Official Newcomer/DLC Speculation Discussion

[RetrogamerMax]

So the big 3 made a joint announcement this morning.

RIP hackers, mods, ect. It will suck for the mod community, but at least these corporations will get the hackers who are predators and who are stealing information from others.

 

[MarioRaccoon]

I don’t see a third FP, maybe some individual fighters with no stage and spirits (like PP, maybe one new track), like a new pokémon or xenoblade (if neither those are part of FP2), dixie kong, chun li, whatever (I originally thought Sephiroth as a bonus and he become a full challanger pack lol) like a new retro rep (Mach rider? So Grinch leak live) or chorus kids, those 4 would be chosen by Sakurai and made by a more smaller team.

 

[BlondeLombax]

Sakurai said instead of a fighters pass 2 they were just going to make a few more characters unbundled together. They might be able to do that after the 2nd pass is over

gib source or git

 

[TheTuninator]

Chun-Li has been getting mentioned, so I thought it be interesting to post this

There was a post in 2018 from xenother , the guy who talked to Vergeben. He said that Chun-Li was scrapped due to moveset reasons and never made it to the Development phase

[SPOILER ALERT] - The Sevens Squares. - A Square-Enix general support threads. | Page 77 | Smashboards

Though this guy did say no Banjo, so eh. Perhaps he heard Steve a whole bunch and assumed no Steve and Banjo and Same pass, but interesting post to look back on. Don't think it's real right now, yes

I have a very hard time imaging that any fighting game character could ever be cut from Smash for moveset reasons, to be honest.

 

[PLANTMAN]

Chun-Li has been getting mentioned, so I thought it be interesting to post this

There was a post in 2018 from xenother , the guy who talked to Vergeben. He said that Chun-Li was scrapped due to moveset reasons and never made it to the Development phase

[SPOILER ALERT] - The Sevens Squares. - A Square-Enix general support threads. | Page 77 | Smashboards

Though this guy did say no Banjo, so eh. Perhaps he heard Steve a whole bunch and assumed no Steve and Banjo and Same pass, but interesting post to look back on. Don't think it's real right now, yes

Man do I regret ever 100% believing him lol

I don’t think it's best to trust him anymore despite saying Steve, besides idk where he even is these days lol

anyways the PLANTMAN (me) has returned

 

[Megadoomer]

I have a very hard time imaging that any fighting game character could ever be cut from Smash for moveset reasons, to be honest.

Heihachi Mishima from Tekken was.

“My First Conception is My Landmark,” Sakurai’s Famitsu column vol. 456

Note: Do not repost the full translation. Please use the first two paragraphs and link to this translation. For additional information, please read this post. This translation is for fan use only, …

sourcegaming.info

However, it's unclear what he means by "implementing Heihachi's moveset in Smash would be difficult" (was it Tekken's system where each button corresponds to a different limb? The 3D movement? Or something else entirely?), and considering that this was for Smash 4's base game, he was competing with Pac-Man for that spot on the roster, which seems like a losing battle for any Namco-Bandai character.

 

[Professor Pumpkaboo]

gib source or git

Thats one hell of a threat

 

[Thewafflemaker2000]

Got a source for that?

I don't think he said that. Do you have a source?

gib source or git

Haha, Im just speculating, I wouldn’t know if they are making more or not.

 

[MooMew64]

Welp, since we're about two days away from the presentation, so I might as well drop who my Mii Costume predictions are:

Spoiler

Tifa (PS1 model) - Brawler
Barret (PS1 model) - Gunner
Chocobo Hat - All Miis
Neku - Brawler
Geno - PreMiium Gunner, comes with "Beware the Forest's Mushrooms"

These are my current best guesses. Honestly, given how hard it is to get FF content, I could just see it being SE content a la carte, like so:

Spoiler

Crono - Swordfighter
Neku - Brawler
Randi - Swordfighter
Lara Croft - Gunner
Chocobo Hat - All Miis
Geno - PreMiium Gunner, comes with "Beware the Forest's Mushrooms"

Assuming Geno somehow manages to dodge the bullet, my bets are on the Knight from Hollow Knight being our PreMiium. If I keep saying this, then eventually I'll be right and get funny internet points.

 

[Idon]

Look, I'm just sayin,

If Nintendo wanted a:
sexy,
silver haired,
light skinned,
black clad,
oversized katana wielding,
twink stabbing,
slightly obsessive over a single person,
JRPG spawned
Square Enix surrogate Sora character...

