Well, Marth did recur. Marth and Ike are the only two lead FE characters to be the lead in two games.

And we already know that Ike has different B-moves than Marth. The few moves we've seen from Lucas don't suggest anything either way.

Plus, on the whole, I think FE has been a far bigger franchise in Nintendo history.

So I'd say Marth returning is more likely than Ness returning.



I can't get over how COOL Lucas looks with that greased up hair compared to Ness' dumb cap.

My opinion is the exact opposite.  The baseball cap is far superior to Lucas' crummy plastic-looking hair.

Thus we have proved once again that your mileage may vary.

"First of all, the guy was proven wrong and then made a topic that said "Haha you are all retards for believing me." He was then banned and the topic was deleted. If you still believe him... then you are exactly what he called you. "

Sakurai's team probably knew that the forums are easily manipulated and all they had to do was say "Haha you are all retards for believing me," in order for others to think it was completely stupid.  If you don't think it is possible for that post to be damage control from Sakurai's team, then you are ignorant to the methods of the media and the world.

"Second, do you speak Japanese? Because if you don't I doubt you played Mother 3. There is only one group out there translating the rom and they aren't done with it yet. The Mother series is popular for it's quirky humor and it's pointless to play it without being able to read the text."

I played the SNES game and the NES game.  What is your point mentioning this?  I know it's quirky,  I said it was quirky in a prior post.  Again, what does this have to do with anything? This actually further shows my point as Lucas IS in the game.  Mother 3 isn't in America yet, but Lucas is still in the game?  This shows that Nintendo has more of a loyality to Japan with concern to the Earthbound series than America which is further evidence that NESS most likely won't make this cut.

"Third, how is there any logical justification for Ness's removal? The only one I see is that Lucas is too similar to keep them both, but Ness is a staple character with just as large an American fanbase as any Smash character. There are a lot of people who would hate to see him go. Don't act so arrogant about this like people have no right to miss him. That's just a really nasty attitude you have and if that's how you are going to post don't post at all."

Ben, do you think that I shouldn't post here anymore?  Is that what you think as well?  I think Naz's comments here are completely uncalled for.  Naz, your arguments of when Wi-Fi started and sales of AC vs. Smash are completely trivial and ridiculous.  They also were boring and left a lot of people wishing you guys never dragged those out.  Did most of us say anything?  NO, yet I make a couple of points on something, and all of a sudden "I" shouldn't post anymore?  Ah the hypocracy.  I don't think I like you anymore.

There is plenty of justification of the possibility of Ness's Removal.

1) Lucas is very similar.  Sakurai said no duplicates.

2) Lucas is very similar.  Those who liked Ness will probably like Lucas just fine with a similar moveset.

3) Nintendo seems more focused on Japan with this Earthbound decision.

4) The fact that the rumor of Ness being replaced by Lucas was even made!

5) Earthbound is a forgotten franchise in most territories but Japan, having 2 similar characters from this franchise would be redundant and wouldn't enhance that quality of the game very much.  There are many other popular characters today and classic characters that still have games today that could be added. 

I think if anything, they might put another type character from Earthbound as long as the variety is there, but Lucas and NESS are the same character with different clothing.  Did you expect Sakurai to have the lead character from Pokemon Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Silver, Gold, Crystal, Pearl, Diamond, Ruby, Sapphire?  NO, because it would be stupid and redundant.  Same type idiology, just not as extreme.

Fewer people care about Roy than Ness. Fact.

Roy isn't coming back either. I give it a 10% chance. All those side characters are gone. Many thought NESS was a side character back with the original smash brothers, because here in America, Earthbound wasn't a big thing. NESS was there because of the Japanese fanbase, not because of the American. And though Earthbound has found a fanbase, mainly through NESS being a character in the smash series and the ROMS that have floated around, Nintendo still thinks that it is mainly Japanese supported and probably with good reason, otherwise we would have had that Mother 3 remake for GBA years ago, or they would have finished that N64 project on either the Gamecube or the N64.

Why do you think "Mother" is now the accepted name instead of Earthbound, when Earthbound was the American name? It's because Earthbound didn't reach that "cult" status until years AFTER its release, oddly during the Gamecube generation when there was no more Earthbound, just MOTHER from Japan. If Earthbound was so popular in America then that name would have remained on everyone's lips much like King Koopa did vs. Bowser for so long or Princess Toadstool did vs. Peach. Those only changed because Nintendo MADE them change, but there hasn't been ANY American Earthbound games to make a fanbase change.

