Official DLC Speculation Discussion Volume II

[Rie Sonomura]

What do you guys think the earliest date will be when they reveal FP9? My current guess is March 10th

For some reason, maybe a reveal on the final week of February with a release in early March. That’s my intuition

 

[Þe 1 → Way]

I think its a case where the remaining characters aren't as obvious as say Capcom's.

-Raiden lacks the same demand/popularity Snake had
-Contra characters would be a bit retro
-Castlevania's next natural character is an assist trophy
-Pyramid Head is a bit morbid as a potential fighter
-Sparkster is fairly obscure, even among platformer mascots

None of these are deal breakers by any stretch, but their nature means many don't think of them with the same frequency as a Dante, Chun-Li, Monster Hunter, or Phoenix Wright.

I agree with all of this, though I do think Contra warrants a bit more discussion as its a pretty big series to have not at least gotten a spirit event or mii costume.
Silent Hill is a little different, as its basically in the boat of RE but less popular. I think these 2 should be watched a bit more closely. Not as much as any of the characters you mentioned, but I do think they should be given some more attention.

I don't think so. There isn't much do go off of with Konami, since they started backing out of making games, but they evidently didn't care too much about Nintendo getting the rights to their main IPs. A rep from them would be a bit of a darkhorse, since they're not as big as they used to be, but they're still entirely possible.

Honestly, it seems like Konami is testing out letting other companies take over for game making. Considering their recent uptick in collaborations.

And Assist Trophies probably don't Deconfirm, judging by how Spring Man, an Assist Trophy, was among the rest of the ARMS Character during the tease. If Assist Trophies deconfirmed then Spring Man would've been excluded from the Tease.

It doesn’t make any sense for them to be outwardly confirming fan rules. The assist debate has always been a big one in the community. It drives speculation. Nintendo wants to keep as many options open as possible. They have no reason to purposely make the surprise of a new challenger easier to predict.

Edit: I can not spell to save my life rn.

 

[JOJONumber691]

Konami’s most active IP right now is Bomberman

Castlevania has an active Netflix Series. What does Bomberman have at the moment to be considered the most active IP? Please I'm genuinely curious.

 

[SWSU]

What do you guys think the earliest date will be when they reveal FP9? My current guess is March 10th

I think you're in the right range. But maybe a week later around the 15th. Since they dont seem to wait long from the Trailers and the Demonstrations for the last few fighters.

 

[SNEKeater]

A fair point, though Konami has been very generous with Castlevania content in base. Imagine if they were getting their own paid pack.
Still pissed all those SH rumors amounted to nothing.

If you're talking about the supposed new Silent Hill game, those rumours aren't really dead. Not saying they're certain, but they're not dead.
I'm talking about the good one, which came from Era. Not the "Sony bought Metal Gear, Silent Hill and Castlevania" one, which was obviously not true.

If anything I think it's a matter of time. There a lot of things aligning. Silent Hill in Dead by Daylight around summer of last year... Also around that time the series got a new official logo that is being used from everything since then... Recently a Silent Hill DLC got announced for Dark Deception... Plus other things that could hint towards the existence of a new game like certain tweets from Masahiro Ito, art designer of the series, or how just today Akira Yamaoka, composer of SH, said his next project will be revealed around next summer and it will be something fans "may have been hoping to hear about".

Obviously as I said this doesn't guarantee nothing until it's officially revealed, in case it exists, but just saying this to clarify that there's still room for faith. Though I understand why some would rather not think it could happen and then be let down.

 

[SharkLord]

Surprised that Contra isn't brought up more with the Konami talk. Wasn't that game one of the NES legends back in the day? It also popularized the Konami Code, which is pretty famous itself. Wouldn't be too surprised if Bill and Lance showed up some time this pass.

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

Active IP is an odd thing to really guess at with Konami because so much of their stuff is in flux.

-Castlevania's got a TV series while a collection from two years ago was released, and even a mobile game for a while, but no hint of a mainline entry on anything.
-SH has been quiet outside crossovers ever since Silent Hills got canned
-Metal Gear's gotten nothing ever since the dubious release that was Survive
-Contra got a collection and a new game... that reviewed badly and didn't do gangbusters business.
-Bomberman's relatively healthy though his activity has basically been ports of SBR several times.

