Have we been seeing too many unlockables pre-release?

[Halfhead]

With tonight's reveal of Lucario, we now have quite a few confirmed veterans that were once unlockables. This includes Luigi, Toon Link, Sonic, now Lucario, plus Mega Man who we can possibly assume will be unlockable due to his being a third-party character.

That's kind of a lot.

What are your thoughts on this? Are we being spoiled? Does this speak to how many characters will be in the final product? Are some of these traditionally unlockable characters making the jump to starter characters this game? Will Sakurai even keep the tradition of unlocking characters?

Personally, I think Luigi has the potential to make the jump from unlockable to starter, especially after just having an entire year in his honor. Also, the rules on third-parties may have changed. Even then, I can't see a clone like Toon Link and a somewhat peripheral Pokémon like Lucario be starters. I hope we don't see too many of them before he game comes out.

 

[BADGRAPHICS]

I have a feeling Lucario won't be unlockable this time around. Mewtwo and Jigglypuff are the secret Pokemon, obviously!

As for Toon Link, I'd be surprised if he was unlocked from the start, but I'm sure there's still lots of surprises to come. We've only seen about half the roster so far, after all.

 

[Maricalistaro]

Who's to say any of it is unlock-able?

 

[Eternal phoenix Fire]

Because a character is shown early doesn't mean he won't be unlockable. Sakurai does this all of the time.

Hell, just look at Brawl's intro, and the case for that matter.

 

[Halfhead]

Because a character is shown early doesn't mean he won't be unlockable. Sakurai does this all of the time.

Hell, just look at Brawl's intro, and the case for that matter.

With Brawl, he only unvieled third-parties dispite their unlockableness.

Every unlockable besides Snake and Sonic was still secret.

@2 posts earlier: yeah, it's possible that no characters will be unlockable, but that just doesn't seem like a thing Sakurai would do.

 

[Mysteltainn]

It's a bit early to say I think. He certainly has more tricks up his sleeve, I know it. Plus, for all we know, Luigi, Marth and company could still very well be unlockables again. I'm not complaining either way (I will most likely spoil the roster for myself regardless), but I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

[Katy Parry]

With Brawl, he only unvieled third-parties dispite their unlockableness.

Every unlockable besides Snake and Sonic was still secret.

@2 posts earlier: yeah, it's possible that no characters will be unlockable, but that just doesn't seem like a thing Sakurai would do.

We will have unlockable characters. I'm feeling we're only gonna get 8 more characters revealed before release, since its OBVIOUSLY after May, thanks to Mario Kart. That would give us 30 characters revealed, with maybe 15 unlockable. but yeah, its odd. Normally you start with like 14 characters and go from there. Brawl had a TON of unlockables. I don't see Samurai as the type to set the bar with Brawl and then with 5 times the capacity of storage, not surpassing the previous installment.

Maybe he wants general public players to be able and play someone they know right off the bat, compared the lack of selection when starting out. Hell, 50 characters is reasonable considering he's revealed 22 of them. Maybe he's changing it up? Different characters we wouldn't expect will be unlockable now?

 

[Priap0s]

Samurai

Hihi

 

[Simensis]

I think it'll be the same as with Brawl's Dojo. All the characters shown until the game release will be starters except for the 3rd parties. And I would'nt be so sure about that last thing either...

 

[lordvaati]

...you do know they did the same thing when revealing Brawl characters, right?

 

[Eternal phoenix Fire]

With Brawl, he only unvieled third-parties dispite their unlockableness.

Every unlockable besides Snake and Sonic was still secret.

@2 posts earlier: yeah, it's possible that no characters will be unlockable, but that just doesn't seem like a thing Sakurai would do.

That's wrong, bro.

He revealed Marth, Ness, Sonic, Snake, and Diddy Kong. Like I said, go watch the intro to Brawl. Prior to that he revealed ever character on the website so it didn't really matter, I mean is it really gonna stop you from enjoying it?

Nothing about Brawl was a secret.

 

[pitthekit]

I want moar characters to be revealed like the whole roster I can be spoiled

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

Have you seen Mario Kart 8's confirmed roster? I really doubt that all of the confirmed characters in that game would be available right off the bat.

Sakurai is probably letting the cat out of the bag for advertising purposes only, so even though we get to see who will be in the game, we may still have to unlock a portion of the characters to play as them.

