Official Newcomer/DLC Speculation Discussion

[SMAASH! Puppy]

I hate that Golden Plains got in over Rainbow Road.

Why do we need yet another Mario stage with a bland grassy background, but this time it's got a terrible gimmick?

I thought Golden Plains was fun. They probably prioritized it over Rainbow Road since Rainbow Road would have taken waaay longer to complete.

February? I don't want a Direct in the middle of the semester dammit

Too bad! The next direct will be during one of your classes and you're gonna like it!

 

[Deleted member]

Too bad! The next direct will be during one of your classes and you're gonna like it!

I hope so...

 

[Night Gale]

There was a problem fetching the tweet

Instead of arguing, let's look at a picture of Falco arresting Dr. Wily.

Fi-yah! Fi-yah! Psycho Farocoooo!

 

[Deleted member]

I joined last year in November. An hour before my account was created, this was the state of things.

An hour later, I walked right into this s***.



Then things kept escalating from there.



Without guidance, they fled to the most logical bandwagon, and it was good.....for a time.




Until it wasn't.




Then they backtracked, and things went from weird, to more f***ing weird.




Then about one goddamn month after I joined, when the world needed a reveal most, he vanished. Instead, millions watched a live airing of a b**** drowning for no reason.

But at least one person learned why you shouldn't vape in the process. There was also Vin Diesel.

Then there was silence.

Currently, it's January and things are back to normal, whatever the f*** that is. Today is my 2 month anniversary, but it feels like an eternity.

Wait... In that KOS-MOS pic.. is that a 7?

7? 7?!

Spoiler

GRAND DAD!!! FLEENTSTONES?!?!!?! HE. IS. IN.

 

[TheYungLink]

This is late, but I agree with EricTheGamerman . I left the General Zelda Newcomer thread because it's very existence proved a problem: fans don't really around a single character for years and years, usually just a major character that was introduced in and stays within the newest Zelda game or two, which I suspect contributes to Sakurai's chronic decision to not include a full Zelda newcomer.

He mentioned that the one thing people wanted was "Ganondorf with a sword" but that was only half true. What people wanted was a version of Ganon that didn't take any moves from Captain Falcon. For some, that was giving him a sword, and, well, Ganondorf now has the DORIYAH and it's super hype so that's cool.

My desire for a Ganon that doesn't take any moves from Captain Falcon remains, however. And I think the most noteworthy "alternate Ganon" Smash could make playable is the Ganon from the 2D Zeldas. This Ganon is important because the Zelda series started off using this version of Ganon, and A Link to the Past, considered the best of the 2D Zeldas and one of the best Zeldas period, has a memorable final boss fight against him that gives Sakurai an easy moveset to work with by itself. Though Ganon doesn't play a major role in A Link Between Worlds (only his alternate universe counterpart, Yuga), he does have an updated version of his ALttP form that could be used as a basis for a Smash design.

If Zelda fans really, REALLY want another Zelda newcomer, we need a single character to rally around to make our voices heard. It isn't likely at this point for our favorite one-off Zelda characters to become playable, so, when trying to think of a good recurring candidate for Smash consideration, I think Ganon is a good place to start.

Support thread here in case anyone is curious to learn more about this version of Ganon

 

[DaybreakHorizon]

Hrm I think I will write a series of mini-speculation essays and release them in pieces since I don't want to write a large wall of text.

Characters to Look Out For in Ultimate DLC
By tehponycorn​

Spoiler: Acknowledgements/Notes

• As always, I'll check my bias at the door. These essays are speculation for speculation's sake, and comes based off of the long-scrapped RTC In-Depth series I had planned.
• These essays will play out like my previous character speculation essays, discussing why said company would collaborate with Nintendo and why said character would be chosen for inclusion. I chose 7 characters because I didn't want to write about too many characters, but also all of these characters were interesting. Some characters I wanted to write about actually picked up traction (Dante, Reimu, etc.), so I cut them.
• This essay addresses DLC in general. These characters could be Fighter 5, or they could not. I don't care to speculate Fighter 5 so much as I care to speculate DLC in general.
• As always, I'm also going to avoid discussing leaks or rumors since those aren't speculation, and hearsay should not be used in place of actual evidence. I feel the need to say this given how speculation seems centered on such nowadays.

Spoiler: Background - Beyond Nintendo

Smash Bros. is a celebration of gaming. Having grown beyond its humble origins as a Nintendo crossover, it's scope extends far beyond one single company, drawing in famous characters from a variety of companies.

"But tehponycorn!" you say, "Smash Bros. is about Nintendo first!" To which I respond with this 2018 statement from Sakurai:

Smash was once subtitled “Nintendo All-Stars,” but the game’s scope has expanded far beyond Nintendo.

With this established, in regards to Smash speculation, the sky is the limit. So long as they originate from a video game, they could realistically be in Smash Bros. So then the question I pose is: why do we stick to the same old echoed characters? Time and time again the Smash fanbase has speculated around characters only to be blindsided by picks like Joker, Hero, and Terry. These picks make sense in hindsight, yet prior to their inclusion were supported by a certain few who were laughed off until they were right, at which point these characters were seen as "obvious." In writing this essay I hope to pop the Smash Bubble for a bit and broaden the horizons of speculation. A lofty goal that I'll probably be laughed at for, but I figured I'd try nonetheless.

Spoiler: Don-chan

Forget Tales of, Tekken, Soul Calibur, KOS-MOS, Agumon, or Dark Souls. This guy. This guy. Is the true Namco dark horse pick.

Bandai Namco is an established third party company in Smash Bros. They helped develop Smash for 3DS and Wii U, and returned to help develop Ultimate. The inclusion of a Namco character is natural because of this. Sakurai even says as such in an excerpt from his 2014 book Think About Making The Video Games 2:

Since I am creating the new Smash Bros. in cooperation with Bandai-Namco Games, it makes sense to include one of their characters.

A Namco character being added as DLC makes sense. So then, the question becomes: why Don-chan over Namco's other characters?

Let's start with an explanation/history lesson. Don-chan is the mascot of the Taiku no Tatsujin series, which has released on a variety of platforms but is primarily known for its Japanese arcade releases. It's essentially Dance Dance Revolution, but instead of a dance pad, you drum along to the songs. I've included some gameplay from the series below:

Yes, that is Megalovania, and yes, this is important. I'll explain later.

The series runs all the way back to 2001 with its original Japanese arcade release. Since then the series has seen a large amount of releases, with no signs of stopping. I'll let the Wiki's list of releases do the talking for me:

Yes, that is 3 exclusive releases for the Wii U. That sort of support is unparalleled for most third parties, especially given how the Wii U underperformed, even domestically. This speaks more towards Namco's support of Nintendo than anything, but the fact that Taiko no Tatsujin is the series they used to support the Wii U shows something, be it the notability of the franchise, the ease of porting or making Taiko no Tatsujin games (it's practically the Just Dance of Japan), or some combination of the two with other factors.

