[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.

 

OK, so I like to have some fun.

One day Sakurai will let his conscience be his guide...

 

Sometimes I wonder if people here even realize that Sakurai never actually mentioned fan service in any way

 

I wouldn't call him a straight-up liar, but he certainly isn't honest about everything.

One thing, for example, that I don't think was mentioned in the article, is how Sakurai said that every character was recreated from the ground up. (If I remember correctly he said that in one of the Smash directs). Somehow, I don't think that's completely honest: look at Mario for example, most of his moves and animations are remarkably similar - frame-by-frame - to their equivalents in Brawl. This appears to be the case with most of the veteran characters' animations, with the exception of a handful of changed moves (and the obvious character revamps as per Bowser). Simply put, I don't believe that his statement was truthful because of how the majority of the veterans match up almost 1 to 1 with their Brawl versions, in terms of movesets and the smallest of animations.

 

Nope.

My whole life is a lie.

 

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.

Of course he was in dev, I meant he was one of the upcoming characters Sakurai was hinting at when he used the phrase fan service. And if you want to get meta, aren't all games ultimately fan-service? (Or cash grabs?)

 

Sometimes I wonder if people here even realize that Sakurai never actually mentioned fan service in any way

Sometimes I wonder if people here actually know what they're talking about.

Yes, it was vague, but he mentioned it in some way.

 

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.

You do realize he wrote about advanced techniques himself on the Smash 64 and Melee site...right?

 

:/ I honestly don't like this kind of article. Sure Sakurai's "said" a lot of things in the past but I don't feel like knocking him on our main forum where Nintendo can clearly see what we all are saying and such. I'm personally just grateful for what he's done for this iteration of Smash. And am not going to be all nitpicky about things he's "said" or hasn't "said". That's just my opinion on the matter anyways.

And this is why Sakurai always gives us surprises. We never know if his quote is legit or not.

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 ****.

To me I already thought this was already being known among rhe Smash community. I never take this article negatively. If you think this in another way, this is why Sakurai is rad, we never know what he is doing, even what he had said before might never be legit.

 

Sometimes I wonder if people here actually know what they're talking about.

Yes, it was vague, but he mentioned it in some way.

How can it be vague if he never explicitly said it?

Meh, I'm confused so whatever ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Tino I think you tried to defend him but completely ignored how the article defended him.

 

Sometimes I wonder if people here actually know what they're talking about.

Yes, it was vague, but he mentioned it in some way.

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.

Here's the real kicker.

That translation about all future DLC being "fan service"? It comes from this same site. You can find the article on SourceGaming if you search for it.

Sakurai never actually said fan service - he used a term that cannot directly be translated into English with "fan service" being the closest to what it meant, but even that isn't entirely 1-to-1 to what he really said.

Perhaps PushDustIn would be willing to clarify this in the article? It's a lovely read, but I can potentially see this lack of clarity leading to more misinterpertation.

 

This is a argument that I do not want to take part in.
Count me out.

 

Tino I think you tried to defend him but completely ignored how the article defended him.

That's what the article is about? Defending him?

 

That's what the article is about? Defending him?

...

If you read the darn thing, you'd know it was saying that Sakurai never once lied...

You still haven't read it?

 

...

If you read the darn thing, you'd know it was saying that Sakurai never once lied...

You still haven't read it?

No and I don't have time cuz I'm about to go back to work.

 

I wouldn't call him a straight-up liar, but he certainly isn't honest about everything.

One thing, for example, that I don't think was mentioned in the article, is how Sakurai said that every character was recreated from the ground up. (If I remember correctly he said that in one of the Smash directs). Somehow, I don't think that's completely honest: look at Mario for example, most of his moves and animations are remarkably similar - frame-by-frame - to their equivalents in Brawl. This appears to be the case with most of the veteran characters' animations, with the exception of a handful of changed moves (and the obvious character revamps as per Bowser). Simply put, I don't believe that his statement was truthful because of how the majority of the veterans match up almost 1 to 1 with their Brawl versions, in terms of movesets and the smallest of animations.

