Here is a topic: Do you think Sakurai planned a substantial list of unique newcomers for Ultimate's first project plan like he did for Brawl and Smash 4, creating moveset concepts for every newcomer (aside from the Pokemon newcomer that is decided later), cutting down as time goes on if work on the newcomer goes unifinished (like what nearly happened with Bowser Jr., or the forbidden 7 that got cut due to Sonic and Susbpace Emissary)? Obviously veterans took priority over newcomers this time, as stated by Sakurai with it being his primary goal. Do you think he would take a different approach and only design less than 10 unique newcomers with moveset concepts in favor of veterans?
I think Sakurai has a lot of newcomer ideas he would like to implement, and I think he will development in the same approach as the previous two games. How big would the priority list actually is? Since Sakurai re-used the engine for Smash 4 to Ultimate to get all 58 characters back, character development priority list may been just focused on cut veterans and unique newcomers, which could open opportunities to develop and finish more unique newcomers Sakurai wants to implement than expected. Do you think the development of cut veterans would stand a major way against developing more unique newcomers? Or would they not intrude much because they already have a moveset developed for them?
Like, a few may have already been fully or half-way implemented previously in Smash 4's base game like Pokemon Trainer and Ice Climbers to easily port over for future reference (Like Ultimate), possibly cutting down the remaining work to just Snake, Wolf, Young Link, and Pichu. Sakurai might consider these veterans big enough work as a unique newcomer to cut down the full amount he could implement, possibly limiting the newcomer count from being able to finish 15+ unique newcomers to a measly 9-11 unique newcomers for Ultimate. For my stance on the matter, I do not think getting the remaining veterans will be a major obstacle. I think Sakurai will get a 100+ staff huge development team that will get him to implement all of his unique newcomer ideas.
That is assuming, a Subspace-like mode does not happen (Or if development for a story mode goes smoothly, fixing the mistakes that halted character development in Brawl to a large degree). Personally, I think the idea of Sakurai not at least planning 10+ unique newcomers for the project plan, with only planning a few is very unlikely, unless DLC is part of the original project plan that allows him to develop the remaining unique newcomer ideas, should game balance and the new big mode be considered major enough obstacles to Sakurai (alongside possible character development cuts due to time). Unless, Sakurai isn't thinking about DLC focusing on base game development before anything else. But what do you think?
