My friend is unhappy about having to unlock every thing. Curious what your thoughts are?

[volbound1700]

To Preface this, I don't mind unlocking everything so please don't read this as my opinion.

I have a friend who is very annoyed about having to do the single player and unlock characters. I curious to know if anyone on Smashboards agrees with him. I can see his points but I personally am looking forward to unlocking the content via Spirits.

Also, will there be multiple ways to unlock a character?

 

[CrusherMania1592]

If Brawl had multiple ways to unlock characters, then I don't see why not. Every game since Melee had two or more options


Personally, I'm excited for this one because I haven't been excited for unlockables the way they did it in Wii U/3DS

 

[TJ-Works]

I love unlocking content. It gives the sense of actual progress being made, plus the feeling of being rewarded for gameplay time spent or completing tasks/challenges. Why on Earth people don't like this concept is beyond me.

The only way I can see this hindering Smash Ultimate is because of the small beginning roster. But they did say they've remedied this by streamlining the character unlock progress (compared to past games).

 

[Crystanium]

I suppose your friend doesn't enjoy the sense of accomplishment produced by the chemicals in his brain. I'm looking forward to unlocking ****.

 

[Luigifan18]

"Everything"? Your friend does know none of the stages have to be unlocked this time, right?

 

[Orlando BCN]

Pffft, wait till he tries Marvel vs. Capcom 2. You had to BUY characters thru in-game points, and that meant spending countless hours in arcade mode. Ultimate will make it seem like a cakewalk, I'm sure.

 

[Arymle Roseanne]

I don't mind that there's a lot of characters to unlock this time, it adds more time to occupy myself with this game plus the fact that it's going to be streamlined says it won't be that difficult to get them all.

 

[Mogisthelioma]

I love it. It adds a new level of exitement, especially since there's so many fighters. It's nice to start with a limited selection, forcing you to try out new fighters. I'm going to feel propelled to use new fighters whenever I unlock them, which is also amazing. With over 60 fighters to unlock, Sakurai is right: you're unlocking lots of popular characters.

 

[Khao]

I like it, though I understand that some people just want to play their favorite character as soon as possible. I was heavily dissapointed by the 3DS and Wii U unlocks to be honest, and felt that if they were just gonna half-ass it like that they might as well just have everyone available immediately. But this? Gonna love having my roster grow slowly character by character. It'll give me some time to enjoy everyone before I can actually start thinking about mains and ****.

The only "but".

On day one, I'll likely be playing at a friend's house.

Meaning, not on my own copy.

So I'm technically gonna go through the unlocking process twice in a row, haha. I mean, I guess I'll just take my switch there anyway, but I doubt I'll be playing on it primarily.

Unless...

I wonder how unlocks are gonna work for local wireless play? As in, connecting multiple Switches together? Are you gonna be unlocking character for all Switches simultaneously? Only the "host" Switch? Or will those matches not even count as far as unlocks go?

 

[Ryu_Ken]

The fact that you don't have to unlock stages anymore is a huge plus. I bet that by the time you try out all the stages, all the items, and all the modes, you'll have unlocked every character in the game. In Smash 3ds and Wii U, you could take as little as 1-2 hours to unlock every character and every stage, which is pretty unsatisfying. I'm gonna go on a limb that Ultimate is going to take a little longer than Smash 4 to unlock all the characters, but not as long as, say, Melee and Brawl. Maybe somewhere around... 5-6 hours.

 

[lucasla]

I'm unhappy cause I don't need to unlock the stages too... So... opinions...
For me, the only problem with this is if you want to reunite your friends on the first week (or month) that you bought the game and then only a few characters are unlocked. But it is a necessary evil to me, cause I like to unlock content anyway, and once unlocked, it will always be unlocked (saves on the cloud).

 

[Mariomaniac45213]

I mean I'm kinda in that camp because spirits/world of light doesn't look that fun to me and if it's long as hell and a chore to play through and without the incentive of cutscenes to keep me interested I'm gonna be VERY annoyed if it's the only way to unlock characters.

 

[Amazing Ampharos]

Unlocking things obviously sucks, but at least stages come unlocked so you don't have the people who show up to tournaments with set-ups that don't have all of the stages.

 

[Captain Shades]

I like unlocking things, so it’s fine with me. I love feeling accomplished.