The only flaw I see with this is if they ported every veteran from Brawl, don't you think they would all come back?
I mean if they ported as part of Pokemon trainer, don't you think they'd all be sepparated? I mean each of them would only need one new move. Also if they ported every character don't you think would be in the base game? I'm guessing that they made most of the stuff from the ground up, if the lack of modes is anything to go by. Now is the man a liar... He kind of is, but he's more of an idiot doing stuff like not having a story mode because the cutscenes would get leaked online, making every music track 2 minutes long, which meant some longer tracks had to be butchered, removing break the targets and replacing it with a crappy target blast, completely messing up classic mode, most notably on the Wii U, and making 3 different and unique characters that can't even be used online as well as a bunch of customizable features that most people don't use. I also think most of the DLC characters were worked on during development on the base game, not after the game was done like Sakurai claims. Unless he does a complete 180 on some of his ideas, I don't want him making the next smash game.

 

Is Sakurai a liar?

No.

Yoooooo that's a lie isn't it??

 

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

You speak as if you're part of some huge majority that was asking for Corrin.

You aren't. He isn't fanservice.

 

While I understand that "fanservice" is an ambiguous term and possibly not a perfect translation, Corrin was explicitly put in for the purpose of advertisement, not fanservice. They said it outright in the broadcast. Even if there are some number of fans who like him, that wasn't the intent or reasoning we were given for his inclusion, so I find it a bit of a stretch to call him such.

 

You speak as if you're part of some huge majority that was asking for Corrin.

You aren't. He isn't fanservice.

I never said I was in a majority don't try twisting my words I only said MY opinion

 

That's what the article is about? Defending him?

Yes, it is. Even if this article isn't, I won't mind either....
Defending Sakurai? There is nothing to defend Sakurai from, except some salty fans...

Mistranslation is the biggest reason that cause people to think that Sakurai has been lying, and even he did. I wouldn't mind, cuz he made Smash4 really awesome.

...

If you read the darn thing, you'd know it was saying that Sakurai never once lied...

You still haven't read it?

He's not gonna read it, and it's his freedom of choice afterall.

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.

He only lied once, which was actually even just a little joke. And a majority of the reason is from mistranslations.
So are you opposing this article still believe that Sakurai is a liar? Don't get me wrong, I'm fine if you think like that. But please know this: Sakurai being a liar =/= Sakurai is a bad person, a troll.
"Sakurai is a liar!" >> I can partially accept this. But you need to have proof.
"Sakurai is a troll!">> Excuse me? He's not.
tl;dr
With Tino , I don't care if Sakurai is a liar or not, he already made Smash4 really awesome, so what's the point of arguing this?

 

What people always seem to do that makes Sakurai seem like a liar is twist his words, or read into them in a way that is incorrect.

Like the whole DLC thing. Sakurai said there were no Plans for DLC past Mewtwo, which could be true for sure at the point at which he said it. Many people however seemed to take it as "NO SMASH 4 DLC EVER"

 

The big issue is that Sakurai doesn't lie but fans put out examples of spreader misinformation (remember how people said that Ganondorf is the way he his because it reminded Sakurai of his dad?)


Plus the whole liar thing is mostly to twist up stuff to see fit how much of your character didn't get into the game. There's reason why Ridley fans felt like Sakurai put them through hell when they did that themselves by being delusional as hell.


Also, Dylan_Tnga Smash has alway be a casual **** fest. Especially considering they actually decided to fix that garbage air dodging.

If it hurts you that much, play Rivals of Aether or play an ACTUAL fighter for once

 

While I understand that "fanservice" is an ambiguous term and possibly not a perfect translation, Corrin was explicitly put in for the purpose of advertisement, not fanservice. They said it outright in the broadcast. Even if there are some number of fans who like him, that wasn't the intent or reasoning we were given for his inclusion, so I find it a bit of a stretch to call him such.

Another reason why Corrin was a terrible pick. If Sakurai wanted to advertise a more recent game, there were plenty of better options from franchises that either aren't already bloated enough like FE or franchises with no representation at all. Inkling is the best example, with the added bonus of having a large group of people wanting her in Smash, but people often bring up the ink mechanic making her virtually impossible to add for now. There's also characters from Xenoblade Chronicles X (most people seemed to want Elma over anyone else), which honestly could have used that boost of sales Smash would have given the game. There's even Chibi Robo, who debuted on the Gamecube and has yet to be in Smash Bros. Maybe the interest in the character from Smash could have helped Zip Lash sell more and save the Chibi Robo franchise. I guess we'll never know though, the Chibi Robo franchise looks like it's done for and Smash probably could have been just enough to save it. Wolf even would have been good for advertising thanks to Star Fox Zero. Plus, Star Fox has been dormant for a long time, meaning Wolf could be "new" to a lot of people. Any one of those characters would have been much better than "Fire Emblem character number 6".

