Diem
Agent of Phaaze
All right people, time to stop talking about DLC, we have a new Famitsu column from Sakurai about the latest Direct. Here are some highlights.
Ken:
Incineroar (the whole paragraph):
Trophies (the whole paragraph):
Spirits Mode:
Matchmaking:
Elite Smashes:
Piranha Plant:
Galeem:
Ken:
Well, there it is, folks. Looks like the Echo Fighter label is much more arbitrary than we all thought. Ken is definitely more of a clone compared to the other Echo Fighters, but because Sakurai wants to call him one, that's what he is.He’s different from Ryu in so many ways, one almost wonders whether or not we should even call him an Echo Fighter… Nope. I said he was, so he is.
Incineroar (the whole paragraph):
So once again, Sakurai gave Pokemon an open slot, like with Greninja. He was chosen because of his pro-wrestler style, which is something no other character has. This explicitly highlights how character selection has just as much to do with the character's personality as it does their significance or moveset potential. Which is something I appreciate about almost all the newcomers in this game: they all have a unique personality that they bring to the table, and it's made me more accepting of the characters I wasn't initially too excited for when they were announced. I think the only newcomer without much personality (at least as displayed in Smash) is Chrom.When planning began around December of 2015, I had resolved that I had to have all kinds of fighters in the game. Generally, though, I can’t really add a character from a game that hasn’t come out yet to the roster… So, I left one character frame open for Pokémon, and after Pokémon: Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon came out I took another look at it. That resulted in Incineroar being chosen. I wanted to try making a pro-wrestler type character at least once! Incineroar is voiced by the late Mr. Unshō Ishizuka – of Professor. Oak fame – who passed away back in August; he had recorded new lines just for this game. May he rest in peace.
Trophies (the whole paragraph):
Looks like the ~800 trophies in Smash 4 were a bigger problem than we could've thought if Sakurai threw them out early on for this game. Making hundreds of HD models is difficult. Grabbing PNG files is not.During the planning stage, I had decided on getting rid of the trophy collecting element of the game fairly early on. It felt a bit rash to continue doing so than it originally did, given all of the fighters that have been included up until now. I felt that it would be best to divide my strength among other aspects of the game; making the trophies took quite a bit more effort than people might think.
Spirits Mode:
So we still don't know everything about the mode, obviously, and it won't be spelled out until after the game is out. Fun that we'll get to discover things on release day!I think that “Spirits” – which one could say is Smash Ultimate’s biggest theme – will be easier to understand once you’ve played it. As such, I’m not really going to touch on it until after the game is released, at which point I’ll try to summarize the mode’s design, etc.
Matchmaking:
Looks like they're taking the game's netcode very seriously. It'll definitely have better netcode than Smash 4, which is a definite plus.In previous works, as fighting games, we boasted both asynchronous and synchronous communication for matches; in this game, matches will be completely synchronized. If there’s no signal from either end, the match will “freeze” so that neither player can do anything no matter what. Proximity is the top deciding factor.
Elite Smashes:
I love the emphasis on "true" here. So for those players that really want to test their skills, this is the place to do it. It'll beat practicing against Level 9 CPU's, that's for sure, and definitely beat For Glory matchmaking.Smash veterans can enjoy true battles, as this prevents them from being pitted against beginner players.
Piranha Plant:
So Piranha Plant was chosen because he's so weird, but it looks like that takes more time to tweak and balance than an average fighter, of course. Looks like Sakurai really couldn't help but add at least one weird fighter this game, even if it couldn't make it before the game was finished. Considering the mostly positive reaction, though, seems like he went with the right one.The game is basically finished, but we’re still working on adjusting Piranha Plant since he’s such a unique fighter. It’s obvious that he stands out from the crowd, so I recommend that you all pre-order the game!
Galeem:
Looks like we might get another situation like with SSE, where a lot of the story/backstory that didn't make it into the game was instead written out on the Smash Dojo. So there is going to be somewhat of a substantial story, it seems, even if there's no extra cutscenes or levels and just the Spirit battles and the map. It definitely seems barebones still, but it doesn't look like it'll be completely absent of story.Did you see him in the game’s “Adventure Mode” cinematic? He obliterated the entire cast with beams of light in one fell swoop! If the opportunity presents itself, I’d like to write more about this mode bit by bit, but there’s just too much to say about it!
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