The Official Thread For the Sal Romano/Gematsu Leak

[Bauske]

I thought someone stated once that Sakurai doesn't really have much say when it comes to what new Pokemon will be included, and that GameFreak is in charge of that decision. I could have sworn I read that somewhere. Regardless, if that's the case, maybe back when the leaker got his info, which again could have been months ago, the Pokemon wasn't fully decided upon yet and they were waiting for GameFreak to make the decision. This would have had to have been months ago, maybe even last year, as developing a whole character, plus a trailer for it, doesn't just happen in a couple days.

The whole "Pokemon from X and Y" thing has sort of bothered me, but I tend to just let it slide as, technically, it is correct. But it constantly brings up the question "why didn't he say which one specifically?" If you've got leaked information, why not be specific? The only answer I can come up with are the ones I've stated before: either the leaker isn't close to the project or he hasn't been a part of the project for a while now. There could be some other option or answer as well, but I'm not seeming to find it.

 

[Shroob]

Haven't we been over this whole scenario a thousand times before? Wasn't it said that Ike wasn't the surefire Fire Emblem rep in Brawl until IS asked or something like that?

 

[Arcanir]

I think Greninja was MADE to be the popular one. From it's ninja like appearance to it's secret ability

The thing to remember about that is that being made to be popular doesn't mean you will be, Zoroark will gladly attest to that.

As for the focus group thing, it's possible, but there are potential issues with using that as a basis as well as it doesn't gauge the popularity of the character as a whole, and in some cases can be misleading depending on the results (ex. I am Legend owes its less popular new ending to the test audience disliking the original one). So I'm not sure that GF and Sakurai would rely on that data to determine which character to push because potentially the results may not pan out when it actually reaches the larger audience like what happened with Zoroark. Plus, Sakurai does say in an interview that came out before XY's release that they haven't done market research on Pokémon XY yet, so I think the decision was made later.

Having said that, if the focal group data was used to pick out Greninja, then that does change things a bit as it potentially means that Greninja was decided earlier and thus could've been more likely to be on the list at that point in time the leaker could've found it.

I thought someone stated once that Sakurai doesn't really have much say when it comes to what new Pokemon will be included, and that GameFreak is in charge of that decision. I could have sworn I read that somewhere. Regardless, if that's the case, maybe back when the leaker got his info, which again could have been months ago, the Pokemon wasn't fully decided upon yet and they were waiting for GameFreak to make the decision. This would have had to have been months ago, maybe even last year, as developing a whole character, plus a trailer for it, doesn't just happen in a couple days.

He never said that the decision was completely on GameFreak, but he did say that he had to take their input. Based on this interview, it seems that the general decision making comes down to what they gather in determining what's the most popular Pokémon is, what's the most promoted in the movies, what's unique about them, so on and so forth.

 

[Joe73191]

The guy could have gotten confused and Chorus Men might be an assist trophy. From the looks of our lone Palutena screen shot she might be an assist trophy too actually.

 

[Luigi#1]

The guy could have gotten confused and Chorus Men might be an assist trophy. From the looks of our lone Palutena screen shot she might be an assist trophy too actually.

If they are assist's then leak is fake. Period.
And we proved in the first rumor's and leak's thread that this cannot be an Assist as it is too detailed.
[STILL THINK THE PALUTENA LEAK IS FAKE]

 

[Gameboi834]

From the looks of our lone Palutena screen shot she might be an assist trophy too actually.

Nope. It's been confirmed that only payable characters get outlines on the 3DS, and Palutena had one of those outlines.

 

[BADGRAPHICS]

The fact that the leaker was vague regarding the Pokemon begs the question: "just was his job, anyway?".

I have a friend that works in translation for Nintendo, and he doesn't learn anything about the games he's working on except for finalised details. Pre-production or alpha phase stuff like undecided characters would surely be limited to the core design team, no?

 

[Deleted member]

Haven't we been over this whole scenario a thousand times before? Wasn't it said that Ike wasn't the surefire Fire Emblem rep in Brawl until IS asked or something like that?

Dinoman brought it up earlier in the thread. It's a good post, sheds light on how Gekkouga likely got in.

 

[Ulquiorra_Rage]

The fact that the leaker was vague regarding the Pokemon begs the question: "just was his job, anyway?".

