Official Newcomer/DLC Speculation Discussion

[3BitSaurus]

I don't mean to be rude or anything but let's imagine a hypothetical scenario where Nintendo orders Sakurai to include Gran/Djeeta in the game. Two possible scenarios:

1. Sakurai goes for a portrayal that is accurate to the original game, and which would also satisfy his requirement of each DLC character bringing something new to the table.
2. Sakurai goes for a portrayal based on the much less popular and non-canon spin-off fighting game, that essentially turns the main characters into generic shotoclones for the sake of simplicity.

You seriously think the second option is more likely? To be fair you said they could prioritize mechanics other than class change, but what would those be?

I mean, don't get me wrong - a class change character, not just different weapons, but an actual class-changing character - could be really interesting. It's more like I don't have a lot of confidence they would do it if the "general" portrayal of Gran/Djeeta involves basically just a single class.

It could happen, but I'm not putting too much stock into it. Basically, if they go for a more basic approach like they did in GBFVS, then I think other characters could bring more to the table. If it does happen, though, it could be pretty cool.

As for other mechanics, I can't say much because I didn't play the original game, but isn't there a Summon system in Granblue? Elemental skills and weaknesses and weapon/class-specific skills also come to mind if they focus on a single character class.

 

[Professor Pumpkaboo]

Hold on a moment. Is Bravely Second more like a Final Fantasy X-2 kind of a thing and Bravely Default 2 is the Final Fantasy II to Bravely Default's Final Fantasy

yes, Bravely second is Defaults 2nd arc were Bravely 2 is the second season

 

[I.D.]

This Xeno thing sells pretty good. Are there any other Xeno games they could release on Switch? Preferably something already made so they can just port it over and have it fill their release schedule?

I can think of something

Spoiler

 

[Professor Pumpkaboo]

Animal Crossing at 22,40 mil

I never doubted AC for a second

 

[Arcane Jill]

Knew AC sold well but hot damn!

Given these sales, makes more sense for Nintendo to mostly sit this one out. AC and other games are still carrying them!

 

[Scoliosis Jones]

Sakurai has mentioned in the past that Bartz was of interest to him before going with Cloud, so there’s that to consider.

With Bravely Default, the entire gameplay heavily revolves around the Job system and the strategy of piling defensive actions or offensive actions by Defaulting or Braving respectively. The job system would essentially be like a stance changer, but it would likely revolve around only a few jobs, and would likely be relegated to attack/magic jobs. White mage seems to be the most fitting for somebody like Agnes, but that seems “eh” for a fighting game.

Freelancer (the base job), Monk, Dark Mage, and Knight seem pretty logical to me, as they could all function relatively different yet fill a niche. Monk is focused on average attack power and speed, but may have higher knock back and potential of being KO’d. Dark Mage would be better from a distance, but relatively strong (even though physical attacks seem to be dominant in Bravely 1), while the Knight would slower but stronger.

These are more or less ideas that I just came up with on the spot. Bravely Default is a great game with interesting characters and a lovely art style, so I’d recommend it to anybody who is seeking it. I’m not entirely sure if it’s going to actually be picked, but I do think it’s underrated.

 

[MooMew64]

Was taking a break from here yesterday so I wasn't able to post about Pikmin, so here's my thoughts:

Spoiler

Handheld Pikmin, something I've wanted for years, is finally coming. Nintendo's 2020 is saved.

And on a Smash Bros. note: Brittany for Smash.

 

[SNEKeater]

Sakurai's pic of the day. 34th anniversary of Metroid, the original released in 1986.

There was a problem fetching the tweet

Also:

 

[Hydreigonfan01]

I only visit the Geno thread when there's a new character reveal, and honestly, I don't think the thread had a non-toxic reaction to any of the five characters for the first pass. Hero was the wrong SE rep, Banjo shouldn't have gotten in before Geno, nobody wanted Terry or Byleth, and so on.

