Official Next Smash - Speculation & Discussion Thread

[Kirbeh]

Incineroar grew on me so hard, what a fun and wonderfully designed character. I agree that he's one of the least safe, but I really hope there's some way we can keep him around. The best chance of that is that Sakurai simply wants to keep a more traditional grappler around and chooses to prioritize Incineroar for his moveset over his relative significance and popularity in his own series. I think sometimes we gloss over the unique gameplay roles of certain characters when having these kind of conversations.

But yeah, he's gotta compete against some other faces who are simply more popular in the grand scheme. It's just a shame, because I think he brings so much to the roster in terms of personality, style and some genuinely compelling ideas such as Revenge. This is one character who, I guess like Jigglypuff has been for all these years, I don't even really think of as a Pokemon "rep" anymore and think he's just a terrific fighting game character. I love him.

While I picked Popplio in Sun, I was always fond of the Litten line, especially Incineroar. I was pleasantly surprised when he got into Ultimate, especially because I already love and tend to play grapplers in other fighting games.

Even though I still list Ganondorf as my main (as a character loyalist) I actually have more time put into (and).

I'm also very fond of Puff and while at this point I feel like she's pretty safe, there is always a part of me that thinks back to her being in consideration for cuts a few times already.

Ideally, even after cuts I would keep both and just drop (unfortunate, but solo Zard has precedent) and(which also sucks because I prefer it to Pikachu both as a fighter in Smash and as a Pokemon in general.)

My actual ideal would be to keep everyone because I think they're all great characters with varied and interesting move sets, but being realistic I know some have to get left behind.

Once again, I'll just keep my fingers crossed for veteran DLC.

Incineroar at risk of getting cut?

Better nerf Greninja

The next Smash Bros. will be the most balanced, with the highest amount of competitively viable fighters in series history. But will be bottom tier.

 

[Louie G.]

I'm also very fond of Puff and while at this point I feel like she's pretty safe, there is always a part of me that thinks back to her being in consideration for cuts a few times already.

I feel Jigglypuff has skirted that line enough times where it would just be weird to do it now. I don't think it's impossible that they finally leave her behind, there's always a chance - but there's definitely a difference between almost getting cut in Brawl, after two games of attendance, vs cutting cut after 5 games and 25 years of perfect attendance. Simply put, a chain of dumb luck and the right timing has made her invincible.

It certainly helps that she's a very simple character to develop too, being so similar in build to Kirby and well... just being a circle. There's hardly any reason to ditch her unless Sakurai really just wants to cut the damn thing off. I suspect even if she was low priority that she would probably squeeze back in as supplement once all the more intensive characters are complete.

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

I feel Jigglypuff has skirted that line enough times where it would just be weird to do it now. I don't think it's impossible that they finally leave her behind, there's always a chance - but there's definitely a difference between almost getting cut in Brawl, after two games of attendance, vs cutting cut after 5 games and 25 years of perfect attendance. Simply put, a chain of dumb luck and the right timing has made her invincible.

It certainly helps that she's a very simple character to develop too, being so similar in build to Kirby and well... just being a circle. There's hardly any reason to ditch her unless Sakurai really just wants to cut the damn thing off.

I also feel like it says a lot that Jigglypuff has beaten MEWTWO out on the priority list twice at this point between Brawl and Smash 4, considering Mewtwo's iconic status and huge popularity.

I am kinda curious what people think about Greninja potentially seeing the axe, because I know he was the most popular Pokemon for a time, but even Pokemon themselves kinda feel like they're moving on a little since Ash-Greninja doesn't exist anymore (though that may also just be because Ash is no longer the main character in the anime, admittedly).

 

[RileyXY1]

I also feel like it says a lot that Jigglypuff has beaten MEWTWO out on the priority list twice at this point between Brawl and Smash 4, considering Mewtwo's iconic status and huge popularity.

I am kinda curious what people think about Greninja potentially seeing the axe, because I know he was the most popular Pokemon for a time, but even Pokemon themselves kinda feel like they're moving on a little since Ash-Greninja doesn't exist anymore (though that may also just be because Ash is no longer the main character in the anime, admittedly).

And they might want to give more Pokémon Battle Bond than just Greninja.