So your guess is as good as mine to say which one really has the crown of busy Konami IP.

 

[JOJONumber691]

Surprised that Contra isn't brought up more with the Konami talk. Wasn't that game one of the NES legends back in the day? It also popularized the Konami Code, which is pretty famous itself. Wouldn't be too surprised if Bill and Lance showed up some time this pass.

Unless we got a Metal Slug Character lol

 

[Inue Houji]

Konami’s most active IP right now is Bomberman

What about their arcade games like Bemani and Sound Voltex?

 

[N3ON]

If active IP was the factor being sought after the last place you’d turn to is Konami.

 

[Evil Trapezium]

I just can't fathom and understand this obsession of what makes Goku an exception in many people's eyes.

What is it? Just popularity? May as well suggest Batman, Spongebob, and Shrek. They're popular so let's add them too!

No video game characters! Simple as that. Smash is about and celebrating gaming that even adding one non-gaming character would ruin what Smash is suppose to be about.

"But R-"

R.O.B. is a video game accessory that involves around video games.

"But what about Dra-"

Castlevania's Dracula is a version of a video game series based on the original source material that is public domain.

No more excuses.

In Europe, Goku debuted as a video game character and if we count how many countries are a part of Europe in 1993 (When the game was released) and times this with Bayonetta being the ballot winner worldwide for being number 1 in Europe, this means Goku is a video game character worldwide.

There you go. You got nothing to counter this. Goku wins!

 

[NonSpecificGuy]

Castlevania has an active Netflix Series. What does Bomberman have at the moment to be considered the most active IP? Please I'm genuinely curious.

A reboot in 2017, a spin off in 2018 with bombergirl that’s planned to release for Windows some time this year actually, a new bomberman game that was casually confirmed in active development, Bomberman R Online came out 2020, rumors of an Anniversary collection, and of course the almighty pachinko.

I’m a Castlevania die hard. You can go back and see that leading up to Simon’s reveal. But imma be honest when we’ve gotten a TV Series with 0 input from Konami, an Anniversary Collection that wasn’t developed by Konami, and Castlevania Requiem that was apparently funded by Sony it doesn’t tell me Konami is all that interested in the property themselves and are just making money off it’s legacy.

Not that this “active” is very active but it’s the most active for ****ing Konami.

 

[The Stoopid Unikorn]

What especially hurts his chances are Activision not being easy to negotiate with if that cancellation of that cartoon is anything to go by, that there I think was a total blow.

There's a difference between making a partnership with an animation company they've never talked with before about a cartoon and discussing with Nintendo, a company Activision has done plenty of business before if the sheer amount of games on Nintendo systems is anything to go by, about getting one of their IPs in Smash, a game made by a guy who treats the characters he's developing with a ton of care.

 

[JOJONumber691]

A reboot in 2017, a spin off in 2018 with bombergirl that’s planned to release for Windows
a new bomberman game that was casually confirmed in active development, Bomberman R Online came out 2020, rumors of an Anniversary collection, and of course the almighty pachinko.

I’m a Castlevania die hard. You can go back and see that leading up to Simon’s reveal. But imma be honest when we’ve gotten a TV Series with 0 input from Konami, an Anniversary Collection that wasn’t developed by Konami, and Castlevania Requiem that was apparently funded by Sony it doesn’t tell me Konami is all that interested in the property themselves and are just making money off it’s legacy.

Not that this “active” is very active but it’s the most active for ****ing Konami.

Huh. Well, the more you know. Still Bomberman is dead so if we're being realistic in terms of Speculation then Castlevania still is most likely lol. Then again only Third Party I'm expecting at this point is Ryu Hayabusa soooooooooooooooooooo...........................................................

 

[SKX31]

Active IP is an odd thing to really guess at with Konami because so much of their stuff is in flux.

-Castlevania's got a TV series while realising a collection from two years ago, and a mobile game for a while but no hint of a mainline entry on anything.
-SH has been quiet outside crossovers ever since Silent Hills got canned
-Metal Gear's gotten nothing ever since the dubious release that was Survive
-Contra got a collection and a new game... that reviewed badly and didn't do gangbusters business.
-Bomberman's relatively healthy though his activity has basically been ports of SBR several times.