They chose the wrong one.

 

[Momotsuki]

I kind of like the idea of FIghters Pass Volume 2 ending and being the last pass, but standalone DLC fighters just being things that happen every once in a while out of the blue for the remainder of the Switch's lifespan - much less frequently and less scheduled than with any passes. One, maybe two shadowdrops a year of that sort.

 

[Guynamednelson]

gib source or git

The Byleth Direct, where Sakurai said he just thought one or two fighters would suffice. IMO Steve and Sephiroth were those two.

 

[SharkLord]

Look, I'm just sayin,

If Nintendo wanted a:
sexy,
silver haired,
light skinned,
black clad,
oversized katana wielding,
twink stabbing,
slightly obsessive over a single person,
JRPG spawned
Square Enix surrogate Sora character...

They chose the wrong one.
View attachment 295557

On one hand, yes.

On the other:

 

[Rie Sonomura]

My final bets on Miis for Sephiroth’s presentation:

• Neku (Brawler)
• Lara (Gunner, it was originally Barret but I was like nah)
• 2B (Swordfighter)
• Crono (Swordfighter)
• Geno (Returning Gunner)
• Chocobo (Returning Hat)
• Non-Square Enix PreMiium: Monokuma (Brawler, Danganronpa Medley song included)

see what I did there? 7 costumes???

the other franchises that aren’t Monokuma DR have their music bundled with him. I’ll get to that in another post

...rip Sora tho he gets nothing

 

[SharkLord]

• Barret - Gunner
• Tifa - Brawler
• Chocobo Hat - Universal
• Geno - Gunner
• Crono - Swordfighter

Potentially Mallow and/or Neku in place of Crono.

 

[7NATOR]

I Mean we still got 2 Days and then some left before the presentation

But I'll guess I throw my Predictions again,

Definitely Showing up

-Chocobo
-Geno (Premium)
-Estelle Bright
-Chrono

Depends on one (or multiple) of the Next 3 FP2 Characters

-Dante
-Ryu Hayabusa
-2B
-Lloyd Irving

Maybe
-Monster Hunter
-Euden
-Tifa
-Barret


I don't think we get Real FF7 Costumes. Perhaps just spirits, but not costumes.

 

[ZeldaPlayer87]

I really do hope we get more than 2 new tracks when Sephiroth releases. Sakurai is going to need some background music during the presentation like he does for all previous presentations.

Also, I find it a bit curious that this is being advertised as a “presentation” and not a “livestream” like all of the other character presentations, and there is no listed timeframe on how long it’s going to be, and no picture of Sakurai in the thumbnail, though he’s not always in them I suppose.

Also curious is that there is no disclaimer about “no new characters” being announced like they did for Terry, Min Min and Steve prior. Joker didn’t get the disclaimer because...well it was first reveal and they probably didn’t know how they wanted to handle the tweets yet. Plus, if I recall correctly, his video was shadow-dropped. Hero didn’t get a disclaimer because we already knew the next character, which was Banjo. Banjo didn’t get the disclaimer because Terry was announced. Terry was first instance of the disclaimer. Byleth didn’t get the disclaimer because it was the last character in the pass so they probably already figured we wouldn’t expect the next one since the tweet itself was a mystery and we didn’t know about Byleth until the day of the presentation.

Min Min (or the ARMS fighter) at the time of the tweet had the disclaimer. Steve also followed suit with said disclaimer, which is usually posted the day of. It’s been roughly 4 days since Sephiroth is announced and there is no disclaimer, unless they are waiting until the day of the presentation or maybe the day before or something.

Just something to consider. I could see them announcing the next character here with a March release, then the final 2 at E3.

 

[TwiceEXE]

There are a few things that go into it, and I should probably reword my previous comment to reflect that. We don't know anything for a fact, but here goes nothing!

We recently learned that Steve was in the works for a few years, and it's plausible to suggest that Steve was handled alongside Banjo-Kazooie. Byleth was obviously chosen before Three Houses released. Min-Min (or at least an ARMS character) missed the base roster, and we didn't get an ARMS stage or music selection.

We also know that Nintendo made certain decisions, that Cloud was difficult to retain (from insiders iirc), etc. With that in mind, if you piece a few things together, it seems to suggest a few things.

