Poll: SSB4 Roster Size, What's it gonna be?

[pickle962]

Since we know of roughly 30 characters who are going to be in the game (and seemingly all of them starter at that given how usually secret characters like Marth and Luigi have been shown extensively in screenshots), my guess is that we've got a good 16-21 remaining characters we have yet to see and I say 16 to 21 because technically only 29 characters have been shown thus far.

Anywhom, its a safe bet that veterans like Ness, C. Falcon, and Jigglypuff will be in the game no doubt about it. Characters like Ganondorf, Falco, Wario, or even Mr. Game and Watch also seem to have a strong chance of returning. I can't see characters like Snake, Ivysaur, Lucas, Wolf, or Squirtle returning and I was honestly surprised that Lucario and Charizard have made the cut. That said, my guess is we might get a new or returning character or two revealed via screenshots from the site and we'll definetly get another Nintendo Direct at E3 later this year showcasing any final additions to the starting roster including the possibility of a newcomer reveal. (my money is on a tekken character or Pac-Man given Namco's involvement with smash 4) Oh and a release date for the 3ds version of smash bros 4

After that, we'll just have to wait and see who is and isn't in the game as well as how big the final roster is. The first game had 8 starters and 4 secrets (12), Melee had 15 starters and 11 secrets (26), Brawl had 25 starters and 14 secrets (39), so its safe to say ssb4 will continue the trend of having a bigger roster than the last game and like I said, we know of 29 characters thus far and we'll probably see 2 or 3 more at the next Nintendo direct which will be around the time of E3. Once the games out, there will probably be like 10-15 unlockable characters in the game so my guess is the final roster will have like 45 to 50+ characters total.

 

[Neanderthal]

Let's not get too carried away with the recent reveals as an indicator.
Here's everything Sakurai has actually said regarding SSB4's roster size:


"In terms of quantity, we’ve probably already reached the limit of what’s feasible. I think a change of direction may be what’s needed."
- July 2, 2012

"It isn't a matter of ‘If the next game has 50 characters, that'll be enough… There is a certain charm to games that have huge casts of playable characters, but they tend to have issues with game balance and it becomes very difficult to fine-tune each character and have them all feel distinctive."
- July 2, 2012

“Adding new characters is not a simple addition – it’s really multiplication. The amount of work, adding a character is multiplied and becomes bigger and bigger as you go. We can’t because of the amount of work it takes."
- June 20, 2013

“We don’t have the time to fully recreate every single character who’s been in Smash Bros at this point.”
- June 20, 2013

 

[Hulk Smash-bros]

Let's not get too carried away with the recent reveals as an indicator.
Here's everything Sakurai has actually said regarding SSB4's roster size:


"In terms of quantity, we’ve probably already reached the limit of what’s feasible. I think a change of direction may be what’s needed."
- July 2, 2012

"It isn't a matter of ‘If the next game has 50 characters, that'll be enough… There is a certain charm to games that have huge casts of playable characters, but they tend to have issues with game balance and it becomes very difficult to fine-tune each character and have them all feel distinctive."
- July 2, 2012

“Adding new characters is not a simple addition – it’s really multiplication. The amount of work, adding a character is multiplied and becomes bigger and bigger as you go. We can’t because of the amount of work it takes."
- June 20, 2013

“We don’t have the time to fully recreate every single character who’s been in Smash Bros at this point.”
- June 20, 2013

This game is literally whats gona make or break the wii u, do you honestly think we wont receive a bigger roster after 6 and a half years? i understand what they are saying about balancing difficulty with more characters but let's be honest here, has ssb ever really been balanced? i think most of it is based on skill but their are definitely better characters then others. and as far as what sakurai has said in the past, dont trust that man because he is the troll among all trolls.

 

[pickle962]

This game is literally whats gona make or break the wii u, do you honestly think we wont receive a bigger roster after 6 and a half years? i understand what they are saying about balancing difficulty with more characters but let's be honest here, has ssb ever really been balanced? i think most of it is based on skill but their are definitely better characters then others. and as far as what sakurai has said in the past, dont trust that man because he is the troll among all trolls.

