Soaring Slash
| Soaring Slash | |
|---|---|
 Soaring Slash in Ultimate. | |
| User | Chrom |
| Universe | Fire Emblem |
| “ | Jumps upward and then slashes down while twirling. Drops straight down and launches opponents to the ground. | ” |
| —Description from Ultimate's Move List | ||
Soaring Slash (翔流斬, Soaring-Style Slash) is Chrom's up special move in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Overview
Soaring Slash is very similar to Aether, Ike's recovery move. However, instead of throwing his sword upward and jumping to catch it as Ike does, Chrom performs a slash upwards, and then jumps with his sword still in hand, twirling in the air before coming back down. Soaring Slash offers near-negligible horizontal movement, as it stops all of Chrom's momentum and sends him straight up and down with very little horizontal influence at the peak of the jump. As a result, it is inferior as a recovery, even in comparison to Aether. It also lacks a rising hitbox unlike Aether, allowing for opponents to simply repeatedly neutral attack at the ledge to completely stop Chrom from recovering, among other strategies. However, this can be mitigated through precise spacing for ledgesnaps. Chrom also has higher air speed than Ike, however, making up for some of Soaring Slash's lacking lateral movement. Soaring Slash grants Chrom super armor before he leaps upwards, in a similar vein to Aether and grounded Blazer.
Soaring Slash's intial hit has a deceptively large horizontal hitbox, which when combined with the move's decent startup of 10 frames, super armor during the initial ascent and extremely high damage output if all hits connect (21% base damage), makes it an extremely effective out of shield option for Chrom.
Like Aether and Climhazzard, the descent of Soaring Smash contains a powerful meteor smash, which will reliably hit opponents due to the initial slash of the ascent leading directly into the spike, and Chrom having no sourspots on his sword. The meteor smash hitbox of Soaring Slash will usually KO opponents, even at low percentages, although Chrom must generally sacrifice his stock in order to land it. As such, the move can be used as a Sacrificial KO. Previously, Chrom would always reach the bottom blast zone after the opponent, meaning that it could consistently be used to secure the final KO of a match and allow Chrom to win, but as of 2.0.0, Chrom now usually dies first due to decreased knockback and a slightly faster fall speed.
Chrom has various voice clips that will play while using the move, including "Out of my way!", "I'll end you!", "How about this?", and a loud grunt.
Origin
Chrom originally performed this move in the Two Falchions cutscene of Fire Emblem: Awakening, when he was fighting against Lucina in her Marth disguise in Arena Ferox. He is also capable of performing a move very similar to Soaring Slash in Project X Zone 2, Fire Emblem Warriors, and Dragalia Lost.
Gallery
Soaring Slash as shown by a Skill Preview in Ultimate.
Trivia
- If Chrom is hit out of Soaring Slash around the time he gains super armor, his sword will experience a visual glitch and permanently glow with its usual sword trail. This lasts until Chrom uses a sword-swinging move.
- Soaring Slash is the only special move of an Echo Fighter that is entirely different in function from the equivalent move of the original fighter.
