So I went to re-watch the Direct to just check and see what has been listed and during the assist trophy, one character that totally slipped my mind earlier was Akira from Virtua Fighter. I found that choice really strange choice to put in. I mean he was overshadowed by Guile of all characters. However, it then hit me. He was a Mii Costume in Smash Wii U/3DS! So I went digging for more information....And here is what I found.
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I have gone ahead and crossed out every single Mii Fighter from this list that has a tangible role in Ultimate. This includes characters that appear as a playable character, an assist trophy, a stage hazard or apart of another character's moveset. They have all been crossed out. Which leaves us with a total of 8 unused Mii Costumes. From top to bottom, this list includes:
Jackie (Virtua Fighter)
Geno (Super Mario RPG)
Chocobo (Final Fantasy Series)
Monster Hunter's Rathalos Set
Monster Hunter's Hunter Set
Gil (Tower of Druaga)
Tails (Sonic the Hedgehog)
Heihachi (Tekken)
Lloyd (Tales Series)
I am leaving out character appearances as Spirits for a few reasons, but to make the situation easier to understand, we don't fully know what characters are actually included in Spirits mode. I can provide a further break down of my theory with Spirits Mode and why that does not deconfirm a character appearing. (More than likely, every character on this list is going to appear as one. There are Assist Trophies and Playable Characters that are confirmed to be Spirits as well so it should never be counted. I think these parallel to Brawl Stickers from Subspace since they also could alter your character's stats for offline only)
Regardless, there are three characters from this list that stand out the most to me. These include starting from most likely, Heihachi, Geno and Lloyd.
Heihachi or Lloyd are a given considering Namco's sole representative is Pacman. They might be interested in having more representation and to also have a fighting game already being represented from both Capcom and SEGA, they might want a piece of that action with Tekken. Heihachi has been speculated for a while and is probably the most likely pick from this. Lloyd is also a character to consider, however it really comes down to how they would like the ToS franchise represented. While I might not know a whole lot, I would assume Lloyd but I have heard elsewhere that characters like Yuri are most popular in Japan. (If someone could correct me, I would greatly appreciate that.
Lastly, we have Geno. A character with heavy speculation this game and has everyone and their mom predicting will make Ultimate. Geno managed to survive the Assist Trophy rampage that Black Knight, Akira and Skull Kid received, but he also was not really seen anywhere aside from a player token/avatar for an online room. With his demand, it could be a possibility that he could still appear. Both he and Heihachi are my most likely picks at this rate.
In regards to the rest on this list, I think they have particular reasons for not being included. I could argue that Tails and MH are already in the game in some way (with the Green Hill loop or Rathalos assist) but it doesn't seem a big enough reason to justify taking them off yet. Knuckles makes this confusing.
Gil is technically in the same boat as Geno, but what is keeping him behind is that he does not have the demand or fandom that Geno has behind him.
Chocobo and Jackie are not out of the question either but both of them seem to have their representation already made for them. I don't think we would see a playable VF character anytime soon.
I believe there is still some kind of pattern going with Mii Costumes. They are being used in multiple ways and I don't think just being represented as a Spirit will justify most of them. So with that being said, and all the previous information being discussed, list for DLC characters goes like this:
1) Geno
2) Heihachi
3) Banjo-Kazooie
4) Rayman
5) Elma
(these would not be in any particular order but I think this would be the most well rounded list going forward)
What do you guys think? Do I have some kind of lead here?
Edit: I also want to include that each of these characters need a specific stage included with them which all 5 of my decisions cover.