1) Joker and Terry are Sakurai picks. He loved the art style of Persona 5 and he grew up playing Fatal Fury.

2) Sakurai was essentially told to add a Three Houses character, and ARMS was a special request from Nintendo. This suggests these characters are "corporate" picks, being different from the picks Sakurai made.

3) Considering the situation with Cloud (likely coming down to money issues vs. Nintendo wanting Everyone is Here), I find it plausible that the negotiations took the turn toward..."you scratch my back, I scratch yours", and resulted in Cloud in base roster, with Sephiroth pushed to DLC. While this is speculation on my part, I THOUGHT I heard that somebody, an insider, mentioned something similarly.

This could also be a bundle of nothing, but I frankly feel that where there's smoke, there's probably fire. It seems wholly plausible that picks for both passes were decided around the same time, and that Pass 2 was planned sooner than we think. At least, considering we have a three-peat going with companies from last pass (Nintendo, Microsoft, Square Enix), it seems plausible that they were negotiated for at the same time.

It ALSO would explain why certain Mii costumes didn't come back during the first Fighters Pass. There's really only two ways it would have panned out- either they selected costumes conveniently from companies we would double dip in...OR...it was planned this way from the start, especially considering we didn't get popular choices like Geno, Lloyd, and Monster Hunter costumes.

It may appear just to be me theorycrafting, and it totally might be! But I certainly think there's a case to be made for it.

OK. That certainly has some merit as a theory. What are your thoughts on Hero/DQ and how that fits into this idea? If Square Enix wanted a DLC character because it makes them more money in exchange for Cloud, wouldn't Hero fulfill that requirement? Assuming that this was negotiated all at the same time. That's my hang up about this idea. Would SE really demand two DLC characters just to license Cloud again at a reasonable price?

 

[ClaTheBae]

Is it still okay to do Bandana Dee slander here

 

[Momotsuki]

I really do hope we get more than 2 new tracks when Sephiroth releases. Sakurai is going to need some background music during the presentation like he does for all previous presentations.

Also, I find it a bit curious that this is being advertised as a “presentation” and not a “livestream” like all of the other character presentations, and there is no listed timeframe on how long it’s going to be, and no picture of Sakurai in the thumbnail, though he’s not always in them I suppose.

Also curious is that there is no disclaimer about “no new characters” being announced like they did for Terry, Min Min and Steve prior. Joker didn’t get the disclaimer because...well it was first reveal and they probably didn’t know how they wanted to handle the tweets yet. Plus, if I recall correctly, his video was shadow-dropped. Hero didn’t get a disclaimer because we already knew the next character, which was Banjo. Banjo didn’t get the disclaimer because Terry was announced. Terry was first instance of the disclaimer. Byleth didn’t get the disclaimer because it was the last character in the pass so they probably already figured we wouldn’t expect the next one since the tweet itself was a mystery and we didn’t know about Byleth until the day of the presentation.

Min Min (or the ARMS fighter) at the time of the tweet had the disclaimer. Steve also followed suit with said disclaimer, which is usually posted the day of. It’s been roughly 4 days since Sephiroth is announced and there is no disclaimer, unless they are waiting until the day of the presentation or maybe the day before or something.

Just something to consider. I could see them announcing the next character here with a March release, then the final 2 at E3.

If I'm wrong please correct me but I believe there was a disclaimer? One that clarified that Fighter 9 won't be revealed here? At least in the Japanese announcement.

 

[Scoliosis Jones]

Let me try to tackle this...

1) There is still no evidence for Sakurai picks. Sakurai has stated the selection of DLC characters has been made by Nintendo on four separate occasions now: November 2017 in a tweet, in an interview I can't quite remember now in the middle of season 1, in his Famitsu column about Byleth and finally in Steve's presentation. You might argue that he can make requests or suggestions to Nintendo, sure, but there is no evidence that Nintendo gave him carte blanche for any given spot. Also... Sakurai plays hundreds of games every year. It's hard to pin down what his favorites might be.

2) Following up on the previous point, every pick is a "corporate" pick, in the sense that the mandate ultimately comes from above and Sakurai has expressed he would only refuse characters if he doesn't know how to implement them.

3) This is purely a rumor originating from Japanese circles. It sounds quite plausible, however no insider has commented on it as far as I know.

