Elma for Smash Ultimate: Strength comes from experience. That’s true on any planet.

[PSIGuy]

The video seems like it was a top 10 stretched out further than it warranted. I mean, you can't just throw out random support characters from franchises who don't even have main characters in yet and except them to get in solely because they're women.

As for the FP#5 deconfirmations... best to hope for now is probably a Mii costume and music, if it turns out to be Kosmos or we get a different Xeno character in future.

But god, it's so disappointing seeing the circumstances for inclusion change for the worst every time she stood a chance. Looked over for Smash 4 DLC, couldn't even vote for her on the Smash ballot because of her release timing, and Ultimate decides that unlike every other Smash game they should only add the most desirable fan-demanded characters (said demand being based on the ballot, of course).

 

[BlackInk]

The video seems like it was a top 10 stretched out further than it warranted. I mean, you can't just throw out random support characters from franchises who don't even have main characters in yet and except them to get in solely because they're women.

As for the FP#5 deconfirmations... best to hope for now is probably a Mii costume and music, if it turns out to be Kosmos or we get a different Xeno character in future.

But god, it's so disappointing seeing the circumstances for inclusion change for the worst every time she stood a chance. Looked over for Smash 4 DLC, couldn't even vote for her on the Smash ballot because of her release timing, and Ultimate decides that unlike every other Smash game they should only add the most desirable fan-demanded characters (said demand being based on the ballot, of course).

What is it with xenoblade and smash timing?

 

[ColtonS25]

This just made me think of something really dumb but oh well:

Spoiler: Xenoblade X Spoilers

Elma getting ready to leave her home planet to come save Earth from imminent destruction:
View attachment 248888

If I had any editing talent, I would’ve photoshopped this meme accordingly.

Okay, so I may have edited this image accordingly:

Spoiler: Xenoblade X Spoilers Yet Again

Would’be been her true form but there’s no real close up of the face, and I was too lazy to crop a lot out.

 

[Senatiator]

That's nice and all, but his source also mentioned no Spirit upgrades. The only way I can still see things turn out in our favour is if 1) those developers turn out to not be out after all and 2) if the source somehow didn't count Elma as a Spirit because of the oddities surrounding it. Either way, my faith is low.

He still looked into it like Intelligent Systems as “second party” and he admitted he had poor communication with his sources.

 

[Limitbreakfull]

He still looked into it like Intelligent Systems as “second party” and he admitted he had poor communication with his sources.

Seems like Elma is still in the running then. Good. Thought it was strange when he deconfirmed almost every company haha.

 

[Deleted member]

Seems like Elma is still in the running then. Good. Thought it was strange when he deconfirmed almost every company haha.

That statement made us really question his credibility though.

 

[Pinguino21v]

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/234547-super-smash-bros-ultimate/78235954

Update from Vergeben.

Then back to believe it will be Steve, with fallback on Sora and Phoenix.

 

[PSIGuy]

He still looked into it like Intelligent Systems as “second party”

Can you link where he said this? Do second parties have to be deconfirmed separately?

 

[Senatiator]

Can you link where he said this? Do second parties have to be deconfirmed separately?

I already linked it in my previous post.

Vergeben categorized Blizzard as separate from Activision despite the former being owned by the latter so I would not count out HAL Laboratory, Pokémon/Game Freak/Creatures, Shigesato Itoi/APE/Mother/Earthbound, Intelligent Systems, Monolith Soft, SNK, Atlus, Platinum Games, etc.
Vergeben is still looking into those.

 

[Calamitas]

I just saw that Vergeben clarified his deconfirmation and backed down from his big kill-list. So we're back in the running for FP5? Neat.
I swear though, the wind certainly does blow hard in December on the Smash speculation scene. . .

Looked over for Smash 4 DLC, couldn't even vote for her on the Smash ballot because of her release timing, and Ultimate decides that unlike every other Smash game they should only add the most desirable fan-demanded characters (said demand being based on the ballot, of course).

. . .God, somehow I never realized that. In my mind, I somehow always thought that the Smash Ballot happened after the Western release of X, but now that you mention it, it did start around mid-2015, and concluded way before December that year, right? We really were in a bad position with that. . .

