[Source Gaming] Is Sakurai a Liar?

No.​

For the past year and a half, Source Gaming has been collecting all the information, interviews and Famitsu columns, that it could get its' hands on. The collection of information has corrected a lot of misinformation and misconceptions within the Smash fan base. Taking information that is from only credited sources, Source Gaming is truly living up to its' name. Previously, Source Gaming has published The Definitive Unused Fighter List, Sakurai Didn't Say That!, Timeline of Masahiro Sakurai's Life and various articles detailing Sakurai's statements on various topics.

A common statement within the Smash fanbase is, 'Sakurai is a liar!' or 'Sakurai is a troll!'. PushDustIn decided to ask the community for their proof for these statements, investigate the claims and publish his findings.

For the full rundown, check out Source Gaming. This is only a preview of the full article!

1 lie.
4 cases of 'fake outs'
1 debatable cases.
12 cases of quotes being taken out of context, mistranslated or just made up.
4 cases of fans projecting their expectations.
2 cases of made up quotes/ quotes lacking sources.

Cases of Lying:
Stating that Zero-Suit Samus wasn't in Smash for Wii U/3DS, and then moments later admitting he was lying.

Cases of 'Fake Outs':
"Ness was in Smash up until now”
This quote comes from the Brawl site - Not a mistranslation, but it's not intended to sound so “definitive” (Japanese link). It just means that Ness was in all the previous Smash games up to that point. It was not a direct confirmation that Ness was or wasn’t going to be in Brawl.

Cases of Quotes Being Taken of Context:
"No DLC for Smash for Wii U/3DS"
This quote was taken out of context. Sakurai said that he and his team were not working on DLC at the time of the interview (November 19th), which for all we know, is true.

We believe that Samus is the best character in Super Smash Brothers for Wii U and 3DS"
This was in reference to the E3 invitational build (video link to the quote). This is probably his sincere opinion at the time, so it’s not a lie. On top of that, Sakurai states that he’s still balancing, so things would have changed since then.

Cases Lacking Sources:
”No more clones”
According to several threads on this topic, this is something that Sakurai has never said. In none of the Brawl interviews that Source Gaming has yet to translate, or has translated, were they able to find this. It is possible that eventually a source could turn up, but we will have to consider this misinformation since one has not been made available. According to Kinnian, it was made up by a user on Gamefaqs, and accepted as truth despite it lacking sources. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this happen and is the reason why people should always, always ask for a source.

Some of the more infamous cases are highlighted here, but be sure to check out full rundown on Source Gaming.

This kind of research takes time. A lot of time. If you like this kind of investigative research, please consider donating to Source Gaming's patreon. Rewards include financing a particular translation or research topic, and more!

PushDustIn always sources his stuff. Do you? Follow him on Twitter for more goodness.

 

Corrin is proof that Sakurai lies.

I don't care what the article says. When you have to try and twist the definition of "fan service" just to defend the man, then maybe it's not worth the trouble.

Sakurai said he would focus on fan service. He added a character to smash purely from a popularity poll. The character literally strips to attack. I don't think you could get closer to the definition of 'fanservice'.

The Cloud reveal was after the 'fanservice' quote. A final fantasy character in smash is, once again, 100% fanservice.

Sakurai puts in a FF rep, and a popularity contest character, and a character for marketing. Do you know who makes the marketing decisions? Not Sakurai. He doesn't profit from Fire Emblem sales. That's someone else.

Regardless, I see no lies here. Only your salt over Corrin.

 

Corrin is proof that Sakurai lies.

I don't care what the article says. When you have to try and twist the definition of "fan service" just to defend the man, then maybe it's not worth the trouble.

Playing the Devil's Advocate:
1. SG's translation articles usually have a disclaimer that states: This translation is for fan use only, and may not accurately reflect the opinions of Masahiro Sakurai.

