Smash Ultimate Leak Discussion Thread

[Nekoo]

Please explain to me why they went through the absolute hassle of getting a Mii Costume for Geno, which included a Splash screen and his "theme" song, and have Sakurai state he's considered Geno numerous times, but then would just go back completely and pick Sora or a Dragon Quest rep.

Well, first, Sakurai considered Geno numerous times, yes. I can't say otherwise and hopefully he'll get in as I really love him, I love anything Square-Enix... BUT.

People take the Mii costume as some sort of Messiah...It's great! Incredible that he got it! The WHOLE Square Enix Deal was MIRACULOUS whenever it was in the Final Smash presentation, or in the interview, he always said it was a miracle, which is why he probably got a splash art as a celebration.
The theme songs mean nothing, Monster Hunter, Virtua Fighter and Tekken got it during their Mii Fighter costumes.

As for why he would pick a Dragon Quest Rep or Sora?

Look, I feel like people in this board genuinely UNDERESTIMATE how freaking big Dragon Quest is. It's almost a cult religion in Japan, which mean it's very ****ing very huge and always sells millions.
As for Sora...Well, he's Kingdom Hearts...No need to be said.

Now please, tell me with unbiased eyes that if you are a game designer, and your goal is to make the BEST CHARACTERS GAME ever and Square-Enix is right here saying
"You can use ALL of our properties, no matter how hard the legal stuff is, we will take care of it. So go ahead and choose."

What will you choose?
Dragon Quest? The only series to ****ing rival Final Fantasy in sucess?
Kingdom Hearts? One of the biggest series in the world for How young it is?
Or Geno?

That's probably Why, when he saw the number of vote for a Final Fantasy characters, no matter how many vote Geno had, or how much he want Geno... When Sakurai went ahead, looked Straight up into Square-Enix exec eyes and said "I want Cloud." To their OWN surprise.
He didn't asked for Geno or anyone even if it was maybe his only chance to get him.
He asked for Cloud.

So, if a second Miracle can happens, do you think that Sakurai wouldn't go to try the impossible to surprise everyone?

 

[ChocolatGelgato]

@ Music Theory: I think echoes have no rules, an FE track was certainly added in light of chrom but thats it, my guess is that echoes get a track if they feel like an echo should get a track, so in other words, there's a possibility a series unrepped by a song may get a chrom style song, but that's it.

@ Jon doesn't Jon usually make a spooky "prediction" shortly before it happens for real? Unless i'm missing something and he's played the long con before, either Shadow is coming very very soon or his statement is just an opinion designed to throw us off his tracks.

 

[Rie Sonomura]

Hey so

Remember the Jeuxvideo “leak” a while back? There’s been an update, and OP’s even using a trip code:

https://boards.fireden.net/v/thread/432571184/

...Reimu tho this basically kills it

And it’s a shame, I was hoping for Black Shadow and Isaac

 

[RandomAce]

Honestly, the music theory really isn’t the end to be all when it comes to all the newcomers, some like Bandanna Waddle Dee could still potentially show up, it instead points in favor of some potential newcomers.

For instance, Xenoblade and Pokémon haven’t gotten any music track. You’d think with Pokémon being the biggest franchise, it would at least get a track from the Sun and Moon games from the beginning, but it hasn’t, and seeing as to how unique newcomers usually get a new music piece every week, it points in favor that they’re saving it for a Pokémon newcomer from Sun and Moon.

The same things goes for Xenoblade, however magnify it as Xenoblade hasn’t received a single thing on the blog, it points in favor that they may be saving Xenoblade related content for Elma.

 

[Michael the Spikester]

Hey so

Remember the Jeuxvideo “leak” a while back? There’s been an update, and OP’s even using a trip code:

https://boards.fireden.net/v/thread/432571184/

...Reimu tho this basically kills it

And it’s a shame, I was hoping for Black Shadow and Isaac

Medusa?

OMG PLEASE LET THIS BE TRUE!!!!

But then again at what cost...No Black Shadow who was also one of my three current wants...

 

[Wyoming]

My money is on Geno because Sakurai want him. So Geno would be Square Enix rep.