While a majority of Taiko no Tatsujin's releases are Japanese exclusive, a good number of titles have been localized, and as of late the series has been pushing into America with the localization of both the most recent Drum Session for PS4 and Drum 'n' Fun for Switch. This puts it in a position similar to Dragon Quest wherein, despite the series large association with Japan, there is cause for inclusion to appeal to Western audiences.

A large point in favor of Don-Chan's inclusion is the sheer magnitude of series that Taiko no Tatsujin has crossed over with. Including the aforementioned Undertale, the series has crossed over with Mario, Kirby, Splatoon, Vocaloid/Hatsune Miku (which, sidenote, is performing at Coachella, the largest American music festival), Monster Hunter, Ace Attorney, Pokémon, Assassination Classroom, The Irregular at Magic High, My Hero Academia, Re:Zero, Evangelion, and many, many more. The obvious counterargument to this is the relative ease at which song rights can be obtained, especially in the face of corporate synergy and promotion opportunities. Despite this, the franchise has prominently ventured out and appeared in other franchises, such as Puzzles and Dragons, Yakuza, the Idolmaster (which only technically counts since both are Namco franchises but is worth mentioning nonetheless as the series were both popular enough to spark a crossover game), and Mario Kart alongside Pac-Man himself. Similar to Pac-Man and Dragon Quest before their inclusions, Don-chan has already interacted with Mario and co. Furthermore, Kirby, Phoenix Wright, Monster Hunter, Assassination Classroom, Touhou, and Yokai Watch were all prominently featured in a Taiko no Tatsujin RPG game, appearing as party members alongside Don-chan. Taiko no Tatsujin is unique in that it can bring together so many prominent franchises, so its inclusion in Smash Bros., which does the same thing, isn't a stretch. Don't worry about original music, since the series has that, and it has bangers.

In regards to Taiko no Tatsujin compared to other Namco series, Don-chan appeared on a 2020 New Year's celebration Twitter post alongside Pac-Man, Heihachi, Haruka from the Idolmaster series, Alphen from Tales of Arise, and Alisa from God Eater.

There was a problem fetching the tweet

At the very least, this shows that Taiko no Tatsujin is on par with Namco's other major series, which could factor into potential negotiations for characters as Namco will likely suggest their major franchises, Taiko no Tatsujin included.

As a whole, Don-chan is the dark horse pick for a Bandai Namco character. While everyone talks about other characters, I wouldn't be surprised if Don-chan beats the competition and ends up in Smash Bros.

 

[Sour Supreme]

There was a problem fetching the tweet

Instead of arguing, let's look at a picture of Falco arresting Dr. Wily.

Falco and Jigs: the Cop Duo that places criminals under a rest.

I'll see myself out.

 

[Rie Sonomura]

Hey so I found this in the Geno thread and

I’m not sure how recent this was discovered, but some people in the PapaGeno’s discord posted this image.

We are now up to 24 dummy slots. Of course, not all of these have to be filled, but it’s interesting that they increased the number of slots...

click the quote source for the image

 

[Hadokeyblade]

I will gladly accept Don chan in smash if he comes with the Jimmy neutron theme song

 

[DaybreakHorizon]

Next time on 7 Characters to Look Out For in Smash Ultimate DLC:

Spoiler

I often think about the god who blessed us with this cryptic puzzle...and wonder if we'll ever get the chance to kill him.

 

[perfectchaos83]

Hey so I found this in the Geno thread and


click the quote source for the image

This technically isn't new. there were 29 at launch and now 5 have been used. Here's the original source

https://hastebin.com/opokenuwer.css

As well as a source gaming video talking about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3p4jvaWQE0

Nobody wanted to talk about this for some reason, though. Interesting note is that they were removed at some point. Interesting that they back.

 

[Dutch Raikuna]

Next time on 7 Characters to Look Out For in Smash Ultimate DLC:

Spoiler

I often think about the god who blessed us with this cryptic puzzle...and wonder if we'll ever get the chance to kill him.

Everything that lives is designed to end. We are perpetually trapped in a never-ending spiral of life and death. Is this a curse? Or some kind of punishment? I often think about the god who blessed us with this cryptic puzzle...and wonder if we'll ever get the chance to kill him. - 2B - “Nier Automata”

One of my quotes in all of media from one of my favourite games of all time.

 

[DaybreakHorizon]

Everything that lives is designed to end. We are perpetually trapped in a never-ending spiral of life and death. Is this a curse? Or some kind of punishment? I often think about the god who blessed us with this cryptic puzzle...and wonder if we'll ever get the chance to kill him. - 2B - “Nier Automata”

One of my quotes in all of media from one of my favourite games of all time.

Man you really did just give it away huh

smh my head man

Imagine having to listen to that quote 20 different times while attempting to beat the prologue on hard why are there no checkpoints and WHY DOES THE BOSS 1 HIT WITH EVERY ATTACK MAKING YOU HAVE TO GO BACK 20 MINUTES TO TRY AGAIN but fr you're fine man I'm just jokin' here I made it real obvious

 

[Flyboy]

Man you really did just give it away huh

smh my head man

Imagine having to listen to that quote 20 different times while attempting to beat the prologue on hard why are there no checkpoints and WHY DOES THE BOSS 1 HIT WITH EVERY ATTACK MAKING YOU HAVE TO GO BACK 20 MINUTES TO TRY AGAIN but fr you're fine man I'm just jokin' here I made it real obvious

Ha, amateur, listening to that quote 20 times while actually playing the game rather than listening to that quote 20 times while sampling it for a song on your album. Get on my level.

(Great write-up on Don-chan btw. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the seven!)

 

[Droodle]

So since I'm bored and have some time, I thought I might write a decently in-depth post on why I think a Nihon Falcom rep is quite possibly one of the most under discussed characters at this point comparatively to how likely they are (kinda like SNK and Terry). It makes sense in the West because while their popularity is rising, they are still very niche. In JP, they are well known. Since they have a good bit of history/legacy allow me to go over why I think they are quite possibly one of the most important companies that are not present in any shape or form in terms of Smash. I'm not creating this post as a huge fanboy or anything (I've dabbled a bit in TLOH and the Ys series), but it's important to note how much they helped in setting the trends for the first role-playing games (similar to DQ and FF).

So first things first:

What is Nihon Falcom?
Nihon Falcom is one of the oldest Japanese video game companies that specialize in creating role-playing games; they were founded in 1981. In comparison, Enix (responsible for Dragon Quest) was founded in 1975, while Square (responsible for Final Fantasy) was founded in 1986. While the other two companies exploded in popularity with the rise of the NES, and eventually merged together; Falcom never abandoned it's PC roots even as home consoles gained popularity and stuck almost exclusively to developing for PC until the rise of the PSP, when the switched over due to the severe decline in PC game sales in JP.
While a couple of their games made it to other consoles, the porting was almost always done by an external company.