The statement that was translated as "fan service" by SG was stated by them as being notoriously difficult to translate and was based on the translation team's interpretation of Sakurai's wording.

2. Fan service is a subjective term in and of itself. What some see as fanservice (meaning, they like the content), others may not see as such. By this definition, FE fans may see Corrin's inclusion as "fan service".

A subjective term, open to interpretation, isn't quite a lie. Cloud and Bayonetta are deemed as fan service additions, but there were plenty of people who didn't even know who those characters were. Is it fan service for them?

Just some food for thought. I don't even want to have this discussion. lol

 

I think that he was telling the truth when he said that Samus was the best, but instead of Zero Suit Samus he just said "Samus". If you reveal that the sexualised version of nintendo's sole female protagonist of her own series is the best character in the game and so much better than her original character to the point where said character has many moves that don't even work right, you will raise many eyebrows (not anyone from the smash community tho!).
When you look at ZSS's moveset, especially pre 1.0.4, there's no way he thought Samus was better than that.
Up B, Down B, paralyser, frame 6 up air, amazing down throw that works well past 300%, one of the fastest characters in air and on the ground as well as having recovery mixups and kill confirms starting at 30% near the ledge.

She was *designed* to win.

 

None of this explains the ballot to me. Lots of vagueness there, never mentioning Bayonetta's numbers in Japan (or just any detailed numbers in general) still seems questionable to me. Not a lie, but I think he also should've explained the ballot's process better from the start, even now, no one knows how the votes were counted, and I think that potentially leads to misleading results.

The fanservice DLC statement was also vague, and you can't say he "lied" with it, he certainly didn't live up to the expectations of the phrase. Whether or not our expectations were too high in hindsight isn't important; when you start throwing out phrases like "fanservice" coupled with a freakin' ballot asking fans what characters THEY want, how are fans not going to have high expectations?

For example, when people were wondering about Banjo Kazooie, and Phil Spencer said he'd allow it, the followup statement was something like a vague, 'you can vote for anyone you want', statement. Why not just say, 'no, no Microsoft characters'. You're just intentionally leading people on at that point.

No matter how you slice it, Sakurai's a troll, plain and simple.

 

Fan service means different things to different people just because you don't like Corrin doesn't make Sakurai a liar it's subjective

Sakurai: "Hey fans, what characters do you guys want?"

Fans: *shouts with names like K. Rool, Wolf, Inkling, Issac, Ridley, and Banjo are heard

Fan way in the back: "I kind of want Corrin, I guess."

Sakurai: "The fans have spoken!"

Sakurai said he would focus on fan service. He added a character to smash purely from a popularity poll. The character literally strips to attack. I don't think you could get closer to the definition of 'fanservice'.

The Cloud reveal was after the 'fanservice' quote. A final fantasy character in smash is, once again, 100% fanservice.

Sakurai puts in a FF rep, and a popularity contest character, and a character for marketing. Do you know who makes the marketing decisions? Not Sakurai. He doesn't profit from Fire Emblem sales. That's someone else.

Regardless, I see no lies here. Only your salt over Corrin.

Here we go, nothing let to say but "lol salt".

 

Here's a quote:

"Don’t get me wrong though, the fighting is more advanced than before."

This was lifted straight from an iwata asks about Brawl. come on, find a way to spin this one

 

Here's a quote:

"Don’t get me wrong though, the fighting is more advanced than before."

This was lifted straight from an iwata asks about Brawl. come on, find a way to spin this one

At a basic level it's true. We had more complex gimmicks in both characters like Olimar and stages like well.... Most of them. Plus tons of complex items.

 

At a basic level it's true. We had more complex gimmicks in both characters like Olimar and stages like well.... Most of them. Plus tons of complex items.

Untrue, olimar's gameplan was spamming smashes and pikmin throw at basic level. Most of the new characters were streamlined, easy to play, and fitted with ridiculous recovery ability.
most of the new items were broken or fire-and-forget powerful attacks (and holy crap at the golden hammer)
Most importantly, Sakurai himself stated after (during, maybe) Brawl's release that he dumbed down the game for lesser capable players.

