All Hail Pyra/Mythra, our Sword Waifus

A new character has been added to the roster of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Much to everyone's delight, it is another sword fighter. 

Pyra/Mythra aren't merely more sword fighters. They in fact are a sword. I can't really explain it because I've yet to play Xenoblade Chronicles 2. But I do plan on picking the game up. I just need to find a physical copy without having to pay through the nose.

I'm actually not peeved that the latest addition to Ultimate's massive roster is another swordy. Some of my favorite characters to play as are sword users like Toon Link, Sepiroth and Mii Sword Fighter. And after a few days of playing as them, I just may have to add Pyra/Mythra to the list of my favorite sword wielders in the game.

What we have with Pyra/Mythra are two characters in one. You can start the battle with either Pyra or Mytrha and swap between the two on the fly. Zelda/Shiek worked like this in Melee and Brawl but the difference between those two was night and day. Pyra and Mythra while not as radically different as Zelda and Shiek when they were a single character, have more than enough differences to set them apart. Like Pokemon Train lists Squirtle, Bulbasaur and Charazard as their own numbers, Pyra and Mythra listed as characters 79 and 80 respectively. Two characters for the price of one is a pretty sweet deal.

Pyra, clad in red, isn't speedy but she's powerful. Mythra, wearing white, isn't powerful but she's fast. I tend to lean more towards Pyra for big damage but when I need to strike quickly, it's Mythra's time to shine. I can see people gravitating towards Mythra due to her quickness. Me, I like to swap between the two on a regular basis. True, most of my death blows are landed with Pyra because she hits like a tank, but I've scored some KOs with Mythra. Her side B can make for a decent recovery and since I am an unapologetic, filthy casual, I use it to close the gap when I see opponents getting close to items. Meanwhile, Pyra's side B is a ultra fun edge guarding tool, also useful for keeping foes away from items. I do think Mythra has the better recovery and her jumps are definitely higher than Pyra's, which is great for keeping the Smash Ball upwards as opposed to left and right. Oh and I WILL totally trade a stock/point if I can kill with Pyra's down B or Mythra's side B off stage. Totally worth it. It should be illegal to have this much playing as Pyra/Mythra.

Oh and I am totally Team Pyra. FIGHT. ME.

Sepiroth, THE Anime Swordsman

"Sepiroth? Sepiroth?! Why are you talking about Sepiroth?! Pyra/Mythra are out in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate!! No one is talking about Sepiroth anymore!!" Well, I'm always late to do things. Life, even during a global pandemic is still crazy so blog posts have been behind as of late. And I'm starting to like the whole screw-what-isn't current-angle. I mean, I still need to write about Min Min.

Ahem, so Sepiroth, or as I will refer to him from here on out, Sephy. He's a lot of what I thought he'd be as well as some of what I didn't think he would be. For starters, I totally was not expecting THE anime swordsman to be a lightweight. Given his size, I had assumed he would be a heavy, but nope. Since Sephy is light, he's quite easy to launch, meaning you've got to play extra cautiously when at high percents. Sakurai and his team had to give some sort of trade off for all that power Sephy is packing.

Featherweight boxing division pickings aside, Sephy is really fun. You cannot talk about THE anime swordsman without getting into that super, ridiculously long sword. Range, range, range, RANGE. Sephy has it all day, every day. If you wanna stand across the stage and cut fools, Sephy is the pretty boy for you. No one can really chide you when you're swinging around a sword that's a big as a house. True, it does have a certain sweet spot and you'll deal more damage when connecting in the right places. But it is such a blast to just go ham, swinging that sucker all willy nilly, especially in free-for-alls. Nothing feels sweeter than forward Smashing two or three players into the blast zone. It really is the best.

The worst position to be in when fighting against Sephy? Off stage. Again, stupidly long sword. Which can actually go through the stage itself. If you're trying to recovery low, there is a very good chance you'll be eating a Down Aerith. You shouldn't just be worried about the pointy object he always keeps on him. Sephy has other methods to edge guard. Scintilla is great for stopping projectiles and as well as causing damage and good knock back. It should go without saying that have multiple Shadow Flares on you off stage is an almost guaranteed GGPO. But some players love to go for style points and it doesn't get more stylish than killing with Octoslash. Yeah, it'll cost you a point/stock if you go for the off stage kill, but at least you went out like a gangster. 

As much as I love FINAL FANTASY VII, I'm really not a huge fan of Sepiroth as a character but much like King K. Rool, I did not expect to enjoy playing as him this much. Now Cloud, I do really like as a character, but after using Sephy, Cloud just seems so meh. I'll probably use Cloud every now and then but I can easily see myself using Sephy on a near regular basis. He's just that enjoyable to use and I never thought I would love having him in Ultimate.

Cloud was massively screwed over when it came to song selection in Smash Wii U. We thought that maybe things would improve with Ultimate. No such luck. Every other third party rep looks like a king (well, Terry's 50 tracks is pretty hard to top) when compared to Cloud's messily 2 songs. Well, that's what we all said, but then Sephy came along and made it all better. Sephy's addition to Ultimate brought 9 more tracks with 4 of them being new arrangements. That alone makes Sephy's inclusion worth it. I never thought more FINAL FANTASY VII music would be in Ultimate. I think my favorite arrangement is the Main Theme of FINAL FANTASY VII, but Aeirth's Theme is also really good, celebratory even. I'm happy JENOVA made it in as it is one of the best tracks from the game. Woulda been nice to have JENOVA Aboslute, but I'll take what we got.

And Pichu and Sephy are good friends. Because why not?