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/234547-super-smash-bros-ultimate/78235954

Update from Vergeben.

Then back to believe it will be Steve, with fallback on Sora and Phoenix.

Why? We're back in the running. Nintendo and Spirit promotions are not one the clarified list.

 

[Pinguino21v]

Why? We're back in the running. Nintendo and Spirit promotions are not one the clarified list.

Why what? Why not believing in Elma? Well, because FP5 won't be her and because those other characters I mentionned are way more likely.

Don't get me wrong, I would love her. But she won't be FP5.

 

[Wolfie557]

Even if we dont get XCX2 on the switch I expect a XCX definitive edition on the next console tbh

 

[Rie Sonomura]

I can imagine XCX2 having a Cross Transfer function from X Definitive Edition, allowing you to transfer your avatar and learned skills and whatnot, it's obviously gonna be a direct sequel after all

 

[Groose]

As much as I'd adore Elma in Smash, I'd definitely take either X2 or a port of X to the Switch over it haha. I've been hankering to play X so badly lately, but my Wii U is so old and dusty and restarting it is a big commitment.

 

[Bebe Mignon]

I'm back. It's been almost a year since I last logged in, so I've been pretty much inactive on Smashboards. I doubt that will change anytime soon. I think it's time for me to step down and let someone else take over the reins. I simply do not have the time and energy to maintain the thread as much as I used to. So if anyone is interested in taking over the thread, please let me know!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a cat nor a dog person--I will always be an Elma person. I will continue to root for her regardless of circumstances.

 

[Rie Sonomura]

I’ll give it a shot.

 

[Pallex]

I'm back. It's been almost a year since I last logged in, so I've been pretty much inactive on Smashboards. I doubt that will change anytime soon. I think it's time for me to step down and let someone else take over the reins. I simply do not have the time and energy to maintain the thread as much as I used to. So if anyone is interested in taking over the thread, please let me know!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a cat nor a dog person--I will always be an Elma person. I will continue to root for her regardless of circumstances.

I’ll give it a shot.

Sakurai: Post of the Day. When Bebe Mignon is too tired to handle the Elma thread, Rie Sonomura is in charge of the thread.

Rie Sonomura : "Leave it to me!"

 

[PSIGuy]

Hopefully there's something at TGA that makes coming back worthwhile.

 

[Bebe Mignon]

本日は弊社懇親会。20周年も兼ねて楽しい催し盛り沢山😊 pic.twitter.com/mMZDPWknXT

— 本根 康之 (@honnesan) December 6, 2019

This was taken at Monolith Soft's end-of-the-year social gathering party. As seen in the top left photo, Tatsu is sporting a gray-colored outfit instead of his usual green outfit. They already have a Tatsu plushie in his regular colored form, so it is rather interesting that they decided to change his outfit for this one event. What is the significance to this version of Tatsu? Does it have anything to do with Japan's traditional clothing customs?

 

[PSIGuy]

I think it's just a weird filter, honestly. The melons on the cake are also gray and there's not a spot of green in either the Tatsu nor cake photo.

 

[Pinguino21v]

I think it's just a weird filter, honestly. The melons on the cake are also gray and there's not a spot of green in either the Tatsu nor cake photo.

You are probably right, the strawberry tails are gray too.

 

[PSIGuy]

Weird thought, but if they do reveal a Monolith Soft character at The Game Awards, they’ll probably bring up Monolith’s games with TGA history. ...which is basically just X being nominated in 2016. And if said character isn’t also from X it’ll be a weird contrast when X is given so little credit or attention from Nintendo.

 

[Calamitas]

I think I made a post like this already a few days ago, but honestly. . . things are certainly looking interesting right now. Vergeben's (actual) kill list has grown even more impressive, including Phoenix Wright, Amaterasu and Sora now. There really aren't many characters left - and we know that he asks about first-party characters, Spirit and AT promotions now, thanks to his disproven mega kill list.
I really don't wanna get my hopes up too much, but things honestly aren't looking too bad right now.

 

[Pinguino21v]

For those who are not following...