 

Sakurai: "Hey fans, what characters do you guys want?"

Fans: *shouts with names like K. Rool, Wolf, Inkling, Issac, Ridley, and Banjo are heard

Fan way in the back: "I kind of want Corrin, I guess."

Sakurai: "The fans have spoken!"


Here we go, nothing let to say but "lol salt".

Corrin's reason for getting in has nothing to do with the ballot it was being a character from an upcoming game Q1 we have off the top of my head:

Mario and Luigi Paper Jam: Another mario character whoever could've been chosen wouldn't please everyone

Fire Emblem Fates: Corrin Main Character obvious choice original

Pokken Tournament: Another pokémon out of over 700 you can't please people no matter what's chosen

Star Fox 0: Wolf was in a previous game but is a semi-clone

 

Sakurai is not a liar. He's a jerk. Big difference. Made melee, proving he knows how to design a game with exceptional gameplay... turns around, and releases the crappiest sequels ever and removes nearly everything good, gameplay wise, and implements stuff to make the game worse (Auto sweetspot, tripping, ledge trumping)

Such a prick.... Sakurai sucks.

I think melee is just waaaay too hard for me to play (screw fox and his 1-frame short hop) but it is good. i like sm4sh the most, because it is somewhat fast and fox can short hop much more easily now. I dont play fox though. he sucks now.

 

Sakurai never developed the competitive side of smash brothers. That was the staff at HAL Labs who notably did not work on Brawl or Smash 4. Most of what makes Smash Bros. what it is is incorrectly attributed to Sakurai alone. This is a common problem found within fanbases of certain games in which the focus is solely on the lead developer and not the staff under them, and a bad problem it is.

HAL also did smash 64 which explains why it doesn't suck and that the ledge game actually exists along with 1 touch 0-death combos, and z cancelling eliminating 100% of all landing lag. Once mastered, leading to nearly limitless combo potential.

I never knew that though.... So sakurai isn't fully to blame for brawl / smash 4's terrible gameplay?

I kind of figured from interviews and the way he talks about the competitive community that he intentionally made the game bad to spite the competitive community.

This makes me wonder, was it sakurai's idea to include STUPID things like tripping / ledge trumping / auto sweetspot ledge, or did it come from the development team?

That's one thing I'm burning to know, who is responsible for making smash into a boring game. Because I'd like to punch whomever is responsible.

 

I think melee is just waaaay too hard for me to play (screw fox and his 1-frame short hop) but it is good. i like sm4sh the most, because it is somewhat fast and fox can short hop much more easily now. I dont play fox though. he sucks now.

Melee isn't that hard to play, just practice. I agree fox is really tough... I main fox and it took me years and years to get to the level I'm at now.

I hate sm4sh on a competitive level. But playing it with my casual friends or doing 8 player smash IS fun, and the game IS a lot better than Brawl, which I also enjoyed playing casually with my friends.

I'm sick of Sakurai though. PLEASE let someone else make smash 5 in the future, and please let HAL be involved in programming the game play.

 

Corrin's reason for getting in has nothing to do with the ballot it was being a character from an upcoming game Q1 we have off the top of my head:

Mario and Luigi Paper Jam: Another mario character whoever could've been chosen wouldn't please everyone

Fire Emblem Fates: Corrin Main Character obvious choice original

Pokken Tournament: Another pokémon out of over 700 you can't please people no matter what's chosen

Star Fox 0: Wolf was in a previous game but is a semi-clone

Sakurai said that all characters after Roy and Ryu would be fanservice. Unlike people who defend Sakurai no matter what, I'm not changing what "fanservice" could possibly mean.

Characters that huge portions of the fans wanted. Corrin is anything but.

