You gotta feel bad for poor ol' Shantae. She was just gonna be rerated and she was killed before we had a chance to talk about her again. Oh well.
Since we are rerating characters, let me repost what i said with some updates. Abstaining on Hollow Knight as i have no major interest.
Reimu:
Chance: Updated to 3.5%
Now this..............is interesing. Look, when people say Indies, most imagine a one off small game or little series that only started in the late 2000s and early 2010s that recently got ported to Consoles...........Touhou is not that. Not only does this franchise have over 20 games (far more than other franchises represented in Smash like Fire Emblem, Metroid, and maybe even some Third Parties) it's very damn old. The very first game was released for PC 98...........in 1997. This series predates Banjo Kazooie and SMASH. It's been featured on Swtich!.................in a way.
Another interesing detail about Touhou is its relation to Fan Products. Not only does the creator aprove of the Fan Content, he embraces and encourages it, due to the series's heavy focus on
Doujin (basically self-published independent works, both original and based on existing properties). So much so that There's a Dojin Distributor called "PLAY DOUJIN!" that does nothing but publish official Doujin Touhou games on non-PC platforms, including the Switch, and Yes, these games have been released worldwide (hell i remember seeing a Nintendo Switch Physical Copy of a Touhou game in my local Mall Plaza in Chile, back when Corona Meant beer) so while the presence of "official" Touhou games on Nintendo may be small, the fans have basically given it life on that platform (obviously with the creator's blessing). They rival Sonic's fanbase when it comes to fan projects, both amazing and "creppy" (trust me) it's just that Zun operates in a different world from Sega when it comes to copyright so Touhou's fan-projects are more visible.
Oh and Zun wants a Touhou character in Smash, but that's not surprising at all. At this point i would be more surprised to some developers saying NO.
So why is she is so low? Again, low worldwide popularity like certain characters such as Sakura Shinguchi and Arle, but Reimu's case it's even worse. Unlike Arle's franchise Touhou is STILL very unkown outside of its target audience: The "Otaku" (or nowadays "Weeb") crowd. This is what you call and "underground" franchise, it' has a vocal and passionate following but it's not super large and it's from a completely different realm from the Smash's fanbase (hell, even the casual Smash players) interests and tastes, and that already kills a lot of her chances in my eyes, that and the whole competition and first party things, this only makes it worse for Reimu. It's mostly because of the franchise's themes and concepts though. Unlike Puyo above, where the only japanese thing was the focus on cutesy stuff, Touhou takes pride and joy in beign HEAVILY based on Eastern Mythology and ideas, it's even in the name ( Touhou means "Eastern") and such it features many concepts and folkore only those heavily familiar with them could understand what is essentially one of the main appeals of this franchise.
Yeah Reimu is sort of becoming more talked about now, but it's still a really unpopular choice for Smash all around. Even in Japan, where her most of her fanbase resides, she's not usually that super requested requested either. Others like Bandanna Dee, Steve, Rex and even Sora are more popular there when it comes to Smash newcomer ideas. By the time people got to talk about Reimu in a larger capacity, the base roster, Fighter Pass 1 and maybe even Fighter Pass 2 have already been made. It's not the fan requests NOW that matter, but those that happened before Ultimate and/or its DLC Started development, like Banjo's massive support in 2015. Arle on the other hand, actually had support as early as the Smash Ballot days, and that suppor has been slowly but surely growing in Japan AND the rest of the world. Compare that to Reimu, where you have some Japanese Support, and very, very small Worldwide Support. I don't even remember Reimu's name beign even mentioned ONCE in the Smash 4 days or the Smash 4 DLC days or even the Smash Ultimate base roster days (guess the Grinch hogged all the attention)
There's Hero, but Hero is basically seen as one of the pioneers of one of the most popular Genres in Japan and Gaming as a whole. Terry is only unpopular in America, America Is NOT "The West", there's also Mexico, Central America and the entirity of South America , most areas where Terry is actually well known and loved.
I gotta agree with that one user who i cannnot remember their name, Reimu feels like a character /V/ is trying to meme into existence.
Honestly, the problem with Touhou isn't just that it is extremely unpopular outside of Japan to the point that its western fanbase is underground (in the same way i see the likes of Doomguy as extremely unlikely due to their obscurity in Japan) but also that they aren't accessible in general, period.
At least with say Terry, no matter how unknown to Americans he is, any American with an Eshop account can go and buy a FF and KOF game, and also do it on PS Store, or Xbox Live Arcade or Steam and the like, this is something Touhou simply can't do, if you want to play these games you NEED to go out of your way to play it, with Patches and ****, something that i reckon Nintendo does not want people to go out to do. This is one character i don't see Nintendo choosing, who btw have a say in the DLC, and neither do i see Sakurai, since he has made an increasing attempt at choosing characters that appeal to worldwide audiences (Little Mac, the Belmonts, Ridley, Steve, etc) to chose a character like Reimu would go against the current direction Smash is going, and even in Japan there are characters that are also requested and i don't need to make a scene in order to play it.
