The DanMan

Definitely looks a lot edgier than any Ys game in the past; maybe the "restart" refers to a paradigm shift where they're going to try and focus on different time periods and different casts from now on instead of Adol and his bi-yearly quests to save the world? I flat-out gave up on Trails, but I get the feeling at least the gameplay of Ys would be more appealing to me.

The current rumor mill seems to be Erdrick with the XI protag as an alt, which Verg is actually backing up right now.

He specifically noted back in Smash 4 that he was aware of the KI bias claims and shot them down himself (Nintendo designed the cover of the 3DS version and he had no say in it, with the amount of enemies and trophies from KI being featured in it due to them being ready made assets that could be imported over). Magnus was also cut as an AT; in general, Sakurai seems to avoid trying to be biased towards his own work.

Or maybe because it's the black sheep of the series it just got nothing? Makes sense that it would be low priority, especially since Xenoblade in general is a bit more popular in the West and X was by far the most WRPG influenced game in the series. A port also isn't happening anytime soon so there's zero reason to even push it. It's not even a Dark Samus situation where something that was there is gone; it got a few Spirits and that was it (heck, the music was especially controversial early on-- and the fact that Classic and Spirits mode exclusively use the Japanese version of Lost in Thoughts has me thinking that Nintendo let vocal minorities sway them a bit).

That comes off as kinda snide: "I'm not having a discussion with you but instead of just ignoring things I'm going to tell you I'm not having a discussion with you". There's two ports of older titles in the series releasing on Switch sometime in the distant future; maybe that's it? Anyways, on the subject of actual predictions: if at least one of Sora, Dante, and Sans don't make it in I'll be stunned. Dante's another "meme character" like Cloud and is from one of the two biggest Capcom series not represented in some fashion (and with the "no realistic guns" rule, an RE character would end up a bit too similar to Snake being mostly explosives and CQC). And with all of his Devil Arms and Styles to draw from, he's got incredible moveset potential. Sora-- well, the fact he was rumored amongst heavy mumblings of an SE character revealed at the VGA already has my curiosity piqued. Would definitely require a bit more paperwork, but would also be a big surprise and recognizable/draw sales in compared to any form of Dragon Quest representation (or Octopath "has no future/makes no sense to promote because it was developed by the Bravely Team who've already teased another Bravely game" Traveler). And Sans... well, he's from by far the biggest indie game in existence that's still indie and Toby Fox is apparently a Nintendo/Smash fan himself (IIRC a quote from Shigesait Itoi was featured in promotional material for Undertale, with Deltarune outright having a Smash reference); certainly a far greater chance than comparably obscure picks like Shantae (who's already relegated to the "glorified PNG file" crowd anyways).

Honestly, this game has converted me to the reboot the series and/or replace Sakurai trains. Between the bloated roster and stage count alongside nonexistant everything else and hardly functional online, the only thing that's Ultimate about it is the couch competition aspect. (Except even then changing the rules is more tedious than before, having to save a set if you want to do anything other than 2:30 or 3 stocks.) World of Light is a slog with Spirit Battles in general only being tolerable in short bursts, and either being incredibly easy or very tedious and almost luck-reliant, Classic Mode has effectively been ruined with any form of randomness removed, Spirits are a shitty replacement for trophies (not even descriptions; plus, what was stopping them from just porting over most of the trophies from the Wii U version of Smash 4 and then adding a few more onto them?), All-Star mode got gutted alongside Multi-Man Smash losing out on options (what about 10-man Smash? Or Rival Smash?), and that's really it. The core gameplay is fun, but even then that's in spite of everything. The game's pretty much the perfect example of "more is less".

I mean, I'm pretty thoroughly convinced that if DLC isn't all 3rd parties it'll just be marketing-based 1st parties-- i.e. Byleth and a Gen VIII Pokemon. Joker's really no different from Cloud (heck, I pretty much called it several months ago in this very thread). Mainline SMT = pre-VII FF games, Q2 = minor cameos in KH Chain of Memories and being part of the heard in Theatrhythm and Explorers. And Snake was basically Cloud before Cloud. If Joker kicked the door down, it's because people kept forgetting that it was knocked down for a reason and putting it back up.

This is misinformation at it's finest. The actual quote: "These are going to be characters that are new to the series, just like Joker from Persona 5. Characters that you would not anticipate to be in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate." It's just re-stating that they'll all be newcomers and telling people to be excited.