Regarding when the pass was decided, while it's obvious Nintendo had already been kicking certain ideas around for a while, it's quite hard to believe Nintendo had already decided all these things down to the detail during development of the base game.

First of all, the elephant in the room, it's Imran Khan outright saying the second pass was greenlit during 2019, around E3 time. As far as insiders go, he's plenty credible and he obviously already knew about it before it was officially announced.

If you don't like bringing insiders into the equation there are still other pieces that don't fit: Banjo's negotiations started at E3 2018 as outright said by Rare in an interview, and Banjo was part of the first season. We also had that tweet from Sakurai on November of that year saying that DLC fighters of the Fighter's Pass had finally been decided. How could Nintendo seriously plan two seasons down to the detail when negotiations for characters that were part of season 1 were still ongoing during the year of Ultimate's release? Sounds hard to believe.

Another thing that is super suspicious but that I only noticed recently is the massive 6 month time gap between Byleth and Min Min. Originally we all assumed it might be for things like... lower budget, smaller team, being too complex, working from home, etc, etc. But then we've had Steve and now Sephiroth being released at a pretty brisk pace, somewhat similar to that of the previous pass. To me this is really a sign that the second pass didn't enter production until the second half of 2019, just like Imran suggested, and thus the reason for the first character of season 2 taking such a long time is simply that they had absolutely no work done on season 2, because it hadn't been greenlit by then.

Regarding the mii costume thing, another thing that might support this is that Joker is actually the character that came with the highest amount of mii costumes, and then every character after him reduced the amount. It might be a sign that after greenlighting season 2, they held back a few costumes that were initially intended for season 1, most notable suspects so far being Heihachi and Gil.

Simply put, even if Mr. Khan said that Pass 2 was finalized in 2019, one way in which both fit would be...additional packs being planned beforehand, while others were added on

We have 3 companies overlapping here (Nintendo, Microsoft, and Square/Enix). Beyond that, we have no idea who is coming.

I wouldn’t surprised if ARMS was a “so close” pick for base, but was chosen based on a lack of content in the game, etc

Also, I don’t think there’s much to really go over with the differences between picks being Sakurai picks vs. “corporate”. Given the fact that Sakurai outwardly made his love for Persona 5 known, as well as his love of classic Fatal Fury, I think it’s just as likely that he was given leeway with those two picks, and chose them specifically because he wanted them.

Each of these things can be true and still suggest these picks were made in advance. The entirety of season 2 may not have been finalized until E3 2019, but with Steve being in the works for 5 years, and negotiations going on for Cloud...and we now have those characters, I seems entirely plausible that some picks were always meant as additional content post-Fighters Pass.

My guess is, the decision to make it an additional Season Pass came after they had 5-6 picks planned for it.

 

[3BitSaurus]

On one hand, yes.

On the other:
View attachment 295558

You say that as if 2B couldn't kill Mario

 

[cashregister9]

Might as well throw my hat in the ring for Mii costume predictions

-Tifa (Brawler)
-Chocobo (Hat)
-Barret (Gunner)
-Geno (Gunner)
-Moogle (Hat)
-Black Mage (Swordfighter)
-2B (Swordfighter)

Definitely Showing up

-Chocobo
-Geno (Premium)
-Estelle Bright
-Chrono

You're still on that? I get what you are saying but I would not put that in a Definite category. For a Falcom swordfighter they would go with Adol and for an Aerith Expy, They would go with Aerith, FF7 Mii costumes are not that unlikely, and if for some peculiar reason they don't go with an FF7 Costume specifically, Black mage still exist.

 

[PLANTMAN]

I Mean we still got 2 Days and then some left before the presentation

But I'll guess I throw my Predictions again,

Definitely Showing up

-Chocobo
-Geno (Premium)
-Estelle Bright
-Chrono

Depends on one (or multiple) of the Next 3 FP2 Characters

-Dante
-Ryu Hayabusa
-2B
-Lloyd Irving

Maybe
-Monster Hunter
-Euden
-Tifa
-Barret


I don't think we get Real FF7 Costumes. Perhaps just spirits, but not costumes.

I don’t get it why people say geno will become a premium mii outfit, none of the mii outfits that returned from smash 4 didn’t get upgraded to premium neither did the ones that returned as dlc

when it returns it’s likley just gonna return as the same with the body and hat

 

[SharkLord]

We have 3 companies overlapping here (Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sephiroth).