It's entirely possible he changed his mind on that, but the Mii costume probably begs to differ.

 

[Ramen Tengoku]

Hey so

Remember the Jeuxvideo “leak” a while back? There’s been an update, and OP’s even using a trip code:

https://boards.fireden.net/v/thread/432571184/

...Reimu tho this basically kills it

And it’s a shame, I was hoping for Black Shadow and Isaac

Seriously, If Reimu gets in over my Rhythm Heaven rep, I'm gonna be very angry.

 

[N3ON]

Interesting POV.

I feel that either way, the Music Theory seems to really only "deconfirm" Bandana Dee, Skull Kid, and POSSIBLY Geno. So it interests me how it's really not as huge as it seems.

Well personally I don't invest in the music theory because patterns historically have been dangerous to lean on. I mean isn't there another theory out there that calculated the average number of fighters per week against weeks left to determine we still have like seven newcomers coming? I'm not getting invested in that one either.

Patterns are only patterns until they break, and so I'm just keeping an eye on them as a possibility and nothing more.

 

[Luigi The President]

Well, first, Sakurai considered Geno numerous times, yes. I can't say otherwise and hopefully he'll get in as I really love him, I love anything Square-Enix... BUT.

People take the Mii costume as some sort of Messiah...It's great! Incredible that he got it! The WHOLE Square Enix Deal was MIRACULOUS whenever it was in the Final Smash presentation, or in the interview, he always said it was a miracle, which is why he probably got a splash art as a celebration.
The theme songs mean nothing, Monster Hunter, Virtua Fighter and Tekken got it during their Mii Fighter costumes.

As for why he would pick a Dragon Quest Rep or Sora?

Look, I feel like people in this board genuinely UNDERESTIMATE how freaking big Dragon Quest is. It's almost a cult religion in Japan, which mean it's very ****ing very huge and always sells millions.
As for Sora...Well, he's Kingdom Hearts...No need to be said.

Now please, tell me with unbiased eyes that if you are a game designer, and your goal is to make the BEST CHARACTERS GAME ever and Square-Enix is right here saying
"You can use ALL of our properties, no matter how hard the legal stuff is, we will take care of it. So go ahead and choose."

What will you choose?
Dragon Quest? The only series to ****ing rival Final Fantasy in sucess?
Kingdom Hearts? One of the biggest series in the world for How young it is?
Or Geno?

That's probably Why, when he saw the number of vote for a Final Fantasy characters, no matter how many vote Geno had, or how much he want Geno... When Sakurai went ahead, looked Straight up into Square-Enix exec eyes and said "I want Cloud." To their OWN surprise.
He didn't asked for Geno or anyone even if it was maybe his only chance to get him.
He asked for Cloud.

So, if a second Miracle can happens, do you think that Sakurai wouldn't go to try the impossible to surprise everyone?

"You can use ALL of our properties, no matter how hard the legal stuff is, we will take care of it. So go ahead and choose."
Now this, this is a HUMONGOUS leap.

Sakurai can do a whole damn lot but with all the disputes and conflicts legally that seem to surround Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts? That's why I'm not betting too much on them.

Also, it's silly to assume all the Smash 4 picks were Ballot based. If this were the case, Cloud would've came out March 2016 at the LEAST due to characters taking a year to develop. Come on, you think Ryu was based off the Ballot? He wasn't.

Seems to me Sakurai is aware of some characters gaming iconicness and picked based off of that to keep us satisfied until Ultimate which was in dev almost around the time of the Ballot.

I think that, even though we all love to say "actually Geno's fanbase is a small vocal minority", this isn't true. Dude has been a focus of the speculation scene since 2008. He's been so advocated for he got himself a Mii Costume, which isn't even logical considering how minor he is in the grand scheme of things.

Sora really only gained steam this speculation cycle, during late 2018, which sadly is completely useless because the roster was decided in 2015.

I understand Dragon Quest is very, very popular. To gaming.
I feel Sakurai is aware of how popular Geno is with the Smash fanbase, and how long he has been one of its forerunners.

There is a difference.

I'm probably biased due to really wanting Geno myself. But I just wanted to offer my own take.