I have a friend that works in translation for Nintendo, and he doesn't learn anything about the games he's working on except for finalised details. Pre-production or alpha phase stuff like undecided characters would surely be limited to the core design team, no?

The vagueness of the Pokemon X/Y character is what killed it for me. How hard was it to say ninja frog is what I wish to know.

 

[N3ON]

As we know next to nothing about him, I don't think we can assume the tipper obtained this information first-hand either. For all we know, there could be some sort of short chain that worked its way to Sal.

 

[Noiblade]

As we know next to nothing about him, I don't think we can assume the tipper obtained this information first-hand either. For all we know, there could be some sort of short chain that worked its way to Sal.

Spoiler

If you read dis u die in 4 hour samurai come to kirr u if u do not fowad did leak to 10 peopre in 20 minute. A guy named reggie did not do this and he is die

Spoiler

but it was likely a friend of someone on the dev team that leaked it.

 

[Deleted member]

The vagueness of the Pokemon X/Y character is what killed it for me. How hard was it to say ninja frog is what I wish to know.

It would be pretty damn hard to say "ninja frog" if you literally don't know "ninja frog" is the "Pokémon from X/Y" that was decided upon.

 

[Vann Accessible]

The frog ninja was the obvious choice, I think. Start mons tend to be popular. Greninja is definitely the best and most stylish of the 6th gen starters. Also, it's sinply one of the best new nonlegendary pokemon. I mean, Talonflame and Aegislash are both also very dominant in the metagame, but neither is really suited to be a Smash Bros. character.

As for the leak, I do call into question the vagueness of the XY mon prediction, but it doesn't mean it's fake either.

 

[Bauske]

I'll put this behind a spoiler just in case, but a new leak came out that ties together with the Sal leak. The leaker specifies that the original Sal leaker was fired after he got discovered. Whether or not this is accurate is up for debate, but it's something we've been talking about. This "leaker" could have just thought the same thing and used it to try to make his leak more legitimate, or it could have actually happened. As much as I hate to say it (because I hate seeing anyone lose their job), I feel like the logical option in this story is that Sal's leaker got let go after it was discovered he leaked the E3 characters, thus accounting for his vagueness later on.

Spoiler

Hi, I made a tumblr account just for this.
I will likely delete this account after you post this so no one (hopefully) can detect the source of this leak.

I wont try to convince you that this is real, you can choose to believe me or not.

I live in Japan, my friend works at Bandai Namco in the Super Smash Bros. 4 Division.

The only leaks my friend has been able to confirm real are thealutena pictures and the Gematsu leak.(They were leaked by the same guy) We’ll call the Leaker “Z”

Z started leaking info to the Gematsu website owner, which he put out on his website. When Sakurai found the source of the leak he fired Z in January(around the 20th if I remember right) Just to spite Sakurai, Z uploaded pictures of Palutena (Sakurai also hinted at this in the pic of the day, a couple days later) I think Z went on to pay legal fees because of the leaks.

Now on to the new stuff.

-Wonder Red is a playable character
-Ridley is also a playable character, he’s strongly alluded to at E3 but not directly stated
-All Veterans are back
-Most of Brawl’s roster is back with the exception of 4 characters(the 4 cut characters are
Snake, Ike, Pokemon Trainer, and Lucas)
-All clones are no longer clones
-Mewtwo is an assist trophy
-Mii is a Character. He is the poster-boy for customizable moves(but is not limited to those)
He can’t be customized weight, size, and height wise, but there are interesting costumes(Reggie,
Miyamoto, Iwatta, stock Mii and your Registered 3DS/Wii U mii to name a few)
-Shulk, Pacman, and Mii are going to be shown at E3
-There will be another Smash Direct before release of the 3DS version(its been recorded already)
Chrom and Palutena will be revealed here. Before Palutena is revealed Sakurai will make a witty
comment along the lines of “Now I will be showing you a not-so secret character.”
-Roy, King K Rool, and Blaziken were all planned but scrapped in early development
-There will be 4 secret characters, I don’t know what they are.
-Megaman has a Protoman costume, his final smash changes depending on the costume he’s wearing
-There will be a feature simlilar to Mario Kart TV

That’s all the info i’ve been given at the moment, I might make a new account later if any new info comes up.
Sorry for My bad English, it isn’t my first language.

More than likely fake, but this is the first time I've seen someone directly mention the Gematsu leak as a reference point.

