#there’s a ton of xenoblade influence too but like

[elendsessor]

goddammit atlus and i guess monolith soft

(please ignore the imgflip watermark i’m on mobile so sob gotta take what i can get)

[megaman2]

Smash Ultimate prediction

I thought I was done with Smash speculation but the madman pulled me in again. I’ve given it some thought and I wanted to throw my hat in the ring for what I expect out of the roster this time (not necessarily what I want). 

Click read more if you wanna read a long post. I mean really long. I’m sure I’ll be totally wrong on a lot if not all of this but. It was fun to write.

So to refresh, my predictions:

Newcomers Inkling Ridley Elma Bandana Dee Simon Belmont K. Rool

Echoes Daisy (Peach) Shadow (Sonic) Octoling (Inkling)

For Newcomers, I am thinking around 4 more are to be revealed. Sakurai’s translated quote: "We've made including every single fighter ever our number one goal, so I'm kind of hoping you aren't expecting too many new challengers.” Sakurai says every game “don’t expect too many characters,” but the fact that he was upfront about it this time, along with the fact that we already almost have 70, and the lack of time between now and release date, makes me think we don’t have a ton left, but he didn’t say “there’s only a few new characters the time around,” either. If we get a full fledged newcomer announced in July, I’ll be more bullish and say we have 5+ more. Otherwise, 6 sounds about right. Melee got 8 non-clone newcomers. 

For Echoes, some people think they’re going to go wild on Echoes but Echoes are just rebranded clones. Melee had a ton of clones because the game was in development for only 13 months and Sakurai needed a fast and easy way to pad out the roster. Brawl only had a couple of “semi-clones,” and Smash 4 only had three clones that resemble Echoes. So I feel there will be a few here, but not enough to be more noticeable than previous games.

Before I establish these individual characters, I’m going to use this information as a basis: the first project proposal for Smash Ultimate was completed in December 2015, two months after the Smash Ballot was closed and when the last of the DLC was still being developed. Although it’s very possible changes were made since then, with Brawl and 4, the first things that were decided on were the characters. My gut tells me most of the characters in the game now were already decided on in December, meaning the ballot was still fresh, but also there were less games to promote at the time (seriously, Nintendo’s slate was dead in 2015).

So here’s my rundown:

Inkling: Woomy.

Ridley: Too big.

Elma: Xenoblade X had just been released and Sakurai is a fan of the series. We know he bought some sort of mech toy for the project he was working on (which we know now is obviously Smash). If there’s a “promotional” character in the game, it’s most likely her. Rex/Pyra are probably going to be DLC if they are in the game at all. 

Bandana Dee: Bandana Dee fills an interesting niche of being a popular character while also being a promotional one; HAL has pushed him hard on all of their advertisements and social media, as well as a consistent presence in the series since 2011. He has a sizeable following in the west but is a clear favorite in Japan. Out of a sample size of 2K Japanese votes, Bandana Dee is the highest ranking newcomer after K. Rool. When Ridley was announced, 2ch was filled with people asking where Bandana Dee is. By far the most talked about newcomer after K. Rool there. I feel Sakurai will want to honor Japanese requests for the character the same way he honored the western Ridley fans.

Simon Belmont: There’s the leaker who so far has not been disproven. He has a decent track record and predicted Ridley being in the game, along with Snake, Ice Climbers, and Simon Belmont. Not sure how right he is so far, but I’ll humor the leak. But also tellingly, Sakurai has said Castlevania had a big influence on him. Konami is in the game and the only other plausible Konami newcomer, Bomberman, is an Assist Trophy. With Ridley being the major E3 reveal instead of a third party character like past E3s, I have the feeling there are no “major” third party characters (Sora, Banjo, etc.) in the game. Simon is a bit more niche, but still an icon in his own right. 

K. Rool: Y’all know why. But seriously. Incredibly popular character both in the west and in Japan. He got a Mii Costume made out of entirely original assets, with his classic character design. He’s been a common request since the Brawl era and Sakurai knows this (he was on an informal poll back then as well). Ridley set a precedent and I think K. Rool is truly teed up this time.  I don’t believe his relevance to be a factor when Geno has been considered as a fighter on a couple of occasions. There are simply very few if any big fan favorites left to add that come close to K. Rool.

Brief note because I want to address it: people might consider Dixie a threat but I cannot see a situation where Dixie gets picked instead of the character with overwhelming popularity. I am confident both characters will be judged on their own merits rather than competing for the same spot. I believe if we have 5+ newcomers left, Dixie has a solid shot at being in the game. I am not sure if she can easily be made an Echo with all of her differences, so at this time I’m not including her in that list.

Daisy: Hi.

Shadow: Shadow is in a strikingly similar situation to Daisy. Popular but controversial character who would cause a lot of outrage as a unique fighter, but can instead please fans as an easy skin-over of an existing one. Not only is his Assist Trophy MIA, but Knuckles has gotten one instead. While the absence of alt outfits like Dark Samus and Ike’s Chrom colors can be speculated endlessly, the Assist Trophy situation sticks out to me. I think Shadow is going to be the first character added to an existing third-party franchise.

