Lloyd Irving

Lloyd as he appears in Tales of Symphonia.

*This article is about the official Tales of Symphonia character. For the grotesque version of Lloyd, see Floyd Irving*

**Lloyd Irving** is the main protagonist of the 2003 action role-playing game *Tales of Symphonia*. Raised in a simple country life, he ends up thrust into a journey centered around his friend Colette Brunel and the fate of his world. He is a skilled fighter with a proficiency in dual-wielding swords. *Tales of Symphonia* was the fifth game released in the *Tales* series (sometimes referred to as *Tales of*) and ended up becoming a major hit, particularly in the West. As such, while eclipsed in popularity by a few characters such as *Tales of Vesperia* protagonist Yuri Lowell, Lloyd Irving has managed to remain one of the most popular protagonists from the series since the release of Symphonia.

Due to the popularity of its game and the relative lack of major JRPGs present on the Nintendo Gamecube, Lloyd Irving would end up becoming a popular request going into the third game of the *Super Smash Bros.* series, *Super Smash Bros. Brawl*. While not considered a frontrunner for the game, he still managed to amass a dedicated base of supporters that would stick by him for games to come. In the end, he nor his series would make any sort of appearance in *Brawl*, but regardless he continued to be a popular pick for the next installment. His fans were given a very optimistic hope upon the reveal that Bandai Namco, the owner of the *Tales* series, would be leading development for the next installment of *Super Smash Bros.* for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. Many fans were convinced that Bandai Namco would want a fighter of their own to be represented in the game, and Lloyd soon shot up as one of the most popular picks. His main competition as perceived by fans included Pac-Man, who was widely seen as the frontrunner for obvious reasons, and a pick from *Tekken* (usually Heihachi Mishima). In the end, Pac-Man was revealed to be the fighter during E3 2014, and many Lloyd fans lost hope at him making the base roster. Despite missing the game's launch, a new hope appeared from the reveal that the games would be receiving downloadable content starting with the return of Mewtwo. This, combined with the eventual reveal of the Smash Ballot in April 2015, would raise hopes for many characters potentially having a second chance of making it in. That said, Lloyd was somewhat buried by other popular picks emerging. In July 2015, something shocking happened: Lloyd Irving was confirmed to finally make an appearance in Smash, albeit as a Mii Swordfighter costume. While this was seen as a final blow to Lloyd's chances of becoming a fighter in the game, it still marked a decent win through him finally receiving acknowledgement. On top of this, later comments from Sakurai confirmed that he saw Lloyd as the obvious pick from the *Tales* series.

With a new sense of motivation, Lloyd's supporters would continue to push for him in the next installment for Nintendo Switch, later titled *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*. The return of Bandai Namco as a developer and the potential promise of costumes being promoted (fueled by characters like Inkling and King K. Rool getting this treatment in the base game) made it seem like there could be a serious hope for Lloyd joining as Bandai Namco's second fighter. With Pac-Man confirmed to return early on, discussion around the company largely turned into a matter of *Tales* vs. *Tekken* for this second slot. In the end, there would be no Bandai Namco newcomer in the base game, but a proper season pass, the Fighters Pass, was confirmed in November 2018. Many continued to see Bandai Namco's absence as surprising and saw them as an obvious pick for this early batch for DLC. Yet again, there was no sign of a Bandai Namco newcomer in this first wave of DLC, but in September 2019 even more fighters were confirmed to be planned as DLC. One huge development that came out of the first wave was the absence of older third-party costumes based on several popular picks, specifically the likes of Lloyd, Heihachi, Geno, and Monster Hunter. This fueled massive speculation towards at least one of these getting a promotion in the second Fighters Pass, and Bandai Namco especially stood out due to no costumes returning at all alongside the first five Challenger Packs.

The *Tales* vs. *Tekken* debates would continue hard until a major shake-up occurred in June 2020 alongside the release of Min Min from *ARMS* as the sixth fighter, as Heihachi's costume made an early return. This ended up making a *Tekken* fighter seem far less likely to many, and thus *Tales* became seen as the frontrunner from Bandai Namco. Lloyd's costume would continue to miss the following three waves of Mii Costumes, even as Geno and Monster Hunter also got deconfirmed. This put a lot of pressure on Lloyd as the final chance for any third-party costume to be promoted in *Ultimate*. During Fighters Pass Vol. 2, however, there was far more discussion about other picks from *Tales* compared to before then. In particular, many began to point out Yuri Lowell's better showings on popularity polls among *Tales* fans and considered him a strong alternate to Lloyd. While the latter continued to be the popular pick, the two were seen on far more comparable footing by this time.

SmashFAQs throughout all of this had remained relatively neutral to the character, but in mid-2020 a major shake-up to this reception would come in the form of a troll known as RobinBrown. He pushed himself as Lloyd's "biggest fan" and acted as if he was a guaranteed addition. He even made an account bet over Lloyd being in the game as a fighter. Much of Robin's logic was faulty or overconfident, but even with most calling him out he would continue his act for months and become one of the most reviled trolls on the site at this time. In the end, many were shocked when *Tekken* actually DID receive a full fighter in the form of Heihachi's son Kazuya Mishima, revealed during Nintendo's E3 2021 Nintendo Direct. While some had considered the possibility of Kazuya or his own son Jin Kazuma getting on over Heihachi, very few actually believed it would happen and instead considered *Tales* or another series like *Dark Souls* to be far more likely by that point. With only one fighter slot apparently left and Bandai Namco finally receiving a second fighter, many Lloyd fans accepted defeat even before his costume was shown. Indeed, said costume would be a part of the next Mii Costume wave, although it did get a nice gesture by Sakurai acknowledging the wave (which also included Dragonborn from *Skyrim*, Dante, and Shantae) as one made up of fan favorites. Many Lloyd supporters were disappointed, although most still took it in stride. An obvious exception to this was RobinBrown, who would welch on his account bet and continue to spout nonsense (albeit on a less regular basis).

With Lloyd's chances as a fighter once again quashed, it's too early to tell how his support will continue into the sixth installment of the series whenever that finally happens. This said, based on Lloyd fans' long-time commitment and both Pac-Man and a *Tekken* fighter being on the ready to appear as veterans, it is likely he will still have some level of support going into it.