Now, things are looking up a little for Touhou in the meantime, i must admit. Recently, there have been OFFICIAL Touhou games released on the Switch. Not the the Bullet Hell games that the series is known for, but a Fighting Game: Antinomy of Common Flowers. It was released for the Nintendo Switch Worldwide. This marks the FIRST Time the series gets an official english release. No need to patch the game, it's already translated for you! With this, the curse of Accessability is pretty much gone, and i am optimistic enough that future Touhou games will likely follow suit, so the the main reason why i rated this character so low in the past may no longer be an issue. I mean regional obscurity is still a big factor in my eyes, but at least Touhou seems like a viable choice now................
....too bad that these news came in too damn late. The first official Touhou game on Switch on English with a worldwide release was released in 2021, the game itself was released on PC 3 years before, but it suffers from the same "you gotta go out of your way to translate this ****" issue that every damn Touhou official game suffers from, so i don't count that iteration of the game. The only real other benefit i see for Touhou is that since this is the end of the Pass, and since Touhou's so damn niche, you might as well add the nichest character last.............then again Incineroar and Ken are EVERYTHING but Niche, and you can say how enexpected the rest of FP2 is, but none of the previous characters suffer from the same issues Reimu does outside of maybe, maybe Min Min and Banjo if im generous (I mean i never touched a Tekken game in my life, and i still know who Kazuya is, same goes for Sephiroth)
Honestly, this Ed Edd N Eddy joke still applies:
Want: 0%
Yeah i still couldn't care less. Honestly Touhou's concepts and genre do not appeal to me at all. A Bullet Hell Shoot Em Up series filled Moe Anime girl versions of Yokai creatures? I'll pass on that, and for those smartasses who say "ToOHUOH Is NOT MoE", this is how Touhou is literally described via Wikipedia:
Wikipedia said:
But even if we put pedantic definitions aside, im not a fan of Touhou mostly due to its usage of mythology i do not care about, and the gameplay of Shoot Em Ups which never were my forte. Also, even as an outsider view, i found Reimu's descritptions as a character are as unlikable as you can get for a main character, and im not gonna waste money on a character that i just wanna beat up.
The only real benefit i see for her is that the music for Touhou is awesome, no denying that (U.N Owen was Her, Night of Nights, etc) and seein how generous Zun could be, they could fill a music pack from 3 passes just for Reimu alone. But even then i woulnd't still care, i play as characters, not songs. If i wanted to listen to music i would just go to a youtube playlist.
Im probably gonna summon her because of saying this (seeing how sell FP2 has gone for me so far) but this is one way to dissapoint me as the final character, and im expecting it to end with whimper mind you.
Now, to the one indie i actually care about.............again.
Mr. Traveler:
Chance: 10%
Unfortunately, as much as it pains to sell him short, he isn't likely. Yes he is an icon among indies, beign one of the earliest successes of a large caliber coming from a small developer. But it has never gotten a sequel or spin off. Still, it has been ported to multiple systems of recent generations, it has been featured in more minor crossovers such as Blade Strangers, i guess the possibility is always there and-
-oh wait, the company that owns him did a bad thing oh no! He can't be in Smash now! IN fact, we most remove Snake and the Belmonts, Konami did bad things too! Remember #****Konami? We can't be hypocrites? How about Crapcom? Remove them too because they are greedy and bad. Remove Sonic because SEGA is an American Traitor! (don't ask) remove Joker because Atlus is............homophobe/transphobe! yeah, because one Twitter fella said so! Remove all bad companies!
In fact, we should exclude Sora since he is owned by the Walt Disney Company, the satan of companies, and we know Nintendo is innocent, they are japanese, and based japan is always innocent! (forget all the japanese companies i mentioned above you dummy!)
......
...........
That was sarcasm if you couldn't tell.
Despite Quote really having one game to his belt, that game reached iconic status WOLRDWIDE, and has been referenced multiple times and been ported to basically most modern platforms. DSi, 3DS (twice) Nintendo Switch, and Steam are some examples. Quote also has become a very common icon of Indie crossovers: Blade Strangers, the Brit Trip Runner games, Crystal Crisis all feature Quote's likeness. So for this accessibility, it's not a surprise to the large majority of western gamers Quote seems to be one of the most iconic Indie characters next to Shovel Knight...................who got as an AT.
Yeah, i still think Indies are unlikely. Shantae just got as a Mii Costume so there's a good chance Quote could meet that same fate as a Gunner. Plus now with Kazuya subverting out expectations, part of me woulnd't be surprised if a Certain Fallen Child still makes into Smash despite the Funny Skeleton man already being a Mii Costume.
Want:50%
I enjoyed Cave Story ever since i was a child, and i would be okay with this inclusion. I would take him over almost all Indies not named Gunvolt. What can i say? I'm old school with my choices.
and yet, i'm not super compelled in his inclusion, probably because i'm not super supportive of a character that doesn't seem likely, unless it's someone i'm SUPER passionate about, like i was with Simon. Still, i probably would be more excited for him once he is revealed. I just hope his look is more based on his appearance in the in-game artwork found in the credits, rather than the Super-Deformed stuff.
. It's just a weird measurement of popularity (Itself already a difficult metric to analyze) that doesn't really have any equivalents in Smash, and I think we won't come to an agreement on it until Reimu actually does make it into Smash, be it Ultimate or later down the line.
