The Melee Theory

[Zaou]

This has probably been thought of and posted before but I haven't seen it.
I've been thinking about a way to find out how many characters will be in Ultimate, so I was comparing it to previous smash games and something caught my eye. In Melee we got 13 total newcomers, I think that's how many newcomers are going to be in Ultimate. 5 echo's of previously existing characters (Dr.Mario, Pichu, Ganondorf, Young Link, and Falco), 7 totally new characters (Ice Climbers, Bowser, Peach, Zelda/Shiek, Mewtwo, Mr.Game&Watch, and Marth), and 1 echo of a new character (Roy). In Ultimate we so far have 5 totally new characters (Inkling, Ridley, Simon, King K Rool, and Isabelle), 1 of them having an echo (Richter), and 3 echo's of old characters (Daisy, Dark Samus, and Chrom). This leaves 2 totally new characters, and 2 echos assuming this theory is right. The picking of returning characters are also similar, Ultimate and Melee being the only 2 games that didn't cut anyone from previous smash titles. Of course, this theory has its flaws, it assumes that Ganondorf, Pichu, Dr.Mario, etc. are echos in melee instead of their own characters. It also assumes that Shiek and Zelda were considered as one character as opposed to two different character. Finally it's super easily debunked if a newcomer gets an echo, or if there is 3 or more echo's or 3 or more totally unique characters to be revealed. I honestly just found it interesting and wanted to see if anybody thought the same.

The TLDR; I predict 2 more totally new characters and 2 more echo's of existing characters.

 

[verysleepywolf]

Those are totally reasonable expectations, especially with Sakurai explaining how they've cornered themselves and need to slow down on character reveals. It might not necessarily be connected to Melee like you are saying, but I think 2 and 2 is pretty likely.

But it would be funny if this turned out to be the logic, strengthening the game's similarities with Melee.