How many characters will be in Smash4

[Claire Diviner]

Considering how large a 25 GB single-layered Wii U disc is compared to the 8.54 dual-layered Wii disc Brawl uses, it's more than possible for the roster to exceed the 50 mark. I'm actually hoping for at least 50 characters, as much of a stretch as that is, and that's not including the possibility for DLC characters.

 

[Arcadenik]

I am almost certain there will be approximately 45 characters at the very least.

 

[Onyx Oblivian]

Considering how large a 25 GB single-layered Wii U disc is compared to the 8.54 dual-layered Wii disc Brawl uses, it's more than possible for the roster to exceed the 50 mark. I'm actually hoping for at least 50 characters, as much of a stretch as that is, and that's not including the possibility for DLC characters.

I might be one of the few optimists (not a realist haha) that thinks this is a good case. It pushed the boundaries of the Wii.

Not to mention, with Namco Bandai, whom is already HD-Ready, and is bringing in the Top of the Top from multiple teams across the board. Sure, it's a brand new team, but every game has had a "from scratch" team. and THIS brand new team has fighting game developing in their blood.

It's not longer HAL Labs and Sora Ltd. I see this as three things:

1. The number of characters and stages is not going to be that predictable as people are thinking. It's a different situation this time around. We can't go "Oh because this game, had this many, and that game got 13 more...."


2. Faster development times (Sakurai will not be doing balancing by himself this time.)


3. With a HUGE team, with mass experience, Sakurai will probably not limit his team as harshly from the beginning. (I'm willing to bet how conservative Sakurai is with not wanting to push his developers too hard.) He has the ability to push an even grander game, and implement all the things he wants to.

My hope is that Namco Bandai goes: " MORE CHARACTERS. MORE STAGES. WE CAN HANDLE IT."

I'm also willing to bet:
Engine, Balancing, Developing, Character development, Stage development:
10% Sora Ltd., 90% Namco Bandai. With of course, Sakurai at the helm.

Story Mode, Event mode, Bonus Content:
90% Sora Ltd. , 10% Namco Bandai.

My guess at characters? I'm sticking with 64 :D (but by all means not expecting)

 

[Jakor]

I expect something between 45 to 55 characters. I doubt there will be less or more than that.

 

[Jet300]

I'll say between 40-45.

 

[Metal Overlord]

No more than 50 in addition to no cuts except for maybe Sonic and Snake

 

[Curious Villager]

I believe were going to be having about as many as we did in Brawl. At least according to this recent news.

"It isn't a matter of 'if the next game has 50 characters, that'll be enough.' There is a certain charm to games that have huge casts of playable characters, but they tend to have issues with game balance and it becomes very difficult to fine-tune each character and have them all feel distinctive.

"In terms of quantity, we've probably already reached the limit of what's feasible. I think a change of direction may be what's needed."

Source: http://www.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk/39783/smash-bros-wii-u-may-not-feature-more-characters/

Sakurai seems to be more interested in balancing the game now. Which I guess is what people wanted in the first place. I'm still hoping for at least 40 to 50 characters though...

PS. I'm pretty sure this news is old and you guy's probably already know about it but still...

 

[Fandangox]

Some people have been telling me that quote was said around 2008.

No source though.

 

[Johnknight1]

Yeah, 45-55 is the range IMO. The less cuts, the higher the number due to the easiness of transferring character data from Melee and Brawl.

Also, basing things off "character slots" is stupid. Nobody cares about character slots.

As for my exact number guess, here's my educated information and guess:
SSB64 had 12 characters, all of them were new.
Melee had 26 characters, 14 more than SSB64.
Brawl had 39 characters, 13 more than Melee.
Therefore, I predict...
Smash WiiU and 3DS will have 51 characters, 12 more than Brawl.

Edit: To receive less than 45 characters would alienate casual and competitive fans, truthfully, especially with "obvious" character that were absent in Brawl. Mewtwo, K. Rool, Dixie Kong, Mega Man, Zoroark, Little Mac, etc all are deserving of at least a lot of consideration for Smash WiiU and 3DS.

If the roster were shrunk, I would probably go back and refund my copies of the game, just because that's just a lazy way to balance the game, given the 2 game's huge budget (and the fact Sakurai chose to make 2 smash games at once). I know many smash fans would do the same. Heck, many are already indifferent due to Brawl being... well... Brawl-which is strategically and seriously slower, simpler, and stalling-based in all the wrong ways! Making those fans more indifferent and eventually hateful towards future smash games would only hurt Nintendo.

