GENO
Chances: 60%
Yeahhhhh I think it's happening. Geno is arguably the last big longstanding fan request left from the Brawl days (er, sorry Isaac, I don't think ATs have much of a chance), he's got a history of Sakurai talking about him and his Mii Costume was not only treated as a pretty big deal last game but is... mysteriously missing. All of these things have been discussed time and time again, and I don't think that anything I can say is particularly groundbreaking or anything we haven't already heard a million times.
So those costumes huh? Weird stuff, how Geno Heihachi and Lloyd are among the only costumes still missing and just happen to be the three most obvious promotions of the whole bunch. My theory? These guys were totally being held off after Nintendo and Sakurai decided they wanted to do a second pass. Geno in such high demand, Lloyd and Heihachi being two of the most obvious choices from one of Nintendo's closest allies who still don't have a character... but then you have Geno, from a company who DOES have a character. I'm personally of the belief that Square Enix is only gonna be releasing costumes alongside characters that belong to them, Geno was released with Cloud in Smash 4 and Hero got his DQ costumes and nothing beyond that. Soooo that leaves three options open:
1. Geno is a playable character. <--- I think this is the most likely one. Just a gut feeling.
2. Square Enix is getting another character. <--- No matter who it is, I'm confident in this happening. It might be Geno, it might be someone else. If it's someone else, the costume probably comes with it.
3. Geno's costume is COMPLETELY GONE. <--- There's really no reason for this to be the case, but it's worth a mention. If we aren't getting another SE character though, I doubt we're seeing Geno in any capacity. I stand by my theory.
The big thing standing against Geno for some people seems to be that he's a spirit. Personally I believe that since we're now in FP2, which wasn't decided until after the game's release, spirits are back on the table. BUT. That doesn't entitle spirits to become playable characters either! If we don't get a spirit promotion, then I will still stand by that they never disconfirmed. If Sakurai or Nintendo really genuinely wanted to add a character who was already a spirit, they would. And as far as I'm concerned, Geno is far and away the most likely character to get this treatment.
Geno is popular. I know people like to dispute this, but Geno is very popular. He's the focus of many a Smash speculation video, he's the hottest topic on just about every single Smash related board. Sakurai himself has said:
Of course, as we all know popularity is certainly no guarantee of a character's inclusion. I do think though as far as fanservice picks go, Geno just makes the most sense. Ridley, K. Rool, Banjo, these guys have been requests for over a decade. Every other character being requested heavily right now has not had the same time to establish themselves as the big heavy hitter fan pleaser as Geno has, since a majority of them only gained significant traction after Joker was revealed.
The last character left in these discussions who has been getting requests since Brawl is Geno. So to me, it's a matter of time. Or maybe not! If Geno doesn't happen then that's that, but after all this, after all these flame wars I really just think we're reaching the end of this story.
Want: 90%
**** you all, Geno is cool. I don't care what anyone says about him being irrelevant or a nobody... because Smash is full of irrelevant nobodies. The only reason we don't see them that way is because they're in Smash. I'm actually a little bit tired of the new additions being these big name heavy hitter characters because quite frankly I miss the days when we would just talk about Nintendo characters all the time. I love characters that can be thrown into Smash and given a brand new life of their own after years of neglect. Who's a better fit for that than the supporting character from the 25 year old Mario spinoff? And aside from that like, his design is sweet. I genuinely believe if he got in, I'd play him a lot. He seems like a character who would fit my playstyle, and plus he's got a little blaster and can turn himself into a cannon and use star magic. Idk, sounds like a good time.
That's what Geno boils down to for me. He's not important, he's not iconic, he's just... a cool character. When I was a kid and making my wishlist rosters, I would pile on a bunch of characters who by all means logically should never be in Smash. But I just thought they were really cool, so I threw them in anyway. Geno is that kind of character, and I think to some extent that's a pretty important thing. There's a childlike charm to him that makes him feel like an underdog and someone that represents, to me, a lot of what Smash is all about.
Also, I just want this debate to end already. God it's the most frustrating thing, both sides are brick walls and there's nothing to be said that hasn't been said. Would really like a conclusion to this sooner than later.
...Alright alright, so now we have
SORA
Chances: 25%
I'm gonna keep this one short. Sora is a big name character, he's got a very dedicated following, he had a game that came out just a little while ago so he's fresh in everyone's minds. Let's ignore the Disney stuff for now because honestly I don't think it would make much of a difference. Sora is one of the newer mobs of followers that has arisen but it's very difficult to ignore. I do believe that Sora has a chance. Not much more I can say, this one just boils down to "will they won't they".
There's so much more to talk about with Geno because of his history with Smash and its community, but Sora's case is one that's fairly new. He's possible, that's about the most I can say about it. Not confident one way or the other but I definitely lean toward not happening just on the basis that I find other characters more plausible.
Want: 5%
I don't like Sora's design and I don't like Kingdom Hearts. Like, at all. But if he gets in, good for his fans. I've made peace with the possibility, but it wouldn't be a character I'm excited about at all. That's about it, he just doesn't have that appeal to me. Best of luck to Sora fans.
Nominations: Dark Souls x5
