After reflecting on the video of Falcom's beginnings and thinking about how they developed some of the very first action RPG games ever, a thought came to mind.
Speculating the Number 9 (IX)
Thinking about the Ys series and how despite the great quality of its games (in terms of story, gameplay, soundtrack) it is still seen as a "budding" franchise in the west (or so it would seem), I've come to wonder if Adol Christin, might be the Fighters Pass Vol. 2's Terry Bogard? The comparison may seem odd since both characters come from very different game genres (one from an action RPG series, the other from a Fighting series) but both characters have a lengthy history within their respective genres, hailing from Companies (third parties) that aren't widely known in the west (save for hardcore fans of the genres), but are quite popular in Japan. Another detail that upon thinking about it further, breathed a bit of more hope into the possibility of Adol being the Dark Horse of the Pass is the possible timing of his release/reveal.
Currently we now have Challenger Packs 6 and 7 available, with 8 still to be revealed. Considering the spacing between character reveals and releases within Vol. 2's cycle, Challenger Pack 8 could perhaps be revealed and released sometime around say, January or February 2021. Of course, there could also be the possibility that in order to evenly split the Pass's contents between the years, one more character is revealed and released before the end of 2020, leaving CP 9 for sometime between March or April 2021. Going back to the first possible scenario for CP 8, if it's revealed released sometime around January or February of 2021, that would put CP 9 to for sometime around Summer. If this spacing were to follow through, the timing would be ideal since as it has been announced, Ys IX: Monstrum Nox will be released for the Nintendo Switch sometime around Summer 2021. Now, it's true that not every character is supposed to be tied to the release of a new game from its franchise, however we've seen this with Joker, Hero, and Byleth during the first Pass. Another thing that must be acknowledged that does not indicate nor means that a character's chances increase is the association of the upcoming Challenger Pack's number with a specific character, its franchise, or a significant piece of said franchise's lore (i.e. Geno and Challenger Pack 7). Again, if the spacing of the DLC ends up placing CP 9 around summer, I'd keep an eye on it.
The Ys franchise just has so much to offer to Smash than just its fighter and a stage. Imagine if Sakurai were to remark that similar to when Terry's soundtrack was negotiated, Falcom also said something along the lines of "sure, here's the OST for Ys I... and II... and Felghana... oh and Celceta, Napishtim, Lacrimosa of Dana, Seven, Monstrum Nox". The spirit battles and Mii Costumes could also be either Ys-focused, or representative of Falcom as a whole (representing other franchises such as The Legend of Heroes, Zwei!!, etc.). I'm sure Sakurai is aware of Nihon Falcom's history and library of games, and what each IP brought into the video game market. Ys has been around since the late 80s, and The Legend of Heroes (under their original name as Dragon Slayer) has been around since 1984 (the new Legend of Heroes games since 2004). Hopefully one of the remaining spots goes to Adol (or Estelle; I'd be down with that too), acknowledging the history of the franchise.
