[SPOILER ALERT] - The Sevens Squares. - A Square-Enix general support threads.

[-Coco-]

The concept of leak bait only makes sense when it's not a name everyone knows about. Leakbait is supposed to be specific bits of information to see where info leaks from. If Verge has really heard Erdrick from multiple sources as he claims then that's not leak bait. Leakbait would be something Like Arthur Million on Verge's list, a character that very few people are told about.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who came to this conclusion. Telling multiple insiders Erdrick doesn't make sense because you would never know who was leaking him without literally letting them all go.

 

[Luigi The President]

Is this an hyperbole or is there really 'many prominent leakers' that have confirmed Erdrick?

Btw, i respect your opinion i'm just curious.

Xenother and Hitagi, though these two are more suspect.
Tansut, who leaked Cloud in 4.
Verge is known to be leaning heavily towards Erdrick.
PolarPanda is also known to be leaning towards Erdrick.

Not in Smash history, but it has happened in recent Nintendo history with The Game Awards. Refer to my second writing piece, "We Never Saw It Coming: The Game Awards as a Case Study for Doubt" and Nekoo 's former statements about insiders and The Game Awards.


I'll give you Steve, but Doom Guy and Ryu were hardly popular third parties before the 5chan "leak." Sure, they make sense, but they weren't talked about much before the "leak" hit it big.

I think we're gonna have to agree to disagree on Doomguy.
Like, I can sorta give you Ryu but not Doomguy. Just cannot.
Also hi TPC it's nice to see you it's been a few days.

 

[Verde Coeden Scalesworth]

Nintendo nor Sakurai would be making leakbait. Square-Enix, however, would. If Nintendo or Sakurai would leakbait, it'd be more likely their own content. Steve is the only one that I could see that being possible at best, but only because Minecraft has consistently been on Nintendo systems and people see him as a very likely pick(well before Verg spoke up. It was a pretty blatant pick to consider). And even then, I doubt that. It could be just employees who didn't realize Steve was dismissed or that the Minecraft content didn't go through(and was only going to be DLC). Verg's confusion is probably based on the employees who leaked the information having no knowledge of what fully happened. It's also possible they won't say any more cause it could risk losing their jobs. They took a risk, but just luckily kept it. Maybe part of it was bait, and they were put on thin ice. We really don't know how the NDA thing works per every situation.

Though yeah, I kind of doubt that Erdrick is myself. A ton of leakers wasn't so much the point as finding out which employees actually leaked it. Other regular users like Polar and Verg are unlikely to be the targets here, just their employees. We got no clue how many employees leaked the information, and just because the name is among many leakers does not mean a ton of employees leaked it too. A tiny few speaking to tons of people is still quite possible. Erdrick is hardly immune to being leakbait in this case. And obviously we can't ask the leakers to confirm how they got their information, cause that would the employees' job in immense jeopardy. And that's no good. Overall, I wouldn't say the fact a ton of people know of Erdrick leaking amounts to anything at this time. It has a reasonable chance of being leakbait realistically, but also could just as easily be real. It could also be a few employees not realizing the deal wasn't finalized and gave the information too early. That's the problem with leaks, they aren't clear cut on how it works. Gematsu is proof that old information can easily happen.

 

[Luigi The President]

We talk about "leakbait" a whole lot but has that actually ever happened in Smash history? I know Harada has done it with the recent Tekken but I honestly don't think Sakurai or Nintendo would go through with this. Harada enjoys actively trolling while Sakurai simply likes lightly playing with expectations. Like, Chorus Kids killed the Gematsu leak but they were planned really early on, and were not necessarily leak bait. People thought that Incineroar was leak bait when the Grinch mania was going around but we all know how that turned out.

I don't know, I think that the whole concept of "leak bait" is kind of an unfounded one. Would make things more interesting if they ever did it to be sure.



Vergeben, Tansut (leaked Cloud in Smash 4), Jon Cartright (leaks a whole bunch of **** under the guise of "predictions" in gamexplain vids), Xenother and Sabi have all said that it's Erdrick.

TGA was leak bait, numerous insiders were led to believe it was Prime and not Joker.
See the main point is that Nintendo has been "leakbaiting" SPECIFICALLY with Ultimate DLC.

 

[Verde Coeden Scalesworth]

TGA was leak bait, numerous insiders were led to believe it was Prime and not Joker.
See the main point is that Nintendo has been "leakbaiting" SPECIFICALLY with Ultimate DLC.