 

[ChocolatGelgato]

Hey so

Remember the Jeuxvideo “leak” a while back? There’s been an update, and OP’s even using a trip code:

https://boards.fireden.net/v/thread/432571184/

...Reimu tho this basically kills it

And it’s a shame, I was hoping for Black Shadow and Isaac

Gyigas as a boss kills this more than Reimu does to be honest, but that's old news since the first time we've seen it.

Please have 02 in the game for real tho god we need some dark matter trilogy fanservice in smash for once in our lives

 

[kylexv]

Hey so

Remember the Jeuxvideo “leak” a while back? There’s been an update, and OP’s even using a trip code:

https://boards.fireden.net/v/thread/432571184/

...Reimu tho this basically kills it

And it’s a shame, I was hoping for Black Shadow and Isaac

Doesn't have Incineroar.

At this point, you need to have both Ken and Incineroar in your "leak" for me to believe it for a second.

 

[Nekoo]

"You can use ALL of our properties, no matter how hard the legal stuff is, we will take care of it. So go ahead and choose."
Now this, this is a HUMONGOUS leap.

It was an exemple to try to remove the bias you can have for Geno, not something that is real, just so you can see what choice would you be if you had the power to choose between those three option.

Also, it's silly to assume all the Smash 4 picks were Ballot based. If this were the case, Cloud would've came out March 2016 at the LEAST due to characters taking a year to develop. Come on, you think Ryu was based off the Ballot? He wasn't.

While we know that there some Shady stuff for the Ballot because of the Datamine, it WAS the number of Vote for Final Fantasy's characters that made Sakurai move, he himself said so in an interview where 1/4 to 1/3 of FF vote were for Cloud.

A good 50% of the vote probably happened the first Week of the ballot, probably enough to get some early results and start plan.

Sora really only gained steam this speculation cycle, during late 2018, which sadly is completely useless because the roster was decided in 2015.

Now this is complete Bull**** and revisionism.
Sora had a following back in the Brawl days in a lot of Forum to the point where IGN own poll about Brawl had to put him into honorable mention.

And during Smash 4 it was THE DAY the ballot was launched that THE WHOLE KH community; not the smash community, THE KH community rallied to vote for Sora, whenever it's big Youtubers, influencer and such.

You now hear more about Sora BECAUSE of the mystery Square Rep alongside the KH III Hype

 

[Rie Sonomura]

Doesn't have Incineroar.

At this point, you need to have both Ken and Incineroar in your "leak" for me to believe it for a second.

I didn’t even notice the lack of incineroar

Welp, idk if you guys remember the October 6th “leak”, there’s an update to that as well: https://boards.fireden.net/v/thread/432575843/
Obviously a pipe dream, plus no reveal trailer has ever crossed series with newcomers before, but dang just throw in Chorus Kids and this would be the perfect roster for base

And that’s about all I can find for leaks on fireden for now

 

[Nekoo]

I didn’t even notice the lack of incineroar

Welp, idk if you guys remember the October 6th “leak”, there’s an update to that as well: https://boards.fireden.net/v/thread/432575843/
Obviously a pipe dream, plus no reveal trailer has ever crossed series with newcomers before, but dang just throw in Chorus Kids and this would be the perfect roster for base

And that’s about all I can find for leaks on fireden for now

>11 newcomers
>6 Echoes


0/10 Anon you tried.

 

[Ramen Tengoku]

I didn’t even notice the lack of incineroar

Welp, idk if you guys remember the October 6th “leak”, there’s an update to that as well: https://boards.fireden.net/v/thread/432575843/
Obviously a pipe dream, plus no reveal trailer has ever crossed series with newcomers before, but dang just throw in Chorus Kids and this would be the perfect roster for base

And that’s about all I can find for leaks on fireden for now

Yeah, No way that leak is legit either. Kinda doubt that Saki would be a playable character...
Especially not over Chorus Men

 

[Nekoo]

Talking about Saki...We never saw it's AT did we?

