Official DLC Speculation Discussion Volume II

[dream1ng]

What other characters could be considered "out there?"

Wouldn't it be any character other than the maybe ten that receive the brunt of the attention

 

[SharkLord]

What other characters could be considered "out there?"

Everyone in my personal Top Four wants

1. Reimu - Awkwardly lopsided global popularity, run by fans and non-game works instead of raw unit sales and is hard to compare to anyone else, overall unorthodox situation
2. Adol - Much smaller than most third-parties in Smash despite his massive legacy
3. Bandana Dee - First-party settings that already have a fighter representing them aren't really favored by the DLC
4. Klonoa - Unfairly killed over a decade ago, might be revived soon but that's not guaranteed and would probably be too late for FP2 anyways, much smaller than most other Bamco candidates

Y'know, I think this explains a lot about my speculation style

 

[TheCJBrine]

what if we get Parappa the Rapper

 

[CannonStreak]

what if we get Parappa the Rapper

We’ll then be scolded by Sony fans because we “didn’t believe!”.

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

Given the repeat third party nature of the second pass so far, I think a brand new company getting a character is starting to feel a bit more out there, at least in terms of speculation now vs. that of 8 months ago. I do think to some degree it falls into that valley of being just possible enough to make some sense on paper while still seeming so unlikely to many that an actual new third party popping up at E3 would feel like a considerable surprise.

 

[Evil Trapezium]

what if we get Parappa the Rapper

I would actually be pretty okay with that. Parappa looks like a character that could fit Smash Bros wacky cast of characters really well.

 

[SharkLord]

Given the repeat third party nature of the second pass so far, I think a brand new company getting a character is starting to feel a bit more out there, at least in terms of speculation now vs. that of 8 months ago. I do think to some degree it falls into that valley of being just possible enough to make some sense on paper while still seeming so unlikely to many that an actual new third party popping up at E3 would feel like a considerable surprise.

To be fair, we also got Byleth after four packs straight of new third-party franchises. Honestly, after everything Smash has thrown at us, I'm expecting patterns to get wrecked in June more than I'm expecting them to hold up.

 

[Sephirothorsomethingidk]

Okay screw it. I'm throwing out my predictions for FP10 and FP11. You can hate me all you want for this but I'm just going to throw it out there:

So first off, I see no 1st party representative for the rest of the DLC. Nintendo advertised Fire Emblem, ARMS and Xenoblade, three growing IPs. Pokemon doesn't need a "push" like these growing IPs do. And with Pokemon getting a spirit event, I'd say they're out.

So this leaves us with third-party characters. With these third-party picks, I dont think we're getting any new companies in this pass. I feel that Nintendo would want to stick with the already existing relations they have (when they were picking back in 2018) so no new strings need to be made. Theres also Ubisoft and Koei Tecmo but I just dont see them getting characters at this point.

Judging by the characters picked in FP1 and FP2 (so far), I think the final two characters will be one decent sized/somewhat niche third-party with a legacy (Fatal Fury, Persona) and a bombshell third-party for mass appeal (Final Fantasy, Minecraft). The decent sized third-party will be to compensate for the budget Nintendo is working with and the bombshell will be the final "hurrah" for the Ultimate Smash Bros. game.

Now for the pool of characters in the "decent sized to somewhat niche with a legacy" third-party characters:

-Arle (Sega)
-Phionex Wright (Capcom)
-Lylod (Bandai Namco)
-Amaterasu (Capcom)
-Neku (Square Enix)

I feel like this is our potential pool of smaller third-party picks that could still have decent impact (with an accompanying bombshell pick).

Speaking of the bombshells, these are my picks from the remaining third-parties for mass appeal characters:

-Dante (Capcom)
-Chosen Undead (Bandai Namco)
-Lara Croft (Square Enix)
-Master Chief (Microsoft)
-Sora (Disney)

I do not think we'll get another character from an already existing third-party in the game (ala Sephiroth). Final Fantasy 7 had a unique situation as it was heavily underrepresented at launch. Regardless on how we feel about the representation of Sonic and Street Fighter, what is there is "complete". So no Chun-Li and Dr. Eggman.

