Marth

For fighter info, see Marth (SSBM), Marth (SSBB), Marth (SSB4), and Marth (SSBU).

Marth
Official artwork of Marth from Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem, Heroes of Light and Shadow.
Universe	Fire Emblem
Debut	Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (1990)
Smash Bros. appearances	Melee Brawl SSB4 Ultimate
Most recent non-Smash appearance	Fire Emblem Warriors (2017)
Console/platform of origin	Famicom
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Place of origin	Archanea (formerly Altea) (past Archanea Series timeline)
Created by	Shouzou Kaga
English voice actor	Yuri Lowenthal (Ultimate)
Japanese voice actor	Hikaru Midorikawa
Article on Fire Emblem Wiki	Marth

Marth (マルス, Marth) is the main protagonist of four games in the Fire Emblem series of tactical role-playing games. He debuted in the first and third games, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, and later reprised his role in the Nintendo DS remakes of these two games. He made his first appearance in the Super Smash Bros. series as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Melee. At the time, no Fire Emblem games had ever been released outside Japan, but his popularity in Melee (along with that of his counterpart Roy) is believed to have influenced Nintendo's decision to release almost all subsequent Fire Emblem titles internationally.

Character description

Official artwork of Marth from Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem. This inspired his design in Melee and Brawl.

Marth was introduced in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light for the Famicom console, which was later remade for Nintendo DS as Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon. While he was absent from the tangentially-related second game in the series, Fire Emblem Gaiden, Marth's role and place in the story of Archanea was later expanded on in the third game, Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, released on the Super Famicom in early 1994. Mystery of the Emblem featured both a remake of the original game and a continuation of that game's story, and the continued story was itself later remade for Nintendo DS as Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem, Heroes of Light and Shadow.

Marth is the prince of the kingdom of Altea, one of the Seven Kingdoms of the continent of Archanea. He is descended from the family of a legendary dragon-slayer, Anri, who once used the "blade of light", the Exalted Falchion, to defeat the sinister dragon-emperor Medeus. In his starring games, he is given the unique Lord character class: as the commander of his army, it is necessary for him to seize castles and thrones held by enemy armies to complete chapters and progress in his quest, but if he is defeated in battle, the game is over and the player must restart from their last save point.

In Marth's first adventure, told in Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and its remake, Medeus has been revived by the sorcerer Gharnef and has conquered almost all of Archanea, and by the time that the games begin Marth has spent two years in exile in the remote island kingdom of Talys. The games follow his quest in the War of Shadows, where he works with Princess Nyna of the Holy Kingdom of Archanea to unite the defeated human kingdoms into an army to fight back against Medeus and his dragon empire, Dolhr, and gain the power to fight Gharnef so that he can retrieve Falchion and rescue his abducted sister, Elice.

The second story in Mystery of the Emblem begins three years after the events of the first game, and follows Marth as he is confronted by his former friend and ally, Hardin, now the Emperor of Archanea and corrupted by Gharnef. After Hardin conquers Altea and declares Marth a traitor, Marth and his allies embark on a journey through Archanea's northern wilderness and follow the legendary path once taken by Anri, where he learns the true history of the dragons and their role in shaping the history of Archanea. Marth is given the task of repairing the titular Fire Emblem shield to restore its ability to seal away the earth dragons, a malevolent species of dragon to which Medeus belongs. The game ends with Marth uniting all seven of Archanea's kingdoms into one after Medeus's final defeat and becoming revered as the legendary "Hero-King".

Outside of his own four games, Marth is also a notable part of the backstory of Fire Emblem: Awakening, and two of its protagonists, Chrom and Lucina, are his distant descendants. He has made frequent appearances as an optional bonus character, unrelated to the main story, in many Fire Emblem games from Awakening onward; he is available in Awakening via SpotPass and DLC, Fire Emblem Fates via amiibo and DLC, and Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia via amiibo as an illusory unit. He features prominently in Fire Emblem crossover productions, including the video games Fire Emblem Heroes and Fire Emblem Warriors as one of their many playable characters, and the series' two trading card games. He was also the star of a short-lived direct-to-video anime adaptation of Mystery of the Emblem in 1997, which featured actor Hikaru Midorikawa's first performance as the character, five years before he reprised that role in Super Smash Bros. Melee.