What's special about Falcom is that during their 40 year history, they haven't really expanded that much. During the current day (where they are arguably at the peak of their popularity so far), they only have around 62 employees; in comparison SNK has nearly 164 and Platinum Games has 224. They've worked closely with bigger companies such as Sony, but they have never been bought out. Despite their legacy, they've remained a relatively small scale developer of A/AA JRPG's for nearly 40 years. They typically tend to release a game every year or so.

Since they have such a long history, a lot of known people actually got their start at Falcom.

The most notable ones are:
Tetsuya Takahashi: Creator of the Xeno franchise, and one of the founders of Monolith-Soft.
Makoto Shinkai: Mostly known for his work on movies such as Your Name and Weathering With You, but he actually got a job right out College at Falcom.

What is their impact/legacy?
While their series never really reached the popularity of series like FF and DQ; they helped set the template for RPGs.

Their known series are:
Dragon Slayer/Xanadu
Zwei
Ys
The Legend of Heroes

In particular:
Dragon Slayer was one of the first action rpg's and layed the foundations for the genre. Games like The Legend of Zelda followed the footsteps of this series. The series diverged into the Xanadu series with the last game being Tokyo Xanadu (2015).

I'm not that familiar with the Zwei series, so I can't really say much.

However, the Ys and The Legend of Heroes series are their flagship and most popular series.

The Ys series is one of the longest running RPG series and started in 1987. The games feature the story of Adol Christin; an adventurer who always ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time (or the opposite). Each game is fairly standalone, although direct sequels do exist. The series helped popularize mechanics such a regenerating health, although it did not create the mechanic in games; that honour goes to Hyldide. However, according to wikipedia (Not exactly the most reliable, I know) the Ys series was the second series to introduce regeneration as a mechanic. The series has sold around 5 million in total, and the head of Falcom states that sales of the series outside Japan are much higher inside Japan. Ys 8 on the switch was also a huge succes outside of Japan, and in total that game has sold over 500k. The latest game, YS IX released in September 2019.

The Legend of Heroes series, is Falcom's other lead series and it originally started out as a part of the Dragon Slayer series; but grew into it's on thing. The most well known games in this series are a part of the Trails subseries (Sky, Zero, Cold Steel); which started out in 2004. Unlike the Ys series, in which the games are fairly standalone; the Trails series is the telling of one continuous story in the continent of Zemuria. The series is not available on the switch in any way currently, but Cold Steel 3 is coming out on it in the next couple of months. Inside Japan, the Trails series is much bigger compared to the Ys series; however, both are extremely niche outside Japan. The latest game in the West is Cold Steel 3 which released in October of 2019, but in Japan the latest game is Cold Steel 4, which released in September 2018.

In terms of popularity (inside Japan), if we consider the S tier RPG series something like FF, DQ, and Pokemon; and A tier series like Persona, Fire Emblem, Xenoblade, and Tales then the Trails series would be B tier in terms of popularity. They have enough of a following that they can keep on making the games at a comfortable profit, but there are more popular JRPG series out there. For comparisons sake, The Cold Steel games sell a similar amount to the Danganronpa games in Japan. The games actually also have a fairly decent Chinese following, due to it being one of the first JRPG series to actually have Chinese translations, which are usually done by Sony.

Impact in Music
Falcom was actually one of the first Japanese developers to bother with a internal sound team (known as team jdk). As a result, the quality of their music is surprisingly high despite the company not having many people. Below are some tracks from the Ys and Trails series. They were pioneers of early game music (although none of these tracks are from that earlier period).

Speaking of which, Falcom is pretty open to letting anyone use their music. Which means that if they get a rep, we may end up getting another 50 tracks or so.

Who would the character be?
Well since this already took so long, I'm going to majorly skimp on this section.

There are only 3 likely candidates for a Falcom rep, Adol Christin (Ys), Estelle Bright (Trails in the Sky), and Rean Schwarzer (Trails of Cold Steel).

Out of these three, I believe the most likely is Adol Christin; the other two simply do not have the same legacy as him. In fact, there's probably not that many characters period that could bring in the same history as Adol. As a character, I don't really think he would bring that much new exciting things to the table, I mean he is an "anime swordsman". But Terry was just another brawler, and Sakurai made him really unique, so I doubt that he'll struggle to come up with a moveset.

TL;DR:
I think considering any character DLC in Smash a "lock" is a huge waste of time. Even if you're one of the most iconic 3rd party characters out there, there's still a high chance you'll get passed up. That said, if we're discussing potential "legacy" picks like Terry and SNK; I think Falcom and Adol have a prett good shot, for reasons I've outlined above. This took me way longer then it should have, so I'm probably not going to edit it. Hopefully it turned out well enough.

 

[Idon]

So since I'm bored and have some time, I thought I might write a decently in-depth post on why I think a Nihon Falcom rep is quite possibly one of the most under discussed characters at this point comparatively to how likely they are (kinda like SNK and Terry). It makes sense in the West because while their popularity is rising, they are still very niche. In JP, they are well known. Since they have a good bit of history/legacy allow me to go over why I think they are quite possibly one of the most important companies that are not present in any shape or form in terms of Smash. I'm not creating this post as a huge fanboy or anything (I've dabbled a bit in TLOH and the Ys series), but it's important to note how much they helped in setting the trends for the first role-playing games (similar to DQ and FF).

View attachment 256030

So first things first:

What is Nihon Falcom?
Nihon Falcom is one of the oldest Japanese video game companies that specialize in creating role-playing games; they were founded in 1981. In comparison, Enix (responsible for Dragon Quest) was founded in 1975, while Square (responsible for Final Fantasy) was founded in 1986. While the other two companies exploded in popularity with the rise of the NES, and eventually merged together; Falcom never abandoned it's PC roots even as home consoles gained popularity and stuck almost exclusively to developing for PC until the rise of the PSP, when the switched over due to the severe decline in PC game sales in JP.
While a couple of their games made it to other consoles, the porting was almost always done by an external company.

What's special about Falcom is that during their 40 year history, they haven't really expanded that much. During the current day (where they are arguably at the peak of their popularity so far), they only have around 62 employees; in comparison SNK has nearly 164 and Platinum Games has 224. They've worked closely with bigger companies such as Sony, but they have never been bought out. Despite their legacy, they've remained a relatively small scale developer of A/AA JRPG's for nearly 40 years. They typically tend to release a game every year or so.

Since they have such a long history, a lot of known people actually got their start at Falcom.

The most notable ones are:
Tetsuya Takahashi: Creator of the Xeno franchise, and one of the founders of Monolith-Soft.
Makoto Shinkai: Mostly known for his work on movies such as Your Name and Weathering With You, but he actually got a job right out College at Falcom.

What is their impact/legacy?
While their series never really reached the popularity of series like FF and DQ; they helped set the template for RPGs.

