Geno (♥♪!?): Return of the Starsend Savior

[Paul Cesar]

Man. 8 months and multiple Famitsu columns later... if spirits really did deconfirm DLC fighters you'd think Sakurai would've said so by now.

 

[MissingGlitch]

Man. 8 months and multiple Famitsu columns later... if spirits really did deconfirm DLC fighters you'd think Sakurai would've said so by now.

He's made it perfectly clear before on reasons why some characters won't become fighters. But for some reason he's been completely quiet about spirits? There's something really strange about that one.

 

[DerpingPikachu]

Sooo..it’s my first time in the Geno thread. I just got to thinking it would be pretty rad for him to get in since we have Ridley, banjo, and king k rool now. I’ve also heard his name thrown around a lot lately, did some new leak come up?

 

[KirbyWorshipper2465]

He's made it perfectly clear before on reasons why some characters won't become fighters. But for some reason he's been completely quiet about spirits? There's something really strange about that one.

Well, it's not like he would waste his time telling which trophy in 4's entire collection would deconfirm which character.

Oh wait.

Seriously, it's progressively becoming obvious that playing make-believe with spirits somehow meaning "deconfirm" is a really big reach.

 

[Dynamic Worlok]

I had a thought about the starling picture. They're considered a pest in most areas. What if the picture references the fact that the geno fanbase keeps PEST-ering sakurai for geno. Eh?... Eh?...

Spoiler

I'll stop

 

[DutchPichu]

Right now, I am on a holiday in Croatia. The WiFi in the house is actually kind of bad. Somehow, I figured to download Hero to my Switch. Up to this point, I still haven't seen the Hero information video, but I heard that Geno doesn't have a costume. That shows good things... Don't know if EVO will bring fighter #4. What is the exact time of Smash? Can we follow it on a livestream? At first, I expected Sakurai to say in the Hero roundup video something like "don't forget to watch EVO...". Then we would know something is coming. Now, I am not certain. The Starling is still weird tho.

 

[valkiriforce]

Sooo..it’s my first time in the Geno thread. I just got to thinking it would be pretty rad for him to get in since we have Ridley, banjo, and king k rool now. I’ve also heard his name thrown around a lot lately, did some new leak come up?

A lot of people thought his Mii costume would show up with the Dragon Quest content and that it would have been the final nail in the coffin for his chances in Smash, but since there's no costume there's still a chance.

 

[Smashoperatingbuddy123]

Imagen if the other 2 characters is geno and crash

It’s almost as if the grinch leak was in a way real after all since it would only be 4 incorrect

 

[DarkShadow20]

Imagen if the other 2 characters is geno and crash

It’s almost as if the grinch leak was in a way real after all since it would only be 4 incorrect

Those are the last two from my top 10 that are even still possible so that would be great, but even if neither make it I still got 4. Ridley, K Rool, Banjo, and Wolf returning.

 

[DerpingPikachu]

A lot of people thought his Mii costume would show up with the Dragon Quest content and that it would have been the final nail in the coffin for his chances in Smash, but since there's no costume there's still a chance.

Ahh okay. Well maybe there’s some hope left then. I haven’t played smrpg but seeing how Geno would make so many happy, I think he’d be a pretty neat addition.

 

[valkiriforce]

It's a fun game if you like RPGs, and it's one of my all-time favorites. Also, welcome!

 

[Dinoman96]

Man. 8 months and multiple Famitsu columns later... if spirits really did deconfirm DLC fighters you'd think Sakurai would've said so by now.

I mean...Sakurai described spirits as "a way to enjoy characters other than fighters".

 

[xpnc]

I mean...Sakurai described spirits as "a way to enjoy characters other than fighters".

Here's NintendoEverything's translation of Sakurai's comments on spirits:

Spoiler: translation

Now that the release date has passed, I’m sure there’s all sorts of people playing Smash Ultimate – thank you all so much!

This time, I think I’d like to talk a little bit about how “Spirits” mode came to be what it is.

In making this new Smash Bros. I felt like the amount of multiplayer content was sufficient as it was, so I wanted to enhance the single-player mode some.

