Official Newcomer/DLC Speculation Discussion

[BlondeLombax]

If we're still on the topic of Mii costumes, I've got a question concerning their music; what tracks would you want to see pop up alongside such an outfit? This is an absolute bop that I think is perfect for fighting in this game.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

Well here's a new topic...

So. Steve happened.

Steve is probably very expensive to acquire. Potentially one of the most expensive characters on the roster and most likely the most expensive third party character.

Not only that, but Steve was also a very expensive character to make.

Did Steve take most of the budget? And how will that affect the pass?

 

[SnowClaws]

I've been extremely vocal lately about a certain character that might scratch that itch for you. If you've seen some of my recent posts, she should at least be mentioned offhandedly.

That reminds me, apparently an interview with Koei Tecmo said that they haven't been contacted about Smash representation yet, but they would rather have Dead or Alive's Kasumi over Ryu. Can anyone confirm?

Well, I found a interview where Nintendo made a request for a Dead or Alive character to appears in Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water and they chosen Ayane. Who knows if history will repeated as Nintendo once asked again for a DOA fighter to shows up in Smash, and they may choose Ayane like last time.

How did Ayane come into the Fatal Frame universe? Her gameplay is quite different since she doesn’t have a Camera Obscura and needs to sneak past ghosts. Why did the team pick Ayane out of all of Tecmo’s characters and how was designing her levels different from other stages?

TO: We wanted to emphasize the collaboration aspect more between us and Koei Tecmo Games, so Nintendo suggested having a DOA character make a guest appearance. Most characters in DOA are highly seasoned fighters, but having that strength be rendered meaningless by these otherworldly ghosts is something that I think will seem pretty fresh to DOA fans.

MS: Nintendo was the one who suggested having Ayane as a guest character. I think the intention here, as discussed earlier, was to create a stronger action-oriented impression.

Source: How Fatal Frame's Creator Scares Players and His Real Life Ghost Stories (Nov 3, 2015)

 

[Cutie Gwen]

Well here's a new topic...

So. Steve happened.

Steve is probably very expensive to acquire. Potentially one of the most expensive characters on the roster and most likely the most expensive third party character.

Not only that, but Steve was also a very expensive character to make.

Did Steve take most of the budget? And how will that affect the pass?

Honestly, I doubt it. Smash 4 gave us Cloud yet he wasn't the only big character who got licensed. We got Hero last time yet we got a buttload of content with every character, even 50 songs for Terry. While we won't know the answer to this, I just don't believe it, especially as we know there's a limit Smash budget will go as seen with Sora. It probably helps that 1 character of the second pass just reused an entire model and the other doesn't animate much

 

[SharkLord]

Well here's a new topic...

So. Steve happened.

Steve is probably very expensive to acquire. Potentially one of the most expensive characters on the roster and most likely the most expensive third party character.

Not only that, but Steve was also a very expensive character to make.

Did Steve take most of the budget? And how will that affect the pass?

One of my most wanteds, Reimu Hakurei, probably has a low budget due to being owned by one guy with an overflowing bowl of keys to the Touhou vault. Another one of my most wanteds, Adol Christin, also most likely has a small budget due to being owned by a smaller, if not influential, company, and the OST is made by the same team. As such, the two of them are likely to benefit from Steve's inclusion, as Nintendo may be looking for a lower-budget game due to the high cost and effort needed for Steve.

In other words...

 

[Shroob]

Although I don't necessarily 'want' any characters for my own purposes, the only two characters I'd say I openly support are Hayabusa and Crash, and, if nothing else, Hayabusa seems to be doing well, so the sooner we get him, the happier I'll be lol.

 

[cashregister9]

I think Steve cements the fact that no one except for Nintendo has any Idea about budget, Steve probably cost thousands of dollars or he could have cost a ham sandwich, Even then we don't know if the budget is a fixed number or expandable. The lack of knowledge about anything regarding the budget makes speculating about it a bit fruitless IMO.

 

[Glaciacott]

They wouldn't have invested too many resources and budget into Steve unless they fully expected the character to make returns on that. It feels like Nintendo was very intent on making it happen well-aware of the fact Steve alone could push sales significantly, even outside of DLC.

