Social Lower Norfair

[Ridley_Prime]

A "reliable" looking rumor from the first week or so into the speculation scene being disproven after just a mere day? Ya don't say.

We can indeed be thankful it got nipped in the bud before it grew to "Tower of Smash" levels or something, where the temptation of getting emotionally invested might've become too much to resist by then (at least for some).

Well back to basics. Stay focused.

 

[So_many_mails]

I'm taking the leak with a pinch of salt really, it doesn't seem concrete at all considering a lot of people predicted Smash Switch for the direct.

A "reliable" looking rumor from the first week or so into the speculation scene being disproven after just a mere day? Ya don't say.

We can indeed be thankful it got nipped in the bud before it grew to "Tower of Smash" levels or something, where the temptation of getting emotionally invested might've become too much to resist by then (at least for some).

Well back to basics. Stay focused.

Tower of Smash? Now that was a good rumor

 

[James Phillips]

I don't believe the Ridley rumor one bit, Emily Rogers of ResetEra claimed she said nothing on the topic of Ridley and Jonneh deleted his too big tweet and made it clear some of the nonsense he says is not a subtle leak

 

[Arcanir]

Jonneh is saying that anything he posts about Smash is pure speculation. Either he's just being cautious, or he was just having a laugh right from the start, pretty sure it's the latter.

Hm, could be either, but just for the sake of future speculation I'd take his word at face value for now and just keep it at the back of our minds. If anything in the future hints otherwise, then we can bring this back up.

Regardless of where it leads though, it was still fun to talk about.

 

[KingBroly]

I don't believe the Ridley rumor one bit, Emily Rogers of ResetEra claimed she said nothing on the topic of Ridley and Jonneh deleted his too big tweet and made it clear some of the nonsense he says is not a subtle leak

She wasn't the only one over there to get info on it.

 

[Johnknight1]

A "reliable" looking rumor from the first week or so into the speculation scene being disproven after just a mere day? Ya don't say.

We can indeed be thankful it got nipped in the bud before it grew to "Tower of Smash" levels or something, where the temptation of getting emotionally invested might've become too much to resist by then (at least for some).

Well back to basics. Stay focused.

Pretty much this:

Patience and positivity and just in general taking things less seriously is how you get thru all this. Getting hung up or anything or letting negative emotion is how people turn uhhh... psycho in speculation.

 

[Jimbob321]

That logo in the trailer looks big enough to fit Ridley in....

 

[Shyy_Guy595]

I'd love to see Ridley in smash. Easily the most recognizable villain in the series. Though I feel Dark Samus may be more likely.

 

[Bowserlick]

Ridley Moveset
​

Slightly modified Ridley moveset from pre-Sm4sh

Built in Disadvantage: One jump without using Flight Mode

Up B Flight Mode: Launches Ridley into the air a good vertical distance with super armor. He then gains three jumps. Cannot be used again until he hits the ground.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Spoiler: Moveset

A: Slash with a claw
A,A: Slash with a claw, then the other claw
A,A,A: Slash with a claw, then the other claw, then raises both claws above his head and smashes both into the floor. Rakes them backwards.

Toward A: Lashes out with his pointed tail. Good range, but one must be precise to make the best use of it.

Down A: While crouched, Ridley swipes one extended arm forward with outstretched claws. If sweet-spotted, the attack becomes a grab where upon Ridley will clutch the leg (or hover body in the case of R.O.B) and flip them high into the air.

Up A: Ridley curves his neck backwards while emitting fire in a smoldering arch similar to Samus's Up Smash.

Down Smash: Ridley rotates his body while emitting a stream of plasma fire at the ground. It leaves a circle of fire for a couple seconds that could damage others, but not Ridley (due to his scales we will say).

Up Smash: Fires a plasma sphere into the sky (the size and ascension of the attack depends on the charged power)

Forward Smash: Ridley opens his jaws. The orange buildup of fire in his throat can be seen. He lunges forward with a bite which causes an explosion upon impact.

Dash A: Ridley flaps his wings for a burst of speed and swings both his claws out before delivering a bite.

Aerials

Neutral Aerial: Snaps his jaws in front of him, then behind, then in front again in rapid succession. Made possible by this long neck.

Forward Aerial: Curves his neck back in an S shape, then lunges forward with a bite.

Back Aerial: A whip like attack with his tail. Good range with sweet-spot on tip.

