Official Next Smash - Speculation & Discussion Thread

[fogbadge]

Because being in place is what he does in most of his appearances? If he jumps as he did in Star Allies, he’d just jump to the opposite end of the walk zone, where he would then continue to be static and dish out the same attacks.

If he walks like in KD3, you face the issue of a giant walking hitbox that cannot be fought without using projectiles, which hurts several fighters. You could use the DarthEnderX idea, but now that walking segment is filler and you have to wait for him to fly over the character.

And where else would he fly to? The exact same position(s) where he sits still and chucks apples and harsh wind at you. To me, that is not an engaging Smash Boss. He’s a cool hazard on his stage, but I wouldn’t want to fight him as a Little Mac main.

so what you’re saying is that it wouldn’t be very practical to have him move around? alright then

 

[Arcanir]

Pyrosphere's issue isn't some weird dislike thing. It's that it's a full boss character that requires work to program and had issues with 8-Player Smash. Rebuilding it from scratch(like the other stages) is not really worth the effort. Ridley being playable isn't the entire reason. And let's be real, Other M isn't as popular as others, but pretending nobody liked it is always a bad argument. Everybody likes something. While it's generally an exaggeration and all, it comes across much more serious than the argument really is.

Thinking about it, Boss Ridley probably was the main reason it got cut and potentially not for the reason often brought up. We do have other boss stages like Wily's Castle and Gaur Plains, but Ridley on Pyrosphere was far more involved than either, having a unique mechanic that had him support the character that beat him up the most (ironically the most criticized part of the boss), his defeats contributed to stocks, more moves overall and even a separate 'form' that likely required a good amount of work put into him to make it function. With all of that work that likely was put into it and would at least partially have to be repeated to bring it back, it probably wasn't considered worth it as there were other stages that could use that time better.

You could argue cutting the boss from the stage could've been an option, but none of the stages removed a mechanic like that at base (at least offhand) and they probably felt that he was too ingrained in the identity of the stage as they made it to revamp it in such a way. So it was all or nothing and they chose to cut it.

Ridley being playable and its potential poor reception may've not have helped, but the stage (and especially the boss) being more developmentally demanding may've hurt it the most.

 

[Scrimblo Bimblo]

The Pyrosphere stage to me always felt like it only existed to have Ridley pretty much join the fight without being playable.
It was a compromise, like most compromises people didn't exactly love it... No need for it once you have the genuine article.

Stage bosses were not a great idea anyways, imo. They kinda all suck.

 

[SPEN18]

Worth it to who? The millions of ppl that bought smrpg remake and will buy smash 6? Or you suggesting the cross market between smrpg and smash isn't as big as all that... ? We just talked about planned DLC yeah?

Worth it relative to the other more notable characters they could expend those efforts on. Making another character might promote other games or another franchise besides this one single mid-tier Mario spinoff. This is the argument against Geno: why would you go for him over anyone else, esp. anybody else who's probably just as demonstrably popular but also has actual creds beyond appeal to hardcores? As a Mario character, he's not even more popular with general audiences than other candidates like Toad or Waluigi (and certainly not more notable, not to mention the licensing factor), and as a third party character or even just as a Square character he suffers at least as badly to stand out.

This is the reality that Geno fans have to reckon with. The remake doing well but still on par with your average middle-tier Mario spinoff doesn't fundamentally change his situation, esp. since remakes are rarely directly promoted by Smash and it's still unknown even in the wake of its success if there is any future for the character beyond this game.

Could Geno get in via pure popularity? Sure, he could, but that is the only factor in his favor, and he still has to fight against other characters who have that same or similar popularity along with other factors besides that in their corner. Being a side character in a remake that won't be relevant when the next Smash releases doesn't really change this much.

 

[Verde Coeden Scalesworth]

Thinking about it, Boss Ridley probably was the main reason it got cut and potentially not for the reason often brought up. We do have other boss stages like Wily's Castle and Gaur Plains, but Ridley on Pyrosphere was far more involved than either, having a unique mechanic that had him support the character that beat him up the most (ironically the most criticized part of the boss), his defeats contributed to stocks, more moves overall and even a separate 'form' that likely required a good amount of work put into him to make it function. With all of that work that likely was put into it and would at least partially have to be repeated to bring it back, it probably wasn't considered worth it as there were other stages that could use that time better.

