Current Events > Sakurai Talks Piranha Plant, Spirits, And 20 Years Of Super Smash Bros.

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https://www.gameinformer.com/interview/2018/11/21/masahiro-sakurai-talks-piranha-plant-spirits-and-20-years-of-super-smash-bros

Game Informer: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate includes substantially more fighters and stages than any other game in the series. Why did you decide to include so much content in this game in particular?

Masahiro Sakurai: This time, I worked with the same company and same team that worked on Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS titles. And in those titles, we were able to include quite a few fighters. So I thought, if we work a bit harder, we can make the dream of including all fighters come true, so we went for it.

There will be people who might feel disappointed if fighters that appeared in a previous title are not included. I didnt want any players to feel that way, so we worked really hard to make this happen.

But what I learned is that regardless of doing our utmost, no matter how hard we try, and no matter how many fighters we include, there will always be people who feel that way.

While every character in Super Smash Bros. history is in this game, several new characters have also been added. What is the process of deciding new characters to add to the roster?

It is a project after all, so we take into consideration things like labor, man-hours, the time in which the title will be sold. We decide on the fighters from the very early planning stage, and from there, we calculate and begin production. We dont add or remove any characters during the project.

We do things like base our consideration on the results of the Smash ballot, and also balance things out so that theres a difference in the types of fighters.

By the way, as for Incineroar, during our planning stage we knew that a new Pokmon game was coming, so we intentionally kept one spot open for that, and we decided which character to create once we received more info on the title.

The Super Smash Bros. series has always spawned much fan speculation for characters that will be included, but with Piranha Plant, you have given players one of the most unpredictable inclusions. How does it feel to be able to still surprise fans even so many years later? What that one of the intents of the inclusion of this character?

Im actually not paying too much focus on the surprise element when we introduce a new fighter. The surprise element quickly fades once the announcement has been made.

Rather, I believe its important to have a good balance as a game. In the past titles in the series, Mr. Game & Watch, R.O.B. and Duck Hunt Dog were some of the examples we offered outside of peoples typical expectations. However, if we dont have these types of fighters, and we only had typical hero/heroine type fighters in the lineup, theres not much difference. Its probably not very interesting. Correct?

Also, unlike some main characters from some (not widely known) franchises, Piranha Plant is a character everyone knows well. And, I want to make sure to remind everyone that it is a limited-time offer fighter everyone can get for free as an early-purchase bonus.

A lot more behind the link
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Bryfang posted...

Darmik posted...

But what I learned is that regardless of doing our utmost, no matter how hard we try, and no matter how many fighters we include, there will always be people who feel that way.

..

That's just entertainment in general. You will never be able to please everyone no matter what you do.
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Those comments about Iwata too...still being credited for Nintendo's successes.
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Sakurai seems like such a cool dude
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Smashingpmkns posted...

Sakurai seems like such a cool dude

Pretty much
I feel bad for all the backlash he gets after creating one of the most popular party/fighter games.
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We desperately need a new Iwata Asks. The answers here didn't answer much. We need a developer to get this guy to open up more. But the last question:

If someone told you in 1998 that your creation for Nintendo 64 would one day grow into something as ambitious and massive as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate 20 years later, what would have gone through your mind then?

I would have probably said, You must be kidding! But at the same time, I probably was thinking in back of my mind, thats not entirely impossible Games were quickly evolving, and even back then, I did believe everything was possible in the future for sure.

Was a really good question. I did get a chuckle out his answer.
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Yeah I really miss Iwata Asks. Total shame we didn't get stuff like it for Mario Odyssey and Splatoon 2.

At least they were overall pretty open about BOTW's development.
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He should have already known that you can't please everyone. Wasting dev time on bringing back the lamer veterans in a ploy to appease fanboys was not necessary.
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Wetterdew posted...

He should have already known that you can't please everyone. Wasting dev time on bringing back the lamer veterans in a ploy to appease fanboys was not necessary.

I think it's cool to have one game that's focused on bringing back everyone.

I'm sure that was also a benefit to increasing the roster size this much too since they already have most characters worked out.
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