They were mostly indifferent to the ARMS reveal, but everyone was happy when Min Min was revealed. She deconfirmed Spirits, so because it directly benefited Geno, she didn't receive a lot of criticism (at the time she was revealed).

People outside the thread are usually chill, but the thread itself? It's too much.

From my experience, everyone was generally accepting of Banjo-Kazooie when I entered the thread at the time, it was Hero they were pissed about.

Edit: Off of the talk with that, I'm happy Xenoblade Definitive Edition is selling better than Xenoblade 2. It's sold about the same as Persona 5 Royal but that game came out in March, not late May.

 

[Sabrewulf238]

Now that Xenoblade is in FE territory thanks to being a consistent million seller and rotating cast meme I look forward to our next 7 Xenoblade characters

If three of those characters are Fiora, Riki and Elma I'll take it.

 

[PLANTMAN]

Now that Xenoblade is in FE territory thanks to being a consistent million seller and rotating cast meme I look forward to our next 7 Xenoblade characters

If so I think it’s finally Rex's time to shine for vol 2

 

[Lamperouge]

I'd take all the Xenoblade reps if it means Melia has a shot at being playable in Smash.

 

[Cutie Gwen]

From my experience, everyone was generally accepting of Banjo-Kazooie when I entered the thread at the time, it was Hero they were pissed about.

Edit: Off of the talk with that, I'm happy Xenoblade Definitive Edition is selling better than Xenoblade 2. It's sold about the same as Persona 5 Royal but that game came out in March, not late May. View attachment 281499

Tbf P5R had the issue the Bowser's Inside Story remake had, only that the original game's also on the ps4

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

If three of those characters are Fiora, Riki and Elma I'll take it.

INB4 the roster is:

1. Shulk
2. Rex & Pyra/Mythra
3. Xenoblade Chronicles X 2's avatar using the basic class
4. Xenoblade Chronicles 3's sword wielding protagonist
5. Xenoblade Chronicles 4's sword wielding protagonist
6. Xenoblade Chronicles 5's sword wielding protagonist
7. Xenoblade Chronicles 6's sword wielding protagonist

Now everyone hates Xenoblade Chronicles and those that don't just want a freaking supporting cast member.

 

[Rie Sonomura]

INB4 the roster is:

1. Shulk
2. Rex & Pyra/Mythra
3. Xenoblade Chronicles X 2's avatar using the basic class
4. Xenoblade Chronicles 3's sword wielding protagonist
5. Xenoblade Chronicles 4's sword wielding protagonist
6. Xenoblade Chronicles 5's sword wielding protagonist
7. Xenoblade Chronicles 6's sword wielding protagonist

Now everyone hates Xenoblade Chronicles and those that don't just want a freaking supporting cast member.

wouldn't X2's avatar just be X's avatar if X2 has transfer data from a hypothetical XCXDE?

 

[SharkLord]

INB4 the roster is:

1. Shulk
2. Rex & Pyra/Mythra
3. Xenoblade Chronicles X 2's avatar using the basic class
4. Xenoblade Chronicles 3's sword wielding protagonist
5. Xenoblade Chronicles 4's sword wielding protagonist
6. Xenoblade Chronicles 5's sword wielding protagonist
7. Xenoblade Chronicles 6's sword wielding protagonist

Now everyone hates Xenoblade Chronicles and those that don't just want a freaking supporting cast member.

It's kinda weird seeing Xenoblade 4 though 6. Do you think they'll keep the numbering system or ditch it later on?

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

wouldn't X2's avatar just be X's avatar if X2 has transfer data from a hypothetical XCXDE?

I'm not sure what they'd do but I imagine that they'd want a new avatar character so they can explain the mechanics to you and still have it make sense. Because of this, the fact that avatars are often danced around, and the fact that Elma will probably be a big part of the plot, my prediction is that Cross will canonically die offscreen and the new avatar character will fill their shoes throughout the story.