And here's a more bias prediction but I feel that at least one of these characters will not use a disjoint as their primary weapon. We've had SIX disjoint users in a row. There is no way in hell Nintendo and Sakurai didn't realize this in the development plan. We really could use a mix up for at least one of these last two characters (preferably both).

So yeah, I think this is the final pool of characters:

-Dante (Capcom)
-Chosen Undead (Bandai Namco)
-Lara Croft (Square Enix)
-Master Chief (Microsoft)
-Sora (Disney)
-Arle (Sega)
-Phionex Wright (Capcom)
-Tales character (Bandai Namco)
-Amaterasu (Capcom)
-Neku (Square Enix)


Okay, you can all laugh at me now.

I hope this ages well

 

[Brother AJ]

What other characters could be considered "out there?"

Give me Kratos or give me death! (No seriously he said he'd kill me if he doesn't get in. I don't know why he thinks I can make this happen. Please halp...)

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

To be fair, we also got Byleth after four packs straight of new third-party franchises. Honestly, after everything Smash has thrown at us, I'm expecting patterns to get wrecked in June more than I'm expecting them to hold up.

It does feel to a degree that at least one kind of pattern dam might very well burst. A third party officially getting more than 3 characters (Square, Sega, Konami, Capcom) a third party getting more than one character per pass (Square, Microsoft), non-veteran Pokemon being DLC for the first time, or maybe even an indie character being an actual non-Mii Fighter for the first time.

 

[Sephirothorsomethingidk]

It does feel to a degree that at least one kind of pattern dam might very well burst. A third party officially getting more than 3 characters (Square, Sega, Konami, Capcom) a third party getting more than one character per pass (Square, Microsoft), non-veteran Pokemon being DLC for the first time, or maybe even an indie character being an actual non-Mii Fighter for the first time.

Bandai Namco finally being allowed more than one rep and more content in general

 

[dream1ng]

To be fair, we also got Byleth after four packs straight of new third-party franchises. Honestly, after everything Smash has thrown at us, I'm expecting patterns to get wrecked in June more than I'm expecting them to hold up.

It does feel to a degree that at least one kind of pattern dam might very well burst. A third party officially getting more than 3 characters (Square, Sega, Konami, Capcom) a third party getting more than one character per pass (Square, Microsoft), non-veteran Pokemon being DLC for the first time, or maybe even an indie character being an actual non-Mii Fighter for the first time.

Well the thing of it is there aren't very many characters who don't both enforce some existing pattern yet break a different existing pattern. There are a lot of different facets people lend importance, warranted or not. Usually it's not. But it depends on what qualities you're looking at.

Byleth wasn't a third-party, but it was ending a group of characters on a general downturn, adding the protagonist, having the first-party pick be promotional, being "anime" and "swordy" and "JRPG", being FE... there were also a lot of upheld trends with that inclusion.

 

[SharkLord]

It does feel to a degree that at least one kind of pattern dam might very well burst. A third party officially getting more than 3 characters (Square, Sega, Konami, Capcom) a third party getting more than one character per pass (Square, Microsoft), non-veteran Pokemon being DLC for the first time, or maybe even an indie character being an actual non-Mii Fighter for the first time.

And aside from that, there's also a region-centric character (Unless we count Hero already), an Assist Trophy promotion, a company's fighter coming after it already got Mii Costumes, whatever I couldn't think of listing... Given past precedent, there's a lot of floodgates CP10 (And quite possibly CP11 tagging along) could kick open that we expected to hold.

 

[Shroob]

Hot take.


In the crazy chance that Master Chief is an E3 drop, we're gonna get a double reveal ala 2019.


Chief could carry the presentation on his own, but it also feels like his appeal is lopsidedly western, I just feel like they'd drop someone with eastern appeal alongside his reveal.


If he does happen, that is, something I'm not super sold on(Though I'd love it).