Their known series are:
Dragon Slayer/Xanadu
Zwei
Ys
The Legend of Heroes

In particular:
Dragon Slayer was one of the first action rpg's and layed the foundations for the genre. Games like The Legend of Zelda followed the footsteps of this series. The series diverged into the Xanadu series with the last game being Tokyo Xanadu (2015).

I'm not that familiar with the Zwei series, so I can't really say much.

However, the Ys and The Legend of Heroes series are their flagship and most popular series.

The Ys series is one of the longest running RPG series and started in 1987. The games feature the story of Adol Christin; an adventurer who always ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time (or the opposite). Each game is fairly standalone, although direct sequels do exist. The series helped popularize mechanics such a regenerating health, although it did not create the mechanic in games; that honour goes to Hyldide. However, according to wikipedia (Not exactly the most reliable, I know) the Ys series was the second series to introduce regeneration as a mechanic. The series has sold around 5 million in total, and the head of Falcom states that sales of the series outside Japan are much higher inside Japan. Ys 8 on the switch was also a huge succes outside of Japan, and in total that game has sold over 500k. The latest game, YS IX released in September 2019.

The Legend of Heroes series, is Falcom's other lead series and it originally started out as a part of the Dragon Slayer series; but grew into it's on thing. The most well known games in this series are a part of the Trails subseries (Sky, Zero, Cold Steel); which started out in 2004. Unlike the Ys series, in which the games are fairly standalone; the Trails series is the telling of one continuous story in the continent of Zemuria. The series is not available on the switch in any way currently, but Cold Steel 3 is coming out on it in the next couple of months. Inside Japan, the Trails series is much bigger compared to the Ys series; however, both are extremely niche outside Japan. The latest game in the West is Cold Steel 3 which released in October of 2019, but in Japan the latest game is Cold Steel 4, which released in September 2018.

In terms of popularity (inside Japan), if we consider the S tier RPG series something like FF, DQ, and Pokemon; and A tier series like Persona, Fire Emblem, Xenoblade, and Tales then the Trails series would be B tier in terms of popularity. They have enough of a following that they can keep on making the games at a comfortable profit, but there are more popular JRPG series out there. For comparisons sake, The Cold Steel games sell a similar amount to the Danganronpa games in Japan. The games actually also have a fairly decent Chinese following, due to it being one of the first JRPG series to actually have Chinese translations, which are usually done by Sony.

Impact in Music
Falcom was actually one of the first Japanese developers to bother with a internal sound team (known as team jdk). As a result, the quality of their music is surprisingly high despite the company not having many people. Below are some tracks from the Ys and Trails series. They were pioneers of early game music (although none of these tracks are from that earlier period).

Speaking of which, Falcom is pretty open to letting anyone use their music. Which means that if they get a rep, we may end up getting another 50 tracks or so.

Who would the character be?
Well since this already took so long, I'm going to majorly skimp on this section.

There are only 3 likely candidates for a Falcom rep, Adol Christin (Ys), Estelle Bright (Trails in the Sky), and Rean Schwarzer (Trails of Cold Steel).

Out of these three, I believe the most likely is Adol Christin; the other two simply do not have the same legacy as him. In fact, there's probably not that many characters period that could bring in the same history as Adol. As a character, I don't really think he would bring that much new exciting things to the table, I mean he is an "anime swordsman". But Terry was just another brawler, and Sakurai made him really unique, so I doubt that he'll struggle to come up with a moveset.

TL;DR:
I think considering any character DLC in Smash a "lock" is a huge waste of time. Even if you're one of the most iconic 3rd party characters out there, there's still a high chance you'll get passed up. That said, if we're discussing potential "legacy" picks like Terry and SNK; I think Falcom and Adol have a prett good shot, for reasons I've outlined above. This took me way longer then it should have, so I'm probably not going to edit it. Hopefully it turned out well enough.
View attachment 256053

Recently been getting into Trails and eventually gonna do Ys, so this'll be a fun read.

Thumbs up for the fan content.

 

[MBRedboy31]

You know what makes this speculation period feel even longer?

Oftentimes, when there are long gaps between official Smash characters, fangames and indie platform fighters can help fill the gap. But, as far as I know, there’s barely anything regarding characters in any platform fighters other than Smash currently.

RoA has been done adding characters for quite a while, Slap City is in a period where they are focusing only on implementing Story Mode for every character (it also comes with new skins for each of them, but yeah,) SSF2‘s next characters have been known about for quite a long time so we’re just waiting for them to release, IDK what’s going on with Crusade, Brawlout has only had a minor patch recently, ect. There’s technically ROA mods still releasing frequently, but mods don’t seem quite as exciting, do they (perhaps due to their sheer quantity and their lack of fanfare, even though many of them are really well made?)

 

[SneakyLink]

Hrm I think I will write a series of 7 mini-speculation essays and release them in pieces since I don't want to write a large wall of text.

7 Characters to Look Out For in Ultimate DLC
By tehponycorn​

Spoiler: Acknowledgements/Notes

• As always, I'll check my bias at the door. These essays are speculation for speculation's sake, and comes based off of the long-scrapped RTC In-Depth series I had planned.
• These essays will play out like my previous character speculation essays, discussing why said company would collaborate with Nintendo and why said character would be chosen for inclusion. I chose 7 characters because I didn't want to write about too many characters, but also all of these characters were interesting. Some characters I wanted to write about actually picked up traction (Dante, Reimu, etc.), so I cut them.
• This essay addresses DLC in general. These characters could be Fighter 5, or they could not. I don't care to speculate Fighter 5 so much as I care to speculate DLC in general.
• As always, I'm also going to avoid discussing leaks or rumors since those aren't speculation, and hearsay should not be used in place of actual evidence. I feel the need to say this given how speculation seems centered on such nowadays.

Spoiler: Background - Beyond Nintendo

Smash Bros. is a celebration of gaming. Having grown beyond its humble origins as a Nintendo crossover, it's scope extends far beyond one single company, drawing in famous characters from a variety of companies.

"But tehponycorn!" you say, "Smash Bros. is about Nintendo first!" To which I respond with this 2018 statement from Sakurai:


With this established, in regards to Smash speculation, the sky is the limit. So long as they originate from a video game, they could realistically be in Smash Bros. So then the question I pose is: why do we stick to the same old echoed characters? Time and time again the Smash fanbase has speculated around characters only to be blindsided by picks like Joker, Hero, and Terry. These picks make sense in hindsight, yet prior to their inclusion were supported by a certain few who were laughed off until they were right, at which point these characters were seen as "obvious." In writing this essay I hope to pop the Smash Bubble for a bit and broaden the horizons of speculation. A lofty goal that I'll probably be laughed at for, but I figured I'd try nonetheless.

Spoiler: Don-chan

View attachment 256015
Forget Tales of, Tekken, Soul Calibur, KOS-MOS, Agumon, or Dark Souls. This guy. This guy. Is the true Namco dark horse pick.

