RTC regulars when the next Smash trailer has either the Zohar or cherry blossom petals
...Yes this fully includes me as you will see below
Man what a day.... I probably spent the longest time I ever have on a rating ever, outside of
my giant SNK writeup of course. For the record I have nothing against either of these characters so please don't hate on me. With that said...
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KOS-MOS
Chance: 2%
I think TCT~Phantom hit the nail on the head when it comes to what KOS-MOS has going for her, down to the comparisons with both Banjo and Terry about how they're different from her. She's a relatively popular character by herself and Namco still puts her in crossovers. Monolith Soft also has clearly not given up on her as seen through her inclusion in Xenoblade 2 and various other promotional arts. I do feel like if the choice for another Smash character came down to Monolith Soft alone, they'd go for KOS-MOS.
Now for the bad...
Xenosaga has been dormant for a long time.
Xenosaga series creator Tetsuya Takahashi himself
stated that the games weren't too successful (which is what led to them going to
Xenoblade) and
we know that a proposed Xenosaga remaster was said to have been unprofitable. I'm not saying a new
Xenosaga game
can't happened or wouldn't be good, but at the end of the day all that matters is that one
hasn't happened in a very long time. I imagine if Nintendo/Sakurai talked to Namco then they would know all about the state of
Xenosaga and would move onto more viable options, whether it be someone else from Namco or another character entirely. Also not sure where else to put this bit, but only one of the three Xenosaga games have released in Europe which could be a small detriment to her chances.
Speaking of other Namco characters,
Tales reps are giant hurdles when it comes to another Namco character. That series is just way more bigger (and even got content in SSB4) so I don't see why Nintendo would talk to Namco and get KOS-MOS, when they could instead talk to Namco and get Lloyd or Yuri. Personally I think it's just
Tales or bust when it comes to Namco characters at this point, but even then there are also other options like Dark Souls, Katamari, and Soul Calibur to name a few.
Even if the choice for another Xeno series character came down to Monolith Soft, Nintendo/Sakurai would still have the final say in it and I personally think they would ultimately decide on another Xenoblade character. It's looking to be their next big series if they play their cards right so I think Nintendo would want to prioritize promoting Xenoblade over Xenosaga. Yes I know you could technically kill two birds with one stone by adding KOS-MOS, but for the purpose of promoting the Xenoblade series I think they'd have a better chance with a Xenoblade original character, whether it Dunban, Fiora, or... that one salvager guy everyone seems to hate.
So while she does have a fair amount of things going for her and has been getting more talk in recent years, I think her series dormancy and general competition is greatly holding her back. If the Xenosaga series makes a true comeback in the future then I can see her having a much greater chance. I will say that if we do get another Namco or Xenoblade character then I can easily see KOS-MOS being a Mii Costume to go alongside them (I unironically like using Miis so this is not intended to be an insult).
I was originally going to give this a 1%, but while writing this I thought of the very small possibility of Nintendo adding a character to thank Monolith Soft for their continued partnership. That character would undeniably be KOS-MOS so up goes her chances even if only by a little.
Want: Abstain
Haven't played Xenosaga so I won't give an actual score. Granted she does look pretty cool and I have heard some good things about Xenosaga. However in regards to characters in the Xeno series then I would much prefer someone from the Xenoblade games. That may change if I were to play the Xenosaga games, but sadly there is no easy way to do so right now.
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Sakura
Chance: 3%
The Sakura Wars titles are super popular in Japan while the earlier titles inspired a lot of other games at the time. She also did get a new game recently so she isn't exactly as dead as she used to be. Sakura has also found a home in various crossovers such as Project X Zone and some gachas like GranBlue Fantasy. Granted while I don't view those as giant pluses since PXZ had other Sega characters while those gachas were primarily Japanese ones, they are still pluses nonetheless. However, Sakura's main issues start to arise when you look at the series outside of Japan.
Only two games in the series have been officially released outside of Japan. The first game that got localized (Sakura Wars V)
underperformed in sales according to NIS America and the series then went on a long hiatus. The second game to be localized was the recent 2019 reboot which released overseas in April 2020. I couldn't find an exact sales number but it seems to have been overshadowed
by a lot of other games that released at the time. Not saying it did
bad, but I don't think it performed particularly noteworthy in the West. The chief creator officer of Sega, Toshihiro Nagoshi,
stated that he wished the 2019 reboot sold a bit more in regards to the Japanese sales so take that as you will.
Regardless of how well it did, it's important to remember that the Fighters Pass 2 lineup was decided on by November 2019 (most likely even earlier) as confirmed in the Byleth Direct. By that time, Sakura Wars 2019 hadn't released in the West (or at all) yet, so the only thing Sakurai had to see how well the series had done in the West was the aforementioned SW:V which flopped overseas. Because of this, I feel like both Nintendo and Sakurai would view Sakura as a very risky pick at the time and opt for someone else. For base game? I could maybe see them taking the risk. For paid DLC where most people have to individually purchase the character? There are definitely much more safer characters. I know some may try to use Hero, Terry, or Byleth to counter this argument but I feel like those are much,
much different scenarios than the one Sakura is in right now (for starters, their series had already been established in the West).
Of course there is also another issue: competition. If Nintendo/Sakurai wants Sakura in Smash then they will have to talk to Sega. If Nintendo went to talk to Sega however, then they would probably go with a character that would be more well-known overseas whilst still bringing in a good profit.
- Eggman (or literally any other Sonic character) has the advantage of being way more recognizable without question.
- Arle benefits from her games having a much greater presence in the West and Puyo Puyo being pushed harder by Sega in recent years.
- Although I think the chances of a Yakuza character for Ultimate are dead based on some recent interviews, the series has been gaining a ton of traction in the West and again has been pushed hard by Sega. For future passes/games I think a Yakuza character may have the edge over Sakura.
With an even greater push from Sega to make the series big in the West, I think Sakura could be a potential Sega frontrunner in the future. Seeing as how the head of Sakura Wars is looking to continue the series in the future and is already, I think that may actually happen. For the time being however, this just
screams Mii Costume to me as it'd be a way to promote a reviving series while not committing to the full idea of an actual character. Again, not a bad scenario with all things considered and it'd even give her a ton of Western exposure from that alone.
Want: Abstain
Like with KOS-MOS, I have not played Sakura Wars so I will abstain from giving an actual score. I would be lying if I said she was my most wanted Sega character though as there are a lot of other names I'd like to see instead (specifically Axel, Robotnik, and Arle). Again I'm not completely against the idea, but I really do think the series has to get it's proper footing in the West first.
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Chance predictions:
Dante: 43.84% (way higher than it should be)
Phoenix: 35.03%
Monster Hunter: 17.48% (the recent comments from Imran Khan are definitely going to drag this down)
Nominations:
Curly as Quote's alt/echo x10
Concept: 3rd party company gets more than one character in the same pass x10