Up Aerial: Slashes both claws upwards. When the claws from either hand clash at the apex, a fountain of sparks shoots upwards.

Down Aerial: Maneuvers his tail like a whip behind him before lashing it straight down, the spine stiffening. Great in the air, but the tail can be lodged in the floor if it connects with the ground.

Specials

B Plasma Shot: Fires a spread burst of three fire balls. No knockback or stun. However, they do slight splash damage when they collide with part of the stage resulting in a little stun and knockback. Angled down if Ridley is in the air and angled in straight cone pattern if on the ground.

B Plasma Beam (charged): Ridley can charge the shot into a beam. However, it cannot be stored. The beam shoots straight if on the ground and diagonal in the air. Does very good damage, but only has knockback and stun around Ridley's mouth (which would knock the victim into the rest of the attack).

Down B WingSpan: Ridley opens his wings. These are the effects.
•If on the ground, anyone that rolls past Ridley with his wings spread, hits the wing, has their momentum canceled and suffers stun.
•In the air, Ridley can use this move to cancel his momentum. Also, sends air dodgers into a brief helpless state.
•In a dive, Ridley can use this move to cancel his glide and create a shockwave that travels and does knockback depending on the duration of the glide.

Up B Fly Mode: Launches Ridley into the air a good vertical distance with super armor. He then gains three jumps. Cannot be used again until he hits the ground.

Toward B Dive Bomb (On the Ground): Ridley leaps high into the air and then dive bombs in a diagonal fashion either left or right until he smashes into the floor. Good knockback, but has downtime as Ridley as to recuperate from launching himself into the ground.

Toward B Dive Bomb (In the Air): Ridley automatically enters a dive bomb either left or right until he hits the floor.

Throws

Pummel: Ridley bites his victim.

Toward and Back Throw: Ridley jumps up, impales his victim with his tail, and drags them in the direction pressed. This direction can be changed midway in the animation. The opponent pops up and away afterwards. Good damage-racker.

Up Throw: Ridley flies up and off the screen with opponent. He then blocks the camera briefly as he flies toward the stage (in the direction the players are looking at the TV) and slams the victim into the spot he was grabbed.

Down Throw: Leaps on top of the opponent causing them to smash to the ground. Then springs himself upwards into the air. Does not use a jump.

 

[Ridley_Prime]

Nice... Like the down special move idea. That's kinda new.

Aside from memoryman messing around with fans, I guess the source about Ridley is more of a tossup at this point, so will just keep it in the back of my head which is how such things ought to be treated. Doesn't change much as far as expectations, but it's there.

 

[Cosmic77]

Nice... Like the down special move idea. That's kinda new.

Aside from memoryman messing around with fans, I guess the source about Ridley is more of a tossup at this point, so will just keep it in the back of my head which is how such things ought to be treated. Doesn't change much as far as expectations, but it's there.

The responses from Emily, Jonneh, and Ryce were worded so strangely that I still don't know whether to interpret this as a cover-up or a typical clickbaity "Ridley is in Smash" joke.

Regardless, I'm still banking on MP4 increasing the chances of a Metroid newcomer. On top of that, whatever version of Samus used in this Smash may also give us some hints on Ridley's chances. Anything inspired from Samus Returns or MP4 is a huge plus.

 

[One winged Devil]

What's the point of this place being open if every rumor is just going lead to heart break.

The man said himself that he's not getting in so what's point of this place, we get mocked, bullied and attacked just for having an opinion on a fictional character that we like.

What's the point of it all?

 

[JamesDNaux]

The man said himself that he's not getting in so what's point of this place?

The man himself said he wouldn't be in Smash for 3DS/Wii U.

The man himself also said Villager wouldn't be in Brawl.

The man himself can change his mind, what more could we hope for?

 

[Cosmic77]

What's the point of this place being open if every rumor is just going lead to heart break.

The man said himself that he's not getting in so what's point of this place, we get mocked, bullied and attacked just for having an opinion on a fictional character that we like.

What's the point of it all?

Whether our support will ever amount to Ridley getting on the roster remains to be seen, but simply giving up on the matter altogether isn't going to help Ridley.

Space Pirates never falter!

 

[Eisendrachen]

What's the point of it all?

Perverse, spiteful stubbornness, of course.