There was a mountain of issues. Due to the high volume of stages and the fact that all of the previous fighters were in the game, we didn’t have enough resources to devote to modeling things for the single player mode – that’s why there weren’t any new enemies or side-scrolling stages. At that point, we were already on the verge of hitting limits a lot higher than other series. In addition to what I’ve already mentioned, there couldn’t be a story like in Brawl’s “Subspace Emissary” mode due to how many fighters there were. It was impossible for us to make a reveal scene for each character and have dialogue with each other and have it still make sense. There was also the issue of people uploading footage, making the story less rewarding.

All of that was difficult, but if you turn your focus to Smash Ultimate’s assets, you’ll find there’s a lot for you to think about:

• An abundance of fighters
• A lot of collaborations with other titles
• Stage variety
• An incredible helping of music
• Shorter fight lengths

By the by, games are a bit different than books and movies; no matter how many times you play through a game, it’s the same systems and the same playstyles. There aren’t really many exceptions to that rule. How I could make that repetition enjoyable was the driving point behind making the single player mode.

At any rate, we took care to make sure that fighting against a CPU once would have enough to it; they’re short, one-round fights that the player had to be able to repeat. For that reason, there’s a wealth of ways you can go about them.

After going over all the advantages, I decided on theming the fights after the other games the characters appeared in. Smash Bros. is a game that can collaborate with all sorts of other titles – from all times and places, you’ve got a lot of fighters with their own distinct traits, and if they could fight…!

That was where the ideas started to snowball. I chose to have the spirit character influence the fighter’s own characteristics, that was where the whole “spirit” idea came in (when in reality it just means that they’re borrowing their power). Since in the end having one strong spirit would be boring, I separated them into three attributes in a rock-paper-scissors style. Similarly, I tried to make it so that beating up on weaker spirits wasn’t profitable. That being said though, there needed to be some kind of reward for winning – that was where levels came from. The adventure map came from needing a way for players to fight the characters that had been turned into spirits one after another, and that somehow the spirit was linked to the character. And to wrap all that up, I came up with the boss “Galeem.” In order to make it seem more like a journey to free everybody, we added things like the opening movie to give it context.

“Spirits” mode’s biggest feature is by and large the absolute mountain of characters that make an appearance in it. I dare say that this might be the game with the most collaborations, and that title won’t be taken from it any time soon.

The fans have a lot of love for those characters, so even seeing them should make them happy, I’d hope. The “Spirits” team put a lot of work into creating the setting and the like, and in retrospect, I think the mode is pretty well made.

Not limited to Smash Bros., there are lots of ways things can be born out of using a game to overcome any problems that may crop up. Smash Ultimate’s “Spirits” mode is something that came out of extremely limited planning, while taking advantage of the game itself to solve those problems.

Here's my emphasis:

Smash Ultimate’s “Spirits” mode is something that came out of extremely limited planning, while taking advantage of the game itself to solve those problems.

He basically describes it as wanting to make a more interactive trophy mode that would take as little effort as possible. Very little planning went into the spirits process, and the idea that including a .png of a character in a mode that they sort of threw together at the end excluding them from future DLC doesn't really make sense.

The way he's explaining how it was done doesn't strike me as a mode where he would have had to sign off on 1,300 separate potential fighters and say that it was okay to include them as spirits. His team made them as quickly as possible.

 

[MissingGlitch]

Here's NintendoEverything's translation of Sakurai's comments on spirits:

Spoiler: translation

Now that the release date has passed, I’m sure there’s all sorts of people playing Smash Ultimate – thank you all so much!

This time, I think I’d like to talk a little bit about how “Spirits” mode came to be what it is.

In making this new Smash Bros. I felt like the amount of multiplayer content was sufficient as it was, so I wanted to enhance the single-player mode some.

There was a mountain of issues. Due to the high volume of stages and the fact that all of the previous fighters were in the game, we didn’t have enough resources to devote to modeling things for the single player mode – that’s why there weren’t any new enemies or side-scrolling stages. At that point, we were already on the verge of hitting limits a lot higher than other series. In addition to what I’ve already mentioned, there couldn’t be a story like in Brawl’s “Subspace Emissary” mode due to how many fighters there were. It was impossible for us to make a reveal scene for each character and have dialogue with each other and have it still make sense. There was also the issue of people uploading footage, making the story less rewarding.

