Official Next Smash - Speculation & Discussion Thread

[Scrimblo Bimblo]

I was shocked when Sakurai revealed the total number of votes in the Ballot. I think it was a little short of 2 mln votes? Which is more than most games sell copies, but still pretty low compared to Ultimate's 30 mln sales. Even the most requested characters were asked for by, like, 7% of the future player base.

Smash has always favored lesser known characters, though. I think it's ultimately been its biggest strenght. If they wanted everyone to be immediately recognizable, Smash 64 would have had pretty much the same roster as Mario Kart, but instead they decided to bring in the likes of Samus, Fox, Captain Falcon, Ness or even Kirby.
Since these characters come from so many wildly different series, having all of them together creates a kind of energy that only Smash has, and that it wouldn't have if the characters only came from Mario or from Pokémon games.
Snake is a popular character, but you didn't need to already know him to be charmed by the way he contrasts with Mario, Yoshi and most of the rest of the roster. Ridley isn't the most mainstream villain, but you get to play as a vicious purple space dragon. The Ice Climbers come from an almost unknown game, but they're incredibly unique. And so on...
Ultimately I think that the origins of a character don't actually matter that much. It's more about what they bring to the table.

I'm not sure how much more popular than Final Fantasy VII or Tekken you can get in the context of videogames, though.
And also, I'm confident the next Smash is going to have a Fortnite character.

 

[Gengar84]

I was shocked when Sakurai revealed the total number of votes in the Ballot. I think it was a little short of 2 mln votes? Which is more than most games sell copies, but still pretty low compared to Ultimate's 30 mln sales. Even the most requested characters were asked for by, like, 7% of the future player base.

Smash has always favored lesser known characters, though. I think it's ultimately been its biggest strenght. If they wanted everyone to be immediately recognizable, Smash 64 would have had pretty much the same roster as Mario Kart, but instead they decided to bring in the likes of Samus, Fox, Captain Falcon, Ness or even Kirby.
Since these characters come from so many wildly different series, having all of them together creates a kind of energy that only Smash has, and that it wouldn't have if the characters only came from Mario or from Pokémon games.
Snake is a popular character, but you didn't need to already know him to be charmed by the way he contrasts with Mario, Yoshi and most of the rest of the roster. Ridley isn't the most mainstream villain, but you get to play as a vicious purple space dragon. The Ice Climbers come from an almost unknown game, but they're incredibly unique. And so on...
Ultimately I think that the origins of a character don't actually matter that much. It's more about what they bring to the table.

I'm not sure how much more popular than Final Fantasy VII or Tekken you can get in the context of videogames, though.
And also, I'm confident the next Smash is going to have a Fortnite character.

I’ve never played Fortnite but from what I’ve seen, it looks like someone from it could make for a pretty interesting character moveset wise. Fortnite is probably the only game that has even more crossovers than Smash does. I wonder if a Fortnite character would have any kind of building mechanic similar to Steve.

My only real issue is that I personally find Jonesy’s design pretty plain and I don’t know any other characters. The game is certainly big enough to warrant a character and I like a lot of designs for their guest characters, like the recent TMNT additions. Shredder, in particular, looks awesome in Fortnite.

 

[Stratos]

Here is a list of lesser known characters:

Spoiler: Lesser know characters

Euden (Dragalia Lost)
Zethia (Dragalia Lost)
Aeron (Pandora's Tower)
Zael (The Last Story)
Freyr (Zangeki no Reginleiv)
Freyja (Zangeki no Reginleiv)
Unicycle (Uniracers)
Tin Star (Tin Star)
Alexandra Roivas (Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem)
John Raimi (Geist)
Kevin (Karkurenbo Battle Monster Tactics)
Queen Azarel (Warlocked)
Chief Zog (Warlocked)
Elma (Xenoblade Chronicles series)
Cross (Xenoblade Chronicles series)
Edward Carnby (Alone in the Dark series)
Gex (Gex series)
Dillon (Dillon series)
Henry Fleming (Code Name: S.T.E.A.M.)
Solaire of Astora (Dark Souls)
Ivan (Devil's Third)
Aisya (ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat)
Miriam (Bloodstained series)
Mike Jones (StarTropics series)
Ty the Tasmanian Tiger (Ty the Tasmanian Tiger series)
Mr. Stevenson (Gumshoe)
Black Panther (Black Panther) not the Marvel superhero, the cybernetic Black Panther from Konami's arcade game Black Panther.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

