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I have noticed a bit of confusion about what counts as a clone character as opposed to Sakurai's newly termed "Echo Fighters" so I'd like to clear things up.
Clones are nothing new to fighting games and have been apart of the Smash Bros. series since the very first entry on the Nintendo 64 where Luigi was a clone of Mario. What made him a clone? Well, the majority of his attack animations (both special and standard) were shared with Mario--however, even then he had many different properties and ways to make him unique, such as being taller and higher jumps, different properties with his special attacks, a few unique animations, etc. This remained true for all of the clones in Melee as well, though Luigi was differentiated further from Mario by having a different side special, and thus the progression from clone to so-called semi-clone began.
However, it might be better to think of the degree to which a character is a clone on a spectrum, or a scale, depending on how many moves they share with their original character. In that sense, Lucas can still be considered a clone of Ness but is much closer on the spectrum to unique fighter, sharing only the special moves and a few standard attacks (like forward Smash).
Smash 4 started to play more with the idea of alternate costumes that began with Wario, and introduced alternate genders for characters like Wii Fit Trainer, Villager and Robin, as well as Alph and the Koopalings. Are they clones? Well, no, since they play EXACTLY the same; they're just alternate costumes, even if they're technically a different character (like Olimar/Alph). The three "clones" in Smash 4 were originally intended as alternate costumes, but were given some minor changes in the end, and thus they could no longer be alternate costumes since they would no longer play EXACTLY the same. But they weren't really clones either, since traditionally clones, while very similar, have many more changes and in some cases completely different moves/animations (Dr. Mario is actually an exception since he would be considered a clone due to being different enough from Mario).
So really what we have here, in the case of Lucina, Dark Pit and now Daisy, is an alternate costume that has outgrown itself and thus an Echo Fighter. If Alph ever had some unique mechanic (like Rock Pikmin) from Olimar, he would be an Echo Fighter too. They may as well be alternate costumes EXCEPT that it wouldn't be entirely appropriate for them to share everything EXACTLY like the original character. That being said, they definitely have begun their first steps into clone territory, so it's possible that if any Echo Fighter were given more changes, they could be reclassified as a clone (kinda how Dr. Mario was considered as an alternate costume but ended up being a clone still).
If we used a scale, it might look like this:
0 - Alternate Costumes: Olimar/Alph, Bowser Jr./Koopalings
1 - Echo Fighters: Marth/Lucina, Pit/Dark Pit, Peach/Daisy
2 - Pikachu/Pichu
3 - Mario/Dr. Mario
4 - Marth/Roy
5 - Captain Falcon/Ganondorf
6 - Fox/Falco
7 - Ness/Lucas
8 - Fox/Wolf
9 - Mewtwo/Lucario (Aura Sphere totally ripped off Shadow Ball come on)
10 - Donkey Kong/Palutena (.....they're not related at all)
So at the end of the day Echo Fighters could be considered clones, but you could also consider them glorified alternate costumes, which, given that Sakurai is not giving them their own number, seems to be how he views them. Glass half full or half empty sort of thing. Personally, I preferthe air to view the glass half full and see these Echo Fighters as the glorified alternate costumes that they are which just means that they put in more work than they otherwise would have.
Now, if you weren't confused before, you might be now. Sorry for that.
Clones are nothing new to fighting games and have been apart of the Smash Bros. series since the very first entry on the Nintendo 64 where Luigi was a clone of Mario. What made him a clone? Well, the majority of his attack animations (both special and standard) were shared with Mario--however, even then he had many different properties and ways to make him unique, such as being taller and higher jumps, different properties with his special attacks, a few unique animations, etc. This remained true for all of the clones in Melee as well, though Luigi was differentiated further from Mario by having a different side special, and thus the progression from clone to so-called semi-clone began.
However, it might be better to think of the degree to which a character is a clone on a spectrum, or a scale, depending on how many moves they share with their original character. In that sense, Lucas can still be considered a clone of Ness but is much closer on the spectrum to unique fighter, sharing only the special moves and a few standard attacks (like forward Smash).
Smash 4 started to play more with the idea of alternate costumes that began with Wario, and introduced alternate genders for characters like Wii Fit Trainer, Villager and Robin, as well as Alph and the Koopalings. Are they clones? Well, no, since they play EXACTLY the same; they're just alternate costumes, even if they're technically a different character (like Olimar/Alph). The three "clones" in Smash 4 were originally intended as alternate costumes, but were given some minor changes in the end, and thus they could no longer be alternate costumes since they would no longer play EXACTLY the same. But they weren't really clones either, since traditionally clones, while very similar, have many more changes and in some cases completely different moves/animations (Dr. Mario is actually an exception since he would be considered a clone due to being different enough from Mario).
So really what we have here, in the case of Lucina, Dark Pit and now Daisy, is an alternate costume that has outgrown itself and thus an Echo Fighter. If Alph ever had some unique mechanic (like Rock Pikmin) from Olimar, he would be an Echo Fighter too. They may as well be alternate costumes EXCEPT that it wouldn't be entirely appropriate for them to share everything EXACTLY like the original character. That being said, they definitely have begun their first steps into clone territory, so it's possible that if any Echo Fighter were given more changes, they could be reclassified as a clone (kinda how Dr. Mario was considered as an alternate costume but ended up being a clone still).
If we used a scale, it might look like this:
0 - Alternate Costumes: Olimar/Alph, Bowser Jr./Koopalings
1 - Echo Fighters: Marth/Lucina, Pit/Dark Pit, Peach/Daisy
2 - Pikachu/Pichu
3 - Mario/Dr. Mario
4 - Marth/Roy
5 - Captain Falcon/Ganondorf
6 - Fox/Falco
7 - Ness/Lucas
8 - Fox/Wolf
9 - Mewtwo/Lucario (Aura Sphere totally ripped off Shadow Ball come on)
10 - Donkey Kong/Palutena (.....they're not related at all)
So at the end of the day Echo Fighters could be considered clones, but you could also consider them glorified alternate costumes, which, given that Sakurai is not giving them their own number, seems to be how he views them. Glass half full or half empty sort of thing. Personally, I prefer
Now, if you weren't confused before, you might be now. Sorry for that.
