Lucina

Lucina.png

'*Lucina**(ルキナ,*****Lucina*) is a playable character in*Super Smash Bros. All Stars*. She was confirmed during a live stream alongside Captain Falcon and Robin on the official*Super Smash Bros.*website on August 23rd, 2018, making her the only unlockable character to be revealed before*SSB All Stars** release. Lucina is a clone of Marth, her ancestor within the *Fire Emblem* series. While she was originally planned as an alternate costume for him, she was transitioned into being an entirely separate character later in development once her attacks were given differing traits; in a Miiverse post, Masahiro Sakurai explains that "whenever there is even a small difference in abilities, that character gets an actual roster slot", citing her as an example.[1] She was one of three intended alternate costumes to be made separate in this way, with the other two being the returning Dr. Mario and her fellow newcomer Dark Pit. Laura Bailey and Yū Kobayashi reprise their roles as Lucina's English and Japanese voice actors, respectively.

Lucina is currently ranked 18th out of 58 on the tier list, placing her in the B tier and making her the highest ranking clone. Like Marth, Lucina has good overall speed both on the ground and the air, which gives her reliable control in her movement for both approaching and retreating. Her Parallel Falchion grants her disjointed range, while the majority of her moveset has minimal start-up lag. By extension, Lucina has useful combo starters in the forms of her neutral attack's first hit, her neutral aerial's first hit and Dancing Blade, access to guaranteed horizontal KO set-ups unique to her, and respectable KO potential courtesy of her forward smash, up smash, back aerial and Shield Breaker. The Parallel Falchion's lack of a tipper sweetspot makes Lucina's attacks less polarized than Marth's and, in turn, grants her several benefits. These include Lucina inflicting higher shieldstun at close range (which makes her slightly more difficult to punish out of shield compared to Marth's sourspotted attacks), her being slightly better at defending against close-ranged pressure (most notably against rushdown-oriented characters like Captain Falcon), and her KO potential being more consistent at high percentages.

However, Lucina also shares Marth's flaws. Her disjointed range is offset by her attacks having short hitbox durations and considerable ending lag, which can make her susceptible to punishment if her attacks are not spaced well. She also has a poor grab game, as her throws fail to combo reliably starting at medium percentages, while only her up throw has KO potential at very high percentages. Lucina is also vulnerable to edgeguarding, due to Dolphin Slash's linearity making it fairly easy to gimp. Furthermore, she is vulnerable to combos and juggling, due to her lack of reliable anti-pressure options as they leave her just as susceptible to punishment.

Lastly, the lack of a tipper hitbox is also a double-edged sword for her. While Lucina's moveset is safer overall compared to Marth's due to her attacks dealing slightly higher shieldstun at close range and lacking sourspots and low hitlag modifiers, as well as dealing high knockback regardless of the hitbox she hits with, her attacks are more punishable than Marth's if not spaced well, due to Marth benefiting from the higher shieldstun caused by his tippered attacks. As such, in order for Lucina's attacks to be safe on shield, she must still utilize her Parallel Fachion's range in order to space her moves at the middle portion or tip of its blade. Despite their consistent power, her strongest KOing options are also weaker than Marth's tippered attacks, preventing her from gaining an advantage by scoring early KOs. Finally, her higher overall knockback removes several noteworthy sourspotted combos that Marth possesses at high percentages, while her unique KO set-ups are riskier than his.

As a result of these differences, Lucina has ultimately been viewed by many professionals as being inferior to Marth. While Lucina has not achieved the breakout of impressive results that Marth has, several professionals, such as Mr. R, Dabuz, and ZeRo, believe that the gap between her and Marth is not as significant as it seems, if it exists at all. This has been reflected by their tier placements throughout *SSB4*'s lifespan, although Lucina has managed to be viewed as a viable character like he has, courtesy of the plethora of buffs that she has received from game updates. To demonstrate this, as of early 2017, ZeRo himself regularly plays Lucina as a secondary and has achieved notable success with her.