 

[T3Z3R1]

Hey so

Remember the Jeuxvideo “leak” a while back? There’s been an update, and OP’s even using a trip code:

https://boards.fireden.net/v/thread/432571184/

...Reimu tho this basically kills it

And it’s a shame, I was hoping for Black Shadow and Isaac

How to kill any "leaks":

Have those characters: Reimu, Aymui, and any characters that didn't look like good fighter with decent moveset to put in Smash

and that "I'm open to question" Sounds like giving away fake answers or fake knowledge on super smash bros ultimate

and last but least: Pokefloat, just pokefloat. (You know that we wanted it but it isn't in for now until it's DLC)

Shameful, that dude should've been honest with this leak. But why he didn't include Ken, that fire cat pokemon from gen 7 (I forget the name), and any name of mysterious square enix rep?

 

[Luigi The President]

It was an exemple to try to remove the bias you can have for Geno, not something that is real, just so you can see what choice would you be if you had the power to choose between those three option.



While we know that there some Shady stuff for the Ballot because of the Datamine, it WAS the number of Vote for Final Fantasy's characters that made Sakurai move, he himself said so in an interview where 1/4 to 1/3 of FF vote were for Cloud.

A good 50% of the vote probably happened the first Week of the ballot, probably enough to get some early results and start plan.



Now this is complete Bull**** and revisionism.
Sora had a following back in the Brawl days in a lot of Forum to the point where IGN own poll about Brawl had to put him into honorable mention.

And during Smash 4 it was THE DAY the ballot was launched that THE WHOLE KH community; not the smash community, THE KH community rallied to vote for Sora, whenever it's big Youtubers, influencer and such.

You now hear more about Sora BECAUSE of the mystery Square Rep alongside the KH III Hype

"A good 50% of the vote probably happened the first Week of the ballot, probably enough to get some early results and start plan."
B I G Assumption. It went on for months for a reason.

Here's the thing here.
"1/4 to 1/3 of FF vote were for Cloud."
Combine how low FF seemed to due in polls for the Ballot then combine that with how Cloud only got 1/3 of the votes.
However I'll give you this point simply because I don't want to use Sakurai's word than contradict it.

Apologies for the revisionism. You'd likely know more about Brawl than me. But I'm not going to back down from my point that he didn't really exist during the Smash 4 speculation scene, though I suppose he did indeed exist during the Ballot scene.

And there's my last point. Sora's been reignited due to Vergeben not naming the SE Rep. Gives us a lot of choices as to who it is beyond Geno simply because we don't have a name.

And about the bias for Geno thing up there; thank you for the example. I personally would still choose Geno. Goes to show how much I like him lol.

 

[kylexv]

I didn’t even notice the lack of incineroar

Welp, idk if you guys remember the October 6th “leak”, there’s an update to that as well: https://boards.fireden.net/v/thread/432575843/
Obviously a pipe dream, plus no reveal trailer has ever crossed series with newcomers before, but dang just throw in Chorus Kids and this would be the perfect roster for base

And that’s about all I can find for leaks on fireden for now

>"Don't expect too many more fighters"
>Adds 11 more unique characters and 6 more echoes, making the newcomer count 26.

Next.

 

[Rie Sonomura]

Talking about Saki...We never saw it's AT did we?

Nope. Dillon’s AT is MIA too

 

[Flyboy]

Hey so

Remember the Jeuxvideo “leak” a while back? There’s been an update, and OP’s even using a trip code:

https://boards.fireden.net/v/thread/432571184/

...Reimu tho this basically kills it

And it’s a shame, I was hoping for Black Shadow and Isaac

God I wish this was real. Ayumi is basically my "1.5" in my top five most-wanted. Reimu is weird but I'd kinda love it. That makes it super fake but I want to believe! Plus Isaac fans need that bone thrown to them.

 

[Michael the Spikester]

God I wish this was real. Ayumi is basically my "1.5" in my top five most-wanted. Reimu is weird but I'd kinda love it. That makes it super fake but I want to believe! Plus Isaac fans need that bone thrown to them.

If it makes you any better. Sakurai himself seems to be a fan of Sin & Punishment having based Uprising's gameplay off of it. Should give you some hope.

 

[Ramen Tengoku]

Talking about Saki...We never saw it's AT did we?

No we didn't. It's worth noting that we said the same thing for Ashley (R.IP.), until the August direct happened. Just because an AT hasn't been shown yet, doesn't mean that they have been upgraded to playable fighter...