Bandai Namco is an established third party company in Smash Bros. They helped develop Smash for 3DS and Wii U, and returned to help develop Ultimate. The inclusion of a Namco character is natural because of this. Sakurai even says as such in an excerpt from his 2014 book Think About Making The Video Games 2:


A Namco character being added as DLC makes sense. So then, the question becomes: why Don-chan over Namco's other characters?

Let's start with an explanation/history lesson. Don-chan is the mascot of the Taiku no Tatsujin series, which has released on a variety of platforms but is primarily known for its Japanese arcade releases. It's essentially Dance Dance Revolution, but instead of a dance pad, you drum along to the songs. I've included some gameplay from the series below:

Yes, that is Megalovania, and yes, this is important. I'll explain later.

The series runs all the way back to 2001 with its original Japanese arcade release. Since then the series has seen a large amount of releases, with no signs of stopping. I'll let the Wiki's list of releases do the talking for me:
View attachment 256032

Yes, that is 3 exclusive releases for the Wii U. That sort of support is unparalleled for most third parties, especially given how the Wii U underperformed, even domestically. This speaks more towards Namco's support of Nintendo than anything, but the fact that Taiko no Tatsujin is the series they used to support the Wii U shows something, be it the notability of the franchise, the ease of porting or making Taiko no Tatsujin games (it's practically the Just Dance of Japan), or some combination of the two with other factors.

While a majority of Taiko no Tatsujin's releases are Japanese exclusive, a good number of titles have been localized, and as of late the series has been pushing into America with the localization of both the most recent Drum Session for PS4 and Drum 'n' Fun for Switch. This puts it in a position similar to Dragon Quest wherein, despite the series large association with Japan, there is cause for inclusion to appeal to Western audiences.

A large point in favor of Don-Chan's inclusion is the sheer magnitude of series that Taiko no Tatsujin has crossed over with. Including the aforementioned Undertale, the series has crossed over with Mario, Kirby, Splatoon, Vocaloid/Hatsune Miku (which, sidenote, is performing at Coachella, the largest American music festival), Monster Hunter, Ace Attorney, Pokémon, Assassination Classroom, The Irregular at Magic High, My Hero Academia, Re:Zero, Evangelion, and many, many more. The obvious counterargument to this is the relative ease at which song rights can be obtained, especially in the face of corporate synergy and promotion opportunities. Despite this, the franchise has prominently ventured out and appeared in other franchises, such as Puzzles and Dragons, Yakuza, the Idolmaster (which only technically counts since both are Namco franchises but is worth mentioning nonetheless as the series were both popular enough to spark a crossover game), and Mario Kart alongside Pac-Man himself. Similar to Pac-Man and Dragon Quest before their inclusions, Don-chan has already interacted with Mario and co. Furthermore, Kirby, Phoenix Wright, Monster Hunter, Assassination Classroom, Touhou, and Yokai Watch were all prominently featured in a Taiko no Tatsujin RPG game, appearing as party members alongside Don-chan. Taiko no Tatsujin is unique in that it can bring together so many prominent franchises, so its inclusion in Smash Bros., which does the same thing, isn't a stretch. Don't worry about original music, since the series has that, and it has bangers.

In regards to Taiko no Tatsujin compared to other Namco series, Don-chan appeared on a 2020 New Year's celebration Twitter post alongside Pac-Man, Heihachi, Haruka from the Idolmaster series, Alphen from Tales of Arise, and Alisa from God Eater.

There was a problem fetching the tweet

At the very least, this shows that Taiko no Tatsujin is on par with Namco's other major series, which could factor into potential negotiations for characters as Namco will likely suggest their major franchises, Taiko no Tatsujin included.

As a whole, Don-chan is the dark horse pick for a Bandai Namco character. While everyone talks about other characters, I wouldn't be surprised if Don-chan beats the competition and ends up in Smash Bros.

Don-can seems interesting but the only real obstacle I see in his way is that he already is in Smash.

As part of Pac-Man's Namco Roulette Taunt like Heihachi.

Not a criticism, just a fun fact.

 

[Idon]

Broke: some shiny butt robot girl or somethin zzzZZZZZ
Woke:
DOG FACE DAD WHO IS ALSO PRETTY BOY BRO FOR SOME REASON

 

[DaybreakHorizon]

So since I'm bored and have some time, I thought I might write a decently in-depth post on why I think a Nihon Falcom rep is quite possibly one of the most under discussed characters at this point comparatively to how likely they are (kinda like SNK and Terry). It makes sense in the West because while their popularity is rising, they are still very niche. In JP, they are well known. Since they have a good bit of history/legacy allow me to go over why I think they are quite possibly one of the most important companies that are not present in any shape or form in terms of Smash. I'm not creating this post as a huge fanboy or anything (I've dabbled a bit in TLOH and the Ys series), but it's important to note how much they helped in setting the trends for the first role-playing games (similar to DQ and FF).

View attachment 256030

So first things first:

What is Nihon Falcom?
Nihon Falcom is one of the oldest Japanese video game companies that specialize in creating role-playing games; they were founded in 1981. In comparison, Enix (responsible for Dragon Quest) was founded in 1975, while Square (responsible for Final Fantasy) was founded in 1986. While the other two companies exploded in popularity with the rise of the NES, and eventually merged together; Falcom never abandoned it's PC roots even as home consoles gained popularity and stuck almost exclusively to developing for PC until the rise of the PSP, when the switched over due to the severe decline in PC game sales in JP.
While a couple of their games made it to other consoles, the porting was almost always done by an external company.

What's special about Falcom is that during their 40 year history, they haven't really expanded that much. During the current day (where they are arguably at the peak of their popularity so far), they only have around 62 employees; in comparison SNK has nearly 164 and Platinum Games has 224. They've worked closely with bigger companies such as Sony, but they have never been bought out. Despite their legacy, they've remained a relatively small scale developer of A/AA JRPG's for nearly 40 years. They typically tend to release a game every year or so.

Since they have such a long history, a lot of known people actually got their start at Falcom.

The most notable ones are:
Tetsuya Takahashi: Creator of the Xeno franchise, and one of the founders of Monolith-Soft.
Makoto Shinkai: Mostly known for his work on movies such as Your Name and Weathering With You, but he actually got a job right out College at Falcom.

What is their impact/legacy?
While their series never really reached the popularity of series like FF and DQ; they helped set the template for RPGs.

Their known series are:
Dragon Slayer/Xanadu
Zwei
Ys
The Legend of Heroes

In particular:
Dragon Slayer was one of the first action rpg's and layed the foundations for the genre. Games like The Legend of Zelda followed the footsteps of this series. The series diverged into the Xanadu series with the last game being Tokyo Xanadu (2015).

I'm not that familiar with the Zwei series, so I can't really say much.

However, the Ys and The Legend of Heroes series are their flagship and most popular series.