You could argue cutting the boss from the stage could've been an option, but none of the stages removed a mechanic like that at base (at least offhand) and they probably felt that he was too ingrained in the identity of the stage as they made it to revamp it in such a way. So it was all or nothing and they chose to cut it.

Ridley being playable and its potential poor reception may've not have helped, but the stage (and especially the boss) being more developmentally demanding may've hurt it the most.

Yeah, sometimes the core mechanic of a stage can get it cut alone. Pac-Maze suffers a similar issue as well. Possibly to a lesser degree, but still.

Unfortunately stage gimmicks can really hurt a stage's chance to return. Somewhat justified, as many rely on specific system gimmicks or something that's hard to repeat. If Pyrosphere was simply ported over, this would be far less of a hassle. But the stages were made from scratch(for whatever reason that may be), so.

Even then, there's always potential bugs/etc. that make a returning stage difficult to work with. The more involved a mechanic is, the more chance for issues. That said, Ridley being playable may have been why it was an easier choice to cut too. Since you still got a very popular character overall to show up(he's been in almost every Smash game as a cameo or otherwise bar 3DS).

 

[Perkilator]

Stage bosses were not a great idea anyways, imo. They kinda all suck.

...Know what, yeah. The stage bosses in Sm4sh should've just been actual bosses.

 

[Sucumbio]

Funnily enough I looked on the Other M GameFAQs reviews a moment ago; it's all over the place. Seems pretty mixed, so even if a few are troll reviews, there's clearly fans. There's fans of freaking everything. Just some obviously will have less or more fans. That's how it works~

I loved it but because I love everything Metroid it seems lol though I haven't played Hunters...maybe that is the one game I'd hate

 

[fogbadge]

The Pyrosphere stage to me always felt like it only existed to have Ridley pretty much join the fight without being playable.
It was a compromise, like most compromises people didn't exactly love it... No need for it once you have the genuine article.

Stage bosses were not a great idea anyways, imo. They kinda all suck.

Yeah the close enough attitude of that stage always struck me as odd

 

[Will]

I would complain about wanting more stages that were competitively legal, but there was plenty added. There was a good mix of balance among the jankier stages added for Ultimate, ie Spring Stadium, Hollow Bastion, and Minecraft

The real issue with those are tournament organizers being picky between turning hazards on and hazards off, and then being even more discriminatory for being “too similar”.

Like, the hell do you mean I can’t play on Fountain of Dreams just because it’s another form of Battlefield without hazards? It’s got a ****ing STALK in the middle! /rant

I know Wario’s bike somehow causes frame issues on the water and they’ve used that as an excuse too, but I’ve personally never had a problem with it.

 

[Verde Coeden Scalesworth]

Ridley on Pyrosphere did feel a lot like a Smash character. One theory I've had is there was a minor attempt to make him playable, but it didn't work out, and the aftermath became his Stage Hazard on Pyrosphere.

Of course, other than him acting similar to a playable character to a degree, there's really nothing to support the theory. It's not like Giga Bowser is in a different position, and he's still a Boss(the Final Smash version is just a weaker version of said Boss overall, but that doesn't make him a Playable Character either way. The only Boss to be playable directly was Master Hand. The Ridley we got isn't a Boss Ridley, but a new model that was easy to have smaller in the first place. The closest otherwise is Giga Bowser, but he's also conditional, just far moreso than Master Hand is, heh).

I know some games had glitches you could use, or just in general they had movesets for testing, but yeah.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

Given Sakurai regrets Roy (I can bring up the interview),

I would like to see this interview.

 

[The Stoopid Unikorn]

I would like to see this interview.

It was in a FE anniversary book, iirc.

However, it wasn't specifically adding Roy that he regrets but how he portrayed him since his personality in Smash ended up being nothing like his actual personality in Binding Blade.