This "leak" got mocked. But since, one of its statement went right (about KH3 DLC) and two others are heavily rumored (about HZD and SMT), the character it's saying is FP5 is more speculated.
https://twitter.com/connord60546505/status/1197563532633681921

And then Vergeben went back on this character, who was previously deconfirmed by him in his big list of deconfirmed characters. He "doesn't know" now.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/234547-super-smash-bros-ultimate/78235954/931304870

 

[Wisehunter]

Can you come back to the idea of Elma working as a KOS-MOS echo real quick? XD

 

[Sigman]

I think I made a post like this already a few days ago, but honestly. . . things are certainly looking interesting right now. Vergeben's (actual) kill list has grown even more impressive, including Phoenix Wright, Amaterasu and Sora now. There really aren't many characters left - and we know that he asks about first-party characters, Spirit and AT promotions now, thanks to his disproven mega kill list.
I really don't wanna get my hopes up too much, but things honestly aren't looking too bad right now.

Vergeben's statements isn't the end all be all. Vergeben has not leaked characters such as Richter Belmont, King K. Rool, Piranha Plant, and Joker.
Vergeben doesn't know everything. He has yet to make any regard of Sakurai's toy mech, Sawano's mysterious project, and Caitlin Glass's NDA.

Spoiler: Elma has a case for her that is still withstanding

https://i.imgur.com/XQFey6Q.jpg

 

[Bebe Mignon]

What reason would someone have for them to filter out a certain color from their photos?

Yasuyuki Honne doesn't strike me as the type to apply filter to his photos. I don't think he would go through so much effort to filter out the green in his photos. I think it's more likely that the melons were dyed gray to match Tatsu's new outfit.

 

[Calamitas]

If nothing else, it's at least interesting that they had a Tatsu plush there, and included it in the picture. There could be a conspiracy theory made out of how the fact that the plush is in the same picture as the Nintendo Switch Lite box means that we'll finally get our port, but let's not go there for onw.

Vergeben's statements isn't the end all be all. Vergeben has not leaked characters such as Richter Belmont, King K. Rool, Piranha Plant, and Joker.
Vergeben doesn't know everything. He has yet to make any regard of Sakurai's toy mech, Sawano's mysterious project, and Caitlin Glass's NDA.

Spoiler: Elma has a case for her that is still withstanding

https://i.imgur.com/XQFey6Q.jpg

Again, no need to remind me, seeing as I made those images.

 

[Pinguino21v]

Vergeben's statements isn't the end all be all.

That's right, but there's also several reasons to think KOS-MOS is likely nonetheless.
Sakurai joked in Terry showcase something about Bamco forgetting Pacman is their character. Why Bamco would have forgot about Pacman when reached by Sakurai if not because they were talking about another of their character?

What reason would someone have for them to filter out a certain color from their photos?

That's way more believable than believing they dyed melons, strawberrys tails and Tastu's outfit.

 

[Sigman]

That's right, but there's also several reasons to think KOS-MOS is likely nonetheless.
Sakurai joked in Terry showcase something about Bamco forgetting Pacman is their character. Why Bamco would have forgot about Pacman when reached by Sakurai if not because they were talking about another of their character?


That's way more believable than believing they dyed melons, strawberrys tails and Tastu's outfit.

I don’t believe Sakurai blatantly hinted at anything like that, as even the red eyes tweet was correct in context. It seems like he was just telling a fun story in the Terry Bogard’s presentation seeing as how informal it was.

If KOS-MOS is considered a “Bandai Namco rep” and not a “Monolith Soft/Xeno” rep then Pac-Man was stated to be the Namco rep in general. Pac-Man wasn’t included because “Namco helped with development” or anything. Capcom has the inclusion of two characters then another one added along with Konami returning with three characters. Namco doesn’t seem interested in their characters appearing in Super Smash Bros and just being humble. Terry Bogard seems to represent SNK in general since he has other non-Fatal Fury representation through the Fatal Fury soundtrack listing in Super Smash Bros Ultimate. Other people has described Pac-Man well:

Maybe it’s just me then, but I think Pac-Man is really meant to be THE Namco rep, as in an encapsulation of Namco as a whole. Namco is really the only third party company out of all we have so far who has a defining/unchanging mascot after all these years, and I think the ideology behind Pac-Man was to use him as a vessel for the entirety of Namco. Think about it, why is Pac-Man the only third party to have a taunt that references nearly EIGHTEEN distinct Namco/Namco-Bandai franchises with some added from the jump to Ultimate? I feel that this is the reason why Pac-Man has such an odd moveset to begin with, he’s not Pac-Man World/Pac-Mania/even Pac-Land Pac-Man, he’s Namco Crossover Mascot Pac-Man.

