Sakurai speaks about a Chrom-free Smash roster and how Lucina made the cut

In Sakurai’s recurring Famitsu feature, he has explained why Chrom is not in the upcoming Super Smash Bros roster, saying that he lacked any identifying characteristics that would make him interesting to play in Smash, a ‘plain-old sword-wielder’.

[quote]At the end of the day, Chrom would just end up being another plain-old sword-wielder like Marth and Ike. Compared with other characters, he lacks any unique characteristics.[/quote]

Sakurai also explained newcomer Lucina’s moveset, after much speculation based on her revelation suspected that she might just be an alternate ‘outfit’ for series stalwart Marth, she has a very similar moveset to Marth but is actually an entirely separate character.

[quote]Lucina uses the same techniques as Marth, a fighter with whom I’m sure most of you are already familiar. I even went so far as to make their strength, speed, and special attacks almost identical.

However, what sets Lucina apart is the fact that the strength of her attacks is uniform along the blade. Marth’s playstyle emulates the elegant swordplay of a fencer by dealing more damage when he strikes with the tip of his blade, but the damage Lucina deals is evened out. Thus, I think that Lucina will be much easier than Marth for novice players to play with.[/quote]

It’s interesting that Lucina made the cut, being almost the definition of  ‘another plain-old sword wielder’ that Chrom was. Sakurai clarified this by saying that Lucina was “lucky” to have a separate place on the roster.

[quote]…even though Lucina shares her physical stats and techniques with Marth, the characteristics of their attacks differ. When two such similar characters function in an even slightly different manner, I give them a separate spot on the roster since that will affect battle records and whatnot. In that sense, you could say she was very lucky to join the fray![/quote]

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m really looking forward to giving Lucina a try when Smash arrives.