Official Next Smash - Speculation & Discussion Thread

[PeridotGX]

How likely do you guys think Smash 6 has started devolopment?

I genuinely don't know. Sakurai has been working on the series for basically a decade straight, I wouldn't be surprised if he wanted to do a new game unrelated to Smash. But that would mean the next Smash would be towards the end of the next system's life, which I can't imagine Nintendo is going to want. They could get someone else to develop it while Sakurai goes and does whatever he wants to do, but finding someone able to make a game like Smash seems near impossible (especially if Sakurai was totally out of the picture). Either Nintendo lets one of it's biggest games take forever to come out, or Sakurai dedicates another 5 years to the series - I'm not sure who loses.

 

[dream1ng]

How likely do you guys think Smash 6 has started devolopment?

I think if it is in development, the earliest it began is this year. I don't think they would disband the dev team if Smash 6 development was going to start in 2022, the next year. Assuming Namco is still the dev, ofc.

Normally I'd say I think it of course would be in development by now because Nintendo always wants Smash on their systems towards the beginning, and therefore it's always in development at least the year before the system launches. But thinking on it more, them wanting a little distance from Ultimate isn't so crazy, because I don't think they're going to try to top it.

They could buy themselves some time and deliver a deluxe version. If so, that could be in some stage of development now. But if they're starting again, that's probably further away. That could feasibly not be in development yet. That could even be separated by a different Sakurai game in the interim.

The thing I'm most confident on, though, is I don't think the only thing Sakurai is doing right now is making those videos.

 

[andrewnixon48160]

I've just published my first 'zine with an article about increasing future Smash roster-size. If you enjoy this, please check out my Etsy page where I list the full 'zine for sale: The Armchair Miyamoto

Spoiler

 

[EarlTamm]

I genuinely don't know. Sakurai has been working on the series for basically a decade straight, I wouldn't be surprised if he wanted to do a new game unrelated to Smash. But that would mean the next Smash would be towards the end of the next system's life, which I can't imagine Nintendo is going to want. They could get someone else to develop it while Sakurai goes and does whatever he wants to do, but finding someone able to make a game like Smash seems near impossible (especially if Sakurai was totally out of the picture). Either Nintendo lets one of it's biggest games take forever to come out, or Sakurai dedicates another 5 years to the series - I'm not sure who loses.

I feel like there was an article in the past where Sakurai revealed that they had attempted to train a successor in the past, but it apparently went poorly. Does anyone else remember something like that?

 

[Pacack]

I've just published my first 'zine with an article about increasing future Smash roster-size. If you enjoy this, please check out my Etsy page where I list the full 'zine for sale: The Armchair Miyamoto

You obviously put a lot of work into this, Andy, but I'm afraid that's not quite how making a video game works. Thanks for sharing, though.

I feel like there was an article in the past where Sakurai revealed that they had attempted to train a successor in the past, but it apparently went poorly. Does anyone else remember something like that?

Near the end of this article.

Also, not that anyone was asking, but I'm still working on an analysis of my predictions roster and I'm about through the SEGA characters now. Should be done tomorrow sometime. The thing ballooned to 7000 words.

 

[EarlTamm]

Near the end of this article.

Also, not that anyone was asking, but I'm still working on an analysis of my predictions roster and I'm about through the SEGA characters now. Should be done tomorrow sometime. The thing ballooned to 7000 words.

Thanks for the link, as that is exactly the article I was thinking of.

Not to add on to the already long analysis, but I am curious: Is Hatsune Miku on the list? Not like a big supporter of her or anything (Though the Voltage stuff going on right now has been pretty cool and is probably why she came to mind at all), I just find her an interesting topic of discussion. Last time I believe she was brought up here it she was generally seen as a grey area.

 

[dream1ng]

I've just published my first 'zine with an article about increasing future Smash roster-size. If you enjoy this, please check out my Etsy page where I list the full 'zine for sale: The Armchair Miyamoto

Congratulations, those pictures managed to bring back a long forgotten feeling of seeing something I could tell I was not old enough to process or feel comfortable with.

And that's... nothing if not an interesting concept, and the presentation is well organized, but there's no way it wouldn't be broken in terms of gameplay balance and visuals. To say nothing of the workload, which is ironic given this idea was apparently to reduce work for developers. But this wouldn't do that.

It's also not really what a lot of people value about Smash, which is how faithfully it incorporates characters. To that end, from a legal perspective it's just basically unworkable: too many of the parties, especially Nintendo, would never greenlight their characters becoming... these things.

Plus,

> Wouldn't you want to mix Kirby with every character just to see what would emerge?

Yeah, that's his neutral special.