Octoling: Splatoon is ridiculously popular and Nintendo gave the Octoling DLC for Splatoon 2 a ton of spotlight. Echoes can be added virtually any time in the roster while the “main” characters are all decided on in the beginning with a few rare exceptions. I think there is a high chance Octolings will be added in as a sort of cross-promotion, as well as a chance to have some Splatoon 2-ish content since so far everything else focuses on the first game.

And finally here’s my prediction for how the schedule is going to shake out. As a note, I don’t believe there will be any “secret” characters this time because of how unlocking works. I think every character will be known before the game is released, partially to try to combat leaks. So without further ado:

July: Shadow will be revealed to tide over people who want more content, being such a noteworthy character, even as an echo, without a ton of fanfare on the Smash site. 

August: Elma will get a full trailer in a Nintendo Direct. She is not a particularly hyped up character but people will be hungry for any Smash newcomers. 

October: There will be a Smash Direct. It will start with Bandana Dee’s trailer; the semi-esoteric nature of the character means he would not be meant to be the “main” reveal but would create anticipation for the rest of the Direct. Octoling will be revealed in the middle of it, and it’ll close out with Simon.

November: One more trailer will be announced.

[spicyorzo]

Thoughts on E3

Only saw bits and pieces of EA, apparently there was tons of sports games. I can’t really say anything on that

Microsoft. Fallout 76 looks, so far. Even if it ends up being a glitchy mess as usual, I’m still going to buy it. Holy crap! Cup Face is getting DLC. That’s pretty cool. What the fuck was with that “gamer chat” on the Division 2? No one fucking talks like that (stating the obvious, I know). If I played any of the Kingdom Hearts games, I’d probably be excited as hell for the 3rd game coming out. With that updated Elsa models, does this mean we’re going to get higher quality Elsa/Spidered-Mang videos? :DDDD. Jump force looks pretty cool. I’m interested to see what Light is going to be able to do. A huge improvement over last year, where they actually announced games one after another. Microsoft did alright. B-/10 Bethesda: first 20 minutes bored the living fuck out of me. I know nothing about Rage nor do I care for that Elder Scrolls card game. Oh fuck, DOOM Eternal got announced. I was kinda hoping they’d call it DOOM 5 but that’s minor. Prey looks pretty fun, interesting take on having it so that every death the player has influences the game, also spin me right round :DDDDD. Oh fuck yes! Wolfenstein gets a Switch release. Shooting nazis on the go is going to be good, but I get the strongest feeling it’s going to have a very rough start like the Switch port of DOOM. Oh my fucking god, best piss take on Skyrim ever. I’m really liking how self aware Todd was about his “fixation” to Skyrim.  Fallout 76 has a interesting concept, thank god it’s not another Battle Royale game. Also friggin’ Elder Scrolls 6!  Most of the games look really fun. I’d give them a B/10 Sony: Missed the first half, it showed Last of Us, which is neat. Holy fuck!!! Resident Evil 2 is getting remade! Well at least we got a better idea what Death Stranding could be, but c’mon! Give a release date. Spidered-Mang the game looks so damn fast paced. In a good way. There was so much games announced, but no release date. I’d give it a C+/10 Nintendo: That mech game looks fun, kinda like if Metal Gear Rising went for mechs instead of man vs tons of machines. Xenoblade 2: Electric Boogaloo: Torna. I’m very ://////// about it, the story to 2 was very dull to me, I don’t see myself getting the DLC. Fortnite coming to the Switch, I don’t really have a ton of faith in the internet connection on the Switch. I feel like it’s going to have a rough start. OH FUCK YES! DBFZ is coming over! Mayro Party, I haven’t played many games in that series, but something seems off. Not sure. Fire Emblem looks fun as fuck, I’m definitely getting that. And of course, I’ll be getting Pokemon: Let’s GO. Got tons of pokemon I wanna transfer from Pokemon GO. I’d give this part a C+/10 as well Smash Bros: I feel it deserves its own category. Oh my fucking god!! So much shit is coming over! Tons and tons of characters. Friggin’ Snake™ has returned! I legit thought he’d never come back because of how stupid Konami is now. Holy hell, so much revamping. The final smashes are touched up, new characters are appearing alongside them (Paula, Kumatora, Fiora, etc), and the attacks look really quick too. Some people might bitch about this, but I think it’s good they’re speeding this up, who really wants to run away from a player for like 15 seconds waiting for their Final Smash to end? No one. Though some attacks look like duplicates, I’m hoping I’m wrong about this. The stages have expanded, the Battlefield and Omega forms definitely adds more flavor. Oh my god, getting everyone’s trophy is going to be a nightmare. Also, durr! He’s too big >:PPPPPPP why is Scott Ridley there >:PPPP. Jk, holy shit, I’m surprised Ridley managed to fit in. Something I was kinda hoping was that there would be a new Mii Fighter Class. Like what? Maybe a Mage Fighter. Miitopia pretty much showed what a Mii can do in terms of fighting. Everything about the Smash Bros segment was just bonkers and I’ll definitely be getting it on release. I’d give this a  🅰/10.

[luchiaketchum]

140h into Xenoblade 2 and the Monado pops up out of nowhere in a boss fight but nobody seems to care.

What. Is. Going. On. With this game.