Well... I have to admit I was wrong about the whole ZSS debate. However, I really wish I ended up being right... not for my pride (don't care about that), but because I really dislike this idea.
This is all speculation, I know that, but think about it:
It doesn't make much sense to me for ZSS to be powerful. 1) Dojo makes it sound like the Final Smash laser itself is VERY powerful and dangerous. If turning into ZSS makes you a more powerful character, isn't this too much? Wouldn't the beam itself be weaker and the true benefit come from the 'shapeshift'? 2) Having ZSS be more powerful without her suit doesn't make much sense from a character 'lore' standpoint... why would Samus go around in a big ol' powersuit all the time if she was more effective with it off? (Though who knows if Sakurai cares about something like this)
So IF Zero Suit Samus is weaker... being forced to play as a weaker character for the rest of the match is a pretty big punishment. Although maybe when you die you get your suit back (a la Popo dying and getting Nana back)... in that case, it just seems weird that ZSS is only playable in such short bursts.
Not to mention that if Smash Balls are turned off, it looks like ZSS isn't playable at all? That's lame. (Unless she is playable when you hold down the A button at character select... but then again, as discussed above, do you get your suit back when you die? This whole thing raises so many questions.)
I'm not crazy about this at all. Of course I'll give it a fair shot when I play the game, but we've got months before then and all we can do right now is speculate.
I wonder if this DOES mean Sheik is back.
One of the main reasons I thought he was gone for sure was because his moveset seemed to be copied over to ZSS, and this game seems less likely to have clones than melee. But if ZSS is only a temporary transformation and not a normal selectable character... who knows.