If you play the game in spanish, there is this "funny" thing that happens with Hero down B. In spanish, Psych up is "Mentalización" and Kaclang is "Metalización". There is ONE letter difference between the two words and oh boy, when you are in a hurry sometimes they can be quite difficult to differentiate.

Hero is probably the best addition of the DLC characters casual-wise because of all the explosive chaos he brings to matches. He's super fun to play in friendlies and casual matches, but in a tournament setting, he's probably the purest example of inconsistent.

Simple, not everyone can have good taste

I'm a Hero main and i've been a Hero main for most of the game's run. Hero's my favorite character by a landslide, and not just because i'm a huge Dragon Quest fan. A lot of his moves are really satisfying to hit, and watching my opponent react in shock as I proceed to so something completely out of left field and take the stock never gets old. I thrive on the sheer chaos Hero brings to the table and even if he has several issues, I will keep maining Hero as long as there is a Hero to main.

Before the Premiere: I would assume that it's because: A. Their normals and general speed are a cut below the top swordies like Cloud, Lucina, Roy, the Aegis, and to a lesser extent Sephiroth. and B. Their reliance on RNG, while theoretically workable in almost any situation, requires INCREDIBLY quick decision making out of a set of multiple randomized options of varying quality during various situations. They are way too high maintenance and inconsistent for their potential reward. AND C. The language barrier problem.

The easiest way to fix his down b is simple. Controlled randomness. Have the first slot be a random recovery move (zoom, heal), his second one me the sword skills, (flame slash, kacrackle slash) his third one being ranged spells (bang, sizz) and the last one be buffs (psyche up, oomph, kaclang). Hocus pocus could randomly show up in any of the slots too. This solves the issue of reading since while the moves are random, you always have an idea of what type of movie they'll throw out. (Some specials would need to be tuned down for this). Also speed up some of his normals, give him an actual up air and give his upsmash a scoop hitbox and they'd be great.

I think it's ok for some characters to sacrifice game balance for the sake of being fun and accurate to their home series, as long as the fighter isn't broken or useless.

"Now that's nice that they try to make it like the movie, but there's some times when you should do that, and some times when it's not necessary." Rolfe - Top Gun I've been waiting for this, RNG and Language barrier for sure are gonna be the key factors to this day I can't believe sakurai still hasn't added icons to the menu

I like the idea of hero being able to sit on a spell from his menu. What if he had some sort of bookmarking system? If he sees a spell in his menu he wants to save for later, he could bookmark it and it would come up at the top of his next menu.

He’s too luck based to be meta ever but that doesn’t stop me from playing him at all… I’m a hero main and I’ll never stop being a hero main

He is so RNG based that people just right him off and say you need "luck" to win with him. Then when Hero wins, people hate you because "yOu WeRe JuSt LuCkY! YoU hAvE nO sKiLl!" Plus the whole language barrier thing. That said, Hero is one of my best characters. I love this guy. There's only like, one top Hero main in the world and that's Japenese-player Akakikusu... who doesn't play as often as he used to. If he was to ever grind again, he'd sooo destroy the US (well, if he learns the Hero spells in English). Dude defeated a lot of top Japenese players in his time.

I think people focus too much on his down b. His neutral B and side B are also very good and you can play him with a decent success without relying heavily on his other spells. He has one too many tough MU to be top tier but I think he's underrated more than he should be

Hero is such an RNG based character that it makes him too inconsistent to be competitively viable. However for casual play, I’d argue he’s the most fun to fight as and against. Most definitely my top 5 favorite characters to play. Love top decking kamikaze lmao! Hero: it seems you may have over estimated my abilities! Them: what…?! Hero: *miss kamikaze*

I actually really really like Hero's Design. The Language Barrier aside, I like the Character to have very broken Projectiles, but then balance that out by being a Zoner that will actively approach you. Usually Resources like Robin end up just making you weak and run away until your Resources are back up. In Hero's Case, the passive Regeneration is so bad, and the Reward for hitting the Opponent with Normals so great, that you *will* have very interactive fights. Even the Command Menu still gives you good Melee Attacks. Hero is a Character with lots of RNG and broken Specials (Neutral-B and Side-B without Mana Cost on sth like Samus would be insane), that simultaneously feels super fair to fight. Not implementing Symbols for the Command Menu is so tragic!

I've been waiting for this, and as hero main myself this hurts. I really hope 1 day a hero player wins a major to prove that consistency is BS.

