It’s been a while but at last we had our first Nintendo direct since the Digital Event last E3. I will only really cover any major stuff so I won’t go over everything that was shown in the direct but I’ll certainly cover the most important stuff. So if you want to know my thoughts in anything I didn’t talk about just send an ask about it and I’ll say something. But without further adieu let’s begin getting “directly” into this

The direct certainly could not go on without at least mentioning one of the big reasons we haven’t had a direct in so long. Satoru Iwata’s unfortunate passing when he made himself a really personal figure tor Nintendo through the Nintendo directs. These directs certainly will never be the same without him, but it was great to have Reggie himself say some words on it at the very start. Iwata will never be forgotten in so many ways.

Our first stop in the direct was Twilight Princess HD. One of the few things that was somewhat leaked prior to this Direct thanks to some hints through promotion. I’m not a Zelda fan myself, so I’m not quite interested. Though I have heard responses from Zelda fans are kinda mixed because although the title says HD, it doesn’t look as graphically improved as they hoped it would. The Wolf Link + Midna Amiibo might be a necessity for big Zelda collectors though and certainly may introduce new Zelda fans to a decently loved game in the franchise.

The new Super Mario Maker search site sounds very convenient for helping find levels to play. I may actually get Mario Maker for Christmas this year, and the site launching in December comes in good time for that.

If I may talk a bit on the Xenoblade franchise, I actually have rented the game for a bit. However I didn’t find the game for me. However I did watch the story through cutscene montages and Chuggaconroy’s Let’s Play. So I’m aware of the characters and story, and I really, really liked it. No doubt Xenoblade X will have an interesting story going on as well. For Xenoblade fans it certainly will be a treat coming this December.

I won’t talk about every single small title that was shown in an indie reel. But if you noticed the racing game shown near the beginning sounded eerily similar to a certain franchise Nintendo fans have wanted to see get a new game for a long time. Fast Racing Neo is pretty much the F-Zero for Wii U that isn’t right now. It’ll probably still make F-Zero fans sad or angry. But it really could be a close enough for the lot of them. Though hey if enough people purchase it maybe there could be a message sent to Nintendo about it. Even if it will probably more likely just result in sequels to Fast Racing Neo. For those really desperate for F-Zero, they’ll just have to settle for this for now.

Now I’m not interested in Yo-Kai Watch (It’s something Nintendo has really been pushing, it’s huge in Japan but I don’t think it’s hitting as big in the West as much as they’re trying to make it so). But I do have to say the skit they performed was really funny and I imagine we’ll see Reggie’s repeats of Bill among the many Reggie memes over the years. It’s nice to know Nintendo still knows how to have fun. You don’t see a lot of companies have their CEOs act in funny skits like this. It makes the company feel as playful as a lot of their games.

While I know the Wii U overall just isn’t the financial success Nintendo hoped it would. The bundle that includes both Smash and Splatoon is bound to be great for those still on the fence about getting a Wii U. Even if some may likely be holding over until we find out more about the NX. Which I’m sure we’ll see next E3.

Star Fox Zero is looking really cool. It looks like something that can finally challenge Star Fox 64 as one of the top Star Fox games. Even though my favorite game of the series is Assault I acknowledge it’s flaws and misgivings and know it’s clearly not the best in the series. The Arwing being a walker (Which seems to follow along with what the cancelled Star Fox 2 for SNES was going to have) will probably go a lot better then the on-foot missions in Assault. It also seems to be a full-on reboot with Peppy back in the Arwing and everything. There’s going to be concern from those who do actually like the Star Fox games at least in terms of story from Adventures to Command that characters Krystal might phase out of existence but we’ll see. Maybe they’ll have her in a different role just to acknowledge that there’s still fans of her.

