This thread has a very compelling first post and certainly presents good reasons why Marth might be kept around.
The one thing that makes me skeptical about Marth returning is the order of which the characters are being presented on the dojo. The main characters of a series are shown before the secondary characters. And as the first lord and the star with the most games, I say Marth would be considered the main character of Fire Emblem.
But Ike is revealed first. So I think he is the new face for Fire Emblem, being recent and highly popular. Now Sakurai is not a man known for patterns, but I think this pattern will hold true. It only makes sense to reveal the main character with the revelation of a franchise.
If this theory is true, then Lucas is the new face for Mother and Ness is out.
While a fair point, there are several other likely reasons for Ike to be revealed first.
For starters, theres a pretty plain pattern to how the veterans are being revealed - namely, those who were starter characters in past games are coming before those who were unlockables. At present, we have all 8 of the original starters, plus four who were added to the starting roster in Melee but were not in the original. The remaining characters were either unlockables in the original but not in Melee (Ness, Captain Falcon) or always unlockable (everyone else). Presuming Captain Falcon and (if he wasn't replaced) Ness are next up to be revealed as veterans due to their starter status in Melee, and after that we get into old unlockables, likely starting with the most ridiculously obvious, such as Luigi, Jigglypuff, and Ganondorf. Thats a lot of veterans until Marth's turn comes around (particularly when you consider that, when Ike was revealed, Peach and the Ice Climbers still hadn't been updated). On the other hand, Ike is a newcomer, and possibly a starter at that, so his revelation first gives Fire Emblem fans a character to look forward to earlier than Marth could have.
In addition, theres two other reasons I can see why Ike would be updated first. The first is that the timing for his update was the best for using it to generate hype - Ike was the first newcomer to be revealed who hadn't been seen in the first trailer, which as I recall generated a lot of excitement (at least on the NSider boards, which is where I was at the time). This wasn't so much due to who he was - many people had to have that explained to them - as due to him being the first new character in so long. Had they waited to update Ike, he wouldn't have generated nearly as much excitement, and if he had been updated after Marth, many non-FE players would be flat-out disappointed by what they perceive as similarities in the two (case in point: the fact that some actually argue that as a reason for Marth to leave). It seems to me they simply chose the optimum time to reveal Ike from that perspective.
The other reason is simply that Ike's games have been international from the start, while Marth's wasn't revealed to be being remade until just recently. Revealing Marth early would please a lot of fans in Japan, but fewer elsewhere, while revealing Ike early appealed to FE fans across the planet.
So yeah, I don't really see that as an issue. There are plenty of logical reasons for Ike's earlier revelation that don't exclude Marth from the game.
Zevox
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