All of that was difficult, but if you turn your focus to Smash Ultimate’s assets, you’ll find there’s a lot for you to think about:

• An abundance of fighters
• A lot of collaborations with other titles
• Stage variety
• An incredible helping of music
• Shorter fight lengths

By the by, games are a bit different than books and movies; no matter how many times you play through a game, it’s the same systems and the same playstyles. There aren’t really many exceptions to that rule. How I could make that repetition enjoyable was the driving point behind making the single player mode.

At any rate, we took care to make sure that fighting against a CPU once would have enough to it; they’re short, one-round fights that the player had to be able to repeat. For that reason, there’s a wealth of ways you can go about them.

After going over all the advantages, I decided on theming the fights after the other games the characters appeared in. Smash Bros. is a game that can collaborate with all sorts of other titles – from all times and places, you’ve got a lot of fighters with their own distinct traits, and if they could fight…!

That was where the ideas started to snowball. I chose to have the spirit character influence the fighter’s own characteristics, that was where the whole “spirit” idea came in (when in reality it just means that they’re borrowing their power). Since in the end having one strong spirit would be boring, I separated them into three attributes in a rock-paper-scissors style. Similarly, I tried to make it so that beating up on weaker spirits wasn’t profitable. That being said though, there needed to be some kind of reward for winning – that was where levels came from. The adventure map came from needing a way for players to fight the characters that had been turned into spirits one after another, and that somehow the spirit was linked to the character. And to wrap all that up, I came up with the boss “Galeem.” In order to make it seem more like a journey to free everybody, we added things like the opening movie to give it context.

“Spirits” mode’s biggest feature is by and large the absolute mountain of characters that make an appearance in it. I dare say that this might be the game with the most collaborations, and that title won’t be taken from it any time soon.

The fans have a lot of love for those characters, so even seeing them should make them happy, I’d hope. The “Spirits” team put a lot of work into creating the setting and the like, and in retrospect, I think the mode is pretty well made.

Not limited to Smash Bros., there are lots of ways things can be born out of using a game to overcome any problems that may crop up. Smash Ultimate’s “Spirits” mode is something that came out of extremely limited planning, while taking advantage of the game itself to solve those problems.

Here's my emphasis:

Smash Ultimate’s “Spirits” mode is something that came out of extremely limited planning, while taking advantage of the game itself to solve those problems.

He basically describes it as wanting to make a more interactive trophy mode that would take as little effort as possible. Very little planning went into the spirits process, and the idea that including a .png of a character in a mode that they sort of threw together at the end excluding them from future DLC doesn't really make sense.

The way he's explaining how it was done doesn't strike me as a mode where he would have had to sign off on 1,300 separate potential fighters and say that it was okay to include them as spirits. His team made them as quickly as possible.

There were instances where it was obvious they pulled the first result on google images for some of the characters. Because one spirit used a fan made sprite. Not much thought went into the spirits. I guarantee the team responsible for getting the spirits together and programming them in knew nothing about the DLC characters outside of piranha plant.

 

[SSGuy]

There were instances where it was obvious they pulled the first result on google images for some of the characters. Because one spirit used a fan made sprite. It's completely obvious not much thought went into spirit collection.

Which one was that?

 

[MissingGlitch]

Which one was that?

It was this guy.

Oh my god Nintendo actually used someone else's sprites for one of their spirits in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate! Below is the Masked Man, with and without alpha channels applied. Aaaaaand then take a look at this: https://t.co/slRa0gGd1L pic.twitter.com/7dRmtGx1AB

— Random Talking Bush (@RandomTBush) December 12, 2018

 

[xpnc]

Which one was that?