 

[SharkLord]

Well the thing of it is there aren't very many characters who don't both enforce some existing pattern yet break a different existing pattern. There are a lot of different facets people lend importance, warranted or not. Usually it's not. But it depends on what qualities you're looking at.

Byleth wasn't a third-party, but it was ending a group of characters on a general downturn, adding the protagonist, having the first-party pick be promotional, being "anime" and "swordy" and "JRPG", being FE... there were also a lot of upheld trends with that inclusion.

Fair point; There's always going to be some trend that a character contributed to. I suppose it's better to say I'm just expecting trends to be broken for the first time; Others are going to be upheld regardless, even if it's just for the one fighter, so you can't really not expect otherwise in that case.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

Part of me is thinking that we already got our "big ones" with Steve and Sephiroth.

While I do expect the E3 reveal to include a big character, I also wouldn't be surprised if the rest were more low key.

 

[Shroob]

Part of me is thinking that we already got our "big ones" with Steve and Sephiroth.

While I do expect the E3 reveal to include a big character, I also wouldn't be surprised if the rest weren't more low key.

That's definitely possible.

But I just have a hard time seeing Nintendo not plan something for 2 E3s, considering they knew that one way or another, they'd be doing 2 E3s with this, even with Covid factored in.

 

[Super Devon]

Hey so um...

I've known this for quite a while and I want to share it here
There hasn't been a single Smash reveal at E3 where they only showed a single character

(the "?" on Inkling signifies that it could be debatable since Inkling was technically revealed when Smash was confirmed to be coming to Switch so, yeah.)

Now this doesn't guarantee that we will actually get a double reveal, I just wanted to pull this up because people are making it seem like a double reveal is less likely than it actually is.

Keep in mind, in 2019 during the first Fighters Pass being developed, came out only 2 months before E3, and despite that, we got two full-length trailers for the next two characters anyway during E3 2019 (even though released later, which makes sense)
I don't see why they wouldn't do a double reveal again, as we are approaching the 3-month mark since and Mythra's release, we could have the reveal for Challenger Pack's 10 and 11 and have Challenger Pack 11 release later.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

Hey so um...

I've known this for quite a while and I want to share it here
There hasn't been a single Smash reveal at E3 where they only showed a single character
View attachment 316298
(the "?" on Inkling signifies that it could be debatable since Inkling was technically revealed when Smash was confirmed to be coming to Switch so, yeah.)

Now this doesn't guarantee that we will actually get a double reveal, I just wanted to pull this up because people are making it seem like a double reveal is less likely than it actually is.

Keep in mind, in 2019 during the first Fighters Pass being developed, came out only 2 months before E3, and despite that, we got two full-length trailers for the next two characters anyway during E3 2019 (even though released later, which makes sense)
I don't see why they wouldn't do a double reveal again, as we are approaching the 3-month mark since and Mythra's release, we could have the reveal for Challenger Pack's 10 and 11 and have Challenger Pack 11 release later.

Entirely possible.

If this is the end of Ultimate's DLC, it would be a good way to end it.

 

[Hinata]

Hey so um...

I've known this for quite a while and I want to share it here
There hasn't been a single Smash reveal at E3 where they only showed a single character
View attachment 316298
(the "?" on Inkling signifies that it could be debatable since Inkling was technically revealed when Smash was confirmed to be coming to Switch so, yeah.)

Now this doesn't guarantee that we will actually get a double reveal, I just wanted to pull this up because people are making it seem like a double reveal is less likely than it actually is.

Keep in mind, in 2019 during the first Fighters Pass being developed, came out only 2 months before E3, and despite that, we got two full-length trailers for the next two characters anyway during E3 2019 (even though released later, which makes sense)
I don't see why they wouldn't do a double reveal again, as we are approaching the 3-month mark since and Mythra's release, we could have the reveal for Challenger Pack's 10 and 11 and have Challenger Pack 11 release later.

Yeah, I've been feelin' the idea that they'll just finish off FP vol. 2 reveals at E3 for a while. A dual reveal makes sense, then they can just get both characters out of the way in one fell swoop and then just have us speculate on them until their release.

