‘Xenoblade Chronicles 2’ Character Homura Announced For ‘Super Smash Brothers Ultimate’ [Nintendo Direct News]

February 17 (or 18th for Japan viewers) marked the first full Nintendo Direct presentation for the company in 2021, and as explained by Takahashi Shinya at the presentation’s start, and in quite a while generally. Takahashi admitted Nintendo did not release much news in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but that he appreciates fans bearing with the company. Wednesday’s Direct was uncharacteristically juicy as a thank you to the thousands of starved Nintendo fans.

If you are like and and detest spoilers, avert your eyes from my next sentence. Homura from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is the newest character announced for Super Smash Brothers Ultimate. Homura’s other life-force Hikari is also playable in a second form, likely with different stats.

Following the surprising 2020 announcement of Steve from Minecraft coming to Smash, Wednesday’s announcement was notably tame.

I am sure there are thousands of Xenoblade series fans happy to see her join the fray, but I was personally a little disappointed. Xenoblade Chronicles is a niche game (a niche game I really like) that already has a character in Smash. There was a huge buzz online with far-flung guesses like Sora from Kingdom Hearts or Leon from the Resident Evil series joining Smash that made Wednesday’s announcement sting even more. XC 2 is almost five years old now and while Homura is far and away the fan favorite from the game, I can’t say I am super excited to play her.