I'm actually really curious to learn one day about that development process. At what point did they know he would be DLC? Was he at one point intended for DLC 1 before being pushed to 2?

 

[cosmicB]

I just find it funny that after Min Min and Steve, people still expect/talk about the same 10 or so characters that were talked about at the start of this pass. The only thing that changed is that Hayabusa made a big comeback, but I still find it funny. After 2 characters who I think most people did not enter this pass expecting, speculation really hasn't changed a lot. I guess you could count out Travis now though.

Some time ago after Steve, I saw someone arguing that the rest of this pass will 100% contain 4 of these characters.

• Crash Bandicoot
• Geno
• Lloyd
• Rex and Pyra
• Hayabusa
• Dante
• and characters of a similar level

And I'm like: "We're not really good at this, are we?"
Like I get why people would be confident in these sort of picks, but ALL 4?! I expected by now that people would expect at least 1 more "Surprise, you didn't expect this" type of character.

I feel like the speculation scene actually does have a pretty good handle on things, just not at the right time.

Steve was at one point a highly speculated character, but they were too early with him and all kinds of fan rules made people think he was off the table.
Conversely, Byleth seemed like a given, but not as a first pass finisher after only 3rd party characters.

There's a possibility we see more characters that were and still are assumed to be off the table, and I don't necessarily mean characters like Isaac.

 

[pupNapoleon]

I'm guessing you don't believe I think William has an actual shot at being in Smash, but to me, he is a dark horse candidate. Nioh was a pretty successful title for Koei-Tecmo and Team Ninja with the first title selling over 2 million copies and was received very well by a great amount of people. The series may be exclusive to Playstation with them publishing both 1 & 2, but Koei-Tecmo own the series just like how the Professor Layton series is owned by Level-5 despite Nintendo publishing them. While I don't think William is super likely, I could certainly see him as a possibility despite the series not having a Switch port at all. Some people would probably be miffed over a Soulslike game getting into Smash before Dark Souls thoe.

Unless of course you don't believe I think Dynasty Warriors has a chance cause I could go on about the merits that game has to warrant a spot in Smash.

Hayabusa is far more in line with the Erdrick rumors than anything around Terry. It was rare to see anything SNK related get discussed prior to the NoE leak, but Ninja Gaiden has pretty much been all over the place in speculation. It may have not been as frequent before as it is now, but Hayabusa had a much bigger following than Terry did during speculation.

I mean, I know we are talking about your opinion--- but this is the internet, and I will tell you what you think.

 

[Captain Shwampy]

I hope a character with a support thread with only one page and less than 10 posts gets in

 

[Cutie Gwen]

I hope a character with a support thread with only one page and less than 10 posts gets in

Didn't this technically happen with that one guy who made an Enderman support thread?

 

[Shroob]

I feel like the speculation scene actually does have a pretty good handle on things, just not at the right time.

Steve was at one point a highly speculated character, but they were too early with him and all kinds of fan rules made people think he was off the table.
Conversely, Byleth seemed like a given, but not as a first pass finisher after only 3rd party characters.

There's a possibility we see more characters that were and still are assumed to be off the table, and I don't necessarily mean characters like Isaac.

Just like Hayabusa.


He grows stronger and this time, random birds will not stop him.

 

[pupNapoleon]

I have a theory about this pack. It's only based on the 2 characters released thus far, but what if this pack is going to be focused on characters with unique mechanics? So far we have two of the most unique characters to ever be released in Super Smash Bros, Min Min who has no specials but attacks with an arm depending on what button you press. Now we have Steve with his mining and crafting mechanics. That would eliminate simple characters like Crash, Dixie, Bandana Dee, etc, but would leave room for more complicated characters like Rex, HWAoC Impa, and others. How would everyone feel about this? And who would you like to see if this was the style Nintendo was going for?

I could/would like to see:
Rex: Blade switching, move cancelling, and special level meter.
Impa: Clones and Sheikah slate runes.
Rillaboom: Drum beat combos
Tracer: Time travel moves

I think we are just seeing that Sakurai gets more talented with every game. Each new batch of characters tends to be more complex, overall, than the last. Which is why characters like Pacman, Villager, and Ridley, who he outright stated wouldnt work- make it in during a later rendition of the game.

