Official DLC Speculation Discussion Volume II

[LiveStudioAudience]

I don't really think it's gonna be a Pokémon. I know people who would just keep predicting "a Pokémon" every single Challenger pack, up to, of course, now.
Help me out here, is it an actual prediction or some disappointment insurance policy?
Not that aren't Pokémon that would make good fighters, mind you.

I suspect largely the latter. Especially after the gut punch that Byleth was, no one wants to be caught off guard by a logical but unexciting Nintendo selection; thus a Gen 8 Pokémon is always lingering in people's more pessimistic expectations, the proverbial gift of socks in the Christmas morning that is Smash DLC.

 

[Momotsuki]

Was the Sword & Shield spirit event before or after the second pass' announcement? If it's the latter I'd feel comfortable ruling out, say, Cinderace or something.

Edit: It was before... by a couple of months. Not really enough for me to think the second pass was still up in the air, especially since Pokémon had gotten "slots" "reserved" in the past, usually well in advanced.

I know we got a Golf Waluigi, but I'd look at that the same way you'd look at, say, Tennis Mario in the base game, who is a spirit.

 

[True Blue Warrior]

Got proof of him saying that before Byleth? All I could find was in reference to the second Fighter Pass https://twitter.com/PushDustIn/status/1230256786331975681

Here.

 

[MattX20]

Here.

...that's not before Byleth, that's after the reveal and after the presentation was drawing to a close

 

[True Blue Warrior]

Was the Sword & Shield spirit event before or after the second pass' announcement? If it's the latter I'd feel comfortable ruling out, say, Cinderace or somebody.
I know we got a Golf Waluigi, but I'd look at that the same way you'd look at, say, Tennis Mario in the base gam, who is a spirit.

The second pass was announced in BK's Presentation which was in August and that spirit event was in November.

 

[Momotsuki]

...that's not before Byleth, that's after the reveal and after the presentation was drawing to a close

It also wasn't referring to Byleth, merely Smash as a whole.

The second pass was announced in BK's Presentation which was in August and that spirit event was in November.

It was announced in Byleth's presentation. The September 2019 (not even August!) Direct simply announced, in vague terms, that more DLC was coming.

 

[True Blue Warrior]

...that's not before Byleth, that's after the reveal and after the presentation was drawing to a close

I don't think it really matters either way it was said during his presentation and the next character announced was an ARMS character.

 

[BlazGreen]

The best trailers are the ones that keep the general fandom guessing while fans of the characters can tell after few seconds. The Sephiroth and Kazuya trailers are the absolute best at this. The Byleth and Min Min trailers give away the character instantly which takes a lot of the suspense out of their reveals but in fairness to Min Min, the rest of her trailer was well done.

 

[True Blue Warrior]

For all we know, the last character could be Adol Christin from Ys.

 

[Hex D. Jess]

for the love of god please temper your expectations

 

[Momotsuki]

I swear, sometimes it seems like expecting anything more than a wet fart is seen as "overhyping."
All I even care about is the fighter being interesting, but come on.

 

[True Blue Warrior]

It was announced in Byleth's presentation. The September 2019 (not even August!) Direct simply announced, in vague terms, that more DLC was coming.

My bad on that. But considering that Sakurai confirmed that presentations are recorded at least 1 month in advance in Terry's presentation, the second batch of DLC was greenlit in August and thus it is reasonable to assume that it was finalised there.

I swear, sometimes it seems like expecting anything more than a wet fart is seen as "overhyping."
All I even care about is the fighter being interesting, but come on.

For what it is worth, I don't think the final character will be a "wet fart", first or third-party.

 

[Trevenant]

I don't really think it's gonna be a Pokémon. I know people who would just keep predicting "a Pokémon" every single Challenger pack, up to, of course, now.
Help me out here, is it an actual prediction or some kind of disappointment insurance policy?
Not that aren't Pokémon that would make good fighters, mind you.

Easy prediction that smash has never not capitalized upon. New smash game still receiving support and new pokemon game/gen is usually the magic formula for pokemon additions which lines up here. Factor in that people are overblowing smash reveals falling flat on their face at the end, and it definitely seems likely tbh. Only times smash has ever actually skipped a generation was for 3 and 5, who were only skipped cos there were newer gens able to pull from at the time, which kinda substantiates the whole theory

 

[Momotsuki]

My bad on that. But considering that Sakurai confirmed that presentations are recorded at least 1 month in advance in Terry's presentation, the second batch of DLC was greenlit in August and thus it is reasonable to assume that it was finalised there.

The vague "more DLC" wasn't revealed in the Sakurai Presents, it was revealed in the Direct itself, immediately after Terry's reveal.

 

[Technomage]

I checked the SmashWiki to confirm both the announcement of FP2 and the release of the Sword and Shield Spirits, and learned that the former occurred on September 4th and the latter on September 21st. So that means that a Gen 8 Mon is out. Well, unless that happens to be a red herring, and a Gen 8 Mon with no spirit were to be the last fighter and come with Gen 8 spirits not added by the spirit event (after all, we've got plenty of new Pokemon (both new species and new regional forms) to add as potential spirits). Though I do gotta ask: How likely would a red herring spirit event (any of them, not just Sword and Shield) be?