As a competitive hero main there is actually some stuff you can do to increase your chances of getting certain spells (for example if you have oomph you cant get it in the menu while its active). And personally i see the menu as a sort of bonus rather than a necessity. Hero is still at the very least a high mid tier without menu. I also find the comparison to steve a bit ironic seeing that hero has a winning mu vs him and many other top tiers. Still a good video though, wish more people played hero.

There should be an invitational where players like mkleo, riddles, tweek etc, all pick hero and see who can out rng the others. That would be so fun to watch.

A. Language barrier B. Pros hate stupid fun

The way to fix him in my opinion are two things. Firstly, to solve the language barrier there should be symbols by the spell names like in Dragon Quest, unique to each spell. Secondly, his menu should have some level of not RNG, by having each slot limited to a type of spell. The top one could be the classic slash type, with moves like Flame Slash, Kacrackle Slash, Metal Slash or Hatchet Man. This would mean his immediate spells would give faster moves that hit directly in front of him. The second to the top could have only projectiles like Sizz, Kaboom etc (the projectiles that shoot straight forward). This would mean he would take a bit longer to position and zone. The third could be the ones focused around buffs like Oomph and Acceleratle. This would mean he takes longer to set up and get his buffs. For his last slot it could be the gimmick spells like Hocus Pocus, Magic Burst, Zoom, Kaclang or Kamikazee. This would mean top decking wouldn’t get the ones that negatively affect him need to be very actively chosen so top decking isn’t as risky. The changes to his menu like this means that he can keep some of the improvising on the spot design with what he gets, but he consistently has access to every type of tool he could need in any situation, but the quality and effects available vary to force improvisation. Thoughts?

You should do a vs series where you compare similar characters dissecting them and determine which if the two are better

I wish Nintendo included symbols for the different types of spells he can use like in dragon quest XI. It’s not fair how for example a Spanish player can be artificially put in an inherent disadvantage against someone else using the Japanese language. The language barrier issue stands as the ONLY reason why the ban hero argument stands any ground.

As a hero player that has been playing competitive smash for as long as all the games existed. Hero is 100% not inconsistent. Once you play hero long enough you dont even read the menu. I just see the words and know what to do in every situation. Hero has an answer to every situation for every character. You just got to get faster and faster reading and using the menu. Reading the menu fast and choosing the correct solution during mid/ close combat is crazy deadly. Another fact to being a better Hero is to only identify the 1st, 2nd, and 4th menu options in less than half a second (my current speed). 3 spells are always instantly accessible with the flip of the stick (you can also bait the opponent by hovering over the option they think you are going to choose, then before you choose that spell, change it instantly to another). When you combine the mid combat menu selecting with attacks your opponent wont know what to think.

Ah yay! I was hoping for a video on him! I genuinely find Hero so fun to play (and I adore his game, seeing that he’s in my pfp hehe), so this should be interesting! :))

If I'm being honest I think Hero is in a perfect position right now. Currently I consider him a niche high tier that has really good matchups against zoners, which is exactly what he should be. Having a casual focussed character in the midst of the dlcs which are full of characters that kinda suck on a casual level (Terry, Kazuya and Byleth come to mind) is perfectly fine for me and the fact most people love him is very important. Go Hero :)

They don’t play him cus rng. And ppl prefer compete control over every aspect of their character

I remember when people were saying Hero should be banned because of his critical smashes and strong spells.

As a Hero main I didn't main him because I though he was good, I mained him because he is one of the most fun characters I have ever played in a fighting game

I feel also the mii fighters are unpopular for the same reason as Hero is unpopular they have multiple moves and going into a fight without knowing their moves is like not being able to read for hero also people thought Mii’s a weren’t legal like hero so people didn’t pick them up and both have/had bullshit like size variant miis and command selection/menu but they are different in other ways but this was my first thought idkw

I absolutely Love this series! Robin is my main and wiifit is one of my favourites and i loved to see them covered! I would also love to see your perspective on why noone plays duckhunt! Your opinions feel so fair.

Hero main here. Would kill for faster aerials.