Mario & Luigi Paper Jam is looking kinda interesting. Though I know that those who are more into Paper Mario are looking at this with caution after Sticker Star. (I myself own Sticker Star, but I kinda got confused and I haven’t played the game past the 2nd world yet and have’t really found a reason to continue playing. I don’t hate the game or anything it’s just very different from the Paper Mario games I’m used to. Even Super Paper Mario felt a little more familiar). Though it looks like this game appropriately is more of a M&L game anyway, which while I certainly remember getting far in the first game (I think I stopped at Joke’s End) I haven’t beaten any Mario & Luigi games though I know for the most part it’s remained strong. Hopefully it turns out to be a solid entry to both sides of the fence for Mario RPGs.

Now I’m no Fire Emblem fan, but Fates going into somewhat of a Pokemon direction with having separate games is interesting. Though I imagine people might be mad that they have a game separated in three’s as opposed to just having them all in one game. Certainly strange to have the last story itself be it’s own game. But at the very least they’re offering that 3 game pack at a reasonable price. Fire Emblem almost ended with Awakening if it wasn’t successful. But they turned it around to become the most popular Fire Emblem game in the series. So Nintendo really has saved the franchise. Even if some things they’ve done bother some of the more hardcore players such as the addition of a casual mode where Perma-Death does not apply and how they appeal to the shipping with all those couples you can possibly do. But what works worked and Fire Emblem is bigger then it’s ever been before.not bad for a franchise that was introduced to us via Melee.

I think it’s really cool that finally Pokemon games are getting Virtual Console releases. And what better way to start then with the games that made the series a phenomenon in the first place. I’m actually considering getting one of them, cause not too long ago I did for once try to beat the only main series Pokemon game I have (Pokemon Yellow) and tried to for once actually playthrough it all. The problem was however when I was getting to like the 3rd Gym, the data corrupted on the more then a decade old cartridge and I lost everything. But now that I can have it digitally, that shouldn’t happen. I was a huge fan of Pokemon when Gen 1 was starting out and for most of Gen 2 too. Gen 3 is when I started kinda growing out of it but I never hated Pokemon it’s definitely a top tier Nintendo franchise and I’ll always love playing as Pikachu at least in Smash.

Linkle in Hyrule Warriors interesting cause this is Rule 63 in a canon Nintendo game. I wonder if this means one day we could get the choice of having a male or female Link in a Zelda game? Heck, there are theories that the Link in the Zelda Wii U trailer is actually female, wouldn’t it be interesting if that was on purpose so as to be ambiguous to when they could reveal the ability to choose if Link is Male or Female. It would help make Link more of a player avatar then he was meant to be already with girls who could have the option of having their Link female. Or those who are of transgender orientation can choose the opposite gender of what they were born with to see their virtual character be who they identify more as. I don’t know if it will even happen but it’d certainly be a very wise decision of Nintendo to do so in a world that’s starting to warm up to the equality of homosexuality and transgender rights in Media.

Now after my first watch of the Direct I noticed something about this direct. Well I mean aside from how surprising and huge Cloud’s entrance into Smash is. But I’ll get to that in a moment. When rewatching it I decided to count how much was non-RPG stuff and RPG stuff going on. While the final result actually was fairly more evenly split then I thought, it certainly feels like the RPGs got the biggest deal out of the bunch. Not counting DLC, Free-to-Play bonus games, and/or re-releases there were really only 4 Non-RPG stuff announced. Now compare that to how we got Super Mystery Dungeon, Xenoblade X, Yo-Kai Watch, Paper Jam, Final Fantasy Explorers, Fire Emblem Fates (Which you could argue are an additional 3 games), Pokemon R/B/Y on Virtual Console, sequel to Bravely Default, and Dragon Quest 7 & 8 on 3DS. Even if you remove Pokemon R/B/Y and Dragon Quests 7 & 8 because they’re releases that’s a total of 6-9 new RPGs. For those who are big into RPGs this had to be an awesome direct for the sheer variety that was there. While it could all be coincidence, you could almost swear this was all building up to something considering what came at the very end. We even had a cameo of the very character that would shock the Nintendo/Smash Bros. world within the new 3DS Final Fantasy game. But yes, all these RPGs shown in this direct finally get us to…

