Nintendo announced that Tekken’s Kazuya will go live in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tomorrow, June 29. One more character will be announced sometime in the future as part of Fighters Pass Vol. 2, but it will be the last added to the game, director Masahiro Sakurai confirmed today.
“But finally, the next DLC fighter will be the last one. There won’t be any more after that,” Sakurai said in a pre-recorded video streamed on YouTube earlier today. “It’ll be a while before that announcement, but it’ll be available this year as planned, so please be patient.”
The final unannounced character would bring Smash Bros. Ultimate’s already-beefy roster up to a whopping 82 fighters. Whoever it ends up being, fans of every other possible gaming crossover, from Kingdom Hearts’ Sora to Halo’s Master Chief, will no doubt be disappointed. Hopefully it’s not another sword fighter.
The game’s first fighter pass added the likes of Persona 5's Joker, Dragon Quest XI’s Hero, Rare platformer duo Banjo & Kazooie, King of Fighters’ Terry Bogard, and Fire Emblem: Three Houses’ Byleth. The game’s second fighter pass added ARMS’ Min Min, Minecraft’s Steve, Final Fantasy VII’s Sephiroth, and Xenoblade Chronicles 2's Pyra and Mythra so far.
But even if Smash Bros. Ultimate’s roster is about to be capped for good, Nintendo has still been pretty creative about adding additional cameos via Mii fighter outfits.
The bigger question is whether Sakurai will stick around to work on whatever the next Smash Bros. game is, or retire from the series. “Now that I think about it, it’s been close to 10 years since Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS was in development,” he said during today’s video. “I’ve been working on this for a long time. You could call it my life’s work.”
Sakurai reflected on what leaving Smash Bros. might be like in a Famitsu column earlier this year titled “Everything Comes to an End.” Without laying out any definitive plans, he wrote in part about how much more time he’d have away from his notoriously grueling work schedule. “Eventually, I’ll get old, and there’s no way I can work forever.”