Marth

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

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	Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE (2015)
Console/platform of origin	Famicom
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Place of origin	Archanea
Voice actor	Hikaru Midorikawa
Article on Fire Emblem Wiki	Marth

Marth (マルス, Marth) is the main playable hero in the first and third installments of the Fire Emblem series of tactical role-playing games. Previously well-known primarily in Japan for a game series that was never localized abroad, Marth was included in all language versions of Super Smash Bros. Melee as a playable character. His popularity and competitive success in that game along with that of his similar counterpart Roy had strongly influenced Nintendo's decision to release all subsequent Fire Emblem titles (excluding New Mystery of the Emblem) internationally.

Character description

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

The first game in what would become the long-running tactical role-playing medieval high fantasy series Fire Emblem, released on the Famicom (Japanese NES) and entitled Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light), introduced Marth as the main character. His design was noticeably different from his modern-day incarnation. The second game in the series, Fire Emblem Gaiden, took place on the same fictional world but on a different continent and was only tangentially related to the first and did not feature Marth. The third game however, titled Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem and released on Super Famicom (Super NES) early in 1994, was both a remake of the original game and a continuation of that game's story. Marth underwent a character redesign to resemble the more "bishōnen" prince he is portrayed as in today's modern image of him, and he became the only Fire Emblemseries main character to feature in a starring role from the start of the game in more than one installment. In both games, his in-game unit is the only one that belongs to the Lord character class, and that became tradition with all main starring characters of subsequent titles, being units that must be kept alive and start out weak but become very powerful over the course of each game.

Marth also stars in remakes of the first and third Fire Emblem games on DS. He also has a notable legacy shown in Fire Emblem Awakening, with two of its major protagonists, Chrom and Lucina, are his distant descendants. Marth is available as a playable character in Awakening (via SpotPass and DLC) and Fire Emblem Fates (via amiibo and DLC).

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 Akaneia.

• 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

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 his attire from Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem, Heroes of Light and Shadow as opposed to his design from Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, which was used in Melee and Brawl.

In SSB4, Marth was considerably nerfed, amidst some exiguous buffs. These nerfs leave 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 has seen a huge drop in his tier placement, now ranking 41st out of 56 on the tier list, having some notable players, but poor tournament results. However, he has been receiving multiple buffs in update patches, with the most recent patch, 1.1.4, granting him some improvements to his aerial combos and juggling game, as well as higher damage output on several attacks. As a result, Marth is somewhat better than he was during the initial release of SSB4. However, because of the recent buffs brought upon by version 1.1.4, Marth's tier placement is currently debatable, as the current SSB4 tier list reflects the 1.1.3 metagame.

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.

• MarthTrophy3DS1.png

  Classic (3DS)

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  Classic (Wii U)

• MarthTrophy3DS2.png

  Alt. (3DS)

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  Alt. (Wii U)

Gallery

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  Older artwork of Marth from a trading card game based on the Fire Emblem universe.

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  Marth's trophy in Brawl.

• 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).
• Even after the Fire Emblem games started seeing overseas releases, Marth remains of the few playable characters to still speak Japanese in the Super Smash Bros. series in Western localizations of the game, with the others being Roy and Cloud. Code Name: S.T.E.A.M., which released after Super Smash Bros. 4, is the first video game to grant him an official English-speaking voice, with Yuri Lowenthal taking the role. Lowenthal would reprise the same role in Fire Emblem Fates, marking the first time for Marth to speak English in a Fire Emblem game.