What does it mean to main a character?
By Matthew Sailer (MSCard)
No matter what game you play, someone always has a main, be it a main weapon loadout, a main build, a main skin, something that your friends can see and immediately say to themselves, “Oh, yeah, that’s what my friend uses”. But in this case, I want to discuss what it means to have a main character in a game like Smash Bros.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the latest iteration of the Super Smash Bros. series, and thanks to the game’s main selling point of “Everyone is here,” the game was released with a base roster count of 74 characters (76 if you count PT’s Pokémon as individual characters), 63 of which have all appeared in previous games, and the remaining 11 being newcomers that were added to the roster. Not to mention if you purchased both Fighter’s Pass DLC expansions, that increases the roster count to a whopping 86 total characters! (technically 87 since Pyra and Mythra are two separate characters in the same slot, but that’s neither here nor there). That makes a roster count that surpasses that of Marvel vs. Capcom 2, one of the most popular competitive fighting games even to this day. In a game with this big of a roster, it could feel impossible to figure out who you’d want to play and stick with long-term.
I’ve had a long and arduous struggle with this conflict for years ever since I started playing Super Smash Bros. for the 3DS more consistently after watching EVO for the first time in 2017. However, over the years I would learn why players main the character they do, which can be broken down into multiple different segments: accessibility, comfort, self-expression, and sentiment.
First, there is accessibility; the player may be new to the game or may not have touched the game in a good long while, so they would most likely want a character who is easy to use and learn/re-learn the game. Characters like these have a strong sense of fundamentals, such as Wolf, Mario, or even Cloud. These are good examples of this aspect of maining a character, as their respective fundies could help the player learn the game, learn how they would like to play the game given their character of choice and improve their play as they go along.
Next, there is comfort; in this instance, the player already has a decent sense on how to play the game at a competent level and already has a main to call their own, not because they’re a good character; but because it’s the character they feel the most comfortable with. This is common among casual players, but not uncommon to most competitive players for a multitude of reasons. Maybe the player has played a character like Ike ever since they started playing Smash as a kid, or maybe the character they play is a knowledge transfer from another game, like how Zain plays Marth in Melee, but instead of playing Clairen in Rivals of Aether 2, one of the few characters with a disjointed, he instead chooses to play Wrastor, as there are some clear similarities between the two games. Everyone has their character, which is a perfect segue into…
Self-expression: this is ultimately what maining a character is all about, as the player’s character of choice clearly expresses what this player is like in terms of their general playstyle, grasp the game’s fundamentals, or just an expression of what the player likes out of all the properties Smash has to offer (something I’ll get to later). The more consistent a player is with their chosen character, the more their name becomes synonymous with that character, and in a game like Smash Bros. that is a surefire claim to fame.
Lastly, I would like to discuss sentiment; this is a subjective matter as different things obviously have different meanings to different people, but in this case, a sentimental attachment to a character in a game like Smash could mean either a genuine attachment or interest in the original property the character is from, like how playing Xenoblade Chronicles for the first time would prompt a switch from Cloud to Shulk in the Smash 4 days, for example; or playing a character on a whim, thus changing your outlook on the game for the better. In this case, sentiment is a strong motivator to play a character and stick with them, because you know in your soul that the character you resonate with is just the right pick for you.
Maining a character and what it means to a person can vary from person to person, and it’s not wrong to main the same character someone else plays for any reason, be it similar or different in any way. After all, good artists copy, great artists steal and mold it into their own. So whatever kit, or build, or character you currently call your main, don’t let anyone or anything stop you from making it your main for any reason at all.