Cloud’s dramatic reveal in Smash. FF7 is one of the most iconic RPGs in Gaming history, so having the protagonist of that game in Smash Bros. perfectly caps out this incredibly RPG heavy Nintendo Direct. As it’s hard to find any RPG characters more well-known then Cloud Strife. Now I myself have never played even one Final Fantasy game, but I no doubt recognize it’s significance in gaming history as the series has put the JRPG on the map and were the pioneers of RPGs as we know them. And for the first six games in the series, they were huge 3rd Party killer apps for the older Nintendo consoles on nearly the same level the Mega Man was. Now Cloud is also a rather shocking entry because he’s from the one game where Nintendo and Square had a falling out at around the same time Nintendo spurned Sony when refusing to make the N64 CD-based. FF7 was one of those games that nearly single-handedly made Sony the competition it became to Nintendo that it is today along with games like Crash Bandicoot. So in some ways this is even more mind-blowing to classic 90s gamers then when Sonic was announced in Brawl. At least when Sonic got in, he had been 3rd party for about 7 years. But Cloud? He has only had two notable appearances on Nintendo consoles, he was on the GBA Kingdom Hearts game as well as the Theatrhythm Final Fantasy edition. Both being only cameo roles pretty much. Other then that Sora never got a major playable role on any Nintendo console game so this is super shocking to see him playable in Smash a game that at least when starting out had Nintendo All-Stars be it’s main selling point. So no doubt the Nintendo Purists that still don’t like the idea of 3rd Parties in Smash are pissed off right now more then with every previous character even Solid Snake. Cause at least for all 6 characters prior to Cloud they could say they had something with Nintendo, and Snake’s creator was big friends with Sakurai. But with Cloud he was the hero of a killer app for competition, and there’s nothing saying that the creator of Final Fantasy has ever struck such a friendship with Sakurai or something. Also comparing Snake’s history with Nintendo to Cloud makes him fit just fine given Snake does have the NES games as well as the MGS2 port to the Gamecube. So no doubt this is going to leave some people scratching their head for the longest time.

However there is other ways to look at this. Cloud could very well be Smash 4’s own Solid Snake, where those with a Nintendo-only mindset lose their minds over the very thought of their inclusion but those who are open-minded will have warmed up to him enough to enjoy him anyway. It’s clear Sakurai has updated his criteria for 3rd Parties since Brawl. They still have to be legendary as he’s stated many times, but it’s no longer about just the character themselves. It’s become the Franchise as a whole. As I said earlier the first six FF games were huge for Nintendo back in the day and no doubt warrant a spot if Square Enix is given the chance. Though when speculators brought up Final Fantasy most expecting something like a generic Black Mage or possibly Terra from Final Fantasy 6. However unfortunately for those who would prefer that happen in Smash, they just aren’t a Household name on the level of Cloud Strife is. So despite his lack of Nintendo relevance, the fact he’s the face most people see when you ask them about Final Fantasy protagonists made him one of the most likely representatives for Final Fantasy. Cloud is representing the entire Final Fantasy franchise as FF7 is the most well-known and popular game in the series. I think characters like Shulk owe their very existence to Cloud being the pioneer of the modern 3D RPG. So despite all the jokes out there about how Cloud makes a lot of things even things like Goku possible it’s not true for several reasons. Who knows, this may even lead to that FF7 remake getting ported to NX eventually. Where things can finally feel they’ve gone full circle with Final Fantasy 7 finally having found it’s way onto a Nintendo console, albeit nearly 20 years late. But perhaps better late then never. While Cloud is probably my least favorite out of the 7 3rd Parties that made it into Smash, I’ve never hated the inclusion of any one of them. At least when 3rd Parties are concerned, Smash is becoming more then simply a Nintendo game. For better or for worse depending who you ask. No game can boast this many grand Video game icons in one game and it’s why I love the Smash Bros. franchise so much.