 

[Momotsuki]

How likely would a red herring spirit event (any of them, not just Sword and Shield) be?

Not very. At that point you'd basically just be latching onto what you see as the worst-case scenario because you don't want to be excited. Blind pessimism.

 

[WeirdChillFever]

I’d rather have these last three days to think in good fun it’s gonna be my Most Wanted than to have the hype train stop to a screeching halt because everyone has given in to the Cinder

I checked the SmashWiki to confirm both the announcement of FP2 and the release of the Sword and Shield Spirits, and learned that the former occurred on September 4th and the latter on September 21st. So that means that a Gen 8 Mon is out. Well, unless that happens to be a red herring, and a Gen 8 Mon with no spirit were to be the last fighter and come with Gen 8 spirits not added by the spirit event (after all, we've got plenty of new Pokemon (both new species and new regional forms) to add as potential spirits). Though I do gotta ask: How likely would a red herring spirit event (any of them, not just Sword and Shield) be?

Eh, red herring makes it seem like Nintendo specifically added a spirit event to throw us off the trail rather than to promote a game that wouldn’t get a fighter for another two years.

 

[Momotsuki]

I said it before in the Direct leadup, but optimism and pessimism are equally prone to being irrational and both, when irrational, are equally unhelpful and unfun.

 

[Wunderwaft]

for the love of god please temper your expectations

This is gonna be the last fighter reveal for Smash we'll see until at least five years. Why do some of you get heated up when people express excitement and hype over the upcoming final presentation?

 

[True Blue Warrior]

The vague "more DLC" wasn't revealed in the Sakurai Presents, it was revealed in the Direct itself, immediately after Terry's reveal.

That direct also stated that the DLC fighters were in development, not merely thought about.

 

[BlazGreen]

A question to those of you who don't want Cinderace to be the last character. Is there any gen 8 Pokemon you wouldn't mind seeing? I must admit that Sword and Shied have some of the weakest starters ever and other front runners like Urshifu don't really interest me at all but I wouldn't be mad if we got something like Sirfetch'd, Falinks or Dragapult as the gen 8 rep.

 

[CannonStreak]

Time to do this again.

 

[Technomage]

Not very. At that point you'd basically just be latching onto what you see as the worst-case scenario because you don't want to be excited. Blind pessimism.

Hmmm, good point, though after regaining my interest in Pokemon as well as playing a lot of Pokemon Sword, I'd now be excited to see a new Gen 8 Mon (or any new Mon featured in Brilliant Diamond, Shining Pearl, or Legends Arceus), even if it's a third starter in a row (though part of me still thinks that shouldn't happen, since that'd still be a bit formulaic and boring).

 

[NonSpecificGuy]

Why are we arguing semantics about the second pass on the last character when we’re two days away again?

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

As far as appropriate level of hype, I'm fairly torn.

On one hand, this is fairly uncharted territory for Smash, with no DLC cycle ever lasting this long and the vibe of the promotion in the last week and half being hard to figure out. Even just having a Direct where the fighter wasn't revealed in favor of announcing a final presentation might seemingly suggest some significance to this character.

On the other hand, it would be completely within Nintendo's wheelhouse to do all of this and then finishing off with a fairly sensible yet mundane selection. It's pretty easy to imagine a scenario of fans cracking jokes about how the PR was "imaginations running wild" when the final fighter ended up being someone fairly unremarkable in terms of status. What's excitable to Nintendo's business model and that of the fandom's has differed quite a bit in the past, and it's just hard to say one way or another if this will be another case of that.

 

[True Blue Warrior]

A question to those of you who don't want Cinderace to be the last character. Is there any gen 8 Pokemon you wouldn't mind seeing? I must admit that Sword and Shied have some of the weakest starters ever and other front runners like Urshifu don't really interest me at all but I wouldn't be mad if we got something like Sirfetch'd, Falinks or Dragapult as the gen 8 rep.

Zacian could be a pretty interesting character.

 

[WeirdChillFever]

A question to those of you who don't want Cinderace to be the last character. Is there any gen 8 Pokemon you wouldn't mind seeing? I must admit that Sword and Shied have some of the weakest starters ever and other front runners like Urshifu don't really interest me at all but I wouldn't be mad if we got something like Sirfetch'd, Falinks or Dragapult as the gen 8 rep.

Yes most literally any other Pokémon from that generation. I have nothing against Pokémon and I prefer Zacian above like 80% of choices thrown around but I just cannot see a soccer player being implemented well in Smash. Cinder is also the poster boy for the pessimistic vibe so that whole “no hype allowed” “lowkey” sour mood has definitely stuck to him for me.

Why are we arguing semantics about the second pass on the last character when we’re two days away again?

Hello and welcome to SmashBoards, you must be new!

 

[Technomage]

A question to those of you who don't want Cinderace to be the last character. Is there any gen 8 Pokemon you wouldn't mind seeing? I must admit that Sword and Shied have some of the weakest starters ever and other front runners like Urshifu don't really interest me at all but I wouldn't be mad if we got something like Sirfetch'd, Falinks or Dragapult as the gen 8 rep.