I was shocked when Sakurai revealed the total number of votes in the Ballot. I think it was a little short of 2 mln votes? Which is more than most games sell copies, but still pretty low compared to Ultimate's 30 mln sales. Even the most requested characters were asked for by, like, 7% of the future player base.

Smash has always favored lesser known characters, though. I think it's ultimately been its biggest strenght. If they wanted everyone to be immediately recognizable, Smash 64 would have had pretty much the same roster as Mario Kart, but instead they decided to bring in the likes of Samus, Fox, Captain Falcon, Ness or even Kirby.
Since these characters come from so many wildly different series, having all of them together creates a kind of energy that only Smash has, and that it wouldn't have if the characters only came from Mario or from Pokémon games.
Snake is a popular character, but you didn't need to already know him to be charmed by the way he contrasts with Mario, Yoshi and most of the rest of the roster. Ridley isn't the most mainstream villain, but you get to play as a vicious purple space dragon. The Ice Climbers come from an almost unknown game, but they're incredibly unique. And so on...
Ultimately I think that the origins of a character don't actually matter that much. It's more about what they bring to the table.

I'm not sure how much more popular than Final Fantasy VII or Tekken you can get in the context of videogames, though.
And also, I'm confident the next Smash is going to have a Fortnite character.

Part of this is why its frustrating when people like Cloud or Kazuya are called literal who's.

They're already some of the most famous characters on the roster.

 

[Gengar84]

Here is a list of lesser known characters:

Spoiler: Lesser know characters

Euden (Dragalia Lost)
Zethia (Dragalia Lost)
Aeron (Pandora's Tower)
Zael (The Last Story)
Freyr (Zangeki no Reginleiv)
Freyja (Zangeki no Reginleiv)
Unicycle (Uniracers)
Tin Star (Tin Star)
Alexandra Roivas (Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem)
John Raimi (Geist)
Kevin (Karkurenbo Battle Monster Tactics)
Queen Azarel (Warlocked)
Chief Zog (Warlocked)
Elma (Xenoblade Chronicles series)
Cross (Xenoblade Chronicles series)
Edward Carnby (Alone in the Dark series)
Gex (Gex series)
Dillon (Dillon series)
Henry Fleming (Code Name: S.T.E.A.M.)
Solaire of Astora (Dark Souls)
Ivan (Devil's Third)
Aisya (ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat)
Miriam (Bloodstained series)
Mike Jones (StarTropics series)
Ty the Tasmanian Tiger (Ty the Tasmanian Tiger series)
Mr. Stevenson (Gumshoe)
Black Panther (Black Panther) not the Marvel superhero, the cybernetic Black Panther from Konami's arcade game Black Panther.

I know of about half of those. I always thought Elma would be a cool Smash character. I was sold on Euden’s potential thanks to the weekly character discussion thread we had during Ultimate’s DLC season.

 

[Guynamednelson]

Someone like Eevee or Gengar has persisted well past their prime and unfortunately other generations have struggled to put out too many other Pokemon that reach their level of popularity and marketability

Besides, going back to Kanto is probably the only way we'll ever get a Pokemon newcomer that isn't a humanoid starter anyway.

I can tell because the marketing for Alola should've given Sakurai several options for something more distinct, but we still got Incineroar anyway. And for Galar and Paldea...all roads lead to Cinderace and Meowscarada. No random non-starter from them got the Mimikyu treatment.