Oh my god Nintendo actually used someone else's sprites for one of their spirits in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate! Below is the Masked Man, with and without alpha channels applied. Aaaaaand then take a look at this: https://t.co/slRa0gGd1L pic.twitter.com/7dRmtGx1AB

— Random Talking Bush (@RandomTBush) December 12, 2018

Pretty funny

 

[JarBear]

The author confirmed that as not a leak but a wishlist

Is this regarding the Adelaide "leak." Can this be verified about it being a wishlist?

 

[KCCHIEFS27]

Decided to organize a list of interesting things that have happened over the past few years regarding our boy. Sure, some could mean nothing. But as a combined list, this looks like more than mere coincidence to me. I’m probably even forgetting/missing some things.

 

[Fatmanonice]

I see a lot of people debating what the starling could be mean and I'm going to explain why I think it could be really, really good for us:

-Sabi's source almost never talks about third party games, not even on his various social media accounts. He seems to be a lot like me, someone who plays so many Nintendo franchises that he's largely satisfied with sticking with first and second party Nintendo games.

-In the private Discord, he only seems to do hints about stuff about things most of the group likes and is open about liking. The 10 of us are pretty open about our favorite games and, obviously, there's a lot of overlap, especially with him. For example, none of us were really hyped about Mario Maker 2 so he just outright told us it was coming along with the Direct later on. Maybe two of us were really excited about Joker so, again, I think that's why he just flat out told us the day of the April presentation he was coming.

In summary, I feel like he's doing a hint (the starling) because he knows we'll be pretty happy with whatever it winds up being. He's honestly that kind of guy and why I doubt it's something like, say, Resident Evil because none of us are really open about liking and shooting the **** about it in the Discord.

 

[Dynamic Worlok]

I see a lot of people debating what the starling could be mean and I'm going to explain why I think it could be really, really good for us:

-Sabi's source almost never talks about third party games, not even on his various social media accounts. He seems to be a lot like me, someone who plays so many Nintendo franchises that he's largely satisfied with sticking with first and second party Nintendo games.

-In the private Discord, he only seems to do hints about stuff about things most of the group likes and is open about liking. The 10 of us are pretty open about our favorite games and, obviously, there's a lot of overlap, especially with him. For example, none of us were really hyped about Mario Maker 2 so he just outright told us it was coming along with the Direct later on. Maybe two of us were really excited about Joker so, again, I think that's why he just flat out told us the day of the April presentation he was coming.

In summary, I feel like he's doing a hint (the starling) because he knows we'll be pretty happy with whatever it winds up being. He's honestly that kind of guy and why I doubt it's something like, say, Resident Evil because none of us are really open about liking and shooting the **** about it in the Discord.

Let us hope your intuition is right

 

[Firox]

Decided to organize a list of interesting things that have happened over the past few years regarding our boy. Sure, some could mean nothing. But as a combined list, this looks like more than mere coincidence to me. I’m probably even forgetting/missing some things.

View attachment 233080

Pretty well sums it up. I hope Sakurai is aware of the implications should he agree to put Geno in. He will not only have solidified a reputation of being a fan-servicing god, but have literally shattered any limitation that the gaming industry could throw. LITERALLY ANYTHING would be possible if even a semi-obscure secondary character from a decades-old third party RPG could get in purely because he and the fans willed it so.

 

[KirbyWorshipper2465]

If it's a first-party-related hint, then it could even be a Donkey Kong Country sequel announcement, since that has birds. Whatever it ends up being, I trust that it'll be something cool enough.

 

[Glitch-EGamer]

If it's a first-party-related hint, then it could even be a Donkey Kong Country sequel announcement, since that has birds. Whatever it ends up being, I trust that it'll be something cool enough.

K Rool for new Donkey Kong Country game.

 

[SpiritOfRuin]

Man. 8 months and multiple Famitsu columns later... if spirits really did deconfirm DLC fighters you'd think Sakurai would've said so by now.

I certainly hope that is the case. I don't have a quote but I do remember around when Joker was announced Reggie saying something to the effect of fighters in the fighters pass representing franchises that are new to Smash Bros. Now for Persona, Dragon Quest, and Banjo this has been true that they have had no representation at all even in spirits as far as I know.

