Either way, Sakurai seems to have some sort of idea which characters are more of a clone than others, hence why Dr. Mario, Dark Pit, and Lucina got their own little section in Smash 4. Other characters like Toon Link, Ganondorf, and Falco remained with the rest of their franchise's characters. That tells me that the term "semi-clone" means something to Sakurai, even if he's never been vocal about it.
I don't know what the community considers Mythra to be, but I don't see why she wouldn't meet the criteria to be a semi-clone. Three of her specials are completely unique, and her speed (obviously), weight, and damage output are also different from Pyra.
...That sounds like a clone to me. Dr. Mario is pretty much almost the entire same point.
To me, semi-clone is "more than half of their moves are actually different, not just stat changes". It's a fan term, being the issue.
I think he might've used the word "clone" for just the trio too(or that was just a translation that wasn't necessarily accurate), other than Ken respectively being named the OG Clone(...Actually, I think he said Echo?). So he's aware of the terminology(though noting the paragraphs, he might not acknowledge the term, but of course he knows of it. He knows a lot about gaming and terms, yeah), but in all these cases, they aren't just Model Swap Fighters, they actually share the same moveset. This doesn't seem distinct at first in context.
But let's look at what he considered a Model Swap Fighter too; Ness and Wolf, who are very far off from the original, Ness even more so. So it looks more like Model Swap Fighter isn't strictly a gameplay term so much as a term for how the creation process is made.
It's not that clone is a bad term either. I mean, the whole point is to use another character to create one, modifying the moveset(or barely doing so). Ness not only shares the same model, but the moves have similarities too, but only really in the first Smash moreso. Some of his normals, his PK Fire, and that's... kind of it. So he still takes a bit from Mario but modifies the animations to "feel" unique.
Wolf clearly borrows a lot of animations and moves as is. Isabelle is another great Wolf situation. She blatantly has a lot of unique stuff, but was clearly based upon Villager's model. Then you have Young Link, and later Toon Link(Toon Link used Young Link's data to some degree. It's not clear how much of regular Link was used, though, either). In this case, he does talk about Wolf being model swapped from Fox overall. One thing to note is when it comes to Model Swap characters, he doesn't talk about veterans generally, unless they're special situations(the costumes being swapped into full characters in 4). He didn't even much talk about the Echoes in Ultimate either. He noted a few were "fan favorites", and that's... kind of it. Like, what, Ken got a bit, saying that Echoes aren't that different from Model Swap Fighters, comparing him to Dr. Mario specifically. The only regular clone left(according to the community. ...Which considering Pichu exists, well... huh. Cause it's not really that different from Pikachu in the same way as the other two Links are, now that BOTW Link exists).
Ultimate's an oddball too. Whereas most games had some last minute additions either to the roster(Smash 64, Melee, 4) or to the development despite being planned(Brawl), Ultimate specifically had all 75 characters planned from the start(69 veterans/model swap fighters/uniques and t Echoes). So it isn't like the rest of the series. In addition to that, we can guess at best some characters were done later in development. Any Echo that got glitchy issues, probably. Whereas some Echoes pretty clearly work fine(Daisy). Or maybe it's just that each Echo was done at the same time as their respective character. Who knows. We lack data.
I can't really think of more points to put out. But I'm not seeing a really good point in where the term Semi-Clone exists in development of Smash, or in any of Sakurai's statements(he doesn't actually acknowledge it. The lack of a statement when in context solely talking about something else doesn't mean he's saying they exist. In 4's case, he only acknowledges that the clone trio are 3 last minute Model Swap Fighters who used to be costumes. No more, no less). It doesn't mean he doesn't think they exist, just that we don't have any indication he has a unique view of them. As I said, there's some that blatantly stands out more than others. There's also cases of using a base for the data, not the model. PP used Bowser Jr. and Min Min used Captain Falcon as bases. ...You don't see the same model data here. As I said, it's complicated.
There's also Miitopia, which IMO is the height of Mii games. If you're up for wacky shenanigans: the game, then Miitopia is your game.
I think Super Smash Bros. has the worst implementation of Miis to be honest. They always had these fun little quirks from the endearing voices in Mario Kart (at least we have those now) to the famous bowling Easter egg to...everything in Miitopia. Here they seem pretty soulless in comparison. Combine that with them being strictly avatar characters in an all star fighting game (though I would argue they are all stars themselves, they're still not any specific character) and having mechanics that are mildly interesting at best, and you have the fighters that the community is the most apathetic too (at least from what I've seen).
I hope the next game will allow us to customize flavor animations so the Miis can have personalities. It would be cool if we could choose their render pose and victory fanfare as well. Giving them more interesting Special Moves would help too but that's a bit more difficult to handle.
I won't argue they're good variations, but basically, Sakurai turned them into Original Generation characters, similar to Giga Bowser, who originated in Smash. I can see why he did it that way. Cause the other option was making various NPC's playable. This way, he can please multiple people who can't get their character in, while providing a new gimmick, customs.
You're one to talk o leader of the Red Shell Hat gang.
