Now, let's be serious for a second.
I am not singling you out on this, but since you brought up Chrom, I think I should mention this.
A lot of people in the Smash fan base are "in denial" about certain characters they do not like.
Specifically, Chrom and Pac-Man.
•For Chrom, people think he cannot be unique for some reason.
JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE DOESNT HAVE A SWORD, DOESNT MEAN HE/SHE CANT BE UNIQUE!
He could use the Falchion not only as a sword, but.......
Wait for it....
A MAGIC SWORD!
He doesn't have to be restricted to the Falchion. He can use lances, spears, and axes.
He can be unique, it depends how Sakurai works him.
Every newcomer we have gotten so far, Sakurai has made work in a way we didn't expect (we didn't expect WFT at all).
•For Pac Man, people just hate the modern Pac Man. So do I.
But Sakurai said 3rd parties have to be gaming all stars.
I think after Mario, Mega Man, and Sonic, Pac Man is the definition of Gaming All Star.
He can look like his modern self, but not speak and just make classic sound effects and use classic moves.
I think Chrom is one of the coolest Fire Emblem characters, but your reasons aren't why he will work, but why he CAN work...and not in a good way.
It's not the fact that Chrom can't be unique because he has a sword, but rather that his sword is basically the same as Marth's.
You keep saying what he CAN use, but never focus on what he most likely WILL use. Using his sword to perform magic is not something Chrom is known for any more than Marth or Ike. You keep saying he CAN use Lances and Axes, but does he hardly ever?
I mean Sakurai could have made Falco unique in tons of ways. Star Fox Assualt had Bazookas, grenades, and machine guns. But, instead Sakurai made him a clone of Fox. This is most likely because he's MEANT to be a clone of Fox and that would be more true to his character than a bunch of insignificant items that he technically has used before. Yeah, Sakurai COULD give Falco all those weapons, but he's not going to.
And what is this claim that Sakurai makes newcomers work in ways we didn't expect. Is that you're way of justifying making a move set that doesn't make sense? What if we DID expect it? At least what we didn't expect made sense. Just because it's unexpected doesn't mean the move set making process is completely out of whack and unorganized.
Like you said: It depends on how Sakurai works on him. Well, maybe you should focus on how Sakurai has worked on past characters and not how YOU and other Smash fans would work on characters if you were in his place. When we come up with move sets it's not always logical to assume he has the same thing in mind. Most likely due to Sakurai having criteria for what characters become clones and what characters don't, the LIKELY outcome is that Chrom would be seen as "Marth clone". Whether or not you see that as "fair" or "justified" will not matter to Sakurai if he sees it that way. He's made many unfair and unjustified decisions on characters.
And Pac-Man is another example. People call bull**** when we say "Oh, Pac-Man has no move potential. He's not interesting". Then comes the defenses of "Oh, Pac-Man can have stuff from Pac-Man World!" "Sakurai made Falcon work so he can make ANYBODY work".
Again, just because he CAN doesn't mean he will. I believe that Sakurai wants Third-Parties that ALREADY have promising results if put in the game. Not ones that require him to improvise and invent his own things. Especially when we're talking about a non nintendo character that is going to take up a slot.
We need to remember that how WE would make a character work is not the same as how SAKURAI would make a character work. So bringing up all this insignificant and/or trivial source material is a weak defense to back up your character.
You shouldn't add stuff that's barely significant JUST because it makes a character unique.
Yes, Chrom uses Lances (and axes?), but if Chrom is brought to Sakurai's attention, but I don't think he's gonna say "Okay, this guy is a lot like Chrom. So what can we do to make him ANY different?". That's not what he did with Leif, the protagonist of 2 Fire Emblem games. He passed on to the next character suggestion. The lances and axes aren't iconic to Chrom's character like King Dedede's Hammer or Roy's fire. Unless Chrom is essential like Mario or Captain Falcon then I don't think he's gonna try very hard to make him unique before realizing there is probably a better character to choose from. I'm just basing that on how he's done stuff before.
Robert of Normandy .
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