The Ys series is one of the longest running RPG series and started in 1987. The games feature the story of Adol Christin; an adventurer who always ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time (or the opposite). Each game is fairly standalone, although direct sequels do exist. The series helped popularize mechanics such a regenerating health, although it did not create the mechanic in games; that honour goes to Hyldide. However, according to wikipedia (Not exactly the most reliable, I know) the Ys series was the second series to introduce regeneration as a mechanic. The series has sold around 5 million in total, and the head of Falcom states that sales of the series outside Japan are much higher inside Japan. Ys 8 on the switch was also a huge succes outside of Japan, and in total that game has sold over 500k. The latest game, YS IX released in September 2019.

The Legend of Heroes series, is Falcom's other lead series and it originally started out as a part of the Dragon Slayer series; but grew into it's on thing. The most well known games in this series are a part of the Trails subseries (Sky, Zero, Cold Steel); which started out in 2004. Unlike the Ys series, in which the games are fairly standalone; the Trails series is the telling of one continuous story in the continent of Zemuria. The series is not available on the switch in any way currently, but Cold Steel 3 is coming out on it in the next couple of months. Inside Japan, the Trails series is much bigger compared to the Ys series; however, both are extremely niche outside Japan. The latest game in the West is Cold Steel 3 which released in October of 2019, but in Japan the latest game is Cold Steel 4, which released in September 2018.

In terms of popularity (inside Japan), if we consider the S tier RPG series something like FF, DQ, and Pokemon; and A tier series like Persona, Fire Emblem, Xenoblade, and Tales then the Trails series would be B tier in terms of popularity. They have enough of a following that they can keep on making the games at a comfortable profit, but there are more popular JRPG series out there. For comparisons sake, The Cold Steel games sell a similar amount to the Danganronpa games in Japan. The games actually also have a fairly decent Chinese following, due to it being one of the first JRPG series to actually have Chinese translations, which are usually done by Sony.

Impact in Music
Falcom was actually one of the first Japanese developers to bother with a internal sound team (known as team jdk). As a result, the quality of their music is surprisingly high despite the company not having many people. Below are some tracks from the Ys and Trails series. They were pioneers of early game music (although none of these tracks are from that earlier period).

Speaking of which, Falcom is pretty open to letting anyone use their music. Which means that if they get a rep, we may end up getting another 50 tracks or so.

Who would the character be?
Well since this already took so long, I'm going to majorly skimp on this section.

There are only 3 likely candidates for a Falcom rep, Adol Christin (Ys), Estelle Bright (Trails in the Sky), and Rean Schwarzer (Trails of Cold Steel).

Out of these three, I believe the most likely is Adol Christin; the other two simply do not have the same legacy as him. In fact, there's probably not that many characters period that could bring in the same history as Adol. As a character, I don't really think he would bring that much new exciting things to the table, I mean he is an "anime swordsman". But Terry was just another brawler, and Sakurai made him really unique, so I doubt that he'll struggle to come up with a moveset.

TL;DR:
I think considering any character DLC in Smash a "lock" is a huge waste of time. Even if you're one of the most iconic 3rd party characters out there, there's still a high chance you'll get passed up. That said, if we're discussing potential "legacy" picks like Terry and SNK; I think Falcom and Adol have a prett good shot, for reasons I've outlined above. This took me way longer then it should have, so I'm probably not going to edit it. Hopefully it turned out well enough.
View attachment 256053

I always love to see good fan content like this! I just picked up Dana of Lacrima so Adol getting in would be cool.

Don-can seems interesting but the only real obstacle I see in his way is that he already is in Smash.

As part of Pac-Man's Namco Roulette Taunt like Heihachi.

Not a criticism, just a fun fact.

Shhhhhhhhh

Oh gosh I forgot to look at the Roulette Taunt

 

[Hadokeyblade]

So since I'm bored and have some time, I thought I might write a decently in-depth post on why I think a Nihon Falcom rep is quite possibly one of the most under discussed characters at this point comparatively to how likely they are (kinda like SNK and Terry). It makes sense in the West because while their popularity is rising, they are still very niche. In JP, they are well known. Since they have a good bit of history/legacy allow me to go over why I think they are quite possibly one of the most important companies that are not present in any shape or form in terms of Smash. I'm not creating this post as a huge fanboy or anything (I've dabbled a bit in TLOH and the Ys series), but it's important to note how much they helped in setting the trends for the first role-playing games (similar to DQ and FF).

View attachment 256030

So first things first:

What is Nihon Falcom?
Nihon Falcom is one of the oldest Japanese video game companies that specialize in creating role-playing games; they were founded in 1981. In comparison, Enix (responsible for Dragon Quest) was founded in 1975, while Square (responsible for Final Fantasy) was founded in 1986. While the other two companies exploded in popularity with the rise of the NES, and eventually merged together; Falcom never abandoned it's PC roots even as home consoles gained popularity and stuck almost exclusively to developing for PC until the rise of the PSP, when the switched over due to the severe decline in PC game sales in JP.
While a couple of their games made it to other consoles, the porting was almost always done by an external company.

What's special about Falcom is that during their 40 year history, they haven't really expanded that much. During the current day (where they are arguably at the peak of their popularity so far), they only have around 62 employees; in comparison SNK has nearly 164 and Platinum Games has 224. They've worked closely with bigger companies such as Sony, but they have never been bought out. Despite their legacy, they've remained a relatively small scale developer of A/AA JRPG's for nearly 40 years. They typically tend to release a game every year or so.

Since they have such a long history, a lot of known people actually got their start at Falcom.

The most notable ones are:
Tetsuya Takahashi: Creator of the Xeno franchise, and one of the founders of Monolith-Soft.
Makoto Shinkai: Mostly known for his work on movies such as Your Name and Weathering With You, but he actually got a job right out College at Falcom.

What is their impact/legacy?
While their series never really reached the popularity of series like FF and DQ; they helped set the template for RPGs.

Their known series are:
Dragon Slayer/Xanadu
Zwei
Ys
The Legend of Heroes

In particular:
Dragon Slayer was one of the first action rpg's and layed the foundations for the genre. Games like The Legend of Zelda followed the footsteps of this series. The series diverged into the Xanadu series with the last game being Tokyo Xanadu (2015).

I'm not that familiar with the Zwei series, so I can't really say much.

However, the Ys and The Legend of Heroes series are their flagship and most popular series.

The Ys series is one of the longest running RPG series and started in 1987. The games feature the story of Adol Christin; an adventurer who always ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time (or the opposite). Each game is fairly standalone, although direct sequels do exist. The series helped popularize mechanics such a regenerating health, although it did not create the mechanic in games; that honour goes to Hyldide. However, according to wikipedia (Not exactly the most reliable, I know) the Ys series was the second series to introduce regeneration as a mechanic. The series has sold around 5 million in total, and the head of Falcom states that sales of the series outside Japan are much higher inside Japan. Ys 8 on the switch was also a huge succes outside of Japan, and in total that game has sold over 500k. The latest game, YS IX released in September 2019.

