Realistically, ignoring echos, how many more new characters can we expect for release, and when dlc is all said and done?

[BronzeGreekGod]

I'm thinking and hoping there could be about 3-5 more characters in the game for its release. Ideally I'd like 2 to be revealed and 3 to be secrets to be unlocked.

For dlc (talking about when Sakurai hangs up his hat for this game), I don't know what to expect, but I hope for at least another 5-6.

What do u guys think we can expect? Am I high balling or low ballng here?

 

[Guybrush20X6]

Well, if we were to take Echos out, I'm expecting 3 to 4 more newcomers in the base game and another 4-5 for DLC

Remember that Sakurai said that all characters would be revealed before launch this time.

As for who, I can't pick out of the potentials for base but for DLC...

Spring Man (Ribbon Girl echo packed in)
Rex/Pyra
Gen 8 Pokemon (this one may be dropped)
3rd party A
3rd Party B

 

[Sabrewulf238]

I'm guessing somewhere between 4-6 unique newcomers for the base game. (I think that may depend on what kind of reveals we get next, if we get another two unique newcomers in the next direct I'll be more inclined to think we're getting 6 but if we get one unique newcomer in the next direct I'll be more inclined to think 4 or 5)

DLC is a little harder to predict because on one hand 3 out of the 7 DLC characters for the previous games were veterans so they presumably took a bit less time to develop than a completely new character. Add on the fact that the roster has gotten as big as it has it might end up putting a strain on the amount of dlc characters we'll get. On the other hand we could see more DLC characters considering the lifespan of the Switch (and thus the game) is going to be longer.

If I had to guess I'd say we'll get somewhere between 3 and 5 DLC characters.

 

[ThoughtfulWanderer]

4 more is my personal prediction, but I think even up to 6 is plausible. It really depends on how many events left that we have reveals for. I could easily see 3 showing up in a final Smash direct, but not likely any more than 1 unique in a general direct or a trailer upload. Though if they prove me wrong on that by showing two or more uniques, then my expected count will be on the higher end.

DLC is where things get interesting. Smash 4's from first wave to final wave hadn't even lasted a year before it was finished, but we now know that was because of Ultimate and the Wii U's imminent death. Now that we have a system with a bigger install base and a more stable future, plus the devs' knowledge of what fans want and will certainly be willing to buy, I would expect DLC to last longer this time. It's hard to put a number on how many more characters DLC can add, but it's a safe bet it'll at least match Wii U's count of 7. There will likely still be some fan requests they couldn't get to alongside the typical third parties and promotional characters.

 

[blueneuronDOTnet]

Four, maybe five. Geno, Skull Kid, BWD, Lloyd, a Pokemon rep, and maybe Banjo. DLC could add another three to four - Heihachi, Elma, Isaac, and someone I probably won't recognize.

 

[Smashoperatingbuddy123]

3-6

Unqiue

Skull kid
Pokémon rep(s) (one of each of the missing gens for the fans)
Geno
Isaac
Banjo and kazooie
Rhythm heaven rep

Echos

Isabelle
Shadow
Black knight
Ken
Dixie Kong (hybrid echo)

 

[Sabrewulf238]

Out of curiosity have we ever gotten a regular Nintendo direct that started with a newcomer reveal and also ended with a newcomer reveal?

I'm just interested because whenever people talk about a September direct for the online service they only ever talk about one newcomer being revealed in it.

 

[Smashoperatingbuddy123]

Out of curiosity have we ever gotten a regular Nintendo direct that started with a newcomer reveal and also ended with a newcomer reveal?

I'm just interested because whenever people talk about a September direct for the online service they only ever talk about one newcomer being revealed in it.

Corrin in the final smash bros 4 direct

 

[Smashoperatingbuddy123]

Stupid glitch

Accidental double post

 

[Sabrewulf238]

Corrin in the final smash bros 4 direct

No I mean a regular Nintendo direct not solely related to Smash Bros.

 

[Loz18-Echo]

Out of curiosity have we ever gotten a regular Nintendo direct that started with a newcomer reveal and also ended with a newcomer reveal?

I'm just interested because whenever people talk about a September direct for the online service they only ever talk about one newcomer being revealed in it.

