Something has been lingering in my thoughts since the trailer unveiling Robin, Lucina, and Captain Falcon surfaced this morning. It seems weird to me having two new reps for one existing franchise appear before the launch of the game. It did happen back in Brawl with the Kirby series, but that was 3 reps. The franchises with 4 reps (Mario, Pokemon, and Zelda) had a maximum of 3 reps unlocked from the beginning, and those 3 we knew until after the game launched in Japan. So I thought to myself, is it possible we may get the whole roster before the game launches in Japan in September?
So the thing that made me wonder this (besides having 4 known reps before launch) in the trailer was Falcon himself. In all other trailers, a known starter was showcased. Villager had Bowser and Mario (along with the whole starting cast, if one assumes the whole E3 trailer was the Villager reveal), Rosalina had Mario, Bowser, Peach, and Kirby (there was Luigi, but I will get back to him in a minute), Little Mac had Samus, Palutena had Pit and Link, Greninja had Samus, Link, Olimar, and Mario along with Charizard and Pikachu. Now most of these characters are assumed to be starters based on if they were locked or not in the other 3 games. Robin's trailer had one character, Captain Falcon. He was a starter in Melee, but reverted back to a locked character in Brawl. Why would the trailer only have Falcon? It could mean he is now a starter character like Melee, but I will delve into another reason I've thought of in a bit.
Now we have known about locked characters before, but they have normally been 3rd party additions. Snake and Sonic were the only known secrets before Brawl's release. Everyone else were shown after the game was released in Japan. Now some of these characters were unveiled already. Toon Link, Lucario, Luigi, and Marth, all secret characters in Brawl, but showcased before release now. Luigi was confirmed to show up because of the Year of Luigi ending, so we know he is a secret character. What about the rest? Marth could easily be a starter now, being showcased in the E3 demo, and now with 4 Fire Emblem reps, it makes sense to have Ike and Marth be the starters this time around. Could Lucario and Toon Link be starters as well? Yes, but I think otherwise.
Toon Link does show up in a stage for the 3DS. Now could it be possible he can be unlocked through that stage? Snake was locked but his stage in Brawl was not. Playing on that stage was one of the incentives to unlocking Snake. Could the same be said for Toon Link this time around? Maybe the same could be said for Greninja or Lucario, or maybe even one of the known Mario characters? It seems we know a lot from particular franchises early on in the pic of the days.
As I mentioned before, Falcon was the only veteran showcased. This could mean he is a starter, but it could mean he is assumed to be unlocked by this time in the game. I think this because I have heard the trailers might appear in the game. Maybe Lucina/Robin as well, and the trailer is only shown when all 3 are unlocked. Mind you they might not appear on the game disk, but it seems a waster to not have them, and I do recall seeing the E3 trailer amongst the videos on the Brawl disk.
The last thing I want to point out is what Nintendo did with Mario Kart 8, and what they are doing with Hyrule Warriors. Never before have we known all the characters, starting and secret, before the game released, but they did it with MK8, and are appearing to do it with Hyrule Warriors. With spoilers running rampant on the internet, it's logical to do so. Show us what we can get in game so we want to unlock it, and give us a cool trailer alongside it so we get even more excited.
Which, if my theory is true, could mean we get a new character every week (or close to it) until release. We are a little over 2 months away, and our roster is only at 37, a little short of Brawl's roster, and we expect it to grow ever still. Or we could get a lot of characters in a Nintendo Direct sometime in the next month or 2. I mean, why showcase a trailer outside of a Nintendo Direct anyway? Maybe they are trying to get the full roster out by release in September.
Now I could be completely wrong on this, and I know this is just a theory of mine. But to me it seems weird they chose Falcon and 2 different Fire Emblem reps to showcase today. They could of gone with anybody else, but I find it hard to believe we will have 4 FE reps from the start. One of them has to be secret (maybe just Lucina is), but with the recent trend of games from Nintendo, I wouldn't be surprised if we do end up getting the full roster by release. There are definitely some kinks to think about (like why Game & Watch was shown in the Pac-Man trailer and not put on the website, but Falcon did) but like I said, this is something that's been brewing in my mind today.
I just wanted to share what I thought about the trailer today and I wonder if you guys are thinking the same thing.