 

[The Nerd]

I'm starting to suspect the characters that are unlockable this time around might take a different route. The "all-star" everyone knows them everyone loves them characters will probably be available right off the bat. Right now nearly every character announced is a well known and loved face from relatively recent franchises, and I suspect that will stay that way. The most important thing I think is that the vast majority of the characters announced are contemporary; this is to say that there is no Ice Climbers or Ness on this list, characters that haven't had a game in more than a decade. The exception is Marth, but he's the most famous and important character in Fire Emblem which had a game quite recently as well. I would like to put forth the notion that the vast majority of the unlockable characters will be retro surprises, characters that you have to think about before you know where they come from. ICs, Ness, Mr. G&W, R.O.B., our hypothetical newcomer retros (Takamaru, Lip, Mach Rider etc) you get the idea.

The reasoning for this is two fold- first of all you avoid the case of 'Oh man, wonder how I unlock Luigi in this game because I know for a fact he's in here somewhere.' There's no hype or sense of discovery for that. It's hard to remember that he was an unlockable when you're 3 hours in and are looking at your roster to figure out what progress you've made. Some older unlockables like Cpt. Falcon and Jigglypuff fall under this; I was quite annoyed when I had to spend so many hours playing matches to unlock Captain Falcon in Brawl. Jigglypuff was an odd case; I felt cheated when I didn't unlock her by beating classic mode but otherwise I would not mind for her to reprieve her role as first to unlock.

The other criterion for being a worthwhile unlockable character is having some sort of unique and challenging mechanic; I don't think anyone really likes unlocking a character who plays EXACTLY like another and conversely the most exciting characters to unlock are the ones that play significantly differently. Under this premise I think Rosalina and Megaman are going to be unlockable, Rosalina because she's far too complex for a beginner to start with and Megaman because he acts so differently AND is 3rd party. I'm not sure if 3rd party characters will require unlocking again but it would not surprise me.

Ultimately all I'm saying here is I think Lucario will be a starter this time around, and that we aren't going to know what secret old characters are added this time because they generate the least amount of hype for secret characters.

 

[HammerHappy]

Didn't they reveal everything on the Dojo?

In my opinion they're being FAR more secretive than they were for Brawl. They're not even giving us character paragraphs or ability overviews. Also, Brawl had stage and item previews as well.

 

[The Nerd]

They only began to reveal unlockable content once the game had been released.

 

[Ravio_Yo]

That's wrong, bro.

He revealed Marth, Ness, Sonic, Snake, and Diddy Kong. Like I said, go watch the intro to Brawl. Prior to that he revealed ever character on the website so it didn't really matter, I mean is it really gonna stop you from enjoying it?

Nothing about Brawl was a secret.

Diddy Kong wasn't unlockable.

 

[Halfhead]

Diddy Kong wasn't unlockable.

Yeah, he's right.

You have a point with Marth, but an argument could be made that Ness was already a starter once, so there is no need to hide him. Same with Falcon. Also, for Snake and Sonic, you can't not advertise the third party character. That wouldn't make sense.

 

[D-idara]

I think this DOJO sucks compared to the Brawl one...I mean, where's the organized pages? Where's the stage pages? WHERE'S THE GODDAMN MUSIC?

 

[Katy Parry]

I think This DOJO sucks compared to the Brawl one...I mean, where's the organized pages? Where's the stage pages? WHERE'S THE GODDAMN MUSIC?

I just think its too far in development for all of that. Imo I think this one is better because we're spoiled, but not on the same level. It will be much refreshing to play not knowing every detail about the game before buying it.

At the same time, we get 11 screenshots of a character upon release. On the dojo we got 4.

 

[Weedy Spyze]

He hasn't been revealing as many newcomers pre-release like he did with Brawl, so maybe (hopefully) the bulk of the unlockables will be newcomers. I always thought it was nonsense how most of the newcomers in Brawl showed up at the start and most of the characters you had to unlock/work for were characters you had already done that for in previous games. It's like unwrapping a Christmas present and getting the same thing you got last year. It may be nice to have it, but it's not as exciting as something brand new.

As for characters such as Lucario/Toon Link/Marth/Luigi, maybe they'll be promoted to starters this time around. Maybe the same for Captain Falcon too, he especially has no business being an unlockable character.

 

[Superyoshiom]

Some of us guessed that characters like Luigi and Marth are returning again, but maybe they'd be starters this time.

 

[MAtgSy]

Sakurai's advertising them so you'll buy their NFC figures to unlock them.

 

[Bassoonist]

I actually like them revealing presumably unlockable characters... It helps end the endless debates over things like Toon Link and Lucario, as well as automatically disconfirming many false 'leaks' so people don't linger on them forever.