 

[osby]

Honestly, I doubt it. Smash 4 gave us Cloud yet he wasn't the only big character who got licensed. We got Hero last time yet we got a buttload of content with every character, even 50 songs for Terry. While we won't know the answer to this, I just don't believe it, especially as we know there's a limit Smash budget will go as seen with Sora. It probably helps that 1 character of the second pass just reused an entire model and the other doesn't animate much

I don't think Steve will damage the quality of rest of the pass, however I believe we'll see the effects of the limited budget in some way.

Ryu and Cloud were big but other Smash 4 DLC fighters were either Nintendo characters or Bayonetta. Other than Hero, the first pass characters were noticably more low-key.

I'm not saying we won't get any big name characters from now on but personally, I lowered my expectations about them.

 

[Strider_Bond00J]

For me, I think most of my wishlist contains a mix of characters that I want who are actively speculated upon (Hayabusa, Doomguy), but also characters that either don't see much speculation (Kiryu) or seen a rise in interest thanks to the idea spreading out a lot more (Reimu Hakurei in particular). There's probably a few generals that are a bit specific or don't see much discussion that I wouldn't mind either, like the Chosen Undead or Artorias, but they're probably not all that speculated upon due to their home series not really being discussed within the context of Smash Bros. ...If this makes any sense.

 

[Cutie Gwen]

I don't think Steve will damage the quality of rest of the pass, however I believe we'll see the effects of the limited budget in some way.

Ryu and Cloud were big but other Smash 4 DLC fighters were either Nintendo characters or Bayonetta. Other than Hero, the first pass characters were noticably more low-key.

I'm not saying we won't get any big name characters from now on but personally, I lowered my expectations about them.

I mean, I mentioned how they cut costs on modeling and animating, that'd probably be a sign

 

[pupNapoleon]

here's a fun fact that definitely won't be used in the long-run.... or at least I hope not
almost every reveal up to this point (with the exception of the launch of , , and the launch of ) were revealed in a set amount of days between each other, with the wait of Fighters Pass vol 2 fighters being a bit longer

these are the days of waiting for the base reveals and most of Fighters Pass vol 1: either 36 days, 49 days, 55-57 days, or 70-75 days
and the days of waiting for Fighters Pass vol 2 thus far: 58 days or 70 days

trying to predict the date of the next reveal based on math means next to nothing, it's more of a guessing game than anything

but for history and future reference(?), I calculated the days between each and every reveal/release starting from the game's reveal at E3 2018 to Steve's reveal.
I use this to guess when the next reveal is and I've had it for quite some time.

...are you aware that you are making a pattern of prediction, and then eliminate almost half the candidates who qualify as data?

 

[DarthEnderX]

I think we are just seeing that Sakurai gets more talented with every game. Each new batch of characters tends to be more complex, overall, than the last.

I consider that a bad thing...

 

[Idon]

The thing is, people do talk about sleeper characters they think are possible. I feel like every few pages you'll find people that randomly bring up an obscure character with a small fanbase that only they and a few others think is possible.

... And then no one follows up because barely anyone's ever heard of them and no one thinks they're likely.

Unrelated, what do yall think about the Demi-fiend from Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne which has a recent rerelease in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne: HD Remaster along with a new upcoming mainline game in Shin Megami Tensei V, both of which on the Nintendo Switch?

Crickets

 

[RetrogamerMax]

Was there any other character or franchise that Vergeben mentioned in the past that we have overlooked or ignored?

 

[Cosmic77]

I don't really expect this to pan out any differently than previous batches of characters.

It's just common sense to put your best stuff first, and that's a pretty consistent trend with Smash characters in both base and post game. We might get something big in the next two slots, but after that I'd definitely recommend lowering your expectations. It's a trend that could be broken, but I feel like something along the lines of somewhat popular character + promotional character from new game is more likely than Crash Bandicoot + Sora.

 

[Shroob]

I don't really expect this to pan out any differently than previous batches of characters.

It's just common sense to put your best stuff first, and that's a pretty consistent trend with Smash characters in both base and post game. We might get something big in the next two slots, but after that I'd definitely recommend lowering your expectations. It's a trend that could be broken, but I feel like something along the lines of somewhat popular character + promotional character from new game is more likely than Crash Bandicoot + Sora.