Yes, it's a creative design decision with Pac-Man as stated by Sakurai. I believe it was a new addition for Super Smash Bros Ultimate since Heihachi didn't appear as part of Pac-Man's taunt for Super Smash Bros For Wii U/3DS. Similar to the creative design decision of the Fatal Fury series track listing contains songs from all across SNK's history (Fatal Fury: King of Fighters, The King of Fighters, Alpha Mission, Ikari Warriors, Athena, Psycho Soldier, Art of Fighting, Samurai Shodown, Metal Slug)

https://www.sourcegaming.info/2015/06/26/800/

Sakurai: The employees from Namco were surprised and overjoyed when they were notified of Pac-man’s inclusion. “I can’t believe you made Pac-man look this good!” they said.

Interviewer: Wait, so you didn’t include him just because of the Namco connection?

Sakurai: Pac-man’s design was updated in a 2013 CGI cartoon titled, “Pac-man and the Ghostly Adventures.” This new design has been used in a variety of products. But in the end I felt that his old-school design was better, and used that in the design plan. If that was rejected, I thought about dropping Pac-man altogether.

Interviewer: I really like how even his movement is full of references.

Sakurai: You might call him a hybrid, but he’s not just Pac-man– I think he ended up also representing all of the great parts of Namco as well.

Interviewer: Between Bandai and Namco, were there any other strong candidates for inclusion as a fighter?

Sakurai: There were none. We basically thought of all the characters at the start of development. We decided on characters we knew we could make. However, there were a few in consideration, such as Heihachi from “Tekken.”

Interviewer: Heihachi!

Sakurai: That’s right. However, implementing Heihachi’s movement in Smash would be difficult…

They did announce additional fighters are in development so it is possible for more Bandai Namco characters to be included later on.

The battle isn’t over yet, even more #SmashBrosUltimate fighters are on the way! Beyond the 5 fighters included in the Fighters Pass, we can confirm that the development of additional fighters will continue! pic.twitter.com/AiEtDzyTll

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) September 4, 2019

 

[Abade]

本日は弊社懇親会。20周年も兼ねて楽しい催し盛り沢山😊 pic.twitter.com/mMZDPWknXT

— 本根 康之 (@honnesan) December 6, 2019

This was taken at Monolith Soft's end-of-the-year social gathering party. As seen in the top left photo, Tatsu is sporting a gray-colored outfit instead of his usual green outfit. They already have a Tatsu plushie in his regular colored form, so it is rather interesting that they decided to change his outfit for this one event. What is the significance to this version of Tatsu? Does it have anything to do with Japan's traditional clothing customs?

Tatsu being portrayed with a gray outfit which may or may not be dyed or a camera filter? Sitting with a Nintendo Switch Lite nearby? At Monolith Soft’s anniversary party? Well boys, looks like the upcoming Xenoblade X Switch port will have a Black and White mode.

 

[Calamitas]

Tatsu being portrayed with a gray outfit which may or may not be dyed or a camera filter? Sitting with a Nintendo Switch Lite nearby? At Monolith Soft’s anniversary party? Well boys, looks like the upcoming Xenoblade X Switch port will have a Black and White mode.

Does that mean that it'll also include totally legitimate tracks from the Pokémon Black and White soundtrack?

 

[PSIGuy]

The things the character apparently isn't

• [Long story short, Monolith Soft aren't listed]

But Capcom, Sega, Konami, Arc System Works, Marvelous, Spike Chunsoft, ZUN / Team Shanghai Alice's Touhou Project, Bethesda, Koei Tecmo, Activision, Blizzard, Epic Games, Microsoft, Nintendo, Spirit & Assist Trophy promotion characters are not overall deconfirmed.