The mistake that the haters make is in thinking they've "won" when they see the new roster and find our Commander isn't playable. Then they can trot out the same tired excuse, that he didn't come in before, or Sakurai said he wouldn't do it before, ignoring that every new release is a new roll of the dice. Forgetting that each time we miss, we need only chorus louder the next time.

We have no defeat condition. The only way any of this ends is with Ridley playable.

 

[RosiePeaches]

I think a lot of people know that Ridley fans really really want him in Smash, and Smash Bros fans can sometimes stir up these kinds of rumours and leaks to get people needlessly excited and disappointed.

As someone who is waiting so long for Daisy to get the spotlight, I really feel for you guys. Having your hopes crushed like this and brought up again is something I would not like to experience.

 

[RomanceDawn]

Again we don't know what we don't know. Dude talking about how the January Direct was going to be aces and being a mod on reset already shows us he gets inside info from time to time. Two of the mods make the "too big" jokes and nothing comes out of it. People look into it some buzz gets started and dude says his posts didn't mean anything.

What else is he supposed to say? When it comes to NDA's denying is the best way to go. Expecting him, especially as a moderator on a high profile forum to do anything but deny is silly.

It could be absolutely nothing but again we don't know what we don't know. Judging how he has teased a couple other things and was right on I say just keep one eye open.
- - -
And even when your hopes and dreams get dashed oh well deal with it. You keep the conversation up from time to time so that Nintendo folks who frequent forums know what people want. You don't have to expect anything but still continue to express your wishes. If Ridley ever does get in it will be because of all the constant chat, debate and buzz over him.

Like with the ballot, many among us would constantly say things to the affect of there being no hope, so why bother voting for him? For the next game thats why. The next game is now and the base roster is without a doubt fully decided. If Ridley gets in it will be because of all the hoopla in forums, debates in miiverse, and a physical book that was made in favor of Ridley.

At the very least you can have some piece of mind knowing you did all you could to get Sakurai's attention. Be it Ridley or some goal that will truly benefit you in life there is nothing worse than looking back and feeling like "man, I should have tried harder."

Closed mouthes never get fed.

 

[Johnknight1]

The man himself said he wouldn't be in Smash for 3DS/Wii U.

The man himself also said Villager wouldn't be in Brawl.

The man himself can change his mind, what more could we hope for?

All of this!

On top of that, Sakurai is just one man on the team, and thus delegates power a lot to what people working under him suggest. Triple A Video games of this size and magnitude require hundreds of individuals and dozens of programmers and character designers to create characters and a roster.

And if somebody makes a great idea and proof of concept of any particular character, you are damn sure it is going to be considered.

Ridley is an extremely complex character to put together given his body composition, unique skillset and just how different even his movement is from the rest of the cast. It would require very specified programming to add him to toe roster. That is the biggest challenge with adding Ridley ultimately.

If you've seen the popular Project M/Smash Legacy mod of Ridley, you realize how having a character of that scale can be complex to get to work. And that mod of Ridley (with dozens of hours put into it) is far from being up to "Smash quality" (despite it being very impressive).

With that in mind, Smash Switch not being a "2-in-1" development (which is more like "basically make 4 games at once in order to make everything almost the same) like we saw for Smash 4 on the 3DS and Wii U eliminates huge negatives. It eliminates the 3DS' insane limitations (which obviously couldn't even handle him as a boss), it eliminates the Wii U's Gen 7.5-esk technological weakpoints (namely having a 2nd screen on all the time and a weak GPU and CPU), and it opens the doors up to more modern technology.

Brawl was held back by the Wii (which is basically a 50%-100% more powerful GameCube), Smash 4 was held back by the 3DS (which in many ways is as strong as a GameCube and in other ways is weaker than an N64; and yes, this definitely held back the engine possibilities of Smash Wii U, which runs nearly 1:1 with Smash 3DS engine-wise), and the Switch has none of those issues.

This will be the biggest technological jump engine-wise for a Smash game in terms of possibilities. Yes, even bigger than the jump from 64 to Melee. That leaves the door open for hope now.

 

[GolisoPower]

Ridley Moveset
​

Slightly modified Ridley moveset from pre-Sm4sh

Built in Disadvantage: One jump without using Flight Mode

Up B Fly Mode: Launches Ridley into the air a good vertical distance with super armor. He then gains three jumps. Cannot be used again until he hits the ground.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Spoiler: Moveset

A: Slash with a claw
A,A: Slash with a claw, then the other claw
A,A,A: Slash with a claw, then the other claw, then raises both claws above his head and smashes both into the floor. Rakes them backwards.