Ah yes,

Sephiroth is my favorite game company

 

[Lamperouge]

I want a Bravely Default Mii costume ._.

 

[Evil Trapezium]

You know it'd actually be kind of cool if we got 2 mii costumes of Cecil. His Dark Knight outfit and his Paladin outfit.

 

[Wunderwaft]

One thing I wish to remind everyone regarding how and when Pass 2 was decided, was that when Sakurai revealed the number of fighters for Pass 2 he initially said "As stated, we will release more DLC fighters down the line. I had thought that one or maybe two would suffice". This quote makes me think that only one or two characters were planned early for DLC after pass 1 (maybe Steve and ARMS?) but after the first pass sold well Nintendo negotiated more characters and they decided on releasing a full on 6 fighter pass.

Here's the video for anyone curious:

 

[MarioRaccoon]

I think that Nintendo’s idea was to colaborate with Atlus and SNK in order to strengthen their bonds and become more active developers in switch and future hardware. Sakurai then suggests the idea to put Terry and Joker (He is fan of both games/franchises).

Its highly likely that both Banjo and Steve did very well in 2015 ballot (probably better than Bayonetta) but because of being foreign fighters (+ other factors), initial negotiations didn’t did well, and it wasn’t until 2017/18 that Nintendo started talking with Microsoft about putting crossplay in Minecraft (+ other stuff like Cuphead and Ori in Switch), that negotiations for both fighters active again. Maybe they let choose Sakurai between both Steve and Banjo for the first FP, and he chooses Banjo as being more easy to developed. Then, when they decided about a new FP, they thought of Steve as initial negotiations were already made.

 

[7NATOR]

I don’t get it why people say geno will become a premium mii outfit, none of the mii outfits that returned from smash 4 didn’t get upgraded to premium neither did the ones that returned as dlc

when it returns it’s likley just gonna return as the same with the body and hat

But The Mii Costumes that returned from Smash 4 did get upgraded Designs though. Heihachi and Gil did get updates on their mii Costumes, not to the extent of a Premium costumes, but there were updated

Premium Costumes weren't a Thing in Smash 4, but are here. yes

Might as well throw my hat in the ring for Mii costume predictions

-Tifa (Brawler)
-Chocobo (Hat)
-Barret (Gunner)
-Geno (Gunner)
-Moogle (Hat)
-Black Mage (Swordfighter)
-2B (Swordfighter)


You're still on that? I get what you are saying but I would not put that in a Definite category. For a Falcom swordfighter they would go with Adol and for an Aerith Expy, They would go with Aerith, FF7 Mii costumes are not that unlikely, and if for some peculiar reason they don't go with an FF7 Costume specifically, Black mage still exist.

My Theory crafting, and My Investigation led me to the Conclusion that if we were to get a Falcom Costume, it would be Estelle, not Adol or Rean, because of Interviews and Reddit AMAs suggest so


Also, I will acknowledge the possibility of FF7 Costumes, or Other Final Fantasy costumes, but I personally don't think we get any, except for Chocobo.

 

[3BitSaurus]

Ah yes,

Sephiroth is my favorite game company

Glad to finally have Final Fantasy - one of gaming's greatest villains - into the game. If any game franchise deserves this, it's Square Enix.

 

[I.D.]

Also, I don’t think there’s much to really go over with the differences between picks being Sakurai picks vs. “corporate”. Given the fact that Sakurai outwardly made his love for Persona 5 known, as well as his love of classic Fatal Fury, I think it’s just as likely that he was given leeway with those two picks, and chose them specifically because he wanted them.

Sakurai literally said he would try to avoid gushing over games he plays exactly because of this mentality lol
After feeling the need to repeat himself on several occasions now that he isn't personally choosing characters I think we should just try being respectful of what he's telling us

 

[Deleted member]

Mii Costume predictions are going up with that presentation being 3 days away, so I guess I'll pitch in as well.

Mii Costumes:

-Black Mage (Mii Swordfighter)
-Aerith (Mii Swordfighter)
-Barrett (Mii Gunner)
-Chocobo Hat
-Geno (Mii Gunner)

People are probably expecting Tifa to get a Mii Costume as well, but I can't really picture a Mii Costume with Tifa's figure on it.