 

[thirsty-pocket]

Your friend is crazy. Unlocking things is fun. It gives you a goal to shoot for.
Although it's not as exciting when you already know what you're unlocking.

EDIT: I feel like there's definitely a divide between people who like unlocking vrs. disliking the need to unlock, and I think it comes from people who prefer single palyer vs. people who enjoy multiplayer.

 

[Frizz]

Hmm, I can't say I'm a fan of having to unlock all of the characters. I've never really gotten a sense of pride and accomplishment™ from unlocking the characters one by one, so to me, they've always felt more like gateways to playing the actual game. I'd much rather just play the game with the roster fully unlocked. For me, the real satisfaction comes from beating people with my Robin—or just winning in general, but that's to a lesser extent.

 

[TheYungLink]

The reason Sakurai made unlocking all the characters besides the original 8 a requirement is because of how some casual fans of fighting games can be overwhelmed at first when starting up a game with lots of characters by default (I think Source Gaming posted a translation of one of Sakurai's ccolumns around the time Ultimate was revealed, I think). As a result, he observed, these fans usually stick to one or two characters rather than trying out and experimenting with the rest of the roster. From that point of view, seeing as playing with all sorts of different characters to unlock all the other characters is going to happen, I can understand where he's coming from.

That said, I sincerely hope there's a relatively easy way to unlock most characters. Like, 1 or 2 matches on Boxing Ring unlocks Little Mac, for example, or a single trip to the All-Star mode where everyone comes infinitely unlocks R.O.B. or something. This is less for my sake than for fans of those characters who want to play them right away while still keeping the idea of "needing to experiment with almost everyone at least once or twice to unlock everyone else" there for casual fans.

 

[Vanguard227]

I love the fact that you start out with the original eight. Although I do personally love unlocking stuff in games, I also feel that the limited starting roster gives Smash Ultimate this notion of coming full circle for the series. The full roster is the complete culmination of nearly 20 years of Nintendo; or better yet, gaming history; and it just feels right that you begin this massive celebration with the fighters that started it all.

If it were up to me, I'd only have the original N64 stages unlocked from the start as well. Call me crazy, but I'm somewhat sad that all the stages are unlocked from the get-go. Although to be fair, there aren't many single player modes in Ultimate to warrant all of this unlocking, so I'll let it slide.

 

[EricTheGamerman]

I much more annoyed with the complete and utter balance to unlocking characters. Starting with the original 8 is a cute notion and all, but not giving me anything new to start off with? And the original 8 are amongst my least played fighters too... I’m glad unlocks are back, but going up to 66 of them just feels like a bit too much unless you can really pump those out fast... and if you can... then you’ve really not solved the problems of the unlock situation at that point either...

I’m just not super happy to potentially have to wait a while to unlock new fighters I want to try out. Giving me someone like Inkling up front might break the cute O8 moment, but I really don’t think that’s a super important thing to actually have be part of the game.

Stages I think should have been the main unlocks by far. With 103 of them, even having 20 locked wouldn’t be a big deal and would give me motivation to do the things to unlock them. Especially when you’ve got some weird little picks throughout that probably have the smallest fan bases stage wise.

Really, they should have changed the unlocks to be a little more balanced. Fewer characters unlocks, more stages (really stages at all) to unlock. Without trophies and such, I’m afraid there’s going to be less of an incentive to unlock things in game as is, so working for stages would have been nice.

I really think they should have not revealed all the stages in August like they did. Leave some surprises in that category to unlock where the stakes aren’t as high as with characters, and by god does that end up highlighting how few new arenas are in the game.

 

[soviet prince]

omg you mean i will have to play the game

 

[Bandanna_Waddle_Dee]

I've never bought Smash for the singleplayer content. It's somewhat of a chore, I just want to get playing with my friends rather than grind and play something I don't want to. With 66 characters to unlock it's just going to feel draining to me, and it sucks knowing that my friends are going to have to do the same thing before we play since none of them like the main 8.

If you feel accomplished or proud or whatever when you unlock a character then more power to you, I think that unlocks definitely should be a thing for those people that like that kinda stuff. But for me? I'd rather get to what I enjoy instead of spending time playing a mode that seems rather boring.

