Hey,
Fatmanonice
, among the last few pages, you kinda replied to me on how I said I feared that Dante being in Smash would affect Geno's chances. You did say Dante would not affect Geno's chances, but what about Dante affecting the other characters you predicted many pages back, like Crash and Ryu later on, a Skyrim character, Wa-I mean Purple Pie Man, etc. I am asking because among the predictions you made by then, Dante was not one of those back then, and I am also asking what if this affects Geno's chances in getting in ALONG with the other characters you predicted. What are your thoughts on this.
I know I'm not Fatman (or Droodle), but I'll throw in my two cents on any Dante/Geno correlation.
I think there are a few ways to approach the Geno situation with regards to post-pass, but the most straightforward
follows a train of thought that synthesizes a bunch of rumors and coincidences and logistical insights that seem to indicate that post-pass will center around readily obtainable and oft-requested characters based on existing assets. Lloyd is the most obvious example of a character that fits this bill, part of the team that made Tales of Symphonia works on SSBU and his yet-to-appear costume and sword-wielding style make him an easier but still appreciated character for DLC.
While Geno isn't as cut and dry, his rights are at least somewhat negotiated for already and his costume and proportional similarity to Megaman and Mii Gunner seem to make him yet another example of a low-cost high-yield piece of post pass DLC.
Boris Wadenov is another poster child for this approach to post pass. If he's in, he'll make the lil mac transition from AT to playable look like a downright overhaul.
We probably also have a lot of elements in the game already to make a very respectable Ryu Hayabusa and Crash Bandicoot, though obviously those 2 take a little more time to go through legal.
Dante, on the other hand, comes off to me as a character who plays very uniquely and who could end up with a moveset unlike too many others in the game currently. He will inevitably share traits with some pre-existing fighters because that's how Smash newcomer dev works at this point, but he is a far (devil may) cry from Greninja plus Sheik = Ryu H.
Additionally, while Dante is very requested and is from a relatively friendly and giving third party in Capcom, he definitely is more in the Terry / Joker lane of feeling like a true guest character, historically and stylistically alien to Nintendo's aesthetic.
If Dante is a near-lock, he could portend a second season more in line with the first, in which Smash fan requests are respected but given lower priority than Third Party Diplomacy. Dante fits in with Lloyd and Geno because of the Capcom ties, but his mature tone also lets him sit well next to Sol Badguy, Master Chief and (tolerate my goofiness) Kazuma Kiryu.
Personally, I'm inclined to think Dante may have been the result of an attempt to make Resident Evil playable falling through, such that he was actually greenlit in the middle of the first pass to replace, say, Jill Valentine as the fifth character in the current pass or simply to be added at some point in the second wave to give capcom a newcomer. (In this scenario, we could speculate that a character was moved from post pass to 5 in order to make up for the Jill mishap, hence the delayed reveal).
TL;DR: Geno fits with a certain tone and approach to post pass that Dante can mesh with or clash with. He's no Master Chief but he's no Lloyd either.