 

[Ivander]

I think most of the Pokemon, including Incineroar, are relatively safe. The only ones that may not return IMO are Pokemon Trainer/Squirtle/Ivysaur and Pichu. And really, part of that mindset is that when looking at the Smash 4 roster, aside from Pokemon Trainer/Squirtle/Ivysaur, the only other 1st Party characters not to return were Ice Climbers, Wolf and Lucas, and the latter was brought back as DLC, alongside Mewtwo and Roy. And really, besides Ultimate where everybody returning was part of the main marketing, most of the 1st Parties tend to stay around per game:

• From Melee to Brawl, the only characters lost were Dr. Mario, Pichu, Young Link(who was technically repurposed into Toon Link), Mewtwo and Roy and 3 of them were planned to return and did eventually return for Smash 4.
• For Brawl to Smash 4, only Squirtle, Ivysaur, Ice Climbers, Wolf and Lucas did not come back, before Lucas came back as DLC. And Ice Climbers was planned, but could not return due to performance issues with the 3DS, alongside Pokemon Trainer as a whole, with Charizard being chosen to stay. With Ultimate fixing those issues and future systems becoming stronger each gen, Ice Climbers should have an easier time staying. Same with Pokemon Trainer if they choose to.

And with every 5 lost, we've gotten about almost 15 1st Party newcomers per game.

• We got 16 new 1st Parties with Brawl.
• We got 15 new 1st Parties at launch, including Miis and 1 new DLC 1st Party and 4 returning 1st Parties, 1 at launch, 3 for DLC. For an altogether total of 20.

Then when Ultimate came around, we got back the 6 missing 1st Parties(counting Squirtle and Ivysaur as two playables), as well as 13 new 1st Parties, with 8 at launch and 5 for DLC(counting Pyra and Mythra as two playables). For an altogether number of 19.
I'm just saying that if we're going to get cuts, I suspect more 3rd Party characters will be cut compared to 1st Party characters while almost all of the 1st Parties will stay. Because we really don't lose that many per game and with AI steadily becoming a more useful tool for helping with programming, we might lose very little of them next game.

 

[DarthEnderX]

I try not to. Every time I do, people put me down.

Wasn't trying to. Was just making a prediction of my own.

 

[magiciandude]

Zippo is not a trustworthy source

Zippo needs to zippit

 

[Louie G.]

I am kinda curious what people think about Greninja potentially seeing the axe

I feel like, even though hypothetically I could part with Greninja if push comes to shove, it's important to have a wider spread of old and new(ish). Like sure, I would prioritize Pikachu / Mewtwo / Charizard over Greninja. And then I'd say sure, Lucario is incredibly popular and important to the Pokemon brand, he stays. But Lucario would nearly be 20 years old by the time the next Smash comes out... we got a lot of time between then that needs some acknowledgement. Greninja has fallen slightly out of the spotlight just as most Pokemon do, but his popularity is still quite strong. He won the Pokemon of the Year Google collab contest as recently as 2020 (with Lucario trailing immediately behind), and is generally one of the better regarded starter evos.

I think more sentimentally it's cool that Smash played such a pivotal role in establishing his character. As we know Greninja's design doc was handed to Sakurai and original concepts were crafted around it, and several of those stuck around to become defining traits of his in external media. In a way he's the Pokemon whose identity is most directly tied to Smash Bros, which is neat. I think he'll stick around.

 

[Hadokeyblade]

I think Incineroar is getting the axe, he hasnt left the same impact as Greninja and Lucario have

 

[HyperSomari64]

I think Incineroar is getting the axe, he hasnt left the same impact as Greninja and Lucario have

Plot Twist: Lucario and Greninja are cut and Incineroar stays
in exchange for Cinderace and Skeledirge.
(Insert Frollo meme here)

 

[Louie G.]

While we're on the topic of who's coming back, I think we all agree is safe but...

This is absolutely a character I want to see them rework. The aura mechanic is just not very fun / encourages lame gameplay and I just don't think he quite feels like Lucario should. Adding Bone Rush inspired moves may be a start as well as making him generally faster and encouraging more rushdown. Maybe a Lucario player could tell me why I'm wrong, but I recognize this character is also not especially popular to play in Smash, and for such a cool Pokemon I think he deserves better. I LIKE Lucario but I don't like him here.

