I find roster predictions for a future title so far away pointless because at the end of the day at least three of characters that will be in the game most likely don't exist yet haha.
Though, I do miss the conceptual basics behind roster selection. Maybe I'll play around with something sometime.
EDIT:
I feel like an example is important. But rather than going for the obvious Pokemon or Fire Emblem route, I will take a different approach.
The Metroid series is one people are very wary of right now. It's future beyond Federation Force is unknown, and the game itself is very lore-buildy rather than your usual Samus Aran experience.
But everyone wants a new character, and characters are added based on popularity, uniqueness, and relevance. There are special cases of course, but two of the factors are absolutely required and uniqueness is always one of them.
Ridley has these three, but Sakurai sees a huge development hurdle to adding the character. So him coming in the future seems grim at the moment. What does this leave us?
At the moment, there are only two characters that fit the bill. Both with unknown futures.
Dark Samus and Anthony Higgs. While I believe Dark Samus for all intents and purposes is the more interesting candidate functionality, it is worth noting that people are not into the idea that Samus is the only Metroid character in Smash. Yes Zero Suit and Power Suit are completely different in gameplay, and yes, Dark Samus is a separate entity entirely, but people will still make the pointless comparisons. This doesn't matter to Sakurai. What does matter is where does Dark Samus go from now to the beginning of the next Smash's development cycle? Correct me if I am wrong, but Dark Samus is long gone after the events of Prime 3. It's story-arch has been completed, and it's presence in the Metroid universe is no longer required. Will it be referred to in future games? My bets are yes, but the character itself is most likely going to be unused. Relevance is a key factor to character selection, and a character with no future is less likely to get into Smash.
Anthony Higgs lacks all of these factors, in my personal opinion. Aside from his notability as a meme in Other M's announcement trailer, his only big factor is his relationship with Samus as far as I can tell. Nothing that will make him Smash material.
Now in the future, there is a character possibility to become a Nintendo icon and join Smash's ranks. That character is Sylux of the Hunters games. Sylux is interesting because he's currently an open book, aside from his seemingly pointless hatred of Samus, the character is very bland right now. But there's been several hints of Sylux becoming an important figure of a future title, and because of that possibility you could very well see him in a big game like Smash if he's relevant around the time Development begins. But you can't say that for sure.
There are few characters that are classified as "shoe-ins" for a future Smash title. The only real one being Splatoon's Inkling. Anything else can be anyone's guess.
Is Waddle Dee a beloved recurring Kirby character with the potential to be something special in a Smash setting? Yes! Will Sakurai add another Kirby character over a character from a miscellaneous franchise? I dunno! Is Waddle Dee going to be a big factor in a future Kirby game down the line around Smash 6's dev time frame??????
I mean if you're doing this fun then yeah go ahead but if you're actually trying to guess the next roster, you've got a big storm coming.
Though, I do miss the conceptual basics behind roster selection. Maybe I'll play around with something sometime.
EDIT:
I feel like an example is important. But rather than going for the obvious Pokemon or Fire Emblem route, I will take a different approach.
The Metroid series is one people are very wary of right now. It's future beyond Federation Force is unknown, and the game itself is very lore-buildy rather than your usual Samus Aran experience.
But everyone wants a new character, and characters are added based on popularity, uniqueness, and relevance. There are special cases of course, but two of the factors are absolutely required and uniqueness is always one of them.
Ridley has these three, but Sakurai sees a huge development hurdle to adding the character. So him coming in the future seems grim at the moment. What does this leave us?
At the moment, there are only two characters that fit the bill. Both with unknown futures.
Dark Samus and Anthony Higgs. While I believe Dark Samus for all intents and purposes is the more interesting candidate functionality, it is worth noting that people are not into the idea that Samus is the only Metroid character in Smash. Yes Zero Suit and Power Suit are completely different in gameplay, and yes, Dark Samus is a separate entity entirely, but people will still make the pointless comparisons. This doesn't matter to Sakurai. What does matter is where does Dark Samus go from now to the beginning of the next Smash's development cycle? Correct me if I am wrong, but Dark Samus is long gone after the events of Prime 3. It's story-arch has been completed, and it's presence in the Metroid universe is no longer required. Will it be referred to in future games? My bets are yes, but the character itself is most likely going to be unused. Relevance is a key factor to character selection, and a character with no future is less likely to get into Smash.
Anthony Higgs lacks all of these factors, in my personal opinion. Aside from his notability as a meme in Other M's announcement trailer, his only big factor is his relationship with Samus as far as I can tell. Nothing that will make him Smash material.
Now in the future, there is a character possibility to become a Nintendo icon and join Smash's ranks. That character is Sylux of the Hunters games. Sylux is interesting because he's currently an open book, aside from his seemingly pointless hatred of Samus, the character is very bland right now. But there's been several hints of Sylux becoming an important figure of a future title, and because of that possibility you could very well see him in a big game like Smash if he's relevant around the time Development begins. But you can't say that for sure.
There are few characters that are classified as "shoe-ins" for a future Smash title. The only real one being Splatoon's Inkling. Anything else can be anyone's guess.
Is Waddle Dee a beloved recurring Kirby character with the potential to be something special in a Smash setting? Yes! Will Sakurai add another Kirby character over a character from a miscellaneous franchise? I dunno! Is Waddle Dee going to be a big factor in a future Kirby game down the line around Smash 6's dev time frame??????
I mean if you're doing this fun then yeah go ahead but if you're actually trying to guess the next roster, you've got a big storm coming.
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is also something that definitely doesn't make sense.