 

[Stratos]

Here is a list of lesser known characters:

Spoiler: Lesser know characters

Euden (Dragalia Lost)
Zethia (Dragalia Lost)
Aeron (Pandora's Tower)
Zael (The Last Story)
Freyr (Zangeki no Reginleiv)
Freyja (Zangeki no Reginleiv)
Unicycle (Uniracers)
Tin Star (Tin Star)
Alexandra Roivas (Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem)
John Raimi (Geist)
Kevin (Karkurenbo Battle Monster Tactics)
Queen Azarel (Warlocked)
Chief Zog (Warlocked)
Elma (Xenoblade Chronicles series)
Cross (Xenoblade Chronicles series)
Edward Carnby (Alone in the Dark series)
Gex (Gex series)
Dillon (Dillon series)
Henry Fleming (Code Name: S.T.E.A.M.)
Solaire of Astora (Dark Souls)
Ivan (Devil's Third)
Aisya (ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat)
Miriam (Bloodstained series)
Mike Jones (StarTropics series)
Ty the Tasmanian Tiger (Ty the Tasmanian Tiger series)
Mr. Stevenson (Gumshoe)
Black Panther (Black Panther) not the Marvel superhero, the cybernetic Black Panther from Konami's arcade game Black Panther.

About the last character I added to this list Black Panther (not the Marvel superhero), the cybernetic Black Panther from the Konami arcade game Black Panther, he is one of the unknown characters and I added him because he is a character of a video game that is four-legged and doesn't look cartoonish, even though he's only had one video game released and that's an arcade one. For those who don't know this is the character image:

 

[Gengar84]

About the last character I added to this list Black Panther (not the Marvel superhero), the cybernetic Black Panther from the Konami arcade game Black Panther, he is one of the unknown characters and I added him because he is a character of a video game that is four-legged and doesn't look cartoonish, even though he's only had one video game released and that's an arcade one. For those who don't know this is the character image:
View attachment 387495

I’d love to see more quadrupeds in Smash. I feel the most likely are a Pokemon (the top contenders likely being Koraidon or Miraidon) or Amaterasu but Black Panther seems cool too from what you’ve explained. I can think of a few other characters that could use a quadruped companion in their moveset like Nia/Dromarch, Yuri/Repede, and H’aanit/Lynde that would all be cool in their own way.

 

[ninjahmos]

What if they added The Outfoxies to Smash? I know it'd be highly unlikely since it was only released in Japan, but it'd still be pretty cool.

In fact, it was basically the FIRST EVER platform-fighter before Super Smash Bros., AND it was made by Namco.

 

[SubspaceJigglypuff]

I just met a guy who said Ike was a Marth clone

Did bro time travel from like the mid-late 2000s?

 

[CatTastic]

Besides, going back to Kanto is probably the only way we'll ever get a Pokemon newcomer that isn't a humanoid starter anyway.

I can tell because the marketing for Alola should've given Sakurai several options for something more distinct, but we still got Incineroar anyway. And for Galar and Paldea...all roads lead to Cinderace and Meowscarada. No random non-starter from them got the Mimikyu treatment.

Did you check my posts on the previous page? Tell me what ya think and join Team Rocket. (I gotta fresh new tricked out uniform for ya with that new car smell )

 

[Arcanir]

Besides, going back to Kanto is probably the only way we'll ever get a Pokemon newcomer that isn't a humanoid starter anyway.

I can tell because the marketing for Alola should've given Sakurai several options for something more distinct, but we still got Incineroar anyway. And for Galar and Paldea...all roads lead to Cinderace and Meowscarada. No random non-starter from them got the Mimikyu treatment.

And why is Gen 1 the only option for that?

Ignoring bias on the topic, if we're going back to Gen 1 there are options from other Generations that can fill that distinction. Garchomp for instance has remained a big fan favorite since its debut so why can'tthat one be an option? Additionally, by your own admission there were choices from Gen 7 that could've been picked that don't fit that distinction, but he went with Incineroar anyway because that's the option that appealed to him the most. It's ultimately down to what he feels will be the most enjoyable option to provide, and he could end up looking at, say, Tinkaton and end up preferring her instead as she has been a fan favorite herself among the Paldean Pokemon (even getting a cute short).