I suppose Aura was the beginning of the further emphasized comeback mechanics later in the series and was made almost redundant by the universality of rage in Smash 4. I like how Project M handled it where it's tied more to combos and action rather than damage, but I realize Smash has to balance around casual free for alls as well. So I don't see those going away but there's gotta be some way to make this one more compelling.

 

[Noipoi]

Plot Twist: Lucario and Greninja are cut and Incineroar stays
in exchange for Cinderace and Skeledirge.
(Insert Frollo meme here)

Skeledirge would get no complaints from me, that's my boy.

But he's a fat **** who probably can't even jump, so it isn't very likely

 

[PeridotGX]

They should cut Incineroar and replace him with Great Tusk. Fake Metagames (VGC) had fun with their Intimidate machine, now it's time for Smogon to win.

 

[Noipoi]

They should cut Incineroar and replace him with Great Tusk. Fake Metagames (VGC) had fun with their Intimidate machine, now it's time for Smogon to win.

The new Pokemon rep is actually Landorus.

To be accurate to the source material it's the most broken character.

 

[SmasherMaster]

My main wish is that the Pokemon franchise would acknowledge even a couple of the human characters in Smash. If they cut Trainer, maybe they could assign a different iconic trainer that is known for using each of the fighters (except Mewtwo obviously). Red for Pikachu, Leon for Charizard, Cynthia for Lucario (listen I know Lucario isn't her ace, but its on her team and shes one of the most popular characters in the franchise), Serena/Callum for Greninja, Masked Royal for Incineroar, etc.

 

[SPEN18]

I feel Jigglypuff has skirted that line enough times where it would just be weird to do it now. I don't think it's impossible that they finally leave her behind, there's always a chance - but there's definitely a difference between almost getting cut in Brawl, after two games of attendance, vs cutting cut after 5 games and 25 years of perfect attendance. Simply put, a chain of dumb luck and the right timing has made her invincible.

I mean if the cuts are more extensive than usual, it wouldn't be that weird for a previously borderline/fringe veteran to not make it. Goes double if you're going to say that a chain of dumb luck has been what's keeping Jiggs afloat, as that usually eventually runs out.
That said, it is certainly a curiosity that Jiggs has made it over Mewtwo a couple of times now. Though perhaps if Jiggs really is that much easier to develop, it could be for that reason and therefore possibly somewhat independent of Mewtwo coming back. Still, Jigglypuff's moveset is obviously not similar at all to Kirby's so I imagine it must still take significant work to develop; I mean the model and animations are probably among the easiest ones to make but not necessarily the moveset and balancing. I think it may be more likely that the dev team simply underestimated Mewtwo's demand in the past, or maybe that's just bias from the fandom bubble showing through, idk.

 

[ZephyrZ]

I also feel like it says a lot that Jigglypuff has beaten MEWTWO out on the priority list twice at this point between Brawl and Smash 4, considering Mewtwo's iconic status and huge popularity.

I am kinda curious what people think about Greninja potentially seeing the axe, because I know he was the most popular Pokemon for a time, but even Pokemon themselves kinda feel like they're moving on a little since Ash-Greninja doesn't exist anymore (though that may also just be because Ash is no longer the main character in the anime, admittedly).

I mean Ash-Greninja was basically just an excuse by the anime to give Greninja a mega form, I don't think it's that weird for Battle Bond to get reworked when Megas have been mia for two generations now. If anything it's kind kf weird Ash-Greninja was usable in Sw/Sh, you'd think it'd be treated more like Spiky-Eared Picbu or Cosplay Pikachu.

That said when megas next get brought back for mainline Pokemon I think there's a decent shot we'll see Ash-Greninja return too.

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

While we're on the topic of who's coming back, I think we all agree is safe but...

This is absolutely a character I want to see them rework. The aura mechanic is just not very fun / encourages lame gameplay and I just don't think he quite feels like Lucario should. Adding Bone Rush inspired moves may be a start as well as making him generally faster and encouraging more rushdown. Maybe a Lucario player could tell me why I'm wrong, but I recognize this character is also not especially popular to play in Smash, and for such a cool Pokemon I think he deserves better. I LIKE Lucario but I don't like him here.

I suppose Aura was the beginning of the further emphasized comeback mechanics later in the series and was made almost redundant by the universality of rage in Smash 4. I like how Project M handled it where it's tied more to combos and action rather than damage, but I realize Smash has to balance around casual free for alls as well. So I don't see those going away but there's gotta be some way to make this one more compelling.

