It's sort of funny how when Smash Ultimate was first announced, many people expected an ARMS character to be included. Then that whole expectation went away particularly with how the DLC went. Personally, I had already figured an ARMS character would probably be included in the next Smash game (if there is another) since it would probably have to rely more in Nintendo's own characters at that point. The announcement was a pleasant surprise to me.
Once again, I found myself disagreeing with Broodwars assessment:
Nintendo: "Yeah, we know no one's going to get excited for this one, so we just thought we'd warn you ahead of time that the next Smash character is from ARMS."
Yeah, I know. I just think it's very telling that Nintendo went out of their way to avoid a repeat of the Byleth reveal by letting them know not to expect an amazing next DLC character.
If Nintendo was worried about the reception for an ARMS character then I don't think they needed to worry that much. People already seem more optimistic just from the news that it is an ARMS character compared to the Byleth reception. I know I'm pumped about it. Difference between this and Byleth (besides the fact I've played ARMS but not a single FE games) is that Smash fans were already critical of the amount of FE characters and swordsman that were in the game back when Chrom seemed overkill. Since Chrome was just an "Echo", he was begrudgingly accepted since it meant he shouldn't have had used up that much development time. To have another FE character show up in the DLC just felt like an uninspired choice and an already redundant character. On the other hand, I do know a few people who have played Three Houses and were quite happy with the inclusion. I'm not going to say it was a universally panned pick but it definitely wasn't popular primarily in part because the game isn't lacking in FE swordsman representation.
It is lacking in ARMS representation so I'm curious to see how it is integrated. A big reason for that is because I feel that what was holding ARMS back (see what I did there) somewhat from being enthusiastically received and accepted by Nintendo fans like Splatoon and Smash was its speed. When playing the game, it takes a bit of time for a punch to land. While other moves can be activated faster like jumping, the extending and recoiling of arms has these delays. When playing it, I thought about Smash and how getting in close and making an immediate punch or move is very satisfying. From what I've seen with Splatoon, it is also a very fast paced game and shooter. ARMS doesn't seem to quite have that top gear of speed. I think it is an intentional choice to be more of a chess match but it can be annoying when you enter a command but by the time your arms are heading towards a player, the situation may have changed and you'd be wishing you did something else. I'm looking forward to the Smash Direct for the ARMS character to see what it looks like when they are played at Smash speed.
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