Since I want to do this quick (reading this thread makes make not want to rate) and that I hate rating 50 for neutral, I will disdain all expect what I want to rate. (if I can't, put 50 everywhere else and know that I hate to do that anyway).
The theater stage
Chances: 75%
This is honestly very hard to rate because it's a SPECIFIC stage. I would have rated 85% if it was any WiiU stage, but this one being the logical choice, I still keep it high. I hate arbitrary numbers...
Ok, I won't go into details as to why I think the stage reveal has great chances to be a tease, but what I want to talk about is that this tease theory revolves on hiding a WiiU stage. See, the 3ds stage reveal made a WiiU stage very likely on the second picture. By repping TTYD on the 3ds, it shows how Sakurai wants to rep this series broader than just the most recent game. What this means is that considering the series being reputed to be memorable on the first 3 games, all consoles games, not seeing a WiiU stage while there's already repping on the other system is not something I call "consistent".
Not only that, but he even showed evidences of being aware of the general opinions which would includes this consistency. He did no mention of the game in the first picture while he explicitly did letter by letter on the second one. If you're not aware, this is mostly what people think of the series:
Sticker Star is the most hated and least appreciated by a good marge.
Spm has quite decent appreciation even if a minority loved it the most.
PM64 has great love and is considered to be the second best game of the series.
But the most appreciated is by far the same game he mentioned: TTYD.
From a series who had only trophies, mentioning the name in potd in a stage reveal is really something that is worth mentioning especially when he did not on sticker star. If he had only revealed the first picture, not only I would have no reasons to claim tease, but I would also have no reasons to claim that a WiiU stage is likely. It could have easily been like rainbow road, but that's not the case here.
If you're wondering why he would not talk about it, trailer setup. That happened before with Greninja, but is worth mentioning is those 2 cases are similar. Only one trailer that imo had to do it anyway showed a 3ds stage and it was the pac man one. No other trailers showed any 3ds stage and the character was mostly represented on WiiU stage. Even Little Mac got the complete tease strategy reveal via this. This is why the stage we got revealed would be 3ds while he hide the best part for the end. It already happened anyway.
As for the "TTYD on 3ds = not on WiiU", Pokemon league and Prism tower say hi (imo, this argument isn't funded). It even doesn't make sense to be obsoleted because it would have a totally different purpose anyway.
In fact, not hearing anything about this series now is a good thing, but sceptical shall remains until we know objectively if I was right.
Since it relies on teasing, I'll just tell what happened so far that resembles so much to be a tease that it's why I think it is one.
- The point of teasing is to make a specific group of people (in this case, Paper Mario fans and most of his support thread) react. Yet, from the page 19 to around 25, several messages of reaction shows clearly how emotions came into play. In fact, you have to agree that it wasn't expected that much anyway.
- The most used counterargument to deny this tease is NOT objective, but implied. Exactly what happened every time a teased happened and that is all because Sakurai did NOT mention an info or was unclear about it.
- There's mostly scepticism about such a possibility, but since some people believe in this, it does make more talk in speculation (myself is of course included). The exact thing a tease should incite: talks and doubts.
- No words about this. Tomorrow would be exactly 2 weeks and a direct is speculated to come soon. Seems too convenient if you include all the circumstances.
Basically, the same happened like every other teases, implying the truth, contradict the tease, deny, talks, stay stale for a while until the impossibility happens leaving anyone surprised. It was made to make person like me react (just the second picture is a giveaway). Because it includes a WiiU stage, and the theater being a very logical choice in terms of repping, that's why I think it's [pretty likely]. Even without playable, just the TTYD part on 3ds is enough to expect it to happen.
Want 100% (I shall enjoy your emotionless reaction, lol).
That's not surprising. I kept saying how much I want that stage SO BADLY. I've been cleared of the series rep worry so of course I can be 100% fine without it, but it doesn't change that I want to dream dammit. I'm playing TTYD lately and I can reconfirm you again, that stage make literally every battle enjoyable and even to the point of me wanting to do more. I've never experienced such desire in any RPG because most of them has quite standard battle recurrence and sometimes, needs mechanics to SIMPLIFY them or make them SHORTER. Here, it;s the complete opposite, you cannot get bored because of how much hazards, randomness and overall luck that requires a constant need to change your strategy while the core setup is practically the same. In ssb4, it would basically be an hazard fest and be random, but not constant that's for sure. Along with effects with the audiences (like taunting to make this work as an appeal to have more people and item throw), boss hazards (who honestly does NOT want Rawk Hawk or cortez?), environment hazards like spotlights falling to make dizzy and background changes that would significantly alter the overall hazards and randomness along with diverse visuals. It's a freaking FD like walk off stage and I can go infinite on the possibilities. Literally, having this stage is a dream coming true and as crazy as it sounds...
It might be the case...
I can only tell you one thing: If I'm right, that's way too crazy to realise it and if I'm wrong, no disappointment as I already got what I wanted as minimum. That's why I'm free to dream however I want without worrying about getting what I dream since it;s guaranteed that I'll be ok either way...
So, I'm ok if you rant about this (even by PM).