 

People do attribute a lot of the effort on game development to the creator/director when it's far from the truth.

There is such a thing as brainstorming and exchanging ideas with either the developers or the executives of the IP owning companies.

Sakurai has mentioned several times that some ideas weren't his, but actually came from staff working with him.

Game development is a collaborative effort. The director may have a lot to say on the thing and generally decides how things are done, but they're still just a cog in the machine that is the production team.

Of course, this should be common sense...

 

People do attribute a lot of the effort on game development to the creator/director when it's far from the truth.

There is such a thing as brainstorming and exchanging ideas with either the developers or the executives of the IP owning companies.

Sakurai has mentioned several times that some ideas weren't his, but actually came from staff working with him.

Game development is a collaborative effort. The director may have a lot to say on the thing and generally decides how things are done, but they're still just a cog in the machine that is the production team.

Of course, this should be common sense...

So with something STUPID like tripping for example... the best example actually...

Do you think this was Sakurai's idea? Or do you think one of the development team members brought it up in a meeting "Hey, you know what would be great? If your character randomly fell down, for NO reason"

I think Sakurai had a lot more to do with changing the gameplay in smash than the development team did. And a grand majority of the gameplay changes are basically a huge middle finger to anybody who plays smash seriously.

 

So with something STUPID like tripping for example... the best example actually...

Do you think this was Sakurai's idea? Or do you think one of the development team members brought it up in a meeting "Hey, you know what would be great? If your character randomly fell down, for NO reason"

I think Sakurai had a lot more to do with changing the gameplay in smash than the development team did. And a grand majority of the gameplay changes are basically a huge middle finger to anybody who plays smash seriously.

Well, it might be safe to assume it might have been one of Sakurai's ideas for the game, silly as it may be.

Sakurai did acknowledge it when talking about Smash 3DS/Wii U, so he likely had the idea, though there's no concrete evidence as to whether he did have the idea on his own or of other people had a say in that.

However, I think the so-called "casualization" of the game may have not been just Sakurai's idea, but something that Nintendo may have helped considering it was a Wii game and the console's primary audience being non-gamers.

From a business POV, it does make sense to have a game less demanding as Melee on sale for a console that was meant to attract people not used to gaming. Hell, Sakurai has acknowledged multiple times that Melee was "a sharper game" and its pacing made it fun.

He did try to aim for a middle-point between Melee and Brawl with the new game, though whether he succeeded or not may be a subjective matter... Not to mention he does prefer making games more accessible to beginners, considering he made Kirby with this premise in mind as well.

Sakurai does seem to appreciate challenging games and thinks that one of Melee's merits is precisely its fast pace and competitive appeal, but he doesn't like making that kind of game. It's just how he is, I guess.

Whether that is a good or bad thing is up for the player to decide.

 

As soon as I saw the title, I didn't bother reading the article.

Whatever this may be, Sakurai still did it for the right reasons.

And with that, I'm not going any further with this ****.

 

I'm surprised they didn't add anything but his next project

 

Yeah, I honestly had a lot of issue categorizing it. However, this was the most frequent piece of "evidence" that was submitted to me over the course of the last week. It's funny that the idea of Sakurai being a master troll/ liar is so embedded in the community, but no one can really thing why.

IMO it's just because fans expect one thing, and he does another. The severe lack of translations pre-Source Gaming hasn't helped misinformation/ misconceptions about Smash being spread either.

I'm not trying to toot my horn too much...but we still have so much misinformation within the community. It took me months to get the Wikis changed with the cut characters because the old list was so blindly accepted.

So often, the loudest opinion is the one that gets believed instead of the most correct or most plausible one. Trying to find and spread the truth against those odds can be frustrating.

 

Sakurai said that all characters after Roy and Ryu would be fanservice. Unlike people who defend Sakurai no matter what, I'm not changing what "fanservice" could possibly mean.

Characters that huge portions of the fans wanted. Corrin is anything but.