 

[DaybreakHorizon]

I honestly doubt a DQ rep. Let alone make it be so secretive. DQ has the least amount of requests for a rep for Square, anyone from there would not drive the hype Geno or Sora would.

Also Square themselves said recently that if Sakurai wanted Sora he just had to ask, and that Disney wouldn't need to be involved. Sora would be kept under wraps because despite requests, Sora would be a WTF inclusion to many due to them thinking Disney is a problem.

Geno may have had one appearance. But his requests have never died down and ballot results collected by fans, place him on par with Ridley and K rool as the big 3 that were just dream wants. But now 2 out of 3 of those are in, so it's not hard to say the 3rd is in as well.

Sakurai has wanted Geno for almost every game and know he's popular. He's already got Square in on the project, getting another rep, especially Geno wouldn't be hard.

Unlike with FF, Square and Nintendo own the rights to Mario Rpg, making content and music from it easier to get. Geno could just as easily get in for these reasons.
Not really. Disney owns some of his outfits, and Square own some from what I've read. As stated above, square has stated Disney wouldn't need to get involved so I'd say he's more a square rep then anything else.

So much here is just...wrong.

For one, Dragon Quest is a massive series. It is literally the highest selling Japanese series not yet represented in Smash. The entire series has sold 75 million copies, and made a gross revenue of $11.7 billion. That makes it the second highest selling and third highest grossing series for Square Enix (behind Final Fantasy for sales, and Final Fantasy and ****ing Space Invaders for revenue). It's popular enough that there's a rumor in Japan that the Japanese parliament made it illegal to release Dragon Quest games on a weekday due to how many people would call in "sick." How many games are popular enough have real world urban legends about them?

I assume the Square statement you're referring to is actually HMK's interview of a Disney Executive, which is detailed here. People such as PlayerOneTyler , who literally worked on Disney Infinity, which had the Keyblade as an item, have also corroborated this information. The process for getting Sora in Smash or to use Kingdom Hearts in other media is:

• Go to Normura and get approval from him because he's the series creator
• Go to Disney and say you got approval, do actual negotiations
• Work alongside Disney to ensure all Kingdom Hearts content is true to the source material

Also, Disney owns all of original characters in Kingdom Hearts. That is a fact.

Also, while Geno has always placed well in ballots, he has never as high as K. Rool or Ridley. KMDP can show you that Geno doesn't even crack the Top 10 in terms of supporters for a character in Smash. Support for him largely died down during Sm4sh speculation, and he didn't become a common pick until Ridley and K. Rool were confirmed.

The top 5 from the last poll who were excluded

• Isaac
• Sora
• K. Rool
• Chrom
• Arle Nadja

And the top 10 from the most recent poll:

• Skull Kid
• Bandana Dee
• Lloyd Irving
• Banjo & Kazooie
• Paper Mario
• Rex & Pyra
• Magolor
• Spring Man
• Geno
• Dixie Kong

This is a list of characters who placed in the top 10 of a massive Nintendo fan poll in Japan. As you can see, Geno is ranked #9, below many other characters. While Sakurai did say he wanted him in Brawl and Sm4sh, we don't know if he changed his mind and went for a larger series again like he did for Cloud.

Also, Square owns the rights to all original characters and content in Super Mario RPG, so for all intents and purposes Geno is a third party character.

There is more than enough reason to believe that Sora or Erdrick would be the mystery Square Enix rep over Geno, especially because they would be absolutely massive reveals. If Steve and one of those two (particularly Sora) were to be revealed in the final Smash Bros. Direct, it could very well break the internet.

 

[TheCJBrine]

I wonder if Sakurai would consider Cloud already representing SE just fine, and then decide Geno for the fans.

Of course, we have both Mega Man and Ryu so idk...

 

[Pyra]

Hey so

Remember the Jeuxvideo “leak” a while back? There’s been an update, and OP’s even using a trip code:

https://boards.fireden.net/v/thread/432571184/

...Reimu tho this basically kills it

And it’s a shame, I was hoping for Black Shadow and Isaac

Reimu. Interesting.