The Legend of Heroes series, is Falcom's other lead series and it originally started out as a part of the Dragon Slayer series; but grew into it's on thing. The most well known games in this series are a part of the Trails subseries (Sky, Zero, Cold Steel); which started out in 2004. Unlike the Ys series, in which the games are fairly standalone; the Trails series is the telling of one continuous story in the continent of Zemuria. The series is not available on the switch in any way currently, but Cold Steel 3 is coming out on it in the next couple of months. Inside Japan, the Trails series is much bigger compared to the Ys series; however, both are extremely niche outside Japan. The latest game in the West is Cold Steel 3 which released in October of 2019, but in Japan the latest game is Cold Steel 4, which released in September 2018.

In terms of popularity (inside Japan), if we consider the S tier RPG series something like FF, DQ, and Pokemon; and A tier series like Persona, Fire Emblem, Xenoblade, and Tales then the Trails series would be B tier in terms of popularity. They have enough of a following that they can keep on making the games at a comfortable profit, but there are more popular JRPG series out there. For comparisons sake, The Cold Steel games sell a similar amount to the Danganronpa games in Japan. The games actually also have a fairly decent Chinese following, due to it being one of the first JRPG series to actually have Chinese translations, which are usually done by Sony.

Impact in Music
Falcom was actually one of the first Japanese developers to bother with a internal sound team (known as team jdk). As a result, the quality of their music is surprisingly high despite the company not having many people. Below are some tracks from the Ys and Trails series. They were pioneers of early game music (although none of these tracks are from that earlier period).

Speaking of which, Falcom is pretty open to letting anyone use their music. Which means that if they get a rep, we may end up getting another 50 tracks or so.

Who would the character be?
Well since this already took so long, I'm going to majorly skimp on this section.

There are only 3 likely candidates for a Falcom rep, Adol Christin (Ys), Estelle Bright (Trails in the Sky), and Rean Schwarzer (Trails of Cold Steel).

Out of these three, I believe the most likely is Adol Christin; the other two simply do not have the same legacy as him. In fact, there's probably not that many characters period that could bring in the same history as Adol. As a character, I don't really think he would bring that much new exciting things to the table, I mean he is an "anime swordsman". But Terry was just another brawler, and Sakurai made him really unique, so I doubt that he'll struggle to come up with a moveset.

TL;DR:
I think considering any character DLC in Smash a "lock" is a huge waste of time. Even if you're one of the most iconic 3rd party characters out there, there's still a high chance you'll get passed up. That said, if we're discussing potential "legacy" picks like Terry and SNK; I think Falcom and Adol have a prett good shot, for reasons I've outlined above. This took me way longer then it should have, so I'm probably not going to edit it. Hopefully it turned out well enough.
View attachment 256053

Man, Legend of heroes. Now that's a name that hasn't run through my head in over a decade, that series was one of the first JRPG's I ever got into.

prophecy of the cursed witch was practically my gateway drug to being the filthy weeb I am today, it would be kinda weird if a character from this game got a spirit in smash.

 

[Dutch Raikuna]

Man you really did just give it away huh

smh my head man

Imagine having to listen to that quote 20 different times while attempting to beat the prologue on hard why are there no checkpoints and WHY DOES THE BOSS 1 HIT WITH EVERY ATTACK MAKING YOU HAVE TO GO BACK 20 MINUTES TO TRY AGAIN but fr you're fine man I'm just jokin' here I made it real obvious

Yeah I kinda did unintentionally.
As someone who has been really into philosophy for about 7 years, the quote has become pretty important to me. Only a few quotes from The World Ends With You rivals it.

So since I'm bored and have some time, I thought I might write a decently in-depth post on why I think a Nihon Falcom rep is quite possibly one of the most under discussed characters.

I see you used Sunshine Coastline and Blue Destination in your music choices. You sir have my respect.

 

[Yacobo]

Speaking of Falcom when I was a kid I watched my sister play the SNES port of YS3 and when Melee came out I assumed that Marth/Roy were from that game.

 

[Wunderwaft]

Ys and The Legend of Heroes are two franchises that I plan on playing some day. Literally the only thing I know about them is that a friend of mine complains to me about Rean. I dunno when I'll get to them though, I still have a lot to finish on my backlog like Pathologic 2.

 

[DarthEnderX]

I think Falcom and Adol Estelle Bright have a pretty good shot, for reasons I've outlined above.

Fixed.

 

[epicmartin7]

ALRIGHT. So, I went back to the drawing board with my linear regression model and redid some stuff. The data I collected was accurate thankfully, so I didn't need to search for stuff again!

What I ended up doing differently this time for the amiibo vs. fighter release graph was account for something small. You see, the line was basically in the middle as a reference for the plotted data. What I decided to do was find the points on the line relative to the actual data points, and calculate their differences.

I then took all the differences and averaged them all together. Then, once I found the point relating to Dark Samus and Richter's amiibo release, I found the other point on the graph being the projected release of Fighter 5. I then added the average deviation to that number and got something which I feel is a bit more approximate.

Now, in practice, there could be a negative and positive variant with the point being below or above the curve. However, subtracting the average deviation gave a day that already happened. So any negative variant can be ruled out entirely. From there, here's what I got using data from all regions.

North America: January 18th
Europe: January 21st
Japan: January 26th
Avg.: January 22nd

Again, don't take too much stock into this as this is just an approximation, but it's still pretty interesting.

 

[Droodle]

Fixed.

I would love Estelle because the Sky games are probably some of my favorite JRPG's. However, Estelle simply doesn't have the same legacy as Adol (despite the Trails games being pretty long running).

Besides that Estelle has to deal with competing with Kevin Graham, Lloyd Bannings, and Rean Schwarzer. While Kevin and Lloyd have their own issues, with Kevin only being the main character of Sky 3 and Lloyd not having either of his games released outside Japan; but Rean is different. I haven't played through Cold Steel yet but in Japan Rean is the most popular Trails character, even if his Western reception is pretty mixed.

Adol avoids the challenge of having multiple protags in a series, because he is the only major protagonist in the Ys series.

 

[Sari]

In regards to Falcom, I know she's probably the most unlikely candidate from the company though I'd be totally down for Parin from Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure.

Gurumin is such an underrated gem that has some really great tunes like this and this. I got it on Steam a few years back and loved every moment of it.

If a Falcom character actually does get in I hope Gurumin gets some representation in some way.

 

[SKX31]

There was a problem fetching the tweet

Not likely to affect Bayo that much, but if you want to be really trolly you could say that is a Platinum, SEGA, Nintendo and Tencent character now.

Could be an interesting development re: Nier and other Plat games.

 

[Will]

There was a problem fetching the tweet

Not likely to affect Bayo that much, but if you want to be really trolly you could say that is a Platinum, SEGA, Nintendo and Tencent character now.