 

[Sc_Ev0lution]

Late, but I'm pretty sure Sakurai and/or Nintendo marketing has explicitly stated Fighters Pass 2 will be the end of dlc. Too lazy to look it up atm, so I could be misremembering.

Either way, as much as I would like more dlc, each successive round gets increasingly unlikely. Yes they make money, but they can't keep Sakurai on the hook forever, and they have to start planning at some point for the next game on the next system.

 

[Deleted member]

I really do hope we get more than 2 new tracks when Sephiroth releases. Sakurai is going to need some background music during the presentation like he does for all previous presentations.

Also, I find it a bit curious that this is being advertised as a “presentation” and not a “livestream” like all of the other character presentations, and there is no listed timeframe on how long it’s going to be, and no picture of Sakurai in the thumbnail, though he’s not always in them I suppose.

Also curious is that there is no disclaimer about “no new characters” being announced like they did for Terry, Min Min and Steve prior. Joker didn’t get the disclaimer because...well it was first reveal and they probably didn’t know how they wanted to handle the tweets yet. Plus, if I recall correctly, his video was shadow-dropped. Hero didn’t get a disclaimer because we already knew the next character, which was Banjo. Banjo didn’t get the disclaimer because Terry was announced. Terry was first instance of the disclaimer. Byleth didn’t get the disclaimer because it was the last character in the pass so they probably already figured we wouldn’t expect the next one since the tweet itself was a mystery and we didn’t know about Byleth until the day of the presentation.

Min Min (or the ARMS fighter) at the time of the tweet had the disclaimer. Steve also followed suit with said disclaimer, which is usually posted the day of. It’s been roughly 4 days since Sephiroth is announced and there is no disclaimer, unless they are waiting until the day of the presentation or maybe the day before or something.

Just something to consider. I could see them announcing the next character here with a March release, then the final 2 at E3.

Can’t wait for the, “That’s it? No Smash?” comments after the Sephiroth presentation .

 

[PLANTMAN]

We doin mii predictions now?

Tifa(Brawler)
Aerith(Swordfighter)
Barret(Gunner)
Chocobo(hat)
Geno(gunner(nothing will change or be different with this one))
Neku(brawler(he won’t be a deluxe but he would bring in a track ^^))

 

[Rie Sonomura]

I want a Bravely Default Mii costume ._.

ah yes that brings me to...

my wild ass prediction of what non-Mii content Sephiroth will bring

Spirit Board:

• Barret
• Aerith
• Tifa
• Cid
• Vincent
• Red XIII
• AND HERE'S WHERE THINGS GET INTERESTING - THEY GONNA PULL A TERRY WITH HIM AND INCLUDE CONTENT FROM OTHER S-E GAMES. First up: Terra (FFVI)
• Noctis (FFXV)
• Lightning (FFXIII)
• Agnes (Bravely Default)
• Neku (The World Ends With You)
• 2B (NieR Automata)
• Edge Maverick (Star Ocean The Last Hope)
• Roddick Farrence (Star Ocean First Departure R)
• Crono (Chrono Trigger)
• ...and they're also gonna throw the Geno Spirit in here too for who heckin knows what reason

Music:

• One Winged Angel (new remix)
• J-E-N-O-V-A (Dissidia ver)
• Decisive Battle (FFVI)
• Saber's Edge (FFXIII)
• A Beautiful Song (NieR Automata)
• That Person's Name Is (Bravely Default)
• Chrono Trigger Battle Theme (Remix)
• Dragon God (Chrono Cross)
• Blood On The Keys (Star Ocean The Last Hope)
• Stab The Sword of Justice (Star Ocean Second Evolution)
• Beware The Forest's Mushrooms (Super Mario RPG)
• Twister Remix (The World Ends With You)
• ...does Tomb Raider have notable music? If so throw it here i guess

Other:

• the FIRST EVER DLC ASSIST TROPHY: Aerith Gainsborough. I'm going all in my dudes

if this happens this may be my favorite fighter pack not necessarily for Sephiroth himself but the content he brings

also i am begging u guys to play at least one (1) star ocean game. it's like tales but in SPAAAAAAAAAAACE

 

[ZeldaPlayer87]

If I'm wrong please correct me but I believe there was a disclaimer? One that clarified that Fighter 9 won't be revealed here? At least in the Japanese announcement.