 

[CatTastic]

And why is Gen 1 the only option for that?

Ignoring bias on the topic, if we're going back to Gen 1 there are options from other Generations that can fill that distinction. Garchomp for instance has remained a big fan favorite since its debut so why can'tthat one be an option? Additionally, by your own admission there were choices from Gen 7 that could've been picked that don't fit that distinction, but he went with Incineroar anyway because that's the option that appealed to him the most. It's ultimately down to what he feels will be the most enjoyable option to provide, and he could end up looking at, say, Tinkaton and end up preferring her instead as she has been a fan favorite herself among the Paldean Pokemon (even getting a cute short).

Sup! I believe that I answered your question on the previous page. (The one with 1 or 2 more trainers, a villain and Rival trainer)

 

[Golden Icarus]

Haven't posted in a year and a half. Got a message after logging in that my account just turned 10 years old. Pretty freaking epic if I'm being honest. I can't believe Smash speculation has been a core hobby of mine for that long. Part of me feels that I should get very existential and depressed over that fact, but I honestly just think it's awesome that I have an entire community to share this common interest with and that my simple minded ape brain has been entertained for a full decade by the simple hobby of discussing and debating hypothetical characters in a video game. That's beautiful.

I just met a guy who said Ike was a Marth clone and that Hero was generic.

For all the **** we give each other, we're actually a pretty cool community to discuss Smash.

It's actually astonishing how much more I like this community compared to any other assembly of Smash fans. When people talk about how toxic Smash fans are, it's always in reference to either the competitive scene, or some sect of Twitter or Reddit or whatever. The Smashboards speculation bros are the real homies.

I actually experienced many of my irl friends getting into Smash speculation during Ultimate, which should have been exciting and fun because I've been online discussing this sh** forever, but I actually ended up getting unironically triggered by some of the things they would say. Once my friend said that he really wanted Wreck-It Ralph in Ultimate and I immediately turned into a debate lord and shut his idea down super hard. Pulling out Sakurai quotes and discussing patterns and just steamrolling him with talking points that he definitely couldn't care less about. It's so goofy how passionate I get about this stuff.

I know of about half of those. I always thought Elma would be a cool Smash character. I was sold on Euden’s potential thanks to the weekly character discussion thread we had during Ultimate’s DLC season.

Elma/Xenoblade X being skipped over in favor of Pythra was sincerely disappointing for me. It makes total sense given the timing of Xeno 2 and the fact it was way more successful, but it's no fun seeing a character lose what is almost definitely their one chance to be added to the roster.

 

[fogbadge]

Here is a list of lesser known characters:

Spoiler: Lesser know characters

Euden (Dragalia Lost)
Zethia (Dragalia Lost)
Aeron (Pandora's Tower)
Zael (The Last Story)
Freyr (Zangeki no Reginleiv)
Freyja (Zangeki no Reginleiv)
Unicycle (Uniracers)
Tin Star (Tin Star)
Alexandra Roivas (Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem)
John Raimi (Geist)
Kevin (Karkurenbo Battle Monster Tactics)
Queen Azarel (Warlocked)
Chief Zog (Warlocked)
Elma (Xenoblade Chronicles series)
Cross (Xenoblade Chronicles series)
Edward Carnby (Alone in the Dark series)
Gex (Gex series)
Dillon (Dillon series)
Henry Fleming (Code Name: S.T.E.A.M.)
Solaire of Astora (Dark Souls)
Ivan (Devil's Third)
Aisya (ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat)
Miriam (Bloodstained series)
Mike Jones (StarTropics series)
Ty the Tasmanian Tiger (Ty the Tasmanian Tiger series)
Mr. Stevenson (Gumshoe)
Black Panther (Black Panther) not the Marvel superhero, the cybernetic Black Panther from Konami's arcade game Black Panther.