 

What some people will say: We majority fans didn't get our dream game like we were promised/entitled to! Sakurai lied to us about fan service and this article is sh*t!
What they actually mean: I didn't get my dream game! I don't care what anyone else says, Sakurai sucks *ss!
All there is to it. No matter how they word it, they are ultimately upset they didn't get their perfect game, everything else be damned.
And now I go.

 

Here's the real kicker.

That translation about all future DLC being "fan service"? It comes from this same site. You can find the article on SourceGaming if you search for it.

Sakurai never actually said fan service - he used a term that cannot directly be translated into English with "fan service" being the closest to what it meant, but even that isn't entirely 1-to-1 to what he really said.

Perhaps PushDustIn would be willing to clarify this in the article? It's a lovely read, but I can potentially see this lack of clarity leading to more misinterpertation.

The future DLC being "fan service" comes from Famitsu Column 481: Ryu, Roy and Lucas Join the Battle!

The lead translator was Soma, but @Masked Man (仮面の男) and I checked/ offered advice on the translation. Soma's first language is Japanese. Masked Man is a professional translator. I've lived in Japan for over 6 years now.

Our site has it translated as:

From now on, it is going to be fan service [2] , but I can’t keep the development team together forever, so there’s only going to be several more characters [3]. I also ask for your patience, as we need time to develop more content.

That 2 and 3 are translation notes.

2. His specific wording here is “サービス,” literally “service.” While the definition of “service” in Japan does have its own nuances compared to what it means in English, I’m assuming based on context here that he’s referring to “fan service,” in reference to the ballot, although he never explicitly says this.

3. 数 means “several,” and it can be combined with another character to say “several of a specific something.” For example, 人 is the character for “person,” 数人 is “several people.” Sakurai wrote 数体. “体” is “bodies,” generally used for things that humanoid, or humanlike but usually aren’t actually alive. If I was referring to several dolls, or several figurines, I might say “数体.” Similarly, I assume Sakurai is referring to characters, not updates, because of his character choice.

We later published an article clarifying #3.

As far as サービス goes, we discussed that translation for a long time (as well as the wording for "several more characters"). Even months later, we still agree that "fan service" is the best translation for that sentence.

This is because of the full context. The previous sentence reads:

There is a fighter ballot on the official Smash for Wii U/3DS website. We’ve received an extremely large number of votes, but of course, Lucas, Roy, and Ryu were in development even before the ballot was created. I had a grasp on their popularity and demand, though.

Here's the Japanese for both parts:

スマブラ公式Webサイトに、投票拳権があります。非常に多くの要望をいただいていますが、もちろん、リュカ、ロイ、リュウの三人は、投票拳が作られる前から制作しています。人気、要望のほどは把握していましたけれども。

これからは、あくまでサービスだし、いつまでもチームを断続できるわけでもないので、あと数体の配信となりそうです。また、政策にお時間いただきます。

If you would like the original Japanese for the full article (or any of our translations) please contact me directly.

Anyway, I'll bring it up with the rest of the translation staff and see if opinions have changed, and if we should publish a short write up explaining it/ if we should revise it.

 

The only flaw I see with this is if they ported every veteran from Brawl, don't you think they would all come back?
I mean if they ported as part of Pokemon trainer, don't you think they'd all be sepparated? I mean each of them would only need one new move. Also if they ported every character don't you think would be in the base game?

Not necessarily, as you cannot just port in a character and call it a day. Characters should still need to be balanced, which takes up development time. Maybe Wolf and Lucas were low priority and just didn't make it into the base game in time.

 

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.