I haven't changed the meaning I'm a fan of FE and Sword fighters and Sakurai is doing me a service by putting Corrin in Smash therefore it is Fanservice

 

He's definitely not a liar. Just an idiot. At least he's a dedicated idiot, I guess.

 

Could people stop making assumptions as to how the Smash ballet worked? We just don't have the information to come to any solid conclusion. I understand that some people are disappointed, but don't spread false information and assumptions around to vent.

 

Sakurai also said no dogs, no animal crossing characters, and no characters from fighting games.

Why you always lyin, why you always lyin?

Pretty sure he never said that last one...

 

Pretty sure he never said that last one...

http://mynintendonews.com/2013/07/2...-see-fighting-characters-in-super-smash-bros/

Rekt

 

Its kind of weird how people are making the internet seem bigger than it is for smash. Sure you saw X amount of people say King K Rool but that never really means that's what everyone wants. as I see them are a combination of fanservice and marketing. Corrin appeals to FE fans and those who are excited for FE Fates. Bayonetta of course appeals to her fans and those that like her type of games. She also helped get the word about Bayonetta out there. Both characters show that sometimes the majority is the minorty and vice versa. But hey who am I to tell ya what's right and what's wrong

 

http://mynintendonews.com/2013/07/2...-see-fighting-characters-in-super-smash-bros/

Rekt

OBJECTION!!!!!!!!!






it says may not

 

A liar, he is not. But a troll, that he is.

 

Bayonetta isn't in development with a load of other things. It's just Corrin, some trophies, mii costumes, a stage, some music, trailers and a balance patch alongside her.

Compare this to the main game when Sakurai said that characters could take a year.
An entire roster of characters nearing 50, two rosters of stages, loads of items, a bunch of game modes like Smash Tour and Smash Run which have their own unique aspects to make, near 700 trophies, lots of music, custom moves, stage builder and so on.

See the huge contrast in the content in development between Bayonetta and a character on the main roster?

No wonder why Sakurai had once stated he didn't plan of making DLC for Smash because it is a lot of hard work, but of course he start to make DLC after the development for the original game.

But then again what you said means that Sakurai's previous statement saying making a character takes over a year isn't suitable on DLC characters. Which does makes sense since yet again, that quote was before he started to make DLC.

Also remember that they are working on 2 characters in the time he said it would take for only one

Um... that's when Smash 3DS was barely out. Maybe this isn't suitable on DLC characters. And Sakurai had once stated that they will only make one character that is base on the Smash ballot results. This is still too far to say a lie though.

 

Anyways, I love reading stuff like this, some of it is rather interesting. I especially love the facts that they debunk.

As any fanboy should.

Corrin is proof that Sakurai lies.

I don't care what the article says. When you have to try and twist the definition of "fan service" just to defend the man, then maybe it's not worth the trouble.

I was afraid they were going to twist "fan service" into "everything is fan service", but yes, it is possible there are many different meanings to fan service. The timing of the whole statement was weird, because he said it right after Ryu, Roy and Lucas. Why didn't he say it at the beginning with Mewtwo? It made it seem like there was going to be a sudden change and we were going to get the characters people really wanted, even though 3 of the 4 up to that point were some of them. Arguably and ironically the characters before the statement were more "fan service" than the ones after. Just my opinion; all the DLC newcomers were garbage and literally this game had the worst newcomer class of them all. Just my opinion ^-^. flameshield/


I just think it's time to give the topic a rest.

 

I just think it's time to give the topic a rest.

I wish, but as long as Sakurai breathes with this board up, this is all you're gonna hear in the news section.

 

All i'm seeing is a lot of people denying without giving any solid evidence to the contrary. Not a single post making Sakurai seem like a liar. (and a few sane people)

And a few people refusing to even read the article. Wonderful.

