Starting Roster Revealed in a Month?

[Smashchu]

Yeah, he never said hiddens wouldn't be shown before launch. It looks like that wont be the case besides 3rd parties.

[thores]

sgtmajorkururu said:

tveye said:

Well, no one really knows if they will be starters or not. Sakurai said that all third parties would be unlockables, but also that he wouldn't show unlockables until the game has been released. Maybe I misinterpreted, but he must've changed his mind somewhere.

He never explicitly stated that unlockable characters wouldn't be shown until the game's release;

To be fair, he never explicitly stated that 3rd party characters would unlockable, either. In fact, when he mentioned it, not only did he say he might make Snake unlockable, but he phrased that statement in the form of a question.

I wouldn't really be surprised if he changed his mind and made all the third party characters starters, either. It makes more sense from a marketing perspective. Why would Konami/Sega/etc. lend Nintendo their most popular character, just to make them initially inaccessible to the player? Of course them being secret also makes sense, since they're guests and everything, but in this case it wouldn't be unlikely at all if things have changed from a tentative statement that Sakurai made over a year ago.

[Fryguy64]

Nobody explicitly said he wouldn't show locked characters until after release. But that's what he did for the first two games in the Smash Dojo, and to be fair... why would he post spoilers for the game he's hoping to sell tons of straight away?

[8bitretroshit]

Something tells me the starting characters are already on the site. If you take out the third party guys, including the no doubt last third party character that will fill up the newcomers section (3rd partys could be unlockables afterall) and don't count ZSS, since she's a transformation, we got 20 characters. And I still don't think the starting 20, total 35 characters rumour is a total lie

But that's just me, don't go writing walls of text now

[Sqrt2]

I still believe Captain Falcon will be a starting character (please Sakurai..).

I'll go for 25 starting characters (excluding ZSS), with a further 10-15 unlockable characters, making 35-40 characters total.

[Smashchu]

I doubt we've seen all the startes. I'm guessing there is one or two more, one of which is PUUUUUUUUUNCH.

[Flip]

There's definitely at least one more newcomer and one more veteran. I would also not be surprised if the third parties remain as a starters, but the fact that they are not on the cover is a bit fishy (though that could change; not arguing it won't).

Removing the two third parties and Zamus from the roster gives us two slots to fill, ones that could easily become Falcon and a fresh face. If anything, my money's on that being the case and we don't get any unlockables until the day of Japanese release.

[Fryguy64]

Well, if a magazine is claiming to be revealing the starting roster next month, it's a fairly safe bet at least one character hasn't been revealed - otherwise it's hardly an exclusive.

Unless it's something crazy... like "You start with Mario and Kirby, and the rest are unlocked by playing SSE" - which I would actually really like, but I can see why most people would hate that idea

Urgh... come ooooon someone unexpected!!

[Smashchu]

I'm hoping your right Flip. I want Falcon and a new face. At this point, seeing him on the Dojo is just a sigh of relief. I'm over exaggerating a bit, but I want to see him all shiny and new.

[GenG]

I think they'll reveal Sheik, Falcon and Krystal/Olimar/Megaman, and that's it for now.

[Flip]

Sheik wouldn't count as a "new addition" or at least a full character on the site, so the fighter total would still be the same. I figure we'll see the last third party closer to release, and that one veteran and one newcomer within a week or two.

[Smashchu]

I can't even take a guess at what Newcomer they would shown. The three most likely ones for Smash in general are Krystal, Ridley or Olimar, but they will probably be hidden. Honestly, my best guess would be either Olimar, Ridley or Issac.

I'm hoping we see a few more characters soon. At the very least Capt. Falcon would suffice. Newcomer only sweetens the deal.

[Deleted]

Well, let me think. By now, most franchises we know about have at least two reps per series; the only exceptions are Fire Emblem, MOTHER, Star Fox, Ice Climbers, Yoshi, F-Zero, Metroid (excluding ZSS), Kid Icarus, WarioWare, and the 3rd Parties. I really doubt there will be two from either MGS or StH, it's unlikely that we'd see a second from F-Zero, and MOTHER is in question as Ness would be the most likely second representative from there--but Lucas' special moves raise too many questions. Kid Icarus, Ice Climbers and Yoshi don't even have a second character to draw from, so they're out too.

