Jeremy Smasher
Smash Cadet
We've all heard about how there were datamined slots for 16 additional characters to the base game in World of Light, with the speculation being that there'd be 10 more DLC fighters after Plant and the Fighter's Pass, specifically a couple more FP sets of 5. However, when Fighter's Pass 2 was announced it strangely brought 6 fighters to the table instead of the last FP's 5, and it seemed to be the final set of DLC from comments Sakurai made a month or so later.
The question I'd like to speculate here, is whether there were ever specifically going to be 3 Fighter's Passes in all of 15 characters with the unrelated addition of Piranha Plant. Looking around, there was another case of datamined slots of 30 or so that seemed to be more of a placeholder than anything, so that logic could also apply here. That's not even mentioning how apparently Banjo and Hero didn't even take their WoL slots when they were added and that there was also a removal of a slot in 6.0. Yet there also seems to be enough space in the current Character Selection Screens (with no stacking) for exactly 9 more slots after Min Min.
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But maybe this too could be a coincidence? Not only does the CSS vary with sometimes not having the Mii's and/or Random button selectable and the echo/Mii stacking, but it seems like with that stacking the final roster with FP2 implemented also rounds up into a perfect square (no image on me but trust me). Numbers can just fit into other numbers like that sometimes.
And to potentially the same degree, another point would be the waves of 6 Ultimate's newcomers have come in. The base game had 6 unique newcomers not counting echos, and though Plant was possibly supposed to be a part of that, his presence as DLC alongside the Fighter's Pass meant for another whopping 6 fighters developed during the DLC stage that was potentially going to originally end there at the last character of Byleth. It's therefore at least possible that in deciding to make another round of DLC, it was only natural that they went for as many characters as they had first time around, with Plant included.
We ultimately don't know the case for sure, but in the Banjo Presentation where he talked about further DLC, Sakurai seemed to be adamant about "improving on this record as much as possible" when it came to the characters of this game (though then in the Byleth Presentation he mentioned how he thought one or two more after Byleth would suffice, though that's still furthering the idea in a very tiny amount). I just don't know if we should see Ultimate as "incomplete" in this manner when (as described by Sakurai in text somewhere) the whole point of more DLC was that they knew the specialness in this game's collection of characters.
The question I'd like to speculate here, is whether there were ever specifically going to be 3 Fighter's Passes in all of 15 characters with the unrelated addition of Piranha Plant. Looking around, there was another case of datamined slots of 30 or so that seemed to be more of a placeholder than anything, so that logic could also apply here. That's not even mentioning how apparently Banjo and Hero didn't even take their WoL slots when they were added and that there was also a removal of a slot in 6.0. Yet there also seems to be enough space in the current Character Selection Screens (with no stacking) for exactly 9 more slots after Min Min.
And to potentially the same degree, another point would be the waves of 6 Ultimate's newcomers have come in. The base game had 6 unique newcomers not counting echos, and though Plant was possibly supposed to be a part of that, his presence as DLC alongside the Fighter's Pass meant for another whopping 6 fighters developed during the DLC stage that was potentially going to originally end there at the last character of Byleth. It's therefore at least possible that in deciding to make another round of DLC, it was only natural that they went for as many characters as they had first time around, with Plant included.
We ultimately don't know the case for sure, but in the Banjo Presentation where he talked about further DLC, Sakurai seemed to be adamant about "improving on this record as much as possible" when it came to the characters of this game (though then in the Byleth Presentation he mentioned how he thought one or two more after Byleth would suffice, though that's still furthering the idea in a very tiny amount). I just don't know if we should see Ultimate as "incomplete" in this manner when (as described by Sakurai in text somewhere) the whole point of more DLC was that they knew the specialness in this game's collection of characters.