 

[Brother AJ]

Hey so um...

I've known this for quite a while and I want to share it here
There hasn't been a single Smash reveal at E3 where they only showed a single character
View attachment 316298
(the "?" on Inkling signifies that it could be debatable since Inkling was technically revealed when Smash was confirmed to be coming to Switch so, yeah.)

Now this doesn't guarantee that we will actually get a double reveal, I just wanted to pull this up because people are making it seem like a double reveal is less likely than it actually is.

Keep in mind, in 2019 during the first Fighters Pass being developed, came out only 2 months before E3, and despite that, we got two full-length trailers for the next two characters anyway during E3 2019 (even though released later, which makes sense)
I don't see why they wouldn't do a double reveal again, as we are approaching the 3-month mark since and Mythra's release, we could have the reveal for Challenger Pack's 10 and 11 and have Challenger Pack 11 release later.

Very good point. On the other hand... this is also the first time E3 is coming when we're at the end of a reveal cycle (and probably the end of Ultimate getting new characters), so they may break that trend to prolong publicity for the game. I hope they go with the double reveal though.

 

[Technomage]

Fair point; There's always going to be some trend that a character contributed to. I suppose it's better to say I'm just expecting trends to be broken for the first time; Others are going to be upheld regardless, even if it's just for the one fighter, so you can't really not expect otherwise in that case.

Personally, I think the best trend for Ninty to break at E3 is the less than stellar endings to their line-ups; E3 seems like a prime opportunity to break that trend with a dual reveal, assuming they don't have anymore DLC or another Smash game planned afterward for a while.

 

[dream1ng]

I've known this for quite a while and I want to share it here
There hasn't been a single Smash reveal at E3 where they only showed a single character
View attachment 316298
(the "?" on Inkling signifies that it could be debatable since Inkling was technically revealed when Smash was confirmed to be coming to Switch so, yeah.)

E3 2018 is an interesting case, because on one hand there was only one original newcomer shown, but on the other, reveals of characters like Snake and Wolf could've stood on their own as substantial reveals, given their popularity. It doesn't invalidate this pattern, but I would count them even above Daisy, tbh.

 

[Shroob]

This E3 is gonna be interesting.


Solo or duo.


Does speculation die that day, or continue until the inevitable September Direct.


3 weeks.

 

[Technomage]

This E3 is gonna be interesting.


Solo or duo.


Does speculation die that day, or continue until the inevitable September Direct.


3 weeks.

Speculation for who the last two DLCs are? Yes. Speculation about other details (including details about the characters themselves)? Probably not.

 

[Shroob]

Speculation for who the last two DLCs are? Yes. Speculation about other details (including details about the characters themselves)? Probably not.

Truth be told, I think most people are more interested in the names than the moveset.


Like, how often do we discuss stages or music, before snapping back to the same old.

 

[Hinata]

3 weeks.

Damn, when you put it like that, it really hammers home how close we are to E3. I'm hella excited to see what Nintendo has in store, both Smash-related and otherwise.

 

[dream1ng]

Let's be real, after both characters are known, and assuming there are no future ones to follow, engagement and further speculation is going to drop substantially.

 

[SKX31]

What other characters could be considered "out there?"

Looks at my sig.

Eeeyup. Where do I start?

Eh, I'm gonna sit here and prep the "It's lookin' spicy! ", "Ай-ай-ай-ай-ай, что сейчас произошло", " 这波不亏, 666" and " 스캔 돌려야 되요 따라란따란따라라라란 스캔 돌려야 된다고요! " voicelines for the inevitability.

Spoiler: Translations

Russian: Ay-ay-ay-ay-ay what just happened?
Mandarin: This is acceptable, nice plays!
Korean: We need to scan! Darararaan ~ We need to scan!

This E3 is gonna be interesting.


Solo or duo.


Does speculation die that day, or continue until the inevitable September Direct.


3 weeks.