 

[Guybrush20X6]

I'm keeping my expectations low at 40 characters so that way if there is more it'll be a nice surprise. Realism pays off.

 

[Johnknight1]

Honestly, what I think Sakurai means by that is Smash WiiU and 3DS will probably have most of the data for veterans transferred over from Melee and Brawl, aside from a a few move changes. In other words, don't expect (characters like) Ganondorf to get a ton of new moves, and a sword as his primary means of attack.

And like I stated, smaller character rosters would turn off potential new smashers who will go "I'll just buy Brawl for cheaper" and old fans who will say "eh, it doesn't add enough to the roster like Smash 64/Melee/Brawl (possibly multiple of these)" did, especially if the game isn't pushing the boundaries like Smash 64 and Melee did.

Really though, I'm confused by Sakurai. His quote makes no sense. Unless it will be further explained, this sounds like a terrible way of conducting business.

 

[Oasis_S]

I'm keeping my expectations low at 40 characters so that way if there is more it'll be a nice surprise. Realism pays off.

Wouldn't that be pessimism. You're not looking at it realistically is you're skewing you're own judgment for something less. If the game can't meet REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS, then that's a cause for concern.

 

[BKupa666]

Does anyone but me think that he's referring to his PLANNED SSB4 ROSTER as reaching the limit of feasibility rather than Brawl's measly roster of 39? He's gone on record saying that he had many more character ideas he couldn't add to Brawl, so it's certainly not like he's going to add some trivial new "direction changes" to Brawl and call it a day.

His quotes are honestly so poorly translated, so often. Wither "Ness has been a character in Smash Bros. up until now"?

 

[Frostwraith]

Does anyone but me think that he's referring to his PLANNED SSB4 ROSTER as reaching the limit of feasibility rather than Brawl's measly roster of 39? He's gone on record saying that he had many more character ideas he couldn't add to Brawl, so it's certainly not like he's going to add some trivial new "direction changes" to Brawl and call it a day.

His quotes are honestly so poorly translated, so often. Wither "Ness has been a character in Smash Bros. up until now"?

huh. this is quite true. I remember that thing about Ness which caused a lot of speculation... sometimes it's just a case of mistranslated japanese. it wouldn't be the first time.

 

[Johnknight1]

Sakurai IS also the master of the mind games; and the Ness quotes were poorly translated. What Sakurai said was just misleading!

Sakurai wanted us to get hyped for Lucas, depressed for Ness, sad for Ness, and then, we were SURPRISINGLY GIVEN NESS IN THE BRAWL INTRO!

But yeah, Sakurai is trying to lower expectations so he can easily exceed him. I think the idea of failing such big tasks kinda scares him. Plus let's be honest-even 25 characters are hard to balance. 50 is extremely hard to balance. So, chances are, there are going to be quite a few overpowered characters and quite a few underpowered characters. So, I think he may be prepared to live with that, as long as the gap between the strongest and the weakest isn't as big as it was in previous smash games.

 

[BKupa666]

Well, we have to consider that, no matter how hard the developers try, tiers will still exist in the game, and some characters will always be better than others. After skilled individuals balance the game, the gap between characters will simply be less big than it would be otherwise (read: if Sakurai balanced it alone again and left in chaingrabs that Japanese players discovered the very first day they received the game).

A few additional characters will make this process more difficult, of course, but a handful of people balancing a game with 50 or so characters is easily feasible if a single man can balance (or "balance") a game with 39 characters.

 

[UltiMario]

I'm going to bet 44 CSS slots, including Random.

How many characters that actually will be is up to guesswork.

 

[Arcadenik]

Does anyone but me think that he's referring to his PLANNED SSB4 ROSTER as reaching the limit of feasibility rather than Brawl's measly roster of 39? He's gone on record saying that he had many more character ideas he couldn't add to Brawl, so it's certainly not like he's going to add some trivial new "direction changes" to Brawl and call it a day.

His quotes are honestly so poorly translated, so often. Wither "Ness has been a character in Smash Bros. up until now"?

That makes me wonder if Ness was at one point cut from Brawl... and then added back in to buff the roster. It would probably explain the whole "up until now" thing.