No its never happen before but maybe it will this time due to how much time is left to reveal all of them.

Personally i believe 4 unique newcomers are left

Elma
Geno
Skull Kid
7th Gen Pokemon

 

[Ze Diglett]

I'd also predict somewhere in the 3-4 range. It just makes sense in my mind considering how many we've seen so far and how few opportunities there'll be to reveal stuff in the future. (I think one character trailer in a general Direct and the final two in a Smash Direct before release is reasonable, with maybe one of them being a double reveal.) That, and we've kind of been told not to expect too many new fighters already.
DLC, on the other hand, is a complete toss-up. I think it's safe to say it'll at least be bigger than Smash 4's DLC since this game doesn't suffer from being released on the tailend of a failing console's lifespan and being co-developed alongside a new installment, but I don't think an exact number can really be said at this point. That said, this game's definitely shaping up to be one of, if not Nintendo's top seller on the Switch and I really can't see them not wanting to prolong its lifespan as long as they possibly can, so if I had a gun to my head, I'd probably peg DLC to be at least 6 characters and a couple stages. Plus, it'd be the perfect time to add some characters who only saw a massive wave of support in the months leading up to release if they don't make the base game.

 

[Spatman]

Other 6 real new characters and 3 echoes

Hoping Dixie is in as a semiclone/most diverse echo (seriously, if neither this time Dixie is in, this game will be serious flawed again)

 

[BronzeGreekGod]

Well, if we were to take Echos out, I'm expecting 3 to 4 more newcomers in the base game and another 4-5 for DLC

Remember that Sakurai said that all characters would be revealed before launch this time.

As for who, I can't pick out of the potentials for base but for DLC...

Spring Man (Ribbon Girl echo packed in)
Rex/Pyra
Gen 8 Pokemon (this one may be dropped)
3rd party A
3rd Party B

That's it eh?

For release I'm really hoping for skull kid, Geno, isaak, banjo kazooie, and rayman. There's a lot of buzz for all these guys, and it really wouldn't make sense for banjo and rayman to not get in. Relations are so close with microsoft and ubisoft, it's a perfect time to get the deal done.

For dlc I'm hoping for springman, and there are a few characters who's chances I'm not sure about - Scorpion (mk), chrono (chrono trigger), Saki, Goku (I know he's controversial but let's not get into it) and Ray (custom robo).

There are others as well, but those are my top most realistic picks. I'm not a huge fan, but chorus kids could be cool too, and unfortunately I don't think shovel knight has a chance any more though he's in my top 5

 

[Fane]

Well I feel like maybe 4-6 more unique newcomers left to go. Depends on how many Smash directs they plan on doing before release, as that seems to be the way they're revealing their new information.

People are expecting something for TGS in September, which leaves October and November before release. So if they plan on doing a direct each month I'd say 6 unique newcomers and ~6 echoes as well. If I were to predict I'd go with:

-Bandana Dee
-Isaac
-Skull Kid
-Geno
-Pokemon Rep(Either Ballot winner or Gen 7)
-Rhythm Heaven Rep

-Isabelle
-Shadow
-Ken
-Dixie Kong
-Impa
-Medusa/Black Knight

The bottom two of each list are my "extras" that I believe would make it in if we get 6 each. Which doesn't seem too farfetched imo, Sakurai's words made it seem like we wouldn't be seeing many newcomers at all, but now that I think on it, he likely means unique newcomers and not echoes. Otherwise he wouldn't have gone all out and revealed 5 characters in one direct a few months before launch. Plus if we get 6 more, that'd leave the unique newcomer total at 10, which is a very solid number, and we'd get 10 echoes as well. Leaving the actual total at 20 newcomers which is more than previous installments, but effectively less due to half of them being Echoes/Clones, as they aren't being counted as separate characters at this point now that you can merge them with the character they echo.

I feel like Sakurai knew going into this that every returning fighter and ~10 newcomers would be satisfactory enough for players, but the thing we look forward to the most is new characters and more representation, so he thought "What could I do to satisfy even more?" and that's how they decided on the whole 'Echo Fighter' thing. Instead of bringing Lucina and Dark Pit back and revamping them to make them more unique, just simply keeping their same movesets works and also doing the same copy/paste with slight differences for other newcomers would work just as well and while half of the newcomers would essentially just be clones of other characters, we'd be effectively getting more newcomers than normal.