I think this is where a lot of people are getting the idea that none of the fighters in the fighters pass will have any sort of representation already in place in the game even as a spirit. I don't think that Reggie necessarily said all that in so many words and I don't even know if he was telling the whole truth but so far this has proven true. I would find it hard to believe that the last 2 or one of the last 2 fighters would break this unspoken rule which is why I personally give more credit to theories of a bonus fighter or more likely additional DLC of some kind following this fighter pass.

But obviously we won't know until we know. And I would be delighted to be wrong. There are still a lot of cool franchises that could have reps that currently have no representation in Smash. Crash, Spyro, and Resident Evil come to mind for me but it's really anyone's guess. Unfortunately, Rayman is also a spirit and is frozen on battlefield so I find it hard to believe he'd make it in as well at least in this fighters pass. I'd love to see a trailer of Rayman breaking out of that ice and joining the fight and they could update the battlefield map with that chunk of ice being shattered lol.

At any rate, I really think there's a strong possibility of more content coming after this fighters pass. Possibly a first party fighter pass and random fighters here and there that break the unspoken spirit rule. I think that's our best shot to see Geno in Ultimate. I also know that what I think is certainly not the same as facts so take all this with a grain or ton of salt.

 

[TheCJBrine]

I certainly hope that is the case. I don't have a quote but I do remember around when Joker was announced Reggie saying something to the effect of fighters in the fighters pass representing franchises that are new to Smash Bros. Now for Persona, Dragon Quest, and Banjo this has been true that they have had no representation at all even in spirits as far as I know.

Reggie said nothing about franchises, that's a misquote. He just said something like "characters that are unexpected, new to Smash."

 

[wynn728]

He's made it perfectly clear before on reasons why some characters won't become fighters. But for some reason he's been completely quiet about spirits? There's something really strange about that one.

Well there's a reason.

Host: I see. But we did get a lot of questions like, “Why wasn’t Krystal a playable character?”

Sakurai: It’s not that I don’t understand how that feels, but if you start saying that, it becomes “Why isn’t Waddle Dee playable?” or Dry Bones, or Baby Peach. There’d be no end to it.
https://www.sourcegaming.info/2015/08/17/sakuraibrawlquestions/

Sure he gave context to Ridley and other characters, but for the most part Sakurai doesn't want to go in on why a character isn't playable or what a certain aspect of the game means for a characters chances. It's not that strange, plus it probably wouldn't be wise to just state that 1200 characters that are spirits are out of the running when you want to build up discussion and surprise reveal for the characters. He's letting us make assumption & prediction without getting involved so he doesn't limit the scope of what people might think. I'm positive that Assists, Costume, & most likely Spirits means deconfirmation, but Sakurai never going to admit if it does or not, that's an answer he leaves for the fans to think about it (even though there's some writing on the walls).

 

[Glitch-EGamer]

I certainly hope that is the case. I don't have a quote but I do remember around when Joker was announced Reggie saying something to the effect of fighters in the fighters pass representing franchises that are new to Smash Bros. Now for Persona, Dragon Quest, and Banjo this has been true that they have had no representation at all even in spirits as far as I know.

I think this is where a lot of people are getting the idea that none of the fighters in the fighters pass will have any sort of representation already in place in the game even as a spirit. I don't think that Reggie necessarily said all that in so many words and I don't even know if he was telling the whole truth but so far this has proven true. I would find it hard to believe that the last 2 or one of the last 2 fighters would break this unspoken rule which is why I personally give more credit to theories of a bonus fighter or more likely additional DLC of some kind following this fighter pass.

But obviously we won't know until we know. And I would be delighted to be wrong. There are still a lot of cool franchises that could have reps that currently have no representation in Smash. Crash, Spyro, and Resident Evil come to mind for me but it's really anyone's guess. Unfortunately, Rayman is also a spirit and is frozen on battlefield so I find it hard to believe he'd make it in as well at least in this fighters pass. I'd love to see a trailer of Rayman breaking out of that ice and joining the fight and they could update the battlefield map with that chunk of ice being shattered lol.