This post right here! Balancing in fighting games is never gonna be perfect even in a fan project like Project M which makes low tier characters stand a better chance against high tier characters. Given how a SE styled story mode isn't going to be in either version of ssb4 and its safe to say stupid crap like "masterpieces" or useless additions like stage builder won't be coming back, that does free up space that can be used towards adding characters and stages. 50 might be pushing it, but again, balancing characters in a fighting game is never gonna be ideally perfect no matter what and the smash games brawl especially with all the crap its got on its disk have been known to push their respective consoles to the limit with the exception of smash 64 but that's only because it was a low budget fighting game that wasn't expected to have caught on as well as it did.

 

[Wanderer from Roseyard]

This game is literally whats gona make or break the wii u, do you honestly think we wont receive a bigger roster after 6 and a half years? i understand what they are saying about balancing difficulty with more characters but let's be honest here, has ssb ever really been balanced? i think most of it is based on skill but their are definitely better characters then others. and as far as what sakurai has said in the past, dont trust that man because he is the troll among all trolls.

That honor goes to Mario Kart 8.

Anyway, it's not like the game has been in nonstop development for those six and a half years. SSB4 will have been in progress for as long as Brawl was once it's over, and splitting resources to two different versions of the game probably had as much of an impact on development as SSE did on Brawl.

 

[Chiroz]

Let's not get too carried away with the recent reveals as an indicator.
Here's everything Sakurai has actually said regarding SSB4's roster size:


"In terms of quantity, we’ve probably already reached the limit of what’s feasible. I think a change of direction may be what’s needed."
- July 2, 2012

"It isn't a matter of ‘If the next game has 50 characters, that'll be enough… There is a certain charm to games that have huge casts of playable characters, but they tend to have issues with game balance and it becomes very difficult to fine-tune each character and have them all feel distinctive."
- July 2, 2012

“Adding new characters is not a simple addition – it’s really multiplication. The amount of work, adding a character is multiplied and becomes bigger and bigger as you go. We can’t because of the amount of work it takes."
- June 20, 2013

“We don’t have the time to fully recreate every single character who’s been in Smash Bros at this point.”
- June 20, 2013

Yea but you have to remember, transformations are now their own slots. So keeping that in mind Brawl had 39 characters (39.5 counting Mewtwo who was started but not near finished).

Since you like to quote Sakurai it was said by him that SSE took well over half of the development time (Let's assume "well over" is 60%). So with the ability to port every single Brawl character, with the SSE now gone, with about 4 months more of development time than Brawl had (will be around 7-8 more months once 3DS version is released) would you not think that 10 newcomers without any cuts is feasible? Or maybe 12-13 newcomers with 2-3 cuts? I mean, sure they are doing overhauls to every single character and also actually focusing on balancing, buffing characters that needed it and making sure they match up. But even all of that doesn't add up to the amount of time SSE took.



So basically, they have:

1. About 7-8 more months of development
2. Ability to port 40 movesets instead of 22
3. About 2-2.5 times more development time and effort (Since SSE is now gone).


Detractors:

4. Many characters are getting an overhaul which means more time
5. Characters are now being balanced thoroughly which takes much more time
6. Every new character is actually much harder to implement than the previous because of quotes reasons so going from 22-40 is much easier than going from 40-50



All in all, I would say point number 3 completely trumps 4 and 5 and then some. Point 2 and 1 assures that there is a great possibility for a good number of newcomers, at least around 2/3 of what Brawl had. Since Brawl had 18 newcomers with 4 cuts (for a total of 14 new characters) I would expect at least 10 newcomers and 1 extra newcomer for every cut there is.

We already have 6 newcomers shown which already puts the number of characters at 45 just with the characters that have been shown.

