Dolphin Slash

Dolphin Slash
{{{content1}}} {{{content2}}} Dolphin Slash in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
User	Marth Lucina
Universe	Fire Emblem

The Dolphin Slash (ドルフィンスラッシュ, Dolphin Slash) is Marth and Lucina's up special move.

Overview

Marth or Lucina slightly move forward, quickly swipe their sword upwards and perform a high-spiraling leap, with their blade extended horizontally-to-vertically. The player can angle the move to either gain more horizontal distance or more vertical distance, similar to Super Jump Punch. Right before they start rising, the move has a fast (frame 5) and fairly powerful hitbox which either launches opponents horizontally or vertically depending on how close the opponent is to the user. As the user is rising, the move has a much weaker hitbox which lasts for a short period of time. Once the user has finished their ascent, they will slowly stall in the air until they start falling, where they have very limited aerial mobility. It provides decent vertical recovery, but very little horizontal recovery which overall makes it an exploitable recovery move, especially in earlier games. The move is quite effective as an attack however due to its fast speed, respectable range, decent strength and the fact that it provides some intangibility during its startup, which gives it a fair amount of utility in other areas. As well as being a recovery move, it can be used as an out of shield option, an escape tool, an edgeguarding tool or as a combo ender.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

Marth's Dolphin Slash in Melee.

Dolphin Slash's damage and knockback is strongest in its first few frames of attack. The longer the attack is out, the weaker it gets. It's best used point blank if it's meant to be used as an attack, since the later frames of the attack are weaker than the beginning frames. It can be slightly angled forward, similarly to Roy's Blazer.

Reverse Dolphin Slash

Famed Marth player Ken uses the reverse dolphin slash to KO Dr. PeePee's Fox after using a jab and a down tilt to stop his recovery.

A "Reverse Dolphin Slash" can be performed by starting the attack and quickly moving the joystick backwards. This will cause Marth to turn around just before jumping upwards, and if it hits an enemy close to him as he starts the move, it will almost guarantee that Marth hits with the sweetspot, due to the hitbox placement of the attack. Due to these properties, the Reverse Dolphin Slash can act as both a powerful surprise KO move as well an effective move to gimp offstage. Often Marth players will use this move as an alternative finish to a Ken Combo should they be too close to sweetspot Marth's down air spike. Additionally, due to its speed, some players will opt to use the move to punish poor tech rolls.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Marth's Dolphin Slash in Brawl.

In Brawl, the regular Dolphin Slash appears to be at least as powerful as Melee's Reverse Dolphin Slash. Marth can be seen jump-cancelling a shield into it for potential kills at about 100% (130% on heavyweight characters).

This move in Brawl has several more advantages than the version in Melee. It has more horizontal range, can be angled more noticeably forward, and its vertical recovery is still great. It is also one of the few moves to retain the speed it had in Melee. However, it lacks the higher potential to KO in comparison.

What makes this move really useful are the invincibility frames starting on frame 1 to 5, allowing Marth to escape chain grabs and multi hit attacks. However, when used for this purpose, Marth is left helpless and vulnerable to attack. The move hits the opponent on frame 5, like it did in Melee.

In Super Smash Bros. 4

Marth's Dolphin Slash in Smash 4.

Dolphin Slash returns in Super Smash Bros. 4 as Marth's up special move, and his clone Lucina also possesses the move as well. Its sweetspot is very slightly smaller, making it a bit harder to hit a reverse Dolphin Slash. However, all other hitboxes of the move are slightly larger. It has significantly less landing lag than in previous games, making it safer if the user is forced to land helpless. However, the grounded version now only has two frames of intangibility (frames 4–5), making it more unsafe as an out-of-shield move against lingering hitboxes. Before update 1.0.8, it dealt drastically reduced knockback, making it useless for KOing until extremely high percentages where it would not be viable.

However, starting from the 1.0.8 update, Dolphin Slash's knockback has been significantly buffed. It now has KO potential at percentages around 130% (significantly lower with rage), and due to its speed it can easily catch opponents off guard, along with giving the user a hard-hitting option to escape pressure if platforms are available. The landing lag was also reduced further in the same update. As such, it is considered a much more viable move than in previous patches, and arguably gives back the strength it had originally lost from Brawl.