I would actually like a Lucario rework, but not JUST for Aura because he feels way too floaty in my opinion for a Steel/Fighting type. Lucario has such awkward attributes for me that I just never pick him unless I end up on him for Random or to do a Classic run when the game first comes out, I just can't wrap my head around his kit like at all lol

Probably more of a skill issue on my part, but like why is he actually just the weirdest character in the game for me right now out of all 89 characters

 

[Hadokeyblade]

Cynthia for Lucario (listen I know Lucario isn't her ace, but its on her team and shes one of the most popular characters in the franchise),

This is Riley erasure.

I mean Ash-Greninja was basically just an excuse by the anime to give Greninja a mega form, I don't think it's that weird for Battle Bond to get reworked when Megas have been mia for two generations now. If anything it's kind kf weird Ash-Greninja was usable in Sw/Sh, you'd think it'd be treated more like Spiky-Eared Picbu or Cosplay Pikachu.

That said when megas next get brought back for mainline Pokemon I think there's a decent shot we'll see Ash-Greninja return too.

I still to this day think its stupid the anime didnt have Ash bring his charizard back onto his team for XY, given how there were two Charizard megas and one of the major characters in the show had one of the two i thought it would have been cool for Ash to get the other one.

 

[Metal Shop X]

I just realized something when it comes to the idea of a Deltarune character in Smash. Years ago, Toby made a blog post about how he explicitly doesn't want merchandise for certain characters. He named Kris, Susie, and Noelle, but he probably means all of the Deltarune-original lighteners because we haven't gotten a Berdly plush or anything.
View attachment 381287
I think this means these characters are off the table for smash? Every Smash character gets an amiibo, which counts as merchandise. Even if they don't do amiibo for the next game, I think it stays the same. The principle seems to be "making plushies or figures or whatever for these characters goes against the themes of the game", and a playable character in Smash isn't that far out of the ballpark. I would love to be wrong, but it seems like the only major Deltarune character still on the table is Ralsei.

it will almost assuredly be an undertale character so this doesn't matter but i have deltarune brainrot

This is how Lancer Deltarune get into Smash I tell ya.

We get a smoll funny blue and white guy made by Toby, but not the one peoples 99% expect.

The ultimate troll.

 

[Kirbeh]

I would actually like a Lucario rework, but not JUST for Aura because he feels way too floaty in my opinion for a Steel/Fighting type. Lucario has such awkward attributes for me that I just never pick him unless I end up on him for Random or to do a Classic run when the game first comes out, I just can't wrap my head around his kit like at all lol

Probably more of a skill issue on my part, but like why is he actually just the weirdest character in the game for me right now out of all 89 characters

Honestly yeah, you and Louie G. pretty much summed up how I feel about Lucario as well.

I feel this way about a few characters actually, but is one of the cases of having plenty of source material but feeling like neither the games or anime.

To me he's always felt like a "Smash original" in terms of move set. Sure he's got aura sphere but otherwise he feels more like an adaptation of a more general martial artist with aura just enhancing his power and range.

He is a fighting type, so it's not a bad angle but the execution always felt off to me. Especially the use of aura as a comeback mechanic, gameplay wise it's uninteresting and poorly designed imo (rewarding the player with ever increasing buffs for getting hit.) And it has no relation to actual Pokemon games either.

If it really needed to be used as a mechanic, I think they should have given him a meter and EX moves with the aura just being an aesthetic/naming choice.

Aside from that, I also agree that he's too floaty and could stand to be a little faster and more combo oriented. A Bone Rush rekka ala Dancing Blade or as his Smash attacks would also be nice.

 

[fogbadge]

on the subject of pokemon cuts, i do feel like inceneroar would be the first of the chopping block but at the same time he's here cause sakurai wanted him

 

[skylanders fan]

If we’re talking Pokemon cuts Pichu should be the first to go

 

[Pupp135]

If I had to prioritize Pokemon it’d probably be something like this.

