will now tick down. A ‘Very Easy’ difficulty mode will be added to Adventure. And spectators will be able to bet on the winners, losing nothing if they’re wrong, but winning points to exchange for store items if they’re right.
Additionally, special official competitions will begin to launch that all users can compete in. The Presentation in its entirety may be viewed below.