Reboot with no Sakurai is ideal.
His bias and narrow mindedness are getting old tbh
It's time to let someone else helm the game.
Oh my goodness thank you. He's stuck to dumb old traditions since 2001.
They should have Nintendo of America design the next Smash. That way it'll be easier to connect with the Western audience more, since most "popular" fighters that get added are really only popular in Japan, and Western requests are rarely listened to.
I really don't get a lot of the criticism towards Sakurai for bias. His bias has resulted in some of our wackiest characters, ROB, Ice Climbers, Mr. Game and Watch, Pit, Wii Fit Trainer, and so on owe everything to that very bias, and I definitely think the game would be missing something big without those characters. They bring unique move sets and representations of much smaller places of Nintendo history to the game.
Do I sometimes wish that Sakurai went even further in that regard? Sure, but there are limitations of making games like this and sometimes his creativity is just better suited for other things. Is the Piranha Plant the wrong character for the moment? Probably, but it at least adds a creative move set.
We already basically have every major character from Nintendo history in the game with a handful of exceptions. Toad and Dixie Kong are probably the biggest two of the old guard still missing from the game, which is a testament to how much Sakurai has included. I may support the likes of Isaac and Chorus Kids, but when those are the sorts of characters you're claiming that need to be in, I think you're saying as much about how well the roster represents Nintendo history at this point as neither Golden Sun nor Rhythm Heaven are massive franchises, just mainly beloved. It's a shame that these characters aren't in, but I'm not going to pretend like such characters are absolutely necessary. I think they should be in due to fan support which is entirely different.
Sakurai has done a lot of things over the years to change his mind. Villager, Pac-Man, Miis? All shot down during Brawl and they showed up during Smash 4. Ridley finally showed up during Ultimate and he worked hard on including fan requested characters for the overwhelming majority of this game's roster.
And no Western requested fighters??? Little Mac, Ridley, and Dark Samus all absolutely come from popularity in the West. Bayonetta (if you believe his reporting) comes from the top of requests in Europe (Which is absolutely Western). Requests for Castlevania also were much more likely to come from the west as well. The West generally agrees upon most of the big character choices such as having main veterans return or the missing bigger characters (King K Rool was huge in BOTH the west and Japan). He's not ignoring the West consistently in adding characters. The biggest "Western" requests missing are probably the likes of Isaac and Shantae who pretty much entirely derive their popularity from the west, and Shantae is a third party indie so she was always going to have a massively uphill battle to get in anyway... Characters like Geno and Banjo Kazooie have high popularity in the Japan despite being more thought of as Western requests. Bandanna Dee and basically any Kirby character is dominated by overwhelming support in Japan. There isn't some massive pro-Japanese narrative when it comes to requests. The characters do come from Japan seeing as Nintendo is ya know, a Japanese company and they work exclusively with third parties on a character level in Japan which is an active decision I guess, but not such a big deal.
The only real places I see Sakurai's bias is with HOW he can represent some characters/games. Fire Emblem is mostly a victim of circumstances honestly (And the audience has had a large impact on that situation), failing to represent the unique classes of the game. He's mostly kept the sword mechanics the primary root of Fire Emblem. Zelda hasn't really had a newcomer since Melee and only just now feels like at least an attempt at proper representation, but to be fair not many of Zelda's characters stand out with multiple appearances. Kid Icarus probably doesn't two fighters and an Echo, but people did expressly want Palutena I remember during Smash 4 and Sakurai is human and going to want to support his own ideas a little too.
He's not perfect, but Sakurai is far from being a problem towards the roster and the future of Smash. I think he can be a little tone deaf with regards to how people react to his compromises (The Assist Trophy situation basically post Brawl, Mii Fighter costumes, and making a big point of the Spirits) as people don't agree with the compromise as fitting, but he does try to constantly deliver on multiple levels of fan service at least and has succeeded at different points while making a massive and diverse roster. His timing with reveals can also be off, but he includes desirable content most of the time.
I just don't know if another director would be able to step in his shoes so perfectly on the first go, or would even care more about adding those fan requests. We just can't know that for sure...