I was under the impression that dark souls was very well known

 

[DarthEnderX]

I’d love to see more quadrupeds in Smash. I feel the most likely are a Pokemon (the top contenders likely being Koraidon or Miraidon) or Amaterasu but Black Panther seems cool too from what you’ve explained.

Amaterasu is an obvious pick. Capcom owned. Games are classics on Nintendo systems. And already has a 2D fighting game moveset.

 

[superprincess]

The conversation about "nobodies" and "literal whos" is so pointless considering Smash's playerbase is so huge that the average consumer has never heard of like 80% of the roster.

Really, if you think about it, Smash itself has outsold most of the franchises within it. I mostly play with my super casual non-gamer friends and most of them had at least heard of (not necessarily played) Mario, Minecraft, Pokémon, Zelda, Sonic, and Wii/Mii games. And that's who the majority of the playerbase recognizes. Gamers and speculators are in the minority here. Even ballot picks like Sora, Banjo, Ridley and K. Rool are obscure in the grand scheme of things.

That's the beauty of Smash though. Obscure weirdos such as Ness and Captain Falcon can duke it out with gaming's most well known characters.

 

[Ivander]

I was under the impression that dark souls was very well known

It is. But I think they brought up Solaire because Chosen Undead or a character like Gwyn or Artorias tend to be brought up more than Solaire, even though Solaire is arguably one of the most well-known characters of Dark Souls due to his bro-like personality and his "Praise the Sun" meme.

But that said, they were talking about lesser known characters, hence why they also brought up characters like Elma from Xenoblade Chronicles X, even though Xenoblade is decently popular nowadays.

 

[GoldenYuiitusin]

It is. But I think they brought up Solaire because Chosen Undead or a character like Gwyn or Artorias tend to be brought up more than Solaire, even though Solaire is arguably one of the most well-known characters of Dark Souls due to his bro-like personality and his "Praise the Sun" meme.

I see Solaire brought up the most, actually. Nearly on par with Chosen Undead.


Like pre-E3 2018, Solaire was on damn near every prediction list because of his amiibo.


In comparison, Artorias wasn't really brought up until after the "Google Leak", and even then he doesn't even come close to Solaire in speculation even if he'd be cool.

 

[Guynamednelson]

And why is Gen 1 the only option for that?

Because TPC said so.

No but seriously, Smash's Pokemon reps are very, very focused on what's being marketed at the time, and the marketing for Gen 8 and 9 show that they want to be a lot more blatant about pushing the starter that gets the deliberately broken moves/abilities than 7 was. Meanwhile, with Kanto they can't be hyperfocused on that because...neither Venusaur, Charizard, nor Blastoise are meant to be intentionally OP. Mega/Gigantamax Charizard, maybe, but its base form not so much.

 

[fogbadge]

If we’re going to have a nobody in smash I’d like it to be roxas

I feel like I’ve made this joke before

 

[Laniv]

I just met a guy who said Ike was a Marth clone and that Hero was generic.

For all the **** we give each other, we're actually a pretty cool community to discuss Smash.

Y'know, it's funny, 'cause just last week I saw someone say that Terry was just Ken in a hat and Kazuya was just the same thing as Ryu, while in the same breath saying that Joker was a "real icon" and deserved to stay over the former two.

Smash fans are nuts.

 

[Stratos]

I was under the impression that dark souls was very well known

It is. But I think they brought up Solaire because Chosen Undead or a character like Gwyn or Artorias tend to be brought up more than Solaire, even though Solaire is arguably one of the most well-known characters of Dark Souls due to his bro-like personality and his "Praise the Sun" meme.

But that said, they were talking about lesser known characters, hence why they also brought up characters like Elma from Xenoblade Chronicles X, even though Xenoblade is decently popular nowadays.

The truth is that I may have made some mistakes.

 

[fogbadge]

Smash fans are nuts.

Id go with fans are nuts

 

[Cyberfire]

The conversation about "nobodies" and "literal whos" is so pointless considering Smash's playerbase is so huge that the average consumer has never heard of like 80% of the roster.