Also pretty sure trying to set up shop in the middle of the thread is frowned upon here.

 

[osby]

Not to add on to the already long analysis, but I am curious: Is Hatsune Miku on the list? Not like a big supporter of her or anything (Though the Voltage stuff going on right now has been pretty cool and is probably why she came to mind at all), I just find her an interesting topic of discussion. Last time I believe she was brought up here it she was generally seen as a grey area.

While Miku is heavily associated with SEGA due to Project Diva games, she's actually a third-party character for them and her developer and owner is actually Crypton Future Media.

 

[EarlTamm]

While Miku is heavily associated with SEGA due to Project Diva games, she's actually a third-party character for them and her developer and owner is actually Crypton Future Media.

Totally true, though I can't hello but associate Miku and Sega given how Project Diva is a pretty consistent series from them in comparison to other Sega franchises, even if it is a team up between them and Crypton Future Media. It does make me think about why there is a perceived greyness to her hypothetical inclusion. Only answer I can come up with is that Miku herself has a pretty nebulous foundation, with her being an actual expensive piece of software people use to make music that just so happens to have this iconic character attached.

I gotta be honest, me trying to word this out has led me down a very weird thought experiment that I don't have any chance of conveying and would probably not matter in the face of actual legal workings of this very specific product. I do find it fun in a strange way though.

 

[dream1ng]

Sakurai has been working on the series for basically a decade straight, I wouldn't be surprised if he wanted to do a new game unrelated to Smash. But that would mean the next Smash would be towards the end of the next system's life, which I can't imagine Nintendo is going to want.

Not necessarily. If Sakurai started working on his next non-Smash project the year after Ultimate ended, with most of his games having a ~3 year dev cycle, it could be out next year or the year after. Which could put the next Smash in the 2027/2028 range, which would be closer to mid-cycle than late-stage. Assuming the system doesn't bomb.

And then if that game's DLC lasted similarly to Ultimate's, it would close out around 2030/2031, which would coincide with the system likely winding down.

 

[Gengar84]

I noticed that they showed off two League of Legends universe games in this Direct. Do you think these along with the Ruined King RPG on the Switch increase our likelihood of seeing a League of Legends character in Smash? I also saw a new Contra game that actually looks pretty good this time. I’m pretty happy to see that as it can’t hurt the chances of seeing Bill and Lance at some point too.

 

[fogbadge]

I noticed that they showed off two League of Legends universe games in this Direct. Do you think these along with the Ruined King RPG on the Switch increase our likelihood of seeing a League of Legends character in Smash? I also saw a new Contra game that actually looks pretty good this time. I’m pretty happy to see that as it can’t hurt the chances of seeing Bill and Lance at some point too.

perhaps it means good things for nanu

 

[Gengar84]

perhaps it means good things for nanu

Yeah, I suppose that’s possible. I never really followed the mainline games so I don’t know if Nunu is a preexisting character or if he is popular. I do like the design of his yeti though. I would imagine they’d go with a character that’s popular in the main series like Jinx or Ahri but I really don’t know.

 

[fogbadge]

Yeah, I suppose that’s possible. I never really followed the mainline games so I don’t know if Nunu is a preexisting character or if he is popular. I do like the design of his yeti though. I would imagine they’d go with a character that’s popular in the main series like Jinx or Ahri but I really don’t know.

I don’t either. my main experience with it is my brother and his pals swearing at it and the last few episodes of archane

 

[Gengar84]

I don’t either. my main experience with it is my brother and his pals swearing at it and the last few episodes of archane

One of my friends is a huge fan of the mainline game and has tried to get me into it for a long time. Strictly competitive multiplayer online games like LoL aren’t really my thing but I do like a lot of characters I’ve seen. I’d highly recommend watching the entirety of Arcane. Going in with basically no knowledge of LoL’s story or characters beforehand, I still found it to be a really awesome show. It reminded me a bit of my favorite anime, Full Metal Alchemist. Arcane made me a fan of the lore and I’m looking forward to the second season and any other RPGs after Ruined King.

 

[Perkilator]

Because I’m bored: which side characters would you like to see over the protagonist?

 

[fogbadge]

One of my friends is a huge fan of the mainline game and has tried to get me into it for a long time. Strictly competitive multiplayer online games like LoL aren’t really my thing but I do like a lot of characters I’ve seen. I’d highly recommend watching the entirety of Arcane. Going in with basically no knowledge of LoL’s story or characters beforehand, I still found it to be a really awesome show. It reminded me a bit of my favorite anime, Full Metal Alchemist. Arcane made me a fan of the lore and I’m looking forward to the second season and any other RPGs after Ruined King.

yeah I don’t do competitive online either, don’t know why I keep going back to splatoon. my brother got me to play one game of lol against bots and it went badly

 

[Geno Boost]

Because I’m bored: which side characters would you like to see over the protagonist?

