Hey all. I've been stalking these forums for a while, but I've only now decided to make an account to show my support for Geno in Smash, and to share a bit of speculation on my part, some bad, but some good.
After yesterday's Smash Direct, I felt incredibly uneasy about Geno's chances in Ultimate after seeing the number of tracks for Final Fantasy: a measly
two. It left a sinking feeling in my gut, because if even Konami could be generous enough to let 3 fighters (and 1 assist trophy) in so far, along with 34 music tracks from Castlevania, the apparent stinginess of Squeenix with just Final Fantasy made my heart sink a bit.
However, I also recently learned of a silver lining after reading around a bit more today: the mecha figure that Sakurai bought in 2016.
In an interview with Denfaminicogamer in December of 2016, Sakurai stated that he had recently bought a figure to use as reference for a new project he was working on, and this figure in question is actually of a very old school mech known as Vifam (not a Gundam, as some people incorrectly stated). However, what really set off the alarm in my head was when it stated he was only using the
rifle as a reference. As soon as I found out about this, my inner mecha fanboy was fired up, and the gears started to turn, and it clicked.
This
has to be for Geno, and here's my theory why. Vifam is a very old school mecha show, from 1983. It's rifle is a beam rifle, which is a standard thing in mecha, but Vifam's rifle is much simpler and rounder than one from a show like Gundam or Layzner from the same era. It's my theory that Sakurai is using Vifam's rifle as a reference for his team to base and model the laser for the Geno Beam attack, as the in game sprites themselves aren't very detailed, and there's no official art of the Beam in question; off the top of my head, there's only about 5 pieces of official art related to Geno that exist, and they're all of his weapons. Plus, the design of Vifam's rifle doesn't match up with the more machine gun looking arm cannon the Mii Gunner costume had.
While some people say that he might be referencing the rifle for a character like something from Custom Robo or Elma from Xenoblade X, neither of these make much sense to me. For one, both characters have official art to reference if they were being modeled, and two, both of them use different styles of weapons compared to something like the rounder, old school beam rifle from Vifam: Custom Robo uses blockier, boxier weapons, and Elma uses more angular, sharper dual pistols.
In addition, while the original Denfaminicogamer article didn't mention the project at all. I think there's pretty strong evidence it was related to Smash given the timing of the article.
In a June 2018 interview article with Famitsu, Sakurai stated he put forth the first proposal for the game in December of 2015, and since the Denfaminicogamer interview was in December of 2016, I think it's within the realm of possibility that development of Smash Ultimate was already in full swing, and was probably still polishing out the roster.
Again, while yesterday's direct left me feeling a bit uneasy about Geno's chances due to the low FF Music, I feel a bit more confident in his inclusion as a playable character after I formulated my theory reading all of the above articles, and I'd figure it would be a good idea to share it with you all.
I'm gonna keep believing in him, with all my heart. Geno for Smash!
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