Well considering what we've seen in the direct, I'm going to assume that we get 49 character slots + Random, for a nice and even 50 unique characters slots across both systems.
We have 29 characters revealed so far, 6 of which have been newcomers. There are 14 characters left to add from Brawl assuming that Squirtle and Ivysaur are cut. Assuming there are no more cuts, that brings the final roster to 43 characters with a maximum of 6 more newcomers to reveal.
However, cuts are imminent and will happen as much as I'd like all the characters to stay. If we take that into account, we can further cut down the list by morphing Ness and Lucas into a single character with a combined moveset. We can do the same with both remaining Star Fox Characters.
That brings the number of returning characters to 12. However we can further cut down this list assuming that Ike and Snake get cut, which I really hope doesn't happen. This cuts the list to 10 veterans, 6 cuts. The final stretch, improbable as it may be, is an Ice Climbers cut. People brought this up because of possible limitations from the 3DS version.
From that we can assume at WORST we get 9 veterans left and 7 cuts.
Now going off of the Gematsu leak, the remaining characters that they've listed out are Palutena, Shulk, Chrom, Rhythm Fever, and Pac-Man and Mii (I don't want Pac-Man in the game, I don't care about the Mii).
Assuming that this list is REAL, we would have AT BEST no cuts except Squirtle/Ivysaur and these remaining 6 characters. That would mean we only get 12 total newcomers.
If there are Mother and Star Fox cuts, we'd get 2 more newcomers, bringing the total to 14.
At worst, we would see 6-7 cuts and get 4-5 newcomers in return to bring it to a grand total of 16-17 newcomers.
This is all speculative and solely based on if we get that many character slots at all. I'm pretty confident that we will get at most 49 total characters + random considering the limitations of the hardware and the need to keep a nice and clean HUD. We would also have to assume that there is a 5 character maximum for each franchise, as we see with Mario/Zelda/Pokemon. This would mean that the final Pokemon reveal would be Jigglypuff.
Assuming that Gematsu's reveal was correct, we can only have 4-5 newcomers at most as character slots, considering that we will not have any transforming characters in the game.
With all this in mind, how will your rosters turn out? What other characters can we see left that are probable? Ridley's most likely been debunked and I don't see King K. Rool being in the game either.
I'd like your thoughts and I'm actually being serious for once, what are the most probable additions that are left to be added in the game considering probably cuts?
Assuming only 2 characters get cut, I'd like to see an Advance Wars rep and Captain Rainbow/Wonderful 101 rep.
Assuming that Ike and Snake are cut, I'd like to see the above plus an extra Fire Emblem Rep.
Assuming that we get a total of 5 cuts, I would like to see a new Fire Emblem rep, Advance Wars rep, Golden Sun rep, Captain Rainbow Rep, and a Wonderful 101 rep.
I really don't think Snake, Ike, or the Ice Climbers are going anywhere and assuming that Gematsu is accurate, we'd only see 2 more possible character reveals.
I'm still skeptical about the Gematsu leak and although I'd like to have them happen, it's still not enough for me to believe it.