Geno
Grovyle from PMD
Hsein-Ko
Sub-Zero
Stephen from SMT

 

[Gengar84]

Because I’m bored: which side characters would you like to see over the protagonist?

The number one for me is Magus from Chrono Trigger but there are a lot more. Here’s a few off the top of my head:

Zegram Ghart (Rogue Galaxy)
Jenna Anderson (Astral Chain)
Sub-Zero (Mortal Kombat)
Gengar over regional starter (Pokémon)
Tharja, Rhinka, or Petra over newest lord (Fire Emblem)
Goombella (Paper Mario)
Illidan Stormrage (WarCraft)
Sarah Kerrigan (StarCraft)
Fulgore (Killer Instinct)
Lulu (Final Fantasy X)
Mitsuru or Kanji over protagonist (Persona)
Lu Bu (Dynasty Warriors)
Etna (Disgaea)

 

[fogbadge]

Geno
Grovyle from PMD
Hsein-Ko
Sub-Zero
Stephen from SMT

Bit late for geno to get in first

 

[Gengar84]

Bit late for geno to get in first

Yeah, I had a few I’d have liked to get in first like Medusa and Nia but the mains are already in. I’m not saying they necessarily should have made it first beyond my own personal bias.

 

[DarthEnderX]

Because I’m bored: which side characters would you like to see over the protagonist?

Nightmare [SoulCalibur]
Diablo [Diablo]
Zero [Mega Man X]

Geno

How can you pick Geno "over" the protagonist, when the protagonist is already in the game?

 

[Gengar84]

Nightmare[SoulCalibur]

How can you pick Geno "over" the protagonist, when the protagonist is already in the game?

Yeah, that’s another one I forgot to mention. I’d be equally happy with Astaroth because I love his design and is usually my main but Nightmare makes more sense and is also really cool.

I’ve never played the games but going just by design, I like Susano’o from BlazBlue more than Ragna. Hakumen is also really cool.

My most wanted characters are usually just based on my own personal favorites rather than who does or doesn’t deserve it. On that note, my favorite Dynasty Warriors characters are actually Gan Ning and Zhu Rhong but Lu Bu is probably in my top five. Kotaro Fuuma is my favorite Samurai Wariors character followed by Ina.

 

[fogbadge]

Yeah, I had a few I’d have liked to get in first like Medusa and Nia but the mains are already in. I’m not saying they necessarily should have made it first beyond my own personal bias.

nias main isn’t in

 

[Gengar84]

nias main isn’t in

That’s technically true. I always saw Pyra and Mythra as co mains with Rex but I understand that Rex is actually the true main character, kind of like Tidus is the main but more of the story revolves around Yuna.

 

[fogbadge]

That’s technically true. I always saw Pyra and Mythra as co mains with Rex but I understand that Rex is actually the true main character, kind of like Tidus is the main but more of the story revolves around Yuna.

that’s a very good comparison

 

[CapitaineCrash]

I've just published my first 'zine with an article about increasing future Smash roster-size. If you enjoy this, please check out my Etsy page where I list the full 'zine for sale: The Armchair Miyamoto

Spoiler

This genuinely an amazing idea and it's obvious that you've put a lot of effort into that, but yeah I don't want to sound mean but it's pretty obvious that you know nothing how game development work. Even with a Smash 64 size roster (12 characters) this idea would take WAY MUCH MORE time to implement than making the Ultimate roster from scratch + 10 newcomers or so.

Because I’m bored: which side characters would you like to see over the protagonist?

Well the obvious answer for me is Scorpion or Sub-zero, I mean, I never saw anyone really beg for Liu Kang either way so...

Also Pyramid head and Diablo would make cool vilain rep before the protagonist. Vault boy could be also pretty cool, he already have a mii.

 

[Geno Boost]

Nightmare [SoulCalibur]
Diablo [Diablo]
Zero [Mega Man X]

How can you pick Geno "over" the protagonist, when the protagonist is already in the game?

To be more specific some people see SMRPG Mario as it’s own thing just like they see Paper Mario and RPG Mario & Luigi as it’s own thing

 

[Noipoi]

Because I’m bored: which side characters would you like to see over the protagonist?

Sans Undertale

 

[Gengar84]

Nightmare [SoulCalibur]
Diablo [Diablo]
Zero [Mega Man X]

How can you pick Geno "over" the protagonist, when the protagonist is already in the game?