My guess is 50-52 chracters

 

[Andinus]

This post right here! Balancing in fighting games is never gonna be perfect even in a fan project like Project M which makes low tier characters stand a better chance against high tier characters. Given how a SE styled story mode isn't going to be in either version of ssb4 and its safe to say stupid crap like "masterpieces" or useless additions like stage builder won't be coming back, that does free up space that can be used towards adding characters and stages. 50 might be pushing it, but again, balancing characters in a fighting game is never gonna be ideally perfect no matter what and the smash games brawl especially with all the crap its got on its disk have been known to push their respective consoles to the limit with the exception of smash 64 but that's only because it was a low budget fighting game that wasn't expected to have caught on as well as it did.

Yeah, but I doubt the wii u version will just be single player and multi player modes, it is certain to have something special like the 3ds version will. Not to mention they have clearly put a bit more thought into online play this time around.

 

[Scoliosis Jones]

I'm telling you guys right now they aren't going to cut R.O.B and Game & Watch.

If you look at the veterans we're pretty much guaranteed to get, that gives us:
Wario
Ness
Captain Falcon
Meta Knight
Ice Climbers (assuming the 3DS doesn't can them)
At least one of Falco and Wolf
Ganondorf
R.O.B
Game & Watch
Jigglypuff

That's 10, taking our roster to 39 from the 29 we currently have. They're not going to cut R.O.B and Game & Watch. There's no logical reason to cut them.

Ike, Snake, Lucas and Wolf CAN be cut, but Ike especially was a fan favorite as far as Newcomers are concerned, so I personally don't think he's as likely to be cut as everybody seems to think. He wasn't added simply to replace Roy, and I'm sure Chrom won't be added simply to replace Ike. Lucas is in a similar boat. Mother only has 2 characters, and there really isn't a suitable replacement for him. So if he's cut, then it's just Ness. After 3 games, I can't see this happening.

So lets say Ike and Lucas stay. That turns it into 41 characters. Add some likely newcomers, like Pac-Man, Miis, Palutena, Chrom, Shulk...that takes you to 46. That isn't even considering Mewtwo if he comes back.

It's not going to be a roster expansion like Brawl, but it's not going to end up being like 8 newcomers. That would be asinine.

 

[Superyoshiom]

I can definitely see over 40 characters into the game, but just to be sure, let's take a look at the remaining charters from Brawl that will most likely be in:

1) Wario
2) Meta Knight
3) Ganondorf
4) Ice Climbers
5) Game and Watch
6) Falco
7) Ness
8) Jigglypuff
9) Captain Falcon

Now let's look at some extremely popular characters that have a decent chance of making it in:

1) Palutena
2) Chrom (or anyone else from Awakening)
3) Mewtwo (Greninja doesn't hurt his chances, Pokemon is a huge series, and already had 6 reps in Brawl)
4) Dixie Kong/ K. Rool (It's a safe bet that we'll get a new DK rep in this game)

So that's 13 more characters, and we're currently at 29, so 29 plus 13 equals 42. I was including the safest characters here, so we'll probably get more than that.

 

[Dairz]

I think its a safe bet that this game will have 10-13 newcomers in total. If the cut characters include Snake, Wolf, Ivysaur and Squirtle, then the roster size would be 45-48. That sounds pretty reasonable. 50+ is ridiculous- cuts will happen, and there isn't going to be 15+ newcomers this time around.

 

[TheTuninator]

I think its a safe bet that this game will have 10-13 newcomers in total. If the cut characters include Snake, Wolf, Ivysaur and Squirtle, then the roster size would be 45-48. That sounds pretty reasonable. 50+ is ridiculous- cuts will happen, and there isn't going to be 15+ newcomers this time around.

Why not?

Furthermore, why is 48 characters reasonable but 50 ridiculous?

 

[Dairz]

Why not?

Furthermore, why is 48 characters reasonable but 50 ridiculous?