Who is Prime? I'm confused here by that name.

...Though yeah, that already tells me that Erdrick isn't a hard lock just cause a lot of leakers know of him. Won't change that I find him pretty likely, though.

 

[-Coco-]

Who is Prime? I'm confused here by that name.

...Though yeah, that already tells me that Erdrick isn't a hard lock just cause a lot of leakers know of him. Won't change that I find him pretty likely, though.

A Metroid Prime trilogy for Switch was rumored to be at the VGAs.

 

[Luigi The President]

A Metroid Prime trilogy for Switch was rumored to be at the VGAs.

Think LST was joshin ya

 

[Verde Coeden Scalesworth]

Think LST was joshin ya

I actually wasn't. If it said Prime 4, that'd be different. But I couldn't think of what you meant.

 

[Luigi The President]

I actually wasn't. If it said Prime 4, that'd be different. But I couldn't think of what you meant.

NGL, I think I joshed myself

 

[Blade of Evil's Bane]

Xenother and Hitagi, though these two are more suspect.
Tansut, who leaked Cloud in 4.
Verge is known to be leaning heavily towards Erdrick.
PolarPanda is also known to be leaning towards Erdrick.

Well... seems like there's a pretty big consensus. So either it's Erdrick or all these leakers will lose credibility for putting all their eggs in the same basket.

I understand your 'it's 100% Erdrick' stance better now. It's comparable to Incineroar's case during the pre-release specualtion, Erdrick is backed by insider info and by an 'accidental leak' by Nintendo a.k.a the codename Brave (for Incineroar it was Verge + the box). The hypothesis that Incineroar was leakbait even came up a few times (during the Grinch hoax iirc).

It seems like a similar situation but... yeah... the past is not necessarily indicative of the future so the leakbait hypothesis is still a possibility imo.

 

[TeenGirlSquad]

I'm inclined to mostly believe insiders after the Grinch debacle. But I don't believe the 5chan leak at all.

At this point, the lack of Namco series assist trophies (like Akira for Sega, they could have added Heihachi or Lloyd as assist trophies but they didn't) makes me feel like there will probably be a Namco character. Also just the fact that they're co-developing the game and yet they only have one character, and most other third parties have three, with Square Enix probably getting a second one soon. So that's one DLC slot I'm pretty confident about.

I believe in Steve, so that's another slot.

So only the last slot is really mysterious to me. I'm gonna say it's probably Celica. My dark horse pick would be Porky, but it's probably not gonna happen, I still hope for a DLC boss or at least a spirit tho.

 

[Deleted member]

I'm inclined to mostly believe insiders after the Grinch debacle. But I don't believe the 5chan leak at all.

At this point, the lack of Namco series assist trophies (like Akira for Sega, they could have added Heihachi or Lloyd as assist trophies but they didn't) makes me feel like there will probably be a Namco character. Also just the fact that they're co-developing the game and yet they only have one character, and most other third parties have three, with Square Enix probably getting a second one soon. So that's one DLC slot I'm pretty confident about.

I believe in Steve, so that's another slot.

So only the last slot is really mysterious to me. I'm gonna say it's probably Celica. My dark horse pick would be Porky, but it's probably not gonna happen, I still hope for a DLC boss or at least a spirit tho.

Maybe it's a deal like Sakurai in Melee where he didn't feel comfortable including more Kirby characters because he felt that would fall under personal biases. It could be a similar thing here since this game focused a lot on bringing back old characters so the roster for new ones was limited.

 

[NoOtherPersona]

Honestly with tales of Vesperia out now I think brave could be either Erdrick or Yuri although I want both

 

[Dynamic Worlok]

Well... seems like there's a pretty big consensus. So either it's Erdrick or all these leakers will lose credibility for putting all their eggs in the same basket.

I understand your 'it's 100% Erdrick' stance better now. It's comparable to Incineroar's case during the pre-release specualtion, Erdrick is backed by insider info and by an 'accidental leak' by Nintendo a.k.a the codename Brave (for Incineroar it was Verge + the box). The hypothesis that Incineroar was leakbait even came up a few times (during the Grinch hoax iirc).

It seems like a similar situation but... yeah... the past is not necessarily indicative of the future so the leakbait hypothesis is still a possibility imo.

Much like the Verg +Box theory situation. No matter how much I prepare for the inevitable, it still won't stop me from being incredibly disappointed once the character finally is released.

