If I may...
-♪-
Rerate: Sceptile
Chance: 32.5% -> 32.5%
I've seen a growing cynical streak in here as of late. More and more of the regulars seem convinced there's hardly anything left as far as DLC goes. If you need further proof, the Inklings, bearers of one hell of a hype train back in April, are barely clinging to the tenth spot in the rankings right now!
I've also noticed a lot of misinformation surrounding tonight's topic...specifically, a lot of things that are assumed to be facts. We wouldn't get another Pokémon, right? We already got Mewtwo; they won't bring in another! Six is a perfect number for the series! Sceptile doesn't have any
real supporters! It's all a combination of people bandwagoning from the Hoenn remakes and people who want a Grass type just to have a starter trio in Smash! There're three veteran Pokémon that'll get first dibs, anyway!
I've seen so many people assume so much of that is true, just
because. But when you look into it a little...you might realize that all of those are questionable at best. So many of them are just thrown around out of fear that another character from a big franchise might indirectly rule out a different character the speaker is more invested in...an argument that is itself misguided.
Here's one of the major arguments I've seen: that Sakurai wouldn't bring in more than one DLC character per game series for the sake of diversifying the DLC. Here's what doesn't add up: why would his team see "over-representation" as a deal breaker
now when they added two Mario characters to the base roster--bringing its total to either 7 or
9, depending on where you count Yoshi and Wario--and just recently added a
fifth Fire Emblem character? And who says the only way you can achieve a diverse cast is by spreading out to as many franchises as possible, regardless of any other context? If a character brings a completely unique, highly inspired fighting style to the game, is that not diverse? Would they stop being diverse just because they were the second DLC character from their series? Last I checked, Bowser Jr. still stood out despite Rosalina & Luma already being in!
But what about Sceptile itself? What about the ORAS-fueled bandwagon? Actually...Sceptile's support base sprung up for some complicated reasons. Remember how Greninja was considered an afterthought all the way up until the Smash Direct reveal that snuck up on us like, well, a ninja? The reason Greninja was off people's radars was because no one realized character transformations were gone--and with them, Squirtle and Ivysaur--until the Smash Direct itself! Likewise, there was no significant support for
any other Grass types until that point, because everyone assumed Ivysaur was a lock and that any other Grass type would feel redundant!
And then the catalyst hit: just a couple weeks later, Hoenn got confirmed. Suddenly, Generation 3 had a burst of relevance. You see, Sceptile has been a fan favorite Grass starter for a long time, as far back as its debut in
2002! This wasn't some mere reaction to new games being announced (though you could also accuse that of the support bases of Captain Toad, the Inklings, and recently, Chibi-Robo and Jibanyan), these were people who were already fans of the character who started to make their voices known now that they felt like Sceptile actually had a legitimate chance!
Although it later turned out that the base roster was decided long
before ORAS started development...but the fact remains.
And for those who
are more interested in the idea of getting a Grass type in...who says their support doesn't count? If you've noticed, we
don't have anyone right now with plant-based powers. A character with those powers would be damn near
inherently unique, and that's a really big deal!
Especially for Sakurai and his team, something they've explicitly said! And since Sceptile is
already one of the most popular Grass types, that's where more of that support ends up falling.
But wait! What about the veteran Pokémon, you might ask? Thing is...based on what I've seen over the past few months, Squirtle and Ivysaur were more
expected than requested. While they have their fans, they...don't seem very significant in number any more. More of their support at first came from people who just kind of assumed they'd come back as DLC because they were Brawl veterans, and now that we've seen four characters already, now that Sakurai has said his piece on how DLC from here on out will be "primarily fan service", their support has really fallen away. What about Pichu, though? Pichu has his own issues...namely, low support and high divisiveness everywhere
but Japan.
And it's not as if they only care about Japan. Not when Little Mac got into the base game despite being a favorite of the Western fanbase and an afterthought among the Japanese.
Here's the thing, though...
Sceptile's chances depend heavily on how much secondary choices end up mattering. You see, something else I've noticed is that while Sceptile is rarely anyone's
first choice, when you ask someone for their full DLC wishlists, Sceptile is
surprisingly common! We even have proof from Source Gaming's latest polls: in the poll they ran and research they did that only asked for people's most wanted characters, Sceptile was a near-afterthought. But in a poll that asks how badly people would want each character? Sceptile ends up in
a very noticeable position! And considering several of the characters ranked higher have glaring issues that could ruin their chances, it paints a very interesting picture.
If the Smash Ballot really
does only take the fans'
most wanted characters into account...Sceptile will probably be left in the dust. But if they're listening to secondary requests? If they have as much of an eye on the fanbase as these balance patches seem to imply they do? If they still care as much about characters with new, unique abilities as they did with the newcomers we've seen so far? Sceptile is a
major sleeper.
Want: 90% -> 90%
Hello, spontaneous essay. My support is actually pretty similar to what I described up above: I always thought Sceptile was interesting, but never really thought Smash was an option up until a combination of transformations being removed and ORAS becoming a thing. It seems like I always end up falling in with the underdogs, with the people or teams or characters who get looked down on for reasons that are questionable at best.
The facts still remain, though: this is a really compelling character with a set of abilities completely unlike anything currently in Smash, and with so many options to build a moveset around that no two ideas I've seen have come
close to feeling the same.
Or maybe I just want to be able to play as a 5 1/2 foot tall raptor-gecko with nature powers and bladed leaves growing out of its wrists and tail. I mean,
come on, how cool is that?
”
![[Obnoxshush/Dasshizer]](/data/avatars/l/267/267037.jpg?1450250857){kind=avatar}