Toward A: Lashes out with his pointed tail. Good range, but one must be precise to make the best use of it.

Down A: While crouched, Ridley swipes one extended arm forward with outstretched claws. If sweet-spotted, the attack becomes a grab where upon Ridley will clutch the leg (or hover body in the case of R.O.B) and flip them high into the air.

Up A: Ridley curves his neck backwards while emitting fire in a smoldering arch similar to Samus's Up Smash.

Down Smash: Ridley rotates his body while emitting a stream of plasma fire at the ground. It leaves a circle of fire for a couple seconds that could damage others, but not Ridley (due to his scales we will say).

Up Smash: Fires a plasma sphere into the sky (the size and ascension of the attack depends on the charged power)

Forward Smash: Ridley opens his jaws. The orange buildup of fire in his throat can be seen. He lunges forward with a bite which causes an explosion upon impact.

Dash A: Ridley flaps his wings for a burst of speed and swings both his claws out before delivering a bite.

Aerials

Neutral Aerial: Snaps his jaws in front of him, then behind, then in front again in rapid succession. Made possible by this long neck.

Forward Aerial: Curves his neck back in an S shape, then lunges forward with a bite.

Back Aerial: A whip like attack with his tail. Good range with sweet-spot on tip.

Up Aerial: Slashes both claws upwards. When the claws from either hand clash at the apex, a fountain of sparks shoots upwards.

Down Aerial: Maneuvers his tail like a whip behind him before lashing it straight down, the spine stiffening. Great in the air, but the tail can be lodged in the floor if it connects with the ground.

Specials

B Plasma Shot: Fires a spread burst of three fire balls. No knockback or stun. However, they do slight splash damage when they collide with part of the stage resulting in a little stun and knockback. Angled down if Ridley is in the air and angled in straight cone pattern if on the ground.

B Plasma Beam (charged): Ridley can charge the shot into a beam. However, it cannot be stored. The beam shoots straight if on the ground and diagonal in the air. Does very good damage, but only has knockback and stun around Ridley's mouth (which would knock the victim into the rest of the attack).

Down B WingSpan: Ridley opens his wings. These are the effects.
•If on the ground, anyone that rolls past Ridley with his wings spread, hits the wing, has their momentum canceled and suffers stun.
•In the air, Ridley can use this move to cancel his momentum. Also, sends air dodgers into a brief helpless state.
•In a glide, Ridley can use this move to cancel his glide and create a shockwave that travels and does knockback depending on the duration of the glide.

Up B Fly Mode: Launches Ridley into the air a good vertical distance with super armor. He then gains three jumps. Cannot be used again until he hits the ground.

Toward B Dive Bomb (On the Ground): Ridley leaps high into the air and then dive bombs in a diagonal fashion either left or right until he smashes into the floor. Good knockback, but has downtime as Ridley as to recuperate from launching himself into the ground.

Toward B Dive Bomb (In the Air): Ridley automatically enters a dive bomb either left or right until he hits the floor.

Throws

Pummel: Ridley bites his victim.

Toward and Back Throw: Ridley jumps up, impales his victim with his tail, and drags them in the direction pressed. This direction can be changed midway in the animation. The opponent pops up and away afterwards. Good damage-racker.

Up Throw: Ridley flies up and off the screen with opponent. He then blocks the camera briefly as he flies toward the stage (in the direction the players are looking at the TV) and slams the victim into the spot he was grabbed.

Down Throw: Leaps on top of the opponent causing them to smash to the ground. Then springs himself upwards into the air. Does not use a jump.

I would honestly be disappointed if Ridley didn't play like this.

 

[Raxxel]

We're here because there's no reason not to be. Let people mock us, it's them getting invested in trying to make us miserable, and it's their time wasted. Best thing you can do is to not validate their efforts, and ignore them. Focus on what we want, which is Ridley in Smash.

 

[Dendros]

I am here for our pirate leader! I will never give up hope!

 

[Zeox]

Everytime Ridley fights Samus and loses, he could just give up and die there... but he doesn't, he gets back and finds a way to cheat death and keep fighting over and over, even if sometimes it seems there is no hope and he will never defeat her.
If he is able to not lose hope, neither we should, even if it looks like something impossible to do.
Space Pirates never give up! even if we always lose!