Honestly with tales of Vesperia out now I think brave could be either Erdrick or Yuri although I want both

It it's gonna be a tales character, It'd more likely be lloyd.

 

[NoOtherPersona]

Much like the Verg +Box theory situation. No matter how much I prepare for the inevitable, it still won't stop me from being incredibly disappointed once the character finally is released.


It it's gonna be a tales character, It'd more likely be lloyd.

Which I won't be surprised by I don't really care who the sword boy/girl is as long as there not from fire emblem

 

[Minik]

Im still baffled on how they'll hype a sword user to the general public though, Corrin had dragon gimmick on moves and Chrom was memed on heavily within smash so him finally getting in was funny. But this is a DLC general hero rpg guy, THE general hero rpg guy. I like dragon quest but I wonder what smash will do to really sell them outside of the fact they're dragon quest. I think they'll have to give them a really specific gimmick to sell him.

 

[NoOtherPersona]

Im still baffled on how they'll hype a sword user to the general public though, Corrin had dragon gimmick on moves and Chrom was memed on heavily within smash so him finally getting in was funny. But this is a DLC general hero rpg guy, THE general hero rpg guy. I like dragon quest but I wonder what smash will do to really sell them outside of the fact they're dragon quest. I think they'll have to give them a really specific gimmick to sell him.

to be honest for me at least corrin was a confusing pick cuz i don't believe anyone was asking for him and he kinda made it hard on people who want other sword users that aren't fire emblem they really **** the bed with that one but i mean i think if they can make a cool trailer for any sword boy I think it'll be fine I think the problem is fire emblem although I could be dead wrong

 

[Minik]

to be honest for me at least corrin was a confusing pick cuz i don't believe anyone was asking for him and he kinda made it hard on people who want other sword users that aren't fire emblem they really s**t the bed with that one but i mean i think if they can make a cool trailer for any sword boy I think it'll be fine I think the problem is fire emblem although I could be dead wrong

I did see some requests for Corrin despite FE presence in smash already, probably because of the dragon gimmick being some good moveset potential, this is why Sakurai even chose to do them. Both Robin and Corrin make note of them not being ordinary sword fighters so it interests me on how they will do an ordinary sword fighter in modern smash, barring magic spells which will probably just be specials.

 

[PsySmasher]

Moving away from the Erdrick is guaranteed/not guaranteed debate... again...

What would Erdrick bring to Smash that would make him/her stand out from the other sword users in Smash?

I’m not the most knowledgeable on DQ, so I want to get an idea of what sets him apart from the competition, or as the Smash community likes to call them: the “generic anime swordsman”.

 

[Deleted member]

Moving away from the Erdrick is guaranteed/not guaranteed debate... again...

What would Erdrick bring to Smash that would make him/her stand out from the other sword users in Smash?

I’m not the most knowledgeable on DQ, so I want to get an idea of what sets him apart from the competition, or as the Smash community likes to call them: the “generic anime swordsman”.

There's really a lot they could do; aside from hypotheticals like having a gimmick to do with leveling up, MP, etc., like I've said before I can see him being a weapons master type character, using all sorts of weaponry and magic for all of his different attacks. Aside from just swords and magic he can also use axes, staves, spears, whips, and more.

 

[NoOtherPersona]

Moving away from the Erdrick is guaranteed/not guaranteed debate... again...

What would Erdrick bring to Smash that would make him/her stand out from the other sword users in Smash?

I’m not the most knowledgeable on DQ, so I want to get an idea of what sets him apart from the competition, or as the Smash community likes to call them: the “generic anime swordsman”.

to be honest, since I've never played DQ 3 I can't help you the only thing I can truly say about Erdrick is that I think of him being like Robin only more focus on using the sword and magic without losing the said sword

 

[Jboy1010]

Watch "Brave" not even be the SE character.

Neither Sora or Yuri are SE characters

 

[Nekoo]

Daily reminder that if you guys think Nintendo doesn't do Leakbait, I shall remind you that EVERYONE though there would be a Metroid Prime Collection and Prime 4 announcement at the VGA with Nintendo THEMSELVES throwing insiders off.

Literally EVERRYOOONE got absolutely BTFO that night, whenever it was GameExplain, ResetERA, (Half of Spawn-Wave since he was still thinking the announcement could happens) and even people here like Polar and Myself heard about Metroid stuff at the VGA.

Yet we all got bamboolozed, played like damn Fiddle.

So there is a change that Brave might not be Erdrick. A tiny one, but it is.

