As the Super Smash Bros community anxiously awaits the reveal of the fifth Ultimate DLC fighter, a prominent leaker with insider knowledge has narrowed the possibilities yet again.
Posting on the GameFAQs forums, Vergeben, who has leaked many fighters in the past, claimed that the upcoming DLC character would not be from a franchise owned by either Bandai Namco or Level-5.
With Bandai Namco off the table, it effectively rules out the likes of Ms Pacman, Soul Calibur characters, Tekken icons such as Heihachi, or anyone from the Katamari franchise as the next fighter.
On the Level-5 front, it confirms characters from Yo-kai Watch and Professor Layton.
Known Smash leakers have been taking it upon themselves to deconfirm fighter rumors rather than outright say who the new fighter is, assuming their sources have told them who it is.
Bandai Namco and Level-5 are the latest companies to be deconfirmed, quashing multiple rumors at once. Previously, Vergeben had ruled out Ubisoft, Falcom and Nippon Ichi Software.
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With this new information, the list of deconfirmed characters has grown large enough to be its own fighting game roster.
Previously, both Vergeben and fellow leaker Sabi had dismissed Dante, Doomguy, Geno, Ryu Hayabusa, Gordon Freeman and Lloyd Irving in Tales of Symphonia. Combined with entire companies being deconfirmed, and the list of possibilities is growing smaller by the day.
Notably, Tracer from Overwatch, Halo’s Master Chief, Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft, or a standard Nintendo franchise character are still very real possibilities.
It’s also possible that any of the deconfirmed fighters make their way into Smash eventually as part of a second Fighters Pass. However, the mystery of the Fighter 5 has been one of the most interesting topics in the Smash community for some time.
The fifth fighter is expected to be revealed at The Game Awards on December 12, the same event where Nintendo unveiled Persona’s Joker back in 2018.