The professor arrives in amiibo form next year, but with a catch.
The all-star brawler Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for Nintendo Switch has been buzzing lately, with the recent announcement of new fighters Steve and Alex from Minecraft arriving with the upcoming Challenger Pack 7 downloadable content on October 13th.
In the “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – Mr. Sakurai Presents ‘Steve & Alex’” video presentation which aired earlier today, Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai shared detailed information about this DLC, and at the tail end of it, gave an update about its newest compatible amiibo, toy figures which can connect with software titles via near-field communication to unlock special features. Among these amiibo figures was Byleth from Fire Emblem: Three Houses, who also debuted as a Smash Bros. DLC newcomer earlier this year in both male and female versions.
Another image of Byleth’s amiibo, shared by Nintendo.
During the amiibo segment, Mr. Sakurai showed off a prototype of the Byleth figure for the first time, confirming its planned 2021 release. However, without further explanation, he also clarified that they’re only able create the P1 fighter amiibo (or in other words, the default male version in the Smash Bros. game), leaving the P2 fighter, or female Byleth, out of the question.
Some DLC fighters for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U would be printed as amiibo in both their default look (Player 1) and their second in-game variation (Player 2), as seen with Corrin from Fire Emblem Fates.
Mr. Sakurai presents the lack of a Byleth Player 2 amiibo in the works as “unfortunate”, but also shares no hopeful signs of reconsideration. Understandably, some fans are disappointed the lady professor won’t see an amiibo alongside her male counterpart. Perhaps there may be another chance with a new game supporting amiibo, such as a hypothetical sequel to Fire Emblem Warriors?
Either way, male Byleth’s amiibo is expected to arrive sometime next year, and you’ll be able to use it with Ultimate to train and customize a Figure Player in Byleth’s likeness (including their female variations), and possibly other functionality with other games in the future we have yet to know of. We’ll keep you in the know about more release information of the amiibo as it comes.