This leaves Star Fox, Fire Emblem, Metroid and WarioWare for potential representative. The first two will definitely have a second character, but whether they're starters or not is up to question; Metroid and WarioWare have the potential, but they could just as easily be skipped over. With these four franchises in mind and the potential of newcoming franchises in mind, I figure that the following is what will happen.

My best bet would be that--if we have one more starting newcomer--it would be Krystal from Star Fox. It's an easy assumption to make, but it also lends itself to the fact that Falco could indeed be playable again. Sakurai seems to be going with the "Once unlockable, always unlockable" route, judging by how we haven't seen Captain Falcon at all yet, so if Falco is in the game, he would be Star Fox's unlockable character. However, if Krystal is not a starter and is herself relegated to unlockable status, Falco could most likely have been given the boot.

Following Krystal is Ridley. I'm still certain he'll be a boss character and not a playable one...however, there's no shortage of Metroid super-sized bosses, either, and a few have made multiple appearances across the series. It could be anything from the neutral, yet incredibly aggressive Omega Metroid or Metroid Queen, to Dark Samus controlling Aurora Unit 323, to even Kraid or Mother Brain herself. He's still very questionable, however.

Next comes Marth, whom I feel is going to be in the game regardless due to his status in FE; however, like I said before, it seems any characters that were unlockable at one point in the series seem to be staying that way, so I doubt Marth would be the next starter.

Olimar comes next on my list, but I have the feeling he'd be an unlockable as well. *shrug*

Lastly, I believe Mona has a decent shot of joining the fray...sometime. I don't think it will be in Brawl, but she's an important character to WarioWare (second only to Wario himself) and has the potential to be made combat-ready.

And then, there's the option I'm beginning to favor, and that's that we will see no additional starting newcomers. ZSS is what really throws things through a loop; she may be a new character, yes, but she's not a character in and of herself. Technically, there are ten Newcomers without her, and eight if you exclude Snake and Sonic--either way, since we're not sure if they're unlockable or not at this point. It's a nice, even number...and I know how much you children love your even numbers. They lend themselves well to the All-Powerful Grid O' Characters.

As for returning characters, the choice should be pretty obvious...Sheik would be the one if she's coming back at all. And I assume she would be, since ZSS has been proven to play completely differently from her; Zelda may not transform into her in TP, but I don't see why she shouldn't in Brawl. After all, Zelda only looks like the TP version...but see how she was still using Din's Fire, an OoT Move, in one of those trailers? Yeah, I thought so.

[Smashchu]

sgtmajorkururu said:

Sakurai seems to be going with the "Once unlockable, always unlockable" route, judging by how we haven't seen Captain Falcon at all yet, so if Falco is in the game, he would be Star Fox's unlockable character. However, if Krystal is not a starter and is herself relegated to unlockable status, Falco could most likely have been given the boot.

There is no reason that both Falco and Krystal will be unlockable. Mario, Pokemon and Zelda had more then one unlockable character, and Pokemon had 3 of it's 4. I doubt Krystal will be a starter (that's just me) and I think it could easily be where they both are hidden.

Following Krystal is Ridley. I'm still certain he'll be a boss character and not a playable one...however, there's no shortage of Metroid super-sized bosses, either, and a few have made multiple appearances across the series. It could be anything from the neutral, yet incredibly aggressive Omega Metroid or Metroid Queen, to Dark Samus controlling Aurora Unit 323, to even Kraid or Mother Brain herself. He's still very questionable, however.

I never understood this logic. Despite being just as popular as Diddy and Ike, and being an important character in a franchise that both needs representatives and one Sakurai wants to add more to (look at ZSS) everyone assums he will not be playable and be a boss.

I'll say right now he WILL be playable. There is much reason for him not to be. Bowser, Ganondorf, Dedede and Meta-Knight are all boss type characters, but they are playable. What makes Ridley so special?

I agree with everything else though.

[8bitretroshit]

Well, the Ridley boss thing all comes from the 'He's too big to be playable!!' argument ... that and not getting those hopes up too high I guess. But if there's a Metroid boss in Adventure mode, I'd say it will be Motherfucking Brain or just maybe Kraid.