 

[dezeray112]

I'll put this behind a spoiler just in case, but a new leak came out that ties together with the Sal leak. The leaker specifies that the original Sal leaker was fired after he got discovered. Whether or not this is accurate is up for debate, but it's something we've been talking about. This "leaker" could have just thought the same thing and used it to try to make his leak more legitimate, or it could have actually happened. As much as I hate to say it (because I hate seeing anyone lose their job), I feel like the logical option in this story is that Sal's leaker got let go after it was discovered he leaked the E3 characters, thus accounting for his vagueness later on.

Spoiler

Hi, I made a tumblr account just for this.
I will likely delete this account after you post this so no one (hopefully) can detect the source of this leak.

I wont try to convince you that this is real, you can choose to believe me or not.

I live in Japan, my friend works at Bandai Namco in the Super Smash Bros. 4 Division.

The only leaks my friend has been able to confirm real are thealutena pictures and the Gematsu leak.(They were leaked by the same guy) We’ll call the Leaker “Z”

Z started leaking info to the Gematsu website owner, which he put out on his website. When Sakurai found the source of the leak he fired Z in January(around the 20th if I remember right) Just to spite Sakurai, Z uploaded pictures of Palutena (Sakurai also hinted at this in the pic of the day, a couple days later) I think Z went on to pay legal fees because of the leaks.

Now on to the new stuff.

-Wonder Red is a playable character
-Ridley is also a playable character, he’s strongly alluded to at E3 but not directly stated
-All Veterans are back
-Most of Brawl’s roster is back with the exception of 4 characters(the 4 cut characters are
Snake, Ike, Pokemon Trainer, and Lucas)
-All clones are no longer clones
-Mewtwo is an assist trophy
-Mii is a Character. He is the poster-boy for customizable moves(but is not limited to those)
He can’t be customized weight, size, and height wise, but there are interesting costumes(Reggie,
Miyamoto, Iwatta, stock Mii and your Registered 3DS/Wii U mii to name a few)
-Shulk, Pacman, and Mii are going to be shown at E3
-There will be another Smash Direct before release of the 3DS version(its been recorded already)
Chrom and Palutena will be revealed here. Before Palutena is revealed Sakurai will make a witty
comment along the lines of “Now I will be showing you a not-so secret character.”
-Roy, King K Rool, and Blaziken were all planned but scrapped in early development
-There will be 4 secret characters, I don’t know what they are.
-Megaman has a Protoman costume, his final smash changes depending on the costume he’s wearing
-There will be a feature simlilar to Mario Kart TV

That’s all the info i’ve been given at the moment, I might make a new account later if any new info comes up.
Sorry for My bad English, it isn’t my first language.

More than likely fake, but this is the first time I've seen someone directly mention the Gematsu leak as a reference point.

Guess this one did not comment anything about the Chorus Kids.

Will be taking this with a grain of salt as usual and wait and see what E3 unfolds.

EDIT: Oh well, it looks like we can debunk this, since Wonder Red is confirmed to be a trophy not a playable characters.

 

[Jocario Zero]

I dont think that new "leak" is real.
He says ALL veterans are back, but Ike, Snake, Trainer & Lucas are cut.
Mewtwo is an Assist Trophy: This is so not gonna happen. A former playable being downgraded to an Assist Trophy is unlikely but its a Pokemon!
Thats why there is the Pokeball-Item. Why would a pokemon be an Assist Trophy?

It was at least amusing to read. But i doubt it.

 

[BADGRAPHICS]

-All Veterans are back
-Most of Brawl’s roster is back with the exception of 4 characters(the 4 cut characters are
Snake, Ike, Pokemon Trainer, and Lucas)

Excuse me?

...

So this is how we're shoehorning new "leaks" into this thread, is it? "Yo guys I totally spoke to that Gematsu tipster 2legit.".

 

[Bauske]

I dont think that new "leak" is real.
He says ALL veterans are back, but Ike, Snake, Trainer & Lucas are cut.
Mewtwo is an Assist Trophy: This is so not gonna happen. A former playable being downgraded to an Assist Trophy is unlikely but its a Pokemon!
Thats why there is the Pokeball-Item. Why would a pokemon be an Assist Trophy?

It was at least amusing to read. But i doubt it.

Excuse me?

...

