The Stars have aligned in our favor.
At this point, I'm fully confident in 2B. Why? Expect a lengthy explanation/summary! Endure it! Endure it!
Let us start off with the obvious. We're getting more DLC fighters!
(You already knew that though, didn't you?)
And, as a result,
we can make the assumption that in this next batch of DLC Fighters, Square Enix will toss in yet another rep.
In the current moment of time, the characters people consider most seem to be
Sora, Geno, and I believe 2B. Now with these two in the way, why would 2B get in? Fairly simple. This is going off of how things have been done thus far for such things.
Sora is fairly likely to get in, I'd say, though
I believe 2B is more probable. The top four Square Enix franchises thus far in terms of sales in order are: Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts, and the DrakeNier franchise. Of course, going off of this pattern, it'd be natural to assume that Kingdom Hearts is the next in line to get the rep, right? Well, I'm not entirely sure about that to tell the truth. Potential Disney drama aside
(because it's been repeated to death at this point, and personally I now feel as if Disney won't hurt nor boost Sora's chances. At least not significantly.), there are some things 2B does happen to have going for her that Sora does not, which I will go into further below.
As for Geno,
I believe the odds are against Geno's favor, more so than Sora. Admittedly, outside of the Smash community, he's rather niche on a global scale
(I'm sorry for anyone he's a big fan of him, I intend no offense,) and not only that, Fighters Pass DLC thus far seems to have been consistent in one "rule" if you will as stated by Reggie:
All new DLC reps are those of franchises that have yet to be in Smash in any shape or form. This is likely to be the case with the next wave, as stated by Sakurai (choose to interpret it literally or not if you will, I choose to do so; Reggie stated something similar before and it ended up being literal)...
The implication here is that the next wave will continue to "
add game worlds to the series", or continue to add characters who're not from franchises in smash in any shape or form thus far, as it has with the first Fighters Pass.
This doesn't prevent him from being a Mii Costume, however, but I feel as though that'd really be the best case scenario for Geno.
Now, as for the things that point towards 2B? There's many things in her favor.
❖ Sometime in May this year,
Yoko Taro stated that 2B's voice actress would soon reprise her role again. This isn't just to suggest that it is for smash, however, but exciting nonetheless isn't it? There's a very good chance that it is for Yoko Taro's next game, which is supposed to be unveiled to the public "next chance he gets", likely Tokyo Game Show 2019. This indicates that
Square Enix indeed sees NieR as a valuable franchise to promote to ensure its growth.
❖
Yoko Taro stated he would gladly lend 2B out to put her into as many games as possible, Smash included.
Square/Yoko Taro have put 2B/Nier in multiple games already. Some more popular ones are SoulCalibur 6, Gravity Rush/Daze, Monster Hunter Frontier Z, Phantasy Star Online 2, Lords of Vermillion, FFXIV, and countless others (sadly, many are also Japan exclusive). This indicates that
she'd be one of the characters Square Enix is far more eager to lend out, especially if Yoko Taro or Yosuke Saito have a say in it.
❖
Sakurai favors NieR: Automata, and has played every game in the franchise. Sakurai has stated before that he loved NieR: Automata, and enjoyed Yoko Taro's works.
He's also written a famitsu column on the game as well (
link here). Interesting thing to note,
many of the more 'recent' games Sakurai has written famitsu columns on thus far have been put into smash one way or another.
Sakurai wrote 2 columns on Persona 5 (Joker), even wrote
one on indies talking about how he's enjoyed Undertale (Sans Mii Costume), etc. I suppose you could say there's a bit of Sakurai bias on this, as most
DLC characters thus far are those of franchises or games Sakurai has enjoyed.
❖ Japan favors NieR: Automata. In Japan,
Famitsu published results based off of a large survey
on what the best games of the Heisei Era were. On this list,
NieR: Automata ranked third. It has also grown worldwide appeal thus far, and
continues to grow in popularity today at a stunning pace considering its circumstances.
❖ Yoko Taro and Sakurai are good friends. They've become fairly friendly with one another in recent times. Not only will this
make it easier for him to obtain 2B, but
Sakurai has also put characters belonging to friends in the game. (Snake.)
❖ The other consistent "rule" for DLC thus far, being
characters from a game after 2016 being unable to make the cut due to when the first Fighters Pass choices were finalized, is thrown out the window. This is because
this fighters pass is new and reason, undeniably getting rid of the biggest roadblock for 2B.
These are merely a few of the main things that are in 2B's favor. These are also the things 2B holds over Sora being in Smash, save for potentially the friendship Sakurai and Yoko Taro hold merely because Nomura is also friends with Sakurai. Admittedly, the only things standing in 2B's way now is the possibility of Sora making it in over her (though I strongly believe her to be more likely than Sora in this case), and the other "rule" of characters needing to have appeared on a Nintendo Console. Though, you could say she already qualifies for that "rule", being in Phantasy Star Online 2, which is also on the Switch. Even then, if that doesn't qualify her, Yosuke Saito, Yoko Taro, and Takahisa Taura have all agreed to wanting to put NieR: Automata on the switch. Therefore, if she doesn't qualify for that rule now, she most likely will very soon.
I'm sorry for making you read so much of this long post. Unless you didn't read it all, which is understandable.
And rude. But hopefully this all makes sense to you all.
Let us hope this is all correct.
Unless you're rooting for Sora or Geno instead of 2B, I guess.
Glory to Mankind!
and whatnot.