[Prepares the bunker in case Sakurai / Nintendo actually - despite what most anyone will expect - goes whole hog with FP3.]

 

[3BitSaurus]

This E3 is gonna be interesting.


Solo or duo.


Does speculation die that day, or continue until the inevitable September Direct.


3 weeks.

...And then Sakurai announces Volume 3, which lasts 3 years and has 8 characters.

The announcement is done similarly to him opening Byleth's poster, but it instead only shows the words "Don't forget: we're all here forever" in both english and japanese. As he turns to face the camera, he somberly utters the words "it looks like Kirby wasn't the only insatiable cosmic horror I unleashed upon this world".

 

[Hinata]

Let's be real, after both characters are known, and assuming there are no future ones to follow, engagement and further speculation is going to drop substantially.

Well, that's just how it is for all Smash speculation cycles. People are here to talk about what's coming next, and when there's nothing coming next, there's nothing to talk about.

Then, when the next Smash game is revealed, the cycle will begin anew.

 

[dream1ng]

Well, that's just how it is for all Smash speculation cycles. People are here to talk about what's coming next, and when there's nothing coming next, there's nothing to talk about.

Then, when the next Smash game is revealed, the cycle will begin anew.

Of course, but this was in reference to saying that people would stick around to speculate about specific character details after the final reveal. Some will, but most won't. Perhaps I should've quoted that post; it preceded mine by a few.

 

[CureParfait]

what if we get Parappa the Rapper

I will be so hyped if that happens.

 

[Technomage]

Truth be told, I think most people are more interested in the names than the moveset.


Like, how often do we discuss stages or music, before snapping back to the same old.

Good point. Though if the reveals don't show the release date, I might still be here discussing possible release dates, though I probably won't be on her as much either way.

 

[Shroob]

Good point. Though if the reveals don't show the release date, I might still be here discussing possible release dates, though I probably won't be on her as much either way.

I think the release dates are the easiest thing to guess.

CP10 either June or July

CP11 "Fall 2021", aka September.

 

[Technomage]

I think the release dates are the easiest thing to guess.

CP10 either June or July

CP11 "Fall 2021", aka September.

I think CP11 could possibly come out sooner than that if the character isn't too complex, since Sakurai and Friends have now gone from three fighters being worked on simultaneously to two fighters being worked on simultaneously (where both fighters have more people working on them).

 

[dream1ng]

The Skyward Sword amiibo is coming out mid July. In the past, amiibos have released together, due to production and shipping reasons, even across different series. And also in the past, Smash amiibos have coincided roughly with releases. Do you think through this process we could expect to receive FP10 in July (and also more Smash amiibos), or do you believe the Zelda amiibo will release independently from any Smash stuff?

 

[MooMew64]

I'm super torn if I think we're getting a duo reveal.

On the one hand, they've never done an E3 that revealed just one.

On the other, I could easily see them want to milk this 'till September because advertising a Direct is gonna have Smash is the easiest and most effortless way possible to make everyone wanna watch the September Direct, especially since it would be the Smash Ultimate finale.

As Shroob said, three more weeks.

 

[Technomage]

The Skyward Sword amiibo is coming out mid July. In the past, amiibos have released together, due to production and shipping reasons, even across different series. And also in the past, Smash amiibos have coincided roughly with releases. Do you think through this process we could expect to receive FP10 in July (and also more Smash amiibos), or do you believe the Zelda amiibo will release independently from any Smash stuff?

I'd say independently, since there's almost no way for a Skyward Sword character to be the E3 reveal over a Breath of the Wild 2 character, if it's going to be a Zelda shill pick.

 

[dream1ng]

I'd say independently, since there's almost no way for a Skyward Sword character to be the E3 reveal over a Breath of the Wild 2 character, if it's going to be a Zelda shill pick.

A Skyward Sword amiibo doesn't inherently have anything to do with the Smash character being from Zelda. Like I said, amiibos often release conjointly, despite being from different series. The Monster Hunter amiibos released with Banjo, Terry and Byleth.