As the first "lord" in the Fire Emblem series, Marth established many trends in both narrative and gameplay roles that later series protagonists, notably Roy and Chrom, would closely follow. The majority of Fire Emblem protagonists share the "lord" class with Marth, with only a few notable exceptions such as Ike and Corrin. Despite only being the star of four out of the series' sixteen games, Marth is treated by Intelligent Systems as a mascot representing the entire Fire Emblem series.

In Super Smash Bros.

Neither Marth nor any Fire Emblem content appears in the first Smash game. However, according to an interview from Making of Fire Emblem: 25 Years of Development Secrets, Masahiro Sakurai wanted to include Marth as a playable character in that game, but was unable to do so due to time constraints.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

Marth in Melee

Marth makes his Smash debut (and by extension, his international debut, excluding the Mystery of the Emblem anime adaption, which was released in North America) as an unlockable character in Melee. His design is based off his appearance from Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem. He can be unlocked one of three ways: using all fourteen starter characters at least once each in Vs. Mode matches, beating Classic mode with all fourteen starter characters on any difficulty, or playing 400 Vs. mode matches. In each of these cases, after fulfilling the conditions Marth must be battled one-on-one to be unlocked.

Marth is one of the game's most effective fighters, currently ranking 3rd on the Melee tier list. His strengths include the long reach of his sword attacks and the very good damage and knockback specs of the "sweet spot" on the tip of his blade, his moderately fast dash, long grab, usefully floaty wavedash, excellent edgeguarding capabilities, easy and efficient combos, and great SHFFL, with his drawbacks being his lack of a projectile attack and laggy up special recovery. Marth's "clone", Roy, has attacks that are almost identical in animation, and many "Marth vs. Roy" debates ensued in the years following Melee's release but professional analysis places Marth in a higher tier than Roy because he lacks Marth's subtle but vital advantages.

All of Marth's standard and special attacks involve him using his sword, the Falchion.

Trophies

As with the other playable characters in Melee, Marth has three trophies which are obtained by defeating the single-player modes - a normal trophy from Classic Mode and two "Smash" trophies from Adventure and All-Star Modes respectively. The text of his Classic Mode trophy reads:

Marth

The betrayed prince of the Kingdom of Altea, the blood of the hero Anri flows in Marth's veins. He was forced into exile when the kingdom of Dolua invaded Altea. Then, wielding his divine sword Falchion, he led a revolt and defeated the dark dragon Medeus. Afterwards, Altea was annihilated by King Hardin of Akanea.

• Fire Emblem (Japan Only)

(Famicom)

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  Marth [Classic Mode] trophy

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  Marth [Smash, Adventure Mode] trophy

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  Marth [Smash, All-Star Mode] trophy

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Marth in Brawl

Marth returns as an unlockable playable character. Like Melee, his appearance is based on his design from Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem. Marth has superior reach to most characters in the game, and relies on the length of his sword to effectively zone against his opponents. It is uncertain as to whether or not he has been nerfed from Melee like a lot of other higher tier characters. He is currently in the A- tier according to the official SBR tier list.

Trophy

Marth's trophy in Brawl.

Marth

The prince of Altea, in whose veins the blood of heroes runs. He and a small group of stalwarts fought to free Altea after it was invaded by the kingdom of Doluna and the dark dragon, Medeus. With his divine sword, Falchion, he fought and defeated Medeus. However, Altea was then invaded by King Hardin of Akaneia and eventually destroyed.

: Fire Emblem (Japan Only)

Sticker

Name	Game	Effect	Character(s)
Marth	Fire Emblem: Monshō no Nazo	Attack +19

Marth (Fire Emblem Monsho no Nazo)

In Super Smash Bros. 4

Marth in Smash 4

Marth returns as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U. Marth is now a starter character, as opposed to being an unlockable character as he was in Melee and Brawl. He has been visually updated to closely match to his design from Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem: Heroes of Light and Shadow, although Falchion retains its design from the original Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem.