 

[Retroend]

how well do you guys think ridley did in the smash ballot?

 

[12cheeper]

how well do you guys think ridley did in the smash ballot?

I imagine he did decently well.
He's always been one of the more requested characters to begin with.

 

[Bravetriforcer]

how well do you guys think ridley did in the smash ballot?

It just told Sakurai what he already knew.

 

[IsmaR]

It's hard to tell for any character considering how forums don't account for even a small portion of the total amount of votes something like that would get.

I do definitely think whoever our particular speculation circle (forums/social media/etc.) perceive to be the "frontrunners" did at the very least decent. Though I do imagine that the vast majority of casuals probably either didn't care for or accepted Ridley's "fate" last time around.

 

[Spatman]

I never was a fan of Ridley in Smash (sorry guys), so maybe I shouldn't have the rights to say this (not knowing how you felt having your fav char neglected for so many years etc.) but I have to say: I have quite good vibes for Ridley this time. Of course, Sakurai said in the past it was too big and blablabla. But we know the man changes his mind. The man Sakurai but also the Man as general human being. At the end what really matters is that pros have to overcome cons. One of the cons is his dimensions. But a really strong pro is the louding and everlasting request of the fans. Maybe during Sm4sh days Sakurai still wasn't convinced; but other 4 years of requests could have changed his mind.
Surely even for a non fans (and in the past even an opponent) like me, a trailer revealing Ridley would generate insane hype.

Good luck guys

 

[KingBroly]

I'd like to know where Ridley made it on the ballot, tbh.

 

[One winged Devil]

So what are your guys plan to get Ridley in?

Sakurai said no and his reasonings where just fuel to the arguments against him being in the game.

Add to that the bullying and memes and a lot people who once supported him are now to sacare to speak up or to share their opinions online since it happened.

So my question to you guys is what are you going to do about that? Because just getting hopefully over "rumors" and "leaks" isn't productive nor is just doing nothing about it.

 

[12cheeper]

So what are your guys plan to get Ridley in?

Sakurai said no and his reasonings where just fuel to the arguments against him being in the game.

Add to that the bullying and memes and a lot people who once supported him are now to sacare to speak up or to share their opinions online since it happened.

So my question to you guys is what are you going to do about that? Because just getting hopefully over "rumors" and "leaks" isn't productive nor is just doing nothing about it.

Eh,he said the same thing about villager and Pac-man during the Brawl days and look where we are now.No ones saying Riddles is a shoo in,far from it but there are plenty of other characters with support threads that are far less likely to make it in.

 

[Poopmin]

We’re back in business baby!! My hopes are nowhere near as high because I know Sakurai and I know how he feels but NEVER GIVE UP!! If this is a new game, which it truly seems to be, then this is our chance, without the curse of Pyrosphere we have an opening. It could be our time.

 

[One winged Devil]

Eh,he said the same thing about villager and Pac-man during the Brawl days and look where we are now.No ones saying Riddles is a shoo in,far from it but there are plenty of other characters with support threads that are far less likely to make it in.

Yeah this doesn't answer my question.

 

[12cheeper]

Yeah this doesn't answer my question.

Other than show that there's demand for the character?Really nothing.The roster of smash games is decided close to the beginning of development long before the games are announced.

 

[One winged Devil]

Other than show that there's demand for the character?Really nothing.The roster of smash games is decided close to the beginning of development long before the games are announced.

Then what the point and don't say just for fun because that's a fat load of B.S.

 

[IsmaR]

What is literally anyone else posting on an Internet forum doing to get anything into anything?

The ballot was all anyone could have really done outside of annoy Nintendo directly with emails/social media.

 

[Venus of the Desert Bloom]

So what are your guys plan to get Ridley in?

Sakurai said no and his reasonings where just fuel to the arguments against him being in the game.

Add to that the bullying and memes and a lot people who once supported him are now to sacare to speak up or to share their opinions online since it happened.

So my question to you guys is what are you going to do about that? Because just getting hopefully over "rumors" and "leaks" isn't productive nor is just doing nothing about it.