While Ivysaur and Squirtle were removed from For, I think their chances of returning are underestimated as the developers decided to bring Pokemon Trainer back as a packaged deal in Ultimate instead of having them separate like Zelda/Sheik or Samus/Zero Suit Samus. The return of Pokemon Trainer as a whole makes it harder for me to see her/him being split just because Ivysaur and Squirtle are less popular or to limit the number of pokemon on the roster, and it would probably do with technical limitations more or less.
The quadruplet of Jigglypuff, Lucario, Mewtwo, and Greninja are hard to rank, and my ranking is arbitrary. SSB64 and ease of development are why I put Jigglypuff as high as I did more or less; otherwise, it‘d probabky be after Greninja, and Lucario has been a larger priority than Mewtwo since Brawl. I put Mewtwo over Greninja because people wanted Mewtwo to return in For.

 

[Guynamednelson]

I think their chances of returning are underestimated as the developers decided to bring Pokemon Trainer back as a packaged deal

Well what else were they supposed to do? Everyone coming back meant...everyone, and I think that included Red in Sakurai's mind.

 

[fogbadge]

If we’re talking Pokemon cuts Pichu should be the first to go

even though he's popular and iconic?

 

[Pupp135]

Well what else were they supposed to do? Everyone coming back meant...everyone, and I think that included Red in Sakurai's mind.

While I think Red should be included as part of Everyone is Here, I‘ve seen a couple suggestions having all three split out kind of like Project M/+ as you technically don’t control Red (I disagree with this take though).

 

[RileyXY1]

even though he's popular and iconic?

Pretty much. He had an entire game where he was the star (Pokémon Ranger Guardian Signs), got his own event only form in Heart Gold and Soul Silver, is one of the most merchandised Pokémon to date, and was the star of several shorts released during Johto.

 

[Opossum]

Honestly a lot of the...weird things about Lucario are also things I think are fairly easy to fix. Like...right now Aura Sphere is weirdly generic for what is Lucario's signature move. It's essentially a reskinned Shadow Ball or Charged Shot, but with the quirk of doing minor damage if the opponent runs into it while it's charging.

You know what would be fun? Give Aura Sphere a homing effect. Its whole thing in the Pokémon series is that it cannot miss. And then make the homing effect stronger the more charge the move is given, and the more aura Lucario has built up. That alone makes Lucario not only significantly more offensively oppressive, but also more accurate to the games.

 

[Gengar84]

Lucario is one of my favorite Gen 4 Pokémon and probably my favorite playable Pokemon in Smash but I could never really get the hang of using it. I like some of the suggestions posted here as potential updates. From a flavor standpoint, I just want to see Lucario use its energy bone clubs and change its running animation to the Naruto-like run it uses in the anime. I’m not really experienced enough at a high level to give much feedback on what should change mechanically to make it more fun to play.

 

[fogbadge]

Honestly a lot of the...weird things about Lucario are also things I think are fairly easy to fix. Like...right now Aura Sphere is weirdly generic for what is Lucario's signature move. It's essentially a reskinned Shadow Ball or Charged Shot, but with the quirk of doing minor damage if the opponent runs into it while it's charging.

You know what would be fun? Give Aura Sphere a homing effect. Its whole thing in the Pokémon series is that it cannot miss. And then make the homing effect stronger the more charge the move is given, and the more aura Lucario has built up. That alone makes Lucario not only significantly more offensively oppressive, but also more accurate to the games.

i like this idea

 

[DarthEnderX]

Well what else were they supposed to do? Everyone coming back meant...everyone, and I think that included Red in Sakurai's mind.

I think he could have brought back Ivysaur and Squirtle as separate characters and still been able to claim EiH.

Hell, they're already numbered that way.

 

[Sucumbio]

Ken is my favorite character in SF2 but God why is he so hard to use in Smash! All the advanced techniques he can do I can maybe pull off 2 of them lol. Meanwhile Aegis is literally up b side b win. Kinda lame.

 

[Guynamednelson]

even though he's popular and iconic?

Smash fans don't want to know there's more to Pichu's inclusion than being easy to make. You should know this by now.

 

[fogbadge]

Smash fans don't want to know there's more to Pichu's inclusion than being easy to make. You should know this by now.

smash fans seem to change what they want to know every time they speak I can’t keep up

 

[Louie G.]

Smash fans don't want to know there's more to Pichu's inclusion than being easy to make. You should know this by now.

Pichu is cool, but he's been cut before and there was not a lot of motivation to bring him back until now. He's also a derivative character and would likely be lower priority compared to more popular, longstanding and original Pokemon. Certainly he's iconic in his own right but when having the conversation about which Pokemon are on the chopping block, it's completely reasonable to believe Pichu may be one of the first to go (that's being a bit generous, probably the first unless they determine off the bat that they don't want to put in the 3x dev time for PokeTrainer).