Considering how hard he tries to make characters feel like themselves, something like that would be a major oopsie.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

The Pyrosphere stage to me always felt like it only existed to have Ridley pretty much join the fight without being playable.
It was a compromise, like most compromises people didn't exactly love it... No need for it once you have the genuine article.

Stage bosses were not a great idea anyways, imo. They kinda all suck.

I disagree. Pyrosphere was included because it was the most iconic location from the most recent Metroid game.

It being associated with Ridley and Ridley has immense demand were just bonuses that lead to the stage's gimmick.

 

[Perkilator]

A SmashTuber called Thundeluxe just released a video on representing new genres in Smash.

 

[GoldenYuiitusin]

It was in a FE anniversary book, iirc.

However, it wasn't specifically adding Roy that he regrets but how he portrayed him since his personality in Smash ended up being nothing like his actual personality in Binding Blade.

Considering how hard he tries to make characters feel like themselves, something like that would be a major oopsie.

Got the source for you

Sakurai Interview: Fire Emblem 25th Anniversary

Sakurai discusses the end of Smash DLC, Marth in Smash 64 and more!

sourcegaming.info

 

[Sucumbio]

Are there any Ni no Kuni fans here? My wife's been playing Wrath of the White Witch nonstop for 3 days after getting frustrated with Another Crab's Treasure allegedly. Anyway her draw was the dev team and what not like it's a DQ type game and very similar in ways (I'll admit the soundtrack does sound on par and written by a much nicer person lol).

 

[Garteam]

I didn't say they wouldn't license Geno if Nintendo/Sakurai were asking. Since Nintendo/Sakurai choose the characters, they don't get to just put in whoever they'd actually prefer to put in.
Someone said they could see Square pushing for Geno; I was saying I don't see them actively wanting to put in Geno over their other characters and franchises, but also that in the end it probably doesn't matter that much anyway, because again Nintendo/Sakurai have the final say on their own roster.

The argument against Geno, at least to me, is not about Square being too uninvested for Nintendo to get the rights. It's that Geno is not worth expending the effort and resources into making a full fighter, especially if he has to be considered as a third party addition. Because he's a side character in a single game with much bigger wigs in it and which is an ultimately very minor part of its series to begin with, he doesn't recur or appear in any of the biggest, most casually visible games, and he has to be negotiated and licensed for on top of that. He will always be disadvantaged due to those factors.

I never said or suggested that Geno's popularity is just a fad or dependent on the new Switch remake. I in fact just said that I don't think the success of said remake is due primarily to Geno being in it. SMRPG was still in the 2-4mil range which is within the ballpark for what a Mario spinoff of that profile could reasonably be expected to achieve on Switch. The fact that Paper Mario did just about as well only affirms this, and at least some of the Mario spinoffs which did a little worse have clear reasons for that, for example a lack of content in Strikers.

I'm going to be honest, I've never heard the argument that Geno is fine in a non-playable role to the point that getting him as a full playable character is unnecessary before. If that were true, we wouldn't be having any discussion about Geno because he has his Mii costume and his spirit. You can go to the Geno thread to see how well those went over. Like with the vast majority of characters, non-playable representation is nice but it doesn't fully satisfy fans who genuinely want those characters playable.

Geno would be a difficult character to get due to Square's ownership and he's an odd pick on paper, no doubt about it, but he's also absurdly popular as a Smash candidate and has been for almost 20 years now. That's a lot of the fun of the character, in my opinion. He's a total non-contender who is elevated to being a serious choice just due to fans' genuine passion for him. A lot of people adverse to Geno's inclusion treat him like he's a fad (not necessarily that you do), but the little wooden puppet continues to endure. There are posts supporting Geno that are close to being old enough to vote now.

Writing off Geno because there are other Mario candidates is missing the point. Geno fans don't want a general Super Mario RPG character. They don't want another Mario character generally, either. They want Geno because they intrinsically like the character. It's also not like we rarely get Mario characters either to the point where expecting more than one is unrealistic. We get multiple Mario characters more often than we don't.