So you are going to reject any other kind of reasoning in the matter because you want to insist that you were lied to? This is the mob mentality that is spreads like cancer among the Smash community taking everything out of context.
Corrin can be just interpreted as an extra tagged along with fanservice characters Cloud and Bayonetta, probably pushed by Nintendo as advertisment. It would make sense if it was like this, since it isn't in Sakurai's interest to advertise a character but for Nintendo they certainly benefit from it. Anyways, we've been over this already and I know that logic is wasted on you.

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!"

Assumptions, don't we love them? For someone who likes to accuse someone for lying you do really love to lie to yourself by pulling statements out of your butt. Has it ever occurred to you that those fans shouting those names perhaps didn't make up the larger portion of the Smash fanbase?
You can go by citing polls done in places like here, GameFaqs, Reddit, etc. but the truth is that the whole player base doesn't frequent these places. Much of the traffic in this site comes from users in NA, which may have their own preferences in newcomers but there are still a lot of other people from around the world who are unaccounted for and simply don't bother in partaking in those polls, take me as an example, I'm a regular here and never voted in any of those. A character like K. Rool may not be the popularity juggernaut that people are trying to make him out to be; not only from a regional perspective (Europe and Japan may not feel the same about him) but from an age demographic as well, he may just appeal to a smaller demographic who grew up in the 90s but newer generation gamers know nothing about and older ones may not care enough about him. And others like Banjo may have been impossible due to being owned by a direct competitor.

So yeah, if you are gonna say that the majority wanted him and those characters, chances are you might be wrong to a certain extent. Europe certainly didn't want him enough, and Japan probably feels the same.
The fans, the majority you like to claim that were shouting those characters... those were probably the ones in the back instead.

Also, here is the lollipop I owe you. Now go sit in the corner and suck on your thumb away from the people who actually bother to think rationally for a change.

 

A few things they did not point out:
"The best character in (smash 4) is Samus" there is an unambiguous indelible video record of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCYCj3et36U
Surprisingly, no one played Samus at the invitational.

"I do not have favorites"
He kills Samus 2-3 x as much as other character in every nintendo direct, every presentation, even the opening cinematic. He just likes killing the character.

Samus trophy:
"Samus's up smash attack, Cover Fire, fires five small blasts overhead, making it great for countering incoming aerial attacks."
Except that he's gone out of his way to design the move so that it doesn't do that.

ZSS trophy:
"Without her Power Suit, Samus Aran may not have her usual strength, specials moves or over-powered arm cannon, but her Jet Boots definitely kick things up a notch in their own way."

I'm not sure he's a liar. I could be convinced he has mental problems. I really don't try to read his mind anymore, otherwise I may be the one going insane.

You do realize that Sakurai doesn't even write the trophy descriptions, right?

 

You do realize that Sakurai doesn't even write the trophy descriptions, right?

In Melee he did.

Brawl...I'm actually not sure. Will have to look into that.

For Smash for Wii U/3DS it was Akihiro Toda.

But you should be careful, because there are some major differences between the Japanese and English trophies. I want to do some more comparisons, butt I already wrote about Wario's trophies (and the awful American translation).

 

Also, Dylan_Tnga Smash has alway be a casual **** fest. Especially considering they actually decided to fix that garbage air dodging.

If it hurts you that much, play Rivals of Aether or play an ACTUAL fighter for once

Smash is an "ACTUAL" fighting game. Arguably the best ever made. (64 & melee that is)

I do enjoy Street Fighter & Mortal Kombat though

What kind of a "fix" are you talking about? I hope you're not saying melee's air dodge wasn't good, because it was. Brawl / Smash 4's air dodge ruin the way the game is played to and in brawl makes it wayyyy too easy to avoid follow ups.

Screw Rivals of Aether lol. Not at all my type of game. And not a good alternative to smash in my opinion. Smash flash 2 >>>> RoA

 

Smash is an "ACTUAL" fighting game. Arguably the best ever made. (64 & melee that is)

I do enjoy Street Fighter & Mortal Kombat though

What kind of a "fix" are you talking about? I hope you're not saying melee's air dodge wasn't good, because it was. Brawl / Smash 4's air dodge ruin the way the game is played to and in brawl makes it wayyyy too easy to avoid follow ups.

Screw Rivals of Aether lol. Not at all my type of game. And not a good alternative to smash in my opinion. Smash flash 2 >>>> RoA

You mean an air dodge that puts your butt in a freefalling state and you have zero way to defend yourself off-stage aside from trading blows that will leave you dead if you're a spacie or Marth?