Hero has become a somewhat special character to me. He introduced me to a new franchise that I absolutely love, he's my second favorite casual character to use behind Robin, and he's my 4th overall favorite DLC character to use (my other favorites being Joker, Pyra/Mythra, and Piranha Plant). I just love his randomness, but sadly (or fortunately depending on your perspective) his randomness has led to him being an overall inconsistent character in competitive play. Basically, to optimally play Hero you need to be able to make quick decisions and read fast. Very few people can do that, especially when under pressure. Hero has simple, albeit slow, normals but he instantly becomes a more complicated character when you introduce his down special and the fact he can occasionally get a critical hit with one of his smash attacks. While he takes a certain level of skill, he also relies on a certain degree of luck to win matches. I think with the rise of Steve, it's certainly possible to see more people use Hero as a counterpick since he's considered to be one of Steve's worst match ups. In reality tho, I seriously doubt that will happen and the player base for Hero will likely not rise much further than where it's currently at.

I used to main Hero, he still sits as one of my most used characters and I consider him to be a pocket of mine, the main issue isn't his difficulty of use, his lackluster moveset or weird playstyle, imo he's easy to perform with, has moves that are ridiculously good and any zoner/swordy playstyle will work with him, it's the stigma he has around his character, I experienced this first hand with the tournaments I attended playing as this character, they first ask why you would play such an inconsistent character, then when you win and triumph it goes immediately to the, you got lucky excuse which is so upsetting to hear after you win, if you are someone with pride who cares for others opinions (which you shouldn't, your own fun is more important than someone else's opinion on a character) then you will go to any other character besides Hero where you're almost certain to get called out for the Luck factor carrying you. To all Hero mains, enjoy your character, they're fun, they're a breath of fresh air and if someone calls you carried, just remember they lack the fundamental knowledge to counter your character (unless they can't read the language, cut them some slack if that's the case).

Let’s just clip together the characters in the video who you mention can do certain moves better than Hero & I’d say that pretty much sums up the main gist of this topic.

I love hero I’m a Greninja main but man hero’s so funny and fun to play

I just wished some of his attacks were altered a bit, like his up smash had an added sour spot to widen the possible damage area. Or his down air again increase area but also sour as well and reduce the frames of it as well. Increase the passive mp recovery rate by 1.1x. To reduce the randomness have it that the lowest cost be on top and the highest on the bottom for the menu, this would make finding zoom more seemless and it you are looking for a bigger hitting spell then finding would be more apparent to look for

my main

As a Hero and Robin main, give Hero Robin's frame data and Robin Hero's movement speed and I would never complain again. Fuck the development nerf BS they did to my mains, especially Robin. Dude is illogically weaker than what he should have been. I have Hero as Mid High Tier and Robin Low High Tier.

Putting in my comments before I watch: As a Hero main, I think the only thing that needs to be changed about him is the language barrier. Everything else is pretty fine. His normals are really slow for a swordfighter, and he's relatively immobile without Acceleratle (which you can only get by RNG). I think negativity bias factors in to the hatred he gets, because everyone can remember how they lost in tournament to a Hero who topdecked Magic Burst at ledge, but will never remember how they killed a Hero who topdecked Metal Slash at ledge. His reliance on RNG is a hindrance, not a blessing.

No mention or on screen gameplay of the Best Hero in Australia, Ezycole. My boy has been robbed.

i have a hero secondary and all i want is a Command Selection that has is color coded to each spell so that if ever i compete to a country with a different language, i can distinguish what from the other.

Being able to sit on a spell and use it on demand later would be _hilarious_ and now I wish that's how it worked.

I love playing as the Mr RNGus himself. He's so hectic

I still love him

Hero is one of the most fun characters

Actually; letting hero just get a spell into an inventory slot instead of instantly using it would have been a positive for both players in a way. The Hero-Player can plan out their approach and Gameplan and their opponent can adjust to the Spell Hero hast access to

I like Hero and I'm thankful that Sakurai finally added the grandfather of all JRPGs. It was through his inclusion that I was introduced to Dragon Quest and became a fan. Fanboying aside, I like how his pros and cons in Smash really emulate the JRPG experience. His spells are strong yet some of his normals are weak and inconsistent, kinda like how Attack and Spells/Skills are balanced in the games in a way. The whole idea of being at zero mana and needing to risk getting it back very reminiscent on DQ's whole dungeon crawling experience, wherein once you run out of mana in combat, you must waste a party member's turn to use a phial. And even in the overworld, if you ran out of mana, you have to walk back to town, which, unless you have Zoom, would mean you're gonna stumble upon more random encounters. Speaking of random, you are roght about how RNG is a key feature in JRPGs. DQ pioneered it from random encounters, crit chances, hit chances, etc. Overall I liked how Hero reflects the DQ and JRPG experience. If a next Smash is coming and they're coming back, my only hopes is to put logos on the spells in Command Select so that language barrier is broken. I won't mind if they balance him by removing the crits but would be cool for Smash attacks to make the crit SFX after hitting with full charge, which imo sounds balanced and flavorful at the same time.