Super Mario RPG remake wasn't successful because of Geno, but it was popular enough to get the IP back on Square's radar and Geno is a massive fan favorite from that game. Fire Emblem: Awakening wasn't successful because people immediately fell in love with Robin and Lucina, but it was a massive enough success to get a Smash character. Robin and Lucina were both well-liked, so they made it into Smash for Wii U/3DS. Same with ARMS and Min Min and Xenoblade 2 and Pyra/Mythra. Success gets the game in the door and popularity helps a specific character from that game, even if the game isn't flying off the shelves specifically because that character is in it.

In terms of Square wanting to promote other franchises, it seems like most of what they'd want to promote in Smash, they already have. Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts are already in Smash. That just leaves Super Mario RPG, Nier, Mana, and Octopath Traveller in terms of big IPs. Mana and Octopath don't have a ton of Smash demand, so it would likely come down to Geno and 2B. I think both have a good shot of inclusion, but Geno is definitely the more popular Smash candidate and is likely the option that Sakurai would go with, given that Geno was planned for Brawl but couldn't have been included.

 

[ScrubReborn]

It was in a FE artbook, iirc.

However, it wasn't specifically adding Roy that he regrets but how he portrayed him since his personality in Smash ended up being nothing like his actual personality in Binding Blade.

Considering how hard he tries to make characters feel like themselves, something like that would be a major oopsie.

IIRC he was basically just Marth in Blade though, so I like to call his Smash personality a happy accident. I think Sakurai might agree now 'cause he rolled with it when he brought back Roy lol.

 

[The Stoopid Unikorn]

IIRC he was basically just Marth in Blade though, so I like to call his Smash personality a happy accident. I think Sakurai might agree now 'cause he rolled with it when he brought back Roy lol.

I also agree because it's a lot more interesting to have this fiery boy than just having Marth 2.

Good on Sakurai for rolling with it, even if it's not faithful to how Roy is now.

 

[GoldenYuiitusin]

given that Geno was planned for Brawl but couldn't have been included.

Got a valid source for that, or just misinterpreting what Sakurai said about "wanting" Geno?

 

[Gengar84]

Are there any Ni no Kuni fans here? My wife's been playing Wrath of the White Witch nonstop for 3 days after getting frustrated with Another Crab's Treasure allegedly. Anyway her draw was the dev team and what not like it's a DQ type game and very similar in ways (I'll admit the soundtrack does sound on par and written by a much nicer person lol).

I watched a ShadyPenguinn Let’s Play on his channel for the first 12 or so hours of the game and it looked pretty fun. I considered buying it but I still have such a big backlog it’s hard to find the time. I do love the two Dark Cloud games and Rogue Galaxy from Level 5 so I do think I’d enjoy the game.

 

[pitchfulprocessing]

IIRC he was basically just Marth in Blade though, so I like to call his Smash personality a happy accident. I think Sakurai might agree now 'cause he rolled with it when he brought back Roy lol.

Sakurai actually directed commented on this in an old interview.

Pretty much outright said Smash Roy is an OC lol.

 

[MasterCheef]

A SmashTuber called Thundeluxe just released a video on representing new genres in Smash.

.
.
He even chose Ahri to represent MOBAs

& Wesker to represent horror

 

[Gengar84]

.
.
He even chose Ahri to represent MOBAs

& Wesker to represent horror

Ahri would be a cool choice. You honestly can’t really go wrong with any LoL they go with since I like all of them I’ve learned about. My favorite from a visual design perspective is Kha’Zix and my favorite from a character perspective is Vi (Arcane specifically). I did beat Ruined King on the Switch so I am familiar with Ahri from that. I actually think she and Yasuo could make a cool transform tag character with a team attack switch in as a reference to 2XKO’s team based mechanics.

 

[The Stoopid Unikorn]

A SmashTuber called Thundeluxe just released a video on representing new genres in Smash.

>focusing on the monsters for the horror genre rep

THANK YOU!

 

[Gengar84]

>focusing on the monsters for the horror genre rep

THANK YOU!