At any rate, I really think there's a strong possibility of more content coming after this fighters pass. Possibly a first party fighter pass and random fighters here and there that break the unspoken spirit rule. I think that's our best shot to see Geno in Ultimate. I also know that what I think is certainly not the same as facts so take all this with a grain or ton of salt.

He stated that they'd bring something new to the series and be unexpected. All three characters were pretty surprising upon reveal and seem to have very unique gameplay styles. He very easily could have meant that.

 

[Rapwned]

I certainly hope that is the case. I don't have a quote but I do remember around when Joker was announced Reggie saying something to the effect of fighters in the fighters pass representing franchises that are new to Smash Bros. Now for Persona, Dragon Quest, and Banjo this has been true that they have had no representation at all even in spirits as far as I know.

I think this is where a lot of people are getting the idea that none of the fighters in the fighters pass will have any sort of representation already in place in the game even as a spirit. I don't think that Reggie necessarily said all that in so many words and I don't even know if he was telling the whole truth but so far this has proven true. I would find it hard to believe that the last 2 or one of the last 2 fighters would break this unspoken rule which is why I personally give more credit to theories of a bonus fighter or more likely additional DLC of some kind following this fighter pass.

But obviously we won't know until we know. And I would be delighted to be wrong. There are still a lot of cool franchises that could have reps that currently have no representation in Smash. Crash, Spyro, and Resident Evil come to mind for me but it's really anyone's guess. Unfortunately, Rayman is also a spirit and is frozen on battlefield so I find it hard to believe he'd make it in as well at least in this fighters pass. I'd love to see a trailer of Rayman breaking out of that ice and joining the fight and they could update the battlefield map with that chunk of ice being shattered lol.

At any rate, I really think there's a strong possibility of more content coming after this fighters pass. Possibly a first party fighter pass and random fighters here and there that break the unspoken spirit rule. I think that's our best shot to see Geno in Ultimate. I also know that what I think is certainly not the same as facts so take all this with a grain or ton of salt.

That quote from Reggie wasn't actually about only new franchises, but rather only new fighters thanks to the everyone is here thing.

 

[KirbyWorshipper2465]

Reggie said nothing about franchises, that's a misquote. He just said something like "characters that are unexpected, new to Smash."

If there's one thing that'll get confirmed after all this is over, is that people aren't able to understand the English language. Hoping Geno gets in partially so that there's utter confusion when an old series gets someone new in the pass.

 

[SpiritOfRuin]

Reggie said nothing about franchises, that's a misquote. He just said something like "characters that are unexpected, new to Smash."

Yeah now that I'm trying to find quote on it it appears you are correct. I think I must have remembered reading an article(s) regarding this and the idea came from there or something. Thank you for clarifying. In fact, based off the quotes I can find it sounds as though Geno would fit in perfectly with the fighter pass.

Still the precedent has been set that no former representation in Smash has existed for any of the fighters confirmed for this fighters pass. So I'm not getting my hopes up too high. They're certainly up though with the absence of a Geno Mii costume.

If there's one thing that'll get confirmed after all this is over, is that people aren't able to understand the English language. Hoping Geno gets in partially so that there's utter confusion when an old series gets someone new in the pass.

Like I said. I don't necessarily think that Reggie said all that. I just think this idea has stemmed from there and grown with support from the fact that none of the confirmed fighters pass characters have had any sort of representation in Smash this far. But I definitely admit that I did not look for any quotes before posting and definitely got some of what he said confused with other things I've read because I have an awful memory so that's my bad and I should really know better as someone who majored in English...maybe it was the creative writing emphasis that allowed my memory to get a little creative and thus erroneous.

 

[MattX20]

I see a lot of people debating what the starling could be mean and I'm going to explain why I think it could be really, really good for us:

-Sabi's source almost never talks about third party games, not even on his various social media accounts. He seems to be a lot like me, someone who plays so many Nintendo franchises that he's largely satisfied with sticking with first and second party Nintendo games.

-In the private Discord, he only seems to do hints about stuff about things most of the group likes and is open about liking. The 10 of us are pretty open about our favorite games and, obviously, there's a lot of overlap, especially with him. For example, none of us were really hyped about Mario Maker 2 so he just outright told us it was coming along with the Direct later on. Maybe two of us were really excited about Joker so, again, I think that's why he just flat out told us the day of the April presentation he was coming.