During the initial release of SSB4, Marth was considerably nerfed, with few noteworthy buffs. These nerfs left him with less mobility and range relative to the cast (though his own range has been improved from Brawl), weakening his neutral game and depriving him of his potent comboing and punishing capabilities from previous games. Because of this, he had previously seen a huge drop in his tier placement. However, he has since received multiple buffs in update patches, with the most notable patch, 1.1.4, granting him improvements to his aerial combos and juggling game, as well as granting bigger tipper hitboxes, and higher damage output on several attacks. As a result, Marth is reasonably better than he was during the initial release of SSB4, and has since seen significantly improved tournament results. Overall, although he's still considered fairly nerfed from Brawl, he ranks highly on the SSB4 tier list, ranking 11th out of 55 characters (tying with Ryu).

Trophies

Marth

The first hero from the Fire Emblem series, Marth is the prince of Altea and descendant of the hero Anri. In Smash Bros., he's known as an exceptional swordfighter, swinging his blade with grace. Striking with the tip will maximize the damage dealt. Teach aggressive foes a lesson with his strong Counter move.

Marth, the prince of Altea, is the hero of the first ever Fire Emblem game and its remake, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon. In this game, his graceful sword skills are what set him apart. Strike with the tip of his blade to deal extra damage, and use his Counter skill to defend yourself, no matter which directions you're being attacked from.

Marth (Alt.)

Marth's side special Dancing Blade is a four-stage attack. Aim and time your strikes carefully! The tip of his sword does the most damage. For his up smash, Justice Sword, he thrusts his blade into the air. You can use it to block attacks from above and launch nearby foes.

Marth's side special, Dancing Blade, is a four-stage attack. Aim and time your strikes carefully! As usual, the tip of his sword does the most damage. For his up smash, Justice Sword, he thrusts his blade into the air. You can use it to block attacks from above, and even to launch nearby enemies off the ground.

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  Classic (3DS)

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  Classic (Wii U)

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  Alt. (3DS)

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  Alt. (Wii U)

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Marth in Ultimate

Marth returns as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, as with all previous characters. Ultimate is the first Super Smash Bros. game in which Marth is dubbed in English in overseas versions, specifically by Yuri Lowenthal, the character's English voice actor since Code Name: S.T.E.A.M..

Gallery

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  Older artwork of Marth from an artbook based on the Fire Emblem universe.

• Marth Fates Portrait.png

  Marth's official character portrait from Fire Emblem Fates, which is directly modeled after his design in Super Smash Bros. 4.

Trivia

• Marth and Mario are the only characters in the Super Smash Bros. series to have two different clones, Marth's being Roy in Melee and Lucina in SSB4.
  • In Super Smash Bros. 4, both Marth and Mario each have one full clone (Lucina and Dr. Mario, respectively) and one semi-clone (Roy and Luigi, respectively).
  • Counting Chrom as an indirect semi-clone, Marth has the most combined clones and semi-clones of any character at 3.
• Prior to Ultimate, Marth was one of only three playable characters in the game that spoke Japanese in the Western localization of the game (a trait he shares with Roy and Cloud), despite the fact the Fire Emblem games (including one of his own) started seeing overseas releases. The first game to grant him an official English voice actor (Yuri Lowenthal) was Code Name: S.T.E.A.M., which was released after both versions of Smash 4.
  • However, long before this, Marth was voiced by Spike Spencer in the dub of the Fire Emblem OVA.
  • In Ultimate, Marth is voiced in English for the first time in the Super Smash Bros. series. His voice is provided by Yuri Lowenthal, who portrayed him in Code Name: S.T.E.A.M., and later first provided in his home series, starting from Fire Emblem Fates onward.
• Marth is currently one of the only veteran characters in the series to be ranked as a top tier character in all of his appearances; he shares this distinction with Diddy Kong.
  • Though he was initially ranked as a low-tier character in Smash 4, he returned to his top-tier position after receiving buffs in multiple game updates.