Although hitting a reverse Dolphin Slash is now very rare, the move is still very useful for edgeguarding and stage spiking due to its speed, especially against poor and slow recoveries such as Dark Dive and Duck Hunt Jump. Dolphin Slash is now arguably a better recovery move with the removal of edge-hogging, as the move still has great vertical reach and speed. It still has limited horizontal movement, but can still be angled slightly.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Dolphin Slash remains the same in Ultimate but has slightly more landing lag.

Instructional quotes

case foldout		Strike upward as you rise through the air.
Move List		Strikes upward as he rises into the air. Deals the most damage at the start.
		Strikes upward as she rises into the air. Deals the most damage at the start.

Customization

Special Move customization was added in Super Smash Bros. 4. These are the variations:

1. Dolphin Slash	2. Crescent Slash	3. Dolphin Jump
"Strike upward with your sword as you rise into the air. Deals most damage at the start."	"Rise in an arc while attacking. Deals most damage at the midpoint. Doesn't go as high."	"Jump really high, but you won't deal any damage."

1. Dolphin Slash	2. Crescent Slash	3. Dolphin Jump
"Strike upward with your sword as you rise into the air. Deals most damage at the start."	"Rise in an arc while attacking. Deals most damage at the midpoint. Doesn't go as high."	"Jump really high, but you won't deal any damage."

1. Dolphin Slash: Default.
2. Crescent Slash: Attacks at a steeper angle but with less height. Does most damage at the midway point.
3. Dolphin Jump: Jumps higher but deals no damage.

Origin

Leif scoring a critical hit in Fire Emblem: Thracia 776.

Although the move has not been named or seen in any of the Fire Emblem games, Dolphin Slash's animation loosely resembles the jumping portion of the critical hit animations of the swordmaster class from Fire Emblem Thracia 776. This follows the trend of Fire Emblem's unique animations being given a name and ability in Super Smash Bros., such as Shield Breaker being based on Marth's standard attack animation.

The name could be a reference to the GameCube itself, as it was codenamed the Dolphin. It may also reference Marth's royalty, as the French word dauphin—which directly translates to "dolphin"—is defined as "the eldest son of the King of France." Marth is a firstborn prince, and therefore the term dauphin could be applied to him.

Gallery

• 

  Dolphin Slash in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

• 

  Marth using Dolphin Slash as shown by the Move List in Ultimate.

• 

  Lucina using Dolphin Slash as shown by the Move List in Ultimate.

Names in other languages

Language	Name
Japanese	ドルフィンスラッシュ, Dolphin Slash
English	Dolphin Slash
French	Saut tranchant
German	Delphin-Hieb
Spanish	Tajo delfín
Italian	Colpo delfino
Chinese (Simplified)	海豚斩
Chinese (Traditional)	海豚斬
Korean	돌핀 슬래시, Dolphin Slash
Dutch	Dolfijnenhouw
Russian	Дельфинья сталь

Trivia

• The sound effect of the Dolphin Slash varies from Melee to Brawl. In its first appearance, Marth grunts while the sword makes a very slight woosh sound. However, in Brawl, Marth is silent, and the sword now makes a very loud slash, almost akin to an explosion. In Smash 4, Dolphin slash does a more typical slashing sound, louder than Melee but softer than Brawl.
• In SSB4 since version 1.0.8, and in Ultimate, Lucina occasionally grunts when using Dolphin Slash. Marth, however, does not.
• In Fire Emblem Warriors, Marth's Strong Attack includes a rising jump slash very similar to Dolphin Slash, though it is not named as such.

References

Marth's special moves

Neutral special	Shield Breaker
Side special	Dancing Blade
Up special	Dolphin Slash
Down special	Counter
Final Smash	—	Critical Hit

Lucina's special moves

Neutral special	Shield Breaker
Side special	Dancing Blade
Up special	Dolphin Slash
Down special	Counter
Final Smash	Critical Hit