I'm still banking on Erdrick though.

 

[Deleted member]

Everyone could be leakbait is something Verge mentioned as well when he claimed to have the list after all so not too wise to claim anyone is 100%.

to be honest for me at least corrin was a confusing pick cuz i don't believe anyone was asking for him and he kinda made it hard on people who want other sword users that aren't fire emblem they really s**t the bed with that one but i mean i think if they can make a cool trailer for any sword boy I think it'll be fine I think the problem is fire emblem although I could be dead wrong

I always felt that Corrin was most likely added just because he/she was a new character and the options were limited to characters introduced in 2015.

Moving away from the Erdrick is guaranteed/not guaranteed debate... again...

What would Erdrick bring to Smash that would make him/her stand out from the other sword users in Smash?

I’m not the most knowledgeable on DQ, so I want to get an idea of what sets him apart from the competition, or as the Smash community likes to call them: the “generic anime swordsman”.

While I havent played DQ3 in particular, the hero class in DQ operates pretty much as a magic knight in regards of not only being able to perform magic attacks but also implementing magic to a lot of their kit like magic slashes and so on. And like liquid mentioned, they can use a variety of weapons as well.

Plus something not so much in terms of moveset, DQ characters in general have a lot of personality shown as the Toriyama style makes the characters as expressive as the characters in DB. There are even some status that are silly in battle like having an incontrollable urge to dance and you have the characters losing a turn due to that.

 

[Flyboy]

On an aside, I was just at a panel for my favorite YouTube guys, the Super Beard Bros, and they had some horror stories about how tough Squeenix is to work with, at least on the American side for sure. I don't think this confirms or denies anything, but it's interesting to see further confirmation about how tight-lipped and regimented their corporate culture is when it comes to promotion and crossovers.

I'm still banking on a DQ rep, even if it isn't Brave. However, I think it's not going to be Yuri Lowell, so that's a big possibility ruled out in my eyes. Of course, knowing me that'll in itself be a swerve.

 

[Nazyrus]

Well... seems like there's a pretty big consensus. So either it's Erdrick or all these leakers will lose credibility for putting all their eggs in the same basket.

I understand your 'it's 100% Erdrick' stance better now. It's comparable to Incineroar's case during the pre-release specualtion, Erdrick is backed by insider info and by an 'accidental leak' by Nintendo a.k.a the codename Brave (for Incineroar it was Verge + the box). The hypothesis that Incineroar was leakbait even came up a few times (during the Grinch hoax iirc).

It seems like a similar situation but... yeah... the past is not necessarily indicative of the future so the leakbait hypothesis is still a possibility imo.

Verge was super sure about Incineroar tho. He isn't about Erdrick. He just agrees is the most heard name but he is not acting anywhere close to how he did with Incineroar to the point he was teasing people for doubting him on that specific character. Also yeah, if it's not Erdrick, people backing it up so blindly due to simply echoing of the name, they are gonna look all like idiots and learn why they shouldn't be parroting whatever that comes from somewhat believable sources, lol. I almost want that to happen… cause it's annoying to see people falling for it due to simple parroting, when we had other leaks in the past that were even more convincing than this and everyone doubted them… I just don't get people, lol.

 

[Calane]

Moving away from the Erdrick is guaranteed/not guaranteed debate... again...

What would Erdrick bring to Smash that would make him/her stand out from the other sword users in Smash?

I’m not the most knowledgeable on DQ, so I want to get an idea of what sets him apart from the competition, or as the Smash community likes to call them: the “generic anime swordsman”.

My idea is that they could make Erdrick a character who can essentially change his moveset by equipping different weapons on the fly. Imagine something like Pokemon Trainer, except instead of switching out characters, you're switching out weapons. If I had to limit it to only three different weapons:

1: Sword & Shield. Should be balanced. Not too strong, not too weak, decent range. Attacks lean more on slashes, etc.

2: Lance. Should be a bit weaker, but has much longer range. Attacks should lean more on pokes, thrusts, stabs, etc.

3: Axe. Should be a bit slower, but packs more knockback power. Attacks should lean more on wild swings, slams, etc.

While equipping each weapon would change how Erdrick's normals, tilts, aerials, and smash attacks work, they would not effect his specials. Those would always stay the same regardless of weapon. Of course, his specials would involve his various spells and whatnot.

This is how I would go about creating Erdrick in Smash, but Sakurai's not me. I don't know what kind of direction he would take with the character.