 

[DMTN]

I am expecting 4 more unique characters. 5 is also possible, but I would be extremely surprised.
My guess is that those 4 remaining newcomers will be picked from the ballot and potential DLC characters will be typical 'Sakurai' picks in the vein of Smash 4.

 

[BirthNote]

I say 6 at the most.

 

[-crump-]

I’m still guessing we’ll get 2 more full newcomers, 3 at maximum. Leaves enough for a reveal in a September general Direct, and another in November.

DLC-wise, I’m betting we’ll get 5 newcomers, with Spring Man being the obvious pick.

 

[BronzeGreekGod]

It would be amazing if the dlc content ended up bigger than the wiiUs. I just don't Wana get my hopes too high lol.

 

[Putuk]

At the very most, I'm expecting 3 unique characters pre-DLC.

 

[zferolie]

I think about 5-6 new guys in base game. As for dlc... it depends on how long they support the game. I can see them supporting this for a few years like street fighter 5 is doing. If thats the case we could get 10 more

 

[BronzeGreekGod]

At the very most, I'm expecting 3 unique characters pre-DLC.

How about as dlc?

 

[SupriceSupplies]

I'm putting my money on 4-5 more unique characters before launch, one of which is third party. As I'm currently banking on a general direct happening before TGS and the online services. Whether we get 4 or 5 depends on how many character reveals (echoes not counting) we'll have in that direct. If we get 2, 5 and 1, 4. (Followed by a Robin-esque reveal in October and a shorter smash direct in november, revealing 1 and 2 unique newcomers respectively.)

DLC is honestly tough to predict, since Sakurai doesn't really look in that direction until the game is as good as finished. However, if the game is being designed to be competitive for a relatively long time as I've heard some people say, then I can see us getting some newcomers to keep the game fresh. With obvious contenders such as Spring-Man and Rex & Pyra, in case we don't get any in the base roster, a gen 7 pokémon, (or gen 8, depending on when they decide to go for a new pokémon character as DLC,) and some heavy hitters on the ballot that didn't get into the base roster. (I imagine someone like Paper Mario, in that regard.) As for how much.... Dunno. But if I had to guess, two or three characters per year for a maximum of 3 years?

 

[Aetheri]

It's hard to say what we should expect, exactly.
Sakurai said not to expect too many new characters which could mean including we could get a total of 6 characters (so possibly 2 more characters), or it could mean "Don't expect like 20 new characters" which means we may get about 10 or so new characters total. which means 6 more give or take. Statements like this are quite vague and makes it difficult to put an actual number on.

As far what I personally think, I do think 2 more on top of what we got may be a pretty small amount for a new game, and I'm thinking for the base game we may get at most 5 or 6 more characters. So probably 3-6 more characters.

As far as DLC, that's a whole nother ball game since we could just get new characters indefinitely since there's no time constraints limiting time to work on new characters. For Smash 4 (barring vets) we got 4 characters, but for Ultimate and how relatively early we're getting a Smash game on this system we may get double that number, especially since more work can be done on new characters over veterans.

 

[Door Key Pig]

4 more is my personal prediction, but I think even up to 6 is plausible. It really depends on how many events left that we have reveals for. I could easily see 3 showing up in a final Smash direct, but not likely any more than 1 unique in a general direct or a trailer upload. Though if they prove me wrong on that by showing two or more uniques, then my expected count will be on the higher end.

DLC is where things get interesting. Smash 4's from first wave to final wave hadn't even lasted a year before it was finished, but we now know that was because of Ultimate and the Wii U's imminent death. Now that we have a system with a bigger install base and a more stable future, plus the devs' knowledge of what fans want and will certainly be willing to buy, I would expect DLC to last longer this time. It's hard to put a number on how many more characters DLC can add, but it's a safe bet it'll at least match Wii U's count of 7. There will likely still be some fan requests they couldn't get to alongside the typical third parties and promotional characters.