EDIT: Your idea is plausible as well, and it would be pretty interesting to see them treat it like Mass Effect.

It's kinda weird seeing Xenoblade 4 though 6. Do you think they'll keep the numbering system or ditch it later on?

Hard to say. They may change the naming scheme if the game is different enough like they did with Xenoblade Chronicles X, but I think they'll otherwise keep the number system for branding reasons.

 

[Mushroomguy12]

Happy 34th Anniversary to Metroid!

『メトロイド』発売34周年おめでとう！(激遅)#Metroid pic.twitter.com/BMuS6gnCWb

— わたりどりぃ🌸春爛漫 (@Wata_Ridley) August 6, 2020

I can’t go on without mentioning the other guys who helped make Metroid real.

-Yoshio Sakamoto
-Hirofumi Matsuoka
-Hiroji Kiyotake pic.twitter.com/lSIJ1GPZK7

— T.r.O.i.D (@McTroid) August 6, 2020

Happy Anniversary!

Thank you for remembering Sakurai... pic.twitter.com/gFCqJbLIeU

— T.r.O.i.D (@McTroid) August 6, 2020

Happy 34th Birthday, #Metroid!
Might put together a Justin Bailey costume at some point...#Metroid34 #Nintendo #SmashBros #Blender3d #Samus pic.twitter.com/uxRoBk4TvO

— Finalizer (@Finalizer14) August 6, 2020

There was a problem fetching the tweet

 

[Eldrake]

Metroid's 34th Anniversary would be a perfect time to shadowdrop Metroid 5 out of nowhere!

...annnnny second now.

 

[I.D.]

INB4 the roster is:

1. Shulk
2. Rex & Pyra/Mythra
3. Xenoblade Chronicles X 2's avatar using the basic class
4. Xenoblade Chronicles 3's sword wielding protagonist
5. Xenoblade Chronicles 4's sword wielding protagonist
6. Xenoblade Chronicles 5's sword wielding protagonist
7. Xenoblade Chronicles 6's sword wielding protagonist

Now everyone hates Xenoblade Chronicles and those that don't just want a freaking supporting cast member.

I wouldn't be so quick to assume "sword wielding protagonist" will be a set rule for the series (yes, even with the word "blade" in the title). Xenoblade X and Torna already break it and if you take into account games prior to joining Nintendo, none of them have a sword wielding protagonist, making Shulk the first one. And even then it's a very unorthodox sword.

 

[SNEKeater]

Personally I think Nintendo will not want to keep people waiting too long and we'll hear more about upcoming titles before the end of this month.

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) August 6, 2020

Not a leak or anything like that, but Zhuge thinks we will get more news from Nintendo during August. If that means first party or not, I'm not really sure. In the previous tweet he talks about first party titles so the context is there, but in the last tweet he doesn't specify.

 

[Rie Sonomura]

Personally I think Nintendo will not want to keep people waiting too long and we'll hear more about upcoming titles before the end of this month.

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) August 6, 2020

Not a leak or anything like that, but Zhuge thinks we will get more news from Nintendo during August. If that means first party or not, I'm not really sure. In the previous tweet he talks about first party titles so the context is there, but in the last tweet he doesn't specify.

Didnt Square Enix also say they wanted to report more things in August? The NiGHTS successor is probably just the appetizer before the main course

 

[Koopaul]

Handheld Pikmin, something I've wanted for years, is finally coming.

Well... You know.

 

[ALongWistfulSquiggle]

Okay, since this is just going to go in circles from now on and I doubt people are that interested in granblue conversation I'll say this as my last statement on the matter: to me thinking they could put the Granblue MCs without using the job system in any way is like thinking they could put Bartz from Final Fantasy V or Agnes from Bravely Default in the game without using the job system. Could they theoretically do it? Probably. But why? Who the hell would actually want that?

Super late to the party, and I don't know enough about Granblue to say much about Gran and Djeeta, but I'm a Bravely Default fan and I've got opinions.