 

[Nazyrus]

Im still baffled on how they'll hype a sword user to the general public though, Corrin had dragon gimmick on moves and Chrom was memed on heavily within smash so him finally getting in was funny. But this is a DLC general hero rpg guy, THE general hero rpg guy. I like dragon quest but I wonder what smash will do to really sell them outside of the fact they're dragon quest. I think they'll have to give them a really specific gimmick to sell him.

Yeah and DQ is not that new to the West, not even close, so I don't think Smash will just do some miracle magic to make a big change. I can tell you the only big numbers in sales will only come from very specific and already existing DQ fans, if anything.

Literally EVERRYOOONE got absolutely BTFO that night, whenever it was GameExplain, ResetERA, (Half of Spawn-Wave since he was still thinking the announcement could happens) and even people here like Polar and Myself heard about Metroid stuff at the VGA.

See guys, that's why I don't bank my thoughts on whatever Gamexplain thinks is gonna happen or thinks is debunked. They don't know everything.

Everyone could be leakbait is something Verge mentioned as well when he claimed to have the list after all so not too wise to claim anyone is 100%.

Pretty much what I've been saying once or twice many pages ago. There is no common sense in SE taking the risk of actually leaking a real name among fake ones when all they want is to catch leakers + they are known for keeping secrets somewhat decently unlike other companies, so risking a real name out there is not something that makes sense at all. That being said, it would be sad if it wasn't Geno, Sora or Crono to me, but I almost want it to be a full on surprise and not be any of the 7 names, just so people learn from this already and don't repeat the same mistakes when it comes to SE leakbaiting.

At this point, the lack of Namco series assist trophies (like Akira for Sega, they could have added Heihachi or Lloyd as assist trophies but they didn't) makes me feel like there will probably be a Namco character. Also just the fact that they're co-developing the game and yet they only have one character, and most other third parties have three, with Square Enix probably getting a second one soon. So that's one DLC slot I'm pretty confident about.

I'm almost baffled Namco rep wasn't the first DLC character revealed sometimes, but Joker at TGA just made sense to be the one. I absolutely think there could, and should, be a Namco rep coming among the DLC packs. It's not just AT MIA, but also Mii Costumes MIA, such as Lloyd's. Heihachi just ended being a pac-man taunt, and Sakurai said it was too hard to work on him, since Tekken's canon gameplay is a 3D playstile and not fully sideways. But Lloyd… yeah it's weird he is not back. Either he will be playable, or come back as Mii costume alongside the true Namco DLC rep, but one way or another there has to be a Namco rep coming, IMO.

 

[shinhed-echi]

Things that Erdrick could bring to the table:

- Weapon variety: Sword, Spears, staff, fists, boomerangs, Magic shields.

- MP Magic System.

- Debuff Magic (lower opponent's defense, speed, atk, etc)

- Status ailments inducer: Poison, paralyze, sleep,

- Monster Summon gimmick. Even if not Erdrick exclusive, characters have borrowed from others, like Ness.

- Tension System: A hybrid between Limit Break and Deep Breath. Again borrowed.

- Party members mechanic.

- Level Up mechanic

- I like Calane 's idea of weapon switching mechanic, since DQ is the only RPG that I know of where you can change your equipment mid-battle. (Nice one!)
Well.. pre FF7 too I Think

 

[Xigger]

It it's gonna be a tales character, It'd more likely be lloyd.

That may have been true in the Brawl-SSB4 days, but his popularity has waned like many other fighters. Now Yuri is popular and relevant, moreso than Lloyd

 

[OptimisticStrifer]

That may have been true in the Brawl-SSB4 days, but his popularity has waned like many other fighters. Now Yuri is popular and relevant, moreso than Lloyd

Didn't Sakurai himself say "Well who else, but Lloyd?" to paraphrase?

 

[Xigger]

Didn't Sakurai himself say "Well who else, but Lloyd?" to paraphrase?

Quite the opposite, when asked about fighter considerations from Bandai and Namco, he said "There were none." although Heihachi was mentioned.
This page is really good on staying on top of Sakurai's considerations.

“Q: Between Bandai and Namco, were there any other strong candidates for inclusion as a fighter?
A: There were none. We basically thought of all the characters at the start of development. We decided on characters we knew we could make. However, there were a few in consideration, such as Heihachi from Tekken….However, implementing Heihachi’s movement in Smash would be difficult…”

 

[Verde Coeden Scalesworth]

Didn't Sakurai himself say "Well who else, but Lloyd?" to paraphrase?