While I'm now liking the idea of Cinderace as the last fighter, I do have a great idea for an alternative: Calyrex. Not only would it be interesting as a rider fighter, but it could potentially be a transformation/tag-team character, switching between riding Spectrier and riding Glastrier.

 

[Þe 1 → Way]

I don’t think a massive gaming icon like Chief or Sora is the most likely, but I also don’t think we’re in for a shill pick either. Maybe a more lowkey character from a popular but not game changing series.

 

[WeirdChillFever]

for the love of god please temper your expectations

you see ANY hype around these parts???

 

[Staarih]

While I don't think the last character is being "hyped" any more than previous ones (a countdown would likely happen anyway because it's, well, the last character, regardless of how big/small), I also think it's understandable to BE hyped for the last presentation, as it's the last opportunity for a Sakurai Presents like this and surely everyone would like the last one to be their most wanted (if not in the game already).

I say each to their own, it's only a few days away after all.

 

[True Blue Warrior]

I don’t think a massive gaming icon like Chief or Sora is the most likely, but I also don’t think we’re in for a shill pick either. Maybe a more lowkey character from a popular but not game changing series.

We could also get something like the Octolings, which would be a big deal for the Japanese Smash fans (considering how popular Splatoon is over there) but a more "okay" or "cool" character to fans outside of Japan.

 

[Momotsuki]

Skipping a perfectly good Direct, hyping up a "Final Battle," changing your Twitter banners to market this being the last fighter, telling people to let their imaginations run wild...

I don't think that means anything for a specific character, and I don't think it means the character has to be a "big name," but I do think whoever they've chosen, they're confident that they'll hit.
Whether they're right or wrong on that remains to be seen.

 

[Megadoomer]

This is gonna be the last fighter reveal for Smash we'll see until at least five years. Why do some of you get heated up when people express excitement and hype over the upcoming final presentation?

Probably because the last time we got a game-ending reveal, it started off with this:

So people are nervous that we're going to get something that's similarly viewed as being underwhelming, and if people are assuming that it's definitely going to be Sora, Master Chief, or some other internet-breaking character, then they're potentially setting themselves up for disappointment and outrage.

Plus, Kencineroar (for the base game) and Byleth (for FP1) were generally seen as a step down from earlier reveals in those line-ups. (Ridley, K. Rool, the Belmonts, Joker, Banjo-Kazooie, etc.)

 

[WeirdChillFever]

Oh, so now the Corrin haters are gonna preach to us?

 

[Wunderwaft]

Probably because the last time we got a game-ending reveal, it started off with this:

So people are nervous that we're going to get something that's similarly viewed as being underwhelming.

Plus, Kencineroar (for the base game) and Byleth (for FP1) were generally seen as a step down from earlier reveals in those line-ups. (Ridley, K. Rool, the Belmonts, Joker, Banjo-Kazooie, etc.)

Yeah but like, what shill pick is there that's even still likely?

There are no upcoming Fire Emblem games to shill. SwSh got a spirit event which makes its standing shaky. I dunno fam, going "it's gonna suck because it's the final fighter" just seems too pessimistic for me.

 

[Trevenant]

TBF, again, this is the last character for what is a very monumental smash game.. That and by virtue of wanting your character to sell, you're obviously not gonna not hype it up. Not saying it's gonna be a plug, but this absolutely doesn't suggest it's gonna be someone big either. It's just basic marketing practices, especially for a game like Ultimate, where hype was kind of one of its main foundations.

That and this game is gonna last a while because of the content in it so y'know, even if it is just promo, that still won't have them market the end of Ultimate as if the Ultra Hand is Master Chief.

 

[Hex D. Jess]

This is gonna be the last fighter reveal for Smash we'll see until at least five years. Why do some of you get heated up when people express excitement and hype over the upcoming final presentation?

I'm not even close to getting heated. I'm just worried that other people will react this way when we get something more lowkey.

you see ANY hype around these parts???

Have you seen the last page?

Anyway, I think I'll give up on trying to get people to temper their expectations. Just... don't say I didn't warn you guys.

 

[Megadoomer]

Yeah but like, what shill pick is there that's even still likely?

There are no upcoming Fire Emblem games to shill. SwSh got a spirit event which makes its standing shaky. I dunno fam, going "it's gonna suck because it's the final fighter" just seems too pessimistic for me.

Life/Sakurai/Intelligent Systems finds a way:

I doubt that they'll add a character from Fire Emblem Heroes, but I'm fully expecting that we'll get Cinderace.

 

[Evil Trapezium]

I don't think a new Pokemon rep is likely because Sakurai told us that he saves a slot on the base roster specifically for a Pokemon character and I think the reason for that is because they want to have the newest Pokemon alongside the newest Pokeball summons like Incineroar and the Gen 7 summons, Geninja and gen 6, Lucario and Gen 4 and Pichu and Gen 2. DLC doesn't include new Pokeball summons so if Cinderace or any other Gen 8 pokemon arrives in Smash Ultimate, there won't be any pokeball summons to go along with it and it'd be the first time of this instance happening and I don't think that will ever happen.