You mean that same air dodge that isn't a dodge but more of a last resort defend that only benefits the opposition moreso? That airdodge? Man you smoking that stupid stuff.

I actually like the PM airdodge as you can use it but it has a few drawbacks but won't leave you defenseless. I think Brawl/4 airdodge isn't that good because of no buffering on it and how much you can abuse it but it's way better than Melee's which is an instant death wish.


Ask Westballz and M2K how much that airdodge can screw them over

 

You mean an air dodge that puts your butt in a freefalling state and you have zero way to defend yourself off-stage aside from trading blows that will leave you dead if you're a spacie or Marth?

You mean that same air dodge that isn't a dodge but more of a last resort defend that only benefits the opposition moreso? That airdodge? Man you smoking that stupid stuff.

I actually like the PM airdodge as you can use it but it has a few drawbacks but won't leave you defenseless. I think Brawl/4 airdodge isn't that good because of no buffering on it and how much you can abuse it but it's way better than Melee's which is an instant death wish.


Ask Westballz and M2K how much that airdodge can screw them over

Without that airdodge we wouldn't have wavedashing though. Might not be the best survival technique but I'll take that trade any day of the week.

I don't play much PM... I thought it had melees air dodge making wavedashing possible, but it sounds like it's also good for survival... never knew that!

 

Without that airdodge we wouldn't have wavedashing though. Might not be the best survival technique but I'll take that trade any day of the week.

I don't play much PM... I thought it had melees air dodge making wavedashing possible, but it sounds like it's also good for survival... never knew that!

I can live without Wavedashing if it gives the player better defensive options that don't wreck the player hard.


I just can't live without L-Canceling

 

"Is Sakurai a Liar?"
"NO"


Wow, uh, we're uh, shutting down that point pretty quickly then.

 

Sakurai created a great game, I don't see the need for all this hate. Daddy' Sakurai's got this. Still praying he pulls Wolf out of nowhere soon.

 

I can live without Wavedashing if it gives the player better defensive options that don't wreck the player hard.


I just can't live without L-Canceling

You are most definitely not a spacie main

Yeah I like L cancelling too. I hate that they removed it in brawl and smash 4. I like the added difficulty / punish game involved for missing an L cancel and how the timing is different when doing aerial son shield... etc. Lots of haters out there for L cancelling but they're all pretty much scrubs or just lazy "why should you need an extra input to do something you ALWAYS want to do" I dunno.... maybe because rewarding laziness sucks?

 

I love how when someone says "King K.Rool, Wolf, Ridley, etc... weren't as popular as you probably think" they go ahead and imply that characters like the ones who made it in actually were. Outside of Bayonetta, Sakurai hasn't claimed any of the characters that made it in through DLC were at all popular. If you want people to stop making assumptions, stop doing it for yourselves to support your arguments.

Now as some extra food for thought, everyone is aware of the bandwagoning effect, right? You know the effect where everyone flocks to a winner, artificially boosting the most popular (which, at the time, made them to be considered the most likely as well) character's popularity. Well, then don't you think it's actually possible that the characters that get name-dropped for snubs constantly actually were popular among fans that were only casually into Smash? The characters with the most exposure are bound to be the ones that get the most bandwagoners at the end of the day, and those characters most definitely were up there on that regard, spreading to sites like Twitter and Facebook like wildfire.

Seriously, give me a reason to believe those characters WEREN'T the most popular. Nothing we know suggests otherwise, and until we get some official Sakurai stats, that's not going to change. So you guys getting on Wolf, K.Rool, Ridley, etc... fans for believing there characters were popular when they had actual visual evidence that they were the most popular to the largest extent we can possibly know at the moment, please explain to me why YOUR assumptions that Cloud was actually popular and that Goku, Shrek, Spongebob were actually the leading vote-getters are any better.

 

For the record there's no fail window for l cancelling in Melee and PM and the window is 7 frames, you can just mash the button to avoid missing an L cancel so hitting an angled shield doesn't really make much of a difference. If know about there being no fail window anyway, idk how it works in 64 maybe there's a fail window there but for the other 2 games with L canceling, nope

 

I love sakurai cuz his trollness!