I'm pretty optimistic about the prospect of returning third parties next game but I have to question the decision to keep all three SE characters and none of the Microsoft or especially Konami characters? I'd like to keep Hero and Sephiroth around as much as the next guy, but they are demonstrably the most difficult and/or expensive to work with. I can respect wanting to condense the scope and not bring every single collaborator back but this feels a bit more ambitious than I'm expecting. Certainly at least Simon or Terry would be more practical to bring back than 2/3 of that lineup, it's too easy to just go back to the same guys who were already playing ball in Smash 4. It weirdly feels simultaneously too ambitious and too conservative.
I can't help but notice K. Rool got cut too, which I can understand to a degree but is jarring to see considering he was on the last one and this is a bigger roster than that. Would be disappointing but is probably not the biggest issue I have with it. Would also advocate for someone new from Animal Crossing and Splatoon seeing how you're leaving spaces open for contemporary characters and someone in the ballpark of Tom Nook or Octoling is pretty much guaranteed to continue to be relevant.
I was on the fence about the SE characters, as I’ve heard conflicting information about if they’re good with Nintendo, or if they’d be stingy as hell with a new game. Same applies to Microsoft, and Konami.
Animal Crossing doesn’t have a lot to go off from for a new fighter. They would likely end up as an echo of Villager and/or Isabelle.
For Octolings, something I don’t see brought up is ink colour issues, as both Inklings and Octolings will have to have different enough ink colours (not good for the colour blind). It might be a better method to simply make Octoling just a skin for Inkling, like how Alph is to Olimar.
K. Rool was cut in the previous version due to other missed opportunities such as Ness and CF, and my general idea of moving away from the Smash Ballot, even if slightly.
One thing I didn’t really get to talk about was clones. Clones happen. Every game. It’s inevitable. Be it planned from the start, or a last minute bonus. By this metric, it’s possible that other veterans such as Daisy, Dark Samus, Ken, or new echoes such as Shadow could get in. And that’s not even talking about clones of new characters.
Some new characters were considered, but ultimately didn’t make it. Waluigi and Geno just didn’t have a lot of potential compared to other options. Rex (in his XC3 design) would have made for one too many Xenoblade characters for the Smash fanbase (despite dual wielding being something we haven’t really seen yet).
What I do think of next game, is that we get less ‘hype’ picks.