There might be a few NESS fans from Smash brothers, but trust me, you extreme Earthbound fans are a niche group here in the states. And those NESS fans wouldn't mind playing with a blonde counterpart a couple of months after the games released. Japan on the other hand, just might.

Yeah...but now Ness is big with Smash players...there's a lot of American Smash players that use Ness, even in big tournaments and stuff.

My one friend hardly ever plays games, but when we play Smash, he's always Ness. He doesn't know what game Ness is from, he just likes playing as him.

I suppose if Lucas is exactly the same, it won't bug him or most people too much...but still. There's a lot of people who have been playing as Ness in Smash Bros since 1999; I don't see why Sakurai, also a Ness lover, would kick him.

If it is as it looks, I would say it wasn't Sakurai's ultimate decision. It might have come from other decision makers and Sakurai might not have objected too much. Nintendo has a bit to benefit from putting the newer Lucas in rather than Ness, at least in Japan where Mother is actually popular as a franchise.  Lucas, the "Ness type fighter," should satisfy Ness fighting fans this generation, but Lucas, the character, will help with Japanese popularity at this time.

Exactly as you said in that last point, most people who know NESS don't know him from Earthbound, so they don't have loyalty to him as a character, just as a fighter. If they change his hair, clothes, yet keep the moves similar, those players aren't going to mind at all after playing a few months. Those that refuse to play because of a change in look are going to be in the few.

The fact that there is a lot of people who play with Ness is probably one reason that it was a no brainer to put a main character like Lucas in all versions despite not having Mother 3 in America. Back when the original smash came out, not many people knew Ness yet people started to use them, there is no reason for them to expect any different from Lucas. I guess they could have put Lucas in the Japanese version to help with the Japanese Mother fans and then Ness in the American version for veteran Smash players, but that would have been needless work for a characters whose American fanbase didn't have "Earthbound SNES" loyalty and probably wouldn't care about the minor details changed anyway. So on this character, it was probably easier to take a "let America deal" approach.

Yeah, and the moon landing is a fake and the government spies on us with secret camers all over our houses.  Please. They couldn't care less about what happens on gamefaqs.  They certainly don't have the ability to hack someone's account and force him to tell everyone on a board they are idiots. 

You said specifically: "I played a ROM on the PC of it.  It was pretty quirky but really good. " I don't appreciate lying. That's why I called you out on that.  I am really looking forward to playing the game when starmen is done with it's translation, but we really don't know what it will be like.  MOTHER was nothing like Earthbound.  It was nowhere near as quirky or humor based.  We don't know what MOTHER 3 will be like. 

I didn't say you shouldn't post at all, I said you shouldn't be acting like everyone is stupid for wanting or expecting Ness back.  You are also assuming all of us who did like Ness don't care about his removal.  There is certainly a valid argument for the other side.  Don't dismiss that argument before the debate even began.  Yes I had some perhaps trivial debates with other members of the forum on this topic, but I always allowed them to rebut my statements with their own.  Sorry if they bothered you, but don't assume those of us who liked Ness don't care about this.  

As far as the guy who you still believe despite him calling you an idiot for believing him:  He was also wrong about one franchise not returning.  If you look back to the franchise icon post you would see that there is one hole in the numbers of old franchises.  Guess what: Only one old franchise hasn't been represented and there is still a hole in that list of franchises.  Uh oh, that means that one hole is going to be filled with: Game and Watch.  It's the only old franchise not represented so he has to be returning.  Yet more evidence the man is wrong (not that you should need any now).  

Anyway, back to the actual topic: I don't know if Ness is back yet or not anymore, but there was a lot of evidence that he would be.   He was Sakurai's favorite character, he was an original Smash character, and he was also a very popular character.  Whether he'll be back now or not is going to be determined by Lucas's moveset.  I hope I enjoty Mother 3 so that I can enjoy playing as Lucas, but I'm still going to be disappointed if Ness doesn't return.  Hopefully we at least get a second Mother character (maybe another from Mother 3?).  Sorry if I insulted you, I wasn't trying to.  

Im pretty sure i remembered reading some where that Sakirai wanted Lucas in melee but didnt have enough time so added ness in again (not sure so dont hold this against me). Also i remember reading on starnet somewhere that ssbb was going to replace ness with lucas, otherwise i probably would have felt shocked with this update.

Wikipedia is the source for Sakurai wanting Lucas in Melee. However, it has no source cited for that, and it wouldn't make much sense considering when Melee was released MOTHER 3 had been canceled...