Adding characters is a huge effort because they have to create their model, movesets, balance them, then balance them against every other fighter. Even if it was just two more fighters, it would still take alot of time, which frankly- they don't have. (also I said 50+ not 50, but whatevs)

 

[TheTuninator]

Adding characters is a huge effort because they have to create their model, movesets, balance them, then balance them against every other fighter. Even if it was just two more fighters, it would still take alot of time, which frankly- they don't have. (also I said 50+ not 50, but whatevs)

SSB4 will likely have been in development longer than any other Smash title. A big increase in roster size isn't guaranteed, but to toss out the possibility of 15+ newcomers as completely absurd feels very narrow-minded.

50+ includes 50.

 

[N3ON]

Moved to Character Discussion.

 

[Dairz]

SSB4 will likely have been in development longer than any other Smash title. A big increase in roster size isn't guaranteed, but to toss out the possibility of 15+ newcomers as completely absurd feels very narrow-minded.

50+ includes 50.

Oops, I meant +50. Anyways, Sakurai himself has stressed that adding characters gets increasingly difficult and that they're more focused on balance rather than roster size. I feel like my view is logical, not narrow-minded. I'm not tossing the idea of a 50+ roster, I'm saying its very unlikely.

 

[Goten21]

I think you guys are underestimating the amount of cuts we'll get. Snake, ROB, Lucas, Wolf, Ike, Squirtle, and Ivysaur all are likely to be cut. That brings Brawl's 39 down to 32. Add in the 6 newcomers we have so far and you get 38. We'll probably get two to three more newcomers. That puts our total around 40.

You're leaving out the characters we're supposed to unlock in-game, which Sakurai has confirmed to not spoil.
Realistically speaking, 5 characters. That gives us 45 (you know, only if he actually does announce 2 more newcomers, or else that would give 43)

 

[Dark Phazon]

Judging by what Sakurai said i think trying to make as much vets return and give them a make over is higher priority than adding Newcomers.

In general 14 Newcomers would be ideal and i think is fair.

 

[Andinus]

You're leaving out the characters we're supposed to unlock in-game, which Sakurai has confirmed to not spoil.
Realistically speaking, 5 characters. That gives us 45 (you know, only if he actually does announce 2 more newcomers, or else that would give 43)

But even if the roster only ends up being 42-44, that still gives us up to 15 characters we don't know about. Being only a few months from release I think at most they will reveal 5 more to us leaving 10 unlocks for the game. I'd say that sounds like plenty.

 

[Chiroz]

But even if the roster only ends up being 42-44, that still gives us up to 15 characters we don't know about. Being only a few months from release I think at most they will reveal 5 more to us leaving 10 unlocks for the game. I'd say that sounds like plenty.

So you think Sakurai already revealed every single newcomer and there are none left, or are you expecting a mass amount of cuts? Because if all Brawl Veterans were to return we would already be at 46.

That would be 2 cuts plus a cut for every extra newcomer.

 

[DeathFox137]

Well, if you ask me, I think that below 45 is abit more realistic. The reason is that Sakurai is trying his best to balance each character and yet he thinks that having too many characters would ruin the roster balancing credibility. I would not be surprised if we only have like 8 or 9 newcomers and yet I would be okay with it. I mean, I guess that is just me. Besides, he made an article saying that he is on the brink of death choosing what characters would fit. He also says that adding new characters is like multiplication. So, to me I don't think we are gonna have as many newcomers though. I mean, that is the way I sort of see things from the looks of things. I could be wrong.

 

[TeenGirlSquad]

50 is almost guaranteed. All the veterans, plus the Sal leaks, is 51. Minus Squirtle and Ivysaur is 49, but I REALLY doubt that we know of all the newcomers yet. Let's say that there are three newcomers we don't know about, plus Mewtwo (which I personally think is likely). You would need to cut three characters from Brawl just to get back down to 50. But maybe I'm totally off-base, and the Sal leaks have all the newcomers, and we are getting three more cuts. I personally doubt it, but it's possible.

 

[Goten21]

But even if the roster only ends up being 42-44, that still gives us up to 15 characters we don't know about. Being only a few months from release I think at most they will reveal 5 more to us leaving 10 unlocks for the game. I'd say that sounds like plenty.