I mean, depends on how the drops line up tbh.

Ignoring my bias towards Hayabusa right now(and how he's totally CP8), it all depends on how they line up when the packs fall and on what date. If we do "Somewhat popular character" next, which probably will drop sometime in January/early Feb, since, ya know, it'll be 100 days since Steve came out and that will be the longest wait for a character, then the question is when does the next character drop?

If CP9 drops in the spring sometime, then sure, but if they save CP9 to E3 time(Something I hope to god they don't since that'll be a massive wait), I can't see a promo drop at E3.


The main ? about expectations basically lies on where the **** the next couple drops will happen. By the time that The Game Awards happen in December, that'll already be 58 days since Steve, and by the end of December it'll be 79, if we go all of January with nothing, that'll be an even longer gap than Min Min to Steve was.

 

[Idon]

that'll be an even longer gap than Min Min to Steve was.

Would at least like to get all of Vol. 2 out before the end of Summer 2021, that'd certainly be nice.

 

[Dr.DonPatch64]

I wonder they changed the Date for the amiibo anyway

 

[Shroob]

Would at like to get all of Vol. 2 out before the end of Summer 2021, that'd certainly be nice.

In a perfect world with no COVID, I'd like to believe that the pass wraps up at E3 and the December 2021 date was just reserved for absolute worst case scenarios, with drops December > Feb > April > June, or somewhat close to that.


Sadly, I fear we're in for the loooooooooong haul, even though hopefully the two most complex characters are now out of the way.

 

[Super Devon]

...are you aware that you are making a pattern of prediction, and then eliminate almost half the candidates who qualify as data?

....no? I don't think I was...?

I don't think I understand what any of that meant smh.

 

[CHAMPIONX9]

Honestly, I can't get behind the idea of "Expected = unexciting"


I mean, the fact that people are talking about 'em a lot, and the fact that people seem to legitimately want them, that seems kinda exciting to me, ya know? I understand there's burnout when that's all people seem to talk about, but there's a reason characters like Hayabusa, Crash, Doomguy, Geno etc get talked to death over, and that's because people just really want them.

It's not as simple as that. There are also people who do not care for those characters. Honestly hope that your most wanted is around the corner can also be exciting, but so can the dread that theses other characters (who end up populating the prediction lists for the rest of pass and thus leave no room for your character) other people are rooting for is what expectations are geared towards, so of course you are gonna wanna overturn expectations, maybe get introduced to a character (for me min min) that you didn't know you would like.

Spoiler

I want something unexpected, may also be a polite way of saying, I don't want your character.

It's peak "I don't care about the games or characters themselves, I just want surprises" talk.

It's being contrarian. It's not fueled by you genuinely liking the characters who are less speculated about.

Hipster talk essentially. Just without the funny hats.

I could also reduce your position to bandwagoning. After all some characters have only escalated in popularity due to increased perceived likely hood and popularity campaigns. In the end, people do gravitate toward who/what they like, and that can include surprises and new ideas. This is the fuel behind the smash speculation scene, and its why companies create lootboxes, and why nintendo reveals the characters piecemeal and with great secrecy.


Secondly, to further unsimplify this, it's a false dichotomy. Smash speculation organically has "i saw that coming" and "wtf" rolled into the outcome. It doesn't matter what "side" you choose since both will happen in one form or another.

 

[Cosmic77]

I mean, depends on how the drops line up tbh.

Ignoring my bias towards Hayabusa right now(and how he's totally CP8), it all depends on how they line up when the packs fall and on what date. If we do "Somewhat popular character" next, which probably will drop sometime in January/early Feb, since, ya know, it'll be 100 days since Steve came out and that will be the longest wait for a character, then the question is when does the next character drop?

If CP9 drops in the spring sometime, then sure, but if they save CP9 to E3 time(Something I hope to god they don't since that'll be a massive wait), I can't see a promo drop at E3.


The main ? about expectations basically lies on where the **** the next couple drops will happen. By the time that The Game Awards happen in December, that'll already be 58 days since Steve, and by the end of December it'll be 79, if we go all of January with nothing, that'll be an even longer gap than Min Min to Steve was.

After Min Min, I don't think a promo drop at E3 is completely out of the question. Not sure if it's more likely than a "big" character, but still very plausible.