A Bravely Default character in Smash with both a job system and brave/default would make the gameplay way too cluttered. You're talking about a character that self-buffs and debuffs on top of having multiple movesets (or at least variations). Picture a distant cousin of Monado Arts on something like Pokemon Trainer. It would be a character with the most extra mechanics in the game. In Bravely Default's case, it would also come with extra development work because each job comes with a new outfit. If we got a conglomerate character like some suggest, we'd be talking anywhere between 8 and 16 models for this one fighter. If not, I'd imagine at least 3, probably 4.

If you only chose one mechanic, and you chose the job system instead of brave/default, you would be picking the system that other characters could do instead of the one that only Bravely Default can bring. Personally, I wouldn't be a fan of that decision. I would reference multiple jobs in the moveset with specials, but ultimately I think a Bravely Default rep would be better off including the namesake of the game over a mechanic that could be pulled from dozens of RPGs and even action games. I just don't think both would work on one character.

For Bartz, I agree. FF V doesn't have as much going on otherwise, so it wouldn't make a lot of sense to do something else.

I believe Edea is also in the second game.

EDIT: Hold on a moment. Is Bravely Second more like a Final Fantasy X-2 kind of a thing and Bravely Default 2 is the Final Fantasy II to Bravely Default's Final Fantasy?
EDIT EDIT: If so, I want to know why Tiz is so edgy in the Bravely Second.

Tiz isn't actually edgy in Bravely Second. He just has 2.5 years worth of bed head.

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

I wouldn't be so quick to assume "sword wielding protagonist" will be a set rule for the series (yes, even with the word "blade" in the title). Xenoblade X and Torna already break it and if you take into account games prior to joining Nintendo, none of them have a sword wielding protagonist, making Shulk the first one. And even then it's a very unorthodox sword.

I'm mostly just memeing. The sword is a very common weapon to give the protagonist and every Xenoblade Chronicles main protagonist has at least one (potentially aside from Xenoblade Chronicles 2's DLC story) what with Shulk's Monado, Cross's Greatsword, Elma's Dual Swords (if you consider her to be the main protagonist of Xenoblade Chronicles X), and Rex's Greatswords so it wouldn't be farfetch'd if this was a trend going forward.

That's not even to say that it's a bad thing. It's just something that the haters would quickly latch onto in the context of Smash, and fans of the series would always be at least a little sad that none of the game's casts are being explored beyond the more vanilla poster boy/girl.

 

[MooMew64]

Well... You know.
View attachment 281502

I actually don't hate that game lol. I wanna play it eventually: It was an innocent spin-off, just poorly timed.

Heck, I don't even hate Federation Force. Only one of the spin-offs from that era of Nintendo I legit thought looked bad was Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash, Amiibo Festival, and Chibi Robo: Zip Lash (No, not because of the Scott the Woz video: I always thought the game looked meh). Games like Hey Pikmin, Federation Force, and Tri-Force Heroes were fine for what they were, they were just horribly timed. If Nintendo had them coming after the announcement of mainline titles, no one would've cared about them.

Shifting gears over to Smash Bros., I'm still feeling September is the time. Don't think we'll see another character release this year either: The other four are probably coming next year.

As for who? Uh...
Peck it, it's Bravely. You heard it here first, folks.

 

[SharkLord]

I wouldn't be so quick to assume "sword wielding protagonist" will be a set rule for the series (yes, even with the word "blade" in the title). Xenoblade X and Torna already break it and if you take into account games prior to joining Nintendo, none of them have a sword wielding protagonist, making Shulk the first one. And even then it's a very unorthodox sword.

Aren't axes and lances counted as blades too?

 

[Jerry98]

So it's Metroid's 34th Anniversary. I really hope that 2021 will be a big year for the series: maybe the Prime Trilogy remastered in the first months and then some MP4 news. I am not too optimistic, but I think that the game could be released at the end of the year.
There is also a chance that MercurySteam could be working on a Fusion sequel with Sakamoto!