You really think they'll put 10 in there? I personally don't have that much experience with character unlocking, but has this been done before?

 

[Andinus]

So you think Sakurai already revealed every single newcomer and there are none left, or are you expecting a mass amount of cuts? Because if all Brawl Veterans were to return we would already be at 46.

That would be 2 cuts plus a cut for every extra newcomer.

I'm predicting at least 5 cuts, so if the roster is 44 that that means we will get 10 new comers. Thus meaning they have 4 left to unveil. And I'm guessing we will only hear about one or two more new comers before the release.

 

[Deleted member]

We're not getting less than forty-seven characters, this I can guarantee.

If we take into account the Gematsu's leak (there's no reason to assume that it isn't true at this point), that brings us up to twelve newcomer. With all of Brawl's characters, that brings us up to fifty-one characters. However, cuts are very likely and we'll probably see a few. I'm thinking no more than three, but even if we get four (let's say Ivysaur, Squirtle, Snake and Ike), that only brings us down to forty-seven characters for this game. But, this is only in the absolute worst case scenario, which is near impossible.

What's likely to happen is that we get at least fifty characters. Aside from the the leaked/confirmed characters and only three cuts (Ivysaur, Squirtle and Snake), this also adds in Mewtwo and a retro newcomer, which should be obvious by now. We could very well get more, as characters like K. Rool as certainly not out of the ring just yet.

Overall, the range of characters will fall between forty-seven and fifty-six characters. More likely, it will be between fifty and fifty-four characters.

 

[Andinus]

You really think they'll put 10 in there? I personally don't have that much experience with character unlocking, but has this been done before?

I'm not sure somebody told me there were 10 unknowns before brawl's release, so if that is true, I don't see why not.
And as far as unlocking goes, it's been so long I don't remember how many brawl had, but I think there was quite a few.

 

[Goten21]

I'm not sure somebody told me there were 10 unknowns before brawl's release, so if that is true, I don't see why not.
And as far as unlocking goes, it's been so long I don't remember how many brawl had, but I think there was quite a few.

Well that's great then! Can't wait to get surprised by the unlocking!

 

[andimidna]

From what I've heard, the majority of Brawl's data related to Subspace Emissary.
I used to think 50.
5 x 10
But now we have Greninja.
And how are they going to leave out either Mewtwo or Jigglypuff? They should be #3 and #4 on the Pokemon priorities list.
Now, I believe in 6 rows.
I don't think they'll go back to the Melee look.
And because the past games had 9 columns, and the website has 9 columns.
I believe in a 6 x 9 roster
With or without a random slot.
So 53 or 54
Sounds like a lot, but Smash Run looks simple. What's holding them back?
They've got a large team.
I voted 50+

 

[Deleted member]

I'm not sure somebody told me there were 10 unknowns before brawl's release, so if that is true, I don't see why not.
And as far as unlocking goes, it's been so long I don't remember how many brawl had, but I think there was quite a few.

Brawl had twenty-five starters (counting transformation) and fourteen unlockables.

 

[DaDavid]

From what I've heard, the majority of Brawl's data related to Subspace Emissary.
I used to think 50.
5 x 10
But now we have Greninja.
And how are they going to leave out either Mewtwo or Jigglypuff? They should be #3 and #4 on the Pokemon priorities list.
Now, I believe in 6 rows.
I don't think they'll go back to the Melee look.
And because the past games had 9 columns, and the website has 9 columns.
I believe in a 6 x 9 roster
With or without a random slot.
So 53 or 54
Sounds like a lot, but Smash Run looks simple. What's holding them back?
They've got a large team.
I voted 50+

What's potentially "holding them back" is desire/inspiration. It's fairly clear that Sakurai is opposed to expanding the roster just for the sake of expansion. Plus adding characters, especially if they want to balance well, can't really be compared to adding a game mode like Smash Run.

Also the website isn't fixed to have x amount of columns, it depends on your resolution.

