Smashboards

Now, what I wanted to ask you was due to the fact that RYU is now in Smash 4, What do you think this means for other 3rd party companies? I remember you posted a Japan poll for requested characters BEFORE the official Smash Ballot. Arle Nadja was requested on that list, and I think Klonoa was as well. What do you think this would mean for characters like them now that Capcom managed to get a second character in?

I'm glad you love the content! It's always nice to hear feedback (negative or positive)!

Personally, I dont think Arle Nadja or Klonoa have much of a shot. I think 3rd party characters need to be incredibly iconic, and both of those characters suffer from that. In my opinion, Bomberman, Snake (coming back), Simon Belmont a Final Fantasy Rep, Resident Evil rep, Rayman, and Master Chief have a better shot.

(Master Chief being the least likely to happen due to copyright law/ promoting a competing mascot).

I also dont think Sakurai is keeping score of how many reps per third party company. I think it's a matter of who has important, interesting characters for Smash. I don't think Sega has anyone else besides Sonic really.

There's AiAi, and Shenmue but he's clearly not on the same level as Ryu/PacMan/ Sonic in terms of general popularity (Obviously AiAi and Shenmue are known among gamers).

I've been meaning to write an official post about my opinions, but that's basically it. I'm still looking for where Sakurai said 1 rep per company. I think it was fan made.

I guess you're right. I have to admit, either I'm going crazy or there has been quite a lot of Puyo craze going on in Japan recently. (Possibly because Puyo Puyo AND Sonic will be celebrating their 25th anniversaries in Japan next year. I'm not saying this will help Arle, I just felt like pointing it out.) I kind of feel that she, alongside the likes of Amigo or NiGHTS might be a Sega contender

Amigo/ NiGHTS could be another contender, but again personally I think we are going to see other legacy characters before them. Btw, Spazzy_D is planning on doing Sega characters eventually for his "Case 4" series. He's much more familiar with individual third party characters than I am. I just do a ton of research into development/ translation/ data mining

I hope you don't mind my saying, but I guess that long story short, I've noticed that Arle is TONS iconic (at least in Japan.) Even more than I thought, to be honest. And heck, TBH, I kind of want her in myself. XD

I wouldn't mind her myself. I kind of wish we had a legit puzzle rep. Dr. Mario could use more "puzzle" like moves IMO. To me, Dr. Mario is just "classic Smash Brothers Mario with a pill instead of a fireball".

Well, I think either Lip from Panel de Pon or Arle could easily fill that role.

BTW, you mentioned somewhere a while back that you lived in Japan for a while. I don't suppose you could translate something for me? It has to do with one of Arle's games.

Sorry, I missed the notification for this. Feel free to send it to me, but I'm focused on translating Famitsu articles/ interviews right now.