 

[BKupa666]

Well, you do have all those theorists who claim Jigglypuff and Wolf were cut sometime during development, but added back in. They never mention anything about Ness, though...if he were ever cut, I heavily doubt it was any later than the planning stages, since he's listed at the top of all Brawl file lists.

 

[volbound1700]

Sonic was the last minute add to Brawl it seems. Where is the evidence that Jiggs or Wolf were cut? Also it was looking like Mewtwo, Roy, and Dr. Mario were going to be in the roster until a cut. I wouldn't be surprised if we get some Melee Veteran returns.

 

[JPW]

I remember in the early brawl hype days i felt if there were any cuts it would be: Dr. Mario, Pichu and Ice Climbers.

Back then i didn't know how good Ice Climbers could be though. When Brawl came out and people showed me what IC could do. I started to doubt ever thinking they would be cut.

 

[Zzuxon]

Probably 50 slots.

 

[Arcadenik]

Sonic was the last minute add to Brawl it seems. Where is the evidence that Jiggs or Wolf were cut? Also it was looking like Mewtwo, Roy, and Dr. Mario were going to be in the roster until a cut. I wouldn't be surprised if we get some Melee Veteran returns.

Of course we are gonna see Melee veterans like Bowser, Peach, Zelda, Marth, and Mr. Game & Watch.

 

[MasterMushroom]

It will be

Spoiler

52 slots

but then

Spoiler

Sakurai will add 2 more characters at the last minute, mark my words

 

[Deleted member]

I doubt it will reach the 50 mark in terms of slots.

Anywhere from 42-46 seems likely to me.

 

[PsychoIncarnate]

35 seems like something they'd shoot for

 

[VictoryIsMudkipz]

Somewhere I heard Sakurai say that 50 was more than enough for Smash Bros. 4, So what I suspect is that he brings back everyone cut from melee which is 5 characters total & have the "variation" characters share slots with their originals like Dr. Mario & Mario or Pichu & Pikachu would share a slot, ("Non"-Example Ganondorf & Capt. Falcon, or Bowser & Bowser Jr.) so only 2 characters would get their own slot Roy & Mewtwo, making the roster 37 slots with 40 characters, then 13 newcomers, maybe more if we get more variation characters like paper mario.

 

[volbound1700]

Well it is easier for the team to make a clone then a new character. I don't mind some of the clones because although they have similar moves, they have different weight classes, damage, etc. and can be a different experience as a result. I would rather have clones then no characters at all. However, like everyone, I prefer newcomers with unique movesets.

 

[MechaWave]

40-50. 50 maybe, it seems to be a number Sakurai mentions a lot.

 

[SacaSuMoto]

100 characters, but only 3 end up being competitive

 

[Deleted member]

I'm thinking we'll get somewhere between 51-56 characters, transformations included. Unless in the slim chance Meloetta gets in as the 5th gen rep and/or Bowser Jr. shows up with his Shadow Mario costume (also unlikely), that would translate to 47-52 slots. If I had to guess, I would say 53 characters, transformation included.

 

[SubparSmashBrother]

40-50

I hope nobody gets cut. In fact, why would they even cut characters?

 

[Opossum]

Time constraints. Hopefully with Namco helping, that won't occur, though...

 

[Ridley_Prime]

I wouldn't be so sure. Remember how rushed Soul Calibur V was?

 

[Jhonnykiller45]

I think the game'll have like, 45-50 slots. Probably 47 or 48.

 

[D-idara]

Please +50, i'm tired of Sakurai whining about "Balancing Issues"...who cares if a character is unbalanced? Even if they care so much, they can patch him later!

 

[Sage of Ice]

D-idara: i recommend getting a pair of Fireshield Earrings if you're gonna bark up that tree. this is the voice of experience taking.

-----------------------

50 would be cool, but i would be fine with as little as 40 if the 5 newcomers were all really good additions. (ie: mewtwo, ridley, not waluigi, etc. etc.)

 

[Deleted member]

I wouldn't be so sure. Remember how rushed Soul Calibur V was?

In this game's defense, this game has a much bigger team than last game, so more can be accomplished in shorter time.

 

[Ridley_Prime]

Doesn't change the fact it was rushed and lacked a lot of the content your typical Soul Calibur game has.

Wait, were you actually referring to SCV or SSB4? Kinda confused by the context.

 

[Deleted member]

I was referring to Super Smash Bros. 4, not Soul Calibur.