 

[pickle962]

Realistically, assuming everyone who's been shown off so far is starter (and I say this because of normally secret characters like Luigi and Marth being shown off quite a bit in screenshots and let's face it, if Sakurai is going ahead and telling us that these guys are gonna be in the game, that just makes it more likely they along with Toon Link and Lucario will be starters this go round) that puts us with quite the starting roster. My guess is at the next Nintendo Direct which probably won't be till around E3, we might get another character reveal or two alongside anymore surprises Sakurai is willing to show off before the launch of the 3ds version of SSB4! Assuming that happens, that will put us at a nice 30+ characters to start with.

Veterans like C. Falcon, Ness, Jigglypuff, Mr. Game and Watch, Ganondorf, and even Falco have a strong chance of coming back so that will add a nice 5 or so characters to the roster, then we'll be getting quite a few newcomers (my guess is like an additional 6 to the 6 we already know are going to be in the game) so that puts us at 40+ characters and there will be cuts whether you like it or not so characters like Snake, Ike, MetaKnight, Lucas, R.O.B, etc probably won't be coming back much like how Mewtwo, Roy, Dr. Mario, and Pichu didn't come back for Brawl.

And like I've said, the lack of a Subspace Emissary like adventure mode as well as the probability of scrappy mechanics like stage builder and masterpieces NOT coming back will no doubt free up space that can be used towards other things stages and characters included so that means there's a chance we could get two or three additional characters even though Sakurai has said adding new characters gets more and more complicated the more there are already along with the issue of trying to balance them all which let's be honest is never going to be ideal. There's ALWAYS going to be characters that can easily wipe the floor with other characters. That's just the name of the game my friends!

 

[andimidna]

What's potentially "holding them back" is desire/inspiration. It's fairly clear that Sakurai is opposed to expanding the roster just for the sake of expansion. Plus adding characters, especially if they want to balance well, can't really be compared to adding a game mode like Smash Run.

Well something as simple as separating Sheik and Zero Suit added 2 slots... it wasn't just for roster expansion, but that is the result.
And Toon Link is back, so clones are possible.
I think that if there is going to be hidden newcomers, that's where they could put semi clone newcomers.
We could get all unique newcomers though. I've seen very unique movesets for 40+ character choices... it's not like the options are really limited.
Balancing seems to be going better this time around.
They made Mac good on the ground, so they made him bad in the air.
They took out randomness from Olimar and Dedede, and transformations from Zelda and Samus.
I have trust in the developers they are doing a good job with this without much difficulty. Seems like all good choices so far.
It will come down to how many hidden characters there are and how many are shown at E3...
I'm not certain in my idea... but I feel like Jigglypuff and Mewtwo both need to be in.

Also the website isn't fixed to have x amount of columns, it depends on your resolution.

Oh, neat.

 

[DustyPumpkin]

I'm gonna be super optimistic and say 50 on the dot

 

[Hulk Smash-bros]

The votes on this page seem very probable, i really dont see them having any less then 46 characters, especially with all the people who are working on this game. my guess is 8 across 6 down making 47 characters plus random slot

 

[Swift Fox]

While Sakurai will not need to work on SSE mode anymore, it doesn't mean he finally have extra time to work on character and balancing stuff. There are TWO Smash Bros versions, one for Wii U and another one for 3DS, requiring some extra of works still.

9x5 with/without random icon seem very realistic IMO.

 

[Neanderthal]

Yea but you have to remember, transformations are now their own slots. So keeping that in mind Brawl had 39 characters (39.5 counting Mewtwo who was started but not near finished).

Since you like to quote Sakurai it was said by him that SSE took well over half of the development time (Let's assume "well over" is 60%). So with the ability to port every single Brawl character, with the SSE now gone, with about 4 months more of development time than Brawl had (will be around 7-8 more months once 3DS version is released) would you not think that 10 newcomers without any cuts is feasible? Or maybe 12-13 newcomers with 2-3 cuts? I mean, sure they are doing overhauls to every single character and also actually focusing on balancing, buffing characters that needed it and making sure they match up. But even all of that doesn't add up to the amount of time SSE took.