Could be an interesting development re: Nier and other Plat games.

why is tencent suddenly absorbing every company on the planet

 

[Isaac: Venus Adept]

Platinum does work on a good chunk of projects at once so if this helps them manage that easier good for them

 

[Iko MattOrr]

In regards to Falcom, I know she's probably the most unlikely candidate from the company though I'd be totally down for Parin from Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure.

Gurumin is such an underrated gem that has some really great tunes like this and this. I got it on Steam a few years back and loved every moment of it.

If a Falcom character actually does get in I hope Gurumin gets some representation in some way.

Actually I mentioned her a few days ago... not a high priority of mine, but it's a character I'd like to see in Smash too (even though it's probably never going to happen). I've completed the game on 3DS (despite the trash quality of the port, huge framerate drops and occasionally ignoring input) on all difficulties only to unlock that second character (then realize that she was useless, just a reskin, and Parin is better). Though, I kinda enjoyed it despite the insane amount of frustration it deals on higher difficulties (and that minecart level is a glitch nightmare to S rank).

The game is a little gem IMO, maybe the gameplay is not very polished but it's still solid enough to deliver an awesome experience (and there are some nice details such as how you can wallrun by jumping near a wall).

The moveset she has in the game is already very Smash-friendly, and she can bring the mechanics of leveling up the drill by doing many consecutive successful attacks or leveling it down by being hit (that would be a new gimmick). The rhythm based critical hit system (from the PC version only) was also very clever but bad implemented imo, I wouldn't mind for another game to try this concept again and improve it. It would be nice in Smash as well, but I'd rather give this gimmick to a Rhythm Heaven character maybe.

Parin also has many victory animations and some costumes, though some of the costumes are too much fanservice so I wouldn't put them in Smash.... there are some others which would be nice instead, like the witch dress, the princess dress, the samurai armor, and those limited costumes such as the kimono and the santa dresses that appear depending on the actual date of the system.

For the moveset, I'm not sure... I thought one time ago, but I can't remember now... one gimmick I remember was that the special attacks would be different depending on the drill level (like in the original game) and each one would have a different elemental property; her side smash attacks can be turned in the opposite direction at any time during their execution like you can turn around while drilling in the original game.
The final smash can be that powerful attack of Black Bean (what it was, "neo galaxy", something like this can't remember), or something more casual such as a combined attack of all the monsters together.

About music, there's one track in this game that seems extracted from Splatoon (including the weird inkling voices) but this game is older. Aside of that, yes, there's a lot of awesome music in the game.

 

[DarthEnderX]

why is tencent suddenly absorbing every company on the planet

Because they can afford to?

 

[SKX31]

why is tencent suddenly absorbing every company on the planet

This is not them buying shares - or any piece of the company - though. Tencent gave Platinum money. It's a partnership where Tencent will expect the money invested back at some point.

 

[Will]

Because they can afford to?

Of course they can, they're an FDI. People are getting sus about Tencent's recent splurge though.

This is not them buying shares - or any piece of the company - though. Tencent gave Platinum money. It's a partnership where Tencent will expect the money invested back at some point.

Sounds like a fancy way of saying a loan.

 

[GoodGrief741]

This is late, but I agree with EricTheGamerman . I left the General Zelda Newcomer thread because it's very existence proved a problem: fans don't really around a single character for years and years, usually just a major character that was introduced in and stays within the newest Zelda game or two, which I suspect contributes to Sakurai's chronic decision to not include a full Zelda newcomer.

He mentioned that the one thing people wanted was "Ganondorf with a sword" but that was only half true. What people wanted was a version of Ganon that didn't take any moves from Captain Falcon. For some, that was giving him a sword, and, well, Ganondorf now has the DORIYAH and it's super hype so that's cool.

My desire for a Ganon that doesn't take any moves from Captain Falcon remains, however. And I think the most noteworthy "alternate Ganon" Smash could make playable is the Ganon from the 2D Zeldas. This Ganon is important because the Zelda series started off using this version of Ganon, and A Link to the Past, considered the best of the 2D Zeldas and one of the best Zeldas period, has a memorable final boss fight against him that gives Sakurai an easy moveset to work with by itself. Though Ganon doesn't play a major role in A Link Between Worlds (only his alternate universe counterpart, Yuga), he does have an updated version of his ALttP form that could be used as a basis for a Smash design.

If Zelda fans really, REALLY want another Zelda newcomer, we need a single character to rally around to make our voices heard. It isn't likely at this point for our favorite one-off Zelda characters to become playable, so, when trying to think of a good recurring candidate for Smash consideration, I think Ganon is a good place to start.

Support thread here in case anyone is curious to learn more about this version of Ganon

Why does Zelda need its fans to rally behind a single character to get newcomers aside from the main trio? Mario didn't need the entire fandom to rally behind Rosalina, Bowser Jr., Daisy or Piranha Plant to get those in.

 

[Mamboo07]

Why does Zelda need its fans to rally behind a single character to get newcomers aside from the main trio? Mario didn't need the entire fandom to rally behind Rosalina, Bowser Jr., Daisy or Piranha Plant to get those in.

Because Zelda characters people want for Smash are one offs.

 

[GoodGrief741]

Because Zelda characters people want for Smash are one offs.

How is someone like Skull Kid (three appearances in mainline games) more of a one-off than Rosalina or Daisy? Hell, for that matter, if being a one-off was an issue, we wouldn't have Rosalina, we'd have Toad.

Methinks that being a one-off has nothing to do with it. Mario also has few characters that are recurring aside from the core cast of Mario, Luigi, Peach and Bowser, yet it still gets characters that are only important in a couple of games while Zelda doesn't.

 

[Lamperouge]

While I've never played a Falcom game before in my life, much less heard of one, I'd be down with a character from Ys or The Legend of Heroes. JRPG characters are usually my favorite characters to play as in Ultimate, too.

 

[Sour Supreme]

How is someone like Skull Kid (three appearances in mainline games) more of a one-off than Rosalina or Daisy? Hell, for that matter, if being a one-off was an issue, we wouldn't have Rosalina, we'd have Toad.

Methinks that being a one-off has nothing to do with it. Mario also has few characters that are recurring aside from the core cast of Mario, Luigi, Peach and Bowser, yet it still gets characters that are only important in a couple of games while Zelda doesn't.

Ehhh the Skull Kid that everyone refers to as a unique character is really only in one, and if the others are to be considered you have even less of a case for a moveset. Not even saying I'm against it or the rationale but saying Skull Kid from Majora's Mask isn't a one off isn't fair, I don't think.

Because Zelda characters people want for Smash are one offs.

But to be fair, Rosalina is basically a one-off. She did next to nothing for Galaxy 2, Mario benefits from the sheer numerosity of its game lineup as well as its investments in spin-offs that Zelda simply doesn't have.