In summary, I feel like he's doing a hint (the starling) because he knows we'll be pretty happy with whatever it winds up being. He's honestly that kind of guy and why I doubt it's something like, say, Resident Evil because none of us are really open about liking and shooting the **** about it in the Discord.

I really hope you're right on this.

 

[SSGuy]

I see a lot of people debating what the starling could be mean and I'm going to explain why I think it could be really, really good for us:

-Sabi's source almost never talks about third party games, not even on his various social media accounts. He seems to be a lot like me, someone who plays so many Nintendo franchises that he's largely satisfied with sticking with first and second party Nintendo games.

-In the private Discord, he only seems to do hints about stuff about things most of the group likes and is open about liking. The 10 of us are pretty open about our favorite games and, obviously, there's a lot of overlap, especially with him. For example, none of us were really hyped about Mario Maker 2 so he just outright told us it was coming along with the Direct later on. Maybe two of us were really excited about Joker so, again, I think that's why he just flat out told us the day of the April presentation he was coming.

In summary, I feel like he's doing a hint (the starling) because he knows we'll be pretty happy with whatever it winds up being. He's honestly that kind of guy and why I doubt it's something like, say, Resident Evil because none of us are really open about liking and shooting the **** about it in the Discord.

Well based on what you guys discuss, what else do you think it can be about?

 

[Antho]

Didn't comment again after yesterday, but holy, I was expecting the Geno Mii Costume so much and then when it wasn't there I was filled with hope again. That along with the starling hint makes me think something might actually happen at EVO.

 

[Vector Victor]

I see a lot of people debating what the starling could be mean and I'm going to explain why I think it could be really, really good for us:

-Sabi's source almost never talks about third party games, not even on his various social media accounts. He seems to be a lot like me, someone who plays so many Nintendo franchises that he's largely satisfied with sticking with first and second party Nintendo games.

-In the private Discord, he only seems to do hints about stuff about things most of the group likes and is open about liking. The 10 of us are pretty open about our favorite games and, obviously, there's a lot of overlap, especially with him. For example, none of us were really hyped about Mario Maker 2 so he just outright told us it was coming along with the Direct later on. Maybe two of us were really excited about Joker so, again, I think that's why he just flat out told us the day of the April presentation he was coming.

In summary, I feel like he's doing a hint (the starling) because he knows we'll be pretty happy with whatever it winds up being. He's honestly that kind of guy and why I doubt it's something like, say, Resident Evil because none of us are really open about liking and shooting the **** about it in the Discord.

Are people in that group Fire Emblem fans?

 

[Tree Gelbman]

Honestly, the starling is interesting because it could really represent two things. Starling because well Geno obviously, but it also looks strikingly similar to the crows/birds in Resident Evil.

And I honestly do feel like something is up with that series attention from Nintendo lately. A whole skit was dedicated to old ports in their E3 segment. That's the same kind of red carpet treatment that other series who have gotten into Smash have gotten.

So what if Geno's a bonus and Resident Evil is the Fighter's Pass character?

 

[Dynamic Worlok]

Are people in that group Fire Emblem fans?

If I recall correctly, sabi's source is not

 

[EricTheGamerman]

Reggie said nothing about franchises, that's a misquote. He just said something like "characters that are unexpected, new to Smash."

I see people bring this up and I'm still not really sure if that's how that commentary reads:

"Everyone's in this game. So, we've said that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, it is the biggest crossover in video game history, dare I say the biggest crossover in entertainment..."

"So this gives you a flavor of how we're approaching the DLC... These are going to be characters that are new to the series, just like Joker from Persona 5, characters that you would not anticipate to be in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate."