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

Super late to the party, and I don't know enough about Granblue to say much about Gran and Djeeta, but I'm a Bravely Default fan and I've got opinions.

A Bravely Default character in Smash with both a job system and brave/default would make the gameplay way too cluttered. You're talking about a character that self-buffs and debuffs on top of having multiple movesets (or at least variations). Picture a distant cousin of Monado Arts on something like Pokemon Trainer. It would be a character with the most extra mechanics in the game. In Bravely Default's case, it would also come with extra development work because each job comes with a new outfit. If we got a conglomerate character like some suggest, we'd be talking anywhere between 8 and 16 models for this one fighter. If not, I'd imagine at least 3, probably 4.

If you only chose one mechanic, and you chose the job system instead of brave/default, you would be picking the system that other characters could do instead of the one that only Bravely Default can bring. Personally, I wouldn't be a fan of that decision. I would reference multiple jobs in the moveset with specials, but ultimately I think a Bravely Default rep would be better off including the namesake of the game over a mechanic that could be pulled from dozens of RPGs and even action games. I just don't think both would work on one character.

For Bartz, I agree. FF V doesn't have as much going on otherwise, so it wouldn't make a lot of sense to do something else.

Thinking more on it, I very much agree. Especially since you would either have to tie Defaulting to the shield button (which would be pretty degenerate if it was any good) or have two special moves that aren't attacks. What would be the point of the job system if it only changed one special move that isn't reserved for recovery purposes?

Aren't axes and lances counted as blades too?

I believe anything that is made for cutting is a blade, so axes do have blades on them. Spears...it depends. Aredbar has a blade (kind of), but Bandana Waddle Dee's spear does not.

Also, scissors have two blades which means that Cut Man's Rolling Cutter is also a blade...I have no idea where I'm going with this so I'm just gonna stop here.
EDIT: OF COURSE!!! The next Xenoblade Chronicles protagonist will wield a giant pair of magic scissors! You heard it here first!

 

[ALongWistfulSquiggle]

Aren't axes and lances counted as blades too?

I'd say a lance gets closer to pointy stick depending on the make, but yes, they should be. They just aren't very common design choices for main characters. Different ideas are evoked and for gameplay/animation purposes, swords are generally a bit more versatile.

Also, scissors have two blades which means that Cut Man's Rolling Cutter is also a blade...I have no idea where I'm going with this so I'm just gonna stop here.

Xenoblade 3 protag wielding the chosen razor to get rid of offensive facial hair.

 

[SharkLord]

Thinking more on it, I very much agree. Especially since you would either have to tie Defaulting to the shield button (which would be pretty degenerate if it was any good) or have two special moves that aren't attacks. What would be the point of the job system if it only changed one special move that isn't reserved for recovery purposes?


I believe anything that is made for cutting is a blade, so axes do have blades on them. Spears...it depends. Aredbar has a blade (kind of), but Bandana Waddle Dee's spear does not.

Also, scissors have two blades which means that Cut Man's Rolling Cutter is also a blade...I have no idea where I'm going with this so I'm just gonna stop here.
EDIT: OF COURSE!!! The next Xenoblade Chronicles protagonist will wield a giant pair of magic scissors! You heard it here first!

Combat scissors, you say?

 

[SKX31]

Personally I think Nintendo will not want to keep people waiting too long and we'll hear more about upcoming titles before the end of this month.

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) August 6, 2020

Not a leak or anything like that, but Zhuge thinks we will get more news from Nintendo during August. If that means first party or not, I'm not really sure. In the previous tweet he talks about first party titles so the context is there, but in the last tweet he doesn't specify.

That sounds plausible. I am kinda agreeing with Zhuge too when he thought that Nintendo "should look to acquire or work with additional partner studios to create new first party content for Switch with long term content updates." because they rely very much on their first party games and years like this feel sparse.