So basically, they have:

1. About 7-8 more months of development
2. Ability to port 40 movesets instead of 22
3. About 2-2.5 times more development time and effort (Since SSE is now gone).


Detractors:

4. Many characters are getting an overhaul which means more time
5. Characters are now being balanced thoroughly which takes much more time
6. Every new character is actually much harder to implement than the previous because of quotes reasons so going from 22-40 is much easier than going from 40-50



All in all, I would say point number 3 completely trumps 4 and 5 and then some. Point 2 and 1 assures that there is a great possibility for a good number of newcomers, at least around 2/3 of what Brawl had. Since Brawl had 18 newcomers with 4 cuts (for a total of 14 new characters) I would expect at least 10 newcomers and 1 extra newcomer for every cut there is.

We already have 6 newcomers shown which already puts the number of characters at 45 just with the characters that have been shown.

My guess is 50-52 chracters

Good points.
I'll add to the positives that Namco is on board this time. Meaning more resources available to pump out characters and balance them.

 

[DaDavid]

I think a lot could be said for why it COULD be done, (a 50+ roster that is) but little is known about whether or it Sakurai WANTS to do it. So, I would add to the negatives that Sakurai has gone on record saying that it isn't a matter of simply adding more characters and that he does specifically want to focus on fine-tuning what's already there.

I'm not saying this means 50+ is impossible, but there is more to consider than just what makes sense to us in terms of what is possible. We have to consider what is desired.

 

[Andinus]

Well, if you ask me, I think that below 45 is abit more realistic. The reason is that Sakurai is trying his best to balance each character and yet he thinks that having too many characters would ruin the roster balancing credibility. I would not be surprised if we only have like 8 or 9 newcomers and yet I would be okay with it. I mean, I guess that is just me. Besides, he made an article saying that he is on the brink of death choosing what characters would fit. He also says that adding new characters is like multiplication. So, to me I don't think we are gonna have as many newcomers though. I mean, that is the way I sort of see things from the looks of things. I could be wrong.

Yeah, it's not a popular opinion, but it still is very possible and has to be considered. For now I'm sticking to my guns and saying 42-44, at least until E3. I feel like the amount of character reveals we get from now until release will be most telling of the roster size. Like say if 8 characters were revealed between now and release I would probably have to change my stance since I don't think they would leave us with just 5-7 surprises, even with a lower roster.

 

[Chiroz]

I'm predicting at least 5 cuts, so if the roster is 44 that that means we will get 10 new comers. Thus meaning they have 4 left to unveil. And I'm guessing we will only hear about one or two more new comers before the release.

So you are thinking there will be no unlockable newcomers? Or just 1 or 2 unlockable newcomers?

I sincerely doubt that there will only be only 1 or 2 newcomers with only 6-7 unlockables total (assuming we get only 3 characters at E3 and we get 2 characters before E3).

Also I highly doubt 5 cuts. I am expecting at most 3-4 cuts at most. 5 is just too much.

 

[Andinus]

So you are thinking there will be no unlockable newcomers? Or just 1 or 2 unlockable newcomers?

I sincerely doubt that there will only be only 1 or 2 newcomers with only 6-7 unlockables total (assuming we get only 3 characters at E3 and we get 2 characters before E3).

Also I highly doubt 5 cuts. I am expecting at most 3-4 cuts at most. 5 is just too much.

I'm guessing two unlockable newcomers and 7-8 unlockable veterans. And you may "feel" 5 is too much but it doesn't mean it won't happen. We are both just speculating, and I am speculating conservatively based on the information I have.
I mean I think if we only have 4-5 new reveals between now and release, it will look quite probable that the roster could be 44 or less.

 

[TheMysterious2634]

I was gonna say we don't have much time left, but I thought of something.
E3 last year brought us 11 characters (12 if you count Wii Fit Trainer), so he might stay on that number or go a little over.
Let's hope for the latter.
As for me, I'll say high 30s-low 40s