So you're guess is as good as mine to say which one really has the crown of busy Konami IP.

Well, Contra did get Contra Returns...

... a mobile game that has done really well, but only been released in China and Southeast Asia so far (since 2017). It's a really strange game - especially with its characters. Like, most of its characters aside from Bill / Lance are seemingly random choices / OCs created specifically for the game... but then you also have the Terminator and Green Arrow. In a ****ing Contra game. Did I mention that Tencent's TiMi studio developed this game?

Like. What.

Quick edit: Bill's artwork from that game:

 

[NonSpecificGuy]

Hell, at least Contra got a NEW game even if it was absolute ASS

Don’t play Rogue Corps guys... please play any other Contra.

 

[Louie G.]

Surprised that Contra isn't brought up more with the Konami talk. Wasn't that game one of the NES legends back in the day? It also popularized the Konami Code, which is pretty famous itself. Wouldn't be too surprised if Bill and Lance showed up some time this pass.

Ironically enough I feel like Contra is one of the most frequently "we don't talk about this enough" series, so I wonder if that kinda contradicts itself.

Joking aside though, I'd be very happy to have Contra content in Smash. It's hands down one of my favorite NES games and I think they could build a really unique moveset off of a run and gun character through Bill Rizer - although I think Metal Slug is a better choice and more natural fit, but I'd be good with either of them. Would be another one of my personal favorite games represented in Smash which is always welcome, since I can appreciate it firsthand.

What prevents me from giving them more attention is that I'm still on the Hayabusa train for DLC and I can't really envision us getting two characters most notably associated with retro NES series. Seems arbitrary, but given how a very significant chunk of our DLC has been "newer" series / characters (Joker, Hero kinda, Byleth, Min Min, Steve) I'd be surprised if we saw the remaining DLC be so skewed toward a specific "retro" era (2 out of 3). I think the appeal of those two overlaps quite a bit so it'd be one or the other in my book (same goes for Billy & Jimmy from Double Dragon, who I think are also heavily slept on).

By the way, just saying - Pyramid Head Mii swordfighter costume. I'm calling that now.

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

Keep in mind its been a year and a half and we still haven't' even gotten another Castlevania Collection title.

That's a telling sign of a lack of interest when even a compilation of roms/ports of GBA and DS games is not considered worth the effort.

 

[Pillow]

If active IP was the factor being sought after the last place you’d turn to is Konami.

Which classic series will survive being Survived? Stay tuned to find out.

A reboot in 2017, a spin off in 2018 with bombergirl that’s planned to release for Windows some time this year actually, a new bomberman game that was casually confirmed in active development, Bomberman R Online came out 2020, rumors of an Anniversary collection, and of course the almighty pachinko.

I’m a Castlevania die hard. You can go back and see that leading up to Simon’s reveal. But imma be honest when we’ve gotten a TV Series with 0 input from Konami, an Anniversary Collection that wasn’t developed by Konami, and Castlevania Requiem that was apparently funded by Sony it doesn’t tell me Konami is all that interested in the property themselves and are just making money off it’s legacy.

Not that this “active” is very active but it’s the most active for ****ing Konami.

The Netflix animation is, admittedly, surprisingly decent. It being kinda successful has me lowkey worried that Konami will try to churn out another Castlevania game and absolutely butcher it.

And we did get a pretty good Castlevania game semi-recently. It's called Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.

 

[Ivander]

Alucard would most certainly be the next Castlevania rep after the Belmonts. But that said, Soma Cruz and Shanoa are definitely the next picks after Alucard, as they are the most advertised characters next to Alucard.

 

[Þe 1 → Way]

If you're talking about the supposed new Silent Hill game, those rumours aren't really dead. Not saying they're certain, but they're not dead.
I'm talking about the good one, which came from Era. Not the "Sony bought Metal Gear, Silent Hill and Castlevania" one, which was obviously not true.

If anything I think it's a matter of time. There a lot of things aligning. Silent Hill in Dead by Daylight around summer of last year... Also around that time the series got a new official logo that is being used from everything since then... Recently a Silent Hill DLC got announced for Dark Deception... Plus other things that could hint towards the existence of a new game like certain tweets from Masahiro Ito, art designer of the series, or how just today Akira Yamaoka, composer of SH, said his next project will be revealed around next summer and it will be something fans "may have been hoping to hear about".