I suppose it just depends on how easy the fighters are to unlock. I just don't have the time.

 

[Gyrom8]

I love unlocking stuff so am happy with how it works. My only concern is how strict the order is for unlocking characters. Most of my mains are from Brawl but I'd obviously like to unlock them ASAP. I do like that I have to unlock them though, as it makes it more special when I do.

 

[TheTrueBrawler]

I personally am not a fan of it, but I also don't mind it that much. I'll be fine as long as unlocking the music doesn't require me to grind my butt off. It would be especially hard this game from what we have seen because of the lack of a stage builder.

 

[Wario Wario Wario]

Why would you want to unlock characters you already know are in the game? in 64, Melee and to a lesser extent Brawl there was the element of surprise, wanting to know what's next, but nowadays with the internet available to everyone it's just tedious, and to add salt in the wound, Nintendo has revealed every base game character pre-launch!

I'm at least hoping the classic "do X amount of battles" method has returned

 

[Blackwolf666]

I will agree that most of the fun is gone since I know the base roster already. However I still love unlocking characters.

 

[Riophilip]

I'm happy with it. It adds a reason to play something other than online.

 

[Eisal]

A non-issue.

The unlocking of characters will be relatively fast. It gives you a little bit of time to see, and feel all of the characters towards your path of unlocking them all. If you are competitive, you'd want to see and feel every character in some way anyway, in every kind of situation. If you are casual, you got something fun to do and tackle.

Smash is a game, and a game needs some sort of content to do and go through. This very small hurdle will be nothing compared to the countless hours you will spend looking at characters and learn their combos and framedata. You will sooner or later look back at the time you had at the start of the game, when you played to unlock characters.

 

[Christian_CAO]

I like it. It's not like there's only "one way" to unlock characters but World of Light is probably a good way to enjoy your time while doing it.
It'd be a shame if no one ever played the adventure mode otherwise. Honestly I know I wouldn't if you didn't get anything at all from it.

 

[YoshiandToad]

Personally fine with it, although I want to unlock Peach as soon as possible as the girlfriend is coming down and wants to play her.

Also you know...wanna try out those Toady throws myself ASAP.

 

[Zinith]

Obviously unlocking the character I want is not my problem , but I am somewhat of a completionist...

 

[Kuragari]

I like unlocking stuff by having to play the game. Gives a reason to, you know... play it.
Was actually kinda bummed that all the stages are available at the start. Those were fun to unlock too.

 

[Mimic88]

I love unlockables. It keeps things exciting and I get better at the game as I unlock more stuff.

 

[volbound1700]

I typically have fun unlocking stuff so I am fine with it. I just hope Spirits is better than it looked in the 11/1/2018 Direct.

 

[ssbashworld]

I mean I like unlocking stuff but when you plan to play in groups shortly after launch it is more of a pain since you may kind of just want everything or at least a lot more available when you go to do that. Probably going to use a 2nd profile to unlock everything really quick and then take my time through mine.

I am also still not sure how I feel about not having to unlock stages, it feels kind of odd going from one extreme to another with fighters and stages available out of the box.

 

[Mogisthelioma]

If the Best Buy leak is true, that means you can just unlock fighters via amiibo.

 

[Kevandre]

I super dislike that mindset. Unlocking characters is glorious. Hell, I used to change out my Gamecube memory card so I could re-unlock everyone in Melee.

 

[Oddball]

Your friend sounds like he gets annoyed at things way too easily.

 

[staindgrey]

My friend. Uh-huh.

Personally, as long as WoL is awesome, I don't mind at all. It kind of kills our plans for a 9:01pm Smash-off, but the single player portion will feel so much more rewarding if we're unlocking characters through it.

 

[smashingDoug]

Why would you want to unlock characters you already know are in the game? in 64, Melee and to a lesser extent Brawl there was the element of surprise, wanting to know what's next, but nowadays with the internet available to everyone it's just tedious, and to add salt in the wound, Nintendo has revealed every base game character pre-launch!

I'm at least hoping the classic "do X amount of battles" method has returned

Bro you got that backwards. The intro of 64 showed you the 4 characters you had to unlock

 

[Wario Wario Wario]

Bro you got that backwards. The intro of 64 showed you the 4 characters you had to unlock

yeah, in silhouette until you unlocked them.