Really, if you think about it, Smash itself has outsold most of the franchises within it. I mostly play with my super casual non-gamer friends and most of them had at least heard of (not necessarily played) Mario, Minecraft, Pokémon, Zelda, Sonic, and Wii/Mii games. And that's who the majority of the playerbase recognizes. Gamers and speculators are in the minority here. Even ballot picks like Sora, Banjo, Ridley and K. Rool are obscure in the grand scheme of things.

That's the beauty of Smash though. Obscure weirdos such as Ness and Captain Falcon can duke it out with gaming's most well known characters.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Also what Smash has done for so many series is brilliant really. It brings these obscure gems to wider audiences.

 

[ninjahmos]

Sometimes I feel like characters that are considered "obscure" may be better-received in Smash than characters from popular games.

 

[Godzillathewonderdog]

I find it strange that Dark Souls never even got a spirit in Ultimate, it’s probably the most notable Japanese video game series not represented in Smash in any way shape or form.

 

[GoldenYuiitusin]

I find it strange that Dark Souls never even got a spirit in Ultimate

This.

Not even Solaire to use the amiibo for like the Shovel Knight four.

 

[Godzillathewonderdog]

I like having obscure characters, but being too obscure can definitely prevent a character from being included, this is what Sakurai said about Takamuru during Smash for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U.

“For a moment, I did think about having Takamaru as a playable fighter, just for a moment…but there’s no way he could make it, popularity-wise.”

Which is a damn shame, because I still really want Takamaru to be playable. They really need to make a modern Murasame Castle game.

 

[Louie G.]

it’s probably the most notable Japanese video game series not represented in Smash in any way shape or form.

That and Puyo Puyo

But for real though, I think those two may statistically be the most successful JP series absent from Smash (even Power Pros has something now!). And while sales aren’t really a definitive be all end all factor, I think they are notable absences that should be taken in mind moving forward.

Especially being the biggest missing IPs for companies so well engrained into Smash already (Namco and Sega), genre defining titles from areas currently underutilized in Smash, so on and so forth. With a wealth of Mii Costume and Spirit options between them both I’m surprised we didn’t at least come out of this with a Solaire / Chosen Undead swordfighter costume and maybe Puyo spirits akin to the Tetris ones.

 

[Godzillathewonderdog]

This.

Not even Solaire to use the amiibo for like the Shovel Knight four.

I wonder in From Software is against their games crossing over with other games. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think a single one of their games have had any sort of crossover with any other game.

I guess Astro’s Playroom had a little Robot dressed as the Bloodborne Hunter, but that’s all I can think of, and Sony owns Bloodborne, so they easily could have put in that tiny reference without consulting with them.

That and Puyo Puyo

But for real though, I think those two may statistically be the most successful JP series absent from Smash (even Power Pros has something now!). And while sales aren’t really a definitive be all end all factor, I think they are notable absences that should be taken in mind moving forward.

Especially being the biggest missing IPs for companies so well engrained into Smash already (Namco and Sega), genre defining titles from areas currently underutilized in Smash, so on and so forth. With a wealth of Mii Costume and Spirit options between them both I’m surprised we didn’t at least come out of this with a Solaire / Chosen Undead swordfighter costume and maybe Puyo spirits akin to the Tetris ones.

I remember finding it surprising that we didn’t even get the different colored Puyos as spirits.

 

[HyperSomari64]

I wonder in From Software is against their games crossing over with other games. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think a single one of their games have had any sort of crossover with any other game.

I can imagine the Predator handshake meme where the Souls series and SpongeBob won't allow crossovers.

 

[Gengar84]

That and Puyo Puyo

But for real though, I think those two may statistically be the most successful JP series absent from Smash (even Power Pros has something now!). And while sales aren’t really a definitive be all end all factor, I think they are notable absences that should be taken in mind moving forward.