I've also heard that Pichu may have been one of the hardest characters to lock in for EIH, because of a weird hangup from Pokemon Company about using baby Pokemon? I'm not putting much stock in this because I really don't have any substantial evidence, kinda just throwing it out there and seeing if someone can elaborate if they know anything about it.

 

[Guynamednelson]

I've also heard that Pichu may have been one of the hardest characters to lock in for EIH, because of a weird hangup from Pokemon Company about using baby Pokemon? I'm not putting much stock in this because I really don't have any substantial evidence, kinda just throwing it out there and seeing if someone can elaborate if they know anything about it.

Yeah, that seems incredibly flimsy considering they were going hard on shilling Pichu back when Melee was being developed, which is why I act like it was either Pichu or nothing when it comes to Johto reps. The closest to TPC having a weird hangup on babies was that for most of the 2010s they weren't getting any Pokemon cards made for them, but by the time Pichu was announced for SSBU they were getting new cards.

 

[smashkirby]

I did it 3 times I got

Wario
Yoshi
Kid Icarus series

so my replacements are

1. Yuka (Rhythm Heaven)
2. Saki (Sin and Punishment)
3. Sami, Andy and Sturm from Advance Wars (or just Sami and Andy if we are not counting Dark Pit as a separate character)

If you don't mind me saying, I have to give you props for your choices here, ESPECIALLY regarding Yuka! Heck, the fact that you even used her ACTUAL name and didn't just call her 'Rhythm Girl' or whatever is REALLY appreciated!

 

[Swamp Sensei]

Ken is my favorite character in SF2 but God why is he so hard to use in Smash! All the advanced techniques he can do I can maybe pull off 2 of them lol. Meanwhile Aegis is literally up b side b win. Kinda lame.

Neither of Aegis's up B's are that good outside of a free for all though?

 

[Louie G.]

Pretty simple. It's a list of all Nintendo franchises/games in Smash Bros. with less than 5 characters. You get that franchise or character in the RNG, that franchise or character is replaced.

I got Metroid, Little Mac and Star Fox. Why not just rip my heart right out of my chest?

1. You get a franchise, you must replace all of their characters with characters from another notably-sized Nintendo franchise that doesn't have a playable character in Smash Bros.

2. You get a character, you must replace that character with a character from either a stand-alone Nintendo game or Nintendo franchise with two games that doesn't have a playable character in Smash Bros. Franchises with 3 games or more cannot be picked unless that franchise has very few characters.

1. Metroid --> Rhythm Heaven

I'll kick things off by being self indulgent. Rhythm Heaven is one of the biggest Nintendo series to be absent from the roster and while it's a fair bit smaller, I feel like there isn't quite a directly fitting replacement for Metroid. I'll play within the lines of what the roster currently looks like.

becomes Karate Joe.
is "Karate Man Senior", an echo fighter for Joe.
is the Chorus Kids.
is the Wrestler.

There are a lot of fun characters in Rhythm Heaven, but I think so long as we have Chorus Kids to represent the more wild aspects of the series it's good to fall back on characters with more distinct fighting styles. Four separate Game & Watch styled kitchen sink characters feels like a bit much when one already does the job super well, so the others can be zanier takes on traditional fighter archetypes.

2. Little Mac --> Lip

Ack, this is the worst character you could force me to cut.

Similarly to Punch Out, Puzzle League / Panel de Pon was going pretty strong into the 90s and fell largely to the wayside at the turn of the century. Both are arcade-y, puzzle-y games and I love both of them greatly. I'd be gutted to lose Little Mac, but this would be serviceable I guess... Special mention goes to Sukapon, who I decided against but fulfills Mac's distinct fighter role a bit more directly. Take your pick.

3. Star Fox --> Sin & Punishment

So actually, this works out better than I thought it would. They're both rail shooters after all, and playing in the lines of Star Fox's core character mold we can very easily pick out three characters who share some core similarities / play functionally the same as one another in their series.

can be Saki, duh.
is Airan Jo. You play as her about as much as you do Saki, and they are functionally the same. Can start out as a clone and be deviated from.
becomes Isa Jo. Now we've got the whole family!