Obviously as I said this doesn't guarantee nothing until it's officially revealed, in case it exists, but just saying this to clarify that there's still room for faith. Though I understand why some would rather not think it could happen and then be let down.

Well, I’ll keep my eye out. Akira Yamoaka being back, and Masahiro Ito sounds a little too good to be true.

I could easily see Konami licensing out their IPs to make games for them. They’ve kinda been doing that already with these collections and even some of their games.

 

[ZelDan]

Damn, I'd love to see Contra get a fighter pack. Probably one of my more lowkey wants for a Smash fighter. Ideally they'd bring some content from Contra Hard Corps as that's my favorite of the Contra series.

if it doesn't get that it atleast should get a spirit event. Not that I exactly see that happening as we haven't had a new spirit event in a long time, but still Contra I think deserves atleast some level of recognition in Smash...

 

[Lyncario]

The small Time Split talks from 2 pages ago reminded me to remind you all that if we should ever get a Persona vilain in the game, it should absolutely be the Fuhrer.

 

[Deleted member]

What do you guys think the earliest date will be when they reveal FP9? My current guess is March 10th

The earliest?

Well, I mean, technically we've been going on guesses and hunches since Plant released, so really the earliest is that there could be a teaser/trailer stealth drop tomorrow.

Realistically speaking? I'd not expect news until the week of the 15th. Only because I think they've been fairly consisted this pass with 2 months in between each fighter, so mid-late February is probably the safest bet to at least hear about a reveal before with about a 2 weeks wait before the actual fighter drop (either the last week of February or first week of March).

 

[NonSpecificGuy]

I legit feel like Bill and Lance would be the Simon and Richter of next game. Or if somehow someway we did get an echo Bill and Lance would be the ones to do it.

 

[Cosmic77]

Personally, I don't see them going for a third Castlevania character before Bomberman. He's already in Smash as an AT, so that shows that Sakurai sees him as a notable character. Only reason why he's not playable is because Sakurai went with Simon as the Konami rep instead. Otherwise, he'd probably be in.

Though to be honest, I'm skeptical of a third Castlevania character with or without Bomberman on the roster. Sephiroth may have opened the door to additional third-party reps, but the circumstances made him a little different than others. The lack of FF content plus the sheer difficulty of getting the rights to FF content in general is probably what made him so sought after.

If we're still waiting for Sonic of all things to get another character, then you're probably going to need a very strong case to convince Nintendo and/or Sakurai to add a second character to a third-party series.

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

No blood, no good guys shooting other good guys and now no Bonds allowed at all because they think these games are "violence for the sake of violence".

no blood allowed in a franchise that has blood in its most iconic intro
Wat?

No video game characters!

Finally, a take I can get behind.

Don’t play Rogue Corps guys... please play any other Contra.

But where else am I going to play as a panda and shoot things?

 

[TCT~Phantom]

What especially hurts his chances are Activision not being easy to negotiate with if that cancellation of that cartoon is anything to go by, that there I think was a total blow.

The funny thing is, when you spouted this in the Crash thread, you got told that you were blatantly wrong.

But even going beyond that, one cancelled project is not a trend. If anything, more evidence points towards Activision being easier to work with given that Nintendo was willing to trust them with ****ing Donkey Kong and Bowser. The working relationship is pretty strong as well, given Nintendo has advertised Crash on their system as recently as January. Heck, said ad pushed Crash and Spyro instead of LM3 or Odyssey. Besides, i want to remind you that we have got quite a few companies that are relatively hard to work with or controversial in smash. Konami is a stew of controversies. Square is notoriously protectionist. Microsoft is a giant. SNK is owned at least partially by Tencent. Nintendo got all of them to play ball in a big way in Ultimate.

If your best arguments are this cartoon argument, which you have already been told is weak and based on a lot of heresay about its cancellation and comparing him to K Rool in Smash 4 for some reason, I think you will need better arguments than that.