Source

Just to reiterate... it's not necessarily Elma, but it's unconfirmed that it's NOT Elma either.

I hope we get closure on all the unresolved factoids. Preferably in one neat package. So either Elma in Smash (voiced by Caitlin Glass, using a mech gun in her final smash with Sawano music), or Sakurai's new game, Mech Rifle Uprising, about a talking mech rifle voiced by Caitlin Glass with music from Sawano.

 

[jahkzheng]

I'm down for a KOS-MOS reveal..

I get the feeling they'd go for the classic awakening scene.. which is of course referenced in XCX's late game reveal and redone for her awakening as a blade in XC2. That would be pretty freakin hype.

She's maybe my third most wanted xeno rep tho.. but maybe the most deserving all things considered, assuming being a mascot of a franchise counts for anything in this case.

 

[Rie Sonomura]

Oh snap that reminds me

what if, the off chance the character insiders think is KOS-MOS based on appearance alone

Spoiler

... is actually Elma with her true form as the default appearance???

nah just kidding that’ll never happen...

...unless...?

 

[ColtonS25]

Man, I miss the whole Xenoblade X gang. After awhile, I get tired of hearing about how wonderful Xenoblade 2 was. Did anyone else just kinda feel "meh" about the game? Morag, Nia, and Zeke were all pretty neat characters, but the main plot and Rex/Pyra/Mythra weren't all that special in my opinion. I mean, it just felt like it didn't go anywhere that made it stand out from a typical RPG. Maybe I should play through the game again, but once the honeymoon phase wore off, it didn't really seem too outstanding. Xenoblade X, on the other hand, had a fun sci-fi vibe that felt unique in the Xenoblade series. 2 just feels like your standard fantasy JRPG. I preferred Torna personally. My ranking is probably 1>X>Torna>2.

 

[PSIGuy]

I could see a Xeno/Monolith character deliberately blurring the lines between series (ie a codename referencing Gears for a character from XB2) to throw people off. The average person already has a hard enough time differentiating Gears, Saga and the Blades which would work to their advantage. So there's a chance they

Spoiler: in response to Rie's hypothetical

deliberately invoke Kosmos or True Form Elma while making the character someone else, or throwing out rumors that it's Fei or Rex, and using that to catch out leakers. If their codename is Conduit/Zohar/Gears, but their appearance is a tall humanoid with long hair... who do you claim it is?

I also prefer X to 2, in terms of aesthetic and gameplay. Going from 1 to X was a huge change and made me appreciate both games more, while 2 lent too heavily on 1 for my tastes. It felt like it was pandering to the crowd of fans XB1 already had, and combined with it basically being an adaptation of Gears with a lot of the interesting elements filed down made me lose interest really early on. I liked Rex in Chapter 1 but by Chapter 2 they already showed us what his entire arc would be and I couldn't give a damn about him or Pythra.

 

[Pinguino21v]

I get tired of hearing about how wonderful Xenoblade 2 was. Did anyone else just kinda feel "meh" about the game? Morag, Nia, and Zeke were all pretty neat characters, but the main plot and Rex/Pyra/Mythra weren't all that special in my opinion. I mean, it just felt like it didn't go anywhere that made it stand out from a typical RPG.

I wouldn't say "meh": the game was gorgeous, the music was great and there were a lot of interesting characters and moments. But it wasn't as captivating than XC and XCX were for me, that's for sure. I didn't even do Torna despite buying it.

 

[Senatiator]

Oh snap that reminds me

what if, the off chance the character insiders think is KOS-MOS based on appearance alone

Spoiler

... is actually Elma with her true form as the default appearance???

nah just kidding that’ll never happen...

...unless...?

It doesn’t necessarily have to be the default as Vergeben shares some incomplete information. Vergeben supposedly only heard about one or two alts of “Erdrick” and stated that Isabelle was in but couldn’t specify Isabelle was an Echo Fighter where it was generally assumed Isabelle would be.

 

[SorrowOfAcheron]

Day 36,529.
No news of an X port in sight.
Still holding off on reading about it. Haven't heard a single X song.
Leaks and non-leaks everywhere.
Might get something at TGA.

How's it going?