So this is how we're shoehorning new "leaks" into this thread, is it? "Yo guys I totally spoke to that Gematsu tipster 2legit.".

Hence why I put it behind a spoiler tag. It's on topic in regards to it relating to the Gematsu leak, but is still smells fishy. I just find it entertaining that the Gematsu leak has essentially become the only big one remaining, and now we see another "leaker" using it as reference. At least it's the first time I've ever seen it happen.

 

[YoungCatface]

I dont think that new "leak" is real.
He says ALL veterans are back, but Ike, Snake, Trainer & Lucas are cut.

To be fair (and this might be a stretch), but I think he might've been using the term Veteran to refer to characters that've been in more than one Smash game, meaning Brawl newcomers don't count as Veterans, hence him saying four Brawl characters were cut and not four Veterans.
That being said,

Before Palutena is revealed Sakurai will make a witty comment along the lines of “Now I will be showing you a not-so secret character.”
-Mewtwo is an assist trophy

C'mon son

 

[Khao]

"All clones are no longer clones"

****, Toon Link disconfirmed.

 

[Vann Accessible]

Bwahaha I would like that to be real. But skeptism reigns.

And I'm pretty confident Ridley isn't going to be playable. Sadface.

 

[Opossum]

I'll just say that you all should bring that leak elsewhere. I won't give infractions this time around, as I may have been unclear. BUT TO BE CLEAR: unless it comes directly from Sal, don't post it in this thread.

Not to mention that leak is hilariously bad, regardless. Says four cuts, lists five. Claims Mewtwo's an Assist over a Poke Ball. Move on.

 

[Noiblade]

I'll put this behind a spoiler just in case, but a new leak came out that ties together with the Sal leak. The leaker specifies that the original Sal leaker was fired after he got discovered. Whether or not this is accurate is up for debate, but it's something we've been talking about. This "leaker" could have just thought the same thing and used it to try to make his leak more legitimate, or it could have actually happened. As much as I hate to say it (because I hate seeing anyone lose their job), I feel like the logical option in this story is that Sal's leaker got let go after it was discovered he leaked the E3 characters, thus accounting for his vagueness later on.

Spoiler

Hi, I made a tumblr account just for this.
I will likely delete this account after you post this so no one (hopefully) can detect the source of this leak.

I wont try to convince you that this is real, you can choose to believe me or not.

I live in Japan, my friend works at Bandai Namco in the Super Smash Bros. 4 Division.

The only leaks my friend has been able to confirm real are thealutena pictures and the Gematsu leak.(They were leaked by the same guy) We’ll call the Leaker “Z”

Z started leaking info to the Gematsu website owner, which he put out on his website. When Sakurai found the source of the leak he fired Z in January(around the 20th if I remember right) Just to spite Sakurai, Z uploaded pictures of Palutena (Sakurai also hinted at this in the pic of the day, a couple days later) I think Z went on to pay legal fees because of the leaks.

Now on to the new stuff.

-Wonder Red is a playable character
-Ridley is also a playable character, he’s strongly alluded to at E3 but not directly stated
-All Veterans are back
-Most of Brawl’s roster is back with the exception of 4 characters(the 4 cut characters are
Snake, Ike, Pokemon Trainer, and Lucas)
-All clones are no longer clones
-Mewtwo is an assist trophy
-Mii is a Character. He is the poster-boy for customizable moves(but is not limited to those)
He can’t be customized weight, size, and height wise, but there are interesting costumes(Reggie,
Miyamoto, Iwatta, stock Mii and your Registered 3DS/Wii U mii to name a few)
-Shulk, Pacman, and Mii are going to be shown at E3
-There will be another Smash Direct before release of the 3DS version(its been recorded already)
Chrom and Palutena will be revealed here. Before Palutena is revealed Sakurai will make a witty
comment along the lines of “Now I will be showing you a not-so secret character.”
-Roy, King K Rool, and Blaziken were all planned but scrapped in early development
-There will be 4 secret characters, I don’t know what they are.
-Megaman has a Protoman costume, his final smash changes depending on the costume he’s wearing
-There will be a feature simlilar to Mario Kart TV

That’s all the info i’ve been given at the moment, I might make a new account later if any new info comes up.
Sorry for My bad English, it isn’t my first language.

More than likely fake, but this is the first time I've seen someone directly mention the Gematsu leak as a reference point.