 

[Speed Weed]

I know this might end up sparking arguments but I'm kinda interested - what picks for Smash fighters (for DLC or just in general) do you feel are really, like, possible but slept on by most people? Throwing my own hat in the ring with Deoxys and Sophia (Blaster Master) - I might have said Maxwell but he's had a resurgence. Not intending to start a flame war, I'm just intrigued

not usually a fan of the term "slept on" but i'm just sayin guys shenmue was kinda revolutionary for its time and it did kinda pioneer - or at least play a part in pioneering - **** such as big-ass detailed wide-open sandbox enviroments in video games and it does frequently turn up in "best games of all time" lists

 

[Deleted member]

Personally, I don't see them going for a third Castlevania character before Bomberman. He's already in Smash as an AT, so that shows that Sakurai sees him as a notable character. Only reason why he's not playable is because Sakurai went with Simon as the Konami rep instead. Otherwise, he'd probably be in.

Though to be honest, I'm skeptical of a third Castlevania character with or without Bomberman on the roster. Sephiroth may have opened the door to additional third-party reps, but the circumstances made him a little different than others. The lack of FF content plus the sheer difficulty of getting the rights to FF content in general is probably what made him so sought after.

If we're still waiting for Sonic of all things to get another character, then you're probably going to need a very strong case to convince Nintendo and/or Sakurai to add a second character to a third-party series.

Technically I think both Ken & Simon opened the door for a second 3rd Party Rep. Granted they're echoes (at least Ken is a semi-clone) but they were still both the second instance of a character from their respective 3rd party series.

Sephiroth just opened the door of thinking allowing us to consider Villains from 3rd parties already represented. Unless people never really thought of Ken & Simon to begin with.

 

[Koopaul]

What do you guys think the earliest date will be when they reveal FP9? My current guess is March 10th

I tried to find out a rough estimate by looking at the days between each fighter reveal.

Now, we get cases like Banjo and Hero being revealed on the same day. We also get cases like Joker where he was revealed way earlier than most fighters and we're left waiting a while. And then we have to factor how the pandemic effected things too.

The time between the Hero/Banjo reveal and Terry reveal was 85 days.

The time between the Terry reveal and Byleth reveal was 134 days.

The time between the Byleth and Min Min reveal was 158 days.

The time between the Min Min reveal and Steve reveal was 101 days.

The time between the Steve reveal and Sephiroth reveal was 70 days.

As you can see things have been speeding up since the pandemic and I assume that is because Sakurai's team have adjusted to working from home. So I could estimate that 70-85 days is the quickest we could get a reveal. That means the next fighter could be announced sometime in March.

 

[NonSpecificGuy]

Technically I think both Ken & Simon opened the door for a second 3rd Party Rep. Granted they're echoes (at least Ken is a semi-clone) but they were still both the second instance of a character from their respective 3rd party series.

Sephiroth just opened the door of thinking allowing us to consider Villains from 3rd parties already represented. Unless people never really thought of Ken & Simon to begin with.

Ken and... Richter?

 

[SKX31]

In Europe, Goku debuted as a video game character and if we count how many countries are a part of Europe in 1993 (When the game was released) and times this with Bayonetta being the ballot winner worldwide for being number 1 in Europe, this means Goku is a video game character worldwide.

View attachment 301884

There you go. You got nothing to counter this. Goku wins!

I mean, with all the DBZ moments such as this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/smashbros/comments/lbiyid
It indeed is an inevitability.

I legit feel like Bill and Lance would be the Simon and Richter of next game. Or if somehow someway we did get an echo Bill and Lance would be the ones to do it.

I do think they have a decently strong case as DLC (at least amongst Konami's choices) because Contra has a strong case of its own, although I could absolutely see them be the Belmonts of next game.

PleasegivethemoredifferencesthanHolyWaterbeingAurainRichter'scase.

 

[True Blue Warrior]

Though to be honest, I'm skeptical of a third Castlevania character with or without Bomberman on the roster. Sephiroth may have opened the door to additional third-party reps, but the circumstances made him a little different than others. The lack of FF content plus the sheer difficulty of getting the rights to FF content in general is probably what made him so sought after.

Sephiroth got in solely because of his legacy. If lack of FF representation was a priority in terms of being dealt with, we’d get a character from a different Final Fantasy game as well as content from multiple main series games similar to Terry’s pack instead of just more FF7 content because the last thing FF7 was lacking was a character and a stage.