As a hero main at 13 million gsp im suprised not many people play him, ive been playing him since release!

I’ve been waiting for this one

Question for the comments: which of the four playable Erdricks is your favorite? (Mine's Solo, the one with green hair)

I love hero, but upair being fast makes it genuinely one of his better moves. This does make me want to grind hero.

One of my favorite sights in ultimate is seeing a hero top deck thwack or kamikaze.

Main in 64: Link. Main in Melee: Roy. Main in Brawl: Toon Link, I think, but it might've been Lucario or Fox? Main in Smash 4: Mega Man, but with Roy as secondary. Main in Ultimate: Hero.

hmmmm i'm interested, maybe i'll pick them up 9:00 i think hero does have enough pressure as a zoner, his neutral b the fireball at max charge is a kill move, if i remember correctly you can you just play him like a hybrid charge shot character

Thanks for making this video, Vars! As a Hero main I've been waiting for a video like this from you for months now, sir. Ive played hundreds of sets with my brother both offline and online and after playing against a variety of his favorite characters, it can definitely be frustrating with how inconsistent hero is combined with his slow frame data. Despite that, I always go back to and continue to play Hero as my main.

You forgot to mention there isn't any planning around a very fickle move set; when I play Zelda I know what kind of combos I can do, when I play Sonic; I know what kind of combos I can do. If I rush down or get rush down I know what I'm doing but effectively with Hero he's needed to be played slower, and less reliable for what you can plan for. If your opponent runs in, and smacks you down, you're dead. He's easier to deal with when you force him to use up his abilities.

"NO ONE plays Hero" Me, a Hero main: are you sure about that?

"Do you want to invest time in someone who might blow up in your face?" YES

I love to play Hero casually, its really fun to try to play around whatever you get in menu. But I would never play him competitively. If he could store his spells that would be really cool. Press shield to store a spell then unleash it at your convenience. He would definitely become a more prominent pick with that alone. I don't think players mind the limitations with mp since you regain mp with each normal hit and over time, nor the bad aerials or randomness, so much as that lack of control over menu. I would give up critical hits on smash attacks to have that control. They could even make it so stored spells cost 10% more mp and I think I would still be happy,

If you think about it, it's not random... It's a pseudo random number generator algorithm, which is deterministic and consistent. So you just need to TAS random manipulate to play this character. Way easier than lightning loops imo

As an avid hero main, up air isn't bad at all.

wish he just had a normal down b, or maybe it could cycle through 3 or 4 spells like soras neutral B

I'm not a competitive player, but I'm a Hero main so there were a few things I wanted to add Up smash you're honestly right, it's just not great and can only really be used if you land a down air on stage at a certain percentages. Something I managed to find myself, however, is with his up air. You can actually juggle your opponent a little bit with up air, managing to hit 3-5 of them at a time, depending on if you do a short hop or regular jump, and can deal at least 30% of damage to your opponent Frizz is something you generally never want to use, but in my opinion when charging it up, have Frizzle at the ready all the time, cause it can be a really useful tool to keep your opponent away from you, rather than wasting 36 mp on something that'll likely miss. Kafrizz is a really good tool as well, but I personally think it's always better to have Frizzle at the ready more often

i think the best way to make him more viable but still not broken is to have the 4th option of his menu appear 1st in the next menu! now if u have a snooze at 4th u know it will be at the top next time you may need it.... u may not! u can play around that while snooze moves 1st something else will end up 4th. that will reduce the number of variety of spells he has but it will help know 1 of the options that will appear it still at random so i don't think it will be broken.

Is it weird that I always use him as hand-warmer every time I play a new opponent?

You take that back I love him and his friends-

Is that Terra ost I hear in the background?

Duck hunt next please. And also analyse how raito got 5th at evo then we never saw dh again

An easy fix for the language barrier issue is to make unique icons appear next to each ability in the down B. But sadly Sakurai decided way too fast to never update smash again.

im kinda glad hero isn't common even tho i don't really play smash. I just have a really slow read speed, language barrier put aside.

I was a hero main for a looong time. I still think he’s the best dlc that came out.

>play Hero >blame RNG for losses >ego stays intact forever

I like playing hero casually. I Co mained him together with Samus at locals. But I found that Hero is more likely to lose because of random more than my other character. So I dropped him for locals but still play him online.