Plus we don't have to worry about any of those DLC characters being popular veterans like Mewtwo or Lucas because EVERYONE IS HERE!

 

[Anop]

I would say 3-6 brand new characters, and the same amount of echoes.

 

[LunarLiv]

I'd guess 4-6 new characters, but maybe that's just optimism. I'm totally not sure how many echoes would come along though, but at least a couple more.

With DLC, I guess it partially depends on how well the game sells, too. 6 feels like a good number, but who knows, if Ultimate is one of the best selling Switch games they have, maybe more. Maybe they'll do some waves of characters. Maybe this is just me being optimistic :D
Hopefully Ultimate has a long lifespan, which it probably will judging by how much people like the Switch.

 

[jamesster445]

If Ridley is character 65, then I assume we will see character 70 before launch. And for every big reveal we get 1 echo.

Inkling-Daisy
Simon-Richter
Ridley- Dark Samus
KRool- Chrom

So by that logic 6 more characters will presumably be revealed. And I imagine a similar motif going for DLC. And I'll assume we get to character 75 plus echoes.

 

[BasketballSKM]

At least three more characters, but no more than five. I'm not sure on echoes but It will be at least 3.

 

[Buzzwole]

My original prediction was 5 unique newcomers in the base game, and we're up to 4 now.

After the latest direct though, I'm thinking we might get 6 or 7 unique newcomers in the base game. There's still over 3 months until release and I think the next direct will bring us another 2 new ones, then MAYBE a final newcomer right before release.
In terms of echoes, I really have no idea. I think we'll definitely get AT LEAST three more, but echoes are far more up in the air.
The only echo I'm 100% positive we're getting is Shadow the hedgehog, with Dixie being pretty likely too.


For DLC, I think its impossible to say. It depends on how well the game sells, how long they want to support it, and how high the interest is in DLC. At the very least, I'd expect as much DLC as Smash 4 got.

 

[IronTed]

At this point we can expect a new Pokemon, and another non echo third party. Probably 2-3 more after those, and I would imagine the amount of echoes to be revealed is probably equivalent to the amount of new characters remaining.

 

[Paperchampion23]

Gonna be positive and go 6 more.

- Gen 7 rep
- Geno
- Isaac
- Skull Kid
- Dee
- Rhythm Heaven Rep

- the above can be traded with other 3rd parties such as Heihachi or Banjo or a Retro character. Or perhaps they are also in And somehow Sakurai shocks us with the number of newcomers added.


2 of them revealed with a few more echo fighters next direct. Finally the remaining 4 (or even more) get shown in the final direct as a way to top all of the previous directs together.

I'm personally banking on 6.

 

[BronzeGreekGod]

It looks like a lot of people are pretty optimistic about there being alot of dlc. If we get like 3-5 more characters for release, and then 10-12 more for dlc, that would be absolutely epic. It really makes it possible for a good chunk of characters to get added from my top character list lol. There are quite a few characters that i really think are necessary to add to smash ultimate. Like theyre really important. And then there are a couple of others that id just really like to see. It could all come together!

 

[Arcadenblog]

Like I said before, I expect 8 new characters for the base roster. (Inkling, Ridley, Simon, K. Rool, Waddle Dee, Isaac, Reimu, Banjo-Kazooie) If we somehow get more than 8, I'll be shocked.

As for DLC, I'm not really sure. We could just get 7 again. But at the same, we don't have the limitations of the game being developed for a failing system, or for 2 systems at the same time. If we do get a lot more DLC characters, I just hope they don't cost as much as they did last time. Or they could drop a season pass for a cheap price. ($10~15)

 

[DeltaSceptile]

I expect 5-6 more base roster, and about 15 for dlc.

 

[Captain Fun]

I don't really know. Sakurai said "Only a few more left" and emphasized it with a hand gesture.

Not sure how to take that. A few is subjective.

 

[Aeon Lupin]

4 is what I am realistically expecting. 6 is my optimistic number.

 

[Xebenkeck]

I don't really know. Sakurai said "Only a few more left" and emphasized it with a hand gesture.

Not sure how to take that. A few is subjective.

Well a few is more than a couple, so 3-5 is my best bet.