I mean, I'm down for a bullet hell Smash Bros.

 

[TheCJBrine]

Reimu. Interesting.

I mean, I'm down for a bullet hell Smash Bros.

Sans was robbed.

 

[T3Z3R1]

Talking about Saki...We never saw it's AT did we?

If we never see the AT, there's good chance that it may be cut or saved for later reveal of lastest ATs

 

[DaybreakHorizon]

Hey so

Remember the Jeuxvideo “leak” a while back? There’s been an update, and OP’s even using a trip code:

https://boards.fireden.net/v/thread/432571184/

...Reimu tho this basically kills it

And it’s a shame, I was hoping for Black Shadow and Isaac

Meme status aside, I think Reimu is definitely in the large pool of characters possible this time around. Touhou is the very definition of an indie series, with all of it being done by a single guy. Also, it's absolutely massive in Japan, with it having it's own section dedicated to it at Comiket, the largest Japanese fan convention.

 

[Luigi The President]

View attachment 166108

So much here is just...wrong.

For one, Dragon Quest is a massive series. It is literally the highest selling Japanese series not yet represented in Smash. The entire series has sold 75 million copies, and made a gross revenue of $11.7 billion. That makes it the second highest selling and third highest grossing series for Square Enix (behind Final Fantasy for sales, and Final Fantasy and ****ing Space Invaders for revenue). It's popular enough that there's a rumor in Japan that the Japanese parliament made it illegal to release Dragon Quest games on a weekday due to how many people would call in "sick." How many games are popular enough have real world urban legends about them?

I assume the Square statement you're referring to is actually HMK's interview of a Disney Executive, which is detailed here. People such as PlayerOneTyler , who literally worked on Disney Infinity, which had the Keyblade as an item, have also corroborated this information. The process for getting Sora in Smash or to use Kingdom Hearts in other media is:

• Go to Normura and get approval from him because he's the series creator
• Go to Disney and say you got approval, do actual negotiations
• Work alongside Disney to ensure all Kingdom Hearts content is true to the source material.

Disney owns all original characters in Kingdom Hearts. This is a fact.

Also, while Geno has always placed well in ballots, he has never as high as K. Rool or Ridley. KMDP can show you that Geno doesn't even crack the Top 10 in terms of supporters for a character in Smash. Support for him largely died down during Sm4sh speculation, and he didn't become a common pick until Ridley and K. Rool were confirmed.

This is a list of characters who placed in the top 10 of a massive Nintendo fan poll in Japan. As you can see, Geno is ranked #9, below many other characters. While Sakurai did say he wanted him in Brawl and Sm4sh, we don't know if he changed his mind and went for a larger series again like he did for Cloud.

Also, Square owns the rights to all original characters and content in Super Mario RPG, so for all intents and purposes Geno is a third party character.

There is more than enough reason to believe that Sora or Erdrick would be the mystery Square Enix rep over Geno, especially because they would be absolutely massive reveals. If Steve and one of those two (particularly Sora) were to be revealed in the final Smash Bros. Direct, it could very well break the internet.

Great analysis per usual. Stop being logical so I can keep hoping for Geno okay?

Real talk though there is nothing to even imply Sakurai changed his mind. We can say this for like, literally anything he's ever said. I dislike this point already and I've only seen it used for a page now.

Very, very few ever could rival K. Rool and Ridley in polls. And as we saw here, regardless of his placement, Geno still outperformed any other Squenix rep.

Could it be Erdrick or Sora? Absolutely, totally. Would make sense business-wise. But I can't help but feel Sakurai isn't AIMING for business-wise with a new Squenix rep. We have Cloud, the most popular Squenix rep you can pick.

Geno? That's the Smash fans Squenix man. And it seems this game is being made to curate to all those long-time fans.

But in the end, Geno's a one-off character from a decades-old game, so I'm probably overhyping myself. Here's hoping, though my hope for him is dying down as we go.

 

[Michael the Spikester]

If Sora does get in. It'll prove to be an double-edge sword. Sora fans will be thrilled in his inclusion but otherwise Geno fans will be upset that Geno didn't make the cut.

 

[Pyra]

Sans was robbed.