Especially being the biggest missing IPs for companies so well engrained into Smash already (Namco and Sega), genre defining titles from areas currently underutilized in Smash, so on and so forth. With a wealth of Mii Costume and Spirit options between them both I’m surprised we didn’t at least come out of this with a Solaire / Chosen Undead swordfighter costume and maybe Puyo spirits akin to the Tetris ones.

I imagine Dynasty/Samurai Warriors has to be somewhere up there as well. Not including spin-offs, there’s been 9 Dynasty Warriors games, 5 Samurai Warriors games, and 4 Warriors Orochi games (basically a crossover between Dynasty and Samurai Warriors). On top of that, there have been countless offshoots like Extreme Legends as well as many Warriors games based off other IP, many of which are already featured in Smash. Off the top of my head, franchises that both appear in Smash and have their own Warriors game include The Legend of Zelda, Fire Emblem, Persona, and Dragon Quest.

 

[GoldenYuiitusin]

Digimon is also a notable Japanese series without Smash representation.

.....let me cope.

 

[Godzillathewonderdog]

If we are talking about notable Japanese video game series not in Smash Yakuza or Like a Dragon continues to get more and more popular, I would say Kiryu is a serious contender if it wasn’t for the fact that his creator is very against him hitting women.

You could go for a different character from the series, but that would be like if the Metal Gear character wasn’t Snake, or the Kingdom Hearts character wasn’t Sora, it just wouldn’t feel right.

 

[Garteam]

I'm not sure how much more popular than Final Fantasy VII or Tekken you can get in the context of videogames, though.
And also, I'm confident the next Smash is going to have a Fortnite character.

I think there are good number of series in Smash that casual audiences will not have experienced extensively or directly but will have heard of through cultural osmosis. Final Fantasy and Tekken are good examples, but I also think you could add franchises like Metroid, Fire Emblem, Mega Man, Pac-Man, Castlevania, and Persona to that list. For example, I remember when Kazuya got added, my brother didn't know who he was but he did know what Tekken was from a handful of times we played Tag Tournament in the arcades. The madlad wanted to know why they didn't add True Ogre instead because that's who he played as.

With FFVII, I can especially forgive someone for not being intimately familiar with it because of its age. FFVII is incredibly important and iconic, but it is a 27-year-old JRPG that received a handful of spin-offs in the early-to-mid 2000s before going dormant for over a decade. It's the kind of game that I would expect someone serious about retro gaming to know, but not someone who only got into the medium semi-recently.

 

[fogbadge]

Digimon is also a notable Japanese series without Smash representation.

.....let me cope.

yeah

 

[Garteam]

I'd say Resident Evil is the largest Japanese series currently not in Smash.

I mean, yeah, it's in Smash, but in such a nominal way that it barely feels like it's there.

 

[ninjahmos]

I imagine Dynasty/Samurai Warriors has to be somewhere up there as well. Not including spin-offs, there’s been 9 Dynasty Warriors games, 5 Samurai Warriors games, and 4 Warriors Orochi games (basically a crossover between Dynasty and Samurai Warriors). On top of that, there have been countless offshoots like Extreme Legends as well as many Warriors games based off other IP, many of which are already featured in Smash. Off the top of my head, franchises that both appear in Smash and have their own Warriors game include The Legend of Zelda, Fire Emblem, Persona, and Dragon Quest.

I was just talking about Dynasty/Samurai Warriors awhile ago:

What if we got a Dynasty Warriors (or Samurai Warriors) character for Smash? (E.G. Zhao Yun, Xiahou Dun, Lu Bu, Yukimura Sanada, Nobunaga Oda, Mitsuhide Akechi)

Obviously, they’d have to include music from both the Dynasty and Samurai Warriors series, especially Dynasty Warriors 2&3 and Samurai Warriors 1.

Honestly, Dynasty/Samurai Warriors might be my most wanted Koei Tecmo rep, along with Hayabusa.

 

[CatTastic]

To me, 3rd party characters are way cooler than Ninty characters. Really big fan of OG Castlevania and Sonic/Sega stuff. 3rd party characters add more spice (edge) to the franchise.