Okay, This is fake.
I'll confirm I made this when I got bored, submitted it to SSB4Dojo on tumblr. So yeah sorry if you got your hopes up.

I think Sal got the info before X and Y's release. Yes he mentioned he got another email that day, but is it possible he got the e-mail that gave him the go-ahead to post it?
It would make sense, considering no one would know what a Greninja was at that point.

 

[Bauske]

Okay, This is fake.
I'll confirm I made this when I got bored, submitted it to SSB4Dojo on tumblr. So yeah sorry if you got your hopes up.

I think Sal got the info before X and Y's release. Yes he mentioned he got another email that day, but is it possible he got the e-mail that gave him the go-ahead to post it?
It would make sense, considering no one would know what a Greninja was at that point.

Hahaha WHY would you make up a leak? Why? I just don't get it. xD

 

[Noiblade]

Hahaha WHY would you make up a leak? Why? I just don't get it. xD

Spoiler

Not the place to discuss this but I wanted to ignite some discussion on that blog
But while we're on the off topic on topic thing, i'll say a couple of things
-I put Mewtwo as an assist trophy due to popularity
-I counted Pokemon Trainer as one character and not 2/3
-By Veterans I meant the original 12

 

[Vann Accessible]

Also if this and the Sal leak were both true, by my count, that'd be a total of 54 playable characters. 54.

Keep dreamin'.

 

[Bauske]

Oh well, moving on. Sorry to waste everyone's time. xD

 

[Dark Phazon]

Why am i here again?

 

[ChunkyBeef]

Also if this and the Sal leak were both true, by my count, that'd be a total of 54 playable characters. 54.

Keep dreamin'.

I'll keep dreamin'. I mean, Sakurai doesn't need an enormous staff if they're porting over Brawl's data and infrastructure and adding a handful of newbies. Why drag Bamco into something that Sakurai could have done with Nintendo's support?

Sure, I'm skeptical we'll get 54 characters, but I'd say 50 isn't entirely unrealistic a number there.

 

[samsparta21]

Shulk is definitely my favourite of the list. In favour of Chrom and Palutena as well. Pac-Man is... alright, at least he's an iconic character. Then... Chorus Men? Really? And Mii would basically ruin online play, everyone would be maining Mii and drawing something obscene on their faces.

 

[Yomi's Biggest Fan]

I still wonder how Sal's tipper even forgot about Rosalina despite giving him updated information before the last direct.

 

[Noiblade]

I still wonder how Sal's tipper even forgot about Rosalina despite giving him updated information before the last direct.

Might sound kind of stupid saying "Oh yeah Rosalina is a newcomer too"

 

[samsparta21]

Might sound kind of stupid saying "Oh yeah Rosalina is a newcomer too"

Probably just didn't hear of it. It's not like it's impossible to only know of a few newcomers and not all of them.

 

[Nintendotard]

Sal's leaker diiiid only leak on two huge occasions so far: E3 and the Smash Bros Direct. Each little direct he has never given him information. Maybe thats why Rosalina was never tipped

 

[soviet prince]

I still wonder how Sal's tipper even forgot about Rosalina despite giving him updated information before the last direct.

he did not the first leak was supposed to cover only e3 reveals

 

[samsparta21]

Sal's leaker diiiid only leak on two huge occasions so far: E3 and the Smash Bros Direct. Each little direct he has never given him information. Maybe thats why Rosalina was never tipped

That means he might reveal something else close to this year's E3

 

[Nintendotard]

That means he might reveal something else close to this year's E3

And I am definitely expecting that. It's a most likely

 

[Noiblade]

And I am definitely expecting that. It's a most likely

I really don't think we're gonna hear much then.
I want to see more newcomers leaked
BUT
I predict to see some veterans.
Don't really think we should discuss here so I'll stop here.

 

[samsparta21]

Makes you wonder who Sal Romano's "tipster" is, and why he chose to tell Sal in particular. I'm not saying Sal has anything to do with this, it just seems like a bit of an arbitrary choice if the tipster doesn't know him from somewhere.

 

[TeenGirlSquad]

Makes you wonder who Sal Romano's "tipster" is, and why he chose to tell Sal in particular. I'm not saying Sal has anything to do with this, it just seems like a bit of an arbitrary choice if the tipster doesn't know him from somewhere.

It's less him choosing Sal, than choosing Gematsu. Which isn't really an odd choice.