In a recent column, Masahiro Sakurai talked Mythra and Pyra in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in Famitsu Magazine in Japan. The pair comes from Xenoblade Chronicles 2, the hit JRPG from the Nintendo Switch. It’s no surprise that the duo are playable characters in Smash, as Sakurai is a huge Xenoblade fan. In his reveal for the characters, he even donned two Xenoblade Chronicles 2-themed pro controllers. Sakurai gets into the specifics of Pyra and Mythra, as well as why Rex was not a playable character. Translation courtesy of Nintendo Everything.
“When we learned we would be developing a character from Xenoblade Chronicles 2, my immediate thought was whether we could put Rex (the game’s protagonist) and Pyra (Rex’s Blade) on screen at the same time. We concluded that… well, it was impossible. The team tried, but we ultimately had no way of making it happen.”
“In the end, we couldn’t have Rex fighting on his own, and the idea of switching between Pyra and Mythra seemed like a much stronger character design. A Blade fighting on their own is a little different from the original game, but that point is far outweighed by the strengths of the design. Honestly, until I played the game, I thought that the Blade would fight on their own. If you saw a human and tiger pairing… well, the tiger is stronger right?
Our aim for DLC characters is for them to be unique, rather than just another character on the roster. Thanks to Pyra/Mythra’s Swap mechanic, we have two characters with different strengths and abilities, and different themes of power and speed respectively. Even though we settled on a single character, there was still a lot of work to be done. After all, these are two new characters that we had to ensure were properly balanced. Unlike the somewhat similar Zelda/Sheik pairings, the normal attacks of Pyra/Mythra were differentiated by attack speed and it’s their special attacks that are different. They were a lot of work, but I’m glad we were able to put such a brilliant character in the game. My thanks go out to all the staff who made it a reality.”
There you have it. They looked at Rex, but it simply wouldn’t work. Pyra and Mythra is a far superior choice is you ask me. Have you been enjoying the latest additions to the Smash roster?