Actually, if BotW2 is getting the focus at E3 2021, that would be a golden opportunity to reveal a Zelda character. Not entirely sure if we'd really get a Zelda character in this pass, but I think someone like that would make a lot of sense to people given the timing.

 

[Shroob]

After Min Min, I don't think a promo drop at E3 is completely out of the question. Not sure if it's more likely than a "big" character, but still very plausible.

Actually, if BotW2 is getting the focus at E3 2021, that would be a golden opportunity to reveal a Zelda character. Not entirely sure if we'd really get a Zelda character in this pass, but I think someone like that would make a lot of sense to people given the timing.

I mean, I feel like it completely depends where the chips fall in the end. We don't really 'know' how fast the next characters will come out, hell, we don't even know if we'll have an E3 this year and if ****ing BotW2 will just get a shadow dropped Direct, we can 'assume' a 3 month gap since it was 3 months between Min Min and Steve, but then Steve also needed a ****ton of work so who's to say if things don't get a bit faster now if all the future characters are less intensive?


In a perfect world, we go back to how the first pass was now that Steve's done, with a character every 2 months and don't worry about the December 2021 deadline, but COVID and all that fun ****.

 

[Arcane Jill]

Unrelated, what do yall think about the Demi-fiend from Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne which has a recent rerelease in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne: HD Remaster along with a new upcoming mainline game in Shin Megami Tensei V, both of which on the Nintendo Switch?
View attachment 288772
Crickets

I honestly think he has a pretty good shot. It would make sense even without the remaster to include him since he has always been the most popular mainline protag, similar to Cloud, the remake just helps him even more. His moveset is also the most unique compared to other SMG protags, which helps him stand out from joker visually and gameplaywise.Joker hurts his chances a bit imo, but he's not out yet, def rooting for him.

 

[GoodGrief741]

If the rest of the pass was...

Geno
Lloyd
Monster Hunter
Ryu Hayabusa

How would you react?

That's a 10/10 pass, you got 2 huge fan wants, a rep from a massive series, and a legacy pick with Hayabusa.

Also, all the people who are calling it meh right now would be praising Sakurai and team if this pass were actually real.

call me a hipster but i like being the contrarian. It gets lonely liking and wanting characters no one else does but at least im not just being a sheep

Don't you support Travis, Sora, and Professor Layton? Hardly uncommon taste there.

Well here's a new topic...

So. Steve happened.

Steve is probably very expensive to acquire. Potentially one of the most expensive characters on the roster and most likely the most expensive third party character.

Not only that, but Steve was also a very expensive character to make.

Did Steve take most of the budget? And how will that affect the pass?

Did Steve take most of the budget? Yeah, probably. Or, at least, I wouldn't expect any other big characters in the Pass. It should be smaller third parties and Nintendo characters from now on. That's how it was for the first Pass as well, with only Hero (presumably) costing a lot and the rest being lower-profile series, and with this Pass having more characters the budget's being spread thinner.

 

[Shroob]

Even though I don't necessarily think we're getting another character this year, if we did get one, it'd kinda 'fix' the issue a lot of people have been having when it comes to mapping out how next year's reveals will drop, namely, no matter what you do, if you stretch it out until December, you're going to have a massive gap somewhere, one that's actually quite a bit longer than the time between Min Min to Steve was.

I kinda just don't see the DLC going all the way until December next year. The December 31st date is very much a placeholder date to give them wiggle room in case something bad happens, and so far, outside of COVID, the team seems to be doing well working from home. Min Min and Steve were hard characters yes, but I feel like they were always going to take a bit of extra development time, Min Min due to needing to get set up and used to working from home, and Steve because... every ****ing stage needed to be redone.


I feel like when people try to stretch out the reveals til December, you're always left with a massive content drought somewhere that puts the Min Min > Steve gap to shame, especially since people tend to forget that this year still has two and a half months to take into consideration, so a 4-5 month gap kinda always creeps in somewhere in these predictions, and I just don't expect a gap that big. Steve's was due to how much work he needed, same with Min Min, with having to get set up at home due to COVID probably not helping at all, I just doubt any of the next 4 will be insanely complex, barring someone like, I dunno, Dante.