I don’t know. I only found the article that was translated to “Sephiroth is the last delivery of 2020”, now I assume that means that last released character of 2020 since I translated the tweet announcement for Steve and it also said “deliver” as the verb. I haven’t yet seen any hard disclaimers. Although, looking through the Japanese Nintendo Twitter, they didn’t tweet out any disclaimers at all. I’m not sure if the other regional Nintendo twitters had disclaimers from prior presentations, which I could check, but so far they make a point of tweeting out the disclaimer on the American Nintendo Twitter at any rate. Sephiroth lacks the disclaimer.

EDIT: The disclaimer is on the Steve/Alex Presentation on the Nintendo of Spain Twitter.

 

[7NATOR]

I think that Nintendo’s idea was to colaborate with Atlus and SNK in order to strengthen their bonds and become more active developers in switch and future hardware. Sakurai then suggests the idea to put Terry and Joker (He is fan of both games/franchises).

Its highly likely that both Banjo and Steve did very well in 2015 ballot (probably better than Bayonetta) but because of being foreign fighters (+ other factors), initial negotiations didn’t did well, and it wasn’t until 2017/18 that Nintendo started talking with Microsoft about putting crossplay in Minecraft (+ other stuff like Cuphead and Ori in Switch), that negotiations for both fighters active again. Maybe they let choose Sakurai between both Steve and Banjo for the first FP, and he chooses Banjo as being more easy to developed. Then, when they decided about a new FP, they thought of Steve as initial negotiations were already made.

I will say I think Nintendo may have prioritized Minecraft over Banjo. I remember Nintendo saying that they were surprised at the excitement to Banjo. In any case they probably were fine with Banjo in Smash

As for Atlus and SNK, Possibly. They are Major Japanese (well SNK owned by Tencent China at the time of Negotiations) Companies. The Other Japanesse Companies include Koei, Cygames, Spike, Nippion Ichi, Falcom, Level-5.

-Nintendo already close with Koei (Ryu could still be in)
-I think they may have tried to Talk with Cygames about a Character at some point (If the Katalina rumors are any Indication)
-Nippion Ichi I would say is the nichest Company here
-Falcom and Spike are Other Companies (don't know what to say about them in this instance)
-Level-5 Was probably perhaps known to Close their Western branches. I remember there was a 4chan leak that leaked that their Western Branches of the company would shut down I think even a year before it was announced. Nintendo possibly saw the writing on the Wall

yes

 

[Rie Sonomura]

ah yes that brings me to...

my wild ass prediction of what non-Mii content Sephiroth will bring

Spirit Board:

• Barret
• Aerith
• Tifa
• Cid
• Vincent
• Red XIII
• AND HERE'S WHERE THINGS GET INTERESTING - THEY GONNA PULL A TERRY WITH HIM AND INCLUDE CONTENT FROM OTHER S-E GAMES. First up: Terra (FFVI)
• Noctis (FFXV)
• Lightning (FFXIII)
• Agnes (Bravely Default)
• Neku (The World Ends With You)
• 2B (NieR Automata)
• Edge Maverick (Star Ocean The Last Hope)
• Roddick Farrence (Star Ocean First Departure R)
• Crono (Chrono Trigger)
• ...and they're also gonna throw the Geno Spirit in here too for who heckin knows what reason

Music:

• One Winged Angel (new remix)
• J-E-N-O-V-A (Dissidia ver)
• Decisive Battle (FFVI)
• Saber's Edge (FFXIII)
• A Beautiful Song (NieR Automata)
• That Person's Name Is (Bravely Default)
• Chrono Trigger Battle Theme (Remix)
• Dragon God (Chrono Cross)
• Blood On The Keys (Star Ocean The Last Hope)
• Stab The Sword of Justice (Star Ocean Second Evolution)
• Beware The Forest's Mushrooms (Super Mario RPG)
• Twister Remix (The World Ends With You)
• ...does Tomb Raider have notable music? If so throw it here i guess

Other:

• the FIRST EVER DLC ASSIST TROPHY: Aerith Gainsborough. I'm going all in my dudes

if this happens this may be my favorite fighter pack not necessarily for Sephiroth himself but the content he brings

also i am begging u guys to play at least one (1) star ocean game. it's like tales but in SPAAAAAAAAAAACE

AAAAAA I FORGOT THE TWEWY MUSIC

just added it... and i call myself a neku supporter