Yes. When they talked about valid Tales of options, and why Lloyd was DLC.

 

[Deleted member]

I'm almost baffled Namco rep wasn't the first DLC character revealed sometimes, but Joker at TGA just made sense to be the one. I absolutely think there could, and should, be a Namco rep coming among the DLC packs. It's not just AT MIA, but also Mii Costumes MIA, such as Lloyd's. Heihachi just ended being a pac-man taunt, and Sakurai said it was too hard to work on him, since Tekken's canon gameplay is a 3D playstile and not fully sideways. But Lloyd… yeah it's weird he is not back. Either he will be playable, or come back as Mii costume alongside the true Namco DLC rep, but one way or another there has to be a Namco rep coming, IMO.

While I would like to see Solaire or the Chosen Undead though, there is nothing stating that a Bamco rep is coming at the moment.

 

[Teeb147]

The 'Brave' codename character that was datamined really sounds like it could be a Square Enix character. Would make sense too for the second dlc character.

 

[xenother]

TGA was leak bait, numerous insiders were led to believe it was Prime and not Joker.
See the main point is that Nintendo has been "leakbaiting" SPECIFICALLY with Ultimate DLC.

TGA wasn't leakbait. AFAIK the only one who heard anything about Smash there was LeakyPandy. Hitagi may have heard that there was going to be some Metroid stuff, but I don't remember. It might have just been speculation.

A few of us assumed that some Smash stuff would be shown, but we never really heard anything worth noting.

 

[Luigi The President]

TGA wasn't leakbait. AFAIK the only one who heard anything about Smash there was LeakyPandy. Hitagi may have heard that there was going to be some Metroid stuff, but I don't remember. It might have just been speculation.

A few of us assumed that some Smash stuff would be shown, but we never really heard anything worth noting.

?

I believe even SpawnWave was told by his sources there'd be Metroid. And IIRC PolarPanda heard the same.
I mean, maybe you're right, but I definitely recall some big names stating they were deceived.

Check this out.

Daily reminder that if you guys think Nintendo doesn't do Leakbait, I shall remind you that EVERYONE though there would be a Metroid Prime Collection and Prime 4 announcement at the VGA with Nintendo THEMSELVES throwing insiders off.

Literally EVERRYOOONE got absolutely BTFO that night, whenever it was GameExplain, ResetERA, (Half of Spawn-Wave since he was still thinking the announcement could happens) and even people here like Polar and Myself heard about Metroid stuff at the VGA.

Yet we all got bamboolozed, played like damn Fiddle.

So there is a change that Brave might not be Erdrick. A tiny one, but it is.

I'm still banking on Erdrick though.

 

[Dynamic Worlok]

?

I believe even SpawnWave was told by his sources there'd be Metroid. And IIRC PolarPanda heard the same.
I mean, maybe you're right, but I definitely recall some big names stating they were deceived.

I'm pretty sure people were saying that IF nintendo was going to announce something it was probably going to be something related to prime. It was all speculation, nobody leaked or attempted to leak anything.

 

[Luigi The President]

I'm pretty sure people were saying that IF nintendo was going to announce something it was probably going to be something related to prime. It was all speculation, nobody leaked or attempted to leak anything.

Read the post Nekoo made that I quoted.

He heard about Metorid at VGA, Polar heard at VGA, SpawnWave heard at VGA.
There was definite baiting. But I get the confusion.

 

[DaybreakHorizon]

I'm pretty sure people were saying that IF nintendo was going to announce something it was probably going to be something related to prime. It was all speculation, nobody leaked or attempted to leak anything.

I believe even SpawnWave was told by his sources there'd be Metroid. And IIRC PolarPanda heard the same.

Daily reminder that if you guys think Nintendo doesn't do Leakbait, I shall remind you that EVERYONE though there would be a Metroid Prime Collection and Prime 4 announcement at the VGA with Nintendo THEMSELVES throwing insiders off.

Literally EVERRYOOONE got absolutely BTFO that night, whenever it was GameExplain, ResetERA, (Half of Spawn-Wave since he was still thinking the announcement could happens) and even people here like Polar and Myself heard about Metroid stuff at the VGA.

Yet we all got bamboolozed, played like damn Fiddle.

So there is a change that Brave might not be Erdrick. A tiny one, but it is.

I'm still banking on Erdrick though.

It definitely wasn't speculation.