 

Sakurai never developed the competitive side of smash brothers. That was the staff at HAL Labs who notably did not work on Brawl or Smash 4. Most of what makes Smash Bros. what it is is incorrectly attributed to Sakurai alone. This is a common problem found within fanbases of certain games in which the focus is solely on the lead developer and not the staff under them, and a bad problem it is.

Yeah, but the media kind of makes it seem that way, attributing everything to Sakurai. No one could name one other person who worked on any Smash Bros. without Googling it.

The Cloud reveal was after the 'fanservice' quote. A final fantasy character in smash is, once again, 100% fanservice.

Yeah, but by that logic, everything is fan service. Plus, that character had to have began development and been decided upon way before Sakurai made that statement.

I don't even want to have this discussion. lol

Bruh, then why are you having it, lol?

I think melee is just waaaay too hard for me to play (screw fox and his 1-frame short hop) but it is good. i like sm4sh the most, because it is somewhat fast and fox can short hop much more easily now. I dont play fox though. he sucks now.

But you don't have be an expert at it though. It has the duality of being a casual party game and an extremely technical competitive one.

 

I'm not sure why people are taking a dump on competitive play in Smash 4. Especially when competitive preference is completely subjective. I personally think Melee is boring to watch and playing it is even worst. I want to focus on the game. Not whether I can z-cancel my landing lag every 3 seconds or perform 3 billion wave dashes. However, I'm not going to treat my option as if it was fact. Smash 4 and Melee are good in there own rights.

 

I wish, but as long as Sakurai breathes with this board up, this is all you're gonna hear in the news section.

Yeah, but he didn't even breathe. I can't lie; these headlines have reflected a lot of the things I have felt about Sakurai, and kudos to SourceGaming for taking the time to do this article, but it's like can't we talk about something else?

And with SourceGaming and Smashboards trying be on Sakurai's side, the headline and picture of Sakurai-Pinocchio doesn't really help. Like someone actually created that, lol?

I'm not sure why people are taking a dump on competitive play in Smash 4. Especially when competitive preference is completely subjective. I personally think Melee is boring to watch and playing it is even worst. I want to focus on the game. Not whether I can z-cancel my landing lag every 3 seconds or perform 3 billion wave dashes. However, I'm not going to treat my option as if it was fact. Smash 4 and Melee are good in there own rights.

But you just took a dump on Melee.

 

Yeah, but he didn't even breathe. I can't lie; these headlines have reflected a lot of the things I have felt about Sakurai, and kudos to SourceGaming for taking the time to do this article, but it's like can't we talk about something else?

And with SourceGaming and Smashboards trying be on Sakurai's side, the headline and picture of Sakurai-Pinocchio doesn't really help. Like someone actually created that, lol?


But you just took a dump on Melee.

#Gimmick

#Hypocrite

Anyway, my main point is that you shouldn't treat an opinion like fact (was aimed towards you though).

 

#Gimmick

#Hypocrite

Anyway, my main point is that you shouldn't treat an opinion like fact (was aimed towards you though).

It was aimed towards me? I didn't state my opinion on competitive Smash 4 tho. Typo?

 

Always makes me laugh a little when someone says people wanted K.rool and Ridley and such.

You guys do realize that the polls were always answered by the same groups of people, they were always answered by people who follow the ballot.

You shouldn't forget the casual players who maybe learned about it once , voted, and never talked about it again. Nor should you forget the non-vocal people. Unless the game is aimed for high end PC users, don't expect polls to be correct.

 

It was aimed towards me? I didn't state my opinion on competitive Smash 4 tho. Typo?

Lol. May bad. That was a typo.

 

As any fanboy should.

Huh?

 

http://mynintendonews.com/2013/07/2...-see-fighting-characters-in-super-smash-bros/

Rekt

Nope.

Sakurai never said "No fighting game character" either. That's a mistranslation.
http://www.sourcegaming.info/2015/07/10/sakurai-didnt-say-that/#[1]