The acquiring part I agree with - they only have Retro in the west IIRC (we talked about this recently didn't we?). And for working with partner studios, there's Mario + Rabbids as a well-recieved example. Can there be backlash against this? Yes, there can be. But it's worth exploring regardless. While I've complained lots re: Pokemon Unite (the way they announced it being one reason), I can definetely see the appeal a Pokemon MOBA has, and it looks decent so far (with obligatory "before release" disclaimer). At least it's experiments a bit*.

*(Albeit to people uninterested in the genre it'll come off as a carbon copy because the genre's been rather static and one of those genres noted for its popularity first and foremost.)

 

[Sc_Ev0lution]

Combat scissors, you say?

DON'T LOSE YOUR WAY!

IN YOUR MIND, WE HAVE TO BEEEEEEEEE AS ONE!

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

Combat scissors, you say?

Wait, this idea has been do-

"Metal Gear Rising Revengance"

and suddenly I'm no longer surprised.

 

[Rie Sonomura]

If we get a big thing this month, I’m HOPING they do an E3 style double Smash reveal with full Sakurai Presents breakdowns in the following months

maybe an early tease of FP9 in December, release of FP9 in March 2021
pls let FP7 be Neku and FP9 be Elma

 

[SharkLord]

Wait, this idea has been do-

"Metal Gear Rising Revengance"

and suddenly I'm no longer surprised.

Yeah, MGRR is pretty absurd. It's made even better by Raiden dismissing them as "gimmicky bull****," then taking them for himself. At then they take off a quarter of the posses health bar and skip entire phases.

Yeah.

If we get a big thing this month, I’m HOPING they do an E3 style double Smash reveal with full Sakurai Presents breakdowns in the following months

maybe an early tease of FP9 in December, release of FP9 in March 2021
pls let FP7 be Neku and FP9 be Elma

I'm kinda expecting a reveal for Isaac CP7 in a September direct, followed by a tease for Reimu in a Bad Apple-style trailer CP8 without any gameplay, a la Terry.

 

[Koopaul]

I actually don't hate that game lol. I wanna play it eventually: It was an innocent spin-off, just poorly timed.

Heck, I don't even hate Federation Force. Only one of the spin-offs from that era of Nintendo I legit thought looked bad was Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash, Amiibo Festival, and Chibi Robo: Zip Lash (No, not because of the Scott the Woz video: I always thought the game looked meh). Games like Hey Pikmin, Federation Force, and Tri-Force Heroes were fine for what they were, they were just horribly timed. If Nintendo had them coming after the announcement of mainline titles, no one would've cared about them.

Federation Force is leagues better than Hey! Pikmin. Hey! Pikmin isn't bad, it's just very slow and kind of mediocre. Federation Force is actually really really fun.

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

...followed by a tease for Reimu in a Bad Apple-style trailer CP8 without any gameplay, a la Terry.

Explanations for Reimu's joining of Smash:

• Someone burned down her shrine.
• She wasn't given a letter, but her travels lead her to Smash and now everyone's trying to beat her up for some reason.
• Marisa steals her letter before she can even open it, but she ends up arriving anyway in hot pursuit of Marisa.
• She attempts to take down Galeem and Dharkon.

 

[Sc_Ev0lution]

Explanations for Reimu's joining of Smash:

• Someone burned down her shrine.

I knew letting Clownpiece live in the basement was a bad idea, now Reimu's homeless and has to beat up plumbers.

 

[MooMew64]

Federation Force is leagues better than Hey! Pikmin. Hey! Pikmin isn't bad, it's just very slow and kind of mediocre. Federation Force is actually really really fun.

Federation Force was made by Next Level Games too, and they're a talented bunch. It's just a shame it came at a time where anything other than an announcement of Prime 4 was gonna cause drama. Poor thing never stood a chance in the climate that the Metroid fandom was in at the time.