I agree with this. I love the idea of using a monster as a rep for horror games, I just feel they capture the horror aspect better than the protagonists. They’re usually more visually interesting too.

 

[The Stoopid Unikorn]

I agree with this. I love the idea of using a monster as a rep for horror games, I just feel they capture the horror aspect better than the protagonists. They’re usually more visually interesting too.

Yeah, the protagonists are gonna be either normal people or military people, neither of which can really convey the feel horror the same way someone like Wesker or Nemesis would because protagonists kinda need the monsters to feel horrorlike.

Just look at Chris in MvC3. Nothing about his moveset is wrong because he very much is a weapons guy and that's basically the best way to do a Resident Evil protagonist... but none of it feels like it's from a horror game. Compare that to, well, Wesker and Nemesis from that same game.

 

[GoldenYuiitusin]

I've spoken my piece with Nemesis in the past, but Wesker would be a decent substitute to me.

Can even be the "bridge" between the protagonist human style (as well as the Agent Smith bull**** :V) with the monstrous side with his mutations.

 

[JOJONumber691]

I would like to see this interview.

Will bring it up. Not the exact wording but it’s implied.

Translated by Source Gaming. Given how he tends to stray away from games that aren’t out yet unless he knows for sure when it’s coming out, most notably there being no
Mario Galaxy content in Brawl, it’s very heavily implied Sakurai regrets being so hasty with including Roy.

 

[Godzillathewonderdog]

I prefer the idea of a Resident Evil character representing the survival part of it more so than the horror part.

I think a fighter who has to wisely manage their limited resources or else be overwhelmed by their opponents would be really cool.

 

[Garteam]

Got a valid source for that, or just misinterpreting what Sakurai said about "wanting" Geno?

You're right, I worded that wrong. Sakurai wanted Geno rather than planned for him.

Not that the substance of my post is changed that much by that minor flub. Sakurai has expressed enough interest in Geno in the past to where he publicly admitted to conceptually considering him and liking what he could brainstorm. That's more than 99% of characters can claim.

 

[Louie G.]

I prefer the idea of a Resident Evil character representing the survival part of it more so than the horror part.

I think a fighter who has to wisely manage their limited resources or else be overwhelmed by their opponents would be really cool.

I'd gladly take one of the monsters / Wesker as well, but I appreciate that you said the jist of what I was going to try and argue in favor of the heroes.

The perspective of adding a Resident Evil protagonist comes with the challenge of capturing the series essence through their gameplay. If Jill or Leon were to be added, their opponents take the role of the monsters. Playing them becomes a high stakes game of properly utilizing limited resources (ideally not anything as crazy as Hero... maybe more like Wonderwing, or a reload mechanic like Inkling) and they likely become somewhat of a glass cannon with powerful albeit limited ranged options. Let's say a bullet with a very precise hitbox, and you only have a few of them in your handgun but they have the potential to kill quite early. If you use them up irresponsibly, then you're going to be at an inherent disadvantage.

We can look at Chris from MVC3, but I feel as if MVC often has a different philosophy to character design than Smash Bros. When aiming to represent the gameplay essence of a horror game, Chris isn't the most efficient. Meanwhile Jill takes more creative liberties with her moveset in MVC2, but her being somewhat of a summoner character adorably skirting out of the way from danger gets to the root of what the series is about in a more inventive way. That's a bit closer to Smash's desire to interpret a series / genre gameplay into the game to a further extent than simply the character's presence.

I think Smash would take a different angle than both of these, but I guess that's to say I think there are other ways to interpret them aside from being a basic military person. That'd really be dropping the ball on representing such a compelling genre to interpret as a fighter. To that token I can understand why people would be driven toward someone like Nemesis or Wesker, but I see a lot of potential in the alternative.

 

[SPEN18]

I'm going to be honest, I've never heard the argument that Geno is fine in a non-playable role to the point that getting him as a full playable character is unnecessary before. If that were true, we wouldn't be having any discussion about Geno because he has his Mii costume and his spirit. You can go to the Geno thread to see how well those went over. Like with the vast majority of characters, non-playable representation is nice but it doesn't fully satisfy fans who genuinely want those characters playable.