Do I 'think' a character could come December...? I dunno. I guess it's not impossible. If anything, it'd put us roughly like how it was with the first pass, with a character coming out 2 months after the last, but that's also just wishful thinking. I kinda feel like it's strange how adamant some insiders are that Hayabusa is next now, and Ryza's team flat out said today that she's not in, so I guess Hayabusa in December wouldn't be too crazy, especially if they announce the Trilogy at TGAs, but again, I just don't really 'know'.


I definitely don't think we'll be waiting until bloody MARCH though. If we go from Steve to March with nothing, well, let's put that into perspective:

The gap between Min Min's "ARMs Character teaser" and her official reveal was 88 days.

The gap between Min Min's reveal and Steve's reveal was 101 days, but we also know he was held back to coincide with Minecon, so it'd probably have been sooner otherwise.

From October 13th, the day Steve comes out, to March 1st, that's 139 days, that's basically over 1/3rd a year, that makes Steve's wait look like a literal joke. Mind you, Min Min to Steve was 101 days, but we kinda know now that roughly 2 weeks of that was just him being held back to line up with Minecon, so had Minecon not been a thing and he had released when he was supposed to have, he probably would have only been what, 80-something days between? Pretty much on par with what Min Min's wait time was.


I feel like some people think it has to go to December to celebrate Ultimate's 3rd anniversary, but considering they didn't do anything for the first one, and probably won't do anything for the 2nd one, I kinda doubt the third one will be any different. If anything, I think the best way to celebrate Ultimate's 3rd anniversary would be to have everything done and in the game already and then hold some kind of big tournament, but that's just me.



Again, I don't necessarily think a December reveal is likely, or that we'd even get one, but I'm also not ruling it out entirely, and at the very, very latest, sometime early-mid January, because if it's NOT January, then the Steve gap is going to start being something that people look back on fondly.


....and now because this is soo long, no one's gonna read it lmao.

 

[PSIGuy]

Unrelated, what do yall think about the Demi-fiend from Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne which has a recent rerelease in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne: HD Remaster along with a new upcoming mainline game in Shin Megami Tensei V, both of which on the Nintendo Switch?

For the listening pleasure of the thread; the results from a series-wide music popularity contest starting from #25, as background noise while you consider these very very very good points concerning one Demi-Fiend and his potential for Smash Bros;

• Unique design and aesthetic (glowing tattoo demon boi) to stand out from the other baker's dozen JRPG characters already in Smash
• Built like a brawler but plenty of potential for unique mechanics (buffs, debuffs, demon summoning, elemental affinity swapping etc)
• Fighter Pack is easily maleable in terms of content size; Nocturne has enough for a full pack by itself but they could go the SNK route and feature the whole mainline series with music, spirits and cameos to play up that lingering Nintendo console presence
• Hangs out with Dante - proud co-owner of the most ridiculous crossover advertisement sticker ever

 

[Pinguino21v]

I'd be down with characters that used to be highly speculated and talked about but drastically fell off in the speculation scene due to perceived disconfirmation.

That is the only correct answer. Most of you are jumping on the new big flavor of the month(s) like Dante or Doom Slayer, meanwhile some people are awaiting to get their characters since Brawl, and not only characters with niche support I mean. This pass was made to "please the fans" said Sakurai, and some former winners of the polls that occured during Sm4sh DLC or previous to Smash Ultimate release are getting overshadowed.

While K Rool, Ridley and Banjo got in, there are still a few characters alongside them that were and are still highly supported - and still missing - like Geno, Shantae, Isaac or Phoenix Wright.

Isaac and Phoenix, especially - and in my own opnion - are not enough speculated. I have the impression people expect some "expected but not too much expected" characters. Basically, like Terry or Steve, characters where, once announced, everyone says "yes, that makes sense, it was obvious, we should have seen it coming". And both Isaac and Phoenix are in that bag IMO, Isaac both because he is one of the few characters that would bring a new Nintendo IP as fighter and because he is a long requested character, and Pheonix because its strong ties to Nintendo and the new genre he would bring.

Meanwhile, at the same time, some are too inclined to repel these characters, because of some kind of unfounded AT rule or because the prevalence of Dante.