Why?
He's a Reimu echo.

 

[Luigi The President]

I mean...I feel Sora's kinda "out" due to that Squenix fella (not gonna act like I'm smart enough to remember his role and name) tweeting a few days back, but hey, only a Tweet I suppose. Could always be surprised.

 

[Nekoo]

If Sora does get in. It'll prove to be an double-edge sword. Sora fans will be thrilled in his inclusion but otherwise Geno fans will be upset that Geno didn't make the cut.

And here I'am, just being happy, whoever gets in because **** it man. Square-Enix characters are Dope.

 

[DaybreakHorizon]

Great analysis per usual. Stop being logical so I can keep hoping for Geno okay?

Real talk though there is nothing to even imply Sakurai changed his mind. We can say this for like, literally anything he's ever said. I dislike this point already and I've only seen it used for a page now.

Very, very few ever could rival K. Rool and Ridley in polls. And as we saw here, regardless of his placement, Geno still outperformed any other Squenix rep.

Could it be Erdrick or Sora? Absolutely, totally. Would make sense business-wise. But I can't help but feel Sakurai isn't AIMING for business-wise with a new Squenix rep. We have Cloud, the most popular Squenix rep you can pick.

Geno? That's the Smash fans Squenix man. And it seems this game is being made to curate to all those long-time fans.

But in the end, Geno's a one-off character from a decades-old game, so I'm probably overhyping myself. Here's hoping, though my hope for him is dying down as we go.

Did you see the top 5 of the original poll? Those guys were banned from the second one.

Who was in the top 5 of the original poll?

Sora.

He placed second.

This may seem like a hot take, but I am convinced that Sora did better than Geno in the ballot.

Sora likely did well on the ballot because as I said before, the entire Kingdom Hearts community rallied around him for Smash. And by "community," I mean:

• the entire Kingdom Hearts subreddit
• fan forum campaigns
• Youtubers with over 10,000 subscribers making videos and tweeting telling their viewers to vote for Sora
• Smash fans who just like Sora and campaigns in the Smash community
• Casual players of both games (Kingdom Hearts and Smash)

I wouldn't be surprised if Sora ranked top 25 worldwide, if not top 15, or even top 10 in the ballot. People have wanted Sora as early as in Brawl, as evidenced by his showing up on Sakurai's Brawl Poll. Pre and Post-Sm4sh people asked for him, and people are still asking for him. Heck, there's currently a post on the Kingdom Hearts reddit with 1300 upvotes about Sora being in Smash (link here).

Here's the evidence for that one.

 

[TheCJBrine]

Why?
He's a Reimu echo.

Oh okay I'm good now.

I've never played Touhou so idk.

 

[T3Z3R1]

If Sora does get in. It'll prove to be an double-edge sword. Sora fans will be thrilled in his inclusion but otherwise Geno fans will be upset that Geno didn't make the cut.

Joking aside, If former or latter makes it in, there's good chance that there will be meltdown of each supporters since we know that there's mysterious Square Enix rep due to Vergeben.

 

[Pyra]

Did you see the top 5 of the original poll? Those guys were banned from the second one.

Who was in the top 5 of the original poll?

Sora.

He placed second.

This may seem like a hot take, but I am convinced that Sora did better than Geno in the ballot.

Coming from a long time Geno fan I wouldn't doubt that that's absolutely the case.

 

[Luigi The President]

Did you see the top 5 of the original poll? Those guys were banned from the second one.

Who was in the top 5 of the original poll?

Sora.

He placed second.

This may seem like a hot take, but I am convinced that Sora did better than Geno in the ballot.

Can you please link me this poll?

Personally I feel we can't really just decide that based off of one single poll. There are countless others I can dig up that took place during the Ballot where Geno outplaces Sora every time.

But I am not really aware of what this poll is so please help me out.

 

[Michael the Spikester]

And here I'am, just being happy, whoever gets in because **** it man. Square-Enix characters are Dope.

I for one personally wouldn't mind Sora honestly although Kingdom Hearts doesn't really interest me. If he gets in. Good on you guys I'll be glad you all got your character you wanted.

Same with Geno. If he's in, he's in. If not well. I won't honestly care less.