Now aside from Cloud we only got to see the Chocobo Mii fighter head set. as well as an announcement of the final Smash Bros. direct. As with any Smash announcements we have debates going on in the speculation halls. Which come down to two questions: “Is Cloud Strife one of our Ballot characters or was he planned before like Ryu was?” and “Is this direct going to announce all remaining Character DLC?”.

The first question has two sides that have valid points. On one hand, Cloud seems like one of those characters who could only get in through the ballot especially if it was suggestions rather then popularity contest and Sakurai could of found votes for him and thought it was a grand idea so he went to Square Enix to ask for the rights to use Cloud, but on the other hand… unless Cloud was picked while the Ballot was still going on there is no way Cloud could of possibly been trailer ready when it’s only been a month since the Ballot closed meaning it’s possible Cloud is another case like Ryu where Sakurai just decided to add another Video game icon for profitable DLC. We’ll probably get clarifications on some of this in the December Direct. But whether Cloud is considered a Ballot character or not, he no doubt has an impact on showing just what’s possible. While I wouldn’t go too crazy by saying characters like Goku or Master Chief are possible some characters like Banjo & Kazooie now look like possible characters now with Cloud’s inclusion. Even if not in this game, certainly in the next Smash. And that lesser third parties still find a mountain to climb tp get in as long as Sakurai is involved. So unfortunately those who have campaigned hard for characters like Shovel Knight or Shantae (Albeit I wouldn’t mind the latter coming in one day, not the former though. Sorry, I’m not fond of the idea of Shovel Knight getting in right now) may have been stifled very hard and you may have to deal with the “Strife” of that matter. I’m not confident in us getting more third parties after Cloud though 6 is certainly a shocking amount since we’re now 3x what we got in Brawl. And next Smash I imagine with or without Sakurai, it will grow even further. I think all remaining characters will be at least one more veteran (Wolf most likely) and at least one 1st Party Newcomer (K. Rool? Inklings? Considering we got Cloud of all things for 3rd Parties it’s really up in the air who could get in next).

Now regarding if this is going to be the finale in terms of character DLC, I’m not too sure. I would think they save something like a character to help bolster their next E3. Heck maybe they’ll save the very last character for E3 if it turns out the roster isn’t finished after this direct. I would expect at least two character announcements though from this Direct along with clarification about Cloud and when he releases. Eventually Character DLC has to end though and it’s possible our last characters are announced in this December direct. I don’t think additional Stages or Mii costumes will stop this soon either as I’m sure Sakurai can leave at least that in the hands of the dev team for Smash. But when Sakurai’s done, the roster will be finalized. I think we’ll probably get a clue whether or not the character roster is done after this December or not. I mean there’s always the chance they say they’re done with characters but Sakurai changes his mind and suddenly we get one last one for E3 (He’s flip-flopped on stuff even within the development of Smash 4. At one point he wasn’t sure if he’ll have DLC, but now look where we are). No doubt these will be tense times for the Speculation regardless or not we’re reaching the end of the road for further DLC characters. But regardless of how soon it’s over, it’s been one hell of a ride. And the only questions left is how things will be when it’s reached it’s last stop.

Overall, I think this was a really good direct. I wouldn’t say it was the best Nintendo direct ever but it certainly is a worth return of the Directs we’ve come to know and love. I think it far outdid the Digital Event during E3 2015. While I probably won’t be getting most of these games (I may get Mario Maker for Christmas though), when watching Nintendo directs I like to think from the perspective of those who would buy it just to get a general feel about the presentation. I am far from an RPG kind of guy but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the variety of RPGs coming to the 3DS that will no doubt leave those who love this kind of stuff busy for a long time. And hell I’ve never played much of any Final Fantasy game whatsoever. But I appreciate Cloud Strife’s place in gaming history and welcome him as another part of the 3rd Parties in Smash. As a Sonic fan, it’s good to see another 90s legend get in aside from Sonic. I am hyped as hell for whatever comes next month in the final Smash Direct in Smash 4’s run and I am sure to continue playing what continues to be my favorite franchise of all-time. Thank you all for reading, and keep Smashing!