In other words, there is no reason we couldn’t easily get someone like Chun-Li as a “Capcom rep” regardless of how much Street Fighter content there is because Sephiroth proves that characters don’t get added based off irrelevant factors like stages, music and spirits, rather it is that those content gets decided based on the character selected.

 

[Louie G.]

I legit feel like Bill and Lance would be the Simon and Richter of next game.

That's a fun thought - I've been hoping that we get Jill Valentine / Leon Kennedy or Marco / Fio in a similar fashion down the line.

Would feel odd to get one without the other for most of these to be honest. With Bill and Lance I suppose they could be alternate costumes if they insist on not providing echo fighters through DLC packs, since they're similar enough in skeleton and personality anyway.

Can't say the same for the other two (unless it's Marco and Tarma maybe).

 

[7NATOR]

Personally I'd think they want to release the Character somewhere around Early to Mid March, because End of March is the end of the Financial year, maybe they want to get in as Many sales as they can before that happens

New Papagenos video:

I don’t put any stock into tourneys, so I don’t believe the No First Person Shooter Rep thing. Though the only one I could see happening is Doomguy.

As Long as characters like Reimu, Doomguy, Master Chief, Jonsey, etc could have another Character based DLC that's not based on projeciles, this might not mean much

It just means that if any of these characters were hypothetically in, their tournament wouldn't be based of Projectiles. Of course I could have do a double take because for these types of characters, a tournament like that is perfect, but what happens happens

I definitely don't think this character will be based around projectiles, or perhaps be very Fast

 

[TCT~Phantom]

Personally, I don't see them going for a third Castlevania character before Bomberman. He's already in Smash as an AT, so that shows that Sakurai sees him as a notable character. Only reason why he's not playable is because Sakurai went with Simon as the Konami rep instead. Otherwise, he'd probably be in.

Though to be honest, I'm skeptical of a third Castlevania character with or without Bomberman on the roster. Sephiroth may have opened the door to additional third-party reps, but the circumstances made him a little different than others. The lack of FF content plus the sheer difficulty of getting the rights to FF content in general is probably what made him so sought after.

If we're still waiting for Sonic of all things to get another character, then you're probably going to need a very strong case to convince Nintendo and/or Sakurai to add a second character to a third-party series.

TBH the only reason I doubt a Second Castlevania rep next from Konami is because Alucard is an assist. I am a bit bullish on ATs being DLC, the only two I buy having a shot rn for that are Isaac and Waluigi. If we get an Ultimate DX though, I am betting on Alucard. He is a super popular character in the Castlevania fandom and tbh SotN is one of those huge era defining games. It defines the PS1 even if it is also on the Saturn and it is one of the pioneers of the Metroidvania genre.

Though I'll be honest, rn I am eyeing Contra to be the third Konami franchise in. It ticks so many boxes. Classic NES Franchise? Reasonably Iconic? Could you make a unique moveset via a gimmick or at least visually? Yep Yep Yep. Bill Rizer is one of those choices I feel people sleep on a little.

 

[Pillow]

That's a fun thought - I've been hoping that we get Jill Valentine / Leon Kennedy or Marco / Fio in a similar fashion down the line.

Would feel odd to get one without the other, to be honest. With Bill and Lance I suppose they could be alternate costumes if they insist on not providing echo fighters through DLC packs, since they're similar enough in skeleton and personality anyway.

I still would bet that a Metal Slug squad would be alternate costumes of each other instead of echoes...there's like exactly 8 of them it fits too perfectly in my eyes.

Jill / Leon **** yeah, though I'm not sure their model proportions would be similar enough to be given the echo treatment. Plus Jill also has some weirder stuff in her moveset if they decide to reference her RE5 iteration.

 

[TCT~Phantom]

Jill / Leon **** yeah, though I'm not sure their model proportions would be similar enough to be given the echo treatment. Plus Jill also has some weirder stuff in her moveset if they decide to reference her RE5 iteration.

That would imply Capcom referencing RE5 nowadays. No one wants to touch RE5-6 nowadays.

If we get RE, it would likely be Leon with RE2 and 4 Alts, Jill with RE1 and 3 Alts, Chris w 1 and CV styled alts, and Claire with 2 and CV alts. At least that is what my gut says.

 

[Deleted member]

Ken and... Richter?

I haven't played Smash in awhile . I've been busy alternating between Overwatch and Yakuza.