I agree with all three of yours. I wasn’t sure whether to include Diablo since I didn’t know whether the main antagonist and namesake of the series counted as a side character. Zero broke off into his own series so I wasn’t sure on him either. I’d definitely be hyped for all three of these.

 

[DarthEnderX]

I agree with all three of yours. I wasn’t sure whether to include Diablo since I didn’t know whether the main antagonist and namesake of the series counted as a side character.

Well, when they said "over the protagonist" I took that to mean "anyone but the protagonist".

 

[Gengar84]

Well, when they said "over the protagonist" I took that to mean "anyone but the protagonist".

Yeah that makes sense. I guess I just interpreted it a bit differently but I see where you’re coming from.

There’s something I’m personally a bit conflicted on. Which would everyone lean towards in a character in your most wanted lists: How much you liked the character in terms of design, backstory, and personality or how unique and interesting their moveset would be in Smash?

A perfect example for me is Lulu Vs Yuna from Final Fantasy X. Lulu has always been my favorite character from FFX but Smash already has multiple elemental spell casters. Lulu’s main distinguishing feature is a Rosalina like doll manipulation for her basic attacks. Yuna was my personal least favorite character from the game but the concept of a summoner character in Smash is exciting. I also really like the design of many of her Aeons. It’s tough for me to decide who I’d be more excited to see.

 

[Sucumbio]

There’s something I’m personally a bit conflicted on. Which would everyone lean towards in a character in your most wanted lists: How much you liked the character in terms of design, backstory, and personality or how unique and interesting their moveset would be in Smash?

For me, Snake is a good example of this process. His design has a good "fun" factor, is fairly intuitive, easy to pick up and strong in the competitive sense. All around well designed.

Then take Mega Man. I've tried but ... boy is he hard for me to use. His design is not very fun for me, his buttons feel strange... he does posses some strong meta tools so he's prolly lower high tier but it's just not enough for me to get consistent results. As such I feel his design is lacking compared to Snake.

So as for a MW design, I'd be leaning toward a good "fun" factor, ease of use and strong tools to compete with.

 

[Gengar84]

For me, Snake is a good example of this process. His design has a good "fun" factor, is fairly intuitive, easy to pick up and strong in the competitive sense. All around well designed.

Then take Mega Man. I've tried but ... boy is he hard for me to use. His design is not very fun for me, his buttons feel strange... he does posses some strong meta tools so he's prolly lower high tier but it's just not enough for me to get consistent results. As such I feel his design is lacking compared to Snake.

So as for a MW design, I'd be leaning toward a good "fun" factor, ease of use and strong tools to compete with.

Yeah, Mega Man is tricky for me to get the hang of too. Whenever I try to use him against the AI, I always find myself spamming his forward smash and not using much else. I’m sure a lot of that is because of my general lack of skill but I always found Samus to be much easier to use despite their similarities.

 

[Will]

I understand Mega Man pretty well, I just don’t have the technical skills to execute his bread and butter combos, nor do I understand his matchups.

I thought I understood the Belmonts until YoseFu kicked my ass so bad in a tournament I couldn’t process what was happening. Even against a good Mega Man I could always get a few hits in. I couldn’t touch this man. I still don’t think I’ve ever won a set against him whenever I was unlucky enough to cross his path.

 

[Gengar84]

I always used to think I was pretty good at Smash until about halfway into Brawl. Early on, I made it into the top 8 at a local college tournament with around 100 and my brother and I both did the best in our friend group. Since then, my friend pretty much practiced nonstop while I did other things. When I tried to play with him months later, I couldn’t win a single match and I pretty much gave up playing competitively against other people. I still play Smash all the time but pretty much exclusively against level 7 computers. When my friend comes over, we just play cooperatively against the AI.

 

[Hadokeyblade]

On Smash 3DS i was kinda good as Megaman.

But for some reason when i play as him with a regular controller in Ultimate i just cant do it.

 

[Stratos]

I wonder if the Castlevania series will be revived as a video game series or if its spiritual successor Bloodstained series will continue to exist as a video game. For the Bloodstained series, it has not been confirmed whether a 4th game will be released, let alone in the future or not.

 

[Sucumbio]

To me, Hero's future seems uncertain today. But maybe tomorrow it'll look brighter.

I wonder if the Castlevania series will be revived as a video game series or if its spiritual successor Bloodstained series will continue to exist as a video game. For the Bloodstained series, it has not been confirmed whether a 4th game will be released, let alone in the future or not.

both!

 

[Gengar84]

To me, Hero's future seems uncertain today. But maybe tomorrow it'll look brighter.



both!

I feel like Dragon Quest is too big in Japan for Hero not to come back without some major shift happening in what characters are selected.