The speculative scene should lower its expectation and stop believing that we will have 4 incredible third parties to end the pass. It's highly improbable. One more strong headliner is probable (Crash?), one other recognizable third party is possible (Ryu?), but the rest will be chill picks like those I mentionned.

 

[Animegamingnerd]

I think we are overlooking one thing when it comes to budgets. A large amount of the budget is used to actually pay the staff making the fighter such as the programming, modeling, and animating said fighter, its possible that Steve cost more then the other fighters just due to the staff having to work on him over a longer period time then they would have with other fighters because they had rework every stage just for one mechanic.

 

[7NATOR]

I think we are overlooking one thing when it comes to budgets. A large amount of the budget is used to actually pay the staff making the fighter such as the programming, modeling, and animating said fighter, its possible that Steve cost more then the other fighters just due to the staff having to work on him over a longer period time then they would have with other fighters because they had rework every stage just for one mechanic.

Pretty Much. I mean at the least with Steve, It seems The Model is Ported from Minecraft, and the Animating and Sounds were pretty easy as well, it was just the Programming that was a nightmare. Of course since Minecraft is the best Selling Game in the World, and Steve has been a Very Frequent Request among the Smash Casual Audience and even some of the Hardcore, I'd say the Effort was worth it


Plus there's stuff like the Stage, and of course the Balancing.

That's why For DLC, It's good for a character to have a Good Ratio of the Following Factors

Relevancy
Popularity (Within Home Fanbase, Casual Audience, On Nintendo, Smash Fanbase)
Moveset Potential
Moveset Implementation Easiness
Lack of Licensing Troubles (Costs, Restrictions, etc)
Any Extra Benefits (Promotion)

 

[PSIGuy]

Smash Ultimate’s final additions mirroring the initial reveals would be a nice bookends for what’s basically been a big heaping of fan service. Maybe a final mode addition like a recreation of Melee’s Adventure Mode or a Boss Rush (featuring a dedicated Master Hand mode) as well.

I don’t know if they’d actually add a character like Isaac or Geno as a full fighter let alone sell them as DLC, but it’d be nice to see.

 

[Shroob]

That is the only correct answer. Most of you are jumping on the new big flavor of the month(s) like Dante or Doom Slayer, meanwhile some people are awaiting to get their characters since Brawl, and not only characters with niche support I mean. This pass was made to "please the fans" said Sakurai, and some former winners of the polls that occured during Sm4sh DLC or previous to Smash Ultimate release are getting overshadowed.

While K Rool, Ridley and Banjo got in, there are still a few characters alongside them that were and are still highly supported - and still missing - like Geno, Shantae, Isaac or Phoenix Wright.

Isaac and Phoenix, especially - and in my own opnion - are not enough speculated. I have the impression people expect some "expected but not too much expected" characters. Basically, like Terry or Steve, characters where, once announced, everyone says "yes, that makes sense, it was obvious, we should have seen it coming". And both Isaac and Phoenix are in that bag IMO, Isaac both because he is one of the few characters that would bring a new Nintendo IP as fighter and because he is a long requested character, and Pheonix because its strong ties to Nintendo and the new genre he would bring.

Meanwhile, at the same time, some are too inclined to repel these characters, because of some kind of unfounded AT rule or because the prevalence of Dante.

The speculative scene should lower its expectation and stop believing that we will have 4 incredible third parties to end the pass. It's highly improbable. One more strong headliner is probable (Crash?), one other recognizable third party is possible (Ryu?), but the rest will be chill picks like those I mentionned.

I mean, Steve was talked about A ton, last year and 2018 before Banjo got in the game. Like, there were legit wars raged over Banjo vs Steve. Steve was nowhere near a Terry in terms of an "didn't see it coming" kind of reveal, because for a long, long time, he was basically a FOTM character like Dante, like Doom Slayer, like Monster Hunter that everyone talked about.


The only reason that Steve talk stopped was because Banjo got in, and people assumed correctly that we wouldn't get a 2nd Microsoft character in the first pass, but once the 2nd Pass was revealed, all bets were off.

 

[Dinoman96]

Even after the second pass was announced, a lot of people still dismissed Steve and really, a second Microsoft rep in general and just assumed that Banjo was a special exception because of his history with Nintendo + fan demand.