You truly miss the value of PsychUp and Oomph. Almost every stock you'll see one of those or both, multiple times. Mastering his sword with those buffs reduces randomness, adds potential RNG strikes, can shield brake easily, and kills at lower percents!

I feel like this video doesn't acknowledge that hero is a buff archetype character. The down special functions as a chance to power up primarily, with spells only occasionally coming out.

Hey vars! I love your league of legends content. I do not look down on ultimate but I don't follow it, I'm just a melee guy. While melee does have amazing content creators talking about games and systems I was wondering if you had any interest in it? Would be curious what you would bring to the table.

I haven't played online smash, nor have I really played it with anyone else recently. But, I am a Hero main. Specifically for the reason that its always different. I like variety in battles, repetitive stuff stops the game being fun. Zoning isn't something that I do all that much, and for the most part it does work. Hero is the most fun character in my opinion and although sometimes inconsistent, the matches are always fun. I do have a theory as to why crits and RNG were implemented specifically into Hero and not other JRPG characters: Dragon Quest was the root game of JRPGs, it led to the creation of Final Fantasy, Fire Emblem, and all other JRPGs. So, I think that Sakurai decided that Hero should get a bit more special treatment and gave him JRPG mechanics along with RNG because JRPGs are full of random occurrences.

my main issue with hero is just the ridicules crit damage, just nerf it to 1.3x insted of 2x

What's the background music from? Also I main this guy he's so fun lol

I think hero is one of the best counter campers in this meta. Literally dominates anyone who refuses to approach. Definitely could be the savior against sonic, Steve & G&W

Hero is one of my go to

The title should be "Why No One Plays Hero (Competitively)". We all know Hero is a good time in ffa.

I Play Hero. I LOVE HERO!

Contrary to this Hero is actually more present in Japan than in the US

as a Hero main myself, I can safely say that his menu should NOT be storable. ever. This was a great video tho and tons of fun to watch! Hopefully more people embrace the rng gods in the future

Does Hero Down-B count as a comeback mechanic?

Still can't believe you haven't done Banjo

... What if you could store spells, but for only 5 seconds and you can even lose the spell by getting hit by an attack that makes Hero flinch? It would also require a 5 MP tax.

i tried to make hero my main so hard (i like a sword or two, and i actually like some rng because it lets me think on my toes), but i never could stick to it. This video is a great explanation, thanks!

I play Hero because hes the funniest character to pair with incineroar to guarantee every set I play is fast and terrifying for both parties involved.

I love hero! I'd never even heard of Dragon Quest when he was announced for the game... He just looked amazing! I don't think it was his art style appealing to my DBZ nostalgia, although maybe subconsciously it was a factor. As a Robin main, I love magic characters! And Hero's introduction was full of magic. We didn't know how his mechanics worked yet but we knew he had a ton of spells!!! I couldn't wait to dl & play as him... His critical hit mechanic is cool but I could see how it would piss people off. Maybe some other rpg characters could of received 1/8 critical hits too; although people would see hate FE Characters for that as they're all RPG's. Idk, you have to be well practiced with Hero's footsies to ensure you've got plenty of mana. But the mana mechanic (at least I think) balances out his crazy magic powers. I do think moves like whack & thwack are... Well, wack 😆

As snake and hero main, I see most these reasons, but like hero is a one s cone long rpg turn in a fighting game, and being a sub par sword fighter I am cool to deal with. Like it’s the fun zanyiness of judge that isn’t as volatile and instead of it playing worse, building your gameplay with it. I co main snake though so if I went to a major and played with somebody who couldn’t speak English, I’d just play snake. Luckily I’ve never had to deal with this as I only play super competitive in rivals and not ult, other than some locals.

Hero is just hilarious. Killing someone with a thwack at 20% will never fail to make me laugh

Mention of Pokemon with status effects... Well, Mewtwo does stun with Disable, but yeah. I felt like there could've been more status moves put in for the Pokemon and other characters.

My main has arrived!

*sniffs and wipes tear from my eye* I play hero...😢

hero reminds me of trunks from dbz, he even wears purple, and dragon quest and dragon ball both have dragon in it

Wish the menu was link to the c stick directional so you could cast without scrolling. UPS the cast time slightly why still not being to over powered

Short answer: RNG Long answer: RNG and a resource bar

Italian Hero is the best Whack translates to “Instant Death”

I was expecting to love hero. However one thing got in my way, dyslexia. I need an at least 3 seconds to read my menu, which is far too long to main this character effectively