Echo Fighters sharing the same number.

[Koopaul]

On the surface it seems like all the Echo Fighters share the same number with their counterpart to really emphasize the brand "Echo Fighter".

But then it hit me. Possibly the true reason is because Echo Fighters are usually made last. These kinds of characters are made after all the other characters are made. I remember Sakurai saying that Dark Pit and Lucina were added late in development. That is probably the case again. We know that every character's number is based on when they were added to the game. So if we were shown any Echo Fighters with their true number of when they were added to the game, it would spoil how many characters we were going to get.

This is what I truly think is the reason for their numbering. What do you think?

 

[Cosmic77]

On the surface it seems like all the Echo Fighters share the same number with their counterpart to really emphasize the brand "Echo Fighter".

But then it hit me. Possibly the true reason is because Echo Fighters are usually made last. These kinds of characters are made after all the other characters are made. I remember Sakurai saying that Dark Pit and Lucina were added late in development. That is probably the case again. We know that every character's number is based on when they were added to the game. So if we were shown any Echo Fighters with their true number of when they were added to the game, it would spoil how many characters we were going to get.

This is what I truly think is the reason for their numbering. What do you think?

Ehh... I don't think that's why they're numbered that way. E3 2018 was six months away from Ultimate's release, and I'm sure Sakurai had most of the Echoes done by then. If he really wanted to, he could've easily given Echoes their own number based on the order they got revealed.

Personally, I think they share a number to really emphasize the easy-to-make clone aspect. If it weren't for that, I have a feeling Echoes wouldn't be nearly as popular as they ended up being.

 

[Luigifan18]

On the surface it seems like all the Echo Fighters share the same number with their counterpart to really emphasize the brand "Echo Fighter".

But then it hit me. Possibly the true reason is because Echo Fighters are usually made last. These kinds of characters are made after all the other characters are made. I remember Sakurai saying that Dark Pit and Lucina were added late in development. That is probably the case again. We know that every character's number is based on when they were added to the game. So if we were shown any Echo Fighters with their true number of when they were added to the game, it would spoil how many characters we were going to get.

This is what I truly think is the reason for their numbering. What do you think?

Looking at the character numbers of the Melee and Brawl characters, this does make some sense. Most of the characters whose numbers range from 18 to 26 were clones in Melee (the exceptions being Marth (#21), Mewtwo (#24), and Mr. Game & Watch (#26)), while the final two Brawl characters are Toon Link and Wolf; Toon Link is very clearly a clone character, particularly in Brawl, while Wolf's clone/semiclone status is far more contentious (SmashWiki considers Wolf to not be a clone at all). That said, I have a bit of trouble believing that Dr. Mario and Young Link were part of Melee's roster before the development team started work on Marth, Mewtwo, or Mr. Game & Watch. (Mr. Game & Watch was the final character to be unlocked in Melee), so his number makes sense in that respect; Mewtwo and Roy were also meant to be late unlocks.)

 

[Arthur97]

The question for me is the fate of echoes going forward. Traditionally, they are decloned in the next installment, but that didn't happen except for Doc this time. Are echoes now doomed to stay just that? If they are decloned will they be retroactively given a number for their proper place? Or will it be for the new game? Granted, that is likely idle speculation as I doubt the numbers are coming back without every fighter. Meaning they probably aren't coming back anytime soon.

 

[Shin F.]

They aren't actually numbered based on when they were added to the series, IIRC, but based on when they were revealed publicly. Hence why Sonic is numbered before King Dedede and ROB even though they would've likely been added before him in the game's development. (Since Sonic was a last-minute addition and the other two were vital to the SSE.)

 

[Homelessvagrant]

On the surface it seems like all the Echo Fighters share the same number with their counterpart to really emphasize the brand "Echo Fighter".

But then it hit me. Possibly the true reason is because Echo Fighters are usually made last. These kinds of characters are made after all the other characters are made. I remember Sakurai saying that Dark Pit and Lucina were added late in development. That is probably the case again. We know that every character's number is based on when they were added to the game. So if we were shown any Echo Fighters with their true number of when they were added to the game, it would spoil how many characters we were going to get.

This is what I truly think is the reason for their numbering. What do you think?

no because smash numbering is based on reveal date, not completion date. For instance, G&W, Marth, and Mewtwo were made before the six melee clones. The numbering is to distinguish them as echoes and to make it easy for them to be retracted into their parent as shown in the last direct without creating confusion.

 

[Turnips and Daisies.]

Well, it's probably just to emphasise that they are based on another fighter in the game. 04' is technically still a different number from 04. It's just derived from the original.

 

[pupNapoleon]

I do not think this would explain Dark Samus being removed from ATs (probably, at least), or Chrom being removed from the Final Smash.

 

[soviet prince]

echos was pure genius

 

[Quillion]

Honestly, I'm kinda worried with this numbering scheme. What happens when they manage to be decloned?

Do they keep their epsilon numbers, are they going to shift the entire numbering, or are they going to be tacked onto the end of the numbering when that happens?

Will they even be decloned? Questions, questions, questions.

 

[Arthur97]

Honestly, I'm kinda worried with this numbering scheme. What happens when they manage to be decloned?

Do they keep their epsilon numbers, are they going to shift the entire numbering, or are they going to be tacked onto the end of the numbering when that happens?

Will they even be decloned? Questions, questions, questions.

As I brought up, it probably won't matter much in the end because the numbers are probably an Ultimate thing that's not coming back.

 

[Khao]

Not too sure about that. The newer echoes, sure. But since pretty much the whole project revolved around "Everyone is Here!", at least Lucina and Dark Pit have likely been in the project plan since pre-production. Then again, that might just be the reason they decided to do that. Even if Lucina and Dark Pit were there from the start, they used them to come up with a system to add new clones without messing up the numbering.

 

[Koopaul]

They aren't actually numbered based on when they were added to the series, IIRC, but based on when they were revealed publicly. Hence why Sonic is numbered before King Dedede and ROB even though they would've likely been added before him in the game's development. (Since Sonic was a last-minute addition and the other two were vital to the SSE.)

You're right. that completely blows my theory out of the water. I'm sorry everyone.

 

[FNUStory]

Revealing echo fighters to those that are already revealed does nothing. They're organized by the order they are revealed in the directs. I would use their actual numbers personally, but it makes no difference to me.

 

[Koopaul]

No no. My assumption was the the character's number represented when the character was officially added to the game (either when they started working on them or when they finished them). And we know that echo fighters are more than likely made last. So if they, say, revealed Daisy and she had the number 72 while Inkling had 64 then we'd know there was a bunch of characters yet to be revealed between the two.

But none of this matters since I was wrong about what the numbers meant.