'Super Smash Bros Ultimate' Roster: Who Is the 11th Leaked New Character?

Last week, a 4Chan leak claiming to reveal 11 previously unannounced additions to the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster hit the web. The only problem? The entire thing was a big riddle with hints and clues for each new character.

I did my best to break down what each of the 11 new fighters might be with some help from the internet, but there was one addition to the Ultimate roster that I just couldn’t crack: “Folklore.”

Such a vague term could refer to almost anything, but that hasn’t stopped the internet from offering up a handful of good guesses. Here’s some of the best suggestions around for what that mysterious 11th new ‘Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’ character might be — plus my own best guess.

One anonymous 4Chan user suggested that it could be a reference to the Touhou Project series of video games, writing, “Touhou? It is a Japanese folklore shoot em’ up.”

That’s an interesting idea, but there’s one big reason it probably won’t happen. The Touhou games are only available on PlayStation 4 and Windows computers. Unless that changes, you probably shouldn’t expect to see any characters from the series appear in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Another, more realistic guess suggests the “Folklore” character could come from another Nintendo franchise, Warioware. ““Bias says Ashley,” a 4Chan user wrote, “but could be Simon Belmont too and Warrior is something else.”

In the WarioWare games, Ashley is a young witch, which kind of ties into the Folklore clue. She also appeared as an assist trophy in the previous Super Smash Bros. game for Wii U and 3DS, so making a her a playable character in Ultimate seems pretty doable.

One final suggestion from 4Chan makes a compelling case with just a single word: “Okami?”

The 2006 release from developer PlatinumGames is set in classical Japan and combines myth and folklore. It was released for the Nintendo Wii and the company is currently working on a spiritual success for smartphones. That pretty much cover all the bases. So color me convinced.

However, I also have my own theory for that mysterious 11th Super Smash Bros. Ultimate character: Hestu. He’s the oversized Korok from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild who increases your inventory in exchange for Korok seeds. As a member of the mysterious Korok race, Hestu certainly qualifies as Folklore. The Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster is also pretty light on characters from Breath of the Wild, so his addition could fix that.

Of course, these are all just guesses, but with six months until Super Smash Bros. Ultimate releases we’ve got plenty of time to try to figure out which unannounced characters might still be joining the roster.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate launches on December 7 for Nintendo Switch.