I only heard this from a friend who has a few connections (I can't say who, it'd put their position in jeopardy, just trust me they're reliable) so I can't say this is true for sure. Take this with a huge grain of salt. I know you probably won't believe this anyway, but this could be true so I feel like I should share it anyway.
Any rumor that starts out this way is already shooting itself in the foot. Let me translate the above passage: "Hey, if you don't like this leak, don't blame me. Blame my fictitious friend. I can't tell you what they do because I don't know how jobs work in the video game industry. You probably won't believe this lie, but if I sound humble enough, maybe you will anyway."
First of all he told me that Palutena is in the game. Sakurai originally wasn't planning on her but he was pretty flattered after seeing the massive fan support for one of his own characters, so he decided to add her.
Of course he has to get Palutena out of the way first, knowing about the infamous and possibly real leak. I take "originally wasn't planning on her" to mean "I wasn't originally going to put her in my rumor but you guys would shoot it down if I didn't."
He also starts acting like he's reading Sakurai's diary, there.
He also told me that Ridley is playable. He's the largest character in the game. Basically the polar opposite of Little Mac. He is slow on the ground but gains speed in the air, his aerials are seriously powerful, I was told he's definitely at least going to be B tier. Sakurai started considering him after the interview where he was asked about Ridley, and decided that he was unique enough and Metroid deserved it.
Ignoring that "unique enough" is strictly a fanbase term, what is uniqueness to Sakurai? He clearly isn't against adding clone characters if he has the time. If "uniqueness" was everything, Brawl would have had Villager and Little Mac rather than Lucas, Toon Link and Wolf.
Chrom is the Fire Emblem newcomer, and he will in fact be revealed in the April Nintendo Direct. He actually plays a lot differently from Marth and Ike from what I was told. He uses a system where he can switch between his sword and lance, it seems very interesting.
Oh, he switches to a spear, cool. You mean he has a long attack box with a more potent hitbubble at the tip. Sounds like he'd play a bit like Marth, hm?
Takamaru is the retro rep, added because of his popularity. His design looks like a mix of his original NES appearance and his appearance in Dynasty Warriors, with some of Sakurai's own original things thrown into it. He looks really great. I couldn't get any information on his moveset, they're likely still working on adding him to the game.
Why no information on his moveset? It could be because he has no idea who Takamaru is, besides his name and face.
Pac-Man and Miis are also both in the game, and both will most likely be revealed at E3.
Let me guess, because of the "LeakE3," right.
He hinted at a Pokemon newcomer too, but I don't know who it is.
At this point, the guy just has
no idea who to guess for a playable Pokémon so he's just giving us a placeholder. He won't guess a Pokémon because one Poké Ball PotD would debunk him.
Shulk was considered at one point but Sakurai didn't think it would be a good idea since he's only been in one game.
Just like Sheik, Ice Climbers, Captain Falcon, Lucario, Pichu, Roy, Ness and Lucas at the time of their Smash debuts.
Ganondorf is decloned but I'm not sure how he was changed.
"Decloned" is another term native to the fanbase.
In total, there are about 50 characters, excluding transformations, so there are a few newcomers I was not told about.
That is quite an exceeding headcount, especially when we're "excluding transformations."
And "a few newcomers I was not told about" is a way of saying "I was trying to think of a bigger roster but I don't know that many Nintendo characters."