This is a misinterpretation of what I said. What I said is that Geno's merits do not compare favorably to lots of other popular characters; the "worth" or "necessity" here is relative to others they could devote those resources to. Because what you say about fans not being satisfied with the auxiliary representation can be said about any character whatever.

Writing off Geno because there are other Mario candidates is missing the point. Geno fans don't want a general Super Mario RPG character. They don't want another Mario character generally, either. They want Geno because they intrinsically like the character. It's also not like we rarely get Mario characters either to the point where expecting more than one is unrealistic. We get multiple Mario characters more often than we don't.

There's no "writing off," just honest comparison with other characters where Geno falls short. I never said there aren't Geno fans who want the character for his intrinsic qualities (of course he has his fair share of bandwagoning fans, but this is not exclusive to Geno)*.

I don't think his fans would be satisfied with another Mario character either, no. But the fact remains that those other Mario characters, and plenty of others besides, also have a ton of fans who want them for their intrinsic qualities and who have other reasons and motivations to be added in addition to that as well, to a point that Geno lacks to an extreme degree. And no, getting another Mario character doesn't preclude Geno or vice versa, but it's not like we're comparing Geno to just one character here. Geno falls short against a host of others who look better on paper than him.

* I would theorize that, to an extent, Geno's popularity stems from the effect of being an extreme underdog. He's just significant enough to be above rooting for a true no-lifer like some rando NPC, but not significant enough to ever be considered a typical choice. And being from Square made him (back in the day) seem unlikely but not to the point of total impossibility like, say, being from Sony would make him seem. Under those conditions, one big break like being mentioned by Sakurai would be the only thing necessary to get him to blow up.
It isn't all his fans of course, but sometimes the whole thing tends to come off like the collective ego of the fanbase asserting that it can get anyone in by barking loudly enough. A big hive mind coalescing to prop up a character who could only possibly get in by their sheer will.
So yeah, I do question the legitimacy of some of his popularity, but I am not motivating my arguments by these points and simply conceding that he is popular because it's only a speculative personal theory.

Super Mario RPG remake wasn't successful because of Geno, but it was popular enough to get the IP back on Square's radar and Geno is a massive fan favorite from that game. Fire Emblem: Awakening wasn't successful because people immediately fell in love with Robin and Lucina, but it was a massive enough success to get a Smash character. Robin and Lucina were both well-liked, so they made it into Smash for Wii U/3DS. Same with ARMS and Min Min and Xenoblade 2 and Pyra/Mythra. Success gets the game in the door and popularity helps a specific character from that game, even if the game isn't flying off the shelves specifically because that character is in it.

Sure, a game's success helps all the characters who are in it. But there's very little about SMRPG remake that would suggest it's likely to get a dedicated rep, namely its status as a mid-tier Mario spinoff and an externally developed remake. There's a very poor track record there.

And we can trace how characters like Robin, Min Min, or Pyra/Mythra got in and see how that doesn't apply to Geno. Robin is the protagonist unlike Geno and Awakening was a mainline landmark game in its franchise which SMRPG is not. Lucina is a clone. Min Min represented a brand new franchise (and one without a clearly defined protagonist, making a fan choice as the rep more easily justifiable). And with Aegis we already know the protagonist Rex was considered but they couldn't get his concept to work; and again unlike Geno, there weren't a bunch of other same-series choices that would have clearly superseded Aegis in importance and recognizability, the game wasn't a remake, and etc.
And right, none of those characters were third parties that had to be licensed, either.

In terms of Square wanting to promote other franchises, it seems like most of what they'd want to promote in Smash, they already have. Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts are already in Smash. That just leaves Super Mario RPG, Nier, Mana, and Octopath Traveller in terms of big IPs. Mana and Octopath don't have a ton of Smash demand, so it would likely come down to Geno and 2B. I think both have a good shot of inclusion, but Geno is definitely the more popular Smash candidate and is likely the option that Sakurai would go with, given that Geno was planned for Brawl but couldn't have been included.