FE gets the only 1st party newcomer yet again Though more in general, I don't think this exactly kills Sora's chances; if anything, I think this increases them. Stuff like Dante and Sans as well. The speculation train is back in business.

I feel extremely vindicated right now.

Halfway covered. And yes, I know you're being ironic.

If anything, I'm glad that he doesn't sound as gruff as what I'm used to hearing from Keith Silverstein.

It's not "Pikachu", it's "Partner Pikachu". The same way how all the individual yoga poses were their own trophies in Smash 4 and how there's stuff like a "Kaptain K. Rool" spirit but no equippable straight-up K. Rool spirit. Or how there's individually powered-up forms of Mario as Spirits but no just "Mario" one that can be equipped. Slight datamine spoilers:

An interesting JP Subway advertisement for the game:

Totally bugtested, guys! It's gradually becoming embarrassing with how blatantly Christmas rushed the game is.

Yep. Between stuff like this, the stagebuilder data in the game, and everything we've known prior, I honestly think they bit off more than they could chew with Ultimate and it's got a case of Christmas rush to it.

This stuff again? Anyways... When they mentioned "streamlined unlocks", I expected them to be... well, I guess this is kinda streamlined, but the whole "may or may not be random" deal and 10 minute buffer just throws me off. Why not have a combination of specific unlocks, quick and early unlocks via WoL, and an ingame shop or something that lets you spend the gold you get on characters if you really want to get that favorite early?

1,297. https://pastebin.com/NCi8Af0N

I mean, do you need to punish a guy who's so bad that they had to run Ness' Classic Mode on 0.0?

The Dragonborn, Doom Slayer... I could easily see either. Skyrim's bigger overall and even had respectable sales in Japan, while Sakurai's a gaming history nut and Doom's one of the first FPS titles in the genre.

I mean, development began in April 2016-- that's a year and a half before launch, and two months before the main party members had their designs finalized. "Years" seems like... quite the stretch if you ask me. But why would Nintendo want to add her? She's from the worse selling game on a system they want everyone to forget that likely isn't getting ported or a sequel anytime soon. From a marketing standpoint, she makes little sense. Of course, Rex and Xenoblade 2 are getting on already-- which is why I highly doubt we'll get anything from the series at all in DLC.

I assumed nickname = user title; seems I was... rather wide of the mark.

I had no real issues; I just started out voicing my own frustration on a very tired and one-sided conflict. My initial response was directed at Florete and the skin color card being played and pretty much just a textual faceplam-- and for what it's worth, Elma I just see little point in trying to use skin color as argument for choosing a character in Smash and sincerely doubt it's really going to get you anywhere with anybody. You're the one who went: and started acting all pissy about things. So I called you out on getting so vitriolic and worked up over this, only for you to then you turn it around and go "no u"-- which isn't much of an argument (I'm glad you at least started to outline your reasoning, though). You're the one who took offense over a couple sentences mildly venting frustration and decided to go whole hog insult mode. Rex supporters aren't really going around complaining about Elma's design or bitching about her as a character unprovoked-- so why don't the Elma supporters return the favor? We can support who we want to support without throwing a fit over the characters other people are supporting. Personally, this feels like an exercise in railing against the inevitable, because if Xenoblade does get another character it's pretty much Rex beyond a shadow of a doubt regardless of complaints; either way, fan support and arguments mean jack at this point because the DLC has already been chosen and based on Nintendo's ow input. ...Anyways, so as to still contribute to the topic, I'm going to update my 5 (actually 5 this time instead of 7 "potentially"s) predictions: >Sora (has been pretty much stated by Spawn Wave, is pretty much the second biggest protagonist choice left for SE now that Cloud's in) >Steve (irregardless of Vergeben predicting Minecraft content, it's the second biggest game in existence behind only Tetris-- I'd be calling it regardless) >A Granblue or Dragalia Lost character (definitely influenced by Hitagi a bit here, but it would make sense considering business partnerships and also drive interest) >Byleth (they're the "protagonist" VS the other 3's "main characters"-- even with Fates pushing Azura early on it was Corrin chosen for Smash, and I'm expecting Byleth to have some sort of darkness/demon based powers) >A Gen VIII Pokemon (for reasons I've already given)

It's a documentary about the fluctuations of different player strategies in FEH and how they might evolve; in-depth while also being very injokey.