I'll sum up how I feel with this sentence.
I've gotten used to Zelda the way she is, and I really don't want to see her completely change just because a new game came out.
I don't care about Jigglypuff getting a bunch of new Fairy type moves or the lame representation of Captaindorf. The flawed moveset they have now is what I grew up with, and while they're far from being represented the way they should, they've grown on me. I honestly couldn't imagine them any other way.
I can imagine many other ways for these characters. Just because you've given up on seeing improvements for them doesn't mean I have to. I'm not so rigid that I'm stuck with how the characters have been represented all these years and can't move passed that.
Plus, the entire shtick of Breath of the Wild was
breaking conventions. We have a golden opportunity to apply that here.
A lot of characters already got some new specials in the last game: Zero Suit Samus, Sheik, Olimar, Charizard, Pit etc. After some point, you can add/rework moves for half of the cast, and it's just impractical since a lot of people are more interested in newcomers and don't always welcome the changes to the characters they like to play.
And while I like more changes to Ganondorf (a new moveset is a bit much), why change the other characters for the sake of changing? It sounds unnecessary.
I never specifically stated Specials. All those characters you listed have some new specials, yes. But what about their normals? Those have remained unchanged. Pit's normals still feel weird, just like they did in Brawl.
Also, Ganondorf deserves a massive overhaul. Had he been introduced in any other game except for Melee, would he really be stuck with the moves he has now? I think not. Treat him with the respect he deserves.
Regarding unnecessary, none of the suggestions I listed were unnecessary. Jigglypuff needs something better than Pound.
The big difference you aren't seeing is that the champions are in ONE game. Representing them would represent that one game. The Goddesses have been referenced in at least 4+ Zelda titles, even if the "moves" themselves have only been in OoT. They also created the Triforce and Hyrule, so they are linked to every game and every event in a major way. Not only that, but Zelda's link to the Goddesses has only gotten stronger and stronger with each new title, whereas her link with the Guardians is currently not even remotely as cemented.
Zelda's link to the Goddesses has not gotten stronger. Her connection to the Goddess Hylia has, yes, as all Zelda's inherit their power from Hylia. But not the three Golden Goddesses. In fact, I believe that gap has widened.
The very things that people use to tie Zelda to the three Goddesses are actually meant to tie Link closer to them. Those three spells named after the Goddesses: Din's Fire, Farore's Wind, and Nayru's Love? All used by Link. While each Goddess has a representative piece of the Triforce: Link is the only character to have had all three pieces on
multiple occasions.
The Goddess Hylia even became Zelda
only to help push Link. He's the one with the greater connection to the Goddesses.
Heck, Zelda in BotW couldn't even use her divine power without her focus being on Link. Zelda's supposed connection to the Goddesses in the form that people seem to think is Smash Bros-conceived at best.
All this guardians talk is the same as with every new game that comes out, people just get too attached to the shiny new thing and forget about it as soon as a new shiny thing rolls around the corner, but they are focused that their new shiny thing is a thing they "truly love and appreciate". The guardians to me aren't even up to par to other one-time Zelda characters imo, it's just that BotW itself was a much more popular and well received game.
So, you're saying they have no chances because they're the newest stuff and are only one-shot characters? I'd like you to take this argument to the Midna and Ghirahim supporters and see how well that works for you.
You know what else were the shiny new things that were one-time characters when they were added? Roy, Shulk, Corrin, Ness, Lucas, and Robin. They all got in despite being the flavor of the day. The argument against one-shot characters has been debunked many times over. Am I clamoring for a Champion? Not particularly. Could one easily happen? Don't refute it as impossible because they were only in one game.
Warriors should not be used as a reference for anything. It's carefully calculated in terms of pandering fanservice and careless in absolutely everything else. If Smash was designed like HW, every character would be a mess of sweeping motions, special effects and explosions stamped with miscellaneous iconography from its series. That would make a lot of people happy and sell pretty well, at least at first, but it wouldn't be even remotely interesting as a game. It's not conducive to cohesive characters with meaningful movesets, it's just hammerspace and "hey, I saw that before!" A character's design should have who that character is as one of its driving elements, if you reduce it to a grab bag of things from the series or incarnations of the same individual that are meaningfully different from each other, you've replaced the character with iconography.
That point you made there, "A character's design should have who that character is as one of its driving elements, if you reduce it to a grab bag of things from the series or incarnations of the same individual that are meaningfully different from each other, you've replaced the character with iconography."
You've just described Pac-Man, Duck Hunt, Wii Fit Trainer, Mr. Game & Watch, and Mega Man. A grab-bag assortment of moves for each character used to represent the games they came from and/or are related to in some fashion.
Warriors should used as a great reference. For one, a better way to represent Ganondorf, as Smash can't seem to get that right. Hyrule Warriors demonstrated a
non-Smash way of creating movesets for these ago-old characters. Why can't Smash do something similar? I fail to see how excellent animation and effects with references to the character's series is a
problem.
Besides the point, I'm talking about how much respect Hyrule Warriors gave the characters it had. I'd just like to see Smash do the same, is all.