Finding a random hobo and carve a bleeding image of Ridley into his chest and stuff him into a large purple box that says “Great things come in even greater boxes”. To make sure the guy doesn’t bleed out while in the box, I would put blood-clotting tissue balls that are of course purple. After that, I would ship the box and send it post haste to Sakurai’s abode. I know the man is steadfast in his beliefs and he won’t cave into such pressure so I plan to continue this by shipping boxes filled with hobos with increased frequency until he finally adds that purple space reptilian into the roster. I might be need a good supply of cardboard boxes. And hobos.

And if that doesn’t convince him, I might have to take even drastic measures but I’ll cross that bridge when it comes.

 

[Eisendrachen]

Then what the point and don't say just for fun because that's a fat load of B.S.

Allow me to turn your question back on you, then: What, pray tell, is the point of your questioning?

The more idiots try to deny Ridley being playable, the more we lobby for him. That is all the answer necessary.

 

[pupNapoleon]

All of this!

On top of that, Sakurai is just one man on the team, and thus delegates power a lot to what people working under him suggest. Triple A Video games of this size and magnitude require hundreds of individuals and dozens of programmers and character designers to create characters and a roster.

And if somebody makes a great idea and proof of concept of any particular character, you are damn sure it is going to be considered.

Ridley is an extremely complex character to put together given his body composition, unique skillset and just how different even his movement is from the rest of the cast. It would require very specified programming to add him to toe roster. That is the biggest challenge with adding Ridley ultimately.

If you've seen the popular Project M/Smash Legacy mod of Ridley, you realize how having a character of that scale can be complex to get to work. And that mod of Ridley (with dozens of hours put into it) is far from being up to "Smash quality" (despite it being very impressive).

With that in mind, Smash Switch not being a "2-in-1" development (which is more like "basically make 4 games at once in order to make everything almost the same) like we saw for Smash 4 on the 3DS and Wii U eliminates huge negatives. It eliminates the 3DS' insane limitations (which obviously couldn't even handle him as a boss), it eliminates the Wii U's Gen 7.5-esk technological weakpoints (namely having a 2nd screen on all the time and a weak GPU and CPU), and it opens the doors up to more modern technology.

Brawl was held back by the Wii (which is basically a 50%-100% more powerful GameCube), Smash 4 was held back by the 3DS (which in many ways is as strong as a GameCube and in other ways is weaker than an N64; and yes, this definitely held back the engine possibilities of Smash Wii U, which runs nearly 1:1 with Smash 3DS engine-wise), and the Switch has none of those issues.

This will be the biggest technological jump engine-wise for a Smash game in terms of possibilities. Yes, even bigger than the jump from 64 to Melee. That leaves the door open for hope now.

Nearly a tear in the eye man. You need to be the one to ride the horse and rally the troups.

 

[SmashKeks]

Finding a random hobo and carve a bleeding image of Ridley into his chest and stuff him into a large purple box that says “Great things come in even greater boxes”. To make sure the guy doesn’t bleed out while in the box, I would put blood-clotting tissue balls that are of course purple. After that, I would ship the box and send it post haste to Sakurai’s abode. I know the man is steadfast in his beliefs and he won’t cave into such pressure so I plan to continue this by shipping boxes filled with hobos with increased frequency until he finally adds that purple space reptilian into the roster. I might be need a good supply of cardboard boxes. And hobos.

And if that doesn’t convince him, I might have to take even drastic measures but I’ll cross that bridge when it comes.

Wait, are there Ridley supporters on this support thread who aren't doing this already? I thought that was the first thing we were supposed to try.

 

[pupNapoleon]

I never was a fan of Ridley in Smash (sorry guys), so maybe I shouldn't have the rights to say this (not knowing how you felt having your fav char neglected for so many years etc.) but I have to say: I have quite good vibes for Ridley this time. Of course, Sakurai said in the past it was too big and blablabla. But we know the man changes his mind. The man Sakurai but also the Man as general human being. At the end what really matters is that pros have to overcome cons. One of the cons is his dimensions. But a really strong pro is the louding and everlasting request of the fans. Maybe during Sm4sh days Sakurai still wasn't convinced; but other 4 years of requests could have changed his mind.
Surely even for a non fans (and in the past even an opponent) like me, a trailer revealing Ridley would generate insane hype.

Good luck guys

Sakurai has also always loved surprises.
Perhaps even at the time of certain interviews he was already changing his mind, and merely stated what his thought process had been during development.