Well for one they would probably be more motivated to keep FF, DQ, and KH in Smash than to put in Geno. Given the limited nature of third party spots and the likelihood of cuts next time, he's not out of the woods in terms of competing with those, to be honest. I feel like they would very likely also prefer others from FF at least over Geno as well. And then the other ones you mentioned, yeah, I could see them wanting any of those over Geno because again it's franchises they have more total control over, and which aren't already propped up by having Mario in the game more so than anything Geno could do. Point is he's not a slam dunk even if we're guaranteeing that all Square vets come back and that we're getting a Square newcomer.

Of course, it's not at all like we're guaranteed to return all the Square vets or get a Square newcomer. So even if it weren't quite as bad for Geno in the Square department as I've been positing, that's only one of many hurdles to begin with.

 

[HyperSomari64]

Should the Victory Themes be updated?

 

[Garteam]

Resident Evil is about the monsters about as much as Mario is about Bowser and his army.

95% of the bioweapons encountered across the series are generic, interchangeable mooks that the player is designed to work around and move on from. This only becomes more true as the series goes on and becomes more action-driven, where the STARS gang mows down waves of zombies like they're tissue. Even most of the notable bioweapons, like the Tyrants, are either boss fights or gameplay mechanics that essentially boil down to "keep an eye out for this guy and don't get cornered by him". Ironically, it's mostly mutated humans that can play a more cerebral role in the plot that get the attention as far as antagonists go, like Wesker, Birken, and Krauser.

Narratively, Resident Evil is also a lot more like Day of the Dead than Friday the 13th. It's a character drama about a small group of survivors fighting back against a widespread disaster caused by a shadowy organization's plans going awry. It's not about a single, overwhelming entity slowly hunting people down as a handful of survivors try to figure out some way to beat it. That's why the series slowly evolves into a spy thriller rather than, say, a monster of the week story about a team of super soldiers fighting various eldritch horrors.

Saying Resident Evil has to have Wesker or Nemesis as its rep because "horror games are about monsters" makes about as much sense as saying Final Fantasy needs to have the Warrior of Light as its rep because "JRPGS are about swords and sorcery". It's ignoring a massive chunk of the series' substance in favour of playing into a stereotype of the genre.

 

[MasterCheef]

Ahri would be a cool choice. You honestly can’t really go wrong with any LoL they go with since I like all of them I’ve learned about. My favorite from a visual design perspective is Kha’Zix and my favorite from a character perspective is Vi (Arcane specifically). I did beat Ruined King on the Switch so I am familiar with Ahri from that. I actually think she and Yasuo could make a cool transform tag character with a team attack switch in as a reference to 2XKO’s team based mechanics.

.
.
I would expect ; Ahri & Lux , if we get 2 LoL reps

 

[GoldenYuiitusin]

Well thought out argument. Unfortunately....

Sorry, but the monster/killer is still much more enticing.

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

This is more just a random opinion than any kind of realistic Smash hope but I actually really like Necalli’s design (Street Fighter V) and his moveset looks really cool. It looks like most people I’ve seen really dislike the character for some reason. I haven’t played the game so I can’t really judge for myself besides just liking him for his design and animations. It’s a shame he was so poorly received because he’s such an interesting looking villain. It would have been cool to see him return in future games. Even if he did, I don’t really see a universe where he’s ever a realistic Smash consideration unfortunately.

Expectation: Oh crap it's Necalli! Get ready for the fight of your life because if you lose you will heckin' die.

Reality: A wild Necalli appeared cue random encounter music
Necalli loses and turns into goop
"Well that was weird. Anyway."

Yeah this character needed to be a main antagonist, and since he isn't, he has no purpose in the plot, and not knowing what to do with him, the writers made him a jabber instead.

It doesn't help that he had a weird play style that was never strong.

 

[Noipoi]

Should the Victory Themes be updated?

This is the most important video I have ever watched

 

[osby]

I'm starting to feel like this thread would take any excuse to argue that protagonists are a terrible way to represent any series (unless they happen to be a scrimblo).