I didn't include the rest of the discussion with Geoff Keighley, but here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0Vsatt8-o4

And that's the thing, in the context of what Reggie said, it actually kind of seems more implying brand new franchises than some hopeful fans interpreted it to be. He opens with a discussion of Smash being the biggest crossover event in entertainment, which is admittedly just a really great advertising point, but the choice to lead with such a statement really emphasizes how important that is to both Smash and Nintendo as a whole. This opener then contextualizes the rest of the conversation somewhat in the direction of the crossover expanding with Joker on deck. Then to refer to Joker as a "flavor of how we're approaching the DLC" further pushes the conversation towards expansion of the crossover element. Which Reggie immediately follows up with "These are going to be characters that are new to the series, just like Joker from Persona 5, characters that you would not anticipate to be in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate." That final bolded line, with the context of the other lines I've quoted from this "on-stage discussion" really pushes the idea of these characters not just being new to the series in terms of literal newcomers, but all around new characters that would otherwise not be a topic of conversation for Smash. The "not anticipate" part always struck me as odd, but I think it really makes the most sense within the context of only new franchises as you wouldn't expect franchises that have not appeared in the crossover to appear in the crossover. Especially when Joker is the frame of reference in this context since he was entirely new himself, not to mention Reggie opening with the discussion of this crossover.

I think it's a completely valid interpretation that it meant brand new franchises based on the way this conversation with Geoff Keighley at The Game Awards and it has honestly always seemed a much more heavily leaning towards this interpretation as opposed to what so many fans want this to be since it essentially disqualifies their character based upon what I said above. We're also three characters into the Fighter's Pass and that has held completely true as well, they've all come from brand new franchises with only two other fighters left.

 

[Glitch-EGamer]

I see people bring this up and I'm still not really sure if that's how that commentary reads:

"Everyone's in this game. So, we've said that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, it is the biggest crossover in video game history, dare I say the biggest crossover in entertainment..."

"So this gives you a flavor of how we're approaching the DLC... These are going to be characters that are new to the series, just like Joker from Persona 5, characters that you would not anticipate to be in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate."

I didn't include the rest of the discussion with Geoff Keighley, but here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0Vsatt8-o4

And that's the thing, in the context of what Reggie said, it actually kind of seems more implying brand new franchises than some hopeful fans interpreted it to be. He opens with a discussion of Smash being the biggest crossover event in entertainment, which is admittedly just a really great advertising point, but the choice to lead with such a statement really emphasizes how important that is to both Smash and Nintendo as a whole. This opener then contextualizes the rest of the conversation somewhat in the direction of the crossover expanding with Joker on deck. Then to refer to Joker as a "flavor of how we're approaching the DLC" further pushes the conversation towards expansion of the crossover element. Which Reggie immediately follows up with "These are going to be characters that are new to the series, just like Joker from Persona 5, characters that you would not anticipate to be in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate." That final bolded line, with the context of the other lines I've quoted from this "on-stage discussion" really pushes the idea of these characters not just being new to the series in terms of literal newcomers, but all around new characters that would otherwise not be a topic of conversation for Smash. The "not anticipate" part always struck me as odd, but I think it really makes the most sense within the context of only new franchises as you wouldn't expect franchises that have not appeared in the crossover to appear in the crossover. Especially when Joker is the frame of reference in this context since he was entirely new himself, not to mention Reggie opening with the discussion of this crossover.

I think it's a completely valid interpretation that it meant brand new franchises based on the way this conversation with Geoff Keighley at The Game Awards and it has honestly always seemed a much more heavily leaning towards this interpretation as opposed to what so many fans want this to be since it essentially disqualifies their character based upon what I said above. We're also three characters into the Fighter's Pass and that has held completely true as well, they've all come from brand new franchises with only two other fighters left.

Where does that put Super Mario RPG? It's in such a weird legal gray area in terms of franchises.

 

[Fatmanonice]

Well based on what you guys discuss, what else do you think it can be about?

First and second party wise, there's a few that tie us all together. Smash, obviously, along with Animal Crossing, Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Kirby, and Pokemon seem to be the ones everyone is on board with at least to some degree and regularly talks about. Third party wise, there's not a lot and I don't think he's ever openly expressed what he likes in that regard (aside from hating Bayo, Shantae, and, seemingly Kingdom Hearts although I could be misinterpreting that last one).